Wednesday, September 4, 2002

W E D N E S D A Y SEPTEMER 4, 2002

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Volume CXXXVII, No. 64

An independent newspaper serving the Brown community since 1891

www.browndailyherald.com

Task force recommends sweeping U. govt changes Proposals would reduce number of faculty committees and disband the Advisory Committee on University Planning

BY ELENA LESLEY

Professors and administrators expressed support Tuesday for a proposal that would dramatically alter the structure of faculty governance at the University, said Professor of Computer Science John Savage.

Savage, chairman of the Task Force on Faculty Governance, said his group’s plan to trim down the 44 faculty committees in existence to a more manageable 13 would streamline decision-making processes.

The proposed system would consist of the six committees currently in operation, seven new committees that would absorb many responsibilities of those being dissee CHANGES, page 6 Josh Apte / Herald

President Ruth Simmons, left, donning traditional academic garb, looks on as the Class of 2006 files onto the Main Green for Convocation exercises. Earlier, a group of first-years, right, passes through the Van Wickle Gates for the first of two trips.

‘Welcome to Brown’

BY ANDY GOLODNY

As the Van Wickle Gates opened Tuesday for the 239th opening Convocation, members of the Class of 2006 stepped through to symbolically begin their Brown education — and a new phase of their lives.

The first-year class formed a long line down College Street and waved back at the crowd of parents, administrators and upperclassmen who gathered on the Main Green to welcome them to Brown.

The bell on top of University Hall rang throughout the 20-minute procession, as President Ruth Simmons and members of the faculty, dressed in full academic regalia, followed the first-years onto the green.

Jacquelynn Henry ’06 was quite pleased to be a part of a day of pomp and tradition.

“I’m nervous about starting classes, but I’m really excited about Convocation,” she said.

Some first-years were taking place not only in a Brown tradition but in a family one as well.

“My dad went to Brown, and it’s good to be doing the same thing that he did 25 years ago,” said James Sholem ’06. “It’s definitely very exciting.”

A new tradition began this year as well. It was the first time that graduate and medical students participated in the walk through the gates.

“I think it’s great — otherwise we would

have had seven straight hours of lectures,” said Katja Goldflam ’02 MD ’06.

Transfer students and Resumed Undergraduate Education students also took part in the procession.

Some Brown seniors watching the procession got nostalgic at the thought of walking through the gates at the end of this year.

“This brings back memories of when we did it,” said Jeffrey Carleton ’03.

“It’s rough because it’s the last one,” said Matt Dykhuizen ’03. “People are already asking me what I’m going to do when I graduate.”

The light mist that fell throughout the ceremony did not damper the crowd’s spirits, as each class cheered when Simmons announced its number.

After the procession concluded, University Chaplain Janet Cooper-Nelson gave the invocation.

President Simmons welcomed the new students to Brown. “A most enthusiastic welcome to the amazing Class of 2006,” she said.

“You are all here not merely to absorb what is available to you but to reveal and transmit the unique perspectives you bring to learning,” Simmons said.

Professor of Computer Science Andries van Dam, who was named the new vice president for research yesterday, gave the

keynote address in which he told the firstyears, “you will live in a science fiction future.”

His speech focused on the great technological changes that society will face in the future, particularly in the areas of biotechnology, nanotechnology and information science.

He urged all students to “develop a passion and be actively engaged in a field of study and involved in a department.”

He also advised the first-years to “experiment academically and socially — take advantage of being at a great liberal arts university.”

After van Dam’s speech, Simmons gave some unscheduled remarks that echoed the themes of inclusiveness and openness from her speech at last year’s convocation.

“Brown is a community of learning and trust that opposes bigotry,” where people should be free from “intimidation and harassment no matter what their background.

“Each of us is responsible for maintaining the highest ethical standards … if you fail in this respect your education is in a sense wasted,” she said.

Herald staff writer Andy Golodny ’03 is a news editor. He can be reached at agolodny @browndailyherald.com.

U. names two insiders to top dean jobs

BY BRIAN BASKIN

Hours after he gave the keynote address at Convocation Tuesday, Professor of Computer Science Andries van Dam was named the University’s first vice president for research. The University also picked Professor of Comparative Literature and English Karen Newman to replace Professor of Chemistry and Physics Peder Estrup as dean of the graduate school.

Both will assume their new duties on Oct. 1.

Andries van Dam Van Dam said he wants to turn the University into a champagne caliber institution, but not on a beer budget.

When the search committee headed by Provost Robert Zimmer asked van Dam to apply for the new position, van Dam said he had reservations. After 37 years on the Brown faculty, van Dam worried that the University, which he said has always done things on too small a scale, would not give him enough resources to do his new job, he said.

But the administration promised that while the resources it provides him might not be up to his champagne tastes, they certainly would not be beer, van Dam said. see DEANS, page 4

I N S I D E W E D N E S D AY, S E P T E M B E R 4 , 2 0 0 2 Decameron Web project continues to thrive out of Italian studies department page 3

Dean Joyce Reed informs The Herald she will step down following academic year page 5

V-Dub renovations get top-notch reviews from Pembroke campus diners page 5

TO D AY ’ S F O R E C A S T Victoria Harris ’03 says U.S. must make equal rights at home before crusading abroad column, page 11

Men’s tennis team announces Jay Harris as new coach for next season page 12

showers high 80 low 58

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

THIS MORNING WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2002 · PAGE 2 A story of Edward Ahn

W E AT H E R TODAY

THURSDAY

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

High 80 Low 58 showers

High 76 Low 51 partly cloudy

High 78 Low 64 mostly cloudy

High 83 Low 63 sunny

GRAPHICS BY TED WU

Party Beulah Farnstrom

CALENDAR READING — “A Night of 1001 Readings,” readings by second-year graduate students. McCormack Family Theater, 70 Brown Street, 8 p.m.

CROSSWORD ACROSS 1 Soothing drink 8 Eggs 11 D’Amato and Gore 14 Freeze after a rain 15 Actress Ullmann 16 Cote cry 17 1959 death row movie 19 Filmmaker Lee 20 Auctioneer’s word 21 Exhibits in court, e.g.

23 1937 Gary Cooper movie 27 Lucite or Plexiglas 30 Thesaurus wds.

31 “__ you getting this?”

32 Thing 34 Duty 38 Bad review 39 2000 Ryan O’Neal film 43 Woody’s ex 44 Many 46 The Green Hornet’s sidekick 47 Volcanic residue 48 Richard of “Love Me Tender” 52 Glue base 54 1997 film subtitled “Jurassic Park 2” 58 One in custody 59 Avian Australians 63 Cultivated Eastern carp 64 1956 biopic about Van Gogh 68 Key in a corner 69 Mel who hit 511 homers 70 Reviewer of books 71 CIA relative 72 Director Craven 73 Malady DOWN 1 Scoreboard column 2 Off-the-wall reply?

3 Lively dance 4 With courage

5 Dam builder since ’33 6 Widish shoe sizes 7 Expertise 8 Oil source 9 Spread nasty rumors about 10 Longtime Vogue photographer Richard 11 It’s good to go out with one 12 Knight stick 13 “Full House” costar Bob 18 Cat call 22 Once, once 24 Send out 25 Adam’s youngest 26 Apple or pear 27 Smurf elder 28 Out of the mouths of babes, say 29 Letterman competitor 33 Jan. 15 monogram 35 Latin I word 36 Señor’s “Sure thing!”

37 Madeline of “Clue”

40 “Othello” schemer 41 Game ending?

42 Bridge charge 45 Phone front?

49 Creep along 50 Keen 51 Weapons tryouts, for short 53 Antarctic penguin 54 Not available 55 Perot of politics

56 Writer Jong 57 More than damp 60 Big name in copiers 61 Twinkling hoverers, so some say 62 Withered 65 Craze 66 Yves’ “yes” 67 Hwy., blvd., etc.

DMAAG: Divorced, Middle-Aged, Alcoholic Gang Yuri Zhukov and Dash Riprock

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE: A M B L E

H A L E Y

E P I C

B O O R

F O W L

E R I E

A D A G E

B E C A L M B S L U E P J E E L A L N E S T

I S A A S E N N K M A G I M U S L S E E T E E T P A N A B E R R I R E T A R S E L L E D E C R U G O O S E L V E R E E D

C A C H E S E M A E S D I F C L A E B S S

L O G J A M

S T R A W P O L S L T A M T O U M E M S A

A R A B

T A B S

T R I O

Y E L P

U N P I N

P E S T S

Pornucopia Eli Swiney

9/4/02

xwordeditor@aol.com

Stumped? Call 1-900-226-4413. 99 cents a minute 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

14 18

20

21 23 28

24

25

11

32 39

16 19

Cookie’s Grandma is Jewish Saul Kerschner

22

33

34 40

45 48 55

13

30

38 44

12

26

29

31

54

10

15

17

27

9

41

42

46 49

50

51

56

35

36

37

61

62

43 47

52

53

57

58

59

63

64

65

68

69

70

71

72

73

66

60

67

By Leonard Williams (c)2002 Tribune Media Services, Inc.

join us

write THURSDAY, SEPT. 5 @ 7 P.M. SUNDAY, SEPT. 8 @ 7 P.M. TUESDAY, SEPT. 10 @ 9 P.M. WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 11 @ 7 P.M.

open houses

MENUS

9/4/02

THE RATTY LUNCH — vegetarian squash bisque, turkey and wild rice soup, shaved steak sandwich, broccoli cheese pie, French style green beans, chocolate frosted eclairs

V-DUB LUNCH — vegetarian squash bisque, turkey and wild rice soup, chicken pot pie, vegan Tex-Mex chili, sugar snap peas, chocolate frosted eclairs

DINNER —vegetarian squash bisque, Cajun chicken with pasta, pork chops with seasoned crumbs, shoepeg corn casserole, roasted herb potatoes, sliced beets, fresh vegetable melange, honey corn bread, cherry pie

DINNER — vegetarian squash bisque, turkey and wild rice soup, chopped sirloin with onion sauce, lasagna with meat or meatless sauce, oven browned potatoes, Belgian carrots, sauteed broccoli with garlic, honey corn bread, cherry pie

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD, INC. Editorial Phone: 401.351.3372

The Brown Daily Herald (USPS 067.740) is published Monday through Friday during the aca-

Business Phone: 401.351.3260

demic year, excluding vacations, once during Commencement, once during Orientation and

David Rivello, President

once in July by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. POSTMASTER please send corrections to P.O. Box

Beth Farnstrom, Vice President

2538, Providence, RI 02906. Periodicals postage paid at Providence, R.I. Offices are located at 195

Seth Kerschner, Vice President

Angell St., Providence, R.I. E-mail herald@browndailyherald.com. World Wide Web:

Stacey Doynow, Treasurer

http://www.browndailyherald.com. Subscription prices: $135 first class daily, $85 first class

Jamie Wolosky, Secretary

weekly. Copyright 2002 by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

ACADEMIC WATCH WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2002 · PAGE 3

IN BRIEF New interdisciplinary graduate program for Italian Studies dept The University’s Academic Council last spring approved the creation of an interdisciplinary graduate program in Italian Studies, which aimed to enrich the academic offerings by uniting teaching and research in multiple fields.

This week, Chair of the Italian Studies department Massimo Riva told The Herald that he believes the program will invigorate his department.

“We’re very good in moving towards an interdisciplinary structure and trying to link in interesting ways research and teaching,” Riva said. “Our program is an example of that ‘university-college’ idea that Ruth Simmons talks about.”

Alongside the creation of the program came the installation of two joint faculty appointments. David Kertzer, chair of the department of anthropology, and Evelyn Lincoln, assistant professor of the history of art and architecture, joined the new program in addition to performing their regular duties.

In addition, the University hired a new professor to replace Anthony Oldcorn, former chair of the department, who retired last year. His replacement, Professor Ronald Martinez from the University of Minnesota, is one of the leading scholars on the works and life of Dante.

“He continues in the tradition of Italian Studies at Brown, which is particularly rich,” Riva said.

There are currently 10 graduate students completing Ph.D.s in the department. The class entering in the fall of 2003 will be the first under the new program.

“Italian Studies has reinvented itself as an interdisciplinary department,” Riva said.

“I think we’re one of the leading Italian Studies departments in the country,” he said.

— Stephanie Harris

Research shines light on heart attacks,strokes

BY STEPHANIE HARRIS

Brown scientists say they have identified proteins that initiate blood clots, and their breakthrough research could eventually prevent strokes, heart attacks and help treat cancer.

In the June 15 issue of “Blood,” Brown scientists described how Arp2/3, a complex of seven proteins found in living cells, can facilitate blood clots.

In recent research, Associate Professors of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Dr. Elaine Bearer and Joseph Sweeney and Jam Prakash GS, showed that the protein complex is required to initiate clotting.

“We’ve definitively identified this Arp2/3 complex as the initiator of cell shape change in platelets,” Bearer said.

Bearer, the project’s senior researcher, co-authored the paper with Eric Kim ’02, who now attends medical school at Vanderbilt University.

Scientists say Arp2/3 could someday help prevent strokes and heart attacks.

“If you can stop blood clotting, you can intervene in heart attacks, and you can intervene in strokes. One goal of all this work would be to intervene in those very serious diseases,” Bearer said.

Although scientists have only shown that Arp2/3 affects platelet shape, Bearer said she hopes to find the complex’s role in other processes.

“Since (the protein) is expressed in most other cells, we believe it will also turn out to be the initiator for cell shape in many other biological processes,” she said.

Medical students Barham Kamal Abu Dayyeh GS ’05 and Paul George GS ’05 are trying to determine whether cancer cells use Arp2/3 to spread through the body and see BLOOD, page 6

Decameron Web merges medieval, moderno

BY STEPHANIE HARRIS

Several years ago, a group of Brown professors and students placed the works of author Giovanni Boccaccio on the Web. Now, original texts and translations of one of the foremost writers of medieval Italy, along with illustrations, critical essays, links and audio materials, can be accessed with the click of a mouse.

Massimo Riva, chair of the Department of Italian Studies, thought up the Decameron Web Project in 1993.

“The point is to see how Web-based technology can help in the learning process of medieval texts,” said Riva, who is one of the directors of the project.

The Web site includes Boccaccio’s Decameron, a series of 100 short stories written in medieval Italy. The Decameron is narrated by 10 storytellers escaping the bubonic plague. Each storyteller tells one story a night for ten nights. The stories in the Decameron present a microcosm of medieval life and are the first known example of short stories.

The Decameron project aims to demonstrate “how contemporary informational technology can facilitate, enhance and innovate the complex cognitive and learning activities involved in reading a late medieval literary text like Boccaccio’s Decameron,” according to the project’s Web site.

Along with the original Italian text are English translations, information about each narrator, information about the history, society, religion and culture of medieval Italy, paintings of scenes in the text and a search function allowing users to search for keywords in either the text or the accompanying essays. There are also resources for students and teachers and information relating to the course IT102, Boccaccio’s Decameron.

The Web site also allows readers to explore the Decameron in ways not previously possible. On the site, a reader can choose to read stories by a certain narrator or see ITALIAN, page 4

PAGE 4 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2002

Italian continued from page 3 just those dealing with a certain theme. The Web allows readers to browse the text in a non-linear fashion, enabling them to jump to related sites or additional material without interrupting the flow of their studies.

The Decameron project is geared toward college and high school teachers and students, according to the Web site, but there are exceptions.

“Independent readers and scholars interested in the Decameron itself or aspects of it that are related to their specific areas of interest will benefit from it, regardless of their geographic location or institutional affiliation,” the site says.

Each year, IT102 students put their best work on the Web site for the benefit of successive generations of students. This adds an interactive component to the Web site and to the accompanying class.

The project contains “a very important connection between a research type of project and a pedagogical project,” Riva said.

Though professors and graduate

Deans continued from page 1 President Ruth Simmons’ Initiative for Academic Enrichment showed him that the administration was serious, van Dam said.

After reviewing candidates this summer, the committee chose van Dam. van Dam said he hopes to propel Brown into the top tier of research institutions by addressing the two most common faculty complaints: that they’re overworked and underpaid.

Professors should receive larger incentives to take on innovative research projects, he said. The University should also help professors and students work through the research proposal process and provide more lab space and other physical resources, he added.

Even with infinite resources, Brown’s research programs won’t turn around overnight, van Dam said. The University must hire entrepreneurial professors willing to work across departments on more ambitious projects.

Van Dam said he hopes to recreate the spirit and success of the brain sciences program, which draws on world class scientists in 12 departments in its quest to understand the most complex workings of the mind.

He also worries that Brown isn’t

student researchers write most of the content for the project, students use the material in the classroom, and students’ insights and projects greatly aid the Web site, Riva said.

“It’s a good thing to have both graduate and undergraduate students working at the same time,” he said.

Riva said he considers students an integral part of the project, not just beneficiaries of it.

“There’s a lot we can learn from students,” he said.

Students bring their own interests to the project, adding to its richness. Biology students wrote about the plague, modern culture and media students analyzed the work in terms of feminist, Marxist and film theory and history students researched the historical background of the Decameron.

Some music students studied medieval songs and instruments and have recorded themselves in order to have authentic audio clips on the site.

Thanks to a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the project is now in its fourth year under federal support.

“The NEH grant has allowed us to give the opportunity to several

brilliant young scholars to work together as a team,” Riva said.

The Scholarly Technology Group, a part of Computing and Information Services, supports the technical aspects of the project.

“They’re our main collaborator for the technological parts of the project,” Riva said.

Two post-doctorate fellows, Guyda Armstrong, an Andrew Mellon Fellow, and Cristiana Fordyce, the project manager, assist Riva with the project. Professor Michael Papio of Holy Cross University also aids Riva in the direction of the project.

Since the project’s inception in 1994, the Web site has grown and changed as new material was added and the technology supporting the site improved. As scholarship continues to produce new commentary and research materials, and as students invent new and interesting ways of looking at the medieval text, the Web site will continue to be updated.

“This is the first electronic resource like this,” Riva said.

“Nothing similar exists.”

taking advantage of its existing research. The University holds remarkably few patents for its size and does little to retain control of its inventions compared to other top universities, Van Dam said.

The Brown Research Foundation currently maintains patents, but like many Brown enterprises, it too must be expanded, he said.

Van Dam earned the second computer science Ph.D. awarded in the United States from the University of Pennsylvania before coming to Brown in 1965. He helped build Brown’s computer science program, now widely recognized as one of the strongest in the nation.

“I think his heart and soul are in the right place,” said Vice President for Public Affairs and University Relations Laura Freid.

“He is also an inspirational leader, and I think many people may have realized after hearing his opening convocation,” she said.

“He has been a favorite teacher for a decade.”

Van Dam will continue to teach his two courses, CS15: “Introduction to Object-Oriented Programming and Computer Science” and CS123: “Introduction to Computer Graphics.”

graduate school dean position, Estrup said.

Formerly the dean needed enough technical understanding to oversee science and engineering research. As a result, most recent deans were drawn from the sciences, Estrup said.

Brown has 1,350 graduate students. In recent years its research has grown exponentially, Freid said.

“It was a job becoming too big for one person,” Freid said.

Newman’s immediate goal will be to recruit and retain top graduate students to improve the graduate school’s position among its peers, Newman said in a Brown News Service press release.

Newman came to Brown in 1978 in the Comparative Literature Department. She headed the Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women from 1988 to 1992 and was named university professor in 1995.

Newman was a member of the University Task Force on Graduate Education that issued a report on the strength of the school’s programs in 1997.

“She did an outstanding job on that task force,” said Estrup, who served alongside her. “Newman is a very good example. She is an outstanding scholar.”

Newman was unavailable for comment.

Karen Newman Newman’s passion for humanities will balance van Dam’s nearly 40 years in the sciences, demonstrating the wisdom behind splitting the

Herald staff writer Stephanie Harris ’04 edits the academic watch section.

She can be reached at sharris@browndailyherald.com.

Herald staff writer Brian Baskin ’04 can be reached at bbaskin@browndailyherald.com.

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

CAMPUS NEWS WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2002 · PAGE 5

Dean Joyce Reed ’61 to step down after this year

BY JULIETTE WALLACK

Seth Kerschner / Herald

The V-dub reopened Tuesday after extensive renovations that began in March. New features include expanded serving stations and improved cuisine, all of which have received largely positive reviews from diners.

Renovated V-Dub grabs rave reviews

BY EMIR SENTURK

Students, hungry for a taste of something both new and — according to many — delicious, descended on the newly-renovated Verney-Woolley Dining Hall Tuesday evening.

The remodeled V-Dub features expanded serving stations offering a variety of menu items including pasta, rice, salad, deli selections and grilled and broiled foods. To relieve congestion, beverages are located in the adjacent dining rooms.

“This place is fantastic,” said Erica Meredith ’05 as she sat with friends and enjoyed a dinner of mixedgreen salad and medium-rare veal London broil after “actual chefs” prepared and served her food.

“A part of us wishes we hadn’t moved across campus this year,” she added.

Meredith took a seat at one of the new tables in the

dining hall, which had been closed since mid-March.

New flatware, dishes, lighting, carpeting and tiling were also added as part of the renovation.

Sarah Munro ’05 said the new food was “ridiculously amazing.”

Munro also lived near the V-Dub last year.

“Everything from the bread to the salad to the cake is so fresh,” she said.

Countless structural alterations to the serving and dining area accompany the new food.

“Space is definitely the biggest change we’ve seen over the summer,” said Janet Hillier, manager of the VDub. Hillier added that the dining hall’s new layout, which includes several serving stations with different selections, is also an improvement.

After 12 years in Brown’s administration, Joyce Reed ’61, associate dean of the college, told The Herald she will step down at the end of the academic year.

Reed said Friday that she plans to leave her full-time position at the end of this semester but will continue to supervise the Meiklejohn advising program on a parttime basis.

Reed said she was taking a part-time position her last year at Brown rather than retiring because “I can’t leave my Meiklejohns. They’re great kids.”

Laura Freid, vice president of public affairs and University relations, said Reed was taking an early retirement that would partially begin this semester so she could “work on an exciting new venture” with William Caskey ’85, a former admission counselor for alumni relations.

That business venture, called connectedu, will assist high school seniors and juniors making decisions about college, Freid said. Craig Powell ’00 is also working on the project.

Reed said Caskey’s expertise in college admission coupled with her own experience in university administration prepared them for their new project.

“I’m really excited about the opportunity to help and guide the families and young people,” Reed said. “It can be harrowing for the families to go through the college search process.”

But, Reed “really is very dedicated to Brown,” Freid said.

Reed said she is attached to the Meiklejohn program.

“I’ve been with that program for nine years,” she said.

“I’m really excited by what it’s contributed to Brown.”

After graduating from Pembroke College in 1961, Reed spent 25 years away from Brown. Before returning in 1990 to serve as associate dean of special studies, Reed spent five years at the University of Washington, and in 1970, she moved to Hawaii with her husband, where she homeschooled her children.

When Reed returned to Brown in 1990 with her five children, she created programming for the Brown Learning Community, which offers noncredit evening

see V-DUB, page 6 see REED, page 6

PAGE 6 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2002

Reed continued from page 5 and weekend classes, courses for college graduates who wish to receive credit and courses for retired and semi-retired adults.

Reed’s involvement at Brown and in Providence has extended across generations of her family — two of Reed’s five children attended Brown.

Freid said that as of yet there is no search or call for applications for Reed’s replacement. Part of the reason Reed is staying at

Brown through the spring is because Paul Armstrong, dean of the College, would like to train her successor with Reed’s help, Freid said.

“She knows so much about how to advise the Meiklejohns,” Freid said. “She’s been a real treasure for the community. A fantastic dean, a great counselor, and really, I would say the inspiration for the Meiklejohn program.”

Herald staff writer Juliette Wallack ’05 covers faculty and administration. She can be reached at jwallack@browndailyherald.com.

Changes continued from page 1 continued and nine administrative advisory boards. The proposed system would also eliminate the Advisory Committee on University Planning.

“The faculty government system at Brown has grown a little like the British constitution,” said Chair of the Faculty and Associate Professor of Anthropology William Beeman.

“Anytime we had a problem, we created a new committee. There have been some attempts at reform, but the revisions were piecemeal and specific to each committee.”

President Ruth Simmons’ arrival last fall led faculty to examine problems with the University’s government. In April, the Faculty Executive Committee created the eight-member task force to examine the problem more closely.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Simmons told the faculty that reform must be made a priority.

“If we’re incapable of making efficient and timely decisions,” she said, it will be very difficult to undertake the challenge of academic and institutional renewal.

“We’re doing this in the spirit of Ruth,” Savage said. “Usually these kinds of major changes require a revolution.”

Nancy Armstrong, task force vice chairman and chair of the English Department, said that under the current system, many

committees were formed in opposition to the administration and “over battles that are now past.”

She cited ACUP as an example of this phenomenon, saying that it was created in the early 1970s because faculty members thought the University was spending money irresponsibly.

Over time, ACUP’s function as an oversight organization diminished, and it is now a relatively obsolete body that deals with only a small fraction of the University’s budget, Armstrong said.

If the proposal is approved, ACUP would be disbanded and the organization’s duties would be taken up by the newly-created University Resources Committee.

Unlike ACUP, which holds open meetings, URC would primarily meet behind closed doors.

Savage said that ACUP’s open meetings “discourage frank conversation.”

But URC would have more responsibilities than ACUP, Savage said. Currently, critics contend that ACUP acts only as a rubber stamp for the budget prepared by the University Budget Office. Under the proposed system, URC would be consulted in the early stages of budget planning, Savage said.

“Students will have a greater voice but will have to keep more confidences,” Savage said of the proposed URC. Savage said the proposed reorganization would cut down on the number of unfilled commit-

“We’re using (this research) as a tool to get at even bigger questions,” Bearer said. “It’s one piece of knowledge we can use to get inside a cell and look for more about how these processes of cell movement and shape change can work.”

Eventually, Bearer hopes to discover if “this one molecular event inside a platelet — shape change — gives rise to a disease process that will kill a person,” she said.

“I believe that in my lab I can discover things that can have a bigger impact for more people.

If I can understand the fundamental biology that gives rise to these major diseases, major pathology for people, then that would help a lot of people,” she said.

Blood continued from page 3 “set up shop,” Bearer said.

“Blood clotting and cancer account for 70 percent of deaths of Americans,” she said.

Bearer said the research described in the June 15 paper was her biggest discovery and stemmed from a project she started in 1987 as a post-doctorate fellow at the University of California at San Francisco.

When she left UCSF for Brown, she brought the project with her.

In her research, Bearer used an approach known as “proteomics,” the study of how proteins interact in a particular process. In looking at how human platelets change shape, Bearer said she hoped to understand how other cells change shape as well.

Herald staff writer Stephanie Harris ’04 edits the academic watch section and can be reached at sharris@browndailyherald.com.

tee positions.

“There aren’t enough people to fill the (237) slots” on the 44 existing faculty committees, Armstrong said. “So a select group of masochists end up serving over and over again.”

Under the current system, many faculty members have been reluctant to accept committee positions because they think their suggestions won’t be taken seriously by the administration, she said.

“You were considered kind of a fool to serve,” she added.

Savage said that reducing the number of committee positions to 70 and solidifying bonds between faculty members and administrators would create an exchange “where both parties can take each other more seriously.”

The task force will meet with undergraduate student groups today at 1 p.m. to discuss the proposal, and a faculty-wide forum is scheduled for Sept. 10.

Savage emphasized that the proposal is in its initial stages and the task force is open to outside suggestions.

The faculty is expected to formally vote on the task force’s proposal Nov. 5, Savage said.

“There are people that have issues and we want to discuss those issues,” he said. “This is still a very open process.”

Herald staff writer Elena Lesley ’04 is a news editor. She can be reached at elesley@browndailyherald.com.

V-Dub continued from page 5 Students, however, complained more about the new organization than anything else Tuesday.

“There’s a lot more space, but the flow is not so good,” said Nikki Ross Reyes ’05.

“They could really use some signs,” added Randy Rempp ’05.

Responding to what looked like an onslaught of hungry students, Hillier expressed complete confidence in the new system and said she felt the student body would get used to it soon.

“It’s a new system, and therefore will take time to get used to, but it will better enable us to serve our customers,” Hillier said.

“You guys learn quickly.”

Herald staff writer Emir Senturk ’05 can be reached at esenturk@browndailyherald.com.

write join us

H E R A L D

@

articles columns letters reviews features news

B R O W N D A I LY H E R A L D

.

C O M

the brown daily herald

W W W

.

B R O W N D A I L Y H E R A L D

.

C O M

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

WORLD & NATION WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2002 · PAGE 7

IN BRIEF Film director J. Lee Thompson, 88, dies (L. A. Times) — J. Lee Thompson, the British-born film director

best known for the World War II action drama “The Guns of Navarone,” the original “Cape Fear” and a string of Charles Bronson action thrillers made during a four-decade directing career, has died. He was 88.

Thompson, who also introduced a young Haley Mills to the screen, died of congestive heart failure Friday at his summer home in Sooke, on Vancouver Island, British Columbia.

In a directing career that began in 1950 and spanned 56 films, Thompson’s credits include four films starring Gregory Peck (“The Guns of Navarone,”‘Cape Fear,” ‘Mackenna’s Gold” and “The Chairman”) and nine films starring Charles Bronson, including “Death Wish 4: The Crackdown”“The Evil That Men Do,”“Messenger of Death” and “Murphy’s Law.” He also directed “Taras Bulba,”“John Goldfarb, Please Come Home,”“What a Way to Go!,” the 1974 musical version of “Huckleberry Finn,”“The Reincarnation of Peter Proud,”“The Greek Tycoon” and two Planet of the Apes films — ”Conquest of the Planet of the Apes” and “Battle for the Planet of the Apes.”

Study links food to pancreatic cancer (Newsday) — Women who are overweight and inactive and consume diets high in starchy foods may dramatically elevate their risk of pancreatic cancer, one of the deadliest and most difficult malignancies to treat, a team of Harvard University scientists will report Wednesday.

“What we’re really talking about here is insulin’s role” in the cause of pancreatic cancer, said Dr. Charles Fuchs, a gastroenterologist and cancer researcher at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. Insulin is a hormone produced by the pancreas in the presence of glucose (blood sugar). It is insulin’s job to lower the amount of sugar that floods the bloodstream after a meal.

Fuchs and his team targeted potatoes, white rice and white or rye bread as key culprits in the cancer-producing scenario because these foods raise the “glycemic index,” the amount of sugar in the blood. The more sugar in the blood, he said, the greater the need for insulin. The hormone is capable of fueling the development of cancer cells, the researchers say.

Reporting in Wednesday’s Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Fuchs and his colleagues relied on the Nurses’ Health Study, a national epidemiologic analysis of 89,000 female nurses. The research team reviewed their dietary records, logging how much and what kinds of sugars they consumed.

Findings show that women with high glycemic loads were 53 percent more likely to develop pancreatic cancer than were those whose glycemic loads were lower.

Despite the study’s focus on women, Fuchs said he believes the same high-carb scenario may apply to men.

Pancreatic cancer is typically aggressive and one of the least curable malignancies. Nearly 30,000 men and women are diagnosed with it each year in the United States.

Woolsey to advise NYFD on terror NEW YORK (Newsday) — Mayor Michael Bloomberg Tuesday

named a former CIA director to lead a task force on preparing the fire department for any future terrorist attacks.

James Woolsey, a CIA director under President Clinton and a staple of cable news talk shows since the Sept. 11 attacks, will serve as chief adviser on a panel also stocked with a nuclear physicist, a Nobel Prize winner and a former chief of Israeli intelligence.

“We have to develop an expertise and a level of preparedness that we have never had to deal with before,” Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta said.

The move continues a trend started by Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, who hired retired Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Frank Libutti and David Cohen, a veteran CIA analyst, to run his anti-terror operation.

Woolsey, who served as CIA director from 1993 to 1995, described his job as “assessing what the department needs and answering questions from the department.” He said the panel will meet largely by conference call.

Woolsey, a vice president of Booz, Allen & Hamilton security firm who will work on a pro bono basis, said he felt indebted to the fire department because firefighters “hustled” his son Benjamin out of the trade center moments before the south tower collapsed.

Cuomo drops out of Senate race NEW YORK (Washington Post) — Former U.S. Housing Secretary Andrew Cuomo, seeking the New York governor’s office once held by his father, suddenly withdrew from the race Tuesday, just a week before the Democratic primary, and pledged his support to State Comptroller H. Carl McCall.

Running behind and remaining stagnant in the polls, Cuomo portrayed his actions as a step toward party unity.

“Sometimes when you try to communicate too many ideas, sometimes you end up communicating nothing, and in part the campaign did that,” Cuomo said at a news conference with former President Clinton and other politicians at his side.

“I fell behind in the polls in July and August ... and I accept full responsibility for the way the campaign was run,” added Cuomo, the eldest son of former Gov. Mario M. Cuomo.

He said he rejected the recommendation of advisers, who urged a last-minute, $2-million blitz of negative commercials.

“I will not close the gap in an election by opening one in the body politic,” Cuomo said. “While it’s harder for me to step back than step forward, today I step back.”

Once the Democratic front-runner, Cuomo slipped badly after he charged that Gov. George Pataki had ceded leadership after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center to then-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. Cuomo said Pataki had merely “held the leader’s coat.”

Cuomo was criticized broadly for his remark — and even his father said it was a political error.

Obviously elated, McCall welcomed Cuomo’s support and joked, “All this was supposed to happen next Tuesday. That’s one thing about politics. It’s always unpredictable.”

Even by the often bizarre standards of politics in the Empire State, Cuomo’s action was unusual. “Nothing comes to mind historically,” said Steven Cohen, a professor of public policy at Columbia University. “People have pulled out of a race before, but nothing like this.”

Polls had shown Cuomo more than 20 points behind McCall, who ran a steady campaign stressing themes of a first-class education for all children, affordable health care and housing and greater job opportunities in the state.

McCall, 66, who with Cuomo’s withdrawal will

become the state’s first black nominee for governor from a major party, repeatedly accused Pataki of inattention to the economy.

Cuomo, 44, initially enjoyed a lead in the polls over McCall and proved to be a strong fund-raiser. But politicians and political consultants said his blunder in attacking Pataki after Sept. 11 represented a combative campaign style ill-suited to the politics of healing after the twin towers tragedy.

Clinton and his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, proclaimed neutrality in the race.

But as McCall’s lead in the polls soared and held steady, signs appeared that they were leaning toward the comptroller, who stressed to voters his rise from poverty, his prior experience as a deputy ambassador to the United Nations and as a vice president of Citibank.

Polls show McCall facing an uphill fight against Pataki, who defeated Cuomo’s father eight years ago.

Even with Cuomo’s withdrawal, the New York governors’ race has been one of the most frustrating in the nation for Democrats. Although New York state is heavily Democratic — it gave both Al Gore and Bill Clinton nearly 2-million-vote margins in the past two presidential elections, and Democrats hold both Senate seatsthe party was unable to mount a serious challenge to Pataki in 1998.

And even with a clear path to the nomination now, it is unclear that McCall can press the incumbent this time, either. Pataki, with his support of gun control and legalized abortion and many environmental causes, doesn’t present Democrats with the usual targets they have used effectively in recent elections to defeat Republican gubernatorial candidates in other big coastal states, including California and New Jersey.

Pataki has been further solidified by a positive public reaction to his performance in the days after the Sept.

11 attacks.

McCall’s expected nomination next week will give Democrats a second high-profile black nominee in one of the nation’s largest states. In Texas, former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk is seeking to become only the third black to serve in the Senate since Reconstruction.

Cuomo’s future is less certain. Although he’s still young, this campaign leaves some professionals wondering if his intense and often prickly personality is too polarizing for voters.

Coercive inspections an option in Iraq WASHINGTON (L.A.Times) — In a bid to forge a global strategy toward Iraq and prevent any wiggle room for President Saddam Hussein, the Bush administration is exploring tough proposals for “extremely aggressive” inspections that would force Baghdad to cede its deadliest weapons quickly or face immediate punitive action, according to U.S. officials.

The proposals center on “coercive inspections,” which would speed the search for weapons and potentially even back up the inspectors with thousands of U.S. or multinational troops deployed in or around Iraq.

One idea under consideration suggests that if inspectors are turned away from a site suspected of producing or hiding weapons of mass destruction, foreign troops could shoot their way in, according to sources familiar with the proposals.

Another idea for the “comply-or-else” effort suggests that inspectors go quickly to the most sensitive Iraqi sites suspected of links to nuclear, biological or chemical weapons or ballistic missiles. If Baghdad refuses access, the inspectors would report immediately to the United Nations, with the implicit understanding that a single refusal could provoke or justify a full military assault to oust the regime.

“The thinking is still in the early stages, but coercive inspections are one way of bringing the international community into the planning of what happens next. It could also serve as a causus belli (cause for justifying war) when the Iraqis refuse to abide by it, as they will,” said a wellplaced U.S. official who requested anonymity.

Some of the proposals might require a new U.N. resolution, particularly if Iraq is called on to accept the deployment of foreign troops. Although debate is likely to be vigorous, U.S. officials predicted, other members of the Security Council might end up supporting the tough proposals as a way to avoid an imminent war.

It is also an alternative to a type of inspection that

proved unsuccessful at tracking down weapons of mass destruction. Baghdad dragged what was supposed to be an 18-month process, begun at the end of the Persian Gulf War, into almost eight years of U.N. inspections, which continued until 1998 — when the last team departed because of imminent U.S. airstrikes. Iraq refused to allow them to return.

As currently structured, the U.N. inspections call for a methodical — and very slow — process of first building a baseline of suspected sites and then systematically tracking down weapons, equipment and documents and setting up monitors to ensure that facilities are not used again for arms production. Creating a baseline alone could take as long as a year, if done properly, and would delay Washington’s ability to act militarily, according to former weapons inspectors.

Coercive sanctions also are designed to avoid a fatal flaw from the earlier inspectors’ standoffs with the Iraqi government. In one 1992 episode at Baghdad’s Ministry of Agriculture, U.N. inspectors were kept from entering the building as Iraqi officials were seen carrying boxes of documents related to nuclear programs out the back door.

Because the U.N. inspections had no backup, the incident passed without consequences — and former inspectors are not sure to this day that they ever obtained all the documents.

In the past, the chief weapons inspector was mandated to chronicle violations and report them to the Security Council every few months.

The new proposals reflect the growing debate on inspections as the focus shifts from military strategy to the political challenges of confronting Baghdad. What to do about the inspections process, mandated by the United Nations and long supported by the United States, is the question on which the timing — and perhaps the outcome — of the administration’s confrontation with Iraq might turn.

PAGE 8 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2002

West Nile virus transferred through organ transplant (Washington Post) — At least three of the four people who grew ill or died after receiving organs from a woman infected with the West Nile virus have also been found to have been infected with the microbe, adding to the evidence that the potentially fatal disease can be transmitted by donated organs or blood.

Federal health officials Tuesday sought to reassure the public, saying that although no test is yet available to detect West Nile virus in donated blood or organs they believe the nation’s blood and organ supply is extremely safe. There remains the possibility that all the cases were caused by mosquito bites, which

so far remain the only proven means of spreading the disease.

Nonetheless, officials said they were mounting a massive dragnet to track down each of the scores of people who either donated or received blood or organs related to the recently identified cases, in an effort prove or disprove a link by donation.

No policy changes with regard to blood or organ donations are currently justified, officials said.

But the Food and Drug Administration has reminded blood banks to be vigilant in their rejection of donors that appear to be ill with West Nile’s flu-like symptoms. And an advisory is

being prepared for distribution to organ procurement organizations, telling them to pay close attention to daily updates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the FDA. “At the moment there is no evidence that the nation’s blood supply has been contaminated at all,” said James Hughes, director of the CDC’s National Center for Infectious Diseases. At the same time, Hughes said, “We have to aggressively pursue the possibility that a blood product was responsible for this.”

The new picture of risk began to come into focus last week with the diagnosis of West Nile in a Florida organ recipient and the

appearance of West Nile symptoms, including life-threatening encephalitis, in the three others who received organs from the same Georgia donor. The new finding that three of those four recipients definitely had West Nile after getting the organs—including the one who died—offers strong, though not definitive, evidence that the disease can be spread through blood products, organs or both, experts said.

Tests on the fourth organ recipient, a 71-year-old Florida woman who is recuperating at home, have not been completed.

Federal health officials also revealed Tuesday that the organ donor, an automobile accident

victim, received blood products that had been pooled from about 60 people before she succumbed to her injuries in the hospital — far more than the 37 blood-product donors officials had initially been aware of. That complicates the ongoing effort to trace all those people and the unknown number of patients who may also have received blood products from those donors.

The CDC and FDA hope that by testing for the presence of the West Nile virus in all of those people and in various saved blood specimens they will be able to tell where the infections originated and how likely it is that the virus can be spread by blood or organs.

Summit goers briefly review women’s issues JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (L.A. Times) — The touchy issue of

women’s rights and reproductive health caused delegates at a U.N. development summit here to stumble briefly Tuesday in their mad dash to wrap up a global plan to reduce poverty and simultaneously protect the planet.

Final negotiations on the plan were completed Monday.

However, delegates from Canada and Europe succeeded in the early morning hours Wednesdayto reopen the document and slip in a few words they said were needed to guarantee women’s rights to contraception, safe abortion and other reproductive services.

“We won. We won,” said June Zeitlin, executive director of the nonprofit Women’s Environment and Development Organization.

“Never underestimate the women of the world.”

Zeitlin and U.N. officials said language inserted in the health care paragraph of the plan matches wording used in other international declarations on the topic.

Their efforts had been opposed by a coalition that includes the United States, the Vatican and conservative Islamic countries.

After hours of intense negotiations, Zeitlin said, delegates “added the language that we’ve been asking for and put it in a slightly different place in the paragraph,” she said. “It’s a distinction without a difference, but it saved face.”

The 10-day World Summit on Sustainable Development is scheduled to end Wednesday.

The more than 100 assembled heads of state or government are expected to adopt the plan, which is designed to bring clean water, sanitation and energy to the poor while protecting the

environment and preventing further extinction of species.

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell — standing in for President Bush — arrived at the conference late Tuesday and will address the gathering Wednesday. His speech will follow two days of on-again, offagain Bush bashing, mostly over the issue of global warming.

Other world leaders continued to express their disappointment that the United States abandoned the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty to control greenhouse gases that are blamed for rapid climate changes.

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail M. Kasyanov on Tuesday used the world stage here to announce that his nation would soon ratify the Kyoto Protocol, following by one day a similar announcement by Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2002 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD PAGE 9

Trade groups watching Spa and Pool Institute lawsuits (Washington Post) — The National Spa and

Pool Institute, an Alexandria, Va., trade group for pool contractors, has landed in hot water over itsdecades-old practice of setting voluntary pool safety standards for its members.

Four plaintiffs who were injured in pool accidents are seeking $71 million in damages from the NSPI, arguing that its standards aren’t strict enough. Last week, the institute filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in part to avoid being wiped out if it loses those court fights.

The 5,200-member trade group was hit with an $8.8 million judgment in a similar case four years ago. Not wanting a repeat, it filed for bankruptcy to halt the litigation, said Stephen Gallagher, an Alexandria attorney for the NSPI. “These lawsuits are essentially due to an allegation that our standards were somehow the cause of those accidents,” Gallagher said. “We deny those claims.

We hope to resolve those lawsuits without litigation. But even a lawsuit that’s frivolous has its costs. This (bankruptcy) gives us a little breathing room.”

The case the pool group lost in 1998 to Shawn Meneely, a 6-foot-4, 16-yearold Washington state resident who was left a quadriplegic after slamming into the up-sloping bottom of a residential pool in 1991, has worried the many trade groups that set voluntary standards for the making and use of their members’ products.

Washington area trade associations, many of which set standards for their members, are watching the NSPI situation closely, fearing they could face similar problems. Most of the organizations promulgate standards both to ward off state or federal regulation as well as to encourage workplace and consumer safety and compatibility for different kinds of products or equipment.

In the Meneely case, the NSPI denied having anything to do with the youth’s injuries, even indirectly. The trade group contended that the pool Meneely dived into was not built to the voluntary standards it set for contractors for the depth in the deep end of residential pools, which is usually 8 to 8 1/2 feet depending on various factors, and that the pool should not have had a diving board. The depth of the pool was inches shy of the NSPI standard.

Washington state courts upheld an $11 million judgment against the trade group and other defendants, ordering the NSPI to pay $6.6 million of that, a judgment that eventually amounted to $8.8 million including interest. The trade group filed for bankruptcy protection in 1998 after the Meneely judgment, eventually paid the damages and emerged from bankruptcy in March 2000, only to

be faced with new suits in Texas, New Jersey, Missouri and Toronto, Ontario.

Stacy Leistner, a spokesman for the American National Standards Institute here, which has accredited 280 professional societies and trade groups such as the NSPI to set product standards for their organizations, said the Meneely case “has raised a lot of concerns, pervasive concern among organizations that put their name on voluntary standards as well as the individuals who serve on the standards-writing committees.

“These are groups that work for the public good” but are now fearful of being sued, Leistner said.

John J. Cergol Jr., NSPI’s chief staff

“These lawsuits are essentially due to an allegation that our standards were somehow the cause of those accidents. We deny those claims. We hope to resolve those lawsuits without litigation.”

Stephen Gallagher NSPI attorney executive, said the group “has never had a catastrophic accident in a pool that was built to NSPI standards,” which were written 30 years ago. He said the trade group had successfully defended more than two dozen damage cases against it, losing only the Meneely suit. “Yet because we set standards, we’ve been brought into these cases.

“We believe we’ll prevail in defending these suits,” Cergol said. He said they were scheduled to go to trial later this year and in 2003. Gallagher said added that the cases will only go to trial if U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert G. Mayer in Alexandria orders them to proceed.

Cergol said, however, that the lawsuits are not the only reason the NSPI filed for bankruptcy protection. He said Roger Galvin, the group’s former chief executive, has filed for arbitration of his claims that he is owed more than $3 million in back wages and expense account reimbursements.

Overall, Cergol said the group has “$10 million to $20 million” in assets. He said the group will continue to operate during the bankruptcy proceeding.

Senate’s homeland defense debate stirs issues of executive power WASHINGTON (L.A. Times) — President Bush bore down on lawmakers Tuesday to approve his vision of a new Cabinet superagency to spearhead the nation’s defense against terrorism, but a major dispute over executive power is brewing in the Senate.

Next week’s anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks is raising pressure on Congress to act on Bush’s proposal for a Department of Homeland Security, much of which was included in a bill the House passed in late July.

The Senate, in its first vote on the matter, agreed unanimously Tuesday to consider the legislation—the prelude to a floor debate that could take up to three weeks.

The vote cleared away an important procedural obstacle, increasing the likelihood that the Senate soon will pass its own version of a bill to merge all or parts of more than 20 federal agencies into one new department with as many as 170,000 employees.

The Senate legislation, like the Housepassed counterpart, would set in motion the most significant governmental reorganization of the past half-century.

But the administration continued to attack provisions it objects to in the Senate bill, sponsored by Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, D-Conn. The dispute centers on how much freedom Bush and his new homeland security secretary would have to run the department outside of the usual government rules and regulations.

The administration is pressing for what it calls “freedom to manage” — the ability to reshape pieces of the new department and to create a new system for hiring, firing and paying its employees.

Senate Democrats say the White House is overreaching. They want to preserve existing civil service protections for the federal employees — many of them represented by unions — who would be joining the new agency. The Democrats also want to preserve congressional authority over government spending.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan denounced the Senate bill Tuesday. “It does not create the lean, effective and flexible agency that we need to defend against a ruthless enemy who can carry out their attacks at their choosing,” he said.

Bush, whose aides for weeks have threatened a veto by him over the employee-management issues, pressed his case Tuesday in a burst of lobbying. Several Republican senators came to the White House for a strategy session, and the president’s homeland security adviser, Tom Ridge, made the rounds at the Capitol.

But some Democrats, led by Sen. Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia, promised to resist what they call an administration power grab.

Byrd acknowledged “a political windstorm” to create the homeland security

agency is “blowing down Pennsylvania Avenue and through the halls of Congress.”

But he urged the Senate to slow down the debate and preserve the power of Congress to oversee the executive branch.

“Let’s stop, look and listen and be careful about what we’re doing,” he said.

Despite his adamant tone on the Senate floor, Byrd indicated he would not necessarily use every parliamentary weapon to stop the bill. While he may offer amendments, Byrd told reporters, he did not plan to try to talk the bill to death through a filibuster. That, too, was a strong signal that the bill will advance.

The House returns Wednesday for what will be an unusual work week. On Friday, both houses of Congress are scheduled to hold a ceremonial meeting in New York City to commemorate the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. It will be the first time in more than two centuries that Congress has met in New York.

With the Sept. 11 anniversary much on the minds of lawmakers, many of whom are up for re-election this fall, the homeland security debate seems likely to yield a final bill by year’s end to create what would be the government’s third-largest Cabinet department.

But Congress will not meet the most optimistic timetables of some lawmakers.

Soon after Bush proposed the government reorganization in a speech to the nation on June 6, House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt, D-Mo., urged that a bill be completed in time for a signing ceremony on the anniversary of the attacks.

Now, though, the issues surrounding civil service rules and management authority seem likely to prolong the debate and produce contentious negotiations between the Republican-led House and the Democratic-controlled Senate.

In remarks to reporters, Senate party leaders staked out sharply conflicting positions.

“We’re not going to roll over when it comes to principles and beliefs that we hold to be very, very important,” said SenateMajority Leader Tom Daschle, DS.D. He called the Bush plan “a power grab of unprecedented magnitude.”

Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott, RMiss., appearing with Ridge in the Capitol, fired back: “I think it’s important that we focus on homeland security and not bureaucrat security.”

Amid the partisan sniping, senators from both parties made clear that they have reached consensus on a number of points. Most important, they agree that a new department should be created, bringing under one roof such disparate agencies as the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Coast Guard, the Transportation Security Administration and the Customs Service.

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

EDITORIAL/LETTERS WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2002 · PAGE 10 S T A F F

E D I T O R I A L

Efficient government On the first day of the new semester, another sweeping change to University policies and procedures was proposed. Tuesday afternoon, the Task Force on Faculty Governance announced its proposal to trim down the 44 faculty committees in existence to a more manageable 13 committees and to restructure the University’s most prominent student and faculty governing body, the Advisory Committee on University Planning. While we support many of the ideas announced Tuesday afternoon and laud the efforts of those faculty members who spearheaded the task force, changes to the University governance system should make those decision-making bodies more inclusive and less secretive.

Professor of Computer Science John Savage and the task force are right on the money when they say that the current governance system needs reform. The current structure is too bureaucratic and complex with far too many ambiguous, poorly staffed and ineffectual committees. We hope that the rest of the faculty, staff and student body will follow the task force’s aggressive lead in attempting to make University governance more efficient while staying true to Brown’s current goals.

Trimming the number of committees will give those people involved in the oversight bodies more clearly defined responsibilities and, in turn, make the committees more effective. Hopefully, this change will inspire more faculty, students and staff members to take an active role in University governance. Furthermore, the task force’s proposal comes in tandem with the University’s initial implementation of President Ruth Simmons’ aggressive plans to renew academics at Brown.

We are pleased that the task force will be holding open forums for students, faculty and staff to discuss the governance restructuring proposal. This theme of open, community discussion should be incorporated into the proposal itself, however. While we agree that ACUP must be reformed along with the rest of the existing governance system, it is troubling that the task force proposed replacing this top decision making body with a committee that will meet behind closed doors.

Governance at Brown is often questioned and perceived as ineffectual because of secret meetings, secret reports and non-disclosure. Last year, in fact, ACUP held several open forums where they gathered ideas from community members. Decisions and discussions related to University governance should not be restricted to the few students, faculty and administrators who sit on the proposed committees. It would be impossible to evaluate the effectiveness of any governing body if those who the body governed did not know what went on within that body.

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD EDITORIAL Beth Farnstrom, Editor-in-Chief Seth Kerschner, Editor-in-Chief David Rivello, Editor-in-Chief Will Hurwitz, Executive Editor Sheryl Shapiro, Executive Editor Andy Golodny, News Editor Elena Lesley, News Editor Brian Baskin, Campus Watch Editor Carla Blumenkranz, Arts & Culture Editor Stephanie Harris, Academic Watch Editor Juliette Wallack, Metro Editor Victoria Harris, Opinions Editor Sanders Kleinfeld, Opinions Editor PRODUCTION Marion Billings, Design Editor Bronwyn Bryant, Asst. Design Editor Julia Zuckerman, Copy Desk Chief Jonathan Skolnick, Copy Desk Chief Ellen Bak, Photography Editor Makini Chisolm-Straker,Asst.Photography Editor Allie Silverman, Asst.Photography Editor Brett Cohen, Systems Manager

BUSINESS Stacey Doynow, General Manager Jamie Wolosky, Executive Manager Jared Gerber, Associate Manager Angela Kim, Local Accounts Manager Hyebin Joo, Local Accounts Manager Moon-Suk Oh, University Accounts Manager Jan Vezikov, University Accounts Manager Eugene C. Cha, National Accounts Manager Joseph Laganas, National Accounts Manager Josh Miller, Classifieds Account Manager Elizabeth Tietz, Marketing Coordinator Shereen Kassam, Marketing Coordinator Tugba Erem, Marketing Coordinator Miguel Escobar, Subscriptions Manager Laurie-Ann Paliotti, Senior Advertising Rep. Kate Sparaco, Office Manager P O S T- M A G A Z I N E Kerry Miller, Editor-in-Chief Zach Frechette, Executive Editor Morgan Clendaniel, Film Editor Dan Poulson, Calendar Editor Alex Carnevale, Features Editor Theo Schell-Lambert, Music Editor SPORTS Joshua Troy, Sports Editor Nick Gourevitch, Asst. Sports Editor Jermaine Matheson, Asst. Sports Editor Alicia Mullin, Asst. Sports Editor Sean Peden, Asst. Sports Editor Emily Hunt, Sports Photography Editor Michelle Batoon, Sports Photography Editor

JACOB REIDEL

L E T T E R S

T O

Herald suggestions on writing proficiency appreciated, but are misinformed To the Editor: As Director of Writing Programs, I am responsible for assisting the Dean of the College and working with the faculty to examine, develop and evaluate our policies concerning writing instruction at Brown. I was gratified to see both an article (“U.’s writing proficiency requirement raises questions about consistent enforcement,” April 11) and an editorial (“Requiring Writing,” April 11), on Brown’s writing requirement since this has been a topic previously neglected by The Herald.

First, I’d like to point out one highly important inaccuracy. The Herald noted that students flagged for incompetent writing “must enroll in a designated intensive reading and writing course.” This is patently untrue. Although the Dean of the College strongly recommends that certain frosh take either English 11 or 13 in their first semester, the decision is left up to the student, in keeping with Brown’s philosophy of curricular choice. In fact, my study of this year’s frosh indicates that only 50 percent of those students who received the Dean’s letter actually enrolled in English 11 or 13. One might argue that this statistic indicates there is work to be done in improving our ability to reach students who need more exposure to writing-intensive courses, but it also testifies to Brown’s commitment to an open curriculum.

I agree with those colleagues interviewed who

BUSINESS

T H E

E D I T O R

point out that the policy may not be consistently enforced. Although there is, in fact, a standard procedure on the books, the system of deficiency checks needs to be more widely publicized, used by faculty and explained to students. In addition, the requirement’s key words (“students must demonstrate competence in writing”) need clearer definition, and I welcome suggestions. But instituting a standardized placement test that “would be painless,” as you put it in the editorial, is not necessarily the way to go. There are enormous theoretical problems in constructing any single placement test, administering it and then evaluating its results fairly. Composition research shows that portfolio submissions are a more legitimate way to evaluate student writing because the writing can be evaluated in the context of its purpose and audience.

The other suggestion, creating “a list of interdisciplinary writing requirement courses across several departments,” is more promising. We actually have such a set of writing-intensive courses already in place. It’s called The Writing Fellows Program, and it was established 20 years ago as a resource for faculty and students. Writing Fellows offer assistance for all students enrolled in twenty-five selected courses across the curriculum each semester .

Carefully-trained peer writing tutors, the Writing Fellows critique first drafts of all essays written for these courses and offer individual conferences where students have the opportunity to discuss their essays I hope your readers will send comments and suggestions to me (Rhoda_Flaxman@brown.edu) concerning the writing requirement. I’m eager to improve the way it works for all undergraduates.

Dr. Rhoda L. Flaxman Aug . 29

@BROWNDAILYHERALD.COM

the brown daily herald

W W W J O I N

.

B R O W N D A I L Y H E R A L D

O U R

B U S I N E S S

S T A F F

.

C O M

T O D A Y

.

Bronwyn Bryant, Night Editor Jonathan Skolnick, Copy Editor Staff Writers Kathy Babcock, Brian Baskin, Jonathan Bloom, Carla Blumenkranz, Chris Byrnes, Jinhee Chung, Maria Di Mento, Nicholas Foley,Vinay Ganti, Neema Singh Guliani, Ari Gerstman, Andy Golodny, Daniel Gorfine, Nick Gourevitch, Stephanie Harris, Victoria Harris Maggie Haskins, Shara Hegde, Brian Herman, Shana Jalbert, Brent Lang, Elena Lesley, Jamay Liu, Jermaine Matheson, Kerry Miller, Kavita Mishra, Martin Mulkeen, Alicia Mullin, Crystal Z.Y. Ng, Ginny Nuckols, Juan Nunez, Sean Peden, Katie Roush, Caroline Rummel, Emir Senturk, Jen Sopchockchai, Anna Stubblefield, Jonathon Thompson, Joshua Troy, Miranda Turner, Juliette Wallack, Jesse Warren, Genan Zilkha, Julia Zuckerman Pagination Staff Bronwyn Bryant, Jessica Chan, Sam Cochran, Joshua Gootzeit, Michael Kingsley, Hana Kwan, Erika Litvin, Jessica Morrison, Stacy Wong Staff Photographers Josh Apte, Makini Chisolm-Straker, Allison Lauterbach, Maria Schriber, Allie Silverman, Vanessia Wu Copy Editors John Audett, Lanie Davis, Marc Debush, Daniel Jacobson, Sonya Tat

CO M M E N TA RY P O L I C Y The staff editorial is the majority opinion of the editorial board of The Brown Daily Herald. The editorial viewpoint does not necessarily reflect the views of The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. Columns and letters reflect the opinions of their authors only.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR POLICY Send letters to letters@browndailyherald.com. Include a telephone number with all letters. The Herald reserves the right to edit all letters for length and cannot assure the publication of any letter. Please limit letters to 250 words. Under special circumstances writers may request anonymity, but no letter will be printed if the author’s identity is unknown to the editors. Announcements of events will not be printed.

ADVERTISING POLICY The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. reserves the right to accept or decline any advertisement in its discretion.

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

OPINIONS WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2002 · PAGE 11

Exploding U.S. hypocrisy in women’s rights rhetoric The United States cannot crusade for women’s rights abroad, while failing to uphold them domestically M O R E T H A N T H E “ W ” N OW S E E M S Park” movie, but also for his part as the to separate George Bush from his pappy. biggest, baddest wolf of all: the guy that Bush the elder left office with a pesky, U.S.- puts the evil in “axis of evil.” One glance at installed dictator still in office. By the time the bill should verify that the United States his appointment as president ends, the is far more committed to ending discrimiyounger Bush appears determined to nation and upholding human rights than Hussein’s holdings. Right? ensure that no kisses will be Wrong. Iraq’s signature placed near the armpit (his appears as a ratifying nation preferred location) of this on the document, smugly sitobsessively clean tyrant. uated between Indonesia and Justification for this delayed Ireland. The United States, ousting of Saddam Hussein along with Afghanistan, spews from the mouths of Sudan and other axis of evil major players in American polfavorites Iran and North itics, albeit in varied and often Korea, is among the few concontradictory terms. Op-ed spicuous absences. authors argue over strategy VICTORIA HARRIS Drafted in 1979, CEDAW and the post-Hussein landTHE CRISIS HAS provides the first concrete scape. Slightly more nuanced MATURED definition of anti-female discommentators cautiously concrimination. It classifies it as tend that, in truth, the war “any distinction, exclusion or against Iraq has never ceased, as bombing has continued uninterrupted restriction made on the basis of sex which has the effect or purpose of impairing or since Bush I began it.

However large their concerns about the nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or success or moral correctness of a U.S.-led exercise by women, irrespective of their war against Iraq, most self-righteously marital status, on a basis of equality of agree that the United States of America, men and women, of human rights and champion of human rights and possessor fundamental freedoms in the political, of the elusive “liberty and justice for all,” social, cultural, civic or any other field.” can claim moral superiority and thus (www.un.org/cedaw) The treaty states that ratifying nations forcibly bring these qualities to a new Iraq.

The United Nations’ Convention on the will abolish discriminatory laws, thereby Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination incorporating its principle of equality into Against Women, regarded as the ultimate their legal systems; set up institutions to comprehensive international bill of rights ensure that female citizens are protected for women, and signed by 168 countries against acts of discrimination; and manincluding all other industrialized democ- date the elimination of discrimination of racies in the world is surely considered an women by persons, organizations and anathema to the barbaric ruler of Iraq. enterprises. Additionally, each participatAfter all, he’s the man notorious not only ing nation is required to submit a report to for his role as Satan’s lover in the “South the U.N. every four years concerning its progress in the struggle for women’s equality.

Victoria Harris ’03 wonders if Saddam The U.S. helped compose the treaty, Hussein has seen “South Park” the movie President Jimmy Carter approved it and and, if so, what he thinks of his character.

the Senate Foreign Relations Committee endorsed it both in 1998 and this July.

However, a floor vote, the last necessary step for ratification, has never taken place.

Despite consistent pressure from Senators Joseph Biden, D-Del., and Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., based on the lack of national attention this issue has received, it seems unlikely that a vote will take place before this year’s elections.

Discrimination in any form is unacceptable, and a nation that presents Horatio Alger stories of individuals working from rags to riches not only as the norm of democracy but also as a measure of its power, must affirm its commitment to women’s rights as well as to those of other groups with a history of oppression, whether for race, sexual orientation or creed. To do otherwise is pure hypocrisy.

Ratifying CEDAW will not entail changes to existing law, but it will serve as a powerful tool for those advocating true equality for women. New research shows that “women lawyers, scientists, journalists, congressional staff and other professionals lag behind their male counterparts. A variety of groups, from the American Bar Association to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, have even issued reports documenting a worsening of women’s status in selected fields.” (www.womenstreaty.org/ facts) The reservations (sections of the treaty a nation refuses to be obligated to) that the United States has demanded, even if CEDAW does someday succeed in passing, belie its true feelings towards equality for women. Paid maternity leave will not be mandated, the private sector will not be subject to legislation enforcing equality and equal pay for equal work will not be implemented.

Worse, failure to ratify the most crucial

piece of international legislation concerning anti-female discrimination is completely at odds with stated U.S. foreign policy. It is hypocrisy in its ultimate form to argue for the necessity of military action against a nation to end its discriminatory treatment of women, while one refuses to pass a treaty ending discrimination domestically.

Shortly after Sept. 11, newspapers and magazines were flooded by articles condemning the behavior of the Taliban in relation to Afghan women. For many Americans otherwise unconvinced by the Bush administration’s repeated calls for military action, the depiction of women, oppressed by their burkahs, unable to enter public locations, the property of their male family members, drove them to demand action. Conveniently omitted from these well-crafted propaganda pieces was the knowledge that the United States and the Taliban share an important international stance on the place of women — failure to uphold their equality in the law.

On a report to Congress submitted June 28, 2001, Bush wrote “respect for women is an imperative of U.S. Foreign Policy, among the goals that are grounded in the non-negotiable demand for human dignity and reflect universal values.”

Perhaps he meant all women excepting those with the misfortune to be American citizens?

Last November, Laura Bush urged Americans to remember that: “the fight against terrorism is also a fight for the rights and dignity of women.”(Radio Address, Nov. 17, 2001) Say what you will about the proposed military action against Iraq, but will the promised democratic Iraq bring the commitment to the “rights and dignity of women” upheld by the United States? I, for one, hope not.

Do you have something to say?

PROVE IT. • Have your voice heard by over 6,000 members of the Brown community • Spark serious discussion about pertinent political and social issues • Educate the Brown community about an underreported or misunderstood topic • Share lighthearted comments about life as you experience it • Make your sexy face notorious across campus • Become a Herald opinions columnist

SEND YOUR 1000 WORD SUBMISSIONS TO OPINIONS@BROWNDAILYHERALD.COM DEADLINE IS SEPT. 13, 2002

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

SPORTS WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 4, 2002 · PAGE 12

When it comes to coaching, the best play by their own set of rules THIS YEAR, I’M ROOTING FOR STEVE SPURRIER. I'M not a Redskins fan. I’m not a Florida Gators fan. Actually, prior to a few weeks ago, I had an adamant dislike of Spurrier.

My aversion to Spurrier was probably twofold. First, for completely arbitrary reasons, especially considering I have never set foot in the state of Florida, I chose the NICK Seminoles as the school I root GOUREVICH for from the Sunshine State.

SEE NICK’S VIEW Secondly, as embarrassed as I am to admit it, I bought into the whole “Spurrier’s an egomaniac of a coach who runs up the score simply because he’s a jerk,” routine.

But, all that changed after watching him on ESPN’s “Sunday Night Conversation” a couple of weeks ago. In a nutshell, he said he would never think of complaining about how another coach plays his game, and therefore he has not, nor will he ever, apologize about how he coaches his team. And he’s absolutely correct.

He’s correct because in sports, especially professional and major college sports, one shouldn’t feel compelled to follow so-called “unwritten” rules. As long as the rulebook doesn’t say you can’t do something, then you can do it. So, Spurrier can play his starting offense for a whole preseason game even if the other team doesn’t and he can run up the score in any game, preseason or not.

Who are we to judge whether his reasons are justified in coaching the way he does? Anyone can think of a number of motives for why Spurrier coaches the way he does and all of those point towards his sole objective: to win football games and to put his team in position to win the Super Bowl.

And in professional sports, winning is the only objective. When “unwritten” rules get in the way of that, it is ludicrous for anyone to expect them to be followed. This topic has come up many times over the years and one of the more recent incidents was last year at a ballgame between the Arizona Diamondbacks and the San Diego Padres.

As you may recall, Curt Schilling was dominating the Pads and in fact he had a perfect game going through seven innings. In the bottom of the eighth, with the Padres trailing 2-0, slow-footed catcher Ben Davis came to the plate. Trying to get something started, Davis surprised the D-backs and bunted for a hit.

Now, this sent Schilling, Arizona manager Bob Brenly, and various other “baseball purists” across the country into an absolute conniption fit because you aren’t supposed to break up a no-hitter with a bunt. Yet, Davis brought the tying run to the plate and possibly rattled Schilling giving the Padres their best chance to possibly win the game. Davis shouldn’t have done this? Please.

It seems to me that the integrity of the game is put more in jeopardy when players change the way they play in order to preserve some time-honored code of conduct rather than to win.

I’m not saying that sportsmanship should be thrown out the window. It should be noted that playing to win and being a good sport are not mutually exclusive.

Obviously, the “win-at-all-costs” attitude shouldn’t be applied to Little League or Pop Warner. Soccer players should still be taught to kick the ball out of bounds when an opponent is injured on the field (this might be the only “unwritten” rule I would feel compelled to follow because a player’s health and not their ego is at risk.)

But professional athletes and coaches are grown men, and they are paid to win. Anything within the rules that furthers that goal is fine by me. So, getting back to Spurrier, I look forward to seeing him annoy the hell out of opposing coaches this season as he takes the Redskins into the playoffs. I hope I see him go for a “Hail Mary” up 35 points in the waning seconds of the fourth quarter in the hopes that it will improve his team’s standing for the 5th tiebreaker for an NFL playoff spot: Net Points within your division.

Spurrier doesn’t care if nobody likes him, as long as he wins. As Vince Lombardi once said, “winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.”

In life, that’s a rotten philosophy to live by, but in sport, it’s the only one you can live by, and certainly the one you want your local NFL head coach to follow.

M’s tennis appoints new head coach

BY ALICIA MULLIN

The Ivy League Champion Brown men’s tennis team finds itself under new leadership this year. After the post-championship resignation of head coach John Choboy on July 7, Jay Harris has taken on the position. Harris, Head Coach of the Bowling Green State University men’s tennis squad for the past six seasons, brings years of both coaching and playing experience to the job.

Before acquiring his coaching position at Bowling Green, Harris worked as assistant coach for the Miami University women’s tennis squad and also coached at several camps, resorts, and clubs in the Midwest and on the east coast. His Bowling Green men’s team earned the MidAmerican Conference championship the past two consecutive seasons and as a result, Harris himself earned honors as 2001 Mid-American Conference Coach of the Year.

Harris’ own tennis career culminated in his four years at the University of Cincinnati. There Harris was twice named to the All-Great Midwest Conference team as well as to the Great Midwest Conference All-Academic team.

After graduating from the University of Cincinnati in 1993, Harris moved on to Miami University to pursue a Master of Science degree in sports studies and to begin his coaching career.

Harris’ appointment to the Brown coaching position comes on the heels of one of the best seasons in the history of Brown men’s tennis. In addition to compiling a 1310 overall record, the Brown squad finished the season undefeated in the Ivy League. The League Championship, clinched after defeating defending champions Harvard University, earned Brown a spot in the NCAA playoffs. The squad’s playoff trip was brief though, ending in a firstround loss to seventh-ranked Ole Miss on May 13.

Luckily, Bruno lost only one player from it’s championship team last season. Team co-captain and All-Ivy singles selection Nick Malone has graduated, but among the players returning to train under Harris’ new guidance is the first team All-Ivy doubles pair of co-captain Christopher Drake ’03 and Justin Natale ’04, as well as second team All-Ivy singles player Jamie Cerretani ’04.

Coach Harris follows in the footsteps of former coach Choboy, who finished his four-year coaching career at Brown with an accumulative record of 53-37, a 2001 ECAC Championship, and last season’s Ivy League title.

Choboy’s resignation was an amicable one.

Michelle Batoon / Herald

The men’s tennis team will compete this year under the leadership of new coach Jay Harris.

“I’ve had a tremendous experience at Brown and am appreciative of the opportunity that [Athletic Director] Dave Roach gave me to be the head coach here,” Choboy said in an interview last month. “Everyone at Brown has been extremely supportive. I’m extremely happy about what our program has accomplished in the last four years, and the fact that the program is in great shape for the future.”

Choboy will continue coaching this year at North Carolina State University.

Herald staff writer Alicia Mullin ’04 is an assistant sports editor.

She can be reached at amullin@browndailyherald.com.

The shock of an earlier September (Washington Post) — Thirty years ago Thursday marks the tragedy of the Olympic Games in Munich, which in a sense introduced the world to terrorist attacks. At an event to which countless millions had turned their attention, Palestinian terrorists broke into an unguarded Olympic Village at 4:10 a.m. Sept. 5, 1972, and killed two members of the Israeli team, taking hostage nine others.

By the following midnight, those would be murdered, too. From this worst time in the history of the Games, we were given one more vivid example of the horror people can inflict and modern-day meaning, if only an introduction, to surprise attack.

Having covered those Olympics for The Washington Post, I watched the horrifying scene just a few hundred yards from the building in which the Israelis were held hostage. I spent many of the daylight hours of the protracted crisis outside a wire fence surrounding the Olympic Village, a vantage that was eerily close. By late morning, the mood of thousands at the fence was grim.

Most stood silently, hoping the standoff would be resolved peacefully.

Yet others sat by seemingly unperturbed. Some took the sun. Some read newspapers with old news. Some athletes in the village could be seen sunbathing at the edge of an artificial lake, as if nothing was happening. Some athletes played table tennis just a stone’s throw from the apartments in which the Israelis were being held.

An ice cream vendor walked the slopes at the fence, selling his goods. A voice in English from a transistor radio said, ‘‘This is serious business.” At that moment, one of the sunbathers in the village plunged into the water.

A pickup basketball game went on next to parked German police trucks. At an outdoor cafe between the village and the Olympic stadium, customers ate facing the Israeli building as if watching a movie. Two German officers scaled the fence near that building, unwittingly

demonstrating how easy it had been for the terrorists to get in.

The terrorists demanded that Israel release Arab prisoners and threatened to kill their first hostage at noon if their demands weren’t met. Noon came and went. Ten, 15 minutes passed and the tension among those at the fence could be felt subsiding. People experienced feelings of hope and fear as they watched the Israelis’ building now ringed by German police, who lacked a workable plan.

Various athletic competitions went on. Only later did the International Olympic Committee’s then-president, Avery Brundage, halt the Games for a time, and then, it seemed, reluctantly.

Brundage, the sunbathers, people attending the competitions—there were indications almost everywhere that people didn’t grasp what was happening, or perhaps didn’t want to. And one wonders, in terms of national security, if governments learned as much from Munich as they said they did.

There was plenty to think about. On Connolly Strasse, at Building 31, there were bullet holes in the walls. There would be an empty feeling in more ways than one; many of the Olympic athletes left early, their competitions over and their desire to stay gone. There was very much a sense of moving on quickly, too quickly. About the time the coffins were put aboard planes two days later, track and field events resumed in the big Olympic stadium with 80,000 in the stands and flags of the 123 nations that had been lowered, were now raised again.

One of the victims was flown to the United States. His name was David Berger and he lived in Shaker Heights, Ohio. He’d decided to live in Israel and try out for the Olympic team there. Every now and then, but not often enough, something happens to give us reason to remember Berger and the others—and the hate that took them away.