Wednesday, December 1st, 2021 - The Brown Daily Herald

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2021

VOLUME CLVI, ISSUE XXXXIII

BROWNDAILYHERALD.COM

UNIVERSITY NEWS

UNIVERSITY NEWS

Students face accessibility challenges

Kevin McLaughlin to end term as dean of faculty

Individuals still report difficulty accessing campus spaces despite U. improvements

BY SHILPA SAJJA SENIOR STAFF WRITER

The residential experience is a central part of life for undergraduates, who are required to live on campus for six semesters due to the University’s belief that the “residential experience is integral to undergraduate students’ academic, social, intellectual and personal growth,” according to Residential Life’s website.

But despite the requirement for stu-

dents to live on campus, not all University dorms are fully accessible to students with disabilities. For example, according to the campus accessibility map, multiple residential buildings adjacent to the Ruth J. Simmons Quadrangle and which house sophomores and juniors contain barriers that “would

SEE ACCESSIBLE PAGE 4

MUKUL KHANNA / HERALD

Buildings constructed before the Americans with Disabilities act have either been completely renovated or “retrofitted” to have accessible components added.

METRO

EGO nightclub reopens after pandemic hiatus Owner Rafael Sanchez reflects on club’s beginnings, goals, evolution

BY LAURA DAVID SENIOR STAFF WRITER Walk through downtown Providence on any weekend night and you’re likely to find a line of club-goers wrapped around the corner of Richmond and Friendship, all waiting excitedly to enter EGO Providence. One of the city’s well-known gay bars, EGO was opened in 2013 by club promoters Rafael Sanchez and the late Chris Harris. It has since grown to become a staple of Providence nightlife, featuring various themed nights and becoming home to the drag ensemble EGO Babes. “(Harris and I) were just producers and club promoters and we always dreamt of having the club,” Sanchez said. “So we just decided back in 2012 to look for a space and just open a club and that’s how EGO was born.”

Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Sanchez first entered the club scene in 1998. On what was meant to be a short vacation to New England, he visited Avalon, a nightclub in Boston.

The club’s owner saw him dancing and offered him a job as a bartender on the spot. From there, Sanchez began hosting his own events, working his way through the nightlife industry until he met Harris.

“It’s funny, I’ve worked every spectrum of it,” Sanchez said. “I started back in the day when people were allowed to smoke in the clubs, so my job was just literally to make sure the ashtrays were clean. And then I worked as a busboy, and then from there became a runner, then a barback, then a bartender.”

Quickly after they met, Sanchez and Harris realized they shared an aspiration of opening their own venue, particularly one for the queer community. With their background in the industry, they mobilized their connections and experience to bring their vision to Providence.

“We always found that only five

SEE EGO PAGE 3

After 11 years as dean, McLaughlin to return as professor of English next fall

BY JACK WALKER UNIVERSITY NEWS EDITOR Kevin McLaughlin P’12 will finish his term as dean of faculty June 30, 2022, Provost Richard Locke P’19 announced in a Today@Brown letter Tuesday. Following 11 years in the position, McLaughlin will begin a sabbatical this summer and return to the University in the fall as the George Hazard Crooker professor of English, comparative literature and German studies. The University will soon begin a search for a new dean of faculty and update the campus community on the search’s progress, Locke wrote.

After arriving at the University as an assistant professor of English in 1996, McLaughlin received tenure as an associate professor in 2000.

He then became a full professor in 2003 and was promoted to English

department chair in 2005. His work focuses on 19th-century literature and philosophy.

McLaughlin was initially named the George Hazard Crooker professor of English, comparative literature and German studies in 2012 and continued his involvement in scholarship throughout his time as dean, publishing two books and “teaching both undergraduate and graduate courses on 19th-century European literature and philosophy,” according to a Nov. 30 University press release.

In 2011, former Provost Mark Schlissel P’15 selected McLaughlin to serve as dean of faculty for a threeyear renewable term in consultation with former President Ruth Simmons and former Provost David Kertzer ’69 P’95 P’98 — a term that was extended to 11 years.

While McLaughlin told The Herald he did not initially expect to retain the position for so long, he said his time as dean provided unique, rewarding experiences unlike those he encountered as a professor, including the opportunity to oversee a “wide

SEE MCLAUGHLIN PAGE 2

METRO

Activists call to end prison gerrymandering BLM, ACLU, others testify in commission hearing to change redistricting rules

BY OLIVER KNEEN SENIOR STAFF WRITER As a state commission prepares to propose changes to Rhode Island’s electoral districts that will last for the next decade, several activist groups and community members are advocating that people who are incarcerated should be counted as members of their home communities. This challenges the status quo of allocating people who are incarcerated to the district that contain the prisons in which they physically reside — a practice that people like Steven Brown, executive director of the ACLU of Rhode Island , call “prison gerrymandering,” in which more voters are allocated to a given district than are voting in it.

Brown said this practice “artificially (inflates) particular districts in Cranston” that house the Adult Correctional Institutions — the “major prison facility” complex in Rhode Island — due

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“Prison gerrymandering” can inflate the population of districts in Cranston which house the Adult Correctional Institutions. to the fact that many people who are incarcerated either can’t vote or vote absentee in other districts.

The state’s reapportionment commission, a group appointed by Democrat and Republican state house leaders to propose new district maps to the General Assembly using 2020 census data, has the power to recommend the end to this practice. The commission held a hearing Nov. 15 to solicit public input on this issue.

Black Lives Matter RI PAC Executive Director Harrison Tuttle said his organization — along with others such as Rhode Island Political Cooperative,

University News

Commentary

Arts & Culture

University News

University professors of color discuss navigating race through poetry and writing Page 2

Computer Science classes should be recognized for their supportive communities Page 5

‘Real Housewives’ focus more on true crime rather than their classic petty drama Page 7

Dr. Sapna Desai ’99 and Dr. Ashish Jha discuss public health in India Page 8

Sunrise Providence, Rebuild Woonsocket, Providence Democratic Socialists of America and Direct Action for Rights and Equality — organized members of the community to give testimony by advertising the hearing online and educating people on the issue.

“We wanted to make sure that (the voices of people) that traditionally do not get heard at testimonies” were heard, he added.

Tuttle, who testified at the hearing himself, emphasized that the current method for counting incarcerated

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | NEWS

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2021

UNIVERSITY NEWS

‘Race & Poetry’ panel discusses navigating racial identity through writing Literary arts professors share how poetry can help process, express racial identity

BY KATY PICKENS SENIOR STAFF WRITER A group of faculty members in the Department of Literary Arts discussed how poetry can be a means of processing oppression and struggle while also expressing racial identity and optimism at a “Race & Poetry” webinar held Tuesday.

“How do we suppose something that we don’t have yet, the absence of violence against Black bodies, Black women, trans bodies?” asked Erica Hunt, assistant professor of literary arts. “I for one have been writing poetry for 35 years, and I’ve been involved in struggle ... it’s what draws me back again and again to poetry.”

The webinar was part of the “Race &” webinar series, which facilitates discussion among Brown faculty about the intersection of racism and different intellectual disciplines. Colin Channer and Sawako Nakayasu, assistant professors of literary arts, joined Hunt in discussing their work through the lens of racial identity.

“Since the brutal killing of George Floyd and the blossoming of the Black Lives Matter movement in the summer of 2020, there’s been efflorescence of seminars, conversations, institutional initiatives, articles and books and inevitably poetry as an answer to the brutality of that moment,” said Professor of Africana Studies Brain Meeks, who moderated the event.

Channer kicked off the webinar by reading his poem “Spumante,” which describes a whale carcass he encountered on a Massachusetts beach, while also drawing deep metaphors of loneliness in the Black experience and engaging with the motif of water.

“It’s a blatant kind of metaphor … of self-exile,” he said of the poem. He added that he wanted to riff on images of drowning, which echo “a pseudoscience in times of slavery,” which was “the notion that Black bones were heavier, and so we’d sink.”

“It was a way of discouraging Black people from trying to escape across water,” Channer said. “Simply not drowning for me is a form of joy and resistance.”

Nakayasu described her relationship to racial identity, having moved from white, suburban America to Japan and China, where she lived for 15 years. “I feel there’s more space now for us to inhabit the poetic landscape without participating in an explicitly white-centric notion of poetry,” she said.

Nakayasu read “Mountain Girls” and “Girl Soup” from her book of poems, “Some Girls Walk into the Country They are From.” In her reading of “Girl Soup,” she opted to replace the word “girl” with “Japanese,” which she said was meant to demonstrate how different identities contrast and draw similarities within that intersection.

Hunt read her poems “Upon another acquittal (a choreography of grief),” “Mourning Birds” and “Lines on Love’s (Loss*),” drawing upon themes of Black motherhood and resilience throughout history.

Hunt also showed a photograph of Black hair with rice braided into

KATY PICKENS / HERALD

The professors discussed the cultural influences and experiences behind their work during the “Race &” webinar series, which facilitates discussion about the intersection of racism and intellectual disciplines. different sections and described how this custom originated during the slave trade so enslaved people would be able to grow food wherever they landed. “I think about the investment in the future there,” she said. Despite enslaved people being “kidnapped and brutalized,” they somehow saw “beyond the current bleakness the possibility of a future,” Hunt said.

During the question and answer section in the second half of the event, Hunt, Channer and Nakayasu discussed the capacity of poetry to capture experiences with race and racism and help people of color process their experiences, both with oppression and joy.

“I write to find out what I know, what I think and what I’ve experienced,”

Hunt said. She also described how poetry can be a mechanism for breaking with norms. “I love poetry for itself, it moves me, and also poetry is a way of extending the usual boundaries of imagination,” she said. “We desperately need a different kind of imagination.”

Channer described how his background as a Jamaican immigrant allows him to start his poems with sound, some of which draw on the linguistic history of the Caribbean. “I have this inheritance that I can draw on ... (to create art) among and between languages and registers,” Channer said.

The panel also discussed the struggles of BIPOC authors and professors as they search for artistic freedom, pursue proper compensation and navigate rac-

COURTESY OF BROWN UNIVERSITY

McLaughlin also helped created post-tenure sabbaticals and fundraised for programs including the Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice.

MCLAUGHLIN FROM PAGE 1 range of disciplines” including physical sciences, social sciences and the humanities.

“I was trained as a literary scholar,” McLaughlin said. At the University, “we tell our students all the time that having an undergraduate degree in a liberal arts field is a great preparation for any job that you might end up getting. I thought that taking this job, for me, was a little bit of a test of that because you’re stepping outside

of your discipline.”

Throughout his time as dean, McLaughlin “has collaborated with the senior leadership team of the University to grow and diversify the faculty and has focused consistently on enhancing the academic strength of departments, centers and institutes across the University,” Locke wrote.

Under McLaughlin’s leadership, Locke added, the University’s regular faculty grew almost 18% from 517 to 609 — “the largest expansion of the faculty ranks in Brown’s history.”

McLaughlin emphasized that increasing the number of regular faculty members on campus enables the University to more effectively conduct research and teach across academic disciplines while also creating longterm stability within academic departments.

McLaughlin has also “worked with chairs, directors and leaders from all disciplines to foster a culture of intellectual engagement, openness, achievement and mutual respect,” Locke wrote. In addition, McLaughlin

has “led efforts to ensure equitable treatment and compensation of faculty across disciplines and demographic lines, and to build and maintain an inclusive environment for faculty, staff and students across the University.”

Since the start of McLaughlin’s term as dean, the percentage of faculty from historically underrepresented groups has increased by over 130%, Locke noted.

McLaughlin said that throughout his term he and other University

ism at academic institutions.

Hunt said that she avoided academia for much of her career for these reasons but has found communities of poets to whom she can reach for support when needed. Nakayasu agreed, saying that her family has also been another large source of support. For Channer, his poetry in itself is a means of coping.

Nakayasu said that writing and reading poetry can be a way of emotional processing, not just with matters of race.

“When I think about the capacity of poetry and Black poetry right now, I think that one of our responses to the present urgency is to hold the space,” Hunt said. “For the possible, and for the ‘not yet.’”

administrators worked closely with academic departments to discuss how promoting diversity in the hiring process and fostering inclusion would best be enacted in each department, becoming a “grassroots effort that was embraced by a very significant portion of the faculty.”

Other initiatives spearheaded by McLaughlin during his term as dean included the creation of post-tenure sabbaticals, reducing the teaching load of humanities and qualitative social sciences professors and enhancing the University’s reputation, according to its 2014 Building on Distinction strategic plan. In addition, McLaughlin oversaw initiatives to raise funds for programs including the Cogut Institute for the Humanities, the Institute at Brown for the Environment and Society and the Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice.

Looking to his future at the University, McLaughlin said that he is excited to pursue new projects. During his sabbatical, he aims to finish a book on the literary and cultural criticism of German philosopher Walter Benjamin, and as a full-time professor, he is excited to develop and teach new courses.

McLaughlin hopes his successor will continue to foster diversity in academic disciplines at the University and support faculty work across fields.

“We need to remain a strong university that has committed to educating students in a wide range of arts and science fields,” he said. “We need to have a strong faculty across the whole spectrum to do that.”

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2021

EGO FROM PAGE 1 or 10 percent of the (queer) community was catered to when we started our business many, many years ago,” Sanchez said. This led Sanchez and Harris to realize that they wanted to support community members whom existing queer spaces tended to overlook.

To create that atmosphere of inclusivity, EGO hosts theme nights, such as Detention Thursdays, Twerk Fridays and Latin Sundays, that represent different parts of the community, according to Sanchez.

“For us, it’s very important, from the staff that we hire to the music that we play to the different theme nights, that we cater to everyone as much as we can as opposed to just one group of the community,” Sanchez said. Prior to EGO’s opening, “we definitely knew that the Latino community, the hip hop community, the African American community, the lesbian community — there was nothing. Nobody (was) catering

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | NEWS

(to) them.”

One of EGO’s notable efforts is the creation of the EGO Babes, a group of drag queens who perform regularly and occupy a residency-like role at the club.

“It was very important that I gave a chance to people that had never been given a chance before — very, very new queens,” Sanchez said.

After testing out a series of lineups, the final four queens were chosen: Annie B. Frank, Complete Destruction, YUNG ONYX and Pulp. The group performs every Thursday, drawing crowds and providing raunchy and free-spirited revelry for all.

“I first started as a patron of EGO with the intention of seeking out community,” Pulp wrote in an email to The Herald. “Within a year of first going and successfully finding community, I started to explore drag. I had humble beginnings as a drag artist and made friends with management … ​​I first got into drag as a ‘one-off’ sort of thing

without any intention of becoming a professional. I enjoyed myself so much that one time that I decided drag was something I wanted to explore more in-depth.”

To choose the EGO Babes, Sanchez scoured the venue night after night until he found queens he felt were the right fit. Forming the EGO Babes was part of Sanchez and Harris’ vision of creating an inclusive club space. Given the role that drag occupies for the queer community, Sanchez and the EGO team knew that having their own group was imperative to making it the best space possible.

After spending years building up its reputation and clientele, the club was forced to shut its doors for the better part of a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nonetheless, with the advent of vaccines earlier in the summer, EGO hosted its grand reopening June 17.

With the class of 2024 and students

3

from other class years on campus for a summer term, EGO was poised to cater to the student demographic in a way it hadn’t before.

“Our year was very separated from the others because we were (on campus) in the summer,” Jordan Cheung ’24 said.

“People started just going to wherever they heard about first, and I think EGO having an 18+ night and being a gay club and just a really good spot, people were excited.”

“It’s a place for self-expression for a lot of kids who are figuring themselves out at college or aren’t out at home. I definitely know a lot of kids from Brown who started going to EGO, and that was the place where they started exploring their sexuality and themselves,” Cheung added. “I think sometimes the Providence community can be a little unclear politically. Having a specific spot that’s this safe space for LGBTQ+ folks is pretty important.”

Pulp emphasized that EGO aims to

serve as a refuge for the queer community. “It is EGO’s vision to reinforce and celebrate diversity, intersectionality and inclusion by offering a safe space for all QBIPOC and LGBTQIA+ members of the Providence community and beyond,” Pulp wrote. “This is especially important for younger people in the community, as it can be a very vulnerable time to navigate the world as a queer person.”

Now, the club is operating once again in full swing. Despite the challenge of bringing people back to large live events, EGO has managed to successfully get back on its feet, even using the pandemic as a break to remodel the club’s interior. The reopening has allowed EGO to return to its place as a key space for queer folks across Providence, with creating and safeguarding community remaining its number-one goal.

“When I think of the club,” Pulp wrote, “I think of family.”

COURTESY OF EGO PROVIDENCE

To create an atmosphere of inclusivity, EGO hosts theme nights, including its Detention Thursdays, Twerk Fridays and Latin Sundays, that represent different parts of the community.

4

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | NEWS

ACCESSIBLE FROM PAGE 1 prevent a wheelchair user from entering the facility.”

Being unable to enter or fully use all the services within a building can disrupt one’s ability to fully engage in campus life, said Silver McKie ’22 Disability Justice at Brown executive board member.

“We have dorms that are accessible so disabled students can live there, but it’s not only about living — that’s the bare minimum,” McKie said. “If we want to visit our friends in their dorms, if we want to go to parties at dorms, if we want to do anything that interacts with (a) dorm that’s not ours, disabled people can’t do that when it is an inaccessible space.”

Beyond making sure that accessibility features are part of a building, the University should also be “making sure that they’re integrated and not separated,” McKie said. Integrated accessibility would be “having the front door of a building be wheelchair accessible instead of having a side back door … so if a group of people are trying (to enter) a building together, the disabled person can enter with the group instead of having to leave and rejoin.”

This type of integrated design follows the principles of Universal Design, which aims to meet “the needs of everybody in the space so that all bodies can enjoy that space for all that it is,” said Sarah Skeels, senior teaching associate in behavioral and social sciences.

The Health and Wellness Dorm, which began housing students this summer, is an example of a building that was built with a universally-accessible entrance, Skeels said.

While this new building was being built, the University had a “panel of disabled students who sat and talked with the architects,” McKie said.

Integrating this type of accessibility into new buildings is legally mandated under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, Skeels noted.

The new dorms under construction on Brook Street “will be fully accessible to individuals with disabilities and constructed in full compliance with current ADA accessibility guidelines including accessible entrances, elevators, kitchens, bedrooms, bathrooms and landscape,” Vice President for Facilities Management Michael Guglielmo Jr. wrote in an email to The Herald.

“Beyond just this residence hall project, all newly constructed build-

ings on Brown’s campus are planned and managed in full accordance with American with Disabilities Act standards,” Guglielmo added.

But when it comes to buildings constructed prior to the ADA’s implementation, the University has historically taken two approaches to accessibility: complete renovation or retrofitting, the process of adding components to older buildings.

Friedman Hall, for example, was renovated in 2017 to be fully accessible to students with disabilities.

Retrofitting tends to be more “of an afterthought,” Skeels said. Unlike renovating, retrofitting a building might mean “they try to stick a ramp in there so somebody can get in,” she said. For “most of the buildings at Brown, that’s the way it’s been because they’ve been there for a long time” and were built “when there wasn’t a civil rights law.”

Under the ADA requirements, new buildings have to be accessible. But regulations related to existing buildings are less explicit: according to the ADA website, “when a business alters an existing facility in a way that affects usability, the areas or elements being altered must comply with the ADA Standards.”

CA L E N DA R

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2021

According to Facilities, accessibility is a key concern when renovating older buildings.

“Wherever feasible, renovations of older facilities on the Brown campus include accessibility improvements,” Guglielmo wrote. Some current and planned renovations that incorporate accessibility improvements include those on the Lincoln Field building and Churchill House.

“Facilities Management is currently partnering with Residential Life in a planning process to identify highest needs for renovation over the next three years,” Guglielmo wrote.

Renovations on older buildings must often grapple with incorporating accessibility when those buildings were built without it in mind, Skeels said. Still, she added, “they did it with Friedman, so you can do it with (older) buildings. It’s just expensive.”

Skeels noted that when the University does not make its buildings accessible, it sends a message to the student community. “It’s more about the understanding of why things should be accessible and … who Brown wants coming to this University — because right now, it is not physically disabled people.”

According to University administrators, campus accessibility is key to future planning for construction but also represents significant costs.

“On a campus with many hundreds of buildings, including many that date to the 1700s, creating a more fully accessible campus requires a long-term commitment and significant investments in capital projects,” University Spokesperson Brian Clark wrote in an email to The Herald. “We will continue to focus on the accessibility of spaces in support of inclusion for all individuals with disabilities on campus.”

Skeels, who uses a wheelchair, said that the University has become much more accessible in the past 20 years.

But entering and engaging with all the buildings, including those that have been retrofitted, is still a challenge.

For example, Alumnae Hall has an elevator “that comes up from the ground, but you have to have a key to get it to work, so I can’t just go into that building if I wanted to,” she said.

True accessibility, Skeels added, is about “really thinking about” and asking, “Can everybody share in this environment equitably?”

COVID -19 AT BROWN LAST 7 DAYS*

DECEMBER S

5

M

6

Tu

7

Completed Tests

People Tested

W

Th

F

S

2,258

2,145

1

2

3

4

Confirmed Positives

Positivity Rates

3

0.1 %

8

9

10

11 SINCE AUGUST 24, 2020*

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

Completed Tests

People Tested

578,098

18,079

Total Cases

Prevalence

840

4.6 %

*AS OF NOV. 30

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2021

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | COMMENTARY

5

Bahl ’24: CS classes should have a reputation for being supportive

BY ANIKA BALL STAFF COLUMNIST

Before the pandemic, it was apparently common knowledge for incoming first-year students that computer science classes could be overly stressful and competitive. But as someone whose Brown education started remotely from halfway across the globe, I never heard these criticisms before choosing my first course, CSCI 0190: “Accelerated Introduction to Computer Science,” last fall, and I was taken aback by how demanding the class was. I have encountered a similar level of rigor in several other CS courses since then. However, I soon came to appreciate how the high standards baked into the structure of CS courses at Brown serve as direct preparation for the industry’s pressures. And, perhaps surprisingly, I have also encountered CS classes’ supportive culture — which should be as much a part of CS’s reputation as its stress.

Many students commonly argue that their CS classes involve too much work — on which you often can’t collaborate with classmates — and too little TA support. But both of these gripes are rooted in industry circumstances.

TA shortages occur because increasing enrollment in CS classes outpaces TA hires. High enrollment is to be expected given that demand for software developers is growing at a faster-than-average pace. Colleges all over the country are seeing interest in computer science spike, and not always in quantities that departments can accommodate overnight. The software engineering industry requires considerable technical knowledge and practical experience. If professors were to simply cut

down on projects assigned or allow students to collaborate at their discretion, CS concentrators would be sent into the workforce individually unprepared.

The department is able to strike a balance: prepare students for industry reality without subjecting them to a needlessly rigorous learning environment. From the introduction of CSCI

that challenging assignments that are not also worthwhile will almost certainly be changed the next time the course is offered.

The opportunity for student-driven impact is possible because of professors’ outlook on what they want the classes they teach to accomplish. I find that computer science professors at Brown actively avoid making their class-

“The CS department is able to strike a balance: prepare students for industry reality without subjecting them to a mindlessly rigorous learning environment.”

0200 as a single course that combines CSCI 0180 and CSCI 0160 for flexibility to the mandatory S/NC offering of CSCI 0320, the department is continually looking for ways to restructure itself based on student feedback. I know from my experience as a TA that professors seek to adjust their curriculum to what works best for students rather than force students to adapt to content that is outdated, unmotivating or just unnecessary. I felt welcomed into conversations about modifying and redesigning content assignments based on my students’ feedback for both CS classes I’ve worked on. My input was not only heard, but truly valued. I know

es unnecessarily difficult for students. Across the department, the concept of “late days” or “late hours” allows students to turn in late assignments a certain number of times at their discretion throughout the semester. This gives breathing room to students should they have job interviews, be ill or face other unforeseen circumstances that can and should take precedence over schoolwork. As another example of professors’ sensitivity to students’ workloads, only a handful of upper-level CS classes have final exams at all. Professors have instead found that assigning projects over the course of the semester is a more valuable learning experience

that minimizes stress and improves student mental health.

Professors also mitigate some of the toxicity that can come with a competitive environment by acknowledging disparities in access to computer science both in their hiring decisions and the course content. When interacting with TA staff, I’ve frequently seen aspects of my own identity represented by other minorities in visible leadership roles. Many professors also elect to make their courses part of the Brown Socially Responsible Computing program, which embeds material about how computing impacts society directly into course content or projects.

Much of this content discusses the privilege of those designing the software and the challenges that software development holds for underrepresented groups in the field. When professors foreground these topics in curricula, students are far more likely to see them as worth learning. As a member of an underrepresented minority myself, I can attest that it is far easier to see competition as constrcutive when my classmates and I understand each other’s struggles with computer science in addition to our strengths.

Brown CS isn’t perfect. The department knows this and chooses to work toward improvement. Ultimately, it ends up preparing people for an industry that requires non-negotiable skills, while valuing students’ mental health and wellbeing.

Anika Bahl ’24 can be reached at anika_ bahl@brown.edu. Please send responses to this opinion to letters@browndailyherald. com and other op-eds to opinions@browndailyherald.com.

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | NEWS

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WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2021

UNIVERSITY NEWS

Alums discuss recipes for tech startup success at CS department event Ben Simon ’11, Valentin Perez ’18 share stories of starting their own companies

BY DANA RICHIE STAFF WRITER Ben Simon ’11 and Valentin Perez ’18, both computer science alums, shared their experiences and processes of developing tech startups during an online forum hosted Tuesday by the Department of Computer Science’s Industry Partners Program.

Simon and Perez have both achieved success in their companies but have explored different visions and leadership styles, exemplifying to interested students what Simon believes to be true: There are “lots of ways to do it.”

Simon worked at Google before deciding that he was “ready for the next big thing.” He teamed up with one of his friends from Brown, Carlos Ormachea ’09, to found the multi-million-dollar fitness app Down Dog. He combined his passion for yoga and his computer science background to “create workout sequences on demand” through the app, using over 60,000 yoga configurations to create unique yoga practices each time a user opens the app. In addition to yoga,

Down Dog offers high-intensity interval training, meditation, barre and prenatal yoga classes.

Perez, a self-described lifelong learner, wanted to make online learning more dynamic and engaging, which inspired him to co-found the education platform Monthly, offering celebrityand artist-led classes.

Simon was drawn to the idea of a startup because he found the freedom and control over his projects and code alluring. Even though his app has been operating for over six years and has over 700,000 users, he still prefers working with a small staff of five and spending no more than 20% to 50% of his time doing activities other than coding.

“Both me and my co-founder were most interested in startups in terms of being more free than you get to be at any other job,” Simon said. “This is still the job that we get to do where we have the most autonomy to create what we think is good.”

Perez has had a slightly different approach. Since formulating the idea in March 2019 with co-founder Max Deutsch ’11, Perez has been actively recruiting and expanding his operation, which is fully remote. Over time, his role in the company has shifted to more managerial duties. Perez said that not only did his academic and extracurricular experiences at the

DANA RICHIE / HERALD

Simon and Perez met their respective co-founders on campus while undergraduate students at Brown. Both said that they found the coursework and community at Brown prepared them for their startup endeavors.

University shape the way he leads his company, but the relationships he formed on campus remain with him to this day. He recalled how he met his co-founder while working on a team project and the time they spent working together in the Ratty on weekends.

“It’s not only your co-founder, but also the team you’re going to build,” Perez said, adding that most of his

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engineers come from Brown.

Both Perez and Simon met their co-founder on campus and found that the coursework and community prepared them for their startup endeavors.

“Brown is an amazing learning environment,” Perez said. “You’re with a lot of your friends. You’re working on classes that are project-based. The professors are amazing.”

Perez and Simon advised students to not be afraid to take risks and to be willing to learn from any and all experiences. Simon said that University students have the “highest chance of that risk paying off.”

“Getting close to the thing (you want to pursue) helps you identify whether that’s the objective that you think you want,” Perez said.

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WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2021

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | NEWS

ARTS AND CULTURE

Drinks, lawsuits on ‘The Real Housewives’ Reality TV franchise’s new seasons feel more like true crime than drama

Bravo’s “The Real Housewives” franchise is used to drama. Drinks are often thrown, gossip is spread and scandals abound. Sometimes, this drama exits the franchise’s limits and becomes a real-world spectacle. In 2013, Teresa Giudice, of “Real Housewives of New Jersey” fame, was charged alongside her husband for conspiracy to commit mail fraud, wire fraud and other financial crimes. She ended up serving over a year

the new season forward. Housewife Jen Shah, who is also known for flaunting her wealth through fur coats and gaudy jewelry, was arrested in late March for allegedly running a telemarketing scheme that defrauded elderly people with her assistant, Stuart Smith, who is also featured on the show. Cameras were rolling during Shah’s arrest and the episode featuring the dramatic chase to catch Shah aired two weeks ago. Shah shows up to go on a girls trip, receives a mysterious phone call and abruptly leaves the scene. Only 12 minutes later, Homeland Security officials arrive to find the other castmates about to take off on a luxury ski trip to Vail, Colo. The law enforcement officials ask about Jen, presumably to arrest her. All of this was filmed, except for the actual arrest, which occurred on the side

extreme grandeur, they seem unable to assess the severity of their situations.

They see their impending lawsuits as another enemy to beat, another Housewife to dump a martini onto.

Fans of “The Real Housewives” are often chastised for believing that the shows are real. Don’t you know, critics say condescendingly, reality TV is scripted, calculated, edited, manipulated? Yes — television is edited. What makes the shows so enjoyable is not that the viewer believes in the show’s reality, but that the Housewives do. Perhaps more than any member of their audience, these women seem to believe that “The Real Housewives” is reality. In one episode, Erika Girardi advises the audience, “Wanna know who your friends are?

Go broke. Wanna know who your friends are? Go to jail.” She assumes everyone

in prison, and her return home to her children was documented on camera in the season seven premiere.

In that season of “RHONJ,” Giudice’s crime was a part of the show, but it did not overwhelm the plot. It was essential in shaping her relationship with the other women and her eventually failed marriage, but the crime was the backdrop, not another cast member. But whatever kindness “The Real Housewives” producers spared for Giudice exists no longer.

On two franchises just this year, major crimes — far beyond Giudice’s tax evasion — structure “The Real Housewives” of Beverly Hills and Salt Lake City. On the 11th season of “RHOBH,” Erika Girardi — or Erika Jayne, the name of her pop-star alter-ego — abruptly divorces her husband Tom only a few episodes into the season. Tom Girardi is a powerful California lawyer known for his successful role in the 1993 Erin Brokovich case against Pacific Gas & Electric. A few weeks following their divorce last year, Tom Girardi’s assets were frozen due to allegations that he withheld settlement funds from his clients who were relatives of Indonesian airplane crash victims. The news breaks on the show, and is followed by many more allegations of Tom Girardi’s legal improprieties as the season continues.

Erika Girardi’s defining characteristic is her wealth, which she mostly spends on clothes, hair and makeup, producing elaborate looks for every lunch and get-together. The plot of the most recent season is dictated by Tom Girardi’s actions, Erika Girardi’s performances of pity and whether her castmates believe she knew nothing about the stolen funds that were funneled to bankroll her (and her popstar alter-ego’s) closet.

On “RHOSLC,” a different and even more direct criminal implication propels

of a highway. The rest of the season is haunted by Shah’s case. One of her fellow Housewives, Meredith Marks, is a foe of Shah’s and admitted she “hired a private investigator” to look into her businesses in the 11th episode. Whether Marks tipped off law enforcement and played a role in her arrest is a plot point of the season.

Needless to say, the “Housewives” franchises usually center around throwing drinks and shopping, not true crime.

But this year proves we have reached late-stage reality TV. Viewers who were bored of reused taglines and tired stars are newly enthralled by the actual life or death — freedom vs. imprisonment — stakes of these newest seasons. And the twisted psychology of the women who have been so poisoned by the reality TV mindset over the years — Erika Girardi has been on the cast for six years, while this is only second season of “RHOSLC” — has never been more exposed.

Erika Girardi, in this year’s reunion (the culminating episodes that rehash the drama of each season in a panel format), is asked by producer Andy Cohen whether she thinks her husband ever loved her. “I think he loved me,” she sighs, “and then I think things happened.”

Things happen to everyone, to every marriage, to every life. Erika Girardi and Shah use the significant allegations of these crimes as evidence of their normalcy, a testament to the “reality” of “The Real Housewives.” Every viewer has some struggle: financial woes, divorce, spiteful enemies. It seems the women see their struggles, while more expensive and of greater consequence, as proof that they are just like us. Both women talk about defeating these charges and proving their innocence as if people get charged with federal crimes all the time. With their lives of

is living in some similarly antagonistic reality where loyalty is constantly tested. Or, if it has not yet been tested, that it will be at some point.

Shah says that “If I have any fault, it’s that I’m too giving.” In the first season, she threatened to drown her good friend and publicly outed another castmate’s son. To Shah, such mistakes are evidence of her humanity — hasn’t every woman threatened to drown their friend? Deep down, she truly believes she’s a flawed but redeemable person, like everyone else.

That Shah and Erika Girardi remain on these shows is, in one sense, mystifying. It would be humiliating to watch your own arrest on TV or to be questioned by Cohen about your finances.

But the two women believe that “The Real Housewives” is real life and, in real life, they believe themselves to be good people. After enough episodes, they believe the show will eventually reveal to viewers their true, benign character.

The saddest part of this true crime era of “The Real Housewives” is that both women could have possibly played a role in defrauding elderly people and/ or plane crash victims, though neither woman ever shows much compassion for their alleged victims. But the delusions of these women — and of reality stars more generally — is also upsetting.

When watching their shabby defenses of their own innocence, you get the sense that they are performing for some imagined fan, the person rooting at home for them to win, to triumph over the odds. Why else would you get into the show in the first place, if not to be liked and adored?

“I bet everybody wishes they could be Erika Jayne,” Erika Girardi says in an early season. Everyone wants to watch Erika Jayne. No one, except Erika Girardi, wants to be her.

BY CECILIA BARRON STAFF WRITER

COURTESY OF BRAVO

Although Giudice’s mail fraud conspiracy was documented on the show, it did not completely dominate the show’s content as other crimes have on more recent episodes.

7

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2021

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | NEWS

8

SCIENCE & RESEARCH

Sapna Desai ’99 discusses public health degrees, development ‘Conversations with Dean’ series expands on public health in India, COVID-19

BY HALEY SANDLOW CONTRIBUTING WRITER Public health researcher and practitioner Sapna Desai ’99 spoke about the nuances of public health and development, public health degrees and the impact of COVID-19 in a Tuesday conversation with Ashish ​​ Jha, Dean of the School of Public Health.

The conversation was a part of Jha’s virtual Conversations with the Dean series.

Desai described her own journey in public health after attending Brown as an undergraduate. She first worked to research and implement programs for the Self-Employed Women’s Association, an organization in India for women working in the informal economy. Currently, Desai is a practitioner with the Population Council in New Delhi, an organization that conducts research in more than 50 countries to address health and development issues centering around reproductive health, HIV and adolescence and gender issues. The Population Council is a “great example” of an international organization, Desai said, with its work

PRISONS FROM PAGE 1 populations threatens equal access to government by “diluting and draining” the political representation of people who are incarcerated, many of whom “come from areas that are predominantly Black and brown.” He added that approximately 38% and 11% of the Adult Correctional Institutions’ population come from Providence and Pawtucket, respectively.

State Rep. Leonela Felix, who submitted written testimony for the hearing, told The Herald that the practice disadvantages her community of Pawtucket, which has “many constituents” who are incarcerated. According to data from the R.I. Department of Corrections, 11% of releases from Rhode Island prisons in 2019 reported returning to Pawtucket.

“Urban communities suffer the greatest with mass incarceration, and yet (prison gerrymandering gives) mostly white communities a bump with the bodies of Black and brown people from our communities,” she said.

The counting of people who are in-

varying among countries based on each one’s priorities.

In response to a question from Jha about the roles of economic development and women and girls’ education in improving global public health, Desai discussed the wide variation in health systems and women’s education between states in India. Rising economic status alone does not improve public health, Desai said, and variance in education does not necessarily contribute to differences in health outcomes.

“There’s no health outcome where there’s such a clean line between investment and improved outcomes,” Desai said.

In India, public health in different states has improved at different rates due to fiscal investment and “political priority for health,” Desai said. Desai said she believes that we should not only increase investments, but examine how states in India that have successfully improved health systems have made their investments.

She also stressed the importance of putting human rights at the center of improvements in public health, using the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development, which focused on people-centered development progress, as a framework.

ICPD “still should steer us when we think about … the rights of people to be able to freely choose,” Desai said.

“Because what you’re doing is then not

carcerated is “personal” for Bret Jacob, a community member who testified at the hearing about his mother’s incarceration during his childhood. Jacob recently lost the State Senate District 3 democratic primary to Sam Zurier.

Jacob told The Herald that “practically no formal resources” were available to his mother when she left prison.

“She really relied on the generosity and love of people in the community that we knew to help her transition into housing and help her coordinate things related to my school,” he said.

Noting that “the resources that communities need to thrive” are partially allocated on the basis of population, Jacob believes a change to the counting practice could ensure other people who are incarcerated have access to the assistance they may need upon re-entry, such as housing, workforce development and mental health counseling.

“It makes sense that if people are leaving behind lives that they were living before, they be counted in the place (where) their lives exist (and where) their communities exist — not where they’re being held,” he said.

just talking about access to a service, but rather access to an entire set of choices.”

During the conversation, Desai also

coming into the public health field, Desai challenged the way public health is currently taught, as she believes there is a lack of technical education. Upon

gain the experience necessary for a career in public health, she said.

Desai additionally stressed the importance of engaging with people on

HALEY SANDLOW / HERALD

Sapna Desai ’99 elaborated on the discrepancies in health care between different states in India, where public health has improved at different rates across states due to fiscal investment and political priorities. commented on COVID-19 as a “massive wake up call for everyone to see the importance of health.” She also stressed the need to bolster and improve primary care systems in India — primary care “is just not there to the extent it needs to be.”

Reflecting on her own experience

completing her Master of Science at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, she arrived at SEWA feeling as having “never been so unequipped to actually deal with monitoring and evaluation” of public health conditions.

Few universities allow opportunities for students to do hands-on work to

the ground for those currently working in public health.

“We are a field of practice, even in research,” she said. “I don’t develop (research) questions only by doing a literature review. It’s almost always very concentrated with people and practitioners.”

Tuttle said the commission’s hearing was “extremely encouraging,” given that “the overwhelming majority of people who testified” were opposed to the current process for counting people who are incarcerated.

Among the few who testified in favor of the current method was R.I. GOP National Republican Committeeman Steve Frias ’94, a past candidate for R.I. House of Representatives in District 15 in Cranston.

Frias told The Herald that it is most fair to treat all citizens the same and thus count all according to their physical location at the time of the U.S. Census. He added that the state still counts university students attending schools in Providence in districts in the city, even though “there are thousands of kids who are from out of state” who often vote in their home states.

“If you’re going to start reallocating prison inmates ... then you’re going to have to look at other populations,” he said. “I don’t see why the prison population … needs to be treated differently than the 1.1 million people in the state for redistricting purposes,” he added.

Frias pushed back against the claim that Cranston is afforded extra representation, given that there are more registered voters in Cranston’s House District 15 than “two-thirds of other representative districts in Rhode Island,” including the district that represents the University.

He added that the process for determining the home districts of people who are incarcerated would likely warrant the use of information less reliable than census data. This is because prisons don’t have the “pre-incarceration addresses for” all those they house, “and the information they do have,” which is provided by people who are incarcerated, is sometimes the addresses of friends or relatives, he said.

Tuttle acknowledged that there are other considerations that complicate this process, such as how to account for people who are experiencing homelessness or have moved frequently prior to their incarceration. If the General Assembly decides to end the practice, he believes “the best avenue moving forward” is one where the state engages with activists, people who are

incarcerated, those who were formerly incarcerated and other interested members of the community about how to implement this change in allocation.

The Reapportionment Commission must submit its final recommendations for electoral maps to the General Assembly by Jan.15.

Brown said it is hard to gauge how the members of the commission will respond to the community’s feedback.

“I think they realize that this is a significant and legitimate problem, but I don’t think they were showing their cards (during the hearing) as to what they will ultimately recommend,” he said.

If a change were to occur, Brown believes it would “give more meaning to the notion of ‘one person, one vote’ and provide an element of equality that’s missing” under the current practice.

Tuttle stressed the “urgency” of ending the practice now, given that redistricting only occurs every ten years.

“My hope is that the committee listens to public input and (acts in) the interests of our state,” he said, “which is ending prison gerrymandering.”

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