Thursday, September 26, 2002

Page 1

T H U R S D A Y SEPTEMBER 26, 2002

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Volume CXXXVII, No. 79

An independent newspaper serving the Brown community since 1891

For 2 students, U. renovates to make dorms accessible

Football Bears frustrated by new Ivy League limit on recruits

BY ELLEN WERNECKE

The Council of Ivy Presidents dropped the number of football recruits per year to 30

Disability Support Services renovated Marcy and Sears Houses last summer to accommodate two students with muscular dystrophy, making those students the first physically disabled Brown undergraduates to live in fraternity and sorority housing. Zeta Delta Xi pledge Peter Gimbel ’05 and Alpha Chi Omega pledge Sarah Volante ’05 moved into their rooms on Wriston Quad this fall. The Office of Student Life, DSS, the Office of Residential Life and Facilities Management collaborated on the renovations, DSS Coordinator Elyse Chaplin wrote in an e-mail. “We’re happy to now have more accessible living spaces to offer to students,” Chaplin said. At Marcy House, architects installed a ramp and a door with remote-controlled access and remodeled a first-floor bathroom to make it accessible to Gimbel. The University made similar adjustments to Sears House, Chaplin said. Gimbel lived on the first floor of Poland House in Keeney Quad last year, an area he said was “pretty well set up” to deal with physically disabled students. “Some things were better, and some things were worse,” Gimbel said. He said ORL contacted him last February to dis-

BY JULIA ZUCKERMAN

Dawah Association spoke in prayer. Though there were mentions of Sept. 11, 2001 and war on Iraq being a shame to victims’ memories, the speakers focused on messages of hope and peace. “One of the important lessons of the tragic events of Sept. 11 is that American citizens are profoundly affected by decisions about U.S. foreign and military policy,” Bragg wrote in a press release. “Our security depends upon this country’s ability to work collaboratively with other nations in the peaceful prevention of deadly conflicts. We have a responsibility to our families, our communities, and future generations to make our views known.” Gathered together to affirm common religious values such as love, justice, peace and compassion and to urge the national leadership to peacefully resolve the Iraqi conflict, the organizations represented ranged from the Southern R.I. Islamic Society to the Coalition for Consumer Justice. “There’s a great community here in Providence, putting their faith into action in terms of moral convictions playing out in politics,” said Matt Hamilton ’05. “It’s really touching and something I wanted to

Football players are frustrated with the Ivy League presidents’ decision to mandate a reduction in the number of incoming students recruited to play football in the Ivy League. Under the new regulations, which will take effect with the Class of 2007, the number of entering students recruited to play football at Brown — and at its seven fellow Ivy League institutions — will be capped at an average of 30 players each year over the next four years. Each university currently recruits an average of 35 players each year, according to the Council of Ivy Group Presidents. In its June decision, the council also called for a review of recruiting policies for all sports. In an e-mail to The Herald, President Ruth Simmons wrote that the Ivy presidents’ individual votes are confidential, but that the policy isn’t intended to undermine athletic programs. “The presidents acted in what they believed to be in the overall interests of the athletic and academic programs of our universities,” she wrote. “I recognize that there are a diversity of opinions as to whether this action will achieve that aim.” Athletic Director David Roach said the council consulted athletic directors to determine the scope of the reduction. The council considered capping recruits at 25 per year before settling on 30, he said. Roach said he worries that the new regulations will hurt Brown’s football team. Many football recruits begin their Brown careers in the junior varsity program, a lower-intensity transition from high school to college athletics. Because of the new limit on the number of recruits, Roach said Brown may have to eliminate its junior varsity football program. The junior varsity program “allows you to bring freshman and sophomore football players along without having to rush them into the system,” he said. “It gives them time to adjust.” In addition, not all recruits ultimately decide to play football — out of 35 entering recruits, only 20 usually end up joining the team, Roach said. Ivy League schools do not offer athletic scholarships, and recruited athletes are not required to play their sport. Football co-Captain Andrew Gallagher ’03 said the high attrition rate is due to the stress of playing a Division I sport in addition to keeping up academics and other commitments. Roach said the decision jeopardizes the strong athletic programs on which Ivy League schools pride themselves. “If you’re going to have broad-based athletic programs, you need to bring in

see IRAQ, page 4

see RECRUITS, page 6

see ROOMS, page 4 Allison Lombardo / Herald

Judge denies request to send Cianci to jail early Former Mayor Vincent Cianci will not go to prison earlier than previously decided, a federal judge ruled Wednesday. Cianci will begin serving a 64month sentence on Dec. 6 for a federal racketeering conviction. At a hearing Wednesday that offered Cianci’s lawyer the opportunity to preview his appeals case, federal prosecutors requested that Cianci report to prison earlier than the December date. Cianci’s lawyer, Richard Egbert, argued at the hearing that Judge Ernest Torres shouldn’t have allowed the use of secretly recorded tapes in the trial. He also argued that the jury should hear a tape in which Cianci told an undercover police officer that “he would castrate anyone at City Hall who tried to shake the man down,” the Providence Journal reported Wednesday. Cianci, who resigned as mayor when he was convicted, is currently keeping busy as a morning talk-show co-host on WPRO-AM. — Juliette Wallack

Providence residents and some Brown students gathered outside the State House Wednesday night to rally against a potential invasion of Iraq.

At State House, a rally against war BY ALLISON LOMBARDO

Some 950 people chanted “Give peace a chance” in front of the State House Wednesday night during the “Gathering for Peace” — a protest of songs, speeches and prayers against a possible war with Iraq. People of varying faiths, ages and ethnicities attended the protest, which was organized by the Rhode Island State Council of Churches and the Rhode Island Peace Mission. Demonstrators displayed signs declaring “No Blood for Oil,” “Make peace possible; Break the cycle of violence” and “Food for Bombs” as RIPM Coordinator Carol Bragg called on protesters to contact their local representatives as well as President George Bush to express their opinions and catch politicians’ attention. The crowd cheered as Rev. John Holt, executive minister of the R.I. State Council of Churches, called them to action, alluding to Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letters from a Birmingham Jail. “We’ll have to repent in this generation not only for the hateful actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people,” Holt said. Echoing similar sentiments, Rabbi Alvan Kaunfer of Temple Emanu-El and Imam Farid Ansair of the Muslim American

I N S I D E T H U R S D AY, S E P T E M B E R 2 6 , 2 0 0 2 Northwestern University wires dorms for cable — through the Internet page 3

www.browndailyherald.com

Universities nationwide take a cash loss as students switch to cell phones page 3

Students volunteer time as KAMP volunteers, mentoring Korean adoptees page 5

TO D AY ’ S F O R E C A S T Kate Gubata ’03 asks ‘do we need religion to act as a basis for our moral systems and beliefs?’ column,page 15

Adom Crew ’04 wraps up a golden week of goals, garners Athlete of the Week honors sports,page 16

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

THIS MORNING THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2002 · PAGE 2 Pornucopia Eli Swiney

W E AT H E R TODAY

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A story of Eddie Ahn

CALENDAR LECTURE — “Knowing, Caring, Loving: Principles of Hippocratic Medicine,” Jean Salem, Sorbonne, Paris. Room 102, Macfarlane House, noon LECTURE — “Gender and the Meaning of Work in Early Modern Germany,” Merry Wiesner-Hanks, University of Wisconsin. Petteruti Lounge, Faunce House, 4 p.m. LECTURE — “The Future of Cities,” Martin J. O’Malley, mayor of Baltimore. Sayles Hall, 7:30 p.m. READING — Poet Martine Bellen and novelist Bradford Morrow will read. McCormack Family Theater, 70 Brown Street, 8p.m.

Hopeless Edwin Chang

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

CAMPUS WATCH THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2002 · PAGE 3

IN BRIEF Cal. State U. sorority faces $100 million suit after two student deaths MADISON, Wis. (U-WIRE) — Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority at

California State University-Los Angeles is facing a $100 million lawsuit in connection with the deaths of two of its pledges during an alleged hazing incident. Kristin High, 22, and Kenitha Saafir, 24, both drowned Sept. 9 at Dockweiler State Beach near Playa del Rey. The lawsuit filed by the High family says the students were “blindfolded and tied by their hands and their bodies and led into the riptide conditions of the ocean.” It continues by saying,“That night, the waves were cresting 6 to 8 feet and creating a strong under-current resulting from riptide.” The two girls were wearing jogging clothes and shoes when they entered the water. An initial investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department said the two deaths were accidental and unrelated to any hazing actions. The lawsuit calls AKA’s hazing policy “a sham” and targets the AKA national organization, the regional chapter and individuals from California State’s chapter. Ron Binder, an expert on hazing who has traveled to more than 100 campuses and spoken to nearly 10,000 students, said the parents’ actions are not unusual. “Typically they sue everybody,” Binder said.“They sue the university, they sue the fraternity or sorority involved, they sue the national organization, the local people, they sue everybody. Then starts the dance of who is going to get out of the lawsuit.”

Campus free-speech zones draw student criticism at some colleges MADISON, Wis. (U-WIRE) — Throughout the country, universities are setting up free-speech areas while restricting nearly every aspect of speech itself. Administration at the University of Houston refused to let a pro-life group display photos of dead fetuses in a high-traffic area. A judge later ruled the university must allow the display. Officials complied by creating four freespeech zones away from heavy traffic. At the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater, freespeech zones were set up at two locations on campus. Officials at UW-Whitewater said the policy was never meant to curb free speech but was enacted in response to protest activity since Sept. 11, 2001. The chancellor later reversed the policy. Codes like these have students all over the country in an uproar. “Free-speech zones that tend to isolate or remove where you can exercise your constitutional rights to the edge of campus are clearly illegal and unconstitutional,” said First Amendment expert Jonathan Kotler, director of graduate and professional programs at University of Southern California. Kotler said the situation is different on private campuses, where speech codes can be more strictly enforced.

Northwestern wired for Internet cable BY SARA PERKINS

New technology has appeared at Northwestern University that allows students to watch 20 cable television stations via their computers, but that technology won’t be coming to Brown anytime soon. Northwestern’s dorms are not wired for cable television but do have Ethernet connections. Students can use the school’s Ethernet system to view television programming on their desktops and laptops. The system requires no software installation. It is a new addition this year, a response to student complaints about the lack of television access in dormitories that are too old to wire for cable, Northwestern officials said. “I didn’t want to pay the whole expense” to wire old dorms for cable, said Morteza Rahimi, Northwestern’s vice president and chief technology officer for information technology. “So I held the students back until the technology was ready.” Computer supplier Cisco Systems and Chicago-based Video Furnace provided the technology so AT&T’s cable service could broadcast over the Internet, Rahimi said. “We take 20 channels that the students voted on … we take the programs and digitize it.” The system transmits at 2 megabites per second, and another upgrade next year will allow the system to accommodate High-Definition TV. Brown now provides 20 television channels over an outdated system.

“The cable system that we have today was the original PC network … that we adapted for cable TV,” said Kara Kelley, director of Brown’s Computing and Information Services. Through President Ruth Simmons’ plan for University renewal, Brown’s network will be revamped. Under the new computer system, the University might be able to adopt a similar system. However, cable TV is “not a high priority,” Kelley said. Cable doesn’t seem to be a high priority for Brown students either. “We don’t have to pay for it, so it’s not bad,” said Courtney Devin ’05. “I have barely watched TV since I got here,” said Peter Smith ’04. Many schools nationwide have used Internet video technology to allow students to watch taped lectures from their computers. Northwestern already has a system that allows students to simultaneously view a lecture, the visual aids from that lecture and a list of related Web sites, Rahimi said. Students can also skip pieces of the lecture and find the relevant pieces. Brown currently does not provide lectures online, although many professors post lecture notes, visual aids see CABLE, page 4

Universities lose cash as students go cellular BY PHILISSA CRAMER

The growing number of college students using cell phones is cutting into the revenue of telecommunications departments at schools across the nation. The availability of cell phone service at competitive rates, coupled with the proliferation of inexpensive prepaid calling cards, gives students alternatives to schoolfurnished telephone services, said Kara Kelley, director of Brown’s Computing and Information Services. “The means of substitution have gotten better and better and more reliable,” she said. Brown suffered a 37 percent average decrease in the number of minutes billed to students in fiscal year 2002, Kelley said. She said this figure was up from 17 percent in fiscal year 2001 and about 5 percent in fiscal year 2000. Eventually, Kelley said, the long-distance program will likely generate no revenue. Many students said the cell phone plans currently offered often include unlimited night and weekend minutes and nationwide long distance, features that make paying Brown’s long-distance rates uneconomical. “If you’ve already paid for the minutes, you might as well use them,” said Tonnia Rienne ’05. Cornell University first-year Jaime Friedman also said she chooses to use a cell phone for economic reasons. “With the Verizon plan I currently have, I can talk as much as I want after 9 p.m. to anyone in the country, unlimited,” she said. “If I did that using the Cornell service, I can’t imagine how much it would cost.” At Brown, which uses Paetec Communications to handle its phone services, after switching from AT&T this year, it costs 6 cents per minute for all domestic long-distance calls.

But Kelley said Brown has no plans to change the current system in the near future. At the University of Pennsylvania, telecommunications officials are investigating offering cell phones to students when they arrive each fall. “Why not grab that business?” said Millie Brocco, supervisor of the customer help center for Information Systems and Computing Networking and Telecommunications at Penn. Brocco said her department anticipated an impact on its business from cell phones but was not prepared for its arrival this year. By next year, Brocco said some kind of cell-phone service could be available to arriving students. Craig Dunton, director of telecommunications at Carleton College in Northfield, Minn., said the number of outbound calls made on the college’s system has declined in recent years, but he said prepaid calling cards were more to blame than cell phones. “We can’t compete with the AT&T and Sam’s Club cards,” Dunton said, although he said the school is negotiating for a long distance rate that is 1 or 2 cents lower than its current 8 cents per minute rate. Carleton sophomore Nick Lienesch said he and his roommate use a calling card for their long-distance phone calls. “The Carleton program is more expensive than phone cards,” he said. Lienesch also said he has seen more people using cell phones this year than last year. But Dunton said Carleton does not plan to alter its telecommunications offerings, which it considers an integral service for students. “We’re still going to offer long-distance services,” he said. “It’s kind of like offering electricity.”


PAGE 4 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2002

Cable

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and handouts on class Web sites. Northwestern students voted last year to choose the channels that would be included in their system. “It may interest you to know that the No. 1 choice was Cartoon (Network),” Rahimi said. The other channels were CNN, Comedy Central, Discovery Channel, ESPN, ESPN2, E! TV, Fox Movie Channel, History Channel, MTV, MTV2, TBS, TNT, USA, VH1, CBS, FOX, ABC, the WB and NBC. Northwestern’s system can also accommodate many new channels. “There is no reason not to have more … for each two channels, we need one new router — it will cost about $15,000 to add each channel,” Rahimi said. “I don’t really know how to use it yet,” said Jeffrey Hughes, a Northwestern first-year. His roommate “switches the display from the computer to his TV … the cool thing is that it has a ton of channels and it’s pretty easy to use … occasionally it will black out for a second and then come back online.” The new system opened up the possibility of having a television station run by students for broadcasting student performances, Rahimi added. The Northwestern School of Journalism has a TV news station, but Rahimi said he is excited about the opportunity for students to branch out into general programming.

cuss housing options for this year and originally planned to put him in Vartan Gregorian Quad. It was difficult, he said, to balance Zeta Delta Xi’s rush period with his original housing plans for this year. “Before I knew I was going to join the fraternity, they asked me to commit to living (in Marcy) for the rest of my time at Brown,” he said. “It’s hard to commit to one place as a freshman.” Gimbel did commit to stay in Marcy, and DSS helped him with small requests like installing a higher desk that he could sit at with his wheelchair, he said. “I told them at the beginning of the summer what I needed,” and Facilities Management complied, Gimbel said.

Iraq continued from page 1 support.” “Even though various religions are represented here, everyone seems very unified,” said Herald contributing writer Ania Kubin ’06. In the center of the crowd, Brown alumnae Luisa Patino ’02, Olivia Geiger ’02 and Janet Gunter ’01 set up a table of art supplies to amuse children during the

Under the University’s current system, students with special housing considerations have to submit a written request for accommodation and documentation of their disability, and then meet with the DSS coordinator to discuss their requests. Based on student input, DSS then makes a recommendation to ResLife. “As our population of students with physical disabilities increases, our demand on accessible housing will naturally increase,” Chaplin said. DSS plans to continue to support students with disabilities and work with students to identify appropriate academic, housing and other necessary accommodations, she said. “It is up to students to ‘selfadvocate’” and work with DSS and ORL, Chaplin said. Students must “ensure that their accommodation needs are being met.”

speeches. “You have to learn about peace activism. Why not start early?” said Patino as the children illustrated what peace meant to them. As the crowd dispersed, protestors sang “This Little Light of Mine,” reminding the participants of their hope for a more peaceful future. “It was obvious tonight that a huge contingent of the population is against war with Iraq. Hopefully someone in the government will listen,” said Anya Goldstein ’05.


THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

CAMPUS NEWS THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2002 · PAGE 5

Independent Study Projects transcend disciplines, students say Group and Independent Study Projects often address unusual areas of interest BY MOMOKO HIROSE

Scuba diving, Homer Simpson and small mechanical toys have little in common, but Brown students have managed to incorporate these and other diverse subjects into Group and Independent Study Projects. GISPs are classes students create to collaborate on a topic of common interest and usually tackle a subject not included in the University’s curriculum. Independent Study Projects are like GISPs but involve only one student creating his own curriculum. Unlike independent research, relegated to specific academic departments, ISPs offer students a chance to develop an interdisciplinary course of study. Most projects are one semester long, except for language GISPs, which are two semesters long. Polina Malikin ’02, coordinator of the Resource Center, said these projects range “from strict lab projects to dance performances to political activism projects.” Malikin said GISPs are a great opportunity to experiment with different areas of study. She ran her own GISP when she was a student and worked with the chemistry and art departments to study the history of paints, pigments and dyes. Kathryn Hass ’03, who was a GISP coordinator for the past two years, said these projects “really let you take charge of the class.” “The planning is just as important as the actual GISP,” Hass said, so no student can join a GISP who was not originally part of the group. Hass also said GISPs can evolve into full-time departmental classes. One example is a sign language GISP that became a regular class. Marisa Kastoff ’03, a student in the GISP “The Simpsons in Today’s Society: Sometimes a Cartoon is Not Just a Cartoon,” said the application process is complicated, especially finding faculty sponsors. “One has to be diligent and put in a lot of effort to put the syllabus together, especially so early,” Kastoff said. “It’s really great that President Simmons has a huge drive to find more faculty, so it will be easier for students to find faculty sponsors,” she said. Associate Dean of the College Armando Bengochea said “having students undergo this process teaches them how to instruct one another.” As a chair of the College Curriculum Council, Bengochea reviews many GISP and ISP proposals. “Though it is demanding, the coursework you undertake is truly your own,” Bengochea said. “They come away feeling that they really have done it on their own.” The basic application involves finding a faculty sponsor, constructing a syllabus, writing a bibliography and explaining the project in writing. Humanities GISPs usually require 250 pages of reading per week. Discussions are also held each week, like any other class, and are student run. At the end of a GISP or ISP, students often complete a final project or presentation, combining everything they have learned. The application deadline for GISPs for next semester is Nov. 8. The Resource Center will conduct an information session on GISPs and ISPs in October.

KAMP volunteers mentor Korean tots BY JESSICA LEWIS

Min Jung Park ’05 is always amazed by Sean Parqette, a Providence youth with a killer throw for an 8-year-old. Last year, Park, a former coordinator of the Korean Adoptee Mentoring Program, mentored Sean. During their meetings the two often talked about baseball, Sean’s favorite sport. Park told Sean stories of famous Korean short stops and pitchers and other Korean athletes who made it to the majors. After a catch, the two would engage in a brief Korean language lesson over fine Korean cuisine. This weekly routine was fairly standard. Through his meetings with Sean, Park was able to fulfill one of KAMP’s goals — to connect his mentee’s interests with his culture. KAMP is a student group that mentors Korean children primarily between the ages of three and 18 who have been adopted into non-Korean families in Providence and nearby communities. After a year of tedious struggle, Monday night KAMP was approved by the Undergraduate Council of Students as an official Category I student organization. KAMP members are thrilled with their new status and are already gearing up to appeal for Category II status next semester, said Jenny Yoo ’03, a KAMP coordinator. After 10 years of brainstorming, coordinators Yoo and Esther Kim ’02 introduced KAMP to campus last year. As part of the program, Korean children from Providence and surrounding areas enjoy weekly individual or small group playtime sessions with student mentors and partake in a series of monthly events throughout the year. While KAMP will embrace any student volunteer with a knowledge of and interest in Korean culture, all KAMP mentors are, and have been, Korean. Some were even adopted by non-Korean families themselves, Yoo said. In working with Sean, Park altered his perspective on adoption. Once subscribing to traditional Korean thought that adoption is shameful, he said he now feels that ultimately adoption is good for a child because it “gives them the opportunity to grow up in a loving family.” The mentors serve as role models, Yoo said. “We want to make these children feel more comfortable in an environment where they don’t share the same cultural roots or even look,” she said. “Hopefully we can give them a sense of confidence in who they are. We want them to know that there are people out there who they can talk to who share their heritage.” But to realize such a vision requires space, resources and money – all of which were hard to come by without official recognition as an organization by UCS, said Park and Yoo. The organization is quite extensive, including a four-member student board, a financial manager, over twenty student mentors and about thirty Korean adoptee families. Together, they are responsible for recruiting student mentor volunteers, running training sessions for both mentors and the families, pairing a mentor with a mentee based on questionnaires, funding events and coordinating preliminary initiation meetings with the schedules of dozens of students and professionals. This work comes after communicat-

Courtesy of Min Jung Karp

KAMP volunteer Peter Chung ‘03 helps Ben Flanagan (age 6) make Korean kimbab. ing with local and regional adoption agencies to recruit families and iron out liability issues. Despite their active role on campus last year, UCS rejected KAMP’s original proposal for Category I status. Of main concern to UCS were liability issues that arise when dealing with children of nonBrown affiliated families, Yoo said. David Inman, director of student activities, later confirmed this. As of last year, the group had no faculty or Dean sponsorship to oversee liability policies or training sessions addressing legal issues with the mentors and families. Without UCS status, KAMP relied on independent fundraising and donations to fund their programs and events, Park and Yoo said. They received donations from families involved with KAMP, local Korean affiliated organizations including Korea’s Seoul University Alumni Society in Providence, and the Wide Horizon and Open Door Society Adoption Agencies. Brown’s KoreanAmerican Student Association was also instrumental in providing resources and space for KAMP’s activities.

Now KAMP has a new constitution and a faculty sponsor, Assistant Dean for Studen Life Kisa Takesue. “ For a lot of mentors, KAMP is part of social life,” Yoo said. “We’re a big community with a common goal.” Park agreed, saying, “We get great feedback from the mentors, kids and families, which is great publicity for the school.” The current KAMP agenda includes building a Web site, coordinating a book reading with an established KoreanAmerican writer and hosting a traditional Korean fan dance and intramural sports tournament. KAMP is growing fast — expanding regionally — and is charged with motivated students, Yoo said. Plans are underway for establishing an expanded intercollegiate program at Yale and Princeton Universities modeled after KAMP, she said. In response to requests from families with adopted Korean children in the New York City and Washington, D.C., areas, KAMP is in the early stages of setting up an online mentoring service.


PAGE 6 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2002

Recruits

Cropp

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enough athletes to fill out those programs so it can be a worthwhile and positive competitive experience,” he said. Student athletes agreed with Roach. “I think (the decision) is just really unfortunate,” said Jessica Cooper ’03, copresident of the Student Athletic Advisory Board and a Herald staff writer. She said the football team already has a reduced number of visits for recruits, after being cited for recruiting violations in 2001. Limits on recruiting are “really hindering us from competing in Division I,” Cooper said. “It’s going to be a long-term effect,” Gallagher said. “We won’t be as deep anymore. It hurts the depth of the team, which in turn affects your football.” The football team competes against some schools that are not in the Ivy League and therefore not subject to the new restrictions. Gallagher called those universities “scholarship schools” — in addition to recruiting more players, schools such as Fordham and Towson can offer their players athletic scholarships. Restrictions on recruiting “will definitely hurt us against those teams,” Gallagher said. Recruiting, which both Cooper and Gallagher called essential to the success of a team, is a difficult process. Brown competes for promising recruits against the rest of the Ivy League and other top-tier schools. The pool of recruits Brown considers is small. “It’s a very unique individual that’s able to meet the academic standards and the athletic standards,” Gallagher said. Will Burroughs ’05 came to Brown last year after being recruited by several schools. He had not considered attending Brown until the football team brought him to Providence for a recruiting visit. “It’s a big decision to go to Brown and pay for your full education, as opposed to another school, where you’d get a full ride but the education’s not as good,” he said. Burroughs questioned the council’s support for athletics. “The Ivy League wants their sports to get the fame and glory of competing on a

afforded me no opportunity to tailgate. It only makes sense that a sport whose main sponsors are Bud and Busch should boast such a high consumption of these beverages. Paying ten dollars for a few hours of entertainment didn’t seem like too bad of a prospect. After setting my eyes on the first mullet of the evening, I knew I’ d enjoy much more than just the races. For those of you who haven’t been to a race before, most of the crowd doesn’t look like your typical Brown student (so rule out finding kids wearing a vintage jacket with aviators big enough to cover their MCM texbook.) Not everyone at the race fit the stereotypical description of a redneck, but there were several “Big Johnson” shirts and copious amounts of the ubiquitous #3 apparel (R.I.P. Dale.) Only one out of every ten people were chewing tobacco, so I decided to find a spot far enough away to avoid the potential spit on my foot, but close enough to enjoy the aromatic mixture of fiberglass and wintergreen. Before I knew it, the first race had begun and I was about to get my first voluntary dose of carbon monoxide. As the cars stormed around the track, my eyes opened wide and I was ready. After only the first lap I couldn’t suppress my appetite to cheer. Though the track provided little variation, the crowd hooted and hollered every time the pack rounded the home stretch. Before too long, the green flag came out, and we all stood up for the final lap. Other than the two people in the crowd who were the wife/sister and brother/son of the driver, nobody knew the winner personally, but we all felt a rush of excitement for #32. By the second race I had thrown off all my social shackles and let loose. When the car with stars and bars smashed into the wall and prompted the yellow flag to signal a caution lap, I put in my two cents, politely bidding for its removal from the esteemed track, in not so many words. And when the ‘ 72 Cadillac chugged across the finish line half a minute behind all the other open division cars, I gave an Arsenio Hallesque fist pump to pay tribute. Just when I thought it was time to go home, out came a fleet of fake wood-paneled station wagons that looked like Vin Diesel had taken for a joyride. My heart beat quickened and I knew it was time for destruction. Anyone who can honestly say they don’t enjoy a Demolition Derby is either lying to you or is unamerican (according to Toby Keith.) All twenty minutes of the Derby were pure euphoria, and the feeling lasted all the way home. So the next time you feel like chastising the sport of auto-racing or even a fan of the sport, I suggest trying to see a race in person. While I can’ t guarantee you’ll experience a catharsis or that you’ll become addicted to the sport (or chewing tobacco,) I can tell you that you will then understand why it is such a popular phenomenon.

Crew continued from page 16 the squad’s goals for the season. “Mainly our team goal is to reach the NCAA tournament,” he said. “I mean, we can’t look too far ahead but that’s definitely our biggest goal. Right now we just want to take it one game at a time.” His personal aims for the season are similarly focused. “I just want to do whatever I can to help the team win, and to make it to the NCAA

Nick Mark / Herald

Football players say thay are frustrated with the Council of Ivy League Presidents’ decision to reduce the number of football recruits. Under the new regulations, the number of recruits is capped at an average of 30 per year, down from 35 previously. Division I team, but they make these rules that tie our hands behind our back,” he said. The council outlined the change in a June 20 press release, which said the council’s changes in athletics rules were “designed to assure close adherence to the fundamental tenets of Ivy League athletics.” To define the “tenets” in question, the council cited the first of 10 “principles” adopted by the group in 1979: “Intercollegiate athletics ought to be maintained within a perspective that holds paramount the academic programs of the institution and the academic and personal growth of the student athlete.” Gallagher expressed concern that the council’s decision arose from false perceptions of recruited athletes as less academically oriented. “I think that’s a BS argument,” Gallagher said. “If you’re accepted here, you can do the work.” Roach said student athletes have been proven to do as well in academics as the general population.

“What’s the problem we’re trying to solve?” he said. “If there’s no problem, and student athletes at Ivy League schools are doing well academically and representing their schools well, … what are we trying to accomplish here?” The review of overall recruiting policy, which will be undertaken by admission officers, began this week, Director of Admission Michael Goldberger told The Herald in an e-mail. Goldberger said it is too soon to tell what changes will result from this review process, but Roach said he anticipates that the council will end up limiting the number of recruits in all sports. Simmons told The Herald that Brown should support its athletic programs at a high level, but should ensure that academics is the school’s first priority. “Brown and the other Ivy League universities have demonstrated that these two ideas can not only co-exist but also be mutually beneficial,” Simmons wrote.

tournament,” Crew said. “We didn’t make it last year and that was a big disappointment, so that’s really driving us this year. Right now we just want to beat Harvard, who we’re playing on Saturday.” The Crimson squad’s visit to Brown this weekend will be the Bears’ first league match of the season. “We’ve improved in each one of our games so far,” Crew said. “So if we keep improving and give a good performance, the result will take care of itself.” Crew is particularly hopeful for a good season with the Bears after spending his summer with a not-so-successful squad.

“I played for a Professional Development team, and there’s a whole league of these Professional Development teams across the country. I played for a team called the Dayton Gemini, out of Dayton, Ohio. It was good for me, it helped me keep up my level of soccer. The team didn’t do too well though. We lost a lot of games, which definitely made me want to come back and win a lot with Brown.” Although a soccer-related career would seem an obvious choice for some in Crew’s shoes, he is unsure what role soccer will play in his future. “Right now I don’t really know,” he admitted. “I’m just taking it one day at a time.”

Herald staff writer Julia Zuckerman ‘05 can be reached at jzuckerman@browndailyherald.com.

Iann Cropp ’05 hails from Buffalo, N.Y.


THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

WORLD & NATION THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2002 · PAGE 7

IN BRIEF Infectious diseases gain potency (Baltimore Sun) — Infectious diseases are the leading cause

of death worldwide and are on the rise. Take West Nile virus. As mosquitoes buzz around our back yards, parks and other public places, residents and health officials in Southern, Eastern and Midwest states are poised to retreat under protective netting. For fear of the lethal virus, citizens are being urged to drain flower pots, wash out birdbaths and eliminate standing water where the insects can breed. And now the virus has marched onto football fields. The Jackson, Miss., high school football team faces a potentially deadly foe: night-feeding mosquitoes that carry the virus. Players are being sprayed with insecticide before games and at halftime. More than 1,500 cases of the disease have been reported nationwide, and 71 people have died. Other dreaded diseases of centuries past, such as bubonic plague, are happening here and now. Plague, for example, is on the rise in the Southwestern United States. Biologists conducting long-term ecological research have found that human plague cases in New Mexico are occurring after wetter-than-average winter-tospring periods. In fact, during much wetter than normal periods from October to May, there has been a nearly 60 percent rise in the number of cases.Yersinia pestis, the plague bacterium, has survived the Dark Ages and is with us yet. And now researchers have discovered that a bumper year for acorns may result in a bad season for Lyme disease. This intriguing link is the result of a long-term study of the ecological relationships in oak forests of the Eastern United States. In those acorn-rich years when deer gather in oak forests to feed, large numbers of adult deer ticks drop from their hosts

onto the forest floor and lay their eggs in the leaf litter.

For Oman, supporting U.N. is duty Omani foreign minister says his country would comply with a U.N. resolution to use force against Iraq WASHINGTON (Washington Post) — The foreign minister of

Oman, Yusef Alawi Abdullah, in Washington this week to consult with U.S. officials on the unfolding scenario of possible war against Iraq, said if there is a new U.N. resolution to use force against the government in Baghdad, member states would have to comply. “Should the U.N. decide to use force” — if a new round of weapons inspections in Iraq is interrupted, for example — ”all member states have an obligation to support it,” Abdullah said. “But it is not going to be that simple,” with five Security Council members having veto power, he said in an interview at the Omani Embassy yesterday. Abdullah said it was not up to Oman to challenge President Bush or his goal of unseating Iraqi President Saddam Hussein . “The United Nations Charter says that nations should refrain from interference in the internal affairs of others,” he said. “We will stick to that. But if there is any change” in a new U.N. resolution that backs regime change in Iraq, “all nations are obligated to support it,” the minister added. Abdullah is the first senior Arab official to publicly hold out such a possibility under a U.N. umbrella. Abdullah said U.S. concerns over Iraq’s failure to dismantle all of its weapons of mass destruction are valid and serious. Baghdad’s claim that it has complied with 95 percent of U.N. resolutions on inspections still constitutes noncompliance, he added. The minister met Monday with Secretary of State Colin

L. Powell and is scheduled to hold talks today with Vice President Cheney. Abdullah said a “mutual agreement” on “detailed access” between the United States and Oman, which was concluded in 1980, could in principle allow Americans to use the sultanate’s military facilities — if its rulers agreed. “There is no obligation committing us to say yes to every situation. … The agreement is about military access to our military bases, when we see there are threats to our security and interests. This is still far away,” he noted. “We say yes when we see fit and when it serves our interest. We would very much like to help our American friends, as we did in the past in Afghanistan, both at the time of the Soviet invasion and later.” “That is for us and the Americans to work out, but it is now in the hands of the United Nations,” he continued, adding that he hoped U.S. consultations with other permanent members of the Security Council would produce a resolution by mid-October. Logistically, Oman could serve as a hub for airlifts in any action against Iraq. A Sept. 13 report in the Guardian, a British newspaper, said Oman is believed to be home to B-1 bombers and air refueling planes. The U.S. Air Force has flown fighters and bombers from Seeb International Airport-outside the Omani capital, Muscat-and from the Thumrait and Masirah air bases. Abdullah acknowledged that the United States could wage war in any corner of the world but added, “Of course, everyone in the region would like to avoid war and to see the United Nations tackle this problem collectively. We do want to see weapons of mass destruction eliminated and sanctions lifted, so the lives of ordinary Iraqis can improve.”


PAGE 8 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2002

Herpes epidemic quietly grows, doubles risk of HIV infection (Hartford Current) — Twenty years

ago, the cover of Time magazine dubbed herpes “Today’s Scarlet Letter,” and the story inside declared it “a full-fledged epidemic.” It was the summer when America phoned home with “E.T.” and felt the burn with “Jane Fonda’s Workout.” The summer of ‘82 was when a grim, mysterious new illness got an official name: AIDS. Fonda has since thrown in the towel, and today’s movie aliens carve sinister crop circles. Herpes has long since been dwarfed by the global AIDS pandemic, which has taken more than 20 million lives. But herpes has not gone away. It has been quietly spreading in the shadow of the AIDS onslaught. Since the late 1970s, the number of Americans with HSV-2 — the herpes simplex virus that usually causes genital herpes — has jumped 30 percent, to about 45 million. It has become five times more common among American teenagers in that same period, and twice as common among those in their 20s. “It’s a growing epidemic and it’s a real concern,” said Dr. Stephen Brunton, a director of Connecticut’s Stamford HospitalColumbia University family practice residency program. The concern is threefold. First, herpes acts as an invisible catalyst in the worldwide HIV/AIDS pandemic. The presence of herpes at least doubles the chance of HIV infection through sex. But most people with herpes don’t know they have it; they often have mild, misdiagnosed symptoms, or no apparent symptoms. As a result, herpes is fueling the spread of HIV in populations where the two intersect. The second concern is neonatal herpes, which can cause illness and even death in newborns. It is rare, occurring in 1 in 2,000 to 1 in 5,000 births a year. But it is on the rise, says Dr. Lawrence Corey, a professor of medicine at the University of Washington and head of the infectious diseases program at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. Finally, there is the pain and shame of herpes for people who know they have it and whose symptoms are significant. “Even to this day, there are still points in time when you feel you have to be secretive,” said Susan Lacapra, who asked that her town of residence not be published. Lacapra, who is co-facilitator of a herpes support group that meets monthly, got herpes several years ago from an ex-husband “who,” she says, “decided not to be too discreet.” For many years, she said, she did not date very much. Although some potential partners were understanding, others departed when she told them of her infection. “Rejection is part of it,” Lacapra said. Today, she is engaged to a man who has herpes. Lacapra says her one or two

herpes outbreaks each year are mild. “I am more sick with a bad cold,” she said. But mild symptoms are part of the problem. Although they make herpes quite bearable for many people who have it, they also make herpes easy to spread. As much as 90 percent of people infected with herpes don’t know they have it. They either have no symptoms or mild signs that are mistaken for rashes or insect bites. (Suspect sores can be tested for herpes, as can blood.)

The virus is transmitted via sex, but people who don’t know they have it don’t realize they are sharing it with their sex partners. Many people who know they have it believe they can’t spread it unless they’re having an outbreak. Unfortunately, that is not true, which is why public health officials encourage people with herpes to use latex condoms, even when they don’t have symptoms, to reduce the risk of spreading the virus. According to the old joke, the difference between love and herpes is that herpes is forever. Once a person is infected with HSV-2 — the virus that accounts for most cases of genital herpes — it never goes away. People with obvious signs generally have one or more blisters near the genitals and might have flulike symptoms. The blisters break, leaving sores that can take from one day to three weeks to heal. Meanwhile, the virus hides out in nerve bundles, and erupts again periodically. The number and severity of outbreaks tends to decrease over time. But the virus appears to reactivate from time to time in nearly everyone infected, Corey said. The closely related virus HSV-1 commonly causes cold sores, but it can be transmitted to the genitals via oral sex, and HSV-2 can cause cold sores by way of the same route. First-time infections, and mild early symptoms, are often to blame for the increase in neonatal herpes. Mothers who caught herpes before they got pregnant don’t usually transmit the virus to their children. But women who get infected during pregnancy and have their first outbreak near the time of birth can pass on the virus. Women who have obvious symptoms are tested for herpes, said Dr. James F.X. Egan. He is the director of maternalfetal medicine at St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center in Connecticut. A cesarean birth can be performed to protect the infant. But Egan said that some women have no obvious symptoms in their first outbreak, and this accounts for most cases of neonatal herpes. The child can suffer infection of the brain and the tissue surrounding the brain. The infection can be fatal or result in mental retardation or other disabilities. For people with HIV, or with HIV-positive partners, herpes

increases the risk of transmission. Treating herpes across the board could help slow the spread of HIV, says Dr. Corey Casper, a senior fellow in infectious diseases at the University of Washington Medical School. It can be hard to alter sexual behavior, he said, but acyclovir, one of the drugs used to treat or prevent herpes outbreaks, could be given to populations at high risk for both herpes and HIV. “If you could reduce the rates of HIV infection by giving a drug for pennies a day, that’s very interesting,” Casper said. Researchers are investigating that possibility, he said. Of course, genital herpes by itself is no picnic, especially for people with painful, troubling symptoms. Antiviral drugs can shorten an episode or, if taken regularly, prevent future outbreaks. But there are social and psychological effects that drugs can’t touch. “Many of these people are afraid to have sex and afraid to get pregnant,” said Dr. Robert Levitz, assistant director of infectious diseases at Hartford Hospital in Connecticut. He said he often deals with married couples in which one partner has a herpes outbreak and the other suspects infidelity. “It could very well be that the party was infected five years before they got married,” Levitz said. Lacapra, who has herpes and helps run the support group, said there is still plenty of shame surrounding herpes. Some people see it as the hallmark of bad hygiene, or promiscuity, or both. “Some people, emotionally, just can’t handle it,” she said. Charles Ebel, senior director of program development at the American Social Health Association in Research Triangle Park, N.C., says that between 30 percent and 40 percent of people who know they have herpes say they don’t tell their sex partners. Ebel said that his organization, which provides information about sexually transmitted diseases, would like to see neonatal herpes made a nationally “reportable” disease, so that better information could be collected. He said the health association is alarmed by the current trend in genital herpes. Prevention is the key, he said, and several possible vaccines, new anti-viral drugs and topical microbe-killers are in the research pipeline. What’s challenging, he said, is getting more people to understand the serious impact of herpes without creating more humiliation for patients. “How do you get people stirred up without re-stigmatizing it?” he asked. Contact the American Social Health Association’s National Herpes Hotline at (919) 3618488. The toll-free National STD and AIDS Hotline is (800) 2278922.


THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2002 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD PAGE 9

In makeshift schools, Arab students find way to learn NABLUS,West Bank (Baltimore Sun) —

Their classroom is an open courtyard shaded by the branches of a lemon tree. The luckiest pupils have plastic lawn chairs; others sit on concrete steps and use folded blankets as cushions. The lesson plan is written on a wooden board painted black. For these 22 students, most of them first-graders, the tiled courtyard in front of Basma Malhas’ house, within sight of a refugee camp, is the only school they’ve attended this year. They come for just two hours a day, in the morning, when it is safe. The rest of the time, the firstgraders and virtually everyone else in the city are confined to their homes. For more than 90 consecutive days, the Israeli army has kept this city under curfew in a stranglehold that has obliterated daily routines for its 150,000 residents. Since June 21, soldiers have eased restrictions for just 70 hours — a short time to shop for groceries, breathe fresh air and see people outside one’s home. Last week, the Palestinian Authority tried to open a dozen schools in Nablus, but Israeli soldiers firing machine guns dispersed hundreds of uniformed youngsters who tried to march through the empty streets to their classrooms. So, makeshift schools are appearing in mosques, storefronts and homes tucked away on side streets and hidden in the tangled warrens of refugee camps all over Nablus, where 60,000 students live. “We have come to the point where we are like Afghanistan, where kids are learning on the streets,” says Hasam Lubbadeh, 42, whose five children attend temporary learning centers. “Israel is taking everything away from these young people. Even if there is a curfew, they should allow people to go to school.” The classrooms, like the one at Malhas’ house, are set up so children don’t have to walk more than a few blocks. Still, the pupils have to keep a careful watch for soldiers and learn to quickly dart into a nearby home should an army patrol pass by. The children arrive early and eager. Some put on their blueand-white striped uniforms and their backpacks decorated with Disney characters, even though they have no books. “I want to learn,” says Ruba Hindi, a 6-year-old making the best of what would have been her first full year after kindergarten. One day last week, she was practicing her Arabic letters, writing them in three neat columns in a notebook. “I want to finish school and go to a university,” says Ruba, as she seeks approval of her work from Malhas, who offers gentle advice on penmanship. Still, Ruba understands the unusual circumstances. At one point, she raises her hand and asks Malhas, “When can we go to a normal school?” The Israeli army allowed Palestinian schools to open Aug. 31 in most Palestinian cities, even though they remained under curfew, but the restrictions were tightened last week after a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv. The rules are simple: No one can leave his or her home, for any

“Israel is taking everything away from these young people. Even if there is a curfew, they should allow people to go to school.” Hasem Lubbadeh Father of five reason, without permission from the Israeli army. Capt. Jacob Dallal, an Israeli army spokesman, says that schools sometimes open under agreements between local Palestinian leaders and Israeli commanders, but he acknowledges that “it is very difficult” to open schools when a curfew is being enforced. Army commanders say they will leave West Bank cities when the violence against Israelis is halted, and blame the school closings on Palestinian militants. As Israeli restrictions have tightened over the past two years, Palestinians have learned to adapt. So, when the Israeli army forced schools to close, parents were determined to find a way to educate their children. In normal times, Malhas, 28, teaches at a private school near the center of Nablus. Unable to reach her classroom, she turned her attention to the children living in and near the Balata refugee camp. “I don’t want any kids to miss their education,” she says, as she moves between students. “We have to have hope. This should prove to the Israelis that we will not give up and that we can cope with any circumstance.” The outdoor classroom is not elaborate. Malhas shoved plants to the side and cleared her patio furniture. Most students sit around a wooden table; others balance notebooks in their laps and sit on stools or steps. The courtyard is below street level. The branches of the lemon tree form a canopy. Beyond the courtyard, a rutted road swirls with dust at every passing of a vehicle. Malhas says she avoids any mention of politics with the children. “They get enough of that when they leave here,” she says. “They get all of that just walking home.” The plank serving as a chalkboard leans against a kitchen window. Written on it is this: “The door of my school is open. The flag of my school is raised. The teacher is standing in front of the students. The headmaster is welcoming the pupils.” All of which is an illusion, but a necessary one, says Malhas, who seeks to create the atmosphere of a normal classroom. “What is the lesson of the day?” she calls out to her pupils. “It’s called `My family.’ The alphabet of the day is the letter P.” In the distance, somewhere near Nablus’ central marketplace, bursts of gunfire crackle, drowning out the chirping birds resting in the lemon tree.


PAGE 10 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2002

Staff director emerges as key to Sept. 11 probe WASHINGTON (Washington Post) —

Three months ago, it wasn’t at all clear that Congress’ attempt to probe the intelligence community’s handling of pre-Sept. 11, 2001, information would yield many insights. The staff director of the newly formed Joint Inquiry Committee had been asked to leave. Arguments between the panel and intelligence agencies over what could be declassified were painfully slow. Even lawmakers were worrying out loud about its direction. But the public hearings that began last week put those worries to rest. Filled with new details and compelling testimony by FBI and CIA agents, the panel staff, toiling behind closed doors, created a roadmap that undoubtedly will be the jumping-off point for the more thorough, independent commission that Congress, family members of those killed in the attacks and now even President Bush are endorsing. The star witness in the turnaround, said lawmakers and their staff members, is an attorney with an understated style and a decades-long track record as an aggressive, evenhanded investigator. For hours at a time, Eleanor Hill, a former Pentagon inspector general, has calmly and painstakingly walked the lawmakers through a maze of international plots, subplots and breathtaking missed opportunities leading up to the fatal terrorist attacks. “She’s framed the issue in a noninflammatory way,” Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., said Tuesday as she walked in front of a blackened screen set up in the hearing room to conceal the identities of three FBI agents testifying. “Eleanor Hill coalesced a competent staff to create a roadmap for reform we’ve been looking for. She’s the one. She’s the leader.” In a brief interview Tuesday as she worked her way through a Capitol Hill basement salad bar line, Hill said one simple but daunting challenge was to assemble “the volume of stuff we’ve had to look through” and to “put it together in a readable form, in a form that would tell the American people a story.” The panel staff, working in offices at the CIA, FBI, National Security Agency and other intelligence-gathering agencies, combed through 400,000 pages of documents and zeroed in on nearly 7,000 pages to form the narrative stories their three reports have told about the clues available before the attacks, the hijackers’ trail and the valiant but vain efforts by individual CIA officials and FBI agents to make their bureaucracies move faster. Big, complex investigations happen to be Hill’s forte. As a federal prosecutor in the U.S. attorney’s office in Tampa, Fla., and the first woman employed in that office, Hill never lost a case. Hired by thenSen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., for the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations for the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee that he chaired, Hill spent 15 years probing organized crime, the Teamsters, mismanagement in the federal student loan program, fraud in trade schools and lavish expen-

Testimony by FBI and CIA agents, the panel staff ... created a roadmap that undoubtedly will be the jumping-off point for the more thorough, independent commission that Congress, family members of those killed in the attacks and now even President Bush are endorsing. ditures by some Blue Cross Blue Shield plans. She ran one set of hearings about the plans just two days before she gave birth to her son. Hill also served, in 1987, as Nunn’s special counsel during the Iran-contra hearings investigating the secret sale of arms to Iran in exchange for help in freeing American hostages in Lebanon. In 1995, President Bill Clinton nominated Hill as the Defense Department’s inspector general. She went from heading an office of 10 highly motivated Senate staffers to leading a demoralized group of 1,500 defense investigators who were facing a one-third cut in their office’s positions. David Buckley, Hill’s former special assistant at the Pentagon, said the key to her success is that she “collects all the facts and assesses the situation before coming to a conclusion. Even though she’s an extremely compassionate and nice person, she doesn’t let her emotions pull her away from the facts.” She led the joint CIA-Defense Department review of allegations that the CIA failed to share with Congress information it had that one of its agents, a Guatemalan colonel, had been involved in the killing of a Guatemalan rebel married to an American lawyer. While at Defense, Hill set up an Office of Intelligence Review to review intelligence operations at an inspector general’s office that had focused most of its attention on waste, fraud and abuse. Her management style, said Judith Miller, the Pentagon’s former general counsel who worked with Hill there, “is not to micromanage everything. She trusts her people.” Nunn, Hill said Tuesday, taught her many things. Among the most unforgettable, she said, was this: “Congress has a tremendous power to investigate, and a tremendous responsibility to exercise that power fairly and accurately. You don’t want to abuse it. You want to do it accurately.”


THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2002 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD PAGE 11

Prince William comes to the tube — but the palace is not amused (Newsday) — Yes, England is a

funny place — by “funny,” we mean “deliriously, joyously eccentric” — and never funnier than on the subject of the Royals. You have the tabloids, which have shredded the queen and her progeny for the better part of two decades. And you have the British public, appalled at the press but eager to buy the offending tabloids anyway. Into this steps ABC, which on Sunday airs “Prince William,” a made-for-TV movie that chronicles the life of the older son of Charles and Diana, and picks up the story after her death in a 1997 car accident. “Prince William” is a well-made biopic and — to American eyes anyway — as controversial as “Barney & Friends.” The British, however, are not amused. Just before the film — starring newcomer Jordan Frieda (son of ‘60s pop star Lulu) as William — began shooting in the spring, there was a flurry of articles about yet another impending media assault on the Royals. “St. James’s Palace has reacted with dismay to a planned Disney television drama about the life of Prince William,” began a story in the Times of London, which went on to quote a palace official saying, “We think this is deeply insensitive. We would rather it was not happening.” Filming would take place in Dublin, leading some commentators to suggest that ABC (and Fox, which produced the film) were run out of London town.

Controversy is a wonderful thing for any TV movie — the more scurrilous and sensational, the better. But to ABC’s great misfortune, the controversy died then and there. What happened? A much better controversy came along. Ardent, the production company run by Prince Edward — William’s uncle and Charles’ brother — was caught filming William, defying a ban in which the British media agreed not to bother William during his studies at St. Andrew’s in Scotland. “There was a huge storm about it (which) also deepened the pre-existing rift between Edward and Charles,” Matt Wells, the media columnist for the Guardian, says in an email interview. “The British press is much more of a tabloid press, and they crucify the Royals,” says Bonnie Raskin, executive producer of “William.” “Our movie,” she says, “is a love story. It’s about a father and son. It’s not a ripped-fromthe-headlines, let’s-lift-up-therock-and-see-what-crawls-out TV movie.” True, to a point. The producers have gone to considerable trouble to humanize both Charles (Martin Turner) and Camilla Parker Bowles (Carolyn Pickles). Frieda’s William is a sensitive kid who grieves quietly and nurses a giant grudge against the tabloid press (which he believes caused his mother’s death). He also bucks his father’s starchy patrician instinct to hide his feelings: “It’s

hard to understand,” says Charles, “but things must be done in a certain way.” Meanwhile, viewers will see William and brother Harry enjoy the partying life in a distinctly adolescent male fashion. As teenyboppers mob Harry and William, the younger brother says, “This is just brilliant!” One can well imagine millions of British backs stiffening during the party animal scenes — if the film is ever shown in the U.K. How do Raskin and her writers, Max Enscoe and Annie deYoung—who also wrote “The Facts of Life” reunion movie — know all this? Simple: the tabloids. Raskin explains, “When you put out a movie like this, the annotation” — that is, accuracy — ”is key to get the licensing agreements and insurance.” In other words, libel suits are bad for business. She says that while Charles (or William) was never actually given a copy of the script, she suspects they read it because “we cast out of London, so the script was out there, and I did hear to varying degrees that he had seen it.” Besides basing the story on hundreds of articles, Raskin also says she had access to a “Deep Throat” — a British journalist who also worked as a paid consultant. Meanwhile, Raskin is in Toronto filming another biopic that will be based on the life, and death, of JFK Jr. It will air on TBS early next year.

Doctors multiply cells to fight tumors (Newsday) — Doctors have been able to defeat the deadliest form of skin cancer in a small number of desperately ill patients by flooding them with billions of their own cells that had been multiplied in the lab and altered in a way to recognize even the tiniest fragments of a tumor. The government research team has produced a potentially promising treatment strategy, observers say, and a novel way of exploiting the immune system in the assault. Dr. Steven Rosenberg, a veteran scientist at the National Cancer Institute, has successfully treated melanoma patients by taking from them a sample of vital white blood cells. Those cells were cultured in the laboratory and multiplied to numbers impossible for the human body to produce on its own. The cells then were treated to become cancer-destroying super warriors. These altered constituents then were re-introduced into the patients. All 13 patients had exhausted medicine’s most sophisticated standard therapies, including surgery to remove the primary tumor. Six patients experienced dramatic shrinkage of subsequent tumors; in one, a teenager, a tumor that had been the size of a volleyball vanished. In four others, many of the additional tumors that had developed disappeared.

Though three of the patients have died, such would have been the fate for all 13, researchers said, given the extent of the intractable, malignant melanoma that had spread throughout their bodies. “Basically, what we have found is a new way to grow cells outside of a patient,” Rosenberg said. The full results of his study are reported in the current issue of the journal Science. Rosenberg and his team harnessed the human immune system, using the body’s own cancer-fighting capabilities, but multiplied by dramatic orders of magnitude. The scientists amplified Tcells, a vital population of white blood cells manufactured in the thymus gland. These cells are central to the body’s ability to orchestrate an immune response against a variety of diseases, including infections. Culturing techniques allowed the scientists to generate billions of new cancer-recognizing Tcells. A small fragment of a patient’s melanoma tumor is grown in culture along with T-cells removed from the patient. Exposing the T-cells to the tumor particles programs the former to zero in on the cancer when it’s present. The new approach is able to work, Rosenberg said, because the immune cells recognize tumors as foreign. Fellow cancer researchers are

regarding Rosenberg’s development with keen interest because of the elusiveness, so far, in coaxing the immune system into killing cancers. “I find it very interesting,” said Dr. Richard O’Reilly, chief of hematology at Memorial SloanKettering Cancer Center in New York. “It’s still in its early stages, and there are several aspects of it that need to be better fleshed out. But the patients he treated are of high interest because of the duration of T-cells in circulation.” Dr. Cassian Yee, a researcher who has experimented with a similar cell-amplifying technique at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, said the government study is important because scientists “could grow a significant number of T-cells in patients that could recognize tumors.” Rosenberg, a pioneer in cancer immunotherapy, has had limited success with previous attempts to spur the body into mounting an assault on cancer. He is considered by many to be one of the founders of cancer immunotherapy. For years, he and others have tried to prompt an immune response to attack cancers, producing either transient results, or nothing at all. The new technique overcomes a key difficulty: getting enough immune system cells to react against the cancer.


PAGE 12 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2002

White House staff to attend emergency survival training WASHINGTON (Washington Post) —

Uh-oh. The Wednesday morning briefing at the White House was pretty much routine at first, with news of a new FDA commissioner, a presidential lunch with the Colombian leader, a White House meeting with lawmakers over energy legislation, a photo-op for President Bush with the Boys and Girls Club and a fundraiser at night. Then came the bit about the chemical warfare hoods. White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer announced that the hoods were being made available to all those who work in the White House complex, and all those who work in the building were invited to attend a briefing on emergency survival techniques in the event of fire or, more ominously, biological or chemical attack. "It’s a precaution," Fleischer said. The spokesman said the timing had nothing to do with the growing standoff with Iraq and Saddam Hussein’s threat to take the war to American soil. " These have been in the works for months," he said of the briefings, adding that Congress completed similar procedures a couple of months ago. If that weren’t enough to give those assembled a sense of insecurity, Fleischer made clear that the White House and

A spokesman said the timing had nothing to do with the growing standoff with Iraq and Saddam Hussein’s threat to take the war to American soil. the Senate were still far apart on homeland security legislation. He reiterated Bush’s threat to veto the version the Senate passed Tuesday creating a Homeland Security department, calling it "unacceptable." Under the legislation, passed by Democrats with minimal GOP support, power would be "stripped away from the president," Fleischer said. The Democratic version, which contains stricter worker rights, is a union-sought "rollback and restriction" of powers the president already has, Fleischer said. "Why, in the face of increased threats, would Congress take away the president’s authority?" the spokesman asked.

In Ca., walling off crops from cities MADERA (L. A. Times) – His family

had worked the fields west of this broiling Central Valley town for nearly a century. But when Denis Prosperi tried to sell a small piece of his sprawling ranch to a home builder, angry neighbors rose against his plan to bust their expanse of wine vineyards and almond orchards. “I never dreamed my neighbors wouldn’t be ecstatic about the sale, because (it would) increase their land values,” Prosperi, 48, said recently, sipping a chilled white wine made from his Muscat grapes. “But they weren’t. That’s the trouble with farmers, they fall in love with the dirt.” Four years later, Prosperi has found a different way to pay for new irrigation and pest-resistant grapevines for his 640-acre ranch. Instead of selling any of his land, he has joined his critics in a rare compact to save forever some of the best cropland in the most productive farm region in the world. Prosperi and six of his neighbors last week sold development rights that would have allowed the housing tracts of Madera to extend onto their dusty farmland. The $4 million deal is the core of a four-mile-long “farmland security perimeter” on Madera’s western flank. It is intended to both block urban construction on the protected properties and push another 42,000 acres beyond the reach of city utilities and a municipal planning boundary. That’s an

eight-mile-square expanse of grapes, alfalfa and dairy land in the heart of the Central Valley protected from development. The American Farmland Trust, the nation’s largest group formed to save agricultural land, believes such easements—walling off premium cropland from cities—are the best hope for preserving farmland. The trust hopes to slow the advance of builders, who are paving over 50,000 acres of crop and grazing land annually, according to state reports. About one-fifth of that lost farmland is in the fertile Central Valley, where explosive growth is expected to triple the population to 12 million by 2040. The goal of the trust, California Director John McCaull said, is to use an unprecedented flow of about $150 million in state and federal money over six years to shift growth away from the valley’s most fertile land on the alluvial plain west of the Sierra Nevadas. McCaull figures the money can buy easements on about 50,000 acres of prime farmland and cut off another 500,000 acres from development by pushing growth onto hilly, rocky, salty or poorly drained tracts. That 550,000 acres compares with a total of 6.7 million acres of cropland in the Central Valley. “If it’s done in a strategic manner, I think it could multiply the effect 10 times,” he said. With creation of the Madera

preserve, farmers put aside their traditional distrust of government—and of limits on their property rights—to shape their own destiny. They retained ownership of their farms, but sold away any future right to build housing tracts, stores or office buildings. The farmland trust describes the Madera deal as the first in the nation where farmers have initiated a farmland “barrier.” Elsewhere, farmland trusts have purchased parcels, but not all at once and never at the instigation of farmers acting collectively. “We believe this is unique,” the farmland trust’s Greg Kirkpatrick said. “And it wouldn’t have come together if farmers hadn’t really driven the process.” The farmland trust sees the support of farmers and local governments to form the buffers as essential in saving one of the state’s largest industries: Crops are worth $30 billion a year, and farm-related businesses employ one of every 10 workers in California. The value of Central Valley crops is greater than those from any other farm region in the world, federal agriculture officials say. The threat to that industry is clear in Madera County. Here, the population surged by 40 percent last decade. With a typical household income of just $31,000 a year, Madera County officials generally have welcomed new industry and upscale housing tracts.


THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2002 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD PAGE 13


THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

EDITORIAL/LETTERS THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2002 · PAGE 14 S T A F F

E D I T O R I A L

Access for all The University’s renovation of two fraternity and sorority dorm rooms to accommodate pledges with physical disabilities is a commendable step toward making Brown a campus accessible to everyone. Ramps, a remodeled bathroom, a remote-control activated door and other installations will let Peter Gimbel ’05 and Sarah Volante ’05 live where and with whom they choose — decisions many students take for granted. It is also exciting that University departments so efficiently pooled their resources and expertise to open the two Wriston Quad dorm rooms to students with disabilities. The vast collaboration among the Office of Student Life, Disability Support Services, the Office of Residential Life and Facilities Management is exciting and clearly took insight and compassion from administrators and staff involved. But there is much more to be done. Students with disabilities have long spoken out about housing that isolated them from fellow students and friends. The University’s decision to earmark funds to remodel dorm rooms for Gimbel and Volante is a step in the right direction, but other parts of campus are inaccessible and need significant renovations. That students with disabilities could not live on Wriston Quad until 2002 is unfortunate. That other popular campus buildings lack electronic doors, ramps and other basic accessibility is unacceptable. The University should hire consultants to study its libraries, cafeterias, dorms, lecture halls, sidewalks and other campus locations and determine what it needs to do to fully accommodate students with disabilities. We recognize that things can not change overnight, in a semester or even in a year. With President Ruth Simmons’ plan for renewal, which will eventually bring 100 new faculty to Brown, the University will increase the draw on its endowment and infuse money into a plethora of new initiatives. Making Brown an accessible school must be one of these new initiatives, and the University should designate funds for that purpose. We challenge the University to set a goal for breaking down obstacles to students with disabilities. Whether complete renovations will take until next semester or 2007, the University must publicly announce a date to keep on track and reveal a true commitment to students with disabilities. Without a plan or set goal, the University shows no sincere dedication to breaking down barriers to its students with disabilities.

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

BUSINESS Stacey Doynow, General Manager Jamie Wolosky, Executive Manager Joe Laganas, Senior Accounts Manager Moon-Suk Oh, Marketing Manager David Zehngut, National Accounts Manager Lawrence Hester, University Accounts Manager Bill Louis, University Accounts Manager Hyebin Joo, Local Accounts Manager Jungdo Yu, Local Accounts Manager Tugba Erem, Local Accounts Manager Jack Carrere, Noncomm Accounts Manager Laurie-Ann Paliotti, Sr. Advertising Rep. Genia Gould, Advertising Rep. Kate Sparaco, Office Manager

Sanders Kleinfeld, Opinions Editor PRODUCTION Marion Billings, Design Editor Bronwyn Bryant, Asst. Design Editor Julia Zuckerman, Copy Desk Chief

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

Jonathan Skolnick, Copy Desk Chief Andrew Sheets, Graphics Editor Ellen Bak, Photography Editor Allie Silverman, Asst.Photography Editor Brett Cohen, Systems Manager

SPORTS Joshua Troy, Sports Editor Nick Gourevitch, Asst. Sports Editor Jermaine Matheson, Asst. Sports Editor Alicia Mullin, Asst. Sports Editor

Bronwyn Bryant, Night Editor Yafang Deng, Hanne Eisenfeld, Copy Editor 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, Lanie Davis, Marc Debush, Yafang Deng, Hanne Eisenfeld, Emily Flier, George Haws, Daniel Jacobson, Blair Nelsen, Eric Perlmutter, Amy Ruddle, Janis Sethness

SHANE WILKERSON

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Rest period not feasible To the Editor: After reading “Ivy League mandates 7 weeks of rest,” (9/25), I think that this is a well intentioned but misguided requirement that will hurt athletes and give them little or no benefit. Did the people who came up with this ever compete in sports? I ran cross-country, indoor track and outdoor track. Running is a continual training buildup, even at my age. There is no seven week period available to take off without damaging their training and forcing them to miss competitions, potentially leading to injury when intensive training begins again. I doubt that there are other extracurricular activities that can be done for only seven weeks, especially if it is a week here and a week there. Most student athletes will end up having time they won’t be able to apply towards the intended activities. I feel strongly that this program should be optional. One of the best things about Brown was that I didn’t have distribution requirements forced on me; I was treated as an adult, free to choose my non-major courses without being mandated to take stipulated courses in other areas. Students should have the same freedom to choose how they spend their non-academic time. Student should have the choice to participate in this program or not, and the coaches should be flexible in allowing this for students who make that choice. George Thurston ’73 Sept. 25

TWTP debate mired in political correctness To the Editor: I expected a lot more from the Brown community than the very sensitive controversy that is TWTP. In Herald opinions columns and the conversations of my classmates, no one has truly attempted to tackle the issue head on. The white kids all complain about feeling excluded by TWTP, yet continue to segregate. As a white person, a person of advantage, how can I conclude that a program for minorities is not necessary? I have never faced discrimination, I have never been a minority and I don’t presume to know what that feels like. That doesn’t mean I don’t want to know what it feels like, that I don’t want to understand the perspectives of minority students.

One doesn’t need to have been at TWTP to do this — one can simply talk with classmates. It is unfortunate that being politically correct traps so many students. People are too busy trying to avoid offending someone that they never step out of their comfort zone to ask a question, one that might help them gain a better understanding of other people. When we do this, white kids will have a better platform from which to judge TWTP. Meghan Gill ’06 Sept. 24

TWTP purpose must be made known To the Editor: After reading “A critical look at TWTP: a building with no foundation,” (9/23), I am sad the purpose of TWTP has not been communicated to the Brown community. The column paints a picture of TWTP that is untrue, a perception that lacks input from its participants. There were participants that did not enjoy the program, but most of us did. It is not a program meant to divide students along racial lines. It is a program to challenge us, make us realize that discrimination still exists. TWTP does not address all the groups discriminated against in society today, not even all the groups in U.S. society today. But the program is ever changing. If you feel that you are being shortchanged, please go to the Third World Center and talk to the director of the program. The gap between TWTP and the regular orientation program has always been hard to bridge. Efforts have been made in the past year to incorporate some of what was discussed in TWTP in freshman orientation. But it is apparently not enough. I went to TWTP, and I didn’t believe it inculcated the “us vs them” mentality. As a East Asian student living in the United States, TWTP has made me more aware of what my ethnicity means and how I am perceived in this society. If you don’t think you are racist, good for you. But there are those who still discriminate against people of other racial backgrounds and sometimes even against people of their own racial background. I urge participants and organizers to communicate the purpose of TWTP and the Brown community to put themselves in the shoes of the participants. George Kong ‘02 Sept. 24

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 THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2002 · PAGE 15

Is religion necessary to instill a sense of morality? The ends and not the means provided by formal belief systems are what should truly be valued by society THE DECLARATION OF A CALIFORNIA horrific acts with equal vehemence. This court that the inclusion of the words head-spinning paradox, neither side of “Under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance is which will ever see eye to eye, has always unconstitutional raised a spark of debate been enough to put religion securely and for a brief period this summer. The gener- permanently out of my favor and was sufal reaction from many, across parties and ficient, I felt sure, to put an end to this library discussion. principles, seemed to express But I never got a chance to the sentiment that now is simlaunch my religion-automatply not the time to challenge ic-weapon. At this point any symbol of patriotism, another colleague — much whatever the implications of closer to my own age and disits acceptance may be. But in position regarding so many the true centers of debate, issues — heartily echoed the where the pursuit of knowlfirst opinion, saying that reliedge and truth knows no gion is an essential tool in the bounds, this discussion shaping of a young person’s unleashed truly provocative sense of morality. This colideas. I am referring of course KATE GUBATA league then took the arguto the Circulation Department A CLOSER LOOK ment one step further by of the Sciences Library, my asserting that even if an indicurrent place of employment. The debate began when one of my col- vidual feels no connection to a God or any leagues remarked that it was, in her opin- higher being, the establishment of religion ion, the very absence of religion in our serves that individual’s moral developlives today that leads individuals to behave ment, standing as a guiding light in quesimmorally and perform horrific acts. A tions of good and bad, right and wrong. I was undone. My mouth dropped open standard reaction indeed, I thought, and girded myself for battle with my equally as it had so many times in church on standard response, which the tragic events Sundays in shock, offense or just plain of Sept. 11, 2001, and the aftermath of the boredom, only to be filled with a tasteless, following have brought to light. It is reli- chewy wafer. And the Sundays when I had gious belief that can lead individuals to forgotten my Neccos at home were even perform horrific acts and in terms of reli- worse. What was to be made from this argugious belief that people condemn these ment? If there were anything to be valued Kate Gubata ’03 hails from Providence, R.I. in religion, wouldn’t it be the essence of a higher being — that sense of spirituality She is a Taurus and enjoys wearing bulky which bell hooks has declared we must goalie uniforms in 90-degree heat.

reclaim from the establishment, from the conservative right who wish to distort it to their own advantage? Years after I stopped attending Mass on Sundays, years after I had been free of any connection to the establishment of the Church, a thriving sense of spirituality had been alive in me. It seems natural that we would want to believe there is something greater than us out there, and for me this sense of greatness has always found expression in terms provided by George Lucas. Yes, there is something greater — a force that binds us together and shapes our thoughts and actions. “Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter,” says Yoda, and I have always felt that this is the essence of my spirituality. But the Church with a capital C? God with a capital G? No thanks. That won’t get me closer to anything but a Neccos-induced stomachache. But I confess — to you, readers — that I went home that day with that colleague’s thoughts sounding ceaselessly in my head. Is my rejection of the establishment just a too typical standard of the privileged class (and I don’t just mean money) to which we all belong? I’m a Brown student with time on my hands, words in my head and a liberally encouraged rebellious spirit in my heart to scrutinize and criticize the experiences I’ve known in favor of something more suitable for me. But does this frame of mind suit everyone? Who does teach children right and wrong in a way they can understand? As long as the laws of religion conform to those of the state — not the other way around, and this is a critical

point — does it matter how anyone comes into acceptance of those laws? Responsible parents with a clear understanding of right and wrong in terms of the law who are dedicated to imparting this vision to their children are the best teachers of morality, with or without the aid of religion. But my colleague’s argument is a valid testimony to the parents who don’t know whether their whispered words are reaching any spiritual ears but who find immeasurable the sense of security and peace they feel as they kneel beside their children to pray. Or the ones who feel that extra bit of confidence that all those Catechism classes might some day spark a little prick of conscience — what I might call common sense — and make a kid think twice about just peeking a glance at another student’s test, stealing his lunch or getting into a fist fight with him. I would like to think that all parents, religious or not, devote themselves to tending to a positive development of their children’s rational and instinctive sides. And yet we see daily that this does not always happen on its own. Recently Professor John Tomasi put a task to his PS11 class — to imagine ourselves in the possession of the ring of Gyges of Lydia, which makes the wearer invisible. What would we do with the ring? Would we use it to do good or to cheat a little, to steal a little, to do something really bad? In the end the answers to these questions are what matter. And the origins, the motivations behind those answers, are trifles in comparison.

TWTP should place its focus on celebrating diversity TWTP need not create schism in the process of forging bonds between first-years Tired of the status quo, I yearned for a THROUGH MONTHS OF APPLICATIONS and agonizing waiting, through the ache home where all were not only tolerated of leave-taking and transition, Brown or accepted, but loved for being exactly always danced at the edges of my con- whom they chose to be. A place where sciousness; a place of infinite possibility healthy dissension and argument would and unbounded dreams. The campus thrive but would always be entered into with the purpose of underseemed the stuff of legend, a standing and growing, never magic realm where everyone proselytizing. This could be themselves — not University prizes its reputaonly the selves they had tion as a place that defies known, but the selves they definition or categorization. would have, could have and The occasional eccentricishould have been if the ties only contribute to the world had never told them draw of the setting, the otherwise. desire to be surrounded by a I imagined a somehow group of people so in love combined St. Peter/Emma with living that they don’t Lazarus figure doing baggage HANNE EISENFELD CAST OFF THIS need to stop and discuss check at the Van Wickle TATTERED COAT how exactly they fit into a Gates: “Leave here your precertain little slot of the conceptions, your disilluworld. sionment and your prejuImagine my surprise, then, when I dices. Carry in with you only what you love and who you are — but pack lightly, stepped onto campus only to find the for infinities of understanding and pos- lines already drawn, the cement poured and the cliques already hardening. sibility are clamoring to meet you.” And so I came, from a high school Being of mixed western European where I could count the number of descent on my mom’s side and minority students on my fingers, from a Ashkenazi Jew on my dad’s, I realize that city in parts of which same-sex marriage at first sight I am no more than a run-ofand pro-choice attitudes were ranked the-mill white chick. And, as a member near atheism and devil worship and of this not-so-elite or celebrated group, from a world scarred by centuries of I did not receive an invitation to the schisms: religious, racial, nationalist — Third World Transition Program. One of my friends, of half-Japanese hateful, all. I believed that I was coming to a haven, an academy: a place where descent, had been invited to the proall the calluses that we had cultivated gram but decided not to attend in view would be ripped away, where each of us of familial summer schedules. At the time, neither he nor I thought that much would enter newborn. about it but since arriving on campus just in time for the standard orientation, Hanne Eisenfeld ’06 hails from Vancouver, he has come to regret his choice not to Wash. This is her first column for The be involved in those few days of the proHerald.

gram. I have come to realize how much I wish that the program had been designed to include all those who might wish to come. The TWTP experience, explains the Brown Web site, provides a time for “students of Arab American, Asian American, Black, Latino, Multiracial and Native American heritage to identify and increase their awareness of issues they will encounter at Brown as minorities in a predominantly white institution.” The term “Third World” is not meant to have socioeconomic connotations, but to describe a break with the Eurocentric traditions that characterize our society. These are worthy goals, but too limited in their scope. The divisiveness that the program attempts to combat is only strengthened by such marked recognition. The TWTP began on Aug. 23; during its four day course, first-years met and bonded, laying the bases for friendships that may span their years here, if not their lifetimes. When I arrived at the end of those four days, I saw around me a network that had formed along boundaries of race and background. I ran into a boy in my dorm, the first of a very few serendipitous encounters where I had expected so many. He had already established a circle of friends and acquaintances and, though he politely introduced them all to me and they politely responded, I instantly felt a stranger in my own class. All the students who had gone to the TWTP were comfortably ensconced in each other’s company; those of us who hadn’t attended sought each other out, feeling that our company would be wel-

comed more warmly by one in need of it. The result, then: social groupings already divided along ethnic lines before orientation had even really begun. “White” kids, to use the common terminology, gravitated toward each other since so many of all the “other” kinds of kids had already met and become close. Being from a Catholic/Jewish/Atheist family, I have long since given up on traditional social or religious divisions, and I have lost faith in terms like multiracial. We are all multiracial; we are all diverse. Three kids can be from the same neighborhood, of the same ethnicity, share the same childhood experiences and each will still be unique, the characteristics of each will still be valued. How much more amazingly vibrant, then, is our entering Class of 2006? Think of how much each of us has to tell, to show, how much each of us has to learn. Though TWTP was developed to facilitate these interactions, it gives strength to the kind of categorization and division that Brown professes to avoid. Can we celebrate the infinitely varied backgrounds without elevating some to a greater importance? Can a program be developed that encompasses all those who wish to be included in an equally profound celebration of diversity coupled with unity? We are a community full of spirit, drawing strength from our pasts and hope from our futures. Let us then seek to reconcile the inequalities of the past, not by prolonging them, but by creating a new future in the image of our ideals.


THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

SPORTS THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 26, 2002 · PAGE 16

Driving me insane: Demystifying the “national pastime” WHAT IS THE MOST POPULAR AND fastest growing sport in America today? If you said football, baseball, hockey, basketball or Jai Lai, you aren’ t correct. To the surprise of many, the answer is auto-racing. Why would thousands of people sit in bleachers IAN CROPP HELI-CROPPTER for hours watching other people do what they do on a daily basis? I could only guess why such an advanced nation engrosses itself in a seemingly pointless sport. For a long time I refused to accept the fact that these people actually enjoyed sitting in one spot and craning their necks to catch a glimpse of cars with more subliminal sponsoring than in “Wayne’s World.” Like many skeptics, I avoided the spectacle like the plague in fear of being brainwashed or being made fun of by Jeff Foxworthy. But what better way to conquer your fears than to actually face them? So this past summer I swallowed my pride and decided to visit a speedway. Such an opportunity came my way in El Cajon, Calif. While El Cajon is primarily known for its burgeoning meth labs, the Speedway itself is fourth to none. My first and only mistake was arriving on time, which see CROPP, page #

Goal-den weekend for soccer’s Adom Crew ’04 BY ALICIA MULLIN

Brown men’s soccer Co-Captain Adom Crew ‘04 had a pretty good weekend. He didn’t party much, and he probably didn’t even get any time to relax. He definitely had a good weekend though — ask anyone. You could ask the Alabama A&M men’s soccer team, against whom Crew scored a hat trick on Friday night to lead Brown to a 3-1 victory. You could ask any member of Vanderbilt University’s soccer squad. Crew got two goals against them en route to Bruno’s 5-1 win on Sunday. Or maybe ask a member of the tournament staff at the Yale Classic that took place this past weekend in New Haven, Conn., where they voted Crew the tournament’s Most Valuable Player. Convinced? If not, check out who was chosen to be the Ivy League and Player of the Week this week. Yeah, it’s Brown’s Adom Crew. ECAC Player of the Week? Crew. To recap, Crew scored five goals in Brown’s two games this weekend, helping the Bears on their way toward becoming tournament champions. That’s pretty impressive for two days of play, especially considering that he scored three goals during the entirety of last year’s season. “I worked a lot during the offseason,” Crew said in explanation of his recent

scoring boom. “I worked a lot on getting stronger. I worked on my finishing. Basically though I was just in the right place at the right time (this weekend), and my team got me the ball.” Get him the ball they did, and he certainly knew what to do with it from there, but while perhaps this rapid acquisition of points in collegiate matches is a new experience for Crew, awards and accolades are old hat. In addition to his recent honors, Crew was named to the All-Tournament team of the Adidas/Brown Classic held two weekends ago in Providence, and he earned himself a spot on the 2001 All-Ivy team for his performance last season. Crew’s attitude toward his talent, and toward his recent attention, is refreshingly modest. “Personally these things just aren’t very important to me,” he said. “It’s much more important how we do as a team.” Crew’s dedication to his team is seen both on and off the field. One of the team’s captains, Crew seeks to lead my example. “I try to provide leadership for the team and give the team some character too,” Crew said. “I just try to live the right way, and show that in my actions.” As a team leader, Crew is focused on see CREW, page 6

dspics.com

Adom Crew ‘04 looks to continue his success this weekend at home against Harvard.


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