Tuesday, February 14, 2006

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2006

Volume CXLI, No. 15 BUMP AND GRIND Accidents on Benefit Street prompt discussion of adding speed bumps to College Hill METRO 3

TRACK AND YIELD “SmartRide Tracker” allows students to follow movements of BrownMed/ Downcity shuttles CAMPUS NEWS 5

Farmer urges that health care be kept ‘front and center’

BY TAYLOR BARNES CONTRIBUTING WRITER

While speaking about his health care initiatives in poverty-stricken areas worldwide to a full Salomon 101 Monday night, Paul Farmer reminded those in attendance that, “You have to have humor to survive in this kind of work.”

Farmer, a professor of medical anthropology at Harvard Medical School, gave his lecture, titled “Resocializing Medicine,” as the 12th speaker in the Brown Medical School’s annual Stanley D. Simon, M.D., Lecture and Forum.

Guided by the principle that people living in poverty need and therefore deserve “the best care,” Farmer founded Partners in Health, an international charity that provides and improves health care for poor communities, in 1987.

Jonathan Herman / Herald

Paul Farmer spoke in Salomon 101 Monday about his work as a public health advocate in impoverished nations.

YOU GOT SERVED Red-hot m. tennis sweeps Stony Brook 7-0 before blizzard cancels match vs. URI SPORTS 12

That sick people may not have access to health care because they are poor is “shocking,” Farmer said.

Farmer emphasized the relationship between human rights and access to medical care, focusing on the rights of the poor, women and victims of racism. He explained that his group hopes to be “making sure that these social inequalities do not become embodied” in patients.

Quoting the 19th-century German pathologist Rudolf Virchow and Martin Luther King Jr., Farmer stressed that access to health care is a fundamental human right. Discussing his team’s fight for the availability of quality health care worldwide, Farmer said that “in order to have a significant impact … we have to bring in lots of people who are not involved in health and medicine.”

Farmer’s medical initiatives have been successful in part due to his focus on the complete care of patients. Full care entails “good community-based support,” he said. Farmer also emphasized the need for decent living conditions in order to prevent disease. Overall, to counteract the prevailing pessimistic view that health care cannot reasonably be available worldwide, Farmer stressed the strength of individual relationships, adding that community health workers need to “stay close to patients and family.”

Though originating in Haiti, Farmer’s health care programs have spread throughout the world, including Rwanda, Russia, see FARMER, page 6

water loop, the University’s primary heating system, has made locating the source of the leak difficult. The facilities management team and temporary workers have located the crack in the external insulating pipe.

However, the tear in the pipe carrying hot water remains a mystery because the pipe is nested within the external one, Maiorisi said.

“I think that we all feel that once we find the (internal) leak, it’s a couple of days work to prep and bypass the problem and then we would do a temporary solution to the (grounds),” Maiorisi said. “We would put (the Main Green) back to how it looked, before Commencement.”

After the leak was first observed, one hole was dug to access and repair the leak. Three additional holes have been dug to

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partly cloudy 48 / 32

Jacob Melrose / Herald

Alison Michener ‘06 (left) requests a serenade from two members of Mariachi de Brown, Eric Tong ’05.5 (center) and Ana Mascarenas ’06 (right).

Students protest homeless funding cuts Paperwork error costs Rhode Island $2.2 million

BY ASHLEY CHUNG CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Brown students and members of People to End Homelessness gathered at the Office of Housing and Urban Development yesterday to protest the 44 percent cut to federal homeless funding in Rhode Island.

The state’s grant was cut after Rhode Island’s annual HUD application was rated by the federal government at 81.5 points, half a point below the threshold score of 82 needed to obtain full funding. Rhode Island’s application reportedly lost half a point because one box on the form was left blank rather

U. draws on summer-only oil burner system to provide hot water

The construction set-up that appeared on the Main Green five days ago may remain there indefinitely because of an unfound leak in the University’s main heating system — a system at the “end of its (original) life cycle” and one that is undergoing repairs, said Stephen Maiorisi, acting vice president of Facilities Management.

“We were further along than last Wednesday but there is no way of knowing (whether) we are going to find (the leak) today, tomorrow or Wednesday,” said James Coen, director of maintenance services. “We’re looking at alternatives of what happens if we can’t find the leak,” he added.

The complicated structure of the high temperature

TODAY

partly cloudy 40 / 30

<3 V-DAY SERENADE <3

Source of Main Green leak continues to befuddle workers

BY JONATHAN HERMAN SENIOR STAFF WRITER

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An independent newspaper serving the Brown community since 1891

access the other likely locations of a tear in the heating loop, enlarging the fenced-off area on the Main Green, Coen said.

Until the source of the leak is identified and fixed, the University’s summer-only oil burner system has been prematurely activated to provide uninterrupted hot water to all affected buildings — now only “half of the buildings on campus,” Coen said.

Buildings north of Waterman Street have not been affected, but buildings to the south have lost heat during the past few days, Maiorisi said.

The University has stopped repair efforts and turned the main heating system back on each evening to keep residence halls at comfortable temperatures. The lowest temperature in any of the see LEAK, page 6

than marked “Not Applicable.”

About 20 Brown students from the on-campus group Housing Opportunities for People Everywhere and about 10 members of People to End Homelessness, an organization of formerly and currently homeless men and women, marched through downtown yesterday afternoon in protest.

The pre-Valentine’s Day march began at 2 p.m. as the protesters walked while holding up strings of construction paper hearts made by people at local homeless shelters. The hearts included such messages as “Don’t cut the housing,” “Houses for all” and “Have a Heart, Support Housing.”

The group passed out fliers about the funding cuts along with cell phones and the phone number for the federal HUD office, encouraging Providence citizens to “tell HUD you’re worried about homelessness in Rhode Island.”

JT Do ’07, co-leader of HOPE,

said that the group wanted to attract media attention and educate the public about the funding cuts. He also said that one of the goals of the protest was to convince Rhode Island’s congressional members to also pressure the federal HUD office to consider the state’s appeal.

“We called all four of them, and they responded saying they would personally call HUD,” Do said. “So the protest was really a success before it even began.”

After marching, the protesters gathered again in front of the Providence HUD office at 121 South Main St. and entered the building at 4:30 p.m. to meet face-to-face with Providence HUD officials. The group spoke with Nancy Smith Greer, field office director for the Providence HUD office.

One member of People to End Homelessness came forward to comment on the decisive half point margin on Rhode Island’s see PROTEST, page 4

SSDP aids campaign to win voting rights for ex-felons

BY CHELSEA RUDMAN STAFF WRITER

The Rhode Island Right to Vote Campaign, led by the Family Life Center and supported by Brown’s Students for Sensible Drug Policy, is working hard to convince Rhode Islanders that extending voting rights to exfelons will benefit communities and underscore the state’s commitment to civil rights.

In the coming months, both Brown students and campaign organizers will redouble their efforts as they push for a November ballot measure that,

195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island

if approved, would restore voting rights at the end of a criminal’s incarceration period.

The campaign has spent the past two years lobbying to enfranchise ex-felons. Since the state constitution was amended in 1987, felons released from prison cannot vote while on probation. Though this period varies for individual cases, probation periods typically last at least the length of a criminal’s prison sentence, according to SSDP Right to Vote Co-Chair Chris Suarez ’07. Currently, see SSDP, page 4

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THIS MORNING THE BROWN DAILY HERALD · TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2006 · PAGE 2 Jero Matt Vascellaro

TO D AY ’ S E V E N TS CCMB SEMINAR: HUMAN GENOME SEQUENCING 12 p.m., (70 Ship St., Rm. 107) — Yijun Ruan and Chia Lin Weire of the Genome Institute of Singapore will discuss the structures and dynamics of functional DNA elements in complex genomes.

MARRIAGE EQUALITY R.I. RALLY 3 p.m., (Faunce Arch) — Show support for same-sex marriage in Rhode Island at a rally outside of the State House.

INDEPENDENT CONCENTRATION INFO SESSION 4 p.m., (R.I. Hall 116) — Independent concentrators and Resource Center staff will talk about creating a concentration.

STUDY ABROAD FAIR 2 p.m., (Sayles Hall) — Speak with study abroad returnees about their experiences.

Chocolate Covered Cotton Mark Brinker

MENU SHARPE REFECTORY

VERNEY-WOOLLEY DINING HALL

LUNCH — Popcorn Chicken with Dipping Sauces, Red Rice, Corn and Sweet Pepper Saute, Pancakes, French Toast, Tater Tots, Kielbasa, Hard Boiled Eggs, Cookie and Cupcake Decorating, New York Style Cheesecake, Raspberry Black Satin Fudge Cake

LUNCH — Vegetarian Corn and Tomato Soup, Bean and Bacon Soup, Jamie’s Spiced Chicken Wings, Baked Manicotti with Tomato Sauce, Corn & Broccoli Casserole, Decorate-Your-Own Cookies and Cupcakes

DINNER — Orange Turkey, Au Gratin Potatoes with Fresh Herbs, Herbed Turnips, Fresh Vegetable Melange, French Bread, Chocolate Pudding, Angel Cake with Strawberries, Hot Fudge, Whip Cream, Chocolate Candy Hearts

DINNER — Vegetarian Corn and Tomato Soup, Bean and Bacon Soup, Pot Roast Jardiniere, Stuffed Spinach Squash, Red Potatoes with Fresh Dill, Oregon Blend Vegetables, Asparagus Cuts with Lemon, French Bread, Angel Cake with Strawberries, Hot Fudge and Whipped Cream

Deo Daniel Perez

Cappuccino Monday Christine Sunu

RELEASE DATE– Tuesday, February 14, 2006

R O SDaily S W Crossword ORD Los AngelesC Times Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis ACROSS 1 Heep of fiction 6 Beat to a froth 10 Bitty biter 14 Martini’s partner in vermouth 15 Fabled runner-up 16 Actor’s gig 17 Turning into a chicken 20 Got to one’s feet 21 Without exception 22 Priestly garb 25 Have dinner 26 British bombshell Diana 27 “Hop to it!”

30 Shea squad 33 Nabokov nymphet 34 Rick’s “Casablanca” love 36 Legal gambling parlor, briefly 38 Mocked 39 Fertile Crescent land 41 Apple discard 42 The Beatles’ “And I Love __” 43 Uneven hairdo 44 Messy meal must 46 Birdbrain 48 Duffer’s delight 50 Glamour rival 52 “Mr. Chicago” journalist Kupcinet 53 Table tennis divider 54 Cunning 57 Theater awards 59 “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” theme song, and a hint to what 17-, 27- and 48Across have in common 64 Fish market feature 65 Mayberry kid 66 Con game 67 Deep desires 68 Ill-gotten gains 69 Dish accompanier of rhyme DOWN 1 Hi-tech bookmark 2 Kanga’s baby

3 Mag. edition 4 “Buyer beware” warning 5 Gives a clue to 6 Actress Goldberg 7 Round of applause 8 Hot temper 9 Sauce made with basil 10 Musical with the song “Alone at a Drive-in Movie” 11 Benchmark 12 Thomas __ Edison 13 Student driver, typically 18 Hungarian stew 19 Marilyn Monroe’s real first name 22 God of the Koran 23 Blotto 24 Ravel work immortalized in “10” 26 Supermarket section 28 Josh 29 Sign of late summer 31 Adopted 32 Make a game effort

35 Spanish wine concoction 37 Poet Stephen Vincent __ 40 Lock maker 41 Class for EMTs 43 Knighted conductor Georg 45 Quickly and quietly, for instance 47 Puts off 49 Canned corn morsel

51 Disinfectant brand 54 Overwhelm with sweetness 55 Took a train 56 Bell-ringing company 57 Varied mixture 58 Split pea, e.g.

60 Mil. mail depot 61 Game based on crazy eights 62 Sgt. or cpl.

63 Mafia boss

Goldfish Dreams Allison Moore

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD · TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2006 · PAGE 3 CAMPAIGN 2006 NOTEBOOK

Lawless criticizes ads, Brown unveils four new ones

Jacob Melrose / Herald

Some members of the College Hill community want speed bumps and other traffic control measures put in place on local streets.

Traffic control a concern for College Hill

BY CAROLINE SILVERMAN SENIOR STAFF WRITER

On Dec. 15, a car speeding up South Court Street crashed into a residence at 155 Benefit St. and caused additional damage to another house at 19 South Court St. The accident has led some members of the College Hill Neighborhood Association to lobby for increased traffic control devices — specifically, speed bumps.

The accident, recounted by Ronald Dwight ’66, “wouldn’t have happened” if there had been speed bumps on the road, he said. Dwight, who is on CHNA’s board of directors, lives at 155 Benefit St. and said he and his wife often hear cars speeding on the street at night.

“Introducing speed bumps will make (drivers) use main roads instead of little historic streets,” Dwight said.

The safety of pedestrians is an obvious concern, but speeding cars are a particular threat to historic houses on the East Side. Large and fastmoving vehicles create cracks in the plaster on roads, and crashes like the one on Dec. 15 are not infrequent, Dwight said. He said one house on the corner of Jenckes and Benefit streets has been hit by cars three times in the past 10 years.

“It is important to Providence, the state of Rhode Island and Brown to help protect these historic houses,” he said.

Dwight said though traffic control is something of a lowprofile issue, it needs more attention.

“It’s a miracle no one’s been killed,” he said. He added that speed bumps should be installed soon — before a “seemingly inevitable” tragedy occurs.

Dwight also expressed concerns about drag racing, which he said has occurred recently on Congdon and Prospect streets.

But some say speed bumps are not necessarily the solution.

“Bumps make life really difficult for public safety vehicles,” said David Segal, city councilman for Ward 1, which includes Brown’s campus and much of the East Side.

Segal mentioned narrowing roads as one viable alternative to speed bumps. Under this approach, curbs would be bumped out to create a parking lane and constrict the overall road size.

Creating the illusion of narrower roads “tends to make (drivers) slow down,” Segal said.

But Benefit Street is already “very narrow because of the cars on the East Side,” said Rita Williams, city councilwoman for the Ward 2, which includes College Hill.

In general, even simpler remedies like signage have helped in controlling traffic, Segal said. Stop signs on Brook and George streets have been effective in slowing vehicles.

Cameras monitoring drivers who run red lights are another possible solution to speeding, Dwight said.

While there is work planned on traffic-calming projects for Ives and Gano streets, which are both located east of campus in Ward 1, Segal said the traffic immediately adjacent to Brown’s campus is less of a problem.

Gano Street is a frequent traffic problem because it is an I-195 access road. Current construction and re-routing of this highway within the next five years also threatens to increase the traffic around Wayland Square, according to Segal.

Brown and the city of Providence are drawing up plans to facilitate pedestrian traffic between Pembroke Campus and Lincoln Field along portions of Meeting, Angell and Waterman streets as part of the planned Walk.

“We’re working with city planners to see if that might alleviate some of the traffic problems,” said Stephen Maiorisi, acting vice president of Facilities Management.

The Walk design will raise the street level so that pedestrians can walk across the street. The raised portion would be wider, but still passable to cars. “It wouldn’t be a typical speed bump,” said Maiorisi.

Maiorisi agreed that the high volume of both pedestrian and vehicle traffic around campus is a definite “safety issue.”

Matt Brown speaks out about lobbyists, Iraq in series of TV ads Secretary of State and Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate Matt Brown launched the television-advertisement portion of his campaign on Jan. 5 with an ad titled “Reasons.”

The advertisement, which aired all over the state, features Rhode Islanders speaking out about the challenges they face. The spot culminates with Brown’s pledge to help these people and his daughter Ella, another reason Brown says he is committed to working to “ensure that every child has a better future,” according to his Web site.

Since then, Brown has released three other ads. “34,000 Lobbyists” focuses on lobbyists’ influence on elected officials. In December, Brown announced a plan to reduce the influence of lobbyists that includes strengthening lobbying disclosure laws, increasing enforcement and limiting the power of former members of Congress to influence legislation.

In “Oil,” Brown outlines several steps to bring down energy costs, including a windfall profits tax on oil companies, the elimination of special interest tax breaks and giveaways and tax credits for hybrid cars and trucks, according to a campaign press release.

“These steps will help lead the United States on a path to oil independence and help sustain our environment for future generations,” Brown said in the ad.

The fourth and most recent ad, “Iraq,” focuses on bringing U.S. troops home. In August 2005, Brown became the first U.S. Senate candidate to call on President Bush to set a timetable for withdrawing troops from Iraq, demanding that all American troops be home by the end of 2006.

— Anne Wootton Is Brown broke?

After a new poll conducted

by Professor of Political Science Darrell West last week showed Secretary of State Matt Brown leading former Attorney General Sheldon Whitehouse in the race for the Democratic Senate nomination by six points, Whitehouse’s campaign wasted no time counter-attacking.

Brown, Whitehouse’s campaign said in a Feb. 8 press release, is broke.

“While Matt Brown ran his television ads in order to

influence the Brown University poll, he is flat broke,” the release claimed. “His challenge will be to figure out how to sustain an aggressive campaign in advance of the September primary — still seven months away.”

The release noted that Brown had less than $200,000 in his campaign war chest earmarked for the primary race at the end of 2005 and had spent all of it in major advertising buys in January to drum up early support.

Whitehouse, on the other hand, has $1.25 million in his primary fund, according to the release, and has not made any major television ad buys.

But Brown’s campaign refuted the charge that it is starved for cash.

“The campaign has raised more than $200,000 in January alone,” said Matt Burgess, Brown’s press secretary. “We’re going to have the resources we need to win this election.”

— Ben Leubsdorf Lawless walks across entire 2nd congressional district Jennifer Lawless, a Democratic candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in Rhode Island’s 2nd congressional district, recently walked 110 miles over the course of nine days on a continuous route that included all 20 communities in her district.

Lawless, an assistant professor of political science and public policy at the University, began her walk on Jan. 17 at noon in Gloucester, stopping along the way to talk to Rhode Islanders pumping gas, eating at restaurants or just passing on the street. Over the next nine days, Lawless visited neighborhoods including Johnston, Providence, Cranston, Block Island and Warwick, where her campaign is headquartered, according to a Jan. 12 campaign press release.

“There is no question that I’m running a grassroots campaign,” Lawless said in the release, mentioning a growing focus in political campaigns on money and television ads.

Lawless’ walk took place during daylight hours only and was scheduled to conclude before second semester classes began at the University. It is unclear whether the 110-mile figure cited on Lawless’ Web site includes the miles traveled by ferry across the ocean to Block Island.

— Anne Wootton Sheeler wants Bush impeached Long-shot Democratic Senate candidate Carl Sheeler had negligible support in last week’s poll, and his campaign has more debts than cash on hand, according to campaign finance data from the Federal Elections Commission.

But he drew attention to himself when he called for President George W. Bush’s impeachment Feb. 1.

“High crimes and misdemeanors, the constitutional standards for impeachment and removal from office, are easily proven for a President who states he’s above our laws,” Sheeler told an audience in the State House’s rotunda, according to the text of his speech. “Bush must be held accountable for his many clear infractions.”

Citing misleading intelligence used to justify the invasion of Iraq and a rising national debt — “much of it owed to China” — Sheeler called on Reps. Patrick Kennedy and Jim Langevin, both D-R.I., to support impeachment hearings proposed by Rep. John Conyers Jr., D-Mich. Conyers, who spoke on campus last semester as part of the lecture series sponsored by the Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice, has gained little traction for his impeachment effort in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.

Sheeler also unveiled a large billboard on I-95 asking drivers to “Be patriotic, impeach Bush.”

Sheeler, who describes himself as an “outspoken, 70s-style Democrat” in press releases, will again speak in the State House rotunda on Wednesday to urge the General Assembly to support impeachment hearings.

— Ben Leubsdorf.

PAGE 4 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2006

Protest continued from page 1 application, saying, “It’s not right.

I’m homeless. And now I can’t find a home because of one little mistake.”

The protesters demanded that Smith Greer go to the federal office to bring back more information regarding the cuts.

Smith Greer refused to commit to a time when she would provide any new information but did say that she would pass on the group’s concerns to the federal office.

The group then left the office, ignoring security guards’ orders to be quiet and chanting loudly, “Hey, hey, ho, ho! Funding cuts have to go!”

For the past 10 years, Continuum of Care, HUD’s primary way of funding homeless projects across the nation, has provided funding to homeless programs in Rhode Island. Continuum of Care grants make up more than 80 percent of federal homeless aid to Rhode Island.

For next year, however, HUD has denied full funding to Rhode Island’s homeless programs, allocating only $2.8 million of the

expected $5 million.

Eric Hirsch, government relations chair for the Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless, said the coalition was “extremely upset” after learning about the funding cuts. Hirsch said that the coalition’s mission is to provide affordable, safe housing to everyone in Rhode Island.

“We want to end homelessness (and) put ourselves out of business,” Hirsch said.

According to Hirsch, HUD seemed to be giving Rhode Island lower priority in funding because the state has a high service-dollar to housing-dollar ratio — that is, because the state spends more money providing services for people who are homeless and less money on housing construction. HUD has refused multi-year renewals for support services for the homeless — including mental health counseling, case management and substance abuse treatment — renewing them for a one-year period only.

“HUD is cutting funding saying it’s because we don’t have enough new permanent housing projects, but in doing so, they’re forcing us to shut down two new projects for permanent

Fill in the grid so that every row, every column and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 through 9.

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housing,” Hirsch said. “It just doesn’t make sense.”

Hirsch said that with over 6,000 homeless people in Rhode Island last year and even higher numbers this year, the state cannot afford to lose any funding.

“HUD themselves say that the best way to end homelessness is to create permanent supportive housing. Cutting funding to these new projects undermines their own mission,” Hirsch said.

The cut in Rhode Island’s homeless budget will cause the closure of two new programs: Amos House’s Mawney Street program in Providence, a group of 19 permanent apartments for the homeless; and the Pawtucket Community Development Corporation’s Garden Street program in Pawtucket, which offers six permanent apartments for the homeless. Other existing service programs — including shelters for families and individuals, transitional housing as well as permanent supportive housing — will also be affected by the cuts.

Eileen Hayes is the executive director of Amos House, a social services agency in South Providence that serves as a soup kitchen and provides transitional shelter programs to the homeless. She said that with the funding cuts, the Mawney Street program faces a $500,000 shortfall. Amos House is still waiting to find out whether alternate funding is available, but Hayes explained that if funds are unavailable, then the project will have to be shut down, and the 19 apartments for supportive housing will be lost.

Kristine Foye, who handles public affairs for the Providence HUD Office, said that at the time, she could not comment on the closure of the programs. She did confirm, however, that Rhode Island’s annual HUD homeless application received a score of 81.5, missing the minimum score of 82 that would have garnered full funding from Continuum of Care.

“HUD is focusing on moving people away from a life on the street into self-sufficiency through the creation of more permanent and transitional housing,” Foye said. “Rhode Island’s application didn’t put enough emphasis on that.”

SSDP continued from page 1 13,000 ex-felons who are “living and working in Rhode Island” cannot vote, according to campaign literature.

Community Outreach Coordinator Andreas Idarraga ’08 — the “voice of Rhode Island’s Right to Vote Campaign,” according to Suarez’s co-chair Ariel Werner ’09 — is fighting to regain his own political voice. The 28-year-old Brown student and activist will not be able to vote for 30 years due to his probation. After an arrest for possession of drugs and firearms at age 20, Idarraga spent six and a half years at the Rhode Island Adult Correctional Facility.

In prison, he realized that he “wanted involvement for the betterment of (my) community.

You feel like your community is in trouble and instead of adding to that trouble … you want to make a difference.”

Upon release, he sent in college applications for the first time in his life and was accepted to the University of Rhode Island for Fall 2004. He became involved in Brown’s chapter of SSDP and began helping at the Family Life Center, where he counseled recently released exfelons. This fall, he transferred to Brown.

Idarraga currently serves as a speaker for the campaign at a variety of political and social events. He uses his own and others’ personal stories to illustrate how voting laws affect individual lives.

When taking the U.S. citizenship test, several of Idarraga’s family members, immigrants from Colombia, were asked about the most important right they would gain as a citizen.

“The answer is the right to vote,” Idarraga said. “If this is the most important right you have as citizen … that should never be played with.”

The Political Punishment Report published by Marshall Clement ’03 and Nina Keough ’06.5 in spring 2004 was the spark that generated the campaign in Rhode Island. It was a state-level expression of a nationwide response to the

“racial disparities and voting rights” issues of the 2000 presidential election, Keough said.

In June 2005, the Rhode Island legislature approved submitting a referendum to Rhode Island voters that would amend the constitution and allow ex-felons to vote. Since this success at the legislative level, the Right to Vote Campaign has been working to raise public awareness of the referendum and provide statistics about the negative effects of incarceration on the community and the need to protest ex-felons’ civil rights.

SSDP is the only group at Brown actively supporting the campaign, according to Werner, though SSDP has worked with the Brown Democrats’ Voter Registration Committee.

Members work on the campaign in coordination with the Family Life Center, a facility in Providence that helps ex-felons re-integrate after release from prison. The Family Life Center has spearheaded the campaign statewide.

Right to Vote issues are especially pertinent for SSDP because felons convicted on drug charges often lose their right to vote for decades due to minimum probation sentences, according to Idarraga. 40 percent of prisoners in Rhode Island are incarcerated for nonviolent or drug offenses, according to the Political Punishment Report.

SSDP members have phoned legislators, organized events and forums about incarceration and canvassed in Providence neighborhoods, said Werner and Suarez.

“People need to be informed before (the referendum) gets passed,” Suarez said. “When they see (the law) is disproportionately affecting communities, they see that there’s more a type of social justice of this being right or wrong.”

One in five black men is disenfranchised in Rhode Island, according to the Political Punishment Report. For Latino men, the statistic is one in 11. More than 10 percent of South Providence residents are disenfranchised.

Suarez and Werner blamed the criminal justice system for the disproportionate effects on racial minorities, pointing to a systemic pattern of racism.

“This is just a way in which these rich white men who control the state can keep minorities from voting,” Werner said. “It’s so imperative that we give these people a voice in our politics.”

SSDP campaign leaders are optimistic that the amendment will pass. Werner and Suarez said the campaign has been well received by legislators and citizens alike. Suarez said most senators “see it as a politically risky move” to support the amendment without definite backing from their constituents, but added that no senators have spoken out strongly against the amendment. Idarraga said no organized opposition has materialized.

“Once people’s questions are answered intelligently, they realize, ‘What’s the danger in giving a person that was in prison the right to vote?’”

Idarraga said. “If anything, when a democracy excludes a portion of its citizens, that’s when it becomes dangerous.”

CAMPUS NEWS THE BROWN DAILY HERALD · TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2006 · PAGE 5

Brown a top provider of Peace Corps volunteers

BY NAOMI SMITH CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Jacob Melrose / Herald

A recent study found that Division I-A schools exhibit a lack of diversity in top athletic positions.

Study finds little diversity in top collegiate athletics programs

BY JUSTIN AMOAH STAFF WRITER

A January 2006 demographic study highlights a lack of diversity atop athletic leadership positions at universities competing CAMPUS at the Division WATCH I-A level of the National Collegiate Athletic Association.

The study — conducted by the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida and titled “The Buck Stops Here: Assessing Diversity among Campus and Conference Leaders for Division I-A Schools in 2006” — shows that 456 out of 487 presidents, athletic directors, faculty athletic representatives, conference commissioners and head football coaches are white.

“Athletic leadership is overwhelmingly white and overwhelmingly male, about 94 percent of presidents, 89 percent of (athletic directors) and 94 percent of faculty athletic directors are all white,” said Richard Lapchick, president and CEO of the National Consortium for Academics and Sport, who authored the study. The study also shows that 96.7 percent of head football coaches and all 11 Division I-A conference commissioners are white men.

Lapchick, who is the vice president of the Black Coaches

Association, said that the race of college and university leaders may have a negative effect on minority hiring.

“When you have people that look like me — I happen to be white — and when we have an open position that we’re trying to hire for, we’re trying to do it as expeditiously as possible. We know a certain range of people and frequently they look like us,” he said.

“It’s not racist, but the effect is certainly racial,” he added.

Lapchick suggested that schools should open the hiring process by having search committees that are diverse and search for a diverse set of candidates. He suggested that committees devote several weeks or even months to looking for the best qualified candidates rather than a “quick proposition,” and that the affirmative action guidelines of each university should be followed.

Lapchick lauded several colleges and universities who have received A’s on the BCA’s annual “Hiring Report Card” for following their school’s affirmative action guidelines, even if they did not ultimately hire a minority candidate.

On Jan. 30. 2006, Charlotte Westerhaus, the NCAA’s vice president for diversity inclusion, assembled a panel to address diversity within the NCAA. Westerhaus chairs the 44-member “blue ribbon committee,” which also consists of prominent

figures such as Lap-chick, University of Washington Head Football Coach Tyrone Willingham and David Roach, Brown’s former athletic director and current athletic director at Colgate University. The panel also includes other athletic administrators, coaches, student athletes and representatives from coaching organizations.

At the end of this year, the committee will make recommendations to Miles Brand, see NCAA, page 6

Thirty-one Brown alums are currently volunteering as members of the Peace Corps, putting the University at No. 13 on the organization’s 2006 list of mediumsized colleges and universities that produce the greatest number of Peace Corps volunteers.

This year marks Brown’s fourth consecutive appearance in the Peace Corps’ top 25 list of medium-sized schools producing volunteers. Brown debuted at No. 17 in 2003 with 23 volunteers, according to Joanna Shea O’Brien, public affairs specialist at the New England Regional Peace Corps Office.

Brown retained that position on 2004’s list and climbed to No.11 in 2005 with 38 volunteers, the University’s highest yield to date.

Volunteering for the Peace Corps entails spending 27 months in communities in developing countries, including an initial three-month orientation, according to the program’s Web site.

The Peace Corps designates medium-sized colleges and universities as those institutions that have between 5,001 and 15,000 undergraduate students.

The University of Virginia — which, according to its Web site, currently enrolls 13,401 undergraduates — topped the

medium-sized school list for the third year in a row with 80 volunteers.

Leia Reisner ’06, who applied to the Peace Corps this fall, said she was not surprised by the number of volunteers Brown produces.

Peace Corp volunteers, she said, “have to be very motivated; they have to be willing to challenge themselves and others to succeed, and I think Brown both attracts and produces that kind of person.”

Reisner also referred to the health care coverage the Peace Corps provides as a benefit for its volunteers. Other benefits include loan deferment and noncompetitive eligibility for federal employment, according to the Peace Corps’ Web site.

Returned Peace Corps volunteer Jessica End ’01.5 echoed Reisner’s sentiments, saying Brown’s open curriculum requires students to demonstrate personal initiative.

“That’s what you need to be a successful Peace Corps volunteer too, because there’s no supervision once you’re out there,” she said. “I think there’s also an element of ‘do-gooder’ at Brown — I have so many friends from Brown who did community service.”

George Rutherford, the Peace Corps’ recruiter at Brown for the see PEACE CORPS, page 6

Student-developed Tracker eliminates uncertainty for shuttle riders

BY SPENCER TRICE STAFF WRITER Thanks to a newly developed program called “SmartRide Tracker,” users of the BrownMed/Downcity shuttle will no longer have to guess when to wait outside for the next van.

The program, accessible online, uses GPS technology to allow users to determine the location of the shuttles from the comfort of their rooms.

The Tracker was designed by

recent Brown alums at East Transit Technologies Inc., a company they founded to specialize in campus transportation software.

It is the newest development in a two-year effort to improve the quality and function of the Brown shuttle service, according to Director of Real Estate and Administrative Services Abigail Rider.

Rider, who has been heavily involved in attempts to improve the traffic flow and convenience of travel at the University, initiated the effort

two years ago by requesting a shuttle dispatch program for the University.

The concept of a dispatch program was first pitched to the Department of Computer Science as a student project.

Under the guidance of Assistant Professor of Computer Science Shriram Krishnamurthi, students worked on the program as part of CS 190: “Software System Design.”

After its completion, several see TRACKER, page 8

PAGE 6 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2006

NCAA continued from page 5 president of the NCAA, who will report the recommendations at the NCAA national convention in 2007, Westerhaus said.

She said that the NCAA has established fellowship programs that allow coaches and administrators to meet with females and minorities who aspire to positions in athletic leadership.

“This is the 100th anniversary of the NCAA, and it is the 25th year that women have been a part of NCAA championships.

This is a very pivotal time in our history and a significant time to really be proactive and also to be effective in our supporting of diversity and inclusion in collegiate athletics,” Westerhaus said.

Brown was not included in Lapchick’s study because it only took into account the 119 schools that compete at the Division I-A football level.

Lapchick did credit Brown for its fair hiring practices and praised Columbia University for recently hiring Norries Wilson, the Ivy League’s first AfricanAmerican head football coach.

Last year, Brown proved its commitment to fair hiring practices in hiring former Dean of Admission Michael Goldberger as director of athletics after a search process that lasted over five months.

“The veteran leadership on this committee knew how to conduct a very diverse search

for our athletic director,” said Will Burroughs ’05, who was a member of the committee in search of Brown’s new athletic director.

The committee contacted leading females and minorities in the field as well as organizations such as the BCA, Burroughs said. Luiz Valente, associate professor of Portuguese and Brazilian studies and comparative literature and chair of the search committee, added that publications such as the Chronicle of Higher Education, Black Issues in Higher Education, Hispanic Outlook Magazine, the NCAA News, Brown Alumni Magazine and the Baker Parker publication held ads for the athletic director position.

“We asked every candidate about their approach to diversity,” said Executive Officer of Campus Life and Student Services MaryLou McMillan, who put together the athletic director search committee. She added that it was important to the committee that the candidates knew how to both articulate and implement their philosophy on diversity.

“When you look at Goldie, he’s just a gem and so committed to everything,” she said. “He’s such a good egg, and thinks about people in such a variety of ways.”

Associate Provost and Director of Institutional Diversity Brenda Allen said that she and other administrators are committed to the University’s affirmative action policy, which is monitored by the Office of Equal Employment Opportunity

and Affirmative Action.

“Every new opening here abides by a process that’s fair and nondiscriminatory to all kinds of people,” Allen said.

Allen recently met with Goldberger to discuss “strategic outreach plans.” She said they will try to establish internships with historically black colleges and universities and Hispanicserving institutions so that minorities can receive the necessary training that would help get them into academic, athletic and administrative work. She said they are also working on building relationships with minorities around the country who can give them access to many informal networks that will increase the diversity of applicant pools.

“Goldie and I have talked about taking some trips and that they may try visiting a few schools,” Allen said. “Markets that we don’t generally tap, we are going to try to tap a bit more systematically and consistently over the next fe w years to see if we can make a difference.

“All we can do both legally and morally is to try and make sure that the applicant pools that we have are rich and diverse.

If they are, then you are able to tap some of those areas that you don’t have represented,” she added.

Goldberger echoed Allen’s sentiments.

“It is important that our University represents what America looks like,” he said, adding that “we have a long way to go towards achieving that goal.”

Leak continued from page 1 residence halls was 62 degrees in the Graduate Center, Coen said.

“We shut the system off and we have our control mechanism.

We can see all the dorms, and we can see the temperature of the rooms and we make judgments of when to put the heat back on line,” Coen said.

Once the system is turned on, temperatures quickly rise to levels unsafe for workers to continue their search for the leak, according to Coen.

Though the University has been balancing heating its buildings with “trying to get every minute they can in the hole,” the blizzard over the weekend halted all work, said Thomas Forsberg, associate director of housing and residential life.

The snowstorm was “creat-

Farmer continued from page 1 Guatemala, Peru and Mexico.

Some of Farmer’s Haitian colleagues went to Rwanda to help develop the program there.

Farmer, who is an attending physician at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, highlighted how the success of one program can be used to improve another, saying “the lessons that we learned in Haiti, we’ve taken and applied them to Boston.”

The Brown Medical School has a special affinity for Farmer, who spoke at its graduation ceremony in 2001 and was awarded an honorary degree as the “conscience of the international medical community,” said Eli Adashi,

Peace Corps continued from page 5 past three years, wrote in an e-mail to The Herald that he recognizes the same serviceoriented attitude among students he has met during oncampus visits.

Nearly 70 percent of all Brown students complete a sustained community service project by the time they graduate, according to the Swearer Center for Public Service’s Web site. Since the Peace Corps was founded in 1961, 555 Brown alums have completed service as volunteers, according to a Jan 30 Peace Corps press release.

O’Brien said various factors compel volunteers to make this commitment.

“We have people who have always been really outdoorsy and love ‘roughing it’, which many would say is the stereotype of a Peace Corps volunteer,” she said. “But we also have computer science majors from MIT who gave up lucrative job prospects so that they could take their knowledge to the Dominican Republic.”

The only common ground, O’Brien said, is a commitment to grassroots sustainable development and international understanding.

End agreed that “there isn’t one kind of person or one reason or one path that

ing an unsafe situation for the student population. The visibility was down and we were worried for students’ safety,” Coen said. “Initially I thought a few students were crossing the work site. Although they are curious, they haven’t come past the barricades,” he said.

Few students have complained to the University about the lower temperatures in the residence halls, Forsberg said.

“In general, with the temperature being colder than (normal) … you would expect to see more calls,” said Jacqueline Newcomb, assistant director for operations. “Overall our records show that we have low levels of call-ins for heat.”

The high temperature water system has had leaks in the past, but not of this magnitude.

Before the leak appeared, the University had already begun to repair the 45-year-old system, Maiorisi said.

dean of medicine and biological sciences in introducing Farmer’s lecture. Farmer has changed the way that Brown medical students think about being physicians, according to Soyun Kim MD ’08 and Jack Rusley ’03 MD ’09, both of whom helped to introduce Farmer.

Farmer, in return, teased the Brown medical community, saying that he could not name an area of the world where Brown medical students had not already been. Also, “student activism has played a big role in making the United States a major funder of these initiatives,” Farmer said.

Throughout the lecture, Farmer emphasized that, “There’s a lot we can do by keeping health care front and center in our discussions about human rights.”

leads you to the Peace Corps.”

Immediately after graduating from Brown with a biology degree, she spent six months in New York City doing prison reform research for the Vera Institute of Justice.

But End’s profile also includes study abroad in Bolivia and Costa Rica and a penchant for Spanish.

“I’m definitely a ‘people person,’” she said, “And pretty quickly I realized that there was little room in biology for that part of me.”

End said these were the reasons she boarded a plane for Nicaragua two and a half years ago to teach environmental education in the small town of Las Mangas.

Reisner is one applicant with a particular region in mind. A Middle East studies concentrator who studied abroad in Egypt last year, Reisner said she was inspired to join the Peace Corps after immersing herself in a language, people and culture that were completely foreign to her.

“The Peace Corps would be a wonderful opportunity,” she said. “I wouldn’t just be sitting in a classroom learning Arabic, I’d be out there with people, learning and teaching in an alternative setting.”

Reisner said it is this unique learning experience that compels many people to choose the Peace Corps over graduate school.

WORLD & NATION THE BROWN DAILY HERALD · TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2006 · PAGE 7

New federal grant system compatible only with Microsoft; excludes Mac users

BY RICK WEISS WASHINGTON POST

WASHINGTON — What if the federal government were about to give away more than $400 billion in grants, but only people whose computers ran on Microsoft software could apply?

That is the predicament that many scientists, scholars and others say they are in as the government enters the final phase of its five-year effort to streamline its grant-application process.

The new “Grants.gov” system, under development at a cost of tens of billions of dollars, aims to replace paper applications with electronic forms. It is being phased in at the National Institutes of Health, Department of Housing and Urban Development and other federal agencies. All 26 grantgiving agencies are supposed to have their application processes fully online by 2007.

The problem: Although many U.S. scientists and others depend on graphics-friendly Macintosh computers, the software selected by the government is not Maccompatible. And it is expected to remain so for at least a year.

Last week, faced with evidence that the system will not be fully accessible to Mac users by this fall as promised, NIH quietly dropped its plan to switch to electronic applications for October’s $600 million round of major “R01” grants.

But NIH and other agencies already have been asking for electronic applications for smaller grants, triggering hair loss among frustrated Mac users.

“It’s been hell on wheels,” said Mark Tumeo, vice provost for

research and dean of the college of graduate studies at Cleveland State University, one of many smaller institutions that have been hit especially hard by the new requirement.

Although most observers believe the move to electronic granting will eventually pay off, concerns about fairness during the transition have prompted angry humor on Mac-related listservs.

“Uh, this would be the same government that spent a lot of time and money pursuing Microsoft for its anti-competitive behavior?” one blogger wrote.

“And they now offer a government site that mandates monopoly?”

Charles Havekost, chief information officer at the Health and Human Services Department, which helps manage Grants. gov, acknowledged the system is “not perfect” but encouraged applicants to look at the positive side: They can go to one site and see every grant being offered by every federal agency, and use a standardized electronic form to start the process for most grants.

The overall Grants.gov system, under construction by Northrop Grumman under a $22 billion federal contract, attracts more than 1 million hits every day, Havekost said. The system accepted more than 16,000 applications for about 20 agencies last year. And it took in even more than that last month alone, with 45,000 expected by the end of this year.

“In early 2002, people laughed and said, ‘This is going to be impossible to get agencies to work together,’ and yet we were able to do it,” Havekost said.

U.N. draft blasts U.S. on detainee treatment

BY COLUM LYNCH WASHINGTON POST

UNITED NATIONS — The Bush administration’s treatment of prisoners at the U.S. military detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, violates international law and in some cases constitutes a form of torture, according to a draft report by a group of U.N. human rights investigators.

Five U.N. human rights rapporteurs appealed to the administration to close the Guantanamo Bay prison and try detainees in the United States.

“The U.S. government should either expeditiously bring all Guantanamo Bay detainees to trial ... or release them without further delay,” the draft report recommended.

The findings emerged from an 18-month investigation that included interviews with former U.S. prisoners in France, Spain and Britain, and lawyers and relatives of detainees. The report concluded that some practices — including the forcefeeding of hunger strikers — “must be assessed as amounting to torture.”

President Bush voiced concern about the panel’s findings — which were first reported in the Los Angeles Times — during a meeting Monday with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan.

Annan responded that he had not seen the report and that the U.N. investigators who authored the report were independent from his office, according to a senior official who attended the meeting.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack challenged the veracity of the findings and pointed out that “no one who wrote this report

actually went to Guantanamo.”

The U.N. investigators, known as special rapporteurs, declined in November to accept an offer from the United States to make a one-day visit to the facility on the grounds that they could not speak privately with the prisoners.

“They are taking assertions by individuals who have left Guantanamo, as well as their lawyers, as fact,” McCormack told reporters. “And, as we have seen over the past year, there have been a number of baseless claims about what went on at Guantanamo.”

“The U.N. rapporteurs were offered the same access as Congress and the media to the facility but they declined the offer,” Pentagon spokesman Lt. Commander J.D. Gordon added. “All detainees are treated humanely and being provided with excellent medical care. It is U.S. policy to treat captured combatants humanely and in compliance with the U.S. Constitution, its statutes and its treaty obligations.”

Manfred Nowak, the U.N. special rapporteur on torture and an author of the report, declined to discuss the contents of the report until it is publicly released later this week. But he said the report’s publication will mark the end of the first phase of a wider inquiry into U.S. treatment of prisoners in Iraq, Afghanistan and other foreign

sites where terror suspects are being held.

“The investigation is going far beyond Guantanamo,” Nowak said in a telephone interview from Vienna. “We have asked the U.S. government to cooperate with us on various places where suspected terrorists are held: Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo and elsewhere.”

Nearly 750 combatants and suspected terrorists captured in Afghanistan and elsewhere since January 2002 have been brought to the Guantanamo Bay detention center. More than 260 of those have since been transferred to the custody of foreign governments, including Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Morocco. Seventeen are expected to be tried by a military commission.

The United States has provided access to detainees at Guantanamo to representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross, which never publishes reports on prison conditions.

The confidential draft, which was obtained by The Washington Post, notes that two of the U.N. investigators concluded that the “legal regime applied to these detainees seriously undermines the rule of law and a number of fundamental universally recognized human rights, which are the essence of democratic societies.”

PAGE 8 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2006

Tracker continued from page 5 students decided to commercialize the idea and form their own company — East Transit Technologies Inc. — to run the software. The final software product is called “SmartRide,” of which “Dispatch” is a feature.

Last year, according to the head of East Transit’s technology department, Matt Gillooly ’04, the Brown transportation department expressed a need for a tracking system to be added to the BrownMed/Downcity shuttles in addition to “SmartRide Dispatch.”

Work on the tracking system began in December, at first only allowing for the transportation manager on campus to track the shuttles.

The tracking system became accessible to students online as the “SmartRide Tracker” after its

completion in late January.

“Tracker was a really good fit with the new shuttle service,” Gillooly said, adding that the system was particularly beneficial to users in the current weather conditions.

Rider, who has prior experience in computer science, was very satisfied with the outcome of the project and recalled that the software and visual interface unite to make a “fabulous” program.

So far this year the online system has worked without failure or complaints, Rider said.

Michelle Kuppersmith ’09, who has taken the shuttle both before and after the tracking software was implemented, is pleased with the Tracker. It is “easy to use,” Kuppersmith said, adding that she views the BrownMed/ Downcity shuttle as one of the “largest untapped resources” on campus.

Sam Reiter ’09 also spoke positively of the new program and hopes that other students will

“follow in his footsteps” by using the online software to locate the shuttle.

The Tracker will not be used with safeRIDE because the service is too frequent for the software to benefit users, Rider said.

The Brown alums at East Transit plan to continue serving the University as new issues arise and “in many ways still feel like part of the Brown community,” Gilloly said.

The Rhode Island School of Design may also consider adding the “Tracker” system to its shuttle service, for which the waiting time between vans is 30 minutes, according to Rider.

Ultimately, controlling traffic is difficult and in some cases out of the University’s hands, Rider said. She hopes that “Tracker” will ease traveling for students and staff while serving as one step in an effort to improve overall transportation goals for the community.

Happy Valentine’s Day from The Brown Daily Herald

M. track continued from page 12 finished sixth in the Olympic trials in the 800-meter run.

Dissmore’s breakthrough race puts him a solid second and a half over the next Ivy League competitor.

“Seed times, however, mean nothing,” Lake said. “We have to put it together on that day.”

A younger Bear clawed his way onto Brown’s top 10 board, as Ozzie Myers ’08 set a personal best in the 3,000-meter run. His time of 8:14.92, 40 seconds faster than his previous best finish, placed him third overall at the invitational and fifth in the Ivies this year.

“Coach Lake broke down the race for me into three segments,” Myers said. “I was to take the first 1,000 (meters) slow, pick off people in the second, and then race hard for the last portion.”

Myers followed the game plan, pacing with Jeff Randall from Columbia, who went ahead with 800 meters to go.

With 150 meters left, Myers dug in and held off the chasing Lion harrier.

“It was not unexpected,” Lake said of Myers’ performance. “He has been upping his level of dedication and is reaping the benefits.”

Jamil McClintock ’08 raced to a 7.67 preliminary time in the 55-meter hurdles to qualify for an extremely competitive final, to which only seven of 60 competitors advanced. He took fifth overall on the day, and his new time moves him to third in the conference.

Luke Renick ’08 went to the straightaway after McClintock, and the sophomore class continued its dominance with Renick’s 6.57 effort in the 60meter dash. Renick now ranks in the top five of the league in the short sprint.

Sean O’Brien ’09 raced to a personal best 1:54.5 in the 800-meter run. Nick Sarro ’08 and Sports Staff Writer Brian Schmidt ’09 also recorded personal records in the mile, and each won his heat.

“It’s great to see the program’s youth steadily improve,” Lake said.

Myers noted that classmates Ari Zamir ’08 and Alex Enscoe ’08 also set personal bests in the 3,000-meter event.

“It was a solid day for the distance men,” Myers said.

“We’re getting stronger as our training progresses.”

Ray Bobrownicki ’06, a Heptagonal games veteran with four individual titles to his name, finally found his mark after a couple weeks of disappointing performances.

Bobrownicki won the championship division of the high jump, clearing six feet, 11 3/4 inches to remain at the top of the league standings.

“Ray tends to get up for the bigger meets,” Lake said. “It was mentally a great day for him.”

David Howard ’09 set a personal best in the weight throw of 55-7 1/2, moving him to second in the Ivies and breaking into Brown’s top 10 list for the first time. Cocaptain Jake Golenor ’06 also remained in the runner-up position in the other throws event, the shot put. Golenor placed fourth overall with his 53-9 1/4 effort.

Dissmore and Renick returned to the track at the end of the day, joining up with Christian Tabib ’07 and Mike Pruzinsky ’07 in the 4x400meter relay. The squad clocked its fastest time of the season, 3:16.38, to qualify for the seeded heat at Heps.

The men will have one last chance to tune up and hit their final marks this weekend at the USA Track and Field New England Championships, hosted by Harvard.

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2006 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD PAGE 9

M. tennis

W. tennis

continued from page 12

continued from page 12

taking the breaker 11-9.

“I wasn’t feeling well, so I wasn’t playing very well throughout the match,” Tedaldi said. “At the beginning of the breaker, I wasn’t really into it.”

But with encouragement from his teammates, Tedaldi was able to pull through with the win. “Everyone else finished their matches before me, and they got behind me and gave me their energy,” Tedaldi said.

“They really supported me.

I think it was more of a team win.”

Overall, Gresh was extremely pleased with the team’s performance against Stony Brook. “The guys served well and dictated play,” Gresh said. “They were able to play aggressively and control the tempo of the match.”

The team was eager to compete in the afternoon, but when the match against URI was canceled, the Bears decided to remain indoors anyway. This was no hibernation — instead, the Bears continued practicing until 6 p.m. “We haven’t seen the outside world since about 8 this morning,” Gresh joked during the practice session.

Gresh said that the players must focus on improving their transitions from the baseline to the net. “We need to work on our approach shots and first volleys,” he said.

The team is hoping its hard work pays off against Virginia Tech on Sunday and Lafayette College and Marist College in a doubleheader Monday.

afternoon. Despite losing 61, 6-3, every game and every point was fought hard.

“The score reflects my opponent’s ability to finish,” Ames said. “I developed points correctly but couldn’t close out.”

Ames also commented on her difficult start to the spring season, during which she has posted a 0-4 singles record.

“It doesn’t feel good to lose, but I need to go out there and figure out what I need to do better,” she said.

“There is no time to feel sorry for yourself.”

Sara Mansur ’09’s match seemed very similar to Ames’. The impressive firstyear played No. 3 singles in place of No. 2 singles player Amanda Saiontz ’07, who was absent due to illness.

Mansur lost 6-2, 6-3, falling short at the critical points.

W. track continued from page 12 day for her.”

Herald Assistant Sports Editor Jilane Rodgers ’06 came in 14th in the 5,000-meter run with a time of 17:30.77, setting a personal best by 35 seconds and qualifying for the ECAC championships.

Smita Gupta ’08 ran a 5:02.46 mile for a 13th-place finish. Lake said that Gupta has been putting in consistent performances all season and that her goal is to crack five minutes.

Jumper and co-captain Brittany Grovey ’06 led the team’s efforts on the field.

Grovey, whose specialty is the triple jump, took sixth in the long jump with a mark of 17 feet, 8 inches, as she continues to expand her repertoire for Heps.

Tiffany Chang ’08 took ninth in the pole vault with a spring of 11-6 1/4. According to Lake, Chang’s leaps could put her anywhere between second and sixth at the conference championship.

Lake was pleased with what she saw Friday. “Overall I’m really excited,” she said. “We’re heading in the right direction and gearing up toward the Ivy League championship.”

The Bears have one more tune-up before the Heptagonal Championships on Feb. 2526. On Saturday, the team will compete at the USA Track and Field New England Championships in Cambridge, Mass.

Down a break at 2-1 in the second set, Mansur could not capitalize on several opportunities to break back in a game that lasted over 10 minutes and featured a remarkably high number of deuces.

“That was a tough game,” Mansur said, “But you have to be able to move on and not get frustrated.”

Mansur lost the next two games and was down 5-1 with her opponent set to serve out the match when Michelle Pautler ’07 jogged onto the court to give some veteran advice.

“Michelle told me that however tired I was feeling, my opponent was feeling it worse,” Mansur said. “She inspired me not to go out without a fight.”

For a moment, it seemed Pautler’s words were going to result in something special, as Mansur fought back to 5-3 before finally succumbing.

The Bears hope to rebound this Saturday at home versus Boston University.

Swimming continued from page 12 Goodman ’09 and Robinson recorded a time of 3:31.62 to nip the Bulldogs at the wall.

The men’s loss dropped the Bears to 2-5 in the Eastern Intercollegiate Swimming League standings and 3-5 overall, while Cornell improved to 6-2 and 8-2.

It was the regular season finale for the Big Red, who held on to a third-place league ranking.

Despite the loss, the slim margin of victory proved encouraging for the Brown swimmers, who continue to cut their times.

“We went into the meet believing we had a solid chance of beating Cornell,” said Eric Brumberg ’06. “Leaving the meet, I still think that our team is capable of doing so. We just lacked the second- and thirdplace finishes to win today.”

Brumberg brought home the team’s first victory, taking the top spot in the 200-yard individual medley in 1:53.00. Brian Sharkey ’06 led the sprinters once again, taking second in the 50-yard

freestyle and third in the 100yard freestyle. The senior also swam to a first-place finish in the 400-yard freestyle relay along with Brumberg, Brian Kelly ’08 and Matt Goracy ’06.

Arkady Rasin ’09 led a 12-3 sweep of the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 2:14.43. He was followed closely

by Grant Garcia ’08 (2:15.36) and Michael O’Mara ’07 (2:17.30).

Matthew Freitas ’07 turned in another dominating performance on the boards, winning the 1-meter event with a score of 283.73 and placing second on the high dive with 247.80. Rookie standout William Kai Robinson ’09 turned in a solid day of his own, scoring 255.15 to win the 3-meter and 246.90 to take thirdplace in the 1-meter.

The men will host Yale Saturday at noon at the Smith Swim Center in the team’s final home competition of the season. The women will return to competition Feb. 2325 in Cambridge, Mass., as they take part in the Ivy League Championships, hosted by Harvard.

EDITORIAL/LETTERS THE BROWN DAILY HERALD · TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2006 · PAGE 10

STAFF EDITORIAL

Fill in the blank On a campus where high-pressure testing situations are the exception rather than the rule, it can sometimes be hard to imagine a scenario in which one errant notation (or lack thereof) could have long-lasting implications. Yesterday, however, students from the on-campus group Housing Opportunities for People Everywhere walked to South Main Street to protest a seemingly innocuous bureaucratic oversight that could have serious ramifications for the local homeless population. In failing to mark one box “Not Applicable” on its application for federal financial assistance, state officials may have cost the homeless community $2.2 million.

The blunder could terminate programs crucial in addressing the state’s affordable housing shortage. Both Amos House’s Mawney Street program and the Garden Street program in Pawtucket provide permanent apartments for homeless individuals. Other programs that offer transitional housing and support services — which highlight the fact that homelessness cannot be solved by additional housing construction alone — might be affected as well.

Though the officials responsible for the flaws in Rhode Island’s HUD application should be held accountable for their error, we hope that HUD will not deprive Rhode Island of important programs that could prove vital in its continuing struggle to remedy an ever-visible housing shortage. Moreover, we commend members of HOPE and other local activists for calling media attention to the issue and demanding action from the state’s congressional delegation.

But HUD’s decision to deny full funding to Rhode Island homelessness programs may reflect a larger ideological difference that also merits debate. The department’s emphasis on housing construction over supportive services partially explains its decision to go ahead with funding cuts, according to Eric Hirsch, government relations chair for the Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless. The fact that the department has not granted multi-year renewals to programs that provide mental health counseling, case management and substance abuse treatment seems to corroborate Hirsch’s claim. Given the highly developed nature of much of Rhode Island, and Providence in particular, HUD’s focus on construction projects may not be the best one for the Ocean State. More development cannot occur on land that is already in use.

We believe that this narrow focus represents a simplistic approach to a complex problem and is perhaps symptomatic of an organization bent on meeting construction quotas rather than enacting long-term solutions. While the most recent funding cuts — which stem from an application miscue — provide a compelling story for activists to rally around and media outlets to cover, the ideology that may have led to the cuts demand attention as well.

ROX A N N E PA L M E R

LETTERS Respect for others outweighs free speech To the Editor: Does anyone remember “Sexy Jesus”? The comic strip, which ran last semester, sensually depicted the Christian messiah and other Christian figures.

It was well within free speech rights to run that comic strip, but given how it offended Christian members of our community, it was appropriately discontinued.

The Feb. 7 editorial cartoon depicting the Prophet Mohammed presents an analogous case.

By condemning it, we are not suggesting that all students follow Islamic law, only that all students respect the Muslim members of our community.

In both this communal forum and in our everyday interactions, we must work hard to voice our genuine concerns respectfully. Such sensitivity keeps the Brown community functioning. It is more important than humor.

One crucial difference distinguishes last week’s editorial cartoon from the “Sexy Jesus” comic strip: Christian students are well-represented on

this campus. Muslim students are not. While such cartoons are always offensive, under-represented groups can feel especially marginalized or unwelcome. As a group of Baha’i, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim and Unitarian student leaders, we hope that with due respect and common curiosity, this campus can welcome all its members, even those who believe in “G/g/od/s.”

Atena Asiaii ‘08 Eli Braun ‘07 JT Do ‘07 Benj Kamm ‘06.5 Diana Moke ‘07 Fatima Quraishi ‘06 Aazam Vahdatshoar ‘06 Gowri Vijayakumar ‘06 Members of the Multi-Faith Council Feb. 12

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD EDITORIAL Robbie Corey-Boulet, Editor-in-Chief Justin Elliott, Executive Editor Ben Miller, Executive Editor Stephanie Clark, Senior Editor Katie Lamm, Senior Editor Jonathan Sidhu, Arts & Culture Editor Jane Tanimura, Arts & Culture Editor Stu Woo, Campus Watch Editor Mary-Catherine Lader, Features Editor Ben Leubsdorf, Metro Editor Anne Wootton, Metro Editor Eric Beck, News Editor Patrick Harrison, Opinions Editor Nicholas Swisher, Opinions Editor Stephen Colelli, Sports Editor Christopher Hatfield, Sports Editor Justin Goldman, Asst. Sports Editor Jilane Rodgers, Asst. Sports Editor Charlie Vallely, Asst. Sports Editor PRODUCTION Allison Kwong, Design Editor Taryn Martinez, Copy Desk Chief Lela Spielberg, Copy Desk Chief Mark Brinker, Graphics Editor Joe Nagle, Graphics Editor

PHOTO Jean Yves Chainon, Photo Editor Jacob Melrose, Photo Editor Ashley Hess, Sports Photo Editor Kori Schulman, Sports Photo Editor BUSINESS Ryan Shewcraft, General Manager Lisa Poon, Executive Manager David Ranken, Executive Manager Mitch Schwartz, Executive Manager Laurie-Ann Paliotti, Sr. Advertising Manager Susan Dansereau, Office Manager POST- MAGAZINE Sonia Saraiya, Editor-in-Chief Taryn Martinez, Associate Editor Ben Bernstein, Features Editor Matt Prewitt, Features Editor Elissa Barba, Design Editor Lindsay Harrison, Graphics Editor Constantine Haghighi, Film Editor Paul Levande, Film Editor Jesse Adams, Music Editor Katherine Chan, Music Editor Hillary Dixler, Off-the-Hill Editor Abigail Newman, Theater Editor

Out with ‘The Ratty,’ in with ‘The Sharpe’ To the Editor: As we’ve taken to calling it, “The Sharpe” is a wonderful place. Krispy Kreme donuts, London broil, rice and beans and a killer staff. For years, Brown students have referred to the main dining hall as “The Ratty,” derived from “rat factory,” a label which has plagued the Brown community for too long. We’re weary of such a graphic connotation associated with our good friends in Brown Dining Services.

Even though it may not be your favorite place to dine in Providence, is it fair to use such a derogatory name for an establishment where hundreds of hard working members of our community earn a living?

Would you rather go home to tell your family “It was an all right day at the Ratty,” or “It was a great day at

the Sharpe”?

The name “The Ratty” doesn’t instill a sense of pride in the workers who work there or the students who eat there. And it certainly isn’t conducive to an enjoyable experience.

“The Sharpe” is appealing. The name evokes a classy restaurant where you could sit down and have a delicious meal. “The Ratty” just sounds gross.

In the spirit of Student Worker Appreciation Week, let’s give one of the biggest employer locations on campus a decent name.

Tito Janikowski ’08 Henry Stegner ’08 Feb. 13

Adam Kroll, Allison Kwong, Night Editors Katie McComas, Lela Spielberg, Copy Editors Senior Staff Writers Simmi Aujla, Stephanie Bernhard, Melanie Duch, Ross Frazier, Jonathan Herman, Rebecca Jacobson, Chloe Lutts, Caroline Silverman Staff Writers Anna Abramson, Justin Amoah, Zach Barter, Allison Erich Bernstein, Brenna Carmody, Alissa Cerny, Stewart Dearing, Gabriella Doob, Phillip Gara, Hannah Miller, Aidan Levy, Jill Luxenberg, Taryn Martinez, Ari Rockland-Miller, Jane Porter, Chelsea Rudman, Sonia Saraiya, Kam Sripada, Robin Steele, Kim Stickels, Nicole Summers, Laura Supkoff, Spencer Trice, Ila Tyagi, Sara Walter Sports Staff Writers Erin Frauenhofer, Kate Klonick, Madeleine Marecki, George Mesthos, Eric Perlmutter, Marco Santini, Tom Trudeau Account Administrators Alexandra Annuziato, Emilie Aries, Steven Butschi, Dee Gill, Rahul Keerthi, Kate Love, Ally Ouh, Nilay Patel, Ashfia Rahman, Rukesh Samarasekera, Jen Solin, Bonnie Wong Design Staff Ross Frazier, Adam Kroll, Andrew Kuo, Gabriela Scarritt Photo Staff CJ Adams, Chris Bennett, Meg Boudreau, Tobias Cohen, Lindsay Harrison, Matthew Lent, Christopher Schmitt, Oliver Schulze, Juliana Wu, Min Wu Copy Editors Aubry Bracco, Jacob Frank, Christopher Gang, Taryn Martinez, Katie McComas, Sara Molinaro, Heather Peterson, Sonia Saraiya, Lela Spielberg

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OPINIONS

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD · TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2006 · PAGE 11

Miami vice Upon returning home, a first-year views her hometown in a new light

BY RESHMA and homes plan to effectively demolish paper sometimes, where she businesses RAMACHANDRAN scattered through- low income public housing would talk about city politics are OPINIONS COLUMNIST

I come from a “foreign” city, paradoxically located within the United States, a city that most consider to a separate entity from its own continent. Miami, Fla. is, in some ways, a microcosm of the world (although the weather seems to be nicer than average). Synonymous with diversity, Miami is a mixture of suburbia, skyscrapers and slums — each mirroring and accommodating the citizens who inhabit this paradoxical city of fast and slow, calm and chaos.

I went back to Miami this past winter break expecting to discover once again the benefits of home. Following my first real experience with cold (not as I used to think of it — 60 degrees) and classes, I was prepared to relax, to exchange stories with my friends from other schools about first semester and to bond (or grumble) over the drastic change of weather we had experienced.

One of my first stops was the Miami Workers Center to visit my friend, Sushma, a former Brown student at her workplace. I knew vaguely of what Sushma did — she was quoted in the local news and

and housing. I knew she was trying to help people in some way or another. I knew she worked in Liberty City.

Liberty City is an area in Miami, around forty minutes northwest of my home in the suburbs. I had heard it was run-down and unsafe, filled with criminals and poverty. As I got off the expressway, I was

out. According to Sushma, the scattered, dilapidated buildings over the years have become even more sparse as citizens fled. We passed by a bulldozer running over piles of rock in an empty lot on the side of the road. Before the bulldozer, public housing for over 4,000 residents filled the lot. Now there were only

Now there were only broken buildings and a twoyear-old unfulfilled promise to rebuild the homes. met with a narrow stretch of road that led into a row of small buildings crowded, decaying, dying. I entered the Miami Workers Center and was soon engulfed into a traditional “Sushma-hug.” We talked for a while, and then she decided to take me on a tour around Liberty City.

The population of Liberty City is composed primarily of current and former welfare recipients, public housing residents, low-wage workers and the unemployed. Small

broken buildings and a twoyear-old unfulfilled promise to rebuild the homes. Capacity: 850 residents.

On the opposite side of the road are rows of public housing buried under fallen trees — a gift from the hurricanes this past year.

They too were to be gone soon and ‘rebuilt.’ Condominium owners, unlike most of Miami, ventured into Liberty City in hopes of developing thanks to the Miami-Dade Housing Authority’s HOPE IV

and to displace 6000 AfricanAmerican residents. Public housing would be reduced by 90 percent. Where would the others go? When would the county start building?

Where would they stay in the meantime? Does the county care about public housing? All were unanswered questions.

The Miami Workers Center has been battling the county since HOPE IV — trying to throw out the indifference of the county and a majority of its residents to this situation.

No one comes to Liberty City, as it’s not aesthetically pleasing, nor is it an industry haven, nor does it give anything back to the county but dust. While Sushma continued the grand tour of Liberty City, a part of my hometown, I turned to the window to hide my face from her. I kept thinking of how many places existed like this, where there wasn’t a Miami Workers Center with a few good people fighting against indifference, derelict places that no one can call “home.” But what is home?

I looked outside once again and saw that the yellow bulldozer had finally stopped.

Reshma Ramachandran ’09 thinks the Sunshine State isn’t always so sunny.

UCS is done playing games UCS vice president looks at organization’s triumphs, failures and offers reform

BY ZACHARY TOWNSEND OPINIONS COLUMNIST

The Undergraduate Council of Students needs change. It is my desire to be candid with you about what is happening to the organization and to this university.

As many of you may know, I was elected Vice President of UCS. I am the VP of the student body, but I honestly do not feel that way. Like UCS’s critics, I feel that UCS has been isolated and closed.

Students feel we do not represent their particular interests. This perception deters students from attending meetings, sending us e-mails and from communicating with us, reinforcing and advancing the spiral of isolation.

UCS has implemented IPTV, brought flat screens TVs and copies of the New York Times to dining halls, offered free summer storage, advocated study abroad and advising resources, brought about a student activities fee increase, created more common rooms and 24-hour study spaces, created satellite fitness centers and much more. Much of this work goes on behind the scenes, and is performed by people whose concern is not reading their names on the front page of The Herald.

As UCS moves forward, we need to widen the scope of our thinking and improve our interactions among students, so that the work of your elected representatives (and mine, too) is pursuing goals that we, the student body, lay out.

There are problems here at Brown.

Some are practical and hinge on money

and university priorities. I do not know one person who does not want bigger cups in the Ratty or who is really happy with Residential Life, meal plans, dorm life or Brown’s current speaking venues.

Other problems are abstract, and, while less visible, even more serious: changing admissions standards, movement toward an emphasis on the Graduate School and surreptitious attacks on Brown’s culture and our administration’s effort to make us a poorer Harvard. On all of these issues, however, UCS cannot effectively represent students if we don’t hear from you.

sit on our asses and grumble. But we can do more. Given the magnitude of the issues facing our campus, why can’t there be 3,000-signature-petitions on President Simmons’s desk or 30 people sitting in Vice President for Campus Life and Student Services David Greene’s office at all times?

We need to start acting like a student body that has power. To do anything less is to go quietly into our graduations, and to leave Brown no better — perhaps even worse — than we found it. To those who say students do not care, are too complacent, apathetic and insulated, I can only reply that recent evidence around the plus/minus issue suggests otherwise.

Many of us care about this university, both its past and its future; we need to secure both with action in the present.

If UCS and the student body do not use their powerful instruments of change — our sheer numbers, our undying love for Brown, our unique perspective, our energy and passion — then years of student activism will be forgotten, and we will watch from the far side of commencement as our alma mater ceases to make us proud. Retribution will not limp in catching up with our mistakes and in 20 years those things that we value in Brown — our unique curriculum, student body and culture — may all be gone.

They say that decisions are made by those who show up. This semester, we’re showing up. Will we see you there?

If you talk to us, we will match your intensity and interest, and we will devote our time to your issues.

UCS has relationships with administrators and the influence to produce change. Most of you have ideas, suggestions and probably problems and gripes, too. But we can only be effective when you are willing to guide us. Come to meetings Wednesday 8 p.m. in Peturutti.

Email us (or me at townsend@brown. edu). Stop us on the Green. If you talk to us, we will match your intensity and interest, and we will devote our time to your issues.

Without student support, UCS’s power is small. It’s a simple and boring dance: UCS complains, the administration says no, and students and UCS members alike

Zachary Townsend ’08 finally shaved, displacing a family of birds.

Love, in conflict with peace

BY MICHAEL RAMOS-LYNCH OPINIONS COLUMNIST Valentine’s Day is that time of year when we pick out that perfect gift for our special someone. But as lovers choose gifts, I beg them not to purchase “blood” or “conflict” diamonds.

If you aren’t familiar with blooddiamonds, rebels in African countries are using diamonds to fund horribly violent missions along the Ivory Coast. Conflict diamonds are being used to fund the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola and the Revolutionary United Front. The United Nations argues that both UNITA and RUF are acting against the U.N.’s efforts of bringing peace to Angola and Sierra Leone. As a result, 45 countries, ranging from Angola to Japan to Zimbabwe, came together and created the “Kimberly Process”, which requires that diamonds mined after Jan. 1, 2003 be shipped in special containers, which are to serve as proof that the diamonds are not blood diamonds. But there are flaws in the “Kimberly Process.” There is evidence to support that diamonds from the Ivory Coast are being sold to Western retailers despite the anti- “blood-diamond” policy.

The Kimberly Process is not working and we must quickly find another solution, as this issue is undeniably as urgent as it is tragic. Martin Chungong Ayafor, chairman of the Sierra Leone Panel of Experts, recently quipped, “‘Diamonds are forever’... but lives are not. We must spare people the ordeal of war, mutilations and death for the sake of conflict diamonds.”

Sierra Leone’s decade-long civil war has left upwards of 50,000 dead, half a million refugees, and thousands of amputees.

Sierra Leone is currently ranked last on the U.N.’s Human Development Index.

A U.N. Expert Panel report published in December 2000 estimated that in Sierra Leone, the RUF’s diamond trade amounted to anywhere from $25 million to $125 million in diamonds per year in the late 1990s. Estimates of the proportion of “blood” and “conflict” diamonds in the diamond industry range from 4 to 15 percent.

While most college students can’t afford to purcahse diamonds, we can easily make a dent in the negative aspects of the diamond industry by convincing our parents, older siblings and friends who are in the position to buy diamonds to seek alternative gifts. But if there is no alternative to be found, maybe the fact that only 300,000 carats come from the Ivory Coast each year, while the world produces a total of 155.7 million carats, will put your mind at ease.

Given how many diamonds the Ivory Coast produces in comparison to the rest of the world, many would argue that the diamond conflict has improved since the early 1990s. It is obvious that the fight to reduce the problems associated with diamonds mined in the Ivory Coast is a continuing struggle, but I know that I will do all I can this Valentine’s Day to reduce the bloodshed for diamonds. I will start my campaign against blooddiamonds by strongly advising all of you to ditch the diamonds and buy Godiva chocolates. But if those Valentine’s Day enthusiasts do decide to take the blooddiamond road, there is no reason to stop at the diamond. They should also give their loved one the remains of the people who were slaughtered, since they paid for that also, dearly.

Michael Ramos-Lynch ’09 says get rough with RUF.

SPORTS TUESDAY THE BROWN DAILY HERALD · FEBRUARY 14, 2006 · PAGE 12

No. 43 m. tennis sweeps Stony Brook

Ashley Hess / Herald

Phil Charm ’06 was one of four Bears to win their singles match in straight sets. Charm won his match 7-6 (8), 6-3.

BY ERIN FRAUENHOFER SPORTS STAFF WRITER

Not even a blizzard can beat the men’s tennis team. The Bears, ranked No. 43 in the country, showed off their brawn Sunday with a 7-0 shutout over Stony Brook University. Later, when heavy snow prevented the University of Rhode Island from venturing to the Pizzitola Sports Center, the Bears hit the court anyway for several hours of practice.

The Bears began their domination by sweeping all three doubles matches.

Co-captain Phil Charm ’06 and Dan Hanegby ’07 took the first doubles match 8-5 against Michael Crooks and David Kortum. At second doubles, Eric Thomas ’07 and Sam Garland ’09 had an 83 victory over Jean-Francois Robitaille and Nihal Advani, while the third doubles pair of Chris Lee ’09 and Saurabh Kohli ’08 finished off Tal Meir and Youssef Fassi-Fehri with a convincing 8-3 win.

“We did a real solid job from the beginning with the doubles point,” said Assistant Coach Jamie Gresh. “Lee and Saurabh

set the tone for the rest of the match.”

Singles play brought six more triumphs for the Bears, four of which came in straight sets. Thomas took a 7-5, 7-5 win over Meir at first singles, and Hanegby had an even easier time at second singles with a 6-3, 6-0 win over Crooks. At third singles, Charm defeated Advani 7-6 (8), 6-3, and Kohli overpowered Fassi-Fehri 6-4, 6-2 at fifth singles.

“The guys’ energy was really high,” Gresh said. “They were playing at a high level.”

Playing at a high level was certainly a must at fourth and sixth singles, as these matches were determined in three sets.

After narrowly dropping his first set 6-7 at fourth singles, Basu Ratnam ’09 rallied in the next two sets for resounding scores of 6-2 and 6-2 to take the match from Robitaille.

“I was nervous because this was one of my first starts,” Ratnam said. “But I just had to go for my first serves and stay steady, and the second and third sets were pretty easy.”

At sixth singles, co-captain Luke Tedaldi ’06 won his first set against Kortum 7-6 but dropped the second set 2-6.

Then, in the third set breaker, he fought off an incredible six match points before finally see M. TENNIS, page 9

Larson ’06 breaks record as both swim teams fall to Yale

BY HUGH MURPHY SPORTS STAFF WRITER

The men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams had a tough weekend on the road, each dropping dual matches to conference opponents. The men turned in some fast times but were unable to upset a talented Cornell squad, losing 126-102. The women were led by a school record from Jessica Larson ’06 in the 3-meter dive but failed to defeat Ivy League rival Yale. The Bulldogs took the meet 160-140 in their final home meet of the season.

On the women’s side, Larson etched her name into the record books with a score of 308.69 in the 3-meter

event. The mark surpassed the previous record of 308.20 held

by Sharon Cleary ’88 for 18 years. Larson’s domination of the Ivy League in both 1- and 3-meter dives this year made the record seem inevitable.

“I’ve wanted to break that record every year since I’ve been here,” Larson said. “But it didn’t happen until my lastever dual meet.”

Larson won the 1-meter event as well, nailing down a score of 271.79. Amy Latinen ’07 and Dana Meadow ’07 finished in second and third, respectively.

Latinen also placed third in the 3-meter dive.

In the pool, Eileen Robinson ’06 continued her onslaught in

the 50-yard freestyle, winning in 23.94 to remain undefeated on the season. She won the 100-yard freestyle as well, clocking a time of 52.49.

Elizabeth Wong ’06 sprinted to victory in the 100-yard butterfly, finishing in 57.35.

Meredith Cocco ’07 touched the wall in 2:06.93 to win the 200-yard butterfly, less than a second ahead of teammate Ashley Wallace ’07. The Bears picked up another top finish in the 200-yard freestyle, when Becky Kowalsky ’07 finished in 1:53.91.

Bruno edged out Yale in the 400-yard freestyle relay to win the final event of the day. The team of Wong, Kowalsky, Sarah see SWIMMING, page 9

Willard ’06 and distance medley break records at BU’s St. Valentine’s meet

BY GEORGE MESTHOS SPORTS STAFF WRITER

The women’s track and field team’s onslaught on the University’s all-time charts continued this weekend at Boston University’s St. Valentine’s Invitational. Two school records fell and the 4x400-meter relay team finished the day by bringing a victory back home to College Hill.

The team of Naja Ferjan ’07, Anna Willard ’06, co-captain Kelly Powell ’06 and Kat D’Auria ’09 combined to break a six-yearold school record in the distance medley relay. The group finished in 11:40.03 — four seconds better than the previous mark — and took second in the event to Boston University. Willard ran the 1,000-meter in 2:52.88 to shatter a 19-year-old record, winning the race in the process.

Ferjan teamed up with Laura Snizek ’07, Akilah King ’08 and Nicole Burns ’09 to win the 4x400-meter relay in 3:49.29, taking the final event of the day.

Burns, who ran the first leg, got pumped up when she spied University of Connecticut blue in her team’s heat.

“I don’t really like UConn,” she said. “I knew I had to get out hard.”

Snizek, Ferjan and King followed Burns’ lead to secure the win. King dominated the anchor leg for the second straight week with a 55-second split. “We did our thing and we won,” Burns said.

Earlier in the day, Burns finished ninth in the 400-meter run in 56.91, rebounding from a performance last week that was almost two seconds slower.

Daisy Ames ’07 ran down a deep forehand, scrambled to the other side of the court for a backhand and then hustled and lunged forward to reach a drop volley. Her opponent, the towering lefty from Sacramento State University, Luba Schifris, was seemingly unfazed by Ames’ miracle shots and finally put the ball away to go up 5-1 in the first set.

It was that kind of day for the Bears.

Ames suffered her fourth consecutive defeat at No. 1 singles, and the Bears lost 52 to the No. 38 Hornets on Saturday to fall to 2-2 on the season.

Across the board, the Bears played well but were overmatched by stronger and more powerful opponents. The only victories came from Kara Zeder ’07 at No. 5 singles and Kelley Kirkpatrick ’08 at No. 6 singles.

Ames’ match served as a microcosm for the entire see W. TENNIS, page 9

see W. TRACK, page 9

Dan Grossman ’71

Anna Willard ’06 broke a 19-yearold Brown record in the 1,000meter run, clocking in at 2:52.88.

Two Bears enter U.’s top 10 at BU’s St.Valentine’s meet

BY JILANE RODGERS ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR

BOSTON — This past Saturday, the men’s track team continued to make strides toward improving on last year’s sixth-place Heptagonal finish. With only two weeks remaining until championship weekend, the Bears traveled

No. 38 Sacramento State too much for w. tennis in 5-2 loss

BY BART STEIN SPORTS STAFF WRITER

Burns, who was in the secondfastest heat, explained that some external elements helped her better her time.

“The competition was much better this weekend and the track was amazing,” she said.

Burns also said that BU’s track suited her style better.

“The turns were wider, which made the straight-aways seem a lot shorter. You took a couple steps and then you were on the next curve.”

Several other members of the track team logged productive performances. Ferjan ran a 2:11.81 in the 800-meters, good for sixth.

“She hasn’t really run it that much this season,” said Director of Track and Field and Cross Country Craig Lake. “And I imagine she’ll continue to improve. It was a phenomenal

north to Boston to take on top competition from the collegiate ranks as well as the surrounding area. Boston University’s St. Valentine’s Invitational allowed for athletes from top track clubs around the nation to compete, and though no team score was tallied, several Bears rose to meet the challenge.

Dallas Dissmore ’06 led the charge in the 500-meter run, clocking a blazing 1:02.28. The proven sprinter went through the 400-meter mark of the two-anda-half lap race in 48 seconds and showed no signs of slowing.

“He ran an aggressive race,” said Director of Track and Field and Cross Country Craig Lake.

“It’s exactly what will be necessary at Heps.”

His time ranks him second all-time for Brown, topped only

by Trinity Gray ’00, who once see M. TRACK, page 8 BROWN SPORTS SCHEDULE TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 14

Dan Grossman ’71

Dallas Dissmore ’06 ran the second-fastest time in Brown history in the 500-meter dash, crossing the finish line in 1:02.28.

W. HOCKEY: vs. Yale, 7 p.m., Meehan Auditorium M. & W. SQUASH: at Trinity