Thursday, September 19, 2002

T H U R S D A Y SEPTEMBER 19, 2002

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Volume CXXXVII, No. 75

An independent newspaper serving the Brown community since 1891

www.browndailyherald.com

Hu-DeHart plans big changes for ethnic studies

BY MERYL ROTHSTEIN

Kea Johnson / Herald

Plenty of students still visit Career Services every day, but that doesn’t mean the job market is all that it could be.With hiring of college grads down, more students are choosing to return to school after getting their undergraduate degree.

With jobs scarce, grads choose more school

BY JULIAN LEICHTY

In a year when the National Association of Colleges and Employers estimated that the hiring of new college graduates fell 36 percent, an increasing number of Brown graduates from the Class of 2002 chose to go to graduate school.

The trend is part of a long-term one, said Barbara Peoples, interim director of Career Services.

“We saw it start even last year,” she said.

Seventeen percent of the Class of 2001 went to graduate or professional school, according to the Career Services survey given each year to find out about students’ post-graduation activities. Definite figures on the Class of 2002 will be available in January, Peoples said.

Breaking with national trends, the number of graduates and alumni who applied to law schools at the end of the last academic year stayed the same, said Associate Dean of the College Perry Ashley, Brown’s pre-law advisor.

“Nationally, the number went up quite a bit,” Ashley said. “Brown students stayed about the same. They typically pursue other commitments before going on to law school.”

About 300 recent graduates and alumni applied to law schools last year, including 60 members of the graduating class and about 240 alumni, he said.

Though the number of students applying to law school remained constant, Ashley said he thought some students’ decisions to apply were influenced by the economy and the relative ease of the application process.

“All they have to do is take the LSAT,” he said.

While the number of Brown students applying to all graduate and professional schools increased last year, this trend did not apply to students interested in medical school.

There’s a lag in seeing the economy affect medical school applications, said Associate Dean of the College Robert Ripley, who advises Brown’s medical school hopefuls. Students essentially made this year’s decision to apply to medical school several years ago when they took all of their pre-med courses, he said.

About 140 graduates and alumni applied to medical schools last year. As with law school, many graduates postpone applying to medical school for one or two years, he said.

The increase in graduate school applicants was also noted by Brown’s graduate schools, which experienced about a 20 percent increase in applications for this year, said Peder Estrup, dean of the graduate school and research.

He attributed the increase to the national trend and to a new masters

and doctoral program in acting and theater arts that he said “attracted attention.”

Preliminary figures from the 2002 Career Services survey indicate that the top employers of Brown graduates were Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, Teach for America and Credit Suisse First Boston.

Kerry Willigan, associate director of Career Services, said those employers typically hire ten to fifteen people.

Peoples said more students are living closer to College Hill after graduation.

“We’ve seen a strong increase in staying in the Providence and Boston area,” she said. “Over the summer, we continued to see graduates, many of them interested in staying along the East Coast, looking at a variety of business and non-profit opportunities.”

An increase in college hiring for federal government jobs may have benefited graduates.

According to May NACE press release, government hiring was estimated to increase by 16 percent.

Graduates may have also had luck in sectors that Peoples described as “more recession-proof,” like health care and education, and in sectors where lowinterest rates fuel growth — construction, some parts of banking and real see HIRING, page 4

I N S I D E T H U R S D AY, S E P T E M B E R 1 9 , 2 0 0 2 Survey ranks Brown 10th at integrating black students and professors page 3

Interest in study abroad stays strong, despite security threats, study reports page 3

Professor of Political Science Darrell West publishes a new book on celebrity pols page 5

Dramatic reform is underway at the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America under the new leadership of Professor Evelyn Hu-DeHart.

Prior to Hu-DeHart’s appointment, the center was without a director.

“There are inevitable holes and gaps that we need to fill,” Hu-DeHart said. “We hope to make the Center the best research center of its kind in the Ivy League and certainly in this part of the country.”

As its director, Hu-DeHart is responsible for expanding and strengthening the Center’s involvement both on-campus and in the community at large. Much of Hu-DeHart’s efforts are also focused on the ethnic studies concentration, including attempts to eventually create an academic department department.

Hu-DeHart is currently expanding the concentration by developing more ethnic studies courses as well as cross-registering pre-existing courses with the ethnic studies concentration.

“The ethnic studies concentration has been weak and unstable,” she said.

Because it’s an interdisciplinary concentration, there are no professors devoted strictly to the teaching of Ethnic Studies courses.

Hu-DeHart said the concentration is weak because of the absence of “dedicated faculty.” She plans to hire new faculty and build upon the strengths of existing faculty to make the concentration more comprehensive, she said.

She said she believes Brown will have “a very strong, coherent, stable and very innovative ethnic studies concentration” in five years.

Already, people involved in the center are beginning to see a change since HuDeHart’s arrival.

“It’s amazing to see the vitality that she’s brought to the center just by her presence,” said Executive Assistant and Student Programs Coordinator Jennifer Edwards ’03.5 said.

Although the center was often empty last year, Edwards said several community groups, classes and professors meet there this year.

Hu-DeHart is “a breath of fresh air” for her enthusiasm and dedication to the center, said Daniel Marquez ’03.

Campus-wide events have been planned to increase awareness of the CSREA and to promote discussion on racial and ethnic issues, she said.

A colloquium series featuring Brown faculty from a variety of departments discussing racial issues as they pertain to their disciplines will begin in late September and run through the spring.

Hu-DeHart is in the process of assessing the status of racial and ethnic studies at Brown in terms of courses, student organizations, administrators and professors.

Her goal is to build upon the existing strengths of the campus and ultimately to engage and educate the community about racial and ethnic issues, she said.

TO D AY ’ S F O R E C A S T Seth Leibson ’05 says the elimination of workstudy for first-years was a mixed blessing guest column,page 11

The Herald runs down all the stats and schedules in this year’s fall sports preview inside

partly cloudy high 75 low 57

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

THIS MORNING THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2002 · PAGE 2 Pornucopia Eli Swiney

W E AT H E R TODAY

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

SUNDAY

High 75 Low 57 partly cloudy

High 76 Low 60 partly cloudy

High 75 Low 63 cloudy

High 78 Low 59 showers GRAPHICS BY TED WU

A story of Eddie Ahn

CALENDAR COLLOQUIUM — “Methods of Analyzing Point Data in GIS Environments,” Naresh Kumar, Brown. Maxcy Hall, Zimmer Lounge, noon.

LECTURE — “Building the Earth-friendly Home,” Bob Chew. Urban Environmental Lab Classroom, noon.

COLLOQUIUM — “The Odyssey Mission to Mars: Recent Results and Future Plans,” Steve Saunders, Jet Propulsion Lab. Room 115, MacMillan Hall, 4 p.m.

LECTURE — “Asbestos Blues: Mining, Capital, Physicians and the State in South Africa,” Jock McCulloch, RMIT University. McKinney Conference Room, Watson Institute, 4 p.m.

Hopeless Edwin Chan

CROSSWORD ACROSS 1 Sala site 5 Singer/actor Joel et al.

10 AMA members 14 Fall preceder?

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CAMPUS WATCH THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2002 · PAGE 3

Animal rights group announces it will resurrect controversial ‘got beer?’ ad

BY BRIAN BASKIN

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is resurrecting its “got beer?” anti-milk ad, two years after shelving the tongue-in-cheek campaign under pressure from Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

The ad features a parody of the National Dairy Council’s “got milk?” slogan that reads “got … beer?!” over a silhouette of a beer bottle. PETA sent the ad earlier this month to campus newspapers at the Princeton Review’s top 10 party schools and five “stone-cold sober” schools, said Director of Vegan Outreach for PETA Bruce Friedrich.

Each school paper except Brigham Young University’s accepted the ad, Friedrich said.

Princeton Review lists Brigham Young on a list for schools that consume the least beer, also titled “Got Milk?”

Armed with studies touting the merits of moderate alcohol consumption and the downside of dairy products, PETA dusted off the campaign because college students demanded it, Friedrich said.

“Once we pulled it (in 2000), college students were even madder than MADD,” he said. Friedrich said MADD mobilized its activist network to create the illusion of widespread opposition to the campaign.

The ad is less about promoting beer than discouraging the drinking of milk, he said.

“It’s unnatural to consume the mammary secretions of another species,” Friedrich said. Milk has been linked to heart disease, cancer and osteoporosis, while moderate alcohol consumption has exclusively good health benefits, he said.

Amy Rettammel, a registered dietician and outreach specialist with the Department of Nutrition at the University of Wisconsin, disagrees with Friedrich’s claim.

“Nutrients contained in milk are essential for optimal health,” Rettammel said. “The same cannot be said for alcohol.”

Dr. Pamela Ruegg, a veterinarian in the Department of Dairy Science at Wisconsin, has conducted research on dairy products for 16 years. She disagrees with Friedrich’s contention that milk is inherently dangerous to human health.

“Milk is one of the most highly tested products.

We’ve documented through research that virtually all antibiotic usage on farms is used for treatment of sick animals,” Ruegg stated.

Retammell said drinking milk should be encouraged, not hampered.

“There is a calcium crisis in America today; nine out of 10 girls and seven out of 10 boys aged 19 currently failed to meet the recommended daily amount of calcium, 1200 mg/day,” Rettammel said.

Rettammel said cases of osteoporosis — a debilitating disease of weak bones — would become more common in the future. see MILK, page 6

Brown ranks 10th at integrating blacks

BY MOMOKO HIROSE

Brown ranks tenth out of 26 schools in integrating black students and faculty, according to a study conducted by the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education.

The study used 13 quantitative factors to measure integration, including the difference in graduation rates between black and white students, percentage of black tenured faculty and total black student enrollment.

More than 4 percent of the tenured faculty at Brown is black, which is the second-highest percentage among the universities surveyed.

Brown’s black student graduation rate is also among the best in the nation, though on other measures Brown is no better than “middle of the road,” the article stated.

Duke University ranked first in the study. Assistant Dean of Students at Duke, Andrea Caldwell, attributed Duke’s strong performance to the school’s continuing effort to support students on campus.

“I advise the African American alliance group, and it’s very student-centered,” Caldwell said. “Our students demand it from our constituents, that we make sure that we are getting connected with first year students even before they come here.”

Duke also maintains strong connections to alumni, and with their help the university has created a mentoring program for first-years, Caldwell said.

There is “an ongoing connection with the students so that they know there are various resources across campus,” Caldwell said.

The University of Chicago ranked last in the study.

Elise LaRose, an advisor in the College of the University of Chicago and a coordinator of the Mellon Minority Undergraduate Fellowship, said that her university is in a formative stage, investigating programs and testing them out.

The university invites admitted black Chicago area stu-

dents to a summer program, LaRose said.

“We’re exploring the successes and failures of these programs, where other schools have done them, and thus far, we’ve concluded that they’ve been met with mixed success,” LaRose said. “While such programs sound like the right thing to do, before we were to commit to anything like that, we want to make sure that we create something that’s going to succeed.”

With many new administrators, the University of Chicago is attentive and concerned about diversity, LaRose said.

“What we’re trying to do here is to build incrementally from the infrastructure and the curriculum that exists, the way in which this institution has made various commitments along the way,” LaRose said.

Brown also offers support programs, including the Mellon Minority Undergraduate Fellowship Program and the Third World Transition Program.

These programs provide “a safe place for all students of color,” said Daniel Neghassi ’05, a minority peer counselor. “There is support if you need it.”

There is room for improvement, Neghassi said. While blacks make up 12 percent of the U.S. population, only 6.7 percent of Brown students are black, he said.

Karen McLaurin-Chesson ’74, director of the Third World Center and associate dean of the College, praised TWTP as an example of Brown’s support for black students.

“It gives better insight on stereotypes of each other and allows us to build a sense of community,” she said.

Though Brown ranks ahead of its peers, faculty diversity still needs improvement, McLaurin-Chesson said, adding that an increase in resources could help with that process.

“There is some connection between having minority faculty and having happy students of color on campus, because they are an important resource to students of color,” McLaurin-Chesson said.

Interest in study abroad remains strong Enrollment in programs abroad has not suffered, despite security concerns since the terrorist attacks of more than a year ago

BY HANYEN ANDREW LEE

Despite security concerns stemming from last year’s terrorist attacks, the number of students involved in study abroad programs nationwide and at Brown has either increased or remained the same in the past year.

An online survey conducted by the Institute of International Education showed that two-thirds of 530 international educators teaching in the United States reported that applications for study abroad increased or did not change from previous years.

Foreign student enrollments in the United States also remain unchanged since Sept. 11, 2001.

The results show that last year’s terrorist attacks have not deterred students from following their intellectual pursuits in other countries.

“The terrorists wish to close our minds and our borders to the rest of the world, and we must make sure they do not succeed,” IIE President Allan Goodman posted on the IIE Web site.

Continued enthusiasm for study abroad at Brown reflects the national trend. There are 516 Brown students currently studying abroad, which is three more than last year, said Kirstin Moritz, associate dean of the college and director of the Office of International Programs. This slight increase occurred despite expectations that students would be reluctant to go abroad, Moritz said.

The number of countries in which Brown students have studied also remained constant at 50. The continued emphasis on study abroad at Brown is “important in countering any isolationist tendencies,” Moritz said.

Although the total number of Brown students abroad is roughly the same as in years past, the OIP has reduced the number of students studying abroad in certain countries, reflecting an increased concern for safety. The OIP suspended this year’s program in India because of State Department travel warnings.

“Increased tension is going to have effects on international education,” Moritz said.

Another side effect of the terrorist attacks is that some foreign students have experienced delays or difficulty obtaining visas to study in the United States. Educators also worry that security concerns may cause students to study in Canada, the United Kingdom or Australia instead of the United States, the IIE reported on its Web site. see ABROAD, page 4

PAGE 4 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2002

Abroad

Hiring

continued from page 3

continued from page 1

But Elyse Estrada ‘03, an OIP peer counselor who studied abroad in Mexico during the spring semester last year, said she was wasn’t worried about terrorism, even after last September’s attacks.

“I was in a very safe place,” Estrada said. Estrada said one of her friends who was abroad in Spain was told not to display signs of American patriotism after Sept. 11, 2001.

Study abroad in Israel, a program not officially sponsored by the University, has seen a significant reduction in student interest, Moritz said.

Daniel Wasserman ’03 studied at the Hebrew University in Israel during the spring semester last year.

He said there were only two Brown students abroad in Israel last year, compared with as many as 12 in previous years.

Wasserman said the decrease in students studying in Israel is a result of general turmoil in the region, not just the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

While in Israel, Wasserman was given regular security updates and avoided downtown Jerusalem. He said that the school he studied at was secure.

The number of Americans and Canadians studying at Hebrew University has declined dramatically in recent years, reflecting heightened fears of terrorism, Wasserman said.

Wasserman doesn’t think American students will go back to Israel if the military situation doesn’t improve, but he said he would return to Israel in a heartbeat.

“You can’t live life scared of what may happen,” he said.

“If you want to visit a place, you should go.”

estate.

Evan Parness ’02, field director for a New Jersey congressional campaign, found Career Services helpful in his job search. Though he ended up getting his job through a personal contact connected with Brown, he appreciated the resources Career Services provided.

“The best resource I had was the career forum they hosted at the end of the school year,” he said.

He also credited Career Services with helping “tighten up” his resume. Though graduate school is “on the horizon” for him, he wanted to get work experience first, he said.

David Flink ’02, now a Brown admission officer, said he found people to talk to and “bounced ideas” off of them, instead of solely relying on Career Services in his job search.

“I knew I wanted to go into education,” he said.

In his current position, he “gets to be active in education” and use both of his concentrations, education and psychology, he said.

Next year, according to figures Peoples received from NACE, the best sector for employment is projected to be the federal government and non-profit employers and the best region for employment is the Midwest.

Though employers this year expect to hire 3.6 percent fewer new graduates, Peoples said that some employers see college graduates as “talent pipelines” important for future success.

“Many employers pointed to the return on their investment that college hires provide,” she said.

Career Services, in a time of transition, aims to conduct quick search for new director This is a time of transition for Career Services.

Former Director Sheila Curran left for a similar position at Duke earlier this year.

Executive Associate Dean of Summer Studies Karen Sibley, who heads the search committee for a new Career Services director, said the pool of applicants is national, and over 30 applications have been received.

The search committee’s goal is to move the search “pretty quickly,” with interviews before Thanksgiving.

“It would be great to have somebody come next semester,” she said, but said that depends on the schedule of the person who is selected and how quickly the search process goes.

When she left Brown, Curran told The Herald, “I think that Brown has other priorities right now. A greater deal of attention is going to be made to the career center at Duke than will probably ever be made at Brown.”

Interim Director Barbara Peoples said she thinks Career Services has ample resources.

“My experience for the past two months has been that the college is very supportive,” she said.

— Julian Leichty

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

CAMPUS NEWS THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2002 · PAGE 5

IN BRIEF ‘Win Paul Armstrong’s Money’ victors finally get their checks The Undergraduate Council of Students finally mailed checks to the winners of “Win Paul Armstrong’s Money” Wednesday, after almost five months of confusion.

The contest, which UCS hosted in April, was a study break and quiz show. Modeled after the television show “Win Ben Stein’s Money,” it featured teams of students competing against each other for the chance to play against Dean of the College Paul Armstrong for a cash prize.

The contest winners, William Smith ’05, Derek Thomas ’05 and Ethan Ris ’05, won the $500 prize, but they never received their money. Although the contest implied that the cash prize would come from Armstrong, the $500 was actually to come from UCS funds.

“Immediately after the contest, a UCS rep got our Social Security numbers and information and told us we would get checks. We waited and waited and they never came,” Thomas said.

At the end of last semester, the contestants were told that UCS had misplaced their information, so they e-mailed it to contest organizer, Kristina Arvanitis ‘02, the winners said.

At the start of this semester, when he still had not received a check, Smith told one of his friends on UCS about the problem.“I wasn’t terribly angry about it, but it would be nice to have (the money)” Smith said.

Roophy Roy ’05, a UCS representative, addressed the issue at a recent UCS meeting.

UCS officials say the council plans to host a betterorganized version of the quiz show in the spring.

“We will work out a lot of kinks that we had,” UCS Treasurer Ty-Reese Britt-Foreman ’04 said.

— Hannah Bascom

DPS officers escort disruptive woman out of U. Hall and off campus Department of Public Safety officers escorted a woman in a wheelchair out of University Hall and off campus Wednesday at about 1:30 p.m.The woman had demanded access to copy machines in the Office of the Dean of the College.

Chief of Brown Police Col. Paul Verrecchia told The Herald that the woman, who is not affiliated with the University, has recently appeared in several campus buildings, including the Sciences Library.

DPS officers told the woman that campus buildings are off limits without proper identification, Verrecchia said, but the University is not pressing charges.

DPS will follow up on the incident by contacting the woman’s social worker, Verrecchia said.

— Brian Baskin

Hourglass Café kicks of new semester The Hourglass Café kicked off a new semester Wednesday evening, coordinating its re-opening with the first day of Oxfam International’s year-long “Make Trade Fair” coffee campaign.

“Oxfam International has come together to launch a five-year campaign focusing on economic trade and economic globalization,” said McKenna Morrigan ‘04, president of Oxfam at Brown.

For each of the five years, Oxfam International plans to champion a different issue. This year, Oxfam will focus on commodities,“and coffee is being used as a representative commodity,” Morrigan said.

All of the Hourglass Café’s profits go toward International.

Café General Manager Vanessa Saal ‘03 said Hourglass patrons can purchase fair trade coffee and tea, along with a variety of other offerings.

Global organizers sponsored events to mark the launch of Oxfam International’s campaign Wednesday. The organization is challenging the four major coffee roasters — Nestle, Kraft, Procter & Gamble and Sara Lee — “to pay farmers a decent price,” Morrigan said.

These four roasters control more than half of the world’s coffee market and “pay the lowest price for raw beans,”she said.

Both Saal and Morrigan said they hope Hourglass patrons become involved with a variety of social justice causes in addition to the Make Trade Fair campaign.

To encourage such participation, the café is expanding its resource library so students can access information on various issues and organizations.

Saal said the café may become “a hub for social activism.”

— Elena Lesley

Newscom

U2’s Bono, shown here with French President Jacques Chirac, is among the stars who has taken a strong interest in political issues, particularly third world debt relief. Professor of Political Science Darrell West has published a new book that examines the phenomenon of celebrities who enter the political arena.

West uncovers a Tinsel Town trend

BY XIYUN YANG

With Julia Roberts lobbying Congress, U2’s Bono urging governments to “Drop the Debt” and Angelina Jolie acting as goodwill ambassador of the United Nations, the front page is starting to resemble the entertainment section.

“Politicians are obsessed with their image,” said Professor of Political Science and local news pundit Darrell West, whose 11th and latest book “Celebrity Politics” addresses the intersection of pop culture and politics.

Co-written with John Orman, professor of political science at Fairfield University, the book dissects the metamorphosis of politics into entertainment — and of Tinsel Town into D.C. West was motivated by the trend’s fairly recent, yet conspicuous nature, and the lack of comprehensive, upto-date analysis on the subject.

The book asserts that the celebrity’s ability to attract media attention and boost campaign fundraising is a striking characteristic of the new trend. The most impressive politician to have tapped into the celebrity potential is former President Bill Clinton, West said.

As most celebrities are not loyal to a political party, they have more freedom to invigorate the political process. But the major political parties differ in the kinds of celebrity spokespeople they attract, West said.

Democrats tend to appeal to Hollywood personalities, while Republicans are more likely to attract the support of

professional athletes, he said.

But the recent political activism of athletes, astronauts and Hollywood celebrities has blurred the line between news and entertainment, a transition that has left some worried about possible political inefficiency, the book asserts.

“Being a celebrity doesn’t carry over into governing skills,” West said. Celebrities like Jesse Ventura are given the opportunity to jump forward politically without the usual churning of wheels, he said.

With celebrity personalities, a voter is given the option of a candidate with a different background. “Voters don’t trust politicians with experience,” West said. “We shouldn’t confuse experience with wisdom.”

The book also examines how television and movies have capitalized on this recent trend by producing popular shows like “The West Wing.”

As celebrities enjoy increasing success in politics, more personalities will jump into the fray by lobbying Congress and running for office. West said the fusion of politics and entertainment is likely to be a burgeoning facet of the American political structure.

Celebrity-politics has a local touch. With his own marinara sauce, former Providence Mayor Vicent Cianci is Rhode Island’s biggest celebrity, West said. Still hugely popular, Cianci was sentenced this month to five years and four months in prison, plus two years probation and a $100,000 fine on a federal corruption charge.

PAGE 6 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2002

Milk continued from page 3 Dr. William L. Wendorff, chair of Wisconsin’s nutritional sciences department, said from a scientific standpoint the issue is not cut and dry, and that milk and beer can have different effects on different people.

Cropp continued from page 12 the middle of Baghdad, and trust me, it’s not because people are dying to run up and shake their hands.

Okay, so I’m not recommending that we nominate our local official for the Nobel Peace Prize, but I do think that they deserve a little more respect than they are given. So the next time you head

“Obviously, someone who is lactose intolerant might be harmed by drinking milk, just as an alcoholic or a pregnant woman might be harmed by drinking beer,” Wendorff said.

“I certainly respect the choice of vegetarians, but you can’t legislate that lifestyle to everybody.”

— With reports from the Wisconsin Badger Herald

out to a sporting event, try and remember a few things. First, if at all possible, deflect all negativity towards the opposing team, who at least has a chance to win or enjoy playing. Second, don’t bring any weapons, unless it is the pepper spray to ward off the crazy security guards at Monday night football games. And finally, try not to have a conniption fit, it’s only a game.

Ian Cropp ’05 hails from Buffalo, NY.

THE BROWN WRITE

DAILYHERALD AND ROCK ON

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

WORLD & NATION THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2002 · PAGE 7

IN BRIEF Smallpox vaccine maker produces first doses, aims to sell by Jan. 1 (Washington Post) — The company making a new smallpox

vaccine for a U.S. government stockpile said Wednesday that it had packaged its first finished doses and hinted that it may fulfill its promise to deliver millions of additional doses by year-end.

The statements by Acambis PLC were the most definitive information to emerge about the status of one of the Bush administration’s key commitments in the war on terrorism. Fearing an attack with deadly smallpox, the government wants to have enough vaccine on hand for every American by the end of this year.

In a quarterly earnings update from London, Acambis executives said they had made considerable progress in renovating a plant in Canton, Mass., where some of the smallpox work is being done. They have completed a series of preliminary human tests of their vaccine, with 100 percent of the test subjects showing evidence of successful vaccination. That suggests the vaccine, made by stateof-the-art techniques, is at least as potent as the crude but highly effective vaccine that successfully eliminated smallpox a generation ago.

“I am delighted to report that the first doses of final, filled and kitted smallpox vaccine have been produced for the U.S. stockpile,” said John Brown, chief executive of Acambis.“This is a major milestone for the company. We have also achieved a series of successful clinical trial results.”

Executives at the company declined to be precise about its delivery schedule for the vaccine, citing national security.“We’re not making any comment on the timing of delivery of doses ... for confidentiality reasons,” said Gordon Cameron, Acambis’s chief financial officer.

But during a detailed discussion of company finances, he said Acambis may be in a position to bill the government for large amounts of vaccine in December. That step would not normally happen, under government rules, until the vaccine has been delivered and formally accepted into federal stockpiles.

The government’s smallpox efforts have been underway for years but were stepped up after the attacks last fall with another biological agent, anthrax.

Smallpox is potentially the deadliest of all bioterror weapons, since the U.S. population has little immunity. The last known stocks of smallpox virus are supposed to be under lock and key in Atlanta and at a laboratory in Russia, but there’s fear that terrorists or hostile states like Iraq could have acquired the virus in recent years.

To address that concern, Tommy Thompson, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, promised last year to acquire enough vaccine to protect “every man, woman and child in America.”

Over the past year, the government has scraped together some 100 million doses of old vaccine, and studies suggest it could be safely diluted to make enough doses for the entire U.S. population of 288 million. But most experts have said that stockpile-all of it decades old-needs to be replaced with a purer, fresher vaccine made with modern production techniques.

Late last year, Thompson’s agency chose Acambis to supply about 209 million fresh doses of vaccine, prompting concern about whether the small British biotechnology company was up to the task. But Acambis formed a partnership with Baxter International Inc. of Deerfield, Ill., to work on the project and has reported steady progress all year.

The HHS maintained its long-standing silence Wednesday on how well the Acambis work is going.“We are making no comments regarding the exact status of the contract and its fulfillment,” said agency spokesman William Pierce.

Debate continues within the Bush administration about how widely to deploy smallpox vaccine in the absence of a confirmed attack.

The vaccine sickens or kills a small percentage of people who receive it, so mass vaccination of Americans is considered unlikely, at least in the near term. The administration does appear to be moving toward vaccination of tens of thousands of hospital workers and others who would be on the front lines of an outbreak.

Acambis Wednesday disclosed results of a new test of its vaccine. Seventy people got smallpox shots in the test, the company said, and all 70 developed the pustule and reddening characteristic of successful vaccination.

Lawmakers criticize Bush for tactics WASHINGTON (Washington Post) — Lawmakers from both parties Wednesday protested the Bush administration’s lack of cooperation in the congressional inquiry into Sept. 11 intelligence failures and threatened to renew efforts to establish an independent commission.

The White House reacted to the complaints from members of the House and Senate Intelligence committees by softening its objection to an independent commission. But the president’s spokesman said such an independent probe should be “separate and apart from intelligence”—a concession unlikely to satisfy lawmakers because it does not address the heart of their objections.

On the day a joint House and Senate intelligence committee released a staff report on the Sept. 11 failures and began to hold hearings, those involved in the congressional investigation said they had been thwarted by the administration’s reluctance to share information about what the White House knew before last year’s terrorist attacks.

“Are we getting the cooperation we need? Absolutely not,” Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., the ranking Republican on the Senate Intelligence committee, said in a joint appearance with Chairman Bob Graham, DFla., on NBC’s “Today” show.

Graham added: “What we’re trying to do is to get people who had hands on these issues. ... And what we’re being told is, no, they don’t want to make those kind of witnesses available.”

Later, in his remarks at the start of Wednesday’s hearings, Shelby warned that “there may come a day very soon when it will become apparent that ours must be only a prelude to further inquiries.”

Eleanor Hill, the joint committee’s staff director, said in her 30-page statement to the committee that CIA Director George Tenet would not declassify “any references to the intelligence community providing information to the president or the White House.” Hill also said Tenet would not declassify the identity of or information about a key al-Qaida leader involved in the attacks.

“According to (Tenet), the president’s knowledge of intelligence information relevant to this inquiry remains classified even when the substance of that intelligence information has been declassified,” Hill testified. She added that “the American public has a compelling interest in this information and that public disclosure would not harm national security.”

In a press briefing Wednesday morning, White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said that after Congress finishes the current investigation, “we’ll take a look at talking to Congress about whether or not there is anything additional that goes to the broader areas if necessary.” But Fleischer added that such a probe would be “a discussion about broader issues related to 9/11 separate and apart from intelligence.”

The White House had previously opposed any independent effort to examine events that led to Sept. 11, arguing that such a probe could increase leaks and compromise intelligence. The FBI is investigating the intelligence committees after administration complaints about leaks to the news media, but the committees say the leaks generally come from the administration.

On Tuesday, Senate Governmental Affairs committee Chairman Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., said he has growing support for his effort to create an independent commission. Lieberman, who has been working on the proposal with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said he may attach legislation creating a commission to a bill creating the new Department of Homeland Security. “I have had very encouraging conversations with Senators Graham and Shelby ... who first were a bitskeptical about this idea early on in the year,” Lieberman said. “I think now they’re both ready to support it.”

Shelby acknowledged that the congressional probe would be incomplete. “I’m afraid if we try to publish at the end of this session a definitive paper on what we found, that there will be some things that we don’t know because we hadn’t had time to probe them and we have not had enough cooperation,” he said.

U.S. deficit, foreign surpluses are on crash course WASHINGTON (L.A. Times) — The combination of a huge U.S.

trade deficit and big surpluses in other countries cannot be sustained for long, the International Monetary Fund said Wednesday, and governments should begin preparing for a potentially painful adjustment.

IMF economists said America’s trade shortfall and Japan’s surplus have risen sharply; Japan “exports” about 1.5 percent of the world’s total savings, they said, while the United States is absorbing 6 percent. Those extremes, along with substantial trade surpluses in Europe, ultimately are unsustainable, IMF analysts said in a report being issued in advance of the annual gathering of IMF and World Bank officials later this month.

The inevitable correction will involve a significant decline in the value of the dollar, they said, and could trigger a global economic downturn if the adjustment occurs too quickly.

“There’s a risk that they’ll be reversed rapidly, and lead to large changes in financial markets that could have broader consequences,” said IMF Chief Economist Kenneth Rogoff.

The IMF released its analysis as the Commerce Department reported that the U.S. trade deficit narrowed slightly in July, falling to $34.6 billion from $36.8 billion the previous month. The change reflected a decline in imports coupled with an increase in exports, particularly U.S.-made autos.

The improvement exceeded expectations, and caused some analysts to increase their estimates of third-quarter economic growth.

But they said it did not signal a fundamental change in America’s propensity to buy more imported goods and services than it is able to sell in foreign markets. Imports declined in part because fears of a West Coast dockworkers strike had accelerated purchases in previous months, analysts noted.

“It’s one month’s numbers, and these numbers jump around quite a bit,” said Goldman Sachs senior economist Jan Hatzius. “I still think we’re going to see larger rather than smaller trade deficits going forward. The dollar would need to depreciate a lot further for that to turn around.”

After appreciating 40 percent over a seven-year period, the dollar began declining in value early this year as foreign investors lost some of their enthusiasm for acquiring U.S. assets. It has fallen about 3 percent so far, and some analysts say bigger declines are in store.

A decline in the dollar has a mixed effect on the U.S. economy. Prices of imported goods rise, reducing living standards somewhat and possibly rekindling inflation. At the same time, American goods and services become more affordable to foreign buyers, creating growth in export-oriented businesses.

While some economists say a gradual depreciation would be good for the United States, they acknowledge that a sharp correction could cause stock prices to plummet and interest rates to rise, possibly tipping the country into another recession.

The IMF has expressed concern before about the negative implications of America’s chronic trade deficits, which have increased the nation’s net foreign debt to about 20 percent of its gross domestic product. Few countries have been able to sustain foreign debts of that magnitude for long.

But the international lending agency said its new analysis goes a step further, by assessing the combined effect of the big trade deficit in this country and the big surpluses in Japan and Europe. It’s not a pretty picture, they said.

In theory, the decline in U.S. purchases of foreign goods that would accompany a depreciating dollar would be offset by an increase in demand for U.S. goods by other countries.

But under current circumstances, that mitigating effect could be short-circuited by structural problems in the surplus nations, such as Japan’s banking crisis and Europe’s labor policies.

IMF economists said Washington could reduce the potential for a sharp and painful depreciation by reducing future deficit spending, which tends to undermine confidence in the U.S. economy.

The trade deficit analysis is part of the agency’s global economic forecast, which will be presented in the Sept.

28-29 joint meetings of the IMF and World Bank.

PAGE 8 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2002

Researchers find that dirt may battle asthma (Washington Post) — Pigpen, the “Peanuts” cartoon

character who spent his childhood in a swirling cloud of dirt, may have been on to something.

A team of European researchers has discovered that one reason farm children have puzzlingly low rates of asthma may be their exposure to dirt. In particular, contact with microbes found in the excrement of pigs, cows and horses seems to have salutary effect on the immune system.

Children who had relatively large amounts of microbial dust in their bed linens were only half as likely to be asthmatic as children whose sheets contained little of the residue. Furthermore, those who’d spent their first year of life on a farm—which presumably would have given them early contact with the bacterial substances—appeared to be especially protected.

The findings are the latest evidence supporting the theory that modern man’s obsession with cleanliness may be leading to a rise in disorders of the immune system, including asthma.

This “hygiene hypothesis” holds that our wellarmed and hair-trigger immunity needs to be turned down and fine tuned soon after birth. Early exposure to pathogens and other contaminants may be the best way for that to happen—and it may not be happening enough in our overly fastidious world.

Previous research had hinted that exposure to bacteria might be playing a role in the experience of farm children. The new study, which examined the experience of about 800 Swiss, German and Austrian children, strengthened the observation and pointed to a particular kind of bacteria.

While the new research has no immediate implications for either medicine or child-rearing, it raises the possibility one or more “protective exposures” could be identified and provided to children in the future.

“It’s important to narrow down the factors,” said Fernando Martinez, a pediatrician and asthma expert at the University of Arizona who was not involved in the study, which is published in today’s New England Journal of Medicine. “It could be there’s a specific substance we could administer at the right time to children anywhere that would decrease their risk of developing asthma and allergy.”

Both the frequency and severity of childhood asthma have been rising in the last generation.

Today, about 8 percent of American children aged six to 13 are asthmatic, although prevalence varies widely by race and demographic variable. Twelve percent to 15 percent of inner city black children are asthmatic. The rate in farm families is about half the national average.

In the new research, Charlotte Braun-Fahrlander of the University of Basel in Austria and colleagues from Germany and Switzerland interviewed parents about the health of their children and drew blood from the children for various tests. All of the children lived in rural areas, with about 300 in farm households and about 500 off the farm.

As a measure of exposure to dirt, the researchers vaccuumed the bedding of each child and measured the amount of a compound called endotoxin.

Endotoxin is found in the cell wall of many bacteria, and is especially prevalent in microbes living in the intestines of animals.

Children whose beds were in the top one-quarter of all beds in terms of amount of endotoxin per area of sheet had about 50 percent the risk of being asthmatic as children whose beds were in the bottom quarter. (The same was true when rural children living off the farm were considered.) The protective effect was even stronger in children who had lived on a farm before their first birthdays.

Blood tests showed that children exposed to the most endotoxin or with the earliest residence on farms had immune system cells that were less reactive to allergic stimulants such as grass pollen and cat dander. The cells also produced fewer of the immune system hormones (called cytokines) characteristic of allergic reactions.

“It fits rather well with a number of studies that suggests that early animal exposure is protective, presumably because of increased exposure to endotoxin in the home,” said Dennis Ownby, a researcher at the Medical College of Georgia.

Last month he and his colleagues published a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association reporting that among 500 suburban Detroit children followed since birth, those whose homes included two or more cats or dogs had half the likelihood of being allergic in various skin tests.

Pakistan arrests suspects in U.S. consulate bombing KARACHI, Pakistan (Washington Post) — Police and intelli-

gence officials said Wednesday that they had arrested an Islamic militant who organized the June 14 car bomb attack on the U.S. Consulate here and was plotting to assassinate Pakistan’s president this week.

Sharib Ahmad, 30, considered the most-wanted militant in Pakistan, was arrested in this port city late Tuesday with five other men, the officials said. Ahmad was identified as the leader of the attack on the consulate by three other suspects in the case, police said.

Twelve Pakistanis, including six women, were killed in the bombing, which heavily damaged the fortified consulate. Karachi police said at the time that the bomb was hidden in a vehicle parked outside the 10-foot wall surrounding the building.

The six militants captured Tuesday were found at a house in the middle-class residential district of Dhoraji, less than a mile from the site of a military equipment exhibition that Gen. Pervez Musharraf, the Pakistani president, attended on Monday. The raid also netted a large cache of weapons, ammunition and explosives, including an anti-tank recoilless rifle.

“In their sole aim to kill President Musharraf these militants had collected 70 hand grenades, 40 rocket-propelled grenades and rockets and about (2,000 pounds) of bomb-making chemicals at their hide-out in Karachi,” said a ranking Karachi police official who asked not to be identified. He added: “This is the largest seizure of arms and ammunition from any terrorist group in Pakistan since 9/11.”

Maj. Gen. Rashid Qureshi, Musharraf’s spokesman, Wednesday night acknowledged the arrest of “several terrorists and seizure of weapons and ammunition,” but denied that the militants were plotting to kill the president.

Officials said all six of the men arrested Tuesday were associated with Harkat ul-Mujaheddin al-Almi, a radical Islamic splinter group that police say was also involved in an abortive bid to assassinate Musharraf here in April by placing a car loaded with explosives on a street where the presidential motorcade was to pass. Police said the plot failed only because of a faulty remote control device.

Officials say they believe Islamic militants in Pakistan, furious over Musharraf’s decision to side with the United States in its war against terrorism and its military campaign against the Taliban and al-Qaida in Afghanistan, are waging a terrorist campaign to destabilize his govern-

“In their sole aim to kill President Musharraf these militants had collected 70 hand grenades, 40 rocketpropelled grenades and rockets and about (2,000 pounds) of bomb-making chemicals at their hide-out in Karachi,” Karachi police official ment. U.S. and other Western citizens also have been targets of the armed campaign.

This teeming city of 10 million has been the scene of much of the recent violence directed at Westerners. Wall Street Journal correspondent Daniel Pearl was kidnapped here on Jan. 23, and his remains were recovered here on May 17. A bomb exploded in front of a hotel in Karachi on May 8, killing 11 French engineers and three others, including the bomber, and the attack on the U.S. Consulate occurred five weeks later.

Police raids last week resulted in the arrest of about a dozen foreign militants suspected to be members of alQaida, including Ramzi Binalshibh, reputed to be a principal planner of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.

The militants arrested Tuesday were being questioned Wednesday by a team of Pakistani police and intelligence officials at a police interrogation center in downtown Karachi.

“For us, Sharib’s arrest is what Osama bin Laden’s capture meant for the Americans,” said a senior intelligence official here. “This guy was on loose with a single mission: to kill the president.”

Police and intelligence officials said that the arrested militants had deep ties to the former Taliban administration of Afghanistan and that the entire cache of arms and ammunition seized Tuesday had been moved to Karachi from Afghanistan in the past few months.

“Each one of them had received guerrilla training in camps inside Afghanistan before the U.S. attacks began in October,” said an intelligence official who had briefly interrogated the suspects Wednesday.

New shopping venture aims to help the common good (Washington Post) — Sometimes doing something for your-

self — even shopping — can give others a lift. That’s the case at Ten Thousand Villages, shops that are part of a chain run by a nonprofit organization helping Third World artisans. Their handicrafts are sold throughout North America in more than 180 stores — 95 operated by Ten Thousand Villages.

“People come into the store for the products, because we have a really interesting and unique blend of things, but then they’re drawn to us by the mission,” says organization spokeswoman Juanita Fox. “It just feels good to be making a difference when you’re buying something.”

In the Alexandria, Va., shop, located along Old Town’s vibrant King Street corridor, generous display windows draw you in. They’re filled with practical, appealing home furnishings done up in crisp blue and white, all vaguely international in mood: Provence-inspired tablecloths, bright blue ceramic planters, two-tone silk pillows, bamboo furnishings and, tucked into one corner, a blue-andwhite chair hammock.

Once inside though, it’s apparent that this isn’t just another import store. Highlighted prominently on the wall behind the cash register, a map of the world is overlaid with the following proclamation: “Ten Thousand Villages provides vital, fair income to Third World people by marketing their handicrafts and telling their stories in North America. Your Purchase Makes a Difference.”

The store, which opened in 1994, is part of a network of shops across the country run by the Mennonite Central Committee, the relief and development agency of Mennonite and Brethren in Christ churches in North America.

The Akron, Pa.-based organization opened its first retail store 20 years ago, but it has been involved in selling handicrafts from Third World artisans since 1946.

Currently, 60,000 artisans from 32 countries provide merchandise to the stores, with all proceeds reinvested in the organization.

Management of the Alexandria shop is overseen by an all-volunteer board of directors. More than 40 additional volunteers help the small number of paid employees, doing everything from working the register to unpacking stock. They also help carry out the store’s stated “compassionate mission”: “Marketing quality products from diverse cultures around the world made by people that we know and care enough about to do business with in a

manner that together we consider fair.”

The underlying emphasis on mission, however, is subtle; there are no proselytizing or heavy-handed sales pitches. The focus of the enterprise is on presenting wellpriced merchandise in an appealing way.

To that end, the first floor of this two-story, 2,200square-foot shop has been set up like a showroom, offering shoppers a smattering of furniture and decorative accessories along with jewelry, toys, coffee beans and assorted gift items.

Upstairs, the space is divided into roomlike settings.

The largest area features more of those appealing blueand-white items, including baskets with blue-and-white ceramic handles from Vietnam ($7.95), Provence-style napkins from India ($3.95 each), large plaid tablecloths from Bangladesh ($27) and a bamboo captain’s chair from Vietnam ($44.95).

Another room is devoted to African products and features an ikat-print shower curtain ($39.95) and a selection of large drums ($115 to $250).

A third room contains an array of goods from India, Pakistan and the Philippines, including polished onyx lamp bases ($45 to $84), handsome parchment-like paper lampshades ($26.95) and rustic bark birdhouses ($18.95).

A separate area contains merchandise aimed at kids: games, puzzles and books.

“The displays give you an idea of how something might work in your own home,” says Maria Yannopoulos, board chairman for the Old Town store. “The people in Akron work really hard with the various artisans to figure out just the right mix of things and to make sure the products are appropriate for a North American audience.”

Like many of the volunteers connected with the Old Town shop, Yannopoulos got involved after visiting a store and getting to know another volunteer. “I’ve been hooked on Ten Thousand Villages for a long time,” says Yannopoulos, who appreciates being able to combine her love of shopping with an effort that seeks to better the lives of others.

“Since we’re a nonprofit, we’re really looking for value because the more we sell, the more jobs we can create.

Giving someone a job rather than charity helps in so many ways, “ she says.

“Once you learn about the mission, the products become even more important,” says Yannopoulos. “It takes retail sales of $1,200 to support one person in a developing country for one year, which is amazing to think about. It’s both a good cause and good products.”

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2002 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD PAGE 9

Survey says teen smoking is in decline Smoking among teenagers has dropped significantly in the last two years, according to a new survey.

Preliminary results released Wednesday by the American Legacy Foundation, an anti-smoking organization, found that there was an almost 18 percent decline since 2000 in smoking rates among high school students, and a 5.4 percent decline among students in middle school.

In addition, the study—which was conducted in collaboration with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — showed that students exposed to the foundation’s “truth campaign” television ads were much less likely to smoke than those who did not see the anti-smoking television ads.

“The study shows that the truth campaign is the anti-smoking vaccine for kids we’ve been waiting for,” said foundation president Cheryl Healton.

The foundation is funded through a 1998 agreement between the tobacco companies and 46 states, and its television campaign began in early 2000.

It has been under political and sometimes legal pressure from tobacco companies to tone down its attacks, which the companies say unfairly demean their employees and are misleading. Healton reiterated Wednesday that the ads would continue, and were essential to the group’s message.

“The pressure continues on the foundation and the board,” she said. “We see it as a red badge of courage. If the companies aren’t upset, then we’re not doing our job.”

The new results are from the National Youth Tobacco Survey, which involved students in 69 schools in 27 states—a total of 9,661 in high school and 6,853 in middle school.

A student was considered a smoker if he or she had smoked a cigarette within 30 (Washington Post) —

days.

The survey found that high school smoking had declined from 29 to 23.8 percent of students and middle school smoking from 11.2 to 10.6 percent of students.

But the largest percent declines were in areas where the “truth campaign” ads had been most widely run, and the smallest declines were where the ads were least visible.

Healton said there was a “dose response” to the ad; that the larger the dose, the greater the effect.

Public health advocates, as well as industry spokesmen, welcomed the reported declines.

The CDC said the results “provide evidence that mass media campaigns, such as the truth campaign, have been important factors in reducing the national prevalence of smoking among youth.”

Michael Pfeil, a vice president of the Philip Morris Companies, said his company was pleased at the result, and that the Philip Morris ad campaign to discourage teens from smoking may have played a role as well.

The foundation recently criticized Philip Morris for its expensive television campaign, saying that a study it commissioned concluded the company ads actually encouraged teens to try cigarettes.

Because teens are naturally rebellious, the foundation study concluded, the company’s straightforward messages not to smoke from athletes and others had the effect of making some teens want to start.

The company recently stopped running the ads, but said it believed they were effective.

The “truth campaign” ads have focused on the disease and death that cigarette smoking causes, and have accused the tobacco companies of trying to keep that information from young people.

Middle Eastern ads might not work WASHINGTON (L.A. Times) — Madison Avenue-style advertising aimed at “selling” America to Middle Eastern audiences isn’t likely to work and could backfire, warned the chairman of a presidential commission on public diplomacy.

“There’s more to America than Calvin Klein jeans—and that’s the point,” said Harold C. Pachius, chairman of the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy. “We are thought of as superficial, so we need to avoid anything that smacks of the superficial.”

A report released Wednesday by the commission is the latest in a series of efforts by think tanks and the Bush administration to shape the U.S. approach to international audiences.

The report concluded that if it wishes to win hearts and minds abroad, the U.S. government will need to better focus its diplomatic message, restructure its bureaucracy, listen much more to foreign voices, and aim its message at foreign publics and not just at the foreign leaders who have been the traditional targets of American diplomacy.

America also will need to spend more on communicating abroad, after a decade of budget-cutting after the end of the Cold War, the report concluded.

The United States spends $25 billion a year on traditional diplomacy and an additional $30 billion on intelligence and counterintelligence, but only $1 billion a year to inform and persuade international audiences, the report said. That $1 billion is used for State Department information and exchange programs and international broadcasting, including the Voice of America.

But funding for educational and cultural exchange programs has fallen

from $349 million in 1993 to $232 million last year, adjusted for inflation.

Many veteran diplomats regard those exchanges as crucial in building good will abroad and showing international audiences that America values more than materialism and pop culture.

The number of people participating in cultural exchanges fell from about 45,000 in 1995 to 29,000 last year, the report said.

The public diplomacy commission was launched by President Truman in 1948, but from the end of the Cold War to Sept. 11, its reports have received little attention, said Pachius, a former deputy press secretary to President Johnson.

However, Pachius said Secretary of State Colin L. Powell is interested in how America is perceived abroad because he understands the importance of international public opinion in forming the coalitions and partnerships that the United States seeks on Iraq policy and other issues.

Meanwhile, the State Department, the White House and the National Security Council are all moving ahead with plans for a coordinated strategy to tell America’s story abroad.

Undersecretary of State Charlotte Beers, an advertising executive brought in after the Sept. 11 attacks to reshape America’s marketing campaign, is preparing to unveil a “total communication initiative” for the Middle East, a State Department official said Wednesday. The initiative will start in four to six weeks in eight Arab and Muslim countries, and will involve television, print and radio announcements, speakers and conferences, the official said.

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

EDITORIAL/LETTERS THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2002 · PAGE 10 S T A F F

E D I T O R I A L

“so, tell me a little bit about yourself.”

Hold that door,please It is encouraging that the number of Brown students studying abroad in the wake of Sept. 11, 2002, according to an online survey conducted by the Institute of International Education, has not diminished in the past year.

Whether this is due to the resiliency — or perhaps the immortality complex — of youth, one cannot say. Certainly, it is a step in the right direction.

Self-isolation promotes an inbreeding of nationalistic myopia, but venturing outward heals the wounds which would fester, worsened by fear of the unknown, here in domestic turf.

The foreign faces splashed across media headlines interspersed between words like “terror” and “war” are not the faces of these countries themselves, yet they unfortunately provide a part of many students’ unconscious experience with these nations. The experience of meeting, living and working with people of other cultures through opportunities offered by the Office of International Programs is therefore priceless — which cannot be emphasized to a great enough extent.

In a speech last fall to the National Press Club, President Ruth Simmons was among the first to remind Americans that closing the doors of cross-cultural exchange would harm the United States and lead to a more dangerous rather than a more secure future.

Against a rising tide of public and political opinion, Simmons called out in particular for the extension of student visas for foreign students who wish to study at U.S. universities.

We echo Simmons’ call and recognize how important it is to continue to allow foreign students — of any religious or ethnic background — to obtain visas for study in the United States.

We strongly encourage those students interested in studying abroad to follow their hearts and not to be disenchanted with the idea via media paranoia. The benefits of studying abroad are societal and individual, and we must continue to take advantage of the opportunities we have to experience other cultures and lands.

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 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 Andrew Sheets, Graphics Editor 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 Josh Honeyman, Sports Photo Editor

Hana Kwan, Night Editor Yafang Deng, Hanne Eisenfeld, Eric Perlmutter, Copy Editors Staff Writers Kathy Babcock, Brian Baskin, Jonathan Bloom, Carla Blumenkranz, Chris Byrnes, Jinhee Chung, Maria Di Mento, Nicholas Foley, Neema Singh Guliani, Ari Gerstman, Andy Golodny, Daniel Gorfine, Nick Gourevitch, Stephanie Harris, Victoria Harris Maggie Haskins, Shara Hegde, Brian Herman, 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, 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 Copy Editors Anastasia Ali, John Audett, Lanie Davis, Marc Debush, Yafang Deng, Hanne Eisenfeld, Emily Flier, George Haws, Daniel Jacobson, Blair Nelsen, Eric Perlmutter, Amy Ruddle, Janis Sethness, Sonya Tat

C A R L I TA R I V E L LO

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Herald misrepresents graduate program To the Editor: In the article “BGEO/UAW amends brief, seeking to redefine science RAs as employees,” (9/17), statements attributed to GSC officers are misleading, since we were not interviewed for an article on graduate unionization. We were contacted by The Herald regarding an article about GSC priorities, concerns in the graduate community and our initial reaction to the appointment of Karen Newman to the position of Dean of the Graduate School.

For many undergraduates, alumni, administrators and staff, perceptions of the graduate school are entirely shaped by coverage in The Herald.

Since its coverage of the graduate school has been almost exclusively focused on the union issue, many people in the community are left with the impression that the union represents the graduate community. This is simply not true. We do not have any official numbers of union supporters, but informal estimates suggest that the BGEO/UAW does not enjoy overwhelming support among graduate students. Furthermore, the focus on unionization misses a fundamental element of graduate school: most graduate students just want to do their work.

Brown is a research university and the graduate school is an integral and necessary component that separates Brown from the top-tier of liberal arts schools. Undergraduates come to Brown partly because of the qualitatively different educational experience derived from a research-oriented environment. Moreover, today’s undergraduates are tomorrow’s graduate students. It is a great disservice to the entire Brown community for The Herald to underemphasize the graduate school and graduate governance. We are encouraged by the positive changes taking place at Brown, and we were excited to talk about these changes. To have our comments spun into a story about unionization suggests that the union story, which is of little day-to-day consequence for most graduate students, outweighs the broader changes in graduate education at Brown.

Finally, the article misstates Heinrich’s comments about dependent care. The chairperson of the GSC subcommittee on family concerns has indeed conducted a very successful survey of the graduate community. We are encouraged by the response rate, and our initial analysis suggests that we have collected some valuable data. However, the

GSC does not have any specific funding goals for dependent care, beyond a continued interest in better serving the families within our community.

The $1000 per dependent stated in the article is a rough estimate for the cost of dependent care.

Aaron Katz and Heinrich Hock Co-Presidents, Graduate Student Council Sept. 18

Hate crimes at Brown To the Editor: Several reports of incidents between students, which involve some aspect of gender, ethnicity or sexual orientation have been reported since the opening of the academic year. Without focusing on the details of each incident, we believe it is important for students to know that several incidents have taken place that have at their root the issue of intolerance. We are committed to providing support to those individuals involved and the appropriate response through the non-academic discipline system for those found responsible for any incidents which violate University policy. We have reports involving the following types of situations: •An incident of targeted graffiti regarding both sexual orientation and ethnic identity on a residence hall door.

•Random graffiti throughout a residence hall on memo boards that involved both sexual orientation and sexually degrading language toward women. This graffiti occurred in the time frame of several hours one evening.

•An incident involving targeted remarks about sexual orientation, which escalated from a verbal to a physical confrontation between two students.

We are reminded of the remarks expressed by President Simmons at convocation. We should use this opportunity to learn about differences and create a community where all students feel safe and welcome and can excel academically. Within our Tenets of Community Behavior at Brown the respect for the rights and concerns of others is paramount. We will continue to work with students on issues of respect and acceptance of differences.

Janina Montero Vice President of Campus Life & Student Services Peggy Jablonski Dean of Campus Life and Student Services Jean Joyce-Brady Senior Associate Dean/Director of Student Life Sept. 18

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.

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

OPINIONS THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2002 · PAGE 11

To work or not to work: that is the question Brown’s removal of the first-year work study requirement is a mixed blessing LAST YEAR, AS PART OF PRESIDENT replace all the first-years’ work-study Simmons’ Academic Initiative, the with straight grants, seemingly a vast University eliminated work study for improvement of the financial aid packfirst-years, reasoning that first-year stu- ages. However, the above analysis shows dents should be able to explore the rich that eliminating work study meant that offerings of Brown — academic, extracur- the financial aid department had to find about $2000 for almost every ricular, artistic — without one of the students on finanworrying about a work-study cial aid — money it simply did job. I liked the change at first, SETH LEIBSON not have to pay before. This but less and less as I thought GUEST COLUMN adds up to at least a million about it. A designated dollars, based on a rough estiamount of work study mate of how many students income is part of many students’ financial aid packages. These stu- each year get financial aid. If this is right, dents are not required to work, but if they replacing work study with grant added a do not, they will have to find the money million dollars to last year’s financial aid outside the program, or their parents will budget. We will assume the University have to pay more than Brown deems they did add that money, although the implecan afford. The wages of work-study mentation of need-blind aid makes me workers are partially subsidized by the wonder if more loans will creep in next federal government and are largely tax- year.

If that money can be added to the exempt.

Clearly, work study is a very good deal budget, why not simply increase the for the financial aid department, lowering grants and maintain the work study elestudent loans without paying out any ment? Work study is not mandatory for financial aid money. Work study is not anyone, but many students use it to alleaid, but employment — Brown pays viate soaring tuition. If two financial aid wages that are low to start with and are packages have the same amount of grant federally subsidized. It is not a grant, money, but one has work study and the costs the school nothing beyond normal other does not, the work study package is, operating costs, and yet the student is if anything, cheaper for the University. As guaranteed the opportunity to get the for the student, the work-study package money she needs to pay for her educa- will offer him higher after-tax pay in ontion. It is thus not at all surprising that campus jobs and priority in getting those prior to the recent policy initiative, “The jobs.

This brings us to one of the two imporvast majority of financial aid packages for freshmen included work-study expecta- tant criticisms of work-study: that it distions,” of “about $2,000” (Kate Bramson, criminates against the poor. Why should students on financial aid have to work, George Street Journal, 4/5/02).

President Simmons intended to while other students do not? This criticism is valid and significant, but I can stomach it on two counts: first, I personSeth Leibson ’05 is from Troy, N.Y. Perhaps ally have work study and have never he is hiding Helen up there? Oh, the wit.

Work study or no work study, students whose financial aid packages don’t add up have to work. Given this reality, guaranteed, tax-exempt jobs on campus seem the best options. known poverty. Therefore, the issue is not discrimination against a minority of impoverished students but discrimination against a majority of non-affluent students, which is not good, but is less egregious. More importantly, work study or no work study, students whose financial aid packages don’t add up have to work. Given this reality, guaranteed, taxexempt jobs on campus seem the best options. Increasing grant aid can affect who has to work and who does not, but that is a separate question.

The policy change was based partly on this criticism of class discrimination, but more on the related notion that work unfairly interferes with financial aid recipients’, especially first-years’, ability to perform their essential functions as students and explore the Brown community. As to the first, I think most people can work eight to ten hours a week and get their schoolwork done. It is not always easy, but work is only one of a variety of

commitments and distractions that keep us from studying all the time.

I reject the argument that work study somehow interferes with such abstractions as “having the full Brown experience.” The Brown community is not composed entirely of faculty and students, its physical space is not composed solely of classrooms, lecture halls and athletic fields; and its educational opportunities are not confined to those people and spaces. We dismiss the thousands of people who work behind the scenes to our own detriment. The conversation you have with a worker in the Ratty may not be as well covered in The Herald as the lecture on international relations you cannot attend, but it may be more valuable.

I don’t want to be disingenuous: work has often been boring and a pain in the ass. The positive attitude I am displaying toward work study does not consistently extend to my actual work, as my supervisors could tell you. Furthermore, financial aid and work-study do need reform: even if a poorer student and I both work, he may have to work many more hours than I do. This problem will only be solved by more money in financial aid. If the University could simply meet all or almost all financial need with grants, no one would have to work, and the problem would go away. In the meantime, paying students a couple more dollars an hour would help. The problem of wealthy students exempt from work study merits further consideration; perhaps we should consider a mandatory semester or two of work study for all students. To eliminate work study for first-years, however, does not make economic sense and encourages a narrow view of the Brown community.

Segal promises change for City of Providence Brown students can make a difference in local politics by voting in the ward one election THE TIME HAS CLEARLY COME FOR spent last year teaching at the Wheeler change in Providence. Two weeks ago, School, primarily in mathematics.

Segal is running on a progressive Mayor Vincent A. “Buddy” Cianci was sentenced to five years in jail for platform. He recognizes the need to Racketeering Conspiracy. For 12 straight keep housing affordable and will work years, and for several more before his to provide stronger tenants’ rights and create a mechanism to first jail sentence, Cianci and assure that these rights are his cronies ran this city like a not violated. He will fight to Mafia family, charging JAMES DEBOER allow parking on the streets money for promotions and GUEST COLUMN overnight; this will help prerewarding personal loyalty serve green space and cut over dedication to the city of down the distance the elderProvidence.

But putting the mayor in jail will not ly need to travel to their vehicles. Segal automatically end the culture of will work to pass the Living Wage favoritism, slush funds, and corruption Ordinance so that city workers will not that has dominated city government for have to live in poverty; he will bring the last two decades. If we are to truly back community policing and will aid in clean out City Hall, we’ll need to put in the creation of a civilian review board to candidates who are willing to work for monitor the conduct of Providence’s police force. Segal will work to protect the benefit of the whole community.

I am writing to call the attention of the interests of we the citizens.

Some might wonder what exactly the the Brown community to an important local race — the Green Party of Rhode city council does and how Providence Island is running David Segal for Ward citizens can expect one council member One’s City Council seat. Ward One, to do so much. The city council is which is the area of the East Side south Providence’s legislative body. The counof Angell street, encompasses much of cil passes laws and the budget, levies Brown University including Keeney and taxes, approves appointments, overrides mayoral vetoes, oversees day-to-day Wriston Quads.

Segal is a 22 year-old graduate of operations, considers policy and drafts Columbia University. He majored in city ordinances. It has 15 seats, all of math, with non-academic pursuits which were held by Democrats, until the focused on politics and journalism. He recent resignation of Ward One’s relatively conservative Robert Clarkin. Now there are 14 Democrats in 14 occupied James Deboer ’05 hails from New York, N.Y. seats. If our new mayor turns out to be a He is a member of the Green Party and is Democrat as well, Providence’s politics very polite on the telephone.

Dominant party politics is certainly not always a problem. However, in a city recovering from one of the biggest municipal scandals of our time, it is necessary to get new voices and new opinions. will fall into the hands of a single party.

Dominant party politics is certainly not always a problem. However, in a city recovering from one of the biggest municipal scandals of our time, it is necessary to get new voices and new opinions. If January sees the entry into office of the Democratic candidate for mayor, and the reelection of the 13 incumbents running for city council, we cannot expect the breath of fresh air this city so desperately needs.

The Ward One race will be very exciting. Segal is running against Clarkin’s nephew, who is also a Democrat, independent property manager Harrison Bilodeau and Republican Bill Miller, who teaches painting at RISD. Segal has a good chance of winning, and, since

the Democrat is more Conservative than the Republican in this race, he cannot be accused of playing the spoiler role frequently attributed to Greens.

In fact, on the East Side of Providence Greens have polled quite well in the recent past — Nader received between 17 and 22 percent of the vote, and Josh Mandelbaum, a Brown student who ran against an incumbent Democrat for State Senate in 1998, carried 20 percent.

Since the field is so crowded in this election, it will realistically only take about 35 percent of the vote to secure a victory.

The majority sentiment is clearly in Segal’s favor, but so many of the people who live in the Ward — Brown Students — are reluctant to register to vote here, which all of them are eligible to do. The progressives of the East Side would form a powerful voting block were they to vote together here, but are much less effective when dispersed throughout thousands of cities and towns throughout the country. However, with less than several thousand people predicted to vote in this election, the race will almost certainly be decided by only dozens of votes. We can change the way politics are done here and have a representative in our city’s government whose views are in accord with our own.

Students can be registered to vote with any party throughout the month of September in the Brown Post Office. In the meantime, check out Segal’s website www.VoteSegal.com.

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

SPORTS THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 19, 2002 · PAGE 12

They don’t win or lose — but do deserve some respect IT IS TIME TO THINK BACK TO THE LAST TIME THAT YOU attended a sporting event. You are the polite spectator who only cheers for your team, and never breaks a State of Michigan Law by swearing in public, and certainly never criticizes any of the calls made by the officials? Okay, option B: did you break a blood vessel in your neck hollering for the official’s head on a platter? I’m not going to pull a IAN “Meet My Parents” and hook you CROPP up to a polygraph test, but I’ll just CROPP CIRCLES assume that enough of you admitted B. Like any good American sports fan, many of us often partake of the easiest form of entertainment, ref bashing.

People are always looking to shift the blame, release anger, or make fun of someone, and who better to take the brunt of the whipping than the faithful arbiters of a friendly contest? Officiating sports events, both amateur and professional, has to be one of the most stressful, thankless jobs, coming in a close second to a New York Yankees bat boy (right Rick Reilly?). Given there have been atrocities in officiating: the 1972 USA vs. Soviet Union basketball game, the figure skating debacle, the 1998

Stanley Cup (No Goal), and every match John McEnroe has ever been in, there have been infinite games that have gone by without incident.

Despite allegations of being a lower life form, officials are usually human beings. Ironically, fans expect these same officials to posses superhuman abilities. The last time I checked, most humans can’t see through 350pound lineman, and our field of vision doesn’t extend 359 degrees. God forbid an official needs to blink during the course of play and misses a Brazilian soccer player do his best Greg Louganis impression. I once saw an official heal a leper, but he was accused of not creating enough revenue, and Bud Selig fired him. Unlike an omniscient narrator of a novel, the officials can’t possibly see every action or foreshadow the future.

Officials are capriciously accused of being corrupt and taking bribes. Fans must realize that officials are not politicians, and don’t force teams to pay $5,000 for a license to tow, I mean for a favorable outcome. Given there are always a few corrupt officials, but the last time I saw any foul play was in the movie Naked Gun when Leslie Nealson/Frank Drebin/Enriquo Palazzo nearly cost the Angels the pennant and nearly killed the queen (OJ

didn’t kill anyone, although he was stabbed).

How could you not take pity on a job with such little glory? Rarely do you see officials hugging and congratulating each other after a game. They never make it on the Sports Center highlights or even receive a golden Chris Berman nickname. It’s like they are stuck in purgatory and can only tie no matter how hard they try. We all know tying is like kissing your sister (you do the math). Nothing can be more depressing than realizing that those who are considered the best of your profession are those who you don’t even notice.

Well if you refuse to take pity on the thickest skinned individuals on the planet, then at least keep your arsenal to words and forgo the potentially bone breaking sticks and stones (not to mention the Molotov cocktails and knuckle sandwiches). Not that I condone the continuous lambasting of the officials, but think of how embarrassed the mother at one of my pee-wee hockey games felt after landing a haymaker right on the kisser of the ref after our game. In Europe and Latin America, some soccer officials command more security detail than President Bush in see CROPP, page 6