Tuesday, September 25, 2007

The Brown Daily Herald T uesday, S eptember 25, 2007

Volume CXLII, No. 75

Since 1866, Daily Since 1891

Protests greet Iranian pres at Columbia

By Michael Skocpol Senior Staf f Writer

Columbia University students converged on the center of the New York City campus Monday to stage a series of protests and forums, voicing concerns surrounding the visit of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who came at the invitation of the university.

Ahmadinejad spoke and answered questions at Columbia for about an hour yesterday, addressing controversial topics such as his country’s nuclear program, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and homosexuality in Iran — which he insisted did not exist. Ahmadinejad visited Columbia in advance of his appearance at the United Nations General Assembly, which he will address today.

Before Ahmadinejad spoke, Columbia President Lee Bollinger continued on page 10

Joey Shemuel / Columbia Spectator

Protesters square off at Columbia University as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke on campus Monday afternoon.

DVD lending library now open in the SciLi

By Josh Garcia Contributing Writer

The next time procrastination sets in and the prospect of landing on the MPAA’s list of copyright violators deters you from illegal downloading, you can head to the SciLi. Last week, the Friedman Study Center began a new DVD lending service, introducing 100 popular movie titles that students can now check out free of charge for 24 hours.

Located in the basement of the Sciences Library, the lending library features a diverse list of titles ranging from the action-packed “300” to the critically-acclaimed

For transfers, Brown often costs more

By Irene Chen Senior Staf f Writer

comedy “Little Miss Sunshine” and the psychological drama “Half Nelson.” In just the first week of the library’s operation, students have already checked out 61 of the 100 titles, which are listed in the video section of the Josiah library catalog.

Though DVD check-outs are limited to 24 hours, there are currently no penalties for failing to return a movie on time.

“We’re hoping people will be community-minded. We don’t want this to become an onerous thing,” said Steven Lavallee, head of the Friedman Study Center.

Brian Becker ’09, former chair

For Caden Salvata ’09, Brown is a new experience. As a student at the two-year, all-male Deep Springs College, Salvata took classes with three to five other students and received a full scholarship, as all Deep Springs students do. But at Brown, which appealed to Salvata because of its open curriculum and cognitive neuroscience program, Salvata is in classes with more than 100 students and receives no financial support from the University.

Like all transfer students, Salvata soon realized that financial aid policy for transfers differs from that of the regular admissions process.

Transfer students are admitted on a “need-aware,” not need-blind basis, and those requesting aid

continued on page 4

Ghost tours show another side of Brown

By Brianna Barzola Staff Writer

As dusk enveloped Prospect Terrace Park, a group of curious customers gathered around Courtney Edge, one of the founders of the Providence Ghost Tour, and listened to a story about Providence founding father Roger Williams. His bones, Edge said, now lie directly in front of them, resting in a tomb that watches over the city. The group listened more closely as their tour guides led them away from the park — and warned them of the menacing ghosts they might encounter as they strolled past the historic buildings and colonial houses of the East Side.

Two of those guides — Marta DaSilva ’09 and Bernie Larivee, a

INSIDE:

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METRO

www.browndailyherald.com

University Hall is among the stops on the Providence Ghost Tour.

Cianci on radio Former Providence Mayor Vincent ‘Buddy’ Cianci is out of jail and back on the radio.

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CAMPUS NEWS

Trivia night The Underground is hosting Trivia Night on Fridays this fall, and students are showing up in droves.

other 14 schools that I’ve applied to for aid have ever required that form,” Salvata said. “I was also never sent anything that informed me of the application’s incomplete status.”

The University did place Salvata on a waiting list for financial aid.

Because Salvata was on the waiting list, he had to commit to attending Brown before he knew what the financial burden on his family would be. “I decided to attend and didn’t get aid,” he said. “And since I won’t get aid this year, I am not eligible for any aid during my entire time at Brown.”

Susan Farnum, associate director of the Office of Financial Aid, said transfer students like Salvata can still apply for aid after their continued on page 4

New discount program benefits students, staff, faculty

by Melissa Dzenis Contributing Writer

Valeria Iavtouhovitsh / Herald File Photo

continued on page 6

are automatically placed in the highest loan bracket, regardless of their parents’ income levels. If transfer students do not apply for and receive financial aid in their first year at the University, they are not eligible to apply in subsequent years.

When Salvata was admitted to Brown as a transfer student, he also received a letter from the Office of Financial Aid notifying him that his application for financial aid was incomplete because he had neglected to fill out a portion of it, the CSS Business/Farm Supplement. Neither of his parents own a business or a farm, so Salvata assumed he didn’t need to submit the form.

“This came as quite a shock, since neither one of my parents are self-employed and none of the

The benefits of a Brown ID have become even greater with the arrival this fall of the Bear Bargains program, a new system of discounts and special offers available to University students, staff and faculty.

The program comprises three different elements: specific discounts that apply to local vendors, a Working Advantage program that gives discounts to more than 5,500 organizations in the country and several general services — such as athletic programs and religious services — offered to those affiliated with the University.

“This is a sort of centralized way

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OPINIONS

195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island

Talking the Walk Ben Bernstein ’09 believes the Walk will be beneficial to campus once it has been completed.

to communicate all of the discounts that are offered to individuals with a Brown ID, whether they be students, faculty or staff,” said Angel Hilliard, the University’s manager of employee programs and director of the Bear Bargains program.

Plans for the Bear Bargains program began in 2005 and originally sought to promote Thayer Street businesses and benefit members of the Brown community who frequent those locations. The program was a response from Brown’s human resources department to an increasing number of requests made by local vendors who wanted to offer discounts but had no way of doing so. continued on page 8

16 SPORTS

m. soccer still hot The No. 21 men’s soccer team picked up a win and a draw in California over the weekend.

News tips: herald@browndailyherald.com

T oday Page 2

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

But Seriously | Charlie Custer and Stephen Barlow

We a t h e r Today

TOMORROW

sunny 84 / 62

partly cloudy 86 / 65

Menu

Sharpe Refectory

Verney-Woolley Dining Hall

Lunch — Tempeh Fajitas, Red Rice, Corn and Sweet Potato Saute, Sweet Potato Fries, Popcorn Chicken with Dipping Sauces, Vivizone

Lunch — Shaved Steak Sandwich with Mushrooms, Roasted Eggplant and Tomato Sandwich, Sunny Sprouts, Chewy Butterscotch Bars, Mediterranean Bar

Dinner — Acorn Squash with Curried Rice and Chickpeas, au Gratin Potatoes with Fresh Herbs, Fresh Vegetable Melange, Herbed Turnips, Baked Sweet Potatoes, Orange Turkey

Spencer’s Encounter |Robyn Ng

Dinner — Pot Roast Jardiniere, Vegan Rice and Beans, Oven Browned Potatoes, Oregon Blend Vegetables, Italian Green Beans, Curry Stir Fry

Sudoku

Vagina Dentata | Soojean Kim

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

Classic Deo | Daniel Perez

RELEASE DATE– Tuesday, September 25,Pappocom 2007 © Puzzles by

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

C

o s and sw or d Lewis Edited by RichrNorris Joyce Nichols

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want to draw comics for the herald?

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9/25/07

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9/25/07

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M etro Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Ex-mayor of Providence Cianci back on air with new radio show

By Patrick Corey Staf f Writer

Former Providence Mayor Vincent “Buddy” Cianci is back on the radio after spending more than four years behind bars.

Cianci, whose new talk-radio show debuted last Thursday, spent his first program fielding calls from faithful Providence supporters who look past his criminal record. Cianci, the longest-ser ving mayor in city histor y, went to jail in 2002 after being convicted under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, a law used to battle criminal organizations and public corruption. He was released from Fort Dix Federal Penitentary in New Jersey this summer.

Cianci has been a radio star

before. After a decade in office, he resigned in 1984 after pleading no contest to felony assault charges involving his ex-wife’s supposed boyfriend. He received a five-year suspended sentence for these charges, during which time he hosted a radio talk show.

He returned to public life in 1990 by winning re-election and ser ved as mayor until he went to jail in 2002.

Callers were invariably positive during Cianci’s first show on Thursday, reminiscing about their time meeting and campaigning for him and even encouraging him to run for office again, according to the Associated Press.

The AM radio station that broadcasts Cianci’s show, 630 WPRO, has been pleased with public reac-

tion so far.

“His institutional memory of all things Rhode Island and politics is incredible,” said Paul Giammarco, the station’s program director. “He’s engaging, controversial, provocative, and intelligent,” Giammarco said, adding that these are qualities that make for a great host.

Listeners interviewed by the AP remarked that Cianci hasn’t lost his wit, despite physical changes — he lost considerable weight in prison and has stopped wearing his famous hairpieces. He also claimed on the air to have read 500 books while in prison, or, as he jokingly calls it, “vacation,” the AP reported.

Cianci’s show is broadcast Monday through Friday, from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m.

Station fire tour manager to get parole

By Andrew Kurtzman Staff Writer

By a vote of 4-0 — and over the objection of Rhode Island Attorney General Patrick Lynch ’87 — the Rhode Island Parole Board decided Wednesday to release Daniel Biechele in March 2008 after 22 months served in prison.

Biechele had been sentenced to four years in prison for his role in lighting the illegal pyrotechnics responsible for 100 deaths in the 2003 Station nightclub fire in West Warwick.

Biechele earned the parole board’s favor by showing “very true remorse”

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

and reaching out to victims and their families, said Lisa Holley, the parole board’s chair, in a statement to the Providence Journal.

The Station nightclub fire occurred at approximately 11 p.m. on February 20, 2003, as the band Great White began playing to a packed crowd.

Flammable sound-proofing behind the stage was ignited by Biechele’s pyrotechnics. The narrow hallway in the nightclub’s main entrance became clogged as audience members attempted to exit, trapping them. There

were no sprinkler systems present to contain the blaze. In addition to the 100 killed, approximately 200 spectators were injured.

In a Sept. 19 press release, Lynch said he opposes Biechele’s early release, just as he sought a harsher sentence during his trial last year.

“Although I disagree with the board’s decision, I respect it, because it is the product of a careful consideration that has included the voice of victims, whose voices matter more than anybody else’s,” he said in the statement.

U.’s Cooper Nelson joins hospice board

By Christian Martell Staf f Writer

University Chaplain the Rev. Janet Cooper Nelson has been elected to the board of trustees for Home & Hospice Care of Rhode Island, the oldest hospice care program in the state. Cooper Nelson, who said she has long been interested in healthcare issues and the ethics of physician-assisted suicide, was elected in the spring.

Cooper Nelson said her connection with Home & Hospice Care is a “new involvement,” but she noted that she has had direct experience with hospice programs — which provide palliative care, often for the terminally ill — in the past.

“I, myself, went into hospice care,” Cooper Nelson said, declining to elaborate.

Cooper Nelson said she was attracted to the organization due to her predecessor’s previous commitment — the Rev. Charles Baldwin served as University chaplain for 29 years and was the first president of Home & Hospice Care’s board of trustees, beginning in 1976. She said she was sought out for the position by John Eng-Wong ’62, chairman of the organization’s board and former director of foreign student, faculty and staff services at Brown.

Analee Wulfkuhle, the president and CEO of Home & Hospice Care of Rhode Island, said in a press release that the group is excited about working with Cooper Nelson.

Courtesy brown.edu

Janet Cooper Nelson

“We look forward to her sharing her keen intellect, experience, dedication to service and expertise in spiritual care issues with us,” she said.

Cooper Nelson’s position at the University calls for her not only to direct the Office of the Chaplains and Religious Life but also to make home visits, similar to those made by hospice programs, to professors, students and staff, she said.

As one of Home & Hospice’s 21 board members, Cooper Nelson’s duties on the board will consist of overseeing all the resources and programs of the organization as well as upholding their mission and commitment to quality health care.

“Hospices took the fear and mystery away from people who are dying,” Cooper Nelson said.

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Tuesday, September 25, 2007

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Financial aid tops transfer concerns continued from page 1

Carl Dickerson / Herald

Students can now borrow DVDs from the Sciences Library.

“Little Miss Sunshine” now available in the SciLi continued from page 1 of the Undergraduate Council of Students’ campus life committee, first proposed the DVD lending library last winter. Due to a conflict during movie screenings for a psychology class, PSYC 0300: “Personality,” Becker was forced to view the movies at a later date in the Media Library located on the 14th floor of the SciLi, which he described in an email to The Herald as an “uncomfortable and somewhat inconvenient” experience.

Becker then decided to push for a service that would prevent others from having the same experience.

“Having a DVD library on campus would add to the extracurricular life of students and cut down on costs of buying or renting movies if the University could provide the service,” Becker wrote in an e-mail to The Herald from Argentina, where he is currently studying abroad.

Fortunately, University officials agreed. “Brown has strong American civilization and pop culture studies, and students needed a good sense of relaxation,” Lavallee said. With this administrative support came the financial support for the project — the Office of Student Life and the University Library are splitting the costs of the lending library.

In addition to Lavallee, Becker worked closely with University Librarian Harriette Hemmasi, Interim Vice President for Campus Life and Student Services Russell Carey ’91 MA’06, and Associate University Librarian Florence Doksansky to work out the details of the DVD check-out service.

Baker and Taylor Inc., an estab-

lished business specifically designed to distribute books, videos and music products to school libraries, supplies the service with the DVD titles. Adding 20 new DVDs per month, the library will hold up to 260 titles by the end of the year, at which point the least popular movies will be cycled out of the collection in exchange for 20 new titles.

Erica Reisman ’09 said she thought a free DVD library for students was a great idea considering the high prices of Blockbuster and other local video stores, but she remained skeptical of the limited collection.

“I think it would be a good idea to add an online database where students could download movies,” she said, adding that most students watch movies on their laptops or PCs. Upon looking at the DVD collection, Herald Copy Editor Alex Rosenberg ’11 said he is certain the service will provide entertainment and relaxation to Brown students, but that the list lacks great films. “There aren’t any classics,” he said.

The DVD check-out service runs heavily on student feedback, Doksansky said, adding that like the initial 100 titles, the future selection of DVDs will be solely based on student requests. Titles can be requested online or at the service desk in the basement of the SciLi. Over 25 requests have already been placed this week. Recent requests included anime cartoons and the Disney movie “Mulan,” Lavallee said.

“You work here for 20-plus years and you think you know students, but they always surprise you,” he said.

first year on College Hill but can only receive federal aid, loans or work-study income — not scholarship aid.

Salvata is one of nearly 60 transfer students who enrolled at Brown this fall. According to Dean of Admission Jim Miller ’73, the University expected to enroll between 80 and 85 total transfers this year. Last fall the University enrolled 22 transfer students in the fall semester.

“This was an extremely competitive application year for transfers — we were only able to admit 12 or 13 percent of those who applied,” Miller said. Miller said that the number of transfer students has fluctuated year-to-year since 2005, when the University adopted a need-aware transfer admission policy and, Miller said, “made the decision to commit additional financial aid resources to transfers.”

“It really is a function of the number of students we can accommodate effectively,” Miller said of transfer enrollment. The number of transfer students accepted each year depends on a general calculation made by the Corporation, the University’s governing body, about how many students the University can support each year.

Because of the University’s limited support and funding for transfer student aid, all transfers requesting financial aid are placed in the highest loan bracket — for families with an income of $85,000 or more.

Sam Dickman ’10, who transferred this fall from the University of Utah, thought the loan policy was unclear to transfer applicants and said it came as a surprise to him — after he’d signed up to start at Brown in the fall.

“My frustration arises from the fact that after I committed and dug a little deeper into the financial aid policies for transfers, I found that all transfers are put in the same loan bracket regardless of financial circumstance,” Dickman wrote in an e-mail to The Herald.

“This information was not presented in my initial financial aid letter, nor was it mentioned on the

Brown Web site,” he said.

“I only lear ned this after speaking on the phone with a financial aid representative,” he said. “My frustration rests with the impression that this policy seems hidden under many layers of bureaucracy.”

Dickman said that transfers should not be treated any differently from students entering as freshmen, but he does see the policy as a potential incentive for students to apply as first-years, not transfers.

“Ideally we’d love that all our populations were admitted need-blind and a student’s need was never a consideration, but it’s a budget issue based on our scholarship resources for undergraduate students,” Farnum said. “Because we’re committed to meeting 100 percent of a (nontransfer) student’s financial need ... obviously it can be very expensive, depending on the need of the student.”

Financial aid issues aside, transfers said they have transitioned well to Brown despite a meager orientation effort. Jason Skinner ’09, who came to Brown from a two-year community college, said the official orientation was lacking.

“I had to figure out how to register for classes, they didn’t really explain that ver y well,” he said.

“We didn’t get a campus tour, I had to figure out where ever ything was on my own.”

Eric Rodriguez ’08, who transferred in the fall of 2006 from Rio Hondo Community College in California, agreed with Skinner that Brown needs to improve transfer orientation and recalled his own transition from a community college to Brown.

“I had poor study skills — I would do stuff the night before, I wouldn’t read the material. It was a whole different ballgame,” Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez said he learned study skills from his peers at Brown. “(It’s easy) if you’ve gone to prep school your whole life.

Coming from where I was coming from, you never learn it.”

Rodriguez said that he was able to attend Brown thanks to his financial aid from the University.

“I’ll be honest, Brown has treated me really well in terms of financial aid. They support me like none other,” he said.

Rodriguez praised the Office of Financial Aid and its director, James Tilton, but agreed that more financial aid is needed for transfer and international students, none of whom are admitted need-blind.

In particular, Rodriguez said the University should provide more financial aid suppor t to students who may wish to do internships but have to work to pay the student contribution of their aid package.

“The whole idea of the University is to send us out into the world, to have a well-rounded experience, through internships, fellowships,” he said.

“Most students aren’t able to afford to do this. The BIAP and AIP are wonder ful programs, (but) really underfunded,” Rodriguez added, referencing the Brown Internship Award Program and the Aided Internship Program grants which, together, benefited only about 60 students in 2007.

Bremen Donovan ’08, who transferred to Brown in 2005 after spending time at two other universities, was able to work overseas with refugees this summer, thanks to support from a grant through the Watson Institute for International Studies and worked at a literacy nonprofit this summer with help frm the BIAP and AIP grants.

“I regret nothing about my decision to come here,” Donovan said. “I can imagine some people being unsatisfied here, but — and I know this sounds cheesy — I wake up ever y morning and I think about how ridiculously lucky I am to be here.”

Still, Donovan agreed that there is more the University can do for transfers.

“If Brown stops offering financial aid to transfer students, or offers aid to fewer students, there will probably be fewer coming in,” Donovan said.

“I think that really contradicts Brown’s MO of being a really open and welcoming school that offers opportunities to everyone,” she said.

c ampus n ews Tuesday, September 25, 2007

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Trivia Night boosts profits at the Underground

Hegel scholar Lewis ’90 returns to teach

Christina Herrero Contributing Writer

Seventeen years after graduating from Brown with a degree in religious studies, Thomas Lewis ’90 has returned to College Hill as an assistant professor in the same subject.

“Never have I found a place where the students seemed as intellectually curious,” he said of Brown, noting that he is excited to return.

Lewis’s research has focused much of his scholarly work on German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and is currently writing a book, “Religion, Modernity, and Politics in Hegel,” which explores the role of religion in contemporary Courtesy of brown.edu society through Hegel’s early-19th Thomas Lewis ‘90 century work.

The book, Lewis said, explores the relationship between philosophy and religion. “Hegel’s understanding of religion was shaped in a particular point in time to respond to a specific set of international social and political challenges,” he said.

Lewis said he uses Hegel’s philosophy to discuss elements of “social fragmentation” and the role of religion and secular structures in holding a society together and shaping “basic assumptions and intuition.”

Lewis said he entered Brown as a student thinking he might study math or engineering but instead pursued religious studies — in part, he said, because of excellent professors in the department.

Lewis received his Ph.D. in religious studies from Stanford University, and during his studies, he traveled to Germany several times.

“It was a time of transition,” Lewis said of the rapid changes that were taking place in Berlin in the 1990s, after the fall of the Berlin Wall and reunification.

Enrolled as a student at the Freie Universitat zu Berlin, Lewis said he found intellectual stimulation in his contact with academics and others on the subject of Hegel’s philosophy, deepening his interest in the subject.

Lewis’s publications include “Freedom and Tradition in Hegel: Reconsidering Anthropology, Ethics, and Religion” and numerous articles on the work of Hegel, the “liberation theology” of Gustavo Gutierrez and conceptions of community and ethics.

After graduation, Lewis traveled to Quito, Ecuador, to teach English. He has most recently taught as an assistant professor at Harvard University with a joint appointment on the Committee on the Study of Religion and the Divinity School. But, Lewis said, he was drawn back to his alma mater by what he described as a strong, growing religious studies department at Brown.

At 9 p.m. last Friday night, students lined up all the way from the Underground past the Campus Market in Faunce House for a chance to play trivia. Last semester, Trivia Night was only held a few times, but this semester the event’s staff members said they are excited to see the competition has become a popular activity for students on weekends.

The concept of a trivia night is simple enough. Groups of students form teams and are asked questions in different categories. There are four rounds and the team that answers the most questions correctly at the end of the competition is declared the winner. Frequent categories include popular culture, current events and a song identification round.

Despite relatively innocuous beginnings, Trivia Night has grown into a highly anticipated event this semester and will now be held every

— Sophie Berner-Eyde

Friday night at the Underground.

Trivia Night was first introduced at Brown by two students, David Richardson ’08 and Alex Seitz-Wald ’08, who developed the idea from a club that they frequented during their semester abroad in Barcelona, Spain, last fall. Upon their return from Barcelona, Richardson and Seitz-Wald suggested that a trivia night be incorporated at the Underground.

Their concept has benefited both trivia enthusiasts and the Underground itself. The addition of Trivia Night to the Underground’s regular schedule has increased profits for the student-run bar, which are returned to the Undergraduate Finance Board.

“Trivia Night has definitely helped our finances,” said Underground General Manager Dan Levitt ’08. “It gets a large older crowd into the Underground early in the evening. Once this older crowd is in the Underground, they usually stay to check out the band whether or not they have heard the band’s

music.”

Both Trivia Night staff and participating students deemed Trivia Night a great success. “It’s just one of those things that builds momentum,” Richardson said. “The first turn-out was probably like 50 people and then it just kept growing after that.”

One reason the Underground is such an attractive venue for students is that the minimum age is 18, unlike many local bars where patrons must be 21 or older. Only those older than 21 can buy alcoholic drinks at the Underground, however.

Last Friday, students universally agreed that Trivia Night was a great activity and chance to hang out with their friends. “It’s fun and a great way to meet new people,” said Ingrid Pangandoyon ’10. “It’s really chill and laid back.”

This weekend the Underground will be open both Friday and Saturday from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. Friday night will open with Trivia Night followed by a local cover act, and on Saturday two bands will perform.

Classics dept. welcomes new Sanskrit prof

By Hristo Atanasov Contributing Writer

The Department of Classics has expanded this year with the addition of Professor of Classics James Fitzgerald, a noted scholar of Sanskrit, to its faculty roster. Prior to his appointment at Brown, Fitzgerald was a professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Tennessee, where he also served as associate department head. He received his B.A. in civilizational studies as well as his M.A. and Ph.D. in Sanskrit studies from the University of Chicago.

In an interview with The Herald, Fitzgerald said that though he is currently on leave until July 2008, he is excited about the prospect of teach-

ing “typical” Brown students and is looking forward to interacting with them.

Fitzgerald is currently working on a new English translation of the Mahabharata — in his words, “the single most important text” of Hinduism.

An epic poem of over 90,000 verses, this immense work has so far been translated into English only based on older editions. Fitzgerald is working with a project to translate the ancient text from what is known as the Critical Edition of the Mahabharata — a compilation produced between 1919 and 1966 that is used in current studies of the text. The project was started

by University of Chicago Indologist J. A. B. van Buitenen and, after a 20-year hiatus following van Buitenen’s death,

is now being continued by Fitzgerald and two other Sanskrit experts.

Fitzgerald said the translation will present the text in prose — as opposed to in the original verse — because of the difficulty of conveying the meaning of the Mahabharata in English verse.

Asked about his transition from a religious studies department to classics, Fitzgerald said he is happy about the move, citing his undergraduate training in language studies. He added that he is glad to have the opportunity to be teaching and working in Sanskrit.

Fitzgerald was not certain about what courses he might be teaching next fall but he mentioned “The Ancient Indian Epic” and SANS 0100: “Elementary Sanskrit” as possibilities.

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Tuesday, September 25, 2007

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Providence Ghost Tours uncover a new side of College Hill continued from page 1 heating, ventilation and air conditioning specialist for Facilities Management — say they are eager to divulge some of Providence’s darkest secrets. They say they joined the tour, which is in its second year of operation, for the opportunity to tell the stories of strange deaths, murders, suicides and purported paranormal activity on the East Side.

DaSilva, a tour guide-in-training, began working for the Providence Ghost Tour earlier this month and will soon be leading her own tour.

“This is a great job to have as a college student,” she said. “I have background in drama and I’m a history buff, so that’s mostly what drew me into applying.”

DaSilva said she finds not only the history of Providence fascinating but also some of Brown’s unmentioned history. “It has given me a different perspective of Brown too,

because I didn’t know the history of the buildings, like University Hall, which we talk about on the tour,” DaSilva said. “(On the tour) you forget about all of the academic history and focus on the people that were involved in the history of the campus.

The tour brings you down to Earth — it gives you a separate perspective from the University microcosm.”

Larivee took on the job as a tour guide because “I do some acting on the side, and I thought this would be a great opportunity to get some excellent training and do a fun job,” he said. “It’s fascinating to see that most students don’t get a lot of this history in their Brown packets. It has more to do with people who once lived in the city and the problems they had.”

The tour began in September 2006 — but not before founders Edge and Mike Gertrudes devoted endless hours to studying ghostly lore. The tour follows a 1.5 mile loop that begins and ends at Prospect Ter-

race Park on Congdon Street, and lasts about an hour and a half.

Guides lead visitors to several buildings along the streets of the East Side, including the Providence Athenaeum on Benefit Street, author H.P. Lovecraft’s residence on Angell Street and several Rhode Island School of Design and Brown buildings — even a few residence halls.

The tour guides don’t do the spooking — the stories take care of that themselves.

“Mike and I spent about nine months researching all the stories and digging around for more before we started it up,” Edge said. “It’s an ongoing research project, but we were looking for an alternative to the nine-to-five job and this seemed perfect.”

Edge is no rookie to ghost tours: she worked at Ghost Tours of Newport, R.I., before founding the Providence version. “That was a lot of fun, and we thought we could do the same here,” she said. “Mike and I

have a general interest in ghosts and go ghost hunting as a hobby.”

Though Edge said many customers doubt the truth of the stories, she and the tour guides stressed that the tour is based on “research and historical documentation.” They have taken the time to make sure that all of the people in their stories really existed, and that all of the discussed incidents were recorded.

Edge said the Rhode Island Historical Society provided the bulk of material for their research.

“It has lots of journals and private letters that belonged to many of the people we talk about on the tour,” she said. “We’ve gone through tons of microfilm of death records that took us hours and hours to read and sort out.”

Larivee said he liked the idea of reenacting events that actually happened to Providence residents.

“Yes, some of it is spooky, but a lot of it is sad,” Larivee said.

Edge and Gertrudes have hired

eight tour guides, all of whom had to compete for their positions.

DaSilva recalled seeing 12 or 15 people at her interview. “We had to perform and tell a story in front of everyone applying, and they picked the ones who did it best,” she said. The other tour guides are Providence residents who work elsewhere by day and scare both residents and visitors by night.

All tours in the fall begin at 7 p.m. Tickets cost $12 online and $15 in person on the night of the tour. Currently the tour only runs on Friday nights and weekends, but the founders are looking to expand the enterprise in the future. Edge said the tours draw about 40 people a night, with variation according to the month.

“October is obviously a ver y busy month” due to Halloween, Edge said. “We would like to add multiple tours to accommodate large numbers of people and the stories that we have. We have a lot more stories that don’t make it on the tour because the tour would be too long if we added them.”

Participants are encouraged to take pictures of all the buildings on the tour in case a ghost makes an appearance on camera. Then again, if one does show up, visitors might be too engrossed in the stories to notice it.

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W orld & n ation Tuesday, September 25, 2007

page 7

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Death of a tabloid: All the news that seemed unfit to print

By Peter Carlson Washington Post

Somewhere in Kalamazoo, Elvis weeps: The Weekly World News is folding.

The Weekly World News was not one of those sleazy tabloids that cover tawdry celebrity scandals. It was a sleazy tabloid that covered events that seemed to occur in a parallel universe, a fevered dream world where pop culture mixed with urban legends, conspiracy theories and hallucinations. Maybe WWN played fast and loose with the facts, but somehow it captured the spirit of the age — and did it in headlines as perfect as haiku: “DEAD ROCK STARS RETURN ON GHOST PLANE!” “BLIND MAN REGAINS SIGHT AND DUMPS UGLY WIFE!” The most creative newspaper in American history, the Weekly World News broke the story that Elvis faked his death and was living in Kalamazoo, Mich. It also broke the story that the lost continent of Atlantis was found near Buffalo. And the story that Hillary Clinton was having a love affair with P’lod, an alien with a foot-long tongue. And countless other incredible scoops.

None of these stories was, in a strictly technical sense, true, which explains why the Weekly World News never won a Pulitzer Prize.

But in its glorious heyday in the late 1980s, the supermarket tabloid amazed and amused a million readers a week.

But that was then. Now, with circulation plunging below 90,000, American Media, which owns WWN, has pulled the plug. The Aug. 27 issue will be the last.

WWN’s cult followers are mad.

How mad? Almost as mad as Ed Anger, WWN’s perpetually enraged right-wing nut-job columnist. Anger started every column by announcing exactly how angry he was. “I’m madder than Batman with a run in his tights.” Or: “I’m madder than a gay football hero on a date with the homecoming queen.” Or his favorite: “I’m pig-biting mad.”

“I’m pig-biting mad at the demise of Weekly World News,” says Joe Garden, features editor of the Onion, a satirical newspaper much influenced by WWN. “They really knew how to take hold of a premise and go as far as humanly possible with it. It was beautiful.”

“12 U.S. SENATORS ARE SPACE ALIENS!” In 1999, somebody taped that WWN story to a wall in the Senate press gallery, where it amused the press corps, although some scribes griped that the paper had underestimated the number of aliens in the Senate. Reporters loved the Weekly World News. Many fantasized about working for it and casting aside the tired old conventions of journalism, such as printing facts.

“Mainstream journalists read WWN and dreamed about killing the county sewer-system story they were working on and writing about a swamp monster or a 65-pound grasshopper,” says Derek Clontz, a Weekly World News editor for 15 years.

In fact, most of WWN’s writers really had escaped from mainstream newspapers, including the Philadelphia Inquirer and The New York Times. They figured life at the Weekly World News would be more fun — and they were right.

“It was electrifying,” says Sal Ivone, who worked at the New York Daily News before jumping to WWN. “Every day you’d go into the office and somebody would make you scream with laughter.”

“It was just a hoot,” says Joe Berger, who covered Congress for the Oregon Journal before escaping to WWN in 1981.

“We were the Beatles of fake journalism,” says Clontz.

CRAZED DIETER MISTAKES DWARF FOR CHICKEN! It all began in Lantana, Fla., in 1979, when the National Enquirer, America’s premier tabloid, bought new color presses to replace its old black-and-white presses. The Enquirer’s owner, a former CIA agent named Generoso Pope, couldn’t bear to leave the old presses idle, so he founded Weekly World News as a sort of poor man’s Enquirer, running celebrity gossip and UFO sightings that didn’t quite meet the Enquirer’s high standards.

“Early covers tended to be dominated by a gigantic celebrity head ... like sitcom king John Ritter’s head the size of a beach ball,” Clontz recalls in an e-mail. “Circulation didn’t top 200,000 until then-editor Joe West named my brother Eddie managing editor and gave him sweeping powers over content and presentation.

From that point on, it was Katy bar the door.”

Eddie Clontz was the mad genius behind WWN. A 10th-grade dropout from North Carolina and former copy editor at small newspapers, he imbued the WWN newsroom with his unique philosophy of journalism: Don’t fact-check your way out of a good story.

“If we get a story about a guy who thinks he’s a vampire, we will take him at his word,” Clontz told the Philadelphia Inquirer before he died in 2004.

Clontz’s philosophy of creative credulity led to wonderful stories that excessive fact-checking would have ruined.

“If a guy calls and says Bigfoot ran away with his wife,” Ivone says, “we wrote it as straight as an AP story.”

“In the ‘80s, WWN was 85 percent true,” says Derek Clontz. “We simply revved up and played big the wild, odd and strange stories that

Randy Mays / Washington Post

mainstream media overlooked or were too persnickety to run.”

One day, Eddie Clontz spotted a tiny newspaper story about a Florida undertaker who was arrested for selling body parts to research scientists. With a little reporting, and creativity, it became a WWN classic: “FLORIDA MAN SCREAMS FROM THE GRAVE, MY BRAIN IS MISSING!” In those days — they could be termed WWN’s semi-factual period — the tabloid employed a squad of “clippers,” who read scores of local newspapers and clipped out the weirder stories.

“They would give me a stack of clips and I’d get on the phone and call people,” Berger recalls. “If a guy in Omaha got hit by 30,000 volts of lightning and lived to tell the tale, I’d call the poor sucker and get his version of the story and run it. It was all factual.”

But too many facts can ruin a good yarn, so Pope and Clontz encouraged their reporters to embellish a bit. The reporters started spicing up stories with lovely details that came straight from their imaginations. Gradually, true stories became half-true stories, then quarter-true

stories, then ...

“It wasn’t like overnight we decided to start running fiction,” Berger says. “We just added a few facts to a story and got away with it, and it went on from there.”

WWN’s writers had stepped out onto that proverbial “slippery slope” you hear so much about, and they gleefully slid down it to the bottom.

Soon they were producing “FAMED PSYCHIC’S HEAD EXPLODES” and “ELVIS TOMB IS EMPTY” and

“HEAVEN PHOTOGRAPHED BY HUBBLE TELESCOPE,” which was illustrated by an actual photo from the Hubble, enhanced just a wee bit to show a shining city so lovely it made dying seem like a small price to pay for admission.

Circulation soared, reaching nearly a million copies a week by the end of the ‘80s. Staffers debated how many readers actually believed continued on page 9

Page 8

Bargains on Thayer and beyond for Brown ID holders continued from page 1 “There was no formal mechanism for all of these businesses to provide these sorts of deals,” Hilliard said.

The program continued to develop over the next two years through committee work with numerous organizations, including the President’s Staff Advisory Committee, the Human Resources Advisor y Board and the Office of the General Counsel. Participating vendors were approached by Hilliard, who said interested businesses can join the Bears Bargain program at any time.

The only requirement for a business to participate is that its discount be available to all Brown faculty, staff and students. That mandate initially caused some difficulty, as certain vendors only wanted to provide discounts for Brown staff members, “but we envisioned a program for all individuals, as otherwise it goes against the all-inclusive Brown community sentiment that this is all about,” Hilliard said.

Not all vendors are easily incorporated into the program. Hilliard said there have been efforts to involve Thayer Street chain stores like Urban Outfitters and Cold Stone Creamery, but due to corporate constraints, it is far more difficult to secure their participation than that of individual vendors.

Bear Bargains components Local businesses participating in the Bear Bargains program include Thayer Street restaurants, beauty and health stores and even the East Side Marketplace grocery store, which offers a five percent discount to faculty and staff on Thursdays and

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

to students on Wednesdays.

Some discounts consist of a blanket 10-or 15-percent price reduction on all purchases, while others are subject to more specific limitations.

Geoff’s, on Thayer Street, offers a discount after 3 p.m. on any day but Tuesday, when sandwiches are two for the price of one. The accessories shop Details, also on Thayer Street, offers a 15 percent discount on Tuesdays for only certain items.

A few of the Bear Bargains discounts existed previously and now are being incorporated into the larger structure of the program. Thayer Street locales such as Meeting Street Cafe and City Sports have offered discounts in the past.

Perhaps because their discounts have been offered for a longer period of time, those businesses are more direct about their offers, which are advertised by signs displayed outside both stores. But not all vendors are actively promoting the new discount program.

“Some (vendors) have said that they don’t want to put a sign in the window because it puts them in a position where they have to answer to those who are upset about not being eligible for the discount,” Hilliard said.

One employee at the Thayer Street bead store Beadworks said she has encountered complaints from Rhode Island School of Design students, who are not eligible for the Bear Bargains program.

“If they’re not Brown students, they tend to get upset that they aren’t receiving the discount,” the employee said.

A complete listing of community vendors that offer discounts is available through the Bear Bargains in-

“Bear Bargains”: Use your Brown ID and...

Get a 10% discount

Get free fries with the purchase of a hot dog and soda

Get 50 cents off a 6” sub and $1 off a footlong on Fridays

Get 2-for-1 lunches on Tuesdays and 10% on other days

Get a 10% discount

Get a 5% discount on Thursdays for faculty and staff

Get a 15% discount

Get a 10% discount

Get a 5% discount on Wednesdays for students Courtesy City Sports

Courtesy Eastside Marketplace

dex page on the Human Resources Web site.

Working Advantage, the second component of the program, is a nationwide set of offers that extends to various hotels, movie theaters, ski resorts and Broadway shows. To make use of these benefits, members of the Brown community must first create an account at the Working Advantage Web site.

The final tier of the program is a general compilation of all of special services available to Brown students, faculty and staff. These services include athletic programs through the Department of Physical Education

and Campus Recreation, free rides on the Rhode Island Public Transportation Authority and the farmer’s market that is held Wednesday afternoons on Wriston Quadrangle.

Student awareness grows When asked if they were aware of the Bear Bargains program, few students expressed knowledge of the community vendor discounts being offered, and most responded with surprise to news of the program.

“I feel like I know about (a student discount) if I go there often — for example the Meeting Street Cafe’s 10-percent discount — but otherwise I would only know if someone had told me,” said Anya Rothstein ’09.

Some students expressed disappointment that they hadn’t known about the program’s details.

“I feel like anywhere I go on campus may have a discount, so I really should just ask at each place, as I wouldn’t really know otherwise,” said Jennifer Coletta ’09.

“I just knew about the East Side Marketplace deal on Wednesdays, which is when I go and buy my rice. I feel (kind of) outraged that students aren’t aware of (the discount program),” added Michael Lin ’11.

Another first-year, Janet Zong ’11, said she was unsure about whether the program was being advertised effectively.

“I doubt people read the signs in the windows, especially if they’re not particularly obvious, because most people, in not being aware of the offer, aren’t looking for a sign that would indicate a discount,” Zong said.

Some students said they were aware of the program, but even those who expressed knowledge of its existence had limited awareness of the specific details regarding the

locations offering discounts.

“I read about it (in Morning Mail), and it was on the Brown home page Web site at one point, but I still didn’t really look into it,” said Jenny Frary ’11.

Confusion about the program might also stem from it being listed on the Human Resources Web site under “Employee Programs.”

Hilliard indicated that efforts would be made to better publicize the program.

“What I’m hoping to do is periodically update the Web site, sending occasional Morning Mails to let people know about additional vendor discounts that have been added to the index page. That’s my plan for keeping people in the loop,” Hilliard said.

The future of Bear Bargains The Bear Bargains program has continued to grow since it officially began this fall, attracting more and more local vendors. “It’s exciting because now I don’t have to go up and down Thayer Street giving people my card and telling them about the program. Rather, now they’re calling me because they have an interest in joining as well,” Hilliard said.

The program is expected to eventually include more businesses off College Hill, in part a reflection of the increasing number of University departments and facilities that are not located immediately on campus.

Hilliard expressed particular interest in involving Jewelry District buisnesses.

“As the Brown campus expands, I’m hoping to incorporate more participants both on College Hill and off,” Hilliard said. “It’s a win-win situation both for those offering the discounts as well as those receiving.”

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Tuesday, September 25, 2007

page 9

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Death of the tabloid: All the news that seemed unfit to print continued from page 7 the stories and how many were hipsters reading it for laughs.

“It is my belief that in the ‘80s and into the ‘90s, most people believed most of the material most of the time,” says Derek Clontz.

Eddie Clontz kept telling writers: You’ve got to give people a reason to believe. To do that, Berger says, they would write their weirdest stories in a very straight, just-thefacts-ma’am style. And they’d quote experts explaining how this strange event could occur. Sometimes the experts actually existed.

“I remember a story about a guy who went on a diet, and he got so hungry that he chased a dwarf down the street with a hatchet because he mistook the dwarf for a chicken,” Berger recalls. “I’m pretty sure I wrote that story.”

He’s also pretty sure it was totally fictitious. But it had to seem true.

“We would explain to people how it was possible that a guy could get so hungry that he’d mistake a dwarf for a chicken,” Berger says. “We’d interview a psychiatrist about it and quote him. And if we couldn’t find one, we’d ‘find’ one.”

WWN writers quoted sources identified as “a baffled scientist” so often they started joking about a institution called the Academy of Baffled Scientists.

In their quest to make fake news seem real, WWN’s writers found an unexpected ally — reality. The real news reported in real newspapers in those days frequently rivaled anything that WWN writers could concoct. For instance: Americans elected a president who’d once co-starred in a movie with a chimpanzee. Rich women hired “surrogate mothers” to bear their children. The Soviet Union

suddenly dropped dead. Scientists invented a magic pill that gave men erections. California cultists committed suicide, believing that the Hale-Bopp comet would carry them to heaven. Lurid details of a president’s sex life were released in an official government document.

Religious fanatics hijacked airplanes and flew them into buildings. Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected governor of California. Scientists studying DNA revealed that humans were 98.6 percent genetically identical to chimpanzees.

Reality was getting so weird, it was tough for the folks at WWN to keep up. But they gave it their best shot.

They worked in an office in the back of the National Enquirer newsroom, behind a partition installed because Eddie Clontz’s yelling disturbed the serious journalists at the Enquirer. Actually, everybody yelled. First, somebody would yell out an idea for a headline, then everybody else would yell out better ideas. The yelling was exceeded only by the laughing.

“There were days when I would leave work,” writer Bob Lind says, “with my stomach and my face hurting from laughing all day at the ideas being kicked around.”

Lind witnessed the birth of Bat Boy, the tabloid’s most beloved character and the subject of an offBroadway musical. In 1992, Dick Kulpa, WWN’s graphics genius, was playing around with Photoshop, trying to turn a picture of a baby into a picture of an alien baby. He gave the kid pointy Spocklike ears, wide eyes and fangs. Ivone looked at it and said, “Bat Boy!” and Eddie Clontz turned to his brother Derek and said, “Do it!”

Derek concocted the story of a creature, half bat and half boy, cap-

tured in West Virginia. “BAT CHILD FOUND IN CAVE!” was the headline on the first story. But there were more, many more as the little tyke escaped and was recaptured again and again, constantly fleeing from the FBI and a brutal bounty hunter named Jim “Deadeye” Slubbard, who vowed to stuff him and hang him over his fireplace.

“Eddie fell in love with Bat Boy,” Lind says. “He was one of the most in-depth characters we dealt with.

He could be mean, he could be spiteful, but he could also be kind. And every once in while, he would be captured by the FBI and held in an undisclosed location near Lexington, Kentucky.”

One day — Lind swears this is true — Eddie Clontz got a call from an irate FBI agent complaining that the bureau’s switchboard was swamped with calls demanding that they free Bat Boy. “Eddie said, `I’ll never do it again,’ “ Lind says, “then he hung up the phone and went on to the next Bat Boy story.”

In the spirit of Eddie Clontz, we won’t risk ruining that story by factchecking it with the FBI. DEAD AT 28: TABLOID MEETS GRUESOME END! It sure was fun while it lasted.

Then ...

“It turned to (bleep),” says Lind.

“The guy who took over didn’t understand what it was.”

In 1999 David Pecker bought American Media, which owned the National Enquirer, the Star and the Weekly World News. Soon young comedy writers replaced a lot of WWN’s old-timers: Clontz, Ivone, Berger, Lind, Kulpa.

“He wanted to hire comedy writers,” Ivone says. “But it’s not just comedy. It’s a different skill set.”

Bat Boy became a comic strip, one of several strips in the new WWN, none of them very comic.

The new editors added lame advice columns by “Lester the Typing Horse” and “Sammy the Chatting Chimp.” Ed Anger remained and he was still “pig-biting mad” but he wasn’t so funny anymore. Circulation plummeted.

“It was like seeing someone you love wither up and die,” says Berger.

What does Pecker say?

Nothing. He’s not talking. Neither is anybody else at WWN. On July 24, the company issued a brief statement announcing that WWN was folding “due to the challenges in the retail and wholesale magazine marketplace.”

Weekly World News, a tabloid that screamed in joyous horror for 28 years, is dying with barely a whimper.

When WWN dies, what will Elvis read as he passes the long, lonely nights up there in Kalamazoo?

Page 10

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2007

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Protests greet Iranian President Ahmadinejad at Columbia continued from page 1 excoriated him in a scathing introduction, saying “you exhibit all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator,” and concluding, “Today I feel all the weight of the modern civilized world yearning to express the revulsion at what you stand for.”

The visit sparked a wide range of student activism on campus in recent days, culminating in yesterday’s protests, as many — on and

of f campus — debated whether Columbia was right to provide a platform for the controversial leader, whose government has been accused of sponsoring terrorism and flouting the international community in pursuing a nuclear program.

Ahmadinejad has also personally expressed skepticism about the occurrence of the Holocaust.

True to form, Ahmadinejad denied homosexuality existed in Iran, accused the United States of sup-

porting terrorism and refused to respond “yes” or “no” when asked if he favored the destruction of Israel. He spoke pointedly in support of Palestinians, saying they had suffered unnecessarily for an event — the Holocaust — they played no role in.

He also said he felt insulted by Bollinger’s introduction, calling it an unnecessar y “vaccination,” disrespectful to the students and faculty in attendance.

Columbia’s Hillel and Queer Alliance were among the student groups leading the demonstrations against Ahmadinejad’s presence on campus.

In an e-mail sent last Friday to Columbia’s Hillel members obtained by The Herald, Hillel President Josh Rosner explained his group’s grievances.

“His offensive denial of the Holocaust is abominable and unacceptable,” Rosner wrote, also highlighting Ahmadinejad’s statements calling for the destruction of Israel and “principles that are antithetical to democratic values.”

“The principles that Ahmadinejad champions are repugnant to ever ything we, both as Jews and Americans, stand for,” he wrote.

“We encourage and invite all Hillel members to help raise the voice against President Ahmadinejad on Monday.”

In an e-mail to members of the Columbia University Democrats, Josh Lipsky, the group’s political affairs director, urged students to take advantage of the opportunity

to engage Ahmadinejad.

“As Democrats, we seek to engage in dialogue with Iran, and we endorse the decision to invite him unto our campus,” Lipsky wrote.

“This is a unique opportunity to challenge and expose one of the most radical leaders in the world. … We need to grill and engage Ahmadinejad in ever y forum possible — not avoid him.”

Harr y Reis ’11 travelled to New York with two other Brown students to attend a rally outside the United Nations. Reis said he made the trip in order to protest the U.N. affording Ahmadinejad a platform and the “general tendency of the U.N. to ignore human rights abuses among member states.”

That rally “was also targeted toward Columbia,” he said.

Reis said he believed it was a “mistake” for Columbia to invite Ahmadinejad, but that “considering that the invitation happened, Columbia took the oppor tunity to make what it could of the dialogue.”

“Lee Bollinger was rightfully critical of (Ahmadinejad’s) approach,” Reis said. He also said that “the Columbia student body did a really good job of organizing” around the event.

Clare Smith, a sophomore at Columbia, said that students “were shoulder to shoulder” on the lawns outside the lecture hall in the middle of campus, where the speech and subsequent questionand-answer session were projected on a large screen.

“It was pretty packed,” she said.

“College Walk, the main walkway through campus, was just plastered in posters berating Iranian abuse of human rights and then other posters that were tr ying to shed a positive light on Iran.”

Smith said Columbia students had strong reactions to news of Ahmadinejad’s visit.

“People were just disgusted that he was even going to set foot on our campus, and I think that those were the most vocal students,” she said. “A lot of students disagreed with him ... but they still wanted to respect the spirit of free speech. But I feel like the students who wished he weren’t invited at all were the much more vocal ones.”

“The general atmosphere seemed ver y hostile,” she added.

“The entire campus has been peppered with fliers for some time now,” said Sam Parl, also a sophomore at Columbia, noting that in addition to protests against Ahmadinejad, other students took the opportunity to “raise awareness about normal Iranians” and protest against the possibility of a U.S.-Iran war.

“Student reactions were ver y mixed and ver y polarized,” Parl said.

Columbia’s campus was closed to anyone without university identification yesterday, but additional protests formed just outside the gates, shutting down several blocks of Broadway near campus for much of the day.

W orld & n ation Tuesday, September 25, 2007

California to cut off companies with Iran ties

By Evan Halper Los Angeles T imes

SACRAMENTO, Calif.­—As Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made a controversial visit to New York on Monday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger moved to steal some of the spotlight by announcing that California would sever ties with companies doing business in Iran.

Schwarzenegger, who, like Ahmadinejad, went to New York to address the United Nations, announced in a written statement after his speech that he would sign legislation requiring California’s multibillion-dollar state pension funds to divest from the country.

The move, pushed by a coalition of activists who argue that the federal government has not done enough to keep multinational corporations out of Iran, puts California at the forefront of a national movement.

The bill passed the Legislature with no opposition and follows the state’s divestment from Sudan last year.

“California has a long history of leadership and doing what’s right with our investment portfolio,” the governor said in his statement. “Last year, I was proud to sign legislation to divest from the Sudan to take a powerful stand against genocide. I look forward to signing legislation

to divest from Iran to take an equally powerful stand against terrorism.”

The bill has not yet reached Schwarzenegger’s desk, a spokesman said, but the governor will sign it shortly after it arrives from the Legislature, possibly this week.

Schwarzenegger announced his decision as politicians jockeyed to outdo one another in condemning the Iranian president, who is scheduled to address the United Nations on Tuesday.

Ahmadinejad, whom the U.S. government accuses of leading a terrorist regime that arms Iraqi insurgents and is developing nuclear weapons, has called the Holocaust a “myth” and said Israel should be “wiped off the map.”

Schwarzenegger’s decision to sign the disinvestment bill “will keep him in the limelight,” said Jonathan Aronson, professor of communication and international relations at the University of Southern California.

But Aronson is skeptical that the policy will do much to deter Iran from terrorism and human- rights violations.

“These kind of things are helpful to the politicians doing them,” he said. “Whether it is helpful to the State Department as it tries to deal with Iran, which is already as difficult as can be, is less clear.”

Supporters of the measure, how-

ever, contend that it could lead to the withdrawal of billions of dollars of investment from Iran, forcing the country’s leaders to reconsider how they rule. California’s public pension funds, worth more than $350 billion, are the retirement accounts of teachers and other government employees.

“No one should underestimate the clout of the state of California and its pension funds,” said Danielle Pletka, vice president for foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative Washington think tank that has helped lead a bipartisan push for divestment. “This is an enormous amount of money.

Divesting from companies that do business in places like Iran will be a powerful message.”

Pletka said California’s bill would enact a law similar to one in Florida. Divestment legislation is being weighed by a dozen other states, as well. In Missouri, the state treasurer was able to enact such a policy on her own authority. And at least five divestment bills are pending in Congress.

Pletka said the legislation was necessary because pension funds, however well intentioned, often are unaware of the holdings of every company they put money into -- especially as the funds invest globally.

Saudi women petition for right to drive

By Faiza Saleh Ambah Washington Post

DHAHRAN, Saudi Arabia—For the first time since a demonstration in 1990, a group of Saudi women is campaigning for the right to drive in this conservative kingdom, the only country in the world that prohibits female drivers.

After spreading the idea through text messages and e-mails, the group’s leaders said they collected more than 1,100 signatures online and at shopping malls for a petition sent to King Abdullah on Sunday.

“We don’t expect an answer right away,” said Wajeha al-Huwaider, 45, an education analyst who co-founded the group. “But we will not stop campaigning until we get the right to drive.”

The kingdom follows one of the world’s strictest interpretations of Islam. Women in Saudi Arabia, a deeply patriarchal society, cannot travel, marry or rent lodging without permission from a male guardian.

Powerful clerics in Saudi Arabia, home to Islam’s holiest shrines, say that allowing women to drive would lead to Western-style freedoms and an erosion of traditional values.

The driving ban applies to all women, Saudi and foreign.

Public transportation is limited, and though taxis are common in major cities, women tend not to use them because riding with male strangers is deemed unsafe.

Some women can afford to hire live-in drivers; others rely on male relatives to drive them.

Though live-in chauffeurs are all male, they are not viewed as a threat because they are foreigners, often from the Philippines or the Indian subcontinent, and are considered unlikely to develop relationships with the women.

Many women reject this argument. “Women and their children are at the mercy of sexual harass-

page 11

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

ment by these foreign drivers, and we know many incidents of this happening,” said Fouzia al-Ayouni, a retired school administrator. “It is much safer, and more appropriate, for women to chauffeur themselves and their children around.”

When she was first married, Ayouni recalled, her baby became ill one night. Her husband, a democracy advocate, was in jail, so she went out into the street at 2 a.m., holding the sick child and trying to find a ride to the hospital. She finally reached a brother-in-law, who drove her to the emergency room.

The last time Saudi women lobbied for the right to drive was in 1990 during the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.

Forty-seven women were briefly detained for driving in a convoy of 15 cars in the capital, Riyadh. The women were banned from traveling, lost their jobs and were ostracized by their families and acquaintances.

Though no laws explicitly ban people from gathering signatures or circulating petitions, independent political or social activity is frowned upon in Saudi Arabia, and rights activists are routinely imprisoned.

Ayouni, a 48-year-old mother of three, counted the possible consequences of agitating for change. “We could be detained, we could lose our jobs, and we could be banned from traveling,” she said. “But if we get the right to drive, it would be worth it.”

The petition has received more attention overseas than in Saudi Arabia, where the news media are government-controlled and the issue was taboo until several years ago.

But Saudi Arabia has slowly become more open since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Ayouni said. The shock of Saudis being largely involved in the attacks forced the country to reevaluate its ultraconservative lifestyle, and many subjects that had been off-limits are now discussed more openly in the

media.

“The Internet and satellite television have also brought new ideas,” said Ayouni, whose 16-year-old daughter also signed the petition.

Letters to al-Watan newspaper on Saturday responding to an article about the petition were almost equally divided for and against.

“Allowing women to drive will only bring sin. The evils it would bring, mixing between the genders, temptations, and tarnishing the reputation of devout Muslim women, outweigh the benefits,” wrote one man.

Others expressed admiration for what one called the group’s “daring and courage” in tackling the issue.

Al-Huwaider, the group’s cofounder, is no stranger to controversy. During last year’s war in Lebanon, she stood on the bridge between Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, holding a placard addressed to King Abdullah. “Give Saudi Women Their Rights,” it said.

She was detained and interrogated, and had to sign a petition pledging not to demonstrate again. But the most humiliating part, she said, was waiting at the police station until her brother could pick her up.

“The whole Arab world was inflamed at what was happening in Lebanon,” she said. “And I wanted to say: Yes, that’s bad, but why don’t you look closer to home and see how bad our lives are here?”

At a meeting at al-Huwaider’s house last week, the women in the group, the Association for the Protection and Defense of Women’s Rights in Saudi Arabia, went over their campaign.

The group had at least “broken a barrier of fear that Saudi women had of asking for their rights,” Ayouni said. “That has been our major achievement. And we want the authorities to know that we’re here, that we want to drive, and that many people feel the way we do.”

Bush to throw support to Myanmar protestors

By James Gerstenzang Los Angeles T imes

NEW YORK—In a show of support for anti-government protesters in Myanmar, President Bush plans to announce toughened sanctions Tuesday to build on U.S. pressure against the military government there, his national security advise r said.

Bush plans to use a speech at the U.N. General Assembly to outline the new efforts to force the military rulers to accede to the demands of the democracy movement in the Southeast Asian nation, said security adviser Stephen Hadley.

The U.S. sanctions will include efforts to limit travel and financial transactions by key Myanmar government members and their families. Those steps will be a concrete element in a broader speech in which Bush will advance general arguments in favor of human rights. In particular, Bush will seek to promote greater access to education, health care and nutrition in underdeveloped regions, White House officials said.

The president began a threeday visit to New York on Monday for the meeting of the U.N. General Assembly, which is beginning its 63rd annual session Tuesday.

He met privately at the WaldorfAstoria Hotel with Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, and Tony Blair, former British prime minister who now represents the Quartet — the United States, Russia, the United Nations, and the European Union — seeking to bring about a peace agreement between the Palestinians and Israel.

As previewed by White House officials, the General Assembly speech on Tuesday will veer from the themes of terrorism and war that were the foundation of Bush’s first speeches at the U.N. He is likely to turn to elements of foreign policy that carry less of an edge while still encouraging the spread of democracy and the fight against tyranny, officials indicated.

The shift in tone comes at a time when Bush is struggling in a political world grown increasingly unfriendly, both at home and abroad.

Last year at the U.N., Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez — never a friend of Bush — likened the American president to a visitor from the underworld, saying, “The devil came here yesterday, and it smells of sulfur still today.”

But even international allies are growing skittish. Britain, under new Prime Minister Gordon Brown, hopes to scale down its commitment of troops in Iraq.

And at home, notwithstanding the Democrats’ inability to gather a congressional majority to force Bush’s hand in Iraq, there are few signs that public opposition to the war is weakening.

White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said Bush would focus on the U.N.’s responsibility “to address immediate human needs.”

Perino said Bush would outline an agenda covering four broad areas: tyranny and violence, hunger and disease, illiteracy and ignorance, and poverty and despair.

She said Bush would tell the General Assembly that regardless of differences on other issues, “these are areas where they can all agree and we can all work together.”

But the president’s history of laying out a hard line and challenging the U.N. to join him has left him searching for friends in an organization that has been described with scorn by the White House. By contrast, the call for cooperation on a humanitarian agenda “certainly is a stronger message for a U.S. president than challenging the relevance of the United Nations,” said P.J. Crowley, a senior fellow and the director for homeland security at the liberal Center for American Progress in Washington.

“But there is so much water under the bridge between the president and the institution,” said Crowley, who as an Air Force officer was a spokesman for the National Security Council during the Clinton administration.

Crowley suggested that the war in Iraq would cast doubt on the president’s sincerity in promoting humanitarian goals.

“It’s hard to push that agenda with 170,000 troops in Iraq,” he added.

The stepped-up pressure on Myanmar, also known as Burma, reflects a trend within the administration that began even before the new street protests there. First Lady Laura Bush has taken a special interest in the Asian nation and has expressed her concerns both behind the scenes and in interviews. The U.S. and western allies imposed a first set of sanctions in 2003, banning imports and freezing assets of government officials.

Hadley, speaking with reporters aboard Air Force One as Bush flew to New York, said the additional sanctions would be aimed at key members of the Myanmar regime “and those that provide financial support to them,” and would encourage the U.N. and individual countries to support political change there.

On Monday, nearly a week of protests spread to several cities in Myanmar, with tens of thousands of demonstrators joining Buddhist monks on the streets of Yangon, the country’s biggest city, also known as Rangoon.

Residents of Sittwe said that all 100,000 people who live there joined the protest, Reuters news agency reported.

Hadley said the Bush administration hoped to combine internal and external pressure “to try and force the regime into a change,” leading to the release of political prisoners and an evolution toward democracy.

He said Bush was unlikely to be specific about the sanctions, “so that people don’t, quite frankly, hide their assets before the sanctions come into force.”

thanks for reading

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Harvard M. soccer goes back to Cali, brings home two W’s hands field hockey 4-1 setback continued from page 16

continued from page 16 the right side.

The Crimson outshot the Bears 6-3 in the first half and poured it on in the second half to gain advantages of 11-1 in shots, and 6-0 in penalty corners. However, Harvard managed to score only one more goal during that time, when Jafar scored her second goal of the game by deflecting Francine Polet’s shot into the cage.

Hodavance made four secondhalf saves to keep the Crimson from pulling any farther away before giving way to backup goaltender Lauren Kessler ’11. Kessler faced no shotson-goal in her collegiate debut.

“It was really awesome to see Lauren Kessler ... come in towards the end of the game,” Posa said. “She was really stepping up and communicating with everyone. That’s great to see, especially from someone coming off the bench.”

Posa suffered a knee injury two weeks ago after a game against Dartmouth. Her absence hindered the team during losses to the University of Maine, Georgetown University and the University of Rhode Island.

“I was really, really pumped for this game,” she said. “It’s great to be back out there. I’m just happy to be playing.”

Brown, currently in the midst of a four-game road trip, will next travel to face the University of Massachusetts Minutewomen at 7 p.m. on Wednesday. The Bears will not return home until they host Princeton on Oct. 13.

While it has been a tough start for Brown, this team is resilient and itching to turn the tide.

“I think we have to keep our heads up, keep our confidence and believe that we’re going to turn this around,” Posa said. “It’s all about being positive and not giving up, especially when we still have so much to play for, like our team (and) ourselves. We need to prove ourselves to everyone who doubts us.”

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Nick Elenz-Martin ’10 at the top of the 18-yard box and zipped a shot into the left corner, past the Torero goalie. The Elenz-Martin and Davies combination proved to be a deadly one the entire weekend, as the two connected again against UC-Irvine on Sunday.

“Nick played two beautiful balls to Kevin,” Noonan said.

Co-captain Steven Sawyer ’09 added that the crowd seemed to energize the hometown boys. “Both Nick and Rhett had more pressure on them and more excitement,” he said. “There were a lot of family and friends in attendance.”

As for Davies, he was named the Ivy League Player of the Week after four goals and an assist on the weekend. He had a foot in each of Bruno’s five scores.

The assist came 18 minutes into the second half against the Toreros.

After Brown survived a volley of Torero shots with the help of goal-

keeper Jarrett Leech ’09 to open the half, Davies found fellow forward Dylan Sheehan ’09 for a score that put the Bears up 3-1.

USD battled back, challenging Leech a few more times before finally scoring on another penalty kick. Penalty kicks were the theme of the weekend, with Brown surrendering all four of its goals to penalty kicks.

Noonan was baffled by the fact that so many penalties could have been called. “To give up all four goals on penalties is unheard of,” he said.

Co-captain Matt Britner ’07.5 was proud that the team did not let the referees’ calls affect its focus.

“The breaks don’t always go your way,” Britner said. “The team did well to not let the refs be the main theme.”

After holding on for a 3-2 win against San Diego, Brown faced UC-Irvine Sunday afternoon. Brown dominated the first half, holding the Anteaters without a shot. Brown

received contributions from a number of players off the bench, who replaced a few Bears out with injuries.

Bruno kept the pressure on to open the second half and finally broke out 11 minutes into the final frame when Elenz-Martin found Davies for a goal. The tally fired Brown up and helped spark another Davies strike, extending the lead to 2-0 just eight minutes later off a redirection of a header from Sheehan.

But the second goal also inspired Irvine, who began a relentless comeback attempt, attacking constantly. This pressure lead to a pair of seemingly questionable foul calls in the box that led to two Anteater scores on penalty kicks.

Neither team was able to put the ball in the back of the net during two overtime periods, and the game ended in a 2-2 tie.

The Bears were disappointed with the blown lead, but proud overall of the results under such difficult circumstances.

“We have to do a better job at the end of games,” Noonan said. “We didn’t do a good job securing the ball.” He added, however, that he was happy that “we traveled 3,000 miles and got a win and a tie. We were resilient and played well in adverse circumstances.”

Sawyer agreed, saying, “We have to change our mindset and develop a killer instinct to put teams away.” He, too, was proud of the overall performance of the team. “I was proud of the way we competed in both games,” he said.

Though the team is happy with the great start, there is still work to be done.

“We haven’t played to our full potential yet,” Britner said. “In the next eight days we will get back into our routine. We have to take it one game at a time.”

Next up for Bruno is Boston University at home at 7 p.m. on Oct. 2. Then, the team will begin its difficult Ivy League schedule against Princeton on Oct. 6.

E ditorial & L etters Page 14

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2007

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Staf f Editorial

A sober approach Being a sober college student is tough. Our campus may not be as rife with Beirut as others and heavy courseloads may stem shenanigans to some extent, but students seeking to keep their blood alcohol level at zero throughout the weekend still need formidable self-control to stay sober and be social. With no campus center and limited library hours on weekends, those eager to avoid the sight of drinks altogether have very few options.

But now, those students reluctant to accompany their drunk friends out and about have a solution — “First Fridays.”

On the first Friday of each month, the Student Activities Office plans to host a night of non -alcoholic activities in Faunce House. For some students, house parties and rounds of drinks on Thayer Street won’t have to mark the beginning of the weekend. But let’s hope that Scrabble and backgammon won’t either — we encourage the SAO to think creatively about programming for the sober social nights. Just because students don’t drink doesn’t mean they’re looking for any less entertaining a night than those who do.

Student productions and musical performances — not typically considered “non-alcoholic,” or at least not advertised as such — frequently draw large crowds. It’s likely there’s greater interest in sober activities than many students and administrators might think. Another sober entertainment option, even an alliterative one like First Fridays, is welcome.

Though the details of the First Fridays have yet to be sketched out, we’re also glad they will make use of Faunce House, one of the most under-utilized spaces on campus during weekends. The Blue Room and the Hourglass Cafe may be packed during the week, and the Underground’s Trivia Nights and student gigs attract crowds, but Faunce is eerily empty for much of the weekend. It’s the closest thing we have to a student union — it will soon be renovated to more closely approximate a campus center — and it should be used in more creative and productive ways. The Blue Room and Leung Gallery could easily host movie screenings or sketch comedy acts.

We’re glad the SAO is trying to create a campus life of varied activities, rather than simply surrendering that responsibility to the party scene. While there’s no pressing need for the University to crack down on drinking ­— comparatively few EMS calls are alcohol-related and a spate of initiatives in the wake of 2005’s Sex Power God party helped address the issue — developing student activities that are less conducive to binge drinking is always wise.

Of course, those students already inclined to drink on the weekends are unlikely to change their habits for an organized night of games. But by hosting more events at the Underground and the Graduate Center Bar, the University could also encourage more responsible drinking behavior. If the University sponsored more live performances or comedy acts at either of these two on-campus bars, those students now heading to parties or bars would also be attracted to the campus life events.

Though it was rarely open over the past few semesters, the Underground has always been a popular campus destination and now Trivia Night and a growing number of student band performances are attracting swaths of students to the bar. By strongly supporting the Underground and GCB, the University only helps itself — students may still get a little rowdy, but they’re far more likely to behave on Faunces’ steps than at the bars on Thayer.

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 Amy Ehrhart Jason Harris

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jee hyun choi

L e tt e r s The real science of racial diseases To the Editor: I was shocked by the scientific misinformation presented in Renata Sago ’10’s recent column (“Scientists: The New Racial Profilers,” Sept. 20). The column presents a theory that is constructed using misguided aims and incorrect information. The column presents the idea that genetic diseases observed in certain specific populations at a strikingly high rate are not caused by genetics but rather socioeconomic conditions, citing only warped examples.

The truth of the matter is that when a population is isolated over many generations, certain traits become more prevalent and others disappear, as an outcome of random chance. Most traits such as these are relatively benign; however, genes or alleles that are recessive and cause disease in the homozygous form (an individual having two copies of the gene) can sometimes increase in frequency in contained populations, therefore making the disease appear much more often in that population.

There are many examples of certain diseases becoming common in specific populations, such as cystic fibrosis in northern Europeans, Tay-Sachs in Jews, thalassemia in Asian and Mediterranean populations and of course the poster child of ethnic disease: sickle cell anemia in populations of African decent. Is one to suggest that the prevalence of all of these diseases is caused by some sort of oppressive social factor? Are all of these populations currently internalizing their oppression in the form of genetic disease? Of course not.

There are two reasons why genetic diseases become common: either the afflicted population is so small that the recessive allele becomes frequent by chance (usually pretty unlikely) or the heterozygote (carrying one copy each of the disease and healthy alleles) is more fit (read more likely to survive) than an individual carry-

ing two healthy alleles. In such a case the individual is likely to reproduce and pass the disease allele on to the next generation.

A more fit heterozygote is the reason for such a prevalence of blood borne genetic illness; most of these diseases provide some protection from malaria in the heterozygote form, sickle cell anemia being the prime example. In this disease a valine (an amino acid) is substituted for a glutamate (another amino acid), causing the hemoglobin molecule to fold improperly, which in turn causes the red blood cell to become misshapen. This condition provides a beneficial resistance to malaria in the heterozygous form, but is lethal when untreated in the homozygous state.

Where does this condition come from? Is the source cigarettes, alcohol or artificial snacks dripping with carbohydrates? The psychological desperation of poverty or racial discrimination? No, it comes from a modification on the DNA of the coding region of the hemoglobin gene, which can only be caused by mutation, nothing else.

Discussing racial, socioeconomic and bioethical issues and their implications should be encouraged, especially when it comes to the pertinent issue of healthcare.

However, suggesting that scientists are behaving with prejudice upon observing that certain ethnicities exhibit some diseases at incredible frequencies is unfair, biased and lacks an understanding of the very nature of science.

One does not create hypotheses to assuage one’s emotions or beliefs. A scientist constructs a hypothesis to generate an explanation of observed data, to describe reality in simple and logical terms. If you wish to criticize a scientific theory, then you should make an effort to learn about the science behind it before making imprudent uninformed judgments.

Serena Dollive ’08 Sept. 20

C o r r e ct i o n The “Overheard on College Hill” feature on Friday’s Opinions page (“What is your favorite thing to do in Providence,” Sept. 21) incorrectly spelled Jaswell Farm.

Steve DeLucia, Designer Catherine Cullen, Ezra Miller, Alex Rosenberg , Copy Editors Senior Staff Writers Rachel Arndt, Michael Bechek, Zachary Chapman, Irene Chen, Chaz Firestone, Isabel Gottlieb, Nandini Jayakrishna, Franklin Kanin, Kristina Kelleher, Debbie Lehmann, Scott Lowenstein, Michael Skocpol, Nick Werle Staff Writers Susana Aho, Taylor Barnes, Amanda Bauer, Brianna Barzola, Evan Boggs, Aubry Bracco, Caitlin Browne, Joy Chua, Patrick Corey, Catherine Goldberg, Thi Ho, Olivia Hoffman, Andrew Kurtzman, Cameron Lee, Hannah Levintova, Abe Lubetkin, Christian Martell, Taryn Martinez, Anna Millman, Joy Neumeyer, Marielle Segarra, Robin Steele, Allissa Wickham, Meha Verghese Sports Staff Writers Andrew Braca, Han Cui, Amy Ehrhart, Kaitlyn Laabs, Eliza Lane, Kathleen Loughlin, Alex Mazerov, Megan McCahill, Tom Trudeau, Steele West Business Staff Dana Feuchtbaum, Kent Holland, Alexander Hughes, Mariya Perelyubskaya, Viseth San, Kaustubh Shah, Jon Spector, Robert Stefani, Lily Tran, Lindsay Walls Design Staff Chaz Kelsh, Ting Lawrence, Philip Maynard, Alex Unger, Aditya Voleti, Wudan Yan Photo Staff Stuart Duncan-Smith, Austin Freeman, Tai Ho Shin Copy Editors Ayelet Brinn, Erin Cummings, Karen Evans, Jacob Frank, Ted Lamm, Lauren Levitz, Cici Matheny, Alex Mazerov, Ezra Miller, Joy Neumeyer, Madeleine Rosenberg, Lucy Stark, Meha Verghese

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O pinions MonDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2007

page 15

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Why the Walk is worth it BEN BERNSTEIN Opinions Columnist Over the summer, some friends and I took to going to vacant blockbuster shoot-’em-ups, like the epically awful “Transformers,” and making fun of the vapid dialogue and predictable plot twists. Few audience members appreciated our commentary, and we soon shut up. Still, the feeling of ripping on such a seemingly easy victim stayed with me, and this autumn I’ve noticed it in the tone of Brown students, faculty and staff as they jeer at the construction of the Walk from Pembroke to Main Campus. The most popular, obvious and important question is this: Why must we spend millions of dollars to give students a third way to get to Pembroke?

Since 2004, yearly tuition and fees have increased by over $7,600, or about 19 percent. Regardless of whether this is a normal increase in tuition, the fact remains that we are paying more and more to go to Brown, and if that money is being spent needlessly or frivolously, it’s especially upsetting.

Fortunately, the Walk will be worth it. By connecting two separate campuses, adding beautiful green space, and improving Brown academics, the Walk accomplishes multiple important goals in one fell swoop.

As a freshman, I lived on Pembroke and had absolutely no trouble walking to and from the Main Green for classes. Practically speaking, it was the usual putting one foot in front of another one without walking into cars. That said, it can be an unpleasant and alienating experience for a freshman to feel so disconnected from the heart of campus.

Perkins students, in effect foreign exchange students, can probably relate to this as well.

By consolidating the campus so that Pembroke students can feel both safe and a part of the Brown community, the Walk will improve the daily lives of hundreds of Brown freshmen each year.

Another complaint about the Walk is that Brown already has a Main Green. That is, we don’t need to spend millions of dollars in order to get a little more green space. This is the wrong way to think about the Walk. The purpose of the Walk is not the green space, but instead the larger goals of connecting the campus and providing added and improved academic space. The fact that that we get a beautiful new location for maxing and relaxing all cool on a sunny day is a bonus.

for example, is the construction of a new fivestory academic building, one of many new buildings, where Peter Green House used to be. Adding new buildings and beautifying the campus are an incredibly important aspect of Brown’s academic improvement.

“Rumors” isn’t just a song by Lindsay Lohan. While interviewing students and administrators for this column I came upon lots of gossip, the most striking and vocal of which was the charge that non-union workers moved the Peter Green House this summer. This is simply false. Paul Lander, a representative of the Rhode Island (Local 94) branch of the New England Regional Council of Carpenters, told me that according to his contacts, all the work done around the Peter Green site this summer was handled

Haters, you’re right: The Walk’s not necessary – if we want our university to stagnate.

The best thing about the Walk is that it will be a boon to Brown’s educational quality. “Everything ties back to academics,” said Richard Spies, executive vice president for planning and senior adviser to the president.

“We want to improve Brown academics. We need to hire new faculty, and to hire new faculty we need to have an impressive campus and a place for them to work.” Spies is absolutely right. Top professors considering a job at Brown will be far more likely to accept if they see top-notch facilities and a beautiful campus. Included in plans for the Walk,

by unions. Brown’s use of unionized labor is something to be proud of and a practice that they should continue.

The Walk, like all things, is not perfect, and money, as it is wont to do, is disappearing into some really dumb places. As Jerry Seinfeld might say, “What’s the deal with these ‘Building Brown’ construction signs?”

Spies said that they are designed to show the community that “the inconvenience they are experiencing now would lead to a big pay-off later.” In a Sept. 19 Herald article, “Signage calls attention to construction on campus,”

Michael McCormick, assistant vice president for planning, design and construction for Facilities Management, was unable to estimate the cost. The elaborate, omnipresent signs are essentially useless. We know what construction looks like, we know (or at least hope) they aren’t simply going to leave big holes in the ground, so if we are going to fork over millions of dollars, can we just spend it all on making that construction go faster?

And what’s the deal with airplane peanuts?

Where does the money come from to build the Walk? Spies said it comes from “various resources that the Corporation deemed appropriate for this use.” Sounds like it’s coming out of our pockets. Spies said that no private donor has stepped up to donate money and that begs the question: where are the Sidney Franks and Jonathan Nelsons of the Brown world now? Brown fundraisers should be trying their hardest to find a private donor to help with what will one day be a section of campus as integral as the Main Green or Lincoln Field.

In the end, the Walk may not be essential to the future of Brown University. Unlike professors, dormitories or air, we can live without it. Haters, you’re right: the Walk’s not necessary – if we want our university to stagnate. But by consolidating the campus so that Pembroke no longer feels like a different college, providing significant more green, safe space for students to relax, and opening up the Brown campus for new scholastic buildings that will unquestionably enhance our academic standing, the Walk is not the easy target most critics imagine.

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

Warning: unconstitutional law forcing birth control prices up

BY LILY SHIELD Opinions Columnist If you are one of the many women at Brown University who purchase prescription birth control pills every month from Health Services, you may have noticed your wallet feels a little lighter lately. Eleven to 39 dollars per month lighter, in fact.

The Federal Deficit Reduction Act was a budget bill passed by Congress in 2005 (after a tie-breaking vote from Vice President Cheney) and signed into law on February 8, 2006 by President Bush. It was intended to cut federal spending by $39 billion over the next five years by slowing spending on programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. Included in this act was a provision that altered the law requiring pharmaceutical companies to offer low prices on birth control to family planning clinics (like Planned Parenthood) and college health centers (like our very own). The reason we are only seeing the effect of this change now is that these places were able to stock up on the old, low-priced packs for several months and are only now being forced to up their prices — from fourteen dollars a month to a co-pay of twenty-five dollars a month if you have health insurance, to the dreaded end of fifty-three dollars a month if you don’t.

It’s possible that this price hike was an unintended consequence of the law, but it’s having devastating results on college-aged women and low-income women around the country. For thirty years, federal laws have assured that safety-net providers, who provide health care to the uninsured and those on Medicaid, could purchase prescription contraception coverage at nominal prices. It is a fact that removing those provisions will result in birth control becoming just plain unaffordable for many women, or will force them to make unfair choices about how to

focus their budget.

Reproductive health care, which suffers from incessant political attack, is considered a cornerstone of basic freedom for many women. The right for married couples to use birth control was only allowed some forty years ago in the 1965 Supreme Court case Griswold vs.

Connecticut, and as twelve million American women use oral contraceptives on any given day, it is a right we must continue to champion.

before the Act, states were not allowed to charge costly premiums or utilize expensive cost-sharing policies for safety-net providers.

Now, because of the change in the writing of the law, pharmaceutical companies are able to radically increase the co-payments even to beneficiaries who are far below the federal poverty line, and deny them services if they are unable to pay it. Prior to the Act, Medicaid also required that states offer similar benefits

For thirty years, federal laws have assured that safety net providers, who provide health care to the uninsured and those on Medicaid, could purchase prescription contraception coverage at nominal prices. It is a fact that removing those provisions will result in birth control becoming just plain unaffordable for many women or will force them to make unfair choices about how to focus their budget.

No other type of health care is under so much perpetual scrutiny with the rights to it slowly deteriorating.

Furthermore, with the Deficit Reduction Act’s focus on reducing spending on Medicaid, it’s not only birth control prices that are harmed. As you can probably figure out, the reduction has similar effects on access to other essential health care for low-income people;

to all recipients; now they can pick and choose what limited benefits to offer, meaning that some people will be left with the most minimal packages, possibly excluding or forcing them to pick between such services as vision care or mental health care.

Researching the history of the bill reveals that it was not even passed constitutionally; a legislative error caused the Senate to vote on

a different version of the bill than the House did. The Senate version contained a provision stating that government-funded leases on Medicare equipment such as oxygen tanks could last no more than thirteen months. The House version, which passed by only two votes, mistakenly changed the restriction to thirty-six months. Republicans have been defending the constitutionality of the passing of the law by citing an obscure Supreme Court case from the nineteenth century to defend their inexcusable claim that a bill doesn’t really have to pass both chambers of Congress to be legitimately signed into law by the President.

All of these factors taken together — the perhaps unintended but highly destructive consequences of the law, added to the fact that it was arguably passed in an unconstitutional way — require a serious call for action.

Mostly, people need to become aware of the results of the law and your legislators, in Rhode Island and back home, need to know you care about it. The other day I stood out on the Main Green with Students for Choice telling passersby about the law and encouraging them to call Rhode Island legislators to voice their opinion. Many expressed doubt that their call would make any difference, but it’s precisely hearing from constituents that does make a difference. The spokespeople I talked with for Representatives James Langevin, D-R.I., and Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., both took down my contact information and promised a response from the congressmen. If what I’ve described sounds unfair to you, please, take two minutes out of your day and call your representatives or senators. It’s the only way issues like this aren’t just forgotten.

Lily Shield ‘09 stands out on the Main Green often; sometimes it’s creepy.

S ports T uesday Page 16

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

M. soccer continues undefeated streak in California

By Jason Harris Assistant Sports Editor

Ashley Hess / Herald File Photo

Kevin Davies ’08 had a role in all five goals scored by the men’s soccer team this week. He was named the Ivy League Player of the Week on Monday.

Field hockey can’t stem tide in loss to Crimson

By Andrew Braca Sports Staff Writer

On Saturday, Harvard’s field hockey team beat Brown, 4-1, in Cambridge on the strength of a 17-4 advantage in shots. Co-captain Andrea Posa ’08, who returned to the lineup after missing three games with a knee injury, scored her second goal of the season, but it was not enough to lead the field hockey team (0-7 overall, 0-2 Ivy League) to a victory

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M. icers’ Hurley ’08 collects preseason honors

Not even a 3,000 mile business trip to sunny Southern California could cool down the No. 21-ranked men’s soccer team last weekend. In the Adidas San Diego Classic, Brown defeated the University of San Diego 3-2 on Friday night and followed that up with a 2-2 tie against No. 25 University of California at Irvine on Sunday. The Bears, competing in their first venture away from Stevenson Field this season, improved to 6-0-1 on the season.

Friday night’s game against San Diego was a test in multiple ways for the Bears. San Diego proved to be physical, according to Head Coach Mike Noonan. The Toreros racked up an almost unheard-of seven yellow cards and a red card in the match.

Noonan was happy that his team was able to survive the game. “The game was ugly,” he said.

Brown started slowly, producing only one shot in the first 30 minutes of the game. But with 13 minutes left in the half, forward Kevin Davies ’08 headed in a free kick by defender Rhett Bernstein ’09. Bernstein’s assist was particularly poignant because he is originally from the San Diego area and had boisterous fan support during the entire tournament.

The Bears’ first goal triggered a scoring blitz that saw USD put in a penalty kick just three minutes after Davies’ score. But Davies countered just a minute later when he received a pass from San Diego area native continued on page 13

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over the Crimson (5-2, 2-0).

Posa said the Bears showed a lot of heart in a tough defeat.

“It was a heartbreaking loss,” she said. “We went into that game with pretty high hopes. Losing to an Ivy League team definitely hurts more, because it’s a league game and now we know we’re 0-2 in the league, so we’ll have to come back from (that).”

Har vard struck first at 11:10 when defender Devon Shapiro fired

a shot past goaltender Kristen Hodavance ’08 after a penalty corner, but Posa answered for Brown only 5:19 later.

“I got the ball at the top of the circle and barely had time to get a shot off,” she said. “I drove it right into the right corner of the cage. It was a straight shot from the top of the circle.”

“It was awesome, such a great feeling (to tie the game),” she said of the goal. “You get the chills ev-

ery time. It’s 1-1 now, (so) now you know you’re back in the game. Too bad we couldn’t get another couple, though.”

Harvard fought back and took a lead it would not relinquish when Jana Berglund knocked home a pass from Maggie McVeigh at 22:57, then added an insurance goal 6:15 before halftime when Tami Jafar one-timed a pass from Kayla Romanelli along continued on page 13

As the men’s hockey team prepares to hit the ice in a few weeks, defenseman Sean Hurley ’08 is one team member the Bears will rely on heavily in the upcoming season. Hurley, who will captain the Bears this season, was unanimously selected to both the Coaches’ PreSeason All-League Team and the Media Pre-Season All-League Team.

Last year, Hurley was named Second Team AllECAC and First Team AllIvy, after scoring 24 points during the season, good for Brown’s second-highest total. Hurley also led the Bears in power-play points, recording 16, and shared the team lead in power-play goals, with a total of seven.

Hurley has already made his mark in Brown hockey history, as he is currently eighth on the career list for goals by a defenseman and ninth for season goals by a defenseman. He should add to those marks this season.

If Hurley scores five more points, he will break into Brown’s top 10 for career points by a defenseman, and if he records two more assists, he will place in the top 10 for career assists by a defenseman.

Brown was ranked 11th in both the Coaches’ Pre-Season Poll and the Media PreSeason Poll. The Bears’ first game competition will take place on Oct. 26, when the Yale Tournament begins.

— Erin Frauenhofer

No. 20 m. water polo wins two shootouts

By Whitney Clark Sports Staff Writer

The men’s water polo team, now ranked 20th in the nation, posted another strong showing this weekend, recording a pair of wins over Pennsylvania State University-Behrend and Iona College. Brown dominated in its first match Sunday against Penn State Behrend, leading the whole game and securing a 16-5 victory.

Hank Weintraub ’09 and Mike Gartner ’09 led the Bears offensively, scoring five and four goals respectively.

“We came out strong early on and just did what we had to do. We were consistently the stronger team,” Weintraub said.

On the defensive end, Jerry Wolf Duff-Sellers ’09 led with five steals.

“Jerry sparked us defensively, his plays ignited our offense,” said Head Coach Felix Mercado.

After dominating the first half, the Bears focused on slowing down their counter attack.

“(Mercado) wanted us working more on man-up situations,” Weintraub said.

Though the Bears slowed down the pace of their attack, that didn’t slow the pace of their scoring.

In addition to the outstanding play

by Weintraub, Gartner and Wolf DuffSellers, seven other players scored one goal each, including both cocaptains, Gerrit Adams ’08 and Alex Robb ’08.

Kent Holland ’10 also contributed to the Bears’ success, making five saves.

The second game of the day against Iona proved to be just as successful, and the Bears ended the weekend with another solid win, prevailing 11-6. Though the Bears came out on top, the win was not quite as effortless.

“In terms of (the) score, we were ahead the whole game, but it felt close,” Weintraub said. “Around the middle of the third quarter, we found our rhythm, our play became much cleaner, and that’s when we jumped

ahead.”

Though the score seemed close, Mercado said the Bears never felt like they were going to lose the game.

Brown held its lead through the second half to take the victory.

“We came out and really pulled ahead. (Iona) started to get frustrated,” Grant LeBeau ’09 said.

Brown scored five goals in the third quarter against seven Iona ejections to secure the lead.

“It was a very physical game. They tested us to see how tough we were mentally, (but) we didn’t stoop down to their level,” Mercado said. “We didn’t lose our composure because they were physical.”

Weintraub, Gartner and LeBeau had three goals each, while Adams had two. Holland made eight saves, giving him a total of 13 saves for the day. The Bears’ next game will be Thursday night against Connecticut College, and they will finish the weekend in Pennsylvania, competing in the ECAC Championship at Bucknell University.

dspics.com

Hank Weintraub ’09 poured in eight goals on Sunday as the men’s water polo team posted two victories.