Wednesday, January 24, 2007

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, J ANUAR Y 24, 2007

Volume CXLII, No. 1

Since 1866, Daily Since 1891

Simmons not in running for top job at Harvard

Friedman Study Center opens

BY STEPHANIE BERNHARD FEATURES EDITOR

After two years of planning, the $4 million Susan and Richard A. Friedman Study Center is now open to students as a 24-hour study space. Located in the basement, lobby and mezzanine levels of the Sciences Library, the 27,000-square-foot center contains new, brightly colored furniture, a cafe and dozens of new computers.

The SciLi basement — Level A — now houses over 65 computer workstations, a multimedia workstation area, two conference rooms, eight private group-study rooms featuring dr y-erase walls and an assistive technology room for the vision and hearing impaired.

The center has also been outfitted with entirely new lighting

and furniture, some designed for “serious study” and some “nap-worthy,” according to Katherine Wolford, project director for Campus Life and Student Ser vices. The basement windows now look out onto several new gardens, some still under construction, on the librar y terrace, while the main SciLi reference and checkout ser vices, previously located in the lobby, are now on Level A. Though the floor structurally comprises one large, rectangular room, furniture and decorative barriers break it into several sections. Signs with decibel levels, ranging from zero to 50, denote how quiet students should be in a specific area.

The revamped lobby contains the new Friedman Cafe,

BY ROSS FRAZIER NEWS EDITOR

him first, a move the veteran professor, who had taught at Brown since 1965, called “unfair” and “unjust.”

“It’s inconceivable that they treated me this badly,” Erikson said. “It’s certainly not collegial, not hearing my side of the stor y … and wiping my course out.”

Bergeron said in an e-mail to The Herald that Erikson’s classes were canceled because they lacked “proper departmental

President Ruth Simmons is not a serious candidate for the presidency of Har vard University, according to a Jan. 10 report in the Harvard Crimson, but her name continues to appear in media reports covering the school’s search for a new leader. Perhaps in response to those reports, Simmons bluntly indicated Tuesday that she will not be leaving for Har vard.

“I feel extremely fortunate to do what I do at Brown. I can think of no better job. I am not a candidate for the Har vard presidency,” Simmons said in a statement to The Herald.

In December 2006, Simmons was one of 30 potential candidates on a list that Har vard’s nine-member search committee gave to the school’s Board of Overseers, as reported by the Crimson and the New York Times. But since then, that list has been pared down and no longer includes any Ivy League presidents, according to reports leaked to the press over the past several weeks.

Convincing someone to take what many consider the most prestigious job in higher education is not as easy as it sounds.

Simmons gave her first explicit denial yesterday, and officials from Columbia, Princeton, Stanford, the University of Cambridge and the University of Pennsylvania, among others, have all said they would not accept Har vard’s presidency.

Simmons, who earned her Ph.D. at Har vard, originally suggested to a group of parents at an Orientation event in September that she would not accept a position at the Cambridge, Mass., university.

“I was just saying that I was ver y happy and satisfied to be at Brown and that I could think of no better job,” Simmons said in a September inter view with The Herald. “I think I even conceded

continued on page 10

continued on page 4

Christopher Bennett / Herald

Former Senator Lincoln Chafee ‘75 in his office at the Watson Institute.

Chafee takes Watson post enjoyed most in my time at the Senate,” Chafee said.

Chafee said he is looking forward to “the chance to do something different” from politics. After graduating from Brown in 1975 with a degree in classics, he worked as a farrier, a blacksmith who shoes horses, in Montana and Canada for several years before he returned to the Ocean State and was elected to the Warwick City Council in 1986.

In 1992 he became mayor of Warwick, and in 1999 then-Gov. Lincoln Almond appointed Chafee to fill his father’s Senate seat after John Chafee passed away. Chafee won a full term in 2000, but he was defeated in his re-election bid by Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse in November.

“It’s been a long stretch of being

BY SIMMI AUJLA METRO EDITOR

In October 2002, then-Sen. Lincoln Chafee ’75 of Rhode Island was the lone Senate Republican to vote against authorizing the invasion of Iraq. ““The last thing we want is unnecessary conflict,” he told The Herald on Monday.

This semester, Chafee will lead an undergraduate study group at Brown centered on the same belief — that nations should try their best to avoid violent conflict.

Chafee joined the Watson Institute for International Studies Jan. 7 as a distinguished visiting fellow, the first former senator from Rhode Island to join the institute, according to Associate Director Geoffrey Kirkman ’91. “(The job is) perfect because international relations was the area I

continued on page 4

Christopher Bennett / Herald

The Friedman Study Center in the Sciences Library, now open to students, addresses the long-standing need for a 24-hour study space on campus.

continued on page 8

Canceled course won’t stop professor from teaching

BY STU WOO FEATURES EDITOR

Officially, his course is canceled, but that won’t stop G.E. Erikson, professor emeritus of medical sciences, from teaching it anyway.

Since he retired in 1990, Erikson had been teaching a University course every semester pro bono, he said. But late in December, he received a letter from Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron telling him that his two classes, one that would have been

taught this semester and another in the fall, had been canceled because they were not affiliated with any department, which violated University rules.

After receiving the letter, Erikson decided he still wanted to teach. So he will, by holding “Ventures in the History of Biology, Medicine, and Public Health,” formerly UC 102, as an informal course twice a week over this semester. It will be free of charge, he said, to Brown students, community members and whoever else

wants to attend.

“It’s something that I very much enjoy learning about and helping other people learn about,” he said.

Still, Erikson said he was upset with the way University officials canceled his classes. The former professor said he told administrators about the affiliation problem in 2005 and offered to work with them to find a solution. But he said Bergeron and the University decided to cancel his classes without consulting

Snow and State of the Union mark students’ return to campus

BY CHAZ FIRESTONE SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Though she hid it well behind a smile, Deeksha Gupta ’10 had a marathon travel journey back to Brown. After a four-hour drive from her hometown of Chandigarh, India to Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi, 10 hours on a plane to London’s Heathrow Airport, a 20-hour stopover in England, seven hours on a second plane to Boston, a missed bus at South Station, a commuter rail ride to Providence, a taxi cab to Brown and a swan dive into her bed in Keeney Quadrangle, Gupta was finally back.

“I was literally falling over by the time I

INSIDE:

3 CAMPUS NEWS

made it here,” said Gupta, who was feeling the effects of a 10.5-hour time difference.

“Once I got into bed, I thought I’d never leave.”

In addition to jet lag, Gupta has had to adjust to the biting Providence weather, which dipped into the teens over the weekend. But Gupta said that the greater contrast was the presence of snow, which is seldom seen in her Indian hometown.

“It’s really pretty,” Gupta said of the white patches dotting the Main Green. “But it’s cold.”

In nearby Caswell Hall, California native Autumn Graham ’09 adjusted to the cold weather by trying to keep her mind off of

NO CREDIT HURTS J-TERM Its 19 participants loved January@Brown, but UCS representatives and administrators are looking to increase enrollment

www.browndailyherald.com

5 CAMPUS NEWS

it and thinking instead about all the work ahead of her as classes start.

“When I came in, I felt pure dread at the sight of snow, but now it’s not so bad,” she said. “I have a two-page to-do list, so I don’t have time to think about snow — I’m stressing out.”

One item on Graham’s list is planning a spring break trip, which for now is a mental refuge of sun and warmth from the grey skies of Providence.

“I’m really happy to see all my friends,” she said. “But break is never too short.”

For Jill Lambiase ’10, the trip back to Brown hit a rut when, minutes before her arrival on campus, she realized that she had

MOCHA: A YEAR LATER The student-created online course catalog celebrates its second spring shopping period but faces an uncertain future

15 OPINIONS

195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island

forgotten her laptop at home. Luckily for her, Lambiase’s home is East Greenwich, R.I., so she made a quick U-turn and drove 15 minutes back to her house.

With no redeye flight, no jetlag and no weather change, Lambiase’s return to Brown has been relaxed.

“I’ve been sleeping in a lot, so the biggest adjustment for me will be waking up early for class,” she said. Then she smiled and added, “On second thought, there might not be much adjustment at all.”

Transition to life at Brown has been easier still for Meredith Daniels ’07, who spent

QUIGLEY THROWS DOWN Sean Quigley ‘10 takes on political correctness, the Verbotsgesetz and Europe’s new Iron Curtain

continued on page 10

16 SPORTS

DANIELS DRAFTED Brown soccer star Andrew Daniels ‘07 is selected by pro fessional soccer club FC Dallas, going 18th in the draft

News tips: herald@browndailyherald.com

TODAY WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 24, 2007

PAGE 2

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

WE A

T H E R

TODAY

WBF | Matt Vascellaro TOMORROW

partly cloudy 25 / 7

partly cloudy 38 / 16

MEN SHARPE REFECTORY

U VERNEY-WOOLLEY DINING HALL

LUNCH — Buffalo Chicken Wings with Bleu Cheese Dressing, Carrot and Celery Sticks, Meatball Grinder, Magic Bars, Apple Turnovers, Kale and Linguica Soup DINNER — Tilapia Provençal, Vegan Warm and Spicy Dhal, Couscous, Cavatini, Italian Vegetable Sautée, Asparagus Spears, Orange Delight Cake

SU

LUNCH — Vegetarian Corn Chowder, Country Wedding Soup, Chicken Andouille Shrimp Jambalaya, Spinach Strudel, Magic Bars

How to Get Down | Nate Saunders

DINNER — Roast Turkey with Sauce, Shells with Broccoli, Mashed Potatoes, Stuffing, Green Peas, Italian Bread, Orange Delight Cake

D O K U

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

Deo | Daniel Perez

12 Pictures | Wesley Allsbrook

CR ACROSS 1 Escalator part 5 Its tower was intended to reach Heaven 10 Busters, at times 14 Not apt to bite 15 Pong producer 16 Advantageous racetrack position 17 Discharge 18 Sci-fi staple 19 Bar employee?: Abbr.

20 Literally, “out of many, one” 23 1971 Clapton hit 24 Govt. air-quality watchdog 25 Sumac of Peru 28 National Leaguer since 1965 32 Passover feast 34 Maple yield 37 Ed Harris’s “Nixon” role 40 Green land 42 Series ender 43 Old jet set jets 44 Chopin’s Opus 25, No. 5 47 Trifle 48 Snapple’s __ Madness 49 Spring sites 51 And so on: Abbr.

52 Org. that operates a firearms museum in Fairfax, Va. 55 Sacred city of Tibet 59 Cyberspace exchanges 64 Tolkien creatures 66 Harsh light 67 Humpty’s perch 68 Science involving elev.

69 Four-time U.S. Open winner 70 Soup bean 71 Bloke 72 Checker’s specialty 73 Rice Krispies sound DOWN 1 Stainless, maybe 2 The Bucs stop here 3 Post of etiquette

O S S W O R D

4 “Downtown” 36 Tigers’ home 56 From the top 38 Arizona’s __ Fria 57 Alabama march singer Clark river city 5 City on the 39 Leftists, for short 58 Words before “in Adriatic 41 Comp. course the face” 6 Important first 45 The last Mrs. 60 USMC rank step, Chaplin 61 Noted gift givers metaphorically 46 Sinuous 62 Important 7 Hindu “sir” swimmers chapters in 8 Uneven, as if 50 Garments for history gnawed granny 63 Launched into 9 Started to smoke 53 “Bingo!” cyberspace?

10 Woman of das 54 Grant permission 64 Chicken-to-be Haus for 65 Born 11 1976 Ron Howard film ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE: 12 Morse “E” 13 Sneaky 21 Flatten, in Britain 22 OTC market regulator 26 “It is unbecoming for young __ utter maxims”: Aristotle 27 Chichi 29 Explorer Heyerdahl 30 It wasn’t built in a day 31 Have because of 33 Uncertain responses 34 Boss’s request 35 Draw a bead on xwordeditor@aol.com 1/24/07

JellyfishJellyfish | Adam Peck

Homefries | Yifan Luo

T HE B ROWN D AILY H ERALD Editorial Phone: 401.351.3372 Business Phone: 401.351.3260

University community since 1891. It is published Monday through Friday during the aca-

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once in July by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. POSTMASTER please send corrections to

Mary-Catherine Lader, Vice President Ally Ouh, Treasurer Mandeep Gill, Secretary

By Bonnie L. Gentry (c)2007 Tribune Media Services, Inc.

1/24/07

The Brown Daily Herald (USPS 067.740) is an independent newspaper serving the Brown demic year, excluding vacations, once during Commencement, once during Orientation and P.O. Box 2538, Providence, RI 02906. Periodicals postage paid at Providence, R.I. Offices are located at 195 Angell St., Providence, R.I. E-mail herald@browndailyherald.com. World Wide Web: http://www.browndailyherald.com. Subscription prices: $319 one year daily, $139 one semester daily. Copyright 2007 by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.

CAMPUS NEWS WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 24, 2007

NEWS IN BRIEF

Princeton board freezes tuition Princeton University’s board of trustees agreed Sunday not to increase tuition for the 2007-2008 academic year. According to Princeton’s announcement, this is the first time since 1967-1968 that there will not be an increase. Though tuition will remain steady at $33,000, room and board will be raised to $10,980 — a 4.2 percent increase in the total cost per student. The school increased tuition by 4.9 percent last year and 5 percent in 2005.

Princeton officials said “strong performance by the university’s investments and generous giving by alumni” enabled the decision, and a committee composed of students, faculty and staff said the tuition freeze represents the university’s commitment to making the Princeton experience accessible “to all qualified students.”

According to the College Board, tuition and fees increased an average of 5.9 percent nationally for the 2006-2007 academic year at private four-year colleges and universities.

Colleges typically raise tuition annually to cover salary increases and other expenses.

Brown’s tuition for the next academic year will be set by the Corporation — the University’s governing body — at its February meeting. Tuition for the current academic year is $33,888, and the total cost of $43,754 represents an increase of 4.7 percent from the previous year at the February 2006 meeting.

— Michael Bechek

PAGE 3

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

U.’s early decision acceptance rate remains low

BY JAMES SHAPIRO SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Last month, the University accepted 523 of the 2,307 early decision applicants to the Class of 2011 — making the University the most selective for early decision admission in the Ivy League for the second consecutive year.

The early decision acceptance rate at Brown, 22.7 percent, remained constant from the previous year. However, the actual number of accepted students decreased slightly as the number of early applications declined by about three percent.

The University rejected 293 applications, or about 12.7 percent of the applicants, according to Dean of Admission James Miller ’73. The remaining 1,491 applicants, comprising 64.6 percent of the pool, were deferred.

“It was a pretty strong group of people applying early decision,” Miller said. “We ended up deferring a large number to compare them with the regular decision pool.”

With its 22.7 percent early decision acceptance rate, Brown remained the most selective in

the Ivy League for a second year, though early admission numbers for Cornell were not available. After Brown, Columbia had the second lowest acceptance rate at 24.4 percent, slightly below Princeton’s rate of 26.2 percent. The University of Pennsylvania accepted 29 percent of its early applicants, and Dartmouth accepted 29.7 percent. Cornell has not yet released early admissions figures, but last year it had the highest Ivy League acceptance rate at 46.7 percent.

Harvard and Yale universities, which have single-choice early action programs, were the most selective schools for early admission in the Ivy League.

Yale accepted 19.7 percent of early applicants, while Harvard accepted 21.8 percent.

The gender imbalance — females heavily outnumber males — among Brown applicants continued this year. “It’s a national phenomenon,” said Miller. He estimated that males totaled only 41 percent of the early decision pool. “It was about the same as last year.”

Next year, Princeton, Harvard and the University of Vir-

ginia will eliminate their early admission programs, and Miller speculated that early admission statistics might change as a result. “Everybody’s trying to figure out what it will mean,” Miller said. “It will have an effect. It may end up increasing application pools, but I don’t think anyone knows for sure.”

According to admission officials, one possible result of the elimination of early admission programs at those schools is that both early and regular applicant pools might increase next year. Students who want the security early admission programs provide might now apply to other schools with early admis-

sion programs, such as Brown.

Also, those students who would have previously been accepted early to Princeton or Harvard and would not have applied elsewhere will now apply to a range of schools, raising the number of regular-decision applications nationwide.

Changes in the numbers of applicants and the acceptance rate might prove fascinating to admission officers and other observers, but to the applicants themselves, only one thing matters — their own admission decision.

Daniel Mahr ’11, a senior at continued on page 9

Low enrollment for January term pilot blamed on lack of credit

BY MICHAEL BECHEK SENIOR STAFF WRITER

The pilot run of January@Brown, the notfor-credit academic program held over winter break, has gotten mostly positive reviews from the program’s participants and from administrators involved in supervising it, despite garnering only one-fi fth the participation that planners had hoped for.

Spearheaded by the Undergraduate Council of Students and supported in large part by a grant from the Office of the President, January@Brown enrolled just 19 students. Organizers said last semester they expected to cap enrollment at 100.

“I was surprised,” said Tristan Freeman ’07, vice president of UCS. “We were concerned at first.”

But despite the unexpectedly small size of the pilot, most said Januar y@Brown was a success. Many students said they enjoyed the tight-knit community, and all of the program’s teachers reported that their intensive classes were successful academic experiences.

“We had hoped (the enrollment) would be higher,” said Russell Carey ’91 MA ’06, interim vice president for campus life and student services. “But I’m not discouraged at all.”

“For a pilot program, it was as successful as we ever could have hoped,” said Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron.

Because of the low enrollment, three of the six classes that UCS had selected from 17 proposals last semester were cancelled.

The professors whose courses were cancelled were notified in mid-December and were paid a “course development allocation” for the work they had already done, said Ricky Gresh, director of student activities, who supervised day-to-day operations of the program.

The 19 participants in the pilot program this month enrolled in one of three classes: “Caught in the Web: The Internet, Politics and Public Policy,” “From the Iron Age to the Iron Chef: Food, Culture and History” and “Storytelling and Urban Engagement: Providence Narratives.” The last course had 11 students, while the other two cours-

es had just a handful of students each.

Sara Damiano ’08, academic and administrative affairs chair of UCS, wrote in an email to The Herald that initial feedback indicated some students were deterred by the $580 cost of the program, though financial aid was made available. She also suggested that the low enrollment might be due to the fact that this was January@Brown’s first year and that UCS did not begin publicizing the program until late in the fall semester.

But Freeman said the biggest problem facing January@Brown is the lack of academic credit, which he said he tried to get for the program but failed.

“Right now, January@Brown is too short,” he said, adding that administrators do not yet want to award credit for the number of hours spent in the winter courses. He said the lack of credit was “absolutely” the biggest reason for the discrepancy between the program’s actual enrollment and the significant interest in a January term that UCS had perceived among students.

In a WebCT poll conducted by UCS last spring, 58 percent of students said they

would consider participating in a winter program that was for credit.

Steven Cornish, associate dean of the College, whose planned course, “Revolting Styles: Resistance and Meaning in British Popular Culture,” was canceled due to low enrollment, wrote in an e-mail to The Herald that the only way to prevent a repeat of this year’s mistakes is to offer academic credit.

“That is a big step that I am not sure Brown is willing to take at this point,” he wrote.

Bergeron said, however, that she was “ver y interested in taking up the question” of offering credit for the winter break program. “It seems ver y important,” she added.

But Antoinette Pole, postdoctoral research associate in public policy and instructor of winter term course “Caught in the Web,” said offering the courses for credit could possibly diminish other aspects of the program that appealed to students. continued on page 11

PAGE 4

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 24, 2007

Friedman Study Center opens continued from page 1 which sells hot and cold beverages, pastries, packaged foods, soups, sandwiches, sushi and salads to go — all of which can be paid for with flex points. Students can eat in the basement or on the mezzanine.

The mezzanine has undergone few changes other than a new carpe. According to University Librarian Harriette Hemmasi, it will remain a quiet study space.

Planning for the Friedman Center began in Februar y 2005 after the University received a $5 million gift from Susan Pilch Friedman ’77 P’08 and Richard A. Friedman ’79 P’08. The Friedmans chose to support a study center with their gift because students at the time expressed a “ver y clear need for accessible, safe, central 24-hour study space,” according to Russell Carey ’91 MA‘06, interim vice president for Campus Life and Student Ser vices.

“An exciting thing about this project is that students who are here will actually be able to enjoy it,” Carey said, referring to the relatively short period between the Center’s inception and completion.

Unlike the Plan for Academic Enrichment’s other physical expansion initiatives, many of which will take several years to complete, the Friedman Center has taken only two years to implement.

Richard Spies, executive vice president for planning and senior advisor to the president, said the short turnaround was partly because the Friedmans quickly provided their promised financial support.

“They were really excited about it,” Spies said.

The center that opened this week was an “incredibly imaginative way to use what was originally just a ver y big empty space,” he added.

“Whether you’re going to be there for half an hour or half a day, it’s going to be a place where you’ll feel comfortable,” Spies said.

To ceremonially open the new center, Campus Life and Student Ser vices will host a celebration in the SciLi tomorrow at 11:30 p.m.

The first 100 students to show up will receive free gifts, and free food will be available throughout the event. A video iPod raffle will take place at midnight.

Simmons: “I am not a candidate” continued from page 1 as a Har vard alum that that was a perfectly respectable place, and I wish them the best as they search for a president. I look for ward to welcoming that person as a fellow president.”

But as coyness is a trademark of potential presidents being courted by search committees, not ever yone was put at ease by Simmons’ earlier statement and her office’s unwillingness to comment on the process over the past several months. Her counterparts at Princeton, Penn, Columbia and Cambridge gave more forceful and repeated denials of interest than she did.

But Simmons did tell the Providence Journal in 2005, before ex-Har vard President Lawrence Summers resigned, that the Brown presidency would be her last job.

Signs indicate Har vard may look internally to fill the top post, with law school dean Elena Kagan and Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study Dean Drew Gilpin Faust mentioned as likely candidates. Nobel laureate and biochemist Thomas Cech, the head of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, is also said to be underconsideration.

Last year, Har vard professor Judith Ryan and Cornel West, former Har vard and current Princeton professor, publicly suggested Simmons for the post.

She is also frequently men-

looking for sudoku? it’s on page 2.

tioned in media reports on the issue. The Chronicle of Higher Education described Simmons as “among the names that came up most frequently,” and the New York Times published her photo with an article on the Har vard search earlier this month.

Simmons, Penn President Amy Gutmann and Princeton President Shirley Tilghman are probably named in media reports so frequently because they fulfill many of the criteria Har vard may be seeking and not because they are actual candidates, said Stephen Nelson, an associate professor of educational leadership at Bridgewater State College and author of “Leaders in the Crucible: The Moral Voice of College Presidents.”

“My guess is none of those women have ever been serious because of timing issues, not because of their capacities,” Nelson said. Each of the three women is in the beginning or middle of her presidency, and all are generally well-liked and successful fundraisers, so Har vard might be seen as acting in bad faith by hiring the leader of an institution with which it directly competes, Nelson said.

“If you’re going to steal a senior administrator from somewhere else — like the University of Michigan — that’s one thing,” he said. “It’s another thing when you get more geographically proximate like in the Ivy League … but also in a fairly close collegial working relationship.”

C AMPUS N EWS PAGE 5

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 24, 2007

Airport shuttle proves popular

BY OLIVER BOWERS SENIOR STAFF WRITER

As students headed home for winter break at the end of last semester, many took advantage of a new shuttle service to Providence’s T.F. Green Airport. Undergraduate Council of Students leaders and administrators both hailed the service as a student government initiative that benefited students.

UCS President John Gillis ’07 said the service, which ran 11 times each on Dec. 19 and Dec. 20 and seven times on Dec. 21, was “very successful” and proved even more popular than expected.

“The service was well publicized,” said UCS Vice President Tristan Freeman ’07. “A lot of students heard about it.”

Gillis and other UCS members first considered starting a shuttle service after learning that other universities, such as the University of Pennsylvania, had similar programs. UCS developed the program and handled logistics for the rides, and the University provided most of the financing. Gillis, who led the project, said UCS had originally expected that five to 10 students would ride in each shuttle, but 20 to 30 students showed up for each ride.

Gillis and other members of UCS determined that by providing a centralized service to students, the University could lower the overall cost to the community.

Gillis estimated that roughly 2,000 students fly out of T. F. Green before a long break. If students paid for their own shuttle services at $11 per shuttle ride, he estimated the student body as a whole might spend between $10,000 and $20,000 on transportation ahead of each break. Instead of costing students around $15,000, Gillis said organized shuttle rides would cost the University roughly $1,500 — and students could ride

for free.

The Undergraduate Finance Board determined that funding the shuttle service was outside its purview, said UFB Chairman Cash McCracken ’08, so UCS turned to Campus Life and Student Services for financing. Campus Life provided most of the $1,500 cost, according to Interim Vice President for Campus Life and Student Services Russell Carey ’91 MA’06, and UCS helped foot the bill with money received last year through fundraising.

Though UCS had originally planned to rent a van, a school bus proved more cost-effective, and as students turned up in large numbers, the bus’s extra space proved useful, Gillis said.

Gillis said he hopes the service will continue and perhaps be repeated for spring and Thanksgiving break travel. He noted that operating a van service before these shorter vacations is easier than services provided at the end of exam periods because many students depart at once.

Gillis added that he hopes the money to run the shuttle will be provided by Campus Life in the future, since the service has proven popular with students. Freeman said he also hopes the service will be continued because it’s “really convenient” for students flying out of Providence.

Carey said Campus Life is “enthusiastic about continuing it in some way.” His division will assess the program based on the number of students who used it in December and their feedback about the service, he said. “(The shuttle is a) terrific example of an effective student government initiative that we could partner with and make happen in a fairly short” timeframe, Carey said.

Freeman agreed. “(It’s) a really good example of how UCS can make Brown a better place for students.”

Eunice Hong / Herald

The Smith Swim Center was closed for nearly a month after engineers discovered structural flaws in the building’s roof.

Swim center reopens after safety concern

BY ZACHARY CHAPMAN SENIOR STAFF WRITER

The 34-year-old Smith Swim Center underwent extensive repairs to its roof over winter break after it was deemed unsafe for use by the University. Structural problems in the building’s roof were first detected in November, but the swim center was not closed until Dec. 20, when the flaws were confirmed by engineers and the original architect of the building. The center reopened for use on Jan. 17.

In a Dec. 20 University statement, Michael Chapman, vice president for public affairs and University relations, said the University decided to close the swim center in order to “ensure the safety of Brown’s athletes and members of the local community who use the facility.”

Because the closure of the center occurred over winter break, the 14 athletic teams who use the facility were not significantly affected.

“I hate to put it this way, but the timing was pretty good,” said Michael Goldberger, director of athletics.

Goldberger said those most affected by the closure were residents of the community who have memberships to certain Brown athletic facilities. Goldberger said there are about 280 community memberships, which include both individual memberships and family memberships.

Kit Elsworth ’09, a member of the men’s swim team, said the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams were in Florida on a planned training trip for much of the period that the swim center was closed.

“We weren’t expecting it to open until mid-February, so we had a plan in place for what we were going to do in the meantime, but fortunately it opened shortly after we got back from Florida (on Jan. 16),” he said.

The men’s and women’s swim teams used facilities at Seekonk High School in Seekonk, Mass., for two days but were able to get back in the pool at the Smith Swim Center by Jan. 18. The diving team trained at Roger Williams College in the interim.

Elsworth said the teams didn’t notice any problems with the center during the fall season and he felt the University kept the teams who use the facility well-informed on the status of repairs.

Paul Dietel, assistant director of design and construction for Facilities Management, said potential problems with the facility’s roof were first noticed in November during a follow-up inspection to locker room renovations. Benn & Associates Inc., the company performing the inspection, noted areas in the roof in need of further review and recommended that Brown contact the original architect of the center before performing any repairs, Dietel said.

The Smith Swim Center, which was built in 1973, has a hyperbolic paraboloid structure, a design patented by the facility’s architect Daniel Tully.

According to Dietel, when Tully reviewed the facility on Dec. 19, he expressed concern over “structural asymmetry” in the center’s roof. continued on page 10

Mocha celebrates first year but looks ahead to uncertain future

BY ZACHARY MCCUNE S TAFF WRITER

It has been a year since five computer science concentrators decided to re-invent the Brown Online Course Announcement as Mocha.

“It started over winter break last year,” said Daniel Leventhal ’07, who created the site along with friends Dave Pacheco ’07, Adam

Cath ’07, Dave Hirshberg ’08 and Bill Pijewski ’07. “We were just talking about how much BOCA sucks.”

FEATURE “I just remember looking over BOCA and thinking, ‘This interface is so terrible, I bet I could spend a couple hours and make it way bet-

ter,’” Pacheco said.

Hundreds of hours later, the team had created Mocha, a student-run alternative to BOCA that was initially hosted on Pacheco’s computer before finding a permanent home on the Department of Computer Science’s server as mocha.cs.brown.edu.

Creating the service ended up taking more time than any of the

site’s creators said they had ever imagined, and they are still working on it now. The team released an upgraded version of the site last week. “(The site) looks better, makes more efficient use of screen real estate, it works in more browsers,” Cath said, adding that many of the bugs corrected by the team were identified by user-submitted

reports.

Mocha appears popular among students, and the site’s creators estimate that as many as three-quarters of the undergraduate population has used the service, based on visitor tracking.

“I really like it,” said Sally Grapin ’09. “It’s really useful for me, be continued on page 8

tenants

W ORLD & N ATION WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 24, 2007

WO R L D I N B R I E F Jimmy Carter makes ‘peace’ mission to Brandeis but stands by controversial Mideast book WALTHAM, Mass. (Washington Post) — Former President Jimmy Carter flew north to Brandeis University to speak on Tuesday of his hurt at the personal attacks by some American Jews that followed publication of his latest book, “Palestine Peace Not Apartheid,” which urges Israel to turn away from a policy of creating “Bantustans” on the West Bank.

“This is the first time that I’ve ever been called a liar and a bigot and an anti-Semite and a coward and a plagiarist.” Carter paused and squinted at the audience. “This has hurt me.”

At the same time, he acknowledged, with a flash of his trademark smile, that he did not simply stumble into the title of his new book.

“I can see it would precipitate some harsh feelings. I chose that title knowing that it would be provocative.”

Defense lawyer says Libby was ‘sacrificed’ WASHINGTON (Los Angeles Times) — I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby feared that White House officials were conspiring to make him the fall guy in the CIA leak scandal and maneuvering to insulate political strategist Karl Rove out of concern that an indictment of Rove would damage the Republican Party, Libby’s lawyer argued Tuesday.

In opening remarks at the perjury and obstruction trial of the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, defense attorney Theodore Wells Jr. portrayed Libby as a sympathetic figure who was following orders to rebut the claims of an administration war critic who was married to a CIA official, Valerie Plame. But Wells said Libby came to believe he had lost the support of the administration he had sought to defend.

3 dead as opposition paralyzes Lebanon BEIRUT, Lebanon (Washington Post)— The Hezbollah-led opposition cut roads in Beirut and across Lebanon with burning tires, uprooted trees, incinerated cars and barricades to enforce a strike Tuesday aimed at toppling the government, paralyzing the country and embarrassing Lebanese officials ahead of an international aid conference. Clashes erupted along the country’s crisis fault lines, leaving at least three people dead and scores injured in the worst violence since the protests began in December.

Fires at dozens of barricades sent black smoke billowing against a pale blue sky, framing the capital in scenes redolent of war. Along the airport highway, the opposition sent trucks and bulldozers to pour more rubble on roadblocks set up by dawn, forcing some passengers to drag their luggage on foot to the airport, where airlines canceled flights.

3 Decades Later, 8 Ex-Radicals Are Arrested SAN FRANCISCO (Los Angeles Times) — The racial tensions of the civil rights era marched back into this city Tuesday when eight former radicals — some now husbands, grandfathers and community organizers — were arrested in connection with the 1971 shotgun murder of a white police officer.

The men — including a real-estate appraiser and a Los Angeles County employee both living in Altadena — were mostly taken into custody during early-morning raids in California, New York and Florida. They are accused of being part of what investigators called a five-year conspiracy starting in 1968 to kill police officers throughout the United States.

A joint state and federal task force identified seven of the arrested as former members of the Black Liberation Army, a violent outgrowth of the Black Panthers.

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Bush urges Congress, nation to give Iraq plan a chance; makes overtures to Democrats on domestic issues

BY PETER BAKER WASHINGTON POST

W WASHINGTON — President Bush implored lawmakers and the nation Tuesday night to give him one more chance to win the war in Iraq and avoid the “nightmare scenario” of defeat while presenting a domestic agenda intended to find common cause with the new Democratic Congress on issues such as energy and immigration.

Politically wounded but rhetorically unbowed, Bush gave no ground on his decision to dispatch 21,500 more troops to Iraq despite a bipartisan cascade of criticism.

Addressing for the first time a Congress controlled by the other party, Bush challenged Democrats “to show our enemies abroad that we are united in the goal of victory” and warned that the consequences of failure in Iraq “would be grievous and far-reaching.”

“I respect you and the arguments you have made,” Bush told skeptical lawmakers from both parties in his sixth State of the Union address and the fourth since the invasion of Iraq in March 2003. “We went into this largely

united—in our assumptions and in our convictions. And whatever you voted for, you did not vote for failure. Our country is pursuing a new strategy in Iraq and I ask you to give it a chance to work.”

With new House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) sitting behind him in a sign of the power shift on Capitol Hill, Bush congratulated Democrats on their victory in the November midterm elections and reached out to them with ideas to expand health-care coverage, overhaul immigration laws and improve education performance.

In his most ambitious new proposal, he laid out a plan to reduce projected gasoline consumption in the United States by 20 percent over the next 10 years.

“Congress has changed, but our responsibilities have not,” Bush said. “We are not the first to come here with government divided and uncertainty in the air. Like many before us, we can work through our differences and achieve big things for the American people.”

Yet his approach contrasted with the last two presidents to address an opposition Congress af-

ter their parties lost midterm elections. Ronald Reagan conceded mistakes in 1987, as did Bill Clinton in 1995. Clinton moved to the middle so conspicuously that the opposition leader who gave the official response noted that he “sounded pretty Republican.” Although Bush acknowledged two weeks ago that “mistakes have been made” in Iraq, he appeared unchastened Tuesday night and took no responsibility for his party’s defeat or errors in office.

Democrats seemed unimpressed by his governing blueprint and signaled that they are in no mood to meet him in the middle. Long before Bush arrived in the House chamber to deliver his remarks, Democratic leaders and allied interest groups rushed out statements blasting his domestic proposals as rehashed ideas, empty rhetoric or flawed concepts that would create other problems. But the divide between president and Congress was most inflamed by his leadership of a war approaching the four-year mark.

“The president took us into continued on page 9

Academy nominees speak global language

BY JOHN HORN AND GINA PICCALO LOS ANGELES T IMES

HOLLYWOOD — Most days, everyone in Hollywood assumes the world revolves around them. But as the nominations for the Academy Awards proved, show business is revolving around the world.

In saluting movies that often were made outside the nation’s borders and that grappled with disquieting international issues such as terrorism, global warming and the personal costs of war and violence, Oscar voters on Tuesday honored a collection of movies that were decidedly not Hollywood-centric.

The plots of three best picture nominees (“Babel,” “The Queen” and “Letters From Iwo Jima”) unfold overseas. Four of the five women competing for the best actress Oscar (Penelope Cruz, Judi Dench, Helen Mirren and Kate Winslet) are not American. Brit-

ain’s Paul Greengrass (“United 93”) and Stephen Frears (“The Queen”) were nominated for best director, as was Mexico’s Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (“Babel”).

“The world is changing, and I think that the film community is now a global film community,” Gonzalez Inarritu said. “It’s not anymore about cultural barriers or language barriers. It’s emotion and humanity. We are using the power of cinema to cross borders.

We are understanding that now there’s a cultural connection that needs to happen. Most films can reveal the nature of other countries and other people around the world.”

The Spanish-language fascism story “Pan’s Labyrinth” was nominated not only for foreignlanguage film but also for original screenplay and cinematography. Other films that earned best actor nominations — Leonardo DiCaprio’s “Blood Diamond” and

Forest Whitaker’s “The Last King of Scotland” — were inspired by African economics, politics and internal strife.

At the same time, the Oscars surprisingly spurned the year’s most typically Hollywood production, “Dreamgirls,” from its most prestigious race. Even though the big-budget musical collected a leading eight nominations, the DreamWorks movie was not nominated for best picture, and neither was the studio’s “Flags of Our Fathers.” DreamWorks also was shut out of the animation race, with no nominations for either “Over the Hedge” or “Flushed Away.”

Another notable absence was Sacha Baron Cohen, who some people had predicted would be nominated for best actor for his outrageous mockumentary “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.” The film was nominated for adapted screenplay.

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

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WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 24, 2007

Chafee takes Watson post

Q & A WITH LINCOLN CHAFEE

continued from page 1 After losing his November 2006 reelection bid to Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse, former Sen. Lincoln Chafee joined the Watson Institute for International Studies as a distinguished visiting fellow on Jan. 7. He spoke with The Herald on Monday about his new position at Watson, his experience as a blacksmith in Montana and Canada and speculation that he might run for governor of Rhode Island in the future.

The Herald: What are you most excited about this semester?

Chafee: I think the chance to do something different … I’ll put 100 percent of my energy into it, but the pace is a lot different from political life where you don’t get much of a chance to focus on a subject.

Will you start to miss the fast pace of politics?

No, this is perfect. It’s a perfect chance to switch gears a little bit.

Do you think your skills might be better suited for a job as a visiting fellow than as a senator?

I’d like to think I was a good senator. There are very few votes I would do differently, even with the time to reflect back.

Of all the roles you’ve played — as a classics student and wrestler at Brown, as a horse-shoer in Montana,

as the Republican mayor of the largely Democratic Warwick and as a moderate in a conservative-controlled Senate — which allowed you to accomplish the most?

They’re all different. The horse-shoeing and the mayor stand out. The horse-shoeing because it was a completely different life, working on the race track where I didn’t know a soul. The people who had me shoe their horses were judging me solely by the quality of my work. It wasn’t, oh, your dad’s governor or senator or anything like that, they didn’t know what it was, they didn’t know where Rhode Island was. They judged me solely by the quality of the job I was doing, and that was very satisfying, to be able to first of all survive, and second of all to do well on my horses. My horses ran well, and I had some good stables I was shoeing for. One of my horses that I shod set the track record in Edmonton and that gave me a lot of confidence, which served well for future challenges. I can survive in a demanding atmosphere.

Then mayor. Being an executive is so different from being on the nine-member city council or the 100-member U.S. Senate. Yes, you have to work with the legislative body. I had to work with a Democratic council, but I put together a team … and that was fun.

That was a great job.

Even now, do you miss that?

Changing life for a small group of people rather than working nationally?

I’ve never taught before, but I assume it’s satisfying. I remember all my teachers. So this is perfect.

It’s doing something that’s not changing to great extent anything in the world, but I think there’s going to be a lot of satisfaction.

Are you considering running for governor in 2010?

I know people are talking about that, but it’s absolutely not something I’m considering right now.

It’s four years away, and I’ll be focused on just this semester. I’m trying to do a good job with this.

Do you have any regrets about your campaign against Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse?

I really don’t. I knew what I was up against. I understood the dynamics right from the beginning, that this was going to be a referendum on the Republican leadership of the US Senate. I understood the dilemma Rhode Island voters were faced with.

You’ve said you think your loss will help the country move in a new direction. Do you think the Democrats are taking full advantage of this opportunity?

It’s too early to tell, but certainly with the presidential election starting so early, that’s going to overshadow anything that Congress does because the candidates are coming out of Congress — McCain and Clinton and Obama.

So you think the 2008 presidential race will impede Congress’ progress?

Yeah, there’s going to be different agendas, rather than focusing on what is in the best interest of the United States of America. There will be dueling agendas mixed in.

What do you think about President Bush’s recent announcement to send an additional 20,000 troops to Iraq?

To me it sounds as though he doesn’t have the support of the military on this. This is a decision he’s making as commander in chief.

Certainly the military respects the chain of command and he won’t hear from those in uniform. But the retired officers are those we’ll be hearing from.

Do you have parting thoughts about the months ahead?

It’s great to be here, it really is.

I’m very fortunate. I’m looking forward to my study group. I’m a little bit scared, but it’s still good.

— Simmi Aujla

Mocha celebrates first year but looks ahead to uncertain future continued from page 5 cause it points out the conflicts” in course scheduling.

“Mocha’s made shopping for classes much easier this semester,” said Dave Gagnon ’10. “I wish I knew about it last semester.”

Some students use Mocha religiously.

“There’s one kid in Andrews who has visited Mocha more than anyone else,” Leventhal said, adding that the student has visited

Mocha more than the site’s creators. “This kid must just love shopping for classes.”

But Mocha may not live past this year: Four of its five creators will graduate this spring, and its University-run rival BOCA is slated to be replaced by the University’s new Banner program later this semester.

“Obviously, when Banner comes out, we’ll have to take stock and decide what’s the future of Mocha,” Cath said. “If Banner comes out and it’s good, then you

don’t need Mocha anymore, and that’s great. Basically, we want an easy way to shop for courses, and whether we do that or the University does it, we don’t really care.

If Banner goes up and it’s better, then we’ll can Mocha.”

As for impending graduations, the team members say they aren’t thinking too far into the future.

“We’re not that far in the process of handing over power,” Cath explained. “We will talk about it later in the semester.”

in public service as my full time job,” he said. ““This is a chance to catch my breath and focus on just dealing with international issues and trying to make the class lively,” he added.

Chafee’s appointment also reflects change for the Watson Institute, Kirkman said. Most Watson faculty members are academics, he said, and the institute wants to employ more people like Chafee with “real-world experience.”

“It’s a real challenge for research institutes to bridge the gap between academics and policypolicy making,” he said. “It’s exciting to get someone here who has a different vantage point in every respect.”

Chafee’s appointment is “a great thing for Brown” and “a great opportunity for students,” said Brett Heeger ’08, an International Relations concentrator who said he hopes to join Chafee’s study group. “The “ connections he has in addition to his own experience makes it likely that he will be able to bring in world leaders and terrorism experts, so students will learn from people who are making important policy decisions,” Heeger said.

Chafee, a former member of the Senate Foreign Relations committee, said he plans to utilize those connections — he has invited experts he met while serving in the Senate to speak about crises in the Middle East and other global hot spots at his study group. The group will meet biweekly, is not for credit and is limited to juniors and seniors concentrating in International Relations. Several guest speakers have already accepted, he said, though he declined to name them.

Chafee said he will deliver guest lectures in some classes, but he said he felt that as a first-time instructor, teaching a for-credit class would not be “the best way to start.” He said he has no “solidified” plans for research yet and is unsure if he’ll teach any for-credit classes in the future, but he is looking to hire an undergraduate assistant.

The Watson Institute does not make public the stipend fellows receive, but Chafee said his stipend will be “more than I made as a mayor and less than I made as Senator.”

How long Chafee will remain on College Hill is not yet clear. He emphasized that he has not decided on his plans for the future, and his post at Watson is a temporary one. But he said he may remain longer if he finds that his “skills have any harmony with this position. I expect they will, but I want to make sure.”

Chafee said he couldn’t comment on the possibility of leaving politics completely for the academic world. “(I’d) better answer that in May, when the study group has concluded,” he said.

Chafee admitted that he is “a little bit scared” about teaching. He said he worries whether he will be able to challenge students and keep them interested in the material. “I’m no different from any teacher before their first class,” he said.

“I want to see how this class goes,” he said. “If I want to do something, I want to do it well. I can’t just parachute into Brown University. I don’t want to bite off more than I can chew.”

For now, Chafee said, he will focus on attracting interesting speakers for his study group and preparing for the Stephen A. Ogden Jr. Memorial Lecture on International Affairs next month, when he will speak on the Quartet Roadmap to Israeli-Palestinian Peace.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 24, 2007

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

In State of the Union, Bush urges Congress, nation to give Iraq plan a chance continued from page 7 this war recklessly,” said freshman Sen. James Webb, D-Va., a former Marine who was tapped to give the formal response. Accusing Bush of disregarding warnings by national security experts before invading Iraq, Webb added: “We are now, as a nation, held hostage to the predictable — and predicted — disarray that has followed.”

The speech came at the nadir of the Bush presidency to date, with the war grinding on, everwidening bloodshed and no end in sight, two-thirds of the public turned against him in opinion polls and Democrats controlling both houses of Congress.

Even as they sought to revive his political viability with the national address, White House officials spent part of Tuesday monitoring reports from Iraq, where a U.S. security helicopter crash killed five American civilians,

amid disputed claims that it was shot down. And they nervously watched the opening of the perjury trial of Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief aide, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, whose lawyer asserted that the White House made him a scapegoat in the CIA leak case to protect Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove.

Bush devoted about half of his speech Tuesday night to Iraq and foreign policy, largely recapitulating his familiar argument that the war is the central front in a broader battle with terrorists and represents a “generational struggle that will continue long after you and I have turned our duties over to others.” He linked Sunni insurgents, Shiite extremists, al-Qaida terrorists and Hezbollah militants as arms of a broader radical movement but acknowledged that the mission in Iraq has changed from deposing Saddam Hussein to stopping sectarian violence.

“This is not the fight we entered in Iraq, but it is the fight we are in,” he said. “Every one of us wishes that this war were over and won. Yet it would not be like us to leave our promises unkept, our friends abandoned and our own security at risk. Ladies and gentlemen, on this day, at this hour, it is still within our power to shape the outcome of this battle. So let us find our resolve and turn events toward victory.”

He did not directly debate Democrats’ proposals to cut off funding for more troops in Iraq but asked them to let him tr y his new plan. “In the end, I chose this course of action because it provides the best chance of success,” he said. “Many in this chamber understand that America must not fail in Iraq because you understand that the consequences of failure would be grievous and far-reaching.”

The immediate consequence

U.’s early decision acceptance rate remains low continued from page 3 Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, N.H., was one of the 523 hopeful Brunonians who made the cut. He attributed his acceptance to a strong academic profile paired with a number of extracurricular activities that pertained to engineering, his main field of interest. Mahr builds computers in his spare time and heads the technology and communications committee in his high school’s student council.

“I think that might have made

a difference on my application because for engineering you submit two additional essays, and in those I was really able to ... go into detail and I had concrete evidence of interest in those fields,” Mahr said.

Lauren Levine, a senior at Acton-Boxborough Regional High School in Acton, Mass., who was deferred by Brown, devised what she facetiously termed “Operation Brown Acceptance.” She described her scheme as “a fivepoint plan to stay optimistic and do ever ything in my power to

make sure it goes well,” which includes sending an extra recommendation and an updated list of accomplishments, visiting Brown again and contacting the admission office, her inter viewers and a professor to find out how she can maximize her chances of admission in April.

Levine said that Brown’s open curriculum was the main draw for her. “I don’t know exactly what I want to do when I grow up. I’m really curious about lots of different subjects, so I love the freedom to explore whatever interests me.”

he envisioned was an Iraqi capital plunged into anarchy. “If American forces step back before Baghdad is secure, the Iraqi government would be overrun by extremists on all sides,” Bush said.

“We could expect an epic battle between Shia extremists backed

by Iran and Sunni extremists aided by al-Qaida and supporters of the old regime. A contagion of violence could spill out across the countr y—and in time the entire region could be drawn into the conflict.”

Bush repeated his call to create a bipartisan advisory council on the battle with terrorists and promoted his administration’s plan to permanently expand the U.S. military by 92,000 soldiers and Ma-

rines over five years to ease the burdens of fighting simultaneous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and conducting counterterrorism operations elsewhere.

Sitting in first lady Laura Bush’s box during the speech were five decorated Iraq veterans, including Air Force Tech.

Sgt. Michelle Barefield, who survived three attacks by makeshift bombs at Baghdad International Airport, repulsed an enemy assault with her M-16 rifle and was awarded the Bronze Star. The White House also invited a domestic hero, Wesley Autrey, a New York construction worker who earned acclaim by jumping onto subway tracks to save a man who had fallen during a seizure.

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WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 24, 2007

Prof teaches canceled course continued from page 1 support.” But she added that he was “offered the opportunity to resubmit his courses to the (College Curriculum Council).”

Erikson, 86, said it was possible that administrators might have wanted to force him into retirement because of his age and recent heart attack.

Blanche Greene-Cramer ’07, one of Erikson’s former students, also speculated that Erikson’s health may have been a factor.

She took UC 102 in the spring of 2005 and his fall course, UC 101: “Art and Anatomy,” last semester, but she dropped the latter partially because of Erikson’s health problems.

“Because of Erikson’s deteriorating health, he had to cancel

classes several times and was not able to hold office hours regularly,” she said.

Greene-Cramer believes that his health, combined with Erikson’s controversial teaching style — she said several of his students did not like how unstructured the course was — may be the real reasons the classes were canceled.

The reason the University gave for canceling the courses “is pretty superficial,” she said. “I was actually stunned for the reason given.”

Bergeron said it was “wonderful” that Erikson will teach the class informally.

Greene-Cramer echoed her sentiment.

“I think it’s great that he’s keeping going with it,” she said. “It was more of an informal process even when it was University-affiliated.”

Snow greets students on campus continued from page 1 most of her break on campus as student coordinator of the University’s inaugural winter term, January@Brown. While her classmates were traveling the world and enjoying global cuisine, Daniels said she often found herself seated on one of the faded red cushions of an eerily empty Ratty.

“Usually, the Ratty is packed at all times of the day, but there was almost nobody there,” Daniels said. “Can you imagine walking around the Main Green without a person in sight?”

Despite giving up much of her free time to work for January@Brown, Daniels said she was more than happy to spend her break in what she called her “mini-city.”

“I’m one of those weird kids at Brown who loves Providence, even though I’m from Chicago, which is obviously a big city,” she said.

Daniels said that January@Brown also gave her the opportunity to do things in Providence that she wouldn’t normally have done, including salsa dancing and ice-skating.

“I’m really happy that I got to be a part of Brown’s first January term,” she said.

Few watch State of the Union Amid all the commotion of planes, trains, automobiles and Ratty trays, one of the biggest political events of the year seemed to slip under the radar of most Brown students. President Bush’s seventh State of the Union address — the first ever to feature a woman on the podium, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi — was delivered yesterday at 9 p.m.

Yet despite the immediate and historical significance of an address that dealt with hot-button issues such as the Iraq troop “surge” and the United States’

dependence on foreign oil, few Brown students interviewed by The Herald watched last night’s speech. Gupta, Graham, Lambiase, Daniels and other students told The Herald they were not aware of the president’s address, and most said they were not interested in watching it anyway.

Public televisions in the Lower Blue Room broadcast Bush’s opening remarks to a modest crowd of no more than 15 students, many of whom had their backs to the screens.

But two Brown students kept their eyes glued to their television sets — Tor Tarantola ’08 and Zack Drew ’07, presidents of the Brown Democrats and College Republicans, respectively. Both students weighed in on the speech and the lack of campus enthusiasm about it.

“President Bush has one of the lowest approval ratings in history,” Tarantola said, referring to the most recent Gallup Poll, which put Bush’s approval at 36 percent. “You don’t have to watch his speech to know what he’s doing.”

Drew said he felt that students’ hostility toward Bush is less credible if they don’t watch the president’s speeches.

“A lot of people on our campus feel that if you’ve heard Bush speak once, you know what he’ll say every other time,” Drew said.

“But people can’t argue their points against Bush with legitimacy if they don’t listen to him speak.”

Both Tarantola and Drew said they believe political awareness among students is important, regardless of which party a student supports. They said they plan to discuss the State of the Union address at their groups’ next meetings.

As the State of the Union address concluded and the last students arrived after journeys long and short, the campus quieted in anticipation of the start of spring classes.

Swim center reopens after safety concern continued from page 5 These concerns prompted the University to close the Smith Swim Center the following day.

Acting on Tully’s concerns, the University contacted Simpson, Gumpertz and Heger, an engineering firm, to evaluate the roof’s structure. Dietel said the firm, which was more familiar with the specific structure of the Smith Swim Center, con-

curred with Tully’s opinion and recommended that repairs be made to the facility.

Laminated veneer lumber beams were installed at three locations in the facility to provide support for the roof, but the repairs are only temporary. According to Dietel, the University plans to make permanent repairs to the Smith Swim Center over the summer, but it is too early to determine the cost of the project.

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 24, 2007

Low J-term enrollment blamed on no credit continued from page 3 The program was both an academic and a social experience for the students and their instructors.

“I think that the program was a success,” wrote Jordan Rosenblum ’05 GS in an e-mail to The Herald. Rosenblum taught “From the Iron Age to the Iron Chef” with Daniel Ullucci ’04 GS. “Dan and I led a group tour to Federal Hill,” Rosenblum said.

“Surprisingly, many students had never been there. The fact that they now know where to shop for and eat good Italian food makes it worth it alone.”

Jamal Shipman ’07, who took the class “Storytelling and Urban Engagement,” wrote in an e-mail to The Herald that he found the experience valuable. “I’ve lived in Providence for so long, but I really didn’t know much about its history, so it was eye-opening in that sense.”

In addition to classes, which met for three hours each day for eight days, students participated in frequent afternoon and evening events, including a weekend trip to Boston, ice skating at Kennedy Plaza, the Providence Martin Luther King, Jr. Day breakfast, consultations with career ser vices, a stargazing trip to the obser vator y, dinner at a Federal Hill restaurant and a conversation with Associate Professor of Histo-

r y James Campbell, who chaired the University Steering Committee on Slaver y and Justice.

Students were housed together in Graduate Center and ate most meals at the Sharpe Refectory, which remained open during winter break.

“The concept seems so Brown — small classes, learning for the sake of learning and lots of independence,” Rosenblum wrote in his e-mail.

“I made some great friends at January@Brown,” Shipman wrote, “which is nice because, as a senior, I don’t get the opportunity to meet new people often. I would love to see January@Brown take off in the years to come.”

The idea for a January term, which had been considered for some time, was first acted on by UCS in Spring 2005, when a committee led by then-UCS Representative David Beckoff ’08 looked at models of January terms at other schools and wrote an “initial justification” for the idea of a winter program.

Freeman then led a UCS committee last April that drafted a more in-depth proposal for what it called “The Winter Experience.”

The proposal provided justification for such a program and outlined a detailed plan, which included running a pilot with 100 to 200 students this winter.

A planning committee of two

coordinators from the administration, two student coordinators and five members of UCS, including Freeman and Damiano, met weekly beginning in October to bring January@Brown to fruition.

Currently, the future of January@Brown appears bright, and it seems very likely that the program will return next winter.

“I really hope that we will be able to launch it again,” Bergeron said. “I see it as a very potentially powerful program.”

Freeman said UCS will work hard to make January@Brown longer next winter so that it can offer academic credit.

“I think we can do it,” he said.

Karen Sibley, dean of summer and continuing studies, wrote in an e-mail to The Herald that she had heard only secondhand information about the success of the program, but that “a range of involved folks think this has benefit for students during the break period.”

In the next month, according to Damiano, UCS will evaluate this year’s program — participants filled out surveys at the end of the program — and create a detailed proposal for next year’s January@Brown.

“We think that this year’s pilot created a strong foundation that we can build on for future years,” she wrote in an e-mail to The Herald, “and we are excited to plan for January 2008.”

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WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 24, 2007

M. soccer’s Daniels Dallas-bound after going 18th in MLS draft continued from page 16 when I got there,” he said. “I just made sure to have fun and play my game.”

Part of “playing his game” meant that Daniels would display his versatility. Daniels played forward his entire career at Brown and for most of his soccer life.

However, in one of the games at the combine, a midfielder went down with an injury which forced a center back to play in the midfield. The injury left a void in the defense and Daniels’ coach asked him if he could fill that position.

“When the coach first asked me to play center back, I was a little reluctant,” he said. “I played there during the spring season two years ago, so I had a little experience there, but I wasn’t overly thrilled about playing there again.”

Daniels’ strong performance on the backline raised eyebrows by showing he could help prevent goals as well as he could score them.

Daniels is the third player in three years that Noonan has seen drafted. FC Dallas also drafted goalkeeper Chris Gomez ’05 in 2005 and Keith Caldwell ’06 was chosen by the Colorado Rapids in last year’s MLS Supplemental Draft. Daniels credits Noonan’s system in preparing him for MLS, especially his emphasis on instruction. “(Noonan) really does a good job teaching all the aspects of the game,” he said. “He teaches all the mental and physical aspects of soccer. He really does a good job teaching versatility which is a big reason why players develop under him.”

Even after a strong showing at the combine, Daniels was still unsure if he would get drafted. However, right before the draft, he got a call from Noonan that changed his mind.

“Coach called me and told me that the (Los Angeles) Galaxy was looking at me and they were picking 20th,” he said. “That was right after they signed David Beckham, so there was a lot (of coverage) surrounding them.”

Although Daniels watched the draft in New York City with forward Jamie Granger ’07 and Granger’s brother, only the first round of the draft was televised, so the three raced to Granger’s brother’s apartment in order to find the second round results.

“We watched the first round at this bar in Manhattan,” Daniels said. “But after the first round was over, we took the subway all the way back to Brooklyn to find out where or if I got drafted.”

Daniels discovered that he had been drafted in a very unorthodox manner. After arriving back at the apartment, he logged onto a computer and scrolled down all the picks to see if he found his name.

“I looked at all the picks and saw my name at 18th,” Daniels said. “At that moment I was very overwhelmed. It was like everything that I had been working for had finally paid off.”

Soon after Daniels found out the good news, Dallas’ head coach and general manager called to congratulate him. Now, Daniels is back on campus for the start of the semester, but in two weeks he will travel to Dallas to begin training with the team. The team has exhibitions in Puerto Rico and Brazil that Daniels wants to take part in.

Amid the excitement of being drafted, Daniels is still focused on graduating.

“I have come this far, and graduating is very important to me,” he said. “The MLS is weird. Once you get drafted, they expect you to drop everything and alter your life for them. This is a great opportunity for me, but graduating is still a top priority.”

Daniels will be in Dallas from February until late March. While he is there, he plans on taking classes at a neighboring university in order to fulfill the requirements he needs to graduate. Despite having so many obligations, Daniels is very excited for the opportunity to play professionally.

“To play soccer as a job is a dream come true,” he said. “I have been playing soccer for a large portion of my life, so to be able to continue that is excellent.”

Multiple athletes garner honors over break continued from page 16 or of the season.

Rosen was named Rookie of the Week on Jan. 2 by the ECACHL for the second time this year for his efforts at the Wells Fargo Denver Cup. Rosen stopped 67 of 70 shots as the Bears went 1-0-1 in the competition. A few days after earning Rookie of the Week, Rosen was named the nation’s top freshman netminder for December by the HCA. He is currently ranked second in the country in save percentage at .939.

Two w. soccer stars snag postseason honors Awards kept pouring in this season for women’s soccer forward Kathryn Moos ’07 and midfielder Jill Mansfield ’07. In early December, Moos was selected for 2006 NSCAA First Team All-Region, while Mansfield was named to the All-Region Third Team. A couple of weeks later, both players received All-New England Women’s Intercollegiate Soccer Association recognition. Moos earned First Team All-NEWISA honors, while Mans-

field earned Second Team recognition. SoccerBuzz also recognized both athletes by awarding First Team Northeast All-Region status to Moos and Third Team Northeast All-Region honors to Mansfield.

Moos also earned Fourth Team All-American by SoccerBuzz, making her the only Ivy League player to earn All-American accolades.

The multiple awards were no surprise based upon their performances. Moos was the leading scorer in the Ivy League this past season with 36 points and 15 goals and was a unanimous First Team All-Ivy selection. She finished the season ranked fi fth in the nation in points per game (2.12) and goals per game (0.88). Mansfield was also First Team All-Ivy and was second on the team in points, tallying 19. She was second in the Ivy League in assists, with seven.

Postseason honors were also extended to one of Brown’s standout rookies. Bridget Ballard ’10 garnered a position on the Northeast Region All-Freshman Squad

by SoccerBuzz. This season she started all 17 games and tallied five goals.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 24, 2007

PAGE 13

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

M. icers’ undefeated N.Y. trip for makes up for difficult January continued from page 16 on-two break. Prough managed to speed ahead and buried a shot in the back of the net, tying the game at 17:58. Poli and Hunter Thunell ’10 both earned assists on the goal.

The point was the first of Thunell’s

college career.

The second period was scoreless, but Brown erupted for four goals in the last 20 minutes of play.

The first of these was a short-handed goal, Brown’s second of the season, and it occurred when Sean Dersch ’07 scored off of a two-on-

M. hoops down Yale to stop skid continued from page 16 season. He is now sixth in the conference in scoring and 10th in rebounding.

“Mark has done and exceeded everything we’ve asked him to do,” Robinson said. “And now it’s turning into consistency. He’s really expecting to play well every time [we] go on the court.”

The rest of Brown’s winter break schedule produced mixed results, with McAndrew’s strong play the one consistent theme. A hot start fueled Brown in its win over Hartford. The Bears led by 14 at intermission and increased their advantage to 25 midway through the second half. Against the Hawks, McAndrew scored a career-high 30 points to lead the Bears to highest point total since scoring 100 against Harvard in February 2004.

Over New Year’s, the Bears played in the Flint Hills Resources Islander Classic in Corpus Christi, Texas. Brown won its first game of the four-team tournament in come-from-behind fashion. The Bears found themselves facing a seven-point halftime deficit against Western Illinois but went on a 16-4 run to open the second half and bury the Leathernecks. In the tournament final, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi used superior athleticism and home court advantage to beat the Bears 71-57.

“Texas A&M (-Corpus Christi) was the most athletic team we’ve played all year,” said McAndrew. “They play a very aggressive, attacking style. They made things tough for us because they have quick and athletic guards and a lot of height on their front line.”

The Bears then suffered heartbreaking losses in their final two non-conference games of the season. Against the University of California-Davis, who carried a 1-10 record entering the game, Brown traded baskets with the home team through much of the game and emerged with a three-point lead at the 1:05 mark of the second half.

But after a UC-Davis lay-up and a missed three-pointer by Brown, the Aggies received the ball under their own basket trailing by one with nine seconds left to play. UC-Davis drove the length of the court, and Vance Oliver buried a three-pointer just before the final buzzer, giving the Aggies a 49-47 victory.

The Bears’ trip to Southern Methodist University provided the second chapter in the Bears’ late-game struggles.

Marcus Becker ’07 hit a free throw with 46 seconds to play to tie the game at 50-all and stole the ball on SMU’s ensuing possession. But Damon Huffman ’08 misfired on a chance to end the game in regulation. Brown led briefly in overtime, but the Mustangs took the lead and then

sealed the victory on a threepointer with six seconds to play, giving SMU an insurmountable 60-56 lead.

“UC-Davis was a very heartbreaking loss because we gave them a chance to win it, which we never should’ve done,” said Chris Skrelja ’09. “Being a Conference USA team, [SMU] had more talent than some of the other teams we’ve played, and we gave a very spirited effort but just let it slip away in the end.”

Robinson was not disappointed with the way his team played against SMU. “We came out ready to play and were close with them the whole game,” he said. “We had a shot to win it against them … we could have easily won (both the SMU and UC Davis games) and been 3-1 on the road trip.”

Brown’s rut continued in its first home game in three weeks, the Ivy League opener against Yale. The Bears fell behind by double digits early in the second half, missing open shots that would have given Brown a chance to get back in the game.

The Bears cut the Bulldog lead to three in the second half but came no closer the rest of the way and suffered a 56-42 defeat.

This weekend, Brown will try to improve its Ivy League record when it travels to Dartmouth and Harvard for games on Friday and Saturday evening.

one break with Sean Hurley ’08 at 5:13. But 27 seconds later, the Big Red answered back, tying the score at 2-2.

After 15 minutes of back-andforth play and Brown clinging to a 3-2 advantage thanks to a Brian McNary ’08 goal at 9:55, Ryan Garbutt ’09 put the game out of reach at 18:03. The goal was the fourth time in the past seven games Garbutt has tallied.

Hoping to close the margin, the Big Red pulled its goalie immediately after Garbutt’s goal for an extra attacker. The tactic backfired, however, and Muncy buried an open-net goal with 23 seconds left in play to give Brown its first win of 2007.

“The guys are all doing great,” Grillo said when asked if any players particularly stood out as key contributors over the vacation.

“It’s hard to narrow it down to just one or two because it really is a team effort. Hurley had a great weekend though. He is just playing phenomenal hockey. And the team’s leaders, (assistant captain Antonin) Roux (’07) and (captain) Dersch are tremendous and really do a great job. Rosen is, of course, continuing to be solid in net, and that really helps us.”

The ECACHL representatives agreed with Grillo’s assessment of the team’s standouts this past month. Hurley earned ECAC Player of the Week honors this week after recording three assists over the weekend’s two-game series. At the start of the month, Rosen, who has been integral to the Bears’ suc-

cess, earned both ECAC Rookie of the Week honors and the ECAC’s Goalie of the Week award in early December.

“I don’t really know what to say about the awards,” Rosen said.

“It’s nice to get them and all but I just think I’m fortunate. Almost anytime a goalie gets something like this it’s a function of the team in front of him.”

Brown’s strong showing this weekend took the sting off of what had been a difficult winter break.

The first action the team saw over the holiday occurred during the Wells Fargo Denver Cup, an annual tournament in Denver for top Division I college teams from around the country. The Bears faced the University of Massachusetts-Lowell on Dec. 29 in the first round of competition and tied the Riverhawks 1-1.

While the game officially counts as a tie for statistical purposes, a shootout determined which of the teams advanced to the next round.

The Bears were knocked out of the tournament and into the consolation round after losing the shootout.

“Our game at Denver was definitely not our best of the year,” Rosen said. “Nobody really knows what happened. … They came out flying and we just weren’t ready to play. That’s a team we could have and should have beaten. We were lucky to get out with a tie. I guess the good thing about the game was we didn’t play near to our potential and still managed a tie, which shows how good we really can be

when we come to play.”

The following day, the Bears faced Mercyhurst College and defeated the Lakers 3-2 in overtime.

Dersch scored the game-winning goal off a pass from forward Jeremy Russell ’10 at 1:22 into overtime play.

On Jan. 6, the Bears traveled to New Haven to play their second game of the season against Yale.

The trip was a disappointing one for the Bears, who lost to the Bulldogs 4-3.

The team made a second trip to Connecticut the following weekend to battle then-20th ranked Quinnipiac University and Princeton. That turned into another unsuccessful weekend for the Bears, who lost to the Bobcats 5-1 and to the Tigers 3-2 in overtime.

After seven consecutive games on the road, the Bears will resume play at home this weekend, facing Union College and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute on Friday and Saturday nights in Meehan Auditorium. Both games will be crucial for the Bears because victories in league games will help solidify their position in postseason tournament play.

“We are practicing pretty consistently, and we have been all year,” Poli said. “The team has really good habits in terms of always coming to the rink prepared to work hard and be mentally focused, and this work ethic is really starting to pay off for us. For this weekend, we just hope to build on these past two games and pla play that same way. If we do, we’re all set.”

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E DITORIAL & L ETTERS THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

PAGE 14

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 24, 2007

STAF F EDITORIAL

The big picture Every January, as students battle the bitter cold and navigate the chaos of shopping period, a new editorial board takes the reins of The Brown Daily Herald. Most students will be too busy to notice the rearranged names on our masthead. But as the University continues to change at a rapid pace, we’re here to tell you how what happens on the Main Green and in University Hall affects you.

Like the 116 editorial boards that have preceded us, we seek to cover this campus thoroughly and accurately, and we hope you will want to read what we publish. We realize that we — and the 123 issues we’ll produce this year — are only a small part of this independent newspaper’s century-long history.

Yet what distinguishes our task from editorial boards that preceded us is what these years will mean for Brown. We are Brown students at a time of profound change for the University. Construction sites along Angell Street and reports from University Hall may not have an obvious impact on our daily lives, but these changes will make our alma mater a different place for students decades down the road.

President Ruth Simmons’ Plan for Academic Enrichment is already transforming the University. First-year seminars and need-blind admission may seem unremarkable to us now, but they demonstrate how the Brown of 2007 is already a departure from the Brown of the 1990s. These changes will be part of Simmons’ legacy, but as she enters the second half of her presidency — what could be the defining hour of her administration — we have yet to see how internationalization or issues we cannot anticipate might leave a mark, if any, on the University. The slavery and justice report she commissioned could land a monument on the Main Green, or it could pass by as little more than a lengthy press release.

We all love the Brown of today — the New Curriculum, S/NC, the Ratty, a culture that makes us the hippest and happiest of our Ivy peers. But will the changes currently underway, whether the budding campus off the Hill or the expanding Grad and Med Schools, redefine the Brown experience?

As bulldozers and a billion dollars transform our University, we hope The Herald will provide insight into how today’s news links to Brown’s past and predicts its future. We’re your paper — a paper you should enjoy reading, be proud of and turn to for reflection on what your Brown experience is all about. So pay attention to what’s going on around us. We hope our pages will make you want to.

Eric Beck ’08, Editor in Chief Mary-Catherine Lader ’08, Editor in Chief Allison Kwong ’08, Executive Editor Ben Leubsdorf ’08, Executive Editor Stephen Colelli ’08, Senior Editor Sonia Saraiya ’08, Senior Editor

T HE B ROWN D AILY H ERALD Editors-in-Chief Eric Beck Mary-Catherine Lader

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LETTER FROM THE EDITORS As you read the paper today, you may notice a few changes. We’ve redesigned our print edition to better showcase the news and bring a fresh look to The Herald. We know you may have some trouble finding Sudoku and the weather, but don’t worr y, they’re still here — on Page 2. Also, a new “In Brief” section will inform readers more quickly about a broader array of stories.

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We think the new look improves The Herald’s appearance. University news can be complicated, but the pages that bring it to you shouldn’t be. We’re always eager to hear your input, and your thoughts on the redesign are no exception. E-mail us at herald@browndailyherald.com — after all, we’re your paper.

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O PINIONS WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 24, 2007

PAGE 15

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

An iron curtain has descended across the Continent SEAN QUIGLEY

OPINIONS COLUMNIST

Though the Soviet Union is long gone, Sir Winston Churchill would be just as frightened. And while President Reagan made certain that the Reds would never again pose a serious challenge to liberty abroad, a new disease has begun to spread across Europe — a disease far more subtle and consequently far more devious. I refer not to the socialism that has seized control of Western Europe or to the vast influx of immigrants who refuse to assimilate into a foreign land. The iron curtain of which I speak is something quite familiar to us at Brown University — political correctness.

In 1947, in the wake of World War II and the plethora of revelations that surfaced regarding Nazi atrocities committed at concentration camps throughout central and eastern Europe, the Austrian government enacted a form of legislation known as the “Verbotsgesetz.” “Verbotsgesetz” criminalizes any person who denies or trivializes the Holocaust. The most famous example of the law’s enforcement occurred in November 2005, when David Irving, a British author and revisionist historian, was arrested for Holocaust denial.

Speaking of revisionist historians, will Howard Zinn be locked up anytime soon?

Jokes aside, I do not honestly want Zinn to be arrested. While I may not agree with him, he offers a fresh perspective. For

the same reasons, Irving should not have been arrested.

Criminalizing historical opinions, irrespective of their acceptance among the greater academic community and their propensity to of fend, is a deplorable form of modern tyranny. What really disgusts me is the fact that Ir ving was actually sentenced to three years in prison for his denial — even though he was depor ted from Austria under probation on Dec. 21, 2006 and forbidden to return. Ironically, this ver y same sor t of censorship and government restriction was commonplace under Nazi rule. The Austrian government might as well have arrested Ir ving in the mid-

by this band and exposing its fallacies through truth and reason, the German government decided to ban it. It almost seems as if they are incapable of discrediting Nazism except through force. In this context, it is ironic that many contemporary Germans accuse America of being “fascist.”

In France, the situation is just as disappointing. The French are notorious for taking things beyond reasonable limits, from the divine right of kings to the violence of the French Revolution to their current censorship laws. In March 2004, the French Parliament, with the unbridled support of Herr Chirac, passed legislation that banned all people from don-

Why must offensive symbols and ideologies be banned? dle of the night and ordered his papers and books burned.

Examples of similar laws abound across Europe. In Germany, it is criminal to spread neo-Nazi propaganda and to display Nazi symbols, such as the swastika. For instance, the German rock group Landser (“foot soldiers”) was found guilty of spreading anti-Jewish and anti-foreign rhetoric in 2003. Its leader, Michael Regener, was imprisoned after losing several appeals in 2005 and is currently serving a term of over three years. The German government has officially outlawed the rock band.

Outlawed. Let the ridiculousness of these measures sink in. Instead of confronting the despicable hatred espoused

ning “ostensible” religious articles in public schools. Christians cannot wear large crosses, Jews cannot wear kippahs and Muslim women cannot wear veils. Presumably, every Frenchman can still wear a white flag.

In addition to the assault on the rights of the religious, the French have passed a law that criminalizes the denial of the 1915 Armenian genocide in Turkey. Passed in October 2006, this law imposes a fine of up to € 45,000 (approximately $60,000) and up to one year in prison for voicing denial of the genocide.

Recall that once upon a time, in 1749, the French authorities imprisoned the philosopher Denis Diderot because his ideas did not conform to the Crown and

the Church. Now, dissenters in France are imprisoned because their ideas do not conform to politically correct secularism.

History does indeed repeat itself. Maybe after another invasion the French will finally get their act together — assuming that we even bother to save them again.

Such government actions are disgraceful, as they usurp one of the most basic rights in a civil society — freedom of speech and opinion without fear of reprisal. These freedoms, and the ensuing clash of ideas, are paramount for the emergence of truth, and thus essential for any thriving civil society.

In his inaugural address of 1801, President Thomas Jefferson had this insight to offer on the tolerance of controversial opinions: “(E)rror of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.”

In contemporary Europe, such wisdom falls on deaf ears. Why must offensive symbols and ideologies be banned? Must the Austrian and German governments resort to censorship in order to prove that Holocaust denial and Nazi ideology are erroneous? Must the French government criminalize the denial of a historical genocide? And is it truly so offensive to see religious people wearing signs of their faith that those too must be criminalized?

Government repression is creeping across Europe. An iron curtain of censorship legislation is slowly being erected.

Alas, it seems Europeans have forgotten that true political liberty encompasses all people and all belief beliefs. Safeguards for free speech and opinion are meant precisely for the ideas and people that we find most offensive.

The War in Iraq may foretell the future of ABC’s “Lost” JACOB SCHUMAN

OPINIONS EDITOR

A warm winter break in Philadelphia was rendered much colder by the absence of ABC’s hit series “Lost,” forcing me to watch the only programming that enjoys a more passionate love-hate relationship with its fans and detractors — the evening news. Though the last episode of “Lost,” which portrays the adventures of a group of castaways stranded on a mysterious tropical island, ended in an excruciating cliffhanger, my anxiety was quickly soothed. Indeed, it soon became apparent that clues as to the future of the series were strewn across the nightly reports from ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox. It is a popular, if somewhat cliché, technique for opinions columnists to explain a ver y serious political issue by employing a relatively flippant metaphor. However, the potentially momentous implications of inverting this paradigm of college journalism are rarely explored. Though a less dedicated fan may consider it clever to use the show “Lost” to comment on the conflict in the Middle East, my priorities are deducing what will happen in the coming half-season of Lost without becoming distracted by the details of international news. In fact, it is the television show “Lost” that can be analyzed by using the war in Iraq.

The parallels between “Lost”’s mysterious island and the Middle East crisis are obvious — both are unfamiliar regions, both are the results of think-tank research gone wrong and both are full of people who want to kill us for reasons we don’t understand. These shared characteristics, among others — though the presence of polar bears on the “Lost” island throws a wrench in the equation — allow “Lost”-junkies and news fans to forecast the future of the television series based on recent developments in current events.

this last plot-twist could have been as predictable as Donald Rumsfeld’s resignation.

Today, the Middle East crisis remains equally powerful in determining what will happen on Lost once it returns from its winter hiatus. President Bush’s loss of both houses of Congress in the November 2006 midterm elections likely means that the character Locke, who is a similarly stubborn and impulsive man of faith, will lose the support of the other castaways on his drive to become their new de facto leader. As Locke’s popularity and job

Can the future of Jack, Kate and Sawyer be foretold using the conflict in Lebanon?

The past has already proven this technique highly effective. On Feb. 22, 2005, al-Qaeda terrorists attacked the Golden Mosque of Samarra in Iraq, a sacred shrine of Shiite Islam, in a strike that further inflamed sectarian tensions and potentially ignited the conflict into a civil war. Fast for ward a few months. In the season finale of season two of “Lost,” the hatch, a symbol of Iraq since the character Locke discovered it and became obsessed with unlocking its entrance and later the myster y of its “button,” also exploded, this time literally. If only we had been paying closer attention to the news,

approval rating sinks to new lows, Jack’s — the symbol of rationality, caution, badass doctorness and, clearly, the Democratic Party — star will rise. The administration’s planned “troop surge,” in which more than 21,000 American soldiers will be sent to Iraq, perhaps suggests a future of revisiting the “Lost” stars’ forgotten plan to form an army of sur vivors to help combat the nefarious “Others.” Finally, my fellow Losties should be ready for Sun’s murder of the “Other” Colleen to spark a more direct and violent confrontation between the two opposing groups on the island, just as the botched executions

of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and his aides inflamed Sunni anger at the Shiite-majority government.

Of course, analyzing a frivolous issue like “Lost” with a rather more serious topic like the war in Iraq opens just as many questions as it provides answers. Can the future of Jack, Kate and Sawyer, trapped on a new island offshore of their previous outpost, be foretold using the conflict in Lebanon? Does Muqtada al-Sadr, the rebellious Shiite cleric who controls the Islamist “Mahdi Army” militia, represent Sawyer of the castaways or Juliet of the “Others”? How does the lovable Hurley fit into all this international/island intrigue?

And why, if they are all clearly supposed to symbolize the characters from the television show, are none of the public figures involved in the crisis as physically attractive (except for Tony Snow, total babe)?

Much like the entrails of a sheep, a deck of tarot cards or an interpretation of dreams, the conflict in Iraq can be a powerful metaphorical tool in predicting the future of “Lost” and analyzing the series’s enigmas. Proud supporters of Jack, Locke, Kate and the rest of the gang should closely follow events in the Middle East as they unfold in the coming weeks. In all likelihood, they guard secrets to the rest of season three, and, if we’re lucky, maybe even season four.

Nevertheless, it’s important not to lose focus on the priorities. Remember, no matter what our leaders say, where they go or what they spend, there are real fictional characters whose well-nonbeings depend on their decisions.

S PORTS W EDNESDAY WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 24, 2007

PAGE 16

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

M. hoops down Yale to snap winter Multiple athletes garner honors, awards over break break skid, gain first Ivy win

BY MADELEINE MARECKI ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR

BY PETER CIPPARONE SPORTS EDITOR

The men’s basketball team started and ended its winter break action with a flourish. It crushed the University of Hartford 95-82 on Dec. 22 and then beat Western Illinois University 63-59 on Dec. 29 to close the year on a positive note. After enduring a fourgame losing streak to start 2007, Brown came from behind to beat Yale on Saturday to earn its first win in the Ivy League. The Bears’ record is now 6-11 overall and 1-1 in the Ivies.

After falling to Yale at home two weeks ago, Brown needed a victory in New Haven to avoid falling too far behind the rest of the Ivy pack. Yale took the lead in the last minutes of the first period and finished the half down six. When the second half began, Mark McAndrew ’08 immediately took over. After two quick fouls, with only four minutes played and zero points, he went 4-of-5 from three-point range and scored 27 points in the second half. With two minutes remaining, he poured in five points in 45 seconds to turn a 66-67 deficit into a 71-67 lead. The Bears hung on and escaped New Haven with a 76-71 victory. McAndrew said his second-half scoring was baffling.

“It’s hard to fathom,” he said.

“At halftime (Head Coach Craig Robinson) was chewing me out for getting those two fouls and said it would probably take me the whole half to warm up. I

For most students, winter break is a time for low-key relaxation.

However, some varsity athletes have had more eventful vacations.

Throughout break, a flurry of postseason honors were bestowed upon several athletes who played fall sports, and a few Bears picked up some early recognition for winter sports.

Ashley Hess / Herald File Photo

After being held scoreless in the first half against Yale on Saturday, Mark McAndrew ’08 exploded for 27 points in the second half as Brown pulled out a 76-71

thought so too, but on the first possession of the second half I hit two free throws which felt good … then a few possessions later I swished a three and the light just went off.”

M. icers’ undefeated N.Y. trip makes up for difficult January

BY ELIZA LANE SPORTS STAFF WRITER

Judged solely by its winter break record of 2-3-3, the men’s ice hockey team has played at a mediocre level over the past five weeks. However, Brown’s victory over No. 15 Cornell and its tie with Colgate University this past weekend were two of the team’s best results of the season.

Its most recent play leaves the team’s record at 8-7-4 overall and 4-6-2 in the ECACHL. “We played some solid, ver y solid hockey over the break,” said Head Coach Roger Grillo.

“The team did a lot of positive things, and it’s finally paying off, as we could see last weekend. I just tell the guys that if they continue to skate hard and do those little things, they’ll be rewarded.”

On Friday night, Brown faced off with Colgate in Hamilton, N.Y. Colgate scored a shorthanded goal midway through the first period, but Brown finally an-

SPORTS SCOREBOARD TUESDAY, DAY JAN. 23 DAY, W. HOCKEY: Brown 6, Yale 4 M. SQUASH: Brown 5,, Amherst 4 W. SQUASH: Brown 9,, Amherst 0

swered back on its seventh power play of the night. At 17:12 into the second period, forward Aaron Volpatti ’10 slapped a rebound past the Colgate goaltender to tie the score at 1-1. The goal was the first of Volpatti’s college career.

With 12 seconds left in the second period, Colgate reclaimed the lead with an even-strength goal. But the Bears struck right back with forward Sean Muncy ’09 tying the game just 3:46 into the third period when he tipped in a shot from defenseman Sean Hurley ’08. Neither team scored in the rest of the period and goaltender Dan Rosen ’10 made four saves during the extra period to preserve the tie.

On Saturday night, the Bears traveled to Ithaca, N.Y., to face No. 15 Cornell. Brown had not defeated the Big Red on its home ice since a 5-4 win in February 1995 and that did not look likely to change when Cornell struck first, 7:46 into the first period.

Brown spent much of the period on the penalty kill and as a result had very few scoring chances. Late in the period, however, forward Eric Slais ’09 won a defensive zone face-off and sprung linemates Chris Poli ’08 and Jeff Prough ’08 on a twocontinued on page 13

For his efforts, McAndrew won this week’s Ivy League Player of the Week award, his second Player of the Week honor of the continued on page 13

M. and w. hoops earn Ivy League Player of the Week honors Mark McAndrew ’08 and Catherine Schaper ’09 of the men’s and women’s basketball teams, were both named this week’s Ivy League Players of the Week.

McAndrew has been impressive all season, and he saved the Bears from a close defeat against Yale on Saturday. Brown was down 67-66 with two minutes left in the game, but the junior guard helped regain the lead and secure the squad’s first Ivy League victory of the year with a three-pointer and a lay-up to put Brown up for good at 71-67. McAndrew scored all 27 of his points in the second half.

Also on Saturday, Schaper helped sink Yale to secure the women’s team’s first Ivy League victory, 67-60. Schaper, a forward, shot 8-for-10 from the field and 5for-6 at the foul line and tallied five rebounds and two steals. Of her career-high 21 points, 18 came in the second half.

W. track’s Ferjan ’07 impresses with record-breaking time Middle-distance specialist Naja

Ferjan ’07 opened the women’s track team’s indoor season with a bang, breaking the school record in the 1,000 meter run. Ferjan took first at the University of Rhode Island Sorlein Memorial Classic on Saturday, finishing in 2:50.43 and eclipsing the mark set last year by All-American Anna Willard ’06 by more than two seconds. Ferjan was previously ranked sixth all-time in the event for the Bears.

M. water polo’s Gartner ’09 grabs postseason honor A hand injury at the beginning of the season could not keep men’s water polo player Mike Gartner ’09 out of the pool for long, and it certainly did not prevent him from regaining his form from last season.

Gartner missed the Bears’ first 14 games, but he made up for his absence in the latter part of the season by racking up 41 goals, good for fourth on the team. Even though he missed almost half the season, Gartner was so impressive that the Collegiate Water Polo Association named him an Honorable Mention All-American for his efforts. Gartner was named CWPA First Team All-North last year.

M. icers Rosen ’10 top rookie in ECACHL for December Men’s hockey goaltender Dan Rosen ’10 continued his impressive season over winter break. He was recognized by the Hockey Commissioners Association National Rookie of the Month in December and earned his third ECACHL honcontinued on page 12

M. soccer’s Daniels Dallas-bound after going 18th in Major League Soccer draft

BY JUSTIN GOLDMAN SPORTS EDITOR

When the men’s soccer team lost to Duke University in the second round of the NCAA tournament this fall, Andrew Daniels ’07 thought his soccer career was over.

“Obviously, we had a bitter taste in our mouths from the loss,” he said.

“But I was completely content with the way my four years (at Brown) went playing college soccer.”

But on Jan. 12, Daniels was given an opportunity to continue his playing career when he was selected 18th overall in the 2007 Major League Soccer SuperDraft by FC Dallas.

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, Head Coach Mike Noonan notified Daniels that he would be one of the players invited to the MLS combine January 4-7 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. It took a little while for the news to settle in.

“Honestly, I didn’t really think about the combine all that much when I first heard about it,” he said.

“When I got home for Thanksgiving, I was sending out my resume and trying to make contacts to get another job.”

When Daniels arrived at the combine, he was loose and focused. “I wasn’t really nervous continued on page 12

Ashley Hess / Herald File Photo

FC Dallas selected Andrew Daniels ’07 of the men’s soccer team in the second round of the MLS SuperDraft on Jan. 12.