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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2022

VOLUME CLVII, ISSUE 4

BROWNDAILYHERALD.COM

UNIVERSITY NEWS

Faculty delay vote on creation of PPE Center

U. students launch Dear Blueno site

Updates from President’s Report, discussion of task forces also addressed BY ALEX NADIRASHVILI UNIVERSITY NEWS EDITOR Members of the University’s faculty and administration opted to postpone a vote on the establishment of a proposed Philosophy, Politics and Economics Center at the first faculty meeting of the semester Tuesday. The vote will instead be held at the next faculty meeting March 1. Govind Menon PhD’01, professor of applied mathematics, opened the meeting on behalf of the Faculty Executive Committee and brought forth the initial motion to establish a PPE center on campus. Provost Richard Locke P’18, who has previously expressed his support for the PPE Center, prefaced the discussion by asking faculty members to “focus (the) discussion on what the PPE Center actually proposes to do and not

Site follows in footsteps of popular Dear Blueno Facebook page after its removal

turn this into some sort of referendum on broader political issues.” Locke also brought up the “active campaign” among faculty and students opposing the PPE Center. These campaigns have partially focused on the proposed PPE Center’s connection to the Political Theory Project, which previously received funding from the Koch Foundation, a foundation run by billionaire and conservative political mega-donor Charles Koch, The Herald previously reported. Locke assured faculty that none of the “efforts to try to link the PPE Center to these outside groups … (through) guilt by association … provide evidence that there is a linkage between these outside groups and funding for the PPE Center.” Paul Guyer, professor of humanities and philosophy, later echoed this sentiment in the faculty discussion. “The proposed PPE Center would be a replacement project, not a continuation of the Political Theory Project,” Guyer said. “Whatever people might think has been the case with (the) PTP is, strictly

BY NEIL MEHTA SENIOR STAFF WRITER On Jan. 26, three University students launched a new, standalone Dear Blueno website. The site’s launch follows the removal of the original Dear Blueno Facebook page, which was in November 2021, The Herald previously reported. The Dear Blueno Facebook page, which launched in 2018, served as an anonymous message board for University students until its removal by Facebook. The new website is similar to the Facebook page in functionality: Students can post messages anonymously, comment and react to posts. Three developers, all current University students, built the site without involvement from the moderators of the original Dear Blueno page. The Herald spoke to two of the three de-

SEE FACULTY PAGE 6

LOKI OLIN / HERALD

SEE BLUENO PAGE 4

UNIVERSITY NEWS

Diman, Sayles flood due to pipe issues

Grad students demand U. change COVID-19 policy

Flooding prompts Diman evacuation, Sayles Hall class relocation

Grad students call for increased flexibility, transparency during pandemic

BY JACK TAJMAJER SENIOR STAFF WRITER Buildings on different corners of campus — Andrews Hall, Diman House and Sayles Hall — flooded over the weekend and on Monday. But according to the University, the causes of flooding have all been resolved. Diman House is the most recent source of flooding, with a burst pipe in the basement leading to a “brief, temporary evacuation spurred by an alarm” early Monday morning, University Spokesperson Brian Clark wrote in an email to The Herald. The flooding, he added, did not “impact student rooms.” Facilities Management contained the flooding quickly. Zandy Swartzman ’24, a resident of Diman House, said he and his friends were extremely confused after being woken up by the alarm. “It really did look like a scene from the Titanic,” he said. “Just water spewing down.”

BY CHARLIE CLYNES AND CALEB LAZAR SENIOR STAFF WRITER AND UNIVERSITY NEWS EDITOR

AINSLEY SMITH / HERALD

Thirty-six Andrews students relocated following flooding in the dorm and were told to stay with a friend or in University emergency housing. “We were just waiting outside for about half an hour,” he added. “We went into Goddard for warmth.” His friends on the first floor weren’t impacted, according to Swartzman. “We got back at like two (in the morning) or something,” he said. Shortly after students returned to their rooms, the alarm went off a second time, Swartzman said. The

second time, though, he and his roommate decided to stay inside. “My roommate was asleep and was really not happy,” he said. “We covered our heads with pillows until the alarm stopped.” Still, he noted that the situation has since been resolved and “could

SEE FLOOD PAGE 8

Citing concerns over recently-announced COVID-19 testing and instruction policies, the Graduate Labor Organization formally delivered an open letter condemning University reopening plans Jan. 24. The letter, signed by more than 230 graduate student employees, 200 undergraduates and dozens of community members, urges the University “to grant graduate workers the agency to choose, without penalty, whether working in person is a risk they are willing to take.” The letter reflects general dissatisfaction among surveyed graduate students surrounding the University’s COVID-19 policies for the spring semester. The letter cites an internal

Arts & Culture

S&R

Commentary

“Yellowjackets” effectively blends horror and drama Page 2

R.I. arts council awards $3.4 million in grants to cultural organizations Page 3

Experts discuss the best practices for taking COVID-19 antigen tests Page 5

Levine ’23: What language can tell us about culture Page 6

GLO survey that polled nearly 150 graduate student workers and found that 90% of respondents support classes moving online for the duration of shopping period, while 86% believe the University should provide data regarding positivity rates and 79% “want remote work options … without risk of penalty.” As of 2020, 2,600 graduate students were enrolled at the University. Seventy-six percent of surveyed graduate students support the return of optional PCR testing, which was phased out by the University in favor of rapid tests at the beginning of the semester. “A vast, vast majority supported grads — and all staff — having the choice to work remotely … without fear of repercussion,” said Beckett Warzer GS, GLO steward for theatre and performing arts and literary arts. Warzer added that it is currently extremely difficult for graduate students to secure remote permission. The University has defended its reopening plan in emails to graduate and undergraduate students and

SEE GLO PAGE 3

TODAY TOMORROW

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RAPHAEL LI DESIGN EDITOR

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | NEWS

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2022

ARTS & CULTURE

‘Yellowjackets’ brings right blend of electrifying horror, drama Refreshing take on classic genres awaiting second season to answer questions BY IRENE CHOU ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR “So what do you think really happened out there?” This burning inquiry — posed by a journalist (Rekha Sharma) in the opening lines of the pilot — reveals the crux of Showtime’s standout show “Yellowjackets,” an eclectic mix of survivalist story, family drama and horror — all dashed with a hint of the supernatural. Released in Nov. 2021, the pilot begins with an exhilarating sequence of visceral horror and desperation. The opening scenes of the first episode show a girl running through snowy wilderness barefoot. Something pursues her from behind as wild, almost primitive cries reverberate across the barren twilight. The girl stumbles to a stop and screams in sheer terror of what will inevitably come. She soon tumbles into a trap with a sickening thud, impaled in a pit of stakes. After close-ups of her necklace and twitching fingers, we are finally shown her pursuer. A masked figure clad in muddied pink Converse steps to the edge of the trap, seeming to gloat over the gory capture. Beginning “in medias res,” the show captivates from the get-go with its harrowing premise. The eponymous Yellowjackets — an elite high school girls soccer team — boarded a private plane bound for a national tournament

in 1996. They never made it. The plane crashed, marooning them in the Canadian wilderness for over a year. The few who survived claimed they “starved, scavenged and prayed” until rescue finally came. The opening flashback proves there’s more to the story. The audience is tantalizingly baited as the show slowly reveals exactly what happened during the team’s 19 months of isolation. What did the girls resort to in the freezing winter? How did a close-knit team of soccer champions become mask-donning cannibals? And, fast forward two decades, who is this journalist demanding answers from the traumatized survivors? Creators Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson — the husband-and-wife team behind “Narcos” and “The Originals” — establish a dualistic timeline, weaving back and forth between the survivalist tale in ’96 and the lives of the traumatized survivors 25 years later. Director Karyn Kusama — who spearheaded “Jennifer’s Body” and “The Invitation” — remains in familiar territory as she showcases a suspense-filled storyline, cutting back and forth in time and pulling audiences to the edge of their seats. The cast, comprising both teenage and grown-up versions of the surviving Yellowjackets, shines in their portrayals of characters haunted by suppressed memories, ones that seem more nightmarish than real. Christina Ricci transforms into the sociopathic Misty Quigley, a mousy-haired oddball on the surviving soccer team whose overbearing presence becomes truly disturbing. Melanie Lynskey, who plays the grown-up version of survivor Shauna

RHEA RASQUINHA / HERALD

Sheridan — a prospective Brown student accepted through Early Admissions — masterfully depicts the trope of the meek suburban housewife. At 40, Shauna is stuck in domestic malaise, yearning for the chance to partake in the high school shenanigans she missed out on due to the fateful plane crash. Lynskey deftly belies Shauna’s inner turmoil. Simmering beneath the character’s careful facade, an innate ruthlessness jilted by her traumatizing past threatens to resurface. Tawny Cypress’s role as present-day Taissa Turner is another chillingly compelling performance. Headstrong and driven, the Yellowjackets survivor manages to accomplish her life goals despite the plane crash, running for state senate

with a picture-perfect family. Nonetheless, when a wave of publicity bombards her campaign, she is confronted with a barrage of questions about her past. Like Shauna, she has secrets she would rather keep buried. Still, in spite of the stellar ensemble, one critical flaw remains: The question asked within the first few minutes of the pilot — what actually happened in the woods all those years ago — is not substantially answered at all. Too many mysteries remain unsolved. In fact, the latter half of the season stalls as much as it can, meandering its way through prosaic teenage drama. Juliette Davis’s adult version of Natalie Scatorccio, another of the few Yellowjackets survivors,

bears the brunt of this issue. Davis’s excellent portrayal of a woman broken down by trauma and heartache becomes restrained by an unwieldy script. Along with the audience and the main cast, her fractured character makes no progress in her quest for vengeance. The show slows down significantly by the end of the season, reluctant to actually bring about the long-anticipated descent from civility to cannibalistic savagery. Perhaps the answer to what actually happened can only be found in the season to come. The audience can only hope that this second season won’t stall until the third to deliver on the show’s promise of wicked fun.

ARTS & CULTURE

R.I. awards $3.46 million in grants to arts, cultural organizations Among recipients are RISD Museum, Tomaquag Museum, Providence groups BY LAURA DAVID ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR On Jan. 11, the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, in conjunction with the Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission and Governor Dan McKee, rolled out a series of capital grants totaling $3.46 million to 42 arts and cultural organizations across the state. Among the beneficiaries are the RISD Museum, Teatro ECAS — Rhode Island’s only Spanish-language theater, the Tomaquag Museum, the Pawtucket Public Library and the Providence Performing Arts Center. Funding from the grants will go largely towards the physical upkeep and preservation of these groups and their facilities, according to RISCA Director of Public Engagement and Communication Faye Zuckerman. “The State Cultural Facilities Grant Program was created because state lawmakers and voters recognized that many significant cultural properties in our state need extensive repairs or restoration, and that these organizations contribute significantly to the state and local economy,” Zuckerman wrote in an email to The Herald. Grant applications were evaluated by an external panel of experts in the

arts field, Zuckerman wrote. Potential grantees were required to submit a written application to RISCA detailing the project they wanted to be funded. Reviewers then used a rubric to evaluate applications, with points given based on “need for project, impact and capacity to succeed,” Zuckerman added. “What’s wonderful about the facilities grants of RISCA is … they directly support facilities-oriented work,” said Sarah Ganz Blythe, interim director of the RISD Museum. Most private donors, Blythe explained, prefer to fund the content side of the RISD Museum’s work. The RISCA grant, on the other hand, allows RISD to improve the back-end necessities that keep the museum open and functional. “It helps us realize the nuts-andbolts infrastructure in terms of the upkeep of our galleries, upgrading them so they’re wheelchair accessible (and) improving lighting and seating,” Ganz said. The RISD Museum’s planned use of the grant also falls in line with RISCA’s broader aims for their capital grant program. In her email, Zuckerman noted that the council paid special attention to grant requests that would increase the accessibility of recipient organizations. She wrote that RISCA’s ultimate hope is to allow Rhode Island’s cultural organizations “to operate in inspiring, functional and accessible spaces.” “Many of these grant requests are earmarked for improvements to access in a belief that the arts should be equally accessible to all,” Zuckerman

COURTESY OF RHODE ISLAND STATE COUNCIL ON THE ARTS

Beneficiaries of the new grants include the RISD Museum, Teatro ECAS, the Tomaquag Museum, the Pawtucket Public Library and the Providence Performing Arts Center. wrote. “Elevators, (Americans with Disabilities Act-mandated) entrances and bathrooms (and) accessible studio equipment are just a few examples of such initiatives.” Another significant feature of RISCA’s latest round of capital grants was that it allowed smaller organizations to access larger amounts of funding than they previously had been able to, according to Executive Director of the Tomaquag Museum Lorén Spears. For example, the Tomaquag Museum — Rhode Island’s only Indigenous museum — was one of two grantees that received $250,000, the largest sum of money given out to any one individual organization during this round of capital grant funding. “Most of our normal grants are in the under-$5,000 zone from” RISCA,

Spears said. “This is of a much different variety … it’s a huge magnitude.” Part of the reason the Tomaquag Museum was able to access such a significant amount of funding was because of the scale of its current capital project. The museum is in the process of building a new location in collaboration with the University of Rhode Island, an endeavor Spears hopes will allow the museum to bring its mission of educating the public on Indigenous history and culture to a broader audience. “We are located right now in rural Exeter — we’re way off the beaten path and it’s not as accessible,” Spears said. She noted that though the museum has been able to implement virtual programming and sent some of its staff into the Rhode Island community to teach Indigenous history, a new, larger

campus in an area already populated by students will be pivotal for its growth. Though Tomaquag’s new build will cost somewhere closer to $9 million in total, RISCA’s grant will be key in helping kickstart the project, Spears added. Both Spears and Blythe emphasized that the state’s commitment to providing funding for the arts was essential, especially because two years of operating during the pandemic has left many cultural organizations financially depleted. “For many museums, who had to be closed for many months, there was no admissions revenue,” Blythe said. “Funding is essential, and there has been wonderful funding from the U.S. government in terms of the rescue plan. That’s been enormously helpful. State funding is incredibly important.”

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2022

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | NEWS

TRACY PAN / HERALD

Over 200 graduate student employees, 200 undergraduates and dozens of community members signed an open letter to University administrators enumerating concerns regarding opening plans for the spring

GLO FROM PAGE 1 campus community members. “I would like to reiterate that we believe in-person instruction is safe given our nearly universal campus vaccination rates, booster mandate, indoor masking requirements and continuing testing program,” Provost Richard Locke P’18 wrote in a Jan. 19 email to the University community. In addition to GLO’s open letter, 34 members of the English Graduate Organization, a collective that represents graduate students in the English department, sent a letter to University administration Jan. 28 to express “opposition to the University’s ableist, racist, classist and anti-Black response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.” The letter was reviewed by The Herald. The letter, which cites disproportionate rates of illness and death among minority and low-income Rhode Island residents, accuses the University of downplaying “the risks of Omicron” and “obscuring Brown’s location within Providence and its impact on spread throughout the city and state.” “Brown has suggested that we should plan to get sick, implying that spread is inevitable and not a result of its own policies,” the letter continues. “Regardless of our own individual situations, we recognized that there was no such thing as ‘individual safety’ within the pandemic,” said an EGO statement sent to The Herald by Devon Clifton GS. “We didn’t want to see anyone get hurt because of Brown’s negligence. And, we also felt we had a duty to speak up or else be complicit in Brown’s mishandling of the pandemic.” The letter includes a list of demands, including the option to work

and study remotely, materials to support remote workers and students, reinstatement of regular PCR testing and a return to publishing positivity rates from the testing program. EGO’s statement also expressed support for GLO’s open letter and demands. “In regard to COVID-19 health and safety measures, it’s important to make clear that protecting the health and safety of the Brown community and the Providence and Rhode Island communities of which we are a part has been our highest priority since the onset of the pandemic,” University Spokesperson Brian Clark wrote in an email to The Herald. “That remains the case as the spring semester gets underway, with carefully planned public health measures based on advice from medical experts, as well as flexibility for instructors and students, among the important factors in enabling in-person teaching and learning while preventing serious illness on and near campus.” Clark did not address specific claims from EGO’s letter in a statement provided to The Herald. After some members of the graduate community voiced their concerns, Dean of the Graduate School Andrew Campbell sent a Jan. 21 email to graduate students defending the University’s reopening plans, which The Herald reviewed. Campbell emphasized that instructors had the choice “to teach their class sections remotely for the first week of the spring semester” and reiterated the accuracy of rapid tests as opposed to PCR tests. “Rapid antigen tests are extremely sensitive in determining if you are currently infectious,” Campbell wrote, citing a study from the University of California, San Francisco that report-

ed a 95% accuracy rate for positive test-takers. Yet multiple graduate students who spoke to The Herald dispute the claims and rationale provided by the University. Anders Ohman GS, a pathobiology graduate student and member of GLO, said rising COVID-19 cases are cause for concern in the return to in-person activities. “If I had pressure put on me to be in in-person environments — congregate settings, high density (settings) — I would feel unsafe, absolutely,” he added. GLO’s letter was conceived at a general meeting Jan. 18, when members convened to gauge sentiment about the plans. “The discussion was pretty open-ended. A lot of people shared their thoughts and it all kind of came together with people expressing that they felt like the changes were a step in the wrong direction,” Ohman said. “The initial message that was sent out (by the University) was not providing people with, on the one hand, security, and on the other, even clarity about what was going on,” GLO Steward for Comparative Literature, German Studies, Slavic Studies and Italian Studies Andrés Gonzalez GS said. The University has not publicly responded to either letter. GLO’s initial demands for a remote shopping period did not prompt changes by the University, but graduate students plan to continue to push for changes such as a reinstatement of PCR testing and more flexibility with remote work, EGO’s statement read. “I think that if there’s a risk of being hospitalized at work, then it’s too much of a risk,” GLO President Rithika Ramamurthy GS said. “Not a single one of our members should be subjected to that risk.”

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | NEWS

ARTS & CULTURE

Artist Rosamond S. King presents poetry, multidisciplinary art forms King visits campus virtually through Department of Literary Arts BY AALIA JAGWANI SENIOR STAFF WRITER On Tuesday, the Department of Literary Arts hosted a virtual presentation and conversation with writer, performer and artist Rosamond S. King. The event was the second in a series of five virtual readings and presentations from distinguished artists and writers organized by the department for the spring semester. King is a professor of English and the director of the Institute for the Humanities at Brooklyn College, as well as the author of several books and poetry collections including “All the Rage” and “Rock | Salt | Stone,” the latter of which won the Lambda Literary Award. In her work, which she has presented at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and several literary festivals, she “draws from reality to create non-literal, culturally and politically engaged interpretations of African diaspora experiences,” according to an email description of the event sent to Brown community members by Peter Nelson, academic program director and senior lecturer in literary arts. Her presentation explored the future of interdisciplinary art through her own work and the work of a diverse range of artists. She said she sees multidisciplinary art forms as “collaborative, often bilingual or multilingual and ultimately embracing both the digital and the analog.” The spirit of collaboration and inclusivity are central to King’s vision of the arts. “I believe everyone who can write or speak has the capacity to produce literature, and everyone who can read or hear has the capacity to appreciate it,” she said. King also described her own genre-crossing works and introduced her upcoming book, “This Intention-

COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA COMMONS VIA FILETIME

King’s presentation examined the future of interdisciplinary art through a variety of artists’ portfolios. ally Left Blank,” a collection of “erasure poems” derived from two prominent government reports that she explores as acts of erasure themselves: the 2019 Mueller report and the 1965 Moynihan report. “The goal of all of my work is to

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2022

BLUENO FROM PAGE 1 velopers responsible for the new Dear Blueno site on the condition of anonymity to uphold admin privacy. According to one of the site’s developers, the Dear Blueno site was conceptualized soon after the Facebook page was unpublished. “We were all quite big frequenters of Dear Blueno, so it was pretty sad to see it disappear,” the first developer said. “We saw a lot of people talking about how it would be cool if Dear Blueno could move to its own standalone platform, … so we decided that we (would) take this on as a passion project with no end goal in mind.” According to the developers, the site was advertised through flyers posted across campus prior to its launch last Wednesday. By Monday afternoon, the site accumulated over 100 posts. “We really didn’t have to do too much” to attract users, the first developer said. “A lot of students have been missing Dear Blueno as a resource, and so we just put up a few posters here and there.” The development team scheduled the launch of Dear Blueno to coincide with the start of the spring semester. “It was important to us that we launched on the first day of classes, as all of the developers remember how helpful Dear Blueno was during shopping period,” the developers wrote in an email to The Herald. The new Dear Blueno site is an open source project and its code is available freely online. The developers hope the open-source code will help users feel secure that their messages are kept anonymous. “You tell someone that (a submission) is going to be private and they’re not going to believe you,” the first developer explained. “That’s what drew us to make the code open-source, even at its launch. If someone is so inclined, they can go look at exactly how we’re handling user objects or messages.” The site includes its own built-in form and two Google Forms — one ex-

clusively for verified University emails and another open to the public — for users to submit messages. The developers explained that some students may feel more secure sending messages through a Google Form as they would for the former Dear Blueno Facebook page. “It’s natural for someone to be a bit apprehensive about … a form built into the site,” the first developer explained. “That’s why we still provide support for Google Forms. We feel that it makes people feel more comfortable posting because they understand … (the information) is completely out of our hands.” Nick Young ’23, a top fan of the Dear Blueno Facebook page, pointed out that because its messages are anonymous, Dear Blueno provides security that conventional question-and-answer pages cannot. Dear Blueno “is a place for people to say whatever and ask … without having fear of judgment if the questions are difficult to ask,” he said. At the same time, Dear Blueno “is nice because it has a wide reach, so you’re always going to reach someone that knows what they’re talking about,” he added. Both Young and the developers noted that the standalone site may open the door to additional features that could not be implemented on a Facebook page. One such feature — anonymous comments — is already available to the site’s users. “We added anonymous commenting to Dear Blueno because, while posting on the Facebook page … it would be hard to have discussions in the comments,” the second developer said, “especially when the topics are sensitive.” The developers hope to maintain the page for the duration of their time at Brown, after which time they plan on handing the site off to younger students. “Our plans are to stick with this project and maintain it,” the first developer said. After graduating, “I can see myself taking a step back and saying, ‘This is the time for other students to take the reins.’”

make people think, feel and wonder — not necessarily in that order,” King said. The next event in the series, scheduled for next Tuesday, Feb. 8, will feature poet Monica Youn.

CA L E N DA R

COVID -19 AT BROWN JAN. 20 TO 26

FEBRUARY S

Confirmed Positives

111

Students in On-Campus, Designated Off-Campus Quarantine Housing

36* JAN. 15 TO 19 Confirmed Positives

44 Students in On-Campus, Designated Off-Campus Quarantine Housing

7* *APPROXIMATE

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2022

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | NEWS

SCIENCE & RESEARCH

Antigen testing, explained: When and how to take your tests Professors, University health experts discuss how, when students should take rapid tests BY WILL KUBZANSKY AND GABRIELLA VULAKH SECTION EDITORS With the semester just beginning and over 100 positive COVID-19 test results on campus, University health experts agree rapid antigen tests are a pivotal tool for students to keep both themselves and others safe. But unlike PCR testing, which offers little room for improvisation, at-home test-takers have the chance to take liberties with their test kits: swabbing their throats instead of their nostrils, or even sharing swabs to make the most of limited test supplies. Though the University requires students to test twice a week, students can take the at-home tests at their convenience, The Herald previously reported. The Herald spoke to University professors and public health experts about the best times to take a rapid test and the best practices while testing. When to test Executive Vice President for Planning and Policy Russell Carey ’91 MA’06 said that beyond ensuring that 24 hours pass between tests, students should not specifically plan on taking their test around classes or other activities “It’s important to do two tests in each seven-day period,” he said. “I wouldn’t tie it to classes or anything like that.” The testing requirement “makes sense” given the University’s policies that mostly assume students will not spend time indoors unmasked, said Megan Ranney, founding director of the Brown-Lifespan Center for Digital Health and professor of emergency medicine. But if students socialize indoors without masks, those events become “far safer” if everyone involved takes a rapid test immediately beforehand, Ranney added. She also advised students not to “test the minute that you find out you’ve been exposed.” Instead, testing every three to four days “picks up the majority of infections,” she told The Herald. William Goedel PhD’20, assistant professor of epidemiology at the School of Public Health, said that students might choose to test “right before a group activity around others who don’t have masks on” — and again 36 hours after the event, as the test instructions suggest. A negative test is not a “free pass to do everything normally,” Goedel added. “Negative means ‘good to go right now, but proceed with caution.’” Students must report in the MyBrown portal that they have taken their two tests each week and notify the University only if they test positive. If students have not done so “by roughly the fourth day (in the week), students will start getting reminders and requests to report in the MyBrown portal that they’ve taken their test,” Carey said. Antigen tests are “protective and a good way of assessing risk, but they’re not foolproof,” said Abdullah Shihipar MPH’20, a research associate at the

RHEA RASQUINHA / HERALD

School of Public Health. Shihipar has written about the pandemic and public health for The New York Times, The Washington Post and Business Insider. In a recent article for Teen Vogue, he called for a number of increased public health measures to combat the Omicron variant, including “stimulus checks and … hazard pay while nonessential businesses are closed for a few weeks until cases go down to a more manageable level.” In an “ideal world,” Shihipar said

bright or strong the second line indicating a positive result is. While a particularly bright line may signify a higher concentration of proteins — and therefore higher infectiousness — students should read the tests one of two ways, Ranney said: positive or negative. “I wouldn’t want people sitting there, trying to judge, ‘I’m only a faint line, so I don’t need to isolate,’” Ranney said. “If there’s two lines, then you’re infectious.”

tests are a much better solution.” Goedel said that he was initially “surprised” by the change in testing “because it felt very much like a quick shift.” But he added that for a highly vaccinated and boosted population such as the Brown community, switching to antigen rapid testing has “been part of the conversation in the public health world for the last couple months.” A PCR test — which stands for polymerase chain reaction — is a di-

out of contact with lots of people. Masks help us from keeping viral particles out of the air, as does our air ventilation.” Goedel added that if students recognize any symptoms resembling a cold, they should stay home — even with a negative test result. “It could be COVID, could be the flu,” Goedel said. “Regardless of what a rapid test says, you should be skipping whatever event you’re going to.” If students are sick, they should also engage with Brown Health Services to

he would take a rapid test twice a day if he were a student and try to wait out the last weeks of the Omicron surge by skipping unmasked in-person events. But given the current limitations, he added that he would prioritize testing before and after “small, in-person gatherings” and other environments with more interpersonal interaction. Shihipar said that he personally would not go to an indoor unmasked event at all, at least until March, to “get the (Omicron) wave under control.”

If students feel sick, Ranney emphasized that they should not go “out and about,” even after testing negative. Rapid tests, she noted, can show up negative before the tester has a high enough concentration of the virus to test positive. “That’s not the time to go to the dining hall unmasked,” she said. “If you have symptoms, don’t hang out with other people.” If students stay symptomatic for a few days after testing negative, she said, they should test again. More recently, questions have arisen regarding whether throat swabs might pick up the virus earlier than nasal swabs, according to pre-prints of research papers and anecdotal reports. “I certainly am aware that there’s opinions in different directions” about nasal swab versus throat swab, Carey said. “The bottom line is people should follow the directions.” The tests the University distributes, he emphasized, are nasal swab tests. Ranney and Goedel both agreed. The tests, Ranney said, are FDA approved for nasal swabs — and the “chemistry of the back of your throat is different than the chemistry in your nose.” Studies show nasal swabs still pick up COVID-19 well, she added.

agnostic test that determines if you have COVID-19 by analyzing a sample, such as a nasal swab, to see if it contains genetic material from the virus. “PCRs can take a very small amount of genetic material from a sample … and amplify and replicate that to see if there’s viral genetic material in the sample provided,” Goedel explained. Since PCR tests are “very sensitive” they do not always show “if the virus is capable of infecting someone (or) if it’s capable of causing symptoms,” Goedel said. With a PCR test “it’s hard to tell who’s super infectious and who just has a little bit (of virus) in their nose … without symptoms, because their vaccines are still working strongly,” he added. Antigen tests, on the other hand, pick up people “likely to spread (the virus) to other people,” because “you have to have a lot of virus in your nose for a rapid (antigen) test to pick it up,” Goedel said. While “PCR testing is (better) for campus surveillance, rapid testing is more convenient for before you meet up with someone or for your own daily surveillance,” Shihipar said. “It’s great if you can use them both because they fill different niches.”

get tested for other common college illnesses, such as the flu or mono, Ranney said. There is also another way to significantly limit the relative risk of any event, with or without tests, Shihipar said: high-quality masks such as KN95s or KF94s. “If people are masking, or masking most of the time, … it’s not like there’s zero risk, but you are reducing the risk,” he said. A study from early 2021 — predating the Omicron variant — showed that an N95 can protect its wearer from someone who is infectious and unmasked for 2.5 hours. If two individuals are wearing N95s, the study found that it would take 25 hours of interaction to spread COVID. Outside of purely social events, college life also entails countless small moments in shared spaces — work in a dorm lounge, a walk to the bathroom or a shower in a communal bathroom. Whether or not students should mask in those gray areas comes down to a number of factors, Ranney said. They should consider their own risk of severe illness — but also the risks that other members of their community face. “There’s no perfect answer,” she said. “For the vast majority of students who are vaccinated and boosted, the chance they get severely ill is tremendously low.” Those students, she said, might feel confident taking off their mask to shower in a shared bathroom. But the recommendations might be different for students who are immunosuppressed or face other health risks, she added. “I’m pretty confident that our students, like our faculty and staff,” Ranney said, “can hold this (pandemic) at bay.”

How to take and read a rapid test The University is currently using test brands such as iHealth and Quidel QuickVue, which can be found in local pharmacies or CVS. These tests are specifically authorized for individual at-home use and can be taken without supervision, according to Carey. While the tests all have slight differences in their instructions, they each require the user to swab their nose, mix with a pre-supplied reagent and wait a certain amount of time — usually between 10 to 15 minutes — for results to appear. “There’s always the possibility for something to go wrong or for some element not to be in the test kit when (students) open the box,” Carey said. But he added that so far, the University has not had any concerns with the transition to self-administered testing. One key difference between rapid tests and PCR tests, according to Ranney, is that the swab does not need to go as deep into the nasal cavity as a swab for a PCR test. Reading the test is simple, Goedel said. “Antigen tests look a lot like pregnancy tests — one line if it’s negative, two lines if it’s positive.” Goedel added that students should not concern themselves with how

PCR vs. Antigen tests Compared to the previous PCR testing model, “on a per-test basis, (antigen tests) are certainly less expensive,” Carey said. But the financial impact did not drive the decision, he noted. “PCR tests would be very likely to pick up students who had (COVID-19) three weeks ago and probably didn’t even know they had it,” Carey said. “Forcing those students to isolate … is just not good for anybody included, especially the students, so the antigen

Beyond the test The University’s mitigation strategies, Ranney emphasized, are layered. Vaccinations and boosters are the first step. But high-quality masks such as KN95s — which the University currently provides — and air filtration also play a major role in preventing Omicron from “moving through like wildfire,” Ranney said. “Our prevention and mitigation strategies are multi-layered for a reason,” Goedel said. “Testing helps us pick up people quickly and get them

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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2022

FACULTY FROM PAGE 1 speaking, irrelevant to the desirability of establishing a PPE Center.” “What’s at stake here, given how politicized for some reason (the Center) has become, is I believe the very essence of our University,” Locke added. “Behind (this opposition) is a view held by some of these critics — not all — made implicitly … that they simply don’t want conservatives or libertarians to have a home here on campus.” Eric Patashnik, professor of public policy and political science, later agreed. “The PPE Center responds to the urgency of the current moment. We are living in an era of intense polarization,” Patashnik said. “Great research universities like Brown have a critical role to play in bringing together people across the ideological divides and promoting thoughtful dialogue about the array of challenges we face.” Nancy Khalek, associate professor of religious studies, countered this assessment later in the meeting. “Conservatives (and) libertarians are already on our faculty. They’re already in departments at Brown. They already have places where we can debate and study and collaborate,” Khalek said. “Given the identity of PPE in America at this moment, we do have to acknowledge why these are serious issues … Claiming that we can avoid them just simply by being as excellent as we are at Brown seems to me a bit naive.” J. Timmons Roberts, professor of environmental studies and sociology, also spoke about faculty issues with the PPE Center. Speaking on behalf of the Scholars at Brown for Climate Action, Roberts brought up a proposal under review by the Advisory Committee on University Resources Management that he said would alter University policy on gifts and grants to “help the University avoid business with groups and foundations and contractors that support climate disinformation and support obstruction.” The PPE Center may be able to “avoid these types of relationships … only if we institute a screening system that will allow us to reject donations

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University faculty convened Feb. 1 and voted with a 62% majority to postpone the vote on whether to establish the Philosophy, Politics and Economics Center until the March 1 faculty meeting. from groups denying basic science,” he added. Roberts then motioned to postpone the pending vote on establishing a PPE Center until the next faculty meeting in March. He claimed this would “allow faculty to assess whether the University has developed a sufficiently robust policy to prevent financial or gift arrangements from entities engaged in science disinformation from damaging the reputation or scholarly integrity of the University.” The motion was seconded by Timothy Herbert, professor of environment and society. In response, Locke stated that he did not believe “there is any reason to postpone this vote.” “This proposal we are talking about is a proposal for an academic center. We are not talking about a gift policy that applies to every part of the University,” Locke said. “Let’s deal with this issue, and also deal with the gift policy issue in a separate track, giving each their appropriate time.” Khalek expressed her disagreement

with Locke. “I don’t agree that the University gift policy is irrelevant to these discussions. I think separating these two things, what ACURM is considering and this proposed center, is an artificial separation,” Khalek said. “The current political climate, which I understand is not the soil in which the center is planted, is not irrelevant either.” “It would just inspire a lot more confidence among the faculty and the students if the University would simply acknowledge that the fraught (atmosphere) of these issues is important and relevant,” Khalek said. “In the spirit of good faith, take our concerns a bit more seriously when we say that we want more time to establish some better guardrails, both about the funding of any center at Brown, but also (about) the governance of this proposed Center.” The faculty voted to postpone the item until the March 1 faculty meeting with a 62% majority. Faculty receive President’s report, discuss task forces

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The meeting also featured a President’s Report given by President Christina Paxson P’19. The report gave an update on the topics to be discussed in the upcoming meeting of the Corporation, the University’s highest governing body. The meeting will discuss recommendations from the University Resources Committee on tuition, salary pools and staff appreciation bonuses, strategies for growing the University’s research across disciplines and ways to make the University stronger academically while also engaging a larger community of learners. The Corporation will also discuss ways to increase participation of alumni and parents in the CareerLab and future meetings with the Medical Faculty Executive Council. Diane Lipscombe, professor of neuroscience, gave an update on the Task Force on the Status of Women Faculty, publicizing the two faculty town hall meetings that will take place Feb. 7 and 9. The Task Force expects to deliver a report and recommendations on the hiring, promotion, salary and retention of women faculty in May 2022.

Executive Vice President for Planning and Policy Russell Carey ’91 MA’06 gave a public health update, praising the University’s transition to a self-reported testing process and the low number of positive cases. “We will continue to distribute tests, people get two tests every week … through the middle of February and then see where we are,” Carey said. Menon announced the creation of a Task Force on Child Care organized by the FEC and the Office of the Provost. “The bonds that many faculty and staff of my generation formed during our children’s pre-K education have been great sustenance to us during the pandemic,” Menon said. “It is critical that the University invests in this area so that a new generation may develop similar bonds of community.” The meeting also featured moments of silence for the passing of Christine Byron, former chair of molecular microbiology and immunology, and Martha Sharp Joukowsky, professor emerita of archaeology and the ancient world.

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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2022

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | COMMENTARY

Levine ’23: Learning a language means learning a culture The first thing I noticed about the woman behind the counter at Copenhagen’s Immigration Services was her Bruce Springsteen graphic tee. “I like your shirt,” I said as I handed over my passport. She looked me directly in the eye: “He is the love of my life.” We sat with this for a moment. Then, she rolled her sleeve up to the collarbone to reveal a tattoo: the words “BORN TO RUN” in English inked underneath a silhouette of Bruce’s iconic pose from the album cover. “You love him too?” she asked. When I responded yes, she nodded, pleased, and passed me the documentation that gives me access to things like free healthcare in the country I live in now. Since arriving in Denmark three weeks ago, I have often reflected on the fact that I can have memorable interactions like this one because I chose to study abroad in a country where 86% of the population speaks English. Not only could I speak with the woman at Immigration Services, but we also found connection through a shared appreciation for the poetry of “The Boss.” Despite my mandatory enrollment in Danish Language and Culture I, it would be incredibly easy to live in Denmark for an entire semester without gaining an ounce of facility over the language. In fact, the highest barriers to communication I’ve encountered thus far have all been pastry-related. But the little Danish I have learned has provided me with a more meaningful understanding of the country’s cultural values and approaches to daily life — essentially what studying abroad is all about. Take what is perhaps the trendiest Danish word of recent years, “hygge,” which refers to the warmth and coziness of connecting with other people. A 2016 finalist for Oxford Dictionary’s word of the year, “hygge” has blown up

online as a self-care-adjacent lifestyle trend. Scroll through #hygge on TikTok to find thousands of videos of vintage interior decor or a teen’s skincare haul. There are dozens of touristy shops in downtown Copenhagen that turn the immaterial concept of “hygge” into a brand. Encountering the overwhelming commodification of “hygge” at first feels like stumbling upon

“Samfundssind,” a compound of “society” and “mind” that roughly translates to community spirit, was first used during World War II as a way of raising public morale but fell out of fashion — until current Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen revived the term in a press conference held at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. In Danish media, “samfundssind”

“But the little Danish I have learned has provided a more meaningful understanding of the country’s cultural values and approaches to daily life — essentially what studying abroad is all about.”

yet another social media grift that capitalizes upon consumers’ perpetual dissatisfaction with their own lives — a phenomenon explored in a recent Herald column by Sarah McGrath ’24 — but “hygge” reflects important social values of collectivity. Its core elements of interpersonal connection, domestic contentment and trust are pillars of a Danish lifestyle. Understanding “hygge” in Danish, therefore, means understanding Denmark. Other recent linguistic trends also emphasize the social cohesion of Danish society.

went from 23 mentions in February 2020 to 2,855 the next month. When Danish celebrity chef Rasmus Munk cooked meals for people experiencing homelessness during the pandemic, he said, “Denmark really came together, and I think ‘samfundssind’ was a big part of it.” “Samfundssind” is not just a word but a way people organize themselves together in the world. Of course, it would be a mistake to view Danish society as faultless — Munk’s venture is only necessary because homelessness remains a persistent problem in Denmark — but these

questions cannot be raised without first appreciating that language is a social process that influences how people interact with each other. I feel as if I live among people that see me as inherently deserving of their solidarity and sacrifice. Relationships with strangers that I previously believed to be nonexistent were just invisible. Moving to another country means navigating not only a new place but a new history and a different approach to being alive. Language makes the abstract personal — it generates experiences, not just words. Both the woman who assigned me my social security number and I love Bruce Springsteen, but only she has the cultural knowledge to seriously imagine music reviewer Henrik Friis’s description of his 2012 Roskilde concert, one of Springsteen’s largest ever, as “an intimate atmosphere in the Danish style: friendly, relaxed people in such a positive community event … it was all ‘hyggeligt.’” I’ve decided to give learning Danish a sincere try, not because I expect myself to gain anything resembling fluency, but because language itself can be a means of travel — a mode through which we experience a culture and a people and perhaps encounter a generosity of spirit, a “samfundssind,” that includes us as one of them.

Isabella Levine ’23 can be reached at isabella_levine@brown.edu. Please send responses to this opinion to letters@browndailyherald.com and other op-eds to opinions@ browndailyherald.com.

PTP is committed to intellectual discourse To the Editor: As a former member of the Philosophy, Politics and Economics Society and a student who engaged in Political Theory Project programming, I was disappointed to see a current student misrepresent a valuable institution on our campus. In his Jan. 28 op-ed, Ethan Drake ’24 asks Brown community members to reject an expansion of the PTP. He claims that the PTP promotes the presence of “Koch anti-science, anti-democratic ideology” and utilizes a $500 per semester stipend that “lures students” into engaging with the ideology. However, his argument relies on two questionable premises. First, that Brown students are unable to engage with a diversity of scholarly ideas without being manipulated by outside forces into supporting a pernicious worldview. Second, that

any institution or scholar connected to the Koch network is necessarily furthering pernicious Koch interests. This latter argument relies on just a handful of examples and characterizes peer-reviewed scholars as mere pawns of Koch forces solely on the basis that they contribute to and/or associate with the Federalist Society, the Cato Institute and the American Council of Trusees and Alumni. At the core of all PTP programming is a commitment to academic rigor and intellectual discourse. I encourage anyone interested in this debate to take a look at the PTP’s rich history of diverse intellectual programming and scholarship, as well as to talk with PTP faculty and staff. Upon doing so, Drake’s arguments will be exposed as lacking. Daniel Shemano ’19

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2022

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UNIVERSITY NEWS

GLO, University prepare for annual contract negotiations Meetings will determine MFA, PhD student workers’ stipends for next year BY CHARLIE CLYNES SENIOR STAFF WRITER Negotiations regarding the contract reopener for the Graduate Labor Organization began last Wednesday in a meeting between GLO and the University, marking the beginning of the annual negotiations process through which the yearly stipends for PhD and MFA students are decided. The meeting was held on Zoom and included GLO and University representatives, as well as graduate student observers. Negotiations will continue until GLO and the University reach an agreement. The contract, which was created in 2020 and established GLO as a legal union entity, sets the terms of employment for graduate students who receive full-time work stipends from the University. Inf lation and the effects of COVID-19 on graduate students will likely be central factors in this year’s negotiations, said GLO President Rithika Ramamurthy GS. These challenges entitle graduate students to several

stipend improvements to cover the costs of the pandemic, she argued. Current economic conditions will also be an important factor in the negotiations, with the national inflation rate jumping up 7% between Dec. 2020 and Dec. 2021, GLO Secretary Carin Papendorp GS said. “If we get a raise that is less than the rate of inflation, then that means we’re effectively taking a pay cut,” Papendorp said. “That, we think, would be unacceptable.” Associate Dean for Administration and Operations Ethan Bernstein wrote that though the University generally does not offer comment on the specifics of ongoing negotiations, it is committed to reaching an agreement with GLO. “We have built a strong working relationship with GLO, and we remain committed to working collaboratively to support graduate students at Brown,” Bernstein wrote in an email to The Herald. The effects of COVID-19 featured prominently in last year’s negotiations, with GLO initially arguing for a 10% stipend increase to account for the costs of remote work. The talks stretched on for months and ultimately resulted in a 2.5% pay increase — the University’s initial offer — and a one-time $750 payment to cover pandemic-related expenses for eligible students. “Many, many people said that they forewent important medical appoint-

ments or sometimes even groceries to be able to make ends meet, because our pay — especially during the pandemic, when costs began to rise — was just not sufficient,” Ramamurthy said. “Now, a year later, things haven’t changed.” “We’re also bearing in mind that Brown’s endowment has been doing really well recently,” Papendorp added. “We would like to share in those gains as members of the Brown community — members who kept the University running during COVID.” The University saw its endowment increase by 51.5% during fiscal year 2021, The Herald previously reported. “The University has implemented a wide range of measures to support graduate students contending with the pandemic’s financial impact,” University Spokesperson Brian Clark wrote in an email to The Herald. “Those include stipend increases, semesters of extended funding, expanded access to emergency funding, enhanced summer fellowships and proctorships, health assistance payments, financial support for students facing food insecurity and expansion of the Deans’ Faculty Fellows program, among other initiatives.” But wage specifics are unlikely to enter the discussion for a few weeks, Ramamurthy said. Usually, the first meetings are spent agreeing on the terms of the negotiation. “Last year was a long process,” Ramamurthy said. “We’re hoping the

COURTESY OF GRADUATE LABOR ORGANIZATION

In this year’s negotiations, graduate student workers will likely discuss how inflation and COVID-19 affect their work. negotiations will go as quickly as possible — we know what we think grads need, I don’t think we’re going to play games about it and we’re not going to want to arrive at a stalemate.” Last year, for example, GLO pushed for “open bargaining,” allowing essentially anyone to attend negotiations with University administrators. After GLO organized virtual sit-ins, the University allowed 50 people to sit in on negotiation sessions. GLO hopes to increase that attendance limit this year, Ramamurthy said. “We want to open the process to as many people as possible,” she said. “Our fundamental belief and understanding is that it’s in grads’ best interest to sit across the table themselves, with admin, and hear people say to your

face that you do not deserve a raise.” “We recognize that at times when bargaining is underway, we’ll often see claims made in the news media and through other public venues,” Clark wrote. “Our focus is on good faith negotiations at the bargaining table. We’ve had a productive and collegial rapport with (GLO) since the negotiations that led ultimately to the contract in 2020, and we expect that to continue as we reconvene for stipend negotiations in the weeks ahead.” “I think a lot of people do want to hear what the admin have to say (in the negotiations),” Ramamurthy said. “And (those people) are going to be pretty enraged if the answer isn’t, ‘Yeah, we will definitely give you a raise. Sorry about everything.’”

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FLOOD FROM PAGE 1 have been a lot worse.” The flooding in Sayles Hall occurred Monday morning when “a frozen sprinkler line in the entry vestibule at the main entrance … ruptured,” Senior Vice President for Communications Cass Cliatt wrote in an email to The Herald. The sprinkler bursting activated the fire alarm, which in turn triggered a building-wide fire alarm that alerted the Providence Fire Department. Cliatt noted that “the lower level of Sayles received the bulk of the damage,” with classrooms 012, 005, 002 as well as the surrounding offices in the basement all experiencing water damage. Classrooms 104, 105 and the building’s main hall were also impacted. The sprinkler line has now been defrosted, and a new sprinkler head was installed, Cliatt added. While the drying process will continue on the main and lower levels, students are able to use all unaffected classrooms. On Pembroke Quad, the University isolated the problem that led to flooding in the east wing of Andrews Hall on Saturday evening, Cliatt. Facilities Management determined

that a student had tampered with the sprinkler system in their room, which triggered the flooding. She said that while the entire building was initially evacuated, 12 triples were “directly impacted” by the flooding, leaving 36 students with the choice to either stay with a friend or in one of the University’s emergency housing options. Cliatt added that Facilities Management contacted a restoration company late Saturday evening that “remained on-site through Sunday to repair and mitigate damage.” Staff in the Office of Residential Life informed students that the repairs will continue throughout this week but offered no exact date regarding their expected completion, Cliatt wrote. Some students have already been able to return to their residences, but Cliatt noted that students who live in rooms that experienced “significant flooding and water damage ... have been informed that they unfortunately will not be able to return to their rooms for at least 48 hours, though the repairs could take longer.” The University has also placed dehumidifiers in all affected living spaces.