Thursday, January 24, 2008

The Brown Daily Herald T hursday, J anuar y 24, 2008

Volume CXLIII, No. 2

Since 1866, Daily Since 1891

High lead levels found in 17 U. buildings

Mid-year entry difficult for transfers

By Max Mankin Senior Staf f Writer

By Nandini Jayakrishna Senior Staf f Writer

The transition to life at Brown can be especially difficult for midyear transfer students. With only a small group of students enrolling each January, current and former mid-year arrivals have said that, at times, they faced a disorganized reception.

This year, 22 transfer students, split evenly between men and women, and one visiting student from Tougaloo College in Jackson, Miss., were admitted to the University. They come from a wide range of the nation’s colleges and universities , including Vassar College, Wesleyan University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

According to Carolyn Denard, associate dean of the College, some transfers were originally admitted to Brown as freshmen, attended other colleges, and then returned to Brown. Others realized that their first college choice did not turn out the way they had hoped.

“The most challenging transition, from my perspective, is adjusting to the transfer credit system,” Denard wrote in an e-mail to The Herald, explaining that Brown courses carr y four credit hours while courses at other schools often only count for three. “We do all we can in transfer advising to explain how our system works and how as a transfer student it is sometimes better to have more time at Brown than less time.”

Robert Warner ’10.5, a transfer student from New York University, said he experienced the challenge that Denard identified. For example, Warner said he was unable to transfer credit from an NYU French class to qualify for an intermediate French class here.

Some mid-year transfer students can encounter even more substantial challenges. “I hit the ground running pretty hard,” said Liam

Courtesy of weforum.org Global leaders and U2’s Bono at the 2005 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. President Ruth Simmons is attending this year.

Simmons attends Swiss economic forum

By Jenna Stark Senior Staff Writer

For the first time in six years, President Ruth Simmons is attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Following its motto, “entrepreneurship in the global public interest,” the forum, which began yesterday and will end on Jan. 27, serves as an opportunity for heads of state, presidents

of non-government organizations, cabinet ministers and religious, media and business leaders to meet and discuss a theme — this year, “The Power of Collaborative Innovation.”

Created in 1971 by Klaus Schwab, a former professor of business policy at the University of Geneva, the World Economic Forum now includes more than 2,500 participants from 88 coun-

tries. Simmons is attending this year’s forum because the timing works with her schedule and the theme relates to the University’s recent internationalization efforts, said Assistant to the President Marisa Quinn.

“The internationalization effort at Brown is about advancing the program and offering it at Brown continued on page 4

U. loses Pulitzer-winning playwright to Yale

By Rachel Arndt Metro Editor

Courtesy of Brown.edu

Paula Vogel will head the playwriting department at Yale.

continued on page 4

Brown’s playwriting program is losing its long-standing director.

Professor of Literary Arts Paula Vogel, a Pulitzer Prize winner, announced just before the start of the spring semester that she will move to Yale this summer.

Vogel has been appointed chair of the Department of Playwriting and the Eugene O’Neill professor of playwriting at the Yale School of Drama. Her appointment will last five years.

Vogel could not be reached for comment, but in an automated e-mail response she wrote, “All I can say is that I’m very proud of the work I’ve done at Brown, of

my former and present students, and how much I’ve enjoyed being here.” She continued, writing that her time at Brown has “flown by watching the new plays written by Brown writers.”

“I feel like I’ve just about done everything I can do,” Vogel told the New York Times in a Jan. 18 article.

Vogel, who won the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for “How I Learned to Drive,” spent 24 years at Brown.

She is “at the point where she is interested in trying something different,” said Brian Evenson, director of the Literary Arts Program.

“More than anything, she’s been

Seventeen academic buildings have water with lead levels close to or higher than the federal limit, according to a study conducted by the Office of Environmental Health and Safety last fall.

The study involved collecting water samples from all on- and offcampus University buildings and comparing their lead levels to 15 parts per billion — the standard set by the Environmental Protection Agency, said Stephen Morin, EHS director.

Though the study indicated the presence of lead in the water in some buildings, Morin said it is “not a serious problem.”

“Most buildings have been fine,” he said. Residence halls “were our first priority — checking the areas where students lived, quickly.”

Lead levels in all residence halls were well under 15 parts per billion, Morin said, adding that though this finding didn’t surprise him, it was “nice to confirm that.”

The buildings with some of the highest levels of lead were 50 John St. and 37 Cooke St. Three undergraduates — Libby Delucia ’09, Matthew Wheeler ’09 and Megan Whelan ’09 — alerted the University to the presence of high levels of lead after they tested campus buildings for their environmental science class. They found the applied math building to have nearly 150 parts per billion of lead, which is ten times the federal limit, The Herald reported Oct. 1.

The students submitted their data to Morin, who said he decided to investigate the matter further “to make sure that the numbers were right.”

“It made sense to me and to Brown that if we didn’t have that continued on page 6

continued on page 4

Challenging Giuliani’s views in Fla., a student gets booed

By Joanne Wang Contributing Writer

When Erik Resly ’08 heard that Rudy Giuliani was speaking at a retirement community church near his Fort Myers, Fla., home, he was excited at the prospect of spending his afternoon listening to the Republican presidential candidate.

But he never expected to get booed by more than 1,000 people during the Jan. 14 speech.

After speaking, Giuliani, who has been campaigning heavily in Florida, opened the floor to questions. Resly said that when he got his turn with the microphone, he

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stated that he believed that Giuliani, when speaking with targeted voters, tends to oversimplify his explanation of why Islamic terrorists are anti-American. Resly said he then began to ask Giuliani to clarify and defend his stance.

But Resly never got to ask everything he wanted because he said the crowd of about 1,000, most of whom appeared to be seniors, began booing him.

Resly said that one woman behind him shouted, “See what the universities are teaching our students these days?” The man who was holding the microphone for Resly began to take the microphone,

pakistan’s future Students and faculty react to Benazir Bhutto’s death and Pakistan’s politics

www.browndailyherald.com

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CAMPUS NEWS

Resly said, but he grabbed at it and shouted, “You’re taking away my democratic right!”

The former New York mayor seemed to agree, saying the international relations concentrator had “an absolute right” to finish the question, which Giuliani did answer.

Though he was disappointed by the booing, Resly said he appreciated Giuliani’s initial willingness to call on him to ask a question as well as his later willingness to “stand up” for Resly’s right to speak.

“I know candidates are typically less inclined to call on the younger generation because we tend to be more hard-line,” Resly said. “Not

Hungry?

Snack while shopping!

Renovations to Brown Bookstore will include a new cafe

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OPINIONS

every presidential candidate would be willing to face hard questions.”

Still, Resly, who said he is “not the biggest Giuliani fan,” said he was struck by the “hypocrisy of the entire situation.” After having been discouraged from speaking, Resly felt that those present later claimed that “freedom of speech was precisely what made this country great” in appraising Giuliani’s response to the situation. Resly felt that in some ways the booing crowd had been “renouncing their own rights as Americans.”

Resly’s question centered around continued on page 8

Distracted student Kevin Roose ‘09.5 loses concentration in the Sciences Library

195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island

sunny, 32 / 17

Rahul Keerthi / Herald

A contaminated tap at The Herald’s office at 195 Angell St.

tomorrow’s weather It’s getting sunnier on College Hill, but we’re still jealous that Ruth could be snowboarding in the Alps.

News tips: herald@browndailyherald.com

T oday Page 2

Thursday, January 24, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Menu

Dunkel | Joe Larios

Sharpe Refectory

Verney-Woolley Dining Hall

Lunch — Cheese Tomato Strata, Wild Colonial Risotto, Vegan Tofu Pups, Louisiana Style Calzone, Hot Ham on Bulky Roll, Apple Turnovers

Lunch — Falafel in Pita, Enchilada Bar, Cavatini, Creole Mixed Vegetables, Grilled Montreal Chicken, Swiss Fudge Cookies

Dinner — Spinach and Rice Bake, Oven Browned Potatoes, Spice Rubbed Pork Chops, Cajun Corn and Tomatoes, Garlic Bread, Ice Cream Sundae Bar

Dinner — BBQ Chicken, Vegan Vegetable Tempeh Saute, Risotto Primavera, Stir Fry Station, Garlic Bread, Apple Turnovers

Sudoku

Nightmarishly Elastic | Adam Robbins

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

Vagina Dentata | Soojean Kim

© Puzzles by Pappocom

RELEASE DATE– Thursday, January 24, 2008

Los Angeles Times Puzzle C r o sDaily s w oCrossword rd Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

ACROSS 1 The Miners of Conference USA 5 One who hears a lot of objections 10 Yawn-inducing 14 “Please?”

15 Favored cocktail 16 Elusive Himalayan 17 Head honcho 18 “The Blues Brothers” director 20 Low-level clouds 22 Works with pupils, in a way 23 Sixth letters that look like they should be last 26 Comics dog 27 Adds spice to 30 Brownish stocking color 32 Platte River settler 33 Buff buff?

35 Uncommon, to Cassius 37 Name that’s Swahili for “lion” 39 Dander 40 French governing group 41 River to the North Sea 42 “Little grey cells” detective 44 “Was __ blame?”

45 Woods with many eagles 47 The 2005-06 season was the first since 195051 in which this type of show wasn’t among Nielsen’s top 10 49 Eliel’s son 50 Architectural column base 51 Cut shorter 54 Riding high 58 45-Across is one 61 “Richard __”: E.A. Robinson poem 62 Lunar trench 63 City mentioned often in “M*A*S*H” 64 Resting atop 65 Draft connection 66 Minneapolis suburb

67 Word that forms a new word when appended to the end of the answer to 18-, 27-, 47- or 58Across DOWN 1 Men in black, usually 2 Caustic 3 Flirt, maybe 4 Dash 5 Japanese defense system 6 GI morale booster 7 Head-slapping word 8 1814 treaty site, to the French 9 “E.T.” kid 10 At heart 11 Caused hysteria 12 Play to __: draw 13 Greet the villain 19 Utah ski town 21 Funk singer __ Marie 24 Sound 25 General mood 27 1988 A.L. MVP Canseco 28 Like a jostled arcade game?

29 March that emulates “Living Dead” films 31 Poet’s inspiration 34 Mechanism lead-in 36 N preceders?

38 “Not that hard!”

40 Moonshine maker 42 Abundant 43 Kissimmee’s county

46 Smack attachment 48 Pekoe holder 51 Agile 52 Currency exchange fee 53 Friend of Ricky 55 “__ the mornin’!”

56 Winged deity 57 10 micronewtons 59 Luau serving 60 Try to get a seat

Classic How To Get Down | Nate Saunders

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

Classic Deep-Fried Kittens | Cara FitzGibbon

xwordeditor@aol.com

1/24/08

Classic Deo | Daniel Perez

By Don Gagliardo (c)2008 Tribune Media Services, Inc.

1/24/08

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Join The Herald Info sessions Jan. 29, Jan. 30 and Feb. 6 8 pm at 195 Angell St.

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C ampus N ews Thursday, January 24, 2008

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Voter ID laws reduce participation, U. study finds

By Dana Teppert Contributing Writer

Courtesy of Siobhán Silke At a march held in Paris to mourn the death of Benazir Bhutto. The signs read, from left, “No to religious fundamentalism” and “Victim of cowards.”

Pakistani students remember Bhutto

By Joanna Wohlmuth Senior Staf f Writer

When Asad Jan ’10 first heard on Dec. 27 of an attempt to assassinate former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto at a campaign rally in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, he wasn’t shocked. Only months before, a similar attempt had been made on the life of Bhutto, the leading opposition party candidate in the upcoming election, but she had escaped unharmed.

Jan, 1,000 miles away from Rawalpindi at his home in Karachi, soon learned that histor y was not repeating itself. Despite early repor ts that she had sur vived, Bhutto, the victim of a suicide attack, was pronounced dead after 45 minutes in surger y at Rawalpindi General Hospital.

Karachi, “a city of 15 million,

looked like a ghost town,” Jan said. In the days following Bhutto’s death, most Pakistanis stayed in their homes waiting to learn more about the assassination — accounts of the attack and the cause of death are still disputed — and its effect on the upcoming election, Bhutto’s party and the nation.

Bhutto had returned from self-

FEATURE imposed exile in the United Arab Emirates and London to make a bid for a third term as prime minister.

As chair of the Pakistan Peoples Party, which her father — former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto — founded, she held the office from 1988 to 1990 and from 1993 to 1996. Both terms ended with Bhutto forced out of office amid allegations of financial corruption.

As a moderate, female candidate in a nation where politics is dominated by religious men, Bhutto was viewed as the embodiment of democratic ideals by many Pakistanis, Jan said, though he was not among her supporters.

Pakistan-born Sumbul Siddiqui ’10, who visited family there last August, said Bhutto “was not a saint in terms of her politics” and was “mostly talk.” But, Siddiqui added, the leader was “a really impressive woman to stand out among men.” In a countr y where social pressures forced Siddiqui to be accompanied by a male chaperone when she left the house, Bhutto stands out as a role model for female empowerment in the Muslim world, Siddiqui said.

A tense period followed the continued on page 8

For 25 students, an ‘amazing’ January@Brown

By Caroline Sedano Senior Staf f Writer

The second year of January@Brown only attracted a little more than onefourth of the projected attendance, but it earned positive reviews from students who saw it as a way to expand their academic and social experiences without the pressure of grades.

“Oh it was amazing!” said J.D. Andrade ’10, a chemistr y concentrator who took “Workshop on Studio Art.” “I loved the small class setting, the freedom to do what we wanted in class and the new people I met,” he said.

“All the feedback we got was extremely positive,” said Robin Rose, associate dean of continuing studies.

The program took place from Jan. 9 to Jan. 18 and offered five classes — “Workshop in Creative Nonfiction,” “Chemistry 33T,” “Storied Neighborhoods: Race, Place, and Narrative,” “Workshop on Studio Art,” and “Persuasive Communication” — that met for three hours a day. The 25 students lived together in Littlefield Hall and did activities like ice skating, visiting the RISD Museum, and meeting with Career Development Center and Swearer Center officials. This year’s Januar y@Brown attracted

Chris Bennett / Herald File Photo

Snowy isolation and no course credit didn’t stop the 25 students taking classes this past January.

six more students than it did last year and was two days longer, Rose said. The term cost students $640 including room and board, with financial aid available.

Though many colleges of fer January courses for credit, Brown does not.

“Courses would have to be more rigorous than they are now,” Rose said. “Now students are getting a great introduction or sampling to different topic and course areas.”

At the end of the 10-day program, students met with administrators to discuss how the January session had gone.

“Students were ver y mixed in terms of receiving grades and credit for their work — some students were ver y interested and some liked the more relaxed approach to learning without the stress of grades,” said Rose, who added the work the students put into their classes equates to about two-thirds of that needed for getting credit.

Rose said the Office of Summer and Continuing Studies is still unsure of how or if they will change next year’s program.

“For me it doesn’t really matter continued on page 6

A new report recently released by a Brown professor and graduate student provides evidence that requiring voters to show identification decreases naturalization rates and suppresses political participation, particularly among minorities and lower income individuals.

The report, released Jan. 2 by Professor of Sociology John Logan and Jennifer Darrah GS, adds to the debate on the effects of state requirements for voter identification. Building on previous studies, Logan and Darrah conclude that voter ID requirements affect not only voter turnout and registration, but also immigrants’ decisions to become citizens. In 2000, in states that required voters to show proof of identity before casting a ballot, the odds of naturalization for foreign-born residents were 5 percent lower than in states that did not have a voter ID requirement, affecting Hispanics most strongly.

Logan and Darrah found that voter ID requirements disproportionately affect minorities, people without a high school diploma and those with an annual income of less than $15,000.

Darrah said the report, which has received national attention, was a response to the current debate about voter identification requirements. It notes that as of 2004, 19 states required voters to provide some kind of identification.

“We knew this had become a hot political issue and that these kinds of policies were about to be under review by the Supreme Court,” Darrah said, referring to Crawford v. Marion County Election Board, a case currently before the Supreme Court that challenges the constitutionality of a 2005 Indiana law requiring voters to show a photo ID issued by the federal or state government before voting.

In an e-mail to The Herald, Logan wrote that he sent a copy of the report to one of the plaintiff’s attorneys, though he added he doesn’t know if the report will affect the case.

Proponents of Indiana’s voter ID law cite it as a necessary tool to prevent voter fraud, but the report states that, “at a time when many public officials express regret that immigrants seem to lag in their

Courtesy of Brown.edu

Professor of Sociology John Logan participation in mainstream society, even small suppressive effects on naturalization — the formal step to becoming an American citizen — work in the wrong direction and should be taken into account as people evaluate the benefits and costs of more stringent identification requirements.”

Darrah said she and Logan wrote the report in the hopes that it might advance the voter ID debate. “It might gain the attention of policy makers, of the public at large, potentially even the attention of those who are making arguments in official bodies,” she said.

Darrah said the study was originally meant to focus on the effects of voter ID requirements on political participation and to address conflicting reports on the effects of voter ID requirements.

“We started to think more about what might be affecting political participation of immigrants and all Americans, regardless of their nativity status,” Darrah said.

But as Logan and Darrah looked more closely at the existing research and their own study, they began to consider what effects voter ID policies might have on naturalization.

“Looking at whether these policies affect becoming a citizen was totally new, but we did build on previous research that looks at becoming a citizen as an action that reflects a desire to join the American polity for a number of reasons,” Darrah said. “If a political system is perceived to be difficult to access … people might think their vote might not matter or that their political participation might not be welcome.”

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Vogel headed for Yale continued from page 1 here a long time.”

“Yale is a very different program,” Evenson said. For one, it’s bigger than Brown’s program. “She’ll be part of a very large drama program rather than part of a small creative writing department,” Evenson wrote in an e-mail to The Herald.

At Yale, Vogel will teach, hire faculty for the playwriting department and take charge of the curriculum, Yale School of Drama Dean James Bundy wrote in an e-mail to The Herald.

“We were particularly focused on playwrights who were professionally distinguished and had significant teaching (experience),” Bundy wrote.

“Paula has trained magnificent writers … and the professional accomplishment of her former students is an indication that she both chooses

Thursday, January 24, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

them well and provides significant expertise to them.”

“She’s really great,” Brendan Pelsue ’08 said of Vogel. Though he’s only recently started working with Vogel, Pelsue says she’s been “very supportive” and is “clearly very involved with her students.” He said he appreciates the attention she gives to each individual piece of writing.

J.D. Nasaw ’08.5 agreed with Pelsue. “I can’t speak highly enough of her,” he said. “My personal interest and pursuit of writing has inalterably been changed by studying with her.”

Brown will begin looking for Vogel’s replacement in a few weeks, Evenson said. The search will be conducted “quickly and seriously,” he said. Though the search has not really started yet, Evenson said the department has “put together some lists” of candidates.

Simmons goes abroad to meet world leaders continued from page 1 as well as advancing Brown’s international reputation,” Quinn said.

“Part of advancing that reputation is meeting with global leaders who could bring their experiences back to Brown.”

Simmons also plans to meet with alumni in the region, Quinn added.

Ross Levine, professor of economics and a member of the provost’s internationalization committee, said Simmons’ attendance will make her an even better leader for the University and its internationalization program. “The forum’s going to discuss a wide range of themes that are international by their very nature — the climate, the development in Africa, the global economy, geo-politics and issues of national security,” he said. “All of those are themes that Brown students should be aware of through their education and that Brown faculty is engaged with.”

The forum’s program is based on five conceptual pillars: competing while collaborating, addressing economic insecurity, aligning interests across divides, exploring nature’s new frontiers and understanding future shifts. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice opened this year’s annual meeting with a speech discussing America’s approach to diplomacy and the state of the American economy.

Simmons will participate in the Global University Leaders Forum, a day-long program focusing

specifically on higher education issues, Quinn said. Started in 2006, the university leaders’ forum has two main objectives, said Michele Petochi, the program’s associate director. “One objective is to guarantee the opportunity to a group of heads of leading universities to address issues of relevance in the context of the global agenda,” he said. “The second objective is more like exploring a concrete and regular involvement in helping to shape the agenda.”

The three main topics that will be covered during the Global University Leaders Forum are universities sharing information online, sustainable campuses and capacity building in universities and the developing world, Petochi said.

Other attendees of this year’s program include Yale President Richard Levin, University of Pennsylvania President Amy Gutmann and Harvard President Drew Faust, Quinn said. University representatives from India, Japan, South Africa and China will also attend, Petochi said.

Simmons will also serve as a participant and discussion leader for the panel, “Defining Human Greatness: Why Culture Matters.”

The panel, moderated by Foreign Policy magazine Editor-in-Chief Moises Naim, will discuss how ambition and the definition of success vary across different cultures. The other five panelists include President of Keio University Yuichiro Anzai and Theodore Cardinal McCarrick, the former Archbishop of

Washington, D.C. While in Davos, Simmons would like to attend the Global Agenda Council, Quinn said. The council will brainstorm methods to continue the progress made at the forum across the globe. “It is something that we are thinking about in terms of somehow structuring our relationship with leadership that is more inclusive, more innovative,” Petochi said. “That might include online activities during the year.”

Simmons first attended the World Economic Forum in February 2002, when the theme was “Leadership in Fragile Times: A Vision for a Shared Future.”

“There aren’t many opportunities such as this where there are 2,500 world leaders convening together to talk of world issues,” Quinn said. “When they do come around, and it is important for Brown, we feel that she should go.”

Simmons has attended other similar events, including the Clinton Global Initiative, where world leaders discussed issues such as sustainability initiatives, Quinn said.

Levine emphasized Simmons’ ability to provide a unique perspective at the forum. “She has a lot to offer the other leaders at the forum because not everyone learns from students — their aspirations, their concerns,” he said. “Going to these environments and sharing, people will benefit from Ruth’s presence and she will benefit from their perspectives.”

Mid-year transfers feeling caught in red tape continued from page 1 Pierce ’08, reflecting on his entry at the beginning of his fourth semester. “I felt pretty neglected by the higher-ups,” said Pierce, referring to the help he was given by the Office of Residential Life, the Dean of the College and the Registrar. Brown is “a school that prides itself on having an invisible administration … to give students options, but I felt that I didn’t know what those options were.”

Pierce also criticized the University’s advising program. “I met with them once and they were kind of like, ‘Get out of here,’” he said. “I still don’t know if I have an adviser now, even.”

Pierce described the mid-year orientation as “really terrible” and said he found the administration to be “cold and unhelpful.” When he and seven other transfer students arrived on campus, ResLife placed them in King House, which houses the St. Anthony Hall fraternity, even though none of the transfers had any interest in the

fraternity.

Unlike Pierce, Warner found this year’s orientation and the transfer counselors to be “really nice and helpful.” Warner found Denard and her colleagues in the Office of the Dean of the College to be warm and informative.

This year’s mid-year orientation included a campus tour, group introduction and movie night. It ended Tuesday with the traditional procession through the Van Wickle gates, along with a luncheon in Leung Gallery, where Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron and other deans welcomed the students and encouraged them to get involved and ask questions.

Despite enjoying this year’s orientation, Warner said he was frustrated with the administration’s lack of organization and support before he arrived on campus last week. “I have a pretty long laundry list of complaints about being a mid-year transfer,” he said.

Despite his plans to enter in January, Warner received a “package for freshmen entering in fall

2007,” which was sent to him when he was admitted. “The fact that there was no letter specifically oriented towards mid-year transfers was really disappointing,” he said.

Then Warner encountered confusion with forms, deposits and tuition. A deposit check he was told to send in for his meal plan was returned, and Warner said many transfers encountered confusion with their tuition checks, sometimes receiving duplicate bills even after their checks had been cashed.

“It’s an issue when there’s a $20,000 check,” he said.

Warner said it was difficult to find his Banner ID and e-mail account information because initial directions were vague.

“Basically, they sent us information on how to do things that we couldn’t do. I can remember a few hectic times where I wasn’t sure they still expected me in January. It just felt like a lack of commitment to the January transfers,” Warner said.

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Talent show to determine first lottery pick Brown students will have the chance to earn the prized first overall pick in this year’s housing lottery in a Feb. 13 talent show, Residential Council announced Wednesday. The show, hosted by ResCouncil, takes the place of recent contests that allowed students to submit videos, essays or songs pleading their cases for the first pick to the student body, which voted to determine the winner.

“One of the central ideas behind the first-pick competition is to be an advertisement for the lottery,” said Alexander Dean ’08, ResCouncil chair. The talent show will feature booths with representatives from ResCouncil, Greek houses and program houses to help educate students.

The change in format is not unprecedented. The first-pick competition has taken many forms in the past, Dean said. Historically it has been a talent competition of some sort, and before the switch to the online contest ResCouncil hosted a lip-synching competition.

Michael Morgenstern ’08, ResCouncil’s lottery chair, said that one of Brown’s dance groups won that competition every year, prompting a change.

This year’s change is due partly to a decline in student interest in the online competition, Morgenstern said. The first year of that contest format drew many entrants and much enthusiasm, but last year ResCouncil received only seven submissions, he added. Videos dominated the competition, he said, and students often skipped over the written entries.

Morgenstern said the talent show will feature “celebrity” judges and a raffle prize for those who attend the event, both of which are as of yet unannounced. He said he was confident that what ResCouncil plans for the show will excite newcomers to the lottery process. Morgenstern said ResCouncil wants at least half of the freshman class to come to the talent show.

ResCouncil will also be generous in its definition of talent, Morgenstern said, and will allow unorthodox entries such as works of art and videos for students who didn’t anticipate the change.

Eugene Nelson ’11 said he was more concerned about the quality of the show. “Sounds like a good idea,” he said. “It depends on the talent.”

— Patrick Corey

Survival of the fittest: Spam evolves, but so do filters

By Carol Celestine Contributing Writer

With its promises of free iPods and island getaways, spam often seems to take over e-mail inboxes. Even with spam-filtering software, unsolicited mass e-mails still manage to slip through, and the problem has gotten worse in the past year.

Students who noticed a recent increase in spam are picking up on a trend, according to data provided

by John Spadaro, Computing and Information Services director of systems and services.

“Mail volume jumped and the spam volume jumped along with it,” Spadaro said. In September 2006, Spadaro said, CIS processed a total of 450,000 messages each day, and that number has since risen to 950,000 messages a day this month. “Spam content” increased to account for 85 percent of all incoming mail last month, up from 70 percent in September 2006.

“There definitely is more spam,” Spadaro said.

The increased spam influx has sparked efforts at CIS to improve its e-mail infrastructure to combat the problem, he said. Rising junk e-mail and other demands are beginning to strain the existing system, which was put in place about three years ago. The constant need to revamp the system in order to deal with changing user demands and spam proliferation means an improved infrastructure should be functional for “about two years,” Spadaro said.

Adding to the problem is the fact that spamming tactics tend to change to keep up with improved filters. “Filtering spam is more of an art than science,” Spadaro said.

As spammers become savvier, they find ways to elude the filters.

Spadaro said spammers initially dodged the filters by purposely misspelling words, but such messages are now easily filtered.

Now, spammers send e-mails with legitimate-sounding subject lines and embedded graphics, and these types of spam are harder to filter.

Though free spam and virus filters like SpamAssassin are very effective, spammers also have access to the software and can tailor their spam to avoid detection.

Even with improving spamblocking software, the question remains: Why spam at all? Though most Internet users simply ignore spam, Spadaro said, the Internet is still fertile ground for scams.

“Start-up costs are low, and if they can get even one person to fall for a scam, they can make a huge profit,” he added.

Despite the recent increase CIS has seen, some students see spam as a non-issue. Tito Jankowski ’08 said he is “spam-free,” and Jess Lake ’10 expressed similar sentiments. “I haven’t had any spam problems,” she said.

Kori Schulman / Herald File Photo

The Brown Bookstore is planning a major renovation that will change its layout and add services.

Bookstore preparing to begin renovations Students may be able to use FlexPoints at new cafe

By Noura Choudhury Staf f Writer

The Brown Bookstore recently signed a contract with a Bostonbased contractor to oversee the bookstore renovations that will be completed by October 2008. The remodeling involves overhauling the current store layout as well as improvements to the store’s appearance and efficiency, said Manuel Cunard, the bookstore’s director.

The renovated bookstore will include a café, an elevator and a room for meetings. The store’s entrance will be renovated and seating will be added. Students may be able to use FlexPoints at the café, which will remain open until 11 p.m., Cunard said.

The contractor, Suffolk Education, was chosen to become the principal construction management team for the project through a bidding process. Biagio DiTullio from the firm will serve as the project executive. Suffolk will work with the bookstore, the University’s Department of Facilities Management and Bergmeyer Associates architectural firm to oversee the project’s completion. The groups are currently meeting to finalize budget plans by early next week, and construction will begin in April.

Cunard was hired in December 2006 to revitalize the bookstore after an attempt by the University to replace the independent bookstore by outsourcing it to a chain such as Barnes and Noble. Though the attempt failed, the bookstore has since been instituting both physical

renovations and service changes.

Cunard said the renovations are also in response to the need to revitalize an aging bookstore.

“I think (the renovations) are in response to a bookstore that was getting flat, that had lost the edge,” Cunard said. “It was getting tired and it needed a physical change.”

Eight focus groups of customers helped bookstore administrators decide what changes to make by highlighting problems such as ease of access and the layout of products, Cunard said. The focus groups expressed desire for a bigger general books department and space for customers to linger and browse.

Diana Gomez ’11, who usually uses the bookstore to find “knickknacks and birthday presents,” thought she might spend more time there if it expanded its general books section. She said she thought the cafe would be an appealing and convenient addition “if the coffee is good and it’s cheaper than Starbucks’.”

Elaine Tamargo ’11 said that even though the cafe would be a pleasant addition, she didn’t see it as a place for social gatherings.

“I couldn’t really see it as a place where we could hang out for some reason,” Tamargo said.

Renovations will also change the store’s layout, Cunard said.

The textbook department will be remodeled and moved to the lower level where the computer section is now located. The main level will feature the café, general books area, campus store, community room, children’s area and a new set of registers that will run through the middle of the floor. The upper level will house the second level of the general books department, campus store and the computer store. The north end of the store will also fea-

ture two “Your Spaces,” models of a residence hall and a living room featuring the merchandise available in the store.

The renovations, which will begin in April, will involve closing different sections of the store at a time. The lower level will be the first project, although textbooks will not be moved until after commencement. Though most of the reconstruction will be completed during the summer, the remodeling will not be finished until October.

The renovations have a projected cost of $3.2 million and will be funded by the bookstore mostly through loans. The University may fund some of the exterior improvements to the building since the bookstore is a tenant of the University-owned building. The internal renovations are entirely the bookstore’s responsibility. The bookstore does not anticipate increasing prices in order to fund the renovations, Cunard said.

The physical changes are accompanied by the creation of new online textbook ordering and book deliver y ser vices. The changes were instituted to address the changing manner in which people shop for books, Cunard said, since buyers increasingly purchase books online.

Kimberly Arredondo ’11 said changes to the bookstore won’t make her more likely to shop there, since she’s most concerned about buying textbooks at low prices.

Arredondo has used brunobooks. com, a Web site recently created

by Brown seniors that compares textbook prices on Amazon.com to that of the bookstore’s, to shop for textbooks.

At the bookstore it “is really easy to find things ... but Brunobooks is much cheaper and more organized,” she said.

Page 6

Thursday, January 24, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

U. analyzes water’s lead content in all buildings continued from page 1 information, to do (the study) now,” he said.

Morin said the results of the EHS study were similar to what the students found.

To determine the worst-case scenario, Morin and his team collected water samples after letting taps run for 30 seconds early in the morning. Higher lead content is usually found when water has been stagnant in the pipes overnight, he said.

Morin said that older buildings are more likely to have higher lead levels because lead was more readily available and easy to work with when those buildings were constructed.

368 water samples were analyzed by R.I. Analytical, a lab in War wick that analyzes both drinking and waste water, Morin said.

About 21 samples from buildings in the Jewelr y District will be analyzed by the end of this week to finish the study, he added.

When the results of the study were obtained, EHS sent out emails to certain contacts in each of the 17 affected buildings, to be for warded to all of the buildings’ occupants.

It also put up signs near water fountains and faucets, warning against a potentially high lead content and advising visitors to use the lead filters or bottled water now provided in the buildings by Facilities Management.

Susan Rottenberg, academic coordinator for the Department

of German Studies, said she was “surprised” that the department’s building at 190 Hope St. tested high for lead. She said some people in the building had regularly used tap water for drinking and making tea and coffee for many years.

“It’s nice that (the University) provided the solution and chose to pay for (the bottled water),” she said.

Providing bottled water and filters to buildings will cost Facilities Management between $12,000 and $15,000 annually, Morin said.

He said since this cost is not very high, bottled water could be a long-term solution to the problem of lead-contaminated water.

Morin said another remedy is to let the water run for about a minute before consuming it, especially early in the morning.

Putting bottled water in buildings is a good short-term solution to the problem of lead in drinking water, said Steven Hamburg, associate professor of environmental sciences. But Hamburg said letting water run is not the best solution because “wasting water is an issue today.”

Utilities should be upgraded when possible for greater safety, he said.

Hamburg said he removed lead pipes from his own 105-year old home after his students discovered them during a class project.

But Morin said though the University will carr y out renovation when possible, tr ying to remove the lead in the plumbing could sometimes “ruin” the historic ar-

chitecture of a building.

Removing lead from all University buildings might be “an extremely expensive proposition,” said Clay Commons, senior environmental scientist at the Rhode Island Department of Health’s Office of Drinking Water Quality.

Commons, whose department is advising the University informally on the issue of lead in water, said there is no simple solution to prevent lead leeching.

He said, for example, that instead of letting taps run, water may be collected and used for any activity other than drinking and cooking, such as showering, watering plants or washing floors.

“We have to get people to change their behavior,” he said, though he admitted such changes would be difficult to implement in a classroom, university or laborator y setting.

Last year, the Providence Water Supply Board undertook a 15-year project to replace lead-containing ser vice lines that it owns around the city. Commons said the board is also going to change the water chemistr y to a more neutral pH level since lead dissolves in water with both high and low pH. Lead impairs neurological development in children and causes “a measurable decline in IQ,” Commons said.

But the greatest exposure to lead comes from lead paint or, as in earlier days, from the lead in gasoline. “We don’t want panic. Nobody’s going to die from the lead in the water,” Commons said.

January@Brown students ambivalent about credit continued from page 3 — I think instead of focusing on credit the focus should be on meeting new people and taking a class without the pressure of grades,” said Daniel Lim ’10, an engineering concentrator who took “Persuasive Communication.”

“The plus side for credit is that we are spending so much time working anyway that we should get something on paper to show that.

But at the same time offering it for credit would attract a huge amount of people and increase class size — and I feel the size gave us individual attention and a lot more freedom,” Andrade said. Students agreed that they should receive some sort of recognition for their effort, though not through letter grades. “Making it S/NC or for half credit would be best,” Andrade said.

Some of the course instructors thought the lack of grading was ideal.

“We put in way more time than the three hours we had every day,” said Charles Gonsher, an adjunct lecturer in visual art who taught the studio ar t workshop. The five students in this class worked on creating a T-shirt design and building a table. “They really challenged themselves, not because they wanted a certain grade but because they really cared and were

having fun.”

“I was surprised at how much effort students put into the class even thought they weren’t getting a grade — I think students were maybe more relaxed,” said Matthew Delmont GS, an American Civilization student who taught “Storied Neighborhoods: Race, Place.” The class’s small size — only six students participated — enabled good class discussion and strong personal connections between classmates, Delmont said. “Their level of work should be acknowledged with some kind of grade or recognition.”

“I would only want my class to be S/NC — it’s Januar y and no one wants to do tons and tons of work,” said Christian DuComb GS, who taught “Persuasive Communication.”

The winter session allows for academic and social oppor tunities not available during the rest of the year. Visual Arts 0100 “is really hard to get into and this was a chance for people who didn’t get in or don’t have time in their schedule to take an art class,” Gonsher said.

Lim, the engineering concentrator, said he enjoyed meeting people outside his concentration.

“Normally I interact with engineers and I got to meet a lot of humanities people,” he said.

Enjoy shopping period.

W orld & n ation Thursday, January 24, 2008

Page 7

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Gazans stream into Egypt U.S. military to step up training of Pakistanis as border wall is breached

By Ann Scott Tyson Washington Post

By Ellen Knickmeyer Washington Post

RAFAH, Gaza Strip — Gunmen destroyed vast sections of the sevenmile-long barricade that divides the Gaza Strip and Egypt on Wednesday, allowing tens of thousands of Palestinians to stream across the border and revel in a day away from a territory where Israeli restrictions have stifled the economy and caused blackouts and food shortages.

Jubilant Gazans flooded unhindered into Egypt, then hauled back purchases ranging from cigarettes and diesel fuel to goats, cows and camels. Other Palestinians walked for miles along Egyptian roads until their enthusiasm subsided and they sank, exhausted, onto curbs to rest.

“We were not able to go out!”

Amial Tarazi, a 28-year-old office worker in Gaza City, said after clambering over broken stubs of the border wall in heels and a dress.

She stepped into Egypt alongside two co-workers who had scaled the rubble in jackets and ties.

“We don’t care about buying anything,” Tarazi said. “We just wanted to see Egypt. We just wanted to get out.”

Since the armed Hamas movement took control of Gaza last June, Israel and Egypt have all but sealed off the crossings that allow Gazans to travel and trade. On Friday, Israel began imposing an even stricter blockade on the territory of 1.5 million people to press Hamas to bring a halt to steady Palestinian rocket and mortar fire from Gaza into southern Israel.

Wednesday’s breach of the wall forced Israel and Egypt to weigh the security implications of a suddenly porous boundary. Hamas members joined the crowds crossing the border as Egyptian guards glowered but did not interfere.

Gazans credited Hamas with opening the wall, although the

movement did not openly claim responsibility. Hamas officials told reporters that 17 explosions had destroyed parts of the barricade, in some instances taking down sections hundreds of yards long.

The extent of Hamas’ control over the territory and the border area made it unlikely that another group could have carried out the breach.

In recent days Gazans have expressed increasing resentment toward Hamas for provoking the blockade, which led to power blackouts, water cutoffs and food shortages, but the opening of the wall boosted the movement’s image.

Sharuk Abou Jazur, 12, in pink clothing and pigtails, skipped back toward Gaza with plastic bags crammed full of oranges from Egypt.

“The siege is over! It was Hamas’ people who freed us,” she said.

The breaking of the wall began about 2 a.m. Wednesday. Residents of the border town of Rafah said they awoke to the sound of explosions.

The blasts snapped concrete barriers and sheared through rusted metal fences. By daybreak, walls lay toppled, felled by men using heavy machinery. Miles of the barricade lay in ruins.

In Gaza City, an hour from the border, Manal Abu Shamalla, 37, answered her cellphone at 6:30 a.m.

“The way is open! Come!” her friends urged her, she said.

Her mother lives in Cairo, but because Abu Shamalla has not been able to obtain from Israel the travel documents she needs to cross the border, she has not seen her mother in 10 years, she said.

Abu Shamalla and her husband filled the tank of their car, using the last of the generator fuel they had saved to power the house during blackouts. She bundled her three children into winter coats and raced with thousands of other Gazans to

continued on page 9

WASHINGTON — The U.S. military plans to significantly expand and accelerate its counterinsurgency training and provision of equipment for Pakistan’s armed forces this year as part of a five-year, $2 billion U.S.-Pakistani effort to help stabilize the country, senior U.S. and Pakistani officials said.

The enhanced cooperation will include U.S. military assistance toward counterinsurgency training, technical gear and assistance to improve the Pakistani military’s intelligence gathering and its air and ground mobility, the officials said. If requested by Pakistan, it could also involve U.S. Special Operations Forces working with the Pakistani military as it launches “more aggressive” actions against insurgents in northwest tribal areas, said Ambassador Dell Dailey, the State Department’s counterterrorism coordinator.

The plan will involve about $150 million from the United States each year, Dailey told defense reporters Tuesday, and will emphasize development assistance. In turn, Pakistan will contribute $1.25 billion to the plan over five years, according to State Department figures.

The effort comes amid criticism from Congress that the billions of dollars the Bush administration has already spent on Pakistani security efforts have produced poor results.

Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the United States has poured about $10 billion in aid into Pakistan — more than $6 billion of it for military financing and reimbursement to Pakistan for counterterrorism operations.

Despite the aid, the insurgency of Islamic extremists in Pakistan has grown, and the Pakistani Army has lost hundreds of troops in tribal areas. “It has not worked,” said Rick Barton of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

U.S. officials said the new strategy is critical, as insurgents once focused on Afghanistan have turned inward to challenge the Pakistani government. “The plan to counter insurgents is to work with the Pakistanis to share intelligence, increase cross-border cooperation between ourselves, the Afghans and the Pakistanis, and to work with Pakistan’s military to increase their capability,” Adm. William Fallon, the top U.S. commander for the Middle East, told The Washington Post this week.

“Pakistan’s military recognizes the seriousness of the internal insurgent problem,” said Fallon, who arrived in Pakistan on Tuesday to meet with military leaders.

Senior military officials place high hopes on the new chief of Pakistan’s armed forces, Ashfaq Kiyani, who studied at the U.S. Army’s Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. “The army under Kiyani is already

changing its tactics,” said a senior military official who was not authorized to speak on the record.

Kiyani also must change the army’s traditional emphasis on India.

“We trained for set piece battles in the plains of Pakistan and India ... we need more detailed counterinsurgency training,” said Mahmud Ali Durrani, Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States.

Much of the increased U.S. military cooperation will be tailored to improve the counterinsurgency operations of the Pakistani military and Frontier Corps, a large but ill-equipped force that has suffered most of the government’s combat casualties in tribal areas.

For example, it will involve sending in small teams of U.S. trainers, including Special Forces soldiers, as well as technical experts to work with the Pakistani Air Force and intelligence personnel. The U.S. military is planning to expand the number of trainers for Pakistan’s Frontier Corps, possibly including contractors or allied forces, and is also seeking to tap into $37 million in counterterrorism funds for that effort, according to U.S. officials.

This increased cooperation would both expand a multiyear U.S. counterinsurgency plan that is being implemented, with $157 million in aid planned for 2008 and more U.S. contract and Special Forces trainers expected to arrive in Pakistan this spring, U.S. officials said.

Page 8

Thursday, January 24, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Students reflect on Bhutto’s life and politics continued from page 3 news of Bhutto’s death, Jan said, as widespread rioting and looting caused about 20 deaths and damage to many shops, buildings and cars. Pakistani President Per vez Musharraf declared a three-day period of mourning and the election was moved from Jan. 8 to Feb. 18. Though Jan would have voted in the earlier election, he will be unable to cast a ballot because Pakistan has no system for absentee voting.

On Dec. 30, Bhutto’s husband Asif Ali Zardari, who had been appointed the new chairman of the

party in accordance with Bhutto’s will, announced that his 19-yearold son would instead fill his mother’s position and would now be known as Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, rather than Bilawal Zardari.

This deliberate attempt to more closely associate Bilawal to the political dynasty created by his mother and grandfather shows how entrenched feudalism is in Pakistani politics, said Saleem Ali, associate adjunct professor of international studies. Though Ali did not support Bhutto politically, his respect for her had grown in her last few months as her courage and dedication to Pakistan became more apparent.

But Ali said he felt the move to preserve the Bhutto name in politics and substantiate the Pakistan People’s Party undermined the democratic ideals that propelled the family into popularity in Pakistan and in the West.

“While her death was a terrible tragedy,” Ali said, “what happened subsequently demeans the process for which she was supposed to stand.”

Jan agreed. “Parties become based on personalities (because of the political dynasties),” he

said. “The Bhuttos would be the last people to benefit from democracy.”

Ali said that he has more faith in Bhutto’s niece, Fatima, than in her widower or son. Instead of going into politics, she has pursued journalism and been extremely critical of the dynastic politics that she says are keeping Pakistan from achieving true democracy. “Fatima has chosen to use the Bhutto name to act as a critical voice to get people thinking,” Ali said.

This criticism is characteristic of politics in South Asia, Jan said, where families like the Bhuttos and the Ghandis in India are able to remain powerful for generations.

“Unfortunately (Bilawal) has to lead one of the largest political parties in the countr y,” Jan said.

“He is younger than me.”

Zardari will run the party until Bilawal graduates from Oxford, where he currently studies. Neither is running in the upcoming election — Bilawal because of his age and Zardari because of a poor reputation among Pakistanis.

Many Pakistanis blame him for causing his wife’s administrations

www.browndailyherald.com

to become corrupt, Jan said, who called him “the last person you want in any position of power in Pakistan.”

He added that during Bhutto’s second term as prime minister, Zardari was called “Mr. 10 Percent” because he allegedly took a 10 percent commission on ever y government transaction.

“The ver y poor and ver y uneducated need a leader who understands (their situation),” Siddiqui said. “Asif Zardari isn’t that.”

Regardless of the volatile political situation, Siddiqui’s main concern is the safety of her family. She said the unexpected assassination and ensuing violence reminds her of the Red Mosque siege that took place last July in Islamabad, very close to the bank where her cousin works.

“Suicide bombs go off all the time and it is not reported,” Siddiqui said. “There is always a level of uncertainty.”

But Jan said hope remains in the feeling that if there were ever a time for change, it is now. One of the most important indicators of change will likely be the upcoming election, as concerns have been raised about its transparency.

Ali echoed calls for international monitors to step in to oversee the elections process. If the election is not transparent, Jan said, “what hope is left for us?”

Resly ’08 takes on Giuliani continued from page 1 whether Giuliani supported the Clash of Civilizations theory, which was developed by Harvard political scientist Samuel Huntington. The theory states that culture and religion are the main sources of conflict among civilizations.

Resly said Giuliani, whose campaign did not return repeated calls, answered by saying that he did not support the theory because he felt the terrorist movement did not represent a civilization. But according to a video on the Web site of the NewsPress, a southwest Florida newspaper, Giuliani said, “The clash is between a distortion by a few people of a religion and our world, which stands against the precepts of the way in which they’ve distorted that religion.”

Resly said he felt Giuliani’s response perpetuated his tendency to oversimplify and attribute terrorists’ anti-American sentiments to cultural differences. Resly said that the former mayor tends to say that Islamic terrorists “hate us because of what we stand for — liberty.”

“I wasn’t saying he’s wrong, necessarily,” Resly said. “There’s never one answer. I’m only 22 years old, but I’m wise enough to know that there’s never one answer that satisfactorily explains such complex issues.”

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Page 9

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Gazans head to Egypt after Stock ’09 shattering records in w. hockey gunmen destroy barrier continued from page 12

continued from page 7 the border.

By midday, the family was making its way among the Palestinians streaming sidewalk-to-sidewalk through the dirt streets of the Egyptian side of Rafah, which is split by the border wall. With thousands of more Gazans arriving each hour, all with the hope of pushing deeper into Egypt, Abu Shamalla’s family could find no taxis to take them to her mother, and their spirits flagged.

“We only brought milk for the baby,” she said, rocking her 3-monthold in her arms on a street corner.

Gaza City’s men piled into flatbed trucks to rush to the border. City streets quickly emptied of operable cars. Desperate men clustered at intersections. “Where are you going?” they shouted at passersby, hoping for rides. “Rafah?”

At the border, fathers handed toddlers over sections of the wall, so whole families could have reunions in Egypt with relatives kept out of Gaza for years by border restrictions. A housewife in a wool coat and carrying a large purse struggled atop one section of the wall, unable to heft herself over but peeling off the fingers of those who tried to pull themselves up and climb past her.

Along one teeming road in the Egyptian part of Rafah, a Hamas security of ficial who had been stranded on the Egypt side of the border since June — fearing arrest

by Israel during a crossing if he tried to return — met his mother and sisters in the surging crowd.

“Eight months I haven’t seen him!” his mother exclaimed after a flurry of hugging and kissing.

The man excused himself for not talking. “I’m on the wanted list,” he explained.

Israel accuses Egypt, increasingly sharply, of allowing smugglers to bring arms and explosives into Gaza. It was clear Wednesday that contraband and gunmen could cross the border that day with little chance of being stopped.

Agreements between Egypt and Israel restrict the number of Egyptian guards at the border to a few

Track and field finishes strong at URI continued from page 12 One highlight for the men’s team was the per formance of the “A” relay teams. The Bears finished third in the 4x800-meter relay in 7:55.44, and fourth in the 4x400-meter relay at 3:29.14.

Reginald Cole ’10 delivered for the Bears in the field. His secondplace finish in the triple jump (14.45 meters) was one of the top finishes for a Bear at the meet.

Another area where Brown excelled in the field was the weight throw. David Howard ’09 threw for a second place finish (18.07 meters) and Eric Wood ‘09 finished behind him at third (16.28 meters).

The team trained through break with two-a-day practices, aiming to increase their versatility and endurance. The Bears will continue their season on Jan. 26 when they compete against Har vard and Cornell at the Har vard Select Invitational in Cambridge, Mass.

hundred. Seven or eight Egyptian border guards stood lined up along one stretch of no man’s land, which was thick with milling Palestinians and livestock.

The Egyptian guards watched, but did not move. “Don’t speak to us!

Don’t even look at us!” one Egyptian officer shouted after someone in the crowd moved toward them.

Over whelmed by the masses of Palestinians filling Egyptian Rafah’s streets and squares, many merchants shuttered their shops and retreated to their windows and rooftops. In an orchard, an old man and his daughter swung broken sticks at adults and children who were boldly walking away, arms laden with oranges.

“When people are under pressure like they are in Gaza, of course they’re going to explode,” said Abu Kamal, a resident of Egyptian Rafah who would give only his nickname.

He leaned on a railing at his concrete-block house with his daughters, watching the crowds below.

Abu Kamal had opened his bicycle repair shop Wednesday morning, only to close a few minutes after pushing out the Palestinians who had crowded in.

“Where are these people going to sleep?” he mused, watching. “At the end of the day, there’s not going to be a thing left to eat in Rafah.”

Egypt appeared to be stopping the Palestinians at El Arish, a city an hour by car from the border.

But no vehicles could cross the border, and few people could reach that far on foot. At points along the downed border walls, the streams of Palestinians heading back to Gaza were thicker than the throngs of Palestinians coming out.

In Cairo, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak told reporters that his border guards originally had forced back the Gazans on Tuesday.

“But today a great number of them came back because the Palestinians in Gaza are starving due to the Israeli siege,” he said. “I told them to let them come in and eat and buy food and then return them later as long as they were not carrying weapons.”

captain Hayley Moore ’08 scored to knot the game. Brown then outshot Northeastern 6-1 in the five-minute overtime period but failed to find the back of the net. Nevertheless, the tie was sweet enough.

“The team had the refuse-to-lose attitude,” Murphy said. “I think the turning point of the second half (of the season) could have happened right there.”

On Jan. 11 in Hamden, Conn., Brown picked up its second win of the season in style, trouncing Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference doormat Quinnipiac, 6-1. Moore scored twice, and Heather Lane ’08, Savannah Smith ’09, Jenny Cedorchuk ’10 and Erin Connors ’10 chipped in a goal apiece, while Stock stonewalled the Bobcats with 22 saves. It was the dominance with which they won, however, that was special for the Bears.

“That was a great feeling,” Stock said. “It was good to break out and score six goals. I thought we played really well as a team and moved the puck well. It was a big win for us and a really big confidence booster.”

A 2-0 loss at Princeton the next day took some of the wind out of Brown’s sails. The Bears were whistled for eight penalties, limited to 17 shots and surrendered another empty-net goal with two seconds left, but Stock made 39 saves, including 15 during Tigers’ power plays. Two days later, Stock was named the ECAC Hockey Goaltender of the Week for the second time this season, but she saved her biggest games of the season for the next week.

Brown opened a long road trip on Jan. 18 with a 5-2 victory over non-league opponent Niagara.

Moore scored three goals and added an assist to move past Tara Mounsey ’01 and Kristy Zamora ’02 into 11th place all-time at Brown with 121 career points. Olewinski also scored twice and Hunter added a goal and an assist. Meanwhile, Stock turned away the Purple Eagles with 39 saves.

Moore’s goals upped her teamleading total to eight, five of which have come in January.

“It was nice to have Hayley Moore back in true form,” Murphy said. “I think she’s been struggling as of late. She’s put a lot of pressure on herself. I think she’s come out of it as a senior leader on our team.”

It was Stock’s turn to shine in a 4-2 loss to No. 6 Mercyhurst the following day. Mercyhurst fired 69 shots at the goaltender and Stock turned away 66 of them, shattering the previous Brown record for saves in a game. Kristen Rendell ’90 previously held the record with 59 saves in December of 1989. Stock’s 27 first-period saves broke the record for saves in a period. Mara Spaulder ’86 made 26 in March 1985. Stock said she felt awed to join the Brown record books.

“Just to be in the record book with players like Ali Brewer (’00), who won the Patty Kazmaier (Award, given to the top woman college hockey player in the country), I mean that’s just an honor to be in that kind of company,” Stock said.

Despite Stock’s heroics, Lakers’ All-American Meghan Agosta scored four goals, including an empty-netter, to beat the Bears.

But Stock’s effort helped to keep the game competitive.

“If you don’t have a good goaltender, and a team like Mercyhurst throws (70) shots at you, you lose dismally and you’re talking about a really dejected team,” Murphy said.

“Nicole Stock instills confidence in us and, if she’s playing well, the team has a chance to compete and win hockey games. That’s a testament to a true competitor and a true all-league candidate. It’s not just that you play behind a good team and you get 14 to 20 shots a game. She’s seeing a lot of pucks and she’s getting the job done.”

The following week Stock repeated as the ECAC Hockey Goaltender of the Week and was later named USCHO.com’s Division I Defensive Player of the Week. Her 663 saves this season are just 18 shy of Brewer’s record-setting total at Brown in the 1999-00 season.

The Bears may be headed in the right direction, but they still have a tall task ahead of them if they hope to reach the ECAC playoffs.

Brown’s 2-8-2 record and six points place the team 10th in the league, five points out of the eighth-place finish it would need to make the postseason. Brown continues its quest with a pair of home games this weekend against eighth-place Cornell on Friday at 7 p.m. and seventh-place Colgate on Saturday at 4 p.m.

“We’re already thinking ahead to this weekend with Cornell and Colgate and looking at them as two easily beatable teams,” Stock said. “With big wins at Niagara and Quinnipiac, we’re starting to score goals, our team’s gaining confidence, and I think that’s going to be huge.”

E ditorial & L etters Page 10

Thursday, January 24, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Staf f Editorial

BRUnet limits access to alums BRUnet, the Brown Alumni Association’s online career networking Web site, offers more detailed information on its registered alums than did its predecessor, ACCess. But containing information on fewer than a third of the alums that were signed up for the old system, BRUnet represents an administrative failure.

ACCess was available to students up until last summer and included contact information for approximately 6,000 alums. That this number pales in comparison to the thousands of Brown alums in every walk of life isn’t the point; what’s more problematic is that BRUnet, launched almost a year ago, had only 1,821 registered alums at our last count.

Starting last summer, alums were asked to voluntarily re-register with this new database. The motivation for the switch, Vice President for Alumni Relations Todd Andrews ’83 told The Herald, was that having alums re-register and enter more detailed information would give students more categories through which to search them. But though it may offer more details on alums, BRUnet offers less of what students need most — the alums’ contact information. The new Web site does not offer phone numbers or even e-mail addresses for reaching alums. Instead, students are allowed to send an e-mail through the BRUnet server, which conceals the alums’ addresses.

Andrews justified the value of the new system, even though it has a fraction of the names in the ACCess database, saying that alums who choose to re-register with it will be more likely to respond to students’ inquiries. But with far fewer contacts to search through, the likelihood of response may not matter. Regardless of whether alums’ resistance to student contacts has been a significant problem in the past, this new model of communication shows a disconcerting lack of trust in students. In fact, BRUnet offers a form e-mail for students to send to alums. Perhaps we free-thinking Brunonians can’t compose an original e-mail?

The students most affected by this change will be this year’s seniors, who might have expected a search among Brown alums to turn up dozens of contacts and potential future bosses. Students who come from less-privileged backgrounds, often with fewer professional contacts before arriving at Brown, will be the hardest hit. A trademark of an Ivy League education, like it or not, is its access to a worldwide network of alums. When they were undergraduates, these alums likely benefitted from connections with members of the Brown classes before them. For current students, though, this network becomes significantly smaller.

The alumni association should have made every effort to maintain its full records during the transition to the new database. Alums who had offered their contact information to Brown students in the past were trying to lend a hand to students looking for career connections and advice. And the excuse of incompatible databases, used so often since the implementation of Banner, is losing its credibility. Eventually, there may be 6,000 active members of BRUnet, and students may have more success getting in touch with alums.

But current upperclassmen are getting the short end of the stick.

T he B rown D aily H erald Editors-in-Chief Simmi Aujla Ross Frazier editorial Arts & Culture Editor Robin Steele Asst. Arts & Culture Editor Andrea Savdie Higher Ed Editor Debbie Lehmann Features Editor Chaz Firestone Metro Editor Rachel Arndt Metro Editor Scott Lowenstein News Editor Mike Bechek News Editor Isabel Gottlieb News Editor Franklin Kanin News Editor Michael Skocpol Opinions Editor Karla Bertrand Opinions Editor James Shapiro Sports Editor Whitney Clark Sports Editor Amy Ehrhart Sports Editor Jason Harris Asst. Sports Editor Benjy Asher Asst. Sports Editor Andrew Braca Asst. Sports Editor Megan McCahill

Senior Editors Taylor Barnes Chris Gang Stu Woo Business Darren Ball General Manager General Manager Mandeep Gill Susan Dansereau Office Manager Alex Hughes Sales Manager Lily Tran Sales Manager PR Director Emilie Aries Jon Spector Accounting Director Claire Kiely Account Manager Account Manager Ellen DaSilva Darren Kong Account Manager Account Manager Katelyn Koh Ingrid Pangandoyon Technology Director photo Rahul Keerthi Meara Sharma Min Wu Ashley Hess

Photo Editor Asst. Photo Editor Asst. Photo Editor Sports Photo Editor

post- magazine production Steve DeLucia Production & Design Editor Chaz Kelsh Asst. Design Editor Asst. Design Editor Alex Unger Catherine Cullen Copy Desk Chief Adam Robbins Graphics Editor

Matt Hill Rajiv Jayadevan Sonia Kim Allison Zimmer Colleen Brogan Arthur Matuszewski Kimberly Stickels

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

Steve Delucia, Designer Erin Cummings, Katie Delaney, Max Mankin, Alex Mazerov , Copy Editors Chaz Firestone, Jenna Stark, Joanna Wohlmuth, Night Editors Senior Staff Writers Sam Byker, Nandini Jayakrishna, Chaz Kelsh, Sophia Li, Emmy Liss, Max Mankin, Brian Mastroianni, George Miller, Alex Roehrkasse, Caroline Sedano, Jenna Stark, Joanna Wohlmuth, Simon van Zuylen-Wood Staff Writers Stefanie Angstadt, Amanda Bauer, Evan Boggs, Caitlin Browne, Marisa Calleja, Zachary Chapman, Joy Chua, Patrick Corey, Catherine Goldberg, Olivia Hoffman, Ben Hyman, Erika Jung, Sophia Lambertsen, Cameron Lee, Christian Martell, Taryn Martinez, Anna Millman, Evan Pelz, Sonia Saraiya, Marielle Segarra, Melissa Shube, Gaurie Tilak, Matt Varley, Meha Verghese Sports Staff Writers Han Cui, Evan Kantor, Christina Stubbe Business Staff Diogo Alves, Steven Butschi, Timothy Carey, Jilyn Chao, Ellen DaSilva, Pete Drinan, Dana Feuchtbaum, Patrick Free, Sarah Glick, Soobin Kim, Christie Liu, Philip Maynard, Mariya Perelyubskaya, Viseth San, Paolo Servado, Kaustubh Shah, Saira Shervani, Yelena Shteynberg, Robert Stefani, Hari Tyagi, Lindsay Walls, Benjamin Xiong Design Staff Ting Lawrence, Philip Maynard, Aditya Voleti, Wudan Yan Photo Staff Oona Curley, Alex DePaoli, Austin Freeman, Emmy Liss, Tai Ho Shin Copy Editors Ayelet Brinn, Rafael Chaiken, Erin Cummings, Katie Delaney, Jake Frank, Jennifer Grayson, Ted Lamm, Max Mankin, Alex Mazerov, Ezra Miller, Seth Motel, Alexander Rosenberg, Emily Sanford, Elena Weissman

P ete fallon

L e tt e r s Israel’s actions must be considered in context To the Editor: Margaree Little’s recent letter to the editor (“Israel must stop its siege of Gaza,” Jan. 23) distorts the current crisis occurring in the Gaza Strip, intentionally omitting its historical context. All considered, Israel’s recent closure of the Gaza border crossings and Israel’s denial of fuel shipments to Gaza represent a defensive measure to protect its citizens from Hamas’ incessant barrage of rocket attacks.

In August 2005, Israel withdrew completely from the Gaza Strip. At this historic juncture, the people of Gaza were faced with a unique opportunity to throw away the suicide belt and raise up a new state. Instead, they elected a government run by Hamas (an acronym in Arabic for the “Islamic Resistance Movement”), a terrorist organization committed not primarily to Palestinian statehood but to the destruction of the Jewish State. In fact, Hamas’ foundational charter, before any mention of the national aspirations of the Palestinian people, proclaims “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.”

Hamas seized complete control of the Gaza Strip from their Fatah rivals in a bloody coup resulting in the deaths of over 100 Palestinians. Hamas, backed financially by the Islamic Republic of Iran, embarked on a rocket campaign to terrorize and kill Israeli civilians. Since Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, the people of Israel have been battered by thousands of rockets. In 2007 alone, Hamas has fired some 2,300 rockets and mortar shells on the communities of Southern Israel.

In response, the Israeli Knesset designated the Gaza Strip a “hostile entity,” sending a clear warning to Hamas to stop its rocket attacks. Defense Minister Ehud Barak publicly announced his plans to close border crossings and limit fuel shipments to Gaza. As rockets and mortars barraged Israeli towns in January, Israel acted to defend its citizens by limiting its fuel shipments to and closing its border with Gaza.

The Israel Electric Corporation supplies a significant portion of Gaza’s electricity even at the mortal risk of the company’s employees who have had to fix power grids downed by Gazan rockets as more fell. Indeed, Israel (and the entire international community) is committed to providing the Palestinians with humanitarian aid, yet Hamas seems committed to foiling those efforts.

Hamas should be singled out for its role in creating the deteriorating situation in Gaza. Instead of seizing the opportunity to establish a peaceful, productive Palestinian state in the wake of Israel’s unilateral withdrawal in 2005, Hamas squandered resources, time and Palestinian hope.

Hamas chose instead to kill Israeli civilians and should be held responsible for Israel’s defensive response. That Little condemns Israel alone for conditions in the Gaza Strip — with no mention of Hamas’ role or the fact that another state, Egypt, also borders Gaza — reveals her clear and de-legitimating bias.

Little’s letter’s usurpation of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s words to defend the murderous “resistance” of Hamas is an offense against the legacy of King, who devoted his life to the pursuit of peace, equality, brotherhood and passive resistance. King would never have sanctioned the assaults on innocent civilians that Hamas perpetrates daily. In fact, King said of a Palestinian-Israeli peace, “Israel’s right to exist as a state in security is incontestable…

The solution will have to be found in statesmanship by Israel and progressive Arab forces who, in concert with the great powers, recognize that fair and peaceful solutions are the concern of all of humanity.” Shame on Little for invoking America’s great peacemaker and champion of equality to justify Hamas’ agenda of hate!

Harry Reis ’11 Jan. 23

Clarification A photo caption in Wednesday’s Herald (“Ladd’s timekeepers to come back to life,” Jan. 24) stated that the Ladd Observatory will receive a new timekeeping system. In fact, the observatory’s existing timekeeping system will be restored.

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O pinions Thursday, January 24, 2008

Page 11

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Libel tourism: A new front in the war on terror

BY LINDSAY MEYERS Opinions Columnist We understandably tend to associate the war on terror with Iraq, since the debate for troop withdrawal has become an idee fixe in American politics. However, in our focus on foreign policy, we should not overlook the fact that the war on terror is not limited to the bloody streets of Baghdad. Indeed, sometimes it takes place in a courtroom where a lawsuit can be as damaging to freedom as a car bomb in a busy street.

What I am referring to is “libel tourism,” a new ideological weapon employed by suspected terrorist supporters to curtail freedom of the press. Here is how it works: when a new book purports to disclose terrorist connections, those who seek to censor that information choose a forum with liberal libel laws to stop the publication of the book. More often than not, that forum has been England, where the burden of proof in libel actions is on defendants who must, in effect, prove their innocence or be found guilty.

The alarming result is that libel laws originally intended as a shield against falsehood are instead being used as a sword to intimidate scholars and discourage the publication of books that attempt to reveal clandestine terrorist funding.

The most prominent case of libel tourism in England involved Khalid bin Mahfouz, a billionaire Saudi Arabian, and Cambridge University Press, one of the most distinguished academic publishing houses in the world.

This case arose when Cambridge University Press published “Alms for the Jihad: Charity

and Terrorism in the Islamic World,” a book written by J. Millard Burr, a former State Department analyst, and Robert O. Collins, a professor emeritus at the University of California at Santa Barbara. In their book, Burr and Collins explore how donations to some Muslim charities are diverted into funding for terrorism, and they use reliable sources to name Mahfouz as a possible participant in this practice.

According to an article published in the Weekly Standard, the book does not charac-

book, it could not effectively defend its authors because English libel laws made such a defense a staggeringly expensive and ineffective undertaking. Cambridge University Press was instead forced to capitulate by issuing a public apology and paying Mahfouz unspecified damages.

Though this English decision is deeply troubling, there have been promising recent developments in libel tourism law in the United States. One intriguing case involves Rachel Ehrenfeld, a director for the American Center of

Libel laws originally intended as a shield against falsehood are instead being used as a sword to intimidate scholars and discourage the publication of books that attempt to reveal clandestine terrorist funding. terize Mahfouz as a terrorist. Nonetheless, Mahfouz demanded that Cambridge University Press stop publication and shred the book.

Beyond that, he asked Cambridge University Press to have libraries remove it from their shelves. These demands put Cambridge University Press in an untenable position. Though it had thoroughly vetted and approved the

Democracy and the author of “Funding Evil,” another book that links Mahfouz to funding terrorism. When Mahfouz filed a libel tourism action against Ehrenfeld in England, she did not defend the action there. Instead, she set a precedent by establishing her right to challenge the English ruling in an American court, where the burden of proof is on the

plaintiff in libel suits.

Perhaps the most important libel tourism case in America involves Yale University Press.

As in the Cambridge University Press case, Yale University Press faced a libel suit after it published a scholarly book exposing an intricate web of terrorist financing. The book in question is titled “Hamas: Politics, Charity, and Terrorism in the Service of Jihad.”

Written by Matthew Levitt, a director at the Washington Institute of Near East Policy, the book contends that some charity groups, such as KinderUSA, accept donations for needy charities but use that money to fund terrorist organizations instead.

In response, KinderUSA filed a libel lawsuit in California against Yale University Press and Levitt. In this case, the author and publisher were able to vigorously defend themselves because California has an Anti-SLAPP, or Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation statute. According to Levitt, this Anti-SLAPP legislation is a “mechanism for quickly resolving lawsuits designed primarily to chill the valid exercise of constitutionally guaranteed rights, including free speech.” By seeking protection under this Anti-SLAPP statute, Yale University Press and Levitt prevailed. In fact, KinderUSA dropped its lawsuit and agreed never to pursue it again.

While this is a victory for freedom of the press, it is also an alarming reminder that the struggle against terrorism is also an ideological conflict — one in which our pluralistic values are at stake.

Lindsey Meyers ‘09 believes charitable people should do what they say and say what they do.

Caught in the net

BY KEVIN ROOSE Guest Columnist America had a lot to mourn in 2007 — Norman Mailer’s death, a sub-prime mortgage fiasco, the inexplicable fame of Hannah Montana. But for me, the year’s saddest bit of news came by way of a Brown Morning Mail sent a few weeks ago.

To: All Students Subject: Expanded Wireless Coverage As part of our ongoing effort to bring wireless access to every part of campus, we have just completed the wireless installation on the 3rd floor of the Sciences Librar y.

I should explain: The third floor of the SciLi is an altogether dismal place. It’s got fluorescent lights that flicker at odd intervals and this one chair with mysterious orange stains and a missing arm. It’s usually cold, and sometimes smells like a mausoleum. In fact, aesthetically speaking, it’s one of the worst places at Brown. But that little crack den of a study space had one redeeming quality: no wireless Internet.

Don’t get me wrong. I like having the web at my fingertips most of the time. But as a frequent paper-writer with the focus of an ADHD field mouse, it’s good for me to have places where I can sit down and work without getting waylaid by e-mail, YouTube and my mom’s unending flood of Jacquie Lawson e-cards.

Until recently, finding a sanctuar y was

fairly easy. During my freshman year, you could pick up a good wireless signal in the Blue Room, the lower floors of the Rockefeller Library, the SciLi mezzanine and a few lounges. But that was about it. Then, early last fall, Brown’s wireless program began a kudzu-like expansion across campus. First, it came to Tealuxe, my go-to writing spot.

When I found a signal there, I moved my base of operations back to my dorm room, where I discovered that it, too, had been hit by Brown’s technological Great Leap

out dozens of papers under those twinkling bulbs. By the time finals week rolled around, I had logged enough time on the third floor that some of my friends considered it my home. The gave it a nickname — “SciLiTri” — which I would also call it, if I cared ver y little about my dignity.

Then, with that single Morning Mail, my sanctified pseudo-office was gone. I was baffled. Why put wireless on ever y square inch of College Hill? Does Ruth Simmons need to check her stocks from the back

As a frequent paper-writer with the focus of an ADHD field mouse, it’s good for me to have places where I can sit down and work without getting waylaid by e-mail, YouTube and my mom’s unending flood of Jacquie Lawson e-cards.

For ward. Jesus. Will these people never stop tr ying to improve my life?

Then, a few weeks into the semester, I discovered my Walden Pond: the third floor of the SciLi. It was perfect. Quiet, but not creepy-quiet, with big desks and working outlets. And crucially, absolutely no wireless — not even a single connection bar. It quickly became my favorite place to work. I cranked

corner of the Ivy Room? Did a faculty member complain about not being able to read Talking Points Memo from broom closets in Faunce?

I know, I know. I guess I could use some willpower instead of griping about the hegemonic injustice of improved technology. But what scares me, I guess, is that there doesn’t seem to be any end in sight. At the risk of

sounding like my grandfather, the Internet is everywhere: restaurants, public parks, train stations, laundromats. I read a New York Times article the other day about Internet access on airplanes. Turns out, within the year, JetBlue, American, and several other airlines will offer wireless access on their domestic flights. An industr y analyst was quoted in the article as saying, “In a few years time, if you get on a flight that doesn’t have Internet access, it will be like walking into a hotel room that doesn’t have TV.” I might be the only person at Brown who noticed that innocuous e-mail about the third floor of the SciLi, but I know I’m not the only one who has wished that technology would chill out a little. I stayed at a friend’s house over winter break where there was no Internet — no wireless, no broadband, not even old-school dial-up -— and it was hugely liberating. I had time and mental space to devote to better things, like calling my friends and asking them to read my Facebook wall to me.

Seriously, I’m all for expanding technology at Brown. I’m no Luddite. But for productivity’s sake, I can’t help but wish that Brown would leave a few corners of campus disconnected. Maybe there could be one floor per librar y where we were promised safe haven, or a designated wireless-free zone in the new Faunce plans. Anything to help people like me.

But until then, by all means, if you know a good, techno-averse workspace, send me an e-mail and let me know. I promise to respond — probably much, much too quickly.

Kevin Roose ’09.5’s middle-school screen name was Crazeesk8er182.

S ports T hursday Page 12

Thursday, January 24, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

W. icers turn the corner

Florida swim trip successful

By Andrew Braca Assistant Spor ts Editor

Amy Ehrhart Spor ts Editor

Never count out the women’s hockey team before January. The Bears always find a way to right the ship.

Things looked bleak this season after Brown started out 1-10-2, going winless after a season-opening 1-0 triumph over Union on Oct. 26.

But the Bears rallied back to post a 2-3-1 record over winter break, with two of the losses coming narrowly against ranked opponents.

“We’ve always been better (in the) second half, always,” said Head Coach Digit Murphy. “It’s because of our commitment to teaching. … We really commit to the process early in the season. We’re not afraid to make mistakes early in the season just to win a hockey game. What ends up happening is that we get better as the season progresses.”

The turnaround began against No. 1 New Hampshire on January 5, Bruno’s first game in more than a month. Brown lost, 3-1, despite a goal from co-captain Rylee Olewinski ’08 and 39 saves by Nicole Stock ’09, but the game was more competitive than the final score indicated, with one UNH goal coming during an empty net with 55 seconds left in the game. Murphy said that the Bears’ ability to hang tough against New Hampshire gave the team confidence, especially heading into competition against lesser opponents.

“When a young team starts to believe that you can play with these

The men’s and women’s swim teams traveled to Boca Raton, Fla., for the Florida Atlantic Invitational over break. The men earned a first place finish against the University of Pennsylvania, Florida Atlantic University and Miami University of Ohio on Jan. 5. They won 14 of 16 events against Ivy foe Penn for a final team score 186-112. FAU also fell to Brown 213.5-80.5 and Miami-Ohio was annihilated 215-73.

The women took second against the Quakers, 132-168, winning five events. They also earned a 253-30 victory over Millersville University and finished behind FAU 204-96.

Conor Carlucci ’11, Kevin Hug ’08, CJ Kambe ’10, Brian Kelly ’08, Ryunosuke Kikuchi ’11, Daniel Ricketts ’09, Jonathan Speed ’11, Peter Volosin ’08 and Tucker Wetmore ’10 all earned first place finishes, sweeping the freestyle events for the men against the Quakers. Ricketts lead the way winning four events, while Kelly took home three individual wins.

“Overall we competed well,” said Head Coach Peter Brown. “We could’ve won the women’s meet, but we let the close races get away from us.”

Katie Olko ’10 took home the one-meter diving title, while the 200-meter races were dominated

by Natascha Mangan ’11 in the butterfly and Bailey Langner ’10 in the breaststroke. Sage Erskine ’11, Candice Sisouvanvieng-Kim ’11, Ally Wyatt ’08 and Lauren Zatorski ’08 combined for a first place finish in the 200 Medley Relay and Erskine, Susannah Ford ’10, Stephanie Pollard ’11 and Sisouvanvieng-Kim joined forces to win the 200 Freestyle Relay. The trip also allowed Brown to train for two weeks in an outdoor pool while the new temporary pool was being finished behind the OMAC. “It was really warm, which made training fun,” Mangan said. “It was really tiring though … We had practices twice a day and only two out of the 14 days off, but we had a great time.”

The teams came back to a home pool for the first time since 2006 after the new temporary aquatics bubble was finished last Thursday.

“It’s a really beautiful pool, ten lanes, and lots of room for our divers,” said Richard Alexander ’09.

“It’s been a really good experience to not have to go on the bus everyday.”

Brown, the head coach, echoed his sentiments of not having to travel an extra two hours everyday by bus to an alternate pool.

“It’s nice to be off the bus routine; it’s less stress not having to run around,” Brown said. The Bears travel to Harvard tomorrow to face one of last year’s top two teams. The men fell to the Crimson 179-116 last season while the women dropped their meet against their northern rivals 190-107.

“Harvard’s always tough,” Alexander said. “We are looking forward to another good racing experience.

It will be a good opportunity to test out that pool.”

Harvard will also be hosting the Eastern Intercollegiate Swimming League Championships in the beginning of March.

Sp

o r t s

Ashley Hess / Herald Nicole Stock ‘09 named USCHO.com’s Division I Player of the Week after breaking Brown’s record for saves in a game (66) and saves in a period (27) against Mercyhurst.

programs that are ranked, that’s a huge confidence boost,” she said.

“If you look at New Hampshire, they’re the top-ranked team and you still have teams in your conference that are not ranked. If you do the math, you could beat these teams

i n

Br

i e f

Grandstrand ‘11 named to College Soccer News’ All-Freshman squad Paul Grandstrand ’11 now has yet another postseason award. Over winter break, the men’s soccer goalkeeper was named to College Soccer News’ First Team All-Freshman squad.

After the regular season, Grandstrand was named the Ivy League’s Rookie of the Year as well as Second Team All-Ivy Goalkeeper. The Orono, Minn., native helped lead the Bears through a season that included a 15-2-1 overall record, an Ivy League Championship and their 23rd NCAA Tournament appearance. After a first-round bye, the Bears lost 2-1 to Old Dominion in the second round of the tournament.

Grandstrand had an individually superb year, coming out with a 10-1-1 record, including five shutouts. He earned his first start in the second game of the season, when he made six saves in a 2-1 Brown win against No. 5 Santa Clara. He played in 13 out of 18 games, starting 12 of them. He allowed 10 goals and made 43 saves in the season. For his efforts, he was also named Ivy League Rookie of the Week on three different occasions.

— Whitney Clark

if you have the right attitude going in and you make the right commitment to executing the plan.”

The team showed its resiliency by pulling out a 3-3 tie at Northeastern the following day. The Huskies scored twice in the 10th minute of

the third period to take a 3-1 lead, but Andrea Hunter ’10 scored off of a rebound at 15:59 to cut the lead to one. With 1:18 left in regulation and an extra attacker on the ice, cocontinued on page 9

Track and field teams warm up at URI meet over break Christina Stubbe Spor ts Staf f Writer

Ashley Hess / Herald

Paul Grandstand ‘11 named to the College Soccer News First Team All Freshman following an excellent season where he was named Ivy League Rookie of the Year and Second Team All-Ivy Goalkeeper.

The track and field team returned to campus early this semester to jump start their season. On Jan. 19th, the Bears competed in the eight-team Sorlein Track Invitational at the University of Rhode Island. Although Brown did not race its full squad, the women’s team finished third and the men’s team finished fourth. Head Coach Craig Lake was pleased with the results of the meet, saying that it ser ved as a good warm-up for the rest of the season.

On the women’s side, UConn won the day easily, racking up 252.5 points, but the struggle for second place was fierce. Brown delivered strong performances in both track and field events, but ultimately fell to URI by just half a point, 134.5 to 134.

Three first-place finishes marked the meet for the women.

Kesley Ramsey ’11 took home the blue ribbon in the 800-meter run, finishing in a personal best of 2:14.55, two seconds ahead of her nearest pursuer. It was the top event for Brown, with runners Michaeline Nelson ’11 (2:17.30) and Laura Armstrong ’10 (2:17.98) coming in third and fourth, respectively.

The Bears also made a strong showing in the relays. In the 4x800-meter relay, the Bears “A” team easily finished first

Men’s Track Results 1 2 3 4 5

UConn URI S. Conn. State Brown Stonehill

161.0 135.5 107.0 71.5 66.0

Women’s Track Results 1 2 3 4 5

UConn URI Brown Providence Wheaton

252.5 134.5 134.0 63.0 41.0

(9:23.15), beating second-place finisher Providence College by 11 seconds. The 4x400-meter relay team followed with a second-place finish, with a time of 3:55.40.

In the field, the Bears dominated the pole vault. Tiffany Chang ’08 won the event (3.6 meters), and Cassandra Wong ’10 finished second (3.2 meters).

On the men’s side, the Bears finished fourth overall behind UConn (161), URI (135.5) and Souther n Connecticut State (107). Although the Bears did not have a first-place finisher, Coach Lake said the most impressive part for both the men and the women was the number of athletes who turned in personal best performances. continued on page 9