Wednesday, December 4, 2002

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

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Volume CXXXVII, No. 124

An independent newspaper serving the Brown community since 1891

Students raise concerns over Brown Police accountability

Administrators’ lottery reform plan draws criticism from ResCouncil

BY ELENA LESLEY

As the debate over arming the Brown Police continues, some students are raising questions about the University’s current regulations governing police accountability.

Because the Department of Security is technically an office of the University, it is not required to release police reports to the public, said Director of the Brown News Service Mark Nickel. Municipal forces like the Providence Police Department are required by state law to make such information public, he said.

“The Brown police force is a private security force, but it’s trying to defend public safety,” said Doreen Wang ’05, a member of Third World ACTION who works on the campaign against arming DPS officers. “This seems like a contradiction to me. How can they defend public safety if not everything is open to the public?”

Members of twA discussed this issue in detail and expressed their concerns to President Ruth Simmons, Wang said.

Although DPS doesn’t have to release records, it is required by federal law to report crime statistics because the University receives federal funding, Nickel said. Each year, the University files a campus crime report that is available on the Internet.

DPS also releases summaries of incidents. “If there’s a situation where members of the campus should know,” Nickel said.

BY MOMOKO HIROSE AND AMY RUDDLE

Seth Kerschner / Herald

LONELY MR. SNOWMAN The Main Green was empty Tuesday as temperatures hit the teens. Students stayed indoors leaving one lonely snowman out in the cold.

see DPS, page 4

ResLife restricts off-campus permission to make up for impending budget shortfall Juniors returning next semester from leave, study abroad, will be most affected in ResLife’s effort to fill beds and recoup losses

BY JULIETTE WALLACK

A large number of empty beds this semester left the Office of Residential Life facing a budget shortage and is forcing administrators to restrict off-campus permission in an effort to make up for the shortfall.

Director of Residential Life Donald Desrochers said ResLife is short approximately $600,000 to $800,000 of its $23.5 million budget.

A high rate of vacancies caused the shortage, said both Desrochers and Margaret Jablonski, dean for campus life.

Each year, about 1.5 percent of beds in University residence halls are vacant. This year, more than that were unoccupied for several reasons: the decision to open Minden Hall, a change to how the University counts overflow space and the move to grant more than 300 rising juniors off-campus privileges, Desrochers said.

Every vacancy leaves ResLife short about $5,000, so an unexpectedly high number of unoccupied beds can result in a sizeable amount of lost income, he said.

Desrochers and Jablonski said the problem can be alleviated for the next academic year by not granting as many rising juniors permission to live off campus.

“We need to go back to being extremely conservative in terms of allowing (rising) juniors to go off campus,” Jablonski said.

During this academic year, “those students returning from study abroad or leaves” will not be granted off-campus permission, she said. Students affected by this will receive

letters this week.

Desrochers said a large part of the empty bed quandary resulted from his office granting off-campus permission to about 300 juniors. In previous years, only 100 to 200 juniors received permission to live off campus. In an effort to alleviate the problem, decisions to allow rising juniors to live off campus will now be made later in the year when the University has a better idea of how many empty beds to expect, he said.

“We will notify juniors as soon as possible” whether they were granted permission to live off campus, but that will likely be later in the spring than it has been in recent years, Desrochers said.

The office also will be “tightening our procedures, timelines,” Jablonski said. “Deadlines will be adhered to in the future.”

But Desrochers said attempts to alleviate the budget shortage are not related to possible cutbacks in the numbers of students working each shift at Residential Life. He said right now, two or three students cover each shift in the office, but it is a common practice to reevaluate the need for student workers at this point in the year.

His office often hires extra workers at the beginning of the semester and then must examine its needs later in the year.

Often, as many hours from student employees may not be as needed later in the semester, Desrochers said.

Instead of using workforce cutbacks to alleviate the shortage, the Office of Campus Life and Student Services will provide funds to make up for ResLife’s deficit.

Plans to cover ResLife’s budget shortage include asking the offices overseen by Campus Life and Student Services to “try to contribute as much as they can to the central campus life” budget, said Vice President of Campus Life and Student

Disregarding a Residential Council proposal to reform the housing lottery, administrators proposed their own plan to reform the lottery Tuesday despite unanimous oppositon

by ResCouncil.

ResCouncil members contend the proposal proposed by administrators in the Office of Campus Life inadequately responds to students’ problems with the lottery system, inconveniences underclassmen and limits housing options.

“We feel that this process would seriously alter the lottery system for the worse, especially for rising sophomores,” said Evan Metcalfe ’03, a ResCouncil member.

The Office of Campus Life plan would combine the last two segments of the lottery—segment 5, which consists of mostly doubles and singles, and the 5/7 person lottery, which is mostly suites in Grad Center.

This proposal is tentative and is subject to review by ResCouncil and administrators in the Office of Residential Life, said Dean for Campus Life Margaret Jablonski.

She said the plan aims to shorten the lottery process and alleviate administrative stress.

“The general idea is to finish the process before spring break,” she said.

ResCouncil member Jesse Goodman ’04 said the plan removes much of the flexibility in housing choices, making it riskier for sophomores to enter as a suite.

“It’s adding a lot of sophomore stress for what I see is a very limited gain of not knowing what house you’re going to be in over one week of spring break,” he said.

Metcalfe said he conducted an informal survey of sophomores at the beginning of the 2002 school year. When sophomores were asked to list their concerns with the housing lottery, the length of time the lottery took ranked least important, behind other problems like having to restructure groups from one segment to the next.

Of the 95 students who responded, most said they like the current length of the housing lottery because it allowed time to fully research housing options, said Michael Blitstein ’03, also a ResCouncil member.

Goodman said the Campus Life’s new proposal seems see RESCOUNCIL, page 4

URC considers budget requests The University Resources Committee entered into deliberations over the 2003-04 budget Monday. The committee will consider the budget requests that it received over the semester, as well as student fees and tuition.

The meeting was closed to the media and to members of the Brown community. Committee members and administrators declined to release information regarding URC’s meeting.

The specifics of the deliberations are confidential, Associate Professor of Community Health Kay Dickersin, a URC member, told The Herald.

The URC’s recommendations will be posted on the Provost Web site when the committee releases the recommendations to President Ruth Simmons, Assistant Provost Brian Casey told The Herald. He said he expects the committee’s report to be finished in mid-January.

Deliberations will continue through December and into

see BUDGET, page 9

I N S I D E W E D N E S D AY, D E C E M B E R 4 , 2 0 0 2 Arming police could take up to two years once a decision is reached page 3

It might not be such slim pickings for the Dems in 2004, says Joshua Skolnick ’04 column, page 11

www.browndailyherald.com

Cate Oswald ’04 says the U.S. should reevaluate its AIDS strategy column, page 11

see URC, page 4

TO D AY ’ S F O R E C A S T Disco inferno captures championship and brings home a large trophy sports, page 12

Big Ten surprises with the strongest conference in college football, says Luke Meier ’04 sports column, page 12

mostly sunny high 31 low 23

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

THIS MORNING WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2002 · PAGE 2 Pornucopia Eli Swiney

W E AT H E R TODAY

THURSDAY

High 31 Low 23 mostly sunny

High 30 Low 20 snow

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

High 38 Low 26 partly cloudy

High 34 Low 20 partly cloudy

GRAPHICS BY TED WU

A Story Of Eddie Ahn

CALENDAR BLOOD DRIVE — Faunce House, starts 11 a.m.

FORUM— “The Future of the Brown Campus: Learn about the Campus Master Planning Process,” Frances Halsband, architect; Richard Spies, and Michael McCormick. Room 120, List Art Center, Noon.

SEMINAR — “Light, Circadian Disruption and Risk of Breast Cancer,” Richard Stevens. Room 291, Bio-Medical Center, 4 p.m.

LECTURE — “Overlapping Alternatives: Identity Discourse in the Muslim Periodical Press of Russia, 1905-1911,” James Meyer. McKinney Conference Room, Watson Institute, 4 p.m.

My Best Effort Andy Hull and William Newman

WORKSHOP — “Brown Humanities Collections and Creating the Digital Library,” Hecker Center, Rockefeller Library. 4 p.m.

CROSSWORD ACROSS 1 Like some diner orders 5 Stylish 10 Athenian meeting place 14 Saudi, probably 15 Copier need 16 Photos 17 Follow, as a suspect 18 Unaware 20 Body opening?

21 __ Major 22 Have words 23 Big container 25 Mugs 27 John of “The Addams Family” 30 Many Britney Spears fans 32 Cough medicine amount 34 They keep to themselves 39 “Swan Lake” costume 40 City near Syracuse 42 Pass over 43 “__ Fidelis” 45 It may follow a crash 47 Bygone 49 Baby hooter 50 Purify 54 Fleischer of the White House pressroom 55 Broom-__: comics witch 56 Urge 59 As opposed to 63 Unaware 65 Kind of fries 66 Consider 67 Rhode Island’s is “Hope” 68 Skeptical response 69 Sea eagles 70 Mike in the ring 71 Lots DOWN 1 “Bye”

2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Algerian port Canter or trot Unaware Portly Happy __ Picnic pests Scene being done over 9 In favor of 10 Urges on 11 Trace, as of color 12 Happen 13 “Angela’s __” 19 Dogie catcher 24 Cape in northern Massachusetts 26 Mike, to Archie and Edith 27 “The Thin Man” terrier 28 Tater 29 Lug 30 Boy king 31 Fail to pronounce 33 Stimulates 35 Unaware 36 Actor Jannings 37 Frosty coating

38 Proofreader’s notation 41 Against 44 Like Romantic music 46 Postal creed conjunction 48 Arrange strategically, as troops 50 Admonish 51 QE2, for one

52 Sitcom star DeGeneres 53 First U.S. vice president 54 Extra charge 57 Charlie Brown expletive 58 Aware of 60 Drifter 61 Grace ending 62 Court fixtures 64 Qty.

Hopeless Edwin Chang

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

CAMPUS NEWS WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2002 · PAGE 3

IN BRIEF DPS reports bicycle theft, break-ins Between Nov. 19 and 30, the Department of Public Safety reported two vehicle break-ins, four larcenies and two breaking and entries.

A complainant reported she parked her vehicle at noon on Nov. 19 on Cushing Street. Upon returning at 7:20p.m., she discovered the driver’s side door had been smashed, and her stereo was missing.

On Nov. 26, a complainant reported his vehicle was broken into in a parking lot at 160 Irving Avenue. A wallet was taken from the vehicle.

A complainant reported that a Panasonic TV/VCR unit was taken from a Hope College lounge sometime on Nov. 19.The estimated value of the unit is $200.

On Nov. 23 in Faunce House, a complainant reported that between 1:30 and 2:25 p.m., someone took her unattended purse from underneath her coat in a hallway.

On Nov. 26, a Perkins Hall complainant reported his bicycle had been stolen.The estimated value of bicycle is $300.

At approximately 9 p.m. on Nov. 29, a complainant reported that he discovered a package delivered to the porch area of Plantation House had been opened and the contents taken.

At Jameson House, a student reported that her Fendi carrying bag was missing on Nov. 18. She last saw it on Nov. 24 in her dorm room. After a thorough search for her bag, she concluded that someone had taken her bag from her room.

On Nov. 25, an Everett House student reported that approximately two months ago she began noticing some of her personal belongings disappearing from her room. She also reported that cash was illegally debited from her checking account, and a Microsoft Word document was missing from her computer.There was no evidence of forced entry.

— Herald staff reports

Process of arming campus police could take year or more

BY AKSHAY KRISHNAN

If President Ruth Simmons decides to arm campus police, the process could take up to two years, Vice President for Administration Walter Hunter told The Herald.

The University will deliberately move slowly to ensure that all safeguards are in place before authorizing such an order, he said.

Chief of Police Col. Paul Verrecchia said a tentative plan to arm campus police has already been drafted.

“We haven’t decided the formal process yet because the president hasn’t made a decision,” he said.

Hunter said the University would proceed in a phased program that would arm campus police officers over a one to two-year period. Among other things, all current officers would be required to go through a renewed background check and psychological testing.

The ultimate decision to issue firearms, which lies with Hunter and Simmons, will not be made until both are convinced that the Department of Public Safety is ready, Hunter said.

Verrecchia said it would take a minimum of one year and more realistically two years for any decision made by Simmons to be implemented.

“I’m not going to go to my superiors and say let’s start issuing firearms until I’m satisfied that my department is ready, and they are not going to go to the president and ask her to issue arms until they themselves believe that we are ready,” he said.

Verrecchia said he believes any decision to delay arming the police is one that lies with the University, and is not required by law.

The University will write formal guidelines governing firearm withdrawal and discharge before arming the police, Hunter said. Officers would also be trained to respond to a

Zach Frechette / Herald

Officer Paul Ruscito and Sgt. Stephen St. Jean engage in debate at the Brown Department of Public Safety. variety of situations.

“Although our officers have already been trained at the police academy, all officers would be subject to additional intensive training on deadly force policies, shoot/don’t shoot scenarios, weapons retention and firearm storage,” he said.

The Providence Police Department will also help train campus police to carry firearms, Hunter said, by allowing DPS to train on their video simulator range, Hunter said.

Hunter said that campus police are undergoing continuous training regardless of whether they are going to be armed or not.

“Officers will continue to be extensively trained on the use-of-force continuum, and techniques of persuasion such as verbal judo.

“Additionally, we will be implementing an improved training program to enhance officer sensitivity on diversity issues,” Hunter said.

Herald staff writer Akshay Krishnan ’04 can be reached at akrishnan@browndailyherald.com

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

DPS continued from page 1 “We do, as a public safety office, abide by federal guidelines to disclose the nature of crimes and to do a report on that,” Simmons told The Herald. But DPS doesn’t disclose more specific details about incidents involving students, she said.

But not all students are satisfied with only getting part of the story.

“I feel like certain things are being allowed to be released and others aren’t,” Wang said. “I think people are unaware of how police might harm the community.”

“Now things are pretty much in house,” said Peter Asen ’04. “People are concerned that things will get swept under the rug.

Personally, I’m not confident of the police’s ability to police themselves.”

Wang said before the University could even consider arming the police, it should implement measures that would improve officers’ accountability.

Brian Rainey ‘04 echoed this sentiment, adding that “more accountability is always a good thing, whether the police are armed

or not.”

Along with making all records open to the public, the University should look into establishing a community review board where members “can make sure police are making the community more safe, not more destructive,” Wang said.

She also suggested that the University consult community groups such as Direct Action for Rights and Equality, which helped set up the community review board for the Providence Police Department.

Rainey said that sensitivity training for officers “should be increased and improved.”

Simmons said she has had preliminary discussions with the DPS Chief of Police Col. Paul Verrecchia about improving community oversight, but no concrete plans have been made because the University still has to decide whether or not to arm officers.

“Certainly, in my own thinking, I see a number of measures that one would want to take to ensure that our police has, from the perspective of its mission and its mandate, the sensibilities of the campus in mind as it conducts its police work,” Simmons said.

For some students, one such measure

includes making records public.

“I think (the police) are less accountable to the general community because their records aren’t public,” Wang said. “They’ll gain our trust a lot more if they release records.”

Verrecchia refused to comment for this story.

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

URC continued from page 1 January if necessary, Casey said.

Formerly known as the Advisory Committee on University Planning, URC has held closed-door meetings since the beginning of the semester. In September, the committee announced plans to communicate its progress and deliberations through briefings and open forums. The committee did not hold a briefing or forum.

— Lisa Mandle

ResCouncil continued from page 1 unrealistic administratively, with only one week allotted to deal with the two combined segments. Thomas Forsberg, associate director of residential life, said in the past ResLife has taken about a week to conduct each segment and file through the paperwork.

ResCouncil already recommended a new policy for a shorter lottery system that does not hurt sophomores, Goodman said. In ResCouncil’s proposal, Harkness social dorm would be eliminated, and substancefree dorms would be taken out of the lottery and administered similar to program housing. Quiet dorm would be moved to the last segment of the lottery.

Other ResCouncil recommendations include changing all the suites in Grad Tower C to five-person suites, allowing sophomores greater housing opportunities, he added.

“The rationale was to make the lottery process as painless as possible for sophomores specifically,” Goodman said.

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

WORLD & NATION WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2002 · PAGE 5

IN BRIEF Sun’s case against Microsoft begins

U.N. weapons inspectors gain access to Iraqi presidential palace BAGHDAD, Iraq (Washington Post) — International experts

(Washington Post) — Yet another round of courtroom battles

opened Tuesday for Microsoft Corp., as the software giant continues to face repercussions from its violations of U.S. antitrust laws.

Sun Microsystems Inc., one of Microsoft’s most bitter rivals, asked a federal judge in Baltimore to temporarily force Microsoft to include Sun’s Java software code in all copies of Microsoft’s dominant Windows operating system.

Sun is suing Microsoft for antitrust damages in a case that could take years, and Sun wants the judge to require the Java distribution until the case is resolved.

Although Microsoft won a major victory a month ago when a federal judge in Washington approved a settlement between the company and the Justice Department, the company must now shift gears to fight antitrust lawsuits filed by corporate competitors and consumers who claim they were damaged by Microsoft’s illegal conduct.

Those suits, combined with a pending decision by European regulators on similar antitrust issues, are slowing Microsoft’s efforts to put its legal woes behind it and turn a new chapter in its corporate history.Two states, Massachusetts and West Virginia, also are appealing the approval of the Justice Department settlement.

In addition to the Sun lawsuit, Microsoft is being sued by AOL Time Warner Inc. and Be Inc., a small operating system manufacturer. All are hoping that a federal appeals court ruling last year — which affirmed that Microsoft illegally protected its operating system monopoly — will lead to significant monetary awards.

At least in their early stages, the corporate suits are being heard by District Court Judge J. Frederick Motz, who already has rejected a proposed settlement in one set of classaction cases. A larger class-action case is scheduled for trial in California early next year.

Sun’s is the first corporate suit to reach the courtroom, with Motz opening a three-day hearing to consider the company’s request for the temporary order forcing the distribution of Java. Java code enables certain Internet-based applications, such as charts that update with new data automatically, to operate regardless of which operating system is in use.

More broadly, Java is a set of programming tools that allows software developers to write applications for any computing systems, including those that run servers, that power handheld organizers or operate cell phones that do more than make phone calls.

In Sun’s view, Microsoft is preparing an assault to dominate the brains of these devices, just as it does personal computers. Microsoft’s new .Net collection of applications, which enables a variety of Internet-based interactions but is linked closely with Windows, is designed to compete with Java.

But Sun charges that once .Net is bundled with Windows, which will put it on roughly 90 percent of the world’s personal computers, software developers will naturally choose it over Java.

Harkening back to the federal government’s case against Microsoft, Sun attorney Lloyd R. Day Jr. said that Microsoft originally sought to neutralize Java by introducing its own version that was not compatible with Java and by deceiving developers about its capabilities.

Microsoft’s actions to undermine Netscape, the first Internet browser to carry Java, cut off Sun’s distribution system, Day said. And this bought Microsoft time to develop a competitive product, he argued.

“It’s one thing to compete on the merits and earn the gold medal,” Day said.“It’s another to take out a competitor’s knee.”

Microsoft attorney David Tulchin countered that Sun was seeking to take “a free ride on the back of Microsoft” by demanding Java distribution.

He noted that a similar proposal by state attorneys general was rejected by the judge who approved the settlement agreement with the Justice Department. And he said that Sun is free to cut deals with computer manufacturers to have them pre-install Java on new computers.

Users of computers that do not have Java can download it from the Internet.

As for other devices, Tulchin argued that since .Net is not yet deployed with Windows, Java rules the non-personalcomputing landscape and thus cannot demonstrate immediate harm that would occur if Java is not distributed via the operating system.

searching for weapons of mass destruction barged into one of President Saddam Hussein’s opulent, forbidden palaces from two directions Tuesday, conducting a surprise visit that tested Iraq’s promise to comply with a U.N. Security Council resolution permitting unannounced inspections of any site in the country.

When the inspectors drove up to the front and rear entrances of Saddam’s Sijood Palace in central Baghdad, a site usually off-limits to all but a few of Saddam’s top lieutenants, flustered guards initially blocked the convoy. But after about eight minutes, as Iraqi officials who’d been following the inspectors barked into their radios and shouted at the palace guards, the black metal gates were pulled open, allowing the inspectors to drive up a palm-lined driveway toward a three-story, turquoise-domed brick building at the center of the vast compound.

U.N. officials didn’t say why they chose to visit Sijood Tuesday, what the inspectors were looking for there or whether they found any evidence of Iraq’s possession of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. Western intelligence officials and analysts have long believed Saddam has hidden evidence of a program to develop prohibited weapons in some of his secretive and garish palaces.

A U.N. spokesman here said “access to the entire site was provided without any difficulty” and that inspectors were able to search “every room, every corner” of the complex. Gen. Hossam Mohammed Amin, the chief Iraqi liaison with the inspectors, said “the inspectors were happy” with their visit.

Occurring just one day after President Bush said his initial reading of Iraq’s cooperation with the Security Council resolution was “not encouraging,” diplomats here said the visit could have been an effort by U.N. inspection leaders to send a signal to the U.S. government about Iraq’s compliance so far with the inspections process.

Iraq’s acquiescence to a spontaneous search such as the one Tuesday would have been unthinkable during earlier rounds of inspections, the diplomats said.

For most of the 1990s, Saddam’s government refused to

allow inspectors into Sijood and other presidential palaces on the grounds that it would violate Iraq’s sovereignty. But in February 1998, after former president Bill Clinton threatened to launch military strikes against Iraq, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan hammered out a comprise that allowed inspectors to visit the palaces and other sensitive sites if they provided advance notice and were accompanied by a team of diplomats.

The inspectors eventually searched Sijood and seven other presidential palaces in April 1998, although they reported that most of the 1,058 buildings they saw in those compounds were largely empty. On Tuesday the inspectors had to go through none of the earlier formalities. They simply got in their white Toyota Land Rovers at the U.N. headquarters here and drove to Sijood. “Open the gate,” one inspector told the guards at the front gate.

“We want to come in.”

The inspection Tuesday morning was at one of the more sensitive of the sites that have been previously visited, but there are still others that have never been inspected, and which might provoke a confrontation if the U.N. officials demand entry.

Under a Security Council resolution approved unanimously last month, Iraq could face unspecified “serious consequences” if inspectors are denied access to any person or place in Iraq, without having to seek permission or provide advance notice.

Iraq has insisted that it doesn’t possess and isn’t developing weapons of mass destruction. Amin said Iraq would reaffirm that position in a long-awaited declaration of its weapons programs it must submit to the Security Council

by Sunday. Amin said the declaration, which is expected to be voluminous, “will include new elements, but those new elements don’t mean that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction.”

On Monday, Bush demanded that Iraq include every detail of its weapons and missile programs in the declaration, warning that “any act of delay, deception or defiance will prove that Saddam Hussein has not accepted the path of compliance and has rejected the path of peace.”

Sen. John Kerry proposes changes to Bush administration’s $1.35 trillion tax cuts WASHINGTON (L.A. Times) — Likely Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry offered an economic plan Tuesday that urges a sweeping retrenchment of President Bush’s $1.35 trillion tax cut but also relies heavily on short-term new tax breaks to stimulate the economy.

The plan by Kerry, who last month won a fourth Senate term from Massachusetts, seemed designed to both sharpen his differences with Bush and position him in the center of the emerging Democratic field.

Rather than emphasizing new spending, Kerry proposed to pump additional purchasing power into the economy by cutting taxes on businesses that create jobs and temporarily eliminating the Social Security tax on the first $10,000 in earnings for workers. He also promised as president to “take a hard look” at waste in the federal budget.

But he denounced the further cuts in income tax rates due in 2004 under the Bush tax plan — reductions the administration may try to accelerate into next year as part of its own stimulus package.

“The new Bush tax cuts are unfair, unaffordable and unquestionably ineffective in growing our economy,” Kerry charged in an address to the City Club of Cleveland.

Kerry’s speech illustrated that the Bush tax cut should prove a key point of division between the parties in 2004 — and among Democrats next year.

While Democratic congressional leaders have opposed efforts to challenge the tax cut — primarily because many of their members from conservative states support it — virtually every Democrat exploring the 2004 presidential race has now called for rolling back parts of the law.

A White House spokesman, previewing a GOP response likely to be heard often as the ‘04 campaign gears up, said Kerry’s proposal amounted to raising taxes by denying Americans future tax breaks they now expect.

“There appear to be differences within the Democratic Party about how they want to go about raising taxes,” said White House spokesman Scott McClellan. “Once they resolve those differences, there will be plenty of time to contrast the Democratic approach with the president’s

view that tax cuts encourage job creation and economic growth.”

Kerry, a Vietnam veteran who turns 59 next week, quickened the pace of the 2004 Democratic race last Sunday when he announced that he would form his exploratory committee this week to begin organizing support for a presidential candidacy.

Outgoing Vermont Gov. Howard Dean has also said that he will seek the nomination. Former Vice President Al Gore and Rep. Richard A. Gephardt, D-Mo., have indicated they will make their plans clear by early next month.

Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., has begun organizing a campaign staff, and Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, D-Conn., the Democrats’ vice presidential nominee in 2000, has said he will run if Gore does not. Outgoing Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., also is a prospective candidate.

Kerry’s speech continued a flurry of policy addresses from the likely 2004 Democratic contenders. In part, the early start reflects the acceleration of the Democratic primary calendar. Under the party’s new rules, Iowa and New Hampshire hold the first nominating contests in January 2004, with other states following as early as Feb. 3.

With his speech, Kerry joined Gore, Lieberman, Dean and Edwards in urging a freeze on aspects of the Bush tax cut. Kerry argued that the tax cut would benefit mostly the wealthy and could be financed only by diverting taxes collected for Social Security and Medicare.

The Bush tax plan, which Kerry voted against last year, cut income tax rates across the board in 2001, and provided for further rate reductions in 2004 and 2006.

Though Kerry did not specify which elements of the Bush tax cut he would block, press secretary David Wade said the senator would repeal the ‘04 and ‘06 reductions scheduled for the top three income tax brackets. Through 2006, the top rate paid by the highest earners is scheduled to fall from 38.6 percent to 35 percent, the next rate from 35 percent to 33 percent and the third from 30 percent to 28 percent.

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

Turkish minister pledges cooperation if Iraq war becomes necessary ANKARA, Turkey (Washington Post)

— Turkish Foreign Minister Yasar Yakis said Tuesday his government is prepared to cooperate with U.S. military forces and allow American warplanes to bomb Iraq from bases in Turkey if war is necessary to disarm President Saddam Hussein’s government.

But Yakis stressed that Turkey wouldn’t support war against Iraq until every peaceful means of disarming the neighboring country has been exhausted. In addition, he said the Turkish government strongly believes a second U.N. Security Council resolution would be necessary before military action could begin.

The minister’s statements, at a news conference outside his residence, represented Turkey’s public response to Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, who came here Tuesday seeking a commitment for military cooperation should President Bush decide to launch a war against Iraq. Judging from what Yakis said, the response was yes, with conditions.

After meeting with Wolfowitz here in the Turkish capital, Yakis said his government would have difficulty allowing "tens ofthousands" of U.S. ground troops to invade Iraq from bases in Turkey because of public opposition.

But he left the door open to basing smaller units in Turkey and called military cooperation a "priority" for Turkey if war becomes necessary.

"We believe there should not

be left any stone unturned before resorting to military force," Yakis told reporters. "But if it comes to that, of course we will cooperate with the United States."

Wolfowitz declined to describe the extent to which Turkey has pledged military cooperation or the amount of foreign aid the U.S. is willing to provide in return for assistance in any future war and to compensate for economic losses Turkey has sustained because of sanctions imposed on Iraq after the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Wolfowitz left little doubt, however, that he was pleased by his meetings with Turkey’s new government, which took office only last week.

Pentagon officials consider Turkish bases important for execution of war plans that call for Special Operations and airborne forces to launch simultaneous invasions of northern, southern and western Iraq. Without bases for aircraft and troops in Turkey, which is just north of Iraq, invading northern Iraq and bombing targets north of Baghdad would be problematic, since the Pentagon’s other nearby bases are in Persian Gulf states, south of Iraq.

"It’s important that he see that he’s surrounded by the international community, not only in the political sense, but in a real practical military sense," Wolfowitz said, "and Turkey has a very important role to play in the regard."

A senior U.S. official said

Tuesday’s talks with Turkish officials involved a discussion of how many U.S. forces would be involved in an invasion of northern Iraq, or how many Turkish troops might be necessary to police refugees or guard prisoners of war along the border. He discounted reports in the Turkish press that the Bush administration wants to stage 120,000 combat troops in Turkey and has requested 35,000 Turkish troops to police refugees along the Turkish-Iraqi border.

"There have been a lot of discussions in military channels, of all kinds of hypothetical possibilities," the official said. "I imagine the numbers you read in the (Turkish) press start from that."

The United States already has a substantial military presence in Turkey, centered at the Incirlik air base in the southeastern part of the country. For 11 years U.S. forces have used Incirlik as the jumping-off point for patrol flights over northern Iraq. The base also has been a major hub in the past year for C-17 cargo flights to and from Afghanistan.

U.S. aircraft also are positioned at a smaller, much-lesspublicized base farther to the east for use in search-and-rescue missions if any aircrews should crash in Iraq.

In the event of war with Iraq, U.S. authorities hope not only to expand operations at Incirlik but also to use another half-dozen other Turkish bases for various aircraft, according to American officials.

Anxiety over war is not diminished by Iraq’s apparent compliance with weapons insepctions (L.A.Times) — Iraqi officials allowed

U.N. weapons inspectors immediate access to a presidential palace Tuesday, but Baghdad’s apparent compliance with a tough new Security Council resolution has done little to lower regional anxiety over the prospect of war.

When weapons inspectors were in Iraq nearly four years ago, the regime balked at unannounced inspections of President Saddam Hussein’s many lavish compounds. This time, there had been a great deal of uncertainty over whether Iraq would let inspectors in, or would defy the United Nations and risk attack.

But even after the gates to the Al Sajoud palace swung open Tuesday, there was little sense that the prospect of military conflict had diminished. As the deadline for Iraq to turn over a statement outlining all of its banned weapons programs looms this weekend, too many other signs suggest that war is inevitable, observers said.

“I have to say, I am pessimistic, but I am hoping for the best,” said Hesham Yousef, spokesman for the 22-member Arab League.

In recent days, President Bush has said Iraq’s efforts at disarming are “not encouraging,” and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfield said Tuesday that if inspectors don’t find anything, it merely means that Iraq has hidden its weapons very well.

The United States and its allies are trying to counter any sympa-

thy that Iraq’s compliance might engender, especially in the Arab world, with a multifaceted campaign showcasing Iraq as an “evildoer.” Britain released a dossier Monday outlining multiple human rights violations in Iraq; the United States continues to bomb suspected military targets in southern Iraq’s “no-fly” zone; and on Tuesday, Kuwait’s Interior Ministry said an Iraqi boat fired on two Kuwaiti coast guard vessels in northern Kuwaiti waters.

Even U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan praised Iraq’s cooperation so far but had trouble mustering a great deal of optimism. “This is only the beginning,” he said Tuesday at the U.N. headquarters in New York.

Weapons inspectors resumed their work in Iraq last week armed with a Security Council mandate that gives them the right to go anywhere, any time with no advance warning. Should Iraq fail to comply, Resolution 1441 threatens “severe consequences,” which can be taken to mean a U.S.-led invasion.

But as their first week of work ended without incident, Bush tried to downplay the importance of inspections. The issue in Iraq “is not the inspectors,” he said in a speech at the Louisiana state fairgrounds in Shreveport on Tuesday.

“The issue is whether or not Mr. Saddam Hussein will disarm like he said he would,” he said. “We’re not interested in a hide-and-seek inside Iraq.”

From the moment the inspectors arrived in Baghdad, the Iraqi regime and the teams searching for nuclear, biological and chemical weapons have tried to demonstrate a willingness to work together and to cooperate. Iraq appeared to readily comply with all demands, allowing inspectors free and immediate access.

But the Security Council resolution is studded with trip wires. One included demands for access to presidential sites, and Iraq seemed to step over that one successfully Tuesday.

The most sensitive, however, is pegged to Sunday, when Iraq must turn over the statement listing everything in its arsenal. The United States and Britain say banned weapons programs exist, while Iraq insists they do not. Iraqi officials have reaffirmed that position in recent days, and if Iraq sticks to that line — which is not at all certain given its history of saying one thing and doing another — it could be a trigger for war.

“We are going to deliver this declaration in the proper time on the 7th of this month,” Mohammed Amin, the head of the Iraqi National Monitoring Directorate, said Tuesday. “Of course the declaration will have new elements. But these new elements will not, shall we say, necessarily include a declaration of the presence of weapons of mass destruction. We are a country devoid of weapons of mass destruction.”

Strike against Pres. Chavez extends to third day CARACAS, Venezuela (L.A. Times) — A

nationwide strike against President Hugo Chavez will be prolonged into a third day after violence erupted between government forces and protesters Tuesday.

National Guard troops launched tear gas and fired shotguns pellets at demonstrators during a rolling protest around the financial center of the state oil company, PDVSA. The troops’ action came as the strike seemed to be losing force, providing new energy to the protest. Opposition leaders called for a massive march on Wednesday to force Chavez to agree to a referendum on his rule.

“The repression against Venezuelans who were protesting pacifically ... proves the unpopular, anti-democratic and repressive nature of this regime,” said Carlos Ortega, the head of the country’s largest union. “Today, more than ever, the strike goes on.”

But Chavez said the opposition was trying to provoke a confrontation similar to the one in April when he was briefly deposed.

Venezuela’s crisis pits Chavez against a coalition that includes unions, businesses and the media, who accuse the controversial president of leading the country into social chaos and financial ruin.

“There is no strike. The country is working,” Chavez said, speaking to reporters outside the presidential palace. “They have decided to extend what they call a strike because they’re looking for destabilization. ... They have begun to provoke acts of violence.”

The call to continue the protest raised fears that the strike could begin to affect oil production, which in the past has proved a touchstone to violence.

Venezuela is the third-largest supplier of oil to the United States and petroleum accounts for more than half the government revenue.

A prolonged strike backed by petroleum workers in April led to a coup that overthrew Chavez. He was returned to power 48 hours later by loyal troops and supporters.

There were conflicting reports of how oil had been affected.

PDVSA executives said that as many as 90 percent of white collar workers and 65 percent of blue collars workers were on strike.

But government officials said that contingency plans were allowing normal functioning at most production sites. They said 89 percent of workers showed up for their jobs on Tuesday.

Oil prices rose 41 cents to 26.03 a barrel on Tuesday, though they fell in after-hours trading.

“There have been no problems with gas or (oil) production,” said Maria Cristina Iglesia, the labor minister.

The opposition said 75 percent of the country heeded the call to strike, acknowledging a dip in support from the 80 percent participation they claimed on Monday.

But on the streets Tuesday, traffic was still light, but there were far more cars on the roads and shops open than on Monday.

In the poorer, western parts and central parts of Caracas, where Chavez draws much of his support, business seemed to have returned almost to normal.

Even in the heart of the opposition, shops opened.

“I don’t see as there is any sense or logic in a strike,” said Juan Carlos Nino, 28, who was running a small restaurant a block from a plaza in a wealthy eastern neighborhood that has formed a center of opposition protests.

Oil is a source of national pride and wealth, and it played a key role in Tuesday’s protests.

Early Tuesday morning, PDVSA’s director of planning, Juan Fernandez, called police to report that his home had been broken into and that masked men had held a gun to his head and threatened to kill him.

Postal Service buys pills to protect workers against attack WASHINGTON (L.A. Times) — The U.S. Postal Service is purchasing 1.6 million doses of potassium iodide pills to protect its employees against thyroid cancer in the event of a nuclear explosion or meltdown.

Taking a cue from the anthrax scare a year ago, the postal service is spending nearly $293,000 to give its 750,000 employees the opportunity to have two days’ worth of potassium iodide tablets waiting for them at work.

The cost of buying the medication breaks down to 18.3 cents per tablet, bringing the cost of two days of protection to 37 cents per employee, the same as a firstclass stamp.

The money is coming from the agency’s $70 billion budget, which is expected to have a $600 million surplus next year.

“It’s an infinitesimal fraction of a percent,” postal service spokesman Gerry Kreienkamp said Tuesday. “It sounds like a lot of money, but in postal budget terms it’s pocket change.”

The recommendation to purchase the tablets came from the postal service’s mail security task force, created in the month after the anthrax scare. The postal service says the decision is not related to the agency’s response to the anthrax scare, nor is it related to a threat of nuclear terror specific to the postal service.

The FBI issued a general terror alert last month, but maintains that the aviation, petroleum and nuclear sectors are the likeliest targets.

“We want to be proactive about the health and safety of our employees,” said postal service spokeswoman Sue Brennan. “We will be able to give protection in the event of an emergency.”

The president of Anbex Inc., the New York-based company supplying the postal service with the tablets, said he sees a connection.

“The postal service got hurt by the anthrax scare and became more sensitized to national security,” Alan Morris said Tuesday.

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2002 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD PAGE 7

Punishment but no jail time are recommended for Ryder LOS ANGELES (L.A. Times) — Los Angeles County prosecutors are recommending that film star Winona Ryder do 60 days of community service, undergo drug and psychiatric counseling, and pay more than $26,000 in fines and restitution as a result of her conviction for shoplifting from Saks Fifth Avenue.

Ryder, who had faced a possible three-year prison term, is due to be sentenced Friday in a Beverly Hills courtroom for felony grand theft and vandalism. The district attorney’s office previously announced it would seek to place her on felony probation rather than demand jail time.

Ryder’s attorney, Mark Geragos, said Tuesday he does not plan to file a motion for a new trial — a contrast from his reaction last month after Ryder was convicted for shoplifting $5,560 in designer merchandise from Saks in Beverly Hills. Ryder was acquitted of burglary.

“I’m certainly happy they’re not asking for jail time,” said Geragos. “I would imagine (Ryder) is pleased too.”

Prosecutors issued the sentencing memorandum without comment.

According to the five-page memo, the recommended sentence is meant to punish Ryder “for her criminal conduct, deterring others by demonstrating the consequences of such conduct and requiring the defendant to cooperate in (a) plan for psychiatric and/or drug counseling so her actions on December 12, 2001 will not be

repeated.”

Ryder, the 31-year-old star of such movies as “Girl, Interrupted,” “Little Women” and “The Age of Innocence,” has no prior convictions.

Court transcripts made public after the trial disclosed that Ryder was suspected of shoplifting on three previous occasions at Neiman Marcus and Barneys stores. Superior Court Judge Elden S. Fox ruled that such evidence could not be presented to the jury.

When Ryder was arrested outside Saks, she was found with 20 unpaid-for designer items valued at $5,560.

At trial, much of the prosecution’s case focused on lengthy videotapes from Saks security cameras showing Ryder walking through the store laden with merchandise and shopping bags. At times, Ryder, who is free on $20,000 bail, stuffed socks and hair bows into a hat.

In the sentencing memo, District Attorney Steve Cooley and Deputy District Attorney Ann Rundle recommended that Ryder pay Saks $6,355.40 for stolen and damaged merchandise as well as $20,000 in restitution and penal fines.

They also stated that they oppose allowing Ryder to design her own community service program. The D.A.’s office believes “that the punitive aspect of community service will serve as a deterrent for the defendant and demonstrate to her that criminal conduct results in serious consequences for the offender.”

U.S. plans expanded mission in Afghanistan Soldiers to help rebuild in the wake of Taliban KABUL, Afghanistan (L.A. Times) —

When the Bush administration conceived the U.S. military mission in Afghanistan after the defeat of the Taliban regime a year ago, it promoted visions of American forces as frontier lawmen rooting out al-Qaeda and preventing terrorist cells from reforming.

What the administration didn’t want, officials repeatedly said, was for U.S. troops to become involved in nation-building in this shattered country.

But amid persistent violence here, the U.S. military is now planning to redeploy large numbers of soldiers to help rebuild Afghanistan.

The new program reflects what Gen. Tommy Franks, the head of U.S. Central Command, described here over the weekend as the U.S. military’s “evolving” role in Afghanistan. That role apparently will shift from mainly combating terrorism to a greater responsibility for undertaking and safeguarding reconstruction in a land devastated by decades of war.

Reconstruction is crucial to Afghanistan’s recovery, because the jobs it generates will give Afghans an economic alternative

to fighting. But the reconstruction process, officials here acknowledge, has been jeopardized by ongoing insecurity and the chilling effect that has had on public aid projects as well as private investment.

Still, the realization has sunk in here that the U.S. military presence is likely to last years and that the “creation of economy,” to use one official’s phrase, is the best way to shorten that period. Such a creation depends on the reconstruction of Afghanistan’s devastated infrastructure and shattered political institutions and on an influx of private investment, both domestic and foreign.

The new program, sources said, probably will not entail an increase in the U.S. uniformed personnel here — now roughly 8,000 troops.

Although details of the new role are scarce, sources said it will be an expanded version of an existing program in which small teams of fewer than a dozen civil-assistance troops, typically reservists, are building bridges, schools and hospitals and dispensing medical aid in 11 Afghan locales under the protection of a few U.S. combat troops.

Bush administration concedes global warming a serious threat WASHINGTON (Washington Post) —

The Bush administration acknowledges that global warming poses serious problems, but senior officials speaking at a climate-change policy conference Tuesday said there still are numerous uncertainties about global warming’s cause and effects. They urged caution in committing the country to longterm solutions that might hurt the economy.

The three-day, administration-sponsored conference takes place in a year that has seen several global warming scares. An Antarctic ice shelf the size of Rhode Island shattered and collapsed into the sea in March, and Bolivian Andes glaciers are melting at an alarming pace.

Administration officials say the nation shouldn’t panic and make unwise decisions.

President Bush has called for a decade of research before the government commits to anything more than voluntary measures to stem carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions from industry and vehicles that have been closely tied to global warming.

“I don’t think there’s any disagreement that human activity has substantially contributed to the amount of CO2 (carbon dioxide) in the environment,” said John Marburger, the White

House science and technology adviser. “What we are arguing is that we need more information to have a clearly articulated regulatory policy that is practical, that’s affordable and doesn’t put the economy at risk.”

Samuel Bodman, Deputy Secretary of Commerce, said a primary goal of the conference is to “do our best to clear up or eliminate the uncertainties” in the mountains of existing scientific research, including a report to the president last year from the National Academy of Sciences.

More than 1,200 scientists, experts, environmentalists and others are taking part in the workshops.

Commerce Secretary Don Evans said the sessions were designed to “jump start” a presidentially requested review of updated research and proposals for combating global warming.

But some environmentalists say there is more than enough scientific data from a variety of credible panels to make informed policy decisions. They questioned whether the conference was simply window dressing for an administration that has decided to oppose any mandatory limits on industrial greenhouse gas emissions, such as those contained in the Kyoto Protocol, an international global warming treaty.

“This would have been a good program if it were still 1990,” said Jennifer Morgan, a climate change expert with the World Wildlife Fund. “Over a decade of research has been done in the United States and internationally to make the case for climate change action, so we don’t need to wait for further science to take action. The U.S. is working in a time warp.”

Over the past decade, the UNsponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has produced three comprehensive studies on the cause and effect of global warming, warning of the potential for large-scale and irreversible changes.

They include reductions in the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets and a substantial slowing of the circulation of warm water in the North Atlantic.

The Clinton administration prepared a National Assessment on Climate Change that provided a region-by-region assessment of the potential impact of global warming on the United States. In June 2001 the National Academy of Sciences concluded in a review of existing data that global warming was a real problem caused, at least in part, by man-made pollution that could well have a “serious adverse” impact by the end of the century.

Justice department halts grants to terror-response agencies (L.A. Times) — Although President Bush has repeatedly promised to boost federal aid to firefighters and other emergency workers, the Justice Department this week temporarily suspended awarding grants to aid these first responders to terrorist attacks.

Administration officials said the delay in the program, which had been expected to get a big budget hike in the aftermath of the Sept.

11 attacks, stemmed from the failure of Congress to finish the budget for domestic programs before adjourning last month. Instead, lawmakers postponed final spending decisions until mid-January at the earliest.

“At this point, we can only speculate on the availability of resources for the balance of the fiscal year,” said Assistant Attorney General Deborah J. Daniels in a memo Monday explaining why a variety of programs and initiatives were being postponed.

At issue is a program, which took on new visibility and importance after the terrorist attacks, that provides grants to state and local governments to provide equipment and training for fire departments, police departments and other agencies that are likely to be among the first to respond to a terrorist attack.

Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee, who released a copy of Daniels’ memo, upbraided the department for not continuing to award grants with the money included in the interim funding bill Congress passed to finance programs through Jan. 11.

The Justice Department grant freeze “follows a pattern of Bush

WASHINGTON

“Punting the budget until January is not the best way to govern. There will be some real consequences, albeit temporary.”

John Scofield Spokesman for the Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee holding highly trumped-up photo ops with first responders and then subsequently rejecting money for them,” committee Democrats said Tuesday.

The grant program for the first responders is just one of many homeland security programs thrown into limbo because Congress passed none of the 11 appropriations bills needed to finance domestic programs for the budget year that began Oct. 1.

Instead, Congress provided only short-term funding at 2002 levels — delaying expected increases for programs that emerged as priorities after the terrorist attacks, such as the Coast Guard, the Customs Service and the FBI. John Scofield, spokesman for the Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee, said the Justice Department’s delay in dispensing grants was “prudent,” and that its effects would be only temporary. But he said it was a

prime example of the adverse effects of Congress and the White House not reaching timely agreement on a budget.

“Punting the budget until January is not the best way to govern,” Scofield said. “There will be some real consequences, albeit temporary.”

Funding for the program last year was $651 million; Bush proposed increasing it to $3.5 billion.

Congress is expected to follow suit with a big increase, but it has not yet finished work on the Justice Department’s appropriation.

Under the stopgap spending bill, the department continued to make grants — until this week.

Faced with uncertainty about the department’s final budget for the year, Daniels said in her memo that the agency would postpone implementation of new policies, including a restructuring of several juvenile justice programs, as well as the distribution of grants until after the full-year budget is set.

David Sirota, spokesman for the Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee, argued that the administration’s response “shows a fundamental lack of a sense of urgency.”

It is particularly galling to Democrats because Bush has appeared at many rallies with emergency workers, lavishing praise on their efforts and promising to pour resources into the program. But in August 2002, after Congress sent Bush a bill providing supplemental funding for a variety of homeland security programs, he refused to spend $150 million included for first-responder grants.

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

AOL expects more ad sales decline NEW YORK (Newsday) — Advertising

sales at AOL Time Warner’s online unit could tumble by as much as 50 percent next year, the company said Tuesday during a meeting with analysts in which the media giant outlined ways to combat those losses.

America Online, the world’s largest Internet provider, said that overall revenues, projected to be between $8.8 billion and $9 billion this year, would be flat in 2003 compared with this year.

“If the question is, Has AOL bottomed out as a business,’ the answer, we think, is yes,” AOL Time Warner chairman Steve Case said.

Calling 2003 a transition year, the company gave an overview of how it plans to turn around its America Online division during a 4 1/2-hour presentation that began with AOL Time Warner chief executive Richard Parsons declaring that its online unit “is not a wasting business.”

AOL executives reiterated that the company, which has 27 million U.S. users, has no plans of abandoning its dial-up focus, but

that it will try to push users to migrate to its high-speed services.

It plans to push its broadband service by partnering with cable system operators. It recently signed a deal with Comcast for such an arrangement, as well as offering it through Time Warner Cable, an AOL Time Warner property.

America Online chairman and chief executive Jon Miller also said the company is considering offering varying pricing tiers for its dial-up service rather than the all-encompassing $23.90 standard plan it has now. Other changes AOL has in store for next year are: “AOL Call Alert,” an extra service that will signal logged-on users when a caller is trying to get through and allow them to divert the caller to AOL’s voicemail service or send a pre-recorded message.

A deal with Network Associates, the maker of antivirus software McAfee, to provide free e-mail protection, with the option of paying to upgrade to a full version of the product.

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

Budget continued from page 1 Services Janina Montero. Those offices include Health Services, the Sarah Doyle Women’s Center, University Food Services and the Third World Center.

But the ResLife shortage is sizeable enough that savings from within ResLife and other offices will not cover the entire deficit, Montero said.

Remaining shortages will be covered by reserves, which “are there to respond to some routine issues that we have to deal with,” like small construction projects or, on occasion, budget shortages, Montero said.

“You hope that that’s not what you use them for,” as they are there

Perlmutter continued from page 12 intentional wrongdoing. People apologize for accidents all the time.

It is Sapp’s stubbornness, more than the actual hit that has created most of the controversy and bad feelings. It’s a shame, because the situation didn’t have to be this bad. I know that Sapp thinks he is not in the wrong, but he should be able to conceive that maybe, just maybe, his actions could possibly have offended people.

I have an idea Warren — one that will finally get rid of this media attention: apologize. Visit Clifton.

Meier continued from page 12 best team is playing for the national title. Let me explain.

Iowa has clearly been the top team in the conference this season, while Ohio State, Penn State and Michigan have played almost dead even behind them. Anyone who’s watched the games this season knows that Iowa would have beaten any of the other top four conference teams in any stadium in the United States. The next three are close enough that the home team likely would have prevailed in any contest between them. This is, in fact, exactly what

W. Ultimate continued from page 12 close throughout the first half, with both teams throwing lots of crisp, break mark throws and playing hard man defense. But in the second half the Brown women pulled out their solid zone defense and forced a number of turnovers.

Williams didn’t quite know what to do, and Disco pulled ahead, winning the game 10-5 and earning a spot in the finals.

By then Brown was in full stride, riding on the energy and excitement of the day and ready for a competitive final against regional-rival Yale Ramona. Both teams came out fired up from the start, handling the disc well, hucking long, and laying out all over the place. Yale took half 8-7 and

“primarily to take care of the needs for the operation,” she said. It’s unusual to have a deficit, but “things do happen.

“So on occasion, you’ll have certain developments” that might lead to a shortage and the use of reserves, Montero said.

But both Jablonski and Montero said students will not see a reduction in services as a result of the severe shortage, and Jablonski said any increase in student fees will not be due to this problem. The cost of room and board for the 2003-04 academic year will be decided during the February Corporation meetings, Jablonski said.

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

Reach out from your cocoon of infinite wisdom for once and maintain your dignity. Maybe that would tarnish your legacy of being the league’s most bullying, merciless player. If that’s the most important thing to you, then I suppose you shouldn’t care.

In the post-game coverage after Maddox went down, Steelers punter Josh Miller said something that applies to the Sapp situation. “It reminds you quickly it’s just a game,” Miller said. Warren Sapp is just a person playing the game of football, a fact that, sadly, he seems to have forgotten.

Eric Perlmutter ’06 is willing to take on Warren Sapp any time, anywhere.

happened this season, with Ohio State playing both of these games at home, Michigan playing one at the Big House and one in Columbus and Penn State playing both on the road. Each earned zero, one and two losses respectively, and each game was decided by less than a touchdown.

I say this as a preliminary reminder to those who will tell me I’m wrong about the Big Ten after Ohio State gets clobbered in the Fiesta Bowl. They’re there because of their conference schedule. And Iowa would have won.

Luke Meier ’04 Champaign, Ill.

hails

from

didn’t let up at start of the second half. Ramona gave Disco trouble with their effective force middle defense and went on a scoring frenzy to put Disco behind 7-11.

But Disco showed a lot of determination and heart and battled back from behind to tie it up at 14.

As Yale’s starting seven were beginning to tire, Disco was proving the importance of a deep sideline. But Ramona kept fighting hard and pulled ahead to 14-15.

Nevertheless, the game was win by two, so Brown still had a chance. With the sidelines screaming, Disco scored three hard-fought points in a row, and the Brown women defeated Yale 17-15 to take the Purple Valley championship.

Rachel Weston ’03 is a member of the women’s ultimate Frisbee team.

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

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

E D I T O R I A L

A call for open records Last spring, campus police officers arrested two minority students who refused to show their IDs to Brown Police. The incident took place in broad daylight on the Main Green with 50 students looking on. Allegations the incident was a product of racial profiling filled campus.

But as far as the Department of Public Safety records are concerned, the incident never occurred. For eight months, the University and DPS have denied The Herald’s requests for police reports detailing the arrests. The University successfully swept this disturbing incident under the rug. Almost a year later, community members do not know which officers were involved, why they arrested the students or what actually transpired.

In fact, the University and DPS have refused The Herald’s repeated written and verbal requests for every report this semester.

Brown Police officers can arrest students, temporarily imprison them, ticket cars on College Hill and — what may soon be the case — carry guns. But they have no accountability to students and other community members. Officers have free reign on and patrol College Hill in anonymity. This unacceptable policy is well suited for an authoritarian state — not a college campus.

The University is withholding all evidence that objectively speaks to whether Brown Police should be armed. DPS reports would shed light on how officers act when on duty and whether racism played a factor in last spring’s arrests.

But the University won’t allow The Herald or the community to investigate its officers.

If DPS officers had guns last spring, they may have drawn them. As long as the University endangers students by withholding the kind of detailed police reports that the Providence Police Department is legally obligated to disclose, students will never know what happened or have a chance to consider what could have happened. This is one good reason why PPD officers — not Brown Police officers — should carry guns.

Detailed DPS records must be made public. If the University is concerned about safety on College Hill, it will not arm officers until DPS opens its records and is accountable to the community.

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD EDITORIAL Seth Kerschner, Editor-in-Chief David Rivello, Editor-in-Chief Will Hurwitz, Executive Editor Sheryl Shapiro, Executive Editor Beth Farnstrom, Senior 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 Ilena Frangista, Listings 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 Kimberly Insel, Photography Editor Jason White, 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

Marion Billings, Night Editor Anastasia Ali, Copy Editors Staff Writers Kathy Babcock, Zach Barter, Brian Baskin, Jonathan Bloom, Carla Blumenkranz, Oliver Bowers, Danielle Cerny, Jinhee Chung, Maria Di Mento, Jonathan Ellis, Nicholas Foley, Dana Goldstein, Alan Gordon, Nick Gourevitch, Joanna Grossman, Stephanie Harris, Victoria Harris, Shara Hegde, Brian Herman, Momoko Hirose, Akshay Krishnan, Brent Lang, Elena Lesley, Jamay Liu, Lisa Mandle, Jermaine Matheson, Monique Meneses, Kerry Miller, Alicia Mullin, Crystal Z.Y. Ng, Juan Nunez, Joanne Park, Sara Perkins, Melissa Perlman, Cassie Ramirez, Amy Ruddle, Emir Senturk, Jen Sopchockchai, Adam Stella, Anna Stubblefield, Stefan Talman, Jonathon Thompson, Joshua Troy, Juliette Wallack, Jessica Weisberg, Ellen Wernecke, Julia Zuckerman Pagination Staff Bronwyn Bryant, Jessica Chan, Melissa Epstein, Joshua Gootzeit, Caroline Healy, Hana Kwan, Erika Litvin, Stacy Wong Staff Photographers Josh Apte, Nick Mark, 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, Eliza Katz, Blair Nelsen, Amy Ruddle, Janis Sethness

RYAN LEVESQUE

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Grade inflation debate Whites not the only needs clarification racists in U.S. society To the Editor: I heartily applaud The Herald for its coverage of the Undergraduate Council of Students meeting last night, in which the College Curriculum Council representatives (Dean of the College Paul Armstrong, Beth Goldman ’03.5, and myself ) engaged in a vibrant discussion about issues in Brown’s grading system (“UCS representatives tell Armstrong they oppose adding pluses, minuses,” 12/3).

There are two crucial aspects of the discussion, however, that need to be mentioned. First, the article frames grading issues as if the CCC has a set agenda and is intractably determined to examine some nebulously written reform proposal to add pluses and minuses to the grading system. Not only does this overstate the situation, but also it was made clear at the meeting that the plus/minus grade issue is only one of many ideas under discussion. Your readers should be aware that the CCC merely voted to put grading system concerns back on the agenda, which encompasses issues beyond the hot topic of pluses and minuses.

Second, the article misses much of the broader discussion that occurred concerning grade inflation at Brown. This was a mistake. As several UCS representatives articulated at the meeting, and as I would also argue, many students instinctively connect the issue of adding pluses and minuses to the grading system with the wider topic of grade inflation. They fear that external perception of Brown as an “easy Ivy” or an excessively lenient institution is pushing some members of the academic community, particularly faculty, to reform the grading system in an effort to realign and improve Brown’s intellectual practices, educational values and institutional reputation.

I would urge the UCS to look at these issues in more depth. While it remains to be seen whether grade inflation is really as bad at Brown as it is at, say, Harvard University, it is clear that a significant segment of the community here is worried about it.

Expansive discussion of issues like the plus/minus idea would add more diversity of opinion into our discourse, and I certainly would enjoy seeing more Herald coverage about this particular topic in the future.

To the Editor: I found Nick Noon’s ’05 article (“Racism undercover but pervasive at Brown University,” 12/3) to be very well written, and I believe it addressed an important and relevant issue. Brown is not the ideal, safe-haven of a college that the brochures portray. In a community as large as Brown’s there are bound to be hateful people. However, I was offended by Noon’s comment, “I am not saying that every white student at this school is racist — that would be just as foolish as my assumption that nobody here is. But you would be surprised. A lot of you are reading this thinking, ‘Here goes another angry minority saying how racist the world is.’”

I have one question: why is a racist automatically white? I am a white woman, and I have encountered racism. My boyfriend is Indian, and his parents disapprove of me solely because of my ethnicity.

All too often the focus of racism is on white versus everyone else. In reality, racism is a tangled web involving all races. There are African American, Asian, Latin, etc. racists just as there are white racists.

How can Noon be so sure that all the undercover racists at Brown are white? It is time that society’s myopic view of racism be expanded to recognize that there are racist people of every ethnicity — not just white.

The term white itself is a touchy and confusing one. I have yet to understand why I am placed in such a huge category. I am Irish and French, and I have my own heritage that is constantly ignored by society.

I was not invited to the TWTP even though I have encountered discrimination, and TWTP itself is a form of discrimination. What would happen if I started my own white sorority or held a Caucasian awareness week? I would be deemed a racist.

Unfortunately, racism will always exist.

However, the focus should be taken away from the popular idea of victimization. If you are discriminated against, realize that you are a better person than the offender and rise above it.

Sean L. Yom ’03 Dec. 3

Laura Martin ‘06 Dec. 3

COMMENTARY POLICY The staff editorial is the majority opinion of the editorial board of The Brown Daily Herald. The editorial viewpoint does not necessarily reflect the views of The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. Columns and letters reflect the opinions of their authors only.

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

OPINIONS WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2002 · PAGE 11

Lean pickings for the Democratic party in 2004?

While the initial crop of candidates don’t impress, there may be a dark horse in the Democrats’ stable SINCE THE MIDTERM ELECTIONS, the way George W. Bush does. It’s this political pundits have been at work hand- inability that has Democrats looking for icapping the field of Democratic chal- a fresh new face.

That’s where North Carolina senator lengers for president in 2004. While this may seem a bit hasty on their part John Edwards comes in. His main crebecause the real primaries are more than dential as far as I can tell is the fact that he’s better looking than the a year away, this is the time other candidates. In fact, when candidates pick up People Magazine’s “Sexiest much of their momentum. It’s Politician” has only been in still too early to tell, but the the Senate since 1999. field of Democratic chalHowever, his fairly humble lengers is beginning to develbackground may work in his op. If you’re a Bush supporter, favor. His father was a mill you’re likely to see this group worker, and his mother as simply volunteers to be worked odd jobs to help put sheep for the slaughter come him through law school. In November 2004. But if you’re a addition, his sixteen-yearDemocrat, the emerging JOSHUA SKOLNICK old son’s untimely death group is a list of potential UNDECIDED certainly adds some characheroes who can save the counter points in the minds of try from the oil guzzling, bigmany. But despite this combusiness bozos now occupypelling history, he might simply lack the ing the White House.

The most likely candidate, of course, experience that Americans will be lookis Al Gore. On the surface, he seems like ing for. Sept. 11, 2001, seems to have the old Al Gore. He doesn’t speak natu- hurt his chances for the candidacy. With rally, he wears too much makeup before the atmosphere of security and serioushe goes on TV, and his smile is more ness surrounding the presidency, to frightening than friendly. But Al Gore many Americans he may seem more has changed — or so he wants you to suited for “Dawson’s Creek” than for the believe. He’s now moved past the jokes West Wing.

On the opposite end of the esthetic about being stiff to jokes about losing the 2000 election. While his humility is spectrum is U.S. Sen. John Kerry Dsomewhat endearing, voters aren’t likely Mass. Kerry’s face makes the Providence to forget that he fumbled an election River look positively beautiful. But he that a hamster with a speechwriter could does have two things that are more have won. He’s no longer a populist pre- important to a campaign than looks: tending to be a centrist. Now he’s just a money and military experience. Kerry populist, even going so far as to embrace has an extensive and heroic history of nationalized health care. But the man service in Vietnam that will give him who once commented, “That Michael credibility when tackling national secuJackson is unbelievable isn’t he?” after rity issues. But, in a piece of personal the Bulls won a championship just does- history that will appeal to liberals, he n’t seem likely to connect with people quickly formed a group of Vietnam veterans who protested against the war.

He’s been branded a Massachusetts libJoshua Skolnick ’04 is confident that if eral by many, but his toughness on secuelected, Sen. Joe Lieberman will oppose rity issues should help shield him from pork-barrel legislation and cheesy jokes.

“If you’re a Bush supporter you’re likely to see this group (of Democratic hopefuls) as simply volunteers to be sheep for the slaughter come November 2004” this charge. To further aide his candidacy, he’s managed to marry Theresa Heinz, heiress to the Heinz Ketchup fortune. While he has said that he won’t use her money, in a tough fight for the nomination he could always change his mind. While the idea of this walking skeleton kissing babies on the campaign trail sends chills down my spine, if he can make the campaign about issues rather than image, he’s got a fighting chance.

Another odd-looking potential candidate, former vice presidential candidate Joe Lieberman, has promised not to run if former running mate Al Gore decides to throw his hat into the ring. Lieberman is perhaps the most conservative of any potential Democratic candidates for president.

He’s already angered Hollywood for his comments suggesting that they should censor their questionable material. His supporters may argue that this centrism will appeal to more voters during the general election. But he faces some problems with the general electorate as well. It’s hard to envision many voters in the South running to the polls to vote for an Orthodox Jew from the Northeast. Despite these problems, he does have more name recognition than any candidate besides Gore. The bottom line: Joe’s once again got a better chance of being a vice presidential candidate than leading a ticket. While it

would be great to have the country’s presidency opened up to nonChristians, Lieberman just doesn’t have a big enough natural constituency to win a national race.

Vermont’s Gov. Howard Dean was the first Democrat to officially declare himself a candidate for president. I don’t know anything about him. Neither does anyone. That’s his problem. Unless he gets his face on television or in the newspapers soon, he won’t have donors lining up to support him. Right now, his main achievement has been extending marital rights to same-sex marriages.

That might win him support at a liberal bastion like Brown University, but the Bible Belt might not feel the same way.

Dick Gephardt, the outgoing House minority leader for the Democrats, might give a candidacy a try. He’d appeal to union members and some of the grassroots base. But the House Democrats fared badly in the midterm elections, and this could hurt him. Same goes for Tom Daschle, Senate minority leader. While he’s undoubtedly the most stylishly dressed potential candidate and could appeal to a broad base of voters, it appears likely that he will stay in Congress and lead the party there.

The outlook for Democrats is clearly grim. Republicans are facing a group that doesn’t have a clear star among them.

Still, it’s early in the season to be ruling anything out. While Bush may seem invincible now, one of these guys just might emerge as the David to his Goliath.

While young inexperienced senators, Massachusetts liberals and nonProtestants haven’t had the best record in presidential politics, one man was all three and became one of the most popular presidents in modern times. Yes, the lineup looks bad now. But with some luck, there just might be another John F. Kennedy waiting in the wings for the Democrats.

More funding needed to deal with AIDS epidemic Bush’s trip to Africa this winter offers an opportunity to reevaluate our AIDS strategy AS WORLD AIDS DAY EVENTS TOOK place spend $9 billion a month on the war in all over the world Dec. 2, over 8,200 peo- Iraq (Miami Herald, 9/30)? Thus, the ple perished and 14,500 new people United States will spend more per day became infected with the Human ($295 million) to fight the war in Iraq Immunodeficiency Virus that later than it will pledge to the Global Fund results in Acquired Immunodeficiency per year. AIDS is most likely the biggest security issue the world is Syndrome. As we sat and ate ever going to face, but the turkey and counted our efforts are being placed on blessings on Thanksgiving CATE OSWALD the “virtual war” — the war thousands of children in GUEST COLUMN on terrorism.

Africa and Asia joined the How much does it take for millions of children Bush and other world leadorphaned by AIDS. As you read this column, close to 100 people ers to realize that the AIDS virus is much will have passed away as the disease more potent than the terrorists? It is devastating entire villages, ruining overcame their abilities to function.

How is it, then, that many of the economies, stealing teachers and docworld’s leaders are unable to see the tors from their jobs, creating famines, devastation? How is it that the United and killing millions of mothers and States, the richest nation on earth, with fathers.

President Bush is planning a January about 30 percent of the world’s total productivity, is only donating $500 mil- trip to Africa, the continent that is host to lion over three years to the Global Fund 28.5 million of the world’s 40 million peoto fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, ple infected with HIV. This is the perfect which was set up last year by U.N. opportunity to let our voices be heard.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan? The This is the time to take action. We must use United States should be able to easily this day of awareness to rally our voices in contribute $3 billion a year to the fund. calling on Bush to declare an AIDS plan How come instead it is pledging to before his trip to Africa. We cannot continue to be complacent while 95 percent of Cate Oswald ’04 is a member of the student the people infected with HIV/AIDS around the world do not have access to life-susglobal AIDS campaign. She hails from taining treatment.

Barrington, R.I.

“Thus, the United States will spend more per day ... to fight the war in Iraq than it will pledge to the Global Fund per year. AIDS is most likely the biggest security issue the world is ever going to face, but the efforts are being placed on the ‘virtual war’ — the war on terrorism.”

I know that it is hard to imagine what others are going through if you haven’t experienced it first hand, but try to imagine for a minute that Providence, R.I., has an HIV infection rate equal to that of Zimbabwe. That would mean that one in three adults between the ages of 19 to 35 was HIV positive. That would mean that hundreds of orphans would be roaming the streets of Providence because of AIDS. With treatment unavailable, one-third of the adult population of the city, the population that is supposed to be supporting all of their children and their grandparents, would be dead within the span of five to ten years.

What would happen to production and trade? Who would plant the crops to provide food? Who would teach the children? Most of this burden would fall on the juvenile and elderly populations,

which are oftentimes struggling to survive without the added burden of AIDS. The worst part is that drugs exist and are available in certain parts of the world.

Drug companies are developing the technologies, and some governments are helping subsidize the costs or creating their own generic drugs (such as Brazil and India), but hundreds of other countries are not so lucky. With unequal access, those who can afford the drugs have the chance to prolong their lives, whereas those who can’t afford to spend $15,000 a year when they make $300 a year, are dying. We cannot let this happen.

This is the opportunity to let our voices be heard. Don’t let apathy result in 8,200 more deaths tomorrow. Write a letter to Bush requesting he sanction $2.5 billion to the Global Fund before he heads to Africa.

One ripple can start a wave.

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

SPORTS WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 4, 2002 · PAGE 12

Sapp’s attitude warren-ted?

Big Ten makes big statement

WARREN SAPP IS REALLY PISSING ME OFF. One of the best defensive linemen in the NFL, Sapp’s physical skill has always been complimented by his flamboyant, intimidating style. I have never enjoyed hearing him rant, but rarely has his domineering rage been so devoid of respect and maturity as it has in the past week and a half.

You may be familiar with Sapp’s vicious hit on Chad Clifton during an interception return in a Week 12 BucsPackers game. A ERIC PERLMUTTER blindside, highPERL MUTTERS impact hit 20 yards away from the ball, the blow was within the legal bounds of NFL rules. It is generally accepted that during an interception return, any offensive player is fair game for a block. In other words, if your team has thrown a pick, watch your back.

My contention is not that the hit was illegal or unnecessary. I fully understand that a wall could have forced the cornerback to cut back across the field, where Clifton would have been waiting had Sapp not blocked him. It is important, though, to realize that an effective block need not be a dangerous block, a distinction that is recognized by the NFL in certain cases. See the rules on chop blocking and clipping below the waist, for instance. This block was unnecessarily violent and dangerous to Clifton, who is currently unable to walk, among other things. He was looking the other way, slowing to a trot, when Sapp leveled him. I am aware that there is no 100 percent causal relationship between a hit like Sapp’s and the injuries that arose (Clifton could have hit the ground differently), but the level of recklessness and the likelihood of damage are indeed linked.

During the post-game aftermath, in which Sapp and Packers coach Mike Sherman had a heated exchange about the hit and Sapp’s celebration once the interception return was complete, Sapp spewed immature rhetoric you would expect of an eighth-grader.

“If you’re so tough, why don’t you put on a uniform?” Or, better yet, “If I was 25 years old and didn’t have a kid and a conscience, I would have given him an ass-kicking right there at the 30-yard line.” I’m glad to see that Sapp considers 25 years old an appropriate age for someone to fight an elder. At least he’s past that now.

Even this past weekend, after having seen how badly Clifton was injured and having had time to reflect, Sapp was stubborn as ever. “How would [Sherman] know anything about respect or what goes on within the game?” Sapp said in an interview. “Don’t talk to me unless you been in the trenches, please.”

Give me a break Sherman is a head coach. Of course he knows what goes on within the game. Sapp’s inability to articulate how he feels without resorting to intimidation makes him seem ignorant and disrespectful.

Sapp says he didn’t apologize or visit Clifton in the hospital because he didn’t do anything wrong. I fail to see the connection. So do Tennessee Titans Jeff Fisher and Eddie George, who visited Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Tommy Maddox in the hospital after he was almost paralyzed in that afternoon’s game on an unlucky play. There really is no logical connection between a hospital visit or an apology and

IT’S TIME FOR MIDWESTERN FOOTBALL fans to say I told you so.

At the beginning of this college football season, the press had plenty of harsh words for the Big Ten conference. The game, they said, had passed this antiquated conference by. A plethora of boring, defense-first football teams had led to a general lack of speed across the board.

There were no offensive stars, no good quarterbacks and no team that could compete with the LUKE MEIER nation’s best. The BOLTS AND NUTS conference, as far as the national title race was concerned, had become irrelevant.

The 20-20 vision of hindsight now allows us to call each of these pronouncements wrong.

This season, which was supposed to highlight the ineptitude of the Big Ten, has instead shown them to be the strongest conference in college football. With all of its conference games completed, the Big Ten now occupies four of the top 12 spots in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll.

These teams — Ohio State, Iowa, Penn State and Michigan — comprise one-third of the nation’s top teams and represent the best elite group that any conference has to offer.

Several offensive players have emerged as big-time performers, including Brad Banks (the nation’s top-rated passer not from Boise State), Leon Johnson (the nation’s top rusher), Zack Mills and Charles Rodgers. ESPN.com’s unofficial Heisman poll currently has two Big Ten players — Banks and Johnson — ranked first and second.

The conference is so strong that it would not be unfair to say that its fourth

see PERLMUTTER, page 9

Rachel Weston

The women’s ultimate frisbee team poses with President Simmons.

Women’s ultimate wins two tournament titles

BY RACHEL WESTON

It’s hard to be inconspicuous when you’re carrying a two and a half foot trophy. As the women’s ultimate frisbee team trekked through the Atlanta airport and onto their flight home to Providence, the women of Disco Inferno got more than a few comments, smiles and shouts of congratulations.

Topping it all off was a chance encounter in T.F. Green Airport with President Ruth Simmons, who offered hugs and congratulations and posed with the team for a celebratory picture.

Disco traveled to Atlanta on Nov. 16 and 17 to play in the University of Georgia’s 23rd annual Classic City Classic, the most competitive college ultimate frisbee tournament of the fall season. The road was long, but after six games played in cold, rain, and galeforce winds, Disco captured the championship — and an excessively large trophy.

The victory in Georgia was an outstanding culmination to an unprecedented fall season for Disco. The A team, led by Coach Ted Munter and Captains Rachel Weston ’03 and Shirley Wu ’04, went undefeated this semester and claimed first place in two of the toughest fall college ultimate tournaments. The Brown women, who finished last May ranked no. 7 in the nation, will now head into the official college ultimate season this spring looking strong and ready to make some noise. Disco is aiming to qualify (for the 5th year in a row) to attend Ultimate’s 16-team College Nationals, to be held this year in Austin, Texas.

The first day at Classic City Classic in Georgia was pool play, and Disco went 3-0. The Brown women came out strong from the start, defeating Princeton 11-1 and NC State 13-7. Disco took advantage of the rain soaked ground to layout all over the field on both offense and defense.

The third game with host and familiar rival University of Georgia was neckand-neck throughout the first half. The Brown women brought out some great man-defense, fired up by a hot lay-out defensive block by Cate Brown ’05, but

Georgia’s effective spread offense gave Disco some trouble.

In the second half, Brown was pumped, and Georgia struggled against the Brown women’s tough zone defense. Brown came up with several big turnovers thanks to some tenacious running in the cup by Michelle Levinson ’06, Kate Maurer ’05, Ann Murray ’05, Lindsey Wong ’03, Jen Kim ’04 and Shirley Wu ’04. Capitalizing on these turns, Disco pulled ahead, taking the game 12-7. The Brown women’s deep team of 19 players and unfettered spirit certainly helped Disco pull successfully through a long, cold and muddy (but enjoyably competitive) day.

Sunday opened with a quick quarterfinal win over Michigan 13-2. In the late morning, the wind picked up and from that point on it was a day for zone defense. The semifinal was against Colorado, a final four team at 2002 College Nationals last May. Disco may have felt nervous inside, but the team came out strong, exchanging downwind points with Colorado until 4-4.

Thanks to some stellar up-wind handling by Jen Kim ’04, Rebecca Simon ’05 and Maureen McCamley GS, the Brown women took off, taking the game 13-4.

Disco came out fired up for the finals and played hard, solid ultimate with consistent performances by returning players and some great grabs and defensive-blocks by rising B teamers and rookies. The Brown women breezed past UC Berkeley to win the final, and the championship, 11-2.

Earlier in the season, on the weekend of Oct. 19 and 20, Disco traveled to Williams College for Purple Valley, the most competitive fall tournament in New England. Everything clicked from the start for Disco, and the Brown women defeated Dartmouth 7-5, Cornell 9-1 and Tufts 13-1 to go undefeated in Saturday pool play.

On day two, Disco came out strong and knocked of Harvard 14-2 in the quarters. In the semi-finals, Brown met up with hosts Williams. The game was see W. ULTIMATE, page 9

see MEIER, page 9

Late comeback falls short for m. basketball Ohio University senior guard Sonny Johnson scored 13 of his game-high 24 points in the second half to lead Ohio to a 75-71 non-league victory over Brown at the Pizzitola Sports Center Monday night.

Brown rallied from a 45-27 half time deficit to tie the score 62-62 on a layup by Jason Forte ’05 with 4:11 remaining in the game. The Bobcats took the lead for good, 63-62, on a free throw by junior Jaivon Harris with 4:07 remaining. Ohio led by as much as four points late in the game on a three-point play by Johnson.

With Brown trailing by three points, 7471, Bears’ Patrick Powers ‘04 had a near miss on a three-point jumper that would have tied the game with four seconds remaining.

The Bears were led by Powers, who scored 24 points, and Alai Nuualiitia ‘03, who netted 16 points on 6 of 6 shooting from the field. Forte registered a doubledouble with 12 points and 10 assists, while Jamie Kilburn ‘04 added 12 points for Brown.

The Bears hope to bounce back from this tough loss on Saturday when they host Holy Cross at the Pizzitola Center.

— Brown Sports Information