Tuesday, December 2, 2008 by The Brown Daily Herald

The Brown Daily Herald T uesday, D ecember 2, 2008

Volume CXLIII, No. 121

Hiring freeze chilling for a few, unnoticed by others

Mumbai attack hits close to home for some By Brigitta Greene Contributing Writer

The white shirts yesterday went unnoticed by the majority of students. But to those who felt the recent Mumbai terrorist attacks closer to their hearts, even the small symbol of solidarity hit home. A mixture of sorrow, frustration, fear and uncertainty continues to hover over the daily lives of Brown’s Indian community, many of whom were affected by the Thanksgiving weekend attacks. The three-day siege left roughly 180 dead and more than 300 wounded in India’s financial capital. Several Brown and RISD students from Mumbai live in neighborhoods surrounding the landmarks targeted in the attacks. As the country’s political arena became turbulent, students like Vasundhara Prasad ’12 joined others around the country yesterday in wearing white shirts to show support for Mumbai. “I saw pictures of Cafe Leopold where I’ve been a million times. I recognized the decorations,” the Mumbai native said as she refreshed an Indian news site on her computer. “They were splattered with blood.” Karthikeyan Harith ’11 said he followed news streams for 72 straight hours following the attacks. Although India has been

Since 1866, Daily Since 1891

Unfilled spots, need for efficiency among challenges By Jyotsna Mullur Staf f Writer

The University’s recently announced hiring freeze on all nonessential staff may be leaving some departments understaffed. The hold on hiring, implemented in response to the current economic climate, will extend through at least January 2009. Some groups, such as the Third World Center, say they have no vacancies and have not felt the crunch of the hiring freeze. But others, such as the University Libraries, have unstaffed positions, which University Librarian Harriette Hemmasi says may affect operations. The Vacancy Review Committee, a newly formed group of administrators, will oversee requests from University departments seeking to hire employees or fill positions with consultants or temporar y hires. For positions that the committee determines are critical to the University’s functioning, departments may be granted permission to consider candidates for the job. A committee document on the

Courtesy of Wikimedia

Candlelight vigils were held across India to commemorate the roughly 180 killed and 300 wounded in the country’s largest city.

the target of various terrorist attacks in recent years, “This one is different,” Harith said. While previous attacks have targeted working class Indians, this attack was primarily directed toward the upper middle class, he said. “It left me totally numb,” he said. “It really hit home.” RISD sophomore Pranali Mehta said she had never before known anyone involved in a terrorist attack. “I feel helpless not being in

Faunce vigil A candlelight vigil in memory of victims is scheduled for 10 p.m. on the steps of Faunce. Bombay,” she said. Mehta’s aunt and uncle were eating dinner in the dining room of the Taj Mahal Hotel when the continued on page 6

vacancy review process asks departments to conduct their own thorough evaluations to determine if there is a “demonstrable and critical need” to fill a given position. After this self-evaluation, department officers can request vacancy reviews by the VRC — but “only those positions deemed essential to support the highest priorities in the Plan for Academic Enrichment and mission-critical operations are likely to be approved,” according to the document. President Ruth Simmons announced the hiring pause, among other reviews of expenditures, in a Nov. 4 e-mail to the campus community. The decisions to pause hiring and review other expenditures “were made so that we can continue to provide the flexibility to meet our highest needs, such as financial aid,” said Marisa Quinn, vice president for public affairs and University relations. Departments are encouraged by the committee to consider whether positions could be filled at a later time or eliminated completely by reassigning responsibilities to other employees. The committee also recommends that departments consider redistributing workloads and tasks across the department continued on page 4

Weather delays frustrate returns to College Hill By Amit Jain Contributing Writer

Moira Kwelyuk ’10 had planned to return to College Hill Sunday, in time for her Monday seminar. But 24 hours later, she was still waiting in her home state of South Carolina, one of many en route to College Hill who had their Thanksgiving travels disrupted by delayed flights. “I was supposed to leave on Sunday night at 6:13 p.m.,” Kwelyuk said, still in the airport Monday afternoon and having just heard that her flight was yet again delayed. “My bag had gone through, and they announced that the airport was essentially closed for the evening and no other flights would be leaving.” She attributed her delay to bad weather in Philadelphia and Chicago, where there was rain and snow. Kwelyuk said that she tried other avenues, including flights to New York and Boston, but ultimately found that she was “trapped in the state of South Carolina.” “I’ve been to the airport three times in 24 hours,” she said Monday afternoon. “I was here this morning trying to get a flight. ... They basically told me that I wouldn’t be able to get a flight until today at 4 p.m.” Patti Goldstein, vice president of

METRO

public affairs at the T.F. Green Airport, said delays across the country were mostly due to poor weather. Though the airport had no information on the total number of delayed flights, Goldstein said “it wasn’t all that many here.” She said the issues could be “mostly attributed to other markets in the Midwest and other areas where they had weather conditions.” Goldstein said delays in one region spilled over into the others. “It created a domino effect. If somebody’s coming from the West Coast back to Rhode Island and they’re connecting through Chicago ... (then) it all depends if those connecting areas have weather conditions.” Rebecca Mazonson ’12 was one of several students who traveled that path, flying on Southwest Airlines from San Francisco to Providence via Chicago-Midway with Kathryn Tringale ’12 and Julia Cabral ’12. Mazonson said her flight was supposed to arrive at 11:50 p.m. on Sunday but was delayed almost two hours. “It actually wasn’t ver y bad,” Mazonson said. “I met other Brown students and I sat with friends.” LanShiow Tsai ’10 experienced a similar delay on her US Airways

NO FOOD ON THE TABLE Rhode Island food bank expects a food shortage this winter thanks to state budget cuts

www.browndailyherald.com

continued on page 7

CAMPUS NEWS

Min Wu / Herald File Photo

Students celebrating the election of Barack Obama in front of Faunce House on Nov. 4, the subject of an upcoming Brown TV documentary. BTV is slated to be back on-air next semester.

A historic night, yours forever on BTV By Sarah Husk Staf f Writer

Nov. 4, 2008, a historic night by any standard, is the subject of an in-progress Brown TV documentary being spearheaded by Roman Gonzalez ’11. Gonzalez, executive producer for the project, said that while

Woe is We Harvard and Princeton move to slim budgets and freeze hiring in response to the economy

OPINIONS

watching returns in Salomon 101 on election night, he decided to grab a camera. The events that unfolded — students celebrating on campus and eventually walking down to the State House — were captured by Gonzalez and Calvin Main ’12. Gonzalez said they intend to somehow use the footage for BTV.

SUMMER SCHOOL Tyler Rosenbaum ’11 thinks classes should start in August, well before Labor Day

195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island

12 SPORTS

Gonzalez said he and Main shot about three hours of raw footage during the night. BTV has effectively been offair for a couple of years, but the closed-circuit campus television channel is slated to relaunch some time next semester, according to Gonzalez. continued on page 4 FOURTH-PLACE FINISHES Men’s water polo and wrestling both earned fourth place in tournaments last weekend

News tips: herald@browndailyherald.com

T oday Page 2

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

We a t h e r TODAY

Vagina Dentata | Soojean Kim TOMORROW

sunny 47 / 34

partly cloudy 46 / 28

Menu Sharpe Refectory

Verney-Woolley Dining Hall

Lunch — Chicken Fingers with Dipping Sauces, Tempeh Fajitas with Pico de Gallo, Jelly Roll

Lunch — Jamie’s Spiced Chicken Wings, Baked Manicotti with Sauce, White Chocolate Chip Cookies

Dinner — Orange Turkey, Au Gratin Potatoes with Fresh Herbs, Pasta with Sauces, Butterscotch Layer Cake

Dinner — Roasted Honey and Chili Chicken, Egg Foo Young, Sticky Rice, Peas, Butterscotch Layer Cake

Free Variation | Jeremy Kuhn

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

Brown Meets RISD | Miguel Llorente

Enigma Twist | Dustin Foley

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

ACROSS 1 Wailed 5 Winter warmer 10 Digestive fluid 14 Arthur of tennis 15 Pro’s foes 16 VAIO computer maker 17 Repair shop stock 19 Comparison word 20 Bar mixer 21 Barely manage, with “out” 22 Parks on a bus 23 Dull routine 24 Heavy woodpile covers 28 Paul Anka title meaning “That Kiss” 30 Air travel protection gp. 31 Little shaver 32 ’60s golfer “Champagne” Tony 33 Dawn deity 35 Scrumptious 37 Diet-conscious nursery rhyme guy 41 PGA Tour golf course near Miami 44 Chinese principle 45 Recipe amt. 49 Brian who produced several U2 albums 50 Outback runner 53 MetLife, for one 55 Shoelace alternative 58 “__ Believer”: 1966 hit 59 Kansas city 60 Job ad letters 61 When Bloody Mary sings “Happy Talk” 63 “Squawk Box” network 64 Radar gun sites 67 Californie, e.g. 68 Salon dye 69 Cork’s home 70 Indian cover-up 71 Wilderness photographer Adams 72 Eve’s grandson

DOWN 1 Prodigal one 2 Champion, as a cause 3 Specter 4 Hatcher of “Desperate Housewives” 5 Drivel 6 Anecdotal collection 7 Abbot’s address: Abbr. 8 Layered chocolate bar 9 Put a value on 10 Latin stars 11 Accomplices 12 Needing bailing out, maybe 13 ’80s soap about the Carringtons 18 Pilate’s “Behold!” 25 “Just __!” 26 Breakfast corner 27 Brit’s “Bye-bye” 29 Peninsula bordering California 34 Old jet set jet 36 Westernmost Aleutian island

38 One of the Sox, e.g. 39 Set of two 40 Columnist Barrett 41 Gadgets 42 City SSW of Cooperstown 43 Auto safety feature 46 Great __: United Kingdom part 47 Part-time player 48 Speaks highly of

51 Sitcom role for Brandy 52 Tiger won it in 2008 54 Small tiff 56 Saguaros, e.g. 57 Challenging years 62 Hudson Bay native 65 Opposite of WSW 66 Indian lentil dish

Alien Weather Forecast | Stephen Lichenstein and Adam Wagner

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

Fizzle Pop | Patricia Chou

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

M etro Tuesday, December 2, 2008

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Budget cuts leave food bank hungry for cash In a sluggish economy, an effort to keep business local Supermarkets also donating less food

By Emily Rosen Contributing Writer

By Lauren Fedor Staf f Writer

The Rhode Island Community Food Bank occupies more than 75,000 square feet in downtown Providence. Located at 200 Niantic Ave., the food bank’s warehouse can hold nearly 2 million pounds of food at one time. Yet as another bitter New England winter settles in, it is unlikely that the facility will be filled to capacity. Despite the efforts of the food bank staff and thousands of local volunteers, it appears as though a number of Rhode Islanders will go hungr y this holiday season, according to Andrew Schiff, executive director of the bank. The food bank ser ves as a distribution site, bringing in food from outside sources and dividing it among the local agencies. Its stocks reach approximately 51,000 needy Rhode Islanders each month, according to the bank’s Web site. But recent budget cuts have slashed state funding for the food bank, and as a result, the facility is expecting distribution rates to reach an all-time low for the upcoming year. Decisions by Gov. Donald Carcieri ’65 and the General Assembly to cut government grants to the food bank in half —

Min Wu / Herald

The Rhode Island Community Food Bank, which relies on donations and state funding, is expecting rough times this winter because of state budget cuts.

from $384,000 to $192,000 annually — will translate into “1.5 million pounds” of food lost, Schiff said. This is a “huge loss,” said Schiff, considering that the food bank has disseminated about 8 million pounds annually in the past. Food distributed by the bank comes from growers, producers, manufacturers, community food drives, distributors, retailers and food ser vice establishments located in Rhode Island and elsewhere across the country, Schiff said. The food is then sorted and checked by

food bank employees, volunteers and community ser vice workers before being divided among nearly 300 local agencies, including food pantries, homeless shelters and day care centers. The food bank’s budget relies almost entirely on donations. It is a registered nonprofit organization that is 90 percent privately funded, 8 percent state funded and 2 percent federally funded, according to its Web site. continued on page 7

Now tied with Michigan for the nation’s highest unemployment rate, the Ocean State launched “Buy Local R.I.,” an initiative to increase support for local businesses, last month. “The economy in Rhode Island is struggling,” Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts ’78 said in a press release. “As we look at our economy turning down, we need to invest our dollars here in Rhode Island. One of the best things we can do is to support local businesses.” Roberts serves as the chair of the Small Business Advocacy Council, which oversees the needs of the state’s small businesses. With the holiday season fast approaching, the initiative seeks to create public awareness of local stores and restaurants, and promote local shopping. After the holidays, the campaign will focus on creating a working group of local business owners and public officials. The group will “develop a network organization and a Web site dedicated to expanding the market for local businesses and products by connecting people to Rhode Island businesses,” according to the press release. “We know that Rhode Island is home to thousands of unique artists, artisans, retailers, manu-

facturers, cafes, restaurants, and farmers whose small businesses are locally owned and crucial to our neighborhoods, our quality of life, and Rhode Island’s overall economy,” Roberts said in the release. As part of the initial stages of the program, Roberts will hold a number of “Main Street” events in various cities in the coming weeks. The first of these events was held Wednesday, Nov. 19 in Westerly, where Roberts toured local businesses in the downtown area. “It’s hard to keep downtowns thriving,” said Carrie Baird, owner of a shoe store in Westerly who guided Roberts and others on the tour. “We have a lot of nice specialty stores in Westerly, and I want to make sure none are forgotten.” Baird said she and other local business owners plan to work on the design and implementation of the Web site, which will have a search feature allowing consumers to type in the name of a certain product and access a list of locally owned stores across the state. “The response (to the initiative) from the local businesses was ver y positive,” said Michael Tanaka, director of public and continued on page 6

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Tuesday, December 2, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

BTV producing election night documentary Hiring freeze felt by libraries, health services continued from page 1

continued from page 1 on a temporar y basis and even discontinuing certain programs and resources. Positions that are fully funded by outside donations and grants and offers of employment made before the pause took effect on Nov. 5 are exempt, according to the committee document. Edward Wheeler, director of Health Services, said that while the change has not significantly affected Health Ser vices, it has forced the staff to become more efficient. Currently, there is an opening for a part-time medical assistant, a position that entails putting patients in exam rooms, taking vital signs and performing electrocardiograms. That position will go unfilled for the time being. “We’re having to work a little harder, and work a little quicker, but it hasn’t interfered in any great degree with our work,” said Wheeler, adding that now, a medical assistant may work with more than one doctor or nurse practitioner in order to compensate for having fewer assistants. Wheeler said that students should not expect to see Health Services compromised in any way. “We’re not hurting the way other departments may be hurting, by luck, really. We did not have a significant number of openings” at the time of the pause was implemented. Health Services will look to fill the assistant position once departments are allowed to hire again, he added. The University Libraries are also coping with unstaffed positions. Currently, there are seven open positions, including an associate University librarian for access ser vices, an external relations and development officer and an assistant to the University librarian. The positions have been vacant since August. Hemmasi said the libraries are in the process of completing a

vacancy review request for the external relations and development officer position and the associate University librarian for access services — a position that would oversee 80 people and work across four departments. If the positions are left unstaffed, Hemmasi believes that librar y operations may be hindered. “I deem all of the positions essential,” Hemmasi said. “We have seven positions open, and in my mind, they are all necessary positions.” Hemmasi said student workers in libraries probably won’t be affected. Currently, all shelving and stacking positions are filled, she said. Librar y employees who are currently taking on more responsibilities are also being compensated for their extra work, Hemmasi said, noting that Ronald Dunleavy, interim head of Media Services, has received a stipend for his additional duties since the former head left in August. The committee suggests that “overtime should be authorized only to maintain critical services and operations.” However, not all groups in the University are feeling the staff crunch. Anjali Sridhar, assistant director of the TWC, said the TWC does not have any vacancies right now. “We were pretty much staffed at the beginning of the semester,” she said. “It really hasn’t affected us.” Steven Derderian, a cook at the Verney-Woolley Dining Hall, also said there are currently no openings in the kitchen. If the hiring pause lasts past January, Hemmasi said she thinks the University will continue to adapt. “All around the University, all of us would try to do what we can to make our operations successful and effective to serve Brown students and faculty,” Hemmasi said.

Gonzalez said he considered airing the raw footage on BTV, to “historically document it just straight — no cuts or anything.” But the plan has since evolved, and now Gonzalez and an eightmember production team have set their sights on producing a comprehensive documentary detailing the events of Nov. 4 and broader issues surrounding the election and its aftermath. The students working on the project envision the documentary combining the raw footage from election night, interviews, and other footage, both from outside news sources like CNN and from postelection lectures and events held on campus. Gonzalez said the producers intend to conduct interviews with leaders of campus political organizations, local politicians and professors, as well as less formal field inter views with students on the Main Green. “All signs point to the idea that we’re going to be known as the Obama generation,” Gonzalez said. What the documentar y seeks to

address, he said, is what exactly that means. The documentary is not focused specifically on political activism among young people, but rather “how (their) consciousness has shifted” since Nov. 3, Gonzalez said. The decision to edit and add to the footage to produce a full-fledged documentar y, instead of airing it uncut in early 2009, Gonzalez said, was motivated by a desire to approach the events “with a fair, critical eye and disinter something that may not have been noticed on first glance.” Gonzalez said that though the students working on the documentar y are “tr ying to be ver y journalistic,” the project is not entirely neutral — all were Obama supporters. The producers also plan to insert themselves in the documentary primarily by taping their brainstorming sessions and including the question-asking portions of their interviews in the final cut. “We’re going to be characters to follow in the documentary,” Gonzalez said. “We’re definitely taking some risks here.”

Nevertheless, Gonzalez hopes that being upfront about bias will ultimately enhance the project, he said, as his “interest in Obama is from a social and intellectual perspective and not an emotional perspective.” Though the team has sent out notifications through Morning Mail, Gonzalez said, securing inter views and finding footage has been “harder than we thought it would be.” Because they also hope to conduct follow-up interviews through the spring semester and because of the time-intensive process of creating the documentary, Gonzalez said the group is trying to secure independent study approval for next semester. Gonzalez said he plans to show the finished documentary on BTV in May, but added, “we are thinking big” — students involved with production have talked about submitting the finished product to film festivals and possibly sending it to the Obama administration. “We’re still not entirely joking that we’re trying to get an interview with Al Gore,” Gonzalez said. “We’ll see what happens.”

M. hockey to face Union Friday at Meehan continued from page 12 man wound up for a slap shot that beat Rosen, earning Backman his second goal of the game and giving Yale its first lead, 3-2. Yale scored each of its first three goals while on the power play. “We’re killing a period a game,” said Assistant Captain Aaron Volpatti ’10, referring to the need for so much penalty killing. “There’s no secret to why we’re losing. They got three power-play goals.” Brown looked to be in trouble again when referees sent Sean McMonagle ’10 to the penalty box for two minutes for cross checking at 13:13. At one point during the power play, play stopped, and Volpatti lined up for the faceoff.

“We were on the (penalty) kill, so coach just told me to take a shot on the draw,” Volpatti said. When the puck dropped, Volpatti directed it to the goal, and the shot beat Richard, tying the game, 3-3, with just under six minutes left in the third period. But the tie was short lived. As McMonagle skated back onto the ice after his two-minute crosschecking penalty expired, Martin took a slap shot from just inside of the blue line. The puck bounced off of Rosen’s right leg and deflected into the back of the net for what would turn out to be the gamewinning goal. Grillo called a timeout with 1:31 remaining in the final period. “I was just trying to get them to regroup and get them ready to go for when

we pulled the goalie,” Grillo said. But before Rosen left the net, a fight broke out which sent Vokes and Yale’s Chris Cahill to the penalty box. Brian O’Neill of Yale received a five-minute major for hitting from behind and a 10-minute game misconduct penalty. But Bruno couldn’t take advantage of the four-on-three opportunity. Rosen left the net with just 35 seconds remaining, giving the Bears a five-on-three attacker advantage. But it wasn’t enough, and the final seconds ticked away with Yale ahead, 4-3. Grillo wasn’t disappointed with the effort. But he added, “We’ve got to clean up some areas and one of them is taking penalties.” The Bears stayed away from the penalty box in their next game, giving up only four powerplay opportunities. The penalty kill unit defeated all four, but that wasn’t enough to stop UConn from claiming its first-ever victory over Brown, 4-1. The Huskies got on the board first when Bobby Reiners wound up from the top of the right face-off circle and shot the puck between the legs of goalie Mike Clemente ’12, who made his debut in goal for the Bears on Saturday. The game got away from Brown early as UConn’s Marcello Ranallo deflected a pass from Jason Krispel past Clemente. Krispel added a goal of his own 3:44 into the second period, to give the Huskies the 3-0 advantage. The Bears’ lone goal came 11:04 into the third period. Mike Griffin ’12 recorded his first career point when he sent a pass to Volpatti, who shot a onetimer into the back of the net. Down 3-1 with 1:15 left, the Bears pulled Clemente in exchange for an extra attacker. But the extra man didn’t help, and Michael Coppola of UConn scored on the empty net with just 25 seconds left, making the final score 4-1. The Bears search for their first win when they face Union (6-4-1, 1-3-0) Friday night at Meehan Auditorium at 7:07 p.m.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

g h e r

i n

Obama’s former rival next secretary of state

i e f

Harvard, Princeton cut hiring, building Harvard and Princeton universities, which have two of the largest endowments in the United States, are implementing hiring freezes and reductions in construction plans, respectively, in response to the declining economy. Harvard announced last week that its Faculty of Arts and Sciences, which includes the undergraduate college, will implement an immediate freeze on staff hiring, according to a Nov. 25 article in the Boston Globe. The university is simultaneously strongly encouraging department heads to cancel ongoing faculty searches. FAS Dean Michael Smith said positions deemed “critical” would be filled and paid for with funds created by cuts in expenses elsewhere, according to a Nov. 26 article in the Harvard Crimson. Reviews for promotion within the tenure-track system will continue as scheduled, Smith wrote in a e-mail sent to faculty and select administrators detailing the hiring freeze, according to the Crimson. Harvard’s endowment was $36.9 billion prior to the economic crisis, but the Crimson reported that it could have dropped by 30 percent in recent months, based on a Moody’s prediction to which Smith referred. Smith said in a November faculty meeting that “pushing off” pending administrative hires for the current fiscal year could save the university $10 million. “Given our heavy reliance on endowment income, these losses will have a major and long-lasting impact — one that will require significant reductions in our annual expenses,” Smith wrote in the e-mail. Princeton announced yesterday that the university will cut its 10-year, $3.9 billion construction budget by $300 million, according to a statement on the university’s Web site. New neuroscience and psychology buildings will be pushed back one year, to June 2010, and other construction and renovation plans will be delayed much longer, beyond the end of the current capital plan, which ends in 2016. Those postponed projects include the construction of a satellite art museum and storage facility, according to a Nov. 26 article in the Daily Princetonian. Additionally, Green Hall, the current location of the psychology building, will not be renovated as previously scheduled. Princeton’s endowment was $16.4 billion on June 30, according to Bloomberg News. The satellite art museum, which was scheduled to be part of the first building phase for the arts neighborhood, was delayed because the academic buildings will have a greater impact on undergraduate education, Executive Vice President Mark Burstein told the Daily Princetonian. “Postponing saves money,” Burstein said. “It gives us more time to design the project so that it is a more efficient project, and it also gives us more time to fundraise for the project.” Princeton also announced that some faculty and student housing projects will be delayed, though the university is still planning to upgrade the quality of graduate student housing. Other universities, including Brown, have also felt the crunch from the economic downturn. President Ruth Simmons announced a hiring freeze of staff and administrators at the University’s November faculty meeting. The hiring freeze is scheduled to last until January. Cornell imposed a hiring freeze of all new faculty from outside the university through March and has halted all new construction for at least 90 days, the Cornell Daily Sun reported on Oct. 30. Dartmouth announced delays in construction projects and a hiring freeze on Nov. 13, according to the Dartmouth, the college’s student newspaper. More than 20 other colleges and universities, including several states’ entire university systems, have also announced hiring freezes, the Chronicle for Higher Education reported Nov. 28. — Jenna Stark

Be advised: The University will conduct a routine, semi-annual test of its emergency siren system today at noon. No need to seek shelter!

By Michael Abramowitz and lenn Kessler Washington Post

WASHINGTON — Leaving the news conference in Chicago Monday where he introduced his national security team, President-elect Barack Obama strolled out of the room arm in arm with his choice for secretary of state

NATIONAL NEWS and onetime rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton. The gesture may have been a subtle indication that Obama is aware that one of the biggest questions about his choice of Clinton is the kind of relationship they will be able to forge in the months ahead. Many of the most successful secretaries of state, though not all, enjoyed great influence with the presidents they served, giving them crucial leverage with foreign leaders and inside the national security establishment. But Obama and Clinton are only starting to develop the kind of rapport that could lead to that trust, and the ultimate success of the senator from New York in her new role may depend as much on Obama’s willingness to admit her to his inner circle as her ability to

master the intricacies of the Middle East peace process or North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, according to senior foreign policy officials from past administrations. Democrats familiar with the transition said the two have spent time over the past several weeks discussing the parameters of the job and how they would work together: Clinton received assurances that she would have the kind of access to Obama she needs, as well as the authority to pick her own team. They said the Obama team would like her to select James Steinberg as her deputy, but that hardly seems a problem, since Steinberg worked closely with her husband in the Clinton White House as deputy national security adviser. Ironically, Steinberg recently coauthored a book raising questions about the wisdom of appointing “allstars” — foreign policy experts and prominent members of Congress with little connection to the new president — in key national security jobs. While such appointments can help foster a sense that a new president has made the transition from campaigning to governing, Steinberg and co-author Kurt M. Campbell pointed to numerous examples of the appointments leading to discord

and disappointment, especially in the Clinton administration. Some close to Clinton and Obama say the two are well aware of these potential pitfalls. In their private discussions in recent weeks, Obama “really made an effort to say that she would be an important member of his team,” said one Democrat familiar with the transition effort. Melanne Verveer, Clinton’s chief of staff when she was first lady, said Clinton was heavily influenced by watching her husband conduct foreign policy. “She learned the importance of there not being sunlight, if you will, between the secretary and the president in terms of foreign policy,” Verveer said. “She really understands the importance of speaking with one voice, and that is the president’s voice. Her record is very clear on that — and that is exactly what she will do.” Former secretary of state Madeleine Albright said that the body language of Obama and Clinton, as well as the public statements they have made since the primary season concluded, suggest that the partnership will work. “I think they are both highly professional and highly recontinued on page 6

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Tuesday, December 2, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Hillary Clinton nominated for State continued from page 5 spectful of each other,” she said. “I am sure that in fact that they have worked out a way that she will have the kind of access she needs. She will give him her opinion unvarnished, but she will also be a very good team member.” Clinton, if confirmed, may be the most prominent figure to hold the top job at State in modern times — a presidential candidate and former first lady who knows other world leaders on a first-name basis and has been a fixture on the world stage since the 1990s. Her nomination is the first time that a president has appointed a major political rival to head the State Department since 1881, when James Garfield chose James Blaine.

“I think this is a sensational appointment,” said Samuel “Sandy” Berger, who served as Bill Clinton’s national security adviser. “She brings intellectual firepower. She brings a high energy and a credibility in the world, which will be very valuable. Obama has shown great leadership in putting this team together.” But the risks to the appointment are substantial, and success is far from guaranteed. Clinton has enormous star power, but some of her predecessors who were initially greeted as rock stars, such as Colin Powell, proved to be less effective than anticipated. Clinton has no real experience managing a large government bureaucracy, and in fact her two most significant management missions — running the health-care task force in her husband’s first term and her own

presidential campaign — were riven by infighting. And Bill Clinton has been a magnet for controversy. During the primary campaign, the two leading Democrats also fought bitterly at times over foreign policy, with Clinton questioning Obama’s willingness to talk with Iran’s president and Obama questioning her judgment in supporting the resolution giving President Bush the authority to go to war in Iraq. But associates of both Clinton and Obama say the differences were magnified during the heat of the campaign; Clinton, they say, shares Obama’s desire to restore American influence in the world through diplomatic efforts such as a new initiative aimed at getting Iran to halt uranium enrichment that could lead to the development of a nuclear weapon.

Students mourn Mumbai terror attack continued from page 1 attacks started. After hearing the blasts, the waiters used tables and chairs to barricade the doors, and Mehta’s relatives hid in a small passage for two days. In another room, attackers lined up male hostages, forced them to the 25th floor and shot them one by one. Shot in the arm, Mehta’s classmate’s father fell to the ground and feigned death for two days before finally escaping. Neha Zope ’09, also from Mumbai, said her family and friends stayed in their homes for four days during the siege. “Everyone is still

in the process of recovering,” she said. The attacks underlined a drive for political change, especially with the upcoming national elections. According to Harith, the political system in India has long suffered from religious tension, corruption and “petty issues.” “It is definitely a wake-up call,” Harith said. College Hill itself remains relatively quiet in the aftermath of the attacks. All 12 Brown students currently studying abroad in New Delhi are “well and accounted for,” according to Ned Quigley, associate director of the Office of Inter-

national Programs. Quigley said no Brown students are studying in Mumbai. Deeksha Gupta ’10 is planning a candlelight vigil, like the many held across India, in memor y of the roughly 180 victims. She hopes to hold it on the steps of Faunce House at 10 p.m. today. “There is a collective sense of mourning in India right now,” she said. “It is difficult to feel that here.” “People always say Bombay has a kind of energy, a spirit to bounce back,” Zope said. “But no one knows what will happen this time.”

Lt. Gov. helping shoppers continued from page 3 community relations for Roberts. The local businesses in Westerly work well together, Tanaka said, adding that the tour held

there was a model for how future “Main Street” events in places like Greenville, Wickford, Warren and Newport should look like. A similar event will be held at noon in downtown Providence on Dec. 4.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Food bank seeing state cuts, fewer supermarket donations continued from page 3 But with the growing economic crisis, nearby supermarkets — which Schif f said are the food bank’s main source of supplies — are donating less food. For the last couple of years, the bank has seen an average annual decrease in donations of about 600,000 pounds of food per year, he said. Forced to seek donations elsewhere, the food bank has relied on the support of Feeding America, a national umbrella organization of more than 200 food banks, Schiff said. Feeding America negotiates with large food companies, such as Kellogg’s and Walmart, to donate truckloads of product. Member organizations of Feeding America then request the supplies, Schiff said, and the division of food is based on the number of people ser ved. Though Rhode Island’s economy is weaker than many states’ — its 9.3 percent unemployment rate is tied for highest in the nation — its small population means that the food bank can’t ser ve as many people as programs in larger urban areas ser ve. Though a high percentage of Rhode Islanders are in need, the food bank rarely receives donations from these larger national corporations. The food bank purchases some of the food it distributes, using previously allocated state funds to pay for the purchases and transportation. But because that grant was cut in half this year, the food bank has not been able to buy as much as food as it has in recent years. Compounding the decrease in supply is an increase in demand for the bank’s ser vices. According to Schiff, 20 of the food bank’s largest partner agencies are ser ving a combined 20,000 people per month — up 12 percent over the last 12 months — and the trend shows no signs of slowing. When less food enters the partner agencies, it becomes more and more difficult for them to provide for the people in need. Schiff said this creates a “terrible” situation for people in need. “Right now the way that we’re tr ying to handle this is by getting the food pantries and soup kitchens to collaborate more,” Schiff said. The food bank is encouraging partner agencies to “ration their portions” and “give everyone less” in an effort to conser ve supplies while still ser ving the hungr y, he added. “Reducing the number of pantries will not fix the problem,” Schiff said, “because if one pantr y is empty, a hungr y person will simply go to the next one.” Schiff described visiting a site in Coventr y last month that had “literally no food.” Schiff said that this agency, among others, would be forced to depend on local food drives in order to restock before

the holidays. Pride and poverty Lorraine Burns, who has run the St. Teresa of Avila food pantr y — which receives food from the bank — on Manton Avenue in Providence for more than a decade, said the poverty she has seen this year is “worse than ever.” “The need just keeps growing, growing, growing,” she said. “We used to see a certain type of person,” she said. “But now there are people coming to me who I never would have seen years ago.” St. Teresa’s has traditionally operated on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday mornings, but hard times have forced the food pantr y to open its doors on Wednesday nights as well. Over the course of five weeks before Thanksgiving, the Wednesday night pantr y has ser ved more than 116 families. “We’re ser ving the working poor on Wednesdays,” Burns said. She reported giving food to maintenance workers, nurses, teachers — groups that typically haven’t needed the aid of social ser vices in the past. “They’re embarrassed,” Burns said. “It hurts their pride.” Before Thanksgiving, Burns said, a man in his 70s came to St. Teresa’s on Friday morning, when he knew the food pantry was closed — because he did not want anyone to see him asking for help. The man sat down in Burns’ office, she said, and explained that his son, daughter-in-law and five children had moved into his home after the son lost his job. The man and his wife had been living on Atwells Avenue on a fixed retirement income and could not afford to feed the extra seven mouths. He broke down in tears as Burns handed him four bags of food for the weekend. But Burns cannot distribute food without discretion. She estimates that 80 to 85 percent of her resources come from the food bank, and with a limited supply in recent months, she has been forced to make difficult decisions, turning away some single people and young couples in favor of feeding families with children. “It’s a challenge ever y single day,” Burns said. She said she “lies awake at night” worr ying about the people she serves. “They have come to depend on me.” The 700 people Burns ser ves monthly indeed seem dependent. Some wait in line for hours for food shipments to arrive, and others frequent nearby food pantries when they can’t find what they need at St. Teresa’s, she said. Funds for the future This winter, government employees and elected politicians will begin planning the state’s budget for the 2010 fiscal year.

Students stuck in transit continued from page 1 flight from Philadelphia to Providence, which she said was pushed from an 8:55 p.m. to a 12:25 a.m. takeoff. Tsai said getting back to Providence around 1:30 a.m. disrupted her Monday plans. “I had classes from 9 a.m. ‘til noon and I didn’t go to any of them.” Students weren’t the only ones

experiencing delays. Associate Professor of Philosophy Nomy Arpaly sent an e-mail to her students Sunday night saying she was “stranded in Ohio” and had canceled class on Monday. In an e-mail to The Herald Monday evening, Arpaly wrote that her connecting flight was cancelled and she didn’t make it back to Providence Sunday at 11 p.m. as planned.

As they have in past years, legislators will hear testimony from many nonprofits, like the food bank, pleading on behalf of the organizations. Meredith Holderbaum, a legislative fiscal analyst on the state senate fiscal advisor y staf f, described these hearings as “heart wrenching” and “very difficult,” as legislators often hear from managers like Schiff, and citizens directly benefiting from the social outreach programs. In the end, however, state leaders must decide “what’s most important,” Holderbaum said. Because 90 percent of the food bank’s operating budget comes from private donations, many legislators assumed that it and its peer

organizations would be able to operate normally under large state budget cuts, Holderbaum said. In April, the state acted on that assumption, cutting the budget for fiscal year 2008 by 10 percent. Two months later, in June, the state announced the budget for the 2009 fiscal year, which reduced all grants to nonprofit organizations — including the food bank — by 50 percent. Schiff said he’s not confident that the state will pay even this newly reduced grant — so far, the food bank has received just a quarter of the $192,000 grant for fiscal year 2009. “I completely don’t trust them,” he said. “Are they going to make good on these grants” for 2009?

Three French Heralds

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Men’s water polo falls to Princeton and St. Francis continued from page 12 tively. “We really played to the best of Brown’s capacity in that game,” Gartner said. With a win under their belts, the Bears headed into game two to take on the No. 13 Princeton Tigers in the semifinal game. Princeton jumped out to an early lead, scoring two goals in the first five minutes of play. With less than three minutes remaining in the first quar ter, Gar tner put the Bears into the game with a goal, but Princeton answered right back, converting a penalty shot. The Tigers strengthened their lead in the first half of the second quarter, bringing the score to 5-1, but Bruno kept fighting, bringing the game back to within two points with goals from Hood and Fort. “I thought we were definitely in a position to come back and make a run of it,” Hood said. “But we just couldn’t put our shots away, I guess. To their credit, they played really well.” The teams continued to trade goals in the third period, and Brown entered the fourth and final quarter with some momentum as LeBeau converted a penalty shot in the first minute of play. But that was the closest the Bears would get to victor y and in the end the Tigers got the best of the Bears, closing out the game with yet another five-goal advantage, with a score of 14-9. “I think the Princeton game was

a very winnable game,” Hood said. “We’re obviously disappointed that we lost it, they just played better than we did.” In their final game of the season, Brown faced off against St. Francis for the third-place title. Earlier this season, the Bears upset St. Francis with a hard-fought 9-8 victory, but fell to St. Francis, 15-5, in the Northern Division Championship. This time, St. Francis once again got the better of the Bears, holding them off for a 11-8 victor y. “St. Francis obviously plays really smart water polo. They’re very talented,” Hood said. “They always seem to capitalize on our mistakes, and those mistakes get magnified and it’s harder to come back.” Gartner scored another three goals in his final game, bringing his tournament total to nine goals and earning him the title of CWPA Northern Division Player of the Week. “Our big goal was to win Easterns, but our other goal was to win that first game,” Gartner said. “Overall it was a pretty rewarding season, beating Navy and St. Francis for the first time in a long time.” And while this team will suffer a great loss with the graduation of its four seniors, the men are optimistic about the future of Brown men’s water polo. “The program is on its way up,” Gartner said. “And that’s kind of what we came into Brown to do, to build the program.”

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E ditorial & L etters Page 10

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Staf f Editorial

Coping with recession It’s official. The National Bureau of Economic Research announced yesterday that the country is in a recession, which naturally sent the major indices into an 8 percent dive (as if this were sudden or startling news). As the economic outlook has worsened, University officials have released information on their response in fits and starts. First, the University was rather vague. President Ruth Simmons predicted in the October faculty meeting that the timeline on some projects would have to be slowed in order to stay committed to comprehensive financial aid. Officials have had little to say about how much of a slowdown will be necessary. At the end of October, Provost David Kertzer ’69 P’95 P’98 informed students the University would be more lenient in accepting late payments and outstanding balances. Both moves — the affirmation of Brown’s commitment to financial aid and its flexibility for families facing financial strain — showed a compassionate response that is to be commended. Beyond short-term compassion, the University also took steps to control costs and plan for the medium-term. In November, Simmons offered more detail and instituted a hiring freeze for staff. She suggested that while faculty searches would go on, the University planned to view any new hiring with a skeptical eye and that administrative structures might be slimmed down. She also wrote to community members that University officials would spend more time fundraising. With initial steps taken to control costs and reassure families, Brown must now turn its eye to the long term. Administrators and faculty have all but announced that the University will have to delay some of its capital projects, but they have so far declined to offer any details. They have also mysteriously said projects could potentially go ahead if all pledged donations are paid up, leading us to wonder whether there’s been a significant problem with donors who are unwilling or unable to fulfill pledges they made in better times. The time to address the future of capital projects and any problems with fundraising is now. Before Thanksgiving, Princeton released detailed information on its long-term planning, announcing it would lower its fundraising targets, postpone construction of a planned psychology and neuroscience building (sound familiar?) and indefinitely delay several other building projects. If one of the world’s wealthiest universities is taking such critical action, it leaves us worried about the kinds of cuts Brown will have to make. Furthermore, seeing Princeton’s specific plans leaves us eager to find out what Simmons and her team have planned for the University’s long-term future — hopefully before conditions deteriorate further.

T he B rown D aily H erald Editors-in-Chief Simmi Aujla Ross Frazier

Executive Editors Taylor Barnes Chris Gang

Senior Editors Irene Chen Lindsey Meyers

editorial Ben Hyman Hannah Levintova Matthew Varley Alex Roehrkasse Chaz Firestone Nandini Jayakrishna Scott Lowenstein Michael Bechek Isabel Gottlieb Franklin Kanin Michael Skocpol Ben Bernstein James Shapiro Benjy Asher Amy Ehrhart Megan McCahill Andrew Braca Han Cui Katie Wood

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production Production & Design Editor Steve DeLucia Chaz Kelsh Asst. Design Editor Kathryn Delaney Copy Desk Chief Seth Motel Copy Desk Chief Adam Robbins Graphics Editor Web Editor Greg Edmiston

Business Darren Ball General Manager Mandeep Gill General Manager Shawn Reilly Office Manager Alexander Hughes Sales Director Emilie Aries Communications Director Jon Spector Finance Director Claire Kiely Local & National Sales Manager Ellen DaSilva University Sales Manager Philip Maynard Local & Recruiter Sales Manager Katelyn Koh Asst. Finance Director

C hris J esu L ee

L e tt e r s Disciplinary proceedings unfairly target some students To the Editor: David Crimmin’s ’72 letter (“Alum criticizes justification of group’s actions,” Nov. 20) misrepresents the issue. If members of Students for a Democratic Society were not willing to accept punishment, they would not have undertaken the protest. It is a risk that all activists take when they try to advocate for a larger community’s wishes. However, this does not mean that they think they are being fairly charged and will not fight it. Indeed, from my vantage point outside the University, the disciplinary proceedings make it look as though the University administration is trying to make an example out of eight SDS members to scare off other activists. If they were really concerned with being fair and just, they would charge everyone who was involved in the

action instead of just eight of them. Scare tactics are a pretty common means authorities use to try to suppress uppity people. I am just amazed that such a small group of students could cause so much trouble for the Corporation. Building widespread community support (1,000 signatures) and spending the better part of a year trying to get their voices heard while enduring such resistance is not a small feat. It is like Gandhi said: “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” Looks like SDS has been through the “being ignored” and “laughed at” part, now they are in for the fight. Will Pasley ’07 Nov. 20

photo Meara Sharma Min Wu Justin Coleman

Photo Editor Photo Editor Sports Photo Editor

post- magazine Matt Hill Rajiv Jayadevan Arthur Matuszewski Colleen Brogan Kelly McKowen Patrick Martin-Tuite Bob Short Monica Huang Kristen Olds

Managing Editor Managing Editor Features Editor Features Editor From the Hill Editor Film Editor Music Editor Layout Editor Layout Editor

Marlee Bruning, Steve DeLucia, Designers Katie Delaney, Jennifer Kim, Kelly Mallahan, Madeleine Rosenberg Copy Editors Franklin Kanin, Chaz Kelsh, Emmy Liss, Jenna Stark, Night Editors Senior Staff Writers Mitra Anoushiravani, Colin Chazen, Chaz Kelsh, Emmy Liss, Brian Mastroianni, George Miller, Melissa Shube, Anne Simons, Sara Sunshine, Gaurie Tilak, Caroline Sedano, Jenna Stark, Joanna Wohlmuth, Simon van Zuylen-Wood Staff Writers Zunaira Choudhary, Leslie Primack, Sydney Ember, Connie Zheng, Christian Martell, Alexandra Ulmer, Lauren Pischel, Samuel Byker, Anne Deggelman, Nicole Dungca, Olivia Hoffman, Cameron Lee, Debbie Lehmann, Sophia Li, Hannah Moser, Seth Motel, Kyla Wilkes, Juliana Friend, Sarah Husk, Jyotsna Mullur, Chris Duffy Sports Staff Writers Peter Cipparone, Nicole Stock Business Staff Maximilian Barrows, Thanases Plestis, Agathe Roncey, Allen McGonagill, Ben Xiong, Bonnie Kim, Cathy Li, Christiana Stephenson, Corey Schwartz, Evan Sumortin, Galen Cho, Han Lee, Haydar Taygun, Jackie Goldman, Jilyn Chao, Kathy Bui, Kelly Wess, Kenneth So, Lee Chau, Lyndse Yess, Margaret Watson, Matthew Burrows, Maura Lynch, Misha Desai, Stassia Chyzhykova, Webber Xu, William Schweitzer Design Staff Marlee Bruning, Jessica Calihan, Rachel Isaacs, Jessica Kirschner, Joanna Lee, Julien Ouellet, Maxwell Rosero Photo Staff Alex DePaoli, Eunice Hong, Kim Perley, Quinn Savit Copy Editors Rafael Chaiken, Ellen Cushing, Younhun Kim, Frederic Lu, Lauren Fedor, Madeleine Rosenberg, Kelly Mallahan, Jennifer Kim, Tarah Knaresboro, Jordan Mainzer, Janine Lopez, Luis Solis, Ayelet Brinn, Rachel Starr, Riva Shah, Jason Yum, Simon Liebling, Rachel Isaacs, Geoffrey Kyi, Anna Jouravleva Web Developers Jihan Chao, Neal Poole

Interested in writing the editorials? This spring, editorials will be written by a newly formed Editorial Page Board. All students are eligible to apply. For more information, contact editorials@browndailyherald.com

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O pinions Tuesday, December 2, 2008

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Classes should start earlier BY TYLER ROSENBAUM Opinions Columnist I love reading period. Yes, it involves a lot of studying, but unless Brown does away with final exams, it’s better to have a week off from classes to prepare. But one aspect of reading period continues to puzzle me. Reading period is shorter in the fall than it is in the spring. Much shorter, in fact. This year, it goes from Dec. 7 to 11, and Dec. 7 is a Sunday (Saturday evidently didn’t make the cut). That comes to four days off from classes. In the spring semester, reading period lasts eight school days, twice as long as in the fall. The discrepancy owes to the fact that Brown’s fall semester is ver y constrained. In both semesters, the University needs to fit in about 65 days of teaching (around 13 weeks) in addition to a week and a half of finals, sundr y vacations and a reading period. There are only 16 weeks between Labor Day and Christmas. By contrast, there are over 18 weeks between Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and Commencement. And unlike Christmas, Commencement can be pushed back a week if necessar y. Quite understandably, things get a lot more cramped in the fall. The fall semester should be longer. There are numerous benefits to beginning earlier. In addition to giving students a longer, more useful reading period, Brown could give us a weeklong Thanksgiving break. For those Brown students who don’t

reside in New York or New England, ending classes only twelve hours before Thanksgiving Day can pose a major inconvenience. The University essentially dares students to skip several days of classes to be with their families, and those who cannot get a severely truncated vacation. In my two years at Brown, I have not gone home for Thanksgiving, and do not plan to do so in the future. Travel would take up half of my vacation, and I have a hard time justifying a $400 plane ticket for

Brown doesn’t currently obser ve during the academic year. If we’re going to give students the day off on Columbus Day (a discussion for a different column), it’s disrespectful not to recognize Veterans Day as well. Even though the date might be less convenient, our classes should star t before Labor Day. Starting before Labor Day is standard practice at a number of colleges— almost all of my friends at other colleges start school

Starting before Labor Day is standard practice at a number of colleges — almost all of my friends at other colleges start school in August, and return in the first or second week of December. two days with my family less than a month before the semester gets out. If classes started before Labor Day, Brown could give us an entire week off for Thanksgiving. The University could also recognize Veterans Day — the only federal holiday that

in August, and return in the first or second week of December. Our belated beginning can also cut winter break short. I didn’t make it home until Dec. 21 last year, a mere three days before Christmas Eve. My delayed departure caused me

to miss out on all of the hallmarks of my family’s most important holiday — buying and trimming a tree, shopping for presents and decorating the house, for example. I know Brown is a secular university, as well it should be. But changing the schedule to make things more convenient for the vast majority of students is not the same as inappropriately caving in to religious demands. A 2003 poll suggests that 96 percent of Americans celebrate Christmas — a much higher percentage than is actually Christian — and 91 percent of Brown students hail from the United States. A large proportion of the student body celebrates Christmas, and presumably many students are dissatisfied with how few days separate the end of Brown’s fall semester from Christmas. Summer break is already excessively long, stretching three and a half months and providing more than enough time for work and relaxation. It’s a fair bet that many students would be more than willing to trade in the lazy last week of August for an additional week at home during the holiday season. Under this policy, winter break would encompass Hanukkah more frequently and for more days. Brown should eliminate the strange asymmetr y between its two semesters. Star ting before Labor Day would cause little, if any, inconvenience, and would result in a markedly better fall semester for ever yone involved.

Tyler Rosenbaum ’11 only takes hard classes in the spring.

It’s too easy out there for a pimp By Sarah Rosenthal Opinions Columnist In a recent column for The Herald (“Behavioral monopolies and Sex Power God,” Nov. 24), Boris Ryvkin ’09 wondered why Sex Power God is so popular. He concluded that it’s the old Puritan morality rearing its ugly head, preventing American students from getting the kind of no-strings-attached sexual gratification that Europeans enjoy on a regular basis. I’m going to be one of those feminists that makes Ryvkin feel “gloomy and guilty on a 24-hour basis” and say that his musings on prostitution show a blinding disregard for the human tragedy of sex trafficking. Prostitution is not sexy or glamorous or empowering like on Secret Diary of a Call Girl. Most prostitutes are not like Ashley Alexandra Dupre, who used her affair with disgraced New York governor Eliot Spitzer as a launching pad for MySpace celebrity and what I’m sure will be an illustrious musical career. Spitzer, meanwhile, will not face any charges, because he has “atoned for his private failings.” The idea that Spitzer’s crime was not a crime but a sin, a personal matter requiring personal penance, fits nicely into the perception of prostitution as a victimless offense. Spitzer broke the New York anti-trafficking laws that he himself signed, but apparently, the loss of wealth, power and status is a proper substitute for impartial justice when it comes to prostitution. What about those who have neither wealth nor power nor status, the “losers” that Ryvkin fears will be cut out of the mating game? To them I say: Cry me a river. Exploiting women who are victims of pov-

erty, drugs, racism and abuse that can include childhood molestation and incest, in order to correct “horrendous market disequilibrium,” ignores the reality of prostitution. In addition, assuming that those women want to be in the sex trade is like saying a rape victim was asking for it. Ultimately, Rykvin ignores the fundamental matter of choice. I think Sex Power God is silly, so I choose not to go to it. It may not be

who annoy you. We moderate those instincts with this great new thing called civilization. Sex Power God is the one crazy night a year when everyone who wants to discard the conventions of civilization can throw off their clothes and their inhibitions. During the rest of the year, there are frat parties, naked parties and, if you’re truly desperate for physical human contact, BURP. No one is forcing you to do any of these

Everyone who goes to Sex Power God wants to go and goes with full awareness of what to expect. That is not true of a ten year-old girl forced into prostitution or sex slavery. your scene, but you can be sure that everyone who goes to Sex Power God wants to go and goes with full awareness of what to expect. That is not true of a ten year-old girl forced into prostitution or sex slavery, whether in Calcutta, Sarajevo or New York City. People say that prostitution is the oldest profession, one that will never go away. This makes sense because sex is natural. It’s the most natural thing in the world, along with nudity, urinating outside and hurting people

things. There’s no compulsion and no shame. Prostitution features both compulsion and shame, though the shame targets the wrong people. Most states follow counterproductive laws that criminalize prostitutes while allowing pimps and johns to escape punishment. Women make up the vast majority of prostitution arrests even though claiming to combat prostitution while letting pimps walk free is like cracking down on drugs and ignoring dealers.

Ryvkin advises American policymakers to emulate the less restrictive Western European approaches to prostitution in order to correct the horrendous market disequilibrium. They might instead look to northern Europe, specifically Sweden, for a model that acknowledges the reality of exploitation and violence involved in sex work. In Sweden, selling sex is not criminal, but buying it or facilitating its transaction is. The number of prostitutes has dropped 40 percent since that policy came into effect. Americans should treat pimps and johns as actual criminals rather than mere sinners — or worse, the heroes immortalized by Three 6 Mafia. As a result, we could reduce exploitative prostitution drastically without clogging our already overcrowded prisons with small-time offenders as we do for drugs. According to a study by the Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation, nearly 80 percent of men who buy sex said they would be deterred if their families were notified. Nearly 90 percent said they would be deterred by being publicly exposed to their communities. If a man molested a little blond girl, you can bet his face would be in every paper and on every news show. There is no reason why anyone caught pimping or patronizing an underage prostitute should not receive the same treatment. Just because Sex Power God and prostitution are both outlets for men’s sexual needs does not make them equally acceptable. Take care of your sexual needs, but not if your freedom to do so entails someone else’s enslavement and degradation.

Sarah Rosenthal ’11 thinks the U.S. should adopt the Rhode Island model — prostitution is legal, but only indoors.

Are you interested in becoming an opinions columnist next semester? Contact opinions@browndailyherald.com for more information.

S ports T uesday Page 12

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Pair of losses for m. hockey against Yale, UConn A few bright By Dan Alexander Spor ts Staf f Writer

Ashley Hess / Herald File Photo

Men’s hockey lost to Yale on Tuesday and UConn on Saturday, leaving the team without a win yet this season.

Sp i n

The men’s hockey team (0-6-2, 0-3-2 ECAC) couldn’t pick up its first win of the season in its contests against Yale and UConn last week. The Bears dropped their game against Yale (6-2-0, 3-1-0), 4-3, on Tuesday night after Bulldog Jimmy Martin put a slap shot in the bottom left corner of the net with less than five minutes remaining. The UConn game was more one-sided, as the Huskies (4-9-0) scored the game’s first three goals and ended ahead, 4-1. The Bears started well on Tuesday night, picking up where they left off from the previous week, when they tied Harvard, 3-3. Assistant Captain Matt Vokes ’09 — who put in the game-tying goal against Harvard on the previous Tuesday — received a pass at the top of the left faceoff circle from Jeff Buvinow ’12. Vokes’s slow wrist shot managed to beat Yale goalie Alec Richards to give the Bears a 1-0 lead at 10:46 in the first period. The Bulldogs went on the power play after Matt Palmer ’09 was whistled for a two-minute holding penalty at 18:26. As the final seconds ticked down in the first period, goalie Dan Rosen ’10 blocked a shot from in front of the net, but failed to secure the puck. The puck deflected into the air, above Rosen’s head, and when it came down, Sean Backman of Yale slapped it past Rosen to even the score, 1-1, at the end of the first period. Brown got an opportunity un-

der seven minutes into the second period after Eric Slais ’09 forced a Yale turnover. Vokes collected the puck and took it down the left side of the ice. Slais charged down on the right, and a Bulldog defender split the two Bears. Vokes faked a pass to Slais, causing the defender to slip. Vokes then sent the puck to Slais, who put a one-timer behind Richards. “I was looking for Slais all the way because he has got great finishes,” Vokes said. Yale came charging back at the end of the second period. A collision at 10:18 caused the referees to send Bobby Farnham ’12 to the penalty box for inter ference in a questionable call. Head Coach Roger Grillo yelled out, “Are you kidding me?” and the rest of the Brown bench looked angered by the call as well. The Bulldogs capitalized on the one-man advantage a minute and a half later when Yale’s Kevin Peel fired a shot from the left face-off circle. Rosen deflected the puck to his right, but left a half-empty net. Yale’s Nick Jaskowiak got to the puck first, and scored on the halfopen goal, tying the game, 2-2. The Bulldogs’ momentum continued when they got another power-play opportunity, after a referee cited Mike Stuart ’09 for interference with under two minutes left in the period. As the final seconds ticked away in the second period, Denny Kearny of Yale passed the puck to Backman at the point. Backcontinued on page 4

o r t s

r i e f

Squah falters against Harvard The men’s squash team struggled in their first competition of the season, losing 9-0 to a dominant Harvard squad. The Crimson did not lose a game in the nine matches, though several Bears kept the matches close. At No. 6, Brad Thompson ’12 continued to battle after a 9-1 first-game loss and remained competitive, losing the next two games, 10-8 and 9-6. Alex Heitzmann ’10 also turned in a solid effort at No. 9, but came up short, falling, 9-4, 9-7, 9-3. The women’s squash team had a similar result, failing to win a game in a 9-0 loss to Harvard. Charlotte Steel ’09, playing at No. 1, put up the strongest fight, in a 9-1, 9-4, 9-5 loss. Both squads will resume competition this weekend, with home matches against Princeton on Saturday and Penn on Sunday. — Benjy Asher

sch e d u l e WEDNESDAY, DEC. 2 W. hockey at BU, 7 p.m. M. basketball at Providence, 7 p.m.

Ashley Hess / Herald File Photo

Men’s water polo finished its season with a fourth-place finish at Eastern Championships.

M. water polo ends season ranked 17th By Anne Deggelman Spor ts Staf f Writer

On Sunday, Nov. 23, the men’s water polo team ended its season with a fourth-place finish at the Eastern Division Championships and a No. 17 national ranking. The Bears kicked off their final tournament with a 12-6 win against Johns Hopkins, but fell to Princeton and St. Francis in their final two games of the season. “The weekend started really nice, beating Johns Hopkins. We came out with a lot of fire,” Mike Gartner ’09 said. “We knew that

that was a game we had lost for three straight years and we didn’t want to do it again.” Against Johns Hopkins the Bears jumped out with the early lead, with goals from Nico Fort ’09, Gartner, Gordon Hood ’11 and Toby Espinosa ’12. In the second quarter the teams traded goals, but Gartner, Zach Levko ’10 and Hank Weintraub ’09 kept Johns Hopkins at bay. Grant LeBeau ’09 led the team in the third quarter, scoring a natural goal and converting on a penalty shot. While the teams continued to trade goals in the

fourth quarter, the Bears had sealed their lead, and swam away with the 12-6 victory. “A big part of water polo is the team chemistry,” Gartner said. “I think the Johns Hopkins game, we just knew where each other were. We had great chemistr y and seniority.” Kent Holland ’10 came up big in the cage with 15 saves, earning him the title of Player of the Game. Gartner and LeBeau also played big, scoring four and three goals for the Bears, respeccontinued on page 9

spots, but tourney disappoints By Han Cui Assistant Spor ts Editor

The wrestling team competed in the Journeymen/BRUTE Northeast Collegiate Duals on Saturday. The team took fourth place after losing to Binghamton University, 31-9; American University, 30-12; and the No. 5 University of Missouri, 41-3. “They are all good teams,” said Assistant Coach Ed Gutnik. “But we could have wrestled better.” Co-captain Matt Gevelinger ’09 led the team with two wins in the 184-pound weight class. He first defeated Andrew Semple of American by an 8-5 decision and then won against John Andrews of Missouri by a 5-1 decision, which turned out to be the sole victory Brown earned against the Tigers. Gevelinger dropped his opening match against Joshua Patterson of Binghamton by fall. Besides Gevelinger, four other Bears earned points for the team. Eli Harris ‘09, wrestling at 133, won the first match for Brown in the opening dual against Binghamton, taking down his opponent with an 8-2 decision. In the same dual, Ziad Kharbush ’12 defeated Anthony Esposito by a score of 7-2 at 174. Zachary Zdrada ’09 captured three more team points in the heavyweight class after defeating Carl Korpi, 8-2. In the dual against American, Branden Stearns ’09 won a close match against Andrew Silber, 6-5, in the 197-lbs weight class, and Brown earned six more points when American forfeited the 165 match. The team expected better results from this past weekend, according to Gutnik, who said the three losses were “not due to one single thing.” “We need to better prepare ourselves for matches in practice,” Gutnik added. He pointed out the team needs to improve on the top positions. Injuries also contributed to the Bears’ loss. Greg Einfrank ’10 and co-captain Chris Musser ’09 have both been out due to injuries so far this season but are expected to return when the dual meet season starts in January, according to Assistant Coach John Clark. The Bears were coming off a competition at the Keystone Classic Tournament at University of Pennsylvania, which took place on Sunday, Nov. 23, right before Thanksgiving break. Brown took fifth place out of ten teams, with four wrestlers placing individually. Gevelinger led the team as the No. 1 seed in his weight class and fulfilled the promise by taking first place, and Stephen DeLorenzo ’10 turned in a third-place performance in the 149 class. Bryan Tracy ’10 placed fifth and Kharbush placed fourth in the 165 and 174 weight classes, respectively. This weekend, the Bears will travel to the two-day Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational, which will take place on Friday and Saturday. The team will compete against 47 other schools, including Ivy League rivals and some of the top-ranked teams in the country.