Wednesday, November 14, 2007

The Brown Daily Herald Wednesday, N ovember 14, 2007

Volume CXLII, No. 110

College task force is playing a role in U.’s reaccreditation

By Evan Boggs Staff Writer

Though still in its early stages, the University’s reaccreditation process may be getting a boost from the Task Force on Undergraduate Education.

The task force, which is undertaking a broad review of the College and its curriculum, comprises 10 faculty members and four undergraduates and will release a rough draft of its findings early next semester for the campus to review.

The final version of this report, which task force member Jason Becker ’09 said is expected to be released in September 2008, will likely form a significant portion of the self-study the University is required to submit for reaccreditation

Grad students to receive ‘ethical’ education

B ench p ress F o r c a ncer

with the New England Association of Schools and Colleges. The College has received a yearlong extension to complete the process in part because of the task force’s mandate, Becker said.

The New England Association of Schools and Colleges is a group dedicated to providing “public assurance about the educational quality of those schools and colleges that seek or wish to maintain membership, which is synonymous with accreditation,” according to its Web site.

“We received permission from NEASC to do a self-study with an emphasis on undergraduate education. So the task force is in effect the committee assigned to deal with the questions on that topic, and our continued on page 4

Courtesy of Idan Naor ’08 Members of the football team pumped iron in pink T-shirts yesterday in front of Faunce House to raise money for the American Cancer Society.

Singular sensations: students audition for Broadway

By Rebekah Bergman Contributing Writer

By Tina Herrero Contributing Writer

Brown grad students will soon receive an ‘ethical education’ in what Dean of the Graduate School Sheila Bonde described as “thou shalt nots,” thanks to a grant received through the National Science Foundation and the Council for Graduate Schools.

The grant, provided by the National Science Foundation and awarded to institutions selected by the Council for Graduate Schools, targets students in the physical sciences, specifically the engineering, chemistry and physics departments.

Though the program was officially introduced at the grad school’s orientation in September, no classes have been organized for this semester.

Grad students will be instructed on how to handle ethical issues during research and in their professional careers.

“This ranges from doing research papers and how you carry out your experiment and all those kinds of issues. Issues involved may be so severe as plagiarism or faking data, or may be more minor issues that are encountered more often,” said Chung-I Tan, professor of Physics and chair of the department.

Bonde summarized the approach the Grad School is taking as “thou shalt not” rules, for example “thou shalt not plagiarize” and “thou shalt not mistreat animals.” Bonde said some of the issues that may be discussed are the “relationship of scientific fact to culturally-based belief systems, the obligations and ownership issues related to data, the societal impacts of developing a particular drug or compound and the continued on page 4

INSIDE:

3

CAMPUS WATCH

www.browndailyherald.com

Since 1866, Daily Since 1891

Rahul Keerthi / Herald

While some seniors try to land interviews with firms on Wall Street, two juniors have been invited to audition on Broadway.

Emily Borromeo ’09 and Federico Rodriguez ’09 are active participants in Brown theater, most recently performing in leading roles in “City of Angels” — and last month both auditioned for Broadway musicals.

Last spring, Rodriguez auditioned for the Tony-award winning musical “Spring Awakening.” He estimated that 500 actors auditioned at the open casting call in Boston for future spots in the Broadway production and on the show’s national tour.

After an initial callback immediately after his audition, Rodriguez did not hear from representatives of “Spring Awakening” until about three weeks ago.

“They called me, and they said they needed a replacement for the part of Hanschen,” he said,

Federico Rodriguez ‘09 and Emily Borromeo ‘09

Labor standards on the agenda at Community Council meeting

By Michael Skocpol Senior Staf f Writer

Despite student onlookers holding bright orange signs urging the Brown University Community Council at its meeting Tuesday to “support the Designated Suppliers Program,” it was President Ruth Simmons who ultimately injected some urgency into an other wise sedate discussion of the fledgling national effort to guarantee labor standards in factories producing college apparel.

Expressing concern that waiting until February or later for the Department of Justice to weigh in on the DSP’s legality before the University takes a stand “doesn’t show any leadership,” Simmons urged a working group on the DSP to set aside legal issues, focus on the merits of the program itself and return with a

continued on page 4

continued on page 9

‘Midnight Dodgeball’ group gains devoted following

By Brianna Barzola Staff Writer

If you walk by Faunce House on a Thursday at midnight and see people jumping off the statue in front of it, screaming in primordial fashion, “I’m thirsty for blood now” and battling apparently to the death with playground balls, don’t fret. These aren’t “West Side Story”-inspired dance battles or actual street gangs on the Main Green. This is dodgeball.

Boaz Munro ’09 hosted the semester’s first game Sept. 20, after hearing that friends at the University of Pittsburgh had started their own dodgeball group. “I asked my suitemates what they thought of the idea

student pundits The online publication Scoop08 features political commentary written by students, for students.

5

CAMPUS NEWS

and when I got good feedback I went to the mall, bought playground balls and made a Facebook event out of it, where I invited all of my friends,” Munro said. “There were so many people on the first night — it was pretty chaotic.”

Following the first game’s success, Munro created a Facebook group called “Midnight Dodgeball (and other games)” to spread the word. The group currently has 71 members, according to its Facebook profile.

“New people show up to play every week,” Munro said. Unlike intramural sports, Munro’s dodgeball

Courtesy of Jhon Clavijo ’07

continued on page 4

Midnight dodgeball, started by Boaz Munro ‘09 and Jhon Clavijo ‘07, has grown into a weekly unofficial tournament.

spontaneous bliss Sovern ‘84 travels to Mount Everest, bikes in the Tour de France — oh, and he’s a journalist, too.

11

OPINIONS

195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island

SITCOM SADNESS Guest columnist Salimah Nooruddin ’08 worries the writers’ strike will soon disrupt TV viewing.

12 SPORTS

Roll, Ruggers, roll!

The women’s rugby team is now No. 1 in the nation, after the Northeast Rugby Union Championships.

News tips: herald@browndailyherald.com

T oday Page 2

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

But Seriously | Charlie Custer and Stephen Barlow

We a t h e r Today

TOMORROW

mostly cloudy 60 / 48

rain 54 / 36

Menu

Sharpe Refectory

Verney-Woolley Dining Hall

Lunch — Buffalo Chicken Wings with Bleu Cheese Dressing, Meatball Grinder, Couscous Croquettes, Parsley Potatoes, Cheesecake Brownies

Lunch — Chicken Fajitas, Vegan Black Bean Tacos, Mexican Succotash, Pico de Gallo, Cheesecake Brownies

Dinner — Orange Teriyaki Salmon, Vegan Warm and Spicy Dhal, Herb Rice, BBQ Chicken Pizza, Orange Jello, Orange Delight Cake

Dinner — Cilantro Chicken, Mexican Cornbread Casserole, Beets in Orange Sauce, Stir Fry Pork Lo Mein, Herb Rice, Orange Delight Cake

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

Aibohphobia | Roxanne Palmer

Nightmarishly Elastic | Adam Robbins

Octopus on Hallucinogens | Toni Liu and Stephanie Le

RELEASE DATE– Wednesday,©November 14, 2007 Puzzles by Pappocom

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

Crossword

Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis ACROSS 1 It takes panes 5 Henry who wrote a noted anatomy text 9 Porn 13 Choral voice 14 Titicaca, por ejemplo 15 Vested interest 16 1960s Goldie Hawn blooper reels 19 Plus 20 Year in Spain 21 Collar, so to speak 22 Hospital nursery bawler 26 Color TV pioneer 27 San Francisco’s __ Hill 28 Discipline with stretching 31 Provocative 33 Miler Sebastian and critic Richard 35 Crib denizen 36 Makeup remover that’s selling like mad 40 “Yeah, right!”

41 Social oddball 42 Kick back 43 Writing on the wall 45 Edinburgh “Uh uh” 46 One rising at dawn 47 Start a massive urban renewal project 53 1977 thriller about a killer sedan 55 Rule, for short 56 Mauna __ 57 Dartmouth team, when hosting Ohio State?

61 “The Man from __”: 1960s spy series 62 Native Nebraskan 63 Verdi’s slave girl 64 __-Ball 65 1969 baseball upstarts 66 Bothersome kid DOWN 1 Cobb or Caesar 2 Rod Stewart’s ex

3 Reading room 4 Monopolize 5 Baum’s Good Witch of the South 6 Wouldn’t stop talking 7 In the past 8 One of us?

9 Like a cloudless night 10 Jot down reminders 11 They’re strummed at luaus 12 Try out 15 Houston player, informally 17 Like carefree days of youth 18 Moved to the right 23 L.A. Pops, for one 24 Scrambled, to Bond 25 Scarf material 29 Hardly the hero 30 Vegas contraption offering the best odds?

31 Paper quantity 32 Steady devotion

34 Brillo relative 36 Sigma preceder 37 Professor’s goal 38 Roll an untimely seven, with “out” 39 Pay for use of 44 Kidman of “Cold Mountain” 46 Tennis’s Borg and tenor Bjoerling 48 Cover with asphalt

49 Ripley’s last words?

50 Nostalgic tune 51 Winner of the first FedEx Cup 52 Pester 53 Therefore 54 Baseball Hall of Famer Greenberg 58 CD-__ 59 4 x 4, briefly 60 Knock

Classic Deep-Fried Kittens | Cara FitzGibbon

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

Classic Deo | Daniel Perez

xwordeditor@aol.com

11/14/07

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-

Eric Beck, President

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 Dan Naddor (c)2007 Tribune Media Services, Inc.

11/14/07

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, November 14, 2007

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Scoop08: Students on politics

Georgetown promises new LGBTQ center

By Evan Pelz Staff Writer

Students around the country now have an alternative news source for coverage of the upcoming 2008 presidential election, written by students like themselves. Scoop08, an online student publication with nearly 500 student correspondents across the country, was created “to show that students around the country can band together to report — that there can be such a thing as a national student newspaper,” said co-founder Andrew Mangino, a Yale junior.

Mangino began the project with Alexander Heffner, a high school senior at Phillips Academy, in late December 2006. The importance of this election and the Internet’s ability to reach a wide audience led him to start the project, he said.

The project is currently in a preview stage, but this Thursday stories will begin to be posted and live blogging about the CNN Democratic presidential debate in Nevada will begin.

Mangino said he and Heffner wanted to usher in “a new era of political reporting by covering angles not otherwise covered.” On Scoop08, third-party candidates receive as much coverage as frontrunners like Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y. Correspondents for the site research the policy they cover, Mangino said. Off-beat issues such as candidates’ preferences in art, film and design, which are of interest to students, will also be covered.

Scoop08 may soon become international, Mangino said. “The network (of student correspondents) is growing all the time, now nearing about 500 around the country and the world,” Mangino said. “Now in Egypt and South Korea, there are some American students studying

abroad and also international students that want to contribute.”

Mangino said the process to become a writer for Scoop08 is pretty simple: “Simply click ‘Apply to write’ and fill out a quick form and what beat you want,” he said.

Writers’ beats, or areas of specialization, cover specific issues.

“Everyone is specialized to become an expert on a specific niche and go headfirst into it but all vow to remain politically neutral and objective,” Mangino said.

Scoop08’s network of correspondents includes some students here at Brown. Anish Mitra ’10 is one of two Republican Candidate Editors for Scoop08. He said he got involved in September after a month-long correspondence with Heffner. His position places him and his co-editor in charge of all articles about Republican candidates.

Mitra said Scoop08 is important as a new type of news source that can encourage college students to vote. “If you look at most of the people covering the 2008 election, it’s mostly big time news sources like CNN, MSNBC, Time — basically what normally covers the news anyways,” Mitra said.

“Scoop08 is pretty much trying to start a student-run, ground-roots kind of journalism project, trying to mobilize the young people to vote because this election is pretty important.”

As an editorial columnist for Scoop08, Herald Opinions Columnist Sean Quigley ’10 sends an article he has written on whatever topic he chooses every one or two weeks. “It actually is pretty hard to get new ideas for every two weeks,” he said. “Sometimes you don’t get inspiration, and you have to search for it.”

Mangino said the site will continue producing content until the election, and Mitra and Quigley both said they expect to continue to write for it.

New management for Harvard endowment

By Oliver Bowers Campus Watch Editor

Robert Kaplan, professor of management practices at the Harvard Business School, began his term Monday as interim chief executive officer of the Harvard Management Company, the group tasked with managing Harvard’s nearly $35 billion endowment.

Kaplan will replace Mohamed ElErian, who will return to the $500-billion Pacific Investment Management Company at the end of the year after a tenure of less than two years at HMC. During the next month and a half, Kaplan will work alongside El-Erian to ensure a “smooth transition” as Kaplan completes his teaching responsibilities for the semester, Harvard spokesman John Longbrake wrote in an e-mail to The Herald.

Kaplan said in a Harvard press release that he would accept the position but stressed that it is only a temporary appointment. “I am looking forward to working with the extremely talented team at HMC,” Kaplan said. “Their work makes a great contribution to the essential research and educational mission of Harvard, and I am pleased to be a part of this dynamic organization until a permanent CEO is named.”

Kaplan has served as vice chairman of the Goldman Sachs Group, where President Ruth Simmons serves on the board of directors.

He is currently a senior director of Goldman Sachs, was a member of its management committee from 2002 to 2006 and served as global co-head of the firm’s investment banking division from 1999 to 2002.

Under El-Erian’s leadership, the endowment posted a 23 percent return for the 2007 fiscal year, growing to $34.9 billion, according to an Aug. 23 article in the Harvard Gazette.

The return was one of the strongest the Harvard Management Company has posted in its 33-year history, the article said.

Under El-Erian, Harvard’s investment strategy included diversification into real assets, domestic and foreign equities and absolute returns, which include hedge funds and strategies such as fixed income arbitrage, according to the HMC Web site. Since 2000, when the HMC was under the direction of Jack Meyer, the company has dramatically increased its asset allocations in real assets and absolute return investments.

HMC’s percentage allocation in the category of absolute growth opportunities, roughly 20 percent of its endowment, and in real assets both mirror Yale’s endowment asset allocation. Yale University posted the highest investment return among universities of its size in Fiscal Year 2007 with a return of 27.8 percent, according to a Sept. 27 article in the New York Times.

By Melissa Shube Contributing Writer

Georgetown President John DeGioia promised a resource center to the university’s lesbian, bisexual, gay, transgender and questioning community on Oct. 24, a victory for GU Pride, the school’s largest LGBTQ group. Calls for the resource center started six years ago but escalated in October after two LGBTQ students were assaulted.

On Sept. 9, a Georgetown student physically assaulted and shouted homophobic slurs at another student, who was hospitalized after the attack. Georgetown sophomore Phillip Cooney was arrested and charged with the attack, which was not announced to the Georgetown community until three weeks after the incident.

“You hear about trash cans being stolen the day of, but you don’t hear about being attacked because of gender identity for three weeks.

It made a lot of people angry,” said sophomore Olivia Chitayat, cochair of GU Pride.

On Oct. 14, two unidentified men yelled homophobic slurs at another Georgetown student. They then pushed him into the side of a building and blew smoke into his face. The victim told Georgetown’s student paper, the Hoya, that he didn’t consider the incident a hate crime but many in the LGBTQ community felt otherwise.

GU Pride mobilized for a resource center the Monday after the first attack was announced. “We put together a campaign with a list of demands. We had a rally the following Monday where people spoke and we made a petition to support our demands: a resource center, education, a more efficient system (to notify the Georgetown community after an attack),” Chitayat said.

As of now, the LGBTQ community has a coordinator in a halftime position. “He can’t advocate or push for education and changes in the community. He can only react, pretty much, because it is a Catholic university,” Chitayat said.

DeGioia met with four members of GU Pride on Oct. 9. This meeting led the president to send a campus-wide e-mail assuring students they should feel safe on campus. The GU Pride students wanted more of a response.

On Oct. 11, National Coming Out Day, students wearing “I am” t-shirts marched to the president’s office to give him a t-shirt and a 1,600-signature petition with GU Pride’s demands. Ten campus security officers prevented them from entering the building.

“It’s kind of confusing where the decisions came from to bar us from the entry,” Chitayat said.

“They said it was their right as an institution to bar us from expressing our opinion at Healy (where the president’s office is located).”

The Georgetown campus security told the Hoya that students weren’t allowed in because there was another event going on at the same time. But students who were not wearing t-shirts were allowed to enter, Chitayat said. DeGioia’s Chief of Staff Erik Smulson eventually came outside and accepted the t-shirt and signatures on behalf of the president.

On Oct. 24, the president held an open forum, where he agreed

Peter Tully / The Hoya

Georgetown students held a rally last month after a student was arrested for allegedly assaulting and shouting homophobic slurs at another student.

to all the demands made by GU Pride, Chitayat said.

“We can and must improve upon our services for LGBTQ students.

Let me be clear: The question before us is not if, but how,” DeGioia told the forum.

The president called for three workings groups: a working group to look into more efficient and prompt notifications to the com-

munity of hate crimes, a working group on resources to evaluate the needs of the LGBTQ community, including a resource center and a full time coordinator, and a working group on education to study programs that promote tolerance and inclusion for the LGBTQ community. continued on page 9

Page 4

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

With task force input, U. reaccreditation likely continued from page 1 report will become the largest part of the NEASC report,” wrote Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron in an e-mail to The Herald.

In fact, the task force’s report will likely be included with the 100-page NEASC self-study as a supporting document, said Kathryn Spoehr, professor of cognitive and lingustic sciences and a member of the University steering committee charged with overseeing the reaccreditation process.

Becker said the reaccreditation in general, and the task force specifically, gave the College an opportunity to examine its undergraduate offerings.

The task force’s report aims to demonstrate that “Brown students are doing a great job, and (the University) is doing a great job educating them,” Becker said.

The reaccreditation process begins with a self-study submitted by the institution under review.

Brown will submit its self-study in fall 2008. A site visit by NEASC officials will follow, bringing association members from peer institutions to campus to compare the realities of the University to what has been reported in the self-study. Brown’s site visit is scheduled for Spring 2009, and the final reaccreditation will be complete by fall of that year, Spoehr said.

“I think in terms of purely getting our stamp (of approval), Brown will get reaccredited,” said task force member Fiona Heckscher ’09.

Nevertheless, in a 2003 interim report by NEASC, the University

was encouraged to put more effort into finding ways to accurately assess the performance of students at Brown as well as to strengthen the undergraduate advising partnership for upperclassmen.

With the release of a report in 2006 by the Department of Education on the performance of colleges and universities across the country, there has been growing support for finding ways to assess how well colleges are teaching their students, said Spoehr, who is a member of NEASC and reviews other institutions for their reaccreditations.

One of the more radical assessment methods that has been proposed is nationwide exams for graduating college seniors.

However, a number of task force members told The Herald they are not considering exit exams at Brown.

“They’re a very inappropriate way of addressing student outcomes,” Heckscher said.

Though task force member Sheila Blumstein, professor of cognitive and linguistic sciences, admitted “there is a national effort” to strengthen assessment at a university level, she said such assessment does not have to be limited to a series of exams.

But Blumstein said there is a rationale for increased assessment.

“We owe it in part to ourselves and our students, and in part to the world out there, that we know when a student comes to Brown they get a good education.”

Heckscher said the committee had instead discussed methods such as student portfolios, which would be a collection of student

work and faculty feedback that would demonstrate students’ intellectual development throughout their time at Brown.

Though Spoehr said Brown could face problems because it lacks general education requirements, the University was not directly cited for its lack of core requirements in the NEASC interim report.

Becker said that despite rumors, the task force is not currently considering general education requirements for the undergraduate program. Instead, the committee hopes to examine Brown’s current undergraduate program as one that may have transformed over time.

“There are aspects of the New Curriculum that have been lost ... but (the creators of the New Curriculum) thought there was an imperative behind them,” Becker said.

“It seems like (the Office of the Dean of the College) decided this was an opportunity to review the undergraduate program,” task force member and Professor of Neuroscience Michael Paradiso said of the task force and the broader University focus on the undergraduate program within the NEASC selfstudy.

“I think that people should not be wary,” Blumstein said of the committee’s work. She added that the Brown community should “have faith” in what she characterized as a “strong group of faculty and students.” “(Determining that) Brown continues to provide the best undergraduate education it can — that’s the goal (of the task force),” Blumstein said.

Students audition for Broadway roles continued from page 1 describing the part as a “challenging role. He’s a teenager who likes to mess with people. The director described him as a future serial killer.”

In late October, Rodriguez traveled to New York City, where he competed with eight other actors in a third round of auditions. This callback was broken up into two segments. First, the choreographer taught the actors a dance from the play. After a break, the actors returned to find the musical director, three producers and actor Blake Daniel, who currently plays the role of Ernst in the musical, all in the room. The second part of the audition involved reading a scene from the play with Daniel.

“When I was done, I felt like I had just gotten off of a roller coaster,” Rodriguez said. “You’re seeing a lot of important people and having to put your whole body, your whole mind and your whole voice into this thing and do your absolute best.”

Rodriguez described the directors and choreographer as downto-earth, even though they were in charge of a major Broadway production. “At that level you expect people to be really pretentious and it actually ends up being the opposite,” he said.

Though the Spring Awakening audition was the first time he progressed through numerous call-

backs, Rodriguez has auditioned for Broadway musicals before.

Over the summer he auditioned for “Hairspray” as well as “The Grinch.” Currently, he is shooting an independent film, which takes him to New York on the weekends, where he auditions as much as possible. “It’s a never-ending process,” Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez said he would probably take a leave from Brown if he were offered the role of Hanschen.

However, he knows that his degree in computer science will be valuable in the future as well. “I think that computer science will always be there to make a living off of.

Theater is very difficult and my computer science background will be really helpful,” he said. As of now though, Rodriguez is still waiting to hear about the Hanschen part.

Borromeo’s Broadway audition experience was markedly different from Rodriguez’s experience. Borromeo auditioned for “Rent” in early October, skipping the first step of typical auditions.

“Normally, you go to audition and then after that there’s callbacks.

I just went straight to callbacks,” Borromeo explained. Jed Resnick ’07, who played the role of Mark in the national tour of Rent, gave the directors Borromeo’s contact information when he heard that a role had become available.

Borromeo said she was skeptical at first of the unknown number that called to tell her of the audi-

tion. “I wasn’t even sure if it was a legitimate casting company,” she said. But the call was genuine, and Borromeo went to audition for the part of Alexi Darling and as an understudy for the part of Mimi Marquez.

The day of the audition, Borromeo skipped her classes and took the train to New York. At the audition, Borromeo learned dance combinations while the directors judged the actresses on both their technique and the “rawness” of their personalities.

Like Rodriguez, Borromeo was pleasantly surprised by the positive attitude she found at the professional level. “It was a very fun audition.

Very painless, actually. I expected it to be a lot more cutthroat and a lot more competitive,” she said.

Borromeo said she felt as though the other girls were really rooting for one another.

Like Rodriguez, Borromeo has not heard back from “Rent,” but she said it was unlikely she had been cast for the part. Borromeo said she would not be overly disappointed if she did not land her first major role on Broadway. “I don’t particularly think “Rent” speaks to me,” she said, though auditioning was an “invaluable experience and an incredible opportunity.”

Borromeo plans to pursue a career in musical theater after Brown, though she is a commerce, organizations and entrepreneurship concentrator.

www.browndailyherald.com

Main Green ‘Midnight dodgeball’ a hit continued from page 1 teams are unstructured and players often switch sides. “This way the teams aren’t made up of the same people during each game and people can get to know each other more easily,” Munro said.

Since that first night in September, the group has continued to play on Thursday nights and has gained momentum thanks to its devoted members. “We get about 30 people to come out and play every week — the largest number of people we’ve had at one time was over 60,” Munro said.

Though the group’s title suggests they play games other than dodgeball, Munro affirmed that it is still the preferred sport of the group.

“It’s easier to break up into teams in dodgeball than it is in other games like capture the flag, which we tried the second week. It was too dark and the only thing we could do to differentiate one person from another was to have the teams break up into skins versus shirts,” Munro said.

The group mostly sticks to traditional dodgeball — where two teams hurl balls at each other until one team is completely eliminated — but they also play a second version of the game that is “every man for himself,” Munro said.

Group member Dan Sterba ’08 said the group doesn’t often play the harsher version of the game. “When we play every man for himself it’s pretty intense, it’s like a battle zone,” Sterba said. “Some find it exhilarating and some find it stressful.”

Though Munro founded the group, he doesn’t dictate which games it plays. “If everyone all of a sudden wanted to play another sport, that would be fine with me. I’m not really in charge, I’m more of a facili-

tator,” Munro said. “We’ll always be open to playing other games.”

Though games start at midnight and run for over an hour on most nights, the dodgeball devotees have not encountered any problems except for one lost ball and one noise complaint on the night of the first game.

“Sometimes the security guards come over because they think there’s some disturbance at first, but then when they see that we’re playing dodgeball they just watch us — its pretty funny,” said group member Juliana Thorstenn ’09. “We really haven’t had any problems, except for missing balls, so if anyone wants to donate any dodgeballs, that would be great.”

No matter how intense the games get, with rain or extremely low temperatures, an air of camaraderie serves as the driving force behind the group, despite what some may call its childish nature. “It’s really nice to have Midnight Dodgeball because people are able to socialize. I appreciate that it’s this hodge-podge of people where unlikely friendships are formed and new people join weekly,” Munro said.

The group also offers students an alternative to drinking and going to parties before the weekend, said member Finn Yarbrough ’09. “It gives you something to do to blow off some steam without partying and drinking during the week,” Yarbough said. “It’s like being part of a sports team. I feel a responsibility to make it happen every week.”

Sterba agreed that Midnight Dodgeball helps relieve stress. “Hitting the kid who blind-sighted you with the Dora the Explorer ball is definitely a much healthier way to let your aggression out at the end of the day,” he said.

Training planned for grad students in ‘thou shalt nots’ continued from page 1 ethical obligations of the research in developing that compound.”

So far, some of the grant has been used to “review and revise the programming for orientation as it related to ethics, including implementing a new set of sessions at orientation that talked about ethics in the context of research welcoming new students into their new roles of research professionals,” Bonde said. First-year grad students will be the first to experience the new curriculum.

“We are trying to make this be a spiral staircase method. It isn’t just a shot in the arm once,” Bonde said.

The introduction of ethics will begin during orientation and be revisited again throughout a student’s graduate studies.

“Different disciplines may handle this slightly differently,” Tan said.

“For instance, chemistry will organize a course after first semester and physics would like to engage students at the beginning of second year — that’s when students begin their research work. At that stage, we would like to remind them about the various issues involved.”

Tan said ethics issues are something every student should be aware of, but that each department would likely structure their course offerings differently. Tan said this belief is rooted in the idea that “in your professional research, there are issues with people at some point being

dishonest in terms of reporting your data and analysis.” The teaching of ethical education will help graduate students learn appropriate behavior for both themselves and others, and what to do if they suspect others of being dishonest.

Tan said professors are “trying to find the best way to implement the idea, and how to bring the issue of ethics as part of the dialogue within graduate program teaching.” Overall, professors involved are supportive of the program and believe it is an important aspect of scientific research.

“I am supportive of the NSF pilot program and believe that the University is taking the right steps to address this important area,” said Professor of Engineering Eric Suuberg.

Though this type of ethics training program has previously been a part of the life sciences curriculum for students conducting research on human subjects, the development of similar training for the students in the physical sciences has been slower.

Grad students will soon be surveyed about their response to the orientation aspect of the program.

But most grad students contacted

by The Herald were either unaware of the program or had no opinion on it. “(The program doesn’t make) a lot of sense to me. Could be my fault, but why would you worr y about (the ethics program)?” wrote Jie Bao GS in an e-mail to The Herald.

C ampus n ews Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Christmas comes early for Adopt A Doctor

By Chaz Kelsh Staff Writer

Few Brunonians may read Yankee magazine, but when the regional publication featured Rajiv Kumar ’05 MD’09 two weeks ago as one of its “2007AngelsAmong Us,” the small piece prompted readers to give $5,000 to the Adopt A Doctor nonprofit Kumar founded as a Brown undergraduate.

The organization, which Kumar co-founded in June 2003 to help “reverse the brain drain in Africa,” currently gives 12 doctors in Liberia, Malawi, Mali and Sierra Leone $100 per month to enable them to stay and practice medicine in their home countries, in exchange for a seven-year commitment to stay in the country.

Kumar thinks the readers’ generosity may be thanks to the impending holiday season. “(The Yankee) article came at the right time for us,” he said. “Word of mouth is a fascinating thing. You never know how someone will hear about you.”

Kumar, who is enrolled in the Program in Liberal Medical Education, first conceived of Adopt A Doctor during a summer job after his sophomore year. As part of his long-standing interest in international health, Kumar was researching health care in the developing world with Ray Rickman, former state representative.

While learning about the state of health care in Africa, Kumar developed an interest in “alleviating the lack of access” to care. He co-founded Adopt A Doctor with Rickman — and the program, of which Kumar is now chairman, has helped thousands of patients in Liberia, Malawi, Mali and Sierra Leone since then, he said.

Though there are a number of medical schools in Africa, doctors often have little incentive to remain in Africa after they graduate, ac-

Whether he’s reporting live via satellite from the base camp of Mount Everest, updating his widely read political blog, traveling to Europe to cover the Tour de France or applying his musical knowledge to the production of a radio segment, journalist Doug Sovern ’84 thrives on the spontaneity of his career.

“I may start my day in the worst slum that there is, interviewing crack addicts, and then that afternoon I may go sit down and do a private interview with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger,” Sovern said. “It’s different every day. You never know what you’re going to get.”

As a reporter for KCBS, the only San Francisco-based all-news radio station and the world’s firstever broadcasting station, Sovern has won more than 125 broadcast journalism awards, according to the KCBS Web site. In 2004, he became the first journalist to win the Associated Press’ Reporter of the Year Award for California/Nevada on three separate occasions.

Sovern’s passion for journalism took shape during his adolescence, when he was editor of his high school newspaper and he later

UCS looks to increase community-based courses

By Emmy Liss Staff Writer

Min Wu / Herald

Rajiv Kumar ’05 MD’09 founded Adopt A Doctor to support African doctors.

cording to Kumar. Over 90 percent leave, many responding to a shortage of doctors in other countries.

Canada even has a formal recruiting program for African doctors. “It’s kind of appalling,” Kumar said.

The high number of departing doctors has led to a shortage in Africa, where there can be up to as many as 100,000 people per doctor. In Liberia, Kumar said, there are four million people and only 25 qualified doctors. The situation is so dire that it is better for doctors to become even a taxi driver in a wealthier nation than to remain at home.

“We get requests from doctors saying, ‘We want to stay,’ ” Kumar said. “It’s a very modest request — a hundred dollars,” he added.

Despite the vast aid Western nations provide to Africa in the form of medication, supplies and equipment, few organizations directly sponsor local doctors, Kumar said. “$100 goes so far in Mali — it allows a doctor not to go hungry,” Kumar said. “It’s impossible to take care of patients when you’re hungry yourself.”

Adopt A Doctor’s goal is to

“ser ve as a demonstration that funding local doctors is possible, efficient and effective,” said Kumar, who hopes that other larger organizations might adopt the same model.

The organization’s efforts have already produced a change in some people’s daily lives, Kumar said. For example, residents in rural areas who previously had to travel to government hospitals in cities for HIV retroviral drugs can now receive them from sponsored doctors in their own towns. Kumar said he hopes this is the beginning of a larger change, as many people in these areas cannot afford trips to the city for health care.

Kumar spent the summer of 2006 in Mali volunteering at an HIV clinic in a poor section of the capital city. “It just drove home for me that what we’re doing is amazing and worthwhile,” he said.

Adopt A Doctor also sponsored 25 doctors, nurses, medics and child psychologists who traveled to Indonesia after the 2004 tsunami to provide free medical care to those affected, using a $50,000 grant from the Do Something organization.

Sovern ’84 journeys globe in search of stories

By Olivia Hoffman Staff Writer

Page 5

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

took a summer job as a “copy boy” at the New York Times during college.

For Sovern, journalism has served both as a career and as a vehicle through which he’s explored his myriad interests.

An avid bass player, Sovern said his musical knowledge has important applications in reporting. “Being a musician has really helped me put together interesting stories,” he said. “(Radio) has a lot to do with rhythm and pacing.”

FEATURE Sovern also said his reporting style is similar to that of reporters for National Public Radio. “I use a lot of natural sounds, a lot of music,” he said.

That passion for music thrived at Brown. “There was a really vibrant music scene when I was at Brown,” he said. “Every weekend there were bands playing all over campus.” Sovern said he was always involved in music — at one point, he was playing in five bands.

Along with his various bands — which included a “new-wave pop group” called the Video Babies, an acoustic bluegrass trio, a nine-piece R&B revue and a blues/rock band called the Magnitos — Sovern per-

formed across campus and around Providence at locales like Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel and the Living Room.

As a member, and eventually head, of the Brown Concert Agency, Sovern helped bring acts like Bob Marley and the Wailers, Bonnie Raitt, Dire Straits, the B-52s and U2 to Brown’s campus. Among his most memorable concert experiences was a performance by James Brown.

“We got the name of the school changed for the day to James Brown University,” Sovern said, adding that T-shirts were printed with the words “In soul speramus” instead of the traditional University motto, “In deo speramus.”

Sovern’s love for music prompted him to take a year off from Brown to play in a band and “not go to school for a while.” Though he planned to graduate in 1982, it wasn’t until 1984 that he earned his degree. “I was on the six-year plan,” he said.

After graduation, Sovern moved to Berkeley, Calif., to pursue his music career with his band, Nice Boys From New York — but the band’s dreams of stardom failed to materialize. “Lots of bands we opened up for or that opened up for us became continued on page 6

In the interest of furthering the University’s stated commitment to the greater surrounding community, the Undergraduate Council of Students is promoting courses that incorporate community involvement. While some such courses already exist, members of UCS are working to help create additional community-based courses.

“Service learning” is the term that has been used in the past to describe these courses, but Swearer Center for Public Service administrators and UCS members are trying to steer away from this label, preferring to think of the courses as civic or community engagement.

Both the Swearer Center and UCS are “looking to get people involved in the community on a deeper level,” said Melea Atkins ’10, a UCS at-large representative and member of the Academic and Administrative Affairs Committee. The term “service learning” does not imply the level of sustainability and commitment to a project that UCS is trying to promote, she said.

To ensure that their efforts are well-received, faculty and Swearer Center administrators undertake significant planning and research before contacting an outside organization about a potential course.

A community project cannot just be “tacked on” to a course, said Roger Nozaki MAT’89, director of the Swearer Center and associate dean of the College. The project should be more deeply intertwined with the course’s specific goals and criteria in order to improve the student experience and to guarantee that the organization is directly benefiting from the project, he said.

However, there is no single definition for such a course. Rather, a “whole range” of course types fit within the parameters of community engagement, Nozaki added.

The Swearer Center currently helps faculty to “develop courses that help students think about and learn about community issues. Sometimes that involves a specific project, sometimes it doesn’t,” Nozaki said.

“Engagement in the community can help students gain skills that Brown desires for its students,” said Nozaki, noting that in some courses, students become deeply engaged in community or global issues without ever stepping outside the classroom.

“We’re not pre-supposing a certain type of course,” he added.

The ability to apply classroom knowledge to the world at large appeals to many students, as it gives them the ability to “bridge the gap”

and take what they are learning in class “beyond Brown in a tangible way,” said UCS Vice President Lauren Kolodny ’08.

“There is a general student culture of being very interested in social issues,” Nozaki said. Community involvement offers “a different set of perspectives, understanding and knowledge,” he said.

UCS members told The Herald there have been challenges attracting faculty members to teach such courses. According to Beth Bauer, senior lecturer in Hispanic studies, this stems from the inherent difficulties presented by “blending” community and academic goals, which require a good deal of time and effort.

Bauer teaches HISP 0750B: “Hispanics in the United States,” which incorporates classroom learning and direct work with nearby Hispanic communities. She said such a course “serves an important role” for her department because it “promotes getting to know the Spanish-speaking community in Providence.”

Kolodny, who took HISP 0750B, said the course changed the way she viewed Providence and allowed her to “apply the more abstract things” she had learned in class.

While certain departments have more obvious connections to the community, UCS is “looking to try to get a few students and a few professors excited in every department,” Atkins said.

“Just about any discipline has public implications,” Nozaki said.

The immediate plans are focused on “making sure we stress what we want to do in a way that makes professors see the benefits of it,” Atkins said.

The difficulty in promoting such a broad concept, said UCS President Michael Glassman ’09, is that it is “not a thing you can advocate for — you can’t buy it.” Instead, he said, you have to “get students and faculty to understand.”

UCS members are reaching out to the Faculty Executive Committee to increase awareness and find ways to make courses with community engagement components more attractive to professors. “It’s really just about changing the perception of ‘service learning’ on campus,” Kolodny said.

However, the project is very much still in its planning stages. The goal right now is “getting people talking,” Glassman said.

“There is some richness, not a type of class or an approach to teaching,” Nozaki stressed. “That’s not what a Brown education is about.

There are a variety of ways for students and faculty to get engaged,” he said.

Page 6

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Trudeau ’09 on rethinking hoops stats Sovern ’84 journeys the globe in search of stories continued from page 12

continued from page 5 very famous, but not us,” he said.

Putting his musical career on hiatus, Sovern decided to pursue journalism, but recently he’s stepped back onstage. This time he’s had the chance to incorporate knowledge he’s gained from being a reporter. The Eyewitness Blues Band, Sovern’s current musical endeavor, is composed entirely of broadcast journalists.

Together they take popular songs and write parodies about politics and current events.

“We have one about the presidential race called ‘I Still Haven’t Found Who I’m Voting For,’ ” he said.

Sovern’s journalism career has allowed him to explore his interest in politics, which consistently plays a role in his reporting. “Right now I’m focusing very much on the presidential election,” he said, adding that it’s his “primary beat” for the next year and a half.

KCBS has even set up a special Web site devoted entirely to election coverage called “Sovern Nation.” The site features podcasts, video reporting, polls, trivia and a blog to which Sovern contributes regularly.

Sovern first became involved in politics at age 7, when he volunteered in a congressional race for a neighborhood activist in his town.

He volunteered again when he was 12, this time for the New York City mayor’s race. “I’ve always been really interested in politics,” he said.

Though a history concentrator, Sovern said he took several courses in the political science department while at Brown. He recalled a specific occasion when Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., visited one of his political science classes and spoke with students for hours, staying long after the class ended to answer all of their questions.

Sovern said he interviewed Biden recently as part of his coverage of the 2008 elections and was shocked to discover that Biden remembered the visit quite vividly when Sovern mentioned it after the interview. “He remembered it because it was the only time he’d been to Brown. He remembered that there was a protest going on on the Main Green,” Sovern said.

Though reporting on politics occupies much of Sovern’s time, in his 17 years at KCBS he has also been able to delve deeper into his passion for the outdoors. An avid bicyclist, Sovern has ridden across Tanzania from the Indian Ocean to Mount Kilimanjaro as well as through Alaska.

These adventures have offered compelling journalistic opportunities for Sovern. “Anytime I do something like this, I cover it,” he said. During his Mount Everest expedition in 2000, Sovern did live reports for KCBS via satellite.

Sovern said he’s always loved the outdoors and even recalled that this was the general topic of his admissions essay for Brown. For KCBS, he has covered the Tour de France three times, and future opportunities for this type of reporting abound. “I think I’m going to cover the Olympics in Bejing,” he said.

Sovern said he’s been able to take a more creative approach to content and reporting because KCBS gives him “a lot of leeway.” Even in the early stages of his employment at KCBS, he demonstrated initiative. “I was able to come up with my own things and execute them, and (the station) noticed.”

Those responsible for assigning stories sometimes struggle to think of enough original material, so Sovern said they appreciate ambition. “You want all the input you can get,” he said. “I would say that for about 50 percent of my stories, I come in and say, ‘Hey, why don’t I do something about this?’ ” Because of his willingness to come up with creative story ideas, Sovern said the station has offered him increasing freedom to explore less conventional reporting over the years.

“It’s a cliche to say, ‘think outside the box,’ but that’s what you have to do,” he said. “Take the time to dig a little deeper.”

Sovern said concepts he learned in his courses at Brown have facilitated his ability to be an effective journalist. “It’s really important to have a broad base of knowledge,” he said, citing the significance of history, political science and economics, in particular. Formal training in journalism can be helpful, but that alone is not enough. “It’s good to have the tools, but you need the knowledge to go with it.”

Sovern recently renewed his contract with KCBS, signing on for another three years, but he says he’s “always been a writer” and has considered taking some time off to write a book. Sovern said he is also interested in exploring other media, having already studied filmmaking and written a few screenplays.

But as of now, Sovern said his next major life-change will probably be starting a family with his girlfriend, whom he plans to marry in the near future.

attempts. By utilizing regression analysis, a common technique in economics, the model effectively determines the relative weight of each statistic on generating wins.

A May 29, 2006, review of “The Wages of Wins” by Malcolm Gladwell examines two controversial points that the authors make.

First, according to the Wages of Wins method, through the 2005-2006 NBA season, Allen Iverson was only the 116th best player in the league on average during his career. In fact, in his MVP season in 2000-2001, 90 players created more wins for their teams than The Answer, an eight-time All-Star.

Shocking? Absolutely. Even more shocking is when the authors argue that energy player Jerome Williams, who averaged 6.6 points per game during his career, was once among the best forwards in

the game.

“The Wages of Wins” provides stunning insight into Nash’s two aforementioned MVP seasons. He was responsible for fewer wins on average — 18.6 — than fellow point guard Jason Kidd (23.7), and far fewer than Kevin Garnett (26), who has generated the most wins in the NBA in five of the last six seasons.

The basic premise of “The Wages of Wins,” according to its authors, is that statistics are often interpreted incorrectly. It seems that intellectually lazy sports analysts continue to refer to Kobe Bryant as the best player in the world when Luol Deng, the 22-year-old forward the Lakers asked the Chicago Bulls for while in trade talks about Kobe, was worth more wins last season (14.9) than Bryant in his 2005-06 campaign (14.3).

Here’s the simplistic model that sports columnist Bill Simmons offered in his column bashing the

Wages of Wins system: “Just add up the point, rebound and assist averages for franchise guys during the playoffs: If the number tops 42, you’re probably talking about a pantheon guy.”

Basketball is a complex game that many, including myself, love and dedicate countless hours to watching, reading and thinking about, and it’s extremely hard to come to a unanimous conclusion on which player is most valuable.

That said, using these types of statistical comparisons can help fans make better informed decisions on these topics. I’m not so sure that Jerome Williams was a superstar, but maybe it’s time the people who get paid to cover basketball embrace a new, more scientific and less subjective way of thinking.

Tom Trudeau ’09 generates more wins than Eddy Curry.

W. icers adjust after weekend road trip continued from page 12 penalties at 8:41 and 9:50 produced a 5-on-3 advantage. Colgate’s Elin Brown opened the scoring at 10:14 on a feed from Sam Hunt. The Raiders struck again 16 seconds later when Kara Leene found the back of the net, after Stock turned aside two previous shots.

“It’s a real downfall for a team that can make or break you,” Stock said of the double whammy. “I think we responded well by working hard and getting a goal of our own in the second period to make it 2-1. But power plays will kill you, and penalty killing isn’t our strong suit this year.”

The Bears answered in the second period after pushing the puck up the ice on the penalty kill. After Colgate goalie Lisa Plenderleith stopped a shot by Kath Surbey ’10, Frances Male ’09 knocked in the rebound to cut the deficit to one goal. But the Raiders sealed the victory with two goals less than two minutes apart in the third period.

Hannah Milan scored Colgate’s third power play goal of the game at 5:10, and Laura Jansen completed the scoring by firing a shot through Stock’s five-hole.

Brown improved markedly against Cornell in the second game of the weekend, as they had the week before facing the University of Connecticut after a tough game

against Yale.

“The kids are willing to work through their struggles to improve every game,” Murphy said. “Every (time), we get better on the second game of the weekend. That’s a testament to our kids’ ability to listen and adjust, (rather than) just losing and getting down on themselves.”

Brown opened the scoring with its first power-play goal of the year. Captain Hayley Moore ’08 notched her first goal of the season at 9:58 in the first period on assists from Nicole Brown ’10 and Erica Kromm ’11.

Cornell struck back to tie the score with 37 seconds left in the first period on Amber Overguard’s goal, but Brown did not take long to answer. Erin Connors ’10 scored 2:02 in the second period after Stock unleashed a long pass to Sasha Van Muyen ’10 for her second career assist. The score remained 2-1 until the final minute of regulation, when Samantha Stortini ’11 drew a penalty for hitting after the whistle.

Stock made 27 saves against Colgate and tied her career high with 45 against Cornell.

“She’s been very steady,” Murphy said of Stock. “She has kept us in games with some key saves. I think that her play is indicative of a Division I starting goalie.”

The Bears know they have to

improve before two tough ECAC opponents visit Meehan Auditorium this weekend. Brown plays No. 9 Dartmouth on Friday at 7 p.m. and No. 7 Harvard on Saturday at 4 p.m.

“I think we need to tighten our defensive zone and do a better (job of) coverage in front of the net,” Murphy said. “And we need to put the pucks in the net. It’s very simple: We’ve got to score more goals. We have a young defense and we’re going to give up a couple (goals) a game.”

Murphy said giving the younger players a chance to play was a good growing experience, but the team will benefit from the return of two seniors. Rylee Olewinski ’08 returned from injuries to make her debut against Colgate, while Emilie Bydwell ’08 will join the team this week after playing on the women’s rugby team, which won the Northeast Rugby Union Championships on Sunday.

Stock said staying in control and maintaining an attacking style were the keys to victory.

“I think our biggest (problem) now is putting ourselves in the penalty box,” she said. The players need to “stay disciplined, and play how we played against Cornell, fast. (If we) keep the pace up and get more shots on net, then we’ll be ready to take on Dartmouth and Harvard this weekend.”

W. ruggers are comfortable at the top continued from page 12

thanks for reading

semifinals, and then Army, 10-0 in the finals.

Bydwell called the Bears’ recent successes “the culmination of coaches and players working really hard the past four or five years,” and that hard work will continue as Brown prepares for the spring.

“We have a few months before our spring season star ts, and I think the first thing we’re going to do is take a break,” Sylvester said. “We’re all pretty beat up and sore, and it will be great to take a little time and get healthy again. After that, we’ll start back on lifting

routines and indoor fitness.”

Bydwell said it will be important for the Bears to start competing again early in the spring semester because the West Coast teams they may face at Nationals have a different schedule of play. Whereas the Bears compete during the fall semester, the West Coast season begins in November and continues until Nationals.

“There is no doubt in my mind that we can be a final four team this year,” Carlson said. “We will get there by dedicating ourselves in the spring to fitness, to improving our tackling and to continue working on our modes of attack.”

W orld & n ation WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2007

page 7

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

State Department softens on diplomatic Iraq assignments Chlamydia rate hits all-time high

By Paul Richter Los Angeles T imes

By Delthia Ricks Newsday

MELVILLE, N.Y. — Cases of chlamydia soared past 1 million last year in the United States, marking the first time the country has seen such a large incidence, with the highest rates of increase among young adolescent girls, federal health experts reported Tuesday.

Not only did chlamydia cases reach a sobering milestone — 1,030,911 cases nationwide — researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta said the infection accounted for the most cases ever reported for a sexually transmitted disease of any kind. By comparison, 976,000 cases were reported in 2005.

Public health experts partially blamed faltering public health campaigns and a general failure among physicians to test patients for chlamydia as well as other bacterial infections that are transmitted sexually. About 19 million sexually transmitted diseases, commonly called STDs, of all kinds were recorded last year, half occurring among people between the ages of 15 and 24.

The spread of chlamydia is of concern, public health officials say, because it is a silent infection with few obvious symptoms in its initial stages. Chlamydia can lead to pelvic inflammatory disease and infertility. Scores of cases, experts say, are likely going undiagnosed.

“We have reason to believe that chlamydia is dramatically underreported,” said Dr. John Douglas, director of STD prevention at the CDC. Though Douglas and his colleagues estimate about 348 cases of chlamydia per 100,000 people in the population, he says government figures are probably off the mark and the actual number of new chlamydia cases last year was probably in the neighborhood of 2.8 million.

Based on the new data, CDC researchers who examined the number of sexually transmitted diseases other than HIV last year estimated the cost in 2006 for treating STDs was $15 billion.

Estimates were up slightly for syphilis and gonorrhea, and experts say there is evidence of a gonorrhea superstrain that repels several powerful antibiotics. The increase in syphilis was largely seen among men who have sex with men. All told, 9,756 cases of the infection were recorded last year, an increase of 13.8 percent from 2005. The number of gonorrhea cases reached 358,366 last year, up 5.5 percent. Incidence of the disease had begun to increase in 2005, after a 74 percent drop between 1975 and 1997.

With respect to chlamydia, rates were eight times higher for blacks than for whites, and 18 times higher for gonorrhea.

“I don’t think the message is that the forest is burning and that a huge epidemic is out of control,” said Dr. Stuart Berman, also of the CDC. But he pointed out that STDs represent a hidden epidemic and that most people are unaware of the number of STDs circulating.

WASHINGTON — Top State Department officials, struggling to avoid an embarrassing showdown with their own foreign ser vice, backed away Tuesday from threats to fire diplomats who refused to accept postings in Iraq.

Trying to calm a furor that has spilled into public view, senior officials extended a deadline and said they wouldn’t issue any forced assignments at least until the end of the week. They said they hoped to find volunteers for most or all of the 23 unfilled jobs before then.

“We certainly will continue to accept volunteers ... to step forward to fill those jobs,” said Tom Casey, a State Department spokesman, noting that 12 volunteers had come forward in the past few days.

He added, however, that there remained a chance that “a very small number” could be ordered to take jobs in the strife-torn country.

U.S. officials have worked hard

to fill jobs at the Baghdad embassy and its satellite offices. The problem grew to crisis in October when it became apparent that there were no volunteers for 48 slots for the 250-job rotation cycle that is set to begin next summer.

The State Depar tment has not resorted to using “directed,” or forced, assignments since the Vietnam War, and officials confidently have predicted since 2003 that they would continue to be able to avoid them.

But the looming shortfall forced senior officials to warn that this time was different, provoking an outcry from many diplomats. At a staff meeting Oct. 31 at the State Department, one employee complained that a forced tour in Iraq was a “death sentence.”

The unwillingness of the diplomats to serve in Baghdad has been an embarrassment to the administration, coming at a time when the White House contends that violence in Iraq is on the decline.

It also plays into accusations

Govt. employee accesses restricted Hezbollah files

By Joby Warrick and Dan Eggen Washington Post

WASHINGTON — A Lebanese national who fraudulently gained U.S. citizenship through a sham marriage managed to obtain sensitive jobs at both the FBI and CIA, and at one point used her security clearance to access restricted files about the terrorist group Hezbollah, according to court documents filed Tuesday.

U.S. officials say there is no evidence that Nada Nadim Prouty, passed secrets to Hezbollah or other terrorist groups. But the woman’s ability to conceal her past from two of the nation’s top anti-terrorism agencies raised new concerns about the agencies’ vulnerability to infiltration.

“It is hard to imagine a greater threat than the situation where a foreign national uses fraud to attain citizenship and then, based on that fraud, insinuates herself into a sensitive position in the U.S. government,” said U.S. Attorney Stephen Murphy in a statement announcing a plea agreement with Prouty.

Prouty, who lives in Vienna, Va., and has worked for the CIA since 2003, pleaded guilty in federal court to charges of conspiracy, naturalization fraud and unauthorized computer access. In addition to losing her CIA job, she has agreed to forfeit her U.S. citizenship and to face additional penalties, possibly including fines and a prison term.

Prouty came to the United States as a college student and paid an unemployed acquaintance to enter into a false marriage in 1990

so she could gain U.S. citizenship, according to the court documents.

She then got a job as an FBI special agent in 1999, gaining a security clearance and a post with the bureau’s Washington Field Office investigating overseas crimes.

While working at the FBI in 2000, she accessed restricted FBI computer files on Hezbollah, according to the court documents, apparently to see whether family members had been linked to the Lebanon-based terrorist group.

Prouty also improperly took unspecified classified documents home with her, according to her plea agreement. Justice officials said there is no indication the classified records were shared with others.

In June 2003, she left the FBI to join the CIA’s operations division, accepting what was described as a mid-level position that would have included multiple security clearances and the ability to work undercover.

FBI spokesman Stephen Kodak said Prouty underwent a full background investigation before she was hired as an FBI special agent, including inter views with her current and former husband and with family and friends in Lebanon. Prouty also passed an FBI polygraph test with “no deception noted,” Kodak said.

“These are some of the challenges that we have to realistically face when we’re out there trying to hire so many people, especially those who have foreign language backgrounds or who weren’t born in this country,” Kodak said.

from Pentagon officials that their pin-striped counterparts have not been willing to accept enough of the heavy lifting in the five-yearold war.

The dispute also has stirred acrimony within the foreign service itself.

Last week, a foreign service officer based in al-Anbar province posted a letter on the State Department’s diplomatic Web site, “Dipnote,” as a reminder to his “overwrought” colleagues: “All of us volunteered for this kind of work and we have enjoyed a pretty sweet lifestyle most of our careers.”

The officer, John Matel, wrote that he told Marine friends that foreign service officers “are not wimps and weenies.”

“I will not share this article with them and I hope they do not see it,” he wrote. “How could I explain this wailing and gnashing of teeth?”

Matel’s posting generated 55 pages of comment, some of which had foreign service officers pointing out that the State Department

usually shuttered embassies in environments as violent as Iraq.

“I think very few diplomats ever thought they could be forced into such an environment,” wrote “Fred in Thailand.”

“This is a draft, nothing more and nothing less,” he wrote.

The department’s leaders have been unimpressed by such arguments. Ryan Crocker, U.S. ambassador to Iraq, told reporters last week that diplomats who put their own safety over their duties were “in the wrong line of business.”

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice declared that “people need to serve where they are needed.” She made the point in a diplomatic cable sent worldwide Nov. 2.

Of 11,500 U.S. foreign service officers, about 1,500 have served in Iraq, which has the world’s largest U.S. embassy, in the city’s fortified “Green Zone.” Since the war began, three foreign service officers — two diplomatic security agents and a political officer — have been killed in Iraq.

Myanmar regime to talk

By Maggie Farley Los Angeles T imes

UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. envoy to Myanmar told the Security Council on Tuesday that the country’s military regime has bowed slightly to international pressure to talk to its opposition but still holds tight to power.

The Security Council, in turn, is divided on whether sanctions or more dialogue would best move the Southeast Asian nation to improve human rights and poor living conditions that are the source of domestic dissent. China and others insist that Myanmar’s conflict is an internal matter and not the council’s business.

The United States, Britain and France said engagement should be balanced with penalties if Myanmar continues to defy the council’s demand to release and meet with opponents.

“A process for process’ sake will not be acceptable,” said U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad.

U.N. envoy Ibrahim Gambari said that leaders in Southeast Asia told him that sanctions against Myanmar would be counterproductive, but that its neighbors would provide humanitarian and economic support to improve conditions while the country grapples with a plan for more democracy.

Dialogue with the opposition “is the only way forward for Myanmar,” Gambari said, and “will require time, patience and persistence.”

In his report, Gambari stressed the positive side of his second visit to Myanmar, also known as Burma, since the regime’s crackdown on peaceful demonstrations in Sep-

tember and October.

As a result of his talks with senior leaders, the government allowed the country’s most prominent pro-democracy leader, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, to make a public statement and meet with leaders of her party for the first time since she was put under house arrest in 2003. Friday, Suu Kyi and three colleagues from her National League for Democracy held preliminary discussions with a government official to prepare for direct negotiations with the regime.

Gambari also said the government consented to a visit by U.N. human-rights envoy Paolo Sergio Pinheiro for the first time in four years and promised to end political arrests and release monks and demonstrators detained in recent protests. Pinheiro arrived in Yangon, the Myanmar capital, on Monday.

However, those steps were countered by defiant moves, signaling the regime will not tolerate challenges from inside or outside.

On the eve of Gambari’s visit, the military regime expelled the top U.N. official in the country, Charles Petrie, for his public criticisms of the government. Myanmar’s leader, Than Shwe, refused to meet Gambari and rejected requests to release Suu Kyi, who has been under detention for 12 of the past 18 years.

Despite pledges to end arrests, the government Tuesday detained a labor activist, Su Su Nway, and student Bo Bo Win Hlaing. During Gambari’s visit last week, authorities also arrested U Gambira, a leader of an alliance of monks.

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Athletes pump iron to fight cancer continued from page 12 Estes said the event was consistent with the team’s desire to give back to the community.

“Community ser vice is something we do all the time,” Estes said. “This football team is always about doing things for the community and giving back.”

The football team was eager to participate in an event to raise money for cancer research, Estes said, given the way the program has been affected by the disease. In January of 2005, offensive lineman and tri-captain Lawrence Rubida ’05 passed away from Ewing’s sarcoma, a type of bone cancer.

Others who finished near the top of the leaderboard included linebacker Andrew Serrano ’11 and lacrosse player Reade Seligmann ’09, who both finished with 40.

Seligmann, who transferred from Duke this year, was one of eight lacrosse players who participated.

Linebacker Frank Nuzzo ’09 emceed the event, drawing numerous laughs from the crowd. When fifth-year senior Tyler Rowley ’08 pressed 25 Nuzzo obser ved that he “got to his age.”

“It was a lot of fun (to emcee) and it’s a real good cause,” Nuzzo said.

Staffier said she got the idea for the fundraiser from a friend who ran a similar event at Davidson College. After getting approval from the administration and coordinating with the athletic department for weeks, she felt the project was ver y rewarding.

“It was a lot of work but ever yone did a great job getting pledges and I’m definitely happy with the way it’s worked out,” she said.

LGBTQ center for Georgetown continued from page 3 The president was careful to keep religion in the discussion, declaring his intent not to “compromise the integrity of our mission and identity,” he told the forum. He continued, “At the same time, at the heart of the Catholic tradition we find resources that profoundly support our work for LGBTQ students.

I am referring, for example, to the Catholic insistence on the dignity and worth of each and every individual, the emphasis on social justice and multicultural understanding and the Gospel call that we engage all of our sisters and brothers in a spirit of love.”

Chitayat applauded his actions, saying, “The university has made a huge step. ... as a Catholic school, to commit to a resources center for LGBTQ. Harassing people and marginalizing individuals because of their identity is not okay. It makes a big statement.”

When asked if she noticed backlash from the decision, Chitayat said it would be more likely to come from alumni than students. “I’m sure the president has been getting tons of e-mails from alumni,” she said. “GU Pride and myself and have gotten a few pieces of hate mail.”

Page 9

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Community council considers the designated supplier program continued from page 1 recommendation next month. Her sentiments met with applause from the 20 or 30 sign-bearing members of the Student Labor Alliance in attendance.

Simmons’ remarks followed a presentation from the working group members Sarah AdlerMilstein ’08, Katie Parella ’07 and Vice President for Administration Walter Hunter. Thirty-eight schools nationwide have pledged some degree of support for the program, Parella told the council, but Brown is not among them.

The BUCC — an advisory board designed to provide a forum for various campus constituencies to consider issues facing the University — also briefly discussed the reassessment of the Plan for Academic Enrichment and a student’s concerns about the potential destruction or relocation of the Urban Environmental Laboratory.

But the DSP debate dominated the agenda. Hunter, Adler-Milstein and Parella first briefed the council on the national debate surrounding the DSP, and SLA representatives Susan Beaty ’10 and Dani Martinez ’10 urged the council to recommend the University throw its support behind the program.

The DSP is designed as a collaborative effort among U.S. colleges and universities to better ensure that school apparel is manufactured in factories that uphold certain standards, including adhering to a code of conduct that prohibits abuse, overwork and other labor violations; paying workers a “living wage” to cover family costs associated with food, clothing and education; and giving workers the freedom to unionize, Adler-Milstein told the council.

It is “pretty widely accepted” that current oversight models for labor practices among apparel suppliers are inadequate, AdlerMilstein said. Currently, “factories who do the right thing and prioritize compliance with these models are the first to close,” and there is “a lack of incentives for positive change in the industry,” she added.

The DSP is designed to provide those active incentives, she said.

The 38 current signed supporters of the program have committed to various degrees, Hunter told the council, and Parella said 90 percent of the nation’s largest schools have not signed on — including none of the ten largest.

Adler-Milstein and Parella also presented the central questions in the current debate surrounding the likely effectiveness and advisability of the program, voicing the viewpoints of both critics and supporters on each point.

These issues of contention, they said, included the DSP’s requirement that licensed apparel companies adhere to “fair pricing standards” to ensure factories have the resources to uphold new requirements, a stipulation that approved factories must produce a majority of their products for the collegiate market and the likely ef-

fect on consumer prices. Supporters believe prices will only rise by 1 to 3 percent and have little effect on demand, Adler-Milstein said, while Parella said critics indicate price increases and demand effects will be significantly greater.

Another question, on which the national movement is awaiting an opinion from the Department of Justice, is whether the program violates federal anti-trust legislation, Adler-Milstein and Parella said.

Any opinion from the Department of Justice would be expected in “Januar y, Februar y, early spring,” Parella said.

Upon concluding their presentation, Hunter, Adler-Milstein and Parella yielded time to Martinez and Beaty to explain that group’s support for the program.

They said that “grim conditions” in factories have produced a “desperate need” for such a program, and that contrary to critics’ concerns, the DSP represents an “enforceable and sustainable” solution to those problems. They urged the BUCC to recommend Brown support the program.

Discussion among committee members initially focused on the question of legality, and Hunter said the working group did not plan to ask the BUCC to weigh in on the debate until the program’s legality had been addressed at the national level. But Simmons said that focus seemed ill-placed — and a concern best left to the University’s lawyers.

“On the moral issue,” Simmons said, “I would think we would want to comment on that and let the people who worry about (legal issues) worry about that.”

That drew statements of support from some council members, including Geoffrey Greene, associate director for database and production services at Computing and Information Services.

“I think it’s a good program, and we should support it,” Greene said. “If people are being abused as workers in these factories, I think we should go for it.”

Clay Wertheimer ’10, also a council member, agreed. If Brown has concerns about the DSP as it is currently envisioned, he said, “the best way to solve that problem is to be involved sooner with the working group rather than later.”

(Not yet having signed on to the DSP, the presenters told the council, Brown sends representation to meetings of the national DSP working group, but to observe and not to actively participate.)

Simmons concluded the discussion by urging Hunter, AdlerMilstein and Parella to have the working group come to some conclusions about “what our role should be” in the DSP movement, then “try to come back with some statement and not wait until February.”

Simmons said she was “ver y impressed with the presentation and the depth of knowledge” the group displayed and that “all of that, brought to bear, should be able to produce something that we can hang our hats on.”

www.browndailyherald.com

The committee also heard from Sarah Clark ’08.5, an environmental sciences concentrator who expressed concern about the recent decision by the University to build the new Mind Brain Behavior Building on the current site of the Urban Environmental Lab, an old converted carriage house that currently houses the Center for Environmental Studies.

In addition to being “proud” of the hands-on student involvement that converted the building into one of the campus’ most energy efficient, Clark said, she was concerned that there is not input from students, especially those whose departments are affected, about building decisions.

Simmons, Provost David Kertzer ’69 P’95 P’98, and Richard Spies, executive vice president for planning and senior adviser to the president, sympathized with the student’s concerns.

“The problem is also that there are particular groups that probably need to be brought into the discussion on particular sites,” Simmons said, adding that the handling of the UEL decision was unfortunate because it was a surprise for the students affected. “The idea of having much more student involvement in this process is a good one.”

With the meeting’s scheduled end time rapidly approaching, Spies provided an accelerated summary of the first five years of the Plan for Academic Enrichment, Simmons’ wide-ranging blueprint for raising the University’s academic profile.

Under the plan, which was first laid out in 2002 and officially approved in 2004, Brown has significantly expanded the size of its faculty, introduced a need-blind admission policy and embarked on an aggressive spate of building projects.

The BUCC presentation was part of an ongoing effort to collect feedback from standing University advisory committees, with the goal of presenting the reassessment’s findings to the Corporation at its meeting in February.

One question Spies posed was whether the University had missed “something big” in its origi-

nal plans. Simmons was the first to offer an example, saying that after returning from a summit of university presidents on the issue, she believed climate change would command the University’s attention in coming years.

“In this area we might be welladvised to put more energy — if I may use that term — behind this effort, because it’s taken hold in a much deeper way than I think we know,” Simmons said, her inadvertent pun drawing laughs.

“I second that as something that the student body has tremendous support for,” said Undergraduate Council of Students President Michael Glassman ’09, a council member who is also active in student environmental group emPOWER. Council member David Bloom ’71 suggested that in the future the plan might allow alums to take “a more formative role” than simply providing donations to fund it.

Michael Chapman, vice president for public affairs and University relations and a member of the council, asked whether there was a fixed end date by which the University could assess whether specific actions of the plan had been completed. The question drew an enthusiastic response from Simmons and Spies.

Spies said the University took “the direct opposite approach” and emphasized the process the plan represents, which the current reassessment exemplified.

“Any specific plan has a useful life, but the planning process ... shouldn’t change, at least not quickly,” Spies said. “What we should be doing is taking moments like these and extending the plan out.”

Simmons agreed, saying the plan was most valuable because it was “open,” and created bodies like the BUCC itself to “invite comment” on University priorities. The real point of the plan is to ingrain an effective deliberative process that would survive into future generations of University leadership, she said.

Out of time, the council postponed a planned presentation from the Transportation and Parking Task Force.

E ditorial & L etters Page 10

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Staf f Editorial

DeGioia’s bold stance Though the Catholic church says that it advocates for and welcomes all people, homosexuals’ place in the church is unmistakably clear: homosexual relationships do not adhere to the church’s teachings. In more recent years, the church has tried to establish guidelines for treatment and consideration of homosexuals, but so far has largely adopted an unofficial policy of limited acceptance of individual members of the church “struggling” with their sexuality.

Given this reality and these restrictions, Georgetown President John DeGioia’s support for a resource center for the university’s lesbian, bisexual, gay, transgender and questioning community is surprising and praiseworthy. As the head of a Jesuit institution — perhaps the most visible Catholic university in America — DeGioia knew his actions would carry immense weight in both the LGBTQ community and the Catholic community. DeGioia must have foreseen that deciding to back a resource center and committee designed to benefit Georgetown’s LGBTQ population would upset some Catholics, and maybe even some Georgetown alums and potential donors. But in spite of this, DeGioia spoke out strongly on behalf of the LGBTQ community.

DeGioia’s decision hopefully sends a message to the church and to many Catholics who might initially oppose Georgetown’s plan: America’s institutions of higher education should welcome all denominations and sexual orientations — regardless of whether their histories are rooted in one religion or race. As they offer support to countless other subgroups on their campuses, colleges should also offer support centers and programs to all students regardless of sexual orientation.

Just a few short years ago, in the spring of 2004, two students, Isaac Rodriguez ’04 and Joel Madrid ’05, alleged that they were victims of a hate crime and that the University’s response in punishing their attackers was lacking. Much like what happened at Georgetown this fall, protests sprung up as students rallied around the Main Green and a coalition took shape in response to the incidents. Yet little progress was made. Just four short years later, the group that formed in response to these issues, Action for Safety, is not only non-existent but virtually unheard of among current students.

The responsibility of combating this reality — that hate-motivated acts still happen, even on college campuses — rests in part on the shoulders of students. As the protestors at Georgetown proved, motivated students can produce tangible progress for the LGBTQ community, or any other campus constituency. But some responsibility still rests with university administrators. In the case of Georgetown, DeGioia might have merely voiced support for the LGBTQ community without initiating any major long-term projects. Instead, he confronted the position widely adopted by the Catholic church with which his own university is affiliated. Though it may be obvious, DeGioia’s example is an important one if American universities are to accept — and support — students unconditionally.

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

Executive Editors Stephen Colelli Allison Kwong Ben Leubsdorf

Senior Editors Jonathan Sidhu Anne Wootton

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

Arts & Culture Editor Arts & Culture Editor Campus Watch Editor Features Editor Metro Editor Metro Editor News Editor Opinions Editor Opinions Editor Sports Editor Sports Editor Sports Editor Asst. Sports Editor Asst. Sports Editor Asst. Sports Editor

photo Christopher Bennett Rahul Keerthi Ashley Hess

Photo Editor Photo Editor Sports Photo Editor

Business Mandeep Gill General Manager Darren Ball Executive Manager Dan DeNorch Executive Manager Laurie-Ann Paliotti Sr. Advertising Manager Susan Dansereau Office Manager production Steve DeLucia Catherine Cullen Roxanne Palmer

Design Editor Copy Desk Chief Graphics Editor

post- magazine Hillary Dixler Melanie Duch Taryn Martinez Rajiv Jayadevan Sonia Kim Matt Hill Arthur Matuszewski

Managing Editor Managing Editor Managing Editor Features Editor Features Editor Associate Editor Associate Editor

Steve DeLucia, Designer Fariha Ali, Ayelet Brinn, Ted Lamm, Ben Mercer, Copy Editors Michael Bechek, Isabel Gottlieb, Scott Lowenstein, Night Editors Senior Staff Writers Rachel Arndt, Michael Bechek, Irene Chen, Chaz Firestone, Isabel Gottlieb, Nandini Jayakrishna, Franklin Kanin, Kristina Kelleher, Debbie Lehmann, Scott Lowenstein, Michael Skocpol, Nick Werle Staff Writers Stefanie Angstadt, Amanda Bauer, Brianna Barzola, Evan Boggs, Caitlin Browne, Sam Byker, Zachary Chapman, Joy Chua, Patrick Corey, Catherine Goldberg, Olivia Hoffman, Chaz Kelsh, Jessica Kerry, Sophia Lambertson, Cameron Lee, Sophia Li, Emmy Liss, Christian Martell, Taryn Martinez, George Miller, Anna Millman, Evan Pelz, Sonia Saraiya, Andrea Savdie, Marielle Segarra, Gaurie Tilak, Simon van Zuylen-Wood, Matt Varley, Meha Verghese, Joanna Wohlmuth Sports Staff Writers Andrew Braca, Whitney Clarke, Han Cui, Evan Kantor, Christina Stubbe Business Staff Diogo Alves, Emilie Aries, Beth Berger, Steven Butschi, Timothy Carey, Jilyn Chao, Ellen DaSilva, Pete Drinan, Dana Feuchtbaum, Patrick Free, Sarah Glick, Alexander Hughes, Claire Kiely, Soobin Kim, Katelyn Koh, Darren Kong, Christie Liu, Philip Maynard, Ingrid Pangandoyon, Mariya Perelyubskaya, Viseth San, Paolo Servado, Kaustubh Shah, Saira Shervani, Yelena Shteynberg, Jon Spector, Robert Stefani, Lily Tran, Hari Tyagi, Lindsay Walls, Benjamin Xiong Design Staff Brianna Barzola, Chaz Kelsh,Ting Lawrence, Philip Maynard, Alex Unger, Aditya Voleti, Wudan Yan Photo Staff Oona Curley, Alex DePaoli, Austin Freeman, Emmy Liss, Meara Sharma, Tai Ho Shin, Min Wu Copy Editors Ayelet Brinn, Rafael Chaiken, Erin Cummings, Katie Delaney, Jake Frank, Jennifer Grayson, Ted Lamm, Max Mankin, Alex Mazerov, Ben Mercer, Ezra Miller, Seth Motel, Alexander Rosenberg, Emily Sanford, Sara Slama, Jenna Stark, Laura Straub, Meha Verghese, Elena Weissman

alexander gard - murray

Letters Conservative voices underrepresented at Brown To the Editor: I would like to thank you for the publicity afforded Brown conservatives by your perennial “rediscovery” of Republicans on Brown’s campus (“Republicans live here, too,” Nov. 8). It seems to make good copy whenever this species is sighted in the wild, although coverage rarely seems to advance past the astonishing detection of our presence, and sometimes, if we’re really lucky, some insipid socio-psychological analysis of this stunning phenomenon. I suppose we should at least be grateful that, unlike Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the academic mainstream does in fact acknowledge the existence of its social inferiors.

The plain fact that conservative ideas are still alien territory to a majority of Brown students should say more about the University than it does about us. Conservative intellectuals are nowhere close to getting equal time with many of the political hacks who currently populate course reading lists. In the meantime, students who actually want a truly liberal education can begin to get noticed only by

standing up — loudly and repeatedly — and advancing conservative arguments.

You say that “Honk to bomb Iran” is not a substantive political message. I agree. Neither is “Honk to end the war,” though such moral exhibitionism is either given a free pass or, more often, lauded as an example of good citizenship, proof that one is engaged in “understanding the issues” and “effecting change.” One benefit to being a conservative at Brown is that our perspective enables us to recognize this brand of emotionalist politics for what it really is. Claiming the unexamined virtues of democracy and diversity is unfortunately the culmination of argument for the flaccid, conformist and sclerotic intellectual culture that currently dominates both inside and outside the classroom. Conservatives stand ready to contribute, when called upon, to the restoration of the University as a repository of our priceless cultural treasures.

Christopher McAuliffe ’05 Director, Foundation for Intellectual Diversity Nov. 8

Wiccans are welcome To the Editor: I enjoyed your article about students who practice Wicca and other pagan spiritual traditions (“Campus Wiccans spell out their beliefs,” Nov. 9).

As a member of First Unitarian Church, which is located at the corner of Benefit and Benevolent Streets just down the hill from your campus, I would like to extend a warm welcome to all of the Brown community to visit us for a Sunday service or one of our many programs.

We are a church that includes many philosophies and faiths, bound together by a common ethic of respect for other human beings and the earth who sustains us.

We have wonderful, challenging talks on Sunday, and coffee hour after the service. See you there.

Nancy Green Nov. 13

A clarification from the chaplain To the Editor: I am reading with interest The Herald’s coverage of campus religious and spiritual life. However, a clarification may be useful.

In our service within a community as spiritually diverse as the Brown family, the chaplains are privileged “to participate in” ceremonies and “to provide hospitality for” many traditions. We accord respect for

the leaders, customs, and long traditions “that preside” in these moments and would never want to presume to do so ourselves.

The Reverend Janet Cooper Nelson Chaplain of the University Director of the Office of the Chaplains and Religious Life Nov. 9

C O R R E C T I O N S P olicy The Brown Daily Herald is committed to providing the Brown University community with the most accurate information possible. Corrections may be submitted up to seven calendar days after publication.

C ommentary P O L I C Y The staff editorial is the majority opinion of the editorial board of The Brown Daily Herald. The editorial viewpoint does not necessarily reflect the views of The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. Columns, letters and comics reflect the opinions of their authors only.

L etters to the E ditor P olicy Send letters to letters@browndailyherald.com. Include a telephone number with all letters. The Herald reserves the right to edit all letters for length and cannot assure the publication of any letter. Please limit letters to 250 words. Under special circumstances writers may request anonymity, but no letter will be printed if the author’s identity is unknown to the editors. Announcements of events will not be printed. advertising P olicy The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. reserves the right to accept or decline any advertisement at its discretion.

O pinions Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Why universal health care is an empty promise BORIS RYVKIN Opinions Columnist

Americans are again debating health care.

According to 2005 Kaiser Foundation estimations, costs have grown at roughly 7 percent per year and employer health premiums have gone up 68 percent. As can be expected, supporters of universal health care have become reinvigorated. They not only decry high costs, massive spending rates and the power of insurance companies, but also keep reminding people about the roughly 45 million Americans without any insurance at all. Their solution: a restructured and more centralized health system, providing “quality” care for all Americans, and protected from market volatilities.

The supporters of universal health care, however, have got it wrong. They have not only ignored the devastating repercussions of universal care in almost every country where it exists, but have also exaggerated or misrepresented some crucial aspects of the American situation to make their case. Americans must confront this issue, but embrace solutions that promise greater flexibility, confront the data fairly and expand the role of market forces.

One point universal health care proponents have exploited to death is the number of Americans without health insurance. Todd Tavener, a professor at Rockhurst University, is one example. His 2003 paper on universal care proclaimed, “How many is 45 million?

45 million is four times the size of Greece.

45 million is twice the amount of American military veterans. 45 million is 7 million more than those living with HIV, in the world.”

There are good political reasons for presenting the amount so monolithically, since

the emotional effect might dissipate if more people knew who most of the uninsured actually are. According to Manhattan Institute analyst David Gratzer, who reviewed a Blue Cross-Blue Shield analysis of the 2003 Census Bureau data, 49 percent of the uninsured earned more than $50,000 and could afford private coverage. Most of the remainder were eligible for Medicaid and other federal programs. The truly uninsured, who were neither eligible for entitlements nor could afford private care, numbered only 8 million. While by no means small, the figure is nowhere near as catastrophic as universal health care proponents suggest and could be managed without the huge costs of a universal health system. The bottom line: in the vast majority of cases, if someone really wants coverage, he could find a way to get it.

Proponents of universal health care chide America for not catching up to the rest of the industrialized world, which has embraced single-payer systems and massive state intervention. That is funny, since abysmal performance is pushing many developed states to dump or balance the universal care albatross.

Britain, Sweden and Canada provide three powerful examples.

In an article for the British Spectator (Feb. 12, 2005), columnist James Bartholomew put Britain’s National Health Service in perspective. Survival rates in the United States exceed those in Britain by 20 to 40 percent for breast cancer, colon cancer, prostate cancer and heart surgery. “In Britain, 36 per cent of patients have to wait more than four months for non-emergency surgery. In the US, a mere 5 per cent do. American patients also get to see specialists as a matter of routine whereas in Britain 40 per cent of cancer patients, for example, don’t see a cancer consultant. There are shortages of specialists in many areas of medicine in Britain.”

David Hogberg, writing for the National Center for Public Policy Research, took a look at healthcare in Sweden (May 2007).

Not only are costs 9 percent of GDP and rising, but rationing and failure to let underperforming hospitals go out of business have caused serious problems. Waits for treatment often exceed three months, productivity has suffered and specialists are in short supply.

Canada is notorious for its long wait lists, shortages in medical technology (e.g. MRI scanners) and care rationing. In all three states, more citizens want greater access to private insurance and demand serious changes in their national systems.

As can be expected, universal health care proponents have concentrated in the Democratic Party. Those vying for its nomination in 2008 have unveiled a variety of schemes to “cover all Americans,” ranging from Dennis Kucinich, who supports a pure single-payer system, to Hillary Clinton, who accepts some role for private insurance and allows a few isolated tax breaks. Instead of incentivizing employers to pool risks and increase options for workers, even the most moderate Democratic plan “mandates” employers to give employees insurance. No matter your preexisting condition or medical history, the insurance company must accept you and charge “fair” premiums: there goes the incentive for personal responsibility.

As with most policy areas, the solution to America’s health problem lies with more flexibility, decentralization and market power.

One of the best proposals comes from Tom Miller at the CATO Institute. His plan targets the 8 million Americans who truly cannot afford insurance through a limited expansion of government programs, employee tax credits, incentives for employers to cooperatively manage costs and greater interstate competition to attract reliable insurers. State after state is retreating from universal health care and looking to the market. Perhaps we should get with the program.

Guest Columnist I am writing in response to the columns by Eric Demafeliz ‘08.5 (”Taiwanese leader must step away from the brink,” Nov. 6) and Michael Boyce ‘08 (”The closeness of enemies,” Nov. 6) in The Herald.

I write to express my disagreement with Demafeliz’ column and both columns’ approaches to the “situation” in the Taiwan Strait. Both pieces begin with the assumption that there is a potentially dangerous international situation between China and Taiwan and that both countries need to be “come to the table” to prevent an international crisis.

What has not been represented to the international community in Western media — and both Demafeliz and Boyce’s essays illustrate this silence — is the fact that the threat of any military conflict and international crisis over the Taiwan Strait is entirely unilateral, with China as the source. The people of Taiwan have nearly 1,000 warheads (and as far as I know the number keeps increasing) pointed at them about 90 miles away on the other side of the Strait in China. Whatever “comparatively conciliatory” gestures Chinese leaders may make, they pale in comparison to these warheads and the long-term Chinese strategy of isolating Taiwan in the international community.

Demafeliz may be quick to characterize the current Taiwanese administration’s promotion of Taiwan’s status as a formally independent, sovereign nation and the administration’s effort to gain entry into the United Nations as “inflammatory” moves

on the part of the administration, but I must remind readers that these moves are the very expressions of a solid and sound democracy on the island, and they are widely supported by the people who live there and make up the vast citizenry of Taiwan.

While achieving independence is a major aspiration of the current ruling party, the Democratic Progressive Party, the history of the Taiwanese independence movement is intricately bound up with the history of democratization in Taiwan. The movement for Taiwanese independence has no party affiliation, nor does it depend on one single individual or a group of individuals, as the opposition party in Taiwan, the Kuomingtang, often suggests in its very personal attacks on the Taiwanese president, Chen Shui-Bian.

Taiwanese voters may abandon Chen ShuiBian, Taiwanese voters may abandon the Democratic Progressive Party, but Taiwanese voters will never abandon the cause of political independence for Taiwan. Foreign observers need to understand the historical contexts in which democracy movements developed in Taiwan to understand the movement for independence on the island and its basis in Taiwanese people’s peaceful, democratic aspirations.

I am sad to acknowledge that Demafeliz and Boyce’s views may well represent a very typical range of opinions on Taiwan in Western media. However, for the majority of Taiwanese citizens, these views will seem bizarre and reveal Western ignorance about the country — and perhaps, even Western hypocrisy about democracy. Many Taiwanese citizens do not understand why their involvement in the movement for formal independence, an entirely peaceful and democratic expression, should be so shunned by Western

How the writers’ strike will affect us all

BY Salimah Nooruddin Guest Columnist

media and flagged as “inflammatory.” If talking to China and being “conciliatory,” or “noninflammatory” means stifling democracy and the wishes of the Taiwanese people on how they want to organize themselves and their own society, then it is not a wonder that the Taiwanese independence movement thrives on the island and the majority of Taiwanese citizens do not pressure their leaders to “talk to” China.

I urge, in response to Demafeliz and Boyce’s columns, respect for democracy.

The popular support for Taiwan’s formal and political independence is massive on the island. Whatever the current ruling party does to promote independence simply reflects voters’ wishes. The very fact that you see waves and waves of people rallying for Taiwan’s separate identity in recent years shows that this is a grassroots movement from the ground up. Most Taiwanese voters, through successive elections and political rallies, have supported political independence.

The majority of people in Taiwan identify themselves as “Taiwanese” — not Chinese.

Whatever is interpreted as “inflammatory”

by Demafeliz is simply the expression of a popular mandate. And the popular mandate in Taiwan for a lasting separation from an increasingly warlike, hegemonic China is also a demand for lasting peace over the Taiwan Strait. I must say, for many voters in Taiwan, what beautiful expression of a mandate — the people finally, after more than half a century under the Kuomingtang’s one-party rule, have a voice in the Democratic Progressive Party.

I’d like to say that something besides television dictates my weekly schedule, but I’d be lying. Every week I have a schedule. Certain nights I set aside time for television. It gives an opportunity for my friends and me to get together to watch the shows we watch religiously. It is also an opportunity to take some time out in my busy schedule that doesn’t involve school, work, extra-curriculars or finding jobs/applying for graduate school.

These television shows aren’t just opportunities to get engrossed in other people’s lives.

These shows bring people together.

There are cult followings for cer tain shows like “Scrubs” or “The Office.” There are the must-sees like “Gossip Girl” or “Ugly Betty” and “Grey’s Anatomy.” These popular sitcoms have quite the following and make for great small talk. With friends, with teachers, with fellow students, with employers, with everyone. What a great way to break the ice. Why not find out that you have an insanely inappropriate crush on the same character? Or that you both think a certain couple should end their marriage because its blatantly obvious to everyone but them that they just aren’t good for one another?

It’s such a bonding experience.

Right now it’s too early for the writers’ strike to have an effect on these popular sitcoms. (Thank God.) However, those of us who watch late-night television have already seen the effects of the screen writer’s strike. Even people who don’t watch television with a set schedule will the see effects of the writer’s strike soon. The only people immune are reality TV junkies. Reality TV will be everywhere. Sure, there are those of us who only watch sports, but during that down time the only options will be one reality show after another. “Beauty and the Geek” or “So You Think You Can Dance?” Even my friends who watch reality TV like to take the time out to watch a sitcom or two, and those will all be re-runs.

If the writer’s strike lasts long enough even movies will be affected. The entire industry will lose millions of dollars. The last time a strike occurred was 1988, and the strike lasted for nine months, which resulted in a loss of $500 million and an overall drop of television viewership of 22 percent. With this slowdown the entertainment industry will see huge setbacks. People will lose their jobs, students looking to get into the industr y won’t be able to do so and the overall economy will be affected. This battle between the writers and networks is about to get very ugly. There have already been talks of the networks putting the actors under pressure by threatening to fire entire production staffs.

“The Office” has already fired their production staff. This loss in jobs is affecting more people than just the writers. The wages lost by the production staff of most TV shows will not be recovered. They will be just that.

Lost wages.

I am not saying that I do not stand behind the writers in their strike. I completely agree that they have very valid complaints.

The networks can afford to give the writers more for what they do. But if both parties aren’t brought to the bargaining table soon enough, the result will be a not-so-cheerful holiday season — both for the people who have lost their jobs and for television junkies like me who won’t have anything to watch during primetime.

Margaret Kim is a research fellow at the John Carter Brown Library

Salimah Nooruddin ‘08 is almost ready to move to Scranton.

Boris Ryvkin ’09 has back pain.

Taiwan Strait ‘threat’ is unilateral

BY MARGARET KIM

Page 11

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

S ports W ednesday Page 12

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

No. 1 W. ruggers roll at Northeast Championships

Football players press to fight cancer

By Erin Frauenhofer Spor ts Editor

When the U.S. Naval Academy’s top-ranked women’s rugby team faltered three weeks ago, Brown took over the nation’s No. 1 ranking after beating Providence College. This weekend, the Bears proved they belong in the top spot after dismantling two opponents to win the Northeast Rugby Union Championships.

“We’ve had an amazing couple months, and this was the perfect way to end the fall season,” said co-captain Kristen Sylvester ’08.

The top two finishers at the four-team tournament, held at Bowdoin College in Maine, advanced to the National Sweet 16, which will be held in April. After Brown, Vassar College finished second, Cornell finished third and the U.S. Militar y Academy finished fourth.

“This tournament was really a team win,” Sylvester said. “The players on the field played their hearts out, the players on the sidelines were a force with their cheering and the coaches prepared us ahead of time for what we would be facing.”

On Saturday, top-seeded Brown overpowered No. 4 CorAshley Hess / Herald File Photo nell 26-10 to advance to Sunday’s Emilie Bydwell ’08 and the rest of the women’s rugby team swept to victory in finals, in which the Bears defeat- the Northeast Championships over the weekend. ed No. 3 Vassar, 36-27.

“There is a lot of pressure and mentally focused,” said Emi- portant because Cornell in the entering playoffs when you are lie Bydwell ’08, adding that the semis and then Vassar in the ranked number one in the coun- Bears are accustomed to jumping finals were both really tough tr y, when you have gone unde- ahead early and not looking back. teams that didn’t let down when feated in the regular season and This time, Bydwell added, they we were ahead.” when you have already beaten all “had to fight every game to keep The championship win comes of the teams you will be facing the lead.” after Brown earned its second previously in the season,” said Sylvester said the team, which consecutive title at the New co-captain Keisha Carlson ’08. plays at the club level, was able England Rugby Football Union “We were expected to win by oth- to remain on top because it was Championships in late October. ers, and we expected ourselves so confident.

At that tournament, the Bears to win.”

“We felt like we could win defeated the University of Mas“As the competition went on, the tournament if we played sachusetts, Amherst, 12-5 in the we brought our level of play up. our game the way we have all We were able to stay really tough season,” she said. “That was imcontinued on page 6

By Peter Cipparone Spor ts Editor

A large group of football players clad in pink shirts on the Main Green is not an ever yday sight on campus. But that was the case Tuesday, when the football team organized and participated in Bench Press for Cancer, a fundraiser held in front of Faunce House.

The event, held at 12 p.m., featured a large group of football players and spectators crowded around two bench presses. Organizer Mackenzie Staffier ’08 said 70 people participated, including lacrosse, baseball and football players as well as a few coaches.

“When I started organizing it I thought it would be about 30 people, so it was a really great turnout and I was really happy the coaches came,” Staffier said.

In the weeks leading up to the event, participants collected pledges from parents and friends who promised to donate money based on the number of times the players could bench press 165 pounds. The pledges ranged from less than a dollar to $5 per repetition, which Staffier and Director of Athletics Mike Goldberger pledged for football Head Coach Phil Estes. Event coordinators also sold “Bench Press for Cancer T-Shirts” and will donate all proceeds to the American Cancer Society.

“I didn’t think so many people would be here,” said running back Matt Mangiacotti ’10. “But ever yone showed up and ever yone got pledges. It’s a great event.”

Mangiacotti set the bar high for the reps record with an early 34, but after his turn Mangiacotti labeled defensive end Kai Brown ’08 as the favorite. Sure enough, Brown lifted the weight 41 times, but football’s other starting defensive end, James Develin ’10, outdid him, putting up 42.

Estes was among the highest finishers with 40 reps, earning him $400 from Staffier and Goldberger alone.

“It’s always nice when I can match the players,” Estes said. “I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing. I was trying to get to my age, 49, but I only hit 40.”

��

�

������

�����

�

�

������

�

��������� �

�

�

������

!

"��#�

�

$

�!����

�

������ �� ����������

�

�

������

�

��

�

�

������

� ��!����

�

�

"� !�����#�$�

�

�

������

�

%������

�

�

������

�

#����

�

��

������

continued on page 6

By Andrew Braca Spor ts Staf f Writer

The women’s hockey team was 13 seconds away from its second victory of the season on Saturday.

Then, the win slipped away.

Cornell took advantage of a

continued on page 9

���������� ������������ ����������������� ������

�

������� ���

�

Basketball is a sport that tracks more statistics than perhaps any sport besides baseball, and yet there has been very little mainstream work done toward applying a player’s statistics to see how he affects a team’s chances of winning a game, Tom Trudeau as has recently Tru Story become popular in baseball. This lack of understanding of the value of a player is the reason that Steve Nash was twice voted the MVP of the NBA by sports writers who continue to ignore statistical models that suggest he wasn’t even the best player on his team and wasn’t the best player at his position.

There are now more resources than ever to help even the most casual fan better understand the value of a player and challenge the conventional wisdom of sports writers and analysts. ESPN.com’s John Hollinger’s player efficiency rating measures per-minute offensive efficiency, while 82games.com has helped popularize the plus/minus system, which simply tracks a team’s net point total with and without a given player on the floor.

The most controversial of the new wave of scientific metrics is the Wages of Wins model, developed by economists David Berri, Martin Schmidt and Stacey Brook and detailed in the book by the same name.

The creators of Wages of Wins argue that they have solved the problem that previous models, such as Hollinger’s PER, suffered from, which was overvaluing scoring and not giving enough weight to turnovers and missed field goal continued on page 6

Last-minute penalty costs w. hockey .500 road trip Brown penalty and slipped the puck past goalie and assistant captain Nicole Stock ’09 to tie the score with only two seconds remaining on the clock.

“We worked really hard the whole game,” Stock said. “To have that happen is not only bad luck, but it’s just a big letdown.”

The Bears regrouped and completed the 2-2 tie in Ithaca, N.Y., on the strength of Stock’s 10 overtime saves. The tie came a day after the team suffered a 4-1 loss to Colgate University in Hamilton, N.Y. The results dropped Brown to 1-4-1 (1-3-1 Eastern College Athletic Conference), but Head Coach Digit Murphy said these results do not show all of the improvement the young team has been making.

“The scoreboard doesn’t indicate, at some level, our progress, growth and development in six short games,” she said. “We’re going to get there. We’ve got talented kids. They’re going to figure it out relatively soon.”

In the first game, Colgate pulled away in the first period after Brown

����

Iverson really a scrub?

���������� ��������� ���� ����� ����

������

Ashley Hess / Herald File Photo

Erin Connors ’10 had a goal in the women’s hockey team’s tie with Cornell.