Wednesday, March 1st, 2023

Paxson’s contract runs until 2026, U. says

BY SOFIA BARNETT UNIVERSITY NEWS EDITOR

President Christina Paxson P’19 P’MD’20’s contract will last until June 30, 2026, one year longer than previously announced, according to a Tuesday morning announcement from Chancellor Samuel Mencoff ’78 P’11 P’15.

The Corporation, the University’s highest governing body, previously announced in February 2020 that it would extend Paxson’s appointment through June 2025. That announcement came just over a month before the University sent students home at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to Mencoff’s announcement, that extension was never finalized due to the “uncertainty” of the early pandemic and the “need for leadership of the University to remain wholly focused on the health

UNIVERSITY NEWS

and safety of the Brown community.”

In 2021, Paxson agreed to an extension with the Corporation that runs through June 30, 2026, which was not announced to the public until Tuesday. Terms of appointment for University presidents can be “extended by mutual agreement at any time,” according to Tuesday’s announcement.

Executive Vice President for Planning and Policy Russell Carey ’91 MA’06, who oversees the Corporation Office, wrote in an email to The Herald

John Nicholas Brown Center Master’s program ‘on hold’

Studies, in July.

BY EMILY FAULHABER UNIVERSITY NEWS EDITOR

The John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities and Cultural Heritage will transition to a center for advanced study “focused on promoting the broad public discussion and dissemination of academic research,” according to a Dec. 14 announcement and a Dec. 20 letter from Dietrich Neumann, former JNBC director and professor of history of art and architecture and Italian studies.

Neumann’s letter announced that Steven Lubar, professor of American studies and history, would serve as the center’s interim director this semester. Kevin McLaughlin, professor of English and comparative literature and former dean of the faculty, will take over as the permanent director of the center, to be renamed the John Nicholas Brown Center for Advanced

Additionally, the Master’s in Public Humanities program — which prepares students for careers in “museums, historical societies, cultural planning agencies, heritage tourism, historic preservation and community arts programs,” according to the program’s website — has been put “on hold” until the University can relocate it in another department or institute, Neumann wrote in the letter.

JNBC’s impact on public humanities

Elizabeth Francis PhD’94, executive director at the Rhode Island Council for Humanities, said the University played a key role in progressing public humanities programs nationwide.

“Brown was the first to establish a program in public humanities, material culture and preservation,” Francis said.

Although there are several other public humanities programs across the country, Francis noted that the program at Brown has played a “very beneficial” role in the community.

SEE JNBC PAGE 7

that the early stages of the pandemic required full administrative attention, preventing the Corporation from initially formalizing the extension.

“In the midst of those difficult challenges for our entire community, the postponed extension was seen as somewhat procedural, considering that leadership continuity and ensuring the well-being of the community were the main priorities,” he wrote.

“But as we have continued discus-

UNIVERSITY NEWS

Current menstrual product availability map added to BrownU

app

BY KATHY WANG UNIVERSITY NEWS EDITOR

The Undergraduate Council of Students and the Graduate Student Council have worked with Facilities Management to submit a one-time funding request through the University’s annual budget process to ensure women’s and gender neutral campus bathrooms have free menstrual products, according to Michael Guglielmo Jr., vice president of Facilities Management.

“If approved, funds would be used to install dispensers in … women’s restrooms and to cover the annual cost to stock products for all locations,” he wrote in an email to The Herald.

Guglielmo added that Fiscal Year 2024 department budget requests were submitted in February and will be reviewed in March and April. After being presented to the University Resources Committee, the requests will face final approval by the Corporation — the University’s highest governing body — in May, and be communicated back

Gender discrimination suit moves to federal court

METRO Case alleges Lifespan, Miriam Hospital, Brown violated three laws against male prof.

BY NEIL MEHTA & JULIA VAZ UNIVERSITY NEWS EDITOR & METRO EDITOR

A lawsuit from a former professor at the Alpert Medical School alleging gender discrimination and a hostile work environment was moved from state to federal court Friday, according to court filings reviewed by The Herald.

Dale Bond, a former professor of psychiatry and human behavior at the Med School, originally filed the lawsuit against Lifespan Corporation, Miriam Hospital, the University and Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior Rena Wing in January 2022. In the suit, filed in the Rhode Island Superior Court, Bond alleges he faced gender discrim-

ination, retaliation and a hostile work environment that ultimately led to his resignation, among other claims.

Bond’s current complaint, updated in January 2023, alleges that the defendants violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination in employment based on “race, color, religion, sex or national origin,” along with the Rhode Island Civil Rights Act and the Rhode Island Fair Employment Act.

Lifespan, Miriam and Wing denied these allegations in their written response to the complaint submitted Feb. 13. Following a Feb. 24 notice of removal, the case moved to the U.S. District Court of Rhode Island due to federal jurisdiction over the Civil Rights Act.

According to the complaint, Bond was employed as a professor at the University and Miriam Hospital, which is part of Lifespan’s network of hospitals. The document also claims that Lifespan, Miriam and Brown “en-

UCS, GSC work on period product access

to departments in June.

According to UCS Vice President Mina Sarmas ’24, when UCS and GSC

first suggested the free menstrual

SEE PERIOD PAGE 2

“Cocaine Bear” is fun, titular animal needs more screentime

Swearer pilots Storytellers Program with

Affiliates reflect on center’s past and change in future programming

UNIVERSITY NEWS

Corporation originally extended contract in 2021, announced to community Tuesday

MICHELLE DING / HERALD Students can access the free menstural products map by selecting the corresponding category in the map page on the BrownU App.

COURTESY OF NICK DENTAMARO

Initially appointed in 2012, President Christina Paxson P’19 P’MD’20’s tenure will last at least 14 years. Her contract runs through June 2026.

sions about the roadmap for new and ongoing priorities … we realized that our community would benefit from a full understanding of President Pax-

products initiative in December 2022, Facilities explained that they would have to request additional funding for product dispenser installation. But the next opportunity for Facilities to submit budget requests did not come until February 2023, according to Mai Huynh GS, who was GSC’s chair of communications last year. The Corporation’s decision on Facilities’ funding request for free menstrual products in all University bathrooms will come in June of this year.

Guglielmo wrote that Facilities will meet with UCS and GSC to determine priority locations for new dispensers depending on “the level of funding approved,” and the installation process “could take up to about three months.”

“The current dispensers do provide a robust supply of products in women’s and gender neutral restrooms,” he added. In the event that the funding request is not approved, Facilities Management “will continue to keep the existing units in good working condition and well stocked” and “continue to support this initiative through future budget requests as needed,” Guglielmo wrote.

Facilities also asked UCS and GCS for a statement that “compiles student feelings about the project” to submit along with the funding request, Sarmas said. Student comments compiled by the councils expressed support for the

LAWSUIT FROM PAGE 1

gage in a joint venture involving the hire, promotion, retention and termination of research faculty.”

The University will move to be taken off the case as a defendant, according to University Spokesperson Brian Clark.

“Brown University was not the employer or joint employer of the plaintiff in (the lawsuit) at any time relevant to this case,” Clark wrote in an email to The Herald. “The plaintiff’s research appointment at the University was an affiliation contingent upon the plaintiff’s continued employment with a local hospital partner.”

In the complaint, Bond alleges that during his employment, Wing “informed him that he might need to ‘prostitute’ himself to other departments” in order to acquire additional grant funding for his department, which he found “offensive and humiliating.”

The Miriam defendants admitted that Wing “encouraged (Bond) to pursue diverse funding sources,” according to their response.

Bond claims that Wing did not engage in the same behavior with “younger female employees,” actively helping them secure funding, including by “writing substantial portions of grants they submitted,” the complaint reads. Bond also claims that Wing “routinely diminished (his) accomplishments” and “actively discouraged” him from pursuing his research.

“Wing did not criticize nor demean similarly situated female colleagues in front of others in the way she did with (Bond),” the complaint continued.

In their response, the Miriam defendants stated that Wing “did not improperly criticize or demean researchers in

son’s ongoing leadership to advance them,” Carey added.

In an email to The Herald, Paxson wrote that she is “committed to continuing the momentum we have built together over the past 11 years.”

“I remain very proud to be a part

initiative and included comments from organizations like the Sarah Doyle Center, Period Equity at Brown and the LGBTQ+ Center, as well as deans of the Graduate School and the School of Professional Studies, according to a statement released by both councils.

Efforts behind the request

The joint effort began late spring 2022 when Huynh reached out to Sarmas to expand the 2016 “Tampon Project” — a UCS initiative to stock hygiene products in bathrooms on campus, Huynh said. She added that when she participated in the fall 2021 Ivy Plus Conference and found out that all bathrooms in Princeton had period products, she wanted Brown to do the same.

Huynh told The Herald that she started a hygiene committee within GSC in the spring of 2022 to receive help and incorporate “other people’s perspectives,” since it was initially just Huynh and Sarmas working with Facilities at that time.

“Because I’m based as a (STEM) grad student, … I’m basically isolated to the Biomed building,” Huynh said. “I want to know how other grad students from other departments felt” about the initiative.

“I thought it was really important to gain insight from students who are non-binary,” she added.

According to Sarmas, who was the UCS chair of campus life last spring, communications with Facilities emerged from the goal of restocking existing menstrual

front of others” and denied the claim that Wing diminished Bond’s research.

In February 2020, Bond met with the Chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Professor Steven Rasmussen, to discuss Wing’s “increasingly hostile actions” and his “resulting distress,” according to the complaint. Rasmussen allegedly said he was unable to help because Wing

of this exceptional community of learners and scholars,” she wrote. “I have said before, and it’s as true as ever, that I think I have the best job in higher education.”

“I am inspired by the creativity, intellectual engagement and unwav-

product dispensers around campus in response to students’ feedback.

UCS and GSC conducted surveys among their respective student bodies to provide Facilities quantifiable data supporting the request, Huynh said. The surveys were sent out in May 2022, according to Huynh and Sarmas.

Huynh acknowledged that while Facilities had conducted a similar survey “a while back,” both she and Sarmas felt it should be updated.

Huynh said that GSC’s more recent survey asked students whether there was a dispenser for menstrual products in the bathroom they primarily used and if the dispenser was stocked regularly.

According to Sarmas, the survey for undergraduate students was “slightly different” from the one sent to graduate students. Undergraduates reported on multiple bathrooms because they “go to a lot of different buildings throughout the day, whereas graduate students (tend to always use) one bathroom.” She added that Period Equity at Brown helped with the survey’s distribution.

From the survey results, GSC and UCS created a spreadsheet of on-campus dispensers and how well-stocked they are, which they presented to Facilities in June, Sarmas said. She added that in August, Facilities then provided an updated version of the spreadsheet that included dispensers not listed from the survey’s data.

Guglielmo added that Facilities made

operated “on her own” and “gets a lot of grants.” Rasmussen did not respond to a request for comment.

In January 2021, Wing informed Bond that his salary would be cut in half the following month and that he would be terminated from his position at the end of the year, according to the complaint. The Miriam defendants admitted to both allegations in their

ering commitment to serving people, communities and society that is part of the DNA of Brown, and I am excited to lead Brown at a time when we continue to pursue ambitious priorities that will make us stronger as a community and as a university,” she

an assessment of non-labeled free dispensers and broken dispensers to properly label and repair machines. “They were stocked by the custodial services teams and are monitored as part of their daily routine,” he wrote.

Menstrual product dispenser map on BrownU app

After a meeting with GSC, Sarmas compiled the list into a Google map of bathrooms with available dispensers and reached out to Stephanie Obodda, assistant director of IT user experience strategy for the Office of Information Technology, to integrate that map into the BrownU app.

“I was able to go through (the Google map) and put the unique building IDs in there, so we can match it up with our map data,” said Obodda.

Students can access the free menstrual product dispensers map by selecting the corresponding category in the map page, which has a default shortcut on the app’s home screen, according to Obodda.

Although the map is not automatically updated based on dispenser conditions, Obodda said that IT will work with UCS to ensure the accuracy of the map’s data. There is additionally a “send feedback” option in the app’s menu, where students can submit a facilities request to restock empty dispensers.

“If (dispensers) do run out of menstrual products ... (students) can just submit a Facilities request to restock it” on the app, said GSC Chair of Communications

written response — though they denied that Bond was “forced to resign,” as he alleged.

Bond, now the director of research integration at Hartford Hospital, is seeking compensatory damages, according to the complaint.

Jillian Folger-Hartwell — one of the attorneys representing Lifespan, Miriam and Wing in the case — di -

continued.

The University “is fortunate to benefit from President Paxson’s unshakeable commitment to elevate Brown’s excellence and value to the world,” Mencoff wrote in the announcement.

Continued efforts to increase period product accessibility

According to Sarmas, both UCS and GSC have developed other initiatives to offer students hygiene products directly.

“GSC stocks the pantry in the graduate student lounge in Grad Center, and UCS in collaboration with Period Equity usually does the distribution once per semester, where we send out a form and people request products and we mail it to them in their boxes,” she said.

In a Feb. 28 email, UCS sent out a form for students to request free menstrual products.

GSC Chair of Communications Farha Mithila GS added that BWell Health Promotion has also worked with GSC to stock sexual health products like condoms in the graduate student lounge.

“One of the goals that we have is really trying to increase equity and inclusion in the dispensers available on campus,” Huynh said, “and really trying to actually get these dispensers stocked regularly.”

“I’m not going to stop until every person on campus who needs a hygiene product is able to access them,” she added.

“Our committee has done a wonderful job working with (Facilities) to make sure this (initiative) happened,” Mithila said, “and I was really happy how receptive they were.”

rected The Herald to Kathleen Hart, director of public relations at Lifespan, for comment. Hart did not immediately respond to multiple requests for comment. Wing also did not respond to a request for comment.

Christine Marinello and David Cass, the attorneys representing Bond, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Farha Mithila GS, who was also involved in the efforts.

In the complaint, which alleges the defendants violated three laws regulating the workplace, former Professor Dale Bond claims that during his employment, Professor Rena Wing “informed him that he might need to ‘prostitute’ himself to other departments.”

Swearer Center Storytellers Program works with local organizations

Program to replace Storytellers Fellowship, allows students to write for community

BY KATIE JAIN SENIOR STAFF WRITER

This semester, the Swearer Center for Public Service is piloting the Storytellers Program, a project built upon the previously-existing Storytellers Fellowship for students interested in documenting the stories of various community-based organizations. The program aims to connect students to organizations in Providence, giving them an opportunity to document stories and share information about pertinent issues in the community.

The project has seen “a few iterations” since its founding in 2013 and was briefly paused throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, program coordinator and Assistant Director of Communications at the Swearer Center, Jessica Pontarelli, wrote in an emai to The Herald. Now, the project takes the form of a program, rather than a specific fellowship, so that participating students can count their work toward other Swearer Center fellowships.

“This Storytellers project builds from its previous iterations, and from numerous conversations with students, faculty and staff colleagues and alumni,” wrote Mary Jo Callan, executive director of the Swearer Center and vice president for community engagement, in an email to The Herald.

The program’s revival also resulted from discussions and collaboration between the Swearer Center and its local community partners.

“We heard from some partners that capacity-building and other types of resources would be particularly valuable to their organizations,” Pontarelli wrote. “Storytelling was one of the main resources they identified.” This latest iteration of the program “will provide students with the opportunity to engage in ethical and responsible community storytelling,” she added.

“The Storytellers Fellowship existed when I was applying to Brown,” said Karim Zohdy ’25, a program volunteer. “That’s when I first heard about it. We’ve been working to bring it back and breathe new life into the pro

gram.”

Students and community partners

According to Pontarelli, the program

will specifically focus on the uplifting work of organizations specializing in a variety of issues — including those identified by the Swearer Center’s community partners — such as public health, environmental justice, civil rights and incarceration. Involved students will have the opportunity to review priorities gathered from community partners and select causes they are most interested in, she added.

“These local partner organizations work every day to make Providence and Rhode Island a place where everyone has enough to thrive,” Callan wrote.

“They are experts in their work to stem the effects of ongoing racism, growing economic inequities, enduring health disparities (and) increased social isolation and fragmentation.”

“They have stories to tell — big and small, soaring and more routine — about what social change in action looks like,” she added.

According to Pontarelli, the program currently consists of five student volunteers, though others are able to join.

“Any students interested are welcome to be in touch with me directly as we continue to develop the program,” she wrote. “We also will offer it as a track through some of Swearer Center’s programs and fellowships. So, I encourage students to look at those offerings as well.”

According to Callan, the program intends to “connect students who are interested in writing and journalism to those community partners to write stories that highlight the identified themes.”

“Right now we’re in the process of connecting with community partners and trying to set up interviews,” Zohdy said.

Maru Attwood ’24, a program volunteer, explained that she plans to

have conversations with community partners to “see what they think are the most important issues (for) people to know about.”

“Then, I can figure out ways to shape my story around that,” she said. For Attwood, the project is rooted in the desire to utilize the University’s resources to better support local communities.

Both Attwood and Zohdy emphasized that Storytellers does not seek to speak for local organizations, but rather to amplify and garner support for work the organizations have already done.

“One of the goals with our program (and) one thing we’re really trying to do is to just listen and to not impose anything,” Zohdy said. “The goal is to tell the story of a problem and how the (community) partner is trying to solve the problem.”

“The focus isn’t necessarily

Brown’s role,” Attwood said. “The emphasis is really not on saying, ‘Oh, this is what Brown is doing for these issues’ — it’s to say that these are the obstacles or growth areas in Providence that community partners are working with, and this is how we can tell stories about them.”

Through the program, Zohdy plans to “listen to the community, try to understand what issues are salient and then write about what is most important in the Providence local area.”

“I’m very excited to get a better understanding of what’s going on outside the Brown community and … the social issues people are trying to solve,” he said.

“It’s a good way … to really do a lot of listening,” Attwood said. “When you go out and interview people, the only way you’re going to tell a good story is by listening.”

Telling ‘stories that matter’

According to Pontarelli, three of the involved students will deliver their stories in written form, while the other two will share reporting through other creative mediums.

“We really want to empower students to take these issues and see where the story takes them, whether that is a short- or long-form narrative, a call to action (or) a performance,” Pontarelli wrote. “It doesn’t have to be a written story, but the focus of all of these stories will be those community-identified priorities.”

Attwood noted that the storytelling encouraged by the program differs from her previous experiences writing for publications.

“These stories can be used by community partners in ways that they want to, and for me that’s a bit of a difference from some of the other writing that I’ve done for newspapers that want to use (stories) in (their) own ways,” Attwood said.

Students’ pieces will be published on the Swearer Center’s website, though featured organizations can also distribute them. According to Pontarelli, the program hopes that “community partners can use these stories … in whatever way that makes sense for them.”

“We are excited to reinvigorate opportunities and support for students who want to understand and share stories that matter,” Callan wrote. “Stories that center our humanity, our shared values and our shared future.”

KAIOLENA TACAZON / HERALD

Program volunteer Maru Attwood ’24 noted that the storytelling encouraged by the program differs from her previous experiences writing for different publications.

‘Cocaine Bear’ leaves viewers craving more of its titular carnivore

Film walks line between exhilaration, fatigue with insufficient focus on film’s main star

BY FINN KIRKPATRICK ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR

Who, what, where, when, why? A bear, heaps of cocaine, Chattahoochee National Forest, 1985 and she just really loves the drug. “Cocaine Bear” is a movie about a bear doing — you guessed it — cocaine. Copious amounts of cocaine.

The semi-true story, based on a bear found dead next to a duffel bag of cocaine in 1985, provides perfect studio fuel for a movie dramatization.

An airborne drug trafficking mission gone wrong that scatters bricks of coke across the forest cracks the story open. After this point, the stakes are pretty simple: The police want to get to the source of the drug supply and the drug baron wants to get the drugs back. But a

bear noses its way to the powder before they can, leaving them between a rock and a hard place.

The ursine menace’s high quickly snowballs into a murderous tornado on the people scrabbling to recover the contraband. There’s the drug lord Syd (Ray Liotta), who sends his henchman Daveed (O’Shea Jackson Jr.) and son Eddie (Alden Ehrenreich) down to the national park, with police officer Bob (Isiah Whitlock Jr.) hot on their tails. Then there’s Dee Dee (Brooklynn Prince) and Henry (Christian Convery), two middle schoolers playing hooky from school who stumble right into the bear’s path. Dee Dee’s mother (Keri Russell) goes to find her with the “help” of an absentminded park ranger (Margo Martindale), who flakes on the mission so she can woo a conservationist (Jesse Tyler Ferguson). A band of delinquents and some comedic medics round out the cast, providing a strangely large ensemble for a film as short and to the point as this one.

Much like how the shark in “Jaws”

can smell a warm body from just about anywhere in the ocean, the cocaine bear develops a flair for sniffing out blow. If anyone lurking in the woods discovers a lone brick within some shrubbery, the bear — full of grit — is about to be there too. And once the bear gets to the cocaine, it’s game over. The drug unlocks superhero-like powers for her, from super speed to the ability to jump between trees.

To start with what works in the film, every scene focused on the cocaine-fueled black bear with a taste for blood is wildly entertaining — and quite funny, too. After dismembering someone who tries to climb a tree for safety, the bear snorts cocaine off of their detached leg. The medics’ attempt to save one of the bear’s victims results in an ambulance chase — and you can probably guess by now who claws her way to victory. These moments are pearls because they are wholly unserious. With a premise as stimulating as this one, all the movie needs to do is deliver on the promises it makes. “Cocaine Bear” is able to do

that, just not consistently enough to avoid crashing.

So what doesn’t work? For one, there’s not nearly enough of the bear on cocaine in “Cocaine Bear.” Besides a preview of the bear’s future rampage

at the very start of the film, the movie lumbers about for a half hour before finally plowing into the high-octane bear action. With a runtime of just over 90 minutes, that’s simply too much of the movie not dedicated to the bear.

Instead, these first 30 minutes bump out the bear to focus on character backstories, which are generally unnecessary. There is an attempt to craft a series of parallel stories focusing on themes of parenthood, which ultimately feels like a major detour from what this movie needs to be. Truthfully, the film would work best from the bear’s perspective with just a smidgen of dialogue, focusing entirely on the sheer hilarious brutality of the rampage. The human performances don’t necessarily take away from the film, but the bear’s storyline simply has more legs to stand on.

“Cocaine Bear” is a good, carefree time at the movies, even if its structure fittingly consists of short bursts of euphoria spaced out by periods of fatigue. Its humor occasionally feels too far manufactured from its raw form, as though the makers of the movie knew how off-the-rails the concept is and therefore felt no need to develop something with a little more craft. But despite all of this, there are key nuggets in “Cocaine Bear” that capture lightning in a bottle. The movie isn’t unenjoyable, but it leaves viewers craving a bigger fix. While more sophisticated audiences may hold their noses, “Cocaine Bear” is an original studio film that swings for the fences, often leaving the viewer snorting with laughter.

CALENDAR

TODAY’S EVENTS

Mack Scott: I am not yet turned Indian 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. Online only

Data Matters Seminar Series: Aditya Khanna 4:00 p.m. 164 Angell Street

TOMORROW’S EVENTS

Dafnis Prieto Composer Talk 11:00 a.m. Orwig Music Building Room 109

“UBI: Pathway to a More Humane Economy?”

6:00 p.m.

List Art Building

High Energy Theory (HET) Seminar Featuring Shai Chester 1:00 p.m. Barus & Holley

Stephanie Syjuco Artist Talk 6:00 p.m.

List Art Building

Wings of Hope: Creating an Afghan Evacuee Safehaven 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Joukowsky Forum

Hostile Homelands: The New Alliance Between India and Israel 5:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.

Joukowsky Forum

NATHANIEL SCOTT / HERALD

EMILY SUONG / HERALD

METRO

Local organizations celebrate Black History in February and beyond

features black and white photographs of books, portraits, manacles and other artifacts from the RIBHS archives by photographer Frank Jackson.

BY MIKAYLA KENNEDY CONTRIBUTING WRITER

A wide variety of organizations across Providence work to empower people of color and highlight their histories, art and present experiences. The Herald spoke to several local organizations about their events this Black History Month — including art and historical installations and storytelling exhibitions — and the work they do year round to empower Black communities.

Rhode Island Black Heritage Society

Since 1975, the Rhode Island Black Heritage Society has worked to preserve and teach about the historical artifacts of “African heritage people,” said Managing Director Theresa Guzman Stokes. Throughout the year, RIBHS partners with a variety of heritage organizations, museums and libraries to supply them with historical information and artifacts for presentations.

RIBHS’s physical location at Rhode Island College houses rooms of artifacts including historical clothing, artwork, desks, irons and manacles, Guzman Stokes said. While many museums focusing on Black history have similar artifacts, manacles “are a sight of history that is just the beginning,” she said.

According to Guzman Stokes, audiences at events held with partner organizations range from 20 people to as many as 500, but she emphasized that the content and substance of the events are more important than the size of the gatherings. “If I have one person that wants to hear the story, it’s worth doing,” she added.

This February, the society hosted an exhibition entitled “Before Malcom & Martin: The Fight for Civil Rights in RI, 1865-1968” on display at the RIBHS. The exhibition will move from the RIC location and travel to every courthouse in the state, Guzman Stokes said.

“Frank Jackson, Light & Shadow @ See Level,” a photography exhibition that

The society also co-hosted a panel on Feb. 27 with Sen. Jack Reed that discussed Black history and education. Guzman Stokes moderated the panel featuring 1696 Heritage Group Vice President Keith Stokes, who is also on the advisory committee for RIBHS, University Library Curator of the Black Diaspora Christopher West, Rhode Island College Associate Professor of History and Africana Studies Sherri Cummings MA’16 PhD’22 and RIC student Ashanti Dez’Amore. For Guzman Stokes, the panel was important because it “ties into the (work) we’re doing, and … ties into the fact that there’s a lot of controversy” around teaching and critically examining race.

RIBHS also partnered with Newport Life Magazine to publish a 300-year timeline written by Keith Stokes on the history of Newport with an emphasis on African heritage.

Highlighting their focus on equity, part of the publication agreement was that free copies of the magazine would be provided to schools on Aquidneck Island, according to Guzman Stokes.

Accoring to Guzman Stokes, RIBHS is also helping to create the curriculum for teaching African heritage history for grades K-12 in R.I. schools, as mandated by a 2021 Rhode Island law. Providing resources to teachers is a key part of this curriculum, she explained, and RIBHS is creating an online learning portal that will allow students to search photographs, documents, videos and other stories about historical people and places. They are also developing a two-year program for R.I. high school juniors and seniors that will help them with career development, the college process and learning about their own history, she added.

“We’re trying to show all the influences that African heritage people had on what we call culture today,” Guzman Stokes said.

Providence Children’s Museum

teachers and families, according to the museum’s website.

For Black History Month, the museum hosted the Rhode Island Black Storytellers on Feb. 4. Executive Director Caroline Payson said that the RIBS have been a long-term partner of the museum. “They’re fantastic,” she said. “They’ve been a super important partner for us.” Payson added that the stories told by RIBS differ based on presentation and range from “African folktales to more contemporary stories.”

The events are dynamic and allow for interaction between children and storytellers, which Payson said helps kids to “start thinking about their own stories in relation to what they heard.”

The museum also hosts a yearly play entitled “MLK: Amazing Grace,” which tells the story of Martin Luther

to connect younger students to their curriculums.” She explained that “it’s not a lesson on ‘here’s the history of Martin Luther King,’ but instead it’s on ‘how do you define yourself and how you define someone you admire?’”

The lesson plans, which are written by trained educators, are free for teachers of kindergarten to fourth grade classes to access.

The museum emphasizes equity and accessibility to all communities throughout the year, according to Payson. “It (is) very important to me to work on programs that allow people access to museums, who might not have ever thought (museums) were there for them,” she said. According to the museum’s website, 40% of its budget goes towards “welcoming onethird of the Museum’s total audience free of charge or at greatly reduced

The Washington Park Library hosted a photography exhibit called “The Contributors” Feb. 7-28 which featured work by artist Rachel Briggs. According to Library Manager Amy Rosa, the exhibit highlights lesser-known Black historical figures who have had profound impacts on society, such as singer Baby Esther, mathematician Gladys West and theoretical physicist Shirley Ann Jackson.

The exhibit consists of photographs of Briggs and her children dressed up as the aforementioned individuals. The kickoff program for the exhibit involved a poetry reading and the event ended with a dress-up show and tell in which kids could pick a person they found inspiring and dress up as that person. The “interactive art exhibit … is (Briggs’s) attempt to honor, educate and inspire youth,” Rosa said.

Rosa added that the library also hosts a “community reads” program that features a diverse selection of books and authors. “There’s so much diversity in Providence … you (can) reach out and represent so many different groups and … pull in all these local people, authors, performers,” she explained.

Mount Pleasant Library

The Mount Pleasant Library is currently hosting a photography exhibit by Dee Speaks focused on Black life in Providence. The exhibition is part of a rotating art gallery at the library, according to Systems Coordinator Dhana Whiteing, and the library will host a conversation with Speaks on March 7th.

The library will also host a lecture by Stokes on the contradictions of American history, religious freedom and slavery in colonial Rhode Island March 22.

Outside of Black History Month, the library also hosts a regular book club where members read books by authors of color with people from a variety of diverse backgrounds, Whiteing said. The library also recently started a textured hair club that allows people to come together and talk about their natural hair, she added.

Whiteing emphasized that the library’s focus on highlighting Black stories and heritage extends beyond February: “Black history all throughout

Groups feature art, history, aim to empower, educate community members

COURTESY OF AMY ROSA

The Washington Park Library hosted a photography exhibit called “The Contributors” which highlighted lesser-known Black historical figures.

Wellisch ’26: Why trust will help us more than disillusionment

In an age of incessant inequities — with racism, misogyny and homophobia all on the rise — America is facing a severe trust deficit. Many people feel unprotected and unrepresented by the government and the institutions meant to take care of them. Ultimately, this depleted social and institutional trust exacerbates our divisions, creating a reinforcing cycle of decaying trust. Systemic issues demand a whole-of-society response — from the arts to the academy, and Congress to classrooms. To mobilize that response, we have to prioritize restoring the confidence in institutions that we’ve lost.

Trust is ubiquitous — so much of human behavior is determined by a decision to instill trust in a company, institution or person. We trust our Uber driver to take us to our destination safely. We trust the bank to store our money (with a fear-easing guarantee from the federal government). Ideally, we would trust news outlets to give us accurate, objective reports of world events. By putting faith in each other and our social structures, we build a network of reliability and vulnerability, bound by our belief in one another’s compliance with social norms. Trust allows us to collaborate with each other and mobilizes our participation in society.

Without it, we foster a culture of apprehension and alienation, which defines our state of affairs today — we lack basic trust. This isn’t necessarily unfounded. We see police brutality, gun violence, corporate fraud

and sexual assault often going unaddressed, eroding our belief that the authorities and people around us truly value our well-being. And marginalized Americans in particular express extreme sentiments of alienation. How do we cultivate a society in which we trust each other? A reported 71% of adult survey respondents believe we are less confident in each other than we were 20 years

stronger, more effective social activism, we need to build receptive teams that are committed to open and empathetic communication. In practice, this means accepting and honoring each other’s mistakes, failures and diversity of opinions.

Our generation is in large part defined by our intolerance for injustice. We believe we have the social power to actually delegiti -

Ultimately, repairing the erosion of social trust is critical for the health and well-being of our society. The process to rebuild it will be long, which is why we must start now. To catalyze a resurgence in social trust, we have to start suspending our negative doubts and judgments of others and commit to making the conscious, active choice to trust again. If we can open ourselves back up to the world then we, too, will be trusted by others. And, once these networks are re-opened, it is our responsibility to nourish and sustain them through transparent and honest behavior. While we can hide behind our disillusionment with our nation and its unsatisfactory response to injustice, our anger is not enough. We all — citizens, corporate leaders and government officials — have to commit to practicing accountability, fairness and empathy in all of our social encounters. It’s time we abandon our hostile infighting and instead revert to the foundations of human relationships: the nourishment of trust and vulnerability.

ago. Many of them attribute this decline in social trust to a rise in polarization and greed. If we don’t trust our neighbors, we can’t expect to begin to challenge the inadequacies in our communities or function as a cohesive unit. Without trust in our peers, we are less likely to innovate, take the risk to propose new ideas and collaboratively devise solutions for our nation’s issues. To create

mize systems of governance that do not earn our trust. We can’t just tear these systems down, though — we also need to think about how we can reform them. It’s easy to point out the flaws in corrupt institutions, but it is only by putting our heads together and collaborating with their leaders that we can re-imagine alternative forms of governance that rely on transparent networks of trust.

Yael Wellisch ’26 can be reached at yael_ wellisch@brown.edu. Please send responses to this opinion to letters@browndailyherald.com and other op-eds to opinions@browndailyherald.com.

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“It’s time we abandon our hostile infighting and instead revert to the foundations of human relationships: the nourishment of trust and vulnerability.”

“I’m not sure that Brown has understood very well how impactful this program has been in Rhode Island,” she said.

“The core mission of public humanities, namely building a bridge between the University and the general public — bringing academic knowledge to the outside and learning from groups often not represented in academia — is as important as ever,” Neumann wrote in his letter.

According to Francis, one particularly impactful project that came out of the center, alongside the Rhode Island Council for Humanities and the Rhode Island Historical Society, was the creation of Rhode Tour, an app and website for Rhode Island history and culture.

“The center (created) these opportunities for students to work at community and cultural organizations that could really benefit,” she said.

According to Lubar, the master’s program put the JNBC “on the map.” He said he hopes the University will “figure out a way” to keep the program’s work going while continuing alumni involvement.

A ‘significant setback’: Discussion on paused master’s program

Angela Feng MA’18, who is working toward a PhD in American Studies with the center, wrote in an email to The Herald that if the University did not rehouse the program, it would present a “significant setback.”

The pause on the program evoked a strong response from public humanities master’s alumni. In a letter to the University reviewed by The Herald, 11 program alumni outlined questions about the future of the program and public humanities at the University, while requesting that alumni are “included as active participants” in the program’s transition. 84 other alumni signed the letter.

In a response reviewed by The Herald, Interim Provost Larry Larson emphasized that the University would “actively explore the possibility of a new institutional setting” for the master’s program.

Larson also pointed to the Task Force on Doctoral Education, which offered recommendations surrounding career advising for graduate students, as a way the University continues to “support graduate students who wish to pursue non-academic jobs.”

The letter from alumni also questioned if the University would continue to “support public humanities investments in the local community.”

A cabinet-level position has been created to lead “community engagement strategy and initiatives” at the University, Larson wrote.

Larson told The Herald that pausing programs can also be a “healthy thing” to “re-engage with faculty and rethink the curriculum a bit.”

“I really appreciated the letter

that we got from the alums,” he said. “I thought it was really thoughtful.” He added that he hopes to meet with the working group of alumni who authored the letter to “continue the dialogue.”

Future ‘public-facing’ work of JNBC

While the JNBC will remain physically located in Nightingale-Brown House, the ideologies behind the old and new centers are “completely different,” McLaughlin said. The center previously focused primarily on the master’s program, which had about 1012 students per year, he said.

Under his tenure as director, the center will become a space for visiting scholars from “a whole range of fields,” McLaughlin said. In their year at the

center, the visiting scholars will aim to produce “public-facing communication,” he added.

Lecture series, books and digital publications produced at the center will “explain why academic research in a particular field is important to the general public,” McLaughlin said — helping to bridge the “gap” between work that occurs inside academia and its reception in the broader community.

To support those projects, the JNBC will bring in “experts” from the publishing, trade publications and the electronic media industry, he added. But for the center to develop resources to support all faculty — both University-employed and visiting — it will not host visiting fellows next year.

While Lubar wrote in another letter to the community that he is “sad” to see some of the changes at the JNBC, they are meant to signify a shift towards communicating “the value of academic scholarship as such to the public at large.”

“We want … this revised version of the center to think a little about communicating the value of academia (and) the value of academic scholarship to the wider world,” Larson said.

One of those projects will come through a JNBC collaboration with the John Carter Brown Library ahead of the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution in 2026, McLaughlin said. “Public-facing” projects will be developed by scholars familiar in the field, he added.

A Herald article published Friday, Feb. 24, “Alpert Medical School photography exhibit showcases ‘shared humanity’ misstated key details about the “What’s Your Thing” exhibit hosted at the Alpert Medical School. The article has been updated, clarified and corrected online, and is available at https://www.browndailyherald. com/article/2023/02/alpert-medical-school-photography-exhibit-showcases-shared-humanity.

The Herald regrets the errors.

DANA RICHIE / HERALD

A letter, written by a working group of eleven alums and signed by 84, was sent to the University, outlining questions about the future of the Public Humanities Master’s Program.

Underclassmen shine in Brown debuts as baseball drops opening series

BY LINUS LAWRENCE SPORTS EDITOR

The baseball team (0-4) kicked off their season with a four-game set at Georgia State University (5-3) this past weekend. The team failed to seize their first win in the rainy Atlanta atmosphere, falling by scores of 11-3, 10-4, 10-1 and 6-5, respectively.

The Bears’ strongest performance came in the series finale on Sunday, which they led at multiple points. Bruno out-hit the Panthers 10-8, with centerfielder and leadoff hitter Derian Morphew ’23 going an impressive 4-for-5. Morphew was locked in all weekend, going 7-for-16 with three doubles and a walk.

Morphew attributed his early success to trusting his work over the off-season. “I’ve always been a hard worker, but this past summer and leading up to this spring season I’ve been so focused on just trusting the hard work I have put in, which is a huge part of this game,” he wrote in a message to The Herald via Brown Athletics.

The game also featured strong performances from a battery making their Bears debuts. Catcher Conor Cooke ’25 went 2-for-4 with an RBI in the eighth inning, while starting pitcher Dylan Reid ’26 dazzled, tossing five innings of one-run, four-hit ball against a Georgia State offense that had scored 31 runs on 32 hits over the previous three games.

“I had all weekend to watch their hitters and learn their approaches after talking with our earlier pitchers,” Reid wrote in a message to The Herald via Brown Athletics. He emphasized the importance of “getting the first strike and putting myself ahead early to keep the hitters off balance.”

“We have some young dawgs on the team that we can trust,” Morphew wrote. “Reid came in and attacked with no hesitation, and that just showed me that he wants to win and doesn’t care who the opponent is.”

A Georgia native, Reid was also playing less than an hour from home. “I felt comfortable in the environment, and I had a very similar feeling to the high school playoff atmospheres I had been a part of the last few years,” Reid wrote. “We had a strong crowd supporting us as well, and it was great to see many familiar faces in the stands.”

The Bears held a 5-3 lead entering the bottom of the eighth inning, but Georgia State’s powerful offense stormed back with a three-run homer to take a 6-5 lead that they would not relinquish. It was the last of the Panthers’ nine home runs over the course of the four-game set.

But baseballs weren’t the only thing falling from the sky that the

Bears had to worry about — delays due to rain and thunderstorms permeated the weekend, including one that prematurely ended their season opener.

The Bears found themselves in a 9-0 hole after just two innings of play on Friday afternoon. Only two of the nine runs surrendered were charged to starting pitcher and 2022 All-Ivy League selection Tobey McDonough ’23, with the other seven unearned as a result of three errors.

In the bottom of the third inning, poor weather interfered for the first time, causing an 84-minute rain delay. But when the game resumed, the Bears locked in. Peter Dubie ’26, another Bear making his debut, limited the Panthers to just one hit from the third to fifth innings while Bruno’s offense scored three runs in the fifth. But after Georgia State tacked on two more runs on a homer in the bottom of the sixth, the game entered another rain delay and was

eventually called.

“We were a different team before the rain delay, and (we) came out in the bottom of the third inning playing loose and confident,” Head Coach Grant Achilles said in a statement to Brown Athletics. “Unfortunately, we ran out of time. Peter Dubie didn’t pitch like it was his college debut, and we’re very proud of him.”

The Bears dropped the second game of the series on Saturday afternoon despite tallying nine hits, including RBIs from Jacob Burley ’23 and Reece Rappoli ’24. Mika Petersen ’26 also drove in a run on a groundout for his first RBI in a Brown uniform.

The third delay of the weekend came during the back half of Saturday’s scheduled doubleheader, which was suspended due to lightning and resumed on Sunday morning in the bottom of the fifth. Second baseman Ray Sass ’23 drove in the Bears’ sole run of the game on an RBI double down the left field line, but Bruno

was unable to put anything else together on offense in the defeat.

The Bears now look ahead to a series against the University of New Orleans in Louisiana next weekend. The team’s home opener will come on March 18 in a doubleheader against Bryant University, and their first Ivy matchup will take place March 25 versus Columbia in New York.

“Every game at this level will be a grind,” Morphew wrote. “We are going to have to compete at our highest level, collectively, to come out as the winning team more than we come out as the losing team.”

“The team is focused on continuing to prepare to the best of our capabilities and then trusting that preparation when we take the field every game,” Reid wrote. “Utilizing our strengths and staying within our approaches at the plate and on the mound will continue to improve our team performance and put us in the win column.”

Bruno swept in rainfilled four-game set at Georgia State University over weekend

COURTESY OF BROWN ATHLETICS

Baseballs weren’t the only thing falling from the sky this weekend — rain and thunderstorms caused multiple delays, including one that prematurely ended the Bears’ season opener in a 11-3 loss to Georgia State.