T H U R S D A Y MARCH 14, 2002
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Volume CXXXVII, No. 35
An independent newspaper serving the Brown community since 1891
Stephen Sondheim waxes melodic on American theater, critics, inevitability BY JAMAY LIU
Stephen Sondheim, one of the great musical geniuses of American theater, spoke about his career, his colleagues and his opinions on matters ranging from opera to his critics Wednesday afternoon. A songwriter and lyricist for shows including “Candide,” “Into the Woods,” “West Side Story” and “A Little Night Music,” Sondheim received standing ovations from the enthusiastic audience in Leeds Theater at the beginning and end of the discussion, which was in question and answer format. Sondheim described how his career began after his parents divorced and he moved to Pennsylvania with his mother at the age of 10. Their neighbor, Oscar Hammerstein II, a Broadway lyricist, immediately had a big influence on his life, and Sondheim said, “I wanted to be whatever Oscar was.” Sondheim described how he and two classmates wrote a show when he was 14, called “By George.” “I knew it was brilliant, and I knew Oscar would want to produce it,” Sondheim said. Hammerstein told Sondheim it was the worst show he’d ever read.
“But, he treated me like a professional,” Sondheim said. “He sat down with me one afternoon, and within four hours, we’d gone over about a quarter of the show. In that afternoon, I learned more about theater and songwriting than most do in a lifetime. “Like all good teachers, Oscar was a gentle prodder, not a hitter.” Sondheim also addressed the previous remarks he had made about opera. “I don’t mean to disparage opera, but I don’t enjoy it,” Sondheim said. “I enjoy stories. Opera is for people who enjoy the human voice, but that’s not enough for me to go to the theater. “I’m a guy brought up on movies, on stories. What happens to me at the opera house is, I get bored,” he said. Sondheim said he has no respect for music reviewers. “When I get criticism, and what is said echoes in my stomach, then I’ll change it,” he said. “But other times, when I don’t know what they’re talking about, I won’t. “Listen carefully to the people whose opinions you respect –— but don’t do it until the song is formed,” he said. “Otherwise, it’s disruptive.”
Sondheim emphasized the importance of getting involved in every aspect of theater to student musical writers. “Be a stage manager, be an actor, if possible,” he said. “Do not put on your show in front of family and friends in a living room, because that’s weighted. Do it in front of strangers.” Sondheim said good music is “fresh, but inevitable.” “This is true for any art that takes place during time,” he said. “You want the audience to feel not only surprise, but that that’s the only way for it to have gone.” The Department of Music, the Department of Theater, Speech and Dance and the Creative Arts Council co-sponsored the program. Wednesday before Sondheim spoke, the Stephen Sondheim Scholarship and the Stephen Sondheim Graduate Fellowship in the Arts were established in his name by Marty and Perry Granoff. “Both will be awarded in honor of Stephen Sondheim’s incredible career,” Spencer Golub, professor of theater, speech and dance, said. Herald staff writer Jamay Liu ’05 can be reached at jliu@browndailyherald.com.
Dean Armstrong, faculty, push for pluses and minuses in grading system BY NEEMA GULIANI
The University is considering changing the grading policy at Brown to include pluses and minuses, said Dean of the College Paul Armstrong. Although no firm decision regarding the grading system has been made, the policy change “was worth talking about,” Armstrong said. Armstrong said he is in favor of the change because a recent survey given to faculty members indicated support for such a change. Out of the 160 faculty members who returned the survey, 82 percent said they would be in favor of the grading policy change, he said. Only a small number of faculty members responded to the survey, so it cannot yet be determined if the majority of Brown’s faculty would be in favor of adding plusses and minuses to the grading system, said Rebecca More, director of the Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning. More said she suspects that most of the faculty use plusses and minuses internally when grading students. But these dis-
tinctions in grades do not appear on official student transcripts. Armstrong said he believes the change in the grading system would better enable teachers to signal differences in students’ performances. “Grades are sending messages,” he said. Armstrong said he believes there is not enough distinction in the messages sent by S/NC grades and A, B, and C grades. The majority of students receive an A, B or S as their semester grade and the change in policy would “restore the difference between taking a class S/NC and taking a class for a grade,” Armstrong said. More said grades communicate an understanding between faculty and students. Students have been choosing the grades over the S/NC option recently, More said, citing a study done by the Office of Institutional Research. Though she said she is not sure why this phenomenon has occurred, More said it is important to determine if it was a signal that students want more specific
feedback when it comes to grades. Faculty and students are uncertain whether a change in the grading policy would have an adverse effect on the learning environment at Brown. Professor of Computer Science and Chair of the Faculty Executive Committee John Savage said that although he was unsure if he was in favor of the policy change, it would be unfortunate if it caused students to reflect too much on grades because “the purpose is to learn the material.” Laura Riascos ’04 said pluses and minuses “would disrupt the idea of healthy competitiveness. “If grading is more complex, competition will become more exacerbated in a negative way,” she said. “There will be a greater divide between people who want to do really well and people who are more indifferent.” Herald Opinions Columnist Dmitri Seals ’02 said he is opposed to the change in grading policy because he believes it will “increase competition see GRADES, page 4
U. fails to match offer for tenure track position, Arabic program dwindles BRIAN BASKIN
This May, the Arabic studies language program will lose its third lecturer in three years, leaving the program without a replacement months after most faculty searches have begun. In February, the Academic Council, chaired by Dean of the Faculty Mary Fennell, declined to match Dartmouth College’s offer of a tenure track position to Lecturer Jocelyn Sharlet, who teaches all six Arabic language courses. The administration has not yet announced the creation of a search committee to find Sharlet’s replacement, though most faculty searches for the next academic year began in December or earlier. Dean of the College Paul Armstrong, who sits on the Council, said the lateness of the decision not to retain Sharlet would not jeopardize the Arabic program. “People are reading this as a sign we’re backing off the teaching of Arabic,” Armstrong said. “That’s not the case.” With its decision, the University only postponed its inevitable responsibility to improve the state of the program, said Arnold Weinstein, chair of the Department of Comparative Literature. At Brown, the Department of Comparative Literature houses the three Arabic studies courses per semester, in which 41 students are currently enrolled. “I think they made a mistake,” said Arnold Weinstein, of the Academic Council’s decision not to match Sharlet’s offer. “But I also respect (Fennell’s) judgment.” Armstrong said Brown could not match Dartmouth’s offer because it meant upgrading Sharlet’s position from lecturer to assistant professor. The University requires a full national search to fill assistant professorships, which was not possible before Sharlet accepted the position at Dartmouth, Weinstein and Armstrong said. The greater problem, Armstrong said, is the structure of the language program. At peer institutions, Arabic language programs are often at the center of Middle Eastern studies departments. Such programs experience less turnover than Brown’s Arabic studies program because lecturers can teach Arabic while still having the opportunity to research or teach Middle Eastern culture and history, Armstrong said. Though a lecturer with a master’s degree would generally fill
I N S I D E T H U R S D AY, M A RC H 1 4 , 2 0 0 2 Providence City Council considers crackdown on panhandlers page 3
David Cicilline ’83 begins 25 week walking tour to build support for mayoral bid page 3
Brett Cohen ’03 says people should be nicer to nerds, geeks and fantasy gamers column,page 11
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such a position, those with Ph.D.s might be attracted to a faculty position elsewhere, where they could teach fewer courses and focus on research as well as teaching, he said. “She knew she was going to be teaching three courses (each semester), but obviously she aspired for more,” Armstrong said. Sharlet teaches six courses yearly, which is standard for a lecturer but two more than a professor teaches. As the only faculty member attached to Arabic studies, she is responsible for managing the program, Sharlet said. Sharlet said she would have liked to stay at Brown if the University had been able to make her a competitive offer. “It’s definitely a larger workload than Arabic lecturers at many institutions,” she said. “The (comparative literature) department was very supportive about the possibility of investing more in the Arabic program.” She said she was encouraged to apply for positions at other universities, because professors in the Comparative Literature Department expected Brown to match any offer. Weinstein said a department search committee at Brown selected Sharlet last year before she had completed her doctoral dissertation, beating the fierce competition for Arabic language instructors with Ph.D.s. Once she earned her Ph.D. and entered the market, it was only a matter of time before another university offered a tenure track position, Weinstein said. At that point, the department hoped to present a strong case to the Academic Council and have that offer matched, he said. Weinstein said he understood the Council’s reasoning but was nevertheless surprised by their decision. “There’s a general academic truism that when people receive offers and they’re highly valued, Brown does whatever it can to respond in kind,” Weinstein said. “The president made it clear that Brown will find ways to avoid being raided.” Weinstein said that since the department, rather than the professor, requested that the University match the offer, he hoped Comparative Literature would demonstrate enough confidence in Sharlet’s abilities to convince the Council to retain her. “She is highly valued for what she did in this department,” he said. see ARABIC, page 4
TO D AY ’ S F O R E C A S T Ramon Stern ’04 says academia and reality are not always on the same page column,page 11
Germain ’04, Dreyer ’03 keep women’s hockey in ECAC title hunt page 12
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