Wednesday, April 4, 2018

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, APRIL 4, 2018

VOLUME CLII, ISSUE 41

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C.J. Chivers explores limits of journalism Annenberg staff, programs New York Times reporter depart after U. review recounts experiences covering war in Afghanistan

New mission to focus on education research, teaching, new director begins work July 1

By COLLEEN CRONIN SENIOR STAFF WRITER

C.J. Chivers has been on the front lines, both as a writer and a soldier. The New York Times reporter spoke about his experiences as a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and as an officer in the U.S. Marine Corps in a writing workshop and speech Tuesday.

Chivers began the talk by heavily critiquing three videos of war coverage, two of which were his own journalistic work. Referring to journalism as a “first draft of history,” Chivers said there is inherent weakness in war coverage.

Playing a video that showed an exchange of gunfire between Taliban and U.S. forces in Afghanistan on Valentine’s Day in 2010, Chivers said the coverage showed some of the confusion and frustration of battle. “Now I’m gonna say something: As the person who shot that footage and helped edit it … and voiced it, that report is wholly insufficient.” Questions of what happened to the soldiers and the civilians went

By ALLIE REED SENIOR STAFF WRITER

MARIANNA MCMURDOCK / HERALD

Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter C.J. Chivers discussed the inherent weaknesses in war journalism in a writing workshop and speech Tuesday. unanswered, he said. after the attack of a Marine base in BeiThough the other videos were “a rut in October 1983. He said he saw lot better than no report at all,” they Marines on the cover of Newsweek and similarly left information out of their identified with them more than with his reports. The coverage didn’t show the classmates in school. Even though he experiences of women or of non-violent was skeptical of U.S. military capabilities resistance. “War isn’t exclusively experi- and the Vietnam War, he signed up to enced by men,” he said, even if most of become a Marine officer. He left active the organizers of war are men. duty in the military in 1994 and imme“This is not a celebration of journal- diately went to the Columbia Graduate ism,” Chivers said. “Everything that you School of Journalism. He then started are consuming about war is not enough.” working at the Providence Journal, Chivers decided to join the Marines » See CHIVERS, page 3

The Annenberg Institute for School Reform’s website used to feature a tab on the front page called “What We Do.” That page, along with many of the institute’s staff members, is no longer a part of the University.

Following a review of the institute conducted from fall 2016 to fall 2017, the University moved all of the institute’s programs to other universities in order to shift the institute’s mission away from community-based work on school reform and toward the study of education inequality. Many of the more than 20 former institute employees have expressed their concerns that the shift damages the institute’s legacy of community-focused work and diminishes its power to effect change.

Some of the institute’s former staff members worry that the new mission

may tarnish the institute’s progressive reputation and make its work less unique. Under Warren Simmons, the institute’s executive director from 1998 to 2015, the institute’s strength was that it “married research and practice in a way that very few institutes had been doing,” said Angela Romans, former co-director of district and systems transformation at the institute.

“Brown is changing all of that to have the Annenberg Institute become one of thousands of education research think tanks that are housed in universities. … It’s incredibly short-sighted, and it’s also counter to the way that the field is moving,” she added.

A legacy of progressive change The institute was established in 1993 and first directed by Theodore Sizer, who was known as “one of the country’s most prominent education-reform advocates,” according to his obituary in the New York Times.

Simmons expanded the institute’s mission to address reform of the entire educational system, keeping “racial equality and social justice in the » See ANNENBERG, page 2

Shake Shack to move into 249 Stipend cushions student transition costs Thayer St. building in 2019 New $1,200 stipend to Faculty members discuss U. construction projects, plans to reduce campus emissions

By ALLIE REED SENIOR STAFF WRITER

At yesterday’s faculty meeting, Russell Carey ’91 MA’06 confirmed plans that Shake Shack will move into the first floor of the building currently under construction at 249 Thayer St., which will also house the Nelson Center for Entrepreneurship. The Shake Shack will move into the building at some point in 2019.

Continuing the update on construction on campus, Carey announced that the renovation of Friedman Hall, formerly known as Wilson Hall, will be completed by the end of the summer. “It will benefit more people than anything else we’re doing,” Carey said. The building will serve as a legacy of Dean of the College Maud Mandel, who envisioned the classroom set-up in the building though she will be leaving the University before she can teach in the newly renovated space, he added.

INSIDE

Stephen Porder, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, also announced the University’s goal to shift toward renewable energy, aiming for net zero carbon emissions by a soon-to-be-determined date. Currently, electricity and heating are the biggest contributors to the University’s emissions. President Christina Paxson P’19 hopes to “have a serious discussion about making a commitment for net zero” and establishing a deadline for this goal at some point in the future.

“The most systematic threat to humankind remains climate change,” Porder said at the meeting, citing United Nations Secretary General António Guterres. To reduce the University’s emissions, the University plans to shift toward renewable energy by using wind or solar energy.

Provost Richard Locke P’18 discussed the University’s plans to enhance support for lowest income students, The Herald previously reported.

The proposed plan includes changes to food and textbook aid.

Paxson then took the podium to announce the results of the New England Association of Schools and » See FACULTY, page 3

cover doctoral students’ moving costs, among other expenses

By ERIC CHOI SENIOR STAFF WRITER

The Graduate School will offer a new $1,200 transitional stipend for incoming doctoral students this fall, said Ethan Bernstein, director of administration and operations at the Graduate School. The stipend aims to help offset moving costs and will cost the Graduate School over $350,000 for around 320 doctoral students, Bernstein added.

Doctoral students typically receive their first monthly stipend payments Sept. 30, said Alastair Tulloch GS, president of the Graduate Student Council. However, many students move to Providence in August, which means they need to bring money for a month of expenses, cutting into their savings, said D’Ondre Swails GS, a member of the Diversity Advisory Board.

“For myself, I started at Brown coming straight out of undergrad, so it wasn’t like I was in a situation where I could have been saving,”

MIRANDA VILLANUEVA / HERALD

Swails said. “I arrived on campus with what I had from working all summer.”

“Graduate students were struggling to survive for the month or month and a half of moving to Providence,” he added.

The Grad School expects the transitional stipend to help with more than just moving costs. “We have also seen an increase … in students

coming to see our associate dean of student support for various other hardships,” Bernstein said. Students come to discuss mental health challenges, food insecurity or how to budget properly, he added.

Another problem for students moving to Providence is the housing market, Swails said. “A sizable portion » See STIPEND, page 3

WEATHER

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NEWS New assistant vice president for campus life Nicole Truesdell hopes to connect campus centers

NEWS Leadership Alliance awarded grant to fund summer research in humanities, social sciences

COMMENTARY Johnson ’20: Idealized academic stress detrimental to personal health, work environments

COMMENTARY Simshauser ’20: Democrats should not bow to pressure to compromise on values for votes

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MARIANNA MCMURDOCK / HERALD

The University shifted the focus of the Annenberg Institute for School Reform following a review of the institute that was completed in fall 2017.

» ANNENBERG, from page 1 forefront of the mission in a central way,” Romans said. Simmons stepped down in December 2015, and Michael Grady was named interim executive director in his absence. Almost two years after Simmons’ departure, the University selected Susanna Loeb to replace him, The Herald previously reported. She will begin as director July 1.

A shift away from communitybased work In December 2015, President Christina Paxson P’19 appointed Provost Richard Locke P’18 to review “the institute’s mission, strengths and opportunities for the future” in an effort to align its work more closely with Building on Distinction, the University’s strategic plan, according to the executive summary of the review.

The review committee included faculty members from different disciplines, senior University administrators and Annenberg Institute staff. Chair of the education department Kenneth Wong, a faculty member who served on the review committee, declined to comment. Tricia Rose, professor of Africana studies, director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America and a member of the review committee; David Kirkland, executive director of the New York University Metropolitan Center; and Zakiyah Ensari, advocacy director for the Alliance for Quality Education in New York, did not respond to a request for comment.

Paxson asked this committee to determine how to make the institute “more integrated with the rest of the University,” Locke said.

The committee watched presentations about the institute’s various research projects and evaluated and compared them to education policy programs at peer institutions. At the end of the process, the committee proposed pivoting the focus of the institute toward studying educational inequality and away from work on school reform.

For example, the committee recommended that all of the institute’s programs move to other universities. Those programs worked to help community

groups advocate for themselves to reform their schools. “We think that’s really important work, but (at) a university like Brown, that’s not one of our core competencies to do capacity building for communities. What we do is research and teaching, and it’s through our research and teaching that we have an impact (on) the world,” Locke said.

The New England-Based Community Organizing and Engagement and the District and Systems Transformation programs — now combined into one initiative called the Center for Youth and Community Leadership in Education — have moved to Roger Williams University under the leadership of Keith Catone, former associate director of community organizing and engagement at the Annenberg Institute.

Additionally, the Research and Policy program and the New York-based Community Organizing and Engagement program have moved to the NYU Metro Center. This program aims to support the improvement of education in urban areas through policy research and training, among other efforts, according to its website. For example, its Pittsburgh Parent Power project trains school staff and leaders to effect change in their communities. Another project, the New York City Education Organizing Capacity Building, educates parents and student groups to advocate for school reform.

There was a “mismatch between the work that (was) being done and what the University is all about,” which “is why there were very few ties between Annenberg and the rest of the University, and that just seemed like a lost opportunity,” Locke said.

The committee recommended this shift in order to address a disconnect between the institute’s work and the University’s focus on research and teaching, Locke said.

The new focus on studying education inequality will allow the institute to increase integration with some of the University’s academic departments, such as economics, sociology, political science and Africana studies, Locke said.

The pivot will allow the institute to

ask: “What are the causes, what are the consequences, and what are the possible solutions to mitigate educational inequality?” Locke said. “We know that having access to high quality education is one of those things that will determine one’s life chances and choices in this country. And in this country, access to high quality education is very unequal,” he added.

A rocky transition Paxson and Locke said that the review process began following Simmons’ retirement in December 2015, according to both Locke and a faculty-wide email written by Paxson and reviewed

by The Herald. However, Simmons stepped down as executive director because Paxson and Locke were interested in changing the institute’s mission, Simmons said.

“The review started last year, and that was because of a transition that happened at Annenberg. The previous director retired, and there was a search for a new director,” Locke said.

“It was clear to me” that the president and provost were focused on moving toward research and teaching, and “that wasn’t a good fit or match for me,” Simmons said. He stepped down to “pursue other opportunities” and is now working as the senior policy advisor at the National Education Policy Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

The review committee aimed for “a fair, transparent process of transition,” Locke said. In December 2016, the committee announced its plans to shift the mission of the institute by December 2017, giving staff members a year to prepare for the shift. The University also paid the salaries of staff members for six months after their departure, he added.

While Locke views the institute’s long transition process as an advantage that provided Annenberg staff members time to plan their next move, Rosann Tung, former director of research and policy, argued that the extended length of time was one of the transition’s biggest problems. “We knew two and a half to three years before that the University was redirecting or

shifting the mission without knowing whether any current employee would be welcomed to stay on, which resulted in a period of great uncertainty and reduced morale,” she said.

Tung was one of two Annenberg staff members who served on the review committee. “While the transition committee members listened to (Annenberg Institute) perspectives on community engagement and its strengths in terms of research, policy and practice that supports districts and communities, the resulting roadmap left those assets out,” Tung said.

Grady, the other Annenberg staff member who served on the committee, felt the institute’s “voices were heard,” he wrote in an email to The Herald.

But he added that “it was difficult for the staff to accept that our work, about which they cared deeply, would move away from Brown.”

Within the review process, “it never felt like there was any authentic or genuine opportunity for staff to have any meaningful role in the decisionmaking,” Catone said.

“The most confounding thing for us was this notion that the kind of work we were doing just didn’t belong at Brown. … There was no opportunity to actually have a conversation about how the vision set forth in this roadmap might actually be able to coexist with the work that existed,” Catone added.

“For those two and a half years, they certainly had the time to explore it, but there was never any interest on the part of the president’s and the provost’s offices.”

“It would have been nice to get a thank you, to get some acknowledgement of the work we’ve done,” said Richard Gray, former director of community organizing and engagement.

Gray is currently continuing his work at the NYU Metro Center.

But “I would contest the claim that there wasn’t an opportunity to present (staff members’) views or even that we didn’t value their work,” Locke said.

Concerns for the future, but moving on to a new Annenberg Several former staff members expressed uncertainty and concern about

recent changes at the institute.

For example, the institute’s leadership used to be made up of primarily people of color, making it distinct from most academic departments, Catone said.

In shifting the institute’s mission, the University “lost a highly productive group of leaders and researchers of color committed to support and action in communities most historically marginalized,” Tung said.

“The kind of institute that the Annenberg Institute will become is … fairly typical,” Simmons said. “Obviously, I think it’s a great loss for the field. …

The value of the institute’s previous two to three decades of work can be seen in the fact that most of my colleagues have found homes in other universities that have welcomed them with open arms,” he added.

Romans finds it reassuring that the work continues at other institutions.

She is currently the senior vice president of programming for Say Yes to Education, a nonprofit organization that works to help ensure children have the opportunity to attend college.

On July 1, Loeb will begin her role as the new director of the institute. “I believe that in Susanna Loeb, the search committee found an outstanding scholar who will strengthen Annenberg’s relationship with other academic units at Brown,” Grady wrote in an email to The Herald.

“I don’t see field-based and researchbased as opposites of each other,” Loeb said. Loeb and the former directors of the institute have similar goals, she said.

“We’re just taking the perspective that we can actually reach those goals better if we bring in the whole Brown community and focus a little bit more on improving our knowledge and making sure it impacts broadly.”

Loeb hopes to get faculty and students more involved with the institute so that it becomes a “part of the Brown world,” she said.

“I have the opportunity to help create a culture. Starting new is actually sometimes easier than coming in when the goals … and routines have already been set. I’m really excited about the opportunity.”

NEWS

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 4, 2018 • PAGE 3

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

» CHIVERS, from page 1 covering North Providence, the Providence Police Department and former Mayor Buddy Cianci. Covering Cianci in Providence was like covering Penguin in Gotham, Chivers added.

After the Twin Towers were attacked Sept. 11, Chivers, who was working at the New York Times, was sent to Afghanistan to cover the war.

Before his talk, a smaller group of students from Brown and the Naval Academy Preparatory School sat down earlier with Chivers to discuss the “civilian-military divide” and the role journalism plays in it. The workshop quickly turned into a conversation about

» FACULTY, from page 1 Colleges report.

At the end of the meeting, faculty

» STIPEND, from page 1 (of the housing market) requires the first month’s rent, last month’s rent and a security deposit that equals one month’s rent, so you’re looking at three month’s worth of rent to move into your apartment and, on top of that, living expenses,” he said.

The GSC welcomes the new transitional stipend and appreciates the University’s responsiveness to its concerns, Tulloch said. “We were pleasantly surprised when the University offered this transitional stipend,” Tulloch added.

the perception of the military and what it means to serve. Reflecting on Chivers’ own time serving, many NAPS students described their search for meaning in their work and a lack of clarity about what their futures hold.

Mary Lewallen, a NAPS cadet who is formally enlisted and originally from Alabama, said she was glad to get a chance to interact with civilians.

Chivers’ talks were funded by a National Endowment for Humanities grant, according to Jane Gerhard PhD’96, who works on public programming for the project “Irregular Warfare: Experiences Across the Civil-Military Divide.”

“The grant is designed to use the

humanities to bridge the divide between civilian and military people,” Gerhard said, adding that the United States is seeing the largest number of former military personnel attending universities since World War II. Half of the grant money helps integrate student veterans into higher education in six different R.I. schools. Gerhard said that three student veterans at Brown participate in the NEH-funded program. The other half of the money is used to create community conversation between the veterans and civilian groups — such as the one Chivers’ workshop aimed to cultivate.

Ava Rosenbaum ’20 said she went to the workshop because she was interested

in journalism but was glad she went because “the conversation didn’t revolve around that.”

“I got to hear perspectives from people I don’t get to interact with on a day-to-day basis,” Rosenbaum said, adding that it was “hugely rewarding and eye-opening.”

A student from the University of Rhode Island in the audience asked Chivers what advice he had for someone hoping to become a war correspondent — “War reporting? Don’t do it.”

“It’s really bad for you, and it’s not going to make a difference. … You’re probably going to get hurt,” he added, explaining that many war journalists develop drug and alcohol dependencies

and experience failed marriages. Pointing to his children in the back row, he said he was gone for years at a time covering different conflicts.

“I’m not gonna pretend to be fine, you should try to see me sleep,” Chivers said.

“I know very little of what I did mattered because bureaucracy dragged on,” he said. “But I’ve accepted it, I’m working on the margins, just trying to do my description accurately.” Despite his reservation about journalism’s ability to create systemic change, he says he still believes in the field.

“The human connection that comes with this job can be incredibly potent and valuable,” Chivers said.

members voted to go into executive session, excluding The Herald from the room. The meeting’s agenda states that they planned to have a round

table discussion about Title IX. Specifically, faculty planned to discuss whether or not the University should inquire about whether prospective

faculty members have been found responsible for Title IX or academic code violations at previous institutions. The faculty also planned to

discuss if the University should, at the point of hiring, conduct criminal background checks on prospective faculty.

Concerns about transitioning to the University were raised during the GSC’s general body meetings last fall, he added. After those meetings, the GSC discussed possible solutions with Provost Richard Locke P’18, President Christina Paxson P’19 and Dean of the Graduate School Andrew Campbell.

In addition to the GSC, other student groups, such as the Samuel M. Nabrit Black Graduate Student Association, have advocated for greater support for students transitioning to campus, Bernstein said. “(We used) the role of the advisory board to bring

attention to the needs of graduate students, especially when we arrive at Brown,” Swails said.

The transitional stipend is part of the ongoing effort by the Grad School to increase financial support for doctoral students, Bernstein said. The base stipend for doctoral students has risen 56 percent overall in the past 13 years, and dental insurance and parental relief have been added in the past few years, according to the Grad School website.

“I suspect we will start to see more and more universities doing this,” Bernstein said.

Wherever you go, bring your own mug, reusable bottle and/or thermos.

Avoid plastic cutlery.

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NEWS

PAGE 4 • WEDNESDAY, APRIL 4, 2018

Arts & Culture Roundup

BY CONNOR SULLIVAN AND MIA PATTILLO ARTS & CULTURE EDITORS

Ivy Film Festival 2018 The Ivy Film Festival, one of the nation’s largest student-organized annual film festivals, will launch its 17th installment Monday. The keynote event will take place April 9 in Salomon 101 from 6 to 8 p.m. and will consist of a screening of “#TAKEMEANYWHERE” and an accompanying address by creators Shia LaBeouf, Nastja Säde Rönkkö and Luke Turner. The festival’s week-long programming also includes the Aegean Film Festival Short Program April 10 and advanced screenings of “RBG” April 11, “On Chesil Beach” April 12, “We the Animals” April 13, “Blindspotting” April 14 and “Eighth Grade” April 15 with accompanying talks by director Betsy West, director Dominic Cooke, author Justin Torres and actor Daveed Diggs ’04, respectively.

Additional scheduled programming includes a virtual reality arcade, a production workshop with producer Tom Gormican and an official selection by IFF of the 25 best undergraduate and graduate student films.

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Sciences Explore the Environment Over the course of April, five programs at Brown are partnering to host a cross-discipline series that aims to explore pressing environmental issues. Each program approaches the theme in its own way, but the two common threads spanning the series are water and the impact of environmental change on polar regions. The David Winston Bell Gallery is hosting a public art exhibition titled “33°”; the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society’s “Water’s Edge” will feature a seminar, speaker series and poetry reading; the John Carter Brown Library will host an exhibit, sound installation and panel discussion entitled “Fluidity: Knowing Water in the Americas”; the Brown Arts Initiative’s symposium “Polar Opposites: Creative Intervention in the Arctic and Antarctica” will connect artists and scientists; and the Cogut Institute for the Humanities will host the two-day conference “Earth(ly) Matters: New Directions in Environmental Humanities.”

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U. hires new assistant VP for campus life Nicole Truesdell to oversee student centers, improve support for underrepresented students

By TRISHA THACKER STAFF WRITER

Last month, Nicole Truesdell began her tenure as the new assistant vice president for campus life. In this role, Truesdell will provide “leadership and strategic planning for the division of campus life” in addition to implementing initiatives that ensure “the division and (the) University are attune to and responsive to the diversity of Brown’s student population,” Eric Estes, vice president for campus life, wrote in an e-mail to The Herald.

As assistant vice president, Truesdell will oversee the seven student centers on campus, including the Brown Center for Students of Color, the Sarah Doyle Women’s Center, the FirstGeneration College and Low-Income Student Center, the LGBTQ Center and the Stephen Robert ’62 Student Center. Truesdell said she wants the “different centers that operate under (her) profile” to approach their work “as a cohesive unit … (and) about how we name ourselves as a group.”

Truesdell also said she hopes to reconfigure the University’s interactions with students from minority backgrounds by not only catering to their needs but also understanding the strengths that they bring to campus.

“Students from diverse backgrounds shouldn’t be seen as a deficit, but as an asset to the University,” she added.

Led by a committee consisting of students, faculty and staff, the University began its search for the new assistant vice president for campus life last semester, Estes wrote. Truesdell “emerged as the strongest candidate in a national search that produced a very talented and experienced applicant

COURTESY OF BROWN UNIVERSITY

Nicole Truesdell became the assistant vice president for campus life last month. Truesdell will supervise seven student centers on campus. pool,” he added.

AJ Clifforde Alcover ’20, a member of the search committee, said the committee looked for candidates who could oversee and coordinate multiple programs and organizations. The committee felt Truesdell’s goals “really stood out and were the most innovative and complementary to what Brown needed,” he added.

“Her energy was very pleasant. …

Students would like to get to know (Truesdell),” Alcover said.

Prior to Brown, Truesdell worked at Beloit College, a liberal arts school in Wisconsin, where she founded the college’s Office of Academic Diversity and Inclusiveness in 2015. The office aids underserved and underrepresented students by “reforming institutional structures and practices (at Beloit College) to position underrepresented bodies and their assets (lived experiences, skills and mindsets)

at the center,” wrote Atiera Coleman, interim director of the office, in an e-mail to The Herald.

During Truesdell’s tenure as the office’s director, she “helped many of us reimagine equity and inclusion while challenging us to dismantle the structural barriers that work against the success of marginalized students,” Coleman wrote.

Over the course of the next month, Truesdell said she will conduct intensive research and hold meetings with undergraduate and graduate students, as well as key administrative and academic actors on campus. “Campus Life thinks holistically about the curricular and co-curricular pieces that make up the whole Brown student experience,” she added.

“I’m excited to do the work and figure out how to merge the academic aspect with the campus life aspect at Brown,” Truesdell said.

TODAY

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 4, 2018 • PAGE 5

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menu

lo o k i n g u p a n d lo o k i n g b ac k

SATELLITE DINING ANDREWS COMMONS

Pizza: Spinach and Feta, Bacon Chicken Ranch, Pepperoni Stir Fried Broccoli and Chicken Basil Pork JOSIAH’S

BLUE ROOM

French Toast Bar, Rodeo Burger, Make Your Own Grilled Cheese

Chicken Tortilla, Tomato Florentine Soup

DINING HALLS SHARPE REFECTORY LUNCH

DINNER

Spanish Style Rice, Edamame Beans with Tri Color Peppers, Roasted Summer Squash

Oven Browned Dinner Potatoes, Shaved Steak with Mushrooms and Onions, Penne Pasta

VERNEY-WOOLLEY LUNCH

DINNER

Pizza Rustica with Spinach, Crinkle Cut French Fries, Sauteed Greens with Garlic

Meatloaf with Mushroom Sauce, Mashed Red Bliss Potatoes with Garlic, Cheese Ravioli

sudoku

SAM BERUBE / HERALD

When Manning Hall opened in 1834, it served as both a library and a chapel. Today, the building remains a chapel and hosts exhibits for the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology.

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

“Students from diverse backgrounds shouldn’t be seen as a deficit, but as an asset to the University.”

— Nicole Truesdell, assistant vice president for campus life

See Truesdell on page 4.

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Quaker Meeting for Worship 12:00 P.M. JWW, 409

Brown Religious Literacy Project 7:30 P.M. JWW, 411

Celonis Information Session 6:00 P.M. Career Lab, 1st Floor

Wellness at Brown!: DIY Green Cleaning 12:00 P.M. School of Prof. Studies, 122

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Brown/CASA in Cuba Info Session 11:00 A.M. JWW, 411

Chas Freeman: Diplomacy as Tactics 4:00 P.M. Joukowsky Forum

Med School 101 12:00 P.M. Salomon, 003

Film Screening: “Celeste” 7:00 P.M. 159 George St., 102

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COMMENTARY WEDNESDAY, APRIL 4, 2018 • PAGE 7

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Don’t romanticize destructive habits CHANEL JOHNSON staff columnist According to the American College Health Association, nearly one out of five university students is affected by anxiety or depression. There are many reasons why these disorders may be prevalent on college campuses, including smartphone addiction, the rising cost of college and mental overexhaustion. Nearly all students at Brown experience some form of mental overexhaustion at least once during their time here. Often, balancing a rigorous course load, extracurriculars and a social life can lead to burnout; however, it’s important to note that romanticizing a stressful and busy lifestyle can lead to further exhaustion. This obsession with having a busy life can negatively affect not only the school culture but also students’ mental health. Unfortunately, this is a common occurrence at Brown; in 2012, Newsweek ranked Brown as the sixth most stressful school in America.

Around midterm season, it’s not uncommon to overhear conversations that revolve around people oneupping each other when it comes to who is “the most” overwhelmed. If one person says that they have two exams that week, someone else will

respond that they have two exams that day. While it may seem unusual for people to be competitive about overexhaustion, it can be thought of as a result of our success-driven society. According to a Harvard study, Americans work 50 percent more hours than Europeans. The study suggests that Americans do this because of our cultural notion that hard

social difficulties privately, making them feel further alienated, but a sense of companionship tends to be established when students discuss academic-related stress with each other as a bonding mechanism.

Sometimes, it may be impossible for someone to avoid pulling an allnighter, especially during a busy time in the semester. And it can be nice to

addition to this, someone with work addiction may begin to engage in compulsive work in order to avoid addressing other problems in their life, like personal crises or troubling emotional issues. And in terms of affecting the college campus overall, commonly discussing who has the most work or the least sleep can promote poor mental health and encour-

While there is value in hard work, it also important to not romanticize overexhaustion in order to ensure that students’ mental health is not being compromised.

work equals success. Our society focuses on input rather than output. It is the reason why many are willing to pull all-nighters and run on nothing but caffeine on a daily basis in order to be successful. In addition to this, many college students tend to romanticize academic stress since it is easier to talk about than social stress.

Many people usually experience their

rant to other students about the stress we feel. However, the obsession with a busy and stressed lifestyle can have a detrimental impact on individuals and on the college campus as a whole.

For individual students, numerous studies have shown that over time, low sleep levels contribute to higher rates of anxiety, depression, poor academic performance and obesity. In

age destructive behaviors.

While there is value in hard work, it also important to not romanticize overexhaustion in order to ensure that students’ mental health is not being compromised. There are ways that students can make sure they achieve a balanced, healthy work ethic and lifestyle. For one, many people become addicted to stress once they

move from “I feel stressed” to “I am stressed.” When people strongly identify with an emotion, it can become their definition of self. It’s important to remember that stress is not a reality; it is a bodily response to a feeling about a situation in the moment.

By letting go of that attachment to the feeling, you can gain more perspective and be able to move forward from that emotion. It may be also helpful to step back and think about why you romanticize stress. If it’s because you are motivated by stress and the feeling of accomplishing things, use this to your advantage when completing work, but set healthy boundaries like going to bed at a decent hour in order to make sure your mental health is not at stake. If this obsession comes as a way to avoid personal issues, you may want to consider scheduling a session with Counseling and Psychological Services. Regardless of the reason, it’s important for us all to rethink our relationships with stress and take steps to establish healthy habits that will positively impact our mental health.

Chanel Johnson ’20 can be reached at chanel_johnson@brown.edu.

Please send responses to this opinion to letters@browndailyherald.com and op-eds to opinions@browndailyherald.com.

Rethinking Democrats’ strategy for 2020 DEREK SIMSHAUSER staff columnist Following the 2016 presidential election — as the initial shock of President Trump’s victory began to wane — liberals looked to exit polling data, attempting to diagnose the exact factors that had felled Hillary Clinton’s ostensibly sturdy “blue wall.” Almost immediately, the narrative began to center on the white working-class voter, the demographic Trump had overwhelmingly carried by a margin of 6​ 7 to 28 percent​. This aligned with anecdotal evidence, and emphasized the image of the disaffected white voter, who had been alienated by the stereotypical “coastal liberal elite.” News coverage — already prone to over-covering the racialized notion of the “Real American” — accelerated this idea, which posited that Democrats had to soften their advocacy on progressive social issues if they wanted to win elections. However, such a shift in strategy runs the risk of compromising Democratic ideals, particularly on immigration.

In recent days, the P ​ ew Research Center has released survey​s that reinforce this point of view and starkly contradict exit polling data. Multiple studies have shown that the ​proportion​of white voters without a college degree was severely underestimated. Exit polls estimated that the white working class — used here to indicate whites without a college degree — comprised 34 percent of the total 2016 electorate. In reality, they cast 44 percent of votes, a disparity of 13.5 million individuals. Moreover, initial exit polls had concluded that whites with a college degree were the largest demographic in the Democratic party. In fact, noncollege-educated whites are the largest bloc of the party’s voters, outnumbering whites with a college degree by 33 to 28 percent.

This is a reckoning for the Democratic party; it repudiates the idea that supposed “elites” are the overwhelming force on the left. At the same time, however, it magnifies the white working-class bloc even more in elections — affirming the beliefs of those advocating that Democrats move further to the center. This is distressing for progressives, who had found solace in viewing the white working class as more or less a lost or relatively unimportant cause, particularly given the overwhelming support for Democrats among nonwhite voters.

The revelation that non-college-educated white voters make up almost half of the electorate could be the impetus for moderating actions, like easing the party stance on abortion or gun control. Conor Lamb, who won a Pennsylvania congressional district that Trump carried by 20 points, marketed

entering the country, he coalesced the ardent support of non-college-educated white voters.

The immigration debate is a flashpoint into the larger divide between college-educated and non-college-educated white voters. College-educated whites believe that immigrants strengthen the country by a margin of 52 to 35 percent; conversely, 61 percent of white working-class voters — defined by the study in question as whites who did not graduate from college and are paid by the job or by the hour — say that immigrants weaken the nation. W ​ illiam Galston of the Brookings Institute​incisively notes the larger forces at work in these numbers: “working-class whites are experiencing a pervasive sense of vulnerability … on every front — economic, cultural, personal se-

Should Democrats be focused on turnout of progressive voters, or persuasion of the elusive “Obama-Trump” voter? himself as this sort of Democrat. In addition to being pro-life and pro-gun, he even ran ads where he explicitly opposed House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and her “California liberalism.” However, in the case of a general national election, there is reason to believe these moderating tactics would not suffice, primarily because of one unresolvable issue: immigration.

Social scientists who analyze the cultural divide among electoral voting blocs have focused on immigration as the wedge issue. This is not surprising; Trump harnessed his initial support by taking a hard line on immigration. By arguing broadly against immigration​— rather than debating policy around reforming the system — he shifted the paradigm surrounding the immigration debate within national politics. Through his championing of a border wall and his denigration of foreigners

curity — they feel threatened and beleaguered.”

Trump won these voters by a much larger margin than Mitt Romney did in 2012 because he made immigration an issue of race politics, not of policy. Amongst voters who listed immigration as the biggest issue in the election, 64 percent voted for Trump, compared to 32 percent for Clinton.

Pew’s realization of the magnified influence of non-college-educated white voters, then, is somewhat alarming for Democrats. Looking at immigration as a flashpoint, the argument could be made that attempting to moderate on cultural issues like gun control would not be enough in a general election against a Republican party that has shifted toward the views of extremists like Sen. Tom Cotton, R-AR, on immigration. In the 2012 election, both parties made the question of immigration one of reform. Trump made it a far more

personal question: Who belongs in this country?

The resonance of his stance is clear; there is still substantial support among Trump voters for a border wall, a physical bulwark for those attempting to hold on to their cultural status.

For Democrats, while the data advocate an even stronger push toward the moderate white voter, the debate regarding immigration could stand as an uncrossable threshold. This ought to catalyze deeper debate regarding strategy in the next general election: Should Democrats be focused on turnout of progressive voters, or persuasion of the elusive “Obama-Trump” voter? This is an incomplete picture and does not acknowledge issues such as racially targeted voter suppression or Russian interference. But the partisan — and cultural — divide between college-educated and non-college-educated white voters implies that the perception of the status of whites in this country was the wedge issue upon which Trump seized support.

Engaging in nativist and racist rhetoric on immigration is obviously a line in the sand that Democrats will not and should not cross. But the resonance of the immigration debate goes far deeper than other cultural issues in voters’ attitudes. The “Obama-Trump” voter, whose vote Democrats so badly covet, may not be persuaded by slight moves to the center from Democrats. And if the Democratic ticket ignores the progressive wing of the party on too many social issues, they risk alienating more voters from the left than they would win over on the right.

Derek Simshauser ’20 can be reached at derek_simshauser@brown.edu.

Please send responses to this opinion to letters@browndailyherald.com and op-eds to opinions@browndailyherald.com.

NEWS THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 4, 2018

Leadership Alliance earns Mellon Foundation grant University-based initiative to increase diversity receives funding for research in humanities, social sciences

By LYDIA DEFUSTO SENIOR STAFF WRITER

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation awarded the Leadership Alliance a $1.25 million grant that will fund summer research opportunities in the humanities and social sciences “for underrepresented students,” according to a University press release.

The Leadership Alliance was founded at the University in 1992 and is still based on campus. The organization has expanded into a consortium of 36 academic institutions in order to help fulfill its mission of

“develop(ing) underrepresented students into outstanding leaders and role models in academia, business and the public sector” through mentorship, conferences and networking opportunities, among other initiatives, according to the Leadership Alliance website.

The Mellon Foundation grant will fund summer research opportunities for 55 undergraduate students for each of the next five summers, said Medeva Ghee, executive director of the Leadership Alliance and assistant professor of the practice of behavioral and social sciences.

Students from across the country will be paired with a professor for research in areas such as anthropology, history or philosophy, and they will spend their summers researching at one of ten participating universities, including Brown, New York University, Stanford University, Harvard or Yale, according to the program’s website.

“Summer research opportunities in the humanities and social sciences are few and far between, and we are one of the few (organizations) that provide research (opportunities) in those disciplines for undergraduates,” Ghee said.

“One of our main goals for our program is to give students a

community,” said Barbara Kahn, coordinator for graduate and undergraduate programs at the Leadership Alliance.

Even if they are placed at different universities, “the students who are part of this Mellon group have a conversation together online guided by a graduate student, ... so that they have a sense that they’re not isolated,” Kahn said. The program’s participants on the east coast also gather twice during the summer, Kahn said.

The Leadership Alliance and the Mellon Foundation have collaborated in the past. “We cultivated a relationship with the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and so the funding from the Mellon Foundation actually

started in 2009,” Ghee said. “This is a continuation of that funding that has allowed us to expand opportunities.”

The Foundation aims to bolster “the contributions of the humanities and the arts to human flourishing and to the well-being of diverse and democratic societies” by supporting “exemplary institutions of higher education and culture,” according to the Foundation’s website.

“It’s exciting that Brown University has taken the lead (in its) partnership with other research institutions and minority-serving institutions to address the underrepresentation of students in graduate training programs, the professoriate and in all career sectors,” Ghee said.