Thursday, December 4, 2008

The Brown Daily Herald T hursday, D ecember 4, 2008

Volume CXLIII, No. 123

Recession clouds future of ’08.5 grads

Disciplinary council to hear charges against SDS

25 People you Should KNOW

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includes some of their peers, rather than one administrator.

On the day of the protest, eight students made it up the stairs to just outside the room where the meeting was being held. Seven of the eight charged students have been identified by the University as making it up the stairs, SDS member Chantal Tape ’09, who has also been charged, told The Herald in a Nov. 18 article.

The University is alleging that the eight charged students “caused a meeting of the University Corporation to be disrupted,” “forcibly entered a University building that was closed” and “caused University personnel to be injured” in the process, according to a letter sent to the charged students by Associate Dean of Student Life Terry Addison.

Seven of the students are also being charged with failing to present identification upon request.

The University contends that two DPS officers and President Ruth Simmons’ Executive Driver James Trail sustained minor injuries while trying to keep students out of the building, according to SDS members.

The UDC panel must consist of a minimum of five members of the larger UDC, including at least one member of the faculty and some students and staff, said Vice Presi-

By Joanna Wohlmuth Senior Staff Writer

Networking especially valuable in poor economy, CDC says

Like many of his classmates, Dan MacCombie ’08.5 has been looking for consulting jobs. But with the economic crisis making many of these opportunities evaporate, the soon-to-be graduate is setting his sights south: He plans to travel to Ecuador in January and February, working to develop a sustainable beverage company that he might pursue when he returns to New York in March.

“Everywhere I talked to that had job postings up in the spring is no longer hiring,” he wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. “I don’t know where I’ll end up, but I’m going to bust my chops trying to find something good,” he wrote, adding, “There is, of course, always retail...”

The 93 undergraduate students finishing their Brown careers alongside MacCombie this Saturday will enter an economy in a now-official recession and face a national unemployment rate that reached 6.5 percent in October.

“It would seem that 2008.5 graduates have been impacted by the poor economy, however it’s difficult to gauge the extent,” Bill Bordac, communications and public relations officer for the Career Development Center, wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. There has been a decrease in organizations recruiting on campus, he wrote, adding that finance and banking have been hit the hardest.

Finance, construction work, real estate and banking are feeling the economic downturn more than other fields, though these effects will spread, according to Senior Lecturer in Economics Rachel Friedberg.

“There is kind of a trickle-down. A lot of funders and big donors earn their money in finance. That could hurt nonprofits.”

But students should not worry about long-term job prospects, Fried-

Since 1866, Daily Since 1891

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post- Magazine’s 25 Brown students you should know includes a mathematical genius, writers, volunteers and a Rhodes Scholar.

See post-, inside

Three-quarters of letter grades in humanities are A’s

By Sophia Li Staf f Writer

More than half of the grades given at Brown last year were A’s — but not all disciplines are created equal.

According to data from the Office of Institutional Research, the proportion of A’s out of all letter grades awarded in the humanities was 75 percent last year, greater than in any other discipline. In other disciplines this number ranged from 58 percent to 63 percent.

But the life sciences awarded the greatest proportion of A’s out of all grades — including Satisfactory and No Credit. Last year 53.4

percent of grades in such courses were A’s, representing an increase of 11.8 percentage points over 11 years, more than in any other discipline.

51.3 percent of all grades, including S/NC grades, given in humanities classes were A’s. But the proportions of B’s and C’s awarded in these classes were significantly lower — 15.9 percent and 1.2 percent, respectively, compared to 26.3 percent and 7.1 percent in the physical sciences.

“It is a complicated thing to try to explain,” said Dean of the

A University Disciplinary Council hearing will be held Tuesday to adjudicate charges against eight members of Students for a Democratic Society. It will be the first time such a hearing has been held in at least four years.

The eight SDS members are facing disciplinary action following the group’s protest of a Corporation meeting in University Hall on Oct. 18. Members of the group tried to enter the building — which was to remain closed during the meeting — to speak with members of the Corporation. But they met resistance from Department of Public Safety officers and University personnel, who officials say were injured during the encounter.

The students face the most severe level of disciplinar y action, which can result in separation from the University. They were able to choose to have their case heard by either a UDC panel consisting of students, faculty and administrators or a hearing before a single administrative officer.

Carly Devlin ’09, an SDS member who has been charged, said the students chose a UDC hearing because “we thought it would be a more democratic process.” She added that members are more comfortable with a hearing in front of a group that

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Percentage of A’s by discipline in 2007-08 80

75%

70

63

60 51.3%

62

58

53.4

51.8

47.1

50 40 30 20 10 0

Humanities

Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

A‘s as % of all grades

continued on page 4

Social Sciences

A‘s as % of letter grades

RISD alums helping with return to moon

By Brigitta GreenE Contributing Writer

Courtesy of NASA

Two recent RISD graduates are helping design a NASA lunar rover, being tested in the Arizona desert, to carry two astronauts comfortably for up to two weeks.

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tear down this wall The University has abandoned its plan to remove the historic stone wall around the OMAC

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CAMPUS NEWS

It’s the kind of night to stay inside: negative 170 degrees, pitch dark, silent. But no matter how nice a cup of tea sounds, the urge is best left unfulfilled — because, of course, it’s not easy using a toilet on the moon.

Carl Conlee and Evan Twyford, 2005 graduates of the Rhode Island School of Design, have been

A cold war brewin’ Tempers flared when the Corporation and SDS came faceto-face at a UCS meeting

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working at NASA for two years solving problems just like these.

Their challenge: to design a lunar rover capable of housing two astronauts comfortably — relatively speaking — for two weeks.

“It’s like tr ying to pack all of the amenities of an apartment into something the size of a minivan,” Conlee said. His designs, ranging from food storage to astronaut seating, include a toilet that handily pulls out like a drawer.

Iron Curtain Descends The neuroscience department at the Alpert Med School splits into two starting in the spring

195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island

Conlee and Twyford, industrial design majors and one-time roommates, are part of a 30-person team working to develop the pressurized lunar rover.

This rover, about nine cubic meters in volume, is par t of a larger NASA program, Project Constellation, which aims to create a permanent colony on the moon, Conlee said.

16 SPORTS

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NORTHEASTERN BLOC Fifteen football players receive All-Ivy honors in a championship year

News tips: herald@browndailyherald.com

T oday Page 2

Thursday, December 4, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

We a t h e r

Vagina Dentata | Soojean Kim

TODAY

TOMORROW

rainy 50 / 28

partly cloudy 40 / 24

Menu Sharpe Refectory

Verney-Woolley Dining Hall

Lunch — Pasta Bean Bake, Mashed Red Potatoes with Garlic, Sugar Snap Peas, Vegan Tofu Pups

Lunch — Ginger Chicken & Pasta, Shoepeg Corn Casserole, Mandarin Blend Vegetables, S’mores Bars

Dinner — Pumpkin Raviolis with Cream Sauce, Braised Beef Tips, Rice Pilaf with Zucchini, Sunny Sprouts

Dinner — Roast Turkey with Sauce, Vegan Roasted Vegetable Stew, Mashed Potatoes

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.

Fizzle Pop | Patricia Chou

Enigma Twist | Dustin Foley

RELEASE DATE– Thursday, December 4, Pappocom 2008 © Puzzles by

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

ACROSS 1 Fountain treats 6 18th-century musical family 11 Film in which Tom Hanks plays a 12-year-old 14 Really irked 15 Inuit word for “house” 16 Lab eggs 17 With 58-Across, each start of 9-, 11-, 24-, 28- and 32-Down is one 19 Pasty 20 Domains 21 Like ski trails 23 Gel 24 ’70s-’80s baseballer Ron “The Penguin” __ 25 Affirmatives 26 Ranting comic __ Black 29 Stage workers’ access 31 Symbol of strength 32 Coast Guard pickup 33 Bare one’s soul 36 Hr. part 37 Maxwell Anderson play involving a mountain owner 39 Expert’s tip?

40 Pandemonium 42 No gentleman, he 43 Not many 44 ABBA’s genre 46 They provide top-notch services 47 Titanic problem 49 With 51-Across, singer’s latest 50 Rapping Dr. 51 See 49-Across 53 Reception planner’s headache, perhaps 57 Important stretch 58 See 17-Across 60 Large-scale no-no 61 Keep an __: watch 62 2008 Infogrames acquisition 63 Media mogul Turner 64 PC acronym 65 Mortise’s partner

DOWN 1 Son of Juno 2 Over 3 Nobelist Walesa 4 Absorbs 5 Rubbernecks 6 Bridge action 7 Cabinet dept.

8 Privacy metaphor 9 Place for shooting stars?

10 Alone 11 Crocodile Dundee’s weapon 12 The first Mrs. Trump 13 Turf claimers 18 Court divider 22 TV Marine 24 Prolific income source 26 Branch 27 One of a notable quintet 28 Place accessed via a rabbit hole 29 Minor player 30 National Poetry Mo. 32 Game with many imitators

34 Cybercafé patron 35 Perches in churches 37 Laugh syllable 38 Select 41 Downhill racer 43 Ethyl __: nail polish remover compound 45 Stripped (off) 46 Al-Fatah co-founder 47 French port

48 Hair-raising 50 OED listing 52 “Excuse me ...”

53 King’s desires, in olden days 54 One-named model 55 Emperor Galba’s predecessor 56 It may be impish 59 Head of England?

Alien Weather Forecast | Stephen Lichenstein and Adam Wagner

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

Brown Meets RISD | Miguel Llorente

xwordeditor@aol.com

12/04/08

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Providence adopts online alert system The city of Providence this week adopted a free online mass notification system, “FLASHbrief,” that alerts citizens in the event of an emergency.

When an alert is issued, it appears on citizens’ computers in a matter of seconds. The system caters to “those people who sit in front of a computer all day,” said Peter Gaynor, director of the Providence Emergency Management Agency.

To use the system, residents and businesses must download free software provided by the city.

The system could be used to quickly inform citizens of critical situations, from terrorist attacks to hurricanes. For instance, the city of Annapolis, Md. used the program to warn residents about tropical storm Hannah in September, according to the city’s local newspaper.

“This new tool will provide our emergency response team with the ability to reach thousands of residents incredibly fast, with the click of the mouse,” Gaynor said in a Dec. 1 press release. “FLASHbrief will be especially helpful to local businesses who must make important management decisions in the event of an emergency.”

Gaynor said he discovered the system when searching for a method of mass notification to complement Reverse 911, the telephone alert system that Providence currently uses.

The city adopted the software in large part because it is free for municipal governments in capital cities, Gaynor said.

W. Scott Jones, the executive vice president and chief financial officer of FLASHbrief, said the system is unique because it allows local governments to notify an unlimited number of computers.

“Whatever the emergency plan, it always requires communication,” Jones said.

The company will introduce an upgrade to the system in April, which will allow residents to receive alerts on cellular devices, Jones said. ­­— Matthew Klebanoff

U. won’t remove historic wall around OMAC

By Lauren Fedor Staff Writer

Faced with community opposition, the University has abandoned its initial proposals to remove or lower the historic stone wall surrounding the Aldrich-Dexter Field near the Olney-Margolies Athletic Center. Though early drawings for the new $45 million, 65,000-square foot Nelson Fitness Center called for its removal, the wall will remain intact, said Steve Maiorisi, vice president of facilities management.

Removing or lowering the wall for “aesthetic interests” were options the architects were considering, Maiorisi said. But there had been “no official decision made” that the wall, built in 1835, would come down, he said.

This past spring, representatives of Robert A.M. Stern Architects, a New York-based firm overseeing the fitness center’s construction, presented their designs at a community meeting, Maiorisi said. The sketches depicted the wall being lowered, and in some areas, removed.

On seeing the drawings, many community members expressed concerns about the wall’s removal, citing its historical significance, according to Peter Mackie ’59.

Mackie, a sports archivist at the

John Hay Library who attended the meeting, said University officials gave him two reasons for making changes to the wall: to make the new building more visible from Hope Street and to “reduce the physical barriers” between the athletic facilities and the main campus.

Calling the arguments “specious,” Mackie said residents and members of local neighborhood associations continued discussing the issue after the meeting.

In May, David Brussat, a member of the Providence Journal’s editorial board, wrote a piece opposing alterations to the wall. In the editorial, Brussat also discussed the wall’s history, its importance to the community and the implications of tearing it down or lowering it.

Running along Hope and Angell streets and Stimson, Arlington and Lloyd avenues, the wall encompasses 39 acres of the former Neck Farm, which Ebenezer Knight Dexter, a local businessman, left to the city of Providence in 1824. In his will, Dexter requested that the land be used as a “poor farm for indigent freemen” according to the University’s Web site.

The will also asked that a “good permanent stone wall of at least three feet thick at the bottom and at least

eight feet high” surround the property, Brussat wrote in his Journal editorial.

Dexter’s wishes were honored for more than a century. The property existed — enclosed by the stone wall — as a farm until the 1940s, when the University expressed interest in purchasing it to build an athletic facility. After nearly a decade of legal proceedings, during which the local Superior Court examined Dexter’s initial requests, the University obtained the land for $1,000,777 in 1957. The city’s profits from the sale were allocated to helping the poor, according to the University’s Web site.

Today the land includes several playing fields, the Meehan Auditorium, the OMAC and the Pizzitola Sports Center.

Ed Bishop ’54, who lives on Waterman Street, said he has been “within half a mile” of the wall for 50 years.

“It’s a historical relic,” Bishop said. “Anyone who’s been around long enough” understands the significance of the Dexter property.

The wall “didn’t need to come down just so Mr. Nelson’s building could be viewed,” he added, referring to the donor, Jonathan Nelson ‘77 P’07.

And a partridge and a Herald free!

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Tough times for job-hunters Council will adjudicate SDS charges continued from page 1 berg said. “No one knows how long (the recession) will last, but it is a temporary downturn,” she said.

The economic situation is tough for everyone, she said, but the “silver lining” is the opportunity to travel or attend graduate school. “I’ve gotten more requests than usually for references for school,” she said. “You’re making yourself more valuable to a prospective employer” by accruing advanced degrees, she added.

But Josh Fintel ’08.5 said that when he applies for law school next fall, he expects to face increased competition from stronger and more numerous candidates who have been turned away from a saturated financial sector. “So many of the people who would have walked into finance are now pursuing law school,” he said. “I’m a little worried in the short term.”

Fintel said he will be applying in January to Teach For America, which he believes will also see increased competition. With the economic crisis compromising certain careers, he said, “it just makes a lot of sense to pursue a two-year passion project.”

Fintel added that he is keeping his mind and plans open. “My chances are in no way guaranteed,” he said.

The academic sector is also affected, as many universities have put a freeze on hiring. Brett Cropp ’08.5 is currently completing his last course at Brown while working as a research assistant at Cornell University, where he had expected to pursue his research in the spring — before the University temporarily stopped hiring.

“Since I have been barred from receiving an employment extension, I will be unemployed come Janu-

ary,” Cropp wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. “I think I’ll lay low for awhile with the cash I’ve accumulated and weigh my options,” he added.

In these uncertain times, some students are returning to companies for which they have previously worked. Caroline Mailloux ’08.5 had a job at an occupational and environmental public health consulting firm in Massachusetts during her three-semester-long leave, and will resume her research position there in January.

“I only ‘got’ this job because it’s one that I’m already well established with — I am very fortunate that I did not need to formally apply or interview,” she wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. She added that she was surprised that many students searching for opportunities in the nonprofit world are facing difficulties, while students in the financial sector seem to her to be finding jobs.

Neil Vangala ’08.5 said he has several job offers in consulting and banking, but he added that he found the interview process more rigorous than in past years and employers less likely to hire inexperienced candidates. “It’s going to be more competitive,” he said. “But Brown kids are well-equipped.”

Vangala added that though the economic downturn creates many challenges, it is also conducive to new opportunities. “We can maybe ride the wave up,” he said.

The CDC offers programming this semester aimed at finding jobs in a difficult economy, and Bordac wrote that this will be continued next semester.

In his e-mail to The Herald, Bordac added that “the CDC would also like to stress that networking, the doorway to the hidden job market, is an especially valuable tactic in a tight economy.”

Thanks for reading.

continued from page 1 dent for Campus Life and Student Ser vices Margaret Klawunn. For this hearing, some of the students and staff must be undergraduates themselves or administrators who work with undergraduates.

Accused students are provided a list of UDC members and are able to exclude those they believe could be biased.

The eight charged students have received the list and will submit their exclusions today, said SDS member Sophia Lambertsen ’11, who declined to comment about whether she is facing charges.

A provision in Brown’s nonacademic disciplinary code allows cases with “common facts and a common set of evidence” to be heard at once, Klawunn told The Herald in the Nov. 18 article. Students still present their own cases individually, and each student’s responsibility is determined separately.

Though the UDC has not heard a case in years, there have been no problems preparing for the case, Klawunn said. “The years when there hasn’t been a UDC hear-

ing, the board was ready, trained and could go if called upon,” she added.

Among the issues the charged students plan to address at the hearing is the use of force by nondeputized University employees, said SDS member Nathan Bergmann-Dean ’12, who also declined to comment about whether he is facing charges.

Simmons’ driver Trail and Custodial Shift Assistant Ebenezer Sowah were both involved in physically blocking and removing students from the entrance of University Hall during the protest, though only DPS officers are authorized to take such actions, said Devlin.

Though Klawunn said she couldn’t comment specifically on the actions, she said University policies can address them. “It sounds like something the council could be asked to consider in the course of the hearing.”

The accused students will continue to prepare for their hearing with the support of other SDS members and their case advisers until their hearing, Devlin said.

“The organization has been really suppor tive and great,”

Joanna Wohlmuth / Herald

Posters around campus comment on the disciplinary charges SDS members

she said, adding that members have spent more than six hours in meetings each week since the incident.

To show their support, at least 25 SDS members wrote letters declaring their involvement in the protest and asking to be charged accordingly, Lamber tsen said.

They were told that charges would not be made.

“We proceed if there is basis to believe that someone might be responsible for a violation,” Klawunn said.

Disciplines vary in giving out A grades continued from page 1 College Katherine Bergeron. “In a smaller class, the nature of the instruction and the kind of work required ... create different kinds of grading scenarios.”

Sheila Blumstein, professor of cognitive and linguistic sciences, also said smaller classes and more seminars in the humanities could explain the high number of A’s awarded. In such classes, it is “more apparent when students don’t come to class or don’t do the work,” Blumstein said, meaning students feel pressured to do well and earn good grades.

She said she had noticed a correlation between the quality of students’ work and their grade option. “Last year I’m not sure I gave

more than 1 or 2 C’s,” Blumstein said of COGS 0010: “Approaches to the Mind: Introduction to Cognitive Science.” She would have given C’s to more students, she said, “but every one of those students had taken the course pass/fail.”

In 2006, 20.8 percent of courses in the humanities were mandatory S/NC, compared to 8.4 percent of courses in the life sciences.

“Maybe people who would be getting B’s and C’s are taking courses S/NC,” said James Dreier, professor of philosophy and chair of the Faculty Executive Committee.

But for courses that only offer S/NC grading, “that’s not a very good explanation” for why fewer B’s and C’s are being awarded, he said. “It might still be a partial explanation.”

Last year, 29.2 percent of all

grades awarded in the humanities were S’s, compared to 12.8 percent of grades in the life sciences.

Professor of Biology Ken Miller ’70 P’02 said students interested in pursuing a career in the health professions are advised to take their basic science courses for a grade.

Miller, who has taught BIOL 0200: “The Foundations of Living Systems” since 1989, estimated that normally about half of the students enrolled in BIOL 0200 are considering being pre-med.

But while the percentage of S’s given in the life sciences has fluctuated, the proportion of A’s awarded has risen nearly every year since 1997. Last year the proportion of A’s given out in life sciences classes reached 53.4 percent, which represents a 28.4 percent increase over the proportion of A’s given 11 years ago.

Miller said the increasing selectivity of the college admissions process could be a reason for the increasing number of A’s awarded.

“It would be really surprising if our students weren’t getting more and more talented,” he said.

“I have students in my classes now who have summer research experience,” Miller said. “They have sequenced DNA. These are people I’m seeing in their freshman year.”

John Dahdah ’09, a biology concentrator, said science courses he has taken demand application of the course’s material. “It goes beyond just memorizing material,” he said.

“I don’t think it’s possible to say that one curriculum is easier than another curriculum is,” he added.

But he said the problem-solving skills required in science courses distinguished them from the abilities assessed in humanities courses.

Bergeron said speculating about the reasons for the trends may not be productive because of the complexity of factors possibly contributing to the data. “What I do think is useful is that Brown has been trying to deal with this ... on a more local level by furnishing chairs (of departments) with this information” about grades, Bergeron said.

C ampus n ews Thursday, December 4, 2008

Corporation members, UCS discuss campus life issues SDS students challenge Corporation members at year’s final meeting

By Mitra Anoushiravani Senior Staf f Writer

At last night’s Undergraduate Council of Students meeting, two members of the Corporation, Liz Chace ’59 and Joan Sorenson ’72, and Vice President for Campus Life and Student Ser vices Margaret Klawunn discussed issues that were raised by UCS and community members in attendance.

UCS President Brian Becker ’09 began the meeting — the final general body meeting of the semester — by asking the Corporation members to address UCS’s goals to institutionalize a young alum position on the Corporation and to endow the student activities fund, which would eliminate the student activities fee for future classes once created.

Sorenson, who ser ves on the Corporation committee that deals with trustee vacancies, said she did not realize that the youngest Corporation member was Bobby Jindal ’91.5 until recently. “At our last committee meeting we did discuss the fact that we need to get some young alums on the Corporation, so we are looking to do that,” she said.

Chace, who is a Fellow on the Corporation and has ser ved for eleven years, encouraged graduating seniors to submit nominations for an alumni trustee. “You need to make a real case for it when you put in a nomination,” she said.

“And the committee will take a closer look at that.”

With regard to creating a permanent position on the Corporation that reser ves a spot specifically for a young alum, Sorenson

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and Chace were not optimistic. “A designated position for somebody that graduated in the last five or ten years or so — I don’t think that’ll happen,” Sorenson said.

Chace said there were currently no categorical positions within the Corporation, which is one of the reasons that the Corporation is hesitant to create a new categor y for a young alum.

Sorenson, Chace and Klawunn discussed ways that students can have their opinions heard other than through a young alum on the Corporation. Students can join university committees or communicate specific concerns through UCS, because the council’s president is present during meetings of the Corporation’s committee on campus life. “We’re not shutting you out,” Chace said. “We are listening.”

But Will Lambek ’09.5, a member of Students for Democratic Society, disagreed. “You were in fact shutting us out on Oct. 18.

You stationed armed cops at the building,” he said, referring to the group’s protest of the most recent Corporation meeting. Eight members of SDS are facing disciplinary charges for their involvement in the protest.

Chace spoke about the Corporation’s two highest priorities for the coming years. “You’re going to see new hires in the faculty, and you’re going to see the Corporation really concerned about financial aid,” she said.

Mike Da Cruz ’09, another SDS member present at the meeting, said he wondered if the University was really doing enough for financial aid. But Sorenson said even balancing the budget is a challenge in the poor economic climate. “I don’t think we can do more,” she added. continued on page 6

Gir l T a l k

Meara Sharma / Herald

Jessica Valenti, founder and executive editor of the blog Feministing.com and author of “He’s a Stud, She’s a Slut ... And 49 Other Double Standards Every Woman Should Know” spoke in MacMillan 117 last night.

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Corp. members, UCS talk activities funding continued from page 5 Administrative and Academic Af fairs Chair Tyler Rosenbaum ’11, also a Herald opinions columnist, said that although the debate got a little out of hand, he was glad that SDS representatives, as members of the Brown community, were able to express their opinions. “I think that SDS could’ve been a little less mean about the way they did it,” he said.

“But the members of the Corporation took it well.”

Later on in the meeting, Student Activities Chair Ryan Lester ’11 asked the Corporation members if they had any suggestions for endowing the student activities H

e

fund. Sorenson said, “I’ll be happy to work on the problem and see if we can find a solution.”

After the Corporation members and Klawunn left the meeting, UCS committees gave updates to the general body. The Campus Life Committee reported that meal credit balances will be made available on Banner next semester.

Rosenbaum also said that the Graduate Student Council was drafting a resolution in suppor t of a previous UCS resolution that calls for the discontinuation of the enforcement of prerequisites on Banner.

The GSC resolution passed 19 to 14, according to author of the resolution and GSC member E.J. ra

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Kalafarski GS. Rosenbaum will present it to the Faculty Executive Committee at its next meeting along with the UCS resolution on the same matter.

Rosenbaum, Becker and UCS member Jerr y Cedrone ’11 said UCS should take a stance on this resolution and might even consider planning a demonstration on the Main Green if the FEC’s response is not favorable. “Ruth Simmons told us, ‘Students may not respect UCS because they don’t feel like you’re getting anything done, so instead of trying to advertise yourself, actually do something,’ ” Rosenbaum said.

“Petitioning and protesting in a mature manner is an option,” Becker added. x

am

Down the Hill, into space: RISD alums design rover continued from page 1 The rover would be just one element of this colony.

Short expeditions in full spacesuit protection aside, a pair of astronauts would live exclusively in the rover — eating, sleeping, exercising and performing research.

If all goes as planned, Conlee said, the rover should be ready in 2020.

Graduating from RISD gave the two men the “unique point of view to develop human-centered design,” Conlee said, adding that his education prepared him to work hard and think openly about problems.

NASA and RISD are two acronyms not commonly seen in the same sentence; 25-year-old Conlee said he never could have anticipated a career with the space agency.

But Conlee and Twyford’s career paths are “not crazy at all,” said Leslie Fontana, chair of the industrial design department at RISD. According to Fontana, designing for space isn’t so different

from designing for Earth.

The industrial design program, Fontana said, teaches its roughly 70 graduates per year the “ability to take good ideas and make them viable to other people” — a skill that has come in handy for Conlee and Twyford.

Their team draws on different backgrounds and skill sets, Conlee said. Although the RISD graduates do some mechanical design, they do ver y little engineering.

Instead, he said, they focus on the more “psychological effect” of design by trying to make such a small space as comfortable and efficient as possible.

Project Constellation’s permanent moon colony would be used for research but would also serve as a large-scale “science experiment,” a model for establishing a similar settlement on Mars, Conlee said.

“When I was little, I was interested in any fast and cool machine,” Conlee said.

“But nothing like this. ... There are definitely days where I stop and say, ‘This is pretty cool.’”

C ampus n ews Thursday, December 4, 2008

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Changes in store for CDC

FORM AND FUNCTION

By Brian Mastroianni Senior Staf f Writer

Meara Sharma / Herald

A model of Frank Gehry’s “Ginger and Fred” was part of the final show from HIAA 0860: “Contemporary Architecture” in List Art Center.

Academic mitosis: Alpert neuro dept. splits in two

By Jenna Stark Senior Staff Writer

The Department of Clinical Neurosciences was split into separate departments of neurology and neurosurgery in a motion passed during the monthly faculty meeting on Tuesday.

The division should take effect in the spring if everything is approved, said J. Donald Easton, professor of clinical neurosciences and department chair.

The Department of Clinical Neurosciences, which currently consists of Alpert Medical School’s neurology and neurosurgery programs, has been facing “problems both academically and clinically,” Dean of Medicine and Biological Sciences Edward Wing said during the meeting.

“Most of the departments have grown and matured,” Easton said.

The Department of Clinical Neurosciences was intended to be two separate departments since its founding, but was merged immediately in order to have a greater voice in the medical school, he said. Now that the programs have grown, “it’s really just a natural step to have the two go back to having the independence (that) was initially intended.”

While one unified department may be “intellectually appealing,” the reality is that such a large department takes “uncommon management and vision to lead,” Assistant Professor of Clinical Neurosurgery Ming Cheng wrote in an e-mail to The Herald.

“Competing interests could easily result in a loss of focus,” he wrote.

Most universities have separate neurology and neurosurgery departments, though Johns Hopkins University has successfully integrated the two departments, Cheng wrote, adding that this is the “exception rather than the rule.”

Dividing the department would also help the medical school recruit “the very best chairmen and faculty” for both departments, Wing said.

In the past it has been difficult to recruit a strong chair of neurosurgery because the position is “not distinguished, not distinctive” when combined with neurology, he said.

“Many neurosurgeons, if we’re trying to really recruit a first rate person to chair, are going to say, ‘Gee, I don’t want to work for a neurologist,’” Easton said. “It would just seem odd to them to have a chair who’s from an associated discipline.”

The chair positions for the new Department of Neurology and Department of Neurosurgery will both be open beginning in June, Wing said during the meeting.

As “centers of excellence” built around specific disciplines such as Parkinson’s disease become more common, having two separate departments will be preferable, Easton said.

“We will still be doing everything we can to grow our interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary programs in education and research,” he said, adding that the departmental split “will actually make it easier to do that if we have our independence.”

Professors said they were pleased with the decision to split, which was agreed upon unanimously by all professors in the Department of Clinical Neuroscience.

“To the extent that it will facilitate the recruitment (of new chairmen) I am happy about it, but it certainly wasn’t a pressing issue for me,” Professor of Clinical Neurosciences David Mandelbaum said.

Most professors said the departmental split will not affect them or the quality of their patient care, as the two programs already function clinically as separate entities.

“There will be no discontinuity in patient care or in the availability of clinical services that we currently provide,” Cheng wrote.

“Neurology and neurosurgery are very intimately linked, and we share a lot of patients, but those collaborations will continue because it’s the nature of the work that we do,” Mandelbaum said.

The decision to split the Department of Clinical Neuroscience will not have an effect on the undergraduate neuroscience concentration, Barry Connors, professor of neuroscience and chair of the department, wrote in an e-mail to The Herald.

As the Career Development Center’s director prepares to leave Brown at the end of the semester, a working group is looking for new ways to connect the University’s career advising resources.

The working group, which will hold its third and final meeting of the semester next week, is led by Director of the Swearer Center and Associate Dean of the College Roger Nozaki MAT ’89, and includes three faculty members, two students and three administrators.

Following Kimberly DelGizzo’s decision to step down from her position as director of the Career Development Center, Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron said that it was an appropriate time for the University to review its career advising resources for students.

“The working group is engineered to focus on what we do well, and plan on getting a perspective on assessing career advising at Brown,” Bergeron said. “It is a good time to

take stock of our career advising programs,” she said.

DelGizzo became the CDC’s director in 2004 after working as a dean in Harvard’s career services office.

DelGizzo and the CDC’s public relations officer Bill Bordac did not return requests for comment on her departure.

Barbara Peoples will serve as interim director of the CDC while a search is conducted.

Bergeron said the recent review of the undergraduate College necessitates a review of career resources, which include the CDC, the Swearer Center and academic advisers. “It states in the Task Force on Undergraduate Education (report) that we need a kind of integrated advising system — the report does not call it career development by name, but refers to that whole panoply of advising for students as they leave Brown,” Bergeron said.

For Nozaki, the working group provides an outlet for different cacontinued on page 10

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Thursday, December 4, 2008

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Va. Democrats take advantage of shifts Mukasey limits access for Obama transition team

By Tim Craig and Jennifer Agiesta Washington Post

WASHINGTON — Virginia Democrats have rapidly expanded their political base over the past eight years, taking nearly full advantage of demographic shifts in the suburbs, and they enter future statewide races with an advantage over the GOP, according to a review of recent election results and census data.

After an election in which Virginia was one of the most hotly contested states in the presidential race, the results show Virginia Democrats amassing a formidable coalition as the state’s suburban communities grow more diverse, white voters in Northern Virginia shun the GOP, young voters align with Democrats and black voters prove they continue to have clout downstate.

The party’s gains rest heavily upon the state’s changing demographics and were amplified this year by deep enthusiasm for the Democratic presidential and senatorial candidates, coupled with a broadly successful turnout operation.

In Northern Virginia’s outer suburbs, a growing number of nonwhite residents, particularly Hispanics, are diminishing what had long been a big source of votes for Republican candidates.

Loudoun, Prince William and Stafford counties, and Manassas and Manassas Park have all experienced double-digit increases in the percentage of nonwhite residents since 2000. And in each of those locations, Democrats’ share of the vote increased proportionally.

The nonwhite population of Prince William, for example, has grown by 13 percentage points since 2000. President-elect Barack Obama carried the county with almost 58 percent of the vote — 13 points better than former Vice

President Al Gore did in the 2000 presidential race.

Loudoun experienced a 12-point gain in the minority population since 2000, and Obama did 13 percentage points better than Gore did in 2000. Obama did 10 points better than Gore in Stafford, which saw a 10 percent increase in the minority population since 2000.

This shift, matched with historical Democratic strength in the inner suburbs, makes Northern Virginia a huge source of votes for Democrats. The region’s size, compared with the rest of the state, threatens Republicans’ ability to win statewide if Democrats can continue to get their voters to the poll, demographers and political scientists suggest.

“The transformation in Northern Virginia has been rapid and dramatic, and Obama came out of Northern Virginia with a margin of (213,000) votes, and that is ver y hard to overcome,” said Ken Billingsley, director of demographics and information for the Northern Virginia Regional Commission. “In Prince William, the change has already occurred, and I am not the least bit surprised that Stafford, Spotsylvania and Fredericksburg are moving in that direction.”

Obama won Virginia with 52.6 percent of the vote, racking up a higher share than he did in Florida and Ohio, more traditional swing states. Senator-elect Mark Warner, D-Va., also won his race with a record number of votes, and Democrats picked up three congressional seats in Virginia.

Many Virginia Republicans argue that their party’s poor showing on Election Day can largely be traced to President Bush’s low approval ratings, the economic collapse on Wall Street and Obama’s decision to flood the state with paid media and staffers. But an analysis of the results suggests that a more fundamental change

is occurring, perhaps accelerated

by Obama’s success in registering hundred of thousands of new voters this year.

“There is no question Republicans cannot run the same type of campaigns they have run in the past and expect to win,” said GOP strategist Phil Cox, an adviser to Attorney General Robert McDonnell, the likely GOP nominee for governor next year. “It is a different Virginia than it was a decade ago.”

Democratic inroads were evident in the partisan makeup of the electorate, as Democrats comprised 39 percent of Virginia voters this year, according to network exit polls, up from 35 percent in both 2000 and 2004.

Republicans’ share of the electorate declined to 33 percent from 39 percent in 2004.

According to exit polls, Hispanics made up 5 percent of the statewide electorate this year, almost matching their overall share of the population. Hispanics in Virginia favored Obama over Arizona Sen. John McCain, the GOP nominee, by an almost 2 to 1 margin. If Republicans hope to recover from their losses in time for the 2009 races for governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and the House of Delegates, their candidates will have to find a way to over whelmingly win the

continued on page 10

By Carrie Johnson Washington Post

WASHINGTON — Attorney General Michael Mukasey asser ted Wednesday that the “level of cooperation and communication is ver y high” between his team and the transition group for Presidentelect Barack Obama.

But the Justice Department’s new leaders may not gain access to the Bush Administration’s most sensitive legal opinions until after the Jan. 20 inauguration, Mukasey told reporters in what could be his final news conference.

“Without getting into particular things that they’ve requested, they are getting as much as they can, as quickly as they can” from the Office of Legal Counsel, the department unit which has issued key rulings underpinning detainee treatment and electronic sur veillance since the Sept. 11 attacks.

House and Senate Democrats and Clinton-era Justice Department officials have called for the speedy release of the documents.

Three veterans of the Office of Legal Counsel — Dawn Johnsen, Martin Lederman and Christopher Schroeder — are among the members of the transition unit, several of whom received special security clearances.

But Mukasey said Wednesday

that the legal opinions are drafted at the request of other federal entities, such as the Defense Department and the Central Intelligence Agency, which have a say in how and when they are released.

Some of the materials also are highly classified, which adds another layer of complexity.

Mukasey said that he has yet to meet Eric Holder, the former federal prosecutor nominated Monday

by Obama to take the nation’s top law enforcement job.

On Wednesday, Mukasey refused a request to provide advice to his likely successor, instead pointing out that the department had changed in orientation since ter rorist attacks seven years ago.

Looking back on his year-long tenure, Mukasey said one of his most important tasks was helping to shepherd electronic surveillance legislation through the Congress and developing a uniform set of guidelines for FBI counterterrorism probes.

But he said more work needs to be done by Congress and the new administration to develop a single set of standards for reviewing claims by terrorism suspects who allege they have been wrongfully held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, without judicial oversight for as many as seven years.

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Democrats capitalize on Virginia’s demographic shifts Director continued from page 9 white vote and make inroads with blacks and Hispanics.

“I, as a Southerner, understand that for the Republican Party to win presidential elections in the future we can no longer be the party of the deep South and Prairie Midwest,” said Trey Walker, a South Carolina native who oversaw McCain’s Virginia campaign. “If we don’t start appealing to (minorities), we are going to continue to lose.”

Cox maintains that McDonnell will make an aggressive appeal for minority support next year, saying, “We are not going to cede any vote.” Next year “is clearly going to be ver y different than 2008,” Cox said. “You got different candidates, and you are going to have a different political and economic impact.”

But Virginia’s electorate has undergone a fundamental demographic shift in recent cycles.

In 1996, when Republican Bob Dole carried Virginia, white voters made up 81 percent of the electorate. Those same voters made up 70 percent of the electorate this year, with the decrease mostly coming from people without college degrees, a solidly Republican bloc.

Democrats have made major gains with white voters in wealthy, well-educated Northern Virginia.

Four years ago, Sen. John Kerr y, D-Mass., lost the white vote in Northern Virginia by 7 percentage points. This year, Obama won that demographic by 14 points.

Robert Lang, a demographer at the Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech, said affluent whites in Northern Virginia, like other heavily populated areas in the Northeast and Midwest, “now seem to trust the Democrats with the economy and don’t trust the Republicans with civil liberties.”

Lang has concluded that Obama would have carried Virginia by about 30,000 votes this year because of Democratic strength in Northern Virginia even if he performed no better in other parts of the state than Kerr y did four years ago.

“This is a sign to me the rest of the state is kind of just gravy for Democrats, and Northern Virginia’s growth and the changing demographic alone would probably be enough to deliver the state to another Democrat,” Lang said.

But Obama also made substantial gains compared with past Democratic statewide candidates

in the southern part of the state, largely due to younger voters and blacks.

Although it might be hard for future Democratic candidates to replicate Obama’s success downstate, blacks and younger voters proved they can be a formidable electoral demographic.

Downstate counties and cities boasting the largest increases in turnout this year were almost all college towns or home to large black populations.

In Charlottesville, home of the University of Virginia, voter turnout increased by 49 percent this year compared with eight years ago, even though the city’s population declined by 10 percent during the same period. Similar trends played out in Williamsburg (home of the College of William and Mar y), Montgomer y County (Virginia Tech), Harrisonburg (James Madison University) and Fredericksburg (Mar y Washington). Voters younger than 30 comprised 21 percent of voters in 2008, up from 17 percent in 2004. Half of these young voters now identify themselves as Democrats, up from 38 percent in 2000.

Blacks, who have been voting Democratic for generations, pow-

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ered much of their party’s strength in areas downstate. There was a substantial increase in turnout and Obama’s winning margin in almost all cities and counties where blacks account for at least a third of the population.

In the historically conser vative Richmond suburbs, turnout in Henrico County, where blacks make up 27 percent of the population, saw a 32 percent increase in turnout compared with 2000. Obama won the county by 12 percentage points, the same spread Gore lost by in 2000.

Obama also improved on Democratic performance among blacks overall, winning 92 percent of black voters in Virginia compared with Kerry’s 87 percent take and Gore’s 84 percent.

Jack Wilson, chairman of the 4th District Republican Committee, which includes parts of suburban Richmond, Hampton Roads and southern Virginia, said it will be essential for GOP candidates to win back a greater share of the black vote. In Chesterfield County, another traditionally Republican suburb of Richmond where Obama made dramatic gains, blacks account for 22 percent of the population, up from 17 percent in 2000.

of CDC to step down continued from page 7 reer resources on campus to touch base.

Nozaki said that he has been approached by students complaining of what they see as a disconnect between the CDC and the other resources on campus, such as the Swearer Center. A solution to this problem partly rests in how the different advising resources on campus advertise their programs to students, Nozaki said.

“Students complain about being a part of five different listservs and not noticing different announcements in the Morning Mail,” Nozaki said.

Nozaki said that the committee is only meant to offer recommendations for improvement. For example, in order to change how announcements for different career resources are presented to students electronically, the committee would offer suggestions to “people with more expertise,” he added.

Both Nozaki and Bergeron said it is important that Brown move to a level of integrated advising between resources on campus.

“The issue is less about having one single center for advising, than it is to have a clear concept about the possibilities available to students beyond Brown,” Bergeron said.

Nozaki said that the working group is important in that it offers a space for discussion about how Brown moves forward with its different advising initiatives.

“Brown students are ver y successful with transitioning to work and doing incredibly interesting things with their lives after Brown ... but there is still more we can do in our job of presenting information and making it accessible to students,” Nozaki said.

Both Nozaki and Bergeron mentioned programs carried out by both the Swearer Center and the English Department as examples of successful career advising initiatives available to Brown students.

The Careers in the Common Good program, which discussed opportunities in social entrepreneurship, involved collaboration between the CDC and the Swearer Center, Nozaki said.

The English Depar tment held a similar program last semester in which Brown alums who had concentrated in English discussed potential career opportunities with students, Bergeron said.

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Rice calls on Pakistan to ACLU alleges U.S. citizen tortured in UAE respond to Mumbai attack

By Raja Abdulrahim Los Angeles T imes

By Emily Wax and Rama Lakshmi Washington Post

NEW DELHI, India — U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Wednesday urged Pakistan to act with “resolve and urgency” to help catch those responsible for last week’s terrorist attacks in India, part of a stepped-up U.S. effort to ease tensions between the two nuclear powers.

Yet, even as Rice spoke in New Delhi, tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered in Mumbai near the scene of the carnage chanting “death to Pakistan,” evidence of the escalating pressure Indian politicians face as they craft their response to the attacks.

India has linked the 10 assailants to a Pakistan-based Islamist group, and many at the Mumbai protest advocated military action to combat a terrorist threat that they say the Pakistani government is either unable or unwilling to confront.

“This crowd is a warning to Pakistan to stop sending terrorists to India. We will not take this any longer,” said Himanshu Majumdar, a 28-yearold accountant. “We have been talking peace with them for so long, what did we get? Terrorists?”

The Pakistani government has denied involvement in the attack, which claimed at least 171 lives and injured nearly 300 people.

But Indian authorities have alleged that the attackers received training from former Pakistani army officers, and U.S. intelligence has corroborated their suspicions that the attack was planned and carried out by a Pakistani group, Lashkar-i-Taiba.

Indian investigators have said that Yusuf Muzammil, a Lashkar leader thought to be based in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, was among the masterminds.

In a city still rattled by attacks that appeared to catch authorities unprepared, there were signs Wednesday that security in Mumbai remained porous: About 20 pounds of live explosives — apparently left over from the 60-hour siege — were found in a bag at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, where thousands of commuters had been riding trains in recent days to work and to school and where two gunmen open fired last week, Indian authorities said.

The explosives were collected along with a pile of luggage that passengers had abandoned as they fled the gunmen.

In New Delhi, Rice said she understood the pain felt by Indians, mentioning the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States several times. “We have some sense of what this is like, the sense of vulnerability, the questions that arise and the desire to make sure it does not happen again,” she said. She also noted that Pakistanis themselves are frequent victims of terrorist attacks.

“We all have a great interest in getting to the bottom of this,” said Rice, who cut short a European farewell tour to meet with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh after the attacks, in which gunmen struck two hotel complexes, a cafe, a railway terminal, a Jewish center and other sites.

Standing at Rice’s side, Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters that there is no doubt the gunmen and their “controllers” came from Pakistan.

“The government of India is determined to act decisively to protect its territorial integrity and the right of our citizens to a peaceful life with all the means at our disposal,” Mukherjee said.

Rice made demands on both countries. She said that Pakistan had a “special responsibility” to cooperate with India and help prevent attacks.

She also warned India against any impulsive moves that could yield “unintended consequences.”

For the first time, Rice said the indiscriminate killing at several sites in India’s financial center bore the hallmarks of al-Qaida, though she did not suggest responsibility.

“Whether there is a direct al-Qaida hand or not, this is clearly the kind of terrorism in which al-Qaida participates ... to send a message that people are not safe, that business centers are not safe. We experienced that in New York. What is important now is to go to the source, to follow every lead,” Rice said.

In Pakistan, Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, met with President Asif Ali Zardari and army chief Gen. Ashfaq Kiyani, and urged them “to investigate aggressively any and all possible ties to groups in Pakistan,” according to a statement released by the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad.

— Lakshmi reported from Mumbai.

Correspondent Candace Rondeaux in Islamabad, Pakistan, contributed to this report.

A former Hawthorne, Calif., man detained in the United Arab Emirates since Aug. 29 has been tortured and ultimately charged with a terrorism-related offense, according to a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California.

Naji Hamdan told his brother during a six-minute call early Tuesday morning that he had been pinned to the ground with his arms and legs twisted behind him and beaten until he passed out, according to an ACLU statement released Wednesday. The ACLU’s information was based on the account from Hamdan’s brother.

Hamdan, a naturalized U.S. citizen, also was beaten on the soles of his feet, kept awake by a spotlight and told that his family would be punished if he didn’t confess to his interrogators’ allegations, the ACLU said.

“They took out his soul,” said Hamdan’s brother, Hossam Hemdan, using a common Arabic expression, in an interview with the Los Angeles Times.

In addition to the beatings, Hemdan said his brother told him that he had been stripped of nearly all his clothes and kept in a small, cold underground room for the three months. He also was denied medication for a liver condition, Hemdan said.

Hemdan, who spells his last name differently, said his brother

signed every confession given to him, though he didn’t know what he was signing and didn’t care, in an unsuccessful attempt to stop the torture.

“Please get me out of here; I’m willing to sign anything,” Hemdan said his brother told him.

Hamdan, who lived in the Hawthorne area for two decades and still owns an auto parts business in Los Angeles, faces four charges, including one related to terrorism, Hemdan said.

“It seems like they are trying to prosecute him using statements he made under torture,” said Jennie

Pasquarella, the ACLU attorney.

The ACLU filed a habeas corpus petition last month against the U.S. government alleging that Hamdan was being held at the government’s behest. ACLU lawyers said they were considering amending the lawsuit to include the torture allegations.

“If the U.S. is responsible for his detainment — which we believe they are — they are responsible for this torture,” Pasquarella said.

Hamdan’s family has hired its own attorney in the Emirates.

A State Department Bureau of continued on page 13

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Football players selected for All-Ivy honors continued from page 16 yards per punt, and received a first-team selection as a punter.

Co-captain and quarterback Michael Dougherty ’09 led the league with 19 touchdown passes, and was named Ivy League Offensive Player of the Week four times this season. This was Dougherty’s second season at the helm of the Brown offense, and this marks his second consecutive selection to the second team.

After being sidelined for most of last season with a foot injur y, running back Dereck Knight ’08.5 rebounded to finish fifth in the league with 555 rushing yards this season, including two touchdowns. In recognition for his strong play, Knight was named to the second team, the first AllIvy selection of his career.

Of fensive Guard Matthew Adkins ’09 also earned a spot on the second team, after his strong performance all season on the offensive line for the Bears.

Defensive end James Develin ’10 came into the season with high expectations, after earning first-team All-Ivy honors last season in his sophomore campaign.

This year, Develin was a force once again, making 33 tackles, including 8.5 tackles for loss and

two sacks, while also making an interception in the win over Penn, earning him a spot on the second team.

Linebacker Steve Ziogas ’09 emerged as a key defensive leader for the Bears in his senior year, leading the team with 65 tackles and earning a spot on the All-Ivy second team.

In his first year as a starter in the secondar y, safety Chris Perkins ’10 made an immediate impact, earning Ivy League Defensive Player of the Week Honors in Brown’s 24-22 win over Har vard in the second game of the season. Perkins recorded 55 tackles on the season, while making an interception and forcing two fumbles, and was named to the second team.

Outside linebacker Miles Craigwell ’09 was an integral part of Brown’s run defense and pass defense, and was named All-Ivy honorable mention. Craigwell finished second on the Bears with 55 tackles, and made 5.5 tackles for loss and recovered two fumbles on the year.

In addition, Sewall, Farnham, Kelley and Howard were given All-New England honors. This was the first selection for Sewall, Kelley and Howard, while Farnham was given the honor for the second consecutive season.

Happy Thursday!

Rochelson ’09: Worry not, Yankees continued from page 16 consistency at the plate. Ibanez has hit over .280 for the past eight years and has five 20-home run seasons. The 2008 Yankees scored almost 200 fewer runs than the 2007 squad — blame Darrel Rasner all you want, but the Bombers failed because they didn’t bomb. Raul Ibanez is part of the solution.

Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez, RHP, age unknown Why not? The Bronx misses that leg kick. Career ERA of 4.13.

I bet he can still pitch.

Mark Prior, RHP, 28 years old Drafted by the Yanks in 1998, and a serious Cy Young Award contender in Chicago. Due to injuries, he hasn’t pitched in the big leagues since 2006, so I bet it would take peanuts to sign him to a contract.

No risk, high reward.

The Yankees need C.C. Sabathia and Mark Teixeira if they want to compete in 2009. But as they say, it takes more than two to tango.

Or something like that.

Ellis Rochelson ’09 wants Joba and C.C. to wrestle.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

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UAW ready to make more concesssions ACLU: U.S. citizen tortured in United Arab Emirates

By Steven Mufson Washington Post

WASHINGTON — An angry Ron Gettelfinger, president of the United Auto Workers, said Wednesday that his union was ready to make new concessions despite a landmark costcutting labor contract signed just last year, as he urged Congress and the administration to step forward with a multi-billion dollar rescue plan for Detroit’s beleaguered automakers.

The UAW, whose membership at the Big Three Detroit car manufacturers has dropped by half in the past five years, said it would let General Motors, Ford and Chrysler delay payments owed to a massive health care fund for retired workers and suspend a program that pays laid off workers for up to two years.

Gettelfinger made the new concessions reluctantly, complaining that the federal government was stepping in to rescue financial institutions while letting the car companies dangle near collapse.

“I’m having a little problem myself understanding why there’s a double standard here,” he told reporters after a meeting of union leadership.

“But we accept it and we’ll play by those rules.”

Despite the union’s moves, the chances for a government bailout — which GM and Chrysler say they need before the end of the month to avert financial collapse — remained uncertain at best. Democratic leadership aides said prospects for the $28 billion to $38 billion package sought by the companies were dim in the House. Auto industry sources said that House members were being flooded with mail from constituents opposed to federal help for the companies.

The Bush administration, however, appeared to leave all possibilities open. White House spokesman Dana Perino said the administration, which has urged Congress to divert $25 billion in funds authorized last year to promote fuel efficiency, needed more time to evaluate the plans.

“I think that to the American people, that giving $25 billion in taxpayer dollars to a specific indus-

try is generous,” Perino said. “But these are very serious times, and I’m sure the companies have spent a lot of time thinking through what they think they will need.”

The union’s concessions came as top executives for the companies made the rounds in Washington to rally support for a federal bailout of the auto industry.

During an interview at The Washington Post, Ford chief executive Alan Mulally said he was pressing Congress for money even though his company currently does not need federal help because if any of Ford’s rivals collapse, the pain would spread to suppliers and Ford itself.

Mulally, who said he drove from Detroit in a hybrid Ford Escape, said he saw no sign of improvement in the economy. He acknowledged that the automaker’s public pleas for help is likely scaring off away buyers.

“This conversation is hurting us,” Mulally said.

The president of Chrysler, Jim Press, stopped at an auto dealership in New Carrollton, Md., where dealers and local officials said the collapse of the auto makers would spread pain far beyond Detroit. “If we don’t get these loans, and for some reason we have to stop producing cars, the dealers have no business. It’s catastrophic,” Press said.

But lawmakers and analysts were still asking whether the three major U.S. automakers had plans to become viable or whether they would end up asking for more money from taxpayers. A Goldman Sachs report issued Wednesday said its analysis for GM’s international sales was more pessimistic than GM’s and that GM might need even more than the $18 billion it said would be its worstcase scenario.

With cash shortages running so big, it was hard to see what could save the companies other than federal aid. Standard & Poor’s auto expert Gregg Lemos-Stein noted that GM’s total annual interest payments on its debt came to less than half the cash the company went through during the third quarter of this year alone.

“The cash losses are so severe that debt reduction alone can’t be the

Asher ’10: Knicks shouldn’t have given up so soon continued from page 16 through years of listening to Isiah Thomas use words like “improvement” and “development” to justify failure, Walsh has just condemned those same fans to another two years of rebuilding while the Knicks wait for their messiah, be it James, Wade, Bosh or another superstar. “Remaining competitive” is such a loosely interpretable phrase that it has the potential to exempt Walsh, D’Antoni and the Knicks from any accountability over these next two seasons, regardless of the outcome.

That point was driven home last Tuesday, with LeBron’s Cleveland Cavaliers in town. Knicks fans cheered their potential future Knick, but those cheers soon turned into boos as they witnessed a heartless, lackluster performance from the present Knicks in an 18-point win for the Cavs.

One of Shaquille O’Neal’s most intelligent moments came right before the beginning of the 2004-05 season.

Shaq, newly acquired by the Miami Heat, proclaimed, “This is Dwyane Wade’s team.” Coming from O’Neal,

at that point already an 11-time allstar, three-time NBA champion and three-time Finals MVP, it seemed a bit ridiculous to put the team in the hands of Wade, who was fresh off his rookie season. But that proclamation from Shaq instilled a mindset in the Heat that the team had acquired Shaq, rather than Shaq acquiring the team, and two seasons later, the Heat were champions.

So even if the Knicks are able to sign a player the stature of LeBron James or Dwyane Wade, it’s going to be hard to build team chemistry.

When the supporting cast has just been through two years of waiting for their savior to arrive, it will be difficult to give those role players a sense of importance and responsibility for the success of their team.

The Knicks can go ahead and roll out the red carpet for LeBron James, but fans shouldn’t be surprised if there’s still no victory parade in the near future.

Benjy Asher ’10 thinks Sarah Palin has a better chance at the WNBA than the presidency.

entire solution,” Lemos-Stein said.

Gettelfinger asserted that labor made up only 10 percent of the cost of a car. “To be honest with you right now, if a UAW membership went into these facilities and worked for nothing, according to our research department, it would not help the companies that much,” he said.

UAW members numbered fewer than 150,000 at GM, Ford and Chrysler, down from about 300,000 five years ago, the union said.

Many critics of the auto industry have cited high labor costs. However, cutting those costs were at the heart of the last two contracts. Wednesday, Ford’s Mulally called the 2007 UAW contract “transformational” because of the savings it generates.

“The word concessions, I used to cringe at that word,” Gettelfinger said in his press conference Wednesday. “But now, why hide from it?

That’s what we did.”

According to Ford, by the time the contract expires in September 2011, hourly labor costs, including wages and benefits, would be $58, just $4 an hour more than foreignowned companies with non-union plants in the United States.

But that calculation assumed that the big three companies would be able to hire new workers at lower wages and that these new hires would make up about 20 percent of the companies’ workforce. Because of the economic downturn, however, Ford said it hasn’t hired any new workers and that the differential was currently about $9 an hour.

— Staf f writers Kendra Marr and Thomas Heath contributed to this article.

continued from page 11 Consular Affairs spokeswoman did not return calls for comment Wednesday, and a spokesman for the Emirates embassy in Washington, D.C., said it would be inappropriate to comment on a police and security matter involving a private U.S. citizen.

Hamdan was released from state security custody and taken to a prison near the city of Abu Dhabi

on Nov. 26. Since his transfer he has not been tortured, Hemdan said.

When they spoke, he tried to calm his jailed brother and assure him that things would be OK. “I didn’t even know my brother. They turned him into an old, shivery man. He’s turned insane,” Hemdan said.

“He’s a different person. He’s not the Naji I know, not the brother I know.”

E ditorial & L etters Page 14

Thursday, December 4, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Staf f Editorial

Signing off Financial aid went up, the economy tanked. A few too many freshmen came in, a storied University building may be on its way out. Candidates came to the Ocean State, delivered speeches and left promptly — and hundreds of students stormed the Main Green in midnight jubilee when one emerged triumphant. We won an Ivy League football championship, and we don’t care if we’re sharing it with Harvard.

We’ve tallied 650 campus news stories — not to mention 646 pictures, 232 columns, 96 letters in 124 issues. Between listening to buckets of Spoon and shelling out countless dollars at Loui’s, we’ve had one delightful year reporting on you.

Though we’ve enjoyed our many hours here at 195 Angell St., times now seem grim. Today, The Herald reports on students wrapping up their Brown careers this weekend, unsure where the next step in their lives will take them. This year has indeed had its share of sorrows, from bullets raining in Mumbai to plunging stocks taking with them executive and day laborer alike. “In God we hope” is Brown’s motto, but how to be hopeful when we grow restless from watching, waiting?

But what we’ve learned in a year of covering you is to never doubt the vibrancy of Brown’s student body. You never settle; you raise your voices when you see injustice; and you work out of the spotlight to effect change across the world and in our classrooms. Our labs birth the discoveries that will change tomorrow; our pens put words to the ideas that will shake a generation; and our open hearts and minds bridge conflict. We have much accomplished and much left to do.

We now hand over the reins to a new editorial board with the confidence that they’ll do justice to the dynamism of the stories you have to tell. Your paper of record since 1866, The Herald has watched the faces of Brunonians change dramatically over the years to the bright and diverse community we are now.

We came from many corners and converged on a hill. We had the honor and the pleasure of increasing your knowledge of Brown. These times are tough, but we couldn’t be in a place richer with possibility to push ahead.

And as you do, The Herald will be here to tell your stories.

A lex Y uly

Simmi Aujla ’09, Editor-in-Chief Ross Frazier ’09, Editor-in-Chief Taylor Barnes ’09, Executive Editor Chris Gang ’09.5, Executive Editor Irene Chen ’09, Senior Editor Lindsey Meyers ’09, Senior Editor

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Corrections A column in yesterday’s Herald (“Let them divorce!” Dec. 3) stated that Rhode Island law recognizes samesex marriages performed out of state. While Rhode Island does not have any laws barring same-sex marriage, it does not officially recognize them.

A photo in yesterday’s Herald (“From List to London, alums mix it up,” Dec. 3) was incorrectly credited. It was courtesy of Aaron Duffy.

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

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O pinions Thursday, December 4, 2008

Page 15

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

So unoriginal

BY Matt Aks Opinions Columnist At some point in the next four years, president-elect Barack Obama will likely have the opportunity to nominate at least one judge to the Supreme Court. With a conservative bloc of four judges set to serve on the Court for at least another decade, there is a great deal riding on whomever Obama might choose.

Over the summer, Obama made a comment on the topic of judges that provoked a minor controversy.

“We need somebody who’s got the heart, the empathy, to recognize what it’s like to be a young teenage mom,” Obama said in July.

“The empathy to understand what it’s like to be poor, or African-American, or gay, or disabled, or old. And that’s the criteria by which I’m going to be selecting my judges.”

Although this comment was largely lost in the election fray, many conservatives were outraged. One prominent conservative legal scholar, Steven Calabresi, said of Obama: “To the traditional view of justice as a blindfolded person weighing legal claims fairly on a scale, he wants to tear the blindfold off, so the judge can rule for the party he empathizes with most.”

The Brown Spectator ran an article that echoed Calabresi’s concerns, titled “Obama’s EmPATHETIC Constitutionalism.”

The worry that “empathetic” judges will substitute their own personal feelings for sound jurisprudence is entirely justified. Supreme Court justices serve life terms and have the power to overturn acts of Congress, so a freewheeling or heavy-handed justice can pose a major threat to American democracy.

Calabresi is absolutely right that a judge

who reached decisions based entirely on his or her own personal sense of empathy would be an utter disaster. However, I think Calabresi may have taken Obama’s remark too literally. Obama does not intend to nominate an individual whose lone qualification is a strong sense of empathy.

the blindfold off” of judges seems a little overblown.

Still, conservatives are unlikely to be satisfied. They want a judge in the mold of Antonin Scalia or Clarence Thomas who embraces a judicial philosophy known as originalism or textualism. This philosophy says that judges

If we recognize that ‘literal’ readings of legal texts are not objective, then a claim to such objectivity can actually mask truly subjective factors underlying a decision.

During the campaign, Obama’s surrogates said that Obama intends to nominate justices in the mold of current Justice Steven Breyer.

Breyer is well known for his philosophy of legal interpretation that says judges should draw on six sources: the text of the law, the history of the law, the tradition surrounding the law, the relevant precedents, the purpose of the law and the consequences of varying interpretations of the law.

Obviously, Breyer’s own personal sense of empathy is absent from this list. So right away, the charge that Obama wants to “tear

should not concern themselves with the practical consequences of their interpretations. A judge who begins to think about consequences is likely to indulge personal biases regarding which consequences are most desirable.

Rather, judges should adhere strictly to the text of the Constitution and laws as they are written. This method of interpretation, conservatives maintain, is the only method that is predictable, consistent and objective.

When Obama says he wants an empathetic judge, I take him to mean that he wants a judge who does consider the consequences

of varying interpretations. But the textualist’s deep concern with judicial bias and subjectivity is still very pertinent, so two further points are in order.

First, strict adherence to the text of the Constitution or a law does not guarantee objectivity. Meanings of words change over time, and phrases can be used ambiguously.

So-called “literal” readings still rely on subjective elements like language and history. This method of interpretation can hardly claim to resolve Constitutional or legal dilemmas with complete objectivity.

More importantly, textualism can actually make the problem of judicial bias even worse.

If we recognize that “literal” readings of legal texts are not objective, then a claim to such objectivity can actually mask truly subjective factors underlying a decision.

As Breyer puts it in his book “Active Liberty,” “A decision that directly addresses consequences, purposes, and values is no more subjective, at worst, and has the added value of exposing underlying judicial motivations, specifying the points of doubt for all to read.”

In “Active Liberty,” Breyer makes a compelling case that judges must consider consequences if they are going to reach sound decisions.

So is Breyer (or whomever Obama might nominate) a judicial activist who tramples on American democracy?

One study found that between 1994 and 2005, Breyer voted to strike down laws less often than any other justice. And the judge who voted to strike down laws most often? The celebrated originalist Clarence Thomas.

Matt Aks ’11 believes in strict adherence to the text of this column.

Make the Health Services fee optional

BY Jared Lafer Opinions Columnist I hate to waste money. Accordingly, when it comes to personal spending I try carefully to gauge the necessity of the expenditure at hand. I don’t have much discretion, however, over educational expenses. Brown sets the prices and students have to pay to attend.

There is one service in particular that doesn’t benefit a number of students, but carries a compulsory financial toll — the Health Services fee. There is no reason the fee should be mandatory.

Health Services charges each student $313 a semester to cover its operational costs (which include the salaries of the deans in the Office of Student Life, among other things).

For this price, students are entitled to limitless “medical services” (primary care, dermatology, emergency care, etc.), Health Education and up to five visits to the counseling staff at Psychological Services. In addition to the fee, every Brown student is required to have health insurance (through Brown or otherwise), which generally pays for any services not covered by the fee (tests, prescriptions, inoculations, etc.).

Many would argue that ensuring easy access to health care is worth a meager $313 per semester, but what good is University health care to those of us who don’t exploit it?

For example, I’ve never gone to Health Services or directly benefited from it in any way, and I would imagine a number of other

students are in the same position. I’m sure plenty of students get their bang for their buck from Health Services, but it’s rather presumptuous to deem the fee a necessary expense for all students.

The Health Services fee is especially unfair to those students who have opted out of the default Student Health Insurance Plan. Outside insurance gives students access to go

fee if you ever visit Health Services — a steep price for students who didn’t plan to use Health Services in the first place. This seems like a greedy policy, much as I hate to question the University’s motivations.

How can Health Services remedy the situation? Instead of forcing everyone to pay the fee, Brown could make it optional. Brown could also set up a system under which stu-

The Health Services fee is especially unfair to those students who have opted out of the default Student Health Insurance Plan. to practicing, in-network doctors whom they may prefer for a variety of reasons, rendering Health Services extraneous.

Granted, it is possible to waive the Health Services fee if you are a non-degree-seeking student or have enrolled in absentia. But these criteria apply to very few students. And even if you get a waiver, you’ll have to pay the full

dents only pay for the services they receive.

This system would save money for those who rarely or never use Health Services, regardless of insurance type, while still earning enough operational revenue.

Some might worry that Health Services would not be able to run at its current capacity if students could waive the fee. They’re right.

But that may just mean that the fee artificially inflates demand for University-provided medical care.

Even if everyone waived his or her fee, it wouldn’t be the end of the world. Health Services would have to set the prices in line with costs. That’s how it’s done in the real world, and I don’t see why it should be any different at Brown.

Granted, if everyone waived the fee, the price per service might increase, but I doubt the total would exceed $313 for most students in a semester. Many would save money by spending less.

Furthermore, it seems the ultimate appeal of Health Services is its convenience, and so it is unlikely that all students will forego the Health Services fee anyway. In fact, I imagine most students wouldn’t choose to waive the fee, not only for convenience’s sake, but also because many students might be willing to pay $313 for limitless, quality medical care.

Of course, $313 is still an expenditure for anyone. It adds up to $2,504 over four years, at a time when many can’t afford to throw money away. At the very least, the University could save students money by offering them the same raw deal afforded to non-degreeseeking students — an optional fee, with a heavy penalty for one-time use. As an institution that prides itself on maximizing students’ choices, Brown can afford to give students one more option.

Jared Lafer ’11 thinks that students should get to choose between health care and Flex points.

Are you interested in becoming an opinions columnist next semester?

Contact opinions@browndailyherald.com for more information.

S ports T hursday Page 16

Thursday, December 4, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

The waiting: Knicks gave up too soon

Raul Ibanez, LF, 36 years old I’m sure Johnny Damon is a nice guy. Really. But the guy cannot play the outfield. It’s shocking to see a man with his speed watch so many balls drop at his feet. And it’s hard not to laugh when he tries to throw out a runner.

Johnny Damon should be the Yankees’ DH, and Raul Ibanez should man left field. The New York City native would bring a superior arm and range to left field, plus some much-needed pop and

By the summer of 2010, I will have graduated from Brown University.

Naturally, that time seems a long way off to me. So last week, I was understandably surprised to hear that the New York Knicks, who were off to a decent start with a 6-5 record, had traded their Benjy Asher two leading Sports Editor scorers, Zach Randolph and Jamal Crawford, in order to make room under the salary cap in preparation for the 2010 offseason.

The end of the 2009-10 season will mark a highly anticipated moment in the basketball world, when a group of superstars, including LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, will become unrestricted free agents.

Obviously, the thought of LeBron or D-Wade in a Knicks uniform is enough to make New Yorkers salivate, but the idea of sacrificing two seasons seems a bit excessive.

For starters, it’s not even close to a guarantee that the Knicks will land one of the top-caliber free agents in 2010. James, a native son of Ohio, may very well opt to stay in Cleveland, and even if he doesn’t, the whole crop of big-name free agents will have plenty of other suitors.

Knicks fans should remember the recent agony of being teased with promises of Kevin Garnett and Kobe Bryant.

Also, the Knicks are a team on the rise. After seven consecutive seasons without posting a winning regular-season record or winning a playoff game, new Head Coach Mike D’Antoni appears to have breathed new life into the team. He began by benching Stephon Marbury for detrimental behavior and Eddy Curry for reporting to training camp out of shape. The first 11 games of D’Antoni’s tenure saw Randolph playing some of the best basketball of his career, with averages of 20.5 points and 12.5 rebounds per game, up from 17.6 points and 10.3 rebounds last season. Crawford also looked great through the first 11 games, averaging 19.6 points while setting career highs in field goal and three-point percentage. And with a supporting cast of team players like point guard Chris Duhon and power forward David Lee, and up-and-coming talents like Wilson Chandler and Nate Robinson in the backcourt, the Knicks were looking like a force to be reckoned with.

But then, Team President Donnie Walsh decided to unload his team’s two best players, in the interest of “long-term flexibility” according to the Atlanta Journal-Constituion.

Walsh assured fans that the newly acquired Knicks — Tim Thomas, Cuttino Mobley and Al Harrington — would help the team “work towards their goal of remaining competitive this season” according to ESPN. And so far, the new Knicks have shown flashes of excellence, including a 36-point outburst from Harrington in last Saturday’s win over Golden State, Harrington’s former team.

So why should Knicks fans be upset? Rather than giving his newand-improved team a chance to show what it was capable of, Walsh opted to defer any real aspirations for another two years. After New York has been

continued on page 12

continued on page 13

Kim Perley / Herald

Football players, eight of whom were chosen for the All-Ivy first team, celebrated their victory over Columbia before Thanksgiving.

Fifteen Brunonians earn All-Ivy football honors

By Benjy Asher Spor ts Editor

After an Ivy League championship season, 15 members of the football team have earned All-Ivy honors, including eight who were to the first team.

Receiver Bobby Sewall ’10 was named to the first team after leading the league with 69 receptions, 948 yards and eight receiving touchdowns. This marks the second All-Ivy selection for Sewall, who was named to the second team last season as a sophomore.

Joining him on the first team is fellow receiver Buddy Farnham ’10, who caught 63 passes for 816 yards and six touchdowns en route to his second consecutive All-Ivy first team selection.

Tight end Colin Cloherty ’09 rounded out Brown’s passing attack, which ranked second in the league, and Cloherty’s 40 receptions for 418 yards and three touchdowns made him a unanimous selection on the first team, following his selection to the second team last season. Cloherty was one of only two unanimous selections, along with Princeton running back

Jordan Culbreath.

Also named to the first team were of fensive tackles Paul Jasinowski ’10 and Shane Kelley ’09, who anchored the offensive line that helped the Bears have the second-highest-scoring offense in the league. This was Kelley’s first selection, while Jasinowski earned second team All-Ivy honors last season.

The Brown defense had two representatives on the first team.

Tackle David Howard ’09 was a key part of the defensive line this season, recording 6.5 sacks, third best in the Ivy League. His outstanding season earned him his first All-Ivy selection.

Cor nerback Nkosi Still ’09 played a key role for the Bears, filling in at cornerback for injured co-captain Darrell Harrison ’09, where he registered 49 tackles, and two interceptions on the year. He also earned Ivy League Defensive Player of the Week honors following Brown’s 34-27 win over Penn.

Rounding out the first-team selections for Brown was kicker and punter Robert Ranney ’08.5, who led the league by averaging 43.7 continued on page 12

Kim Perley / Herald

After beating Columbia, the football team finished the season tied with Harvard for first place in the Ivy League.

For the Yankees, there’s more to life than C.C. and Tex If you’re a baseball fan, you’re bored. You’re probably checking MLBtraderumors.com every day, or you may have even resorted to playing The Bigs on your Nintendo Wii. And you’re probably sick of seeing headlines like “Yankees may Ellis Rochelson possibly conSports Columnist sider increasing their offer to C.C. Sabathia, hypothetically,” and “Stop the Presses! Ian Kennedy throws 9 innings in the Hawaiian Winter League.”

Me too. This Hot Stove has been so boring, especially for Yankees fans, because the Yanks seem to only be interested in Sabathia and Mark Teixeira.

This is a team that needs a lot of work, and there are a ton of valuable options that are going unmentioned. Here are some other free agents that General Manager Brian Cashman must sign, and fast.

Ben Sheets, RHP, 30 years old There’ve been a few whispers that Cashman is considering A.J. Burnett, but there’s almost zero rumored interest in Ben Sheets.

New York is heading into 2009

with only two guaranteed starters, Chien Ming Wang and Joba Chamberlain. Mike Mussina has unfortunately retired, and Andy Pettitte might elope with Joe Torre in Los Angeles. You can never have enough pitching, and the Yankees have a dire need.

While C.C. Sabathia gets treated like the second coming, Sheets is hardly getting noticed.

But why?

The hard-throwing righty has a better career WHIP (1.20) than C.C. and continues to mature as a pitcher. I’m not advocating getting Sheets instead of C.C. — both would be nice — but I don’t know how Cashman can see Sheets’

2008 ERA of 3.09 and not put an offer on the table.