Tuesday, April 24, 2007 by The Brown Daily Herald

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Volume CXLII, No. 56

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24, 2007

Since 1866, Daily Since 1891

Banner pre-registration begins today with rising seniors BY CHAZ FIRESTONE SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Chris Bennett / Herald File Photo

SunGard HigherEd representative Don Thibault responds to a student’s question during a Banner information session earlier this semester.

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Seeking to cultivate ties, U. ofﬁcials visit China, India BY MICHAEL SKOCPOL SENIOR STAFF WRITER

University delegations traveled to India and China in March and April, continuing the University’s efforts to establish ties in those countries. Both trips, led by Vice President for Research Clyde Briant, focused on building research and exchange ties with universities in those countries. In China, ofﬁcials sought to build ties with Zhejiang University in the southeastern city of Hangzhou. Zhejiang’s president, Wei Yang PhD’85, studied engineering at Brown and has expressed interest in connecting the two universities. While at Zhejiang, the Brown delegation participated in a “signing ceremony” to declare hope that the universities will work together in the future. Briant, Associate Dean of Medicine Julianne Ip, Professor of Sociology Michael White and four engineering professors traveled to Zhejiang April 9-13. The university has over 40,000 students, including some 23,600 undergraduates. Fields of study at Zhejiang range from engineering to philosophy, unlike the Indian universities Briant and others visited in that country. In India, the Brown delegation visited three universities, all with a science and technology focus — the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi and the Indian Institute of Science, which is in Bangalore. The trip took place March 20-29 and included Briant, Vice President for International Advancement Ronald Margolin, Dean of Engineering Greg Crawford and three engineering graduate students. Briant said the trip had three

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main objectives: to discuss possible research partnerships with the three Indian universities, to continue discussions with Indian companies that offer internships to Commerce, Organizations and Entrepreneurship concentrators and to introduce Crawford to some of Briant’s Indian contacts. Briant preceded Crawford as dean of engineering before taking his current post in July 2006 and had traveled to India twice in that capacity — in 2004 and again last year. Possible areas of exchange with the Indian universities include nanotechnology, mechanics of materials and entrepreneurship — speciﬁcally Brown’s Program in Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship, with which the graduate students traveling with Briant, Margolin and Crawford — John McMurdy GS, Fred Biga GS and Anthony Napolitano GS — are involved, Briant said. IIT Bombay — which retains the name given at its 1958 inception even though Bombay is now known as Mumbai — lists on its Web site four U.S. universities with which it has signed “memoranda of understanding” establishing ofﬁcial relationships, including Harvard and Northwestern universities. Brown is not on the list. IIT Delhi, along with IIT Bombay, is one of seven Indian institutes of technology aimed at providing instruction in engineering and applied sciences. It claims nearly 5,000 students — 2,265 undergraduate — on its Web site. The Indian Institute of Science, which Briant described as primarily focused on graduate study, “is neither a national labocontinued on page 4

SOVIET SUB SUNK The famed Russian Sub Museum is now submerged 28 feet under water after bad weather turned the sub on its side

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After months of anticipation, training and protests, pre-registration with the electronic Banner system begins today at 8 a.m. as rising seniors are given access to the system’s registration module. Rising juniors will be able to register Wednesday at 8 a.m., and rising sophomores Thursday. The beginning of pre-registration arrives on the heels of a twoweek advising period, during which freshmen were to get their authorization PINs from advisers, sophomores would declare concentrations and all students could browse Banner’s online course catalogs to identify courses for next semester. Now that the advising period is over, University ofﬁcials say the success of pre-registration will de-

pend largely on the cooperation of students and how they handle the new system. “Right now, students have the lion’s share of the work,” said Associate Provost Nancy Dunbar, who leads the Banner project. Though the University has hosted discussion forums and information sessions, many students still seem ill-informed about how Banner is going to function. “I haven’t read any of the e-mails about Banner,” said Candice Chu ’10. “I wish I had read the materials they sent out.” Though Chu said she plans to ﬁnd out more about Banner before it is time to register, she said she has not yet familiarized herself with the system or received her PIN from her freshman adviser. continued on page 7

Frustrated with Middle East studies program, longtime prof. leaves Brown BY FRANKLIN KANIN STAFF WRITER

After years of frustration with the University’s limited Middle East studies resources, William Beeman has left his post as professor of anthropology to chair the department at the University of Minnesota. Though Beeman continues to work with anthropology-linguistics concentrators at Brown, his departure may force the concentration to be folded into the Department of Anthropology. One of only a handful of professors whose research and teaching

focused on the Middle East, Beeman said he spent many of his 33 years at Brown advocating for development in Middle East studies — without results. “It seemed really foolish of me to continue to beat my head against the wall trying to get some action on Middle East studies,” he said. Ultimately, Beeman said, higher pay, an administrative position and a chance to develop those academic areas important to him lured him away to the University of Minnesota. “It became very clear to me that there was no commitment whatever on the part of the administration to

ever develop Middle East studies,” Beeman said, adding that his other areas of expertise — South Asian studies and linguistic anthropology — similarly suffered from limited resources. The current lack of support has caused other professors to leave Brown, he said, and discourages younger faculty from coming to the University. “The process is going to continue unless the University gets serious about those areas of study,” he said. Alex Ortiz ’09, a Middle East studies concentrator, agreed with continued on page 4

Eating Ayurvedic and keeping kosher Students with special diets make do at the Ratty BY REBECCA JACOBSON CONTRIBUTING WRITER

When Sophie Simkin ’09 looked at colleges in high school, she considered more than student-to-faculty ratios, acceptance rates and tuition price tags. Simkin, who has kept kosher her entire life, wanted to know how each school accommodated observant Jewish students.

FEATURE She didn’t like the kosher selection at Tufts University and Williams College, and other schools required students to eat all their meals at the Hillel center on campus. But at Brown, Simkin could head to a room in the Sharpe Refectory designated for kosher meal service and BANNER SPREAD The Herald tells you everything you need to know about your upcoming preregistration with two pages on Banner’s ins and outs

Herald File Photo

Students eat in the Verney-Woolley Dining Hall.

then sit with friends elsewhere in the dining hall. “I like that I can be on kosher meal plan and eat with other students,” Simkin said. “I’m not isolated and eating alone at Hillel.” Simkin is one of many students following a special diet while at Brown. Though most college students have to adjust to dining hall cuisine, some work a little harder to navigate the culinary offerings.

11 OPINIONS

195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island

NOT ENOUGH PROTECTION Lily Shield ‘09 argues the language in the partial-birth abortion ban upheld by the Supreme Court last week is inadequate

Take Richa Bhatnagar ’09. She follows Ayurveda, an ancient Indian system of health care. Meditation, breathing techniques and yoga play an important role in this system, as do dietary needs. Bhatnagar began meditating about four years ago, and last year she decided to follow Ayurvedic dietary recommendations. She saw an Ayurvedic doctor, who continued on page 4

12 SPORTS

W. WATER POLO NABS 2ND The women’s water polo team scored second place at the Northern Division Championship, falling to Hartwick but earning a spot at Easterns

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MEN SHARPE REFECTORY

TUESDAY, APRIL 24, 2007

U VERNEY-WOOLLEY DINING HALL

LUNCH — Grilled Chicken Sandwich, Fried Fish Sandwich with Tartar Sauce, Parslied Rice, Asparagus Spears, Chocolate Cake with White Frosting, Cherry Tarts with Bavarian Cream

LUNCH — Buffalo Wings with Bleu Cheese Dressing, Rosemary Portobello Sandwich, Stewed Tomatoes, Chicken and Rice Soup, Cherry Tarts with Bavarian Cream

DINNER — Fiery Beef, Sticky Rice, Ginger Sugar Snap Peas and Carrots, Whole Beets, Honey Batter Bread, Ice Cream Sundae Bar

DINNER — Chicken Florentine, Vegan BBQ Tempeh, Garlic and Butter Infused Rice, Wax Beans, Honey Batter Bread, Chocolate Cake with White Frosting

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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 Army training area 5 Man in a red suit 10 Tony Blair, for one 14 Movie terrier 15 Bury 16 Tuna order 17 67-Across, for example 20 Coveting, per the Bible 21 Pay boost 22 __ list 23 Having liabilities 25 Winter Palace resident 27 Beach shirt 28 End of __ 30 Opposite of oodles 32 Gull cousin 34 Farm insect 36 Belgrade’s country 40 Amusement park features 42 Room to watch television 44 Slangy word of disgust 45 Cuckoo 47 Hunter in Hollywood 49 Basketball Hall of Famer Archibald 50 Dreadful 52 Surfacing diver’s concern, with “the” 54 “Groovy!” 57 Colorless 59 Altima automaker 62 Diminish 64 “American Graffiti” extras 66 Ewe said it 67 Legend born 4/24/1942 whose name’s 9 letters are the only ones in this puzzle grid 70 Home to billions 71 Didn’t participate, with “out” 72 “The Neverending Story” author 73 Shed drop 74 Surgeon’s tube 75 River in central Germany DOWN 1 Lowest voices

O S S W O R D

2 John of “The Addams Family” 3 Songs often sung by 67-Across 4 Organ with a lobe 5 Duet singer with 67-Across 6 Not pro 7 Big bomb trial, briefly 8 Mother __ 9 Carney or Linkletter 10 Creamy-centered cheese 11 Rushed toward 12 Actress Dunne 13 Hardly gabby 18 Kathryn of “Law & Order: CI” 19 Oscar winner Brody 24 Group of nine 26 Middle muscles 29 “Comin’ in __ out of Your Life”: 67Across hit 31 Fads 32 Prefix with cycle 33 German article 35 Vietnamese festival 37 Accompaniment for 67-Across in “Hello Dolly!” 38 Co. that used to own Sheraton

39 Enzyme suffix 41 More rudely sarcastic 43 Collar 46 Go wrong 48 Duet singer with 67-Across 51 Really bothers 53 Decree __: ruling that later becomes final 54 Moroccan capital 55 Degrade

56 “Beavis and Butthead” spin-off 58 Davis of “All About Eve” 60 “Biography” network 61 Former Green Party candidate Ralph 63 Skier’s lift 65 2000 role for Julia 68 Knucklehead 69 Notice

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Alum leaves Providence union to teach ESL in Guatemala Andersen ’06.5 looks to ‘leave the campsite cleaner’ BY SUSANA AHO STAFF WRITER

Courtesy of Alex Bell

The decommissioned submarine of Providence’s Russian Sub Museum sank last week.

Russian Sub Museum sinks into river The Russian Sub Museum, based on a decommissioned ex-Soviet missile submarine named Juliett 484 docked at Collier Point Park on the Providence River, sank last week after turning on its side due to a nor’easter that hit Rhode Island. The 300-foot-long sub, which was featured in the 2002 ﬁlm “K-19: The Widowmaker,” has been a landmark since it opened as a museum in August 2002. Originally designed to carry nuclear-armed missiles, it was decommissioned by the Russian Navy in 1994, according to an April 21 article in the Providence Journal. The vessel is currently submerged under 28 feet of water, but the museum’s liability insurance will be able to pay for the salvage operation, the Journal reported. Divers must ﬁrst assess the sub’s stability, then water can be pumped out of the vessel and it can be pulled to the surface. The museum is closed until further notice. — Sara Molinaro

Madeleine Andersen ’06.5 took time off during her junior year to travel to Guatemala for the ﬁrst time and realized something — though “it was such a gift to be at Brown, to be reading all the time,” she felt like she “was always reading these beautiful things and never doing them.” In a few months, she’ll be going back — this time for two-anda-half years, to start an Englishlanguage instruction program at a school run by a women’s cooperative outside of Guatemala City. Andersen said her decision to work in the school stems from something her father always told her: “Leave your campsite cleaner than you found it.” That advice has taken her from Brown to working for a local labor union to her upcoming project in Guatemala. She said it has made her realize that “my work didn’t have to have any classiﬁcation other than ‘will produce some kind of social good.’ ” Andersen, who currently holds a position with Service Employees International Union Local 615 in Providence, said she fell into labor union work — “very luckily fell into it.” Last fall, she helped the

Student Labor Alliance and SEIU ﬁght during contract negotiations for Dining Services workers during her last semester at Brown. She took a job at SEIU in January, which she said has “felt really right” as a “way to leave the campsite cleaner.” In Guatemala, Madeleine said she found another way to leave the campsite cleaner: Unidas Para Vivir Mejor, or United To Live Better, a group of women “affecting change in a beautiful, progressive, whole-hearted way,” she said. UPAVIM was founded by women in a poor neighborhood outside Guatemala City. The women formed a cooperative to sell handcrafts and now have a distributor in the United States and a “pretty good international market,” Andersen said. The women, many of whom formed the group after being widowed during the Guatemalan civil war, are “kind of subsidizing the community,” Andersen said — they’ve set up a health clinic, a dental clinic and a Montessori school for children up to age 12, where Andersen worked when she took time off from Brown. The women provide scholarships for students at the Montessori school to attend more expensive middle schools in Guatemala City once they graduate. But they noticed that the other middle school students in Guatemala City already had backgrounds in the English language,

putting “our children, who already have enough of the world against them,” even more behind, Andersen said. UPAVIM had been looking for someone to start an English program for several years when Andersen told them that she’d want to work with them again in the future. She visited Guatemala again the summer before her ﬁnal semester at Brown to prepare for her upcoming project. “I spent three months exploring, trying to look at other elementary schools and what they were doing in terms of English programs,” she said. Andersen said she is excited to work at UPAVIM again, though she said she’s also found an inspirational struggle in the American labor movement and could see herself continuing with labor rights work in the United States in the future. But for now, Andersen is focused on her work in Guatemala and the chance to help a community she loves and to travel in Latin America. She said she’s still “a little terriﬁed” of the English language curriculum and has been asking everyone she knows about English as a Second Language tapes and elementary school projects, but she’s excited for the work. “The majority of these women have not gone past sixth grade and they can run an international business — we can get these kids to speak some English,” she said.

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Frustrated with Middle East studies program, longtime prof. leaves Brown continued from page 1 Beeman that the program receives “very little support and organization.” Ortiz said Beeman’s departure underscored the fact that Middle East studies is not a priority for the University administration. “I think just the number of Middle Eastern studies concentrators and people who have taken Middle Eastern studies courses should prove without a doubt that there is avid interest in the student body here about these topics, and thus the administration should make it a priority to see that these interests are all well satisﬁed,” Ortiz said. But Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron said the University has made progress in Beeman’s areas of expertise. “I do think that there’s been attempts on the part of the administration this year to look into the teaching of Farsi,” she said, also citing one newly hired Arabic teacher this year. “So it may or

may not be related to concerns he raised, but I do think there’s been some movement in these issues and especially in the past year under (Provost David) Kertzer’s (’69 P’95 P’98) leadership,” Bergeron said. When the University of Minnesota offered Beeman a position in November last year, he said he approached Dean of the Faculty Rajiv Vohra P’07 to request a higher salary and more support for his ﬁelds of study. While the University was willing to raise his salary to match the Minnesota offer, Beeman said, University ofﬁcials “made no guarantees” about increased support for linguistics, Middle East or South Asian studies. Vohra said the University does not make changes in any area or department simply because a faculty member says he will leave otherwise. “It is important to note that when we are trying to hire faculty or retain faculty, usually that is not

a negotiation that involves one individual making demands about how a certain program develops,” Vohra said. Vohra said losing a “very important member of the Brown faculty” like Beeman is “difﬁcult” but that the University has hired a linguistic anthropologist in his absence. After Beeman’s departure over winter break, students in the anthropology-linguistics concentration program he had run received an e-mail Feb. 1 announcing his departure. Sent by Associate Professor of Anthropology Matthew Gutmann, the e-mail informed students that the University was “reassessing the Anthro Linguistics concentration and will most likely fold this into the general Anthropology concentration.” Gutmann assured the seven current concentrators that they would be able to complete their concentration without any impact. Still, Beeman’s departure left the anthropology-linguistics con-

centration without someone to direct the track, Bergeron said. “As far as I know, Professor Beeman, who was here in the fall, made no arrangements for anyone else to direct that concentration in his absence. Therefore, there’s a problem for students who might want to enroll in this concentration,” she said. “The concentration has not been canceled — no concentration can be canceled unless it goes through sort of the same process that adding a concentration goes through,” Bergeron said. “I think students have been advised to think about their options, and I think we do need to decide what should happen in this concentration in the absence of a director.” Mike Prentice ’07, an anthropology-linguistics concentrator, said there will be three active linguistic anthropologists on campus and various grad students this fall. “The fact that there are few peo-

ple who do it — someone could see as an argument for getting rid of it — at least from an administrative point of view,” Prentice said. “But low numbers doesn’t mean the value for the University is diminished.” Beeman said he will remain an adjunct professor at Brown until 2010, when all of the students he is currently working with have completed their studies. “The students were certainly one of the reasons why I stayed at Brown for so many years, even though I had frustrations with the administration. I’m very positively disposed towards students, and certainly didn’t want to abandon any of the students that I was working with,” Beeman said. After three months at the University of Minnesota, Beeman said he has established a Persian program, received $1 million in development funds and hired ﬁve new people to expand the Department of Anthropology.

U. ofﬁcials visit China, India as part of internationalization effort continued from page 1 ratory which concentrates solely on research and applied work nor a conventional university which concerns itself mainly with teaching. But the institute is concerned with research in frontier areas and education in current technologically important areas,” according to

its Web site. “We think it would be good to work with universities and have a chance for Brown students to go spend time there and their students to come spend time here,” Briant said of the possible ties with those universities. “I think having a research component is important because for the faculty that will get

their interest in it as well on both sides to really have different kinds of exchange.” Brown has made both China and India priorities in its internationalization effort, which was made official last fall with the creation of a committee to recommend initiatives and the decision to appoint a vice president for international affairs to coordinate the University’s efforts. President Ruth Simmons visited China twice in 2006, and both China and India have received specific attention from the internationalization committee. Under Margolin’s guidance, the University will also establish within the next year regional advisory councils of influential alumni and others familiar with the respective

countries. Margolin said he used the India trip to cultivate contacts for that effort. In June, a delegation of faculty focused on East Asian studies will travel to the Chinese University of Hong Kong to discuss possible collaborations, according to Assistant Provost Shelley Stephenson, a member of the internationalization committee. The University received a “sizeable” gift from Karen Ho-Smith ’75 to cultivate links with Chinese University of Hong Kong, as well as general ties in Hong Kong and China, Stephenson said. Though the delegations were careful to learn about cultural differences in the countries they visited, language was not a major barrier in either visit, Briant said. In In-

dia, English is commonly spoken, and Professor of Engineering Huajian Gao, who traveled to China, is ﬂuent in Mandarin. “But I don’t recall us having to use him much in translation,” Briant said. The four engineering professors who traveled to China were Professor of Engineering Robert Hurt, Associate Professor of Engineering Tayhas Palmore, Professor of Engineering Ben Freund and Gao. Now back in Providence, the delegations will report back to Simmons and Provost David Kertzer ’69 P’95 P’98, who will decide the next steps in advancing afﬁliations with the Indian universities and Zhejiang.

Students with special diets make do at the Ratty continued from page 1 gave her a pulse test and asked her questions based on her personality traits. From this information, he dispensed dietary advice — Bhatnagar now tries to avoid foods such as bananas, tomatoes, corn, eggplant, nuts and bread. Bhatnagar also abstains from eating meat and tries to include plenty of whole grains and fresh fruit and vegetables in her diet. She does not always strictly follow Ayurvedic dietary recommendations — she admitted to occasionally eating ﬁsh and sometimes giving into chocolate cravings — but Bhatnagar said she has found it a bit harder to be observant at Brown than at home in Dubai. “It generally is a downward trend as the semester progresses,” she said. “At home, we don’t have a lot of unhealthy food. It’s hard for me being so busy here and not having the same kind of access to good ingredients.” Still, Bhatnagar described her diet as a sensible rather than restrictive one. She eats plenty of salads at the Ratty — Ayurveda recommends eating a salad 20 minutes before eating cooked food — and when she cooks for herself, she tends to prepare meals such as lentils and oatmeal. “It’s mostly a question of moderation,” Bhatnagar said. “If there’s something that’s not recommended for Ayurveda, it’s okay as long as I don’t make it the main part of my meal. I have a lot of good options

here. It’s just a matter of self-control and willpower.” Not all students have been fully pleased with Brown’s culinary options. Rashid Hussain ’10 and Malika Ali ’09, both Muslims, expressed frustration at the steep price of the kosher/Halal meal plan. As Muslims observing Halal, Hussain and Ali only eat meat prepared in a certain way. The Ratty offers Halal entrees made with meat obtained from a local certified Halal butcher. But at $4,298 per year for 20 meals per week (the same price as the kosher meal plan), compared to $3,648 per year for the normal meal plan, neither Hussain nor Ali stayed on the Halal plan for more than a semester. Instead, they eat as vegetarians while on campus, enjoying Halal meat only off-campus. The search for non-meat options also defines Eric Gastfriend’s ’10 dining experience. Gastfriend has been a vegan for three years, and this semester helped form the Brown Veg*n Club, a group devoted to vegetarian and vegan advocacy. Though he said he would like to see more variety in the Ratty’s vegan offerings and greater transparency about food ingredients, Gastfriend said the transition to dining hall food has not been difficult. Gastfriend said he typically eats peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, pasta, burritos, rice with tofu and cereal. “Since I usually stick to a few main things at the Ratty, I don’t worry too much,” he said. “For a lot of people, the freedom of college actu-

ally makes it a lot easier to be vegetarian or vegan.” But Hannah Mellion ’09 does not consider the Ratty vegan-friendly. Mellion experimented with veganism last year and found it isolating and frustrating. Since leaving meal plan this fall and eating meals at the Finlandia co-op, Mellion said she has enjoyed following a vegan diet. One of two vegans at Finlandia, Mellion said she enjoys sharing vegan recipes and baking vegan cookies. Simkin agreed that having special dietary requirements can be a source of community. As one of just 29 students on the kosher/Halal meal plan — out of about 4,200 total students on meal plan — Simkin said she knows the names of almost everyone she sees in the kosher room at the Ratty. Etan Newman ’09 agreed. “Eating is one of the most important things you do during your day,” Newman said. “One of the ﬁrst things I had to do at Orientation was come to the Ratty and eat in the kosher room, so I met people that way. Even this year, people will walk in and I’ll introduce myself.” Mellion stressed the importance of seeking out positive dining experiences. She said she could have been more creative while on meal plan or could have reached out to Dining Services chefs or a dietician. Now, however, she has learned to embrace her unique dietary choices. “Last year, veganism was something that isolated me from other people,” she said. “This year, it connects me to people.”

CAMPUS N EWS TUESDAY, APRIL 24, 2007

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DDLP forms bond between developmentally disabled adults, student tutors BY HANNAH LEVINTOVA STAFF WRITER

The Swearer Center for Public Service’s Developmentally Disabled Literacy Program — which has undergone a revival in recent years — pairs Brown students and developmentally disabled adults from the Providence area for one-on-one tutoring that emphasizes developing literacy and basic life skills. The adults, who are called “learners,” range in age from 23 to 60 and have disabilities such as muscular dystrophy, Down’s syndrome, cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis and bipolar disorder, and a few are also blind or mute, said program coordinator Vijay Narayan ’08 and assistant coordinator Rudmila Rahman ’09. All of the adults are transported to Brown weekly from about six residential facilities to work with their Brown student tutor for an hour and a half. Thirty-six students currently work with DDLP, Narayan said. Each tutor is asked to commit to the program for the full academic year, promoting long-lasting bonds between tutor and learner. Narayan has been tutoring the same learner for the past three years. “That’s an evolution,” Narayan said. “It really takes a lot of time for the tutor and learner to bond.” The program helps to facilitate this bond by giving each tutor a written list of commitments and expectations. Narayan said he organizes about two tutor training sessions each semester, arranging guest speakers and activities geared toward teaching tutors how to best interact with and teach developmentally disabled adults. DDLP emphasizes the idea that tutoring must revolve around the

FEATURE individual needs of each learner, Narayan said. Thus, while tutors promote literacy, they often teach subjects specific to the desires and abilities of each learner. “My learner wants to be able to go into a restaurant and look at a menu, get the right change and know how much to pay,” Narayan said. “So we started with basic addition and subtraction.” Narayan attributed the program’s success over the past two years — it has 36 active tutors this year, compared to only 10 in 2005 — largely to the continual dedication of the tutors. This year, the program received so many applications that a waitlist had to be created. “Our success has just been a combination of Swearer Center support and, more than anything, tutor dedication and learner spirit and energy,” Narayan said. This year, Narayan and Rahman have implemented new features to better organize the program and add a community component to its work. “We wanted to change the culture of the program. … It’s difficult with a one-on-one program because there is really no need to interact with anyone else.” Narayan said. “There was no sense of community,” Rahman said. “The tutors didn’t know each other, the learners didn’t know each other. Everyone just came in, tutored and left.” Now, the tutors are split into eight small groups, each comprising four or five tutors and their learners, and one tutor in each group is appointed the group leader. Tutors and learners meet for group activities about once a month, allowing tutors and

Courtesy of Vijay Narayan ’08

Rosi Pascual ‘08 (right) works on multiplication tables with her learner Kelly.

learners to interact with each other, Narayan said. Marissa Faerber ’09, one of the group leaders, explained that one of the most difﬁcult aspects of planning the small group activities is accounting for the various disabilities of the adults in the group. “It’s kind of funny. Each tutor will kind of champion for their own learner … like ‘Oh no, Peter won’t like that’ or ‘No, no, Selena can’t do that,’ ” Faerber said. The DDLP has also added more program-wide events involving all tutors and learners. In addition to a year-end graduation, the program now holds an event to conclude the fall semester and a spring barbeque. Narayan said the large events are particularly meaningful for the learners. At graduation, learners

receive actual diplomas, and each is given the opportunity to address the entire group. “Getting up on stage and speaking is huge for them,” Narayan said. “It’s very empowering. A few learners even cried tears of joy.” Narayan cited a learner who studied to become a manicurist and is now preparing to get a driver’s license. “Last year, he even got up at graduation and did a (manicure) demonstration. He completely stole the show,” Narayan said. Although no experience working with developmentally disabled people is required to participate in the program, Narayan said “there are three fundamental characteristics that are necessary to be a tutor: dedication, patience and compassion.” Learners present a wide range

of abilities, and both Faerber and Narayan said the adults’ behavioral and focus issues can sometimes make learning and teaching very challenging. “Distractibility is endemic to the program. … Some days, coming and focusing for an hour and a half is so difﬁcult (for the adults). It’s like an hour-and-a-half class here!” Narayan said. “Tutors can have periods of immense frustration.” However, despite many challenges, the tutoring experience is a rewarding one. “You work an entire year to forge this connection with someone who has so fewer opportunities than you do,” Rahman said. It’s so fulﬁlling — both personally when you see yourself grow and even more so when you see the person that you are tutoring grow.”

Senior gift campaign garners 36 percent participation so far BY NICOLE DUNGCA STAFF WRITER

As the end of the academic year approaches, members of the Senior Class Gift Committee are optimistic about reaching their ambitious participation goals for the class of 2007’s senior gift. As of last week, about 550 students — around 36 percent of the senior class of 1,548 students — have either donated or pledged to donate to this year’s gift. The 40 members of the committee are aiming to get donations from 70 percent of the senior class — the highest goal for participation that has ever been set for a senior class gift — and the committee’s chairs are conﬁdent they will meet that goal, said Johanna Corcoran, Brown Annual Fund’s assistant director for student programs. To reach the goal of 70 percent participation, over 530 additional seniors must pledge to give to the gift by the deadline — the end of the ﬁscal year on June 30.The current record for senior class participation is held by the class of 2005, with 68 percent giving that year. “I think the class of 2005 showed Brown that seniors can come together to accomplish something really extraordinary and are seen as a way to encourage future senior classes,” Corcoran said. Neil Hamel ’07, one of the gift committee’s co-chairs, said he is “a

little nervous, because we’re getting towards the end of the semester, but I know we can make that push.” The gift is already at a record amount thanks to a donation of $20,007 from President Ruth Simmons. Simmons had previously given donations equal to the number of the class year — for example, $2,006 to the class of 2006’s class gift — so the large donation came as a surprise to the members of the committee. The donation showed a vote of conﬁdence in this year’s class, Corcoran said. “It gave us so much of a boost and really inspired us to reach our goal,” said Priya Shah ’07, the class gift committee’s leadership cochair. Various events — such as a kickoff event last month with Simmons — are used to solicit donations. Any event that may have a high concentration of senior attendees, like the upcoming carnival sponsored by the Special Events Committee, are targeted by the gift committee, members said. One of the most effective means of garnering donations, though, is more personal — members of the committee make lists of close friends and acquaintances to target for donations. “Making the donation both personal for them and personal because of the relationship with me is very helpful,” Hamel said.

Committee members try to point out to potential senior donors how important the Brown Annual Fund — the fund that receives the money collected by the class gift — is to the University. “Pretty much any group you’re in on campus is funded by alumni and the senior gifts,” Hamel said. Seniors are asked to give at least $20.07 but are encouraged to give more. Currently, the largest donation from a member of the class of 2007 has been $1,000. But many opt for the $20.07 and consider it a small price to pay for all their experiences at Brown. “Even if you’re a student, $20 is nothing,” said Sinan Mellaart ’07, who said he has given to the gift. Some students note their gratitude to Brown as one of the main reasons they donate. “This place makes you a totally different person from your entrance to your exit. Brown deserves these donations,” Mellaart said. Mellaart said his donation was the ﬁrst he wants to give to Brown. “I see $20 or $50 as just the beginning of my future of donating to Brown. I’ll hopefully be able to donate a lot more later on,” he said. Though some seniors donate to the fund, others either refuse or need more convincing. Shah said she has heard all the excuses — students often respond that they are already paying so much in tuition or that a tiny donation will

not effect change on campus, compared to the huge donations from alumni. But Shah said she points out the large costs of running the University, adding that she believes in the importance of participation from students and alums — a continued interest in Brown from alums and

students helps the school rise in various rankings. Still, there will be those who refuse to budge. Shah said she once sat down with a friend for over an hour, debating on whether he should donate. “I don’t think he’s given in yet, but I’m still on it,” Shah said.

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The Override An override is roughly the digital equivalent of a professor signing an add/drop form. An override removes all restrictions that would prevent you from registering for a course, such as enrollment limits, prerequisites or class or concentration restrictions. Professors don’t have the ability to override your scheduling conflicts. Overrides are also Banner’s way of accommodating the “written permission required” feature of the old registration system in case a professor wants to use something other than the standard restrictions to pick students for the class. If a course is full, you must have an override for that course in order for Banner to allow you to register for it. To get an override, a professor must have your Banner ID number to enter it into a special screen for issuing overrides. If you do not know your Banner ID number, you can find it at selfservice.brown. edu by logging in, selecting the “Student and Financial Aid” tab and then clicking “Registration.” Any of the links that appear will display your ID number (BXXXXXXXX) in the top right corner. Another way to obtain your Banner ID number is to stop by the Brown Card Office next to the Verney-Woolley Dining Hall, where you can exchange your current Brown ID card for one that has your Banner ID printed right above your Brown ID. Once you’ve got your Banner ID number, you have to give it to your professor when asking for an override. You can show up at a professor’s office hours, send an e-mail or, during shopping period, walk up to a professor after class — just like you would with an add/ drop form. If your professor decides to issue you an override for the course, it will appear in the “Registration Status” menu in Banner.

Other Jargon Course Reference Number (CRN) A five-digit number unique to each course and section. The CRN is what you enter into the registration field to register for a course. Banner Catalog and Class Schedule The replacements to the Brown Online Course Announcement. Catalog contains general course information such as course descriptions while Schedule contains semester-specific information such as the professor, meeting time and course restrictions. Schedule Type Banner’s way of differentiating between lectures, sections or film screenings. Banner calls lectures “primary meetings” and sections “conferences.” XLIST A file containing a list of courses in other departments that may be relevant to the department being searched for in Schedule. Appears at the bottom of the search results.

Extra Help Banner Labs On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this week from 8:00 - 10:00 a.m., registration staff will be available in CIT 169 and the first-floor Rock cluster. The Hotline: 863-2300 Open from 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. throughout the pre-registration period, you can call this number for specific questions not covered in other resources.

79.2%

percentage of doctoral universities that have begun to implement or have implemented Banner-like systems

TUESDAY, APRIL 24, 2007

1993

average year schools implemented systems like Banner

number of University ofﬁces united by Banner

Hello. My name is Banner. Banner Chris Bennett / Herald

From left: Associate Registrar for Registration Services Lisa Mather, Banner Documentation and Training Specialist Sherry Gubata and Undergraduate Council of Students members Sara Gentile ’09 and Sara Damiano ’08 discuss pre-registration with Mike Sokolovsky ’10 on the Main Green Monday at a question-and-answer table, run by the Ofﬁce of the Registrar and UCS. A UCS-sponsored protest against Banner scheduled at the same time was canceled after representatives pulled their support for the event, UCS member Anita Sekar ‘10 told The Herald.

READY OR NOT FACULTY ANTICIPATE BANNER BY DEBBIE LEHMANN SENIOR STAFF WRITER

As students prepare to pre-register using Banner this week, professors are crossing their fingers in hopes that the new software will run smoothly. Faculty have had a number of opportunities to train with the new software, which will allow students to register for courses online for the first time today. But many professors still have concerns about Banner, and others said they cannot know if they are well-prepared until they see the system in practice. Training professors to use the new software was a primary effort last fall, said Associate Provost Nancy Dunbar, the Banner project owner. Dunbar and staff from the Office of the Registrar gave a demonstration of the software to each academic department. They also allowed departments to edit course descriptions, which can be lengthier under the electronic system. Dunbar and others working on Banner also organized workshops for advisers and held sessions for academic department managers, she said, teaching them about “backoffice” functions like using Banner to compile a list of concentrators. Training this semester has largely consisted of the Banner project team following up with faculty and “repeating messages,” Dunbar said. Faculty will receive flyers by mail this week with reminders about how to perform an override and access a course list. In addition, professors can now print the Web tutorials on how to view class and advisee lists and perform overrides. Whether professors are well prepared to use Banner is “the $64,000 question,” Dunbar said.

“We’ve all run into somebody who knows a lot and somebody who doesn’t,” she said. “But we all learn to access information when we need it, and after you’ve done it once, it’s easy.” Professors have varying levels of both knowledge of the new system and concerns. Professor of Mathematics Thomas Banchoff, who has taught at Brown since 1967, said he “suspects Banner will not be a problem” even though he is accustomed to the old system of registration. Professor of Economics David Weil also had few concerns. Weil said he was offered a lot of training on how to use the software but did not take advantage of much of it. He attended Dunbar’s presentation to his department and understood the processes and rules she presented. “Beyond that,” he said, “I figured I would just figure it out when the time came. And the time hasn’t come yet.” Weil, who has allowed students in past years to take his course without having taken the prerequisites, also said he was not concerned about Banner’s future enforcement of required classes. “In the past it didn’t really matter because these students could have taken the course anyway,” Weil said. “Now with Banner, I just have to give them permission, and I’m fine with that.” Other professors have been more proactive in learning about Banner and preparing to use the system. Resource Efficiency Manager Kurt Teichert, who teaches an environmental studies course, said he hasn’t looked through all the training materials available to him, but he said he is motivated to learn how the software works because of his role as an adviser. Teichert said he probably “wouldn’t

pay attention” to the new system if he weren’t directly involved in advising, adding that, despite the opportunities, there are plenty of professors who haven’t attended training sessions. “My sense is that folks aren’t embracing this, jumping right on saying, ‘Okay, what’s everything I have to know?’ ” Teichert said. “They’re grudgingly moving forward with it.” Though Teichert said he is “amazed at how behind Brown is” technologically and is “glad to see things moving along” with Banner, he voiced some concerns about the software. Banner is not well set up for courses that, like his own, use an application process to determine the class list, he said. The new system is encouraging him to do the application process during pre-registration rather than during the first week of class. But this has its advantages, Teichert said. “This will just make the start of the class more efficient,” he said. “With Banner, it’s much more about registering for classes you’re actually going to take, and that’s a good thing.” Still, seniority by class and the first-come, first-serve basis of Banner may make it harder for underclassmen to find space in popular limited-enrollment classes, Teichert said, adding that it is “important to have a mix of students across years” in some courses. Teichert said he knows he will have to perform overrides on Banner to achieve this mix, but because he does not teach a course in the fall, he isn’t “facing the mechanism” yet and has not figured out his approach. Associate Professor of History Michael Vorenberg, who will face the mechanism this week, said he cannot know what knowledge of Banner he is lacking until he sees the system in practice. Vorenberg expressed some technological concerns about Banner, but he added that these concerns could be meaningless if everything runs smoothly. For example, Vorenberg said he is not continued on page 8

TUESDAY, APRIL 24, 2007

number of years since the University began planning for the introduction of Banner

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

1/2

fraction of student IT systems handled by Banner creator SunGard HigherEd

amount of University’s $3 million contingency fund spent

(Sources: Educause 2005 Survey, CIS)

Chris Bennett / Herald

Clockwise from left: Associate Provost Nancy Dunbar, who leads the Banner project, lectures to students and faculty at a Banner demonstration in Salomon 001, as SunGard Higher Ed representative Don Thibault looks on. Banner makes for late-night dinner conversation at the Gate. Riaz Gillani ‘09 ponders the difference between Catalog and Schedule in the CIT cluster Tuesday.

A few quick tips... Ross Frazier / Herald

Rising seniors register today continued from page 1 “I guess I’ll do that this week,” she said. But Chu added that she has looked at courses to take next semester and plans to obtain a copy of the student-designed Course Announcement Bulletin, of which the University ordered hundreds of copies and plans to order more after students grabbed every available copy in a matter of hours. Finn Yarbrough ’09, who designed this year’s CAB and originally planned to sell copies through Allega Print & Imaging, said the University used money from President Simmons’ discretionary fund — reserved for uses deemed especially appropriate by the president’s office — to order 740 copies of his CAB, 520 of which were removed from the Post Office in a span of 45 minutes. “The president’s office has been really generous,” Yarbrough said, adding that the president’s office plans to purchase between 600 and 1,000 more copies. For students like Chu, the timely printing of the CAB should prove convenient. “I like to have something tangible when I look for courses,” she said. Other students said they were unaware of this week’s start of pre-registration. “I know it’s some time next week,” Theo Frechette ’09.5 said Sunday. “But I’m not sure when.” Frechette said he had looked at courses online but doesn’t know how to register for them. “To be honest, it’s something I’m sort of dreading,” he said.

Frechette is not alone in his lack of information about course registration. Even Sara Mann ’10, who said she has been preparing for Banner for weeks, still feels she doesn’t quite know how registration will work. “I did the online tutorials and everything,” Mann said. “But I don’t feel like I know how to register.” Mann said she plans to wake up early on Thursday and hopes her preparation will make for a smooth registration process. “For the classes I want to take, I think I’ll be okay,” she said. Dunbar said students like Mann who feel unprepared may actually know more than they think about the process of registration. “Once you get in there, the registration process is very intuitive,” she said. “If you’ve done the tutorials and taken the appropriate steps, you’ll be fine.” Dunbar also offered some advice to students anxious about pre-registration. “Don’t make the first time you log in to Banner the morning of pre-registration,” she said. “Give it a few test runs and take the tutorial first.” Dunbar said the flexibility of pre-registration won’t be lost under Banner, so students shouldn’t be discouraged if a course is full. “If you can’t register for a course, register your interest in it,” she said, recommending students contact professors if they are locked out of a course. “Don’t assume that no means no.” The pre-registration period ends May 1 at 5 p.m. Students not registered by then will have to wait until the next registration period this fall.

Don’t use wireless. Though the Banner team has conducted load testing to avoid system crashes, Banner won’t be operating at breakneck speed while everyone clamors to register. For the best performance, close other applications on your computer and connect to Banner using an ethernet connection, not wireless. Try Mocha at mocha.cs.brown.edu. Thanks to some clever and helpful computer science students, Mocha offers a cleaner and more efﬁcient alternative to the oft-criticized Catalog and Schedule. With its signature shopping cart feature and an update to accommodate Banner, Mocha may be a quicker and friendlier way to shop for courses. However, be sure to double-check vital course information such as CRNs with Banner.

‘For $23 million, you’ve got to wonder where that’s going...’

“For $23 million, you’ve got to wonder where that’s going,” said Theo Frechette ‘09.5. That ﬁgure gets thrown around by students and faculty alike, but few are aware of Banner’s cost breakdown. Only 11 percent — approximately $2.5 million — of the total funds f allocated for Banner were for the purchase of SunGard HigherEd’s software and related licenses. Most of the budget — about $14.2 million — was spent on consulting and University personnel.

FAQ Q: What kind of system requirements do I need to access Banner? A: The only system requirement needed to access Banner is an Internet connection. Banner is accessible from PCs and Macs and works with mainstream Internet browsers such as Internet Explorer, Safari and Firefox. If you use a different browser, make sure to try accessing Banner at selfservice. brown.edu before you plan to register, just in case there are any problems. Although these are not absolutely required, SunGard Higher Ed — the company that produces Banner — has a list of desktop features that will help avoid any problems. They can be found by clicking the “Desktop Requirements” link on the Banner Web site, www.brown.edu/banner. Q: I won’t be on campus during preregistration. Can I still access Banner? A: One of the most convenient features of registration under Banner is the ability to register from the comfort of your room, whether that room is in Caswell or Canada. Just enter selfservice.brown.edu into your browser, and off you go! Q: Okay, so I found my courses’ CRNs, got some overrides and am registered for four courses. I’m definitely in those courses, right? A: Not necessarily. Though you are registered for those courses, many of the same rules that applied to the old pre-registration system apply to Banner. For example, if a professor says on the first day of class that only students who come to the first three classes will be enrolled, having your name on a list won’t do you much good if you don’t show up to class. The good thing about non-binding pre-registration is that there’s always a chance you can get into a course for which you haven’t pre-registered. Show up on the first day of class — the professor might grant you an override or some pre-registered students might be AWOL, in which case some spots could open up for you. Q: How do I find cross-listed courses? A: The logistics of Banner don’t allow for “bogus courses” to exist in the system, so the traditional method of indexing a cross-listed course like “Perception and Mind” as both PY44 and CG44 is not possible. Instead, cross-listed courses for each department are kept in a designated file, which can be found by searching a subject in Schedule. At the bottom of the list of courses that appears will be something that looks like a course, but its course number will be XLIST. Clicking on the link to this file will open up a list of courses in other departments that may be of interest to concentrators in the subject that was initially searched. Q: What is a PIN? Do I need one? A: An authorization PIN is Banner’s equivalent of a freshman adviser’s signature on an add/drop form. No freshman or rising sophomore can register for classes without it. In order to obtain your six-digit PIN, contact your freshman adviser and discuss the classes you wish to take next semester. Once you’ve got your PIN, you must enter it when you register for courses (rising sophomores can register Thursday), or else the system won’t let you in.

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No. 3 Quakers outlast w. lax continued from page 12 riod to stretch the lead to 7-0. “I don’t think there was a difference between the ﬁrst half and the second half,” Glennon said. “Our defense did a fantastic job the entire game, and sometimes, like in any other sport, there is just nothing you can do about a goal.” Glennon continued her hot play of late and scored her ﬁrst of three goals in the game off of a great feed in transition from Kiki Manners ’10 with 21:09 remaining. Penn scored again to make it 8-1, but Molly McCarthy ’10 set up Glennon in the middle for her second goal of the game. Yet the Quakers quickly showed why they are ranked No. 3 in the nation and answered. Manners responded by connecting with Glennon at 9:30 left in the game to complete Glennon’s hat trick and bring the Bears to 9-3. “I’m not really sure if I have changed up anything lately,”

Glennon said of her recent hot streak. “I’m an attacker, and therefore my team expects me to do the job and score some goals, but I’d say that it’s been more that our entire team is on a huge roll right now. My success is simply a reflection of all the hard work we put in as a team.” Penn outscored Bruno 3-1 over the rest of the game. McCarthy added Brown’s last goal to make the final score 12-4. Goalie Melissa King ’08 had five saves in the contest. “Overall, we were extremely happy with our play,” DeLuca said. “I know the score doesn’t show it, but that was the best team effort we had all year.” The Bears continue Ivy League play on Saturday, when they travel to Princeton to play the Tigers at 3 p.m. “I think that coming off of the amazing team performance against Penn … we as a unit are ready to take on anyone,” Glennon said.

timeo danaos et dona ferentes

TUESDAY, APRIL 24, 2007

Faculty prepare to use Banner continued from page 6 sure the parameters he requested have been placed on his courses. Since the 20-student history seminar he will teach next fall can fulfill a concentration requirement, Vorenberg requested that 10 of the spots in the class be reserved for concentrators. Vorenberg e-mailed Banner representatives for confirmation that these restrictions were put on his course but did not receive a response. Sherry Gubata, a documentation specialist and technical trainer in the registrar’s office, said she has

received only “a handful” of calls from professors with questions about Banner. Most of these calls have been from academic department managers, whom most faculty contact with questions before calling the Banner hotline, Gubata said. Resources like the hotline and Web tutorials have prepared the University for the transition to Banner, Dunbar said, adding that she has her ﬁngers crossed for pre-registration this week. “I don’t know that individuals are ready,” Dunbar said. “But as a community, we’re deﬁnitely ready.”

Softball drops four to Harvard continued from page 12 the ball on a backhand attempt, and Wilson came in to score. “The ﬁnal score didn’t reﬂect the game whatsoever — we felt good out there,” Wilson said. Brown’s defense held the Crimson off until the fourth inning, committing only one error to Harvard’s two. “We just need to stay focused and play the best that we can each pitch,” Anderson said. “At this point we have nothing to lose, we just have to play together as a team.” The Bears face off against in-

state rival University of Rhode Island on Tuesday at home before their last four games next weekend against Yale. They will play a doubleheader here in Providence on Saturday against the Bulldogs and then travel to New Haven to play their ﬁnal doubleheader on Sunday. The annual alumni game will be played before Saturday’s senior game. Anderson is the lone senior to be honored. There will also be a ceremony before the senior game honoring the ﬁrst Ivy Championship team, from 1982.

Peterson: Watch the NHL continued from page 12 no longer a “need” for Fox’s FoxTrax of the mid-1990s. Although, I do admit that I sometimes get nostalgic for Kevin Dineen slapping around the glow-puck in a Hartford Whalers sweater. Bottom line: The game is much more enjoyable in HD and will result in better viewership — if Commissioner Gary Bettman can secure the right deals and bring the league sufficient exposure. Hockey is also blessed to have an incredibly talented corps of announcers that rival the likes of baseball’s Kalas, Scully and Gary Cohen. In fact, Doc Emrick is the best play-by-play man in all of sports. It is unreal how he can verbalize so much information so quickly, accurately and clearly and still exude such energy and passion for the game. On the radio side, an option for those sans satellite, no sports fan from the tri-state area will ever forget Howie Rose’s call of “Matteau, Matteau, Matteau!” after the Rangers defeated the Devils in the 1994 conference finals. I was nine years old then, but I’ve heard it replayed so many times that I almost feel I was in the Garden that night. Whether on radio, television or in the stands, the Stanley Cup playoffs lend themselves to creating those magical crescendos that make us sports fans. In New York sports talk radio, “Miriam from Forest Hills” is a caller who has to be the most loyal and knowledgeable Islanders fan there is. It took years before anybody discovered she was blind because radio had provided such a nuanced description of the action, enabling her to analyze the game as well as people sitting behind the glass. Mislabeled as obsolete, the ability of radio to convey the action is as strong as ever. The action on the ice isn’t too shabby either. Any team has the potential to claim the cup by jumping on the back of a sizzling goaltender, which gives the NHL playoffs a sense of uncertainty that doesn’t exist in the NBA. This year, the Eastern Conference is wide open. Can Henrik Lundqvist be the stalwart in net to allow Jaromir Jagr and Brendan Shanahan to bring the cup to Broadway? Will Thomas Vanek emerge as a superstar for Buffalo? Can Ottawa’s Dany Heatley, Daniel Alfredsson and Jason Spezza score early against Martin Brodeur and the Devils to avoid Lou Lamoriello’s suffocating trap? Out West, will vets Chris Pronger and the brothers Niedermayer play solid D and let young guns Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry combine with Teemu Selanne to light the lamp? The Sharks have Jonathan Cheechoo and Joe Thornton to combine with 22-yearold Joe Pavelski. Is that enough to advance? You’ll have to watch — or listen — to find out.

Chris Peterson ’07 is hoping not to get stick slashed on the ice by a Calgary Flames’ backup goalie.

thanks for reading

TUESDAY, APRIL 24, 2007

M. tennis splits two matches over weekend continued from page 12 1-0 (10-4). Joe Scott ’08 fell to Tzou 7-5, 6-2 at sixth singles, making the ﬁnal score 5-2. “We knew we had to win the match,” Hanegby said. “It was a good effort.” Friday’s match against Dartmouth was also the Bears’ last home match of the season, and for the seniors, the moment was bittersweet. “It’s happy and sad,” Hanegby said. “I’m happy to graduate and move on, but I’m going to miss the team and the competition. I just tried to embrace the moment.” Two days later, against the Crimson, the Bears surrendered all three of the doubles matches. At ﬁrst doubles, Hanegby and Kohli dropped an 8-5 match to Sasha Ermakov and Ashwin Kumar, while at second doubles, Thomas and Lee lost 8-2 to Gideon Valkin and Michael Hayes. The third doubles match went to a tiebreaker, but Pasanen and Gardner eventually fell to Kieran Burke and Dan Nguyen 8-7 (3). “It was disappointing,” Hanegby said. “If we had won the doubles point, we could have put pressure

on them, but the matches slipped out of our hands.” Brown then dropped three singles matches to give Harvard the victory. At fourth singles, Pasanen lost to Valkin 6-2, 6-1. The fi fth singles match was closer, as Scott took the second set to drive the match into a third set, but he eventually fell to Ermakov by a final score of 62, 3-6, 6-1. Gardner dropped a close 6-4, 6-4 match to Hayes at sixth singles, giving the Crimson the final point they needed to win. “The guys fought hard, but they weren’t consistent enough,” Hanegby said of the singles losses. The Bears took two of the three remaining matches. At third singles, Thomas devoured Kumar 6-2, 6-1, and Hanegby had a strong 6-4, 6-4 win at first singles over No. 112 Chris Clayton. “(Clayton) is one of the top players in the league,” Hanegby said. “I played one of my best matches. I was serving really well.” At second singles, Kohli gave up the first set 1-6 to Nguyen, then prevailed 7-5 in the second set to push the match to a third set, which he narrowly dropped 4-6 for a final match score of 5-2.

Last week, Brown was last in the Ivy League standings, but after the weekend’s matches, the Bears’ 1-5 record has moved them into 7th place, ahead of Cornell. The University of Pennsylvania and Columbia are tied for first place with six wins and one loss apiece. Brown’s final match of the season will take place tomorrow at Yale, where the Bears will have another chance to move up in the standings. But after consecutive Ivy titles the past two years, the Bears are not satisfied with anything less than first place. “We underperformed this year,” Hanegby said. “We didn’t meet our goals and expectations. Our biggest weakness was not being consistent as a team.” Hanegby also noted other teams’ depth this year as an obstacle. “The competition was much harder this year than it’s been in past years,” he said. “Every team in the league was good this year. It was tough.” Though Hanegby will graduate next month, he has faith that the Bears will soon return to the top of the Ivy League. “Next year, I believe the guys can bring back the title.”

W. water polo takes second at NE Division Championship continued from page 12 the Knights, with Presant scoring another four goals and Stephanie Laing ’10 making eight saves en route to an 18-2 victory. Ally Wyatt ’08 also made great contributions on the defensive end, leading the Bears with four steals. On Sunday, Brown faced another familiar division opponent in Harvard, in the tournament semifinal game. The Bears were victorious in their first three matches against the Crimson this season, and Sunday’s game was more of the same. Bruno’s defense dominated in a 10-1 victory, holding the Crimson scoreless until 4:25 remaining in the third period. Presant, Wyatt, Elizabeth Balassone ’07 and Paige Lansing ’07 led the scoring attack with two goals apiece, with Glick and Claire Angyal ’07 each adding one goal. The Bears played for the championship Sunday afternoon against Hartwick, the team that accounted for Brown’s only two division losses in the regular season. Despite the momentum from Brown’s three blowout wins, the Hawks dominated from the outset and rolled to victory over the Bears, 18-6. “Hartwick is, player for player, the best team on the East Coast,” said Head Coach Jason Gall. ““They play very well as a team and make plays happen, and they take advantage of any mistake the opponent makes.” Hartwick got on the scoreboard first with 6:15 remaining in the first quarter, but just 32 seconds later, Brown took advantage of a 6on-5 opportunity to set up Presant for the game-tying goal. But the Hawks began to pull away, adding four goals in the remainder of the period to take a 5-1 lead. In the first 1:11 of the second quarter, Glick and Presant both found the net to cut the deficit to 5-3, and the Bears looked to be in position to make a comeback. But Bruno failed to score for the rest of the period, while allowing three goals to Hartwick, giving the Hawks an 8-3 lead at halftime. Brown threatened to make another run in the third quarter when Emily Schwartz ’08 scored just 25

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

seconds in, followed by a goal from Caitlin Fahey ’07 with 3:57 remaining in the period. Hartwick then launched an overwhelming offensive attack, outscoring the Bears 41 in the remainder of the third to open up a 12-6 lead. In the fourth quarter, the Hawks secured the victory and the Northern Division championship by outscoring the Bears 6-0, making the ﬁnal score 18-6. “We played with an aggressive defense and offense,” Presant said, “but since Hartwick is a really good team that also plays with an aggressive defense, when we made mistakes on offense, they countered off of the mistake and scored.” On April 28 and 29, Brown will

be at Princeton to compete in the Eastern Championship singleelimination tournament, where it will be the No. 4 seed. In the opening round, it will face the University of Indiana, a team they beat earlier this season. In the second round, the winner of that game will likely face Hartwick, the tournament’s No. 1 seed. “We deﬁnitely respect Hartwick as a team,” Balassone said, “and we’ll work as hard as we can to put ourselves in position to play a great game with them next Saturday.” Gall said that despite the loss, the team’s conﬁdence level is still high heading into Easterns. “We’re motivated and hungry to win,” he said.

Reil: No one should watch the NBA playoffs continued from page 12 sport? In Sunday’s defeat, Kobe made only one shot in the fourth quarter. Maybe, like Phil Jackson said, he was tired. Or maybe Kobe had so many hands in his face he might as well have been shooting with his eyes closed. Also, I hate to say this because I love the commercials, but writers and announcers need to stop calling the Cleveland franchise “The Lebrons” and realize that James is not the second coming of Michael Jordan. I can’t imagine being Larry Hughes, who outscored King James in the team’s first playoff game but won’t get an ounce of press. Rather than accepting that there will never be another player as exciting as MJ, clubs like the Boston Celtics are frantically searching for his heir — and ruining their teams’ credibility in the process. The superstar trend, annoying on the professional level, is straight-up awful when it begins to affect youth sports, as I saw firsthand over winter break. A native of Western Massachusetts, maybe 20 minutes outside the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, I stopped in at one of my buddy’s rec games to check out his skill as a coach. What I saw was a bunch of kids with sagging shorts and Lebron headbands who wouldn’t press on defense and spent half the game dribble-driving into traffic thicker than Adam Morrison’s mustache. Another reason I’m not watching the NBA playoffs this year is because there’s never any magic, and I love magic. I’m not talking about Harry Pottertype, wand-and-potion magic. I’m talking Yanks-Sox in the ’04 American League Championship Series. I’m talking about George

Mason in last year’s NCAA tourney. This type of thrill doesn’t happen in the NBA, because the best team always wins! Now there’s a chance that the streaking Warriors might take down the Mavericks in the opening round this year, but that would be just the third time in the history of the NBA that a No. 8 seed took down a No. 1 seed. The 1-8 in the Eastern Conference, Detroit vs. Orlando, is a joke, but that tends to happen when teams under and around .500 get into the playoffs. The lowest seed to win the NBA championship in the last 10 years was the L.A. Lakers in 2002, at No. 3. How exciting is that? Based on recent history, we can safely eliminate 10 of the 16 playoff teams from title contention before we even get started. So, Cinderella hopefuls like Washington, Denver and Houston might as well stay home, because they’ll be turning back into pumpkins before they even get to the ball, and no one wants to dance with a pumpkin. Sure, I’ll be keeping my eye on the headlines, just to see who will win the coveted NBA title this year, but don’t expect me to be kicking back to watch many games. Can you really blame me? I just got through putting off my homework for an entire month while a bunch of really impressive college athletes played their hearts out to win a national championship. That was some basketball. Oh, and if I start to miss the high-ﬂying, razzle dazzle of Vince Carter and Co., I can always go next door — my neighbor has NBA Jam.

Shane Reil ’09 is hoping that recently suspended referee Joey Crawford will not eject him for laughing in his room.

E DITORIAL & L ETTERS THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

PAGE 10

TUESDAY, APRIL 24, 2007

STAF F EDITORIAL

Good morning, Banner After five years, three budget revisions, $23 million and scores of campuswide e-mails, online course registration finally arrives at Brown this morning. Over 1,000 rising seniors will be the first to test Banner’s user-unfriendly interface and confusing setup at 8 a.m. today — assuming they actually wake up that early. Confusion may mark many students’ experience as they navigate the Banner Web site, bleary-eyed and hoping to make it into as many upper-level seminars as possible. Help desks and a hotline may be on hand to help, but given students’ tendency to disregard administrative e-mails as spam, they could go relatively unnoticed. Yet even if this week’s registration is muddled, Banner is here to stay. Though students heralded the system’s impending arrival with protests and fears that Banner could spell the end of the New Curriculum, online course registration is long overdue. As then-Provost Robert Zimmer told the faculty almost two years ago, “It is not appropriate that an institution like Brown doesn’t have online registration in 2005.” Most of our peers have long used an electronic registration system, and it’s time we put behind us the decades-old ritual of carrying carbon-copy registration forms to University Hall. At the beginning of the semester, student trepidation concerning Banner reached a fever pitch, with about 15 percent of the undergraduate student body joining an anti-Banner Facebook group within a week of its creation. We were dismissive at the time of some of the anti-Banner paranoia, but we urged University officials to boost their efforts to educate faculty and students on how to use the new registration system. To their credit, easing the campus into life with Banner seems to have been a high priority for administrators — certainly for Associate Provost Nancy Dunbar, who has become the face of the project and the target of its critics. Their schedules in recent weeks have been filled with tutorials for all relevant campus constituencies — students, Meiklejohn advisers, academic departments — and a good-faith effort to educate the campus about how the new system works. To be sure, some of their efforts have been poorly thought-out. Perhaps the biggest blunder of the administration’s Banner integration efforts was the decision not to print a Course Announcement Bulletin. Especially given the unintuitive interface of Banner’s online course catalog, a tangible way for students to explore the breadth of the University’s offerings is essential. But the poor quality of the University’s two substitutes to the printed bulletin — a six-page course listing and a hastily prepared version of the old CAB — underscore the amateurish appearance of much of the Banner project. Other efforts have been well-intentioned but ineffectual, like a campuswide e-mail from Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron begging students to read her reassuring words with the subject line “DO NOT DELETE.” Additionally, the decision to open pre-registration at 8 a.m. — an unthinkable hour for many college students — instead of a time like noon when most students are awake and out of class suggests a schism between students and the administrators that may underlie many of the challenges of Banner. But, by and large, Nancy Dunbar and Banner project team have tried their hardest to make the much-needed introduction of online course registration — no matter how imperfect the system itself — a smooth and painless process. This week, we get to see how well they’ve done their job.

ROXANNE PALMER

LETTERS Intrepid thermometer-wielder proves U. overheated To the Editor: Back on Oct. 20, 2005, an e-mail from former Vice President for Campus Life and Student Services David Greene announced a new energy policy. One provision of this policy stated, “Thermostats in all ofﬁces and other workspaces must be set to achieve 68 degrees during heating season.” Eighteen months later, it seems that this part of the policy still has not been implemented. From time to time, I have carried a thermometer around campus with me, and rarely have I found a classroom cooler than 70 degrees in winter. In fact, many rooms are regularly heated to at least 75 or even 80 degrees. The e-mail continued, “In the residence halls, we will attempt to maintain these temperatures as closely as possible, but many of these buildings have older systems that will lead to a wider range of temperatures.” Yet even in the newer residence halls, the tempera-

ture is controlled no better than in the workspaces. For most of the winter, the temperature of my room in Vartan Gregorian Quad hovered in the mid-70s with my thermostat turned off. Even then, my room felt considerably cooler than the adjacent hallway. As I type this letter, it is 84 degrees in my room (compared to 50 degrees outdoors), even with the window wide open and the thermostat turned off. Not only is overheating a waste of energy, but it’s unhealthy and uncomfortable. I hope that the University will ﬁnally correct this problem as it acts on the recommendations of the Energy and Environmental Advisory Committee to achieve carbon neutrality.

Adam Merberg ’08 April 23

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

Executive Editors Allison Kwong Ben Leubsdorf

Senior Editors Stephen Colelli Sonia Saraiya BUSINESS

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

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Steve DeLucia, Ezra Miller, Designers Catherine Cullen, Erin Cummings, Copy Editors Senior Staff Writers Rachel Arndt, Michael Bechek, Oliver Bowers, Zachary Chapman, Chaz Firestone, Kristina Kelleher, Debbie Lehmann, Scott Lowenstein, James Shapiro, Michael Skocpol Staff Writers Susana Aho, Taylor Barnes, Brianna Barzola, Evan Boggs, Aubry Bracco, Caitlin Browne, Irene Chen, Joy Chua, Nicole Dungca, Catherine Goldberg, Isabel Gottlieb, Thi Ho, Olivia Hoffman, Nandini Jayakrishna, Tsvetina Kamenova, Franklin Kanin, Andrew Kurtzman, Cameron Lee, Hannah Levintova, Abe Lubetkin, Christian Martell, Taryn Martinez, Joy Neumeyer, Nathalie Pierrepont, Alexander Roehrkasse, Jessica Rotondi, Marielle Segarra, Robin Steele, Nick Werle, Allissa Wickham, Meha Verghese Sports Staff Writers Benjy Asher, Andrew Braca, Han Cui, Amy Ehrhart, Jason Harris, Kaitlyn Laabs, Eliza Lane, Kathleen Loughlin, Alex Mazerov, Megan McCahill, Marco Santini, Tom Trudeau, Steele West Business Staff Dana Feuchtbaum, Kent Holland, Alexander Hughes, Mariya Perelyubskaya, Viseth San, Kaustubh Shah, Jon Spector, Robert Stefani, Lily Tran, Lindsay Walls Design Staff Brianna Barzola, Jihan Chao, Aurora Durfee, Sophie Elsner, Christian Martell, Matthew McCabe, Ezra Miller Photo Staff Stuart Duncan-Smith, Austin Freeman, Tai Ho Shin Copy Editors Ayelet Brinn, Catherine Cullen, Erin Cummings, Karen Evans, Jacob Frank, Ted Lamm, Lauren Levitz, Cici Matheny, Alex Mazerov, Ezra Miller, Joy Neumeyer, Madeleine Rosenberg, Lucy Stark, Meha Verghese

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CORRECTION An article in The Herald April 19 (“Game of the week: baseball versus Harvard”) incorrectly identified James Cramphin ’07 as a baseball team tri-captain. Devin Thomas ’07 is a tri-captain. CORRECTIONS POLICY The Brown Daily Herald is committed to providing the Brown University community with the most accurate information possible. Corrections may be submitted up to seven calendar days after publication. COMMENTAR Y POLICY The staff editorial is the majority opinion of the editorial board of The Brown Daily Herald. The editorial viewpoint does not necessarily reflect the views of The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. Columns, letters and comics reflect the opinions of their authors only. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR POLICY Send letters to letters@browndailyherald.com. Include a telephone number with all letters. The Herald reserves the right to edit all letters for length and cannot assure the publication of any letter. Please limit letters to 250 words. Under special circumstances writers may request anonymity, but no letter will be printed if the author’s identity is unknown to the editors. Announcements of events will not be printed. ADVER TISING POLICY The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. reserves the right to accept or decline any advertisement at its discretion.

O PINIONS TUESDAY, APRIL 24, 2007

PAGE 11

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Teachers: The answer to a failing public education system MICHAEL RAMOS-LYNCH OPINIONS COLUMNIST In the 1954 ruling for Brown v. Board of Education, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that “separate but equal” was inherently unconstitutional. However, in 2007, America’s public school system is still segregated by income and access to highly qualified teachers. According to the North Central Regional Educational Laboratory, a federally funded laboratory, “There is a striking imbalance between the funds available to high-poverty schools and those serving more affluent areas.” The effects of the inequality of funding available to schools are far-reaching and extremely negative. Numerous studies suggest that teachers and counselors who work in schools that receive less funding, as well as schools that are predominantly comprised of students of color, have lower expectations for their students. The evidence suggests that Latino and African-American students are being punished with jail time due to an educational system that is obviously failing to meet their needs. According to Education Statistics Quarterly, Caucasian and Asian fourth-grade, eighthgrade and 12th-grade students score higher on reading exams than do African-American and Latino students. Across the three grades in 1998, between 39 and 47 percent of White students were at or above the proficient level, compared with 10 to 18 percent of African American students and 13 to 26 percent of Latino students. Poverty intensifies the education gap: The National Center for Children in Poverty reports that 61 percent of both Latino and African-American children are members of low-income families, compared to 26 percent of white children and 28 percent of Asian children. The combination of an inade-

quate education and poverty greatly restricts the opportunity for many students of color to lead successful and law abiding lives. In fact, according to a Washington Post op-ed by Andrew Block and Virginia Weisz, California state correctional ofﬁcials use the percentage of children who read at a fourth-grade level or lower to help gauge the number of prison beds they will need in the future. California bases the policy on research that indicates

lassrooms. In 2004, Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., a leading research ﬁrm, found that “TFA teachers make more progress in both reading and math than would typically be expected in a year.” Similarly, Breakthrough Collaborative offers internships for high school and college students to teach low-income and high potential middle school students. Breakthrough Collaborative and TFA are

The future of equality greatly depends on highly qualiﬁed teachers dedicating themselves to lowincome areas and schools with high concentrations of students of color. that students who do not graduate are nearly four times more likely to be arrested than students who do. Thus, it should be no surprise that the Public Policy Institute of California reports that the state’s male prisoners are 38 percent Latino and 27 percent African-American. To argue that equality and opportunity are alive and well in America is not only a tired statement, but an incorrect one as well. Numerous programs have developed around the country to start meeting these children’s needs, such as Breakthrough Collaborative and Teach for America, bring highly qualiﬁed and passionate teachers to low-income classrooms full of high-potential students. TFA is a two-year program that puts recent college graduates into poorly funded

making large strides in closing the education gap in America. However, President George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act is a different story. NCLB was passed by Congress in 2002 — its supporters pledged to completely eliminate the education gap by 2014 and to have all children in the public education system to have “proﬁcient” reading and math skills. The act gives parents more ﬂexibility in choosing where their children go to school, increases the standards of accountability for state education systems by increasing testing and requires schools to distribute contact information to military recruiters in exchange for federal funding. According to the New York Times, since NCLB was implemented in 2002, the percentage of black

eighth graders who read “proficiently” has dropped from 13 percent to 12 percent. Additionally, the number of poor eighth grade students who read proficiently has dropped from 17 percent to 15 percent. It is abundantly clear that NCLB is not on its way to meeting its goals by 2014. The evidence suggests that programs which increase the amount of highly-qualified teachers in underserved classrooms are one of the most effective ways of closing the education gap. Eric Hanushek, Chairman of the Executive Committee for the Texas Schools Project at the University of Texas-Dallas, concluded that the quality of the teacher is a major factor in increasing student test scores. Robert Ferguson, senior lecturer at the London Institute of Education, found that teachers who scored higher on teaching exams were more likely to produce significant gains in student achievement than their lower scoring counterparts. The future of equality greatly depends on highly qualified teachers dedicating themselves to low-income areas and schools with high concentrations of students of color. A major factor preventing capable teachers from solving the education gap is the ridiculously small amount that most teachers earn. According to the American Federation of Teachers, the average teacher salary is about $47,000. Those qualified to close the education gap are also often qualified to take much higher paying corporate jobs, and they usually do. The future of our country’s success depends on our ability to increase the amount of highly qualified teachers in the most underserved classrooms. In order to do so, we must stop expecting to imprison children who fall victim to a public education system rife with inequality and start spending more on recruiting highly qualified teachers to low-funded public schools.

Michael Ramos-Lynch ’09 approved this message.

“Life exception” not enough in abortion laws BY LILY SHIELD GUEST COLUMNIST In her letter to The Herald (“Garber ‘07 criticizes Court decision on abortion,” Apr. 23), Emily Garber ‘07 states that the recently upheld ban on so-called “partial-birth” abortion allows no exception for use of the procedure in situations where a woman’s life is in danger. Contrary to this particular alarmist rumor, the ban actually “does not apply to a partial-birth abortion that is necessary to save the life of a mother whose life is endangered by a physical disorder, physical illness, or physical injury...” according to Justice Anthony Kennedy’s Opinion of the Court. However, Garber is right that the ban holds serious implications for women’s safety. The banned procedure, known medically as intact dilation and evacuation, is typically used only in late-term pregnancies when complications have arisen and either fetal or maternal health is already in jeopardy. These cases warrant exceptional care and the “life exception” is not sufﬁcient.The landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision Roe vs. Wade, which ruled that abortion could not be criminalized in any state, set the precedent that every restriction on abortion access must contain an exception for women’s health. Until April 18, 2007, this precedent was upheld in every attempt to regulate abortion. Notably, the Supreme Court decision in Stenberg vs. Carhart (2000) struck down a nearly identical “partial-birth” abortion ban in Nebraska for the lack of a health exception only seven years ago. The Court

has changed since that time, with the crucial swing vote of Sandra Day O’Connor replaced by abortion opponent Samuel Alito. Kennedy’s statement feebly attempts to distinguish this ruling from Stenberg by claiming “the Act’s language differs from that of the Nebraska statute,” but there is actually no significant difference in either the scope or the implications of the two cases.The precedent laid out in Stenberg states that an exception for women’s health is always required as long as “substantial medical authority supports the proposition that banning a particular abortion procedure could endanger women’s health.” Kennedy, in an indefensibly false claim, declared that there is a medical consensus that the banned procedure is never medically necessary. Actually, major factions of the medical community have officially protested the ban and the testimony of those few doctors who do support it is dubious at best. As Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg recalled in her dissent, “none of the six physicians who testified before Congress had ever performed an intact D&E. Several did not provide abortion services at all; and one was not even an OB/ GYN.” Meanwhile, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists opposes the ban because it “will gravely endanger the health of women in this country” while “disregard(ing) the medical consensus that intact D&E is safest and offers significant benefits for women suffering from certain conditions that make the potential complications of non-intact D&E especially dangerous.” Many other comparable health authorities have made similar statements, including the American Public Health As-

sociation, the American Medical Women’s Association, the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals, and the National Women’s Health Network. None of these organizations are pro-choice special interest groups; they are all major medical organizations of comprehensive scope. No comparable associations supported the ban, only special interest pro-life groups. Why is a life exception not sufﬁcient? Consider the theoretical difference between “it is likely that she will die continuing pregnancy” and “she’ll probably survive, but will be disabled for life.” The difference is there, but vague. Doctors’ diagnoses are rarely 100 percent certain, and death sentences are not always reliable or determinable. So how likely will the chance of death have to be for the procedure to be allowed? Will the doctor’s word be trusted, or will the pregnancy need to be evaluated in front of a judge? Seeing as doctors can face up to two years’ jail time under this ban, it may be desirable to undergo court proceedings before the abortion to avoid prosecution or lawsuit. Needless to say, court proceedings take time, and pregnancy does not afford the luxury of waiting. Furthermore, sometimes health complications arise suddenly and must be handled immediately using doctors’ discretion. Isn’t it likely that their professional authority may be impeded in these moments as they consider whether they may go to jail for providing what they deem to be the safest possible care? How severe will a health risk have to be before it becomes a life risk? Are these really questions that are best decided by politicians? There are countless other reasons why this ruling ﬂies in the face of all log-

ic. There’s the fact that the ban likely won’t save a single fetus, as it only bans a method of abortion, not the act itself. Other methods make no difference to the fetus but are more dangerous for some women. There’s the fact that this ban has only gained so much popular support among moderates because the politicized descriptions of abortion procedures sound shocking and barbaric. One would hope that in the 21st century, we would not defy medical authority to outlaw a procedure because it makes us feel queasy. There’s the fact that late-term abortions are almost exclusively performed on wanted pregnancies that have gone terribly wrong either on the maternal or fetal end. What does it accomplish to add another complication to an experience that is already heart-wrenchingly difﬁcult? There’s the fact that this ruling can easily provide a jumping-off point for legal control not only of abortion methods, but of all pregnancy decisions. For example, if the government can decide what abortion procedure is best for the fetus (since the decision was clearly not made in the interest of the mother) what prevents them from mandating delivery by Caesarean section, which is more invasive and dangerous than vaginal delivery for women, yet safer for the fetus in some cases? This ban is illogical, wrongheaded and dangerous on all fronts. It does not protect fetuses, and it certainly does not protect women. It succeeds only in further eroding reproductive freedom at the grave expense of women’s health and safety.

Lily Shield ‘09 reports, you decide.

S PORTS T UESDAY TUESDAY, APRIL 24, 2007

PAGE 12

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

No. 3 Quakers outlast w. lax

Why no one should be watching the NBA playoffs

BY MEGAN MCCAHILL SPORTS STAFF WRITER

In a game that featured a battle between sisters, the women’s lacrosse team used solid team defense to stay close to No. 3 University of Pennsylvania, but despite limiting the Quakers to just three goals in the first half, the Bears ultimately lost 12-4, allowing Penn to secure the Ivy League title outright. “I actually think we were more ready to play Penn than we have been against any other team,” said Lindsey Glennon ’07, who had three goals in the game. “We had nothing to lose, and they had everything (to lose), so we were just ready to play hard and have fun and show the No. 3 team that we were just as good if not better.” The Bears set the defensive tone of the game early and held the Quakers scoreless for nearly the first seven minutes of play. Brown focused specifically on shutting down Penn’s leading scorer, Ali DeLuca, the younger sister of Brown’s Krystina DeLuca ’09. “My sister is my best friend, and we have always been on the same team, so playing against her was a little weird,” said DeLuca,

We’re very young, but we’re starting to realize we can play with the best teams in the country.” However, the Bears could not continue to hold Penn off at the opening of the second half. Four different Quakers scored in the ﬁrst seven minutes of the ﬁnal pe-

When you’re talking about basketball, it doesn’t get much better than the NCAA tourney and it doesn’t get much worse than the NBA. So if you’re anything like me, you probably Shane Reil packed up your The Reil Deal Nike Shocks at the end of March and traded ‘em in for a Louisville Slugger. This year we have teams tanking the entire season for a draft pick. We have refs getting suspended for ejecting players off the bench and Boston’s own Sebastian Telfair is being brought up on gun charges. These are the hot stories in the NBA, and rightfully so, because they are a lot more interesting than the actual games. So what’s the Reil deal with today’s NBA? For starters, there’s way too much emphasis on the league’s proliﬁc scorers. Seriously, how many times do we have to read “Kobe scores 50 in Lakers loss” before we remember that basketball is a team

continued on page 8

continued on page 9

Jacob Melrose / Herald

Despite a raucous cheering section and three goals from Lindsey Glennon ’07, Brown could not outlast the No. 3 Quakers.

who forced two turnovers in the game. “But when I was guarding her, she was just another player. After the game, we went back to being sisters.” While Brown succeeded in stopping the other DeLuca, holding her scoreless for the ﬁrst time all season, they could not stop the rest of the Quakers. After the

initial seven-minute stalemate, Brown allowed three goals in a 10minute span. The two teams then stiﬂed each other for the remaining 13 minutes of the half, and Brown went into halftime only down 3-0. “Our defensive play was amazing,” DeLuca said. “Our team’s conﬁdence has really increased.

Softball drops two doubleheaders to Harvard BY AMY EHRHART SPORTS STAFF WRITER

The softball team missed Spring Weekend festivities on campus this weekend while it played away at Harvard, losing two doubleheaders, 4-0 and 6-1 on Saturday and 3-0 and 6-1 on Sunday. The team is now 7-28 on the season. The bright spot on Saturday was a homer by ﬁrst baseman Liz Anderson ’07 in the sixth inning of the second game, when she hit a shot to center. “(The pitch) was up and away, and I just went with it — I was just trying to get a hit,” Anderson said. The Bears struggled getting the ball out of the inﬁeld, and Anderson’s hit was one of only three hits

they had in that game and one of seven on the day. “We hit the ball harder than in the past, we had a lot of solid contact,” Anderson said. “We just kept hitting it right at them.” The Bears only struck out eight times on Saturday, while leaving nine on base. Michelle Moses ’09 and Jessica Iwasaki ’10 pitched complete games for the Bears on Saturday, striking out three and four respectively. On Sunday, Iwasaki held the Crimson to just three runs in ﬁve innings of work in the ﬁrst game, and then she came in to relieve Kristen Schindler ’09 in the second game. Schindler put in a solid showing of 3.2 innings, giving up only two runs and striking out two while

walking one in the last game. “I felt really good, and it was better for me because the team had a lot more energy,” Schindler said. Brown’s lone run in the ﬁnal game of the weekend started off with a double by Kelsey Wilson ’09. “They had put in another pitcher we’d faced previously and I got a hold of one,” Wilson said. “It was great to do that because I felt like we were hitting the ball well, we just hit a lot of hard shots right to players . . . nothing was really going through.” Next up was Amanda Asay ’10, who hit a hard ball between the Crimson’s shortstop and third baseman. The third baseman misplayed continued on page 8

W. water polo dominates before running into hungry Hawks BY BENJY ASHER SPORTS STAFF WRITER

The women’s water polo team cruised to the title game in the Northern Division Championship but was disappointed coming up against No. 12 Hartwick College, losing 18-6. Despite the loss, the team’s second-place finish was good enough to earn a berth in the Eastern Championships at Princeton next weekend. On Saturday, the Bears easily won their first two games, outscoring their opponents 39-2. In the first game, they faced Utica College, which they had beaten 20-2 just a week earlier. The re-

match yielded a similar result, as Bruno shut out the Pioneers in a 21-0 victory, the team’s ﬁrst shutout of the season. Eleven players scored for Brown against Utica, with Lauren Presant ’10 leading the way with four goals. Sarah Glick ’10 added three, and Alexis Blaxberg ’08 led the Bears’ defensive attack with six steals. In the second game on Saturday, Brown faced Queens College, which it had also defeated by a score of 13-3 a week earlier. On Saturday, the Bears came away with another convincing win over continued on page 9

NHL offers a better product M. tennis splits two matches The NHL NHL’s Stanley Cup Playoffs offer a captivating and rewarding way to spend your sports time in the next month Chris Peterson — both inside CP4 the arenas and on television and radio. If you watched the fans inside Edmonton’s Rexall Place chant the words of “O Canada” during last year’s ﬁnals and did not feel shivers run down your spine, you should probably check your pulse. The intensity in the arenas of established hockey teams during the postseason cannot even be compared to the NBA — and even my beloved MLB — whose fan base has become frustratingly commercialized, superﬁcial and corporate over the past few seasons. For New Englanders, the seats behind canvas alley at Fenway are known as the “J-Lo seats” because of Jenny from the block’s patronage. “Sweet

Caroline” — along with the intonations of “oh, oh, oh” — is sung at places like the “Q” in Cleveland during Cavaliers games. Sure, hockey has some of this PR-dictated nonsense (the somehow-controversial Islanders’ Ice Girls come to mind) but overall one gets a much more authentic and pure sports experience at an NHL game — even more so during the playoffs. Outside of the arena, the NHL product is improving — if you can ﬁnd it on your television. I’m fortunate enough to get Versus (a TV channel, by the way) on the dish, but if you live on campus, TV might not be an option. Analysts have suggested that HDTV will make hockey a more appealing television product. I concur fully. The resulting HD picture is sharper than Jay Mariotti’s eyebrows, and there’s continued on page 8

BY ERIN FRAUENHOFER ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR

The men’s tennis team put an end to its Ivy League losing streak over the weekend, winning a 5-2 match against Dartmouth on Friday. But after defeating the Big Green, the Bears fell 5-2 to Harvard on Sunday, leaving their Ivy record at 1-5 with one match remaining. “We got our ﬁrst win (of the Ivy League season), which was great,” said co-captain Dan Hanegby ’07. “It was a must-win for our dignity.” The Bears swept the doubles matches against the Big Green to take an early lead. At ﬁrst doubles, the No. 55-ranked pair of Hanegby and Saurabh Kohli ’08 overwhelmed David Waslen and Daniel Freeman by a score of 8-3. Co-captain Eric Thomas ’07 and Chris Lee ’09 soundly defeated Jeffrey Schechtman and Steve McGaughey 8-4 at

second doubles, and at third doubles, Zack Pasanen ’07 and Noah Gardner ’09 routed Justin Tzou and Andy Kim 8-3. Brown took the first four singles matches to solidify the victory. Hanegby had a three-set victory over Waslen at first singles, winning by a score of 6-3, 6-7, 1-0 (10-8). “I played pretty well, even though it was windy and (Waslen) had a big serve,” Hanegby said. At second singles, Kohli dismantled Freeman 6-3, 6-3, while at third singles, Thomas overpowered Schechtman 6-3, 6-2. Pasanen destroyed McGaughey at fourth singles, taking a 6-2, 6-0 win. The Bears dropped the final two singles matches. Gardner lost the fi fth singles match against Ari Gayer in a third-set super-breaker, recording a final score of 6-4, 5-7, continued on page 9

Jacob Melrose / Herald File Photo

Co-captain Dan Hanegby ’07 took three of his four matches over the weekend to help Brown to a victory over Dartmouth.