Friday, October 16, 2009

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Daily Herald the Brown

vol. cxliv, no. 86 | Friday, October 16, 2009 | Serving the community daily since 1891

Corporation to focus on long-term outlook By Jenna Stark News Editor

Against the backdrop of a weakened economy, a shrunken endowment and a diminished budget, the University’s highest governing body is set to convene this weekend to evaluate the changes the University has undergone in the last year and to determine if additional adjustments are needed. The Corporation will focus its meeting on “stability and continuity,” according to Chancellor Thomas Tisch ’76, the University’s highest officer and the Corporation’s leader. “This is not a meeting where one can expect a great number of actions on the budget, tuition and the like,” he said. The endowment lost roughly a

BDS ratifies three-year contract

quarter of its value in the recent financial crisis. In February, the Corporation responded by slashing $90 million from the budget for the next five years, implementing a hiring freeze and increasing the undergraduate, graduate and medical school tuitions by 3 percent. The University is looking to cut an additional $30 million this fall from the originally projected amount for the next budget, which takes effect in July 2010, though that budget will still represent a small net increase from this year’s budget. Final budget recommendations will be made at the Corporation’s next meeting in February. “Overall, it’s certainly in the context of what happened in last year’s economy,” said Russell Car-

By Sydney Ember Senior Staff Writer

cited to face the pressure because it will leave vulnerabilities in the secondary. “We’ve got to get a good pass rush,” said Princeton Head Coach Roger Hughes. “We can’t allow him to run around and avoid pressure to buy time for his receivers to get open.”

Brown Dining Services workers Thursday ratified the tentative agreement negotiators had reached with the University at around 2 a.m. that morning, securing a new three-year contract after nearly a week of bargaining. The contract resolved issues surrounding health care premiums, wage increases, retirement benefits for new hires and the creation of more full-time positions, leaving officials on both sides satisfied with the settlement. “Both bargaining teams are happy with the resolution,” said director of labor and employee relations Joseph Sarno ’91, the University’s chief negotiator. “We think it’s a fair deal for both teams.” The previous contract was originally set to expire at 11:59 p.m. Monday, but when no agreement for a new contract was reached by that deadline, it was extended 48 hours for further negotiation. The new contract stipulates a flat-rate increase to 7 percent for health care premiums starting Jan. 1, Sarno said, adding that premiums will increase in January 2011 to 8

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Austin Freeman / Herald

Brown’s highest governing body will meet in University Hall this weekend.

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In first year under center, rookie QB leads team By dan alexander senior staff writer

Coming into this season, starting quarterback Kyle Newhall-Caballero ’11 had never thrown a varsity pass. His teammates, opposing coaches and even his position coach agreed that Newhall lacked one key attribute: experience. “Until the bullets are real, it’s very

hard to simulate,” said Quarterbacks anyone else in the Ivy League. Coach James Perry ’00. This weekend — home again for Last weekend, Newhall-Caballero a 12:37 p.m. game against Princeton gained a considerable amount of ex- — he will likely face plenty of live perience, passing 61 times bullets. in a win against Holy “They bring a lot SPORTS Cross, who was ranked of heat on the quarterNo. 19 in the Football Championship back,” said Newhall-Caballero of the Subdivision. Tigers. “They pressure something Newhall-Caballero has passed 173 like 70 percent of the time.” times in just four games, more than Newhall-Caballero said he is ex-

No more wheels, but wontons galore

Freddy Lu / Herald

inside

Chinese Iron Wok will open on Brook Street in late October. The owner, Tom Liang, is an MIT-educated engineer.

News.....1-4 Ar ts.......5 Editorial..6 Opinion...7 Today........8

www.browndailyherald.com

By Jenna Steckel Contributing Writer

of the fun,” Liang said. “It allows you to really know it.”

Tom Liang, owner of Thayer Street’s landmark Chinese food truck, is covered in plaster. Construction, rather than General Tso’s chicken, is filling his days as he prepares to open a Chinese restaurant with a firm foundation rather than four wheels. The finished product, Chinese Iron Wok, will be located on Brook Street near Loui’s Restaurant and will offer Szechuanstyle dishes, known for their spicy flavors. It will also bring revenue to a familiar landlord — the University, which owns the property at Benevolent and Brook Streets. Liang closed his Seekonk restaurant, the first Chinese Iron Wok, in August to focus exclusively on construction, he said. He’s on site every day to ensure an opening date in late October. “Building your restaurant is part

Building on Brook The new restaurant will be split into two floors, each catering to a different Chinese food hankering. The first floor will house a faster, less expensive option, selling the American favorites that have brought

SPOTLIGHT in brisk business to Liang’s truck. On the second floor, the pace will be slower and the prices higher, as diners will have the opportunity to order more complicated and authentic dishes for a complete sit-down menu, Liang said. Liang has noticed that many Brown students are vegetarians and want healthy options, he said, and the menu at Chinese Iron Wok will reflect that. One Brown professor is already a fan of the soon-to-open eatery.

“It will be interesting to see how Brown students learn to eat” Liang’s more authentic dishes, said Professor of Computer Science Andy van Dam, a self-professed “Chinese food nut.” Van Dam said he’s a fan of Schezuan dishes because of their “use of chili peppers and hot oils.” The skeleton of the kitchen has already been built. It doesn’t exactly resemble that of an average American restaurant because, as Liang pointed out, Chinese methods of cooking differ from those used to prepare most American foods. A line of giant woks are set in a metal trough in the middle of the kitchen. Four chefs will work the woks, each manning three. Six chefs in another section of the kitchen will prep raw ingredients. Liang has outfitted the kitchen with a large vent, necessary for wok cooking because of the large jet fires that reach 800 degrees. It takes only continued on page 4

News, 3

Opinions, 7

Inside

nose for success Brown’s iGEM team is building a bacterium all on its own

look to zimbabwe Dominic Mhiripiri ’12 says the Nobel Peace Prize was given to the wrong leader

Stuff brown students like post- magazine does Family Weekend in style

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

C ampus N EWS news in brief

M. crew goes to Head of the Charles to ‘Pull for a Cure’ This Saturday, hundreds of thousands of spectators will flock to the Head of the Charles in Boston to see a swarm of collegiate and Olympic teams compete in a six-kilometer river race. But one group might draw more attention than others — Brown’s men’s crew team plans to wear all-pink uniforms as a part of its “Pull for a Cure” breast cancer fundraiser. Dan Aziz ’11, who is in charge of the effort, said his team has already exceeded its original goal of raising $10,000, collecting nearly double that amount so far. Each of the team’s 45 members was asked to collect at least $100, but many exceeded that target. Aziz said rowers asked their families and friends for money, sent e-mails and even went door to door on occasion. Though only 20 members of the team will actually be racing this weekend, the others also helped with the fundraising efforts, Aziz said. Aziz was motivated to get the team involved in breast cancer awareness and support because he had “a lot of ties” to victims and survivors of breast cancer, he said, and because October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Head Coach Paul Cooke ’89 said the fundraising efforts are a testament to the team’s consistent effort to represent Brown well. “All of the excitement has come from within the team,” he said. The team plans to make this an annual event, extend the challenge to other schools’ teams and perhaps even make a competition out of it, according to Aziz. Crew is currently only in its unofficial season, so members typically wear “fun” uniforms to the race. Aziz said the rowers were excited to don their “really sweet, all-pink uniforms.” Cooke said the race was extremely competitive because international teams compete alongside the local ones. “The guys are really looking forward to it and are reasonably wellprepared,” he said. This weekend’s race, the Head of the Charles, is the world’s largest two-day rowing event, according to its Web site. — Parker McClellan

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Editorial Phone: 401.351.3372 | Business Phone: 401.351.3260 Stephen DeLucia, President Michael Bechek, Vice President

Friday, October 16, 2009

“I probably wouldn’t want to deal with it.” — Bradley Silverman ’13, on the new advising resources Web site

New Web site one-stop advising shop By Mark Raymond Contributing Writer

First-years can now access all their advising resources in one virtual location. The Office of the Dean of the College recently debuted “The Advising Sidekick,” an online resource that provides students and their respective advisors with personalized pages listing the students’ academic interests and their first-year summer letters written to faculty and Meiklejohn advisors. The site streamlines the advising process and aims to improve adviserstudent communication. “I like the new site because it keeps track of a bunch of helpful items,” said Abigail Perry ’01, assistant director of admissions and an academic advisor.

Perry said her only complaint was that the site does not currently display class schedule information, which would allow students and advisors to better coordinate meeting times. Introduced for the class of 2013, the project was inspired by recommendations from last year’s Task Force on Undergraduate Education report, which analyzed students’ “liberal learning” experience. Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron said the site will eventually serve as an archive for students’ writing and other academic work, their transcripts and concentration declarations. At the end of each academic year, starting with members of the class of 2013, all students will be expected to upload at least one written assignment to the site, accumulating a portfolio

of writing samples by the time they graduate. “This is an opportunity for students to reflect,” Bergeron said. First-year students displayed mixed reactions to the new site. “It’s nice to have everything conveniently located in one place,” said Samantha Powell ’13. “Before, I was getting all this information from different sources and had to organize it myself.” Bradley Silverman ’13 said he thought the site might be a hassle. “Unless it proved really useful to others, I probably wouldn’t want to deal with it,” he said. Bergeron said the site’s development is still a work in progress. “We want to do it slowly and get feedback along the way so that it works,” she said.

‘Knowlege economy’ on Corporation agenda continued from page 1 ey ’91 MA’06, senior vice president for Corporation affairs and University governance. Still, he said this weekend’s summit would be “a pretty standard October meeting,” adding that “there’s nothing they’re doing about their schedule or subject that’s particularly unusual.” Recent developments that the Corporation will discuss include several capital projects currently underway and the University’s plans to increase its presence in Providence’s Jewelry District. Despite the diminished budget for this fiscal year, the Corporation in February approved several major projects to move forward, making the construction of buildings such as the Center for the Creative Arts and Nelson Fitness Center and the renovation of Faunce House priorities. The body also juggled the budget so two planned new projects — a brain science building and a medical education building — could be addressed by renovations instead of new construction. Tisch said the Corporation plans to discuss the progress of capital projects and how they fit in with the University’s future plans, especially as many are “moving forward at a much faster pace than we would have imagined last year.” “Last year at this time there was great uncertainty as to how we

would complete the forward calendar of building projects,” Tisch said. “Interestingly, in the midst of financial upheavals where many schools have been cancelling projects, we’ve been in the rare situation of greenlighting many projects.” Rhode Island Hall — one such project that was midway through a major renovation before the economic slump — was completed this fall and will be rededicated Friday at 5:30 p.m. as the new home of the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World. The rededication ceremony, to be attended by Corporation members, will include speeches by Tisch, President Ruth Simmons, Chancellor Emeritus Artemis Joukowsky ’55 P’87 and Prince Zeid Ra’ad Zeid Al-Hussein, Jordan’s ambassador to the United States. The Corporation will also include in its discussion of capital projects the University’s plans to create a new medical education space by renovating a University-owned building in the Jewelry District, according to Carey. Construction at 222 Richmond St. is scheduled to begin in March. Brown hopes to help develop the district and will hear this weekend from Frances Halsband — an architectural consultant to the Corporation who designed The Walk and other long-term physical projects — regarding her ideas to beautify the area with restored historic streetcars, widened sidewalks and

Jonathan Spector, Treasurer Alexander Hughes, Secretary

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greenery. Vice President of Public Affairs and University Relations Marisa Quinn said the Corporation’s discussion is to “illustrate the ways, as we expand our presence in the Jewelry District, of being a positive contributing force in that area and in the city overall.” “We are acknowledging that we have a role to play in this ‘knowledge economy’ initiative and we seek to advance that effort,” she said. Carey said members of the Corporation will also continue to evaluate the progress of the Plan for Academic Enrichment — Simmons’ wide-ranging blueprint for improving the University. While the weekend’s schedule is largely the same as in past years, the structure of the Corporation will be different. A total of nine new members will join the board of trustees, and four new chairs will head major committees, including the body’s budget, advancement, campus life and academic affairs committees, according to Tisch. “On each of these areas there is revitalization, and interesting discussions that will probably take place,” he said. This weekend also marks the beginning of the Corporation’s young alum trustee position, which was created in response to remarks from the Undergraduate Council of Students last year that the Corporation “had lost touch” with current students’ needs, Tisch said. Lauren Kolodny ’08, who was elected by the Corporation in May, will serve a three-year term as a trustee rather than the general sixyear term for general members. She is the most recent graduate to serve on the Corporation in 40 years, as well as its youngest current member, Tisch said. The Corporation Weekend and Family Weekend are occurring at the same time this year, promising a busy set of days for the president and other administrators. While Simmons may be “more exhausted than usual” by the end, Tisch said he thought the weekend will overall “work very smoothly.”


Friday, October 16, 2009

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

C ampus N EWS

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“We essentially want to create a drug factory in your nose.” — Indu Voruganti ’12, iGEM member

U. no. 31 in world, says British mag By Max Godnick Contributing Writer

Kim Perley / Herald

Indu Voruganti ’12 (left) and Minoo Ramanathan ’11 work a BioMed Center lab in preparation for their competition at MIT later this month. Last year’s team placed 13th.

Yet another publication has released its list of best universities, with an international magazine putting Brown at No. 31 in the world. The Times Higher Education, based in London, put Brown four spots lower in its World University Rankings than last year. The new ranking placed Brown lower than all other colleges in the Ivy League except Dartmouth. Harvard secured the top spot, as it has since the World University Rankings started in 2004, with the University of Cambridge coming in second and Yale placing third this year. The U.S. had the greatest number of colleges in the top 200, with 54 schools, but its domination among world universities has decreased this year with four schools dropping out of the rankings since 2008. In an accompanying article, Times Higher Education sub-editor Phil Baty wrote, “The country’s decline comes amid improved

showings by institutions in Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea and Malaysia.” The magazine, working in conjunction with Quacquarelli Symonds Ltd., a company that researches higher education, based its rankings on four primary criteria: research, teaching, graduate employability and international outlook. Universities were ranked according to the number of times their researchers’ published work has been cited, the staff-to-student ratios, the proportion of overseas staff employed and the proportion of overseas students enrolled in the school. Fifty percent of the scoring criteria were based on surveys given to “informed university academics and university employers,” according to the publication. The highest-ranked school in each subcategor y received 100 points, with the other institutions ranked as a percentage of that score. Brown received an overall score of 83.9 relative to top-ranked Harvard. Brown professors were given high marks, earning a

score of 97 based on their citation in published work. However, the University received some of the lowest scores in the rankings’ international staff and international student sections, earning scores of 55 and 53, respectively. Brown students expressed mixed reactions to the college rankings process. “I see the value in rankings, as long as the people involved are being honest,” said Matt Jacobs ’11. “I don’t think about rankings as much because I don’t always understand how they are calculated.” Arjun Vaidya ’13, a student from Mumbai, said he was surprised by Brown’s low score in the international students section. “Adjusting to Brown was really easy,” Vaidya said. “They paid attention to our needs, and there were a lot of other international students to relate to.” As for the significance of these numbers abroad, Vaidya said, “College rankings do matter a lot to people back home, but I don’t really pay much attention to them.”

iGEM team creates super-bacterium By Warren jin Contributing writer

This Halloween weekend, Brown’s iGEM team will head off to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for the annual iGEM jamboree, in which more than 110 schools from around the world will present the results of their research to create entirely new microorganisms — custom-built bacteria that may soon revolutionize the world of medicine. The International Genetically Engineered Machine competition, iGEM for short, gives teams of undergraduates a toolbox of genes and a summer to design and create an organism. This year, Brown’s team made use of Staphylococcus Epidermidis — a form of bacteria already present on skin and in the nose — and spliced in a gene found in ticks that suppresses the host’s immune response as the tick feeds. The result is a super-bacterium that cures allergies after only one use and causes no drowsiness. “We essentially want to create a drug factory in your nose,” said Indu Voruganti ’12, a team member and biology concentrator. Along with presenting their work, competitors must also submit the new genes that they have isolated. Called “BioBricks,” they are highly specific sequences of DNA with “sticky ends” that allow them to be slapped together like Lego bricks, Voruganti said. The goal is to create a catalogue of DNA that will allow researchers to build on one another’s work. The competitors are then judged on the basis of how many BioBricks they have submitted and the real-world practicality and feasibility of their projects. Synthetic biology is a relatively

new field. It uses the same equipment and methods as traditional genetic engineering, but instead of starting out with an organism and seeing what can be done with it, an organism is built from scratch, based on an idea. “The idea is that you’re programming DNA,” said Will Allen ’12, a computational biology concentrator. “It’s a very different kind of research,” Vorungati said. “There’s a lot of potential for new ideas.” iGEM is unique in that research is entirely conducted by undergraduates. The team members have widely different experiences in the field — Voruganti began iGEM as a first-year and had done genetics research in high school, while Ahmad Rana ’11, a biology concentrator, had worked at the Alpert Medical School’s Liver Research Center during his freshman and sophomore years. Ashley Kim ’11, a neuroscience concentrator, had relatively little lab experience compared to the others. Putting in 40-hour weeks over the summer, the team sought guidance from faculty members in fields from chemistry to molecular cell biology and bio-medicine, Kim said. “At the beginning, it was really frustrating,” she said. “We messed up a lot.” “It can take a lot of repetition — five, 10, 20 times — just to get cell growth on a plate,” Rana said. “It might be the 21st time, but it’s so rewarding when you succeed.” He said the team is well on its way to being ready for the competition in two weeks. “We feel good about the chances we’ll take home a gold medal,” Rana said.

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

C ampus N EWS Brown, Princeton to face off in ‘must win for both teams’ continued from page 1 Despite passing more often than any other team in the Ivy League, the Bears (2-2, 0-1 Ivy) have only given up five sacks all season, tied for the fewest in the Ancient Eight. Last week Newhall-Caballero had a breakout game, going 46-of61 passing for 431 yards and two touchdowns. He added 14 yards and a touchdown on the ground. For his record-breaking performance, Newhall-Caballero was named Ivy League Offensive Player of the Week, New England Football Writers Gold Helmet Award Winner and a College Sporting News National All-Star. Newhall-Caballero now leads the Ivy League in passing yards, (1,093) total offense (1,191) and touchdown passes (9). He leads the nation in completions per game, with 28.5. Wide receiver Bobby Sewall ’10 — who had 14 catches against Holy Cross — said he hasn’t been surprised by Newhall-Caballero’s play this season. “There was no question from our end whether Newhall would be able to step in and do well,” Sewall said. “Everybody knew. We’ve all taken snaps with Kyle.” But Newhall-Caballero said he is still learning, though he has “developed quite a bit,” in his short career. Both Sewall and Newhall-Caballero said Perry deserved credit for much of the quarterback’s development, especially in his ability to read defenses. “Coach Perry has worked with him day in and day out, just drilling in coverages and everything,” Sewall said. “Coach Perry has done an unbelievable job with Kyle.” Sewall is just one of the many receiving threats for the Bears this season. Pre-season All-American Buddy Farnham ’10 has 27 receptions for 286 yards on the season. And Trevan Samp, the Ivy League leader in receiving yards, had 15 catches for 206 yards against Holy Cross. “We’ve got weapons ever y-

where,” Newhall-Caballero said. “Our running backs catch the ball well, too. It’s easy for me.” Newhall-Caballero’s biggest trouble this season has been his interceptions — he leads the league with seven. But he said he has been working hard in practice for the last couple of weeks to try to eliminate his turnovers. He had just one interception last week. He said he is trying to take fewer chances and just take what the defense gives him. The Match-up Although Newhall-Caballero will likely pass often this weekend against Princeton (1-3, 0-1), he shouldn’t find himself in a quarterback duel like last week. Princeton has a more balanced offensive attack than Holy Cross, but the Tigers still look to the air often. Sophomore quarterback Tommy Wornham took over the starting job for the Tigers this year and has led an offense that is last in the league in scoring, with only 9.5 points per game. The Tigers have scored only three times out of their nine chances in the red zone this year. After getting blown out 38-0 by Columbia, Princeton fell to FCS No. 17 Colgate last week, 21-14, in double overtime. Linebackers Steven Cody and Scott Britton, the top two tacklers in the Ivy League, led the Tigers’ defense, which held Colgate to only seven points in regulation. “They’ve always been very good defensively,” Estes said. “They’re very aggressive.” But Princeton will face an entirely different offense from last week. Colgate, the No. 1 rushing offense in the nation, likes to run it up the gut, but Brown’s spread offense focuses on the pass. Both Princeton and Brown are 0-1 in the Ivy League and will probably need to win out if they want to have a shot at the Ivy League title. “I think our kids know that this is a must-win for both teams,” Hughes said. “It’s very difficult to win the league with two losses.”

Friday, October 16, 2009

“I want to engineer-ize the kitchen.” — Tom Liang on Chinese Iron Wok, his soon-to-open restaurant

No wage freeze for BDS workers continued from page 1 percent for the rest of the contract’s duration. During negotiations, the University had proposed implementing a “sliding scale” for employees’ health care contributions — which would have workers pay greater premiums depending on their salaries — hoping to partially offset the rapidly rising costs of health-care insurance. Under the previous contract, BDS workers paid a flat rate of 6 percent. The University also agreed not to implement a wage freeze, which had been on the table at the beginning of this month, instead consenting to a 2 percent increase in each of the three years, Sarno said. In addition, new hires will continue to receive retirement benefits, which had been a contested issue during negotiations, he said. BDS workers and the University

had reached a tentative agreement early Thursday morning, but a new agreement was not ensured until after employees voted to ratify the contract during two meetings scheduled Thursday afternoon between employees’ shifts, said Roxana Rivera, the chief negotiator for the Service Employees International Union, Local 615, which represents all of the nearly 200 workers. Negotiations reached a peak Tuesday, when BDS employees authorized their bargaining committee to call a strike if negotiations failed to resolve the disagreements by Wednesday night. Rivera said the University had been proposing to increase health care contributions to an 8 percent flat rate in 2010, a 10 percent rate in 2011 and a 12 percent rate in 2012, but she added that the workers’ authorization to strike brought both sides back to the bargaining table.

“The most important thing in these negotiations for workers was to keep health care affordable for all Dining Services workers,” Rivera said, adding that employees ultimately voted to ratify the contract based on recommendations from the workers’ union’s bargaining committee at approximately 8 p.m. Thursday night. Rivera said the contract also includes provisions creating more 40-hour positions for workers, allowing the University to hire fewer temporary workers. There will also be more staffing positions available at places such as the Faculty Club, which she said would relieve workload issues for employees. Rivera and Sarno cited both sides’ willingness to offer concessions as the primary reason for the successful establishment of a new contract, which will not expire until October 2012.

Iron Wok owner serious about food continued from page 1 two seconds for the woks to heat up, after which ingredients are cooked in an oil wok. Then, excess grease is washed off and the food is transferred to another wok, in which it is cooked by flipping it into the air an odd number of times to ensure that all sides are cooked evenly. “I want to engineer-ize the kitchen,” Liang said. To accomplish this feat, he has imported a machine from China capable of making 9,000 dumplings in a single hour. In comparison, a very fast chef can only make 150 per hour, he said. Liang also plans to purchase a bean curd machine to make fresh tofu. An enterprising engineer Liang, a native of northern China and an MIT-educated engineer, was inspired to open a mobile restaurant by the multitude of trucks he noticed populating Cambridge during his studies. The MIT campus supports 10 trucks, each of which can sell 1,200 boxes of food a day. Liang chose Providence five years ago for his Chinese food truck because his wife was then working toward her doctorate in computer science at Brown. He estimated that there are 400 to 500 Chinese restaurants in Rhode Island alone but said the almost complete lack of competition from authentic Chinese eateries drew him to the city. Many Brown students frequent Shanghai, Thayer street’s only Chinese restaurant, which Liang said he respects as a successful business. But, he added, Shanghai’s menu is heavily influenced by American tastes. Van Dam, who has taught at Brown since the 1960s, said he has personally suffered from the lack of authentic Chinese food in Providence. “When I got recruited to Brown, I was taken to a Chinese restaurant, and it nearly convinced me not to go here,” he said. During the planning stages for the Center for Information Technology, van Dam had four requests: “large windows, atriums, a shower and a

Freddy Lu / Herald

Chinese Iron Wok will have a machine to make 9,000 dumplings an hour.

top-notch Chinese restaurant in the basement.” Three were met. The Chinese restaurant, however, remained in van Dam’s imagination. “President (Howard) Swearer wasn’t a foodie, so that was just too weird for him,” van Dam said. Van Dam has taken his passion as far as learning just enough Chinese from friends to be able to order off the Chinese-language menus at restaurants, a move which has rewarded him with “incredibly great food,” he said. When he noticed that “Providence had only horrible Chinese-American food that bore no resemblance to Chinese food of any kind,” van Dam said he was ecstatic to learn that one of his student’s husbands owned an authentic Chinese restaurant in Seekonk. Van Dam quickly became both a fan and a friend of Liang’s as well as a frequent patron of his Seekonk restaurant. At van Dam’s behest, Chinese Iron Wok started catering parties for TAs in the Department of Computer Science. Van Dam soon embarked on a campaign to bring Chinese Iron Wok closer to campus. “‘Tom, you gotta move closer to campus’ became an ongoing conversation for years,” van Dam said. “I offered to help him connect to the right people at Brown.” Rolling out a new business It was through van Dam that Liang was put in contact with Director of Real Estate John Luipold. “Andy van Dam called and said he knew Tom was interested in finding a space around campus,” Luipold said.

“He asked me to talk to Tom about any opportunity we might have.” The Brown-owned commercial space that Liang and Luipold identified on Brook street had been vacant for seven years, Luipold said. Farview, Inc., Brown’s real estate entity, started marketing the space to merchants about one-and-a-half years ago, he said. The space has been a bit of a challenge, Luipold said, because “most retailers want to be directly on Thayer.” The generally dismal real estate market compounded the difficulties they faced in finding a tenant, he said. In leasing the property, Luipold said he was looking to have a “positive impact in the area by finding a good tenant that people knew and were supportive of.” Liang’s truck’s popularity among students proved him to be an ideal choice, Luipold said. Under city law, Liang’s truck can park for only an hour at a time in its traditional space outside the Sciences Library, but in that hour Liang said he can sell about one hundred boxes. “It makes for good food during those chemistry pre-labs,” said Francesca Santiago ’10. “It’s a nice, cheap place for lunch,” said Jeremy Korn ’13. “It’s a staple of the community.” But with the opening of the new restaurant, Liang said he is unsure if he will be able to keep the truck operating. On or off wheels, Liang has van Dam’s enthusiastic support. “I’m really hoping it takes off,” he said. “It will make a lot of Brown students and Providence natives happy. A real Chinese restaurant has been a goal since I got here in ’65.”


Arts & Culture The Brown Daily Herald

In PW’s ‘Clean House,’ love, death and untranslatable jokes By Ben Hyman Arts & Culture Editor

The term “catharsis” invokes a particular combination of purification, purgation, insight, clarity and cleansing that cannot be reduced to any one of those sensations. Aristotle used the word to describe the feeling of emotional release at the end of a good tragedy, but catharsis is also surprisingly close to the rush of recognition that comes with the punchline of a really good joke. That little excursus does have a point. “The Clean House,” the celebrated 2004 play by Sarah Ruhl ’97 MFA’01, will be performed at Brown for the first time this weekend. Ruhl’s work has appeared at Brown before (see Sock and Buskin’s luminous 2007 “Melancholy Play”), but “The Clean House” is the central play in Ruhl’s career so far, the work that brought her fame and a Pulitzer Prize nomination. So the current Production Workshop staging, directed by Emma Price ’10, is important on a basic level in that it renews the connection between Brown and one of its most famous alumni artists. But — and here’s where that first paragraph becomes relevant — Price’s strong production also gives audiences here the (overdue) opportunity to experience Ruhl’s cryptically plainspoken play with its investigation of the cathartic possibilities of humor. Laughter is so close to tears that it can break us down and rebuild us and provide everything from a pint-sized epiphany to a seismic life-quake — thoroughly clean us out. “The Clean House” is set in “a metaphysical Connecticut,” in the antiseptically white home of Lane (Lily Mathews ’12) and Charles (Alex Kryger ’12), both doctors so preoccupied with work that they barely see each other. Lane has hired a Brazilian maid, Matilde (Sakina Esufally ’13) to keep the house in order, but Matilde refuses to clean. It makes her sad, she says. The orphaned daughter of the two “funniest people in Brazil,” she is preoccupied with her attempt to come up with the perfect joke. Her search repeatedly drives her into her own head, in scenes Price eloquently stages in half-light, with yearning violin music. Enter Virginia (Abby Colella ’12), Lane’s sister. Cleaning palliates Virginia’s feelings of disappointment and suburban desperation (which Ruhl — always sensitive to the complicated interplay of class in American society — treats with an appropriate amount of sarcasm), so she strikes a deal with Matilde and starts cleaning Lane’s house in secret. Then, without warning, Lane’s marriage collapses. Charles has fallen in love with one of his patients, an older Argentinian woman named Ana (Ivy Martinez ’10). He wants Lane to accept that he’s found his soulmate and release him. Like the child of a divorce, Matilde gets divided between Charles and Ana’s household and Lane’s, contributing jokes — in un-subtitled Portuguese — that delight the multilingual

Ana and perplex WASPy Lane. Like the word “catharsis,” Matilde’s jokes only work in the original language. “It’s not funny in translation,” she explains. Over the course of the play, the implications of this line get played out. Ruhl’s characters are surrealistically up-front with each other, trying to express exactly how they feel, but they constantly run up against the impossibility of communicating their feelings in words. This combination of earnestness and concealment in Ruhl’s dialogue is extremely difficult to get right, and Price and her cast do it well. Most of the time they find the register where the lines sound both obvious and elusive. Where they really nail it, though, is in what are arguably the play’s most affecting moments — the instants when language fails. Martinez, playing a cancer patient exasperated by hospitals, glows as she reduces litanies of medical jargon into “blah blah blah,” and Mathews, as Lane, responds to her husband’s betrayal with a red-faced wail situated exactly on the fragile border between laughter and weeping. Even the tightly wound and quick-talking Virginia ultimately snaps. Colella — who is fantastic throughout — finds a pitch-perfect laugh: apprehensive at first then manically uninhibited as she makes “a giant operatic mess” of Lane’s house. The mask of order hiding the messy reality of this “clean house” comes crashing down as Colella runs rampant, tearing the set apart, her face shining with glee. Now that’s catharsis. “The Clean House” runs through Monday, with performances at 8 p.m. and an additional 2 p.m. performance on Sunday.

Friday, October 16, 2009 | Page 5

Installation marches to its own (heart)beat By Anne Artley Contributing Writer

“Let us imagine a straight line,” a new multimedia installation, opens today at the Cogut Center for the Humanities. The work, by Joseph “Butch” Rovan, an associate professor of music and the co-director of Brown’s computer music program, combines cinema with a 19th-century machine aesthetic. According to a press release, “Let us imagine a straight line” was inspired by the work of French physiologist Etienne-Jules Marey — who contributed to the study of movement and the development of cinema — and by the writings of philosopher Henri Bergson. As viewers enter the room where the piece is installed, they see an original machine, a wood-andbrass board with two pedals at hand height. Designed by Rovan, this electrocardiogram-like device combines

two of Marey’s most celebrated inventions: the sphygmograph, the first machine ever to record a pulse, and the chronophotograph, which advanced the creation of film by producing the first multiple exposures on glass plates. Viewers place their hands on the two pedals and hear the sound of their pulse projected while an image of their EKG appears on a screen. “Marey was the first person to study motion, and this project is all about movement,” Rovan said at a press opening for the work on Wednesday. “This project shows how various approaches reflect ideologies.” Turning a corner into a second room, viewers see videos of South African dancer Ami Shulman projected onto screens. The time-lapse videos show Shulman’s movements broken down into discrete motions. “I find it so inspiring to see movement that can be seen in so many

ways. I get to see the internal life of a movement,” said Shulman, who collaborated with Rovan on most of the work. “You can’t access this kind of thing on stage.” The project combines art and science with elements of sound, such as the staccato, choppy telegraph typing, the sound of the heart monitor and texts by Bergson being whispered overhead by the recorded voice of Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron. Shulman said she and Rovan first met at a talk he gave at McGill University in Montreal. The project took about a year-and-a-half to complete. Rovan said he hopes to continue the project and install it in Montreal next spring. He and Shulman also plan to collaborate on more dance videos. “Let us imagine a straight line” will be on view at the Cogut Center through Nov. 6.


Editorial & Letters The Brown Daily Herald

Page 6 | Friday, October 16, 2009

l e t t e r to t h e e d i to r

White House, 3 a.m.

A welcome farewell to cloves To the Editor: After reading Sean Quigley’s ’10 column on the banning of cloveflavored cigarettes (”R.I.P. cloves,” Oct. 13), I found myself sitting on the fence as to whether he was actually taking the banning seriously or if the write-up was some sort of elaborate joke. He seems to wander in a fuss between mourning the loss of flavored cigarettes to “progressive busybodies” who decided to bring about the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, and overcomplicated and unjustified jabs at liberalism and some sort of correlation between the “traditional family” and loving liberty, tying the entire tirade together with a tinfoil-hat theory that the government under Obama is seeking to be a replacement for those ever-cited, never-found “family values.” Somehow, all of these are tied to an FDA ruling that will only serve to weaken our nation’s dependence on the tobacco industry, which, if not for its stranglehold on a significant portion of our country’s GDP, would have been banned long ago. I understand that Quigley feels like his “family values” and liberty are under fire, but cigarettes are far from a liberty to be respected, regardless of who introduced the habit into his life. They are unnecessary, an addiction and a tradition that only serves to further wound

this nation’s deteriorating overall health, which the Obama administration actually acknowledges and is taking action on, for a change. If Quigley had done even a little digging, he would see that the measure was meant to reduce cigarettes’ appeal to younger consumers, something essential to loosening the industry’s vice-grip on American culture, and the first step in the process of removing tobacco from America’s list of selfinflicted wounds. In summation, just because Big Brother is being responsible and of right mind in the American consumer’s stead doesn’t mean we’re losing our liberty; rather, we’re healthier for it — at least those of us who lean on the legal side of the market. Even if flavored cigarettes are out of the commercial side of things, there still is demand for them. In reality, this ban will most likely transfer a fraction of flavoreds to the black market — with hiked prices. Still, this will do what the FDA intends: make the items in question more difficult for younger buyers to obtain. But for you out there who still have an itch, don’t worry. I’m sure there’s a provider out there willing to scratch it. This is Brown, anyhow. Nick Morley ’13 Oct. 15

t h e b r o w n d a i ly h e r a l d Editor-in-Chief Steve DeLucia

Managing Editors Michael Bechek Chaz Firestone

Deputy Managing Editors Nandini Jayakrishna Franklin Kanin Michael Skocpol

editorial Arts & Culture Editor Ben Hyman Rosalind Schonwald Arts & Culture Editor Features Editor Sophia Li Metro Editor George Miller Metro Editor Joanna Wohlmuth News Editor Seth Motel News Editor Jenna Stark Sports Editor Andrew Braca Asst. Sports Editor Han Cui Asst. Sports Editor Alex Mazerov Asst. Sports Editor Katie Wood Graphics & Photos Chris Jesu Lee Graphics Editor Stephen Lichenstein Graphics Editor Photo Editor Kim Perley Max Monn Asst. Photo Editor Jesse Morgan Sports Photo Editor production Ayelet Brinn Copy Desk Chief Rachel Isaacs Copy Desk Chief Marlee Bruning Design Editor Jessica Calihan Design Editor Asst. Design Editor Anna Migliaccio Asst. Design Editor Julien Ouellet Neal Poole Web Editor Post- magazine Arthur Matuszewski Editor-in-Chief Kelly McKowen Editor-in-Chief

Senior Editors Rachel Arndt Isabel Gottlieb Scott Lowenstein

Business General Managers Office Manager Shawn Reilly Alexander Hughes Jonathan Spector Directors Ellen DaSilva Sales Claire Kiely Sales Katie Koh Finance Jilyn Chao Asst. Finance Christiana Stephenson Alumni Relations Managers Kelly Wess Kathy Bui Alex Carrere Matt Burrows

Local Sales National Sales University Sales Credit and Collections Opinions

Alyssa Ratledge Sarah Rosenthal

Opinions Editor Opinions Editor

Editorial Page Board James Shapiro Editorial Page Editor Matt Aks Board member Nick Bakshi Board member Zack Beauchamp Board member Debbie Lehmann Board member William Martin Board member

ale x yuly

e d i to r i a l

Fight for their right We don’t generally have a high opinion of harsh underage drinking laws. Students under 21 have, and always will, get away with flouting them, and harsh penalties for this behavior can have disastrous consequences. Arrests for even minor infractions can destroy students’ chances of being admitted to graduate schools or employed at some jobs, and the threat of arrest can discourage students from calling for medical attention when it is truly needed. However, the shortcomings of underage drinking laws don’t entitle students to behave however they please. College students aren’t the only people in Providence, and should recognize that other locals don’t like it when, for example, the victim of one too many Beirut games pukes on begonias on the path back to Perkins. The public interest and the grave consequences of an arrest should both be taken into account by the Providence Police in their efforts to curb excessive partying among Rhode Island college students in the Elmhurst district. The crackdown, called (no joke) Operation Red Cup, has racked up 70 arrests in only three weeks. The severe response has been motivated by complaints from Elmhurst residents, one of who compared the atmosphere created by out-of-control partying to “a war zone.” We understand the neighbors’ complaints. We too would not like to live in a place where “loud late-night music and other noise, littering, vandalism, fights, trespassing, and public sex, vomiting and urination” are commonplace. However, we’re concerned that the

neighbors’ grievances, though legitimate, may have led to an unnecessarily harsh response by the police. There is a middle ground that would curb the worst excesses of Elmhurst extravanganzas without unfairly punishing the students involved. When police encounter a party where minors are being ser ved, they should not arrest or cite every underage student they can catch. Instead, they should warn the party’s hosts, after taking their information, that any future infractions will result in their arrest for providing minors with alcohol (a threat that should surely be enforced). This approach will give students a strong incentive to keep parties from getting out of hand without incarcerating an undue number of students. Other punitive measures — including a proposed ordinance that would fine landlords for not evicting tenants who incur three noise complaints in the course of a year — need to be rethought. Noise complaints can be filed frivolously, and the cap could result in the eviction of those who merely listen to music too loudly while studying. Only noise complaints that stem from a party should count towards the limit. The police may already be thinking along these lines. If not, we urge them to reconsider their policies. A moderate set of regulations can ensure that Elmhurst remains a livable place for all of its residents. Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board. Send comments to editorials@

Marlee Bruning, Jessica Calihan, Nick Sinnott-Armstrong, Katie Wilson, Designers Nicole Boucher, Joe Milner, Brendan Burke, Copy Editors Dan Alexander, Laurden Fedor, Hannah Moser, Seth Motel, Night Editors Senior Staff Writers Dan Alexander, Mitra Anoushiravani, Ellen Cushing, Sydney Ember, Lauren Fedor, Nicole Friedman, Brigitta Greene, Sarah Husk, Brian Mastroianni, Hannah Moser, Ben Schreckinger, Anne Simons, Anne Speyer, Sara Sunshine, Alex Ulmer, Suzannah Weiss, Kyla Wilkes Staff Writers Shara Azad, Emma Berry, Alicia Chen, Zunaira Choudhary, Alicia Dang, Juliana Friend, Anish Gonchigar, Sarah Julian, Christian Martell, Heeyoung Min, Jyotsna Mullur, Lauren Pischel, Kevin Pratt, Leslie Primack, Luisa Robledo, Dana Teppert, Gaurie Tilak, Caitlin Trujillo, Monique Vernon, Senior Business Associates Max Barrows, Jackie Goldman, Margaret Watson, Ben Xiong Business Associates Stassia Chyzhykova, Marco deLeon, Katherine Galvin, Bonnie Kim, Cathy Li, Allen McGonagill, Liana Nisimova, Thanases Plestis, Corey Schwartz, William Schweitzer, Kenneth So, Evan Sumortin, Haydar Taygun, Webber Xu, Lyndse Yess Design Staff Gili Kliger, Jessica Kirschner, John Walsh, Katie Wilson Photo Staff Qidong Chen, Janine Cheng, Alex DePaoli, Frederic Lu, Quinn Savit Copy Editors Sara Chimene-Weiss, Miranda Forman, Casey Gaham, Anna Jouravleva, Geoffrey Kyi, Frederic Lu, Jordan Mainzer, Madeleine Rosenberg

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Opinions The Brown Daily Herald

Friday, October 16, 2009 | Page 7

Of Obama, Tsvangirai and a Nobel war

DOMINIC MHIRIPIRI Opinions Columnist The world woke up Friday to the stunning news that President Obama had won the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009, beating more than 200 other nominees for the religiously coveted medal. As much a surprise as it was, the decision to award “the highest honor in the world” to America’s freshman president less than nine months into his presidency was also lauded by many — creating a heated and interesting debate that has claimed acres of space in newspapers and kept the heat running in the realms of the blogosphere. Even the activity on “status updates” by my Facebook “friends,” particularly those here at Brown, has largely been dominated by varied responses to Obama’s “premature” Nobel triumph — a trend reminiscent of the enormous outpouring of grief, admiration and eulogies on social networking sites that followed the June 25 death of the king of pop, Michael Jackson. Obama landed the $1.4 million prize ahead of the race’s three strong favorites — Colombian Senator Piedad Cordoba, Chinese dissident Hu Jia and quite notably, Zimbabwean opposition hero and now Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai. From the deafening buzz surrounding this controversial choice by the Norwegian Nobel Committee came some familiar voices. Previous Nobel laureate and American statesman Al Gore is one of them, saying “I think it is thrilling that the Nobel Peace Prize Committee recognizes early contributions made to world peace by President Barack

Obama. Much of what he has accomplished already is going to be far more appreciated in the eyes of history, as it has been by the Nobel Committee.” Oh please. Give me a freakin’ break. What contributions to world peace has President Obama made that warrant him to stand on the same perch as Nelson Mandela, Mother Theresa, Martin Luther King, President Theodore Roosevelt and many other worthy Nobel laureates? Even he acknowledged this. Have Obama’s efforts significantly changed the global mood for cooperation and a quest for peaceful resolutions to world

Since when did people get awarded for aspirations and rhetoric or for simply not being other people? Since when do Brown professors give final grades to students for “extraordinary promise in mastering and excelling in a course”? Since when do the Oscars go to the director who can potentially make a good film this year, especially when there are a few great movies already made? As an African township boy, I took Obama’s Nobel success with a personal dimension, as it denied a similar triumph for a bold and courageous countryman whose sacrifice has been a beacon of hope in the storied struggle for democracy in my coun-

As an African township boy, I took Obama’s Nobel success with a personal dimension, as it denied a similar triumph for a bold and courageous countryman whose sacrifice has been a beacon of hope in the storied struggle for democracy in my country and across the African continent. crises, particularly nuclear non-proliferation and hostile nations? Yes. Has Obama initiated an important journey towards a better perception for America across the world, and sought to undo some ills of the previous (Bushian) foreign policy? Yes. Has Obama been a largely positive, inspirational and hard-working president, keen on reviving America’s flagging economy and her waning image abroad since taking office? Yes. Does Obama deserve his Nobel Peace Prize? No!

try and across the African continent. Zimbabwe’s Morgan Tsvangirai, famous across the world for his fight for democracy and peace in his country for the last decade, was the African hope for the medal this year and widely touted to take the podium in Oslo this November. Pitted for a decade against one of the most repressive dictators in the world, Robert Mugabe, Tsvangirai has been jailed, tried for treason, tortured and robbed of an election victory by his geriatric opponent.

Tsvangirai was denied the presidency by Mugabe in March 2008 despite winning the presidential poll — and even when Mugabe embarked on a vengeful retribution offensive against opposition supporters, which claimed scores of lives, Tsvangirai espoused peace and cooperation. A September 2008 agreement with Mugabe culminated in the (power-sharing) Government of National Unity, which has significantly stabilized the country and set it on a path to economic recovery. In risking his own life for his country, Tsvangirai has slowly established himself as the face of an emerging brand of 21st-century African leaders who value peace and democracy more than personal power, recognition and wealth. His humility in agreeing to share power with an unpopular, failed and rejected regime for the sake of the Zimbabwean people eased a tense political situation that by now would have had an exponentially increasing pool of human casualties. Already, thousands of Zimbabweans have perished in politically sponsored violence in the country since 1999. Although I have a lot of respect and admiration for America’s iconic president, and know positively that one day he will deserve a Nobel Peace Prize, I am of the humble opinion that a few other people deserved it more than he this year. Chief among these, Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai. Dominic Mhiripiri ’12 is an Applied Math/Economics concentrator from Chitungwiza, Zimbabwe. He can be reached at dominic_mhiripiri@brown.edu

The course evaluation responsibility Jared Lafer Opinions Columnist A kitten dies every time you don’t fill out a course evaluation. Indeed, there’s a lot riding on our course evaluations (which shall henceforth refer both to departmental evaluations and the Critical Review unless otherwise noted). As a recent editorial in The Herald (“Teaching and tenure,” Sept. 28) explained, department evaluations are used to provide input into decisions about tenure, and the tenure process makes or breaks careers. Critical Review evaluations are used by students to make class selections, and so by evaluating classes, we help students shape their educations. Course evaluations provide professors with feedback about their classes and their teaching, which is beneficial to future students and professors alike. With all these considerations, filling out course evaluations thoughtfully is an important responsibility. But we generally don’t live up to this responsibility. I’ve seen students spend five minutes working on evaluations, trying to pass off single sentences and inappropriate N/As as responses, and I’m sure you have too. I concede that there are some students who ostensibly evaluate well, but they’re undoubtedly in the minority. So why are we negligent? The answer to this question is complicated, but (as usual) where better to begin than with the administration? The administration does not do a good job

— or any job at all — stressing course evaluations. Indeed, when I first came to Brown I had absolutely no idea what a course evaluation was, let alone what was expected of me in filling them out. The only information Brown has about evaluations is on the Dean of the College Web site, but it is directed towards faculty. There’s no general information about the significance of course evaluations or anything relevant to students. Thus we are negligent in part because we are ignorant.

This short time period is explicable — professors probably prefer to maximize class time, and so only a small amount of time is slotted for evaluations. But is it worth it to try and maximize class time on the last day if it means neglecting this important responsibility? I think not. Of course, these “efficient” professors aren’t the worst of them. Some professors don’t distribute course evaluations at all. This is more common with the Critical Review since it’s not mandatory, but in any case

Course evaluations impact all members of the Brown community, and so professors have a duty to distribute them in the same vein that students have a duty to complete them. Then there’s the faculty, which pays short shrift to course evaluations in several ways. First, professors seldom encourage us to course evaluate thoughtfully in class, which is surprising given how much they can benefit from them. A sentence, even a word, would do. Second, even if they did encourage us, we couldn’t evaluate meaningfully even if we wanted to. Professors often give students too little time to do justice to an entire semester’s worth of study. In my experience, professors tend to allot 10 minutes on the last day of class to course evaluations. I’ve heard a similar number quoted by others. This is not nearly enough time for us to thoughtfully address every question.

these professors should be sent to the stocks and vegetabled. Course evaluations impact all members of the Brown community, and so professors have a duty to distribute them in the same vein that students have a duty to complete them. I can at least rationalize only partially living up to one’s responsibility, but completely shirking it is inexcusable. Thus we are negligent because it’s imposed upon us. Students are to blame as well. Aside from simply not caring, out of what I’ll assume is ignorance, students suffer from a compulsion to be what economists call “free riders.” At Brown, course evaluations are a public good. This good is supplied by the students

because it benefits them to do so. However, since course evaluations are not “excludable,” a student acting in his or her self-interest would be incentivized not to contribute. Students gain from the good regardless of whether they contribute or not, and so students tend not to fill out course evaluations, or at least to the best of their abilities. Thus, we are negligent because of our psychology. So how do we compel everyone to take course evaluations more seriously? The first step is to make people aware of the importance of course evaluations, which I intend this column to do in part, but I hope ultimately becomes an institutional endeavor. We should then foster that awareness by allowing students to fill out evaluations online after the last class. This would provide them with the necessary time to really think about the semester and write more detailed and useful evaluations. Finally, to combat the free rider problem, we should establish a disincentive for not contributing. Brown should refuse to release the grades for students who do a lackluster job evaluating. If a professor feels too little thought was put into an evaluation, the University should contact the relevant student and ask him or her to revise it. Of course, evaluations are anonymous, so the professor would not know the name of the student, which avoids ethical complications. So, in conclusion, the next time you encounter a course evaluation, think about the kittens.

Jared Lafer ’11 is a philosophy concentrator from Manhattan. He can be reached at jared_lafer@brown.edu


Today The Brown Daily Herald

5

‘Imagine a straight line’

Who should have won the Nobel

7

to day

to m o r r o w

44 / 38

50 / 43

Friday, October 16, 2009

all green thumbs

Page 8

d i a m o n d s a n d c oa l A diamond to negotiators from the University and Dining Services, who reached an agreement on a new contract just before 2 a.m. Thursday morning in a New Dorm conference room. Nothing puts the pressure on like the last call for Jo’s fries, eh? Coal to news of a city law that says residents cannot expect trash removal unless they also put out their recycling. A week after we learned the city is planning a future streetcar system, now this? We know Providence wishes it could be San Francisco, but we can never call ourselves a true Golden Gate City as long as we have that crappy green bridge over India Point. A cubic zirconium to the pro-Columbus ralliers on Monday, one of whom protested that “American Indians knew not Christianity” before the explorer’s arrival. We’re glad your opinions have contributed to a lively debate, but we knew not people still talked like that.

Kim Perley / Herald Daniel Sherrell ’13 helps Meredith Epstein ’12 plant jade at a garden-planting party run by students from Environmental Science 11.

c a l e n da r Today, october 16

saturday, october 17

4 p.m. — GISPs and ISPs Info Session, Curricular Resource Center, J. Walter Wilson

2 P.M. — Office of International Programs Open House, J. Walter Wilson 420

8 p.m. — Brown Derbies and Chattertocks Family Concert, Salomon 101

8:30 P.M. — Brown University Orchestra Concert, Sayles Hall

Coal to the Sustainable Endowments Institute, which gave Brown an A-minus on its 2010 green report card. You know that just shows up as an A on our transcripts, right? A diamond to the Brown students who traveled to a marriage equality rally in Washington last weekend, which featured speakers including Lady Gaga. This must have been the greatest equality rally ever! (As long as you don’t mind the swarms of papa, papa, paparazzi.) Coal to DPS for making a clearly erroneous entry in last week’s crime log that a cement flower pot found broken had “a value of $500.” Either that, or an even bigger coal to whoever is leaving gold-plated, extremely rare Augustan-era flower pots out on Manning Walk. A diamond to the plucky wide receiver on the football team who kicked the game-winning field goal in the team’s victory over Holy Cross. This heartwarming underdog tale has all the makings of a Disney Channel TV movie. (Just throw in a talking golden retriever, maybe.) A cubic zirconium to the buzz-killing city councilman who told The Herald he was concerned that “word has gotten out” that Elmhurst, the neighborhood around Providence College, is a “party district.” Not sure talking to our reporters is going to help that problem, but we appreciate your openness. In other news: party in Elmhurst tonight!

menu Sharpe Refectory

Verney-Woolley Dining Hall

Lunch — Rosemary Portobello Sub Sandwich, Grilled Caribbean Jerk Chicken, S’mores Bars

Lunch — Chicken Fingers, Summer Squash, Vegetarian Grinder

comics Cabernet Voltaire | Abe Pressman

Dinner — Salmon Quiche, Cheese Dinner — Vegetable Stuffed Peppers, Raviolis With Sauce, Roasted Herb RELEASE DATE– Friday, October 16, 2009 Cannelloni, Pumpkin Pie Potatoes

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle crossword

Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

ACROSS 1 Seawater component, to a chemist 5 Egypt’s Mubarak 10 Adriatic Sea country: Abbr. 13 “In other words ...” 15 Decide to participate 16 “You stink!” 17 Oktoberfest dance 18 Seat for eating scaloppine? 20 Speaker’s stand 22 Blue Cross competitor 23 Tool for a dueling snake? 26 Home of the witch who melted 27 Earth tones 28 Newspaper ad meas. 30 Sainted fifthcentury pope 31 Playfully 33 Org. once headed by Heston 36 What Tarzan became after years of swinging? 40 Half and half 41 Madison’s neat roomie 42 Bottom-line negative 43 Sykora of the NHL 44 “The Tempest” king 46 Facts and figures 49 Egotistical describer of laws of motion? 52 Month for fools? 54 Uranium-238, e.g. 55 Paleontologist’s ski resort discoveries? 57 “Au contraire!” 60 Nest egg item, briefly 61 Cheri of “SNL” 62 Firestone Country Club city 63 Arch site: Abbr. 64 Passover meal

65 Home of the witch buried under a fallen house

33 Aquarium fish with an iridescent stripe 34 Rene of “Ransom” 35 Burning desire? 37 Stick in a parlor 38 Airing in prime time, say 39 Hardly a speed demon 43 Tot’s beach toy 44 Bad picnic omen 45 Hotelier Helmsley

46 Lincoln’s Confederate counterpart 47 Separately 48 Court case 50 Grenoble’s river 51 Boot camp negative 53 Debt-laden corp. takeovers 56 Suffix with Capri 58 Mariner’s “Help!” 59 Que. neighbor

DOWN 1 Chill in the air 2 Latin 101 verb 3 Texting device 4 View from Cleveland 5 Shack 6 “The Barber of Seville,” e.g. 7 Represents ANSWER TO PREVIOUS 8 Zilch 9 Peruvian ancestor 10 Taper off 11 Tender beef cuts 12 Sacha Baron Cohen title character 14 Mother-of-pearl 19 Axed 21 Atlanta-based sta. 23 Saab competitor 24 Trap during a winter storm, maybe 25 Prefix with distant 29 22-Acr. business 31 Deep-rooted 32 Miami-to-N.Y. dir. xwordeditor@aol.com

Dot Comic | Eshan Mitra and Brendan Hainline

PUZZLE:

Hippomaniac | Mat Becker

10/16/09

STW | Jingtao Huang

By Dan Naddor (c)2009 Tribune Media Services, Inc.

10/16/09


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