W E D N E S D A Y FEBRUARY 11, 2004
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Volume CXXXIX, No. 11
An independent newspaper serving the Brown community since 1891
www.browndailyherald.com
Black community ignores homosexuality, AIDS activist says BY JONATHAN HERMAN
AIDS is not a disease of white men, although the black community often pretends it is, said HIV-positive AIDS activist Christopher Michael Bell in a speech Tuesday evening. BLACK HISTORY “We seem to think MONTH • 2004 of AIDS as a disease of white men. So when and where do I enter into their discourse?” Bell said in the lecture, part of Brown’s celebration of Black History Month. Bell discussed his experience as an African American with HIV, as well as the work he does “to combat the diseases, the methods of representation, and who gets represented with AIDS and who does not,” he said. As a graduate student in English at the University of Missouri-Columbia, Bell said he was appalled when his colleagues ignored a doctoral candidate dying from AIDS. “I made a vow that I would find a way to contact him and tell him I supported him. I wasn’t able to, because he died two days later,” Bell said. The death signaled the beginning of Bell’s dedication to AIDS activism. Despite his support for AIDS prevention and safe sex, Bell contracted HIV seven years ago from unprotected sex during a year-and-a-half-long relationship. His partner had kept an ongoing, 10-year relationship with a man dying from AIDS secret from Bell, he said. “He took that choice away from me, and that irritates the hell out of me,” Bell said of his partner. Bell said the University of MissouriColumbia’s student newspaper led with a story on Bell the week he tested positive for HIV. After the story ran, Bell said he received support from avenues he had never expected. “You have balls of steel,” Bell said one stranger told him in a bookstore.
Marissa Hauptman / Herald
Christopher Michael Bell, AIDS activist and expert, talked about his experiences as an African American, HIV-positive man Tuesday evening in a lecture sponsored by the Bethune Black Graduate Student Society.
Modern Culture and Media Adjunct Lecturer Michael Udris, was commissioned for the project. The video emphasizes to future offcampus residents that their neighbors’ perceptions of them will reflect back on Brown, according to Dean for Campus Life Margaret Jablonski. Video testimonials from neighbors and students highlight potential conflicts that may arise and ways they can be avoided. A cameo appearance by Jablonski warns
Scheraga, program director for the Global Change Research Program at the Environmental Protection Agency, strongly urged the cultivation of a new generation of scientists trained to work with environmental policymakers. New global environmental problems can already be seen in weather changes, which affect health, agriculture, forests, water resources and transportation, Scheraga said. The wide impact of these problems requires scientists to take a multidisciplinary approach, he said. Environmental policymakers must take into account a range of issues, from scientific uncertainty to equity to economic tradeoffs, Scheraga said. Though he said the costs of taking preventative action are high, he warned that the costs of inaction are potentially higher. Scheraga spoke strongly against individuals and special-interest groups that question the reality of climate change. There is no doubt the climate is changing, but how we should respond is unclear, he said. “Be skeptical of anyone who tells you that all effects of climate change are bad,” Scheraga said, pointing out that
see VIDEO, page 4
see CLIMATE, page 4
BY MARSHALL AGNEW
Global climate change will be a defining problem for the current generation of students, said Joel Scheraga ’76, M.A. ’79, Ph.D. ’81, who spoke in Sayles Hall Tuesday after receiving the first Horace Mann Distinguished Graduate Alumnus Award. The event marked the end of the Graduate School’s centennial celebration.
see AIDS, page 9
Rental Facilities premieres new off-campus housing video BY PATRICK CLARK
After suffering severe dilapidation, the Office of Rental Facilities informational video on off-campus housing has been thoroughly renovated for its 2004 showing. The old video, which starred former Brown staff and former Providence Mayor Vincent “Buddy” Cianci, has been replaced by a version featuring current Brown employees and Mayor David Cicilline ’83. Amedia Production, owned by Media Facilities Manager David Udris and
Thirty-six juniors named to Phi Beta Kappa
Climate change a global crisis, says EPA program director
Thirty-six members of the Class of 2005 have been elected to Brown’s chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, one of the nation’s oldest academic honor societies. To be eligible as a junior for Phi Beta Kappa at Brown, a student must have attended the University for five semesters and received 17 A’s during that time. This year, the society elected Omar Khaled Ahmad ’05, Anna Berman ’05, Renee Betancourt ’05, Andrea Carvalho ’05, Amy Carvel ’05, David Cohen ’05, Lisa Colaco ’05, Scott Dixler ’05, Rebecca Dumas ’05, Claire Dunnington ’05, Irena Foygel ’05, Chloe Hill ’05, Maho Imanishi ’05, Lars Johansson ’05, Rahul Kamath ’05, Maria Kasparian ’05, Arta Khakpour ’05 and Michael Krawczynski ’05. Also nominated were Anna Lamut ’05, Kelly Molloy ’05, Aimee Palladino ’05, David Petruccelli ’05, Harrison Quitman ’05, Kingston Reif ’05, Alissa Rothchild ’05, Michael Rozensher ’05, Eric Sedgwick ’05, Zachary Segal ’05, Henry Shapiro ’05, Nathaniel Smilowitz ’05, William St. James Smith ’05, Aaron Stelson ’05, Quyen Truong ’05, Megan Wulff ’05, Herald Opinions Editor Benjamin Yaster ’05 and Beverly Young ’05. Last year, 33 members of the Class of 2004 were elected to Phi Beta Kappa. —Herald staff reports
I N S I D E T U E S D AY, F E B RUA RY 1 0 , 2 0 0 4 Pennsylvania college docks professors’ merit bonuses, blaming grade inflation campus watch, page 3
Emory’s “speech code” controversy could happen at Brown, Chris Hu ’06 writes column, page 11
Arjun Iyengar ’05 says that Pakistan’s nuclear situation might not be so simple column, page 11
TO D AY ’ S F O R E C A S T Fencing squad recovers after weekend losses, prepares for next tournament sports, page 12
Men’s track team places third in University of Rhode Island invitational sports, page 12
sunny high 39 low 18
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
THIS MORNING WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2004 · PAGE 2 Coup de Grace Grace Farris
W E AT H E R WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY
High 39 Low 18 sunny
FRIDAY
High 34 Low 21 p.m. snow
SATURDAY
High 41 Low 24 wind
High 38 Low 17 wind GRAPHICS BY TED WU
Four Years Eddie Ahn
MENU SHARPE REFECTORY LUNCH — Vegetarian Corn Chowder, Italian Sausage Soup with Tortellini, Beef Tacos,Vegetarian Tacos, Refried Beans, Carrots in Tequila, Swiss Fudge Cookies, New York Style Cheesecake, Key Lime Pie.
VERNEY-WOOLLEY DINING HALL LUNCH — Vegetarian Mushroom Barley Soup, Split Pea & Ham Soup, Beef Enchiladas,Vegan Burrito,Vegan Refried Beans, Corn & Sweet Pepper Sautee, Swiss Fudge Cookies.
DINNER — Vegetarian Corn Chowder, Italian Sausage Soup with Tortellini, Italian Beef Noodle Casserole, Filet of Sole & Lemon RollUps, Baked Polenta,Vegetable Risotto, Beets in Orange Sauce, Broccoli Spears, Italian Bread, Swiss Fudge Cookies, New York Style Cheesecake, Key Lime Pie.
DINNER — Vegetarian Mushroom Barley Soup, Split Pea & Ham Soup, Rotisserie Style Chicken, Spinach Quiche, Spanish Rice, Broccoli Cuts, Polynesian Ratatouille, Italian Bread, Key Lime Pie.
My Best Effort William Newman and Barron Youngsmith
CROSSWORD y
ACROSS 1 Word with shine or string 5 “__ the night...” 9 Turn over 14 Louts 15 Fictional captain 16 Team race 17 Centsless? 19 Be deviously critical 20 Maj. league stat 21 Chat room chuckle 22 Some rugs 24 Park plank 26 Central Florida city 27 Persuasive type 32 Greenhorns 35 All there 36 Drumstick, e.g. 37 Fr. holy woman 38 Gone by 41 Umbrella part 42 Sandwich cookie 44 “The Four Seasons” director 46 Not easily ruffled 50 One of about 34 million surfers 51 Celebration 55 Ann or Andy 58 Texas strike 59 Brown shade 60 Worried 61 Maximum effort 64 Mad 65 Spoken 66 Signs, as a check 67 Risked 68 Solder 69 Prying
xwordeditor@aol.com
1
5
1 2 3 4 5
2
3
4
14
38 Bar order 39 Feline celebrity 40 “Strange Interlude” playwright 43 Out for dinner, perhaps 44 Tax filing mo. 45 Block ending 47 Honked 48 Home extension
18
20
21
24
H E W S
D E G A S
U T I L E
E D A M
L O N E
A W M A R O I N E N D I A A D A P L I C U D E T N A I I C O N D J O Y S I E U B L E E E W S A L
6
7
R O I L
A G O R A
T O T E M
P I N E
I N T O
O M A R
L I N O
E D E N
D E E R E
G R E E N
E R N S T
H I L O
S T A R
T Y K E
Penguiener Haan Lee
10
11
12
13
29
30
31
53
54
19 23
26 28
U T’s Fifteen Days Yu-Ting Liu
35
36
37
38
43
46
39
44 47
48
40
41 45
49
50 56
I A S N G A N E P L S A A A I M E B R I R E A L T S C U E N D M I R S A N O D E M N E R F N S L
02/11/04 9
34
42
Greg and Todd’s Awesome Comic Greg Shilling and Todd Goldstein
16
25
33
Relaxed Pad user To-do list items On edge Surprise attack Razor brand Reverse, e.g. Kind of round Prior to, in verse 63 Coal site
A L G A
8
22
27 32
49 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 62
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE: S A T S
15
17
55
DOWN Living room pieces Bisect No longer a minor NYC setting Get rid of
y
6 Cashmere, e.g. 7 Perfect, at NASA 8 Draft 9 Sci-fi author __ K. Le Guin 10 Letter traders 11 Nobelist Wiesel 12 Back of the neck 13 Tints 18 Takes to task 23 It’ll make Trigger happy 25 Fast flier, briefly 26 NBA tiebreakers 28 Salem’s st. 29 Actor Malden 30 “National Velvet” author Bagnold 31 First name in country 32 Therapeutic plant 33 Former talk show name 34 Tommie of ’60s-’70s baseball
51
57
52
58 61
64
65
66
67
68
69
By Gail Grabowski (c)2004 Tribune Media Services, Inc.
62
59
60
63
02/11/04
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD, INC.
MOO!
Editorial Phone: 401.351.3372
The Brown Daily Herald (USPS 067.740) is published Monday through Friday during the aca-
Business Phone: 401.351.3260
demic year, excluding vacations, once during Commencement, once during Orientation and
Juliette Wallack, President
once in July by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. POSTMASTER please send corrections to P.O. Box
Carla Blumenkranz, Vice President 2538, Providence, RI 02906. Periodicals postage paid at Providence, R.I. Offices are located at 195 Lawrence Hester, Treasurer
Angell St., Providence, R.I. E-mail herald@browndailyherald.com. World Wide Web:
Jack Carrere, Secretary
http://www.browndailyherald.com. Subscription prices: $179 one year daily, $139 one semester daily. Copyright 2003 by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
CAMPUS WATCH WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2004 · PAGE 3
Pennsylvania college penalizes professors for grade inflation by reducing bonsuses BY ROBBIE COREY-BOULET
Six professors at Point Park University in Pittsburgh, Pa., saw their merit-based bonuses cut in half because of alleged grade inflation this year, a move that has caused faculty to pursue unionization. After reviewing grade reports for the 2003 spring semester, Point Park President Katherine Henderson approved bonus reductions for faculty members who awarded the majority of their students A grades. In some cases, professors had given as many as 80 percent of their students A’s, according to Point Park Director of Public Relations Virginia Frizzi. The professors’ meritbased bonuses were cut from $2,000 to $1,000. “The university repeatedly urged the faculty not to inflate grades,” Frizzi said. “But, by the same token, Point Park would never order faculty to grade specific ways or punish them based on they way they grade.” Frizzi said the university does not consider the reductions to be punishment because they were taken from the professors’ merit awards, not salaries. “The idea was that by reducing the amount of the award, you send the message of, ‘Let’s all work together to grade undergraduates realistically,’” Frizzi said. But William Breslove, professor of business and president of the faculty assembly, said there was no warning from the administration that grading practices would affect bonuses. In response, the faculty has renewed efforts to unionize. The faculty is seeking representation from the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh, a program associated with the Communication Workers of America. The university challenged the effort, and hearings before the National Labor Relations Board were completed in January. The university expects a decision within a few months, Frizzi said. Breslove said the effort was a last resort for faculty members, who are “trying to gain a voice that has been utterly lost in administrative decisions.” “It’s something the faculty discussed previously, but honestly have not wanted to do,” he said. “Under President Henderson, the role of the faculty has basically been turned on its head.” Breslove said the bonus cuts, along with other administrative transgressions, are evidence of the need for unionization. Recently, professors lost their seat on the Board of Trustees, a seat Henderson eventually took over. Faculty members are also frustrated with changing
copyright regulations that make it easier for Point Park to claim professors’ written work as university property. During a meeting in which professors voiced objections to the administration’s new policies, Henderson told the faculty, “This is not a democracy,” Breslove said. “Not so much the powers but the prerogatives of the faculty have been totally taken away,” he said. “One would think that once you’ve hired quality faculty … they should basically know how to grade their students.” Brown does not base its merit bonuses solely on grading practices, said Associate Dean of the Faculty Eric Suuberg. Grade reports “wouldn’t be looked at as a singular item” in distributing merit awards, he said. “One is not going to use that kind of sledgehammer approach in dealing with what is a highly debated issue,” Suuberg said. He added that Brown evaluates all raises in terms of teaching, scholarship and service performance. “We expect that as part of good teaching performance
Long Island U. punishes student paper for publishing grades NEW YORK (Newsday) — Long Island University has shaken up the top brass of its Brooklyn campus student newspaper, Seawanhaka, after the paper ran the grades of a student leader who had resigned. LIU officials fired the faculty adviser, suspended the top student editor and changed the office locks. An administrator is now supervising the 76-year-old weekly, which isn’t expected to come out Wednesday. The shutdown raises questions about press freedom, privacy and academic freedom, according to journalism experts. It also disrupts LIU’s journalism program because the student paper serves as a laboratory where class assignments are published. The controversy stems from a Jan. 21 front-page article about the sudden resignation of Student Government Association president Abdel Alileala, who
see BONUSES, page 6
see GRADES, page 6
Princeton Review: Great authors would fare poorly on SAT HANOVER, N.H. (U-Wire) — William Shakespeare’s heralded writings wouldn’t be sufficient to get him into Dartmouth College or any other Ivy League institution — at least not according to the Princeton Review. The Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, on the other hand, would have his pick of the Ancient Eight. Shakespeare and Kaczynski are just two of four famous writers whose work the Princeton Review graded according to the same standards the College Board will use to grade highschool students’ essays on the new writing portion of the SAT. Its findings will run in the March issue of The Atlantic Monthly. The test prep company had its trained essay-readers grade samples of writing from Shakespeare, Kaczynski, Ernest Hemingway and Gertrude Stein based on the
rubric provided by the College Board for how the essays would be graded. The results were far from encouraging. While Kaczynski received the highest possible grade of six on a scale from one to six, the others did not fare so well. Hemingway received a three, Shakespeare a two and Stein the lowest possible score of one. The excerpt of Hemingway’s writing came from his acceptance speech after winning the Nobel Prize in literature. The new writing portion of the SAT “doesn’t measure anything about a student’s writing ability,” Erik Olson, co-author of the article said. “It’s superficial, begs for satire and cannot measure anything about writing see AUTHORS, page 6
The Brown Daily Herald Open House ! T
H G I N O T
Wednesday, Feb. 11 195 Angell Street 7-8 p.m.
Meet the staff. See the office. Sign up for a story. Enjoy free food. www.browndailyherald.com
401.351.3372
PAGE 4 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2004
Climate continued from page 1 climate change has some economic benefits, such as decreasing ocean ice and opening up trade routes. Scheraga said many specialinterest groups exploit scientific uncertainty to argue that changes in climate are not due to human activity. But Scheraga maintained that although some climate change could be due to natural environmental fluctuations, the vast majority of such change is caused by humans. The disagreement creates political circumstances in which it is difficult to make effective policies quickly, Scheraga said. Special-interest groups compromise the scientific peer-review
Video continued from page 1 students that off-campus complaints are subject to disciplinary follow-up by the University. Chief of Public Safety Paul Verrecchia warns about the risks posed by an urban environment. Various Brown and city personnel also address fire and electrical safety, zoning issues, trash collection and parking problems. Director of Rental Facilities Gail Medbury provided relevant anecdotes in a presentation that preceded the video. Medbury related horror stories about fires caused by placing cardboard boxes on stovetops and leaving George Foreman grills on for 24 hours. The video, along with a mandatory meeting for students granted off-campus permission, explains the University’s expectations for students living off-campus. “I want the properties to not look like they’re student-occupied,” Medbury said. According to Medbury, the meeting and video are meant as a
dear meg, i need to see you again. i met you at cheaters club on your birthday. ever since then, i haven’t been able to function right.
process, and policymaking is also complicated by the complexity of environmental problems, he said. Though it is important for scientists and policymakers to work together, scientists must remember that their job is to provide information, not to solve the problems, Scheraga said. Scientists also must do a better job of providing useful information to policymakers in a timely manner, so that action can be taken quickly, Scheraga said. Policy cannot wait for science to be perfect — scientists must take action based on what they know now, or they will continually be too late, he said.
wake-up call to students considering living off campus. The city of Providence is filled with obscure laws ranging from zoning ordinances that only allow three unrelated people to share a living space to regulations on where trash cans can be stored. Additionally, real estate laws vary by locale. Many parents instruct students to collect interest on their security deposits, but security deposits are non-interestbearing in Rhode Island, Medbury said. Subletting apartments also entails sticky legal issues, and Medbury advises students against it. Shara Hegde ’05 and Preethi Guniganta ’05 said the the presentation and video were informative, if slightly unnerving. But the added responsibilities have not dampened their desire to live offcampus, they said. “We didn’t want to live in Young O because it’s further from campus than the apartment we have,” Guniganta said. “(The apartment) is probably the best possible location.”
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
WORLD & NATION WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2004 · PAGE 5
TV indecency hearings are likely to have little impact, experts say (Baltimore Sun) — Indecency on the airwaves has become
such a hot-button issue since Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl stunt that there will be two hearings Wednesday in Washington — and no shortage of politicians and regulators making pronouncements about the decline in broadcast standards as they promise reform. But even as the TV networks race to delete images of nudity and sex from such prime-time dramas as “ER” and “Without a Trace” in an effort to show that they can police themselves, media historians and analysts say real, lasting change is unlikely. As dramatic as the pictures and sound bites coming out of Washington might be, it will be mostly political posturing, the experts say, merely the latest movement in a dance between Hollywood and Washington that started with the Communications Act of 1934. “It is absolutely political theater — especially on the part of Federal Communications Commissioner Michael Powell,” said Douglas Gomery, resident scholar at the American Library of Broadcasting at the University of Maryland in College Park and co-author of “Who Owns the Media?” “These hearings are not going to result in any meaningful change in the kind of television that comes into our homes over the network airwaves.” Dwight Teeter, co-author of “Law of Mass Communications,” called the hearings “a shell game ... political pandering at its worst. “You only hope the public isn’t too misled by the netsee FCC, page 7
Three agencies plan to build labs at ‘national biodefense campus’ (Baltimore Sun) — Three federal agencies plan to build highsecurity laboratories next to one another at Fort Detrick, Md., for a total cost of more than $1 billion, creating a “national biodefense campus” where scientists will collaborate in the battle against bioterrorism. The plan would create three new labs operated by the Army, the Department of Homeland Security and the National Institutes of Health — and possibly a fourth lab for the U.S. Department of Agriculture — all equipped to handle the most dangerous pathogens in existence. Federal officials have been meeting quietly for more than a year to plan the National Interagency Biodefense Campus, the latest and most striking result of a national boom in bioterrorism research in the wake of the Sept. 11 aircraft hijackings and the anthrax attacks of 2001.
The federal biodefense research budget has ballooned from $305 million in 2001 to nearly $4 billion this year, by one official’s estimate. Some public health experts call the proliferation of highsecurity labs wasteful and say they steal funding from problems more serious than bioterrorism. But federal officials insist that all the new labs planned for the biodefense campus are necessary. “It’s a national asset being put together in an area where there’s currently a strategic shortfall,” said Army Col. John E. Ball, garrison commander at Fort Detrick, who is coordinating construction of the campus. Building multiple labs within walking distance will not see BIODEFENSE, page 7
Stewart tampered with phone log, assistant says NEW YORK (Washington Post) — Four days before Martha Stewart met with authorities about her Dec. 27, 2001, sale of ImClone Systems Inc. stock — and after several conversations with her lawyers — the multimillionaire businesswoman walked over to her assistant Ann Armstrong and did something she had never done before. Stewart sat down at Armstrong’s computer and asked her to point out the crucial page of the phone log, which said her Merrill Lynch & Co. broker, Peter E. Bacanovic, “thinks ImClone is going to start trading downward,” Armstrong testified Tuesday. “Martha saw the message from Peter, and she instantly
took the mouse and put the cursor at the end of the sentence and highlighted back to the end of Peter’s name and started typing over it,” replacing his actual words with the phrase “re imclone,” Armstrong testified. Then Stewart abruptly stood up. “She told me to put it back the way it was,” and put in a call to her son-in-law, John R. Cuti, who also serves as one of her lawyers, Armstrong said. Armstrong’s testimony was the dramatic highlight of a day in which lawyers for both sides — and a lawyer witness from the Securities and Exchange Commission — see STEWART, page 9
PAGE 6 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2004
mmmmm
Grades continued from page 3 cited “personal problems I have to take care of” for his decision. But the story stated that there had been campus “speculation that Alileala’s academic struggles last year are the reason for his decision to resign.” The student leader’s grades followed, without a response from him. Alileala could not be reached to comment but has told fellow students that the paper violated his privacy. He is said to be considering a lawsuit. In an interview Tuesday, Justin Grant, the paper’s editor and
author of the controversial story, justified disclosing the grades because Alileala was “an elected official” similar to President Bush. “I stand by my work,” said Grant, who has been barred from his job until Feb. 29. “I feel the constituents had a right to know the academic status of their president.” Publishing a student’s grades, regardless of their status as a campus leader, is a violation of privacy, according to Bernadette Walker, dean of students. In ousting the paper’s advisor, journalism professor Mike Bush, the dean accused him last week of providing the grades to student reporters and promoting their
Authors
In March 2005, the
continued from page 3
College Board will
beyond a simple diagnosis.” In March 2005, the College Board will roll out the new SAT, which will be longer, harder and more expensive. The largest difference, however, is the addition of the new writing section — basically a “cannibalization of the old SAT II Writing test,” according to Olson. Students will be asked to write a brief, timed essay in response to a prompt and will be given multiple-choice questions to gauge their grammar skills. “What fools these College Board people be,” said John Katzman, co-author of the article and CEO of the Princeton Review. “They simply tacked the essay from the old SAT II Writing test onto the new SAT in order to appease its largest client, the state university system of California, which was threatening to stop requiring the outmoded SAT and find a more relevant test.” The current SAT II Writing test, which provides the prototype for the new SAT section, gives students approximately 30 minutes
roll out the new SAT, which will be longer, harder and more expensive. to write an essay in response to a brief prompt, usually in the form of a quotation. Essay graders, who are usually high school teachers, are given a scoring rubric on which to grade essays and are expected to grade a certain quantity in a set period of time. These graders, according to the Princeton Review, are trained to emphasize “development of ideas, supporting examples, organization, word choice and sentence structure.” “The idea of requiring an essay on the SAT is pedagogically correct, but the implementation is pathetic,” Katzman said. “Kids will be rewarded for adhering to a very strict formula leaving no room for creative or imaginative
publication. The dean claimed that federal law and LIU policies had been broken. Bush denied supplying the grades, saying a reporter had learned of them through others. However, Bush said, “I recommended that we run the grades. They were not stolen, and they were accurate.” The veteran journalist argued that the right to know supersedes the student leader’s privacy rights. “By coming out with this information, it also wards off perhaps worse rumors” about the resignation, he said. Bush now fears losing his teaching job; he had planned to leave LIU at year’s end.
prose. Reviewers will spend a minute skimming for paragraph breaks, a topic sentence and some grammar, making this a poor predictor of writing aptitude.” The College Board, the maker of the SAT and SAT II tests, is frequently criticized for various aspects of the writing test. One of the most common criticisms is the ambiguity of grading these brief writing samples. However, defenders of the test contend that there is no better way that is still feasible. “It’s humorous pointing out the ridiculousness of pitting different evaluation systems against each other,” Dartmouth English professor Colleen Boggs said of the Atlantic Monthly article. “What would happen if you judged every author in a standardized way? What would happen if you expected creativity on a standardized test?” Beginning Feb. 17, when the article hits newsstands, the Princeton Review will also be running a contest to see who can best rewrite Shakespeare’s graded excerpt. Contest details are posted on http://www.theatlantic.com.
Bonuses continued from page 3 that grading be done in a carefully considered way,” Suuberg said. “If someone is completely irresponsible in the grading, that’s an indication of poor teaching performance in general.” Herald staff writer Robbie CoreyBoulet ’07 can be reached at rcorey-boulet@browndailyherald.com.
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2004 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD PAGE 7
FCC continued from page 5 works and the politicians, because there are important issues to be discussed — once you cut through the headlines about breasts and the political posturing in Congress,” he added. Wednesday’s hearing in the House is on legislation that would fine stations 10 times the current amount for carrying material judged indecent by the FCC. Network officials, FCC commissioners and representatives of the National Football League will testify before the House panel. “With my bill multiplying FCC fines for indecency tenfold, networks will do more than just apologize for airing such brazenmaterial, they will be paying big bucks for their offenses,” said Republican Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan, who introduced the legislation before the Super Bowl flap. At the Senate hearing, most eyes will be on Ernest Hollins of South Carolina, the ranking Democrat, who wants to link increased fines for indecency to a ban on violent programming between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.
Biodefense continued from page 5 create redundancy but actually may save money, Ball said. “Because you can share, you can spend less on security, roads, parking, cafeteria, library and other things,” he said. “We’ll get a lot of synergy from being on the same campus,” said Maureen I. McCarthy, director of research and development for the Department of Homeland Security. “The science may be similar. But we’re three different agencies with different mission requirements.” Critics say biodefense expansion has become a boondoggle for government agencies and universities who are cashing in on fear. They note that only five people died as a result of the biggest bioterrorist attack in U.S. history, the anthrax letters.
Furthermore, Hollings wants the FCC to revoke the licenses of stations that air indecent or violent material during those hours. License revocation is the most severe penalty the FCC can impose. Powell and the four other FCC commissioners will go from the Senate hearing to Upton’s House inquiry. But analysts say there is little chance Hollings’ ban on violence and call for license revocation will ever become law. And, while Upton’s effort to increase maximum fines to $275,000 from the current $27,500 is expected to pass with President Bush backing it as a way to help parents protect children from unwanted media messages, it will result in little change. “So the fine is increased? So what? What’s $275,000 to a television station — or, more importantly, to a huge company like Viacom that owns the station?” Teeter asked. The one thing on which all media analysts agreed is the importance of seeing the hearings and the Super Bowl fallout in context of the larger issue of media consolidation on the part of companies such as Viacom.
“Influenza kills annually about 50,000 people in this country,” said Milton Leitenberg, an expert on biowarfare at the University of Maryland’s Center for International and Security Studies. “But we don’t put our money into that. We sink it into bioterrorism. We’re putting billions of dollars into a putative threat of disputed relevance at a time when there’s a shortage of flu vaccine and measles vaccine.” Rutgers University biochemist Richard Ebright said consolidating high-security research at Fort Detrick makes some sense. But he noted that other federally funded Biosafety Level 4 labs are already approved for Boston University, the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston and the Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton, Mont. On top of those, he said, the new campus would create “an enormous overcapacity.”
“The biggest indecency is the FCC itself,” said Mark D. Harmon, who teaches broadcast history in the School of Journalism and Electronic Media at the University of Tennessee. “For the FCC to waste its time over a few words and images when it is un-regulating oligopolies left and right is pure political theater. Our public policy should be focused on ownership rules. Instead, we get grand theater.”
PAGE 8 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2004
W. track continued from page 12
do you believe in love at first? i think it hit me meg...i think YOU hit me meg.
Coach Anne Rothenberg’s jumps squad has also consistently improved and scored in competition. Ashley Wall ’05 and Brittany Grovey ’06 have already qualified for the Eastern Conference Athletic Championships. At URI, Wall once again got herself noticed in the high jump. Her 5-7 jump was good enough for second place, one spot ahead of teammate Katie Rowinski ’04. Rothenberg commended Rowinski for her pivotal role on the team this year. “Katie has stepped up into a leadership role and is encouraging and challenging the jumpers to take the next step forward,” Rothenberg said. Grovey leapt 38-1 in the long jump, for fourth place, while Allison Brager ’07 finished fifth in the pole vault. Rothenberg attributes Brager’s constant improvement over the past few weeks to her ability to learn. “(The jumps squad’s) spirit has been good, and their confidence has been growing each week,” Rothenberg said. While the distance and jumps squads had good showings at the meet, the sprinters and hurdlers continued to struggle. A high point for the team, however, was the return of Co-captain Julia Stevenson ’04, who is coming back from tendonitis in her hip. Stevenson finished fifth in the 200-meter, with a time of 25.91 seconds. Her ability to make an immediate impact on the overall score can only help team spirit, Johnson said. “For the coaching staff, we’re glad to see her back,” he said. “For her teammates, the talent rallies around her, and it makes them want to do better.” Already showing improvement from the previous week were teammates Emily LaMonica-Lewis ’06, Ferjan, Emily McElveen ’04 and Kelly
While the distance and jumps squads had good showings at the meet, the sprinters and hurdlers continued to struggle. A high point for the team, however, was the return of co-captain Julia Stevenson ’04, who is coming back from tendonitis in her hip. Powell ’06 in the 4x400-meter relay. Ferjan and Powell ran their respective legs in splits of 57.1 and 57.9 seconds. The squad finished fourth with a time of 3:55.23, and Johnson said he is confident that with Stevenson’s, the time will drop. “If we are in the 3:48 to 3:50 range, we’ll definitely get a piece of the action at conference,” Johnson said. With the league championships only three weeks away, the Bears plan to focus on improving their individual and relay performances to qualify for the meet’s seeded heats. Brown’s next meet, the Feb. 13-14 Fast Track Invitational at Boston University, is not scored, making it the perfect place to shoot for qualifying times. “There will be a focus on individual performances,” Johnson said. “Coaches are dropping down workouts, and kids are starting to peak.” Herald staff writer Melissa Perlman ’04 is an assistant sports editor and covers women’s indoor track. She can be reached at mperlman@browndailyherald.com.
M. track continued from page 12 “I have a lot of faith in these guys,” he said. “They’re giving everything they’ve got, and that’s going to pay off not too far down the road.” Up next for the Bears is a Valentine’s Day date at Boston University’s Fast Track Invitational. With two meets left before the Ivy League Heptagonal Meet, the team is going into this weekend with the hope of achieving seed times for the Ivy League Championships.
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2004 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD PAGE 9
AIDS
Stewart
continued from page 1
continued from page 5
Bell began a drug regimen one year after diagnosis. He stopped taking his medication two years ago because of concerns about the risks and side effects, but he has not developed AIDS. In fact, Bell’s white blood cell count is currently higher than it was while he was being treated, he said. After recounting his story, Bell discussed what he described as the black community’s inability to acknowledge the problem of HIV. “Why haven’t we claimed HIV like the gay white community has or the white community in general?” Bell asked. Bell also discussed the black community’s denial of black homosexuality. “Down Low syndrome,” a term used to describe black married men in homosexual affairs, exemplifies the fear in the community, he said. “It does bother me that people are having secret alliances, but who am I to judge?” Bell said. “‘Queer Eye for the Straight Guy’ does not represent, in my opinion, the black homosexual experience,” he said about popular television shows portraying gay characters. “When I watch white Will and white Grace, I don’t see anybody who looks like me on that show.” Bell’s lecture, “AIDS: Who Gets Represented and Who Does Not,” was held for an audience of about 20 people Tuesday evening. The lecture was sponsored by the Bethune Black Graduate Student Society and organized by Marcia Chatelain GS.
spent much of the afternoon arguing over individual words of testimony and possible alternate meanings. Prosecutors are trying to prove that Stewart and Bacanovic lied to investigators and conspired to obstruct the investigation into her ImClone sale, which came one day before the company announced that regulators had raised problems with its key drug application. But defense attorneys are trying to show that government investigators misunderstood or misheard Stewart and Bacanovic during the crucial interviews when the pair asserted they had made an arrangement during a 2001 year-end portfolio review to sell ImClone when the price fell to $60, as it did a week later, on Dec. 27. Prosecutors assert that the $60 arrangement was a cover story designed to hide from investigators that Bacanovic had his assistant Douglas Faneuil tell Stewart that ImClone founder Samuel Waksal was dumping his shares, a violation of Merrill Lynch policy. Armstrong’s testimony about the altered message gives the government a specific instance about which it can argue Stewart lied to the authorities. Just four days after the alleged document tampering, Stewart talked to the federal authorities and professed ignorance about that phone message, SEC attorney Helene Glotzer testified Tuesday afternoon. Asked whether there was a “written record” of Bacanovic’s Dec. 27 message, Stewart “said she didn’t know, and her attorney offered to check,” Glotzer said. Armstrong said that on the day of the alleged tampering Stewart asked her to fax the message log to John F. Savarese, one of Stewart’s lawyers present for the SEC interview. Armstrong also said Cuti, the son-in-law, told Stewart he planned to consult with Savarese about the message. Glotzer said Stewart also told the SEC on two occasions that she had given her ImClone order to Bacanovic — not Faneuil — on Dec. 27. Faneuil testified that he spoke to Stewart on Bacanovic’s instructions and took her order.
Herald staff writer Jonathan Herman ’07 can be reached at jherman@browndailyherald.com.
TONIGHT: Traces of the Trade Wilson 102 7-9 p.m.
According to Glotzer, Stewart also told the SEC that she, Bacanovic and her business manager “all had the same recollection” of the $60 agreement. When investigators reminded her she had also said she had not spoken to Bacanovic about the ImClone investigation, Stewart changed her story, Glotzer said, saying, “I don’t know what his recollection is.” Bacanovic’s attorney Richard Strassberg began a combative cross-examination by questioning both Glotzer’s memory of the Bacanovic interview — she did not take notes — and her ability to hear him properly on a conference call with four other people. Strassberg also suggested that his client was in the habit of using “we” to refer to actions taken by other Merrill Lynch staff and that Glotzer might have misunderstood him. Stewart’s attorneys will get their chance to cross examine Glotzer on Wednesday. Both the SEC lawyer and Armstrong, who still works for Stewart and broke down in tears Monday while talking about her boss’s Christmas gift, also offered brief glimpses of how Stewart behaved under the pressure of the ImClone probe. The assistant said that when Stewart tampered with the message and then told Armstrong to return it to the original, “She acted so abruptly ... I was startled.” And Glotzer said that Stewart was “annoyed” by the end of her first interview with authorities. “The meeting ended with Martha Stewart saying, ‘Can I go now? I have a business to run.’”
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
EDITORIAL/LETTERS WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2004 · PAGE 10 S T A F F
E D I T O R I A L
Inflating grades Nominating Brown students to the Phi Beta Kappa society is like trying to give William Shakespeare an SAT score. It can be done, but it misses the point entirely. The juniors nominated to the honor society undoubtedly deserve the honor, and we congratulate them on their academic achievement. But we wonder whether the Phi Beta Kappa nominating system is consistent with Brown’s educational philosophy. To be eligible for the society, students must have earned 17 A’s in a wide range of disciplines during their first five semesters at Brown. Certainly, all students who meet these requirements have proven themselves exceptional scholars. But for other students, abiding by the principles of the New Curriculum has meant disqualification from one of Brown’s most public contests for academic recognition. The University encourages students to study abroad, take mandatory S/NC courses and transfer from other institutions. Yet it also makes qualifying for admittance to Phi Beta Kappa extraordinarily difficult for students who take advantage of these opportunities. It seems unreasonable that the University’s curricular philosophy and standards for academic honors should ever come into conflict. While students who get A’s at Brown are commended, professors at one Pennsylvania university are penalized for giving too many A’s, according to the school’s administrators. Whether trying to measure a teacher’s ability or a student’s achievement, the process of using the number of A’s to determine individual achievement is flawed. A letter grade can represent any number of factors and cannot be used as a sole measure of merit. A university like Brown must understand that achievement is not best measured by numbers and letters — there is more to success than that. The standards to which we hold ourselves at Brown do not lend themselves well to quantification, and the University lets us down when it applies such strictly quantified standards to us.
NICK SCHADE
LETTERS
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD EDITORIAL Juliette Wallack, Editor-in-Chief Carla Blumenkranz, Executive Editor Philissa Cramer, Executive Editor Julia Zuckerman, Senior Editor Danielle Cerny, Arts & Culture Editor Meryl Rothstein, Arts & Culture Editor Zachary Barter, Campus Watch Editor Monique Meneses, Features Editor Sara Perkins, Metro Editor Dana Goldstein, RISD News Editor Alex Carnevale, Opinions Editor Ben Yaster, Opinions Editor Christopher Hatfield, Sports Editor
BUSINESS Jack Carrere, General Manager Lawrence Hester, General Manager Anastasia Ali, Executive Manager Zoe Ripple, Executive Manager Elias Roman, Senior Project Manager In Young Park, Project Manager Peter Schermerhorn, Project Manager Laird Bennion, Project Manager Eugene Cho, Project Manager William Louis, Senior Financial Officer Laurie-Ann Paliotti, Sr. Advertising Rep. Elyse Major, Advertising Rep. Kate Sparaco, Office Manager
PRODUCTION Lisa Mandle, Design Editor George Haws, Copy Desk Chief Eddie Ahn, Graphics Editor Judy He, Photo Editor Nick Neely, Photo Editor
POST- MAGAZINE Ellen Wernecke, Editor-in-Chief Jason Ng, Executive Editor Micah Salkind, Executive Editor Abigail Newman, Theater Editor Josh Cohen, Design Editor Allison Lombardo, Features Editor Jeremy Beck, Film Editor Jessica Weisberg, Film Editor Ray Sylvester, Music Editor
Henry Chauncey, Night Editor Katie Lamm, Copy Editor Staff Writers Kathy Babcock, Zaneta Balantac, Elise Baran, Alexandra Barsk, Zachary Barter, Hannah Bascom, Danielle Cerney, Robbie Corey-Boulet, Ian Cropp, Sam Culver, Gabriella Doob, Jonathan Ellis, Justin Elliott, Amy Hall Goins, Dana Goldstein, Bernard Gordon, Krista Hachey, Chris Hatfield, Jonathan Herman, Miles Hovis, Robby Klaber, Alexis Kunsak, Sarah LaBrie, Hanyen Lee, Julian Leichty, Kira Lesley, Allison Lombardo, Chris Mahr, Lisa Mandle, Jonathan Meachin, Monique Meneses, Kavita Mishra, Sara Perkins, Melissa Perlman, Eric Perlmutter, Sheela Raman, Cassie Ramirez, Meryl Rothstein, Michael Ruderman, Emir Senturk, Jen Sopchockchai, Lela Spielberg, Adam Stern, Stefan Talman, Joshua Troy, Schuyler von Oeyen, Jessica Weisberg, Brett Zarda Accounts Managers Laird Bennion, Eugene Clifton Cha, In Young Park, Jane C. Urban, Sophie Waskow, Justin Wong, Christopher Yu Pagination Staff Peter Henderson, Lisa Mandle, Alex Palmer Photo Staff Gabriella Doob, Benjamin Goddard, Marissa Hauptman, Judy He, Miyako Igari, Allison Lombardo, Elizabeth MacLennan, Nicholas Neely, Michael Neff, Alex Palmer, Yun Shou Tee, Sorleen Trevino Copy Editors Emily Brill, George Haws, Leslie Kaufmann, Katie Lamm, Anne Rabbino, Melanie Wolfgang
come on now, seriously... opinions@browndailyherald.com
...write a column.
CORRECTIONS POLICY The Brown Daily Herald is committed to providing the Brown University community with the most accurate information possible. Corrections may be submitted up to seven calendar days after publication. 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 autho rs only. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR POLICY Send letters to letters@browndailyherald.com. Include a telephone number with all letters. The Herald reserves the right to edit all letters for length and cannot assure the publication of any letter. Please limit letters to 250 words. Under special circumstances writers may request anonymity, but no letter will be printed if the author’s identity is unknown to the editors. Announcements of events will not be printed. ADVERTISING POLICY The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. reserves the right to accept or decline any advertisement at its discretion.
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
OPINIONS WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2004 · PAGE 11
ARJUN IYENGAR
Nuclear secrets in Pakistan Although many have argued that the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq has undermined the credibility of U.S. and British intelligence agencies, a far more serious intelligence failure recently has come to light. The man credited with building Pakistan’s first nuclear bomb, Abdul Qadeer Khan, admitted last week to sharing nuclear information with North Korea, Iran and Libya in defiance of law, common sense and morality. Khan, however, absolved the Pakistani government from any involvement in the affair. His declaration raises a host of questions about the role of Pakistan’s military and civilian leaders and intelligence agencies. Because of popular opposition and Khan’s status as a national hero, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf pardoned him. But cynics say that Khan is being used as a scapegoat and that Musharraf pardoned him in hopes of avoiding a potentially embarrassing trial in which Khan could implicate other senior officials. Even United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and the International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Mohammed El Baradei said that it was unlikely that Khan had acted alone. Because of the controlled nature of the Pakistani establishment, many find it unlikely that individuals could transfer nuclear technology to a third country. For the first time, Musharraf has given some details of Pakistan’s covert nuclear weapons program to substantiate the government’s claim that top scientist Khan acted on his own to pass details to other countries. He says that Khan, as sole authority for running the clandestine operation to acquire nuclear technology and knowhow illegally for Pakistan in the past, took advantage of his position to sell some of the information to other countries. For years they developed contacts with Europe’s under-
world that dealt illegally in nuclear technology, creating a team of scientists and officials assigned to this clandestine operation. If Musharraf is being honest when he says he had no idea of Khan’s activities, then he and his government are open to charges of stupefying incompetence in safeguarding Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal. During trips to Pakistan, U.S. officials provided incontrovertible evidence to Musharraf of Khan’s nuclear dealings. Between 1997 and 2002 Khan alone visited Pyongyang 19 times, and over the past few months both Libya and Iran informed the IAEA that Pakistani nuclear scientists had helped their embryonic nuclear programs. Musharraf was subsequently forced to act on American intelligence or risk worldwide opprobrium and possible sanctions. Musharraf’s handling of the proliferation charges does not help his precarious balancing act between his anti-terror alliance with the United States and anti-Western extremists at home. There already have been two attempts on his life in December and the more he is seen to be in league with Washington, the greater the likelihood of further attempts. Musharraf's dilemma also explains why the Bush administration has been less critical of Pakistan. When asked about nuclear proliferation in Pakistan, Colin Powell just complimented the Pakistani government in helping to uncover the largest nuclear arms ring. While Pakistan has said it will cooperate with the U.N. watchdog, Musharraf has said he would not allow an inspection of Pakistan’s nuclear program. But is this enough in light of the extent of known nuclear proliferation committed thus far? To be sure, inspections would be a sign of political weakness for Musharraf and
would play into the hands of Islamists who are already critical of Musharraf’s pro-Western alliances. NBC News recently reported that the United States was covertly spending millions to secure Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal. This would in part explain the Bush administration’s muted response to Khan’s confession. The international community must band together to block nuclear proliferation. The issue now ranks right alongside the war against international terrorism in terms of importance. There is a pressing need to get to the bottom of the flow of nuclear know-how from Pakistan while also beefing up the IAEA and other arms of the existing nuclear watchdog system. For its part, Islamabad appears to have realized the world will no longer accept a categorical denial of nuclear proliferation claims and has shifted to a stance of partial acknowledgment. But Pakistan's failure in this matter is an international failure, too. Why wasn’t the intelligence of Pakistani proliferation acted upon earlier? It seems world leaders were preoccupied with Iraq to the exclusion of other pressing issues. The governments in Washington and London were simply looking the wrong way. According to U.S. foreign policy analyst Daniel Snyder, “Pakistani nuclear scientists and their military friends have endangered the security of this country far more than any rogue enemy out there.” Aside from handing the keys to atomic bomb making to countries such as North Korea and Libya, they may have provided the instruments of nuclear terror to Al Qaeda itself. Arjun Iyengar ’05 is an international relations and biology concentrator.
Coding speech on college campuses GUEST COLUMN BY CHRIS HU
Two weeks ago today, the Faculty Council of Emory University was to vote on whether to revoke controversial “speech code” language contained within the university’s discrimination policy. Instead the Council voted to table the motion, deciding it would be politically prudent to re-examine the policy’s legal implications before taking further action. What might have been a landmark in the ongoing debates about campus free speech has been sidestepped for now. But the larger issue of so-called “speech codes” cannot be ignored forever at Emory or elsewhere. The controversy at Emory was sparked last fall when Anthropology Professor Carol Whitman, speaking at a campus panel, referred to members of her particular anthropological subfield as being the “niggers in the woodpile” of the discipline at large. The comment — an ill-chosen metaphor the professor employed to describe the relationship between cultural and biological anthropologists — was overheard by a colleague, who then reported Whitman to the Emory administration under the university’s Discriminatory Harassment Policy. Though Whitman apologized, she was still officially sanctioned by the university, and the entire anthropology department was ordered to undergo sensitivity training. This ignited campus-wide debate over the policy that was used to punish Whitman and her department, and culminated in a campaign to have Emory’s “speech code” overturned. “Speech code,” of course, is an ideologically loaded term, one which evokes Orwellian (or perhaps, for the contemporary American left, Ashcroftian) images of pervasive state censorship. Yet such university policies are far more ambiguous than is implied by this term, and their language leaves ample room for a multiplicity of interpretations and highly selective enforcement. Emory’s Discriminatory Harassment policy is no exception: “Discriminatory harassment includes conduct (oral, written, graphic, or physical) directed against any person or group of persons because of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, disability or veteran’s status and that has the purpose or reasonably foreseeable effect of creating an offensive, demeaning, intimidating, or hostile environment for that person or group of persons. Such conduct includes, but is not limited to, objectionable epithets, demeaning depictions or treatment, and threatened or actual abuse or harm”(emphasis added). Such policies, of course, are not unique to Emory; Brown’s similar set of rules is grouped under its “Standards of Student Conduct,” which can be found under Student Rights and Responsibilities on the Office of Student Life Web site. This document states that members of the Brown community are entitled to the “free exchange of ideas,” but that they also
have the right to “an environment free from harassment.” Though Brown recognizes that the rights of free speech and freedom from harassment “may from time to time come into conflict, and it might be difficult to draw a clear and precise line between the reasonable exercise of and the abuse of such rights,” suspension or expulsion are still possible punishments for serious or repeated minor offenses. By some standards, Brown’s policy can be classified as a “speech code” — in fact, Herald columnist Stephen Beale has suggested as much in these pages (Oct. 23, 2003). Though Brown’s policy is more nuanced than Emory’s, it is certainly conceivable that a professor here could be officially punished
A crisis at Emory suggests what could happen here at Brown. for making a statement akin to Whitman’s. At the very least, the policy is an attempt, however well-intentioned, to restrict campus speech beyond the limit of what would be legally protected in the rest of society. But it matters little whether or not a policy can or can’t be tagged with the pejorative label of “speech code.” More important is the real effect it has on campus discourse and the free expression of ideas. It has been over 10 years since a member of the Brown community was seriously disciplined for violating the university’s discrimination policy. (One student was expelled in 1991 for using racial epithets; another was handed a lengthy suspension in 1993 for similar actions.) Yet the case of Emory aptly illustrates that seemingly dormant policies — at that university, many did not even know such a policy even existed prior to the Whitman incident — can still be strictly enforced. As an article in the August 2003 issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education noted, although almost no university still calls its discrimination and harassment policy a “speech code” and such policies are not frequently enforced, leaving them on the books is still a direct and indirect threat to the free exchange of ideas. Understandably, those on the left tend to relegate the issue of campus free speech to the margins of their range of priorities. Our tendency is to leave the whining about free speech to conservatives campaigning for “intellectual diversity.” Unlike them, we don’t control all three branches of the federal government, and there are a host of other issues to organize around: the continuing costs of occupying Iraq, supply-
side tax cuts, attacks on workers’ rights, et cetera. Too often, conservative calls for the abolition of “speech codes” seem inscribed with the implicit argument that such policies are unnecessary because the racism, sexism and homophobia they’re intended to guard against really aren’t that much of a concern any longer. Since discrimination and harassment policies were created to deal with these real and persistent problems that leftists are rightly unwilling to dismiss, it appears to many on the left as if the rather amorphous danger of university-enforced censorship is a small price to pay to protect students and faculty from such abuse. Attempting to prevent discrimination and harassment through codes of conduct that go beyond the legal standards that exist in society at large results in, at best, a Pyrrhic victory. Such policies are no substitute for real social change, something which requires more speech, not less. Taken to an extreme, the left’s lack of rigid support for free speech can engender the kind of attitude that led to the theft of issues of The Herald containing David Horowitz’s controversial anti-reparations advertisement in 2001, or to the heckling of Richard Perle during a panel discussion last spring. Activists responsible for those two actions would argue that there are situations in which disrupting speech is necessary in order to protest a greater evil. But, in the end, one must ask whether silencing ideologues and warmongers is really the best way to bring about positive change. Refutation of their arguments seems the more prudent course of action. One often hears the sentiment that “I support the American Civil Liberties Union, but I draw the line at defending Nazis.” The event this references — the ACLU’s 1979 defense of the right of neo-Nazis to march in Skokie, Ill., is a classic example of liberal reluctance to defend the right of even the most reprehensible bigots to have the same free speech rights as all other Americans. Defending someone like Professor Whitman against official sanction for an admittedly idiotic but hardly malicious comment ought to be a nobrainer for those with even a passing interest in protecting free speech. The dirty little secret of the Skokie case is that it and similar court decisions have been used as legal precedent to defend the right of numerous left-wing groups to express their political views. If an incident like the recent controversy at Emory ever erupts at Brown, the left had better be vocal about its opposition to restrictive speech policies — there’s more than just the principle of the matter at stake. Chris Hu ’06 is an opinions editor of the College Hill Independent.
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
SPORTS WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 11, 2004 · PAGE 12
Despite losses, fencing squad comes away from difficult weekend with positive outlook BY ZANETA BALANTAC
Despite a tough loss in a tournament this past weekend, the fencing team remains optimistic as its three toughest competitions, including the NCAA Regionals and New England Championships, approach. “It’s most important to have fun and fence as best as one can, and to learn from the losses,” said foil squad Captain Nanette Milner ’06. This will be especially true for the Bears as they recover from a difficult day against Yale University and Columbia University, two of the best teams in the country. With Columbia ranked among the top five in the nation, the Bears knew they were in for a fight. In the end, despite hard-fought battles, the men and women ended their matches with scores of 3-24 and 8-19, respectively. Columbia dominated both Yale and Brown in the match and appears to be powering toward an Ivy League title. The Bears do not compete at the league level. “Columbia is one of the deepest teams in the nation, and though the match score does not reflect (it), most of the bouts were competitive,” said nationally ranked foilist Jeremy Zeitlin ’07. The second match of the tournament was a similar experience for the Bears. Despite the men’s epee 2-7 loss to Yale, the men’s foil and saber squads gave the Bulldogs a surprise when they stole victories of 6-3 and 5-4, respectively. Unfortunately for the Bears, they lost one bout too many and ended the match against Yale down 14-13, a strong showing considering the opponent. “If a couple of touches had gone the other way, we would definitely have won,” Zeitlin said. The women’s squads faced a similar challenge when they confronted the Bulldogs. Like the men, the women fought the Bulldogs hard. The close strug-
“Columbia is one of the deepest teams in the nation, and though the match score does not reflect (it), most of the bouts were competitive.” gle was reflected in the scores of the women’s epee and saber squads, both of which lost their matches 5-4. Women’s foil ended the match against Yale 2-7, adding to the overall match score of 1017. “I think we fenced our hardest against some tough opponents, but there’s always room for improvement,” Milner said. “I think that we just need experience, since so many of our fencers are new to the sport, and such things take time.” The loss nevertheless represented an improvement for the Bears, who lost last year’s match against Yale by a margin of 20-7. Returning home with a pair of losses has not deterred the Bears. Instead, they are preparing not only for the tough competition that lies ahead but also for next season. “In order to succeed in the future, the team will have to continue working hard in practice and staying mentally tough during competition,” Zeitlin said. “We’ll be doing a lot of drilling and technical work, just to make sure all of the aspects of our game are strong for New Englands, IFAs and, for some, Regionals and Nationals,” Milner added. This confidence and drive will be tested once again on Feb. 21, when the Bears will compete in the New England Championships.
Evan Whitney
Jeremy Zeitlin ’04 and the men’s fencing team fell to some tough competition this weekend, losing matches to Columbia, 3-24, and Yale, 13-14.
Men’s track takes third in strong showing at URI Invite BY MARCO SANTINI
The men’s indoor track team placed third of nine teams at the University of Rhode Island Invitational this weekend, finishing behind URI and Bucknell University. The team’s performance was impressive, considering that some of its top
After fourth-place finish, women’s track has an eye toward Heptagonal meet BY MELISSA PERLMAN
Only two meets remain until the Ivy League Championships, and the women’s indoor track and field team is putting the pieces together just in time. The Bears finished fourth on Saturday at the University of Rhode Island Invitational, behind the University of Connecticut, URI and Bucknell University but ahead of eight other schools, including the University of New Hampshire and the University of Massachusetts. Head Coach Robert Johnson, who one week ago said the key to his team’s success was getting tougher both mentally and physically, said after the URI meet that his athletes have improved in every area but still need to put it all together. “We’ve been pretty consistent in distance and the jumps,” Johnson said. “We have to do more in the sprints and hurdles and get them healthy. The kids are capable but just not getting it done. We are waiting for our chance to pop.” While the Bears have not yet become
the well-rounded team Johnson said he hopes they will be by the Feb. 28 championships, the distance and jumps squads are starting to peak. At the URI Invitational, the distance team excelled, with two wins, two second-place finishes and numerous top10 performances. Leading the way for Brown was Naja Ferjan ’07 with a 500meter time of 1:15.63. Ferjan, who will focus on the 800 meters the rest of the season, ran the third fastest 500-meter time in Brown women’s indoor history. “I had never run the 500meters before, so I wasn’t expecting anything,” Ferjan said. “It was kind of easy, because I’m used to the 800-meter. It was shorter.” Caci Cambruzzi ’04 also performed well in her usual event, finishing second in the 1,000-meter race. Her time of 2:58.27 was a personal best by 4.5 seconds. Anna Willard ’06 duplicated Cambruzzi’s placing in the 3,000-meter, with a time of 10:13. Unlike her teammates, Willard went up in distance from
her usual 800-meter and mile races. Rounding out the individual distance events for the day were Nora Sullivan ’06 and Meredith Crocker ’05 in the mile, with finishes of third and sixth, respectively. Both athletes were coming down from their usual 3,000-meter and 5,000-meter events. Coach Rick Wemple said he intentionally moved his athletes out of their standard events to break up the monotony. “Running the same event week after week can get stale mentally,” Wemple said. “We wanted to change it up, so this weekend we can go faster in the primary events.” The distance runners teamed up to finish first in the distance medley relay. Crocker ran the final leg of the relay in 5:02 — a time that moved the Bears from eighth to first in the race and represented a personal best. “I really like coming from behind and picking people off,” Crocker said.
performers did not compete due to injuries. Among those out of action were sprinter Michael Pruzinsky ’04 and shot thrower Jake Golenor ’06, both of whom should be back this week. But these absences did not get in the way of a number of outstanding performances. Leading the way was high jumper Raymond Bobrownicki ’06, who continued his undefeated streak with a jump of 6-9. The victory was Bobrownicki’s fourth in the high jump this season. Also in the field events, Mike Murray ’06 and Grant Bowen ’07 tied for second in the pole vault, each reaching 14-9. In the sprints, Co-captain David Owen ’04 ran the 200 meters with a time of 22.98 seconds. Distance runner Michael Piche ’05 took first in the 3,000-meter run with a time of 8:31.21, a personal best. Daveed Diggs ’04 produced his own personal best in the 55-meter hurdles. His time of 7.66 was good for second place. In the pole vault, Mike Katayama ’04 vaulted to a personal best of 14-3, while David Glazier ’06 threw for a personal record in the shot put with a hurl of 4911. Matt Malachowski ’04 reached a collegiate personal best and broke the two-minute barrier in the 800-meter run, the fifth and final personal best for the Bears that day. Brown also took home the 4x800 relay, with anchorman Brendan O’Keefe ’04 leading the way with a time of 1:52. O’Keefe also took second in the open 800-meter run. Co-captain Tony Hatala ’04, who finished fourth in the pole vault, said he feels optimistic about the team’s future.
see W. TRACK, page 8 see M. TRACK, page 8