Wednesday, September 12, 2007

The Brown Daily Herald Wednesday, S eptember 12, 2007

Volume CXLII, No. 66

Since 1866, Daily Since 1891

Students sound off on the worst classrooms

By Nicole Dungca Staf f Writer

If you’re tired of sweating for hours in a crowded Metcalf Auditorium lecture during a long, warm afternoon, you’re not alone.

Lack of well-functioning heating, cooling and ventilation systems topped the list of complaints, and Metcalf Auditorium was repeatedly mentioned as one of the worst classrooms on campus, in a student survey conducted over the summer by a University committee aimed at assessing the quality of University classrooms.

A report with recommendations to improve classrooms on campus, complete with a budget recommendation, will likely be given to senior administrators within a month, said Associate Provost Pamela O’Neil, the head of the University’s classroom task force.

“We have enough support from the upper administration that we’ll

Planning for Faunce campus center to begin this fall

be able to move fairly quickly,” she said.

According to O’Neil, any improvements would be made over winter or summer break, when students and faculty are not using the rooms.

Though the committee has not yet come to a consensus on the budget for the recommendations, the cost of the renovations will likely be in the millions, O’Neil said.

In April, Provost David Kertzer ’69 P’95 P’98 appointed the classroom task force to improve the University’s classrooms, starting by collecting feedback from both students and faculty.

The task force remains a high priority for the University. O’Neil mentioned support from President Ruth Simmons for the effort, and Kertzer commented on the progress of the committee at a Sept. 5 faculty meeting. continued on page 5

By Debbie Lehmann Senior Staf f Writer

The building retro-commissioning process, which upgrades outdated insulation and other elements of older buildings, began this summer as well.

“We’ve hired consultants to go in, document each building and come back with recommendations that can be implemented immediately,” Powell said. “At the same time, they’re looking at operational changes,” like new technologies and new systems that may increase the building’s efficiency in the long-run.

“This is where a significant amount of our energy savings are, and where the focus of EEAC recommendations were — getting our

Students will be able to take an active role in the design of the Stephen Robert Campus Center, a $15 million project that will renovate Faunce House into an “inviting, warm and flexible space,” according to Russell Carey ’91 MA’06, interim vice president for campus life and student services.

An advisory group of students, faculty and staff formed last spring will be a key resource for the planning of the new center, Carey said.

In addition, a combination of focus groups and public meetings will allow everyone on campus to provide input on the architect’s plans.

The Corporation will likely choose an architect by the end of the semester, Carey said. Director of Student Activities Ricky Gresh, who will help to coordinate the advisory board, said the group hopes to begin discussion in October. A timeline for the project will be developed after the design phase, which will take most of this year.

The Robert Campus Center, which was approved last spring, will “extend far beyond the walls of Faunce House,” Gresh said. The project comes amid the ongoing renovation of the J. Walter Wilson building, which sits across Waterman Street from Faunce. The renovations will centralize a number of student resources within Wilson, including Psychological Services and the chaplain’s office. The mailroom may also move to Wilson, freeing up space in Faunce and encouraging students to take advantage of the resources available across the street, according to Undergradu-

continued on page 4

continued on page 4

Eunice Hong / Herald File Photo

J. Walter Wilson will be renovated to centralize student resources as a counterpart to the new campus center.

Energy efficiency measures gain steam with $5m in funding

By Taryn Martinez Staff Writer

Armed with a budget of $5 million for energy efficiency this fiscal year, Facilities Management this summer began implementing initiatives suggested by the Energy and Environmental Advisory Committee.

Those recommendations, made last spring in a report to the University, included replacing the Central Heat Plant’s fuel oil with natural gas and purchasing carbon offsets in a socially responsible way.

“Since the students left, we’ve made a lot of progress in getting things started,” said Energy Manager Chris Powell. “We are definitely

getting to the point where some of these big projects are moving forward.”

Before receiving the $5 million for the efficiency projects, Facilities Management had only $2 million earmarked for lighting investment and “incidental funds,” Powell wrote in an e-mail to The Herald.

One of the most significant projects undertaken so far was switching from fuel oil to the less carbon-intensive natural gas in the Central Heat Plant, which is located on Lloyd Avenue near the OlneyMargolies Athletic Center, Powell said.

While not a full changeover — the plant will continue to use fuel oil during the coldest parts of the win-

ter — the switch will significantly increase energy efficiency at the Central Heat Plant.

Another initiative includes replacing steam traps — which keep steam inside radiators until it condenses and can no longer be used for heating until reheated at the plant — to increase energy efficiency. If traps aren’t working properly, steam and energy are wasted.

Before the traps can actually be updated, however, “every single steam trap in every building” must be inventoried, Powell said. The preliminary work that started on this initiative over the summer should be done in another week.

“It’s a big undertaking — it’s a big campus,” Powell said.

Hunt ’10 launches admission advice site

BY Ashley Chung Staff Writer

Herald File Photo

The director of the Office of Admission expressed enthusiasm for Hunt’s ‘10 Web site, set to launch at the end of this month.

INSIDE:

3

CAMPUS WATCH

www.browndailyherald.com

Tree people Students at UC Berkeley have taken to the trees in a protest over a planned stadium expansion.

5

CAMPUS NEWS

Powerful feet A University professor is helping develop robotic limbs for wounded veterans.

FEATURE

When Andrew Hunt ’10 was researching and applying to colleges, he found that current students were always the best resource for admission advice.

Based on that experience, Hunt is now spearheading a student-run college admission Web site and admission service called Scholars for Students, which is set to launch at the end of September.

The goal of the Web site, according to Hunt, is to make college advising, applications and admission a “more affordable, friendly and smarter process in general.”

The site will rely on current college students who work as “scholars.”

It will eventually include blogs by each scholar in which prospective applicants can leave comments, as

11

OPINIONS

195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island

U. still lagging Ben Bernstein ’09 assesses the state of major campus issues and comes up with a few complaints.

well as a chat feature applicants can use to communicate with the scholars. Applicants will also be able to create a free account in which they can indicate which schools they plan to apply to. Based on the information in their account, they will then be able to read discussions and post in various “discussion pools” specific to each college or university.

Those applicants who choose to purchase a site membership will be assigned a specific scholar to counsel and advise them throughout the year — from application writing in September to admission decisions in March and April.

Hunt said he first came up with continued on page 4

12 SPORTS

Willard ’06 wowing Former track star Anna Willard ’06 competed at the World Championships in Japan last week.

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T oday Page 2

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

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Aibohphobia | Roxanne Palmer and Jonathan Cannon

We a t h e r

sunny 75 / 52

sunny 75 / 56

Menu Sharpe Refectory

Verney-Woolley Dining Hall

Lunch — Beef Tacos, Spanish Rice, Refried Beans, Spinach with Toasted Sesame Seeds, Raspberry Squares, Chocolate Frosted Brownies

Lunch — Gourmet Turkey Sandwich, Italian Marinated Chicken, Tomato Quiche, Glazed Carrots, Frosted Brownies

Dinner — Spiced Beef Ribs, Vegan Vegetable Risotto, Broccoli Spears, Beets in Orange Sauce, Sourdough Bread, Chocolate Sundae Cake

Dinner — Rotisserie Style Chicken, Sweet and Sour Tofu, Sticky Rice with Edamame Beans, Polynesian Ratatouille, Chocolate Sundae Cake

Sudoku

But Seriously | Charlie Custer and Stephen Barlow

Nightmarishly Elastic | Adam Robbins

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

Disambiguation | Daniel Byers

RELEASE DATE– Wednesday,©September 12, 2007 Puzzles by Pappocom

Los Angeles Times Daily oCrossword Puzzle C r o ssw rd Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis ACROSS 1 Frisbee, e.g.

5 Laundry liquid 11 Physician’s org.

14 When Tevye sings “If I Were a Rich Man” 15 College bud 16 Part of a train 17 Stat keeper 19 “Prime Time Country” airer 20 Smart remark 21 Severe 23 Beast of burden 26 Pet protectors 30 Nicole, to Tom 32 Ski slope sights 33 Delighted 34 Dating activities 36 “So easy a caveman can do it” company 38 It can follow the first words of 17-, 26-, 52- and 59Across 39 Red Sea country 43 IRS employee 46 It may be hard to swallow 47 Write off gradually 50 “Chico and the Man” setting 52 Cleaned but good 54 Harden 55 “__ Easy”: Ronstadt hit 56 Sci-fi craft 58 Shout of discovery 59 Weather factor 66 Zip 67 “The Bathers” artist 68 Polish site 69 Lubbock-toLaredo dir.

70 Water ways 71 High roller?

DOWN 1 Brylcreem bit 2 Rocks at the bar 3 Penn, for one: Abbr.

4 Half of dix

5 Cooked, in a way 6 Jeweler’s tool 7 Real long spell 8 Check fig.

9 Cannes co.

10 Coat-of-arms science 11 Genuine 12 Chanted word 13 “Gunsmoke” star 18 Clothing fold 22 Coming-out places?

23 Vault cracker 24 Wheel shaft 25 Title river in a 1957 movie 27 Relatives on dad’s side 28 Zaire, now 29 Prime number factor 31 Gatekeeper’s requests, perhaps 35 One of the Balearic Islands 37 Motor type 40 Floor coverings 41 Fashion magazine 42 Tidy

44 Tommy Pickles’s younger brother on “Rugrats” 45 Reasons for madness, in a now-cult 1936 film 47 Indians, e.g.

48 “Wonderful!

Wonderful!” singer

49 Reduced 51 Fusses 53 Shroud of __ 57 Personal figs.

60 Suffix with hotel 61 Genetic letters 62 Hawaiian paste 63 Oil-rich fed.

64 Border 65 Ivy League nickname

100 Years of Solipsism | Adrienne Langlois

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NYU to open satellite campus in Abu Dhabi

Protesters in trees seek to block stadium expansion at UC Berkeley

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

By Oliver Bowers Campus Watch Editor

New York University plans to open a satellite campus in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, according to a senior faculty member who leaked the information to the press under the condition of anonymity.

“Everything we do at NYU in New York City in theory would be done on a much smaller scale (in Abu Dhabi),” the faculty member told Inside Higher Ed, a highereducation news Web site, in an Aug. 31 article.

The campus would be most comparable to the American University in Cairo or the American University of Beirut, a full undergraduate college with divisions in the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences, according to the article. It would have a research component as well as graduate programs some time after, the faculty member said.

Students in Abu Dhabi, a wealthy Persian Gulf emirate with large reserves of petroleum, would be encouraged to take classes in New York but would be able to receive a degree on the Abu Dhabi campus.

The faculty member told In-

side Higher Ed that the university hoped that several faculty members currently at NYU would teach on exchange at the new campus, or would instruct intensive classes held between semesters.

Faculty members in NYU’s Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies Department told The Herald they currently know little about the project.

A source involved in the university’s negotiations with government officials told the New York Times in an Aug. 31 article that university representatives are insisting that the school follow the same non-discrimination policy in place at the New York campus.

Representatives also expressed concerns about whether academic freedom comparable to that on the New York campus could exist in Abu Dhabi, according to Inside Higher Ed. The new college would be headed by Mariet Westermann, currently the director of the NYU Institute of Fine Arts. “She’s a brilliant scholar, an impressive, polished person, and she’s a woman, which makes a statement,” a senior faculty member told the Times.

Though the campus will bear the NYU name, it will be funded by the Abu Dhabi government.

NYU’s Abu Dhabi campus is the latest in a string of international satellite campuses that U.S. universities have set up across the globe. The Obser vator y on Borderless Higher Education — a London-based research unit of the Association of Commonwealth Universities in the United Kingdom — reports that, in 2006, 82 branch campuses had been set up worldwide, up from 24 in 2002, according to Inside Higher Ed. Over half of those were established by U.S. institutions.

Yale University is currently in talks with the Abu Dhabi government to set up an art institution in Abu Dhabi, according to United Press International.

Though Brown has not opened any branch campuses overseas, the University has recently made internationalization one of its chief priorities. A major report on internationalization was released by a University committee Monday, focusing on increasing international engagement in areas already strong at Brown.

Provost David Kertzer ’69 P’95 P’98 told The Herald that Brown’s internationalization ef for t will likely focus on building partnerships abroad rather than satellite campuses.

Smoking affects child behavior, study finds

By Adam Ziegler Daily Nebraskan (U. Nebraska)

(U-WIRE) LINCOLN, Neb. — Children born to mothers who smoke are more irritable, according to new research at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

The research, funded by a fiveyear $2.3 million grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, found that babies whose mothers smoked during pregnancy tended to have more trouble focusing than babies from mothers who didn’t smoke.

“At this stage in development, there were significant differences,” said Kimberly Espy, associate vice chancellor of research.

Espy began her research after doing similar studies on the effects of a mother’s cocaine use on her baby. Espy became interested in the effects of smoking because it’s more frequent than cocaine use.

“I wanted to look at a substance that’s legal and used consistently,” Espy said.

The research was preformed by studying pregnant women from diverse backgrounds, half who were smokers and half who were not.

After the babies were born, they went through a number of behavioral tests to measure their temperament and reactions to certain stimuli. The tests included talking to the babies, observing how they played with toys and changing their feeding schedule.

“They show the relation of how kids pay attention and how they regulate emotion,” Espy said.

Preliminar y results from these tests showed that babies from mothers who smoked had slower reaction times and tended to have trouble paying attention to one thing, which could lead to increased irritability.

“Babies who have an easier time controlling their attention are not as easily annoyed by every little thing in their environment,” said Sandra Wiebe, another UNL researcher involved in the study.

Wiebe said the nicotine in cigarettes seems to be the main cause for the behavior changes.

Nicotine in the mother’s system activates receptors in the baby’s brain that normally remain closed.

The baby’s brain has to adjust to these new receptors.

“The receptors guide how the brain develops,” Wiebe said.

The study also found that the number of times a mother smoked and how long into the pregnancy she smoked had an effect on the severity of her baby’s behavioral differences.

“The amount of difference we saw was directly proportional to the amount the mother smoked,” Espy said.

Espy said she hopes to get additional funding for the research to continue studying the babies for a longer period of time and to see if the mothers’ smoking habits have

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long-term impacts on their babies’ personalities.

“There are some early indicators of long-range effects,” Espy said.

Espy said that finding these early causes of children’s behavior will help treat behavioral problems that might arise later in life.

“It gives a leg up to understanding certain behaviors,” Espy said.

By Oliver Bowers Campus Watch Editor

Several dozen protesters have taken to the trees at the University of California at Berkeley to oppose the clearing of a nearly 100-year-old oak grove.

Several protesters have camped out in the branches of the trees in an attempt to block a planned expansion of California Memorial Stadium that will cut down two-thirds of the nearly 140 trees in the grove, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Aug. 30.

The tree-sitters, who have been rotating in and out of the trees since Dec. 1, say they won’t come down unless the university relents on its plans to remove the trees to build the $125-million athletic training facility, the Chronicle reported.

Last Wednesday, the university constructed a chain link fence surrounding the protesters in what school officials said was an effort to keep the tree-sitters safe from the almost 80,000 football fans who were due to arrive on Saturday.

But the protesters objected to the fence, which they said was intended to starve them out.

“By putting a fence around the grove, the university is tr ying to starve the tree-sitters and deprive them of water,” Stephan Volker, attorney for the tree-sitters and the California Oaks Foundation, told the

Chronicle. “They’ve drawn a noose around the First Amendment.”

The protesters have received food from supporters on the ground, with water and bathroom supplies hoisted up to them via ropes. But campus police cleared out the supporters when the fence was erected, leaving the tree-sitters marooned with a few energy bars and one or two bottles of water, one of the protest organizers, Doug Buckwald, told the Chronicle.

University of ficials said the fence was put in place for the protection of the protesters from upset football fans.

Dan Mogolov, a spokesman for UC Berkeley, told The Herald the protests over the stadium project were unnecessary.

“When the construction is complete, there will be more trees there than there are now,” he said, noting that the university has promised to plant three new trees for every one cut down in the grove.

The stadium addition has faced other challenges from members of the community. The city of Berkeley has filed suit against the university, saying the building, which is close to a fault line, would be unsafe in the event of an earthquake.

Mogolov said the university was “disappointed” the city had rejected offers of discussion on the subject, but he said the university believes it will “settle differences” in court.

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Planning for campus center to begin this fall continued from page 1 ate Council of Students President Michael Glassman ’09.

“The hope in the long run is that we have a robust program in Faunce where student performances, functions and events happen, and that right across the street there are offices that provide services to students,” Carey said.

Gresh said he hopes the campus center will become an informal meeting place for students — a place to go after class for coffee or a meeting. Ideally, the center will also centralize activities so students can, for instance, go to a performance after having class on the Main Green.

“One of the things we hear now is that you use Faunce if you’re using it for a purpose, but there’s not a lot of general use space,” Gresh said. “People clearly have an interest in using that facility, and the objective is to make this usable, flexible space.”

Carey called the center a “campus living room,” and Gresh said preliminary discussions have focused on the feel and function of the Blue Room. This atmosphere may be expanded throughout the building, he said.

Car ey emphasized the strengths of Faunce, noting its centrality on campus, but said the space “hasn’t been utilized in the best way it could be.” The lack of organized activities in the evening, for example, gives the building a deserted atmosphere and makes students feel like they shouldn’t be there at night, he said, adding that the organization of space is not ideal, and that noise from the stairwell is often audible in rooms

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

like Petteruti Lounge.

Many rooms in Faunce, like the Underground and Leung Gallery, are locked much of the time, and the building has spotty wireless Internet service, Gresh said.

In addition to making better use of this space and implementing technological improvements, the advisory committee will discuss weekend food options to supplement the Campus Market.

As far as design goes, “whatever happens, Faunce will be nicer than it is now,” Glassman said. But he added that even though the project is just a renovation and not a completely new building, he hopes the scope will be large enough to “center campus” and create “dramatic change.”

“I just hope we can make Faunce into the best it can be,” Glassman said. “If we find that what we really want to do with Faunce will cost more than $15 million, I hope they’re open to giving us the money to accomplish that.”

Glassman also said he hopes students will be “really heavily involved” in the design process.

“The Campus Center is specifically for us, so I hope we get a space everyone’s really happy with,” he said.

Though everyone on campus will have an opportunity to provide feedback on the architect’s plans, Carey stressed that the center will ultimately be a place for students and that students should have a large voice in revitalizing this key area of campus.

“Our hope is that you would be able to go into Faunce House at any time, day or night, and feel like it’s alive,” Carey said.

Hunt ’10 launches online college advice service continued from page 1 the idea for Scholars for Students last year when he was perusing the popular college admission Web site College Confidential. “It’s an awesome site with great information, and people get obsessed with it,” Hunt said. “But it’s not very well organized.” The other option — hiring a consultant — is beyond the financial means of many students.

“Why hire a college consultant for $200 per hour?” Hunt said. “It’s ridiculous.” Hunt said a scholar’s advice and guidance would cost only $550 for the whole year, which he called “pretty reasonable, compared to $3,000 for a year with a college consultant.”

Hunt worked 50 hours a week during the summer, teaching SAT courses and writing SAT prep questions to raise money for the project. He said all the work has been worthwhile so far and that general feedback for the site has been “overwhelmingly positive.” Though the site’s scholars are currently all Brown students, Hunt said he hopes to expand the service to include scholars from other colleges, assuming the Web site’s launch is successful.

Eva Shultis ’10 has worked with Hunt on preliminary drafts of text and ideas for the site. “I occasionally have an idea, but mostly it’s all him,” Shultis demurred, in reference to Hunt.

After the site is formally launched, Shultis will be in charge of editing the scholars’ blogs.

“I think the idea has enormous potential, though it might take some time for it to really take off,” Shultis said.

James Miller ’73, dean of admission at Brown, agreed that the site could be successful, saying it seemed like a “wonderful” resource for people. “There is, nationally, a glaring lack of college advice for students in certain parts of the country and in certain school systems,” Miller said. “A low-cost, clearly-organized site would be wonderful. I’d be very impressed.”

Christina Santana ’11 also thought Scholars for Students could be a great resource. “Coming from a public high school,” she said, “my guidance counselors stank.”

Santana said the approximately 1,600 students at her high school shared only four guidance counselors, so advice regarding college admission was extremely limited.

Santana said she consulted College Confidential occasionally, and the site was “entertaining” and “kept her attention.” But she also found it somewhat poorly organized. “It would have been great to have someone looking over my applications and answering questions during the process,” Santana said.

As a first year international student at Brown, Eun-Young Jeong ’11 also said a resource like Scholars for Students would have been helpful when she was applying to colleges.

Because she went to high school in Vienna, Austria, she had limited access to information about the American “college experience.”

“Though I did get information about application deadlines,” Jeong said, “I had no real sense of what each college was like.” Jeong said a site such as Scholars for Students could be helpful for international students coming from schools with less information regarding the U.S. college admissions process.

Dawn Ferranti, a guidance counselor at Central High School in Providence, was less optimistic about the help such a consulting service could offer high school students. “Because we’re a generally low-income, innercity school,” Ferranti said, “the students here don’t use those kinds of services.”

She said the school already offers many free resources and services for those students who are motivated to take advantage of them, including free SAT prep classes and information sessions on applications and financial aid as well as local college fairs. “If you have to pay anything — even $5 or $10 — a lot of kids just wouldn’t use it,” Ferranti said.

U. earmarks $5m to improve campus energy efficiency continued from page 1 buildings more efficient,” Powell said. “We’ll be putting a lot of funds into that.”

Facilities Management has continued its improvement of Brown’s outdated high-temperature water loop on campus by replacing more piping this summer, Powell said.

Higher insulation levels should prevent leakage, saving energy and money.

Kurt Teichert, lecturer in environmental studies and environmental stewardship initiatives manager, said those improvements are “a good example of the type of things that every campus, every household, needs to do to reduce energy.”

“They’re not as flashy as putting some solar panels on a roof, but it really addresses fundamental uses of energy,” he added.

Teichert said it is critical for Brown to deal with reducing energy demand, which can be done both by educating the community about what it can do and by setting a good example through addressing fundamental problems, like poorly insulated windows.

New efforts will build on past ones — over the past five to 10 years, Brown has implemented conservation measures that, on a cumulative basis, have saved 90 million kilowatts, Powell said, adding that “at

today’s electricity costs of 12 cents per kilowatt-hour, that means we avoided spending an additional $10.8 million from the installation of the energy efficiency measures.”

Nathan Wyeth ’08, organizer of the student-run climate-neutrality group emPOWER, said more must be done to conserve energy on campus for environmental reasons.

“I think that, from our perspective, it’s great that they’ve gone ahead with these projects, but what’s most important is the goal that they set and the commitment they make in terms of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and in terms of making Brown climate neutral,” he said.

Wyeth stressed the need for Brown to achieve more than increased energy efficiency — for example, to commit to becoming climate neutral.

“We just hope that the University doesn’t see this as a replacement for a University-wide goal,” Wyeth said. “This is one of the pieces used to get there.”

The Internationalization Committee, he said, set global environmental change as an issue for the University to focus on in its report released Monday, including expanding research opportunities and course offerings in the area.

“We think that implementing things like that, to create a greener school, will make Brown a leader

in this field,” Wyeth said. “We want them to set an example to the community, to the city and to our peer institutions that we’re going to set this goal and we’re going to figure out how to achieve that.”

There are still more projects to come, Powell said.

“The big significant investment we’re hoping to create is a co-generation plant that operates year-round,” he said.

Co-generation plants, unlike traditional plants, are able to make two products at once. They can, for example, produce electricity while providing heat, steam or air conditioning to campus when needed, Powell said. Traditional plants are inefficient because they waste their heat byproducts, he said.

The co-generation plant would also be powered by natural gas, which is much cleaner and less carbon-intensive than typical fuels, said Powell.

“There are things that can still be done around lighting and lighting controls,” Teichert said. He echoed Powell’s comment on addressing the idea of a campus co-generation plant as a next potentially large step.

“The fact of the matter is ... having an administration that is fully supporting us and helping us move their projects forward is terrific,” Powell said. “From my perspective, we’re in great shape.”

c ampus n ews page 5

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Brown, MIT, VA collaborate to make PowerFoot for vets

Students rank Brown’s worst classrooms

By Christian Martell Staf f Writer

Garth Stewart lost his left leg below the knee two years ago in an explosion in Iraq, where he was stationed in the Army. Now, he jokes that he’s fulfilled a childhood dream by becoming part-robot, with a new form of motorized prosthetic limb developed by researchers at Brown and elsewhere.

“C’mon, everyone wanted to be a cyborg,” said Stewart, now a sophomore at Columbia University.

He’s the second person to use the PowerFoot One, which was unveiled July 23 by the Center for Restorative and Regenerative Medicine, a partnership of Brown, the Providence Veterans Affairs Medical Center and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The project was funded by a $7.2 million grant in 2004 from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the Pentagon.

The center is directed by Professor of Orthopaedics Roy Aaron, who also helped develop the limb.

The center will soon move into a new, $6.9 million building at the Providence VA hospital, according to a Department of Veterans Affairs press release.

The researchers are seeking to develop advanced replacement limbs and conduct research in the field of “bio-hybrid” prosthetics at a

time when many soldiers like Stewart are returning from overseas with amputated limbs.

Hugh Herr, one of the PowerFoot’s inventors and an associate professor of media arts and sciences at MIT, was the first person to test the device — he is a double-amputee. The PowerFoot has a mix of sensors and specialized control algorithms that ensure the user stays balanced while walking, he said.

Herr and Stewart demonstrated walking with the artificial foot at the device’s public unveiling in July.

Stewart said the most noticeable difference in the prosthetic, which responds to pressures from the remaining section of the leg, versus other, less advanced models was that the PowerFoot allowed the person wearing it to stand straight while walking and that it did not put so much pressure on the hip.

“It’s kind of like having your leg back,” Stewart said of the project’s eventual goal: Linking the motorized prosthetic limbs directly to the brain using the BrainGate technology developed by Professor of Neuroscience John Donoghue PhD’79 P’09.

After the public unveiling of the foot, iWalk — a company co-founded

by Herr and a self-described “leader in wearable devices for human augmentation,” according to its Web site — decided to mass-produce the device, starting next summer.

thanks for reading

continued from page 1 “We’re going to be forming a fairly ambitious plan for quickening the pace of our classroom initiative,” he said at that meeting.

The committee of 11 includes O’Neil, Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron and representatives from other offices, including Facilities Management and the Registrar’s Office. A student representative, Tan Nguyen ’10, was also invited to one of the meetings, which were held almost weekly during the summer.

The committee’s recommendations will be based on suggestions from various members and the results of the online sur vey sent to undergraduate students by Bergeron in July. A total of 474 undergraduates responded. Faculty members took part in a similar survey, which 211 answered.

The survey results identified several large classrooms as some of the worst on campus, including Carmichael Auditorium in Hunter Laboratory, Foxboro Auditorium in Kassar House and Rooms 166 and 168 in Barus and Holley.

According to the survey results, students said the top four problems in classrooms were poor heating, cooling and ventilation systems, a

lack of flexible seating, a lack of work space and poor lighting.

Faculty members, however, were more concerned with the technological aspects of classrooms. While faculty respondents mentioned the problems top on students’ lists, they also noted poorly functioning audio-visual equipment and a lack of installed equipment as major issues.

Those results surprised some — at the Sept. 5 faculty meeting, Kertzer mentioned that the committee expected more students to complain about technology issues.

Andy Garin ’09, who did not take the survey, said classroom comfort was a significant concern.

“Making rooms easier to work in is more important than technology, to an extent,” he said. “Things like heating are more important for a good learning environment.”

The committee is especially eager to address the technology concerns and other classroom-related concerns because of faculty complaints. The task force aims to eventually have all classrooms up-to-date with functional projectors for presentations and movies, O’Neil said.

She also mentioned the possible implementation of interactive white

boards from SMART Technologies Inc., which allow users to control computer applications directly from the whiteboard’s display.

“We don’t think the students’ survey results make technology less of a priority. Instead, we’re going to hold both technology and environment issues as high priorities,” O’Neil said.

The committee has also talked extensively about increasing the number of classrooms on campus in order to better accommodate classes.

“We need a variety of rooms to meet the needs of all the different classes. An increase of smaller classes brings up a need for smaller classrooms,” said University Registrar Michael Pesta.

According to O’Neil, renovations to the J. Walter Wilson building and the future construction of the Creative Arts Center will help provide more classroom space.

Major work — including improvements to the heating, cooling and ventilation systems in some classrooms and the installation of new furniture — will probably take place next summer, said O’Neil. Smaller changes, such as re-carpeting and wall-painting, may begin over next year’s winter break, she said.

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Wednesday, September 12, 2007

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Third album marks turning point in 50 Cent’s career

By Chris Lee Los Angeles T imes

NEW YORK — The rapper’s rampage must have been a scary thing to behold: a destructive, reflexive reaction to bad news. But viewed another way, 50 Cent’s meltdown here last month also exists as an extreme demonstration of his commitment to excellence.

On Aug. 9, 50, hip-hop’s most combative, controversial superstar, was screaming down the phone at an executive from his label, Interscope Records, blind with rage that a video for one of the songs from his eagerly anticipated third album, “Curtis” (out Tuesday), had been leaked to the Internet.

Without warning, the multi-platinum-selling, muscular gangsta rapper (born Curtis Jackson III) ripped a 70-inch plasma TV off the wall of the executive suite at his G-Unit Records, smashing it to the floor.

Then, for emphasis, he hurled the BlackBerry he had been talking into full force at the window, shattering the glass, sending shards onto Manhattan’s 31st Street below.

To hear Jackson explain his actions, the outburst had nothing to do with the kind of channeled aggression that has defined his career; no “beef” was involved. Which is to say it wasn’t in response to a rap rival, even though 50 has exchanged disses with the Game, Lil Wayne and Cam’ron, among many other comers, on the way to establishing himself as hip-hop’s most vituperative — and, arguably, most successful — MC. Turns out 50 went ballistic over a perceived betrayal by Interscope marketers who, he says, continually have undercut his efforts to put out his music his way. “I’m frustrated at this point,” 50 Cent said, pacing like a caged panther across a black shag rug at the New York office of his street wear company, G-Unit Clothing, recently. “I feel like it’s impossible to deliver my record to the public the way I planned it. You don’t get a second chance at a first impression. It’s been destroyed already.”

Interscope Records officials declined to comment for this story.

The whole issue probably wouldn’t matter as much if it weren’t for the pressure-cooker situation 50 has put himself in with the release of “Curtis.” Since selling 12 million copies of his 2003 debut album, “Get Rich or Die Tryin’,” fan expectations have ratcheted up with each new release; many look to the rapper to set hip-hop’s creative and commercial standards. Add to that his own sky-high standards: The rapper views his 2005 album, “The Massacre,” as a disappointment for selling only 9.8 million.

“I know I can’t win ,” he said. “I’ve

experienced being the underdog in between every album. But it’s tough when they put you in competition with yourself. If you put me in competition with any of these other guys, I find that a lot easier than attempting to beat myself.”

Further, in a fractured hip-hop marketplace in which gimmicky Southern rap is the subgenre du jour and hard-core New York hip-hop has taken a back seat, the Queens, N.Y.native faces questions about continuing relevance. “The way hip-hop is right now,” said Vibe magazine Editor in Chief Danyel Smith, “it’s more difficult to keep an audience than to get one.”

And as the last artist to sell more than 1 million units in his album’s first week of release (“The Massacre” did 1.14 million in March 2005), 50 Cent has the added onus of being the person considered to have the strongest chance of doing so again — the guy industry observers look to to prove that the era of the album hasn’t drawn to a close. “The kids don’t care about albums. They want singles,” Smith said. “In these final days, 50’s album could be the last hurrah.”

As Chuck Creekmur, co-founder and chief executive of Allhiphop. com, sees it, 50’s approach has been to take the long odds. After all, the rapper survived life on the streets as a mid-level crack dealer, a stint in a correctional boot camp and getting shot nine times. “It’s the select few hip-hop artists that have sold more than 10 million,” Creekmur said.

“Once you hit that point, not only are expectations sky high, there’s only one way to go. But 50’s not the type of artist to sit back and acknowledge that doing another 10 million is impossible. I believe 50 is the most ambitious artist we’ve ever seen.”

Then there’s the challenge 50 Cent has extended to Kanye West, whose third album, “Graduation,” also (went) on sale Tuesday, head to head with “Curtis.” If West manages to outsell 50 in the first seven days, 50 has pledged to retire from recording as a solo artist. The two appear on the cover of Rolling Stone this month accompanied by the headline “Showdown! 50 Cent vs.

Kanye West. Who Will Be the King of Hip-Hop?” Although 50 remains resolute about his primacy and brushes aside questions about retirement — he has recorded another album set for release next year, titled “Before I Self Destruct,” after all — he admits the process of taking “Curtis” public has made him second guess his career goals.

“The launch of this record has been extremely uncomfortable for me,” 50 said. “Nothing has gone the way we planned. Maybe I’m at a point where, away from this actual competition, I’m feeling like I

courtesy of Los Angeles Times

50 Cent’s third album, “Curtis” was released Tuesday. It was released the same day as Kanye West’s new album, “Graduation.” If Kanye outsells him, 50 has pledged to retire from the rap game.

may need to explore some different things.”

In August, when 50 Cent wanted to release the head banger “I Get Money” as a single, he says the label instead “leaked” his pop crossover “Ayo Technology” (featuring Justin Timberlake and super-producer Timbaland), dividing his market presence.

Although both songs went on to become hits, the new album’s other singles released earlier this summer, “Amusement Park” and “Straight to the Bank,” have failed to show mass appeal. And none has become an international smash on the order of 50’s epochal “In Da Club.”

He blames the relatively tepid response to the first two singles on Interscope’s alternately interfering and indifferent approach to marketing him. “With this record launch, they’ve been pre-active rather than proactive,” he said. “They’re getting antsy.”

When the video for “Follow My Lead” (featuring Robin Thicke) — a clip that 50 personally recruited Dustin Hoffman to appear in — turned up on the Web site of its director, Bernard Gourley, the rapper felt it was time heads rolled.

Interscope executives “said the director of the project was so excited to work with 50 Cent he put it on his Web site and it went all over the place,” 50 Cent said. “We’re taking legal action against the production company. But initially, you can’t ex-

plain it to me.” (For his part, Gourley denies he leaked the video, saying someone hacked into his Web site to steal it.)

So upset was 50 Cent, he initially refused to take a phone call from confidant Eminem immediately after the BlackBerry rampage. “Marshall (Mathers, Eminem’s given name) called and goes, ‘Yo, just tell him I said get on the phone now,’ ” the rapper remembered. “And we ended up speaking for two hours. He’s had moments where he felt the same way I felt about the company on different levels.”

On the black-and-white cover photo of “Curtis,” 50 Cent clutches his furrowed brow in his hands, appearing at once visibly conflicted and imminently capable of snapping someone’s neck. Visually, it’s a departure from the images on his last two albums, shirtless vanity portraits that emphasized his heavily tattooed torso and massive biceps.

But if there’s one thing the rapper doesn’t seem to be agonizing over, it’s his new music. Although he has not allowed critics or reporters to hear “Curtis” prior to release, among the highlights 50 is willing to divulge: a song with Senegalese hip-hop crooner Akon called “I’ll Still Kill” and the rap a deux “Come & Go” with hip-hop’s most dynamic musical force, Dr. Dre. 50 credits Dre, along with Eminem, as the person who enabled his shot at the big time. But

the Queens MC’s most infamous “beef” was with Compton, Calif ., rapper the Game — another of Dre’s protege’s — putting the producer in the difficult position of either having to choose between favorites or trying to stay above the fray. In the end, Dre declined to contribute any music to the Game’s 2006 album. “Doctor’s Advocate,” while both producing and rapping on “Curtis.”

“It put him in an awkward space.

Dre didn’t care for it at all,” 50 said quietly. “See, Dre doesn’t like confrontation. He wanted it to go away.”

Robert Greene, author of the best- selling power politics compendium, “The 48 Laws of Power,” spent the better part of August shadowing 50, given total access to the rappermogul’s business machinations as research for the business self-help book the two are writing together, “The 50th Law.” As Greene sees it, the rapper’s frustration with Interscope boils down to the same hustler’s ambition that compelled 50 to buy an equity stake in Glaceau Mineral Water in 2004, which he sold to Coca-Cola in July for a reported $100 million to $400 million. “In his mind, he could go at any moment,” Greene said.

“He’s got this fatalism, and because of that he wants to get as much done as he can. He’s very competitive.

And he wants the biggest empire of anyone who’s emerged from hiphop.”

w orld & N ation WEDnesdAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2007

President Bush backs Petraeus pullout plan

BY MICHAEL D. SHEAR AND JONATHAN WEISMAN Washington Post

WASHINGTON — Plans by President Bush to announce a withdrawal of up to 30,000 U.S. troops from Iraq by next summer drew sharp criticism Tuesday from Democratic leaders and a handful of Republicans in Congress, who vowed to try again to force Bush to accept a more dramatic change of policy.

A second day of testimony by Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Iraq, and Ambassador Ryan Crocker yielded some of the most biting GOP objections since the president announced his troop buildup in January, with several Republicans saying that Petraeus’ proposal to draw down troops through the middle of next summer would result in force levels equivalent to where they stood before the increase began, about 130,000 troops.

After meeting with Bush Tuesday at the White House, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., expressed similar dismay with the Petraeus plan. The general has refused to commit to further reductions

until he can assess conditions on the ground next March.

Pelosi said she told Bush that he was essentially endorsing a 10year “open-ended commitment.”

Reid said the president wants “no change in mission — this is more of the same.”

White House aides said they are working on a 20-minute prime-time speech that Bush will give Thursday night, in which he will endorse the main elements of the strategy outlined by Petraeus and Crocker on Capitol Hill this week.

They said the president plans to emphasize that he is in a position to order troop cuts only because of the success achieved on the ground in Iraq, and that he is not being swayed by political opposition. Aides said that he plans to outline once again what he sees as the dire consequences of failure in Iraq and that he will make the troop cuts conditional on continued military gains.

Bush did not tell congressional leaders Tuesday exactly what he plans to announce Thursday night but left the clear impression that “he was going to follow Petraeus’ advice,” continued on page 8

Somber ceremony marks 9/11 anniversary

By Karla Schuster Newsday

NEW YORK — Under gray skies, in a park about a block away from the former World Trade Center site, the city observed the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in a ceremony marked by firsts and lasts. It was the first time the event has been held on a Tuesday — the same day as the 2001 attacks — and the first time it rained.

It was also first time the memorial was not held at Ground Zero, and very likely the last time relatives will be able to touch the ground where their loved ones died now that construction of new office towers is under way.

“I never went down to the pit before — I couldn’t,” said Frances English of Brooklyn, whose nephew, Police Officer Paul Talty, died on Sept. 11. But she and her husband, John, a retired police officer, descended and laid flowers in a circular pool erected for the memorial Tuesday. “This was our last chance.”

As in previous years, family members brought pictures of their loved ones, or wore T-shirts or buttons with their likenesses, or their names and birthdays. Flags from each state hung along the eastern edge of the ramp down to the pit.

Candidates use hearings as Iraq policy platform

By Dan Balz and Shailagh Murray The Washington Post

WASHINGTON — For four Democratic presidential candidates, Tuesday’s Iraq hearings offered a high-profile platform to challenge President Bush on Iraq. For the lone Senate Republican seeking the White House, the hearings were an opportunity to boost his struggling candidacy by embracing what the top two U.S. officials in Iraq said were signs of progress.

The nearly 10 hours of testimony by Army Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker before two Senate committees featured a decided political edge that was missing from their Monday appearances before a House committee.

As significant as the coming congressional debate over Bush’s policy may turn out to be, the 2008 presidential campaign may prove to be the ultimate forum for rendering judgment on the question asked repeatedly Tuesday: “What next?”

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., charged that accepting the two officials’ assessment of the success of the troop surge strategy required “the willing suspension of disbelief.”

Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., sounded what seemed like a conciliatory note by saying he was among those interested in a bipartisan compromise in Congress, but said Bush’s bravado has gotten in the way. He said public patience with the war was nearly exhausted. “At what point do we say, ‘Enough’?” he asked.

Meanwhile, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the lone Republican among the five candidates on stage Tuesday, threw down a stark challenge to the Democrats. “I believe we

page 7

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

cannot choose to lose in Iraq,” he said.

The sobering reality for all those seeking the presidency is that the ultimate decision on when and how to wind down the U.S. mission in Iraq may well fall to one of them.

The withdrawal timeline laid out by Petraeus means that, as the general election campaign enters its final months next year, there still may be as many as 130,000 troops left in Iraq.

For now, however, the fierce debate over Bush’s policy is what is shaping the presidential campaign dialogue. It is a debate waged not only between the major political parties, as McCain’s words suggested, but also among the Democratic candidates. The PetraeusCrocker hearings offered a chance for the Democratic candidates not just to probe and prod and challenge the assessments and recommendations of the two officials but also to highlight subtle distinctions among themselves, as well.

But their remarks differed in tone and focus, reflecting an uncertainty that has gripped Democrats as they debate how hard to press in the weeks ahead for legislation to force Bush to change strategy.

Sen. Christopher Dodd, DConn., a onetime war supporter, has aggressively courted antiwar voters in recent months by advocating a funding cutoff next spring — the most radical step in the legislative arsenal and one that stands zero chance of reaching the president’s desk, at least in the foreseeable future.

“I’m withholding support for proposals without clear timelines in them,” Dodd said during a break at the Foreign Relations Committee hearing. “Anything short of that I’ll oppose.”

Committee Chairman Joe Biden, D-Del., like Dodd a veteran lawmaker who lags badly in the

presidential polls, delivered a 15minute introductory statement that demonstrated his extensive knowledge of the conflict and the region and promoted his own solution for Iraq, partitioning the country into separate regions.

“We have to give the Iraqi warring factions a breathing room in regions with local control over the fabric of their daily lives — police, education, jobs, marriage, religion, as, I might add, the Iraqi constitution calls for,” Biden said. “A federal decentralized Iraq, in my view, is our last, best hope for a stable Iraq.”

Most Democratic leaders, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., now are willing to concede certain terms to moderate Republicans, such as their demand for a fixed withdrawal deadline, in order to pass a veto-proof bill. But war opponents in both the House and Senate are resisting such a strategic pivot, believing it would render any legislative outcome meaningless.

Obama, who opposed the original invasion, signaled his support for the consensus approach in remarks at the Foreign Relations Committee hearing Tuesday morning. He noted Bush’s recent comment to the Australian prime minister that the United States was “kicking A-S-S in Iraq.”

“It makes it very difficult then for those of us who would like to join with you in a bipartisan way to figure out how to best move for ward to extricate this from the day-to-day politics that infects Washington,” Obama lamented.

But Obama isn’t just looking for bipartisan compromise. He is seeking political advantage in his bid for the Democratic nomination, and plans an Iraq speech in Iowa continued on page 8

The circular pool, which contained two 6-foot-square frames meant to symbolize the two towers, quickly filled to overflowing with flowers. Some relatives wrote messages to their loved ones on the wooden sides of the pool, crossed themselves or knelt in silent prayer.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has presided over each of the anniversary events, said: “We come together again as New Yorkers and as Americans to share a loss that can’t be measured.”

In all, an estimated 3,500 relatives and friends attended the ceremony at Zuccotti Park, compared to 4,700 people last year, when the ceremony was held at Ground Zero and families had greater access to the pit.

The change in venue remained a sore spot with some family members Tuesday, who objected to the city’s position that construction at Ground Zero made it unsafe for the ceremony.

Instead, in a compromise with relatives, the city allowed family members to march down to a small area at the foot of a construction ramp as the names of the dead were read by first responders at Zuccotti Park.

“It was ver y different at the park,” said Imelda Williams, after

she marched into the pit to remember her son, Glenroy Neblett, 42, who worked at Cantor Fitzgerald.

“You didn’t feel the same spirit. It should be right here, as it always has been.”

Williams and her daughter, Leslianne, who both recently moved to Trinidad, have attended the ceremony every year.

“I lost my son here,” she said, “not over there.”

The first family members descended into the pit at 8:47 a.m.

— after a first moment of silence to mark when the first plane struck the north tower — and the last began to make their way down the ramp at 3:30 p.m.

Bob Schultz, the Port Authority site supervisor for the former trade center reconstruction project, was struck by the silence as families descended the ramp.

Unlike previous anniversaries, the signs of rebuilding are everywhere at Ground Zero. A large American flag hung from the newly laid foundation for the Freedom Tower. Three construction cranes stood idle near the memorial pool.

On any other day, the pit would be humming with activity.

“It’s quiet,” Schultz said, shaking his head. “It used to be like that all the time. But now, it’s never quiet here. Except today.”

Renowned parrot Alex, 31, dies

By Denise Gellene Los Angeles Times

Alex, the African Grey parrot who knew more than 100 words, could count to six and recognized shapes and colors, has died. The bird was 31 and appeared to have died of natural causes, said Dr. Irene Pepperberg, the scientist who trained and studied him for three decades.

Alex’s feats, which Pepperberg documented in dozens of papers in scientific journals, challenged the notion that only apes and perhaps dolphins were smart enough to understand human language. Alex did not merely mimic words but showed he grasped their meaning.

“He just broke all preconceived notions about bird brains,” said Pepperberg, who conducts her research at Brandeis University and Harvard University in Massachusetts.

Pepperberg, who was trained as a chemist, bought Alex from a pet shop in 1977, when the bird was 1 year old. Using a new technique, Pepperberg taught Alex to classify objects by their physical properties and group them by color or the material they were made from.

When presented with a tray of objects, Alex could identify which were blue, metal or round.

“This animal had concepts, not just labels, and some concept of numbers,” said Georg Streidter, an assistant professor of neurobiology who studies parrot cognition at the University of California, Irvine. Alex showed “these animals are smarter then we used to believe.”

Alex’s exploits were featured on numerous science programs, including an episode of the PBS Nature series called “Look Who’s Talking.”

In 1999, Pepperberg published her book, “The Alex Studies,” which described her research.

Some scientists have questioned whether Alex was as smart as he seemed. African Grey parrots are

very social, and some scientists argued Alex was guessing the correct answer from subtle cues he picked up from his trainers, although it was clear he was capable of making many mental connections.

“Alex’s abilities were — or should have been — a nail in the coffin of those who maintain that there is a qualitative discontinuity between human and nonhuman animals,” said David Barash, a professor of psychology at the University of Washington.

“The phrase ‘bird brain,’ still sometimes used as an epithet, is in fact a compliment. I’ll miss the stubborn little feathered bastard,” he said.

Pepperberg took advantage of the African Grey’s innate sociability, training Alex by having him watch her tell a human what to do.

When he finished eating, he said “cork,” asking for the cork that was used to clean his bill. When he got tired of sitting on a researcher’s shoulder, he squawked “wanna go to the gym,” meaning he wanted to retreat to his exercise stand. His word for apple was “banerry,” a combination of banana, which has a similar taste, and cherry, a fruit he knew.

Alex had the intelligence of a 5- year-old and the communication skills of a 2- year- old, Pepperberg said, and he sometimes got balky or threw tantrums as a small child would. Alex often had to repeat an experiment 60 or 70 times for the results to meet the standards of scientific proof, and sometimes Alex got bored.

“He would take his beak and knock everything on the floor,” Pepperberg said. “He would have said ‘Enough already’ if he could have.”

At other times, Alex would correct the other African Grey parrots Pepperberg worked with, telling them to “talk better.” continued on page 8

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wednesday, SEPTEMBER 12, 2007

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

At last, Fred Thompson hits the campaign trail, voters react

By Michael Finnegan Los Angeles Times

NASHUA, N.H. — On the first trip of his campaign for president, Fred Thompson told a crowd here earlier this week that as a young lawyer, he had prosecuted bank robbers and bootleggers.

“I had to kind of apologize to my granddaddy about prosecuting those moonshiners,” the former Republican senator from Tennessee said with a twang.

“We don’t have moonshiners in New Hampshire,” Mayor Bernie Streeter told him.

Maybe not. But Thompson’s talk about moonshine and his granddaddy captured the Southern informality at the core of his personality. And if his travels since announcing his candidacy have made one thing clear, it is this: Personality is what his White House run is all about.

“Buy this guy a round!” Thompson hollered to scores of beer-swilling New England Patriots fans at P.J. O’Sullivan’s bar in Manchester on Sunday after singing “Happy Birthday” to 47-year-old Scott Lavalley.

Whether he plays well outside the South remains to be seen. But lack-

luster crowds at Thompson’s rallies offered one sign of the limitations of his appeal: Only a few dozen showed up on a rainy day in Nashua, barely 100 under sunny skies in Davenport, Iowa.

As the only Southerner in the top tier of Republicans in the race, Thompson, 65, offers a sharp contrast to former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts and Sen. John McCain of Arizona.

He’s a Johnny Cash fan who likes to quote 19th-century Tennessee frontiersman David Crockett. His idea of lunch is “a regular burger with everything on it — including onions, if you got raw onions.”

Thompson’s manner of speaking stands out. In tough times, he says, Americans “hitch up our britches.”

The U.S. must not leave Iraq “with our tail between our legs.” When it comes to illegal immigration, beware of politicians “trying to sell the same horse twice” — an allusion to an amnesty provision passed in the 1980s and the current push to overhaul the nation’s immigration laws. As for schools, he says, let “local mamas and daddies” keep control.

Thompson’s strategists say the

constant reminders of his small-town roots in Alabama, where he was born, and Tennessee, where he was raised and began his legal career, are central to his candidacy.

“The way he delivers his message is in language at a pace, and at a cadence, that strikes a chord, and I think that’s crucial,” said Rich Galen, a senior adviser.

An actor as well as a politician, Thompson has become familiar to millions over the last 22 years in film and television roles as president, prosecutor, rear admiral and CIA director, among others. “Whenever they were looking for someone who wasn’t good-looking and sort of cheap, they’d call me,” he told the crowd in South Carolina.

When actors run for public office, the lines between fiction and reality often blur. Thompson is no exception.

“I know nothing about him, except he was on `Law & Order,’” said Kelly O’Brien, 39, a Manchester woman sipping beer at P.J. O’Sullivan’s.

As he recounts his life story at campaign stops, Thompson’s omissions have been noteworthy.

In Nashua, he said his service as Republican minority counsel on the Senate Watergate Committee

in 1974 taught him what happens “when too much power gets into too few people’s hands.” Unmentioned was the fact that he leaked details on the investigation to the Nixon White House.

As for his first Senate race in 1994, he said, he “decided that I’d put aside the law practice, and I’d put aside the movie business. ... I got in my truck, and we went across the state of Tennessee.” The detail he left out: Thompson did not own the red Chevy pickup truck that came to symbolize his regular-guy touch; his campaign leased it for $500 a month to enhance his image.

He also told crowds that “basic rights come from God.” It was only in response to questions from reporters that he acknowledged he does not attend church in the Washington suburb where he lives — only in Tennessee when he visits his mother.

Portraying himself during this campaign swing as a Washington outsider, Thompson hammered “politicians” for catering to special interest groups “that give the most money, and the ones that put the most pressure.”

“You see that with the Democratic Party marching themselves off a leftwing cliff with this war situation,” he

Bush backs Petraeus’ plan, Congress reacts continued from page 7 said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md. Although some Republicans, such as Rep. James Walsh of New York, came out Tuesday against Bush’s war policy, administration officials and outside lobbyists said they detected little change in the basic politics of Iraq in Congress, where a majority of lawmakers want to bring the war to a faster close but lack the votes to overcome a presidential veto.

However, the new criticism from some unexpected quarters in the GOP had leaders in both chambers casting about for new formulas that might attract bipartisan support.

Such legislation might include calls to shift the mission in Iraq and beginning troop withdrawals — but without the hard and fast timelines that have previously invited Bush veto threats.

Even Sen. Elizabeth Dole, RN.C., a mainstream conservative who has never publicly strayed from the administration’s position on Iraq, made it clear that she would now support “what some have called action-forcing measures.”

“The difficulty of the current American and Iraqi situation is rooted in large part in the Bush administration’s substantial failure to understand the full implications of our military invasion and the litany of mistakes made at the outset of the war,” Dole said.

In a second day of testimony on Capitol Hill, Petraeus and Crocker reprised the generally optimistic points they made to two House committees on Monday. Appearing before the Senate’s Foreign Relations and Armed Services panels, Petraeus said the additional troops have helped reduce violence in Iraq, and Crocker said he is hopeful that the Iraqis are beginning to take small steps toward political reconciliation.

However, the two men were unable to offer the assurances lawmakers sought. Asked by Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., whether the Iraqis could achieve reconciliation by the end of the administration, Crocker said: “I could not put a timeline on it or a target date.”

When Sen. John Warner, R-Va., asked Petraeus whether the new policy would make the United States safer, he replied: “Sir, I don’t know, actually.” Later in the hearing, the general sought to amend his answer to yes, telling Sen. Evan Bayh, DInd.: “We have very, very clear and very serious national interests in Iraq.”

The tone of the questions Tuesday was more skeptical and carried a harder edge than what greeted the two men before the House panels on Monday. Several senior Republicans who have already voiced skepticism about the president’s Iraq policy raised pointed doubts that a sixmonth continuation of the “surge” would have much impact on resolving Iraq’s fundamental problems — as did a number of vulnerable GOP incumbents considered swing votes on upcoming Iraq legislation.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, a member of the Armed Services Committee, said she could not accept having the same number of troops in Iraq in 10 months as there were 10 months ago, as would be the case if Bush adopts Petraeus’ recommendation.

“If a troop surge of this size has not prompted the Iraqis to under-

take the political reforms that both General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker say are essential to quelling the sectarian violence, then how does continuing the same strategy prompt the Iraqis to take a different direction?” she asked.

Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., another swing voter, pressed Petraeus and Crocker to offer an assurance that “we are on a path” to political reconciliation. “Americans want to see light at the end of the tunnel,” he said.

Petraeus and Crocker responded with equanimity, repeating their mantra that progress is being made, albeit slowly and perhaps not in the manner they had once hoped. Challenged by Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., to explain why continued patience is justified, Petraeus pointed to how the Iraqi government is sharing oil revenue and giving former insurgents conditional amnesty — both key benchmarks that have not been formally met with the passage of legislation by the Iraqi parliament.

“That’s the type of activity that gives me some encouragement,” Petraeus said.

Among the questioners were several leading presidential candidates, who used their allotted time to sharpen their messages. “We have now set the bar so low that modest improvement in what was a completely chaotic situation, to the point where now we just have the levels of intolerable violence that existed in June of 2006, is considered success,” Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., told Petraeus and Crocker. “And it’s not.”

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., told the two men that they had made “extraordinary efforts” in their testimony, but that “the reports that you provide to us really require the willing suspension of disbelief.”

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., by contrast, said he is “sick at heart” about the mismanagement of the

war. But he added: “I believe we cannot choose to lose in Iraq, and I will do everything in my power to see that our commanders in Iraq have the time and support they request to win this war.”

Petraeus’ embrace of a timeline for troop withdrawals — no matter how modest — appears to have shifted the debate on Capitol Hill from whether forces will come home to when and how quickly.

Rep. Phil English, R-Pa., a moderate who is trying to broker more bipartisanship on Iraq, said that the general is “probably setting more a minimum than a maximum,” adding that the numbers “could be substantially more.”

Collins said she will double efforts to pass legislation she cosponsored with Sen. Ben Nelson, DNeb., that would mandate a change of mission away from combat and toward training Iraqi forces, countering terrorism, guarding borders and protecting U.S. assets. The legislation would not mandate troop withdrawals, but, she said, she has been advised that the remaining goals could be accomplished with 50,000 to 60,000 U.S. troops.

On a separate track, Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., said he has been meeting with Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., to revise legislation that would have required a timeline for withdrawal. Efforts to take up that language in July received 52 votes, well short of the 60 needed to break a Republican filibuster.

Smith said the new version would turn hard deadlines for withdrawals into nonbinding goals and would shift the emphasis from troop withdrawals to mission changes.

The performance of Petraeus and Crocker has probably shored up opposition to firm withdrawal dates, he said. But 120,000 troops in Iraq next summer is not going over well, either.

“We need a transition to a mission post-surge,” Smith said.

www.browndailyherald.com

said in South Carolina.

What he did not share was that he had worked as a Washington lobbyist since the mid-1970s. Trading on ties to such powerful Tennessee Republicans as former Senate majority leaders Howard J. Baker Jr. and Bill Frist, Thompson has represented clients in the nuclear-power, insurance and military-aircraft industries, among others. He took a break from lobbying during his own Senate tenure from 1994 to 2003.

On substance, Thompson is following the traditional path for a conservative Republican. He speaks out against abortion, gun control and same-sex marriage. He praises President Bush’s Supreme Court appointments, reminding crowds that he helped the White House guide Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. to Senate confirmation.

He also lashes out against government waste, fraud and abuse. He calls for oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, tighter border security and a new military buildup. In Greenville, where the crowd of 300 was his biggest of the week, Thompson won a standing ovation when he said Americans have shed more blood for other people’s liberty than all other nations “in the history of the world.”

’08 candidates speak out on Iraq policy continued from page 7 Wednesday in which he is expected to draw distinctions with rivals and lay out new recommendations for ending U.S. involvement there.

By the time Clinton took the microphone Tuesday evening in the Armed Services Committee, the room was largely empty. In a lawyerly approach, she challenged many of the conclusions offered

by Petraeus and Crocker during their previous nine-plus hours of testimony in a Senate hearing room, after seven hours in the House on Monday.

Even more directly, she challenged the competence of the Bush administration. “Ambassador, it’s not only the Iraqi government that, in my view, has to pursue a coherent strategy,” she said. “I think our own has, as well.”

Prized parrot passes away continued from page 7 Alex’s death was unexpected. The birds can live 60 or more years in captivity.

Pepperberg said Alex seemed fine Thursday evening, the last time she saw him. They went through their usual goodnight routine. She told the bird she loved him and would see him the next day. Alex answered, “You’ll be in tomorrow.”

Pepperberg said she has received requests from museums for Alex’s remains but has been too grieved by the parrot’s death to make a decision.

“He was my closest colleague,” she said.

Alex hadn’t reached the limit of his cognitive potential, Pepperberg said. She said the research would continue with her two younger African Greys.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

page 9

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Sox stumbling to finish Willard ’06 on track for Beijing in ’08 as playoffs approach continued from page 12

continued from page 12 least six innings in his last 11 starts, while Sabathia has accomplished that task in 29 of his 31 games this season. They have combined for six complete games, more than 24 major league teams.

In L.A., John Lackey and Kelvim Escobar have been sick, each currently sporting 16 wins and an ERA around 3.00. That’s two pitchers on one team who have a lower ERA than any of Boston’s five starters. Not only that, but Lackey is also one of only three pitchers in the American League (Paul Byrd and Jeff Weaver are the others) who have more than one shutout this season. Escobar always has nasty stuff, but he hasn’t been able to stay healthy enough to really dominate. Fortunately for the Halos, this year Escobar hasn’t even made a trip to Health Services. No doubt, these two have the potential to take down a short series all by themselves.

Rather than two aces, the Sox figure to limp in with something like AceTen. Make no mistake, Josh Beckett is the Reil deal. His 18 wins is tops in the majors, and he ranks in the top 10 in the American League in strikeouts, ERA and WHIP. The kid has been to the show before, and if I remember correctly (ask Yankee fans, they might

know) he did quite well.

Unfortunately, besides the young fire-baller, the Sox rotation looks pretty bleak. Curt Schilling and Tim Wakefield are both old dudes who have battled injuries this season. Schilling’s velocity is way down from years past, and it has greatly affected his ability to strike batters out. He only has 92 K’s this year, from a guy who has whiffed 300-plus three times in his career. Daisuke Matsuzaka has shown tons of potential, but clearly is not ready for the playoffs. In his last five starts Matsuzaka is 1-4, and his ERA is pushing 10.00. His control troubles have returned, and his strikeout totals are diminishing. Jon Lester has been solid, but not great, and has much more to prove before he can be counted as a reliable playoff pitcher.

It really hurt me to write this, but I gotta be realistic. It’s easier that way.

The worst thing you can do is limp into the playoffs, and the Sox are doing just that. Manny isn’t healthy. The pitching is hitting the skids, and Hideki Okajima is getting tired. Boston’s headed into the last leg of the Tour de France on flat tires, and the rest of the contenders in the AL are coming off fresh steroid injections.

Really, I hope I’m wrong. If I’m right, it’s OK ... this is why we have the Patriots.

Cubs give fans hope for Oct.

By Peter Slevin The Washington Post

CHICAGO — It’s the top of the ninth, and a bright sun has broken through the clouds over Wrigley Field. The Cubs are on top of the Dodgers 4-2 after two electrifying home runs from leadoff hitter Alfonso Soriano, imported from Washington for a zillion dollars.

The loyalists are fired up. It’s a Thursday afternoon game, yet nearly 40,000 fans are packed into the ancient ballpark. Ryan Dempster, the Cubs’ closer, who hasn’t blown a save since June 10, is on the mound.

Hope is alive in Wrigleyville. It is September, and at least on this Thursday, the Cubs are in first place in the tight National League Central.

The lineup is star-studded and, boy, is it well-paid. After a miserable start under fiery new manager Lou Piniella, baseball’s strivingest, hardestluck team is building buzz in the far-flung Cubs Nation.

“Hopeful, but cautious,” is how Don Surprenant put it, as he scored the game from the upper deck with a Cubs pencil.

This is a team that has not won the World Series since 1908. If they don’t win it this year — and the odds are surely against them — they will start spring training aware, if for no other reason than everyone will remind them, that no Cubs team has brought home a title in 100 years.

That’s a record.

Back to Thursday’s game against the Los Angeles Dodgers in a minute. But first, a question. What is it to be a Cubs fan in 2007?

“It’s to hope and pray that before I die we get to the World Series,” said Ron Officer, wearing pressed khaki shorts, tasseled loafers and a gray T-shirt that reads, “Chicago Cubs, World Champions, 1908.”

Officer concedes loyalty can be painful, but the ballpark does peddle an antidote.

“Beer works,” he said.

Sam Gattuso swears this is the year the Cubs go All The Way. “It’s a gut feeling,” says Gattuso, watching from the last row of the upper deck. “Excuse my French, but the sun shines on a dog’s butt every once in a while.”

In 2003, the last time the Cubs got close, they were leading 3-0 at Wrigley, five outs away from their first Series since 1945. A Florida Marlins batter lifted a playable ball toward the seats beyond the left-field foul line. Unthinkingly, a forever infamous fan named Steve Bartman reached for the ball, preventing the Cubs left fielder from making a play.

The Cubs unraveled. The Marlins scored eight runs and a day later took the decisive seventh game.

“I almost kicked out my TV, but it was a new one and I couldn’t do it,” said Gattuso, a machinist from Yorktown, Ill., recalling how Bartman was escorted away for his safety. “I called him every name in the book, including in Italian.”

In stepping on the Wrigley crowd’s dream, the Marlins also revived the Billy Goat Curse, dating from a tavern owner’s decision to bring a goat to a game during the 1945 Series that the Cubs, inevitably, lost. Gattuso would reverse the curse, if only he could.

“They should get a billy goat in here and have him go around the bases starting at third,” Gattuso said.

“I would buy the goat, pay his way in here and give him a beer, too.”

Across town, the White Sox banished their own demons two years ago, winning their first World Series since 1917 and rubbing the noses of Cubs fans in their own futility.

Sox backers sneer that so many Cubs fans buy tickets just to enjoy the Wrigley social scene that you could turn the seats around and the games would still sell out.

What other conclusion can you draw from Wrigley kiosks that display a dozen Cubs T-shirts and a dozen celebrating Wrigley itself?

gan, where she attended graduate school last year. Willard said racing at Michigan helped prepare her with the confidence she needed at the World Championships.

“The Big 10 is by far the strongest conference in the women’s distance events in the country,” Willard wrote. “As far as rising to the top of the country ­— not just in the college ranks, but in the professional ranks as well ­— it has been a fairly natural transition. With every meet, I gained confidence.”

Willard’s impressive accomplishments include breaking the 4 x 800-meter and 4 x 1,500-meter NCAA records at the Penn Relays, winning three individual titles — in the 1,500-meter run, the 5,000-meter run and steeplechase — at the Big Ten Championships, winning the 3,000-meter steeplechase at both the NCAA Mideast Regional Championships and the NCAA National Championships, and breaking the NCAA record for the 3,000-meter

steeplechase.

“I approached each race one at a time and tried to remind myself that I can run with anybody in the country,” Willard wrote.

Willard said she learned valuable lessons during her time at Brown, where she broke the Brown record for the indoor 1,000-meter run and the outdoor 800-meter run, 5,000meter run and the steeplechase.

Willard was a two-time All-American runner for the Bears.

“My experience at Brown really allowed me to grow and mature both athletically and academically,” Willard wrote. “I believe I really lived the Brown experience as a student, not just an athlete. When I competed for Michigan, and now that I am running professionally for Nike, most of my identity is being strictly an athlete. Brown taught me how to be a balanced and open-minded person, which helps me keep my athletic career in perspective.”

Now, Willard has her sights set on the 2008 Olympics. “It was a

great experience representing the United States (at the World Championships), and I look forward to doing it again next year at Beijing in the Olympics,” she wrote.

There will be stiff competition for Olympic slots but Willard is not concerned.

“I am fully expecting to be on the U.S. Olympic team next year. I am focused on making the final of the steeplechase next year and breaking the American record along the way,” she wrote.

Willard said she is looking forward to visiting Beijing, especially after her recent experience in Osaka.

“I am used to traveling a lot for competitions, but never as far as Japan,” Willard wrote. “It was a phenomenal experience that I will never forget, mostly because I have never traveled to Asia. (Osaka) was a fantastically clean and organized city, and the people were overwhelmingly welcoming and supportive of the American athletes. I honestly felt like a celebrity.”

FedEx Cup playoffs head into final weekend

By Thomas Bonk Los Angeles T imes

ATLANTA — It’s about points, not money. That’s the core of the FedEx Cup playoff race, the PGA Tour has insisted since the $63million, 36-tournament, NASCARlike chase began in Januar y.

And now, with the $7-million Tour Championship, the fourth and final FedEx Cup playoff tournament getting underway Thursday, with $35 million in bonuses at stake and $10 million going to the winner, one fact has become abundantly clear: It’s all about the money.

The PGA Tour persuaded FedEx to invest $50 million in this first version of a professional golf points race and playoffs, and some fortunate golfer is going to become even richer by Sunday.

There are only 30 players in the field at East Lake Golf Club, but under a convoluted points system, only six of them have a chance at the $10-million bonus for winning the FedEx Cup: Tiger Woods, Steve Stricker, Phil Mickelson, Ror y Sabbatini, K.J. Choi and Aaron Baddeley.

That $10 million isn’t cash, it’s an annuity, and some players didn’t think that was such a great idea.

The best advice for explaining the relevance of the FedEx Cup? Ty Votaw, the PGA Tour’s executive vice president, suggested that the players contact their accountants.

But other than the obvious financial implications, the FedEx Cup has enjoyed some other intriguing moments during its maiden voyage.

Start with the points race. Jack Nicklaus said he didn’t understand the points system and said if he couldn’t make sense of it, how could the average fan?

Some players thought the FedEx Cup concept was shoved down their throats, but Stewart Cink, a tour policy board member, said that players complaining about making millions of dollars was misguided and a turn-off to the fans.

So Tom Pernice took another tack. He questioned whether there was money being taken out of the players’ retirement fund to

help cover the annuity.

Then there was the player noshow factor. Woods skipped the Barclays, the first playoff tournament, but he won the third one last week at the BMW Championship and now leads the points list.

Ernie Els skipped the second playof f, and Mickelson sat out last week, after winning the week before, then went public with a dispute over the playoff setup with Commissioner Tim Finchem.

Sabbatini said he would make it a rule to play all four playoffs to be eligible to win the Cup. There is also the condition of the bent-grass greens at East Lake. When the players showed up at East Lake, they learned that the pro-am had been canceled because the greens were in danger of being fried from hot weather and a drought. Only three greens remained of f limits Tuesday, when, of course, it started raining like crazy.

So, other than that, it’s all been smooth sailing for the FedEx Cup. It is a largely ignored fact that the playoffs might actually turn out just fine and could possibly be even better next year with a little fine-tuning ... if anyone could figure out what to do.

The NASCAR-like points theme, in the playoff, could be a place to start.

It’s virtually unheard of that a NASCAR Nextel Cup driver such as Jeff Gordon or Tony Stewart would skip a race, either in the regular season or the 10-race playoff for the top 12 drivers, known as the Chase for the Nextel Cup. But sitting one out didn’t hurt Woods or Mickelson either.

“The points are what they are and if you’re going to take a tour-

nament off and still have a chance to win, then you’d just better darn play well, really well,” Cink said.

“You can’t argue with a guy that takes a week off and then plays great to put himself in a position to win. I guess like Tiger is leading right now.

“Is it a flawless system? I don’t know. I think it would be a flaw to make Tiger Woods play four straight tournaments, myself.”

Cink has been outspoken in his belief that there was no break in the lines of communication between the tour and the players concerning the Cup. He said attendance at some of the players’ meetings was “abysmal.”

Cink said there would be some changes next year, but that one thing is clear: the players need to stop complaining.

“If we embrace it and it means something to us, then the fans are going to think so and they’re going to follow it and it’s going to be big,” Cink said. “But if we complain about it and we say too many tournaments in a row or whatever, deferred payment, there’s a lot of different issues, then the fans are going to be turned off and it’s not going to be a ver y good television show.”

Mark Calcavecchia said every first-time venture doesn’t work perfectly. He suggested changing the points so that there’s not such a large margin between the first- and second-place players in a playoff event compared to those further down the line.

There are more changes Calcavecchia said he would recommend in what has been a much discussed, complicated, controversial experiment.

“Probably, but I can’t think of any right now,” he said. “My brain went blank.”

E ditorial & L etters Page 10

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Staf f Editorial

The other critical review For those students who have any sense of ambient temperature, the University’s effort to improve classrooms around campus will come as a relief.

No longer will we have to bring sweaters to Barus and Holley or a fan and Evian spritzer bottle to the clammy, stuffy basement of Rhode Island Hall.

Apparently, help is on the way.

The Plan for Academic Enrichment may have brought us dozens of new faculty and millions of dollars in financial aid, but the spaces in which we spend most of our time on campus have largely remained the same, benefiting from neither facelifts nor much-needed and comparatively inexpensive chair refurbishments. The disparity between classrooms even drives students to select courses based on legroom and lumbar support.

Those with premature lower back trouble know to stay away from Metcalf and its painful wooden chairs. Taller than 5’10”? Stay clear of Carmichael Auditorium.

As a report assessing the condition of Brown’s classrooms makes its way into the hands of senior administrators, we considered a few of the best and worst classrooms on campus. (First-years still shopping for courses might find this handy, too.)

Salomon 101: It’s the biggest classroom on campus, and you’re almost certain to have at least one huge lecture course here before you graduate.

It’s like attending class in your favorite movie theater, though the armrests don’t come up to form a makeshift love seat. Sit in the upstairs balcony if you come in late or want to sneak out early to beat the lunchtime rush at the Ratty.

Smith-Buonanno 106: A universal favorite, this lecture hall has comfortable seats, great acoustics and the latest in classroom technology. If you’re sick of professors fumbling to display a Powerpoint, look no further than a class in Smitty-B. MacMillan 117: Its stadium-style seating makes this classroom uncomfortably convenient for cheating off students in the row below.

Fortunately, the steep rows make it easy for professors and TAs to catch those peering down. Its smaller neighbor, MacMillan 115, has remarkably cozy office chairs that seemingly transport students from College Hill to a corporate conference center retreat.

Carmichael Auditorium: Don’t think that you’re free from this lecture hall’s charley horse-inducing chairs just because you’re not taking psychology courses — you never know what gut courses end up there.

Wilson Hall: This Main Green classroom building may impress visitors with its recently refreshed exterior, but students will still struggle to stay awake during a late-afternoon lecture in its humid, poorly ventilated classrooms.

Sayles Hall: The basement resembles a dungeon, but the seminar classrooms on the upper levels afford picturesque views, perfect for daydreaming.

T he B rown D aily H erald Editors-in-Chief Eric Beck Mary-Catherine Lader

Executive Editors Stephen Colelli Allison Kwong Ben Leubsdorf

Senior Editors Jonathan Sidhu Anne Wootton

editorial Lydia Gidwitz Robin Steele Oliver Bowers Stephanie Bernhard Simmi Aujla Sara Molinaro Ross Frazier Karla Bertrand Jacob Schuman Peter Cipparone Erin Frauenhofer Stu Woo Benjy Asher Jason Harris

Letters Banner inconsistent with shopping period guidelines To the Editor: I couldn’t agree more with Maha Atal’s ‘08 “A eulogy for pink registration slips” (Sept. 10).

Before pre-registration period last April, two other students and I authored a 37-clause resolution that was unanimously passed at a special emergency meeting of the Undergraduate Council of Students. The resolution cited concerns about exactly the issues that are now being realized and provided a solution that was practical and which completely mitigated those concerns while discussions about effects on the curriculum could take place.

Despite productive meetings with the dean of the College, the deputy provost and President Ruth Simmons, our proposal was not ultimately accepted and the incoming class of first-years is certainly feeling the effects.

Maybe the outcome would have been different if the discussion had been framed differently. Last

spring, many of us accepted — on faith — the claim that the type of course caps enforced by Banner were part of written rules that had not previously been enforced — the argument was supposedly between recent tradition (course limits enforced at the end of shopping period) and the “real” rules (limits enforced during pre-registration). However, after extensive research and a meeting with the dean of the College, I am now convinced that no such “real” rules existed last semester (or to this day) — in fact, the few guidelines that do exist support the prior system. Unfortunately, this realization came too late.

I hope that UCS will focus its efforts this semester on making sure that a useful, recognizable shopping period is still around when today’s first-years are in their final year. I can think of no issue that deserves more attention.

Matt Gelfand ’08 Sept. 10

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Clarification An article in Tuesday’s Herald (“State Dept. brings Middle East students to campus,” Sept 11) used an incorrect transliteration of Aladdin Atiga’s name as provided by the State Department.

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O pinions Wednesday, September 12, 2007

page 11

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

State of the University BEN BERNSTEIN Campus Issues Columnist

As freshmen infest the campus like a brighteyed, bushy-tailed roach problem, Brown students, new and old, may be asking themselves, what does the semester hold? I can’t provide the answer. But I can try to provide you with an outline of several big issues facing students, faculty and administrators this year.

Student Union of Brown University: “It’s going to mobilize a lot of students.” So says Mike Dacruz ’08.5, a founding member of SUBU, which Dacruz claims is one of the largest private school student unions in the country. After signing up several hundred students last spring to be union members — ranging from the revolutionary to the merely curious — SUBU packed 115 students into Alumnae Hall’s Crystal Room for a debate on the body’s regulations. Now the union is ready for action.

‘Don’t we have something like this already?’ the wise son might ask. “UCS is great,” says Dacruz, “but it’s simply not effective for student action.” He’s right. While Undergraduate Council of Students improves our lives through revamped meal plans and bus service to the airport, it has been unsuccessful at organizing large-scale student action that could do something big like freezing tuition or protesting Banner.

It’s easy to doubt SUBU. After all, Brown students are notorious for complaining while sitting on their hands. However, as Dacruz points out, when Brown students get angry, they get really angry. The reaction to Banner last year — a 700-plus member Facebook

group and enough Daily Jolt forum complaints to knock off the latest hookup propositions — had nowhere to go. With an organizing body where students can get together, yell and then take action, students should anticipate commotion, and soon. SUBU’s first target: Undergraduate Finance Board’s closed meeting budget cuts.

Banner: Students spat the word out like rotten fruit last spring when informed that Brown would be changing its registration software (though Banner also encompasses several other functions). Supposedly, Banner was going to destroy shopping period and

dollars.

For nostalgic students hoping Banner would crash or that thousands of complaints would force us back into the registrationby-paper/Neolithic era, disappointment abounds. Pesta told me that there have been no mechanical problems with the software and that phone traffic complaining about Banner has been “quite moderate.”

So why didn’t we get software that had a Mocha-like search function? Because, says Pesta, “the kind of functionality that Mocha provides does not exist in any vendor system.” If it is possible for students to regis-

With an organizing body where students can get together, yell, and then take action, students should anticipate commotion. obliterate our hallowed “new” curriculum. It did none of these things. The biggest problem with Banner was not the registration process, but its search mechanism, which is as useful as a punch in the face. How can a handful of undergraduate students create Mocha, a valuable search and organizing tool, but for $23 million, we can’t get a decent browser?

The answer, according to University Registrar Michael Pesta, is that modifying Banner would end up being incredibly expensive. The Banner software requires periodic updates, and by forcing every update to be customized, changes to Banner would end up being a major waste of precious tuition

ter through Mocha — and Pesta says it may very well be — Computing and Information Services, the Registrar’s Office and the administration should work together to make it happen.

Housing: In an interview with The Herald in April, Interim Vice President for Campus Life and Student Services Russell Carey ’91 MA’06 said of Brown housing: “This level is not where we should be institutionally.” As anyone who has been through the housing lottery can attest, Brown does not provide satisfactory housing options. Only around 80 percent of students live on campus, and the reason for this is abundantly clear. For rising seniors confronted with the choice of an off-campus apart-

ment or something like New Dorm or Young Orchard, the decision is often an easy one for the apartment. For rising juniors, it can seem like there are no great options that compare with moving off campus, as many juniors now do. Without a serious housing project in the next few years, we can expect these numbers to increase. The search for off-campus housing for next year has already begun for sophomores and juniors, and the Office of Residential Life needs to announce a solution soon before it loses more students. After lots of surveys and vague talk of new plans, will ResLife declare anything? As Brown’s residential campus slips away, I certainly hope so.

Campus construction: Students walking down Angell Street this year noticed that Brown spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to move the history department’s Peter Green House a short distance up the block.

Why spend all that money to move a building when tuition prices are on their way up?

In order to give students a third way to walk to the Pembroke campus, apparently. Having happily spent my freshman year living on Pembroke and walking past the Bio-Medical Center or Thayer Street shops to get to the Main Green, I can say from personal experience that the pathway is unnecessary. I am not alone in this opinion — multiple history professors have grumbled in opening week classes about the move. With more construction projects planned, those in charge should incorporate real student and faculty feedback into their decisions. The tokenism that goes on now, where input is heard and then ignored, benefits no one.

Ben Bernstein ‘09 writes a regular column on campus issues. If there is an issue you would like to bring to his attention, e-mail benjamin_bernstein@brown.edu.

Reactions to the Virginia Tech massacre misplaced SEAN QUIGLEY Opinions Columnist Writing this column months after the Virginia Tech massacre of April 16, I feel that I can now be more frank about my feelings concerning the event. While I seek not to elicit anger from my readers, I will, in the spirit of frankness, state that I was generally unsurprised that the incident occurred. The reactions of most people, however, did trouble me to a large extent.

I first learned of the 32 murders and accompanying suicide from my roommate after we had both returned from class. Upon subsequently reading about the entire incident on the Internet, I recall feelings of inner contemplation, coupled with outward stoicism.

The fact that I am rarely an externally emotional person had little to do with why I was generally unmoved by what had transpired.

Rather, I believe that my view of human nature — that we are essentially good but capable of unspeakably evil acts — and of recent human history — that by destroying traditional institutions we have created an atheistic world devoid of purpose — led me not to dwell on the harsh realities of existence.

Notwithstanding my own reaction to the shootings, the world reacted with a rare vigor.

I fully recognize why people tend to turn to religion and authority after such an event as the Virginia Tech massacre. Yet I could not help but find all of the Facebook groups, chain e-mails, signs and so on that declared, in one form or another, “Our prayers and thoughts are with VT,” a little trite. After all, what do prayers and thoughts accomplish? I ask this question without malicious intent — I simply

want to know why people assert that praying and “thinking” are the correct responses to such an incident.

Would the Supreme Being have intervened into our affairs and offered solace if a certain quota of prayers had been offered? Will He intervene in the future if we feign enough religiosities to convince Him that we really do will good?

As you may infer from my rhetorical questions, I find the practice of petitionary and

persuade him to alter those laws he contrived before the foundation of the world for putting things in a regular course.” Prayer, as with all actions in this world, should have a rational foundation. Hence, prayer should never be, as it was in the wake of the Virginia Tech massacre, abused in such a way that humanity actually seeks irrational intervention into the natural world.

Besides the misuse of prayer, I find the practice of intermittently turning to religion, which

If we are to claim that the laws of this world are fundamentally unchangeable and that free will exists for rational agents, any form of prayer deviating from the meditative and the appreciative is logically inconsistent — and startlingly presumptuous. supplicative prayer to be quite absurd, for I view it as both repugnant to Reason and an affront to the proper humility demanded of creation towards the Creator. If we are to claim that the laws of this world are fundamentally unchangable and that free will exists for rational agents, any form of prayer deviating from the meditative and the appreciative is logically inconsistent — and startlingly presumptuous.

In his 1730 “Christianity as Old as the Creation,” Matthew Tindal wrote, “There are few so gross to imagine, we can direct infinite wisdom in the dispensation of providence, or

innumerable people did directly following the Virginia Tech massacre, to be inane and inappropriate. In keeping with the University’s own intermittent approach to religion … excuse me, faith traditions … administrators from the University, namely Interim Vice President for Campus Life and Student Service Russell Carey ’91 MA’06 and Associate Vice President for Campus Life and Dean of Student Life Margaret Klawunn, sent an e-mail on April 16, part of which read, “Later this evening, Monday, April 16 at 9:30 p.m., in Manning Chapel the Office of the Chaplains and Religious Life will

sponsor a gathering for community members to express support and condolences for the victims and their families.”

Now, I am not so dense as to argue that a non-response would have been appropriate, yet the University’s incoherently selective — and manifestly obtuse — approach to legitimizing the traditional is of concern to me. For, if it feels so compelled to respond to the shootings at Virginia Tech, why does it not respond to the iniquitous behaviors so prevalent on this campus? Could it be that the University has no higher purpose than to be an abstract rational calculator, applying tradition only when in alignment with its secular policies? (Yes, it could.)

As was mentioned earlier, the shootings at Virginia Tech did not shock me to any great extent — my view of human nature and existence, coupled with my knowledge that recent history has been characterized by the destruction of ancient institutions so integral to maintaining an ordered, moral society, led to my conclusion that such incidences were inevitable.

Certainly, I feel a great deal of sympathy for the victims and their families, but I will not attempt metaphysically to justify this incident’s purpose beyond saying, “We are a fallen people with broken institutions — did we expect anything different?”

I hope that the University, in its militant adherence to secularism, will finally acknowledge the truth that bogus prayers and intermittent religion can do nothing but produce immature persons. And so, if tragedy ever occurs again, I would appreciate an avoidance of its selfish, inappropriate use of religion. But, are Brown University and its leaders at all capable of the necessary humility?

Sean Quigley ’10 is tired of all the hocus-pocus prayers and fake religion.

S ports W ednesday Page 12

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Red Sox coasting into the playoffs?

Sp i n

David Walls ’11, Midfielder Walls kicked off his college career Friday against the Broncos, where he had his first career assist on Sheehan’s goal. After his effort over the weekend, Sheehan was named to the All-Tournament Team and was named Ivy League Rookie of the Week.

Rhett Bernstein ’09, Defender Bernstein anchored the Bears’ defense throughout the AdidasBrown Classic, playing an integral role in Brown’s two wins.

Bernstein was named the tournament’s Defensive MVP and was selected for the College Soccer News National Team of the Week.

Ashley Hess / Herald

—Erin Frauenhofer

The men’s soccer team, led by David Walls ’11, swept the Ivy League awards this week.

By Erin Frauenhofer Sports Editor

continued on page 9

r i e f

Dylan Sheehan ’09, Forward Sheehan was named Ivy League Player of the Week after earning Offensive MVP honors at last weekend’s Adidas-Brown Classic. Against No. 5 Santa Clara University on Friday, Sheehan scored to even the match at 1-1, then recorded the assist on the game-winner that gave Brown a 2-1 victory. On Sunday, Sheehan scored the first goal in the Bears’ 3-1 win over Fordham University.

Willard ’06 running toward Beijing in 2008 When Anna Willard ’06 ran the steeplechase for the American team at the World Outdoor Track and Field Championships two weeks ago, the best competition in the world was the last thing on her mind.

“I was trying to just think of it as another track meet and remain focused and confident,” Willard wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. “I honestly did not feel intimidated.”

The World Championships were held in Osaka, Japan, from Aug. 25 to Sept. 2, with runners from 212 countries competing. The United States led the competition with 26 medals total: 14 gold, four silver and eight bronze.

Willard qualified for the World Championships in late June after placing second at the U.S. National Championships in Indianapolis. Her personal best time of 9:34.72 easily met the 9:48 qualifying standard.

Two months later at the World Championships, Willard found herself in a field of more than 50 competitors. She finished eighth in her heat with a time of 9:48.62, seconds short from qualifying for the final.

“I think I was past my peak performance for the season,” Willard wrote, attributing her slower time to the weariness resulting from “a long season.”

That long season included competing for the University of Michi-

B

M. soccer players recognized

Now, I don’t want to be a worrisome Walter, but there’s a lot more than Sam Adams brewin’ in Beantown this September. There is also trouble, in case you didn’t get that. Sure, the Sox are headed into the playoffs and currently own the best record in the big leagues, but don’t be fooled, they are my Shane Reil odds-on favorite to The Reil Deal lose their first round match-up. In all likelihood, Boston will face either Cleveland or Los Angeles in the division series, and neither draw favors the Red Sox. Why is that, you ask? Well, if I know one thing about playoff baseball, it’s that all the cool teams have great starting pitching. Everyone wants it, and if you don’t have it, you might as well stay home because you’re just going to embarrass yourself anyway.

That being said, both Cleveland and the Angels can boast a legit pair of aces heading into the playoffs. The Indians’ C.C. Sabathia and Fausto Carmona, with ERA’s of 3.15 and 3.27 respectively, have been solid all season and have the stuff to shut down any offense. In a series against Boston earlier this year, Carmona and Sabathia combined for 15 innings, allowing only one run and striking out 13 batters.

Oh, and Fausto and C.C. remind me so much of my Toyota Supra.

Not only were they all born in the 1980s, but also all three are totally dependable. Carmona has finished at continued on page 9

o r t s

Toman ’11 kills in her debut at volleyball’s Miami tourney

By Stu Woo Sports Editor

Dan Grossman ’71

After an impressive performance at the World Outdoor Track and Field Championships, Anna Willard ’06 has her sights set on making next season’s Olympic team.

Before every volleyball game, Megan Toman ’11 leans against her locker and closes her eyes. For a few minutes, she imagines herself making crisp passes and getting her hands in the perfect position for blocks and kills.

Then, she heads onto the court and ­— usually — plays as well as she imagined, just as she did over the weekend at the University of Miami’s Hurricane Invitational.

At the two-day tournament, the outside hitter started her college career by notching a striking doubledouble (17 kills, 20 digs) against the University of Delaware. The next day, she recorded 23 kills in two games, including nine against the highly regarded Miami team.

And if that wasn’t enough for her debut, Toman earned two accolades to go along with her lofty statistics: She was selected to the All-Tournament Team and named the Ivy League’s Rookie of the Week.

Toman’s reaction? Delight. And surprise. (Toman didn’t even know of the Ivy League honor until she was interviewed for this article.)

“Coming into the season, I wasn’t sure if I would be playing,” Toman said. “I feel very honored.”

The Newport Beach, Calif., native said she has been playing volleyball since she was 10 years old.

Her two older brothers played the sport, inspiring her to do the same.

Toman said she has played many positions over the past decade, but the 6-footer has now found her role at outside hitter.

Though Toman led her high school team to a top-50 national ranking during her senior year, she wasn’t an especially sought-after recruit. She ultimately had to choose between Brown and Cornell.

“I chose Brown because everyone was just happy here,” she said.

“I didn’t talk to anyone who didn’t love their professors or classes. I love Thayer Street. I love (Head Coach) Diane (Short) and the players.”

Toman’s father, Dave, said he is thrilled with her decision to attend the University, especially to play a top-level varsity sport.

“It’s a chance of a lifetime,” Dave said. He said he and his wife, Janice, plan to fly to Providence next month to see their daughter play.

Toman is still adjusting to life at Brown. She’s trying to figure out what she’ll study (she said she’s leaning toward commerce, organizations and entrepeneurship now) and how to get around campus.

(She meandered around Thayer Street for 15 minutes Tuesday, in the rain, while desperately trying to find Smith-Buonanno Hall.)

But she’s thrilled with her new volleyball team, which she called the best she’s ever played on.

“I feel like we’re going to be really good this season,” Toman said.

“We have great chemistry.”