Wednesday, October 24, 2007

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The Brown Daily Herald Wednesday, O ctober 24, 2007

Volume CXLII, No. 95

Since 1866, Daily Since 1891

U. taps into Facebook to keep tabs on some student parties

th e g r e e k g a m e s

By Kristina Kelleher Senior Staf f Writer

Rahul Keerthi / Herald The Annual Greek Olympics were held Tuesday on Wriston Quadrangle.

The Office of Student Life is now periodically perusing Facebook for information on upcoming parties, Margaret Klawunn, associate vice president for campus life and dean of student life, told The Herald. Klawunn said there has been an unusually high number of complaints this fall from area residents about students’ off-campus parties, and “we just want to remind off-campus students that the same rules and regulations apply to them,” she said. Additionally, students hosting off-campus parties are responsible for obeying city ordinances and can be cited for serving alcohol to minors and noise complaints, Klawunn said. The Office of Student Life is

New U. committee to examine residential life on campus By Scott Lowenstein Senior Staff Writer

A new group that will assess the University’s non-academic programs and suggest new initiatives to improve the quality of life at Brown will meet for the first time Friday. The Committee on the Residential Experience will “evaluate what programs we already have in place ... and make recommendations for ways to improve the quality of student life outside the classroom,”

said Margaret Klawunn, associate vice president for campus life and dean of student life. The committee is co-chaired by Klawunn and Associate Professor of Classics Joseph Pucci. The committee was conceived to complement the Task Force on Undergraduate Education, which is currently examining the College’s academic offerings, Klawunn said. “We thought we should have a companion project assessing experiences outside of the classroom,”

she said. The committee, comprising administrators, professors and three students, will discuss a variety of issues, including student and faculty relationships, advising and residence hall community-building, Klawunn said. The group will also consider the faculty fellows program, which makes professors living in University-owned properties on campus available to students for conversation, advice or a break from studying. The committee will also study

programs at other colleges and universities to develop models that “can be made distinctly Brown,” Klawunn said. One early model discussed by administrators last spring was the Alice Cook House at Cornell University, which integrates advising, living and dining in a shared community space. But when she presented this example to students, “many felt it was too much control for Brown students,” she said. continued on page 6

INSIDE:

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CAMPUS NEWS

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CAMPUS NEWS

Rahul Keerthi / Herald

Pritzker Prize-winning architect Richard Meier delivered the inaugural J. Carter Brown Memorial Lecture to a packed MacMillan 117 Tuesday.

Renaissance city? Providence ranks low in a recent survey of the best college cities in the country.

By Gaurie Tilak Contributing Writer

continued on page 4

Members of the Brown community and students from nearby institutions crowded into MacMillan 117 Tuesday evening to hear architect Richard Meier deliver the first annual J. Carter Brown Memorial Lecture. Attendees filled every seat and even crowded into the aisles of the auditorium. Steven Lubar, director of the John Nicholas Brown Center for the Study of American Civilization and professor of American Civilization, introduced Meier, who he said has received the prestigious Pritzker Prize and “just about every other award an architect can receive.” Lubar recalled the first time he visited Los Angeles’ Getty Center, one of Meier’s most notable works. “I remember ... the buildings, the spaces, feeling that intimate space despite the scale of the institution,” said Lubar. Meier began his lecture by thanking the University for the invitation and said, “I’m going to show you a lot of stuff — if I can figure out how,” as he fumbled with the controls at the podium. Meier’s down-to-earth remarks drew laughter from the enthusiastic audience — a sound that con-

By Sophia Li Staff Writer

Financial enrichment The Boldly Brown campaign has raised $1.1 billion so far, nearly 80 percent of goal.

Study shows private school attendance has little effect on a student’s future

continued on page 4

By Isabel Gottlieb Senior Staf f Writer

continued on page 6

Think your high school will get you in? Think again.

look out.” This principle of “looking out” to a building’s surroundings proved to be central to Meier’s discussion of his work as he progressed through slides of the houses, office buildings, museums and various other public spaces he has designed. Meier demonstrated his constant awareness of a building’s surroundings with the many waterfront houses he has designed. Whether they were on Long Island, near Lake Michigan or in Florida, Meier’s houses were “private from the street side and

Meier gives a window into his creative process

tinued throughout his lecture. Meier displayed a slideshow of examples of his work on a large projection screen, lecturing on the creative process behind each piece. He cited the influence of Frank Lloyd Wright’s “Fallingwater” on his own work and discussed Wright’s concept of “organic architecture” and “the extension of space between interior and exterior.” “I realized Wright was wrong,” Meier said. “What is man-made is different from what is natural. Architecture is not organic ... What is organic is everything around it — nature, what you see as you

continued on page 4

Jenny Desrosier ’11, who attended Groton School, a boarding school in Massachusetts, says her high school pedigree made a difference in the college application process. “25 percent of the kids in my grade are going to Ivy League schools,” she said. “(Colleges) know the kids are prepared.” But, according to a new study from the Center on Education Policy, attending a private school instead of a public school has little effect on a person’s future, whether measured by rate of college attendance, academic success in high school itself or job satisfaction. The study focused on poorer students in an effort to influence public policy debates over public school funding. “We focused on urban students of the lowest socioeconomic status because these are the ones generally targeted by voucher programs,” Jack Jennings, president of the center, wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. The study contradicts previous studies done on the topic that had identified attending private school as an advantage in education, the center says. The new study, a regression analysis of already published data, says better performance and test scores by private school graduates can be attributed to factors other than where students went to school, such as socioeconomic status and parental involvement in students’

No turnout at DPS forum For 40 minutes Tuesday night, officers from the Department of Public Safety waited in MacMillan 115 for students to voice complaints in an open forum. But none came — the only students in attendance were a Herald reporter and a Herald photographer. Chief of Police Mark Porter said that the open forum had been publicized in Morning Mail on Monday of this week, in table slips and in two mass e-mails to all students, one in September and one this month. The forum was also mentioned Sept. 4 during a public hearing to reaccredit DPS with the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies. Four students spoke at that meeting — though they spoke on a video that CALEA would review — and did not receive any response to their comments. Last night’s forum was arranged to offer a chance for dialogue between students and DPS officials. When the September CALEA hearing was originally scheduled

using Facebook to identify students who may be hosting parties so it can make them aware of those policies. The main goal of using Facebook to collect information about upcoming parties has been to better know what is happening on a given weekend, Klawunn said. She also encourages students to send party — and Facebook — invitations only to the Brown community. Recently, Associate Dean of Student Life Terry Addison used Facebook to find the students responsible for an off-campus party after he had been made aware of it through a neighbor’s complaint. In that situation, he contacted the students to make them aware of their responsibilities as both Brown

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OPINIONS

195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island

OPINIONS Ben Bernstein ’08 on meter maids and the problem with College Hill parking.

12 SPORTS

Wild Horses The equestrian team beats UConn for its third straight win of the season.

News tips: herald@browndailyherald.com


T oday Page 2

wednesday, october 24, 2007

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

But Seriously | Charlie Custer and Stephen Barlow

We a t h e r Today

TOMORROW

rain 65 / 45

sunny 59 / 41

Menu

Sharpe Refectory

Verney-Woolley Dining Hall

Lunch — Green Peas, Sweet and Sour Tofu, Polynesian Chicken Wings, Meatball Grinder, Chocolate Frosted Eclairs, Castle Hill Chocolate Cookies

Lunch — Vegetable Strudel, Italian Sausage and Peppers Sandwich, Pasta Bar, Chocolate Frosted Eclairs

Dinner — Salmon Provençal, Mushroom Risotto, Oatmeal Bread, Cheese Quesadillas, Greek Style Asparagus, Lime Jello, Whipped Cream Peach Cake

Dinner — Barbecue Chicken, Fresh Corn on the Cob, Macaroni Salad, Stir Fry Station, Fire Roasted Garden Patties, Whipped Cream Peach Cake

Aibohphobia | Roxanne Palmer

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

Nightmarishly Elastic | Adam Robbins

RELEASE DATE– Wednesday,©October 24, 2007 Puzzles by Pappocom

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

C

osswo d Lewis Edited by RichrNorris and Joyce r Nichols

ACROSS 1 Showy display 6 Step 11 Seasoned soldier 14 Santiago’s country 15 Delicate netting 16 Gregory’s “On the Beach” costar 17 What Cinderella is doing now? 19 Pitcher part 20 Pindar opus 21 Citified 22 Sufficient 24 Old shipping nickname 25 Familia members 26 How Goldilocks goes out now? 33 Magnani and Paquin 34 P&L preparers 35 “I see it now!” 38 Gossip column subject 39 Rod Stewart’s ex 40 Told tall tales 41 Monk’s title 42 Montego or Monterey, briefly 43 Bridal path 44 Where Hansel and Gretel are now? 48 Mrs. Peel of “The Avengers” 49 Vacation souvenir that doesn’t last 50 Daub 51 Dust bit 54 Barnyard sound 57 Ignited 58 Where Jack and Jill live now? 61 __ de France 62 Ad connection 63 Prize name 64 According to 65 Flip of the flip? 66 Actress Spacek DOWN 1 Bounce off 2 Sudan neighbor 3 Not recorded

4 Boxer Laila 5 Awards permanent status 6 Guess 7 Brass band member 8 Alda of “M*A*S*H” 9 Unwell 10 Give an account of 11 14-Across seaport 12 Unpleasant pair to choose from 13 Record 18 Crisscross pattern 23 Soccer great Hamm 24 Sixth-day creation 26 Fired, with “off” 27 Not deceived by 28 Weather station gadget 29 Bass staff symbol 30 Head-spinning paintings 31 Dressing choice 32 Jamboree gp.

36 Possessed 37 Iced tea alternatives 39 Start of a Latin trio 40 MGM symbol 43 Rouses 45 Thurman who played 48Across 46 Seer’s decks 47 Engrave, as on glass

48 Novelist Zola 50 Petticoat 51 Sown thing 52 __-dieu: kneeler 53 Sicilian hot spot 54 Lobster eaters’ protection 55 Rathskeller quaffs 56 Confederate 59 CXL ÷ XX 60 __ polloi

Octopus on Hallucinogens | Toni Liu and Stephanie Le

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

Classic How To Get Down | Nate Saunders

xwordeditor@aol.com

10/24/07

T he B rown D aily H erald Editorial Phone: 401.351.3372 Business Phone: 401.351.3260

University community since 1891. It is published Monday through Friday during the aca-

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once in July by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. POSTMASTER please send corrections to

Mary-Catherine Lader, Vice President Mandeep Gill, Treasurer Dan DeNorch, Secretary By John Greenman (c)2007 Tribune Media Services, Inc.

10/24/07

The Brown Daily Herald (USPS 067.740) is an independent newspaper serving the Brown demic year, excluding vacations, once during Commencement, once during Orientation and P.O. Box 2538, Providence, RI 02906. Periodicals postage paid at Providence, R.I. Offices are located at 195 Angell St., Providence, R.I. E-mail herald@browndailyherald.com. World Wide Web: http://www.browndailyherald.com. Subscription prices: $319 one year daily, $139 one semester daily. Copyright 2007 by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.


C ampus W atch Page 3

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Noose found on Columbia prof’s door

Nuclear attack still a threat, Harvard profs say

Police still have no suspects By Oliver Bowers Campus Watch Editor

A noose was found hanging around the office door of a professor at Columbia University’s Teachers College on Oct. 9 in what police are investigating as a hate crime. Madonna Constantine, the black victim of the incident, who has published research on multiculturalism in education and counseling, said she would “not be silenced.” “I am upset that the Teachers College community has been exposed to such an unbelievably vile incident, and I would like us to stay strong in the face of such a blatant act of racism,” Constantine said in her statement. “Hanging the noose on my office door reeks of cowardice and fear on many, many levels.” Teachers College President Susan Furhman also decried the incident as a “hateful act, which violates ever y Teachers College and societal norm,” according to the college’s press release. Columbia University President Lee Bollinger also issued a statement, saying, “this is an assault on African Americans and therefore it is an assault on every one of us,” according to the release. Police currently have no suspects in the investigation, but are reviewing hours of video sur veillance the university turned over to the New York Police Department’s Hate Crimes Investigations Unit after initially refusing to do so, Police Department Deputy Commissioner

Paul Browne told ABC News. The university did not turn over the tapes at first to protect the privacy of students, according to an Oct. 12 ABC News article. The faculty offices of the Teacher’s College are accessible only by faculty, students and other individuals with identification. The NYPD is also using DNA fingerprinting technology to identify the person who hung the noose. The case is being looked into by the U.S. Department of Justice and the office of the New York Attorney General, according to the article. A town hall meeting was held Oct. 10 for members of the university community to ask questions and express grievances to a panel. An hour and a half before the meeting began, students assembled outside of the building chanting, “No more nooses,” with signs that read “Intolerance is Intolerable,” “Say No to Racism Every Day” and “We All Live in Jena,” referring to an incident in Jena, La., where several white high school students were not prosecuted for hanging nooses in trees. New York State Sen. Bill Perkins called the incident a wake-up call that “even in the Ivy League Towers in Columbia University in 2007, we might as well be in Columbia, South Carolina, in 1809,” according to a release. Constantine has written extensively about multiculturalism in education and studies, cultural competence in counseling and mental health issues of people of color and immigrant populations, according to her curriculum vitae.

By Evan Pelz Contributing Writer

The threat of nuclear attack is still a danger to world security, according to a group of researchers at Harvard University. The most recent issue of an annual report — “Securing the Bomb,” released by the Managing the Atom project at the John F. Kennedy School of Government — warned that nuclear materials kept around the world lack adequate security. Matthew Bunn, a senior research associate for the project, said a “main motivation” of the project is that nuclear materials falling into the hands of terrorists “remains a very real possibility.” Bunn is the author of the 2007 report, which was released in September. In the report, Bunn dictates a step-by-step action plan to reduce the threat of nuclear attack. The first step is having “someone in charge” of nuclear security, which contrasts with the dozens of existing United States government programs that try to solve the same problem, he said. With solid leadership established, a global campaign must follow, Bunn said. Second, the United States needs to take “every opportunity” to integrate the whole world into the projects, “until the job is done,” he added. This leads to Bunn’s proposed third step, to “build global standards for how well these materials are secured.” Bunn said the world is “only as strong as its weakest

link” and therefore every precaution must be taken to help countries with weak security standards. Martin Malin, executive director of the project, singled out Russia and Pakistan as nations that should focus on security standards. The fourth step is to redouble efforts to sustain these developments over time, Bunn said. The fifth and final step of this plan is to move in a “broader and rapid fashion to remove materials,” he said. The Managing the Atom project’s goal is to provide policy makers with “recommendations based on solid scientific research, without a political agenda,” Malin said. The decade-old Managing the Atom project has been issuing its annual report “Securing the Bomb” since 2004. The report aims to find “what

we, the U.S., and the rest of the world as well, need to do to secure and account for all nuclear materials,” Malin said. According to Malin, one of the main problems with nuclear materials is security — vital to the task of keeping nuclear material out of the hands of terrorists. Though many countries hold nuclear materials that are not necessarily intended for military purposes, proper security measures must be put in place to keep these potentially harmful materials secure, Malin said. Malin said the project aims to get rid of nuclear materials in the long run, but added, “in the process, we want to be careful not to neglect security.” Therefore, he added, the program seeks to “investigate prospects for safe, secure and cheap nuclear energy” as well.


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wednesday, october 24, 2007

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Renowned architect Meier draws a crowd for lecture, signs autographs continued from page 1 open to the waterside,” he said, permitting an exceptional enjoyment of the waterfront view. Meier also presented his proposal of “two interconnected buildings” on the site of the World Trade Center in New York City. His proposal included the creation of a “public space in Memorial Square” and “two parks that emanated from the square that were the shadows of the World Trade Center.” Meier called his project not only “an icon for New York but one of the great public spaces for the city.” But his proposal was not selected for the WTC rebuilding project. Meier’s interest in public space manifested itself in numerous other works, such as the Museum of Applied Arts in Frankfurt, Germany. He described the cafe that was built in the museum. “All the expectant mothers in Frankfurt began to hang out there,” Meier said, laughing. Meier said the mothers returned after giving birth, creating “a lively meeting place in a great way you could never plan.” “Every building has a life of its

own, and you can’t imagine what that might be, because things happen outside of your control as an architect,” he said. But Meier said he intended some of his other projects to affect the public in specific ways. For example, he selected a location for the Barcelona Museum of Contemporar y Art in Spain “in the most deteriorated part of Barcelona.” Meier recalled the construction of the Centre Pompidou and its revitalization of the surrounding neighborhood in Paris. Meier said he wanted to produce a similar effect in Barcelona, changing the area from a “slum that no one would walk in” to a neighborhood filled with shops and restaurants. Beyond museums in Atlanta, Rome, Los Angeles and other cities around the world, Meier has also designed two buildings for the U.S. government. “I think that’s enough,” Meier said as the audience laughed. Meier described his young daughter’s reaction when she saw the U.S. Courthouse and Federal Building in Long Island, which he designed. “She walked in and said, ‘Wow,’ ” he said, adding that this impression of the judicial branch

is the ver y feeling he wanted to convey. Meier’s constant awareness of the impact of an architectural space manifested itself in his design for Jubilee Church in the Tor Tre Teste area, about 20 minutes outside of Rome. “Your head is automatically drawn to the sky as you enter,” said Meier. “As you sit there ... the light through the windows leads you to think about things outside yourself.” After Meier’s lecture, he opened the floor for questions. Kasey Ramirez, a senior at the Rhode Island School of Design majoring in illustration, asked if there were restrictions on the building site of the Ara Pacis in Rome. The building, designed by Meier, houses a sacrificial altar dating to 9 B.C. Ramirez asked if there were restrictions affecting how much the building actually hugged the inner structure, remarking that “you have to look on the reliefs on the side obliquely.” Meier answered that there was a wall from the pre-existing building that needed to be preser ved and that there was also a street on one side of the building. He explained

U. admins reveal their Facebook statuses continued from page 1 students and Providence residents, not to discipline them. Both Klawunn and Addison have profiles on Facebook, as do many other University faculty and staff. Facebook currently includes roughly 280 profiles listed as Brown faculty and 440 as Brown staff, though not all indicate a current position at the University. Klawunn currently has no friends on Facebook. Addison has three. “I don’t know of a single disciplinary case where Facebook was a main component,” Addison said, adding that Facebook would never be the only piece of evidence used against a student in a disciplinary action. Instead, the Office of Student Life relies on Department of Public Safety reports or incident complaint forms. The officials at the Department of Public Safety only check Facebook when investigating complaints, said Mark Porter, chief of police

and director of public safety. “If an official complaint is filed involving Facebook or MySpace, we would contact the network to investigate,” he said, but “we don’t monitor those sites at all.” Once in the past, a Facebook profile a student had made under the name Ruth Simmons was taken down at Klawunn’s request. But Klawunn said University officials aren’t going to monitor student drinking through Facebook profiles, saying that the University doesn’t have the resources to check every student’s profile even if it wanted to. “We know people are drinking. We’re not going to do anything about” pictures on Facebook of students drinking, she said. People posting on Facebook should realize that it is a public forum, said John Palfrey, clinical professor of law at Har vard Law School and executive director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society. He equated posting on Facebook to shouting one’s message

out loud, in the sense that anyone can theoretically gain access to that information now or in the future, and one cannot know who will access that information. As for school administrators’ use of Facebook to gain information for disciplinar y procedures, Palfrey said, “I don’t think it is by any means a violation of a (student’s) legal right to privacy.” But, he said, he doesn’t know if the tactic is appropriate. “I do think it’s a little creepy,” Palfrey said, adding that universities should consider what kind of relationship they want to build with their students. “Personally, I ver y rarely use Facebook — just on occasion to follow up on something or when I am sent a message,” Addison said. “I don’t make a habit of checking Facebook — it’s not part of my professional routine.” “It’s also a choice for me, as the chief disciplinar y officer for the campus, not to spend a lot of time on Facebook. If I did, I would see things that I would have to act on — and I rather not — I don’t want to go looking for things to act on,” Addison said. Though some things “are brought to my attention, I don’t go digging around.” A Facebook representative wrote in an e-mail to The Herald, “I can tell you that as long as the administrator is on the site legitimately, they are permitted to see those on their network. We encourage users to restrict their privacy settings if they do not want others seeing their profile.” “I think most of us students know that things we post on our Facebook (profiles) aren’t nearly as private as (Facebook founder) Mark Zuckerberg might have us believe,” said Rahul Banerjee ’10. “But on the other hand, I wonder about the wisdom of assigning a dean to do this at Brown. I think we have enough problems with shortages of deans as it is, and to assign deans to stalk students on Facebook seems like somewhat of a distraction from more pressing issues that I’m sure Brown is facing at the moment.”

plans to build underground in order to create a plaza and “breathing room.” “It makes perfect sense,” Ramirez later told The Herald. But she continued to emphasize the importance of the reliefs on the side of the Ara Pacis, proposing “maybe a thin mezzanine” to enable the viewer to look at them more directly. Another student asked, “Have you ever attempted to build anything that is not white?” After laughing, Meier answered, “Not yet.” When asked why, he replied, “If you look carefully, the white is never white. It is reflecting and refracting, and that is very important to me — the way you see the sun change during the day, the way in which a cloud comes over, the change of seasons ... The building is about light. The white helps your understanding of light in the clearest way.” Meier concluded his lecture to thunderous applause, and afterwards a crowd of students gathered to ask more questions, make comments, ask for his autograph and even take a photograph with him. “It was incredible — one of the best speakers I’ve ever seen at

Brown,” said Isabel Solmonson ’08. The lecture is named for John Carter Brown, a descendant of Nicholas Brown, for whom the University is named. John Carter Brown was the director of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. The Hyatt Foundation, which awards the Pritzker Prize, is funding the annual lecture series to commemorate Carter Brown. Lubar said the annual lecture would focus on Carter Brown’s work and interests — topics including public art, museums, architecture, monuments and art history. “We thought it would be a good idea to bring in somebody who brought together both museums and architecture, and (Meier) seemed like the perfect match,” Lubar said. “I know his work, I have the picture books, but to have him walk us through, talk about what he was thinking — it was wonderful,” Lubar said. Lubar marveled at the number of people who attended and those who stayed after the lecture to speak to Meier. “These people are going to have to leave — we have to take him out to dinner,” he said after the lecture.

Study compares public and private high schools continued from page 1 education. According to the study, once family background and socioeconomic status are taken into account, students in public schools tend to do just as well academically as students in private schools and that public school students are just as likely as private school students to attend a four-year college. The report also concludes that the type of high school that a student attends does not affect the person’s job satisfaction or “civicmindedness” when measured at age 26. But, the study says, students from private schools may have an advantage in admission to elite colleges because secular private high school students had higher SAT scores on average than public school students. “The idea that private school students have an advantage in gaining admittance to elite colleges was an inference based upon the fact that their students did better on the SAT,” Jennings wrote. “Generally speaking, we don’t admit schools — we admit students. So whether a student is from a private, public or parochial school isn’t material to the case,” said Dean of Admission Jim Miller ’73. “We want to see that students have pushed themselves against whatever program is available to them.” In Brown’s class of 2011, 58 percent of students came from public high schools, 32 percent from private schools, 9 percent from parochial schools and 1 percent from other programs, Miller said. Nationally, about 8.4 percent of all high school students attended private school in fall 2006, accord-

ing to the National Center for Education Statistics. Miller said the higher proportion of private school students in Brown’s class is a factor of who is applying to the University. “Students from private schools constitute 35 percent or so of our applicant pool, which is certainly higher than the national percentages of students in those schools,” he said. Overall, most students interviewed by The Herald who attended public schools said they didn’t think the issue affected their acceptance to Brown, while private school graduates said it did make a difference. Tasnuva Islam ’11 attended a selective public magnet school in New York City. The many Advanced Placement courses her school offered helped her explore the options she had in deciding what to study, she said. Jasmine Chukwueke ’10, who attended a public high school, said Advanced Placement classes were her school’s most important contribution in preparing for college. But most of her preparation for the admission process, Chukwueke said, was through a private college counselor. Edward Cava ’11 transferred from his public high school in Florida to a Quaker boarding school in Pennsylvania during 10th grade. “I don’t know what would have happened if I hadn’t gone to private school,” he said. “The criteria for me to get into college would have been different.” But Lily Cohen ’11, who attended Choate Rosemar y Hall in Connecticut, said her school’s atmosphere motivated students to plan for college. “Everyone around you was so focused on college,” she said.

thanks for reading


C ampus n ews Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Page 5

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Campaign nears 80 percent mark on way to $1.4 billion By Isabel Gottlieb Senior Staff Writer

Alex DePaoli / Herald

Providence placed 15th out of 20 mid-sized cities in a ranking of college towns released by consulting firm Collegia.

Like Providence? City ranks low as college town By Helena Anrather Contributing Writer

Compared to other cities its size, Providence isn’t a great place for college students these days, according to a recent study released by the consulting firm Collegia. Providence ranked 15th out of 20 in the ranking’s “mid-size metros” categor y, below cities such as Cincinnati and Milwaukee, Wis. The study’s top-ranked mid-size city was San Jose-Palo Alto, Calif. Collegia’s 2007-2008 ranking of the best metropolitan destinations for prospective college students included a total of 75 cities from around the countr y, measuring academic environment, quality of life and professional opportunities by looking at quantitative information such as research capacity, arts and leisure, cost of living, earning potential and “brain drain,” or the ratio of college graduates to enrolled students living in the city. Providence ranked second only behind Nashville, Tenn., in terms of arts and leisure, but its overall rank suffered in part because of its lack of research opportunities, said Todd Hoffman, president and founder of Collegia. Hoffman cited the relatively low percentage of Providence’s population with a four-year college degree or higher — 27.3 percent, he said — the city’s lack of employment opportunities and the number of students who leave Providence after graduating as other problems. The ratio of college graduates to enrolled students in Providence is 0.66, according to the Collegia study. Job opportunities have not always been abundant in Providence, but things are changing, said Paul Brooks, chief of protocol in the office of Mayor David Cicilline ’83, citing $3 billion of investment in the city in the past five years. “I don’t know where (Collegia) got their information, but I haven’t met anybody unhappy yet. This whole town is slanted for stu-

dents,” Brooks said. Acknowledging a “definite economic difference between students and the people who live here,” Brooks said his office has had over 600 college student interns since he began 35 years ago, who have worked all over the city’s nonprofit sector. “Students are reaching out and doing great things,” Brooks said. Noting that Providence is a “more and more vital place every year,” Brooks called the city’s arts and culture scene “comparable to (that of) any city in the world. It’s all working and it’s all working well.” Charlie Harding ’09 agreed with Brooks to a certain extent, highlighting Providence’s great opportunities in the arts despite its small size. “On the other hand,” Harding said, “we’re completely a college on the Hill. There are a lot of missed oppor tunities, par ticularly in arts, community service and things that are downtown and in the greater Providence area. Those opportunities are only taken advantage of on an individual basis and rarely are presented as options (to students).” “I do wish that Brown somehow presented us with ways of getting involved in Providence,” Harding said. Pete Fallon ’09, a Herald editorial cartoonist, said he lived on the East Side this summer and felt removed from the rest of the city. “I feel really isolated at Brown,” he said. Fallon said he would live in Providence after college. “It wouldn’t be my first choice, but if I got a good job opportunity I would. Not on the East Side, though,” he said. Stefan Smith ’09, an at-large representative on the Undergraduate Council of Students, said he liked Providence. “Providence is a fine city, and most Brown students are too lazy or too sheltered to get off the Hill for themselves,” Smith said. He offered his hometown — Greenville,

S.C. — as a comparison, “where you have to find shit to do.” Like Fallon, Smith said that he would like to live in Providence after college. Not all students are fans of the city, though. Zack Leonard ’10 said Providence does not have “much to do.” “I’m from Boston, and I compare it to Boston and I find it lacking a lot of the time,” he said. The consulting firm Collegia is based in Wellesley, Mass. — with no affiliation to the college in that town — and works to facilitate collaboration between universities and their communities on regional development and student yield and retention. The firm has led largescale collaborations between the city of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania, as well as with universities in Boston, Pittsburgh and northeast Ohio. The combined efforts of the University of Pennsylvania and the city of Philadelphia, which used Collegia to market the city as “one big campus,” led to a surge in student interest in the city during and after college, said Colette McNulty, a Collegia employee. Collegia has not worked with Providence and its universities. “Providence is really ripe for a program like this, not only with the mix of schools there but also with the vibe of the city,” McNulty said. Hoffman, Collegia’s president, called Providence an “opportunity waiting to happen,” saying it would only need its universities to work in conjunction with the city “to make Providence truly one of the best places to go to college in the country,” but that it largely depends on “what role Brown wants as a leader of the pack and how it wants to interact with its peers.” Hoffmann credited Penn president Amy Gutmann with most of the success of their marketing campaign, noting that “she played a key role in every major measure” to use her position at the school to advocate for Philadelphia.

The Campaign for Academic Enrichment has raised $1.1 billion, 79 percent of its $1.4 billion goal. Development officials also boosted the fundraising goal for the Brown Annual Fund to $35 million this year, up from $31 million last year. The seven-year campaign runs through the end of 2010, and University officials expect to reach the campaign fundraising goal before then, according to Neil Steinberg ’75, vice president for development and campaign director. “Obviously if we’ve reached 1.1 (billion) already, we expect to exceed the goal,” Steinberg said. The campaign, which publicly launched in October 2005 after a two-year quiet phase, is intended to raise money for all aspects of the University, including the endowment, facilities and current programs. The success of last year’s Annual Fund — which exceeded its $31 million goal by raising $34.6 million — encouraged University officials to raise their goal even higher this year. The Annual Fund also saw an increase in alumni participation, catapulting Brown from 10th to seventh in the U.S. News and World Report ranking of alumni participation, according to a University press release. Administrators hope to raise $35 million from 35,000 donors this year. “We have a history of exceeding goals,” Steinberg said. “The higher we go, growth gets more challenging,” he added. But, he said, “I’m confident we can hit it.” The University hopes to set another record by getting over 70 percent donor participation for the senior class gift. “It sends a good message to the donor base” when many seniors donate, Steinberg said. Recent gifts to the University include five “Chancellor’s Professorships,” endowed by new University

Chancellor Thomas Tisch ’76 and his wife Alice Tisch. The professorships will be awarded to faculty in any discipline. The gift also included a flexible fund that can be used to further the goals of the Plan for Academic Enrichment. At its recent October meeting, the Corporation, the University’s highest governing body, also formally accepted a $5-million gift for theatre arts and the Brown Annual Fund, $2.5 million for the Creative Arts Building, $2 million to establish a scholarship fund, a gift of just over $1 million from the Thomas W. Smith Foundation for the Political Theory Project, $1 million from the parent of a 1983 alum to support, among other uses, the general plant fund and $250,000 from an anonymous donor for the Fund for the Children of Providence, a fund established by the University in response to the recommendations of the University Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice. Last May the Corporation approved planning for a new swim center to replace the structurally deficient Smith Swim Center. Development officials are currently fundraising for the new pool, though Steinberg said it is too early to tell how that effort is going. The Corporation recently approved a $1 million gift for the new swim center. The Corporation also recently approved the beginning of a renovation project of campus residence halls. The administration will “analyze the costs and benefits of new housing,” according to a University press release, but fundraising has not started for that project yet. “It’s on the list,” Steinberg said, referring to projects a donor can fund. The campaign’s success represents “a vote of confidence in the direction the University is going, the Plan for Academic Enrichment and the leadership of the University,” Steinberg said.


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Campus life committee to meet Fri. continued from page 6 Klawunn said she expects “very preliminar y” recommendations from the committee by Januar y, followed by a more complete study in the spring, when the report will be released for “a campus-wide discussion.” Associate Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry William Suggs, a committee member and the faculty fellow for Keeney Quadrangle, said he hopes the committee “can find out what students are interested in and come up with a bottom-up plan to give students more opportunities to do interesting things.” “Brown has tremendous number of visitors to campus every month,” Suggs said. “It would be useful to find ways to bring small groups of students and distinguished speakers together. That can be the high point of people’s time at Brown.” Erinn Phelan ’09, a student member nominated by the Undergraduate Council of Students, called the committee “incredibly important.” “The focus of the committee is to find ... what ways we can make the residential experience better,” Phelan said. “A happy home life means a happy academic one.” Phelan stressed the importance of student and faculty interactions. “Many students don’t think they know their professors well enough,” Phelan said. “You have world-renowned professors here that could be a great resource.”

wednesday, october 24, 2007

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Empty seats greet DPS at open forum continued from page 1 for August, Porter received emails from students asking him to change the date to a time when students were on campus. Porter decided in August to hold an open forum at some point during this school year, and DPS started publicizing it in September. “I wasn’t expecting standingroom only, but I was expecting some students to show,” said Michelle Nuey, DPS manager of special ser vices. Both she and Por ter said they felt students probably did not show up last night because they are currently busy with midterms.

“It’s a combination of things,” Por ter said when asked why no one came to the forum. “Its probably not the best time of the academic year. Students are ... taking or studying for midterms, so we know that schedules are difficult.” Nuey said DPS would probably offer another open community forum in the future, though the “regional” outreaches — meetings DPS holds with two or three residence halls at a time — usually draw more people. Additional open forums like last nights’ will be held every academic year during the fall, Porter wrote in an e-mail to The Herald.

Rahul Keerthi / Herald

Students were conspicuously absent from the conversation at yesterday’s DPS open forum.

Tag team efforts propel m. tennis doubles to wins continued from page 12 ups and downs.” Lee and Ratnam were joined in the doubles draw by Gardner and Garland, who advanced to the quarterfinals. The Bears demolished their first-round opponents, St. John’s University’s Pavel Cerny and Martin Kosut, 8-0, then took an 8-5 victory over fourth seeds Jeffrey Schnell and Kevin Walsh of Georgetown University in the second round. In the third round, Gardner and Garland battled through a tight match against 14th seeds Dave Jackson and Irfan Shamasdin of University of Maryland-Baltimore County

to triumph 9-8 (3). But the Bears were unable to do the same in the quarterfinals, where they dropped an 8-4 decision to Princeton’s sixthseeded pair of Peter Capkovic and Alex Vuckovic. “Sam and I played very good doubles and came out really hot in most of our matches, so I’m very proud of that,” Gardner said. “It’s nice to know that we have a good deal of depth in the doubles lineup. Obviously, I think we missed a great opportunity to have at least one of our teams win the title, but to have all four guys from the class of ’09 in the quarterfinals was really special.” Lee agreed that having his classmates in the quarterfinals with him was a great experience. “We’ve known each other forever, so having that on the last day was just unbelievable,” he said. “We were on court next to each other, cheering each other on.” Co-captain Saurabh Kohli ’08 and Skate Gorham ’10 also competed in doubles, taking an 8-4 win in the first round over Eddie Kang and Sean Harris of the United States Military Academy. But the Bears dropped their following match to Columbia’s seventh-seeded team of Bogden Borta and Justin Chow when Gorham landed wrong and tore his ACL.

“It was a major disappointment,” Harris said. “Skate had an ankle injury before the tournament, but last week he got himself ready, and he was playing great.” Due to the injury, Gorham was unable to compete in singles, but Harris said that Gorham’s injury provided motivation for his teammates. “It inspired the other guys for the rest of the weekend,” he said. “Our guys stepped up because they wanted to do that for Skate.” Kohli and Jon Pearlman ’11 were key examples of that inspiration, both advancing to the round of 16 in the singles draw. Kohli, who was the 14th seed, took a bye in the first round, then defeated University of Buffalo’s Panthlia Nikesh Singh 6-1, 7-5 in the second round. He followed that victory with a three-set triumph over Niagara University’s Garcia Walter by a final score of 6-3, 4-6, 6-2. But in the round of 16, Kohli faced the first seed, Michael James of Penn State, who defeated him 6-0, 6-2 and went on to win the title. Meanwhile, Pearlman had strong victories of his own in his first time competing at Regionals. Pearlman overwhelmed Manhattan’s Mihai Nichifor 6-2, 6-2 in the first round, then had an impressive 6-2, 6-4 win in the second round over the third seed, Penn State’s Adam Slagter. Pearlman bounced back after drop-

ping the first set of his third-round match 6-0 to UMBC’s Nick SavagePollock, taking the next two sets 6-2, 6-1. In the round of 16, Pearlman got off to a strong start, edging out Dartmouth’s Justin Tzou in a close 7-6 (4) first set. Unfortunately, Pearlman dropped the next two sets 6-4, 6-2. “We were all really impressed with Jon,” Lee said. “He played some three-set matches where he was fighting through cramping. We were proud of him.” Despite some success, the Bears were somewhat disappointed with their singles results. “Saurabh and Jon got some solid wins, but nobody played outstanding for a sustained period of time, which is always tough,” Gardner said. “It would be nice to get someone into the quarterfinals at least, but there’s no use in worrying about it. I think it’s clear that we’re a solid team. We just have to keep playing bigger and worrying less on the court.” Brown’s final competition of the fall, the Big Green Invitational, will begin Saturday, Nov. 3. The tournament is hosted by Dartmouth, and the Bears will send three players to the competition. “It’s for the guys who didn’t get a chance at Regionals so we’re hoping they go up and take it seriously and give a good effort the whole time,” Gardner said.

Program in PPE still stalled continued from page 7 Shepherd said, noting the planning group’s inability to effectively present the proposal to the College Curriculum Council, which approves new concentrations. Shepherd said he realized the stalemate is “as a product of conflicting and busy schedules.” Though the movement to institute PPE as an official concentra-

tion at Brown is still in its early stages, interested students and faculty are now asking, “Should we go on to bring forth a formal proposal for PPE to become a concentration?” Tomasi said. As those who “drafted the PPE template for students engaging in independent concentrations are now a year older,” some of the University’s newest students may show interest in spearheading efforts to make

PPE an of ficial concentration, Tomasi said. Lucy Sedgwick ’11, who is considering a career in international law, said PPE would prepare her well. “While in my high school, I was exposed to an interdisciplinary approach to learning. I like to see the world in the big picture, and a concentration like this would allow me to do that in my education,” Sedgwick said.

W. tennis hammers opponents continued from page 12 beat Lindsay Clark of Yale and Lauren Cash of Boston College on Sunday, only to have her run halted by Moulton-Levy in the fourth round on Monday by a score of 6-1, 6-1. Meanwhile, unseeded Schonfield advanced to the third round, upsetting eleventh-seed Charleen Haarhoff (Old Dominion University) along the way before falling to eighth-

seeded Lana Krasnopolsky of BC on Sunday. Back in Providence, Dubusker said splitting the team gave many players quality matches. “It’s what teams do,” she said. “It’s all about experience, so wherever you qualify to get the experience, that’s where you play. Next year, hopefully we’ll bring almost all of our team to regionals because it will be closer. ... It’s a really good

experience to have that, (but) it’s also good to have matches here, and we played a ton of them this weekend.” Dubusker said it was hard to get a sense of where the team currently stands. Though Brown hosts the Brown Classic this weekend, she said the best chance the team would get to take stock of their abilities might not be until Jan. 20, when the team will have a scrimmage against Yale.


C ampus n ews Wednesday, October 24, 2007

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Demand exists, but PPE remains theory Banner ID number switch causes confusion By Brian Mastroianni Contributing Writer

By Michael Smith Contributing Writer

Students and professors have experienced some confusion as of late about the use of University ID numbers. The implementation of the Banner computerized records system has brought a host of changes to Brown, not least of which was a switch from the SISD numbering system to the new Banner ID system. While SISD numbers were once used to numerically identify students, Banner keeps track of students through a different system, requiring different ID numbers. The sudden change in bookkeeping has caused some confusion among faculty and students, since some student files are still managed using SISD numbers. SISD numbers will be in partial use until all academic records are converted, which will happen around the end of the semester, according to Associate Registrar Lisa Mather. Though some professors continue to ask for SISD numbers as identification on exams, faculty members should only use the Banner ID system, Mather said. She noted that the Office of the Registrar receives frequent calls from faculty who cannot access a student’s data using the SISD number, and the registrar’s office staff must convert the numbers to the new system. SISD numbers were once printed on every Brown ID card, but starting with the class of 2011, ID cards issued to incoming students no longer have SISD numbers. In fact, these students no longer have an SISD assigned to them — which can cause problems if the freshmen are asked to provide an SISD number on an exam. The confusion isn’t just limited to freshmen. When ID cards were

reprinted last year for the implementation of Banner, both the SISD and Banner ID numbers were included. Some students have had trouble switching to the new ID numbers, though others have reported no problems. “(Professors) usually say which one they want,” said Julia Brooks ’08. “I don’t think it’s a huge problem,” said Rachel Cohn ’10, though she said she had some problems applying for the Brown University Tutoring program online. Until recently, the application page for the tutoring program merely asked for an ID number, without specifying which type. The page has since been amended and now asks for Banner ID numbers. Mather said confusion between the two identification systems is common. “Training was provided, but (students and faculty) didn’t take advantage of it,” said Jeanette Bradley, student assistance coordinator in the registrar’s office. Mather said the training sessions for both faculty and students had poor turnout. Because professors now have to use Banner ID numbers for their courses, their transition to the new system is progressing at a faster clip than students’. “Students are adapting a little more slowly,” said Mather, noting that upperclassmen have already grown accustomed to their SISD numbers, and have somewhat conser vative attitudes about the change. Though the formal transition from the SISD system to the Banner ID system will be finalized in the next few months, Mather predicted there will be complications for some time. “There will be a vestige of a problem until everyone who had an SISD number leaves,” Mather said.

thanks for reading

Last year, a group of students worked with professors to develop a curriculum for a new Politics, Philosophy and Economics concentration at Brown. But roughly a year after the initial planning of the concentration, PPE is still not officially incorporated into the University’s curriculum. The proposal for the curriculum was drafted last year by a group of Brown students under the guidance of John Tomasi, associate professor of political science and director of the Political Theory Project, and Adam Tebble, then the assistant director of the Political Theory Project. Tebble left the University this summer. Described by Tomasi as an “initiative within the Department of Political Science designed to stimulate discussions on morally charged political” topics, the Political Theory Project wholeheartedly supports plans to institute a PPE program, Tomasi said. However, he noted that the project’s role in supporting the implementation of PPE has been limited to “providing resources to independent concentrators.” A program focused on examining how modern society functions, PPE appeals to students like Andy

Garin ’09, an independent concentrator in PPE who said he was disappointed by the University’s lack of “real interdisciplinary social studies concentrations.” Garin said the move to introduce PPE as a new concentration has stalled because of disorganization, but he said PPE is still a valuable program. “PPE is for people eager for a deeper understanding of politics and society by tying together aspects of economics, psychology and even religious theories,” he said. For the past few years, Garin knew he wanted to focus his studies in an interdisciplinary field involving political science, but he acknowledged the difficulties of instituting such a wide-reaching concentration as PPE at Brown. “There are currently no faculty working on the program right now, resulting in no one taking on responsibility to spearhead the program at this time,” Garin said. But according to Tomasi, the PPE proposal has not been stalled — it is actually still in the planning stages. The next step is for members of the Political Theory Project to “talk to fellow colleagues and see if there is enough student and faculty interest.” Given Brown’s academic diversity, Tomasi feels PPE would be

met with University-wide support. With continued student interest, PPE will always be a possibility as it “invites students to straddle the social scientific and humanistic divide,” Tomasi said. The only potential reservations from the administration concern financing the program, finding “an agency to sponsor the program” and “determining whether new courses would have to be added,” Tomasi said. Like Garin, Henry Shepherd ’08 has long had an interest in participating in a program such as PPE. A political science concentrator who transferred to Brown from New York University as a sophomore, Shepherd spoke with Tomasi about pursuing an independent concentration and found other students also looking for different approaches to political science topics. The program may be attractive to students who are looking for “the distinctions between disciplines to be brought down,” Shepherd said. Shepherd also acknowledged the difficulties of instituting a PPE program at Brown. Creating a new concentration “is not a simple process, because it is difficult to work through from beginning to end,” continued on page 6


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wednesday, october 24, 2007

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Southern California brush fires force thousands to flee homes By Karl Vick and Sonya Geis Washington Post

LOS ANGELES — Massive brush fires spread across Southern California on Monday, destroying homes from north of Los Angeles to south of San Diego, leaping freeways and sending hundreds of thousands of residents scrambling to flee their homes sometimes seconds ahead of advancing flames. Fueled by gale-force desert winds and chaparral turned to tinder by the driest year on record, the conflagrations raged beyond the control of firefighters stretched paper thin rushing across the region from one fast-moving fire to another. Some 300,000 San Diego residents were ordered out of their

homes, making it the country’s largest evacuation since hurricanes Katrina and Rita smashed into the Gulf Coast two years ago. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared seven counties disaster areas, mobilized the National Guard and asked for aid from neighboring states and the federal government. But his state fire chief indicated that firefighters held little hope of containing the situation until unusually intense and prolonged Santa Ana winds abated, perhaps on Wednesday. “With the wind blowing the way it is it’s very hard for us to get ahead of this thing,” said Charles Maner, an official with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Officials identified between seven

and 15 fires raging at midafternoon, from blazes that skipped down the canyons of Malibu on Sunday to far smaller but more destructive fires consuming scores of vacation homes around Arrowhead Lake to the east. The numbers changed almost hourly as new blazes were called in and smaller fires converged to form larger, more dangerous blazes. By 1:30 p.m. automatic calling machines had dialed 80,000 San Diego residents, urging evacuation in “reverse 911” calls. A hospital, nursing homes and wild-animal zoo were evacuated, as was the San Diego office of the National Weather Service. Local television stations broadcast apocalyptic images of orange skies looming behind correspondents who

did their stand-ups wearing surgical masks and ski goggles as protection from the sooty wind. “You’re trying to get stuff out of the house, but you can’t leave the door open for one minute because the house will fill up with ash,” said Rik Wadge, 47, who had been kept awake by the howling Santa Ana winds when a neighbor called to warn him out of his home in the Rancho Bernardo neighborhood San Diego at 4 a.m. “I looked out around the corner and the street was on fire. There was a house going up already. I saw trees burning. It looked like it was snowing. The air was so hot on the lungs you can’t hardly breathe. “I said to my wife, ‘We are out of here, now.’ ”

The pace and scale of it all alarmed even residents accustomed to the almost routine hillside blazes during what in Southern California is called “fire season.” “It’s the worst fire the state has ever seen,” said San Diego Sheriff William B. Kolender at an afternoon news conference. He did not identify his measure, but there was wide agreement among residents and officials that Monday’s blazes were more serious, if less deadly, than the 2003 conflagration that killed more than a dozen people. The reported death toll this week remained at one. “We really have been experiencing a perfect storm — a perfect firestorm — in the last 24 to 36 hours,” said Zev Yaroslavsky (D), a Los Angeles County supervisor.


W orld & n ation Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Toddlers give to presidential campaigns By Matthew Mosk Washington Post

WASHINGTON — Elrick Williams’ toddler niece Carlyn may be one of the youngest contributors to this year’s presidential campaign. The 2-year-old gave $2,300 to Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill. So did her sister and brother, Imara, 13, and Ishmael, 9, and her cousins Chan and Alexis, both 13. Altogether, according to newly released campaign finance reports, the extended family of Williams, a wealthy Chicago financier, handed over nearly a dozen checks in March for the maximum allowed under federal law to Obama. Such campaign donations from young children would almost certainly run afoul of campaign finance regulations, several campaign lawyers said. But as bundlers seek to raise higher and higher sums for presidential contenders this year, the number who are turning to checks from underage givers appears to be on the rise. “It’s not difficult for a banker or a trial lawyer or a hedge fund manager to come up with $2,300, and they’re often left wanting to do more,” said Massie Ritsch, a spokesman for the Center for Responsive Politics. “That’s when they look across the dinner table at their children and see an opportunity.” Asked about the Williams family giving, Obama spokesman Bill Burton said, “As a policy, we don’t take donations from anyone under the age of 15.” After being asked by The Post about the matter, he said the children’s donations will be returned. Although campaign finance laws

set a limit of $2,300 per donor per year, they do not explicitly bar donors based on age. And young donors abound in the fundraising reports filed by presidential contenders this year. A supporter of Republican former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, Susan Henken of Dover, Mass., wrote her own $2,300 check, and her 13-year-old son, Samuel, and 15-yearold daughter, Julia, each wrote $2,300 checks, for example. Samuel used money from his bar mitzvah and money he earned “dog sitting,” and Julia used babysitting money to make the contributions, their mother said. “My children like to donate to a lot of causes. That’s just how it is in my house,” Henken said. Just how much campaign cash is coming from children is uncertain — the FEC does not require donors to provide their age. But the amount written by those identifying themselves as students on contribution forms has risen dramatically this year, according to an analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics. During the first six months of the 2000 presidential campaign, students gave $338,464. In 2004, that rose to $538,936. This year, the amount has nearly quadrupled, to $1,967,111. “What’s driving it is a desire by maxed-out donors to max out on their maxing out,” said Fred Wertheimer, president of campaign finance reform organization Democracy 21 who sought, unsuccessfully, to outlaw child donations five years ago. “More often than not, you’re dealing with people who are simply trying to circumvent the limits of what they can give.” Congress tried to outlaw political

contributions from those under age 18 as part of the McCain-Feingold Act in 2002, but the Supreme Court struck down that provision as an infringement on the constitutional rights of minors. With that ruling in mind, the Federal Election Commission wrote new regulations two years ago that tried to balance what it considered a legitimate desire among some children to make political contributions against the possibility that parents would seek to pad their donations by funneling money through children. The regulations established a three-step test to determine whether a contribution is acceptable: It must be made with the child’s money, the parent can not reimburse the child for making the donation, and the contribution has to be knowing and voluntary. That last part of the test is the one that would seem to rule out a 2-year-old, said Michael Toner, a former FEC chairman who helped draft the rules. “If they are 16 or 17, they’re clearly old enough to know what they’re doing, as compared to someone who is, say, 10 years old. ... I don’t know any 2-year-old who is capable of making that kind of decision.” Paula Madison, a Los Angeles entertainment executive who is one of Elrick Williams’ sisters (he referred calls to her), said Williams had not been regularly involved in political fundraising but got excited about the notion of seeing an African American elected president. He talked to every member of the family about his desire to help Obama. One relative served as a trustee for a fund set up for Williams’ children, nieces and nephews, Madison said.

Bombing site discovered in Syria By Robin Wright and Joby Warrick Washington Post

WASHINGTON — Independent experts have pinpointed what they believe to be the Euphrates River site in Syria that was bombed by Israel last month, and satellite imagery of the area shows buildings under construction roughly similar in design to a North Korean reactor capable of producing nuclear material for one bomb a year, the experts say. Photographs of the site taken before the secret Sept. 6 airstrike depict an isolated compound that includes a tall, boxy structure similar to the type of building used to house a gas-graphite reactor. They also show what could have been a pumping station used to supply cooling water for a reactor, say experts David Albright and Paul Brannan of the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS). U.S. and international experts and officials familiar with the site, who were shown the photographs Tuesday, said there was a strong and credible possibility that they depict the remote compound that was attacked. Israeli officials and the White House declined to comment. If the facility is confirmed as the site of the attack, the photos provide a potential explanation for Israel’s middle-of-the-night bombing raid. The facility is located seven miles north of the desert village

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

of At Tibnah, in the Dayr az Zawr region, and about 90 miles from the Iraqi border, according to the ISIS report to be released Wednesday. Albright, a former U.N. weapons inspector, said the size of the structures suggested that Syria might have been building a gas-graphite reactor of about 20 to 25 megawatts of heat, similar to the reactor North Korea built at Yongbyon. “I’m pretty convinced that Syria was trying to build a nuclear reactor,” Albright said in an interview. He said the project would represent a significant departure from past policies. ISIS, a nonprofit research group, tracks nuclear weapons and stockpiles around the world. Israel, which has nuclear weapons of its own, has not said publicly what its warplanes hit or provided justification for the raid. Syria has denied having a nuclear program. But beginning construction of a nuclear reactor in secret would violate Syria’s obligations under the NonProliferation Treaty, which requires all signatories to declare their intent when such a decision is made, according to IAEA sources. The new report leaves many questions unanswered, such as what Syria intended to use the unfinished structures for and the exact role, if any, of North Korea in its construction. Also unclear is why Israel chose to use militar y force rather than diplomatic pressure against a facility that could not have produced significant nuclear material for years. The new details could fuel debate over whether Is-

rael’s attack was warranted. Albright acknowledged the difficulties of proving what the site is, in part because the roof was put on at an early stage, blocking views of the foundation and obscuring any potential reactor components. In construction of other types of nuclear reactors, the roof is left off until the end so cranes can move heavy equipment inside. Some nuclear experts urged caution in interpreting the photos, noting that the type of reactor favored by North Korea has few distinguishing characteristics visible from the air. Unlike commercial nuclear power reactors, for example, a North Korea-style reactor lacks the distinctive, domeshaped containment vessel that prevents the release of radiation in the event of a nuclear accident. “You can you look at North Korea’s (reactor) buildings, and they look like nothing,” said John Pike, a nuclear expert and director of GlobalSecurity.org. “They’re just metal-skinned industrial buildings.” The proximity of the building to a water source also is not significant by itself, Pike said. But Brannan, of ISIS, combed through a huge amount of satellite imager y to find a site along the Euphrates that meets a reactor’s specifications, as well as descriptions of the site over the past six weeks. The compound’s distance from populated areas was a key detail, since reactors are usually isolated from major urban populations.

U.S. tries to stop Kurdish violence against Turkey By Robin Wright and Michael Abramowitz Washington Post

WASHINGTON — The United States has warned Iraqi leaders to take concrete steps to crack down on Kurdish rebels operating against Turkey from northern Iraq, as Turkey Monday dispatched more troops and heavy weaponry toward the Iraqi border. President Bush Monday personally reached out to the leaders of both countries in an effort to prevent an outbreak of open hostilities. Over the past two days, top U.S. officials have made clear to Turkish, Iraqi and Kurdish leaders that Washington fully backs Turkey in the growing crisis, administration sources said. Twelve Turkish soldiers were killed and eight others taken captive in an ambush Sunday by Kurdish rebels who crossed from Iraq into Turkey in a brazen nighttime attack. Iraq now bears responsibility for containing and then dismantling the rebel Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a separatist movement from Turkey that maintains camps in northern Iraq, U.S. officials said. Bush has been drawn into the crisis with Turkey as relations deteriorated over the attacks from Iraq as well as by a recent House committee resolution that denounced as genocide the mass killings of Armenians by Turkey in 1915. A

longtime NATO ally, Turkey has provided critical logistical support for U.S. air operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. With Turkey sending a convoy of about 50 Turkish military vehicles toward the Iraqi border, President Bush called Turkish President Abdullah Gul to express “deep concern” about the attacks against Turkish soldiers and civilians. He also pledged to work with Turkey and Iraq to “combat” cross-border PKK operations, National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said. But the United States is also urging Turkey not to make unilateral strikes until Iraq has an chance to deal with the Kurdish rebels, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters. “From our perspective this is a diplomatic full-court press. We want to see an outcome where you have the Turks and the Iraqis working together and we will do what we can to resolve the issue without a Turkish cross-border incursion,” he said. In conversations Sunday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice asked Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan for a “few days,” Turkish sources said. But the Turks may not allow much more. “If expected developments do not take place in the next few days, we will have to take care of our own situation,” Erdogan said Monday.


E ditorial & L etters Page 10

wednesday, october 24, 2007

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Staf f Editorial

Our renaissance city Though national rankings may not reflect it, there has probably never been a better time to be a college student in Providence. In past years, Brown has functioned as a veritable ivory tower, perched in isolation atop this city on a hill. Located in Providence, but not really part of it, the University was where students came to get an Ivy League degree — and then get out. “In 1992, it was scary to stand on Westminster Street at 10 p.m. — cars would go by with four or five scary youths,” Rich Lupo ’70, owner of Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel and director of the Providence Scrabble Club, has said. The city changed drastically in the early 1990s, before the construction of the Providence Place Mall, when the river was still covered by a four-lane highway and downtown was desolate after dark. Following the highway’s relocation as part of one of the largest-ever federally funded transportation projects, Providence experienced a serious aesthetic makeover that paved the way for major developments along the river, events like WaterFire and downtown renovations spurred by a historic tax credit. In the past five years, Providence has seen $3 billion in investment, according to Paul Brooks, chief of protocol in the mayor’s office. But in a recent study by the Collegia consulting firm, Providence ranked 15 out of 20 “mid-size” cities as a destination for prospective college students. Based on data evaluating academic environment, quality of life and professional opportunities, the rankings reflected important problems in Providence. For example, according to the Collegia rankings, compared to the other 19 cities of its size, Providence’s unemployment rate in 2006 was only lower than New Orleans’. Less than a third of the city’s population has a four-year college degree or higher, and brain drain is a considerable factor in Providence — the ratio of college graduates to enrolled students in the city is just 0.66, according to the study. So in some ways, the relationship between Brown and Providence today is much the same as it has been for decades. Students note that College Hill seems detached from the rest of the city, and it’s true — we may be less isolated than in past decades, but traipsing around the East Side doesn’t give one an accurate feel for our mid-size metropolis. Getting around the city became infinitely easier this fall with the introduction of a program that promises free RIPTA transportation to any Brown ID holder. And some students are certainly making strides off the Hill, as Brooks noted that over 600 college students have worked across the city’s nonprofit sector as interns in the mayor’s office. There are other reasons to get off the Hill, too ­— from Brown’s physical expansion into the Jewelry District to the artist-directed urban revitalization of the Steel Yard. Perhaps not surprisingly, Providence ranked third in arts and leisure out of all 75 cities in the Collegia study, somehow besting even New York City. Most important, though, is one factor Collegia’s survey did not take into account. Brown students really like Providence. In a 2006 Herald poll, almost 75 percent of students said they liked or loved the city, compared to just 2.3 percent who said they hate it. From the way things are looking, we’d pick Providence over another mid-sized metropolis any day.

roxanne palmer

Letters Luttrell ’09 stands up for the South To the Editor: As a Southerner at Brown, I would like to respond to Alison Schouten’s ’08 recent column (“Fear and (self-) loathing in the RISD museum,” Oct. 17), in which she joked that she had not taken a class S/NC because she “didn’t realize until this year that (S/NC) doesn’t stand for South/North Carolina and is not Brown’s way of saying that Southerners are stupider than the rest of

us.” Since coming to Brown, I have heard many blanket statements like Schouten’s, such as “I hate the South,” or “Southerners are dumb and prejudiced.” It only goes to show that you don’t have to travel south of the MaxonDixon line to see ignorance and prejudice. Amanda Luttrell ’09 Oct. 20

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O pinions Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Page 11

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Neuter the state, not individuals SEAN QUIGLEY Opinions Columnist Constitutionally speaking, I would argue that no “right to privacy” clearly or inferentially exists. In other words, I would accept as constitutional most state or federal statutes that regulate or intrude into a citizen’s private life. Nonetheless, I would never suggest that such statutes — or any given policy of a president, governor, mayor, etc., that is within the power of the executive branch — are always just or prudent. With that in mind, I must regretfully acknowledge that the United States’ most populous city, New York City, has steadily become a police state and shows no signs of returning to the city of liberty as so many newcomers to the United States once viewed it. In highlighting an instance of unacceptable state intrusion, I will argue that the present circumstances are dire and hopefully demonstrate that the individual is to be praised more than the state. More specifically, there is the increasing presence of closed-circuit television cameras dispersed quite liberally throughout the city, with a particular emphasis on the Manhattan borough. Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s proposed project, the Lower Manhattan Security Initiative, is to include 3,000 closed-circuit cameras that run at a cost of $90 million. Modeled after the Ring of Steel of that great center of modern liberty, London, this initiative is startling in myriad ways. The issue of privacy is certainly a concern that merits attention — who wants to make their home and office in a city that is de jure policed by a state not unlike Oceania and a

mayor not unlike Big Brother? — but my largest problem with such a system is that it unnecessarily aggrandizes the domestic powers of government. The history of English-speaking societies is one in which the people and/or the aristocratic elite fought intensely to limit the powers of the governmental authorities over domestic matters and over how people proceed with their daily lives. We are gravely imperiled if we destroy that longstanding history by sacrificing our traditional liberty in favor of a state that will in

As another example of where we have erred, I would contend that, at least in the realm of airport security, the best solution to the problem of figuring out how to counter terrorist threats is not to federalize airport security or to neuter our people by making weapons illegal to carry on airplanes. Rather, the solution is to put airport security in the hands of private companies and to allow passengers (and especially pilots) to bear arms on airplanes. Not only is a bureaucratic mess avoided, but also a more effective and more

Who wants to make their home and office in a city that is de jure policed by a state not unlike Oceania and a mayor not unlike Big Brother? all places and at all times act as our lord and protector in our stead. Alas, the domestic response to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, have focused on strengthening the powers of the state over the actions of its citizens, rather than on empowering the citizens on the ground to act as their own security agents. Is it not obvious that, when citizens are deprived of their ability to safeguard themselves or are relieved of their natural duties to other people, a more intrusive and commanding state inevitably follows?

personal system of security is established. Many people, especially government officials, would do well to familiarize themselves with the Principle of Subsidiarity. That is to say, they would benefit from an education in the idea that governments should not micromanage every aspect of daily life, particularly when citizens are wholly capable of responding to threats in a more efficient manner and in a way that reduces the intrusiveness of the state. These closed-circuit cameras also possess the undesirable ability to create crime. By

that contention, I mean that such cameras can, in all likelihood, find crimes to prosecute and criminals to punish. In a striking blow to the idea that the law is often pedagogical in nature and not always enforced (for the reason that it would empower the state to an unacceptable degree), closed-circuit cameras can photograph license plates in order to capture those who commit traffic violations and can allow human monitors to scan the streets to manufacture crimes. Am I wrong to support the traditional American and English system of law enforcement, whereby the state is by and large only involved in the lives of its people if a crime is reported or if an officer of the law witnesses a crime? Is it irrational to fear an impersonal yet potent state? Perhaps, at the end of the day, my overarching fear concerning these closed-circuit cameras and other measures that empower the state at the expense of its citizens reduces to that last question — my fear of an impersonal yet potent state. As with the smoking bans in public (and soon to be private, I am sure) locations in many cities across the United States, our society has substituted the personal relations of individuals with the commanding authority of the state. Why are we quicker as a people to regulate our problems with government than to confront them with private action and personal involvement? And why do we tend to view coercive government as being more effective in the realm of domestic matters than persuasive and compassionate citizens? I leave you to decide, although I strongly feel that we should prefer the intimacy of the individual to the machinery of the state.

Sean Quigley ’10 hopes that you do not delude yourself by making a Heaven out of Hell.

Fascism and frustration at the parking lot BEN BERNSTEIN Campus Issues Columnist Though I received many e-mails following my last column, one in particular made an impression on me. Every e-mail told me to write about Brown’s parking problems. One in particular went like this: “Hi. I would like to give you my two cents about the parking. I have over $300 in overdue parking tickets because I could not find any parking when I was on my break so I had to park in one of Brown’s lots so I could return to work. I have not paid one cent to Brown, and will not. The people who work here should park for free. Thanks and please do not use my name because I do not have the money to pay Brown.” This column is about parking. Wait. Don’t turn the page. Still there? Listen. Parking at Brown is bad news, leading to inefficient and unhappy employees and students. Worse news is that all of Brown’s recent projects — the Nelson Fitness Center, the Walk and new buildings like the LiSci — create a much greater need for convenient parking while eliminating hundreds of spots. Most of the solutions center on satellite parking plans that will not solve the basic problems Brown drivers face. Anne Cerstvik Nolan has been a Brown employee, working at the Rockefeller Library, since 1992. “I’m just one person, but there are lots and lots of people like me,” Nolan said. She pays a yearly fee to park in the lot on Power and Brook streets, a good 10-minute walk from the Rock. Parking so far away from where one actually works is incredibly inefficient.

“If I have a doctor’s appointment and need to leave in the middle of the day, that’s an extra 20 minutes of work time lost just going back and forth between my parking spot,” Nolan said. One can imagine that if we multiply this lost productivity by all the employees forced to do this, the wastefulness could be quite staggering. On top of that, the spots are damn expensive. Employees pay $375 a year, often to park as many as 15 minutes away from their office. Many thought it was ridiculous that they have

as close as possible to their offices, which requires them to move their cars every two hours. “It’s called the Brown shuffle, everyone knows that,” says Beth Gentry, director of business and financial services and one of Brown’s go-to people on parking. If you drive to work at Brown, you know about it. Everyday at around 10:30, all the parking spots change and Brown employees “just stop,” Nolan says. Indeed, tickets for parking at up to $30 each can add up, especially when they are enforced

‘Meter Nazism’ has been known to include tickets for going one minute over and use of a tape measure to determine distance from the curb. to pay their employer to work for them, and they probably have a point. That said, most universities charge something to park in certain spots. Washington University in St. Louis, for example, charges as much as $900 for the prized close-in Red spots. The difference, however, is that plenty of non-permit, relatively close, toll-free spots exist at WashU that are used regularly by faculty and students alike. Brown has nothing of the sort. What do Brown employees do so they can get more work done and save money on Brown’s parking fees? They park on the street

with an intensity that can only be referred to as “Meter Nazism.” While completely legal, this strict enforcement, which has been known to include tickets for going one minute over and use of a tape measure to determine distance from curb, makes receiving tickets commonplace for most Brown drivers. So far I’ve focused on the faculty and staff casualties of the parking situation, but students with cars face similar problems. It can be very difficult for students living on campus to get parking spots from Brown, and if the University is serious about its desire to keep

more students living on campus, providing convenient, cheap parking should be a high priority. Solutions to this problem are hard to find. There will be no parking garage because there is no money, even though that seems to be the best possible solution. Imagine if Brown had two underground parking garages, one near the OMAC, one near the Main Green — well-lit, 24-hour security, an optional rotating roof. It would solve our parking problems, increase efficiency, keep students on campus and end Meter Nazism as we know it. But until the Sidney Franks of the Brown world start itching to put their names on underground garages, that dream belongs in pipes, along with any hopes of looser enforcement of parking regulations or allowing students to park overnight on East Side streets. To make things easier, Brown should provide students not only with the RIPTA passes they currently have but also with an easy way to figure out what bus or trolley to take to specific destinations like the mall, supermarket and Kennedy Plaza. The safeRIDE system is great, but running it in both directions, instead of just a one-way loop, as well as extending the hours earlier in the day would make life considerably easier for all. Instead, we are likely looking at a satellite plan that would involve distant lots, shuttle service and probably the same inefficiency and frustration that currently plagues Brown community drivers.

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.


S ports W ednesday Page 12

wednesday, october 24, 2007

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Forget the stats — this is October In 2004, New York Yankees closer Mariano Rivera saved a career-high 53 games, posting a stellar 1.94 ERA. And yet in the 2004 ALCS, Mo blew two late-inning leads to allow the Boston Red Sox to complete their historic Ellis Rochelson and unlikely comeMLB Exclusive back. In 2006, St. Louis Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina’s season stats looked like this: .216 batting average, six home runs, 49 RBI. But when the calendar turned to October, Yadier “Pujols” Molina discovered how to swing the bat — he hit two crucial homers in the NLCS and batted .412 in the World Series to help St. Louis take the crown. This year, Colorado Rockies starting pitcher Josh “Dragon-slayer” Fogg had an ERA of almost 5.00 to go with his unsightly WHIP of 1.53. Guess what? This October, he’s 2-0 with a 1.12 ERA and has led his team to the World Series. You can forget the regular season — this is October. The heroes of this World Series will likely be the Yadier Molinas of baseball, the unknowns who’ve been saving their fireworks for the world’s biggest stage. Meanwhile, each team’s season-long champions may suddenly look like, well ... Yadier Molina. Here are my picks for the Unlikely Heroes of the 2007 World Series: Fan-favorite outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury could provide that necessary spark to the Red Sox’ lineup. He’s got incredible speed, pop from the left side of the plate and a precocious ability to hit the ball to the gaps. Just like when Dave Roberts motored around the bases in the 2004 ALCS to help wipe out New York, Ellsbury’s speed and high on-base percentage could be the deciding factor in a close game. For the Rockies, second baseman Kazuo “the bright lights of Queens scare me” Matsui could play the hero. He’s hit well this postseason, batting .310 with a home run, a stolen base, two triples, and a surprising eight RBIs. That kind of speed at the top of the order — he was 32-of-36 in stolen base attempts this year — is just what a team needs to kick-start those crucial, momentum-changing innings. Plus, Kaz swings the lumber from both sides of the plate. He joins Todd Helton and Brad Hawpe as the only Rockies starters who can hit from the left side, a skill that will become imperative when facing the Red Sox’ all-righty starting rotation. Of course, these are only guesses — who brings his game face to the Series is a mystery. This World Series, only one thing is for sure — it will Rock your Sox off!

Ellis Rochelson ’09 would like to apologize for the last line of this column.

S C H ED U L E Wednesday, Oct. 24 Field Hockey: vs. Holy Cross, 4 p.m., Warner Roof Women’s Soccer: vs. Sacred Heart, 7 p.m., Stevenson Field

Equestrian finds new way to top UConn Christina Stubbe Contributing Writer

The equestrian team won its third straight show of the season with a three-point victory over the University of Connecticut on Saturday in Storrs, Conn. The Bears, led by Emma Bogdonoff ’10, increased their lead in Region 1 to 24 points over the second-place Huskies. In the show, Brown finished with 45 points to UConn’s 42, and it now has 125 points for the season. Although the Bears and Huskies were tied after the sixth of eight events, the Bears pulled away as all but one of Brown’s point riders finished either first or second in their events. The Bears, who finished third at the national championship last May, have won every event they have participated in this year. In addition, the high point rider at all three shows has been a Bear. On Saturday, Bogdonoff won the ride-off for high point honors in her second event in a row, finishing first in both Novice Flat and Novice Fences. Irmak Tasindi ’08 also did well, winning reser ve high point rider after finishing first as point rider in Novice Flat and Novice Fences. Overall the Bears earned nine first-place ribbons, including five for point riders, and three secondplace ribbons. The first-place finishers were Kristen Beck ’08 in Walk Trot Canter Advanced, Lucia Corso ’08 in Walk Trot Canter Beginner, Kiauntee Murray ’09 in Walk Trot and Brianne Goutal ’11 in Open Fences. In the show, four team members made their collegiate debuts. Dakota Gruener ’11 won her

M. doubles team shines at Regionals By Erin Frauenhofer Sports Editor

Courtesy of Amy Lowitz ’09

Irmak Tasindi ’08 was the high point rider in the UConn show.

class in Novice Flat, while Emily Bourdeau ’10 finished second in the same event. Meredith Woodhouse ’08 and Kona Shen ’10 also debuted in Walk Trot, finishing third and fifth, respectively.

While the Bears have finished their Region 1 events for the fall season, they will compete in a show hosted by Connecticut College this Saturday at Mystic Valley Hunt Club in Gales Ferry, Conn.

Although the men’s tennis team did not come away with the Northeast Regional crown this year, the Bears established themselves a formidable force in doubles competition. Over the weekend, Chris Lee ’09 and Basu Ratnam ’09 advanced to the semifinals of the ITA Northeast Regional Championships, while co-captain Noah Gardner ’09 and Sam Garland ’09 advanced to the quarterfinals. “For the most part, it was a good showing,” said Head Coach Jay Harris. “We played well and fought hard all through the tournament.” Lee and Ratnam, who were seeded fifth, began their run with a bye in the first round, and followed that with an easy second-round win over Bucknell University’s Jon Brenner and Ryan Sandburg, who they defeated 8-4. In the third round, the Bears earned an 8-5 victory over Princeton foes Ryan Kim and Ilya Trubov to reach the quarterfinals. Lee and Ratnam overpowered the unseeded Harvard duo of Chris Clayton and Will Guzick 8-3 in the quarterfinals, but in the semifinal match, the Bears fell by a score of 8-5 to Pennsylvania State University’s Ryan Gormley and Brendan Lynch. “(Gormley and Lynch) played the match of their lives,” Lee said. “But we were playing at 50 percent of our abilities. We need to work on our consistency. We can’t have those continued on page 6

Individuals stand out at Brown Invitational By Andrew Braca Sports Staff Writer

As her teammates cheered her on from the sidelines, women’s tennis player Ashley Butler ’11 rallied from a set down to beat Ashley Spicer of Syracuse University, 2-6, 6-4, 1-0 (10-6) in a third set tiebreaker Sunday to win the final match of the Brown Invitational. “It came down to the wire,” Butler said. Her hard-fought victory capped a strong weekend for the Bears that Assistant Coach Cecily Dubusker said was designed to “get a lot of matches in.” The Bears lost only one doubles match, to their teammates in an all-Brown semifinal, and went 12-4 in singles matches against Syracuse, Boston University, the University of Rhode Island, the University of Connecticut, and the State University of New York at Albany. Dubusker said Brown was a stronger team on paper than any of the other participants, except possibly BU. “The results are encouraging because we did play like a better team this weekend,” she continued. “Everybody needs to practice winning, regardless of what level you are on the team. That’s what we did this weekend.” Brown flattened the competition

in doubles play. Emily Ellis ’10 and Brett Finkelstein ’09, Alexa Baggio ’09 and Kathrin Sorokko ’10 and duo Tanja Vuectic ’10 and Kelley Kirkpatrick ’08 each won twice on Saturday by scores no closer than 8-4. In the semifinals the next day, Ellis and Finkelstein beat Danielle Abraham and Cori Lefkowith of BU, 8-2, while Baggio and Sorokko took a showdown against Vucetic and Kirkpatrick, 8-4. The final was postponed because it was an allBrown final. Brown kept rolling in singles play. Vucetic and Finkelstein both survived tough matches on Saturday to post 2-0 records. Vucetic triumphed over Susan Ma of Albany, 6-4, 7-6 (6), in the first round, while Finkelstein outlasted Yana Sadovskaya of BU, 7-5, 1-6, 1-0 (6). Their all-Brown semifinal was postponed. Butler went 2-1 in singles matches and teamed with Daria Zakharchenko of BU to go 2-0 in doubles. Sorokko and Ellis each went 2-1 in singles play. “(Ellis) had some good matches that she won, despite the fact that I don’t think she was playing all that confidently,” Dubusker said. “But she’s been doing a great job, in doubles especially.” The Invitational wasn’t the only action the Bears saw over the weekend. Bianca Aboubakare ’11

Ashley Hess / Herald File Photo

Brett Finkelstein ’09 won all four of her matches at the Brown Invitational.

and Marisa Schonfeld ’11 traveled with Head Coach Paul Wardlaw to Norfolk, Va., to play in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Women’s East Regional at Old Dominion University. While each of the first-years won multiple singles matches, their success was limited by frequent encounters with juggernaut Megan Moulton-Levy of the College of William and Mary, who before the season was ranked seventh in the

nation by the ITA in singles and first nationally in doubles with partner Katarina Zoricic. In doubles, Aboukare and Schonfield lost to the pair in the second round on Saturday, 8-4, after beating Amy Zhang and Katrina Elder-Bush of Rutgers University, 8-3. In singles, Aboukare, the 24th seed, earned a first-round bye and continued on page 6


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