Thursday, February 8, 2007

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD T HURSDAY, F EBR UAR Y 8, 2007

Volume CXLII, No. 12

Since 1866, Daily Since 1891

Darwish lecture provokes fierce student reaction

BY DEBBIE LEHMANN SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Eunice Hong / Herald

Students from Brown and Providence College joined R.I. residents in the State House on Tuesday to call for publicly funded elections.

Students rally for public Fuentes campaign financing speaks on his work METRO and heritage

BY SIMMI AUJLA METRO EDITOR

BY CHRISTIAN MARTELL STAFF WRITER

Carlos Fuentes, a major political novelist and a professor-atlarge at Brown, spoke in Spanish about his internationally acclaimed novel “La Muerte de Artemio Cruz,” Latin American governments and the effects of globalization on the region to a crowd gathered at Brown Hillel on Wednesday afternoon.

“I can talk about others a lot, but it is always hard to talk about one’s own work,” Fuentes confessed to the crowd. Yet the lecture seemed to cause him no trouble.

Fuentes was born in Panama City, a son of two Mexican parents who expected him to grow up knowing the history of their homeland. At 16 years old, he moved to Mexico City, which he still calls home. After graduating with degrees from the University of Mexico and the University of Geneva in Switzerland, he followed in his father’s footsteps and became a diplomat for the Mexican government in 1965.

His political career sent him to France, London and Venice, while his literary contributions have provided him with teaching opportunities at institutions such as Princeton, Harvard, Cambridge and Columbia universities and the University of Pennsylvania.

Fuentes began his lecture with a crash course on the history of the Mexican Revolution, the central event of his third novel, which in English is called “The Death of Artemio Cruz.”

He spoke about the motivations continued on page 7

INSIDE:

postINSIDE

Nearly 80 Brown and Providence College students joined Rhode Island residents in the State House rotunda Tuesday afternoon to support publicly funded elections in Rhode Island.

Supporters of new state campaign finance reform legislation addressed the crowd as students and community members held signs reading “People In, Money Out” and “Love Your State? Fix Its Elections.” Rep. Edith Ajello, D-Dist. 3, and Sen. Rhoda Perry P’91, D-Dist. 3, filed the bill, the Rhode Island Public Financing of Elections Act, with the General Assembly on Tuesday.

The proposed legislation would fully finance political candidates who choose not to take any private donations. To prove public interest, candidates would have to collect a certain number of $5 contributions and then receive a grant from the state government. The office the candidate seeks determines the required number of contributions and the grant amount.

If the candidate runs against

continued on page 5

continued on page 4

Eunice Hong / Herald

Nonie Darwish, a pro-Israel Arab feminist, polarized a crowded Salomon 101 last night as she spoke on Islamism.

Interdisciplinary programs can struggle in departmental system

BY MICHAEL SKOCPOL SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Biomedical ethics and Middle East studies may be very different fields, but they have much in common — both are interdisciplinary, both are growing fields of interest in the United States and both have languished at Brown in recent years.

The undergraduate concentration in biomedical ethics — the first of its kind in higher education and for years a vibrant program — was suspended last year due to a lack of dedicated faculty and insufficient departmental support. Middle East

POST- SCORES Super Bowl coverage from Israel, the worst music album of 2007 and the pleasures of losing your virginity.. Who could ask for more?

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privately funded opponents, the public financing fund will then match the money spent by opponents, but the monetary support is capped at three times the amount of the initial grant.

Under the proposed system, a gubernatorial candidate would receive the most seed money — $90,000 — and would be granted a maximum of $270,000 for the entire campaign.

The proposed public financing system will face skepticism from legislators and constituents, as well as the limitations of the state’s financial situation, Ajello said.

Arizona and Maine, among other states, have adopted similar systems, but legislation in both those states was introduced through popular initiatives by voters, rather than filed by elected officials.

Typically, publicly financed election bills passed by state legislatures are more limited in scope or are vetoed, as was the case of Connecticut’s bill in 2000. The Rhode

Denouncing Islamist ideology as “archaic and oppressive,” Arab feminist Nonie Darwish declared Arab culture in “a head-on collision with the rest of the world” during a speech yesterday evening in Salomon 101.

Darwish’s speech was followed by a heated question-and-answer session, during which several students passionately questioned her views and academic credentials.

Growing up in Cairo and Gaza, Darwish said she learned to hate Jews, Israel and America. Yet she is now an ardent supporter of Israel and a women’s rights activist.

Darwish founded ArabsForIsrael. com, a Web site that urges Muslims and Arabs across the globe to “give Israel and the Jewish people the respect they deserve in their tiny little country.” She is also the author of “Now They Call Me Infidel: Why I Renounced Jihad for America, Israel and the War on Terror.”

Darwish was originally scheduled to speak last semester, but her lecture fell through after the Sarah Doyle Women’s Center declined to fund her appearance and

Brown Hillel decided not to sponsor the event alone. The Office of Campus Life and Student Services and the Political Theory Project sponsored last night’s talk.

According to Yael Richardson ’08, president of Hillel’s executive board, Hillel decided not to sponsor the event last semester because of “inflammatory statements” Darwish has made about Islam.

“We didn’t see it as our place to bring a speaker who has spoken in a derogatory manner about another religion,” Richardson said.

“If another organization were to bring a speaker who has made anti-Semitic remarks, we hope they would also be respectful of us.”

In an interview with The Herald, Darwish said she is used to being silenced after growing up in “Middle East dictatorships and police states.” She said she was “disappointed that in America this could happen” but added she is very grateful the University invited her to speak.

“It shows that our academic leaders are very wise men,” she said.

3 METRO

studies has battled a lack of coordination and faculty absences and at times has struggled to offer enough courses for its concentrators to fulfill their requirements.

Even large, popular programs can face challenges if they fall outside formal academic departments. The international relations concentration boasts approximately 400 concentrators but has only one concentration adviser whose job is officially part-time.

Interdisciplinary programs at the University depend on a variety of departments to hire faculty, provide support staff and offer DIVESTING FROM DARFUR Sen. Rhoda Perry P’91 and Rep. Edith Ajello introduced legislation to divest the state of R.I.from Darfur at the urging of student groups.

courses. If departmental priorities lie elsewhere, an interdisciplinary program can suffer or disappear.

The success stories among interdisciplinary programs — such as Judaic studies and Commerce, Organizations and Entrepreneurship — are generally either treated as departments or have independent sources of financial support, such as COE’s extensive fundraising.

The problems of other programs have not escaped the notice of University officials. Interdisciplinary programs will be one focus of an upcoming administrative review of undergraduate concentra-

11 OPINIONS

195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island

GOP: NEW AND IMPROVED? Don Trella ’07.5 warns jubilant Democrats of the Republican Party of the Future — a GOP that could evoke Libertarianism in an effort to get votes

tions, officials say.

A bioethical crisis Many interdisciplinary programs, especially smaller ones, become successful thanks to the efforts of a small group of dedicated faculty or key administrators, but if those central organizing figures leave, the program may be left high and dry.

This was the case with the University’s biomedical ethics concentration. For years, a core group of faculty from the Medical School, continued on page 6

12 SPORTS

W SKIERS MAINTAINS EDGE W. The women’s ski team gets fourth place at home and nabs second place at MIT to come within one point of third place in the MacConnell Division

News tips: herald@browndailyherald.com

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THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2007

U

VERNEY-WOOLLEY DINING HALL

LUNCH —Grilled Ham and Swiss Sandwich, Savory Spinach, Vegan Tofu Raviolis with Sauce, Cheesecake Brownies, Pineapple Upside Down Cake

LUNCH — Vegetarian Six Bean Soup, Minestrone Soup, Hot Roast Beef on French Bread, Vegan Tofu Raviolis with Sauce, Cheesecake Brownies

DINNER — Roast Turkey with Sauce, Mashed Sweet and White Potatoes, Vegetarian Gnocchi a la Sorrentina, Sauteed Broccoli with Garlic, Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Frosting

DINNER — Vegetarian Six Bean Soup, Minestrone Soup, Turkey Cutlet, Pasta Spinach Casserole, Roasted Butternut Risotto with Leeks, Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Frosting

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How to Get Down | Nate Saunders

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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 They’re above abs 5 Burns wildly 10 Crucifix 14 Clanton foe 15 It’s often formed around a sinking tropical island 16 Gymnast Korbut 17 Embezzled 19 Author Shelley 20 Like Mozart’s music 21 Western st. in two time zones 22 Doesn’t use now 23 Slap shot made on a moving puck, in hockey lingo 25 Spiritual path 26 Bit 27 Tricolor dogs, often 31 “__ than old King Kong”: Croce lyric 35 Noted race winner 36 “It’s a Sin to Tell __” 37 O’Connor’s successor 39 Ashton’s wife 40 Accumulates 42 Time units?

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47 Abs strengtheners 52 Cortés subject 55 Friend 56 What sentence components should do 57 When doubled, a Polynesian island 58 Sulk 60 __ cost 61 Send to the statehouse 62 Wake up 63 Alec D’Urberville’s slayer 64 “Teachers” actor 65 Mob follower?

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9 Foxy 10 Jupiter and Mars 11 Norwegian king 12 Tyrant 13 Work shift 18 Like a carriage trade 22 Stock exchange purchase 24 Seed-filled instruments 25 Resetting, in a way 27 High-tech helper, briefly 28 Stead 29 Salinger title teenager 30 Dos into doce 31 “The Art of Fugue” composer 32 __ vera 33 Herb in a pickle 34 Sub choices

35 Carol contraction 38 Classic Ford 41 Heroic 43 Like some panels 45 Go for 47 Place for a pin 48 Engineer Sikorsky and a hunchback 49 An assortment of it is hidden in 17and 58-Across and 10- and 34Down

50 Needing kneading 51 Jewish ritual 52 Lie alongside 53 Region 54 Speaker in the Hall of Fame 55 Game played on a 300-yard-long field 58 Word on a restaurant door 59 Consumed

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METRO THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2007

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R.I. legislators seek divestment from Sudan

BY SARA MOLINARO METRO EDITOR

In an effort to help end the genocide in Darfur, state officials announced a bill yesterday to divest state pension funds from companies operating in Sudan. Rep. Joseph Almeida, D-Dist. 12, and Sen. Rhoda Perry P’91, D-Dist. 3, made the announcement with General Treasurer Frank Caprio and students involved with the Sudan Divestment Task Force, including Scott Warren ’09.

If passed, the bill would remove state pension funds currently invested in companies that support the Sudanese government and invest them elsewhere. The bill would target companies with military supply contracts in Sudan as well as companies involved with power production, oil and mining in Sudan. The three industries are heavily taxed by the Sudanese government and provide a substantial revenue boon, according to a press release.

Rep. David Segal, D-Dist. 2, told The Herald the divestment would amount to approximately $2 million, and the money divested from those companies would be moved to other companies uninvolved in Sudan.

Warren, the senior national field organizer for the Sudan Divestment

Task Force, spoke at the press conference. Warren urged legislators “not to allow genocide to occur on our watch and certainly not allow it to occur on our dime.”

At the press conference, Caprio called the proposed bill “the model bill for states going forward.” The model adopted in this bill, called “targeted divestment,” is designed to cut off funds to the government in question while minimizing the harm to the people of Sudan. The bill only requires divestment from companies that “have a business relationship with the (Sudanese) government” and provide only minimal benefits to underprivileged Sudanese citizens. A targeted divestment bill was recently passed by the California state legislature, and other models of divestment have been passed by five other states.

Warren told The Herald that the Sudan Divestment Task Force has identified 25 to 30 companies that are “the worst offenders in Sudan.”

While he acknowledged the genocide in Darfur would not end tomorrow, Warren said divestment puts “much-needed economic pressure on the (Sudanese) government,” which will be effective alongside political pressure from the international community. “Divestment is one tool

to end genocide, and it’s one we feel we can effectively pursue,” he said.

“We want to send a message to the targeted companies and to all companies: The loophole in America will be closed,” Caprio said.

Warren told The Herald that a similar bill was introduced last year

by Almeida “because I approached him,” but it never made it out of committee. Warren said the bill’s drafters are “hopeful” for its passage.

Segal said in addition to Caprio’s support, this year’s bill has a much better chance of passage because the issue of the genocide in Darfur has become “more mainstream over the past several months.”

Segal, a former member of the Providence City Council, co-sponsored an ordinance, passed last April, that made Providence the first U.S. city to divest funds from Sudan. Segal said the divestment of state funds would happen “at absolutely no cost to us,” and it would be “deplorable for us” not to pass the bill.

The Brown student group Darfur Action Network will be lobbying for the bill’s passage in the coming weeks, Warren said, and students will be going down to the State House when the General Assembly is in session to lobby legislators on the bill.

Eunice Hong / Herald Scott Warren ’09, senior national field organizer for the Sudan Divestment Task Force and leader of the Brown chapter of STAND, spoke at a press conference yesterday announcing a bill to divest state pension funds from companies operating in Sudan.

Carcieri ’65 looks to promote environmentally friendly policies

BY SIMMI AUJLA METRO EDITOR

This afternoon, Republican Gov. Donald Carcieri ’65 will deliver the opening speech at a conference on clean and sustainable energy hosted by the Brown Forum for Enterprise.

His participation follows the announcement in his fi fth annual State of the State Address that Rhode Island would join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative,

making Rhode Island the last New England state to do so.

In his Jan. 30 address, Carcieri announced a number of environmental and energy initiatives, including $85 million in the 2008 budget to clean up the Narragansett Bay, the creation of a state agency to manage and sell renewable energy and a goal to meet 20 percent of Rhode Island’s electricity needs with renewable energy by 2011.

But the RGGI announcement

received the most applause among his energy initiatives. Rhode Island participated in drafting of the initiative until 2005, when Carcieri backed out of the bill, citing cost concerns.

The initiative asks states to create cap-and-trade and offset programs to reduce and counter carbon dioxide emissions. Cap-andtrade programs allow companies that cannot avoid producing high levels of emissions to buy the right to continue producing at those lev-

els from companies that can lower their emissions. Offset programs allow companies to balance the negative effects of their energy consumption by funding renewable energy initiatives.

Associate Professor of Environmental Studies Steven Hamburg, who spoke with Carcieri a few days after his State of the State address, said he wasn’t surprised by the governor’s announcement that Rhode Island would join the RGGI. Since Massachusetts Gov. De-

val Patrick signed the agreement on Jan. 18, “Rhode Island was in a position where (not signing the agreement) would serve no purpose unless (Carcieri) was trying to make a statement,” Hamburg said. Since Rhode Island residents consume energy produced in Massachusetts’ coal-burning plants, the costs of Massachusetts complying with RGGI would transfer to Rhode Island consumers anyway, continued on page 7

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

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THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2007

Darwish speaks on polit political Islam, draws fire from student audience continued from page 1 Russell Carey ’91 MA’06, interim vice president for campus life and student services, said his office decided to sponsor the event after it was clear the speech would not go forward otherwise.

“The whole purpose of a university is to have free and open exchange of ideas, particularly those that students initiate and develop,” Carey said. “It’s not so much about her, it’s about the open and frank exchange of views and opinions.”

In that spirit, Associate Professor of Political Science John Tomasi, who directs the Political Theory Project, introduced Darwish by stressing the “ideal of intellectual ferment and discomfort.”

Darwish began her speech by pointing to the Arab-Israeli conflict as a “symptom of a much bigger problem: a problem of tolerance.” The Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the London and Madrid transit bombings and terrorism in Chechnya, India and the Philippines are all connected by a common factor of intolerance, Dar-

wish said.

Darwish said radical leaders in Muslim countries have oppressed freedom of thought and insist on maintaining oppressive laws that hold women hostage. As an Arab woman, she said she spoke out of love for her culture, but she added that “self-criticism is a virtue for every culture, and any that refuses it is going to stagnate.”

Recounting memories of her childhood in Gaza, Dar wish said she witnessed oppression of women and was indoctrinated to hate Israel. Dar wish said her father, a high-ranking Egyptian army officer, was killed by Israeli soldiers when she was eight years old, leaving her mother to raise five children in a male-dominated culture.

“I remember my mother crying, saying Arab women are expected to sacrifice their family, their husbands, their sons, but are given no respect as women who just want to conduct their lives and do the business of living,” she said.

Darwish said many Muslim women accept oppression, since they were taught from birth that

their inferior position is God’s will, which she described as “sexual apartheid.”

“This is why you don’t see a lot of outcry in the Middle East from many women, because they really truly believe that it’s God’s will,” Darwish said. “They’re suffering from polygamy, their testimony in court is half of a man’s and they believe they shouldn’t object to that.”

Darwish criticized the impact of sharia law, the basis of family law in many Muslim countries, which she said permits men to divorce their wives without consent but only allows women to request divorce.

In addition to denouncing oppression of women in the Middle East, Darwish condemned the treatment of non-Muslims in the region as a “disgrace.” Muslim clergy have become sources of hate, she said, rather than sources of wisdom.

“They work their worshippers into a frenzy against the West and Israel,” Darwish said. “What good is it if they say we have a religion of peace — and I don’t disagree with that — when radical teachers are teaching intolerance and violence?”

As a child, Darwish said she was “told outrageous lies about Jews” and that “peace was never an option.” She said her classmates would cry daily while reciting Jihadist poetry, wishing to die as martyrs, and she said she would sing songs with lyrics like “Arabs are our friends, Jews are our dogs” during recess while jumping rope.

“When you do that, hatred be-

comes easy and terrorism becomes acceptable,” Darwish said.

“Because who wouldn’t want to kill a monster or terrorize a monster?”

Darwish went on to say it is up to Arabs themselves to question their faith if the Middle East’s problems are to be addressed.

After Darwish’s speech, many students attacked her views in the question-and-answer period, receiving both applause and disapproving shouts from the audience.

One student attacked her views and said he attended the speech only “to embarrass the people who brought you here.”

Another student challenged whether Darwish’s words helped or hurt her fellow Arabs. “Is what you’re doing helping the Middle East or increasing the hatred there?” the student asked.

Several students questioned Darwish’s credentials.

“You are not a scholar of Islam,” said one student. “Similarly, when you speak about Palestinian society, I am trying to figure out what your credentials are. You do not have the credentials most speakers who come to Brown have.”

Dar wish replied that she may not meet the criteria “somebody needs to speak at Brown,” but she meets “the criteria of a human being.”

Nadia Maccabee ’08, the student organizer of the event, said she was pleased with the student turnout but unhappy with the question-and-answer session. “I was disappointed that my peers asked questions about her degrees,” Maccabee said. “It was not as challenging a dialogue as I

had hoped.”

After the question-and-answer period, students continued debating each other at a dessert reception.

Vale Cofer-Shabica ’09 said he thought Darwish was overly defensive in her answers to questions. “Even when people asked questions that could have been answered, she didn’t even answer the question, but instead used emotional appeal,” he said.

If somebody more scholarly had spoken on the same subject, Cofer-Shabica said, the event would have prompted more interesting questions from students.

Even if a speaker expressed views that contradicted the opinions of most Brown students, a discussion could have remained intellectual so long as the speaker’s claims were convincingly substantiated, he said.

Other students agreed that Darwish drew too much from her own life.

Erik Peterson ’07 said Darwish based her ideas “too much on personal experiences, rather than a broad picture of the Middle East.”

He added that Darwish did not address the difference between radical political Islam and Islamic culture.

Regardless, Darwish’s speech sparked fiery dialogue that many students hope will continue.

“I see this event as an opportunity,” Becky Mer ’10 said. “The dialogue that took place tonight is a sign of student body interest, and I would love this to be translated into further dialogue, greater understanding and possible solutions.”

DARWISH: POLITICAL ISLAM IS “INTELLECTUAL TYRANNY” Before her speech in Salomon 101, Arab feminist and pro-Israel activist Nonie Darwish spoke with The Herald about American foreign policy in the Middle East, antiSemitism and resistance to progress in the region.

Herald: The title of your lecture tonight is “The road to peace: women’s rights in the Middle East.” How do women’s rights tie into peace in the region?

Darwish: A lot of people look at the Middle East and at the Arab-Israeli crisis, the oppression of women, the dictatorships, hate speech, poverty, illiteracy all as separate issues. I really believe they’re all interconnected and all due to the radical forces that want to regress and keep the Middle East status quo. They don’t want to let go, and it leads to intolerance — intolerance for women, intolerance for Jews, intolerance for minorities, for Christian Arabs, for Kurds. They’re just anti-progress. And I think this resistance in my culture to change is just hurting everybody, and it’s really going to be hurting moderate Muslims more than anybody else because they’re mostly the victims of radical Islam.

I lived for 30 years in the Middle East, and I witnessed female genital mutilation, oppression of women, polygamy — polygamy is a right for men, not women. There are a lot of laws that are extremely oppressive to women, but the only difference between other societies and Muslim societies is that they teach us from birth that it’s God’s will.

If you’re a good Muslim, you have to accept polygamy. If you’re a good Muslim woman, you have

to accept the inferior status. You have to have permission from your husband, because if you’re not an obedient wife, you can be beaten.

There are Arab feminists, but they’re all called infidels, they’re all called traitors, they’re all called not good Muslims. I’m trying to speak here from the safety and security of America, but other feminists are dying and put in jail in the Middle East. And it’s not the government — it’s the radical Muslims.

If women in these cultures gain more rights, do you think they’ll be more likely to challenge their male leaders and bring change to society in the Middle East?

Actually it’s not about challenging men, because the problem is from the laws. Sharia laws are the problem, not the men. Of course, the men like it, because they’re superior in that position, but put aside what men like and dislike, if you go to court you lose.

And that’s the problem.

What do you think is the solution to this problem?

The solution is that the Arab and Muslim women who are living in the safety and security of the West must start speaking up. And that’s why we’re speaking from the West.

I’ll tell you why nobody cares about the plight of Muslim women.

It’s because Muslim women themselves are not speaking up. And the reason they’re not speaking up is because of this feeling that if they speak out, they must be bad Muslims. And that’s because of the way they were brought up. It’s intellectual tyranny.

I understand that you were ex-

posed to a lot of propaganda as a child. Can you talk about how this influenced your life and your views?

I grew up in Gaza, and peace was never taught to us as an option. We never even thought about it. It was always Jihad and martyrdom. I was a Jew-hater as a child, because that’s how I grew up — fearing Jews, hating Jews, because everybody else around me did. And then I came to the United States, and I started realizing that the way we were brought up (in Gaza) — there were a lot of lies about other cultures. And that’s when I started trying to know the truth for myself. And let me tell you, it wasn’t easy to change after 30 years of living like that. It’s almost like you’re separating yourself from your past completely.

What do you think about current U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East?

A lot of people always blame everything on America’s foreign policy. I don’t. What does America want from the Middle East? America wants a stable Middle East with a stable government. They don’t want leaders like Saddam Hussein who set oil fields on fire. (America is) very interested in the Middle East because (they) need an economic transaction to happen peacefully, and that transaction is ‘here’s our dollars, here’s our technology, give us your oil.’

I don’t believe that America’s interest in the Middle East is to occupy. If the Middle East problem were easy, we’d all find a solution.

It’s not going to be an easy job at all.

— Debbie Lehmann

C AMPUS N EWS THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2007

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U. committees face drop in student membership

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Software error irks late-night diners

BY HELEN MOU CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Due to a software glitch, students on traditional meal plans may have found themselves paying for their recent late-night binges with hunger the next day.

Beginning this semester, students on the weekly meal plans — providing 20, 14, 10 or seven meals a week — found the “day” for their meal plans changed. Previously, the meal plan day had run from 7 a.m. to 2 a.m. the next day, but with the change, the new day ran from midnight to 11:59 p.m. As a result, credits used after midnight were counted toward the three-a-day limit for the following day instead of the previous day.

The change was the result of problems with software updated over winter break, according to a statement from Dining Services posted at the registers at Josiah’s, the Gate, the Ivy Room and on the Dining Services Web site.

“Any meals taken after midnight are being counted against your next day’s allotment,” the statement declares, but it also reads, “Students are not losing any meals.”

Dining Services is working with the software vendor and expects the problem to be resolved within a week, according to the statement.

The mistake has inconvenienced some students.

“People are complaining a lot,” said Jennifer Andreozzi ’07, a cashier at the Gate. She said she has seen customers grow frustrated when they believe they have a meal credit left for the day and then find that they do not.

Albert Huber ’09 came up short on meals one night at the Ivy Room and had to use flex points instead. He said the situation was annoying but did not make him angry.

Students on the Flex Meal Plan, which allow students to use a set number of meals at any time during the semester, were unaffected by the computer glitch.

— Sophie Elsner

Two University committees intended to bring student voices to the disciplinary process are falling out of use.

The Peer Community Standards Board, which comprises 10 undergraduate students who are advised by an administrator, hears minor, first-time violations of the standards for student conduct. Another committee, the University Disciplinary Committee, considers cases that could result in expulsion or transcript notation. But neither has heard cases this academic year.

During peak times, the PCSB meets as often as twice a week, hearing between one and four cases per session. Britt Eichner ’06.5, who was a member of the PCSB for two years, said the number of hear-

Researchers develop 3-D X-ray machine

The Undergraduate Council of Students will vote in the next two weeks on whether to adopt a resolution urging the Corporation to offer donors to the University the option of earmarking gifts for a “socially responsible” fund, which would be invested in companies with good environmental practices.

The resolution, which was introduced last night at the council’s general body meeting by Lauren Kolodny ’08, UCS Corporation Liaison, would stamp student approval on the recommendations of a 40page report prepared by the University’s Advisory Committee on Corporate Responsibility in Investment Policies,, which tthe Corporation is expected to address at its meeting this month.

The resolution, drafted by Kolodny and William Masket ’07, closely resembles a resolution that UCS passed in December 2005.

The fund would choose stocks based on “environmental, social and corporate behavior criteria, as well as income and growth potential,” said Professor of Economics Louis Putterman, then the ACCRI

New research by Brown faculty and students may give scientists “X-ray vision,” said Elizabeth Brainerd, professor of medical science, who leads the group of researchers that works on the project.

The group is developing a new system called CTX that will combine the 3-D modeling abilities of CT scanning with the 2-D video capacity of X-rays.

“CTX attempts to bring those two together,” said Stephen Gatesy, associate professor of biology and a member of the research team.

The object — usually a small animal — is scanned using both X-ray and CT technology, and the 3-D model from the CT scan is fitted onto a 2-D video recorded by two X-ray machines. The animation program used to fit the images together — similar to those used in Hollywood production — gives researchers the ability to put “muscles and other soft tissue onto the bones,” said David Baier Ph.D.’06, a postdoctoral research associate in medical science.

The researchers are now working on various pilot projects using CTX, including studying the bone movement in pigs’ feeding and chewing and frogs’ jumping. But the scientists say their work has only begun. “We have a lot of work to do,” Brainerd said.

In about a year, Brainerd and her team will begin construction of a fullscale device to research larger animals, including birds and humans, using a $1.8 million grant from the W. M. Keck Foundation.

The University has also contributed to the effort, including a $100,000 seed award fund through the Office of the Vice President for Research, Brainerd said. The National Science Foundation provided an additional $350,000.

With CTX, “you can ask the types of questions that you haven’t been able to ask before,” said Nicholas Gidmark GS, a first-year doctoral student in ecology and evolutionary biology.

— Kate Taylor

Former U.N. Ambassador Holbrooke ’62 to join U. Ambassador Richard Holbrooke ’62 will return to Brown as a professor-atlarge, the University announced today. Holbrooke will hold the position, which is based in the Watson Institute for International Studies, for five years.

At Brown, Holbrooke will periodically lecture, work with faculty and serve as an informal adviser to President Ruth Simmons. “I look forward to getting to know a new generation of students and to offer something back to an institution that gave me so much,” he said in a University statement.

Under President Clinton, Holbrooke served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and, earlier, as assistant secretary of state for European and Canadian affairs. He is the architect of the 1995 Dayton Accords that ended the war in Bosnia. The former diplomat’s appointment comes months after President Ruth Simmons established internationalization as a top University priority.

As a Brown undergraduate, Holbrooke concentrated in history and was editor in chief of The Herald.

Now, Holbrooke is the chairman of the Asia Society, a nonprofit that seeks to strengthen ties between the U.S. and Asia. He is vice chairman of the private equity firm Perseus LLC, writes a monthly column for the Washington Post and is chief executive of the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

The University created the professor-at-large position to allow “individuals of exceptional distinction to participate in the intellectual and academic life of the University,” according to the University statement. Holbrooke will join current professors-at-large writer Carlos Fuentes, former president of Brazil Fernando Henrique Cardoso and linguistic anthropologist Shirley Brice Heath.

— Rachel Arndt

ings decreased in her second year on the board.

Lately, the board has suffered greatly from declining membership, as replacements for departing members have not been appointed.

This year the membership of the PCSB has dropped to five. Assistant Dean of Student Life Yolanda Castillo-Appollonio, who advises the board, said if neither she nor the Undergraduate Council of Students succeed in recruiting new members, she “really might not be able to do PCSB this semester.”

Castillo-Appollonio --Appollonio is responsible for assigning new disciplinary cases for review by either the PCSB or a dean. But recently, she has had no choice but to direct all cases — even those she thinks ought to appear in front of the PCSB — to a dean. ““There were quite a few cases

that I would have liked to refer to the PCSB instead of having deans hear them,” she said.

The UDC has also fallen dormant.

Veronica Lowe ’09 was appointed to the committee for the 200607 academic year, but the UDC has yet to hear a single case during her term. When facing disciplinary review, students can choose to be heard by the UDC or a dean, and students usually choose the dean, Lowe said.

“Most people choose the dean because the UDC is a little more intimidating, and there are more people to convince,” she said.

Positions for new appointments on both the PCSB and the UDC are available. UCS Appointments Chair Drew Madden ’10 said the positions would be filled during the spring appointments process.

UCS may endorse social choice fund

BY MICHAEL BECHEK SENIOR STAF F WRITER

chair, at an April 2006 Brown University Community Council meeting, according to the meeting’s minutes. The ACCRI advises President Ruth Simmons on ethical issues related to the management of the endowment.

The BUCC voted in November to support the creation of the fund.

Kolodny said last night that the fund would operate by “actively seeking out good companies,” rather than by punishing those that do not have good environmental practices. She defined good companies as those that have “a general philosophy in them to be environmentally friendly.”

Kolodny said though this kind of investing limits the ways of maximizing returns — because money cannot be invested in profitable companies with bad environmental practices — socially responsible investing has been shown to be successful and that “within the socially responsible universe, this particular kind of fund generates the highest returns.”

“Socially responsible investment assets grew 40 percent faster than other managed assets in the United States between 1995 and

2003,” the resolution states, citing a 2003 report by the Social Investment Forum, a national nonprofit organization.

“Companies with these kinds of good practices will generate the highest returns in the long run,” Kolodny said.

According to the UCS resolution, Hampshire, Williams, Vassar and Mount Holyoke colleges and Brandeis University have successfully created such funds.

“Brown University is a progressive institution and should take a lead role among our peers in the fastest-growing investment industry in the United States,” the draft resolution reads.

Also at last night’s meeting, Scrabble Club, Students of the World and Lego Builders were all approved for Category I status as officially recognized student organizations.

UCS members were forced to move last night’s meeting to a Wilson Hall classroom upon discovering that Petteruti Lounge had been reserved for a Bulgarian Club party. The Student Activities Office sent its apologies for double-booking the room, said UCS Vice President Tristan Freeman ‘07.

Students rally to support public financing for elections continued from page 1 Island bill will be considered by the legislature.

Members of the Brown chapter of Democracy Matters, a national student organization focused on campaign finance reform, organized the event with advocacy group Common Cause of Rhode Island, according to Democracy Matters members Jon Bogard ’09 and Aliza Kreisman ’10.

Ajello credited Brown students in Democracy Matters for bringing the issue to her attention.

With monetary support from the state, candidates will spend less time campaigning and more time responding to constituents, she said.

After the event, Ajello told The Herald that raising money had been the most challenging part of her campaigns for public office. “(The legislation) will make running for office seem more possible for women, and we need more women in office,” Ajello said.

If passed, the bill “will help to break real and perceived connections between money and legislative initiative,” Perry told the crowd.

But passage of the legislation “will require years and years of education and clarification for the public and our colleagues,” Perry said. Ajello said she expects candi-

dates would not be able to use public funds until the 2010 elections if the legislation is passed.

Kimberly Davis, a former publicly financed state representative from Maine, described the system in Maine as “very successful” and told the crowd the legislation had allowed more women and lower-income candidates to run for office.

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

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Interdisciplinary programs’ funding, faculty support vulnerable in departmental system continued from page 1 Department of Philosophy and Department of Religious Studies organized the program and lent it clout.

The group was led by Professor Emeritus of Philosophy John Ladd, who founded the program, and Professor Emeritus of Philosophy Dan Brock.

The combined efforts of these two men and the support of other key faculty members made bioethics a vibrant program for a regular contingent of roughly a dozen concentrators, according to professors who had been involved in the program.

But Ladd had long since retired when Brock left Brown in 2002 to become the director of Harvard University’s Program in Ethics and Health, leaving the program without dedicated full-time faculty.

“You need to have someone who is at the center, having administrative responsibility to hold the thing together,” said Jeffrey Poland, a visiting professor of molecular biology, cell biology and biochemistry who briefly served as the program’s concentration adviser last year before it was suspended.

Once Brock left, Poland said, it was up to the departments that contributed courses to the concentration to hire someone with a specialization in bioethics to take his place.

But none did, he said.

“Unless they are given any direct incentive to do that — and that means money from somewhere, or some kind of mission statement, something — then departments are going to make their decisions on the basis of how they see the priorities for them,” he said.

Associate Dean of the Faculty Carolyn Dean agreed that extra-departmental programs like biomedical ethics are in a particularly tricky position.

“It’d be nice if the departments think about the needs of the program, but that’s not their job,” she said. “Their job is to maintain the excellence of the department.”

When faculty from the depart-

ments did not emerge to fill the void left by Brock’s departure, Rosalind Ladd and later Poland were brought in on a temporary basis to organize the program and offer classes to keep it afloat.

The University launched a special, extra-departmental search to find a replacement for Brock, but it failed to hire anyone.

Ladd agreed that the program’s problems were because the departments had other priorities, not due to flagging interest in the subject.

“The interest (among) students remained very, very strong,” she said.

Middle East struggles Middle East studies — an interdisciplinary concentration drawing on courses from departments including history, religious studies and political science — has garnered increased interest from students since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

But last year it struggled to offer its concentrators classes during a rash of faculty absences.

During the 2005-2006 academic year, three faculty members involved in the concentration simultaneously went on leave to pursue research opportunities. The absences represented half of the faculty who form the core of the concentration, which graduates 10-12 students each year, according to Associate Professor of Comparative Literature Elliott Colla, who served as the program’s director that year.

The program had already been facing difficulties at that point — it had gone through three directors in four years and had been without two key professors the preceding year — and Colla said last year’s absences caused a crisis.

“That’s when students really felt that there were not enough courses being offered,” he said, adding that the situation would not have arisen if Middle East studies were a department. Because all three of the professors were housed in different departments, none of the departmental oversight mechanisms designed to prevent such a sudden

crunch took effect.

“It’s a normal thing for faculty to go on leave,” Colla said. “It happens all the time.” But, he noted, the departments each considered the absences in isolation and there was no structure in place to ensure all the professors’ courses would be covered.

When University officials became aware of the problem, they tried to address it, as they did in the case of the biomedical ethics concentration. Funds were provided for replacement faculty for the spring semester. “Once they realized where the problem was, they reacted the best they could,” Colla said. “There’s no bad person in this story.”

Mary Elston ’07 and Nathan Karp ’07, co-leaders of the Middle East studies Departmental Undergraduate Group, prepared a report on the struggles of Middle East studies at Brown as part of a seminar they took last spring. They found Middle East studies’ status outside of the normal departmental structure led to many of the difficulties.

“The interdisciplinary nature of the concentration … has led to a variety of structural problems, given that the University structure is geared toward departments rather than multi-disciplinary projects,” they wrote in the report.

The program has also faced organizational challenges and has been without a director since Colla vacated the position last year. Involved faculty still advise students pursuing the concentration, but no one is overseeing the program as a whole.

That job lacks a clear description and must be undertaken on top of a full slate of departmental responsibilities, according to Colla. The budget that accompanied his directorship was $5,000, which he spent to bring in speakers, he said.

Elston and Karp’s report found the position an ineffectual one. “Because of the departmental structure of the University,” the report said, “the MES director … exercises no influence over the appointments process. Therefore, the director has no authority within the MES faculty group, nor does he/she exercise any authority at the level of the University administration.”

“Even the professors don’t have a real incentive to coordinate. …

Their real loyalty is to their department,” Elston said. She said while in writing the report she found the program “lacked any real cohesion.”

“There’s no funding, no central organization and at some points no classes being offered,” she said.

Like biomedical ethics, Middle East studies originally blossomed because a strong, central figure laid the groundwork for the program.

Former President Vartan Gregorian created three positions specifically related to building a Middle East studies program, Colla said, adding that the program has since relied on isolated departmental hiring decisions to grow.

“It’s sort of a hodge-podge,” Colla said. “Middle East studies at Brown has not been the result of a deliberate, long-term planning strategy.”

Colla said things have improved somewhat this year with the return of the absent faculty, an increase in the number of Arabic courses offered and the hiring of an Islam specialist in religious studies, despite the lack of a director for the concentration.

International conflict The international relations program, probably the most prominent interdisciplinary program on campus, has also faced challenges. It has a relatively small budget of its own — not “anywhere near what a department gets,” according to Assistant Professor of Political Science Melani Cammett ’91, who became director of the program this year.

As a result, the program — with about 400 concentrators, one of the largest on campus — has only one concentration adviser, Adjunct Lecturer in International Relations Claudia Elliott MA’91 Ph.D.’99, who is considered a part-time employee.

“Technically she only works part time — that’s what she’s compensated for,” Cammett said. “She does put in a lot of hours.”

Cammett says she is working to get funding for a full-time position in next year’s budget.

The logistics of coordinating the program can be difficult because of the multiple departments involved, Cammett said. Knowing what courses students can expect to be offered in order to fulfill concentration requirements can also be difficult, she said. “That’s hard enough to coordinate within one single department … so it’s all the more challenging when you’re dealing with multiple departments,” Cammett said.

Because of the program’s size, Cammett said concentrators don’t need to worry about core classes not being taught in the way that other interdisciplinary concentrators might.

“It’s not in our control to say, ‘We need PS 40 (“Conflict and Cooperation in International Politics”) taught,’” Cammett said. “But it’s a core course in the political science department, too.”

But because the program has no faculty of its own — though Watson professors and researchers often teach courses and seminars — and only “a handful” of teaching assistants, it relies on other departments to take international relations concentrators into their courses and share their teaching assistant allotment, she said.

“We depend on the goodwill of departments,” Cammett said.

Entrepreneurial success But when interdisciplinary programs do boast effective coordination, sufficient administrative resources and dependable support from departments, they can be quite strong. The current poster child for this model is the nascent COE program.

Since the COE program was established in 2005, it and the roughly 75 students who declared a concentration in the program last year have avoided logistical problems that have plagued some other interdisciplinary programs, according to Maria Carkovic, COE’s administrative director.

Unlike many interdisciplinary programs, COE enjoys significant financial resources dedicated for its own use. It receives funding directly from the Provost’s Office, Carkovic said, and also has been a focus of fundraising efforts during the ongoing capital campaign.

Carkovic said many donors have given money especially for the COE program, most notably $15 million from the Starr Foundation and $2 million from the Kauffman Foundation.

Since most of the money given for the program goes through its three parent departments — eco-

nomics, engineering and sociology — those departments look to hire junior and senior faculty with an eye to COE’s needs.

“COE is really an integral part of each of those departments,” Carkovic said. “There’s strong commitment from the three department divisions involved to making this work.”

COE did not have the same lack of centralized organization that has been problematic for some programs, Carkovic said, noting that two faculty members from each department currently serve on a committee designed to provide the program with coordination among departments.

“COE is very fortunate in that this concentration was formed with time for some planning,” Carkovic said. “Because it is an interdisciplinary concentration, all of the teaching activities are carried out by each of the departments, but we also have an office in Feinstein House for the administration of COE.” Judaic studies is another example of a well-established interdisciplinary program. The only non-departmental entity with its own tenure track, the Program in Judaic Studies has been effectively treated as a department by the administration for years, said David Jacobson, professor of Judaic studies.

Its quasi-departmental status enables the program to maintain a body of Judaic studies-focused professors and consistently offer a range of courses both to concentrators and other interested students, Jacobson said.

University Hall takes notice University officials say they are aware of the problems interdisciplinary programs have faced and are in the process of gathering information for a review of all of Brown’s undergraduate concentration offerings next year.

Associate Dean of the College Karen Krahulik is currently working on compiling a database of information on all of the University’s roughly 104 undergraduate concentrations, about two dozen of which she said are not affiliated with any department. Among her objectives are determining how many programs lie outside of departments and how many faculty and students are attached to each one.

The objective of the fact-finding project is “to have a clearer sense of our offerings overall,” wrote Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron in an e-mail to The Herald. She added that, without that analysis, the problems of interdepartmental concentrations cannot be addressed.

“My office has been concerned for a few years about the problem of faculty oversight of interdisciplinary concentrations. It seemed like a good time to get a bigger picture, rather than simply attacking individual problems as they came up,” she added.

The presence of so many undergraduate concentrations, Krahulik said, is a special challenge for the University.

“Brown fosters a culture of intellectual entrepreneurship, much more so than some other institutions,” Krahulik said. “Which is ultimately a good thing, but we’ve got to the point where we need to get a handle on this proliferation.

That’s why we’ve embarked on this project.”

The formal details of next year’s review and the mechanism through which it will take place have not yet been determined, administrators say.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2007

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Fuentes speaks on his work, heritage and Latin American politics continued from page 1 for the uprising and the changes instituted by principal Mexican figures like Pancho Villa, Emiliano Zapata and Venustiano Carranza.

“Perhaps one reason this novel was not immediately accepted in Mexico was because it did not follow in the usual legitimizing of these men as revolutionary ‘heroes’ as those before it had,” Fuentes said.

He continued by explaining his reasons for writing a novel in the first, second and third persons.

“In writing a novel about the revolution, I knew that I was following an established literary tradition by men such as Mariano Azuela Gonzalez, Martin Luis Guzman and Rafael Munoz,” Fuentes said, “but I felt that I needed to write it in a new, different way.”

Fuentes said one instance in particular led him to use multiple tenses to tell the story of Artemio Cruz, who in the novel recounts his corrupt life while lying on his deathbed. The idea came to Fuentes after he spontaneously decided to swim in Holland on a cold November day when he was in the middle of revising the original manuscript.

“I would love to go swimming and write it all over again, if I could,” he said.

The comment solicited laughs from those present and provided a good transition into the lecture’s question-and-answer session. Many audience members were eager to ask questions of Fuentes, and some even cut off other questioners, but Fuentes brought order to the crowd with thoughtfully inserted jokes.

One particular audience member was especially eager to ask Fuentes questions, and the author even called her “la maquina de preguntas,” or the “question machine.” Despite the nickname bestowed on her, Maria Ramos, who has lived in Providence for five months, had only good things to say about the author.

“I admire the way his writing is simple, yet has great depth to it,” Ramos said. “He knows how to put our reality into focus and how to express it through words.”

Though the lecture was intended to cover his novel, Fuentes touched on other topics as well.

He commented on the impact of globalization on a free market society and about the controversy behind the most recent presidential election in Mexico. “(Losing candidate Andres Manuel Lopez) Obrador should have accepted the votes for what they were,” Fuentes said.

He also spoke with conviction about the power of institutions.

Fuentes said all of Latin America is in a “transitional period,” and citizens must depend on institutions, not challenge them as Obrador did.

Fuentes also spoke about many Mexicans’ tendency to shun their Spanish heritage in order to pay tribute to their indigenous roots.

“Mexico has conserved their indigenous heritage at expense

of their Spanish heritage, but this tendency to glorify the victims needs to stop,” he said. “We must come to accept all of our rich heritage in order to prosper.”

Fuentes ended the lecture by answering a question about the theme of resistance to power seen in one of the novel’s characters, which he said has much relevance to the world today.

“There will always be resistance. It is visible in our mere existence on this earth that keeps us grounded by the laws of gravity, to the constant resistance we all show against following in our father’s footsteps or repeating our past,” he said.

Student reaction to Fuentes’ message was positive. “We are all very lucky for the opportunity to see such a significant literary figure in Latin America as a professor here at Brown,” said Francisco Manriquez ’10, who attended the lecture yesterday.

As a Mexican-American man who grew up in Los Angeles, a city with a colorful Mexican culture, Manriquez said he is “awed

by Carlos and how much respect he has garnered from so many on campus.”

Fuentes will speak at Hillel again today. His second lecture, “In Memoriam: John Kenneth Galbraith, Arthur Miller, William Styron,” will be delivered in English at 5 p.m.

Carcieri ’65 boosts clean energy continued from page 3 Hamburg said.

The only electric plant in the state is already efficient in terms of carbon dioxide emissions, Hamburg said. Still, Carcieri’s decision establishes precedent for other states to join similar agreements.

Visiting Lecturer in Environmental Studies Donald Pryor said Carcieri’s decision only “somewhat” surprised him because he knew of pressure from Lt. Governor Elizabeth Roberts ’78, Attorney General Patrick Lynch ’87 and several environmental groups to sign the agreement.

“When Massachusetts joined, I think the pressure increased,” Pryor said. Pryor serves on a science advisory committee to the Rhode Island Bays, Rivers and Watersheds Coordination Team, created by the governor in 2003 to address environmental problems in the Narragansett Bay. “Within the governor’s office, there was a realization that they had leverage (in the Northeast) only if Massachusetts didn’t sign the pact,” he said.

Pryor said he didn’t know whether Rhode Islanders would have to shoulder the financial burden created by Massachusetts signing the agreement. ““The truth is all of that still is in flux,” he said. ““There are a host of issues about the economics that are still not clear.”

“It’s great that after refusing to take part in the RGGI, Governor Carcieri has changed his position, and Rhode Island won’t fall behind other states in clean energy and climate action,” wrote Nathan Wyeth ’08, a member of student environmental group emPOWER, in an email to The Herald. “I hope Brown won’t be far behind,” he added.

Aden Van Noppen ’09, another emPOWER member, said she was “pleasantly surprised” by Carcieri’s announcement. But she said, “it’s up to students to push Brown.”

“We need to do at least as much as Rhode Island but probably more because we’re one of the richest institutions in the state and one of the largest emitters of carbon,” she said.

“Both Rhode Island and the University can show the rest of the country how important offsets can be when done correctly,” said Jon Magaziner ’07, another member of emPOWER. “EmPOWER is asking the administration to do the same thing,” he said, though he added that the group has always wanted the University to reduce total emissions before resorting to offsets.

join the herald.

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

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THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2007

Mazerov: It’s time to get ready for college basketball’s March Madness continued from page 12 I’m not going to waste time discussing this ridiculously fast-moving, yet incredibly boring sport — huge crashes excluded, since those are pretty thrilling.

Then there’s the NHL. As the Boston Bruin fans at Brown know, pro hockey, as exciting as it is, is almost never televised on major networks anymore. Did anyone even notice that last week the league held its first All-Star game in three years? No, because it was broadcast on some obscure channel called Versus. (Side note: Fearing looking like a moron, I honestly had to look up the name of the Boston franchise because I wasn’t sure if I remembered it correctly.).

The bottom line is that the NHL has lost its status as a major American sport and has yet to regain it.

As a result, it is incredibly difficult to follow.

With baseball not really starting up until April — excluding those die-hard fans who await the days until pitchers and catchers report — our final non-football alternate is basketball. We’ve got two choices in the hoops department: the NBA and the NCAA. And though

both are good options, college basketball is far superior in terms of entertainment value. Here’s why: NCAA games are just more exciting than NBA games It’s difficult to pin down why this is true, but I’ll try. It’s probably a combination of youthful energy and a pure, unadulterated — that is, unaffected by exorbitant salaries — desire to win. That’s why, despite a longer shot clock, college games seem to move faster. We see so much more hustle, so much more diving for loose balls and so many more jump balls in college than in the pros.

I wouldn’t go so far to say that it’s more painful to sit through an entire NBA telecast than to watch a whole Major League Baseball game on TV, but it’s not far from the truth. Granted, the players in the NBA are more talented. But if I want to see Dwayne Wade break someone’s ankles or LeBron James drive through three defenders in the lane and slam down a reverse dunk, I’d rather watch the Top Plays on SportsCenter than sit through an agonizing two-anda-half hours just to see a few sweet moves.

The rivalries The NCAA’s Atlantic Coast Conference is home to what is perhaps the greatest rivalry in all of sports: the University of North Carolina and Duke University, which are separated by a mere eight miles. There are also some less illustrious but still intriguing rivalries: Kentucky and Louisville, Texas and Texas A&M and Kansas and Missouri, just to name a few. These matchups rarely disappoint. The closest thing the NBA has to a rivalry these days isn’t between two powerhouse teams. It’s between two players, one of whom has barely played at all this season: the Los Angeles Lakers’ Kobe Bryant and the Miami Heat’s Shaquille O’Neal. Besides, the two ex-teammates seem to have mostly made up anyway.

March Madness Is there any other long-lasting event in sports that is as exciting as the annual month-long NCAA tournament? (Well, maybe the World Cup, but that, sadly, will not be coming back until 2010.) In the NCAA tourney’s single-elimination system, every game is huge, and anything can happen. This is what makes March Madness office

pools so much fun. Upsets are always expected, and even the little guys have a shot at a national title.

Last year, we were treated to one of the best Cinderella stories of all time: George Mason, a No. 11 seed that barely made the tournament, took down powerhouses Michigan State University, UNC and top seeded University of Connecticut en route to the Final Four.

In the NBA Finals, the big underdogs almost never win. Not since 1999 has a No. 1 or No. 2 seed been upset by a No. 7 or No. 8 seed in the first round of the NBA playoffs, which themselves are a ridiculously drawn-out and dull process.

One team can play in as many as 28 post-season games before winning an NBA title — that’s more than a third of the regular season. How anyone can be expected to maintain interest for so long is beyond me, especially since games between the same two teams get boring pretty quickly. And I’ve never heard of anyone entering an NBA Finals betting pool.

So once you’ve recovered from your NFL withdrawal and are ready to move on, go check out how ridiculous Ohio State’s Greg Oden is, and just ignore LeBron.

W. fencers do well at MIT/ Brandeis Invitational continued from page 12 travel to Philadelphia to compete at the University of Pennsylvania. The second Ivy League competition will be held at Harvard in Cambridge, Mass. on Feb. 25.

“I’m looking forward to getting a second shot at Princeton,” Gorth said.

Last year was the first time Brown fenced in the Ivy League.

That year, each team won only one match — the women defeated Princeton and the men beat Yale.

“The team is at the level to compete in the Ivy League,” Tass said.

“It is a very strong league to be a part of, but this year we are hoping to do even better than last year.”

Gorth is optimistic. “I’ve been on the team for two years, and this year we’re definitely putting a stronger team out there,” she said. “I think we have a better chance to win some matches than we did last year.”

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2007

Equestrian, gymnastics make gains over weekend continued from page 12 chusetts Institute of Technology.

Brown finished with 180.925 points, with MIT tallying 175.800 and BU recording a dismal 148.500.

Sacramone took gold in two events, scoring 9.675 on the uneven bars and 9.875 on the balance beam. The Bears dominated the vault, with Alanna Kwoka ’10, Jennifer Sobuta ’09 and Izzy KirkhamLewitt ’10 taking second, third and fourth places, respectively. Sobuta continued to contribute valu-

able points, taking second on both the beam with 9.750 and the floor with a 9.250. She also won the allaround with 37.125 points.

On Sunday’s battle of in-state rivals, the Bears defeated Rhode Island College, 180.150 to 170.250, but fell to the University of Rhode Island, which tallied 184.825 points.

Sacramone placed second in the all-around with 37.600 points, while Sobuta finished third with 36.725.

In individual events, the Bears

had several strong performances. Sacramone captured first on the beam, scoring 9.775, and second on the bars, recording 9.425 points. Kwoka tied for second on the vault with a 9.450. Both Sobuta and Kirkham-Lewitt finished third on the beam and bars, respectively. No Bears placed in the top three for the floor exercise.

The team will head to the University of New Hampshire Invitational this Saturday.

— Madeleine Marecki

MLB 2007 Awards: some educated guesses continued from page 12 say about his first baseman: “It’s hard to nitpick anything about Mark’s game, considering what he’s accomplished at this point in his young career. But he’s had a history of slow starts followed by big second halves. And that’s why he’s been at the park all offseason, conditioning and preparing to get off to a good start. Ellis, if he has a first-half anything like his traditional second-half, it’s got a chance to be a special year.”

With a 2007 lineup that includes speedster Kenny Lofton, hit-machine Michael Young and rising star Ian Kinsler, Teixeira is set to score and drive in a lot of runs. The icing on the cake: In April, Teixeira turns 27 — the magical age of breakout seasons.

Expect a 2007 stat line that looks something like this: .290, 52 HRs, 150 RBIs. Runners-up: David Ortiz, DH, BOS; Travis Hafner, DH, CLE; Alex Rodriguez, 3B, NYY. NL MVP: Ryan Howard The 2006 National League’s Most Valuable Player was Philadelphia Phillies’ first baseman, Ryan Howard. Howard, in only his second year in the majors, launched 58 home runs with 149 RBI and a .313 average. What’s stopping him from repeating those numbers and taking a second consecutive MVP? Nothing, really. If anything, his odds of retaining his crown have improved.

In 2006, his closest competitor for the award was the Cardinals’ Albert Pujols, but this will not be

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the case in ’07. MVP voters often ignore a player whose team does not at least contend for a playoff spot. While Pujols will continue to put up extraordinary and consistent numbers, the Cards are not in good shape to retake the division.

Howard’s Phillies, on the other hand, are poised to challenge the New York Mets for the NL East title. With one of the best pitching staffs in the National League and an infield that features three giant run-producers (Howard, Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley), Howard will lead his team to a playoff berth and secure another MVP award. His 2007 stat line: .302, 55 HRs, 160 RBI, 45 intentional walks.

Runners-up: Albert Pujols, 1B, STL; Alfonso Soriano, OF, CHC; Prince Fielder, 1B, MIL. AL Cy Young: Daisuke Matsuzaka Betting against Johan Santana is kind of crazy, but I’m going to do it. Most people would not label Santana as an injury risk, due to the fact that he has been healthy for four straight years. I find this logic faulty. Over the last three seasons, Santana has averaged 230 innings per season. That heavy workload is bound to catch up to the left-hander. I predict he will miss significant time in 2007.

Daisuke Matsuzaka, on the other hand, should notch 200-plus innings and lead a strong Red Sox team. Matsuzaka’s got two big things going for him. First, a talented pitcher often does well in his first time around the major leagues — batters take time to adjust to a new pitcher’s techniques.

Second, Matsuzaka is pretty incredible (see last week’s article for details — the guy has a career 2.94 ERA). In Hideo Nomo’s first year in the majors after several years as a Japanese superstar, he went 16-11 with a 3.19 ERA. And Dice-K is way better than Nomo.

2007 stat line: 20-6, 3.05 ERA, 9.80 K/9.

Runners-up: Rich Harden, RHP, OAK; Roy Halladay, RHP, TOR; Felix Hernandez, RHP, SEA. NL Cy Young: Jake Peavy, San Diego Padres Peavy, the ace of the Padres’ staff, should have a huge rebound season. He’s had ample time to rest his sore right shoulder, and a return to dominance seems likely. In 2004, Peavy led the league with a 2.27 ERA. In 2005, he led the league with 216 strikeouts in 203 innings. Last year was disappointing for Peavy. His 4.09 ERA is the highest it’s been in the last three seasons. But he maintained very high strikeout numbers and pitched a strong second half. At 26, Peavy will lead a young Padres team to third consecutive division title and capture his first Cy Young award. 2007 stat line: 19-7, 2.80 ERA, 9.55 K/9.

Runners-up: Carlos Zambrano, RHP, CHC; Ben Sheets, RHP, MIL; Cole Hamels, LHP, PHI. Three days till pitchers and catchers report. I can’t wait.

Ellis Rochelson ’09 can lick his elbow, but he doesn’t really like doing it. It makes him look weird.

join the herald.

Skiers continue to improve despite“fiasco” continued from page 12 Anna Bengtson ’09 was disqualified for missing a gate during her first run, making her ineligible to ski the second run. But when reporting the disqualification, officials mixed up the race bib numbers of Bengtson, 31, and Elgort, 21. When Elgort showed up to ski, she was told she was disqualified. A “huge fiasco” ensued, according to Bengtson, but the matter was eventually resolved, and Elgort was granted her second run, albeit not in the appropriate order.

The confusion caused the team some anxiety, but the Bears did not let it interfere with their performances too much, Bengtson said.

“People got a little unfocused and confused,” she said. “We had no idea what was going on, and we were upset over what happened. We didn’t have quite the showing we were looking for, but we regrouped really quickly.”

Despite the disqualification ordeal and the team’s average performance on the slalom, the Bears weren’t too worried as they headed into Saturday’s competition. They knew their stronger event, the giant slalom, was yet to come.

The team did not falter. O’Hear won her first race of the season the following day at the MIT carnival, held on Loon Mountain in New Hampshire. Completing her runs in 1:00.25 and 58.81, O’Hear topped a field of 68 competitors.

“Kelly needs a lot of time on her skis in order to really get into things,” LeBlanc said, “But she always peaks at Nationals. We’ll need her. She’ll have to stay on her feet for us to make it (to Nationals).”

Bengtson bounced back from her disqualification on Friday, finishing second for the Bears and eighth overall in the GS. She clocked in at 1:01.11 and 1:00.37.

Janet Marley-Mauzy ’07 rounded out the scoring for Brown with a 16th place finish, checking in at 1:03.99 and 1:01.14. Handbury and Mallory Taub ’08 demonstrated valuable depth for the team, finishing 18th and 19th.

Although Elgort, one of the strongest skiers for the Bears, fell on both her runs on Saturday, the team still managed to finish second only to Boston College in the GS. Brown defeated powerhouse Colby-Sawyer College, currently ranked first in the conference.

It’s a long shot for the Bears to break into the top two positions in the division, but the Bears will probably take over third place after next weekend, since next Saturday and Sunday’s carnivals will consist of GS courses and no slalom courses.

This setup works heavily to the Bears’ advantage, not only because the team is stronger in the GS but also because Plymouth State is weak in the event. Unless something goes wrong, Brown will assuredly overtake Plymouth State in the conference ranking.

According to O’Hear, the team is on an upswing, not only physically, but mentally.

“This weekend showed that we can come together as a team,” she said. “At the beginning of the season, we were definitely behind teams. We sort of attribute that to lack of training and confidence. Confidence is everything.

It doesn’t matter how good a skier you are. If you’re not confident, you’re not going to do well.”

The reinvigorated Bears have their sights set high as they enter their last regular season competition, the Boston College Carnival, held at Mt. Ascutney, Vermont. LeBlanc feels his team is ready to start the hard push into the post-season, with the goal of earning a top-three finish at Regionals and ultimately a top-five finish at Nationals. While LeBlanc attributes the team’s recent turnaround to more consistent training after a nearly snowless winter break, he feels there is another element — a tight-knit cohesion has fueled the skiers through the season as well. “(The team is) gelling really well,” he said. “You think of skiing as mostly an individual sport, but there really is a unique team element in college skiing. This group is really supportive of each other. I am really proud of them.”

E DITORIAL & L ETTERS THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

PAGE 10

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2007

STAF F EDITORIAL

Supporting interdisciplinary programs Neither the highly individual experience of independent concentrations nor the product of traditional academic departments, interdisciplinary concentrations languish in a gray area of the College’s curriculum. They range from the tiny Sexuality and Society program to the popular International Relations concentration and uniquely meet students’ academic interests. Some have developed from independent concentrations and others are the confluence of several departments. But many lack the support afforded academic departments.

Some interdisciplinary programs have slipped through the cracks. Biomedical ethics was reduced from being a solid and relatively popular interdisciplinary program to an independent concentration. We commend administrators for seeking to save the program, but the program’s elimination speaks to the University’s difficulty finding a place between low-cost independent concentrations and the administrative and financial support of traditional departments with their ranks of expensive tenured faculty.

Biomedical ethics is but one example of the University’s tendency to react to interdisciplinary programs’ problems rather than address long-term needs by establishing a solid foundation for these programs in the first place.

Interdisciplinary programs must be centered — whether administratively or theoretically — to look out for their own interests, coordinate faculty and course offerings and provide advising and other necessary services to students. Some programs have depended on one or two dedicated professors to fill this role, leaving the concentration vulnerable to collapse in their absence.

Notably, the Commerce, Organizations, and Entrepreneurship program has effectively integrated planning among involved departments to ensure the program’s long-term survival and success. COE is not independent from the departments it draws on for expertise and resources, but it is not solely dependent on them either. A centralized committee that coordinates the program’s offerings and resources, matched with a commitment by the University to provide adequate funding and help raising money from outside sources to support the program, is a fine model. Unfortunately, not all interdisciplinary programs are as sexy as COE — not all programs attract the interest of wealthy alums.

Clearly, COE’s model cannot be applied to all interdisciplinary programs. But the current, piecemeal process is obviously not working. As the University embarks on its review of curricular offerings, we encourage administrators to look for solutions to the structural problems of interdisciplinary programs.

The University often touts interdisciplinary study — whether in basic sciences, social sciences or humanities — as distinctively Brown. But bragging about interdisciplinary study as a benefit of the institution’s size and caliber isn’t enough. Just as the University’s rhetoric seeks to support intrepid learning and foster new and innovative ways of addressing contemporary issues, so should its actions. Interdisciplinary programs like COE, international relations, Middle East studies, biomedical ethics and others harness the vast intellectual resources of our University to study important questions of our time. But interdisciplinary programs risk falling into disarray without proper support. We encourage the University to maintain these programs’ diverse background while giving them the backing they deserve.

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

Executive Editors Allison Kwong Ben Leubsdorf

Senior Editors Stephen Colelli Sonia Saraiya BUSINESS

EDITORIAL Lydia Gidwitz Lindsey Meyers Stephanie Bernhard Stu Woo Simmi Aujla Sara Molinaro Ross Frazier Jacob Schuman Michal Zapendowski Peter Cipparone Justin Goldman Sarah Demers Erin Frauenhofer Madeleine Marecki

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PHOTO Eunice Hong Christopher Bennett Jacob Melrose

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Steve DeLucia, Designer Catherine Cullen, Lauren Levitz, Copy Editors Senior Staff Writers Rachel Arndt, Michael Bechek, Oliver Bowers, Zachary Chapman, Chaz Firestone, Kristina Kelleher, Debbie Lehmann, Scott Lowenstein, James Shapiro, Michael Skocpol Staff Writers Susana Aho, Taylor Barnes, Evan Boggs, Alissa Cerny, Irene Chen, Stewart Dearing, Nicole Dungca, Hannah Furst, Sarah Geller, Thi Ho, Rebecca Jacobson, Tsvetina Kamenova, Hannah Levintova, Christian Martell, Taryn Martinez, Zachary McCune, Jennifer Park, Nathalie Pierrepont, Kam Sripada, Robin Steele, Spencer Trice, Sara Walter, Allissa Wickham, Max Winograd Sports Staff Writers Amy Ehrhart, Kaitlyn Laabs, Eliza Lane, Kathleen Loughlin, Megan McCahill, Marco Santini, Tom Trudeau, Steele West Account Administrators Emilie Aries, Alexander Hughes Design Staff Aurora Durfee, Christian Martell Photo Staff Stuart Duncan-Smith, Austin Freeman, Tai Ho Shin Copy Editors Ayelet Brinn, Catherine Cullen, Erin Cummings, Karen Evans, Jacob Frank, Lauren Levitz

JASON LI

LETTERS Audience reaction to Darwish lacked civility To the Editor: What most disquieted me about Nonie Darwish’s speech last night was not what she said. What disturbed me was how Brown community members interacted with her and with each other. Members of the audience who did not have the floor frequently interrupted both the questioners and Ms. Darwish. Associate Professor of Political Science John Tomasi tried

admirably to maintain decorum — with modest success. The rudeness of many of last night’s audience members is troubling. We need patience, maturity and listening to resolve our conflicts. Disrespect only makes things worse.

Josh Stern ‘08 Feb. 7

Herald disrespectful to military recruitment To the Editor: I received a military scholarship from the U.S. Army that allowed me, as a working-class kid, to attend medical school at Brown. I then served four years in the U.S. Army Reserve while in medical school, followed by 11 years active service in the U.S. Army Medical Corps. I take offense at the tone of the article published in The Herald about military recruiting at Brown (“Military e-mails conflict with U.’s non-discrimination policy,” Feb. 6).

Not only is the military legally authorized to recruit at an institution that accepts federal research funds, but serving in the military is a valuable civic function — especially in a time of war. I was bothered by the tone of the article, mainly because of two sentences.

One stated that the Air Force “touted” its officer training, and another in which the Marines “declared” that their leadership training would be a distinction for Brown students. Does anyone doubt that military officer training is useful for learning leadership skills?

There is absolutely no question about the ability of military officer training to develop leadership.

These two sentences indicate an agenda. This is not impartial reportage, but opinion and bias in reporting.

I believe the U.S. military deserves better from Brown and its student newspaper.

Preston C. Calvert ‘76, MD‘79 Feb. 6

CORRECTIONS A staff editorial in Thursday’s Herald (“Surveying the protest,” Feb. 1) incorrectly stated that the Department of Public Safety is required to conduct its community opinion survey for re-accreditation. The survey is optional.

An Opinions column by Ben Bernstein ’09 in Thursday’s Herald (“Police under fire,” Feb. 1) stated that the Public Safety Oversight Committee comprises 20 members, including three undergraduates. The committee’s charge provides for 17 regular members and up to four ex officio members. The charge provides spots for three undergraduate students, but only one undergraduate seat is currently occupied. The same column incorrectly quoted a 2002 Bratton Group report commissioned by the University as determining “there is not a trace of racism in the organization.” The report actually found “no signs of institutional racism.” The column incorrectly stated that William Bratton was New York City Police Commissioner during the shooting of Amadou Diallo. He was not.

An article in Monday’s Herald (“DPhi, DPhi, Kappa Alpha Theta, Spanish House fail program house review review,” Feb. 5), stated that Kappa Alpha Theta and Delta Phi failed the program house review because there were fewer than 22 members in each house. The requirement is that 22 members live in each house’s residence hall, not that the organizations have 22 members total.

CORRECTIONS POLICY The Brown Daily Herald is committed to providing the Brown University community with the most accurate information possible. Corrections may be submitted up to seven calendar days after publication.

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

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O PINIONS THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2007

Before judging Nonie, read what she writes

BY JUSTIN ELLIOTT GUEST COLUMNIST

Nonie Darwish came to campus last night hailed as the Great “Moderate Arab” Truth-Teller. Her face was on the front of the Brown Web site next to a map of the Middle East and the words “Discussing a road to peace.” Which all sounds great — until you actually read something she has written.

On the biggest Mideast issue of our day, the war in Iraq, here’s what Darwish wrote in a February 2003 column on David Horowitz’s FrontPageMag.com: “I truly believe that if Saddam is left in office, terrorism will thrive, and fear will be in the background of any thinking American’s mind, undermining America’s psyche and economy.” Hell, at least she’s honest. Never mind that Saddam wasn’t a terrorist and that he suppressed the same fundamentalists Darwish identifies as the greatest threat — this war was about saving America’s fragile psyche and economy.

When paired with her enthusiastic support for the Iraq war, Darwish’s talk of reform and women’s rights rings hollow. As the late Molly Ivins put it: “It’s damn hard to convince people you’re killing them for their own good.” Our invasion of Iraq and the botched occupation has predictably empowered religious extremists. The Global Fund for Women recently issued a report stating that Iraqi women are now much worse off than they were under Saddam’s secular regime — thanks in part to “Arab feminist” Nonie Darwish.

Here’s Darwish on the massive anti-Iraq war protests: “All protest organizers agree on one thing: They hate America and want to see it transformed from the democratic and capitalist entity that it is.” Here she is on racial profiling: “This is one U.S. citizen of Arab/Moslem background who has no problem being profiled until the U.S. conquers the war on terrorism.”

And what about Darwish’s specialty, the grave threat radical Islam poses to America? She seems confused about the basics. From the 2003 column, this gem: “As an American of Arab origin, I laugh every time I hear someone in the media asking ‘How can you prove that Saddam and al-Qaida are cooperating?’ How can anyone imagine that two outlaw organizations with a common enemy would not cooperate? They are both Moslem, Arab and live in the same neighborhood. Do these same people doubt that a fire can ignite when matches are struck near gasoline?”

I guess I’d grasp all this better if I had a deeper understanding of the Arab world. Being only an American of European origin, all this time I was foolishly thinking that two organizations in the same neighborhood — Saddam’s regime and Islamic terrorists — could actually be enemies. How silly of me! I forgot to lump all Arabs and Moslems into the same category. Thank you, Nonie.

Turns out Darwish’s main credential — apart from being Arab — is the fact that she’s a darling of neocons like David Horowitz and former Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa.,who voices his enthusiastic approval on the jacket of her book. Darwish and her crowd of truth-tellers should be judged on the product of their ideology — the bloodbath in Iraq.

Former Herald Executive Editor Justin Elliott ’07 is one of those America-haters.

PAGE 11

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Instant philosophy in the age of the cappuccino MAHA ATAL COLUMNIST ABROAD OXFORD, England — In a recent New York Times op-ed (“One Latte, Hold the Milk,” Feb. 3), Stacy Schiff linked our society’s grand(e)-scale consumption of caffeine to our unquenchable thirst for knowledge. Twentyounce coffee-cups, she says, are the necessary accessory for the age of 24-hour news.

Coffee keeps us up all night to see the next day’s breaking headlines — coffee makes us impatient enough to demand the constant update. Starbucks is the symbol of the information age.

The coffee-drinker in me is gratified to have my addiction so highly spoken of. The historian in me cringes, however, when Schiff invokes the legacy of the Enlightenment. According to Schiff, the coffeehouse culture of Adam Smith and Samuel Johnson is about stimulating the mind to think faster and absorb more information. The Enlightenment’s need for intellectual speed reaches its apex in our own age, the era of Google and Fox News, when anyone can access “the truth” at any time.

However, something doesn’t seem right in calling Fox News the direct descendant of Enlightenment thought. In fact, though the great thinkers of the 18th century would be amazed by the Internet’s wealth of information, they’d be horrified by the way many of us choose to experience it. While they’d appreciate Starbucks for spreading coffeehouses around the world, they’d be appalled at the sight of a venti extra-shot latte.

The Enlightenment was not about amassing information, as much and as fast as possible. The Enlightenment was about taking the

time to question and develop reasoned conclusions. Descartes’ “dare to know” and Locke’s “tabula rasa” were principles of knowledge, but they also carried an admiration for the way knowledge acts on the mind. It was the experience of debate, not a rapid hunger for facts that these philosophers revered.

The 18th-century coffeehouses were not purveyors of the quick-fix energy boost we associate with coffee today. The cafe was a place to hear news but also to encounter different perspectives, to challenge one’s own beliefs.

Smith, Johnson and their peers were skeptics — and skepticism demands time.

That is not to say that Schiff is entirely wrong in seeing the Internet age as a worthy successor to the 18th century. The generation before us saw almost infinite possibilities in Internet technology. This was the generation that wanted to run at hyper-speed, who graduated college in the 1990s eager to take on 24hour jobs in finance, the generation who made Starbucks the global giant it is today. Theirs is the vision of the Internet that Schiff is reacting to.

But Generation Y is already changing the rules of engagement when it comes to technology. Whereas the power of the Internet in 1997 rested on the shoulders of search engines like Yahoo!, the power of the Internet in 2007 lies with user-driven sites like YouTube, Facebook and Wikipedia. As Time magazine informed us in December, the Person of the Year is You, the public.

The success of Wikipedia does not stem from access to information — its predecessor search engines or fixed encyclopedias like Encarta were as good, if not better, at delivering hard facts. The buzz generated by Wikipedia comes from the way its content changes, from the possibility that truth is altered as different users interact with it.

In this, Wikipedia is a descendent of Diderot’s “Encyclopedie.” A collaborative project of Enlightenment thinkers from all over Europe, this was not a book intended to set in stone the limits of human knowledge — it was a collection of essays designed to explore the possibilities. Its articles raise as many questions as they provide answers, and for the philosophes, questions were the essence of learning. They lead us to continue the search, to research in the most literal sense.

What Adam Smith and his contemporaries would have found most exhilarating about the Internet would be the way it embodies this encouragement to continue searching: the device of the link. My friends and I often joke that Wikipedia is at fault for our procrastination: we sit down to look up one item and find ourselves darting from page to page for hours, picking up knowledge we never planned to seek out.

But instead of a distraction, I wonder if we shouldn’t see this propensity to follow the links, to “browse the Internet,” as the center of a modern-day education.

Ours is indeed a coffeehouse culture, but not, as Schiff believes, because we gulp lattes and frequent Internet cafes. Rather, the Internet is our cafe, a place where multiple viewpoints intersect and overlap. On multiple “tabs” of a Web browser, for example, we can see how the same event generates different truths in different newspapers and learn to suspect anyone who tells us they have the most authoritative version.

This skepticism, this endless questioning of the linked-in, would make Voltaire proud.

Maha Atal ’08 is the unofficial spokeswoman for Starbucks. She is spending the semester in the United Kingdom.

For the GOP, it’s back to basics DON TRELLA

OPINIONS COLUMNIST

Being a Democrat, I saw a lot of promise in the results of the last election. But a few months later, as I have given further thought to what really took place last November, my unrestrained optimism has slowly become more guarded.

Ultimately, two things caused last year’s shift in American politics. Traditionally apathetic voters came out to the polls, mobilized by the current state of affairs. Registration of new Democrats was up all over the country. Meanwhile, some voters who traditionally vote Republican were disappointed with the administration’s failure in Iraq and temporarily, hesitantly switched their loyalties.

Democrats who are humming along to Fleetwood Mac and thinking “yesterday’s gone” better be careful — we can’t take it for granted that the former group will not revert to political laziness, which is increasingly likely if we’re still stuck in Iraq in 2008 and they feel like their vote didn’t accomplish anything. The latter group, meanwhile, can easily return to the Republican Party when the GOP presents America with a new candidate in 2008 who will not be held responsible for the failures of this administration.

And the Republican Party may well be sporting more than just a fresh face by 2008: it could undergo a complete makeover. For one thing, social conservatism — the socalled “values agenda” — is unlikely to remain such a strong part of the party’s 2008 platform. Lots of folks who once got galvanized about gay marriage will still oppose it two years from now, but it will be harder for average Americans to base their vote on this issue while brave young men and women are getting killed on the streets of Baghdad, with

no end in sight. The GOP knows it lost some of its base for this reason in 2006, and it knows that to win Americans back, it has to focus its appeal elsewhere.

A “peace through strength,” non-interventionist doctrine is what will be required in 2008, and we may well see a GOP foreign policy that is more reminiscent of George W. Bush the candidate (“If we’re an arrogant nation, they’ll resent us — if we’re a humble nation, but strong, they’ll welcome us”) than George W. Bush the President (“bring it on”).

However, the Republican Party will still need a domestic platform in the coming Presidential race — a toning-down of “family values” and a return to a pragmatic foreign policy will not be enough. My guess is that 2008 will be the beginning of a great GOP shift back to basics — a shift back to the small government, economic agenda that has been the backbone of

be surprised how fast their opinions change. A lot of my older friends who have gotten jobs in the financial sector or who are about to graduate from law school are curiously and suddenly Facebook-identifying as “libertarians.”

The Republican Party of the future is not going to be associated with people who are the butt of Jeff Foxworthy jokes. It’s going to be associated with suit-and-tie professionalism — with the kind of people who would successfully sue Jeff Foxworthy. Optimistic, middleclass voters who dream of “that next big promotion” will just swoon. If you don’t think a lot of people who are Democrats today could vote Republican an election or two down the line, remember that the term “Reagan Democrats” was coined for a reason — voters’ loyalties are fickle. Just a few years ago, George W. Bush was the unstoppable War President with skyhigh approval ratings. They cheer Pompey one day, Caesar the next.

Like cigarettes, libertarianism has a sexy image but would be hazardous to the national health. Our generation has had more opportunities and a better standard of living than any generation before it, and it is easy to forget those who are less fortunate. The Internet and other rapid technological advances have satisfied our demands for instant gratification — sacrifice is something we simply haven’t had to do all that often in our lives. When we grow up and the New Republican Party says, “Don’t worry, you’ll never have to sacrifice — here’s a tax cut,” it will be awfully hard for a lot of people to resist.

If Democrats don’t want to be taken by surprise and put back on the defensive, their best strategy would be to pre-empt a Republican makeover with an aggressive economic agenda of their own — one based on the premise that everyone should have the opportunity to pursue their dreams.

Like cigarettes, libertarianism has a sexy image but would be hazardous to the national health. the party for the last 100 years.

Republicans’ best strategy would be to portray themselves as “Libertarians Lite.” Gone would be the days when Democrats at beerinspired barbecue debates could ridicule their opponents for worrying about gay marriage while horrifically mismanaging a war. Instead, it’s going to be Republicans on the offensive on issues like bureaucracy, spending, taxes and railing against social programs that “hand out taxpayer money to people who don’t want to work.”

A lot of people here at Brown might think this sort of rhetoric is a lot of hot air — but wait until they graduate, get jobs in New York City paying $100,000 or more and at the end of the year pay more than a third of this to the federal, state and city government (yes, New York City, New York State and the Federal Government all have their own income taxes). You’d

Don Trella ’07.5 doesn’t want to become a Republican when he gets a job — and this column is a cry for help.

S PORTS T HURSDAY THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2007

PAGE 12

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

It’s time to get ready for March Madness

W. fencers perform well at MIT/Brandeis Invitational

Farewell, professional football.

With Super Bowl XLI now in the books, we enter a period of mourning and despair for six months, with only inferior sports left to entertain us.

(To be fair, Alex Mazerov the Pro Bowl is Maz’s Minute on Saturday, so the NFL season isn’t entirely over yet. But does anyone really watch or care about that sloppy, penaltymired fumble fest? Though, come to think of it, couldn’t Sunday’s game between the Indianapolis Colts and the Chicago Bears be described that way as well?)

Anyway, the point here is that we sports fans need to find another way to waste away the hours on Sunday afternoons, something else to keep our TVs tuned into and, to a lesser extent, a new activity to place bets on.

So what’s left?

There’s the PGA. I’m not even going to waste time discussing such a boring, slow-moving sport as golf.

There’s NASCAR. Once again,

The fencing teams got mixed results on Sunday at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology/ Brandeis Invitational held in Cambridge, Mass., their last tune-up event before Ivy League competition begins. The women went 3-2, while the men finished 1-4.

“The women’s side did fantastic,” said Head Coach Atilio Tass.

The women lost to Ivy League foes Princeton and Penn State, a perennial power currently ranked No. 1 in the country, but defeated Tufts University, Duke University and New York University.

“I was very pleased that we were able to beat NYU and Duke, especially knowing going in that we were fairly evenly matched with them,” said tri-captain Christine Livoti ’08.

The saber squad led the way for the Bears, going 32-13. Deb Gorth ’09.5 paced the squad with a 12-3 record, followed by Randy Alevi ’10, who went 11-4 on the day and Charlotte Gartenberg ’08, who finished with a 9-6 performance.

Other standout fencers included epeeist Jennifer Hausmann ’07 (85) and foilist Kirsten Lynch ’10 (96).

“I’m really impressed with the performance of our first-years,” Gorth said. “I just got back (after

continued on page 8

BY ANDREW BRACA CONTRIBUTING WRITER

a semester off), and it blew me away.”

Livoti said she was pleased with the way the team has been pulling together after coming back from winter break a week early. “After spending that week together, practicing every day — you see it a lot in our performance as a team,” she said.

The men’s team was hurt by the loss of foilist Nick Bender ’09, one of its key fencers, who twisted his ankle during warm-ups. They also faced some of the top competition in the country in No. 3 Penn State and No. 10 Princeton.

Bender’s injury proved costly for Brown as the foil squad went 12-33 on the day.

“The results were not reflective of how well they performed,” Tass said. “When one of the really good fencers gets hurt and cannot fence, it was not the very best lineup that we could have placed out there.”

The men did beat Yeshiva University but lost to Penn State, Duke, Princeton and NYU. Dan Mahoney ’07 paced the saber squad at 9-6, and Adam Yarnell ’10 led the epeeists with a 7-4 record, but no foilist finished above .500.

Ivy League competition begins this weekend when the Bears continued on page 8

Jacob Melrose / Herald Randy Alevi ’10 went 11-4 for Brown over the weekend. She now has a team-high 68 wins on the season.

Sports in brief: Equestrian, gymnastics perform well Equestrian extends lead in region The equestrian team was impressive in its opening competition of the spring season, earning 43 points and winning this past weekend’s show at Windcrest Farm in Hebron, Conn. Brown finished with 36 points, topping the field of 10 schools, which included second-place Roger Williams. The University of Connecticut, a perennial powerhouse in the region, finished a distant third with 29 points.

Whitney Keefe ’08 led the way

for the Bears with her two firstplace finishes in open fences and open flat. Because of her performances this weekend, Keefe is now only one point behind the University of Rhode Island’s Amanda Tustian in the race for a shot at the prestigious Cacchione Cup. The top open riders from each region compete at Nationals for the Cacchione Cup, awarded at the end of the season to the top rider in flats and fences.

Other blue-ribbon finishes included co-captain Courtney Pope ’07 in intermediate fences, Kim

Mickenberg ’08 in intermediate flat, Emma Bogdonoff ’10 and Irmak Tasindi ’08 in novice flat and Stephanie Carmack ’08 in walk trot.

The Bears are off to a strong start, but they will have to work hard to maintain their momentum.

In past years, Brown has fallen off pace in the spring season after an impressive fall season, allowing other teams to overtake them in the final regional standings.

Gymnastics places first and second in weekend tri-meets

The gymnastics team had a mixed bag of results this weekend, winning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Saturday but finishing second in Sunday’s tri-meet at Rhode Island College. On both days, Alicia Sacramone ’10, who is currently ranked No. 14 in the country, led Brown with her performance on the balance beam.

The Bears had an outstanding day on Saturday, taking down Boston University and the Massacontinued on page 9

Skiers fourth in MacConnell Division

BY MADELEINE MARECKI ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR

Courtesy of Gil Talbot T

Janet Marley-Mauzy ’07 was the Bears’ third scorer in the Giant Slalom. She placed 16th out of 68 competitors.

Last weekend, the ski team continued its impressive upswing after a rough start to the season. On Friday afternoon the Bears played host to a field of 10 schools on Friday, and the women placed fourth in the slalom.

The next day, they nabbed second in the grand slalom at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology carnival. Although Brown remains fourth in the MacConnell Division, it has pulled within one point of third-place Plymouth State University.

On Friday afternoon, Brown competed on Wachusett Mountain in Massachusetts, where they hold all their practices during the season. Despite skiing on familiar turf, Bruno only managed to place fourth. Most Bears performed well on their first run

but did not ski as well on the second. Head Coach Michael LeBlanc set the first course, while the University of Massachusetts set a faster and straighter second course, which the Bears were not anticipating.

Still, Brown performed admirably, with captain Kelly O’Hear ’07 leading the way, checking in at 45.45 seconds for her first run and 45.10 for her second. Her performance was good for fourth out of 63 competitors. Elisa Handbury ’10 and Sophie Elgort ’08 rounded out the scoring for the Bears, placing 12th and 13th respectively. Handbury checked in at 46.10 and then 47.60, while Elgort completed her two runs in 46.96 and 46.85.

Elgort’s performance was particularly notable considering the controversy surrounding it. continued on page 9

MLB ’07 Awards: Educated guesses Only one team can win the World Series each season. A handful of fans celebrate their teams’ successes while the other 97 percent of baseball fans sulk until April. But all is Ellis Rochelson not lost! Fans Ellis’ MLB Exclusive can still enjoy the individual successes of their stars, rooting for their players to take home some morale-boosting hardware. Where are those trophies headed in 2007?

AL MVP: Mark Teixeira, 1B, Texas Rangers Scouts have been raving about Teixeira since 2001, when he hit .427 with 18 HRs in only 241 atbats for Georgia Tech. He rocketed to the majors in only two years, and didn’t take very long to preview his potential. In 2004, only his second year in the majors, he hit .281 with 38 homers. The next season? .301 with 43 bombs. Teixeira was growing into a powerful slugging machine with no ceiling in sight. Inexplicably, he started the 2006 season looking less like Lou Gehrig and more like Doug Mientkiewicz.

By the All-Star break, he hit .275 with only nine home runs.

This baffling power outage was somewhat amended by his monster second half — .291, with 24 HRs — which gives me cause for hope. I was able to get in touch with Texas General Manager Jon Daniels, and he had this to continued on page 9