SINCE 1891
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2018
VOLUME CLII, ISSUE 87
WWW.BROWNDAILYHERALD.COM
Students, professors create anti-Bolsonaro petition City Council
hosts hearing on Hope Point Tower
Ahead of Brazilian election, academics, activists in U.S. warn of threat to democracy By KATHERINE BENNETT SENIOR STAFF WRITER
A group of Brown students and faculty, along with academics and activists across the United States, have created a petition campaign opposing Brazilian presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro. The petition criticizes Bolsonaro for “aggressive and vile hostility toward women, people of African descent, the LGBT+ community, indigenous people” and low-income people. It also condemns his denigration of human rights, efforts to undo the “political, social, economic, labor and cultural gains of the last four decades” and his threat to “undermine the still fragile democratic politics that people throughout Brazil have risked so much to build.” Initiated by a group of Brown students, the petition has received over 1,000 signatures from students, academics and activists from 38 states and over 200 colleges and universities, said James Green, director of the
Developer Jason Fane addresses community concerns over 46-story luxury building proposal By COLLEEN CRONIN SENIOR STAFF WRITER
MONIKA HEDMAN
University’s Brazil Initiative and one of the petition’s initial sponsors. The petition is “designed to educate people about the situation in Brazil and call on people to stop a very, very conservative right-wing candidate,” he added. The petition is as much a show
of solidarity among activists in the United States as it is a tool for raising awareness among Americans. The petition is not necessarily directed at people in Brazil, said Beatriz de Arruda ’19, one of the petition’s creators. “We know that nothing we can do
could ever influence people’s opinions about this election because they have already been bombarded by so much wrong information, and so many people a thousand times more important than us have already opposed him » See BRAZIL, page 2
A large crowd of people spilled into the hallways of Providence City Hall at Monday night’s City Council meeting to discuss the biggest news in town — the proposed 46-story Hope Point Tower project that has divided the city. The City Council’s Committee on Ordinances held a public hearing to give Jason Fane, the building’s developer, and the people of Providence a chance to speak about the project. The tower — which will host luxury apartments, restaurants and retail stores — is slated to be the tallest building in » See TOWER, page 2
U. commits to hosting Saudi Arabia grows ‘soft power’ through art Al-Senussi ’03 MA’04 endangered scholars Alia talks Saudi politics amid U. joins University in Exile Consortium, allowing scholars to continue research, education By ALLIE REED SENIOR STAFF WRITER
The University joined the New University in Exile Consortium Sept. 6, committing itself publicly to “supporting scholars at risk due to war or political persecution,” wrote Provost Richard Locke P’18 in a communitywide email in August. The University is a founding member of the consortium and joins 10 other universities who share similar commitments to “hosting displaced and endangered scholars,” Locke wrote. Arien Mack, professor of psychology at The New School for Social Research, said she first founded the consortium out of “concern with the fate of threatened scholars.” “The ever-increasing attacks on scholars in many places throughout the world today have made this initiative morally mandatory,” the organization’s mission states. In some Middle
INSIDE
Eastern countries, scholars “have been forced to flee and universities have been destroyed,” according to the website. To join the consortium, universities must host at least one endangered scholar for over two years, Mack said. “As a member of UIE, Brown commits to hosting displaced and endangered scholars and to providing the essential resources to ensure they are able to thrive during their time on campus,” Locke wrote. While every member of the consortium may define its role differently, the University has “focused primarily on students and scholars from war-torn regions who are interested in continuing their education and research in relative peace,” said Marisa Quinn, chief of staff to the provost. Hosting scholars is “really about ensuring the continued advancement of knowledge,” she added. The University started hosting endangered scholars in 2015 after witnessing a “huge influx” of refugees flowing from Syria, Libya and Iraq into Europe, Quinn said. To bring a scholar on campus, the University collaborates with the Institute of » See SCHOLARS, page 4
international controversy over journalist’s death By PRIYANKA PODUGU UNIVERSITY NEWS EDITOR
“‘I’m an independent journalist using his pen for the good of his country,’” said Visiting Scholar in Middle East Studies Alia Al-Senussi ’03 MA’04, quoting the murdered Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi as an opening to her lecture yesterday, “The New Saudi Arabia: A Kingdom Embraces Soft Power.” “We can extrapolate (Khashoggi’s words) to the work of many artists and many cultural practitioners who are currently in Saudi Arabia … (who) believe very strongly in their patriotism and the work that they do,” she added. Arriving amid international outrage directed toward the Saudi government’s investigation into Khashoggi’s death, Al-Senussi’s lecture framed Saudi Arabia’s recent production and importation of art as forms of political “soft power.” During the lecture, Al-Senussi said that soft power, which includes policies such as diplomacy and trade
JACK JACOBY / HERALD
Visiting Scholar in Middle East Studies Alia Al-Senussi’s ’03 MA’04 lecture focused on the intersections of politics and art. agreements, occurs alongside traditional metrics of a country’s power. But soft power is “completely immeasurable. … (It’s) cultural, ideological and institutional.” Previously, Saudi Arabia’s soft power was purely religious, as it exported a “certain version of Islam,” Al-Senussi said. It did not reveal the particulars of Saudi society or show “what was happening among the Saudi people.” But after the occurrence of critical events such the political ascension of Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s practice of soft power through arts and culture expanded. With these developments,
Al-Senussi said the “cultural industry in Saudi offered a new social contract based on this idea of a liberalized statesociety relationship.” Specifically, Saudi art and artists now feature in “conversations that happen in society,” Al-Senussi said. “Many of these young artists … are not just artists who … practice art all day long, but are people who have an artistic tendency … and decided they wanted to be a part of a cultural conversation,” she said. Additionally, the country is now considering what its “heritage and tourism will (not only) illustrate to the » See SAUDI, page 3
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WEDNESDAY, OC TOBER 24, 2018
NEWS Critical Review website revamped by U. students in first update to site in decades
COMMENTARY Editorial: U. should do more to provide graduate students with on-, off-campus housing
COMMENTARY Schmidt ’21: Third World Transition Program educates students of their privilege
COMMENTARY Foster ’19: Newspapers should remove paywalls before election for better informed electorate
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» TOWER, from page 1 the city and would be built on former I-195 land downtown. Monday’s meeting was only a public hearing, but the Committee will make a recommendation to the City Council on whether or not to approve a zoning change that would be necessary to construct the building. Fane is attempting to build the 600-foottall building in a lot designated for 100-foot-tall buildings. This maximum height restriction was set by a comprehensive zoning plan completed three years ago. At Monday’s meeting, the crowd was vocal and divided. Committee Chair Terrence Hassett from Ward 12 warned the crowd several times that he would have to ask people to leave if they were too loud and pounded his gavel often throughout the meeting. People wearing safety green windbreakers, Carhartt sweatshirts and work boots were prominent among in the crowd. Dozens of union laborers turned out in support of the building because Fane has committed to using one hundred percent union labor for the project. The tower is projected to create 15,000 jobs, according to Edward Mazze, professor of business administration at the University of Rhode Island. Mazze gave a presentation in support of the tower, saying that he believed it would be a positive addition to the city. “First of all, this could make Downtown Providence’s economy boom. Second, it could make Providence more vibrant,” he said. Mazze acknowledged that many of the jobs created would be in construction, which would result in a temporary boost to the economy. But the building will create jobs long after its completion in building management, retail and hospitality, he noted. Only 3.7 percent of Providence’s rental units are unoccupied, Mazze said. This indicates that there is a market for the tower’s apartments, which could cater to college students and recent graduates. The building will contribute huge revenue for the city,
» BRAZIL, from page 1 and his policies,” she said. “If people in Brazil aren’t listening, I don’t think there’s anything that we can do. … But what I think that we can do is show that there is resistance among academics in the U.S., among people who care about Brazil, and … help validate the people that are terrified in Brazil.” De Arruda was inspired to start the petition after she learned about women-led protests against Bolsonaro in Brazil Sept. 29 and attended a protest led by Brazilians in Boston, she said. In order to reach as many people as possible, the students created a website to share the petition with their peers across the country and increase support, she said. If elected, Bolsonaro will “immediately begin a process to eliminate democratic rights in the country,” Green said. “He wants to criminalize social movements and NGOs, he is against the recognition of the territories of indigenous peoples in Brazil” and the return of ancestral lands to the descendants of runaway slaves, he added. Along with the threat to
Mazze added, saying non-property tax revenue during construction is estimated to amount to $12.7 million. “Think of what that would do for Providence,” he said. Following Mazze’s presentation, Friedrich St. Florian, architect of the WWII memorial on the National Mall, spoke in favor of the current design and height of the building. Florian noted that mid-sized cities, and university cities in particular, offer a high quality of life that could attract a wealthy demographic. In his opinion, many attributes of Providence could draw people to the city, including hospitals, restaurants, walkable streets and the “bicycles and scooters,” a nod to jump bikes and ride-sharing scooters. He urged the Council to change the zoning ordinance. “City ordinances are indeed useful planning tools to safeguard public interest as a vision at the particular time for the foreseeable future, but they are not cast in stone. They are scaffolding.” Fane’s land-use attorney William Landry said that the building was in accordance with the spirit of the
comprehensive zoning plan, even if it required a change to the zoning ordinance. While critics of Fane’s proposal have cited it as an example of spot zoning — when zoning laws are circumvented for the benefit of a single development — Landry said that the City Council has discretionary power to decide the height of buildings. Landry reminded the audience that the building’s aesthetics were not the subject of the hearing. “Design is an issue for another day,” he said. The Fane presentation concluded with words from Jason Fane himself, who said that he believes the building would benefit the city by bringing housing, tax revenue, jobs and economic growth. “I have great faith in Providence,” Fane said, adding that he would invest $300 million from his personal funds to realize the project. After the Fane Organization’s 50-minute presentation — which was originally supposed to be a half hour — the floor was opened to the public. The majority of the speakers were
against the tower. “I see the appeal of a large investment. … However, I strongly urge you to vote no for this proposal in its current location,” said Executive Secretary of the Fox Point Neighborhood Association Amy Mendillo. Mendillo asked the Council to respect the comprehensive zoning plan. “The comprehensive plan is working” and incorporated the community’s vision for the city, she said. James Hughes, founder of Boston Andes Capital, said that his firm has invested money in projects in the city but will leave if the tower is built. Other investors — who, like Hughes, have had to comply with the comprehensive plan in the past — will leave with him, he said. The Hope Point Tower “has the ability to arrest other developments,” Hughes said, since apartment units in the tower will likely be priced much higher than other housing in the city. “We don’t want to reinvent Providence, we want to restore it.” Paul MacDonald, president of the Providence Central Labor Council,
which represents 29,000 union workers, said that he supports the project and feels that it is a move toward progress. Mentioning the Dunkin Donuts Center, Providence Place and even the Superman building, MacDonald said that people had previously been worried of large, new construction, but that they ultimately proved to be positive projects. “If we’re not going to build, we’re not going to move,” he said. MacDonald wasn’t the only one to make mention of Providence’s most iconic building. Several individuals pointed out the Superman building’s vacancy, and asked Fane and the city to reinvest in the 90-year-old building to grow the economy instead of building something new. The meeting took a different turn when Al Sapienza, star of The Sopranos and Brotherhood, got up to speak and introduced himself to Hassett with the words, “I played your mayor on Brotherhood.” Sapienza explained that he currently lives in Fane’s most recent project in Toronto. Calling Fane a “great guy,” he said it’s not often that you become friends with the developer of the building you live in. Sapienza said that the project in Toronto faced community criticism too, but that after it was built it changed the neighborhood. “I think it’s a gift to have somebody come to your city … and want to build,” he said. Many people advocated a for a compromise on the design, including Dianne Witman, independent candidate for governor. “We should not say no because of the current design’s shortcomings,” Witman said. “I believe a compromise can be struck. We must not stand in the way of progress.” The three-and-half hour meeting went “as expected,” said Dante Bellini, a spokesperson for Fane. They were “happy about what they presented,” which were the facts, he said. When asked if Fane would consider changing the design of the building, Bellini said, “We have no obligation to build something that somebody else wants.”
marginalized communities, there is also concern among many that a Bolsonaro victory could lead to a return to military dictatorship, Green said. “He will erode democracy, which is relatively fragile,” he said. Brazil has “only had a constitution for the last 30 years and return(ed) to democratic rule only 35 years ago after a 20-year dictatorship. He actually thinks that the dictatorship was a good time for Brazil.” “I believe that democracy in Brazil is in a really critical moment, that all of the social gains that people fought so much for might be undone in a few years,” de Arruda said. “I believe that our freedom to express ourselves or to oppose the government might be gone, and I believe that thousands of people in Brazil, particularly vulnerable populations, are at risk.” Bolsonaro “has expressed, very often, hate against minorities, and he has fostered hate speech in Brazil” and has “used a lot of strategies to win votes that could be considered undemocratic, such as spreading fake news through social media,” de Arruda said. “Over the past weeks, there has been a spike in cases of aggression
against minorities in Brazil by (Bolsanaro’s) supporters,” de Arruda said. “He represents a big threat to democracy in Brazil, to all the social movements in Brazil. People have fought a lot to guarantee the rights of minorities in Brazil. … Now all of those rights
that we acquired through the decades are threatened.” Though the petition is intended to be non-partisan, in an election with only two candidates, the “obvious implications are to vote for the other candidate,” Green said. But the group
“didn’t want to be partisan in the sense of calling on people to vote for the other candidate. If a person doesn’t want to support the candidate then I’d rather they would … not vote at all than to vote for this far right-wing candidate,” he added.
COLLEEN CRONIN / HERALD
Members of the community attended Monday night’s Providence City Council meeting on the Hope Point Tower project. The Council is considering approving a zoning change to permit the 46-story building’s construction.
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WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2018 • PAGE 3
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COURTESY OF CRITICAL REVIEW
The Critical Review, established in 1976, underwent its first web redesign in decades, thanks to a group of students who worked to revamp the site as a project in a computer science class.
Critical Review introduces redesigned, improved website New site more userfriendly, staff members hope to increase professorial engagement By OLIVIA BURDETTE CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Since 1976, the Critical Review has helped Brown students navigate the Open Curriculum. The website provides survey-based evaluations of hundreds of courses each semester and incorporates data such as hours of work per week and course difficulty ratings. But its website hadn’t received an update in decades — until this month, when the website debuted a new interface in time for the next round of course registration.
The old site proved to be a problem for some users, who experienced website navigation issues and interruptions in online service. “If you look at the Brown meme page, we’ve been memed a lot because at critical junctures, our website would just go down,” said Kevin Chen ’19, editor-in-chief of the Critical Review. Chen said the organization had been looking into redesigning the website for several years with no luck until last spring, when a group of students from CSCI 1320: “Creating Modern Web Applications” expressed interest in revamping the aging site. “On the user side, our main aim with new website redesign was definitely to modernize it and make it more visually appealing,” said Critical
Review staffer Sachin Sastri ’19. The Critical Review’s webpage now features colorful illustrations of the Main Green as well as an improved search engine that suggests results as you type. Now that the site has a new look, Chen hopes to work on improving survey response rates and reviewing as many courses as possible. Out of the 900 to 1,000 courses the University offers each semester, the Critical Review is often able to publish only 300 to 400 reviews due to a low professor participation rate, he explained. “Either they don’t know what we do, or they don’t want to partake in this review process because they’re already going through department reviews and don’t think this is necessary,” Chen said.
The Critical Review aims to increase participation through their professor outreach program, in which staffers contact professors directly to tell them about the service. Critical Review members also hand-deliver packets of surveys, which are printed out for every class in the catalog. “We recognize that our operations require a lot of paper, and we recognize that a lot of classes don’t participate,” Chen said. “So we want to find the correct balance between getting all the courses involved and being eco-friendly.” Printing options are still being debated, but in the meantime, the Critical Review’s strong relationship with the Office of the Dean of the College is helping them reach as many students as possible. The class
registration tool Courses at Brown features a direct link to the Critical Review’s evaluation of a course. The office “recognizes that (the Critical Review is) kind of an important resource for students, especially if they want to find a more nuanced opinion on classes,” Chen said. Many Meiklejohn peer advisors also recommend the resource to their first-year advisees to help them navigate their early course selection. “We want to communicate more with the Critical Review because the changes in the website are going to impact how the members of the firstyear class are going to use it,” said Meiklejohn Leadership Committee member Divya Santhanam ’19. “We want to … reach out and ask them how first-years should navigate it.”
»SAUDI, from page 1
body. … Almost all activities that require public gathering (must) go to this body to gain permission,” she said. In addition to projects explicitly sponsored by the government, private and corporate patrons have played key roles in using art to develop Saudi Arabia’s soft power, a trend seen across the Gulf states, Al-Senussi said. For instance, the multinational investment bank UBS recently sponsored 21,39, the annual Jeddah-based arts and culture festival organized by the Saudi Arts Council, a non-governmental organization. “What’s happening in the Gulf is this constant meshing and interlocking of public, private and corporate” patronage of arts and culture, she said. Though governmental co-opting of art implicates artists within a broader state structure, Al-Senussi said this did not mean “they are fully controlled (or) fully a part of the state machinery.” But despite these claims of Saudi artists’ independence, their works’ presence on a global platform is being tested in light of the international community’s outrage toward Khashoggi’s murder. Addressing this development, AlSenussi said she believed that international museums’ “knee-jerk reaction to cancel all of these shows (and)
partnerships does not benefit anyone. Particularly, it does not benefit the ones who are being hurt the most,” who are the artists. International communities must maintain faith in “the abilities of art and artists to create a very separate conversation from the governments under whom they happen to live,” she added. The event also included an opportunity for audience members to ask Al-Senussi questions. Referencing the ongoing “migration of talent” and the extended detention of artists within autocratic countries, David Kebudi ’19 asked Al-Senussi which path she saw Saudi Arabia following, given the country’s grim presence in international news. In response to his question, Al-Senussi said she couldn’t give a definitive answer. “I can’t predict, because I never would have thought that I would be giving this talk in this circumstance,” she added. Lara Fares, who attended the event, stressed Saudi art’s facilitation of progress within the nation’s broader political environment and said she was most impressed by the fact that “there are some artists living in the country that are able to speak freely through their art. To me, that is a huge step.”
West but also within the country and the Islamic world,” she said. Recently, the government also opened its borders to Western cinema, with “Black Panther” being the first American film to release in the country. This ambition of greater cultural soft power has coalesced in the Saudi government’s recently implemented Vision 2030 program, Al-Senussi said. “It was the very first time that Saudi Arabia has embarked on a cultural program aimed within the country as well as without,” she added. As a result of Vision 2030, Saudi Arabia established a Ministry of Culture in addition to “cultural programs, museums and … a cultural conversation for artists within the country.” To create this national conversation, Vision 2030 tasked the new General Entertainment Authority with developing a “clear vision for the evolution of the entertainment industry,” which the government perceived to be “an instrument of nation-building,” Al-Senussi said. Part of the Authority’s mandate involves “organizing recreational centers that comport with the customs and traditions of the country,” she added. “In many ways, it’s also a legalizing
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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
» SCHOLARS, from page 1 International Education, an organization that keeps a list of threatened scholars seeking refuge. After researching and discussing with relevant department chairs, the University reaches out to the scholar and makes an offer, Quinn said. If a scholar accepts an offer, the IIE provides funding for scholars, which the University then matches, Quinn said. Financial support comes from the offices of the Provost and the Dean of the Faculty as well as outside donors, she added. This funding covers stipends, housing and health insurance for scholars. Though the University officially joined the consortium this fall, it had already satisfied the requirement of “hosting at least one displaced or endangered scholar,” Quinn said. The University is currently hosting a visiting professor, a graduate student, and a visting artist and has hosted two other scholars that qualify as scholars at risk in the past. Jelili Atiku, assistant professor of Africana studies and artist-inresidence through the Brown Arts Initiative, arrived at the University in January. He came through a collaboration between the University and the Artist Protection Fund, a branch of the IIE dedicated to making “life-saving fellowship grants to threatened artists” and placing them at host universities to continue their work, according to their website. Before coming to the University,
ELLA ROSENBLATT
Atiku was imprisoned after he gave a performance challenging the local authorities of his hometown, Lagos, Nigeria. In his January 2016 performance entitled “Aragamago Will Rid This Land of Terrorism,” he brought light to an incident in Lagos during which three women were
brutally “molested, sexually abused and raped,” he said. In his performance, Atiku also accused Oba Moruf Adisa Ojoola, the King of Ejigbo in Lagos, of terrorism. The next day, the police arrested him and brought him to Kirikiri Maximum Security Prison, Atiku said. His home was ransacked,
and it became clear that his and his family’s lives were at stake. Because of the APF and the University’s support, Atiku said he has been able to continue his work. “The week that I came here was when Trump made a statement that condemned the African continent as a
Soban
‘shithole,’” Atiku said. “That made me feel so bad. I was traumatized when I was coming, and I was even more traumatized by that statement.” Many of his performances and drawings are responses to President Trump’s decisions and the issue of migration. The University has given Atiku “enormous support” that makes him feel “comfortable and at home,” he said. He has a safe apartment, an office, studio space and access to a library. In addition to creating artwork, Atiku is also teaching a new course that he created, AFRI 1040: “Decolonized Bodies, Spirit Bodies: Tracing the Indigenous Knowledge of Africans.” Atiku doesn’t know how long he will stay at the University. His fellowship ends in December, and while he hopes to extend his stay, he would also like to return home to see his family. “It’s been really tough to be seperated,” Atiku said. “Sometimes I wonder if I’m being selfish” for leaving Nigeria, he added. In the future, Mack plans on growing the consortium to include more universities and expand the community by bringing together more scholars and hosts. Along with the University, Barnard College, Columbia, Connecticut College, George Mason University, Georgetown University, Rutgers University-Newark, The New School, Trinity College, Wellesley College and Wayne State University make up the consortium’s current members, according to the consortium’s website.
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WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2018 • PAGE 5
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menu
another ivory tower
SATELLITE DINING ANDREWS COMMONS
Pizza: Spicy Sausage and Garlic, Four Cheese and Basil Grinders, Pho Bar JOSIAH’S
BLUE ROOM
Pasta Night, Guacamole Burger, Quesadilla Station
Acai Smoothie Bowls, Beef Chili With Beans, Bread Bowls
DINING HALLS SHARPE REFECTORY LUNCH
DINNER
Jerk Chicken, Muffuletta Sandwiches, Mashed Plantains, Cream Cheese Brownies
Split Pea Soup, Turkey and Mushroom Romano Pasta, Texas Barbecue Brisket
VERNEY-WOOLLEY LUNCH
DINNER
Autumn Bisque, Chicken Cutlet Sandwiches, Garlicky Hoisin Tofu Stir Fry
Black Eyed Peas With Spinach and Bulgar, Blueberry Dijon Chicken, Sugar Cookies REBECCA HO / HERALD
sudoku
Grey skies loom over RISD’s Prov Wash building at 20 Washington Place. Though students may be experiencing a mid-month slump between Family Weekend and Halloween, somewhere, light persists.
Q U O T E O F T H E D AY
“If you look at the Brown meme page, we’ve been memed a lot because at critical junctures, our website
”
would just go down.
— Kevin Chen ’19, editor-in-chief of the Critical Review
See critical review on page 3.
RELEASE DATE– Wednesday, April 18, 2012
c r o sDaily swo rd Los Angeles Times Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
ACROSS 1 As yet 6 “Atlas Shrugged” writer Ayn 10 WWII carriers 14 ʼ60s-ʼ70s Twins star Tony 15 Sautéing acronym, à la Rachael Ray 16 Ear-related 17 “Doesnʼt bother me!” 19 “__ Zapata!”: Brando film 20 Harbinger of lower temperatures 21 Man on a misión 22 Biblical mount 23 More than hesitant 24 Sign of puppy love? 25 Ben & Jerryʼs purchase 26 Spice gathered by hand from crocus flowers 30 Leave no escape route for 33 Aquamarine, e.g. 34 Carol syllables 35 After “on,” relying mostly on hope in desperate circumstances 39 Stinky 40 Floor cleaner 41 __ fit: tantrum 42 “500” racesanctioning group 44 Boxer Max 46 Fed. property agency 47 Prefix suggesting savings 49 Sox, on scoreboards 52 Creep 54 Deli sandwich 56 Brit of Fox News 57 “Shake!” 58 Most draftable 59 Fortitude 60 Cardiologistʼs concern 61 Cold War initials 62 Year, on monuments 63 Small fry
DOWN 1 Puccini opera 2 Butterlike products 3 Bohr of the Manhattan Project 4 Ancient Roman poet 5 Hemming and hawing 6 Apply more varnish to 7 __-garde 8 Waters between Great Britain and Europe 9 Fawnʼs mom 10 Chick flick subject 11 Dangerous bottom feeders 12 DVR pioneer 13 Battle reminder 18 Wrinkle remover 21 Personal ad abbr. 25 Schoolyard handshake 27 Sound system part 28 Cheers for a torero 29 Not a one 30 Mata __ 31 Obi-Wan portrayer
32 Psychological tricks 33 Econ. yardstick 36 Org. with a much-quoted journal 37 Like beer cans before recycling 38 Dimming gadget 43 Lo-__: lite 44 Mackerel-like fish 45 Pre-med subj.
48 Replace a dancer, perhaps 49 Paper-pusher 50 Gold rush storyteller Bret 51 “Donʼt get any __” 52 Dynasty during Confuciusʼ time 53 Legs it 55 Hail in a harbor 57 Sports tour organizer, for short
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Text Mining Basics 11:00 A.M. Rockefeller Library, Digital Scholarship Lab
Critical Language Scholarship Info Session 12:00 P.M. Page-Robinson Hall, 440
Macro Seminar — Vaishali Garga 4:00 P.M. Robinson Hall, 301
Marie Berry — War, Women and Power 4:00 P.M. Watson Institute
TOMORROW Perception and Action Seminar Series 12:00 P.M. Metcalf Research Building, 305
Talk by Ignacio Sánchez Prado 12:00 P.M. Rochambeau House
Robotics Talk: Brandon Basso 12:00 P.M. CIT, 477
Second Annual Parker Lecture in Egyptology 5:00 P.M. Maddock Alumni Center, Brian Room
COMMENTARY PAGE 6 • WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 24#, 2018
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
EDITORIAL
U. must do more for grad student housing Being a graduate student is tough. Students enrolled in Brown’s master’s, doctoral and pre-professional programs spend as many as six years conducting research, procuring funding and support for that research, teaching undergraduates and writing dissertations. Tack on the imperatives of networking, maintaining relationships with mentors and advisors and securing positions in academia or industry after graduation, and there’s little time left in most graduate students’ schedules. But at Brown, there can be just one more thing to care of: Making sure your house doesn’t imminently fall apart, while difficult, sometimes abusive, landlords do little to help. It is no surprise to anyone familiar with living off-campus that there are serious issues with housing options near Brown. There are several houses and apartments with collapsing ceilings in bathrooms, unresponsive landlords and other unfortunate surprises. Without a centralized renting process, graduate students and their families can be subject to scams and high rents. For international students — many of whom must navi-
gate the American renting process before even stepping foot in the country — finding and maintaining housing can pose a particularly thorny challenge, as area landlords have resorted to abuse and threats of deportation to stop them from raising concerns about their living facilities. Housing-related headaches can be attributed in large part to the lack of competitive options in the University’s vicinity. The University doesn’t have adequate housing, either on-or off-campus, to deal with its growing population of undergraduate and graduate students. To be sure, this housing deficit is a grave problem not only for the University’s quality of life but also for its aspirations of becoming a top-tier destination for advanced research. Indeed, the dearth of reliable housing may jeopardize the University’s ability to attract and retain high-caliber graduate students, who might choose other research universities with more convenient housing options. Consider the case of a doctoral candidate, who is married with kids. They are making, at minimum, a five- to six-year commitment to a single
doctoral program. On top of fulfilling personal obligations and coursework, why would they also want to spend all those years dealing with the complications associated with housing on College Hill? We implore the University to make the provision of new housing options — a measure supported by the Graduate Student Council — a priority in its long-term infrastructure plans. To begin, the University can try to build new dormitories and apartment facilities, or buy nearby properties and turn them into University-subsidized housing. None of this will be cheap, of course. But, given the construction of the new performing arts center, the expansion of the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, the completed renovation of Friedman Hall and the planning of an undergraduate wellness dorm, it is clear that the administration — and the University’s financial backers — are willing to devote considerable resources to new development. Why not concurrently devote resources to the development or refurbishment of the University’s housing facilities? New dor-
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mitories and apartments constitute a critical investment in the ability of the University to attract talented students, just as important as new performance spaces and classrooms. Peer schools, for their part, have recognized this reality: Yale and Cornell, for example, have 11 and three buildings, respectively, that are exclusively dedicated to housing graduate students. To be sure, it is not enough to rely on private developers — one of which, Steeple Street RI, LLC, is in the process of constructing luxury apartments on Canal Street — to fill the housing shortage. Even large real estate companies promising high-quality facilities can offer shoddy services, charge high fees and provide a poor quality of residential life, as Yale graduate students have experienced. In the near-term, the University should provide substantially increased support for graduate students seeking rental apartments on College Hill. The administration might put together a clear guide specifically to address concerns of incoming graduate students — who can have different needs from those
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of undergraduates — about how to navigate the rental environment in Providence and what rights they have as they interact with landlords. It might also assemble and distribute a list of properties run by landlords who are known to be reliable and trustworthy. These efforts certainly won’t solve every residential woe incurred by graduate students, but they’re a good starting point for further and more aggressive action down the road. After all, the University’s status as an institution committed to robust research and instruction depends not only on brandnew academic buildings, but also on competitive — and livable — housing on and around campus.
Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board: Anuj Krishnamurthy ’19, Rhaime Kim ’20, Grace Layer ’20, Mark Liang ’19 and Krista Stapleford ’21. Please send responses to this opinion to letters@browndailyherald. com and op-eds to opinions@ browndailyherald.com.
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COMMENTARY WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2018 • PAGE 7
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
Don’t paywall local election information RUTH FOSTER staff columnist Compared to other countries, voter turnout in the United States is dismal. Of all age groups in this country, millenials are the worst at showing up to vote. Clearly voting isn’t the only kind of civic engagement available to us, but it’s one option among many that is important to participate in. But bombarding people with reminders to vote isn’t enough to increase turnout — we should also make sure that the barriers to being an informed member of the electorate are as low as possible for everyone. When I was filling out my absentee ballot this weekend, I didn’t recognize either of the names under the sheriff ’s race, so I took to the internet and googled both names. The first few results were news articles about the race from a local paper’s website, but when I clicked to read, the information was locked behind a paywall. Free, widely accessible candidate information is especially important in races that are non-partisan, and it’s impossible to know what a candidate’s ideological bent might be without doing your research. Perhaps state and local government websites could ask each candidate to fill out a standardized questionnaire, and then make the results public. (This is what the Minnesota State Bar Association does — for
each contested judicial race, candidates reply to a questionnaire and then the Association posts the results on their website.) But this still seems insufficient to me: It’s easy for a candidate to make themselves look good when they’re filling out a survey about themselves. It’s not enough to just take what candidates say at face value. We need people fact-checking and evaluating elec-
Providing people the information they need to choose the candidate that most closely aligns with their values is vitally important. It’s the job of the press to make this information easy to access, not just for those who can afford a subscription. I admire the Guardian’s approach — they’re a journalism organization that has chosen not to hide their work behind a paywall. In-
can afford it to chip in, since this helps keep information accessible for all. Independent journalism is a valuable, powerful source for information, but it’s useless if would-be readers can’t access it. Local newspapers have a unique role to play in informing communities about who’s on the ballot. Finding information about high-profile U.S. House or Senate races is much
We should also make sure that the barriers to being an informed member of the electorate are as low as possible for everyone.
tion claims and faithfully presenting them to the electorate. Margins at local newspapers are narrow —I get that — but it seems unlikely to me that newspapers would lose out in any meaningful capacity by making candidate profiles free to access for everyone.
stead, they ask readers to make either a recurring or one-time donation if they are able. Their strategy points out something important — reporting isn’t free to do, so if you value the work the Guardian does, you ought to contribute to their coffers. It’s also the job of those who
easier than learning about the ins and outs of your State Auditor or Secretary of State race. But it’s important to be informed about each race on your ballot — even the ones that seem small in comparison to congressional positions. Sheriffs set local law enforcement priorities,
while state Supreme Court judges and Appeals Court judges shape how the law is administered and auditors make sure the state’s books are being run honestly. If information about these state-level races isn’t easy to find, voters are much less likely to make informed choices. I’m a reliable voter, even in offyear elections, but I find the process of researching candidates cumbersome, especially when I have a pile of homework to attend to. Obviously, the responsibility of being an informed voter doesn’t just lie with newspapers and other sources of information — it also lies with you. Please do your homework about the candidates that are running for office. Please vote. If you already have done both of those things, bother your friends to do them too. And don’t just vote this time — local election turnout in off years is even worse than turnout in midterm elections. The choices that you make can help shape what your community looks like this year and in the years to come. (Personally, the school board elections are my favorite.)
Ruth Foster ’19 voted “Yes” on the school district operating levy increase and can be reached at ruth_foster@brown. edu. Please send responses to this opinion to letters@browndailyherald.com and other opeds to opinions@browndailyherald.com.
TWTP rightfully asks tough questions of students RACHEL SCHMIDT staff columnist To prepare for the drastic change in social climate between my previous schooling experiences and Brown, I applied to the Third World Transition Program, a four-day preorientation program dedicated to talking about systems of oppression and fostering an environment of open discussion. I figured I would like to understand my own identity better and learn about the resources available to me, as well as get a sense of open discussion Brown is known for. The program did its job 10 times over, and then some. In my high school, you just didn’t discuss issues of race. Even asking what race meant was taboo. As a biracial student, I was lost and straddling two worlds, and the lack of discussion in school provided no assistance. What came from this lack of communication and understanding was microaggressions, those insidiously misguided ideas and beliefs that taint our perceptions. I often recall how, in response to my complaint about a low score on an exam, a former classmate expressed surprise that black people cared about their grades. I cringe at the memory, shocked by how the classmate was genuinely under that impression, but more so by how the culture of my school allowed these thoughts and perceptions to form unaddressed and unquestioned. Brown and its TWTP program encouraged me to ask questions relating to my identity for the first time. I was plucked from the sheltered microcosm of my high school and
transplanted into a university where discussion of social issues is not only on the table but welcomed and encouraged. A discussion in TWTP stuck with me as I struggled to come to terms with the phrase “white privilege.” Me? Have white privilege? I can’t have white privilege! I’m black — well, I’m also white. Coming from a background in which I had been the target of microaggressions, I had not considered that I may have
aggressions I had faced in years prior, it also made me realize a lot of dark truths, many of which I didn’t want to admit to myself. I too was complicit in the system that had worked against me in high school. Being treated more fairly when not disclosing my race — also known as white-passing — is a privilege I was afforded that other students in the program were not. I just never realized it until that moment, and I detested the thought that I had
I was plucked from the sheltered microcosm of my high school and transplanted into a university where social issues are not only on the table for discussion, they are harbored and encouraged.
been benefiting from similar systems of racial stratification. These were some of the hard questions TWTP had me confront — and I was horribly unprepared for how uncomfortable being faced with some ugly truths about my identity would be. The TWTP program not only helped me foster discussions about the micro-
experienced advantages in life that I hadn’t even recognized until 18 years into it. I noticed how uncomfortable my peers around me were as they went through the program as well. No one wants to admit they benefit from an unjust system, and even worse, no one wants their fellow students to be harmed by one. But TWTP also reminded us of some-
thing I had almost forgotten in my quest to figure out what my racial identity meant to me: Race is only one identity. Through the variety of discussions such as the sexism, classism, heterosexism and ableism workshops, we learned that it’s important to be mindful of microaggressions not only when it comes to race, but also for a multitude of other identities. Brown students come from all walks of life and are shaped by more than just the color of their skin. I walked away from the TWTP workshops knowing race is an essential aspect of identity, yes, but that it is not the whole picture. It’s important to be mindful of what you say regarding other identities too. As I work toward understanding what race is, I am developing a better understanding of what my own racial identity is, how much it means to me and what other labels I might give myself should I choose to use them. Getting uncomfortable means you are asking the tough questions, the ones that need to be discussed in order to foster productive dialogue and interpersonal relationships with people from a myriad of backgrounds. I don’t think I would be thinking in this context and at this level of understanding if I were at any other school other than Brown. Had I never attended TWTP, I probably would have never thought of these questions in the first place.
Rachael Schmidt ’21 can be reached at rachael_schmidt@brown.edu. Please send responses to this opinion to letters@browndailyherald.com and other op-eds to opinions@browndailyherald. com.
NEWS THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2018
R.I. mail-in ballots increase from 2014 to 2018 gubernatorial election New rules centralize process to correct faulty ballots, though few voters have taken advantage By CELIA HACK STAFF WRITER
Forty-one percent more voters applied for regular mail-in ballots in 2018 than in the 2014 gubernatorial election, the Rhode Island Board of Elections reported Tuesday. Since the last gubernatorial election, use of emergency mail-in ballots, which can be applied for up until the day before the election, has increased by 107 percent. The Board of Elections attributes this spike to the allowance of “no-excuse” mail-in ballots. Prior to a 2012 policy change, Rhode Island required that voters provide justification to receive a mail-in ballot. Some of the limited excuses considered valid included illness or impairment of mobility,
confinement to a hospital or nursing home or being temporarily absent from the state. Now, voters first send in a ballot application with a signature and mailing information, then receive their ballot in the mail. Populations who may have trouble getting to the polls or being present on election day, such as those who work two jobs or lack access to reliable transportation, can more easily access voting via mail-in ballots, said Vice Chairman of the Board of Elections Stephen Erickson. “A lot of campaigns have figured out that mail ballots are a way to ensure that populations that may have some difficulty getting to the poll have an opportunity to vote,” Erickson said. “When you tie together the mail ballots and what we’d like to see (from) early voting, what we’re doing is trying to expand the universe of ways in which people can make sure that they can exercise their franchise.” Though the Board of Elections
does not collect voter demographics, members suggested that Rhode Island natives who attend universities far from their home polling locations could benefit from the mail-in ballot. “Especially for students who are still registered back at their home addresses, this is a very effective way to make sure that they can participate in the franchise,” Erickson said. An Exeter, Rhode Island native, Brianna McFadden ’20 noted that her hometown’s polling station does not have a RIPTA line accessible from Brown. McFadden would have to rely on her father to drive her for 30 minutes to the polls without a mail-in ballot. “I (used a mail-in ballot) in the 2016 election too,” McFadden said. “For me at least it was a pretty simple process.” The Rhode Island Secretary of State’s office secured funding this year to pay the return postage for all mail-in ballots to decrease the strain on voters even further, said Robert Rapoza,
executive director of the Board of Elections. The mail-in ballots can also prevent long wait times and extreme lines at the polling stations, especially if the ballot in question is lengthy, he added. “We had one town two years ago that had over 40 referendum questions on the ballot,” Rapoza said. “If you weren’t prepared, you would be at that polling place a long time, and it would back up the voting because people are in the voting booth. What the town did was they mailed (mail-in ballot) applications and the questions to the voter encouraging them to do mail-in ballots.” McFadden attested to lines as well: Even in a 6,000 person town at 6 a.m., when she went to vote at the primaries in high school, the line was long. Not by “Providence standards,” she said, “but for me it was kind of a long line. Like, ‘I hope to get to school on time.’” But mail-in ballots pose their own difficulties. Voters must also be sure to correctly fill out the ballot envelope,
which asks voters to include their own signature along with the signature of either two witnesses or a notary, said Miguel Nunez, deputy director of elections. In 2014, almost 1,100 ballots were voided because of a problem with these parameters. “We’ve had notaries notarize nonexistent signatures,” Rapoza said. Some voters forget witness or notary signatures, and others still submit mail-in ballots with signatures on the ballot itself that do not match the application for the ballot. “It was very clear in a number of cases that somebody’s parent had signed the application to send the ballot to school somewhere,” Erickson said. “That’s a no-no. Make sure you sign your own ballot application.” New 2018 rules and regulations institutionalize a process that returns faulty ballots to voters and gives them seven days to correct their ballot and return it before Nov. 6, Nunez said. Officials tested the ballot correction process during the September primaries, but the Board of Elections reported that few voters took advantage of the opportunity. Two hundred thirty-eight voters were alerted of the need to fix their ballot, and the Board of Elections received 13 back. The Board of Elections made multiple other efforts to facilitate voter participation and reduce wait times at polling stations. During the primaries, each precinct used one DS-200, an electronic machine that tabulates paper ballots. The most heavily populated precincts will have two or in rare cases three machines for the general election. To expedite voter check-in, the Board of Elections also deployed electronic poll books in place of paper ones. Nunez said that 131 field technicians will also work on election day — a 323 percent increase in field technicians used since 2014 — to ensure that increased dependence on technology will not go awry.