Thursday, April 19, 2007 by The Brown Daily Herald

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD T HURSDAY A PRIL 19, 2007

Volume CXLII, No. 54

Mukherjee’s UCS presidential campaign was run secretly by friends

E A R T H D AY B L U E S

BY MICHAEL BECHEK SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Eric Mukherjee ’09, the candidate for president of the Undergraduate Council of Students who was disqualiﬁed early Tuesday morning by UCS elections board, was drafted into the race by his friends and was initially unaware that he was running, the one-time candidate told The Herald. Mukherjee had run on a platform of abolishing UCS and has said he would have attempted to “open a forum for creating a student government with actual credibility.” He was disqualiﬁed by the elections board for failing to attend a mandatory information session and a subsequent candidates’ meeting. Christina Kim ’07, the chair of the elections board, said in a statement Tuesday on behalf of the board that the violations might have been overlooked if the candidate had been acting “in good faith,” but she noted that Mukherjee’s campaign had

Chris Bennett / Herald

The Earth Day fair yesterday featured melting ice caps — snow cones — in blue raspberry, or “tears of the earth,” and watermelon, or “blood of the polar bear.”

Ofﬁcials brace for Spring Weekend festivities Campus gears up for a wet, yet wild, Spring Weekend BY SCOTT LOWENSTEIN SENIOR STAFF WRITER

University ofﬁcials are preparing for Spring Weekend festivities this weekend with many of the same strategies used last year — including commissioning a second ambulance, hiring private event managers and assigning deans to monitor events. Health Services has hired a second ambulance for Friday and Saturday nights and will increase its staff from Thursday through Sunday to prepare for an increase in Emergency Medical Services calls, said Margaret Klawunn, associate vice president for campus life and dean of student life. In addition, EMS patrols will roam the campus to see if any students require emergency medical assistance, Klawunn added. Student life ofﬁcials have also developed several strategies to prevent alcohol and substance-related calls this year. “We have done a lot of work with residential hall staff, preparing them with preventative messages. The Health Education department has been table-slipping all week,” Klawunn said. “We have also been working with Greek Council ... and the Student Athlete Advisory Board to make sure there is an understanding that we are trying to prevent any unsafe drinking.” These measures have also attempted to address the use of marijuana on Friday. April 20 is often associated with marijuana use by students on many high school and college campuses. The University’s efforts include table-slipping and distributing information at Queer continued on page 4

INSIDE:

5 CAMPUS NEWS

BY ALLISSA WICKHAM STAFF WRITER

Campus ﬂowers may still be mere buds, but as Friday night’s Roots concert draws near, preparations for Spring Weekend are in full bloom. Despite the dreary weather this week, the Brown Concert Agency has decided to hold the Flaming Lips’ Saturday concert on the Main Green and will be selling additional tickets today and Friday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Lower Faunce.

ARTS & CULTURE Over 3,000 tickets have been sold for the Flaming Lips’ concert with openers Yo La T Tengo, Mission of Burma and Stardeath and the White Dwarfs. Friday’s concert, which will also feature Soulive, is now sold out, though a few tickets may be available at the door. “We want to sell tickets to students before they go to scalpers,” said BCA Co-Chair Joe Posner ’07, adding that he felt “very strongly that the concert be held outside.” For their outdoor show, the Flaming Lips will perform beneath a makeshift roof, shielding the band members and their equipment from potential drizzle. The Lips will use Faunce House as their backstage area, so the building will be closed to students Saturday. According to Posner, the

DRUG DATA DISCLOSURE Jeffrey Drazen, editor-inchief of the New England Journal of Medicine, spoke on the lessons learned from the Vioxx case

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11 OPINIONS

Lips have a “ridiculous amount of production,” including a large L.E.D. screen and a variety of costumed dancers. A small number of BCA volunteers, selected by a raffle, will be among those shaking it with the band on stage. “ “They ’ll get to dance their hard work away,” Posner said of the chosen few students. Originally slated to perform on Thursday, The Roots will now appear on Friday in Meehan Auditorium. Posner said scheduling conflicts with the group’s April 17 Beijing concert played a role in the decision to reschedule. BCA BCA’s Web site says it will honor all tickets sold for the Thursday concert at the April 20 show. As for security, BCA member David Horn ’08 said the security plan — which includes both Department of Public Safety officers and private event management employees — did not change due to the rescheduling. “We’re basically using the same plan as before (the date change),” Horn said. “We don’t anticipate major problems on Friday since Brown students tend to exert moderation in public.” Horn said the private security guards will not be armed and are not permitted to touch students. They will likely report to DPS if a problem arises over continued on page 4 A PERSUASIVE COLUMN? Michal Zapendownski ’07 wants to convince you to take TTA 22: “Persuasive Communication” your senior year

been deceptive because the friend who started the campaign pretended to represent Mukherjee when, in fact, Mukherjee was unaware that he was even a candidate. Ben Struhl ’09, who said he was responsible for much of Mukherjee’s campaign — and who represented Mukherjee in Friday’s candidates debate at the Sharpe Refectory — said a “Draft Mukherjee” campaign began as something of a joke and involved about 30 of Mukherjee’s friends. “Everyone except me,” Mukherjee said. Mukherjee indicated at the time that he thought the platform of reforming UCS was “great” but that he did not want to be a candidate for UCS president himself, Struhl said. Struhl and Whit Schroder ’09 collected the required 400 signatures for Mukherjee and ﬁled his candidacy for him. According to Kim, the e-mail address and phone number provided by the campaign to the elections board belonged to

Courtesy of Eric Mukherjee

Eric Mukherjee ‘09

Struhl. Mukherjee said he did not become aware that he had been entered into the race until he was contacted by The Herald last Wednesday night. “We wanted to surprise Eric that continued on page 4

U. to consider carbon neutrality, reducing emissions BY TARYN MARTINEZ STAFF WRITER

The University should reduce its greenhouse gas emissions and seek to achieve carbon neutrality by ﬁscal year 2008, the Energy and Environmental Advisory Committee recommended in its report released Wednesday. The EEAC’s recommendations focus on three goals: greenhouse gas emissions reduction, carbon neutrality and leadership. The committee — made up of students, faculty and staff — recommended that by the year 2050 Brown reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent below 1990 levels. Achieving carbon neutrality by ﬁscal year 2008 was also recommended, as well as maintaining “a leadership position in addressing climate change,” the report stated. The recommendations included six strategies to help the University

achieve the EEAC’s goals. One encouraged Brown’s increased use of renewable energy through on-site energy generation, external renewable energy project investments or the purchase of Renewable Energy Certiﬁcates. Another called for the reduction of the overall energy density of all new and acquired facilities. The report’s release was accompanied by an announcement from President Ruth Simmons that was read at the Earth Day 2007 celebration held by the Brown Environmental Action Network yesterday on Lincoln Field. Simmons’ announcement, read by members of the campus climateneutrality advocacy group emPOWER, called the EEAC’s recommendations “bold and thoughtful.” The EEAC’s proposal of pursuing carbon offsets through an “innovative continued on page 4

Chris Bennett / Herald

At last night’s UCS meeting, EEAC committee member and UCS communications chair Michael Glassman ‘09 (center) related the recommendations of the EEAC to members of the Corporation.

12 SPORTS

195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island

W. TENNIS WINS AND WINS The women’s tennis team won both their matches, pulling out a dramatic victory against Cornell and another against Columbia

EDITOR’S NOTE

The Herald will not be published Friday for Spring Weekend. Normal publication resumes Monday, April 23. Visit www. browndailyherald.com early Friday morning for UCS and UFB election results. News tips: herald@browndailyherald.com

TODAY THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

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TODAY

WE A

THURSDAY, APRIL 19, 2007

Chocolate Covered Cotton | Mark Brinker

T H E R TOMORROW

partly cloudy 54 / 37

showers 48 / 38

MEN SHARPE REFECTORY

U VERNEY-WOOLLEY DINING HALL

LUNCH — Grilled Vegetable Calzone, Italian Sausage and Peppers Stir Fry, Chicken Fingers with Dipping Sauces, Canadian Bacon, Vegan Tofu Pups

LUNCH — Chicken Mulligatawny Soup, Gourmet Turkey Sandwich, TTofu Ravioli with Sauce, Zucchini and Summer Squash, Chocolate Chip Cookies

DINNER — Cauliﬂower in Dill Mustard Sauce, Pizza Supper Pie, Five Grain Bread, Chicken in the Rough, Sugar Snap Peas, Ziti, Tri-Colored Shells, Cajun Potatoes, Chocolate Vanilla Pudding Cake

DINNER — Spice Rubbed Pork Chops, Gnocchi a la Sorrentina, Apple Fritters, Whole Kernel Corn, French Style Green Beans with Tomatoes, Five Grain Bread, Chocolate Vanilla Pudding Cake

WBF | Matt Vascellaro

D O K U

Fill in the grid so that every row, every column and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 through 9. How to Get Down | Nate Saunders

Deo | Daniel Perez ��

CR ACROSS 1 Land map 5 Word of regret 10 Key with two sharps: Abbr. 14 Lithe leap 15 Pond glider 16 Belgian bread 17 “Hush!” to a cook? 19 Last word, sometimes 20 Ruse 21 Miniature in a pot 23 Ostriches and emus 26 Lunch order 28 Hardens 29 Stitched loop 30 Marine pronoun 33 Butyl acetate, e.g. 34 He jumped into Larsen’s arms after the only World Series perfect game 35 “Here Come the Warm Jets” composer 36 Try for a part 37 Like hoods 38 Whack 39 Warren’s veep 40 Boarding school since 1567 41 Plant aperture 42 Brit. music label 43 Raines of film 44 Trapper 45 More inane 47 “I don’t think so!” 48 Mitch Miller, for one 50 Tall story? 51 Jazz flutist Herbie 52 “Hush!” to a clothier? 58 Composer Satie 59 Subject of a 2006 outbreak 60 Wasp’s nest site 61 Fishing gear 62 Turn red, in some cases 63 Had down cold

O S S W O R D

DOWN 46 Sty his 31 Pottery glaze 1 Drop seat site, 48 Full moon, to 32 Turning briefly some 34 Base horn 2 Kauai keepsake 37 Eponymous New 49 Devoid of duds 3 Drive-thru 50 Pitcher Sparky York World convenience 53 Here, to Henri publisher 4 Rendered less 54 Word with art or 38 Its episode “The intense gun Menagerie” won 5 Beyond 55 PC linking a Hugo Award 6 Kenny Rogers hit 40 Sales staff system 7 Doce meses 56 “__ Gotta Be Me” 41 Total mess 8 Who’s got milk 57 Sunday seat 44 Sure thing 9 “F Troop” ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE: pratfaller 10 Taunton __: English district 11 “Hush!” to a florist? 12 District 13 Singer Mitchell 18 Like a big brother 22 Spanish stewpot 23 “The Devil’s Dictionary” author 24 Tailor’s measure 25 “Hush!” to a hatter? 26 Spot for free spirits? 27 Obscured by 4/19/07 xwordeditor@aol.com haze

Deep Fried Kittens | Cara FitzGibbon

Cloudy Side Up | Mike Lauritano

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CAMPUS NEWS THURSDAY, APRIL 19, 2007

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Carcieri ’65 names Block Island’s Starr new poet laureate BY STU WOO FEATURES EDITOR

When Lisa Starr was 11 years old, she had her first poem published in a local Connecticut newspaper. She remembers the title as “Man’s Journey.” “It went something like, ‘Sometime each morning/The sun rises/Beauty that hypnotizes,” Starr recalled. “Of course, I’m embarrassed about that.” Almost 30 years later, after her own journey through jobs as a waitress, paralegal, preschool teacher and college instructor, Starr has settled down on Block Island as an innkeeper — and now, Rhode Island’s state poet laureate. Gov. Donald Carcieri ’65 appointed Starr, the operator of the Hygeia House and founder of the Block Island Poetry Project, last Friday to a five-year term as state poet. She will be the Ocean State’s fourth laureate, succeeding Tom Chandler MFA ’86, a Bryant University professor whose term ended in 2005, and current Brown professors of English Michael Harper and C.D. Wright, the first and second state poets, respec-

METRO FEATURE tively. The 40-year-old Starr said she learned of the appointment Friday when Randy Rosenbaum, director of the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, called her. At first, they chatted about the poetry series she was working on, but he then broke the good news. “You know when you almost get into a car accident, and about 20 minutes later, you start to shake and cry about what happened?” Starr said. “That’s kind of what happened.” For Starr, the appointment is a bright spot in what has been a grief-filled year. In the past year, her mother and young cousin died, and her sister-in-law has been sick. “I felt blessed, humbled, utterly surprised,” the poet said. “And I’m just excited to have the opportunity to do work” with poetry in the state. Carcieri chose Starr earlier this year after reviewing recommendations from the state art council, Rosenbaum said. The first state poet was appointed in

Doctorow: Doubt is the basis of a vital civilization BY DANIEL RODI PEREZ CONTRIBUTING WRITER

“The discussion of the relation between literature and scripture is a discussion of our country’s future,” renowned author E. L. Doctorow told a Salomon 101 audience Wednesday in a lecture titled “Literature and Religion.” Doctorow — author of works such as “Ragtime,” “City of God” and “The March” — appeared on campus for a speech sponsored by the Andrea Rosenthal Memorial Lectureship Fund. He explained that the difference between the literary and the scriptural lies in the perception of the author — unlike prophets who claimed to transmit the sacred truths to others, modern authors don’t call for followers for their work, he said. Nevertheless, early modern and modern writers have tried to efface their own authorship with the hope that their work might seem more like truth and less like fiction. According to Doctorow, Daniel Defoe claimed that he merely edited “Robinson Crusoe,” and Miguel de Cervantes maintained that he bought an Arabic text of “Don Quixote” and translated it so that the text would look like a document, not fiction. What further separates a novel from scripture lies in one’s conviction, Doctorow argued. The eradication of doubt in the face of faith is what distinguishes scripture from literature. Doctorow said doubt is one of humanity’s great creative impetuses. “Literature down to its deepest roots is secular,” as creativity demands that all writers reevaluate their traditional beliefs, he said. “Every writer worth the name is unaffiliated,” he said.

ARTS & CULTURE The institutionalization of religious and nationalist conviction is one of the evils of our world, and fanaticism is the state where doubt is eliminated, Doctorow said. “The problem with al-Qaida is that their conception of the world is attributed to one supreme author. Any innovation cannot be anything except an abomination,” he said. By contrast, he said, “A true democracy demands a multiplicity of authors and voices.” Doctorow further explained that there is a doubt institutionalized in the Constitution, which Doctorow called the sacred text of our “civil religion.” The constitutional conviction that “there is no proven path to salvation, only traditions” has paradoxically led the United States to become one of “the most prayerful nation(s) in the world.” So it is not doctrine but “doubt” that Doctorow calls “the civilizing element of life.” He argued that a secular society can evolve but theoretically a theocracy can’t. Only a society that believes in the possibility of an essential truth yet does not espouse any particular one can change and incorporate new ideas, he said. Concluding, Doctorow told the audience to suspect those who try to subvert the state to dogma, a trend he ﬁnds in the theocratic tendencies of the contemporary religious right and in religious fanatics overseas. “What makes people think of us as ‘inﬁdels’ overseas and within our own borders,” he said, “is not that we are Christians, Jews, Muslims or atheists but rather that within our population of 300 million we are everything.”

The Block Island Times

Lisa Starr was named state poet laureate by Gov. Donald Carcieri ’65 last week.

1989, and though the position includes a $1,000-a-year stipend, it carries no ofﬁcial duties and laureates can advocate poetry in whatever way they wish. During his tenure, Chandler started writing a monthly column on poetry that sometimes featured Starr’s work for the Providence Journal. Starr said she in-

tends to start an outreach program with workshops in every school, library and senior center in the state. “It helps to say something ambitious like that in a very small state,” she said. Starr, a Leyland, Conn., native, said she started writing poetry in grade school. She continued writing at the University of

Connecticut and then at Hunter College in New York City, where she was part of a television-writing program. But she dropped out after three-and-a-half years of college and moved to Block Island, about a half-hour drive and hourlong ferry ride from Providence. continued on page 10

Lt. Gov Roberts ’78 tries to light a ﬁre under state stem cell research BY SIMMI AUJLA METRO EDITOR

Over 30 researchers in Rhode Island — most unaffiliated with Brown — are currently working with embryonic and adult stem cells on various projects. That’s not enough for Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts ’78, who released a 67page report about possibilities for local stem cell research on April 10. The report, titled “Discovering Rhode Island’s Stem Cell Future: Charting the Course Toward Health and Prosperity” was released to “put pressure on the issue” of stem cell research, Roberts told The Herald. “We have a real strategic opportunity here in Rhode Island, and I didn’t see that anybody” was taking advantage of it, Roberts said. Biotechnology employs more than 4,700 workers in Rhode Island and pays over $270 million in wages, according to the report. The state ranks eighth in receiving funding from the National Institutes of Health per capita, the report notes. Stem cell research is “an opportunity to change the future of health in some respect,” Roberts said, especially for those with loved ones suffering from diseases for which stem cell research may help find a cure. Roberts and her staff began working on the report in mid-January, soon after she entered office. The report lists stem cell research opportunities in other states, current research in Rhode Island and includes questions Rhode Islanders must address in deciding how the state government should support stem cell research, if at all. Some of the questions ask wheth-

er Rhode Island should establish a statewide stem cell institute and whether the state should offer tax credits and direct grants to stem

METRO cell researchers. The report notes the importance of local universities for stem cell research. “Often stem cell institutes are linked closely to institutions of higher education within the respective states,” it notes. Roberts said she visited both Brown and the University of Rhode Island in order to get “a clearer sense of what the resources are.” She also said she spoke with Clyde Briant, the University’s vice president for research, and Richard Spies, executive vice

president for planning and senior adviser to the president, about biomedical opportunities in Rhode Island but not about stem cell research speciﬁcally. Little stem cell research is conducted at the University. Currently, no embryonic stem cell research is being conducted at Brown or by Brown-afﬁliated researchers at other hospitals in Rhode Island, said Professor of Medical Science Edward Hawrot. Adult stem cell research is being conducted by Professor of Medicine Peter Quesenberry at Rhode Island Hospital. Professor of Medical Science Michael Lysaght, who has worked with stem cells in the past, said continued on page 11

ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR’S PICKS THURSDAY, APRIL 19 - SUNDAY, APRIL 22 NEW PLAYS FESTIVAL 25.2: Original works by Dan LeFranc GS and Cory Hinkle GS, two MFA candidate playwrights. Pell Chafee Performance Center, 87 Empire St.

FRIDAY, APRIL 20 FRIDAY MICHAEL WAISVISZ/STEIM CONCERT: Michael Waisvisz, an interactive performance pioneer, will play his custom-built instrument, “The Hands,” with laptop performer Robert van Heumen. Grant Recital Hall, 8 p.m. “THE PORT HURON PROJECT”: Mark Tribe, assistant professor of modern culture and media, will describe his work on a series reenactments of Vietnam-era protest speeches. List Art Center 120, 7 p.m. SPRING WEEKEND CONCERT: The Roots — Funk band Soulive will open for hip-hop group The Roots. Meehan Auditorium, 8 p.m.

SATURDAY APRIL 21 SATURDAY, SPRING WEEKEND CONCERT: The Flaming Lips — Yo La Tengo, Mission of Burma and Stardeath and White Dwarfs will open for indie rockers the Flaming Lips. Main Green, 2:30 p.m.

SUNDAY APRIL 22 - APRIL 28 SUNDAY, “PHOTOGRAPHS”: Jessica Simmons’ ’07 photography exhibit. List Art Center, second ﬂoor gallery

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PAGE 4

EEAC recommends carbon neutrality by 2008 continued from page 1 program that would fund faculty and student offset projects focused on interventions in our local community” was “of considerable note,” the announcement read. Simmons also said in the statement she was “pleased to report” that Brown will begin to implement one of the EEAC’s strategies immediately — reducing greenhouse gas emissions of fossil fuels burned in the central heat plant by 30 percent by fiscal year 2008. The fossil fuels will be replaced by natural gas. “I think that emPOWER is really happy with EEAC’s recommendations and with Ruth’s statement,” said group organizer Will Lambek ’09. “And I think by fiscal year 2008, we’ll be the first university to be climate-neutral.” Aden Van Noppen ‘09, a member of the EEAC and organizer for BEAN and emPOWER, said Simmons’ announcement was

“wonderful.” “The way we’ll implement these policies is going to be new — it’s setting a new bar on climate policy,” Van Noppen added. “I’m excited … to have such a high level response to this,” said Christopher Powell, the University’s energy manager. “The commitment and attention is encouraging, and it makes my job that much more fulﬁlling, knowing that I’ve got the support of the University to move things forward like this.” The plans regarding the central heat plant will be implemented over the summer, he said. The report’s recommendations must still be approved by the Corporation and various administrative groups. “The intention is that now that (the recommendations) are out, let’s see what everyone thinks about them,” Powell said. “We’ll continue that process of getting input form the overall Brown community, and take it from there.”

THURSDAY, APRIL 19, 2007

Friends drafted unsuspecting Mukherjee ’09 for UCS president continued from page 1 he was running,” Struhl said, adding that he and Schroder “weren’t trying to deceive anybody.” Mukherjee, after learning of his candidacy, decided to go ahead with the campaign at that time. “The thing was,” Struhl said, “when he saw all the support behind his ideas, he was really excited to get into the race.” Mukherjee attended last night’s UCS general body meeting in the New Dorm lounge to discuss the elections board’s decision to disqualify him. Ben Creo ’07, a member of the elections board, said the decision had nothing to do with Mukherjee’s platform and that the only job of the elections board — which is made up of former and current UCS members not running in any races this spring — was to ensure the legitimacy of the elections. “What we care about is that this process is fair,” Creo said, adding that allowing Mukherjee to run would have been unfair to candidates who had followed all the rules. Creo said it was “within the purview of the elections board” to set any rules for the elections beyond those speciﬁed by the UCS code

and that this included mandatory attendance at an information session and a meeting for candidates. Though Struhl attended the candidates’ meeting, Creo said Struhl could not be said to have been acting on Mukherjee’s behalf because Mukherjee had not sent him. “The idea of a proxy is, it’s sent with consent,” Creo said. Struhl said Mukherjee had later said it was all right for Struhl to have acted as his proxy to the elections board. “He didn’t have any problem with it,” Struhl said. “I don’t know why they did.” Creo said the retroactive consent was irrelevant. Mukherjee was reserved at last night’s meeting, though he said the elections board was “doubly victimizing” him because he had already been unwillingly made a candidate by his friends in the ﬁrst place. “I still disagree with your decision,” he said at the meeting. Struhl said he believes Mukherjee had been disqualiﬁed because his platform was threatening to UCS and because he had strong support from students. Both UCS members and those involved in Mukherjee’s anti-UCS campaign said Mukherjee’s cam-

paign had gotten students interested in student government, at least for now. “Simply by running, we’ve got people talking,” Mukherjee said. “I think it’s irrelevant who was running,” Schroder said. “I think the people who were voting were voting for the platform, not the candidate.” Kim said she was glad Mukherjee’s campaign had brought so much student interest to the UCS elections — which began Tuesday at 5 p.m. and will continue until 5 p.m. today, when voting on MyCourses will close — and that it was “unfortunate” Mukherjee had to be disqualiﬁed from the race. Also at last night’s meeting, UCS members met with several members of the Corporation and brieﬂy brought a number of issues to their attention, including the state of dormitories, the implementation of Banner and the recommendation of the Energy and Environmental Advisory Committee — released today — to make the University climateneutral. At the start of the meeting, UCS President John Gillis ’07 asked for a moment of silence for the victims of Monday’s shootings at Virginia Tech.

Private event management, 2nd ambulance on tap for weekend continued from page 1 Alliance’s Sex Fair on Friday. A campus-wide e-mail will also be sent out later this week from officials in the Office of Student Life and Student Activities Office outlining general safety guidelines and resources available to students over the weekend. Security and crowd control at Spring Weekend events will follow the model used last year. Private event managers from Green Horn Management instead of student volunteers will man the concerts and other events, said Director of Student Activities Ricky Gresh. “The problem is that in the past we have relied heavily on student security, but most students would be watching the concerts, and it’s hard to manage all of the volunteers,” Gresh said. “The last couple of years, the concerts have been very successful, so there has been enough money available to be able to provide the right staffing struc-

ture.” “The social event structure highlighted that ... relying on amateur student security rather than professional security is not the best way to use students. Having (students) help to create the event and help with the artistic aspects of the event are more valuable ways to use them,” Gresh said. Fifty-two private event managers will supplement the 11 Department of Public Safety officers and two Providence Police officers on duty for Saturday’s concert on the Main Green. Friday’s concert in Meehan Auditorium will have 44 event managers, eight DPS officers and two PPD officers. “GHM (event managers) will be monitoring entries and exits and addressing problems as they come,” Gresh said. DPS will largely be stationed at high-risk locations like Faunce Arch to “maintain external integrity,” he said. Zeta Delta Xi’s traditional alcohol and pasta party SpagFest will

— for the first time — use private event managers. Eight event managers and four DPS officers will staff the event, addressing “management concerns” from last year, Gresh said. The event’s redesign will also have “the whole event under one tent, instead of spread out on the quad where it is difficult to manage,” Gresh said. Rage on Wriston, which features music performed by students and alums, will be managed similarly to last year’s event, which “was viewed to be an event that overall went well in terms of management,” Gresh said. This includes limiting access to Wriston and staffing the event with eight private event managers and nine DPS officers. Sunday’s Dave Binder concert on Wriston will be similarly staffed. Deans and student activities staff will also roam around the weekend’s events “to talk to students and to make sure that students who need help can get it,” Klawunn said.

Campus gears up for a wet, yet wild, Spring Weekend continued from page 1 the course of the weekend. Last year’s Spring Weekend was the ﬁrst time student volunteers were not included in the security force, which Horn said worked more effectively in terms of crowd control. In addition to maintaining order, the ofﬁcers will protect the band members and help clear people off the Main Green at 1 p.m. on Saturday in anticipation of the Lips’ 2 p.m. show, Horn said. The Main Green will be gated off for the concert, with the sole entrance located near the John Carter Brown Library. Horn said students will not be readmitted once they leave Saturday’s concert. Members of Zeta Delta Xi are also gearing up for Spagfest, the co-ed fraternity’s Spring Weekend alcohol and pasta extravaganza.

The party will be held from 4 to 8 p.m on Friday underneath a tent on Wriston Quad. Due to the University’s new drinking policies that requires Class F parties to charge students for each serving of alcohol, drinks will no longer be covered by the ticket fee and can purchased at a bar inside the tent. Pre-sale tickets for Spagfest sold out at noon on Wednesday, but more will be available at the door for $10 each. Spagfest planner Amy Robinson ’08 said students who purchased their tickets at the P.O. should arrive between 4 and 5 p.m., or they will risk losing their spots. Robinson also expressed hope for student civility at this year’s event. “It should be a raucous dinner party,” Robinson said. “Not a cafeteria food ﬁght.” Due to the ex-

pense of the party and unruly behavior at Spagfest 2006, Robinson said this may be the carb-fest’s ﬁnal year if students are unable to control themselves. ““This is our last chance to have this party and have it be successful,” she said, adding that administrators have threatened to shut it down if it gets out of hand. Robinson hopes that new measures such as the tent, an organized bar and professional security will help maintain order without sacriﬁcing the fun of Spagfest. Overall, organizers are excited for Spring Weekend, despite initial fears about the unseasonable cold weather. “Spring Weekend is a fantastically long-running tradition,” Posner said. “I’m so excited to see how it grows and changes over the years.”

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CAMPUS NEWS THURSDAY, APRIL 19, 2007

After Vioxx scandal, NEJM Editor-in-Chief Drazen calls for full data disclosure BY ZACHARY CHAPMAN SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Jeffrey Drazen, editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, called on medical researchers to report their data accurately and comprehensively in an address Wednesday afternoon analyzing the lessons learned from the Vioxx case. Speaking before an audience of both professors and students in the Alpert Medical School’s ﬁrst Alpha Omega Alpha visiting professor lecture, Drazen presented a detailed and incisive look at how researchers for pharmaceutical giant Merck withheld data from a clinical trial published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2000 that indicated patients using the painkiller experienced a higher incidence of cardiovascular problems. Vioxx, once one of Merck’s most widely prescribed and profitable drugs, is an anti-inﬂamma-

For most prospective ﬁrst-years, Wednesday night marked the end of A Day on College Hill and their visit to Brown — but for others, it was the beginning of another twoday event. The Third World Welcome program, organized by the Admission Ofﬁce, kicked off with registration and host pairing in Petteruti Lounge yesterday at 5 p.m. The program gives minority students in the accepted class of 2011 “the opportunity to experience the life of a student of color at Brown,” said Marco Martinez ’08, one of the program’s three coordinators. The event has been in

U. receives NCAA Div. I recertiﬁcation BY JOY NEUMEYER STAFF WRITER

Chris Bennett / Herald

New England Journal of Medicine Editor-in-Chief Dr. Jeffrey Drazen spoke about the Vioxx drug trials yesterday afternoon in Salomon 001.

tory drug used to treat arthritis and was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 1999. Merck withdrew the drug from the market in 2004 after numerous studies — including information from the FDA — revealed that the drug caused an increased

risk of “adverse cardiovascular events,” including stroke and heart attack. The drug worked by inhibiting proteins that cause inﬂammation and pain. Though it had similar continued on page 6

Minority prefrosh stay on campus for TWW BY CHRISTIAN MARTELL STAFF WRITER

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planning since last October, Martinez said. Last night’s events included a lecture for parents about “advising in the Brown curriculum” and a cultural show featuring different performance groups on campus. Events slated for today include time for prospective students to visit classes, a question-and-answer session with a panel of current minority students and a meetand-greet with representatives from various cultural groups. “The program has been running smoothly so far, and we’re all hoping it will keep going this way and that they enjoy the rest of their stay,” said program coordinator Danielle Dunlap ’10. A total of 140 prospective stu-

T I E - D Y E D E A R T H D AY

dents attended this year’s TWW, up from last year’s attendance of 135, organizers said. Students of color made up a record-breaking 41 percent of the admitted class of 2011, up from 39 percent last year. “We try our best to match the students with hosts from the same state or at least from the surrounding area,” Dunlap said. Dunlap is from Atlanta, but she hosted students from both Georgia and Texas — having lived in both places at different times in her life, she said, she would be able to relate to them or at least have some common ground to build a relationship. Rocio Gutierrez, a prospective continued on page 11

Following a self-study by the University and an examination by the NCAA, the University has been recertified as a Division I school. The announcement of recertification followed a six-month self-study, a two-day on-campus review by the NCAA and an NCAA internal review to ensure that the athletics program complies with its standards for athletics program governance, student-athlete welfare, academics and equity. After the NCAA began mandating athletics certification in 1993, the University’s athletics program was first certified in 1997 and submitted an interim report in 2002. Recertification is now required on a 10-year cycle. Director of Athletics Michael Goldberger said he is “delighted” with the recertification. The self-study, which started in December 2005 and was completed in May 2006, was led by a steering committee, and the work was undertaken by three subcommittees — for governance, academic integrity and equity and student-athlete welfare. The subcommittees comprised faculty, students, staff and alums, and each was chaired by one administrator and one faculty member. Richard Spies, executive vice president for planning and senior adviser to the president, who chaired the recertification steering committee, told The Herald that the NCAA review team had only a few “small suggestions” for the University, mainly concerning communication issues. The NCAA informed the Department of Athletics that

it was likely to be recertified after the two-day review in November. Russell Carey ’91 MA’06, interim vice president for campus life and student services and co-chair of the subcommittee on governance and compliance, said the areas under his subcommittee’s review were “extremely sound.” Professor of History Howard Chudacoff, faculty liaison to the NCAA and the other co-chair of the subcommittee on governance and compliance, called the process “straightforward.” “It allowed us to examine what we do and identify things that were outside of the certification process that we would want to pay attention to,” he said. Spies said the athletics program learned that “we can and should do a better job communicating” about rules and procedures to athletes. “Just putting something in a handbook is not enough,” he said, adding that there could be slight improvements in communication among coaches, athletes, deans, faculty and other groups. Goldberger cited the inclusion of rules about missing classes in the student-athlete handbook as an example of policies that have been made clearer to student-athletes as a result of the self-study. He said procedures regarding transfer students could also be clarified further. The review addressed ongoing concerns about diversity in the athletics department. In an interview with The Herald in February 2006, Goldberger cited minority under-representation at the coaching level as a continued on page 11

Taekwondo club places third at nationals BY JOY CHUA STAFF WRITER

Chris Bennett / Herald

A tie-dyed shirt from the Earth Day fair held Wednesday on Lincoln Field.

The Brown Taekwondo Club placed third overall in the National Collegiate Taekwondo Association Tournament, held March 30 and 31 at Texas A&M University. The team also placed second in the novice division. The tournament consisted of two types of competition: poomse, which is focused on form and technique and involves performing set routines to showcase skill, concentration and focus, and kyoruki, or sparring, in which two competitors face off against each other and earn points for attacks to the body or head. In addition to their overall placement, all 11 competitors from Brown earned at least one medal and all together won a total of 16 medals — seven gold, three silver and six bronze. Michael Hoe ’08, head instructor of the club, said the results were amazing. “The tournament happened over spring break, so it was tough to get many people involved,” said Hoe, who placed ﬁrst in the form division of black belts. “But even though we

Courtesy of Kevin Swong ’08

The Brown Taekwondo team after Nationals, where it placed third overall.

only took 11 competitors, we placed almost as well as we did last year when we took 35 people.” Nicholas Chung ’09, an assistant instructor of the club, said the lower number of competitors motivated the athletes. “Because we were a smaller group, we had to bring the quality of our performance up, and everyone trained that much harder,” he said. “But a lot of the members who went had previous experience, so I think that helped us a lot.” Taekwondo Club President

Kevin Swong ’08 did not attend the tournament but said he was very proud of the team’s performance. “The instructors did an amazing job,” he said. “Preparing for nationals consisted of a lot of practice, and all the members who committed to the tournament came through for that.” The team had been preparing for the national tournament all year — the 11 competitors returned to continued on page 6

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Taekwondo club places third at nationals continued from page 5 Brown a week before classes started in January for extra practices and spent an average of 15 hours practicing during what Chung called “hell week.” “It’s a great bonding experience,” Chung said. “You wake up together in the morning, you work out, you go to lunch, work out, have dinner together and work out some more. Everyone shares the same pain, and we really bonded together as a team.” Hoe said the team dynamic is his favorite aspect of being part of the club. “Most people think of it as a club for taekwondo, but the reality is that to anyone involved, there is a real sense of camaraderie,” he said. “We’re all really good friends

outside of class and the idea behind the club is we’re a family. As cheesy as it sounds, we do a pretty good job involving everybody.” The taekwondo club currently consists of 53 members from all levels. “The club is very beginner,” Swong said. “Most of the people who join haven’t had taekwondo experience, and throughout the year some drop out because of school and other responsibilities.” Hoe said the team members collectively have six black belts, four black stripes, 11 red and blue belts, 25 green and green stripes and seven white and yellow belts. Though nationals is over, the club is still busy with events for the rest of the semester, including belt testing on May 5. “Black belt tests are the main focus,” Swong said. “Four people will be testing for black belts, and that is what the club has been doing.” The club is also planning its annual banquet, a chance for the team members to have dinner together, watch slideshows, reminisce and say goodbye to departing seniors. “It’s an actual event where everyone comes together and dresses up,” Chung said. “It brings us closer together.” Hoe said he is optimistic about the team’s future. “A few seniors are leaving us, but for the most part all the black belts are coming back,” he said. “I’m always excited to look to the future. The team has so much promise, and that only gives us all extra motivation.”

THURSDAY, APRIL 19, 2007

NEJM Editor-in-Chief recalls lessons of Vioxx scandal continued from page 5 efficacy outcomes as other antiinflammatories, Vioxx was developed and marketed because it resulted in less gastrointestinal bleeding and ulcers than other anti-inflammatory drugs. According to the Journal, more than 80 million patients took Vioxx, generating annual sales upwards of $2.5 billion. The drug’s withdrawal represented the largest prescriptiondrug withdrawal in history. Over 27,000 lawsuits have been filed against Merck over Vioxx. Drazen spoke at length about a study the Journal published in 2000 — the same year he took over as editor-in-chief — that indicated Vioxx did not present a significant negative risk for heart problems. The study — Vioxx GI Outcomes Research study, or VIGOR — was frequently cited by Merck as showing that Vioxx did not increase the risk of heart disease or death, and its authors included two Merck employees. Drazen — who holds professorships at the Harvard Medical School, Harvard School of Public Health and Boston University — said the Journal’s editors became aware that the Merck authors of the study withheld key data pointing to the drug’s increased risk for cardiovascular events in 2005 during litigation of a wrongful death suit involving Vioxx. Drazen said Merck had claimed this data was not available at the time of the article’s

publication, but an internal memo produced during the trial showed the Merck authors knew about the data as early as fourand-a-half months prior to the article’s submission. The study’s authors had originally included the relevant data in the article, Drazen said, but when Journal editors reviewed a computer disk of the document in track-changes mode, they discovered the data had been deleted two days before the article was submitted. “The data in the article was accurate, but it was incomplete,” Drazen said. “The article didn’t reflect the available data.” After describing how the Vioxx story unfolded, Drazen addressed the case’s implications. “I think the general lesson to be learned is that science is not well-served if readers do not have the access to dispassionate renderings of the data,” he said. Drazen said he feared the case might jeopardize future patients’ willingness to participate in clinical trials. He said because patients put themselves at risk in clinical trials — often to benefit the greater good — the bond of trust between clinicians and patients must be maintained. “Patients will stop volunteering for clinical trials if they think they are being manipulated by a third party for profit,” he said. Drazen said the Journal has instituted more stringent editorial policies and called for greater transparency from authors to ensure the mistakes made in the

Vioxx case are not repeated. He described a 2006 incident in which authors of a clinical trial discovered a mistake at the last minute and passed it on to the Journal in time for it to be published. “I remember speaking to someone in the company, and they said, ‘I didn’t want to be Mercked,’ ” he said. In retrospect, Drazen said the Journal would have handled the Merck article differently. “If we could do it all over again, with the full access to hindsight, I think we would have been more aggressive,” he said. Drazen told The Herald he didn’t think the Journal’s public image has been tarnished by the incident. “It’s easy to see problems in retrospect, but it’s hard to see at the time,” he said. “We still have a tremendous passion for obtaining and disseminating the best medical information possible.” Daniel Morris ’07, who plans to attend medical school next year, said he found Drazen’s lecture “clear and informative.” Morris said he didn’t have much background on the Vioxx case but that Drazen did a good job synthesizing and conveying his information. “I thought he spoke honestly and pretty frankly,” he said. Jeffrey Lo ’07, also a prospective medical student, said he thought the lecture “gave a lot of insight into the process involved in producing ... and publishing a big paper in a medical journal.”

CAMPUS N EWS PAGE 7

THURSDAY, APRIL 19, 2007

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

CS concentrators down since dot-com bubble burst

Gradspot.com targets clueless college grads

BY ANNA MILLMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

The number of students graduating from Brown with a concentration in computer science was at a 10-year low last year, part of a national downward trend in the number of college students studying the subject. Only 37 students completed a concentration in computer science in 2006, down from a high of 73 in 2000 and 2002, according to data from the Ofﬁce of Institutional Research. The number of concentrators steadily increased through the 1990s before falling off after the high-tech bubble burst at the end of the decade — even as more job opportunities in the ﬁeld become available. Associate Professor of Computer Science Thomas Doeppner, vice chair of the department, said the department has seen a cyclical waxing and waning of interest several times in the 30 years he has taught at Brown. He said there was a similar spike in interest in the 1970s and early 1980s, but after that interest diminished as computer use became more common in other disciplines. The current drop in interest — both in terms of concentrators and enrollment in courses — seems to have been at least partially caused by a perceived dearth of jobs for computer science concentrators,

Doeppner said. That misperception, he said, is causing a shortage of specialists in computer technology. “The demand is so high,” he said. Doeppner said though low-end programming jobs are being outsourced, those positions would typically not be sought by graduates of a university computer science program — in reality, he said, demand for computer science graduates is at a high. Though the number of concentrators has decreased, the number of faculty and graduate students in the department has been increasing, Doeppner said — meaning that there are actually more courses being offered now than there were at peak enrollment in 2000. In addition to the perceived tough job market, Doeppner said the greater integration of computer science into other ﬁelds of study with could draw some prospective concentrators away. He mentioned the Computer ScienceEconomics and Computational Biology majors as examples of such integration. “Certainly what may be happening now is that people who decide to concentrate in CS are really interested in it,” he said, rather than those who might want the expertise for other areas. continued on page 9

BY CAITLIN BROWNE STAFF WRITER

With Commencement around the corner, many seniors will soon break out of the Brown bubble — but a new Web site, going live Monday, hopes to ease the transition. Matt Demmer, co-founder of the Web site and a recent Georgetown University graduate, said Gradspot would serve as an “information and tool resource for recent graduates from college.” Demmer founded the company with two friends — Antony Clavel, a graduate of Oxford and Harvard universities, and Stuart Schultz, an Emory University grad. Demmer said the three founders designed the site based on the resources they would have found useful as they moved on from college life and adjusted to the “real world.” The Web site has five components: apartment, money, career, health and play. Articles cover topics from fix-it tips, renters’ insurance and tipping the doorman to 401(k)s, office politics and choosing a health care provider. The site will feature a forum where grads can share tips and experiences, a forum for locating potential roommates, and a job

posting board where companies can advertise positions aimed at recent grads, he said. The job board allowing companies to post positions aimed at recent grads will prevent people from having to wade through listings on other sites for jobs for which they don’t have enough experience, and the roommate board may provide some reassurance to recent grads wary of Craigslist.

FEATURE “When someone advertises for a roommate, at least you’ll know it’s someone who went to college, and you’ll know which college, which is comforting,” Demmer said. All three founders were living in New York when Clavel, whom Demmer met when studying abroad in London, approached Demmer with the idea. Clavel and Schultz had been working together at an investment bank, but both realized the banking world did not interest them. From there, the Gradspot project emerged. They began a rigorous search for contributors. “It was insanely important to get people who share our vision. If the research wasn’t perfect, the articles wouldn’t be

helpful. And they needed to be funny, to be able to mix in jokes and pop culture references, or the tone wouldn’t be right,” said Demmer, who had been writing creatively since graduating from college. They ultimately chose 15 writers from a pool of around 1,000 applicants. In creating the site, the founders attempted to present information in a useful and fun format. They wanted to share “the ridiculous experiences of those who had already been through all of this and failed miserably,” Demmer said. “There were so many things about the transition we were so oblivious about,” Demer said. “It seemed ridiculous that everybody had to learn this stuff by experience, when it would be easy to put all that information into one source,” Demmer said. “It seemed amazing that there wasn’t already a resource like this.” “The transition from college is exciting but also daunting,” Demmer said. “You’re totally separated from your parents for the ﬁrst time. Almost everyone has had a parental safety net in college to some extent … when you graduate and start working, continued on page 9

Coffee With … Spectator Editor-in-Chief Pratik Chougule ’08 BY STU WOO FEATURES EDITOR

Pratik Chougule ’08 isn’t afraid of making his voice heard on what is often regarded as one of the nation’s most liberal campuses. A native of East Greenwich, Chougule is editor-in-chief of the conservative Brown Spectator, the vice president of the College Republicans and the former state chair of the College Republicans Federation of Rhode Island. He recently sat down with The Herald for a cup of coffee (vanilla cream-flavored) to talk about the Spectator, his political views and career aspirations. Herald: First, I guess the most obvious question is: How would you describe your political views? Chougule: I say I’m pretty conservative, definitely by Brown standards. I think I’ve always been conservative. On foreign policy, I consider myself to be a neoconservative. I’m pretty socially conservative. Growing up, was there anything that influenced your politics? Yeah, it sounds crazy, but I really remember the first Gulf War a lot. I remember my family was really into CNN at the time — everyone was. At the time, my uncle actually wrote a children’s book on the Gulf War to try to explain the war to me — I was only five at the time. The book he wrote was “Don’t Steal My Blocks,” and he basically portrayed Saddam (Hussein) as a bully on the playground stealing toys from Kuwait and essentially Saudi Arabia. He drew this figure of America being the figure that liberates Kuwait from Iraq. I guess that image of America as force of freedom in the world

— I’ve always retained that. So you grew up in a pretty conservative family? No, my parents are actually very apolitical. They’ve gotten more interested in it now because of me, but it was never a really political environment. I think my parents are sort of conservative in their approach in their life, but they’re not political. You live in one of the most Democratic states in the nation, and Brown is considered to be a very liberal school. Has that been tough for you? No, it really hasn’t. I heard all kinds of horror stories about Brown before coming here. … I’ve never felt oppressed or afraid to voice my opinions. I think, like in any situation, you can either act like a victim or get your ideas out there.

FEATURE No one has ever given you a hard time about it? Not really. Obviously, people have challenged me on my views, which I think is great. I think it would also drive me crazy to be a liberal at Brown. I can’t imagine being in an environment where everyone basically agrees with me. I feel that I have been really been forced to think about my views in a way that probably a lot of people at Brown don’t. Do you think Brown is doing enough to promote intellectual and political diversity? Yes and no. I think President Simmons has done a great job to make Brown a more tolerant environment. On one hand, you have the faculty at Brown, which

is overwhelmingly leftist — same with the administration. You have these programs like the Third World Center and groups like the Queer Alliance, which really get away with all kinds of things that they shouldn’t be. At the same time … with my experience, I’ve never felt like I’ve been shot down or anything. The thing I would hate would be for this intellectual diversity thing to become an afﬁrmative action on the right. I just think that would defeat the purpose of it. So it’s always a tough balancing act. I think Brown could do more, but as I said, I don’t want this intellectual diversity thing to become right-wing (afﬁrmative action). What do you think Brown should do? The biggest problem I would identify is a cultural one. I think there is some relativist culture and it pervades academics, it pervades the social environment here. This notion that there aren’t any objective standards to truth, and there aren’t more accepted standards of behavior that people should live up to — I think that culture needs to change. I think if you look at student life here, the type of drinking and debauchery that you see is really not healthy. I think Brown ought to be a little more proactive in enforcing basic decency on campus. In the academic world, I think more of a focus on traditional, classical learning would be a good thing. Maybe emphasizing traditional canon literature, maybe American history, talk about the founders and the great ideas of the West. In the humanities, I found there’s way too much emcontinued on page 9

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THURSDAY, APRIL 19, 2007

Gradspot.com targets clueless college grads continued from page 7 all that dissipates so quickly.” Although Gradspot is currently based in New York, Demmer said the founders think the site will be useful nationally. “Most of the information is not city-speciﬁc, but the same for no matter where you’re living,” Demmer said. “Finding an apartment is difﬁcult no matter where you are. Healthcare providers are the same across the nation.” The initial site will be open to graduates everywhere, without any biases regarding location. But Demmer hopes to expand Gradspot eventually into mul-

tiple city-speciﬁc sites, such as Gradspot-L.A. and Gradspot-New York to provide more locally relevant information. Demmer and the others are now in the process of spreading the word about their project. “If we do a good job, I think the sky will be the limit,” he said. “People could be using it from their junior year in college to their mid-20s — that’s lot of people.” “We’re only three guys — we’re obviously not going to be thinking about everything people have to deal with,” Demmer said. “We said, ‘Let’s get people talking about things.’ ” Seniors interviewed by The

Herald expressed interest in using a resource like Gradspot. Laura Snizek ’07 said she agreed with Demmer that the transition from college is daunting and said she would “definitely” be interested in the information Gradspot could provide. “I probably would use it,” said Michelle Oing ’07, who said she wasn’t quite sure of her post-graduation plans. She said she might move to New York and live with friends who are also graduating. “My dad keeps telling me that I have to figure out finances,” Oing said. “There are so many things I don’t know, and I don’t even know that I don’t know them.”

Coffee with … Spectator Editor-in-Chief Pratik Chougule ’08 continued from page 7 phasis on race, class and gender. Some professors at Brown believe that the world could be explained on those three grounds, and I don’t think that’s right. Two years ago, Chris McAuliffe ’05, the former president of the Brown Republicans, told The Herald that most of the Brown Republicans were libertarians. Do you agree with that assessment? Yes, I found that to be a really big problem, and it goes back to this relativist attitude on campus. I mean, that’s essentially what libertarianism is, just the idea that unfettered freedom is an end in itself, and I’ve always had a problem with that. … I think that freedom isn’t always a good in itself. I mean, we value

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freedom as end to other means and when — yeah, unfettered freedom leads to bad things happening. You were instrumental in bringing the Brown Spectator back to campus. What was the motivation for that? The Spectator has been around in the late 1980s and early 1990s and came back in 2000 and fell apart again. I just think it’s really important to have this forum for sort of libertarian views on campus. How do you think the Spectator is doing right now? I think there’s always room for improvement. … I’m really happy with it. … I’ve been happy with the way other groups on campus have reached out to the Spectator.

Scott Warren (’09) of the Darfur Action Network, Democracy Matters wrote something, and I think it’s becoming a needed forum for debate on campus. All right, let’s shift this back to you. After Brown, what would you like to do? Whether we want to acknowledge it or not, I think that America today is an empire on a global stage. I think deﬁnitely people of our generation have pretty concrete choices to make. We can either deny America’s unique role in the world or we can embrace it as a force for democracy and human rights in the world. I would like to do something in foreign policy, something in foreign policy to see that America plays the type of political leadership role it should.

CS concentrators down since dot-com bubble burst continued from page 7 Computer science concentrators interviewed by The Herald said their interest in the subject — not necessarily later career prospects — is what drew them to the field. Joseph Browne ’09 said he is studying computer science because he thinks it will allow him greater flexibility down the road. “If I do computer science, then I can easily move into other fields after I graduate,” Browne said,

adding that “it’s definitely not just about the job prospects.” Bo Chen ’08, another computer science concentrator, said he “like(s) computer science. I became interested in it in high school and started studying it.” Chen said job opportunities did not greatly influence his choice of concentration. “I find computer science interesting,” said Rob Manchester ‘07.5, a computer science concentrator. But, he added, “I like the career prospects as well — they are definitely a plus.”

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Block Island’s Starr new poet laureate continued from page 3 Starr said her family frequented the island for vacations when she was a child. “I need to live here to write what I write,” she said. Starr said she was also “done with the idea of making a living through writing.” Instead, Starr took a variety of jobs, usually juggling two at once, and tried to ﬁnd some time to write in between. She returned to school to complete her degree and published her ﬁrst poetry collection, “Days of Dogs and Driftwood,” in 1993. In 1998, Starr and her husband purchased a rundown house on the island and, after taking several loans, spent about $1 million to renovate the place. They opened the house as a bed-and-breakfast in 1999. Starr enjoys writing in the inn, now known as Hygeia House, which includes a poetry library. “In the middle of the entire

business I’m trying to run are scraps of paper everywhere,” she said. About four years ago, Starr said she was returning home from a poetry workshop in New York. She said it was “the best writing experience” but felt she could run a better workshop herself. After attending the same workshop a year later, she made a list of things she would do differently if she ran the conference. Then she decided to start her own. Held at both a neighboring inn as well as her own on Block Island, Starr started the Block Island Poetry Project in 2004. The ﬁrst workshops were held in April, during National Poetry Month, and about 45 poets from the area attended, Starr said. Now in the project’s fourth year, Starr holds workshops from March to May and expects about 300 people from at least 18 states to attend this year.

Though she is excited by her state poet appointment, Starr has other things to worry about for now. She said she’s sitting on about 120 complete poems, hoping to turn them into one or two books. She still has two more weekends of poetry workshops to run. And she said the ﬁrst tourists of the season will arrive in early May, so she said she’s been running around in “her chambermaid’s clothes” trying to prepare the inn for their arrival. Despite her hectic schedule, Starr’s colleagues believe she is perfect for the job. Rosenbaum said Starr has received fellowships from the state art council in the past and that “she is the best of the best.” “I couldn’t be happier for her,” Chandler said. “She was my ﬁrst choice. … She’s a great poet in her own right. She’s a natural leader,” he said. “She’s going to be a great poet laureate.”

THURSDAY, APRIL 19, 2007

Sandpipers, Again I went back to the sandpipers today — it’s been a while. Six of them, or was it twenty? Never matters; somehow we all know when a meeting has been called, somehow we all know exactly when the surf will start tossing back its wild silver hair. One time I was astonished to ﬁnd them waiting for me on the beach in Newport. It was so quiet it was like rain without the rain. I wasn’t planning it my car just brought me there, a most uncommon thing — it’s not that kind of car but there we were, alone on a beach. It almost made me giddy, like today, just now. I’d forgotten how much I need them. Like me they were laughing and sputtering about the beauty. A few of them couldn’t help it and just kept throwing their small bodies again and again into the wild, white water. — By Lisa Starr

enjoy spring weekend

THURSDAY, APRIL 19, 2007

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Minority prefrosh U. receives NCAA recertiﬁcation participate in TWW continued from page 5

continued from page 5 ﬁrst-year from Brownsville, Texas, said she liked the openness of both the ADOCH and TWW programs. “What I like is the freedom that we get, being able to choose between the different activities instead of having set schedules we need to conform to,” Gutierrez said. Gutierrez has also attended Notre Dame and Princeton universities’ admitted students programs in the past few weeks. Some current students say TWW is the reason they chose Brown. “TWW provided me with a better sense of Brown than ADOCH

did,” said Kelly Murguia ’10. “There were just too many students and activities at ADOCH. It was really overwhelming.” The “Third World” in TWW is derived from its unofficial relationship with the Third World Center. The term “Third World” was adopted by Brown students in 1970 from Frantz Fanon’s “The Wretched of the Earth,” which suggested the idea of minority students sharing commonalities and links between every diverse community, as well as to “promote a cultural empowerment and liberation in which people of color define themselves instead of being defined by others,” according to the TWW invitation.

Roberts ’73 tries to light a ﬁre under state stem cell research continued from page 3 stem cell research is ““just not an area the University has picked up on,” though he said Brown could do so in the future. “Biotech could be a great economic growth area for the state, and stem cells are probably going to play a major role in the future of technology and a little bit of the idea of the report is to foster that attitude towards that,” Lysaght said. There is currently no state funding for stem cell research, Roberts said. Federal funding from the NIH is limited. Additional funding from the state might make stem cells more attractive to researchers, said Hawrot, who worked with NIHapproved human embryonic stem cell lines for research for two years before stopping about a year and a half ago. He described working with stem cells as “labor-intensive” and “not very practical.” “These days, with funding being so tight, funding agencies are more likely to fund research that will give more results,” Hawrot said. “Human embryonic stem cells are not in that category.” Hawrot said establishing a

statewide stem cell institute in Rhode Island may not be practical either, for ﬁnancial reasons. States (such as California) that have set up statewide stem cell institutes are able to do so because they have the money, Hawrot said. “I don’t think we have the infrastructure in that area,” he said. “Rhode Island is kind of late in the game with other states getting involved,” he added, saying the state should do “whatever it can to change the federal rules.” Still, Clinical Assistant Professor of Community Health David Ames said he thinks Brown could play “an active part” in the future of Rhode Island stem cell research. “If the General Assembly really begins to investigate and respond to the policy questions that are raised (in the report), I think there’s a real possibility that Brown will become an active player,” he said. “If Brown is going to be a major research institution, stem cells should certainly be part of that,“ he added. But Ames said support for increased stem cell research in Rhode Island may be hard to manage because of the state’s large Roman Catholic population.

possible concern for the NCAA review. Goldberger said Monday that he had met with then-Vice President for Campus Life and Student Services David Greene and President Ruth Simmons soon after he became athletics director in 2005 to address the lack of diversity in the athletics staff. By the time of the review, minorities were “no longer underrepresented,” Goldberger said, because Simmons had provided funding for internship programs, and visiting coaches brought in by the University had accepted full-time positions. Spies said Goldberger’s concerns about diversity were incorporated in the equity portion of the review, and the University discussed its plans for increased coaching diversity with the NCAA review team. Spies added that the University “should be held accountable in the next round (of certiﬁcation) for the implementation” of plans for the recruitment and retention of minority coaches. Goldberger and Spies said gender equity did not receive special attention in the recertiﬁcation process. A federal judge ruled in 1995 that the University violated Title IX, a 1972 law prohibiting sex discrimination at institutions that receive federal aid. As part of the settlement in Cohen v. Brown, the University agreed to keep the proportion of its female athletes within 3.5 percentage points of the proportion of female undergraduates. Spies said the University still has to report the status of women’s sports to a court each year. He added that the University follows requirements to ensure there is not a gender imbalance in the student-to-athlete ratio. He also said there are caps on the size of all of the male teams and “a very strong push from the women’s teams to maintain their size.” “The NCAA thought there wasn’t much they could add to that,” he said. Spies, Goldberger and Carey all said bridging the perceived gap between athletics and aca-

demics was an informal issue raised by the recertiﬁcation process. Though Spies said Brown is “a lot closer to the ideal of studentathletes being indistinguishable from every other student” than some other schools, he said there is a “great consciousness” on the part of the University about beliefs among students, faculty and the administration that athletes are separate from the rest of the student body. Goldberger said “making people view athletics as part of the educational experience” is one of his “big priorities” as athletics director. The athletics department is taking steps to bridge “the divide between athletics and academics” by encouraging administrators to attend athletic events, having coaches hold staff meetings on campus and ensuring faculty representation and advising for each athletic team, he said. Spies also said recent “take a coach to class” events have been

successful in giving coaches a “sense of what academic life is like.” Some students and faculty “assume that someone could not be at Brown if (they) could not run fast or jump high or throw hard,” Chudacoff said. But Chudacoff added that “just as many faculty are proud of student-athletes” as “disrespect” them. Making athletics an “integrated priority” of students’ overall academic experience has been a continuous process for the University, Carey said. After 30 years spent working in the Admission Office, Goldberger “fully understands what the educational mission of the University is,” Carey added. Goldberger said the recertification was an affirmation of the program, providing suggestions that ensure Brown athletics “can continue to provide our students with the best possible experience.” “We got a great deal out of the process,” Carey said.

enjoy spring weekend

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

PAGE 12

Crimson sinks m. crew continued from page 16 to as a group,” he said. “Our team, our commitment and our preparation are up to the task of winning a championship, and I am confident we will do just that.” Positive outcomes from Saturday’s racing included the outstanding performances of the junior varsity and the third varsity boats, serving as a timely reminder that Brown has plenty in reserve. “It felt really good to beat Harvard for the first time this spring, and it was a resounding victory that signified the culmination of all of our training,” said Evan Panich ’07, a member of the junior varsity boat. “I was very proud of our guys and feel confident moving forward that we are wellprepared.” New varsity stroke Sam Searle ’07 was disappointed with the varsity’s race

but quickly recognized the squads’ overall success. “(We were) disappointed in our performance and the outcome of our race but felt pride in the performance of the team as a whole,” he said. The freshman eight suffered a heartbreaking loss to Harvard by 1.5 seconds, but pulled an extremely competitive time of 6:37.5. The Ivy League teams in the Varsity Eastern Sprints are very strong this season, with No. 5 Yale, Harvard and No. 7 Princeton all contending. In what has been a traditional danger race, the Bears will face No. 9 Northeastern University in their only home race for the 2007 campaign. Brown should be the favorite, as Northeastern was outclassed by No. 13 Boston University on Saturday. The race can be viewed from the Narragansett Boat Club on Saturday morning at 10 a.m.

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THURSDAY, APRIL 19, 2007

Rain puts brakes on m. and w. golf teams continued from page 16 win. “I play to win,” Haertel said. “The coach told us to play our best round on the first day with expectations of cancellation of the second round due to weather. Fortunately, I was able to do that.” This is not the first time Haertel has made history for Brown. He was also the first Brown golfer to win the Ivy League Championship last year. “Larry boosts the team and set a high standard for everyone to follow,” said Head Coach Mike Harbour. Chris Hoffman ’09 also played well, shooting a 76, the second-best for the team. “Hoffman has been playing phenomenal golf. He works very hard on his swing and this is a great preparation for him for the Ivy (League Championship) this weekend,” Harbour said. Brown’s other three players, Ryan Larson ’08, Conor Malloy ’09 and John Giannuzzi ’10, carded rounds of 80, 81 and 82 respectively. “These guys did not play to their full potential this weekend. But they know they can win and are ready to

go the Ivy this weekend,” Harbour said. The men’s team will leave on Thursday for the Ivy League Championship at Galloway National Golf Club in Galloway, N.J. According to Harbour, this year’s Ivy Championship is going to be the closest competition in years. Despite the tough competition ahead, the team’s spirit is high. “We have the potential to win the Championship and we want to win it,” Hoffman said. “My goal for myself is to stay positive and give every shot everything I have.” Last weekend, the women’s golf team also participated in its last tournament of the season before the Ivy League Championships. The Bears competed against Harvard and Dartmouth in the Dartmouth Triangular tournament at Cape Cod Country Club. Like the men’s team, the twoday event was shortened to just Saturday due to the weather. The Bears ﬁnished third with 334 points while Harvard took ﬁrst place with 309 points. Leading the team were captain Blythe Crane ’08 and Tiffany Wade ’08, who both shot 81. But both felt they did not play to their full poten-

tial. “It was a disappointing day for me. I came back strong in the end so I finished with a mediocre score, but I know I could have done better,” Crane said. Crane was named all-Ivy last year and hopes to earn the honor again. Head Coach Danielle Griffiths feels Crane has the capability to play well. “Crane has been the leader for the team for the last two years. She has played consistently and she has a good chance to do well at the Ivy this weekend,” she said. Wade is looking to straighten out her swing and finish in the top 10 at Ivies. “It was a transition year for the team. There was a lot of adjustment. But overall, I think we showed improvement this weekend and that’s an encouragement for the upcoming Ivy,” Wade said. Griffiths said Princeton, Harvard and Yale are the top teams this year. Brown’s main competition will be against Dartmouth, the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia. “We are optimistic and are excited to play in the Ivy this weekend,” Crane said.

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THURSDAY, APRIL 19, 2007

W. lax falls to Yale amid heavy rain continued from page 16 half, and we were really excited about the fact that we were playing with them,” DeLuca said. “I don’t think we’ve ever come out as hard in a second half as we did (today), but unfortunately I think all our energy made us a little frantic.” The Bears’ excitement caused them to play a little too aggressively, and they were whistled for three consecutive penalties in the first three minutes of the half. Yale took advantage of the calls and scored off a free-position shot to make it 84, which opened the floodgates for Yale’s offense. “There was a momentum shift in the second half,” Kelly said. “They scored a couple goals early and took the momentum, and we let it affect us.” Yale went on to score the next five goals of the half, despite a stretch where goalie Melissa King ’08 made three straight acrobatic saves. King finished with eight saves in the contest, six in the second half. “The score didn’t really show it, but our defense played really well,” DeLuca said. Lauren Vitkus ’09 scored for the seventh consecutive game with 3:03 remaining. It was Brown’s only goal of the second half and made the final score 13-5. The Bears continue Ivy League play Saturday against No. 3 University of Pennsylvania at 1 p.m. on Stevenson Field.

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Baseball’s 4-game series will determine Red Rolfe leader continued from page 16 style baseball,” meaning the team would have to bunt, steal bases and hit-and-run successfully. But entering the weekend, Brown looks more like an American League team, leading the league in team batting (.298), runs per game (6.7) and homers per game (.81). The Bear’s third, fourth and ﬁ fth hitters — Devin Thomas ’07, Jeff Dietz ’08 and Matt Nuzzo ’09 — are especially dangerous, batting .331 with 12 homers between them, and tri-captain Bryan Tews ’07 and Ryan Murphy ’08, fourth in the league in batting, have been hot lately. But the Crimson will try to tame the Brown offense with what is by far the best pitching staff in the league. Harvard pitchers have a 3.99 ERA, lower than the closest team by 1.43 points. Last week they held Yale, which entered the game leading the Ivy League in most offensive categories, to just one run. They are led by junior ace Shawn Haviland, last year’s Ivy League pitcher of the year, who struggled earlier in the year but has been much better recently in his last two starts. The other starters for the weekend are expected to be junior Brad Unger (1.98 ERA, second in the league) and freshmen Eric Eadington (2.78 ERA) and Max Perlman (3.56 ERA). The Bears will likely counter with Brown ace Dietz and tri-captain James Cramphin ’07, who have been spectacular in their league starts, on Saturday, while Will Weidig ’10 and Alex Silver-

man ’08 are expected to take the mound Sunday. The Harvard offense has struggled to produce runs this season, hitting only seven home runs while batting .270 as a team. The Crimson is led at the plate by junior Tom Stack-Babich, who is hitting .317 for the season. Harvard has traditionally been a powerhouse in the league, with either Harvard or Princeton winning the championship for the past 11 championships. But both teams have faltered this year, with Harvard dropping three games against teams in the much-improved Lou Gehrig Division, while Princeton is last in the Gehrig Division. Saturday’s doubleheader is scheduled to start at 12:15 p.m., and Sunday’s games start at 1 p.m. Notes: Before Saturday’s games, Brown will hold a ceremony to rename Aldrich Field to Murray Stadium. The full name of the stadium will be Edward B. Aldrich Field at Murray Stadium. … The Bears fell to the University of Connecticut yesterday, 6-5, in Storrs, Conn. After the Bears tied the game in the top of the sixth, UConn scored the game-winning run in the bottom of the eighth on an RBI double. … Brown announced make-up games on Tuesday. The Bears will travel to Dartmouth on April 25 to make up a doubleheader postponed for rain. They will travel to a neutral site in Maine to play a doubleheader against the University of Maine on May 1.

PAGE 13

E DITORIAL & L ETTERS THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

PAGE 14

THURSDAY, APRIL 19, 2007

STAF F EDITORIAL

In Memoriam Ross Abdallah Alameddine, 20, Saugus, Mass. Christopher James Bishop, 35, Pine Mountain, Ga. Brian Bluhm, 25, Cedar Rapids, Iowa Ryan Clark, 22, Martinez, Ga. Austin Cloyd, 18, Blacksburg, Va. Jocelyne Couture-Nowak, 50, Canada Daniel Perez Cueva, 21, Woodbridge, Va. Kevin Granata, 46, Toledo, Ohio Matthew G. Gwaltney, 24, Chester, Va. Caitlin Hammaren, 19, Middletown, N.Y. Jeremy Herbstritt, 27, Bellefonte, Pa. Rachael Elizabeth Hill, 18, Richmond, Va. Emily Hilscher, 19, Woodville, Va. Jarrett Lane, 22, Narrows, Va. Matthew J. La Porte, 20, Dumont, N.J. Henry Lee, Roanoke, Va. Liviu Librescu, 76, Romania G.V. Loganathan, 51, Tamil Nadu, India Partahi Lumbantoruan, 34, Indonesia Lauren McCain, 20, Hampton, Va. Daniel O’Neil, 22, Lincoln, R.I. Juan Ramon Ortiz, 26, Bayamon, Puerto Rico Minal Panchal, 26, Mumbai, India Erin Peterson, 18, Chantilly, Va. Mike Pohle, 23, Flemington, N.J. Julia Pryde, 23, Middletown, N.J. Mary Read, 19, Annandale, Va. Reema Samaha, 18, Chantilly, Va. Waleed Shaalan, 32, Zagazig, Egypt Leslie Sherman, 20, Springﬁeld, Va. Maxine Turner, 22, Vienna, Va. Nicole White, 20, Smithﬁeld, Va.

JASON LI

LETTERS UCS should have let Mukherjee ’09 run To the Editor: Once again, by removing Eric Mukherjee ’09 from the ballot, the members of the Undergraduate Council of Students have chosen to promote themselves and their organization instead of truly representing the interests of their constituents. While Mukherjee’s candidacy may have been a joke, it raised a number of serious issues that UCS apparently doesn’t want people to discuss — because his campaign posed a threat

to their antiquated model of student government. The actions of the UCS elections board simply prove Mukherjee’s point that UCS has outlived its usefulness and needs to be replaced.

Jon Nakatamo ‘08 April 17

— Compiled by the Washington Post

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Senior scramble: Wanna play? BY JESSIE FORD GUEST COLUMNIST

There comes a time at the end of any era in your life when you realize you are about to leave the people you have been with for the preceding years. There comes a time when it dawns on you that you may not see many of these people again. I am sure we have all experienced these kinds of transitions with the passing of high school, moving to a new place or even cutting ties with some girl from your church group whom your mom thought was a bad egg because she was caught drinking on the community-service trip. Maybe that just happened to me. In any case, as sad as these transitions are and as much as I would like to lament the passing of time, I am writing to tell you that there is something you can do about it. There is something you can do to make your college experience even more worthwhile. There is an activity you can participate in that will leave you with no regrets. It’s called senior scramble. Generally, the term “senior scramble” refers to the desperate move to ﬁnd someone — anyone — to hook up with during senior week, the ﬁnal week of festivities before graduation. When people wake up and suddenly realize that they are not going to see many of their intelligent, good-looking, challenging peers again, they make the move in hopes of spending some special nights with someone new as a last hurrah in their existence at Brown. The “scramble” no doubt refers to the rather aimless desperation that some students feel when trying to take advantage of their last week

spent with their classmates. Take the example of my friend Susan, who while writing one of her final papers last spring spotted her friend Steve. Steve had been a longtime source of great sexual tension for Susan, so she wrote a flirty AIM message to Steve asking, “Wanna play?” What Susan really meant was: Do you want to take a study break and catch up on old times? Luckily for both of them, Steve took this to mean something entirely different. He responded, “Thirteenth Floor wanna check out the stacks? Meet you there.” Susan figured that you only live once and took the elevator up. No need to go into detail, but suffice to say that the two did indeed “check out the stacks,” and they were plentiful. Now, I am certainly not proposing that everyone needs to go get jiggy with it in the SciLi — or any building on campus for that matter. I understand that this connotation of “senior scramble” may sound meaningless, desperate and like a good way to get pregnant or contract a nasty STI before leaving Brown. Some of you may have significant others, some of you may be waiting for Mr. or Mrs. Right and some of you may have no sexual interest in anyone here at Brown. All of this is fine, because a scrambling night of desperate connection is certainly not the only meaning of the “scramble.” Instead, I propose that we, myself included, partake in a more benign senior scramble. Today is April 19. We have a little more than one month left at Brown. We have less than two months to do all those things we are supposed to do before graduating: streak the Main Green, do an all-day Ratty

sit, do the SciLi challenge and, of course, participate in senior scramble. The main thing you should understand is that senior scramble does not necessarily have to imply sex. It could mean a confession, a kiss on the cheek, a nice handhold or a compliment. It could mean something much simpler. The important part is that it involves you approaching another Brown student before graduation and telling them how you feel about them before it is too late. After four years at Brown, whether you are single or involved, gay or straight, reserved or experimental, there must be certain individuals that you have been attracted to over the last four years. It could be a cute girl who was in your section three years ago. It could be some hot guy on the football team with a great butt. It could be some guest columnist right here in The Herald. It could be a source of unrequited love, some sexy engineer you’ve noticed a few too many times late at night in the lab, or it could someone sitting next to you right now, as you read this. None of this matters. What matters is that you come clean with yourself and admit that this person — or these several people — have intrigued you over the last four years. If you claim to have no special interest in these individual(s), admit that you are lying to yourself. I know there is someone out there who has caught your attention during college. Even if you simply think they are smart, or funny or smell nice. This is your chance to throw it out there — no holds barred. The ﬁrst step is to admit to yourself that someone has caught your attention. Now you can take action. This is where the time

of year is on your side — don’t be afraid to approach and compliment your target, or confess to them. As worried as you may be of rejection or embarrassment, it doesn’t matter, because we only have two months left. If things go badly, you’ll never have to see the person again. Most likely, things will go better than planned. Take the story of my friend Nan, who after an indulgent night of dancing and one too many ﬂirtini’s, found herself at a classy bar on the corner of Angell and Thayer, confessing her true feelings to a good friend. Although Nan has a serious boyfriend and had no intention of following up on her confession, she later told me that just airing out her dirty laundry gave her the much-needed closure she’d been craving for months. It seems that even an empty confession or proposal can be a very positive thing. I think it is hard sometimes to acknowledge that we really are about to ﬁnish college. Even with the job interviews and the job offers, it doesn’t seem real. But it is. This is your last chance to be honest with yourself and your peers. I challenge you to tell someone that you like them, to compliment someone, or to try to move to the next level with someone. If you have not had the courage to do anything about your true feelings, now is the time. Even if you are rejected, at least you can say you tried. You can say you took a chance and you will never look back wondering, “What if?”

Jessie Ford ’07 realized, at the beginning of the eighth paragraph, that her grandmother might be reading this column.

TA 22: Setting Brown a class apart MICHAL ZAPENDOWSKI OPINIONS EDITOR I first heard that Brown had a course on the ancient art of oratory — “giving speeches,” in layman’s terms — my freshman year. The first thing that I heard was that competition for spots in the class was fierce. “Sign up years in advance if you want to have any chance of getting in,” people told me. At the time, I didn’t find this surprising – after all, learning how to speak well seemed like a highly desirable skill. The types of careers that require talent in public speaking — politics, law, public advocacy — are all natural magnets for Brown students, who are both socially conscious and upwardly mobile. My attitude — my casual acceptance of the fact that spots in the class were so limited — changed once I had gotten in. It turns out that TA 22: “Persuasive Communication” is not just about learning how to give speeches. It’s about learning how to speak well in general — over the phone, during an interview, even in day-to-day conversations. I realized it was a class that everybody could benefit from, whether or not they wanted to pursue a career in the fields I mentioned above. Many of the people in my Persuasive Communication class are researchers and mathematicians — not the type of people you imagine delivering stirring addresses to large crowds. TA 22 can help you get better at public speaking, yes, but also better at getting jobs, at securing promotions and at selling your ideas in any context — in front of a large crowd or one-on-one in

a hallway. Speaking well, I realized, is not really a specialized skill. It’s like knowing how to write coherently or read critically, and everybody who can should learn how to do it. Everybody who can includes, well, virtually everybody. There are people in TA 22 who have had experience giving speeches and those who are naturally shy. There are those who mumble, those who slur words and those, like myself, who speak way too fast. This may sound like an overblown statement, but I stand by it 100 percent. No matter what you want to do in life — literally, no matter what you want to do — you can beneﬁt from taking TA 22. Freshmen, take notice, and ﬁll out that form years in advance, like I did (it’s available at the Department of Theatre, Speech and Dance). So let’s return to my change in attitude. Having taken the class — I’m most of the way through it as I write this column — I feel it is absolutely abominable that Brown does not make TA 22 available to a greater number of students. Everything I heard about how hard it was to get into the class was true. Being a graduating senior puts you in the running, and if you’re not, you might as well not waste your time. Ultimately, the selection process is fairly arbitrary — just as for any oversubscribed class. However, unlike other oversubscribed classes, TA 22 is not teaching a specialized skill. It’s not like the famous lotteries for getting into Intro to Fiction Writing or Making Art for Dummies. The proportion of students who take those types of classes at Brown and go on to become professional artists or writers is small. Ultimately, if Brown rejects some students who apply for spots in such courses, the University is denying

them a chance to explore their curiosity or take a fun class — not hampering them in their careers. The same is not true for TA 22. The proportion of students who take TA 22 and benefit from it directly in their careers is nearly 100 percent. No matter how good you are at speaking, you can always improve. Even if you’re not going to become a public speaker, your success in anything you do will always depend in some part on your interactions with other people. The rest of this article is intended for the University administration. Having students who are more successful in their careers is a benefit to Brown. It raises the University’s profile, magnifies its influence over national and global decision-making and elite-formation and creates a new generation of financially successful graduates who can demonstrate that they “remember their alma mater” later on. None of these are cynical matters — they are all important for any nationally competitive university. If Brown were to vastly expand the resources available to TA 22, it would have to take funds away from other pressing concerns. I am fully aware of such constraints. Nonetheless, a class that promotes the success of Brown graduates in the most general sense deserves to be a University priority. I think it is an absolute travesty of judgment that TA 22 should be as underfunded as it is and that graduating seniors should have to compete for spots in the class. Every student who takes TA 22 is an investment for the University — an investment in terms of finances but also an investment that is likely to boost the influence and prestige enjoyed by our University in the long run. I invite the administration to imagine if ev-

ery student who desired to take the class were able to learn the arts of “persuasive communication.” Imagine if students who learned from the class during one semester and wanted to retake it again were able to do this as well. Unlike other courses, TA 22 teaches a very general craft and is open to all skill levels. A student who has taken the class before could participate in it again, give all the same speeches again (hopefully with improvement), just as readily as any newcomer. Such a program, if fully implemented, would garner the University national media attention. It is a daring and creative idea — much like the New Curriculum — to fashion students who are not just capable mathematicians and scientists, not just capable administrators and teachers, but good at speaking, more confident than other graduates and good at selling their ideas. Such a program is so obviously beneficial that it would certainly attract favorable attention and boost applications to Brown. It would generate the type of momentum and excitement that would make it easier for the University to fundraise. It would push other elite universities to expand and develop similar programs — launching Brown firmly into the position of vanguard and innovator, where the University belongs. In order for all this to take place, Brown would have to not just invest resources into expanding TA 22 but invest considerable resources. It would be a worthwhile investment. If anyone doubts this is true, I invite them to sit in on the class.

Michal Zapendowski ’07 wonders how many other courses produce students who agitate for expanding their funding.

S PORTS W EEKEND THURSDAY, APRIL 19, 2007

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

W. lax stops top scorer but can’t stop Bulldog barrage BY MEGAN MCCAHILL SPORTS STAFF WRITER

Despite holding the nation’s top goal-scorer to one goal, the women’s lacrosse team fell to No. 12 Yale 13-5 Wednesday afternoon. Playing in difficult conditions — a steady drizzle and chilling winds — the Bears struggled to score against the Bulldogs but were successful at containing Yale’s Lauren Taylor. Taylor came into the game as the leading scorer in the country with 56 goals in 14 games so far this season, but thanks to great defensive pressure from Kara Kelly ’10, the Bears managed to hold her to one goal in the contest. “I face-guarded her and followed her all the way through midfield,” Kelly said. “The rest of the defense did a great job helping me out — everyone was calling out picks for me, and we had really good communication.” The Bears came out with a lot of energy but still had a tough start to the contest. Yale quickly went up 30 in the first six minutes, and for a little while it looked like the game might be an encore of last season’s, when Yale took a 10-0 lead into halftime in New Haven. But the Bears refused to let the early goals bother them and went on a three-goal run of their own. Co-captain Mimi DeTolla ’08 jumpstarted the offense by whipping a close-range shot past the Yale goaltender. Less than a minute later, Lindsey Glennon ’07 squeezed a shot into the top left corner of the net off a great feed from Kiki Manners ’10. With just under 18 minutes to go in the half, Meghan Markowski ’10 drew two defenders and passed to DeTolla, who had man-

Game of the week: baseball versus Harvard Four-game series will determine Red Rolfe leader BY STU WOO FEATURES EDITOR

If you don’t have tickets to Saturday’s Spring Weekend concert (or even if you do), consider heading down to Brown’s baseball diamond to catch the first doubleheader of what should be the best series of the Ivy League baseball season. Before the season, Collegiate Baseball predicted that Harvard and Brown would finish first and second, respectively, in the Red

Rolfe Division. The prediction has been good so far: The Bears (1215 overall) and the Crimson (1212) will enter the four-game series with identical 7-3 league records, leading Yale by three games. Players on the Brown team said they have looked forward to this series all year. It should be an exciting one, matching the league’s best offense versus its best pitching staff. Before the Ivy season started, Head Coach Marek Drabinski said a key for the Bears would be playing “National Leaguecontinued on page 13

Rain puts brakes on m. and w. golf teams Jacob Melrose / Herald

Mimi DeTolla’s ’08 two goals were not enough to overcome the No. 12 ranked Yale Bulldogs.

aged to find an opening just outside the crease. In one quick motion, DeTolla caught the pass and fired a shot into the back of the net for her second goal of the game to tie it at three. “We played probably our best first half of the season,” said Krystina DeLuca ’09. Yale put an end to Brown’s run with two goals less than three minutes apart to make the score 5-3. The Bears were on the attack when they failed to connect on a pass and turned the ball over. Yale got past the Bears’ defense off of a long in-

bounds pass, and scored on a two on one in transition to take a 6-3 lead with 16:31 remaining in the half. “We fought for every ball but turnovers were a problem,” Kelly said. “We didn’t play as smart as we normally do.” Yale scored another goal, but just 16 seconds later, Callie Lawrence ’09 responded with her second goal of the season. Despite being down 7-4, the Bears were encouraged with their ﬁrst half play. “We played so well in the ﬁrst continued on page 13

Haertel ’08 wins New England title BY HAN CUI SPORTS STAFF WRITER

The men’s golf team competed in the New England Golf Division I Championship at the Triggs Memorial Golf Club in Providence last weekend, shooting a 308 on Saturday, which put them in ninth place out of 17 teams. Unfortunately for the Bears, the second round was cancelled in anticipation of inclement weather. But Larry Haertel ’08 returned to the course on Sunday

morning to compete in a suddendeath playoff, where he became the first Brown golfer to win the New England Championship since it was established in 1934. Haertel was tied for first place with Pat Beverly from the United States Military Academy with a one-under-par 71 at the conclusion of the first round on Saturday. In the sudden death playoff on Sunday morning at the 402yard par-four first hole, Beverly made par. Haertel outclassed him, though, hitting the ball within five feet of the hole and then draining the birdie putt for the continued on page 12

No. 3 m. crew sunk W. tennis upsets Cornell, conquers Columbia to complete weekend sweep by No. 6 Crimson BY STEELE WEST SPORTS STAFF WRITER

In what loomed as the men’s crew team’s most sterling test in its pursuit of a perfect season, 20 to 30 mile-per-hour headwinds condemned the varsity eight to only its second defeat in six races against its archrival. Though it was a close race throughout, the Bears were never able to overcome the Crimson, who ﬁnished 5.2 seconds ahead with a time of 6:31.4 to take back the Stein Cup. However, more promising results came from the

O R T S

THURSDAY, AY APRIL 19 AY, SOFTBALL: at Boston College.

FRIDAY, AY APRIL 20 AY, M. LACROSSE: vs. Hartford, Stevenson Field, 7 p.m. M. TENNIS: vs. Dartmouth, Varsity Tennis Courts, 3 p.m W. TENNIS: at Dartmouth

SATURDAY, AY APRIL 21 AY, BASEBALL: vs. Harvard, Aldrich Dexter Field, 12:15 p.m., 2:45 p.m. M. CREW: vs. Northeastern, Hunter Marston Boathouse, 10 a.m. W. CREW: vs. Columbia, Cornell, Hunter Marston Boathouse, 12 p.m. EQUESTRIAN: All-Ivy Competition (Etna, N.H.) M. GOLF: at Ivy League Championship (Galloway, N.J.)

BY PETER CIPPARONE SPORTS EDITOR

junior varsity and third varsity boats, which recorded resounding 8.3- and 9.5-second victories, respectively. Harvard provided a gritty and composed exhibition reminiscent of the form it formerly held when it secured three straight national titles earlier this decade. Co-captain Benjamin Harrison ’07 was relatively philosophical in defeat. “It was a difﬁcult experience and a disappointment for us, but one that we will respond well continued on page 12

SCH

E D U L E

W. GOLF: at Ivy League Championship (West Trenton, N.J.) W. LACROSSE: vs. Penn, Stevenson Field, 1 p.m. SOFTBALL: at Harvard M. TENNIS: at Columbia W. TENNIS: vs. Columbia, Varsity Tennis Courts, 12 p.m. M. & W. TRACK: at Husky Springs Invitational (Storrs, Conn.) W. WATER POLO: at Utica

SUNDAY, AY APRIL 22 AY, BASEBALL: vs. Harvard, Aldrich Dexter Field, 1 p.m., 3:30 p.m. M. GOLF: at Ivy League Championship (Galloway, N.J.) W. GOLF: at Ivy League Championship (West Trenton, N.J.) SOFTBALL: at Harvard M. TENNIS: at Harvard W. TENNIS: vs. Harvard, Varsity Tennis Courts, 12 p.m.

Jacob Melrose / Herald

Emily Ellis ’10 won both of her singles matches and both of her doubles matches in Brown’s two wins over the weekend.

After three straight Ivy League losses, the women’s tennis team turned its season around last weekend. In an exciting two-day homestand, the Bears beat then-No. 69 Cornell 4-3 and then took down Columbia 6-1. The team’s record now stands at 711 overall and 2-3 in the Ivy League. In Friday’s matchup with the Big Red, the Bears got off to an auspicious start by sweeping the doubles matches to take the ﬁrst point. Sara Mansur ’09 and Michelle Pautler ’07 crushed their opponents 8-1, while the team of Kelly Kirkpatrick ’08 and Emily Ellis ’10 won 8-3 and Daisy Ames ’07 and Kathrin Sorokko ’10 pulled out an 8-7(2) win. But Cornell struck back by winning at No. 1, 2 and 4 singles to take a 3-1 lead. Needing to win all three remaining matches in order to take the contest, Mansur and Alexa Baggio ’09 split sets while Ellis was locked in a tight battle at No. 6 singles. Competing with spirit, Mansur ended up winning 7-6 (3), 1-6, 6-4, and Ellis came up victorious as well, posting a score of 6-3, 7-6 (6). In the deciding match, Baggio took her ﬁnal set 7-5 to secure a dramatic 4-3 come-from-behind victory. “I thought we played great against Cornell,” Ellis said. “We wanted it so badly … in my match

I was down 5-2 before coming back and getting it to a tiebreaker, so it was definitely cool to win that match.” After its emotional win Friday, the team’s tilt with Columbia was much more one-sided. Brown swept the doubles matches, using strong serve-and-volley play to beat the Lions 8-4, 8-2 and 8-1 in the three matches. In singles, Brown got wins from Pautler, Ames, Mansur, Ellis and Vucetic to complete the team’s stellar weekend. Brown Assistant Coach Cecily Debusker said the wins showed marked improvement from earlier in the season. “I definitely think that if we could play some of (our) earlier opponents again it would be different,” she said. “We lost a lot of matches because of inexperience and hiccups in focus here and there. This weekend showed how far we’ve come.” Brown will finish its season by traveling to Dartmouth on Friday and hosting Harvard at noon on Sunday. If the team notches another weekend sweep, it will finish the year with its first winning Ivy League record since the 2003 season. “We’d love to be 4-3 on the season,” Debusker said. “I’ve been watching the other teams and we’re as strong as them, if not stronger, so I think we have a good chance to do it.”