SINCE 1891
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2018
VOLUME CLII, ISSUE 75
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Former U. student builds hospital in Syria Created with U. support, underground hospital focuses on women, children, trauma care By ELI BINDER STAFF WRITER
LENA COHEN / HERALD
Endowment hits record high Return of 13.2 percent outpaces Harvard, Dartmouth, Penn, asset allocation consistent By ALLIE REED SENIOR STAFF WRITER
The University’s endowment increased to a record high of $3.8 billion over the 2018 fiscal year, according to a University
press release. The endowment “returned 13.2 percent,” representing “$450 million in investment gains,” Managing Director of the Investment Office Joshua Kennedy wrote in an email to The Herald. “The endowment’s mission is to financially support the many endeavors of the University’s faculty and students, shape the character of Brown as an institution and ensure its permanence,” according to documents obtained by The Herald. The endowment finances a
variety of the University’s expenditures, including scholarships, professorships, instructional programs, libraries and athletics. Compared to peer institutions, the endowment achieved a top quartile ranking for its returns over a one-, three- and five-year period, according to data from Cambridge Associates. So far, the peer median return in the 2018 fiscal year is 8.3 percent, as detailed in » See ENDOWMENT, page 3
Former Master’s of Public Health student Khaled Almilaji realized his vision of building an underground hospital in his home country of Syria with the help of the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs’ Humanitarian Innovation Initiative and University student groups. The construction of the Avicenna Women and Children Underground Hospital in Idlib, Syria, was completed this past summer, and the hospital is set to be operational by the end of the year provided it secures enough funding. Almilaji, who worked as a doctor in Aleppo, Syria, was arrested and imprisoned by the Assad regime for treating protestors in September 2011. He came to Brown to study public health in fall 2016 as part of a University initiative to bring displaced Syrian scholars to campus, but his studies were interrupted after his visa was revoked on a trip to Turkey. Almilaji waited on an American visa for around six months — the
same period during which President Trump issued his executive orders on immigration — before joining the University of Toronto for a Master’s in Health Informatics at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation. Almilaji told The Herald from Toronto, Canada that the newly constructed hospital is intended to provide specialized care to women and children, who face a lack of specialized services in the region. Almilaji decided to build a hospital underground because the Assad regime has targeted medical facilities during the Syrian Civil War, putting patients and doctors at risk. The facility will also have a floor devoted to trauma. Almilaji said that as of now, many trauma cases “are referred to Turkey, and (patients) are unfortunately dying on the way.” The hospital can become a field hospital at a moment’s notice. Idlib is at the center of the last rebel-held region of Syria, and large-scale fighting in the region was averted when Turkey and Russia reached a peace agreement Sept. 18. “Hopefully this will (create) a more peaceful environment, so we can keep working safely,” Almilaji said. But if Idlib is attacked, it would take “just two days to move » See SYRIA, back
Employee donations Panel talks role of media in Trump era Watson Institute talk favor Democrats touches on social media’s Substantial amount of large donations during midterm election season go to Raimondo By SOPHIE CULPEPPER SENIOR STAFF WRITER
This midterm election season, Brown faculty and staff are donating overwhelmingly to Democratic campaigns, following a historical trend of supporting left-leaning candidates. Gubernatorial election Since the beginning of 2018, the majority of larger donations at or approaching the legal limit of $1,000 have gone to Democratic incumbent Gov. Gina Raimondo’s campaign, according to comparisons of Brown employee campaign contributions across state and federal R.I. races. As of 2016, Brown employed 4,455
people, according to the Office of Institutional Research. Of 26 Brown employees who contributed this year before Sept. 4, the date of the most recent campaign filings report, nine individuals gave $1,000. In comparison, 61 individuals contributed to Raimondo between January and November in 2014, six of whom donated $1,000. Multiple individuals gave to Raimondo in both election cycles. On the whole, in 2018, donations ranged from $10 to $1,000. Chair of Medicine Louis Rice began supporting Raimondo shortly after moving to Rhode Island in August 2010. Between 2012 and 2018, he contributed five separate donations of $1,000 to Raimondo’s campaign. Emphasizing that his donations were made as a private citizen, he said he supports her “socially liberal agenda” and admires her fiscal responsibility and economic approach. Rice met » See DONATIONS, page 4
impact on journalism, Kavanaugh hearings By JACOB LOCKWOOD SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Discussion of America’s rapidly changing media landscape alternated between heated arguments and unanimous agreement among panelists at the Joukowsky Forum in the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs yesterday. The talk, entitled “An Inside Look at Election Coverage,” featured debate on topics ranging from President Trump’s contentious relationship with the press to the media’s coverage of sexual allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. While the panelists — David Corn ’81, Washington bureau chief for Mother Jones and on-air analyst for MSNBC; Karen Finney, a political commentator and former senior advisor to Hillary Clinton in 2016; Mary Katharine Ham,
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Four panelists from across the U.S. political spectrum all agreed that President Trump lies at an unprecedented rate. CNN contributor and senior writer at The Federalist; and Rich Lowry, Fox News commentator and editor of The National Review — represented positions across the political spectrum, all four agreed that Trump’s dishonesty is unlike anything the country has seen from a president before. “It’s pretty remarkable that one fact we can all agree on is that he lies,” Finney said. “All White Houses have conflict and tension with the media,” Corn added.
PIA MILEAF-PATEL / HERALD
Register to vote in R.I. The statewide election is on November 6. The deadline to register is October 7. For more information, visit vote.sos.ri.gov.
“Trump does something different than anyone else. That is not just that he has a war on the media — he has a war on truth.” The Washington Post counted 5,001 false statements made by Trump in the first 18 months of his presidency, Corn said. While previous presidents sometimes made misstatements, “no one comes close to this record,” he said. “It’s hard for the media to cover » See MEDIA, page 2
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Math tutoring program Vertex helps students angle for success Six-week peer tutoring program offers incoming students modules, mentorship, community By LYDIA DEFUSTO SENIOR STAFF WRITER
It had been 11 years since Noah Hoffman ’22 had taken a math class when he arrived on campus this fall. A Resumed Undergraduate Education student and former Olympic cross-country skier, Hoffman participated in the Vertex program, an online peer math tutoring program for incoming students that the University piloted this summer. For Hoffman, Vertex was the perfect refresher.“It was like this was built for me,” he said. Spanning six weeks from June through August, the initiative aims to “better prepare incoming first-year students (for) the academic rigor and culture at Brown,” according to the Vertex website. Born out of a collaboration with Yale, Vertex is modeled after Yale’s Online Experiences for Yale Scholars program. Twenty-two students started off as Vertex mentees, said Janet Peters, assistant director of academic tutoring. These students were “incoming firstyear, transfer and RUE students (who
» MEDIA, from page 1 somebody who says so many things that are untrue.” Ham agreed that the media is easily distracted by Trump’s actions. “We end up covering whatever it is that he was tweeting instead of talking about policy,” she added. “He has a sort of savant-like ability to get to the press and turn the press into a tool of his in this giant drama that he is creating every day.” Though Lowry said the press is “openly hostile” to Trump’s presidency, he argued that media outlets benefit from their coverage of Trump. “This is a deeply symbiotic relationship” between Trump and the media, he said. “The press, at the same time it’s outraged by everything he does and says, covers him obsessively and enjoys all the new subscriptions and all the audience
are) STEM-intending, BEO, pre-med students who were likely to take math or (a) math sequence.” The University invited incoming students to apply to the program and paired them with student tutors. The program’s participants took a pre-test and post-test using a program called Aleks, said Kevin Chen ’19, a Vertex mentor. Students also used the same platform to do practice questions, and Chen said that student feedback on the platform was positive.“The perception was that Aleks was a great way of getting practice in,” he said. Chen said that students also praised the Yale-produced instructional videos, which he described as “clean, simple (and) well-explained.” There are ten Vertex mentors, all of whom are academic tutors during the school year, according to the Vertex website. The mentors participate in video conferences with the mentees using the platform Zoom, according to Chen. The online nature of Vertex was key, as it “allowed students a little bit more flexibility (because) they didn’t need to come to campus,” Peters said. “They can still work or be at home with their family and still participate in the program.” Vertex aims not only to bolster incoming students’ math abilities but also to help them “form connections with
many members of the Brown community … prior to their arrival,” Peters said. “The hope this year is that it just eases their transition to college.” Face-to-face interactions between mentors and mentees were integral to the program, Chen said. As a program participant, “you could actually see the faces of the people behind the program, you get to talk to actual Brown students (and) you get to learn more about Brown, not just learn about math.” Vertex influenced Hoffman’s transition to the University. The program “made a huge difference in my first couple weeks here at Brown because I felt so much more comfortable in math and had people that I was already connected with,” he said. Chen said that he often gave his mentees advice about coming to Brown, life on campus, picking classes and choosing professors. “It was also really special being part of someone’s first experience with Brown and being able to welcome them and explain things about the school,” said Vertex mentor Alanna Wolf ’20, who met up with one of her mentees inperson during orientation. Vertex is set to run again next summer as of right now, Peters said. For the next session, she hopes to increase the program’s capacity, and “see more cross-collaboration between groups”
ratings that come from this reality show we’re living in.” Trump has also altered the media’s traditional role as an intermediary between the people and the government, Finney said. “The media and reporters are a channel to get information out,” she said. “In this day and age, we have multiple channels — including Twitter and social media — where you can have a direct line to the president.” This flow of information — which allows people to engage in immediate and public debate on any topic — is a new feature of the media landscape, Corn said. “It used to just be information in one direction: us to you,” he explained. “Now there is a different dynamic that goes on. It can be painful at times, but ultimately it breaks down the barrier” between citizens, the media and the government. Lowry sees the increase in different
news sources as a positive development. “It used to be that there were three networks where you got your news,” he explained. “They were referred to — somewhat ironically, but seriously — as ‘the voice of God.’ For me, that is not a good media environment. What we have now has downsides, but it’s better.” The internet also makes primary sources much more publicly accessible than ever before, Ham added. “You can go search out the full video of someone saying something. You can go search out the full transcript,” she said. “That is something we did not have at our disposal not very long ago.” Because of this access to primary sources, media coverage is less important today, Corn said. Twenty percent of households tuned in to last Thursday’s Senate hearing involving Christine Blasey Ford’s allegations of sexual
COURTESY OF JANET PETERS
Janet Peters, assistant director of academic tutoring, said the Vertex program invited students to participate and paired them with peers. and within the entire cohort. Hoffman said that as the program grows, he hopes the groups remain small. “The really small class size of three was a huge benefit,” he said. “If they can (keep the class sizes this small), that would be ideal, because that was why it was so effective for me.” In some ways, it is like Vertex never
ended for Hoffman. Along with two other students in his Vertex group, Hoffman formed his own tutoring group, which is led by the same upperclassmen who worked with them over the summer. “We’re basically continuing Vertex this semester as we get into Math 90,” he said. “We loved this so much that we’re keeping it going.”
assault against Kavanaugh, and many more people likely watched the hearing online, he noted. “We can nitpick about things that people have gotten wrong or false narratives, but basically everybody got to see the two primary actors make their best cases and judge for themselves,” he said. “This is all happening so much in the glare of public attention that I think it’s hard for the media to (mess) it up.” “But they have,” Lowry and Ham both replied. The panelists launched into a lengthy debate on the sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh that drew some aggravated responses from audience members. Lowry and Ham argued that the media has been unfair in its coverage of Kavanaugh, while Corn and Finney countered that Kavanaugh’s recent and past behavior has broken traditional standards of judicial temperament.
One audience member, Alan Flink ’49, entered the panelists’ debate on Kavanaugh. “This is not a court of law,” he said. “This is not a question of who’s right or who’s wrong. The question should be whether Brett Kavanaugh is an appropriate person to sit on the highest court in the United States.” Flink went on to argue that Kavanaugh’s highly partisan and belligerent behavior in the hearing disqualifies him from the Supreme Court. Flink told The Herald he was unsurprised that the panel argued extensively over Kavanaugh. But he was surprised that all four panelists “agreed that the president is a consummate liar.” “Lying can’t be acceptable and shouldn’t be acceptable,” Flink said. “It’s damaging, and it should be subject to the strongest condemnation. It’s unworthy of the United States of America.”
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WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2018 • PAGE 3
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U. student groups, campus centers gear up for midterm elections Campus groups work to improve student voter turnout, civic participation By JACKSON TRUESDALE CONTRIBUTING WRITER
As the Nov. 6 election approaches, the Swearer Center for Public Service is working with the Brown College Democrats, the Brown University Republicans and the Brown Progressive Action Committee to mobilize student voting in an attempt to improve the 13 percent student voter turnout of the 2014 midterms. The Swearer Center’s voter registration drives now use TurboVote, an online service that helps citizens register to vote and sends absentee ballots to their mailboxes. Over 400 students have signed up for TurboVote since Aug. 1, said Director of Student Development at the Swearer Center Betsy Shimberg. The Swearer Center will also sponsor a workshop Oct. 9 with R.I. Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea, Shimberg said, adding that Gorbea will bring voting machines with mock ballots with her “so students can actually practice filling in the bubbles and putting (the ballots) in the machines,” which “kind of demystifies ‘What is this voting thing?’” Shimberg also plans to invite elected officials running for office in uncontested races to speak and meet with small groups of students. Her goal, she said, is to get at least 26 percent of students to vote in this midterm election, which would double the 13 percent of students who voted in the 2014 elections. The University ranks among
» ENDOWMENT, from page 1 documents from the Investment Office. The endowment also outperformed its aggregate benchmark of a 9.7 percent return. This benchmark is a “blended index comprised of the weighted average of the endowment’s asset class exposures,” Kennedy wrote. “Historically, the endowment has outperformed the aggregate benchmark, but this year we did so by a wider margin than usual.” So far, only three other Ivy League universities have publicly released their endowment returns. The University’s endowment returns outperformed
Washington Monthly’s “America’s Best Colleges for Student Voting,” a list published in Sept. 2018 of 58 schools that includes Tufts, Northwestern and Harvard. Every school featured on the list satisfied four criteria: participation in Tufts University’s National Study of Learning, Voting and Engagement; enrollment in the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge; release of NSLVE data and publication of an ALL IN action plan. The Swearer Center published a draft of its ALL IN Challenge action plan in May, which focuses on registering and mobilizing voters for the midterm elections, integrating voting and civic engagement into student life and educating the Brown community on “liberal democracy and civic engagement.” Based on the NSLVE data for 2014 and 2016, the Swearer Center decided to devote special attention to graduate students and all students in STEM disciplines, “though our 2014 midterm participation was so poor that any generalized turnout efforts will help improve,” according to the plan. In 2016, 52 percent of Brown undergraduates voted, while only 39.3 percent of Brown graduate students voted. That same year, 33.2 percent of students studying business voted and 40 percent of students studying engineering voted. Those studying environmental sciences and English literature ranked among the highest, with 65.2 percent and 60.1 percent voting participation, respectively, according to the University’s published NSVLE data set. “People are registered to vote; that’s not it. It’s that they have to care and feel connected in order to vote,” Shimberg said. “How do we educate
people so they feel confident in how they’re voting? That’s really on you as a citizen. That’s your privilege.” Brianna McFadden ’20, secretary of No Labels at the University, said that students “want to be truly informed” before voting, adding that she has noticed “a slight sense of … apathy. … To me what’s important is civic engagement and making sure people are involved in the political process and feel like they have a space to be involved in the political process.” Julia Kirschenbaum ’19, chair of BPAC, emphasized the importance of viable candidates who connect with
young voters in bolstering civic engagement. “It can be hard to get out and vote when you feel like you don’t identify with the platforms of any of the candidates represented on the ballot. So I think that goes back to ensuring people are running for office who represent us,” she said. Kirschenbaum also urged out-ofstate students who register to vote in Rhode Island to remember that they are likely “transient members of this community,” adding that “we have to listen to the people who actually live here and have been affected by the
policies here for years and years and years.” Shimberg stressed that students, whether they can vote in Rhode Island or not, can create change in the Providence community. “Voting is one small part of civic engagement,” Shimberg said, adding that the Swearer Center developed a Beyond the Ballot campaign with Generation Citizen to encourage students to stay involved by calling policymakers, attending political board meetings and engaging in conversations with people with whom they might disagree, among other initiatives.
Harvard, Dartmouth and Penn, which returned 10 percent, 12.2 percent and 12.9 percent, respectively. While the Investment Office is proud of its standing relative to peer institutions, “what really matters … is meeting the spending needs of the University and keeping up with the cost increases of higher education,” Kennedy wrote. “In that regard the endowment’s performance has exceeded expectations in recent years.” This year, the endowment “contributed $163 million to the University’s operating budget,” according to the University press release. This contribution
“represents 15 percent of the annual operating budget, or $17,000 per student,” Kennedy wrote. The endowment also received $93 million in gifts, according to documents obtained by The Herald. These gifts made the 2018 fiscal year “an excellent year for giving to Brown,” he added. The Investment Office has “a focus on first and foremost protecting the value of the endowment, and second, prudently growing its value and purchasing power over time,” Kennedy wrote. “The investment return that the endowment generated in Fiscal Year 2018 did not employ excessive risk.”
This year, 32 percent of the endowment was invested in absolute return strategies, 27 percent in public equity, 23 percent in private equity and 5 percent in real assets, according to documents from the Investment Office. Seventyone percent of endowment assets were invested in North America and roughly 26 percent were invested in Europe and Asia. “We have an excellent team that’s focused on generating strong risk-adjusted returns and is devoted to the educational mission of Brown. We receive strong guidance and support from our Investment Committee, and the University
has tremendous momentum in terms of giving. All of this puts the endowment on solid footing,” Kennedy wrote. The Investment Office recently changed its leadership structure in July, according to a University press release. Joseph Dowling became the University’s chief executive officer of the Investment Office, and Jane Dietze became the University’s vice president and chief investment officer. Joshua Kennedy took on Dietze’s former role of managing director. But “the change in leadership that took place earlier this year was really a formalization of roles that were already in place,” Kennedy explained.
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» DONATIONS, from page 1 Raimondo at a campaign fundraising event hosted by one of his colleagues soon after he came to the state, he explained. He now lives across the street from Raimondo, he said, adding that they have become friends. Only three professors contributed to Fung this year, with contributions ranging from $20 to $150, compared to five who contributed close to $300 each in 2014 when Fung lost to Raimondo. One professor is listed as a repeat donor from 2014 to 2018. The Fung campaign has not received any donations at or exceeding $1,000 dollars from a Brown employee. No donations from Brown employees are listed as going to any other independent candidates. Comparing these donation trends to those at other Rhode Island universities, a larger number of Brown employees have given greater financial support to Raimondo, while donations to Fung from Brown employees and employees of other universities are comparable. Three donations were made by Providence College employees this year to the Raimondo campaign, while two each were made from faculty or staff of Community College of Rhode Island and Johnson and Wales University. Five contributions came from the employees of the University of Rhode Island while six came from the Rhode Island School of Design and eight came from Rhode Island College. Just one Rhode Island College and two Providence College members contributed to Fung’s campaign in 2018, compared to six individuals from JWU and eight from URI. No employees of RISD or CCRI were listed as donating to Fung. Mayoral race Thirteen donations made to Mayor Jorge Elorza’s re-election campaign this year were from Brown employees, according to R.I. Campaign Finance.
“All races are important. Very local races are important too,” Rice said. Though he has not contributed often to local candidates, “probably largely because they haven’t come and asked,” he has donated to Elorza. Professor of Medicine Howard Safran has been working in Rhode Island for 25 years. He moved to Providence this May and “wanted to jump into politics quickly,” he said. He described himself as “more immersed in the local issues within the city” than in the gubernatorial race. Safran said Elorza “has always been a supporter” of health care, which motivated him to host an event attended by about 80 people on the mayor’s behalf. Safran personally donated $200 to Elorza’s campaign this year. “I get involved when I see important campaigns going on,” said Professor of Neurology Douglas Anthony. Anthony has supported Elorza’s campaign by contributing $500 twice this year. No Brown employees contributed to independent candidates Diane Whitman or Jeffery Lemire. Federal races In the R.I. Senate race, only one Brown employee — the repeat donor to Fung — was listed as contributing to Republican candidate Robert Flanders’ ’71 campaign between June and September 2018. At $500, his donation was far larger than most Brown employees’ listed contributions to federal candidates. Brown employees did not contribute to independent House candidate Patrick Donovan. A handful of individuals contributed to the re-election campaigns of Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and Rep. David Cicilline ’83, D-R.I. Besides donations to mayoral and gubernatorial candidates, many donors chose to give to federal candidates through the progressive organization ActBlue, according to the Federal Election Commission. Progressive organizations like End Citizens United and Swing Left received
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD smaller donations under $100 from a few Brown employees. Academic Affairs Coordinator for BioMed Medical Faculty Affairs Mathew Bolton has donated a couple dozen times through ActBlue between June 1 and Sept. 30, according to the FEC. He has given contributions of $25 or less to progressive candidates and organizations nationwide and to ActBlue itself. Bolton tends to “give low dollar amounts on a monthly basis to a number of candidates,” he wrote in a follow-up email to The Herald, adding that he concentrates his efforts on nationally competitive races rather than state elections. Bolton’s concern with more competitive races was echoed by Associate Professor of Medicine Gerardo Carino. Carino and his wife have been fundraising for a friend, Carolyn Bourdeaux, who is running in Georgia’s 7th district for a House seat this year in a highly competitive race. After Bourdeaux reached out to the couple asking for support, the Carinos held a fundraiser in their Pawtucket home in September last year and were “really amazed by the number of people who were engaged and … wanted to support this, even a candidate outside the state,” Carino said. Between in-person and online donations, they raised over $10,000 for Bourdeaux, he added. Carino will be holding another event for Bourdeaux in the next two weeks, with attendees including Cicilline. Carino attributed the enthusiasm of his colleagues for Bourdeaux’s campaign to a sense of motivation typically present in a more competitive race. Given that Rhode Island is solidly blue state, his colleagues “may not have felt that their financial support was going to change anything here because they felt it was already … going fairly well,” he said, and so they were more inclined to support a candidate out-of-state, he added. But campaign contributions and political involvement are not often
MARLIS FLINN / HERALD
discussed at work, according to multiple Med School sources who spoke to The Herald. Anthony said that he learns about colleagues’ political engagement from seeing them at campaign events rather than from talking to them at work. “We might discuss politics, but I don’t think I (remember ever) discussing money and giving” to candidates, said John Donoghue, professor of neuroscience. On the whole, fundraising events
for candidates hosted by colleagues are “common but not out of proportion,” Anthony said, adding that he has observed a “greater sense of engagement since the 2016 election.” But political involvement comes down to the individual rather than the workplace. “I know some people at Brown who are very involved, both at the state level and at the city level, but then I know others at Brown who probably couldn’t tell you who our current candidates are,” he added.
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WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2018 • PAGE 5
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menu
b e v e r ly h i l l s o f b r o w n
SATELLITE DINING ANDREWS COMMONS
Pizza: Spicy Sausage and Garlic, Four Cheese and Basil Po’ Boy, Curry Bar JOSIAH’S
BLUE ROOM
Pasta Night, Mushroom Swiss Burger, Quesadilla Station
Beef Chili with Beans, Hearty Country Vegetable Soup
DINING HALLS SHARPE REFECTORY LUNCH
DINNER
Grilled Chicken Tikka Masala, Xi’an Pulled Pork Burger, Bolo Roll, Spicy Cilantro Slaw
Roast Turkey with Gravy, Herbed Turnips, Braised Mustard Greens, Mexican Ribbon Cake
VERNEY-WOOLLEY LUNCH
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sudoku DANIELLE EMERSON / HERALD
When Caswell Hall was constructed in 1903, it was the first dorm to be rented with furnished rooms and was almost double the cost of other dorms. The rooms featured amenities such as club rooms and fireplaces.
Q U O T E O F T H E D AY
“Trump does something different from everyone else. That is not just that he has a war on media — he has a
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war on truth.
RELEASE DATE– Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle crossword Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
ACROSS 1 Tons o’ 6 Blows, as a script line 11 Has permission 14 One may be passed around at a reunion 15 Like the Vegas strip 16 Honest prez 17 One of Beethoven’s 32 19 Moll’s leg 20 More pitiful 21 Channeling state 23 Gas from the past 24 Rants and raves 27 Charity’s URL ending 29 Change to zeros 30 Social service item? 34 Wing measurement 38 More than impress 39 Debit card ID 40 Where to get off: Abbr. 43 __ Deco 44 Sweet root 46 Proverbial nonexistent meal 49 Davis who was married to Ruby Dee 52 “Collages” author Anaïs 53 Place of central interest, man 57 Dog in the FDR Memorial 61 Hang up the gloves 62 Hollered 64 Slick-whistle connector 65 Has a meal, and as the circles show, what 17-, 24-, 30-, 46- and 53-Across each does 68 Chi follower 69 Farsi speaker 70 Edible little sphere 71 Oeuf seasoning 72 He bested Alexander in 1804 73 Fragrant compound
DOWN 1 Brain freeze 2 Jumbles 3 Snowboarders’ aids 4 Venting car option 5 Parisian possessive 6 Apt name for a woman with a green thumb? 7 Jeremy in the 2012 NBA’s Rising Stars Challenge 8 Acting teacher Hagen 9 Steep-sided hills 10 Spread out 11 __ Carta 12 Bead counters for bean counters 13 Arabian republic formed in 1990 18 Composer Prokofiev 22 Creates some drama? 25 Like the vb. “to be,” in most languages 26 Hunch 28 Sales __ 30 Oft-grabbed ride 31 Be in hock to 32 Admission price 33 Not up to snuff
35 Part-goat deity 36 __ de Triomphe 37 Extreme degree 41 Some odometers show them 42 Clay, since 1964 45 Songwriter Amos 47 Matter in court 48 Displays, as a flag 50 Montenegro neighbor 51 __ Club: conservation group
— David Corn ‘81, Washington bureau chief for Mother Jones
See media on page 1.
53 Completes a shoot 54 1946 Literature Nobelist Hermann 55 Cybersales 56 Invite to enter 58 Took the hit, financially 59 Time off 60 Venomous snake 63 Double-reed instrument 66 Musical talent 67 “It’s __-brainer!”
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
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Coffee with a Cop at SSL 8:30 A.M. South Street Landing
English Language Workshop 3:00 P.M. Sciences Library, 520
Making Sense of Brazil’s 2018 Election 7:00 P.M. Joukowsky Forum
Brown in Washington Info Session and Dinner 6:00 P.M. Swearer Center
TOMORROW Erin McKeown: In Concert 7:00 P.M. Granoff, Martinos
Reading: David Grubbs 5:30 P.M. McCormack Family Theatre
Andrew M. Watsky Lecture 5:30 P.M. LIST, Room 120
Senior Night @ Flatbread 8:00 P.M. 161 Cushing St.
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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
COMMENTARY WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2018 • PAGE 7
Secrecy reigns in U.S. intelligence EMILY MILLER opinions editor In a post-9/11 world, in pursuit of its mission to thwart terrorism in the United States and ensure national security, U.S. intelligence agencies have become larger, more complex and, if possible, even more secretive. There has been no concomitant change in oversight, however, allowing almost imperial power to a community whose operations bear and potentially infringe upon some of our most precious constitutional freedoms. The absence of new checks on these agencies makes daunting the task of determining whether they are crossing crucial lines or taking actions of which the public, were it aware, would disapprove. In 2010, Washington Post journalists published an investigative series called “Top Secret America” in an attempt to examine this huge and powerful network and concluded that it was inefficient and opaque to both those entrusted with oversight of funding and the people it is meant to protect. While national security and government secrecy should be preeminent, the impact of the “war on terror” may be so intrusive upon our individual liberties as to make its operations unconscionable in a free and
democratic society. Finding the correct balance, where to draw the line, is one of the most pressing issues we face. The evanescence of the enemy at large makes it much more difficult to assess the effectiveness of a project of this scope. Seventeen years after the horrific attacks of 9/11, the most pressing threats are more often portrayed as coming from small cells or lone wolves than from an army of ter-
parently and effectually. Not only have concerns over secrecy caused many intelligence organizations to become ever more clandestine, the lack of shared data has increased redundancy, reduced effectiveness and, in many instances, potentially impacted civil liberties. As just one example, 51 federal organizations and military commands are tasked with tracking the paper trail to and from terrorist networks, and of-
government imposed secrecy orders on 103 new patents,” “the number of closed-door meetings rose to 7,221” and “classified programs accounted for $35 billion, or 16 percent of the Pentagon’s acquisition funding.” Many government officials see institutional secrecy as necessary, and media projects like “Top Secret America” are considered a destabilizing force. Former Acting Director of National Intelligence David C. Gom-
While national security and government secrecy should be preeminent, the impact of the “war on terror” may be so intrusive upon our individual liberties as to make its operations unconscionable in a free and democratic society.
rorists, hardly comparing to the twoheaded menace of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. Yet taxpayers’ money is now being consumed at a rate it never had been before: The U.S. Intelligence Budget is up to $57.7 billion, over twice the size it was Sept. 10, 2001. With more and more taxpayer money on the line, it is imperative that this system be tailored to a real threat and then managed trans-
ten do not divide the work, but rather produce similar and often overlapping products. Furthermore, our government has increased its commitment to remaining as secretive as possible. A large study found that “for every dollar the government spent declassifying documents in 2009, it spent $196 million maintaining the secrets already on the books.” Also in 2009, “the U.S.
pert said, “We accept that we operate in an environment that limits the amount of information we can share. However, the fact is, the men and women of the Intelligence Community have improved our operations, thwarted attacks and are achieving untold successes every day.” The reason why the government keeps so much of its intelligence clandestine is because it has to. To counterbal-
ance current risks caused in part by international interventions that some believe to be necessary, we have increased the size, scope and complexity of our surveillance system. But the real question remains: What is the cost to our freedom, reputation, efficiency and budget? To fix the system, there must be more transparency in our government. Congress, which allocates billions of dollars a year to these networks, could begin sharing information that does not risk national security. In response to Top Secret America, Congress began to act. As former Sen. Kit Bond said: “We can do more to keep our nation safe, and improving Congressional oversight and ensuring the top spy chief has the authority needed to streamline our intelligence community are the first steps.” However, with a deadlocked and inefficient Congress, often too timid to confront internal security issues, it is unlikely we will see the desired change anytime soon. Thus, it falls to the media to continue to push the boundaries and demand positive change.
Emily Miller ’19 can be reached at emily_miller@brown.edu. Please send responses to this opinion to letters@browndailyherald.com and other op-eds to opinions@browndailyherald. com.
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NEWS THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2018
U. relaunches center for international economics Rhodes Center emphasizes community relationships, multidisciplinary learning By DEBORAH MARINI CONTRIBUTING WRITER
This fall, the University re-launched the William R. Rhodes Center for International Economics and Finance, which aims to support “interdisciplinary scholarship that seeks to understand how … global processes matter for both local politics and national welfare,” according to the Rhodes Center’s website. In July, the University appointed Mark Blyth, professor of political science and international and public affairs, to direct the center, which is currently housed in the Watson Institute for International & Public Affairs. By relaunching the center, Blyth said he hoped to emphasize the center’s multidisciplinary approach to scholarship and attention to building strong community relationships. This shift will be facilitated by its move into the new Stephen Robert Hall this winter, said Edward Steinfeld, the director of Watson. The new building is designed to provide a public space for student, faculty and community interactions, Steinfeld added. With this move, the Rhodes Center will also be close to other specialized centers affiliated with Watson, which can help “put these centers in an intellectual conversation with each other” to reinforce a commitment to multidisciplinary learning, Steinfeld said. Financial and economic matters “are issues that affect all of us. They affect us in ways that are societal and political as much as economic. They test our values in some ways, so these seem like issues that we should study in a multidisciplinary perspective and that we can’t ignore.” The Rhodes Center has already hosted several speakers and has several more events scheduled this semester, covering issues including the rise of
populism and globalization, according to the Rhodes Center’s website. While the Rhodes Center’s ongoing lecture series is dominated by men due to speaker availability, Blyth said he hopes to see a more diverse presence of visiting scholars in the spring. Blyth is also working on two regular podcasts within the Rhodes Center. “I love podcasts. It’s a wonderful medium that has taken the intimacy of radio and sort of personalized it on a kind of menu basis. It’s a tremendous way of reaching people,” he said. Additionally, Blyth is having conversations to partner the Rhodes Center with a “major financial publication” to help distribute the podcasts to a wider audience. Blyth expects these discussions to conclude in December. Currently, the website lists J. Nicholas Ziegler, professor of international and public affairs, as the only other faculty member connected to the Rhodes Center. In an email to The Herald, Ziegler wrote that he was delighted to join the Rhodes Center and will hold “a workshop on comparative corporate governance — specifically, on changing sources of company financing and implications for the way companies in different countries orchestrate the needs of shareholders, employees and the communities in which they operate” later this year. Given his confidence in the value of a multidisciplinary approach to education, Blyth said he hopes that the Rhodes Center will be a useful resource to all students on campus, regardless of their concentration or focus of study. Blyth added that he hopes to foster engaging “attentiveness and sensitivity to questions of finance” in conversations occurring within the Rhodes Center and with other Watson programs. “Brown is made up of three pools: the students, the grad students and the faculty — no offense to the administration. At the end of the day, everything else is (about) making those connections work … better than they already are.”
COURTESY OF WATSON INSTITUTE
Professor Mark Blyth (above) and Professor J. Nicholas Ziegler (below) are excited to explore global and local economic processes through the Rhodes Center. The Center will host a variety of events this semester.
» SYRIA, from page 1 any equipment from the other hospitals into our hospital.” Almilaji added he is “almost sure there will be no military” action in Idlib, “but nobody knows enough to predict what will in happen.” He noted that “there are almost 3.5 million people in the region, and it would be a catastrophe if there is a military attack in the area. The people in Idlib have been displaced from area to area in Syria already. They have suffered enough.” In the long term, Almilaji hopes to use the hospital to train the next generation of Syrian doctors. “We would bring new residents, or current residents who didn’t complete their medical training so they can be trained in this facility,” he added. Almilaji is an Humanitarian Innovation Initiative international fellow, and his organization, the Sustainable International Medical Relief Organization, receives HI2 advisory support. HI2 organized an open challenge to help SIMRO develop a comprehensive telehealth system for the hospital,
COURTESY OF BROWN UNIVERSITY
Prior to arriving to Brown to study public health, Khaled Almilaji worked as a doctor in Syria where he was arrested and imprisoned by the Assad regime in 2011 for treating government protestors. which would allow medical staff to work with specialists in the United States and would facilitate training. SIMRO raised almost $1 million for the construction of the hospital, nearly $200,000 of which came from an online campaign spearheaded by Brown students, Almilaji said. The
hospital is now transitioning from the construction phase to the operational phase, but SIMRO lacks funding to fully cover operating costs. There will need to be cooperation between local organizations and international ones to finance the hospital’s operations going forward, Almilaji said. “We are
waiting for donors to send equipment so we can provide the services that we aim to,” he added. Director of HI2 and Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine Adam Levine praised the effort, as it provides “care for some of the most vulnerable internally displaced people
in all of Syria and all of the world.” “We’ll continue to help in any way we can,” he added. Thousands of miles from the newly constructed facility, Almilaji is currently settling into his life in Canada. He was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal, a Canadian honor given by a representative of Queen Elizabeth II. Almilaji described Toronto as “a very nice city, a very big city, and everybody’s positive.” He is enjoying the master’s program, which he described as very competitive. He is also studying applied geographic information systems at Ryerson University to learn more about medical geography. “A couple of days before I travelled to Canada, I received a call from the American Embassy,” telling him his visa was granted, Almilaji said. “That was so unfortunate,” Almilaji added, noting he wanted to return to the “fabulous, supportive, amazing family” waiting for him at Brown. But moving to Canada allowed him to reunite with his pregnant wife and witness the birth of his daughter, who is now just over a year old.