Thursday, October 29, 2009

Daily Herald the Brown

vol. cxliv, no. 95 | Thursday, October 29, 2009 | Serving the community daily since 1891

Living next door, but a world apart

Watson program facing elimination

By Anne Speyer Senior Staf f Writer

It can be easy to forget while hurr ying from class to class that not ever yone on College Hill is a student.

But Providence is not just a college town, and the streets surrounding Brown are filled with people who have long ago ceased to lead the student life. Though many of Brown’s neighbors enjoy living near a university campus, the dramatic differences in lifestyle can lead to some tensions, especially when Brown undergraduates live side-by-side with local residents in of f-campus houses.

There are currently 1,263 students living off campus, approximately 900 seniors and 300 juniors, according to Richard Bova, senior associate dean of residential and dining ser vices, and many of them share neighborhoods — and even buildings — with East Side residents.

“In general, our relationship with the neighbors is pretty

By Claire Peracchio Contributing Writer

town/brown

The Herald examines Brown’s multifaceted relationship with the city it calls home.

Fourth in a five-part series.

good,” said Tim Leshan, director of government relations and community affairs. “But when there are issues, it can get strained.”

Love thy neighbors Brown is an important presence on the East Side, and some homeowners say the prospect of

Kim Perley / Herald

Williams Street, a popular area for off-campus housing, is often a nexus of town-gown relations, both positive and negative.

continued on page 4

Flu-like illnesses abate, but worst may be on the way

By Suzannah Weiss Senior Staf f Writer

The frequency of influenza-like illnesses on campus has dropped since it hit a peak in late September, but Health Ser vices Director Ed Wheeler said this improvement is most likely “the calm before the storm.”

Over two-thirds of the 487 ILIs reported to Health Services since

Sept. 1 occurred last month. But the increase in overall cases in Rhode Island likely indicates that cases at Brown have not subsided for good, Wheeler said.

According to a report on the Center for Disease Control and Prevention Web site, New England has been seeing an increase in ILI patients over the past week.

“It would be pretty naive for us to think that we’re not going

to get it,” Wheeler said of the current wave of ILIs hitting the state.

“Cases in Rhode Island are generally starting to have an uptick and I’m sure we’ll follow them.”

Of the 28 students tested for the H1N1 virus, Wheeler said, 12 tested positive, with the majority of positive results in October.

Only one student has been hospitalized for an ILI this fall, he said. “So far we’ve been lucky.

It has been relatively mild.”

Wheeler said Brown’s H1N1 task force, which meets ever y other week and includes representatives from the University and the Rhode Island Department of Health, discussed last week how to prepare for a potential rise in swine flu and other ILIs. The state most likely will

An almost decade-old program that brings scholars from developing nations to the Watson Institute is in danger of ending after this semester if it does not find future funding.

The Watson Institute Scholars of the Environment come to Brown for one semester to contribute to dialogue on sustainability and gain the knowledge and essential connections needed to improve conditions in their home countries.

But the program’s funding cycle ends this year, and the University is searching for grant money or donations that would allow it to continue.

Launched in 2001, the environmental scholars program began with a $1.2 million grant from the Henry Luce Foundation, a philanthropic organization devoted to “international understanding,” according to its Web site. That money sustained the program’s first four-year cycle, but the Luce Foundation is “not inviting new proposals” for environmental initiatives as of 2007.

When the initial funds ran out, it took the University two years to secure another grant from the Luce Foundation, this time with a special land-use focus, said Laura Sadovnikoff, project manager for Watson. This second grant funded the 2007 group of scholars and was slated to cover a three-year cycle ending this semester.

continued on page 3

continued on page 2

Activities fee increase proposed to UCS

By Kyla Wilkes Senior Staf f Writer

inside

A resolution proposed to the Undergraduate Council of Students last night would seek to raise the student activities fee by $8.

Brady Wyrtzen ’11, student activities chair for UCS, presented the resolution to the full council at Wednesday’s UCS general body meeting. The increase would bring the student activities fee to a yearly total of $178. This increase would not affect student tuition, Wyrtzen

News.....1-5 Metro.....6 Spor ts...7-8 Editorial..10 Opinion...11 Today........12

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said, just the portion of student tuition allocated to student activities.

The fee hike is necessitated by the growing number of student groups on campus, rising salaries of public safety officers and increasing costs for event ser vices and staffing, according to Wyrtzen.

Wyrtzen said the current financial crisis also played a factor in his decisions. continued on page 3

Claire Huang / Herald

The increase proposed to UCS last night would bring the student activity fee to $178.

Metro, 6

Sports, 7

Opinions, 11

Unfinished business The General Assembly meets for the first day of a special session

friars ICED Women’s ice hockey tops Providence College to claim the Mayor’s Cup

BETTER vibrations Campus needs a concert hall, writes Adrienne Langlois ’10

195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Thursday, October 29, 2009

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Bridge to honor ‘Last Lecture’ prof Pausch ’82 Suzannah Weiss Senior Staf f Writer

A bridge honoring the late Randy Pausch ’82, who became well-known for his “Last Lecture” on achieving childhood dreams, will be dedicated Friday at Carnegie Mellon University, where Pausch was a professor of computer science.

The architecture of the bridge, which connects the Gates Center for Computer Science and the Purnell Center for the Arts, employs visual metaphors from Pausch’s famous speech. This talk became a YouTube sensation and was eventually published as a book, according to Guy Blelloch, associate dean for the School of Computer Science at CMU. The railing on one side of the Pausch Bridge is made of aluminum with cut-out abstract penguin figures, alluding to Pausch’s metaphor about the rewards of “being the first penguin,” said Blelloch, who served as the head of the committee for the bridge and liaison between the University and construction company.

Pausch compared the first penguin to jump into the water — which has the highest risk for predation but also the highest chance of catching fish — to the first person to at-

tempt something that has never been done before, Blelloch said.

The side of the bridge next to the Gates Center supports a brick wall, which represents Pausch’s philosophy that one must “climb” the obstacles life presents, he added.

“Brick walls are there to show how badly we want something,” Pausch said in his talk.

The dedication will include a 7,000-LED-bulb lighting ceremony on the bridge, followed by remarks from Carnegie Mellon President Jared Cohon and Pausch’s widow Jai Pausch, according to CMU’s CoDirector of Media Relations Byron Spice.

The bridge’s construction began before Pausch was known to have pancreatic cancer, but the design was altered after Cohon decided to dedicate the bridge to Pausch, Spice added.

Cohon announced his decision about the bridge’s name right after Pausch delivered his last lecture, Spice said.

It is by coincidence that the bridge connects buildings for computer science and drama, two departments in which Pausch was involved, but the positioning accurately represents Pausch’s advocacy of “bridges between different topics,” Blelloch said.

Profs hopeful for Watson program’s future continued from page 1 The WISE program counts among its alumni almost 60 scholars in 40 countries in the developing world, and the 2009 cycle was the first time the program targeted scholars from one specific region, Africa. This year’s nine scholars come from a pool of 100 applicants.

The nine scholars involved in this semester’s program take AFRI 1060M: “African Environmental History” alongside undergraduates.

“We’re working like mad to find funding,” said Associate Professor of History Nancy Jacobs, who teaches the course. “Even in times of budget crisis, we think that the program is doing so much good that it will be recognized.”

This year’s scholars, who are drawn from six different African nations, attested to the value of the program.

“This program will definitely improve my work back home,” said Jane Nagayi Kalule Yawe, a lecturer at Gulu University in Uganda. On a recent visit to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Yawe saw energy-saving stoves and manually operated maize mills that would improve the day-to-day lives of people in Uganda, she said.

Joachim Ibeziako Ezeji, chief executive officer of the Rural Af-

Alex DePaoli / Herald

The funding for Watson Institutes Scholars of the Environment ends this year. The program sends scholars to Brown for one semester.

rica Water Development Project in Nigeria, agreed that the opportunities to interact with other scholars and students at Brown have been beneficial. But he said there is uncertainty as to the role of the WISE scholars and suggested that future scholars could teach or work as teaching assistants in courses to further engage with the University community.

Other scholars, while generally positive about the program, recommended that it run for a longer period of time, facilitate connections among alumni and ensure that the program’s benefits are not lost once the scholars return to their home countries.

J. Timmons Roberts, professor of sociology and director of the Center for Environmental Studies, said he remains “cautiously hopeful” about fundraising efforts.

He pointed to a collaboration with WISE scholar Kawsu Jammeh, a project coordinator at the DBD Programme of Work on Protected Areas in the Gambia, in writing a proposal on integrated climate change and biodiversity restoration as evidence of the program’s unique ability to foster connections and development.

“What a resource it is to have nine Africans in mid-career, interacting with undergraduates,” Roberts said. “There’s nothing like it.”

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Daily Herald the Brown

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The Brown Daily Herald (USPS 067.740) is an independent newspaper serving the Brown University community daily since 1891. It is published Monday through Friday during the academic year, excluding vacations, once during Commencement, once during Orientation and once in July by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. Single copy free for each members of the community.

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Thursday, October 29, 2009

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

C ampus N EWS

Page 3

“So far we’ve been lucky. It has been relatively mild.”

—Health Services Director Ed Wheeler, on H1N1 at Brown

University continues planning for H1N1 continued from page 1 distribute the H1N1 vaccine to Brown in early December. When Health Services receives the vaccine, Wheeler said, “We’ll do a blitz to let people know how to get it.”

The health depar tment prioritizes the distribution of the H1N1 vaccine based on which groups it considers most at risk. The classification “young adults 19 to 24 years of age” falls fourth on the list, below groups including pregnant women and infants and children, according

to a release from the department.

Rhode Island public schools will begin administering the vaccine Nov. 2.

Students going home for Thanksgiving break should get the vaccine from their pediatricians if they can, Wheeler said, since doctors working with younger age groups in some states are likely to have the vaccine by then.

For now, students’ best bet is “to continue with the hygiene because we think it had some effect in flattening out the cur ve,” he added.

Zung Nguyen Vu / Herald

According to the resolution, the increased activities fee is needed to offset rising costs.

Vote on activities fee hike expected continued from page 1 “Since funds are shrinking, now more than ever it makes sense to support student activities, since the places that students usually go for money have disappeared,” he said.

The total UCS body is expected to vote on the resolution at next week’s meeting. As the initial feedback on the resolution from UCS members involved only grammatical issues, Wyrtzen said he anticipates “little to no resistance” from the full council.

If the resolution is approved by UCS, it will be sent to Vice Presi-

dent for Campus Life and Student Ser vices Margaret Klawunn and eventually to the University Resources Committee, which will review the resolution and use it to inform their recommendation to President Ruth Simmons and the Corporation.

Whether the Corporation, Brown’s highest governing body, accepts UCS’s student activities fee recommendations varies from year to year, said UCS President Clay Wer theimer ’10. Last year, UCS requested an $8 increase and received $6, he said. In 2007, UCS recommended an unprecedented $54 increase, but was only granted

$10 by the Corporation.

Wertheimer said the Corporation will be looking to keep costs low, but he said he remains “hopeful” they will get the full amount asked for.

The total funds raised by the increase would surpass the expected $44,343.04 increase in costs for student activities. In his weekly presidential update, Wertheimer announced that the State of the University Address by Simmons is tentatively scheduled for March 18 from 4 to 6 p.m. In the address, which is timed with the Corporation spring meeting, Simmons plans to discuss University bud-

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Thursday, October 29, 2009

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For some College Hill residents, student are just too rowdy continued from page 1 living near the University is part of what drew them to the city.

Allison Spooner, president of the College Hill Neighborhood Association, said that when she and her husband moved to their house on Prospect Street seven years ago, there was a lot of foot traffic from college students living near them.

“We knew that moving here,” she said. “We were excited about staying in that vibe.”

Victoria Fallon lives in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood, farther from campus, but works in a restaurant in Wayland Square.

She interacts with students and faculty daily, she said.

“A good portion of our clientele are professors and students, as well as people who just live in the area,” she said. “It’s a nice mix.”

“When you’re on Thayer Street, there’s definitely the sense that you’re near a college campus,” she said. “There’s a ver y young, vibrant energy to college neighborhoods.”

In the seven years she has lived in Providence, Fallon has hired three Brown students as babysitters by posting in the off-campus jobs section of the University’s student employment Web site. She has had good experiences with those students, she said, and she always enjoys interacting with them.

“I definitely think that college students, or at least the ones I’ve interviewed, are very responsible,” she said.

Michael Shore, a landlord who estimates that about seven of his proper ties have Brown student tenants, also said his experiences

have been positive.

“We have a lot of proper ties and, personally, I wish we could house Brown students in all our buildings,” he said. “We’ve had ver y good relationships with our Brown students over the past 15 or 20 years.”

“They’re some of our best tenants,” he added. “They pay their rent on time.”

The party problem When there are issues with community members, they are usually related to noise complaints against students living off campus, which often come from residents on Williams Street, Leshan said.

Williams Street is “a mixed neighborhood,” housing students, faculty and many families, said Evelyn Lincoln, an associate professor of histor y of art and architecture who lives there.

“There are a lot of little kids, and their parents get up really early,” she said. “Students don’t always realize that, on the weeknights, noise at 11:30 is disruptive.”

Lincoln said that “out-of-control” weekend parties also present a problem.

“It’s not that we expect students not to drink or whatever they do,” she said. “I have parties, too. But when I have a party, the only people who have to know about it are the ones I’ve invited.”

While loud music can be a nuisance, Lincoln said, students yelling and singing in the street as they travel to and from parties creates the biggest noise problem.

Lincoln explained that the conditions of the street ser ve to exacerbate noise problems.

“These houses are all plain, old

houses with wooden fronts and the streets are very narrow,” she said.

“The acoustics are terrible.”

Indeed, she said, even noise from regular foot traf fic during the day can be disruptive.

“I can hear people talking at a normal level from inside my house,” she said. “Sometimes it’s an interesting conversation and sometimes it’s not, but it’s not what I want to be hearing.”

Bova said he hears many complaints about student carelessness from Providence homeowners.

“Generally what we hear back from off-campus folks is: ‘How can students not know that there’s a family living next door to them?

How do they not know that they need to put their garbage out? How do they not know?’” he said.

Both Bova and Leshan said Providence homeowners concerned with noise levels are encouraged to direct their complaints to the Providence Police.

Lieutenant John Ryan, commander of Providence Police District 9, which covers Brown and much of the East Side, said that while his office receives a lot of noise complaints at the star t of ever y academic year, the number of complaints decreases as the year progresses.

Of ficers typically respond to 10 loud music and party-related complaints each weekend, Ryan said, though that number spikes in early September and at the end of finals period.

Many noise violations seem to be the result of thoughtlessness, not direct disrespect, Ryan said.

“Students might not realize that a guy next door has a 3 month-old baby,” he said.

“There’s a few people that are always going to be testing the line,” Ryan said, adding, “95 percent of the students I see are very respectful.”

But Lincoln thinks most, if not all, non-students living on Williams Street have probably filed a noise complaint with the police at some point, she said.

A violation of noise level ordinances usually results in a $200 fine to ever y name on the building’s lease, Ryan said. He does not usually see repeat offenders and

town/brown

The Herald examines Brown’s multifaceted relationship with the city it calls home.

Fourth in a five-part series.

“most of the kids are polite” when the police inter vene, he added.

Reece Chandler ’11 lives at the corner of Williams and Hope streets and said his house has thrown “a few” parties since the start of the semester.

Providence police officers interrupted a party at his house once, Chandler said, but it was unclear if their intervention was caused by a complaint from a neighbor.

Chandler said his relationship with his neighbors is “neither friendly or unfriendly,” but that he and his roommates tr y to be courteous.

“We definitely don’t want to be assholes,” he said. “If we were asked to keep it down at all, we’d definitely turn it down. It’s something that we do think about.”

Landlords can also play a role.

Shore stressed that making expectations clear to his student tenants has enabled him to maintain good relationships with them.

“The par ty students are told that they either have to tone down their modus operandi or not rent from us,” he said. “We’re sort of control freaks.”

“Instead of being reactive, we star ted being proactive,” he added. “Our thinking is that students are primarily there to study.

Small parties that don’t spill out into the hallways or the streets are fine, but we don’t want parties that would hinder other students from studying.”

Sarah Huebscher ’10 lives in a house on Williams Street that she and her roommates share with a “ver y nice” family, she said.

She and her roommates haven’t thrown a lot of par ties and, for her, living off campus is “a good segue into graduation and having to take care of your own things,” she said.

“It all works out quite nicely,” she said of her relationship with her neighbors.

A working relationship Bova said students violating noise ordinances face University action in addition to a police fine.

But in six years, he said, he has never had to deal with a repeat offense from a student living off campus.

All students living off campus must go through an online tutorial program to “let them know what they can expect and how we expect them to behave,” Bova added.

Due to the number of complaints from Williams Street residents, Bova said the tutorial for of f-campus living next year will incorporate suggestions from local homeowners.

Both Providence homeowners and University representatives said that open communication is the most important part of maintaining good relationships.

Spooner, who became president of CHNA in August, said she has been impressed by University efforts to reach out to neighbors.

“We’re finding that the lines of communication are wide open with Brown if we have any questions or concerns,” she said.

In an effort to further improve the University’s relationship with the College Hill neighborhood, Spooner said she plans to hold neighborhood block parties that could include students. She also wants to keep homeowners more informed about Brown events that are open to the public, she said, and she welcomes student input.

“Dialogue between Brown and the community has increased,” Leshan said. “Neighbors are ver y quick to let us know if they have a problem.”

Check out the Town/Brown series online Photos, interactive features and articles from previous installments browndailyhearld.com/series/town-brown

Monday, December 1, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Page 5

C ampus N EWS Allison Spooner

Michael Shore

President, College Hill Neighborhood Assoc.

Shore owns seven buildings currently occupied by Brown students.

“We have a lot of properties and, personally, I wish we could house Brown students in all our buildings,” he said. “They’re some of our best tenants.”

But, he said, “the party students are told that they either have to tone down their modus operandi or not rent from us.”

Last August, Spooner was elected President of CHNA, an organization that, historically, sometimes butts heads with Brown. But Spooner said she has enjoyed a mostly positive relationship with the University.

“We’re finding that the lines of communication are wide open with Brown if we have any questions or concerns,” Spooner said.

She even plans to hold neighborhood block parties that could include students to further improve Town/Brown relations on College Hill.

Lieut.

John Ryan

Reece Chandler ’11 188 Williams Street

Commander of Providence Police District 9 Ryan said he and his fellow officers respond to an average of 10 party-related complaints per weekend. Violations of noise level ordinances result in a $200 fine for every name on a building’s lease.

“There’s a few people that are always going to be testing the line,” Ryan said.

“95 percent of the students I see are very respectful.”

Chandler said his relationship with his neighbors was “neither friendly or unfriendly.”

“There are a couple of families we usually see, but they don’t say hi to us, so we don’t say hi to them.”

“We definitely don’t want to be assholes,” he said, with regard to parties. “If we were asked to keep it down at all, we’d definitely turn it down.

It’s something that we do think about.”

Victoria Fallon Fallon works in Wayland Square, where she says the clientele is a mix of students, professors, and local residents.

“There’s a very young, vibrant energy to college neighborhoods,” she said.

Evelyn Lincoln Associate Professor of History of Art & Architecture Lincoln has lived on Williams Street for fifteen years and says that noise levels from student parties have gotten higher during past years.

Still, she says it’s not her job police student behavior. “My life is amongst students. I teach them and they teach me, but I want to teach history, not Remedial Behavior 101.”

Tim Leshan

Richard Bova

Director of Government Relations & Community Affairs

Senior Associate Dean of Residential and Dining Services

Sarah Huebscher ’10

Bova, who coordinates off-campus housing, meets with students and local residents in the event of a noise complaint.

“Generally what we hear back from off-campus folks is, ‘How can students not know that there’s a family living next door to them? How do they not know that they need to put their garbage out? How do they not know?’”

Huebscher shares the house she is renting with a family.

She said she and her roommates do not throw a lot of parties, and she prefers to think of living off-campus as “a good segue into graduation and having to take care of your own things,” she said.

She says her living arrangement “works out quite nicely.”

“In general, our relationship with the neighbors is pretty good,” Leshan said.

“But when there are issues it can get strained.”

Leshan said that maintaining good relationships with the College Hill community is important to the University. “We want Brown to be a good neighbor,” he said. “Because we live right in the city, we try to be very respectful.”

175 Williams Street

Metro The Brown Daily Herald

“Working with the city was kind of like a dead-end street.”

— William Simmons ’60, Providence Public Library Thursday, October 29, 2009 | Page 6

City gets creative with arts plan

By Lauren Fedor Senior Staf f Writer

It’s been a busy year for the arts in Providence. The city’s Department of Art, Culture and Tourism has been working to draft, present and implement “Creative Providence,” an ambitious, 10-year cultural plan designed to boost local arts-related activities and investment.

The plan, which was publicly released in June, is the product of initiatives put in place by Mayor David Cicilline ’83 last fall. Since last September, the Creative Providence team, composed of five members of the arts, culture and tourism department, has sought the input of more than 3,000 citizens, according to its Web site. The official report — which examines the city’s arts scene in all forms, including visual arts, music, theater and dance — was produced with the help of two regional consulting firms and the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, said Lynne McCormack, director of the art, culture and tourism department.

McCormack said the plan outlined programs and goals for the next decade, but the current focus is on a handful of initiatives proposed by the mayor earlier this year. Following the June release of the plan, Cicilline outlined 10 “priorities for action” to be addressed by the end of 2010.

Cicilline’s priorities are based

on the official report, McCormack said. They include promoting the city as an arts and cultural destination and increasing arts-related programming in local schools, as well as positioning Providence as a leader in creative disciplines like filmmaking and graphic design.

McCormack said the department has been guided by Cicilline’s proposals since June — and has already found much success.

“We’ve been pacing with those priorities,” she said. “I think we’re hitting the mark.”

She pointed to a summer youth employment program as one initiative in which the department was able to quickly and effectively carry out the mayor’s proposals.

Funded largely through federal stimulus dollars, the program provided summer jobs in the arts community for needy young adults, aged 14 to 24. The initiative created more than 300 temporary jobs, and students worked at local creative establishments such as the Steel Yard and AS220, McCormack said.

McCormack cited the city’s “Buy Ar t” initiative as another successful outgrowth of Creative Providence.

Launched last winter, the program supplies participating artists, arts retailers and vendors with Buy Art pins. The venues distribute pins to customers who purchase original art, and supporters wear the pins as a symbol of support for the arts

market. The pins feature works by five different local artists.

Though both of these programs have been relatively successful, McCormack said Creative Providence still has much more work to do.

She said the group’s primar y focus in the coming months will be to “look into different sectors” and to “seek to establish a nonprofit, downtown cultural authority,” an organization for arts groups.

“A lot of other cities have them,” McCormack said, mentioning Pittsburgh as an example. She said the authority would aim to align smaller arts events “under one roof” and help to determine “how to fund organizations while having them accountable to some larger, outside group.”

And in a smaller way, Creative Providence has already taken steps to bring local artists together, McCormack said. Just last week, the depar tment sponsored a social event for all members of the creative community.

“We’ve made the decision that we want to have networking events for people to gather and just talk,” she said.

And McCormack said in the end, the realization of Creative Providence will be in the hands of not only the department, but also the citizens.

“This is not a plan for the department,” she said. “This is a working plan for the community.”

Providence libraries change hands

By Ben Shreckinger Senior Staf f Writer

Four months after the takeover of the city’s nine branch libraries by the Providence Community Library, the transition is progressing smoothly, according to Ann Robinson, the group’s executive library director. The transition has “gone very well” and the PCL has received “ver y positive” public feedback, she said.

The PCL, a private nonprofit organization, formed earlier this year in response to a budget crisis that put the fate of five of the city’s branch libraries in question. At the time, the city’s main library and the nine branches were administered by the Providence Public Library, another private nonprofit.

“The endowment took some blows from the financial crisis,” said William Simmons ’60, chair of the Public Library’s board of trustees and a professor of anthropology.

In the face of financial constraints, the Public Librar y’s — which still administers the central librar y on Empire Street — proposed to continue its administration of the main librar y and four branches, while turning the five smaller branches over to other sources of funding.

“I think it would have been a great idea,” Simmons said of the Public Librar y’s plan to “create adoption-type links” between the

five smaller branches and local universities in order to keep those branches operating.

But “working with the city was kind of like a dead-end street,” Simmons said. “The city basically wanted control of the library system as a whole,” and “became an adversary to the (PPL) for not spending its endowment,” he said.

The office of Mayor David Cicilline ’83 could not be reached for comment.

The PCL was given municipal and state funding to run all nine branch libraries — now renamed community libraries — and assumed control July 1. Less than 12 percent of the PCL’s nearly $5 million budget must come from private sources, with the rest paid for publicly.

Though the administration of the city’s libraries is now divided between two autonomous organizations, patrons may not notice much of a difference. “With either library card they can use any librar y in Rhode Island,” thanks to the Ocean State Libraries consortium, Robinson said.

Behind the scenes, the transition has been more exciting.

“It’s almost like a startup business,” Robinson said. “We had no paper trail,” and so had to create systems for statistical records and budgets from scratch, she said.

Robinson said she hopes Providence residents will take note of

the PCL’s efforts to increase community programming and involvement. She cited the creation of a manga and anime club and “Game Zone,” an electronic g aming club at the Rochambeau Library, as examples.

The PCL has also called on local college students to get involved.

Five Providence College students and four Johnson and Wales University students currently volunteer at community libraries. So far, no Brown students have volunteered, Robinson said.

The organization has showed early success garnering corporate sponsorship. Today at 3:30 at the Wanskuck Library there will be a dedication for a computer learning lab donated by GTECH, a multinational corporation based in Providence. The PCL’s partnership with the company includes the donation of computer learning labs at two additional libraries and 13 computers for internal use.

When the PCL moves beyond the transition phase, it will “look long term — eventually — at what each neighborhood needs,” and consider more substantial changes, Robinson said.

As for the the PPL, which has seen its responsibilities within Providence reduced from ten libraries to one, “We’re now looking off in other directions” to provide more services on a statewide level, Simmons said.

Kennedy Plaza bus stops move Sat. Bus stops at Kennedy Plaza will relocate starting Saturday while the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority repaves the area around the terminal. Kennedy Plaza will be closed, except for ticketing and other services inside the terminal, from Oct. 31 to Nov. 26. In the meantime, as bus stops move to temporary locations on Exchange Terrace, Exchange Street, Sabin Street, Fountain Street, Eddy Street and Steeple Street.

• Routes 8, 13, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 30, 31, 42, 49 and 66 will have stops on Exchange Terrace, on the other side of Burnside Park from the Plaza.

• Routes 6, 11, 27 and 28, as well as the two trolley lines will stop on Sabin Street — west of Exchange Terrace — and in front of the Convention Center.

• Routes 1, 3 and 99 will stop on Fountain Street, which is west of the Plaza.

• Routes 26, 50, 52, 53, 55, 60 and 72 will stop on Steeple Street, which is north of the Plaza.

• Routes 9, 51, 54, 56, 57 and 58 will stop on Exchange Street between Memorial Boulevard and Steeple Street.

• Routes 32, 33, 34, 35, 40 and 78 will stop on Exchange Street between Westminster Street and Fulton Street, just east of the Plaza.

RIPTA employees will be in the area to answer questions through Nov. 4.

State name question will go to ballot box

By Lauren Fedor Senior Staf f Writer

In a special session that began Tuesday night and is expected to continue through Thursday, the Rhode Island General Assembly has already addressed a wide variety of issues, including bills on the state name, indoor prostitution and driving while texting.

The special session marks the return of the state Senate and House to the State House after a four-month break.

The House voted Wednesday night to adopt a measure that would allow Rhode Island voters to strip the words “and Providence Plantations” from the state’s of ficial name. As a result of the vote, the decision to change the state name will now be in voters’ hands in the 2010 elections.

In a June vote, the House and Senate approved dif ferent versions of the bill. The House’s 52-4 vote on Wednesday remedied the difference.

Also Wednesday night, the House voted 59-8 to pass a bill to outlaw indoor prostitution in Rhode Island. The vote represents a significant step toward the measure — which includes criminal penalties for prostitutes and their customers — becoming law. Earlier in the day, the Senate Judiciar y Committee approved the bill.

The legislation now awaits approval by the Senate and a signature from Governor Donald Carcieri ’65, who has already said he approves of the measure.

In another impor tant decision, the House Corporations Committee approved a bill Wednesday that would prohibit Rhode Island drivers from text

messaging while driving. A full House vote on the measure is slated for today.

Under the legislation, individuals caught texting behind the wheel would face fines of up to $85 for a first offense, $100 for a second of fense and $125 for a third of fense. Drivers would still be allowed to use handheld cell phones and smar t phones to place phone calls. The bill outlaws writing, sending and reading text messages while driving.

The Senate has approved the bill, which the House will vote on today.

At the end of this week’s proceedings, the General Assembly will break again until Januar y. Any legislation that is not resolved by the end of the special session would need to be re-introduced in 2010 in order to remain active.

But despite Wednesday’s full calendar, discussions are far from over. Legislative leaders have scheduled hearings or floor votes for 196 individual proposals, according to the Providence Journal.

Two bills that could cost Brown and its students millions were noticeably absent at Wednesday’s session, and there are no plans to discuss the legislation today, House Spokesman Larr y Berman told The Herald last night.

One bill would allow cities to assess a “student impact fee” of $150 per semester for out-of-state students who attend private colleges in Rhode Island. The other proposed legislation would allow cities to collect a fee of up to 25 percent of property taxes from nonprofits with properties valued at over $20 million.

SportsThursday The Brown Daily Herald

Thursday, October 29, 2009 | Page 7

Muddy course no obstacle for young runners

By Fred Milgrim Contributing Writer

The cross country teams traveled to New Britain, Conn., for the Central Connecticut State Invitational and returned home Saturday night after proving their worth.

The women placed second overall with 42 points, besting eight other teams, while the men took fourth place out of 11 teams with a total of 117 points.

Head Coach Craig Lake decided to leave her experienced upperclassmen at home with only a week before the Ivy League’s Heptagonal Championships. This gave the younger runners a chance to show Brown’s depth. This was the first college race for some, while others had competed in a few meets this season.

It was a rainy day for the Bears, which made for a muddy course, but the conditions didn’t discour-

age the competitors.

The women’s squad, which finished only 10 points behind firstplace finisher Quinnipiac, was led

by Bree Shugarts ’13. She came in fourth place in the three-kilometer race with a time of 10:25.22. Megan Fitzpatrick ’11 finished four tenths of a second behind Shugarts, taking fifth in 10:25.62. Two more Brown runners finished back-toback. Elaine Kuckertz ’13 finished 10th (10:37.41) and Eliza Webber ’12 took 11th (10:37.45). Also finishing in the top 20 were Carolyn Ranti ’13 (10:49.28) and Angela Rugino ’13 (10:52.25).

“Ever yone on the team that raced did a good job and worked together to finish well,” Shugarts said. “I’m really excited for our team because we have some really great runners who have a lot of potential and ability to go far this season.”

The men were led by Scott

Friedlander ’12. He took sixth place in a time of 15:25.45 despite taking a fall on the wet, slipper y five-kilometer course. Friedlander, who had started in the middle of the pack, slipped further back after the fall. Ultimately, he was able to regain his positioning.

“Our race plan is always to start conservatively and move in the second half of our race,” Friedlander said. “I felt really relatively fresh after going out conservatively over the first mile, so I was able to pick up the pace as the guys in front of me started slowing down.”

Ben Stephenson ’13 and Nathan Chellman ’12 finished 21st and 22nd with times of 15:44.07 and 15:44.72, respectively. Close behind were Erik Berg ’13 (15:55.00) and Anthony Schurz ’13(15:59.77).

The Bears will be back in action on Friday at the Ivy Heptagonals at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, N.Y.

Phils and Yanks looking to repeat history The last five World Series have been classified as predictable, boring ends to the baseball season — three out of the last five have ended in sweeps, the other two in five games.

Matt Doyle The 2009 SeO’Doyle’s Rules ries promises to be a different stor y, where the nation — not just two cities — will tune in and enjoy America’s great pastime played between arguably the two best teams in baseball.

While the Yankees muscle other teams around and buy the best players available on the market — some of which have used steroids — the Phillies are a bunch of young boy scouts selling lemonade on a summer afternoon in July. The Phillies can be classified — at least in juxtaposition to the Yankees — as “the nation’s team” fighting against the corporate, evil empire.

The Phillies come into this postseason with a dominant resume.

They have won all five series of the last two postseasons in fewer than six games, winning all the home-openers. The stars of the Phillies’ lineup, Ryan Howard and Jayson Werth, have combined for seven homers, 18 runs and 24 RBIs throughout the ALCS, with Howard notching another RBI last night.

Further, the Phillies had the highest successful steal rate in the MLB this season at 81 percent, with 119 bases stolen and only 28 runners caught stealing.

The Yankees have had a memorable season in their new stadium.

Witnessing Derek Jeter pass Lou Gehrig with hit No. 2722, Mariano Rivera record his 500th save as well as his 1,000th strikeout, 15 walk-off wins during the regular season and two during the post season, Yankees fans for first time in six years have something to cheer about in late October.

Yet, Yankees fans expect their

team to make it to the World Series ever y season, so in their minds, these records are wor th ver y little if the season ends without a championship ring. Yankee players who have already excelled this postseason — like Alex Rodriguez, who has 5 home runs and 12 RBI, and Rivera, who carries the lowest postseason ERA 0.77 and has given up one run this postseason, need to keep it up for the Yankees if they want to win their 27th World Series championship.

The biggest question marks for both teams lie within their bullpen — more specifically, the ability for each team’s late inning pitchers to throw strikes early in the count.

For the Phillies, Brad Lidge is going to want to set up his nasty slider for later in the count, but won’t be able to do so if his early fastballs are not in the zone. Lidge blew two saves against the Yankees this past May — one of the first weekend series at the new stadium — be-

cause he was missing early with his fastball.

As a setup man for the Yankees, Phil Hughes has not been nearly as consistent as he was in the regular season. In the American League Division Series against the Twins, he struggled with control problems, in situations both early and late in the count. In this World Series Hughes and the Yankees need to work on not falling behind batters and not failing to hit the strike zone late in the counts.

The Yankees have appeared in 40 World Series, winning 26 of them, while the Phillies have appeared in six World Series and have won two. The Phillies are going to tr y to do what the Yankees did in 1999-2000: Repeat a World Series triumph. The Yankees are going to tr y to win once again in a new stadium — their first Series franchise win occurred in 1923, the first year of their then-newly constructed stadium in the Bronx.

s p o rt s i n b r i e f

W. ice hockey claims Mayor’s Cup The women’s ice hockey team could have let Friday’s 8-1 blowout against Connecticut get them down. They could have given up at the fact that Providence College outshot the Bears 19-7 in the first period. All of these things could have stopped the Bears dead in their tracks, but they didn’t quit.

Bruno shocked the Friars Saturday night with a 5-1 victory in the Mayor’s Cup rivalry. An impressive showing by a host of rookies edged PC on both sides of the puck. Katie Jamieson ’13 had an impressive 29 saves, with 18 coming in the first period. Erica Farrer ’13 hit a shot in the second to tie the game and kept the team’s spirit high as the Bears headed into the locker room at half time.

The Bears came out firing in the third with Laurie Jolin ’13 and Alena Polenska ’13 each scoring their first collegiate goals. Erin Connors ’10 and Kath Surbey ’10 also contributed a goal apiece in the rivalry win.

Saturday’s performance was a tremendous improvement after a depressing 8-1 home opener loss to the Huskies of UConn on October 23rd. The Huskies tallied up eight goals before Sasha Van Muyen ’10 finally found the net for Brown’s only goal of the game.

The Bears travel to upstate New York this weekend, where they will take on the 7-1-1 Golden Knights of Clarkson on Friday and the 3-2-3 St. Lawrence Saints on Saturday.

— Zack Bahr

Page 8

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Thursday, October 29, 2009

S ports T hursday

West Coast trip a rough one for m. water polo

By Liza Jones Contributing Writer

The men’s water polo team traveled to California this past weekend to play some of the country’s top ranked teams in the Santa Clara Bronco Invitational. Ultimately, Brown fell to four ranked teams in no. 20 California Baptist, no. 15 Air Force, no. 16 Santa Clara and no. 13 UC Davis, but was able to pick up a win against unranked Fresno Pacific.

Despite the results, the Bears generally improved with each game.

Bruno first faced the California Baptist Lancers last Friday and fell by a score of 11-8. The Bears put up a fight and the game remained close up to the half, with California Baptist in a narrow 5-4 lead. The Lancers stepped up their game in the third quarter, out-scoring Bruno 3-1.

But the Bears did not give up, and both teams scored three goals in the third quarter, leading the Lancers to an 11-8 victory. Kent Holland ’10 stuck it out in goal the whole game, accumulating six saves. Svetozar Stefanovic ’13 led the offense with four goals, while Gordon Hood ’11 contributed two. Dean Serure ’13 and Michael Hartwick ’13 scored one each for Bruno.

On Saturday, Brown played well against Fresno Pacific and Air Force.

The Bears had an impressive performance against the Sunbirds, with a 10-0 lead by the beginning of the fourth quarter. Both teams scored

two in the final quarter, resulting in a 12-2 victory for Bruno. Hood was the player to look out for in this game, with six goals and two assists.

Stefanovic added three goals, two assists and four steals, while Corey Schwartz ’11 handed Bruno two goals and three steals. Once again, Holland, who was recently named CWPA Player of the week, commanded the defense with nine saves on goal throughout the game.

Later that day, the Bears put up a good fight against Air Force but lost, 9-8, in overtime. After the first quarter the team was behind 3-1, but the Bears did not give up and instead tied the game 3-3 by the half. The score was 7-7 after the fourth quarter, bringing the game into a forced overtime. While the Falcons scored one goal in the first overtime, Stefanovic was the hero of the second overtime, scoring a goal to even the score once again. The teams fought till the very end. With 18 seconds left Air Force scored, finishing the game with a 9-8 win over Brown. The major offensive players were Schwartz with four goals, Stefanovic with three and Hartwick with one.

As the final day of the tournament approached, the team grew weary.

“Ultimately, five games in 48 hours was a lot to ask of the team but they responded by giving it everything they had and got better each game,” Mercado said. Although Brown fell to Santa Clara in game four, they kept a steady lead throughout the

first half with a halftime score of 7-5. As the game went on, the Bears could not hold on to their lead and were only winning 8-7 by the third.

The Broncos persevered through the fourth, outscoring Bruno 3-0 and winning the game 10-8. Zach Levko ’10 and Hood each scored two goals and Stefanovic was right behind them with one goal. Holland continued his solid performance in goal with eight saves.

It is important that the team “find consistency we need to be the dominant team we need to be, we are overall still feeling self out as a unit, and hopefully we can find that consistency sooner rather than later” Mercardo said.

The Bears’ final game was against their toughest opponent in the invitational, UC Davis. Bruno fell to but still put up a sterling fight. Stefanovic notched two of the team’s four goals, while Hood and Levko contributed one each. In the cage, Holland had seven saves and three steals. Despite the four losses, Mercado said he was still pleased with the team’s performance this weekend. While they did not exceed his expectations, “every game was a vast improvement, and the team overall met every expectation I had for them.”

On Sunday the team will travel to Wheaton College to face the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in their final game before the Northern Division Championship on Nov. 7.

House panel OKs Iran petroleum import sanctions

By Paul Richter Los Angeles T imes

A House committee, seeking to pressure Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions, approved a bill Thursday aimed at punishing Iran by cutting off its access to gasoline and other refined petroleum products.

The measure, which would give the president powers to take action against foreign companies that sell refined petroleum to Iran, is popular on Capitol Hill, and threequarters of House members have co-sponsored the legislation.

But the measure could undermine Obama administration efforts to negotiate with Iran over its nuclear development program. If talks fail and further sanctions become necessary, administration officials would rather enact measures supported by many countries.

“We prefer this be done in a multilateral fashion,” said Ian Kelly, a State Department spokesman.

The legislative measure still must win passage by the full House and Senate. But initial approval by the House Foreign Affairs Committee came at an important moment.

The Iranian leadership is expected to announce Thursday whether it accepts an international proposal

to modify its existing stocks of enriched uranium for medical and research purposes.

If Iran accepts, the deal could delay what the West suspects is a push to develop nuclear weapons.

Western governments hope acceptance would open the way to further agreements on the nuclear program, which Iran says is for civilian purposes only.

Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, said the bill will “at least, force the Iranians to think twice about continuing to flout the will of the international community.”

Even though Iran is a leading crude oil producer, it must import 40 percent of its gasoline, a point of economic vulnerability.

Mark Dubowitz, executive director of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, said that the harsh measures “may not be the silver bullet that ends the regime’s illegal nuclear weapons program, but they can be silver shrapnel which can severely wound the regime.”

Advocates contend that Iran has been stringing the West along on efforts to secure a nuclear deal.

Tough economic measures, they

believe, will force the Iranian public and leadership to decide whether the nuclear program is worth the hardship and international isolation.

Critics contend that the measures would punish average Iranians without affecting the leadership. They say that sanctions also could disrupt Western unity by pressuring European companies to give up their sales to Iran, opening the way for China and Persian Gulf states to provide much, if not all, of the supply.

The bill also would allow the president to go after companies that provide ships to transport the fuel or that underwrite or finance the cargo.

Even so, some analysts are skeptical about the persuasive power of such steps with the Iranians, who have ignored a series of punishments from the United Nations and various countries acting on their own.

“Iran is a risk-acceptant country that believes the wind is still very much at its back,” said Cliff Kupchan, a former congressional aide now at the Eurasia Group, a private analysis company. “There’s reason to be skeptical that this would change Iranian policy.”

All day, every day, in full living color! browndailyherald.com

World & Nation The Brown Daily Herald

Thursday, October 29, 2009 | Page 9

Polygamous sect member Jessop’s trial begins

By Nicholas Riccardi Los Angeles T imes

Melina Mara / Washington Post

Before Wednesday, Edward Brooke, 90, the first African-American to be voted a U.S. senator by the people, had never met Barack Obama, the first African-American to be voted president. Obama presented Brooke the Congressional Gold Medal in the Capitol Rotunda.

Senate pioneer Brooke honored

By Ann Gerhart Washington Post

The crisp cadence of a fife-anddrum corps reverberated through the Capitol Rotunda on Wednesday morning, the august room packed with nearly 500 people craning their necks to see the remarkable tableau arranged on a stage before them.

There sat Edward William Brooke, who grew up in a segregated neighborhood not far from the Capitol, fought in a segregated Army in World War II and returned to Washington in 1967, the first African American elected to the Senate by popular vote — and on this day, the recipient of the highest honor Congress can bestow, the Congressional Gold Medal.

And there sat President Obama, whose stunning electoral journey to the White House seemed no more improbable than the one made four decades earlier by the 90-year-old man who sat beside him, a black Protestant Republican who won in the overwhelmingly white, Catholic, Democratic state of Massachusetts.

After Obama heralded Brooke for a life spent “breaking barriers and bridging divides,” the two men embraced tightly. It was a reminder of how much this country has changed in their lifetimes.

Brooke is a tall and expressive man, unstooped by age, quick to smile and careful to put others at ease. His voice carries more of his youth at Shaw Junior High than his adulthood in Boston. Wednesday, he wore a bold gold-striped tie and a dark jacket. And he turned his full charisma on Nancy Pelosi, noting, with some wonderment, “now the speaker of the House is ... a ... lady!”

In his two terms in the Senate, Brooke took up the causes of lowincome housing, increasing the minimum wage and furthering mass transit. He took on big tobacco. A strong proponent of civil rights from his days as Massachusetts’s attorney general, he was a lonely Republican voice against school segregation and for reproductive rights for women. Eventually, he took on his own president. Brooke, noted Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., on Wednesday, introduced legislation to name a special prosecutor in the Watergate scandal, and he became the first senator in either party to call for President Richard Nixon’s resignation.

Such a coalition-builder was Brooke, the president said, that his “fan base includes Gloria Steinem, Barney Frank and Ted Kennedy — as well as Mitch McConnell, Mitt Romney and George W. Bush,” who awarded Brooke the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2004.

“He didn’t care whether a bill was popular or politically expedient, Democratic or Republican — he cared about whether it helped people, whether it made a difference in their daily lives,” Obama said.

Brooke’s way was “to ignore the naysayers, reject the conventional wisdom and trust that ultimately, people would judge him on his character, his commitment, his record and his ideas,” the president said. “He ran for office, as he put it, `to bring people together who had never been together before.’ And that he did.”

It was a far different time, of course. A third of the Republican caucus was considered to be liberal or moderate. The South was still a Democratic stronghold.

Wednesday was the first time Brooke had met the president.

When entered the Senate, the two men talked on the phone once. They exchanged their books, “each with kind inscriptions,” Brooke said in an interview. “He wrote, `You paved the way for us’ or something like that, and I said something like, `You are a worthy bearer of the torch.’ “ He is proud of what Obama has accomplished, he said. “What really pleases me is that he is trying his best and succeeding with what he said he would do. The problem people have with politicians is that they say what they are gonna do, and that is the end of it.”

Brooke added that he was particularly touched that Obama signed legislation Wednesday that extends protection from hate crimes to gays and lesbians, a cause he first advanced in the 1960s.

Brooke said the two men “share a pragmatism” that enabled each of them to vault over old fears. When he first sought statewide office as attorney general, he said, “I heard it: `White voters will never vote for you.’ And I would say: `We’ve been voting for whites all these years. I can’t see any reason why if the candidate has integrity and intelligence and commitment and ideas, he can’t be elected to statewide office.’ “ Brooke, too, angered supporters who felt he was not moving quickly enough or speaking loudly enough as the lone black in the Senate.

But, he said: “While I could rabble-rouse in my time, I made a lot of enemies by saying, `I am not a civil rights leader, I am a politician. They are doing their job, and I welcome it. My job is to be a legislator, and to get things done in the Congress.’ “

The first criminal prosecution stemming from a controversial raid on a polygamous sect’s compound here began Wednesday, as a state prosecutor told jurors he would prove that a key member of the group had sex with a 16-year-old girl.

Raymond Merrill Jessop, now 38, is charged with sexual assault on a minor for allegedly fathering a child with the daughter of the sect’s self-styled prophet, Warren Jef fs. The girl was one of Jessop’s wives, but prosecutors argue that the marriage is not legal in Texas.

“We will ask you to conclude, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Raymond Merrill Jessop is guilty of sexual assault on a woman less than half his age,” Deputy Attorney General Eric Nichols told the jury of eight men and four women in a brief opening statement.

Under Texas law, someone can be convicted of sexual assault of a minor even if the relationship was consensual, provided the victim was younger than 17 and not lawfully married to the assailant.

Defense attorney Mark Stevens countered that the state did not have enough evidence to prove a crime occurred.

“In this countr y, we don’t tr y people based on their clothes or their hairstyles. And we don’t tr y people on their beliefs or the churches they worship in,” he said. “I believe if we stick to the facts and the evidence in this case, that Raymond will do just fine.”

Neither side mentioned the explosive circumstances that brought Jessop — whose father

is acting as the sect’s leader while Jeffs serves a life prison term for his conviction in Utah as an accomplice to rape — to court.

In April 2008, Texas authorities launched a massive raid on the Yearning For Zion Ranch, a compound that the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was building outside this hamlet. The FLDS, a breakaway sect not recognized by the Mormon church, believes that polygamy brings glorification in heaven.

Of ficials said they were responding to a call for help from a girl who expected to become a child bride. They removed 439 children from the compound, saying it was for the youths’ safety.

But the call turned out to be a hoax. Appellate judges questioned whether Texas had a right to hold the children, and eventually all the children were returned to the FLDS. Authorities, however, took DNA samples to prove that men in the sect were impregnating underage girls.

They charged 10 sect members with various crimes. Jessop’s case is the first to go to trial.

At the time of the raid, there was widespread local distrust of the FLDS. Selecting a jur y in the county, which has 2,800 residents, proved difficult.

The process started Monday, when 153 prospective jurors, including 17 FLDS members, came to a community center that was converted to a courthouse for the trial. Wednesday, after lawyers and Judge Barbara Walther laboriously inter viewed 85 of them, a jur y was seated. All the FLDS members were dismissed.

The trial is expected to take two weeks. Testimony is scheduled to begin Thursday.

Editorial & Letters The Brown Daily Herald

Page 10 | Thursday, October 29, 2009

evan donahue and erik stayton

e d i to r i a l

Letters!

Write your heart out, Brown. letters@browndailyherald.com

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

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editorial Arts & Culture Editor Ben Hyman 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

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Feeling taxed Over the past two years, Rhode Island has given $87 million in tax breaks to businesses, with the goal of creating jobs and encouraging business expansion.

So have these tax breaks actually had their intended effect? Sadly, nobody really knows for sure.

Since 2008, the state’s Department of Revenue has been required by law to issue two reports relating to tax credits for businesses. Before the credits go into effect, the department has to report on the businesses that will benefit and their job creation goals. At the end of the fiscal year, the department must provide a status report detailing to what extent businesses have lived up to their side of the deal. Unfortunately, in both of the last two years, the latter report — the “accountability report” — has not been issued.

When it comes to tax policy, Rhode Island is caught between a rock and a hard place. The state has a notoriously bad business climate — a recent report by the non-partisan Tax Foundation ranked Rhode Island’s tax code 46th out of 50 states in terms of business friendliness. At the same time, the state government is in a difficult financial situation. As part of an effort to plug a $590 million budget gap, all state employees will have to work up to 12 days without pay between now and next June.

Any tax credits that might stimulate the economy come at a direct and painful cost to the state’s treasury. But without tax credits, the state will likely face continued economic stagnation. Since this tension is so extreme in Rhode Island, measuring the impact of tax credits for businesses is simply a necessity.

That’s why the state’s failure to issue the accountability reports is disappointing.

According to a recent article in the Providence Journal, the reports have not been issued because information crucial to the reports — namely, employee wage records — is held by the state’s Department of

Labor and Training and protected by federal confidentiality laws. Legislators thought they had paved the way for cooperation between the revenue and labor departments when they first passed the law, but now they must revisit this problem and work to ensure that the reports can proceed.

In an interview with the Editorial Page Board, Russell Dannecker, a former Rhode Island Senate Fiscal Adviser and current fiscal policy analyst at the Poverty Institute at Rhode Island College School of Social Work, offered several suggestions on how the legislature might rectify this problem. To alleviate concerns about individual employees’ privacy, the Department of Revenue should accept information in aggregate form. Businesses might also be called upon to report hiring and wage statistics directly to the Department of Revenue as a condition of receiving the tax credits. To keep businesses honest, the information obtained through this self-reporting process could be subject to a possible audit. We endorse these suggestions and encourage legislators to take time during this week’s special session to discuss these and other potential solutions.

It is extremely upsetting that the state has little to say about the impact of the $87 million it has already given away. With Governor Donald Carcieri ’65 now suggesting that significant changes in Rhode Island’s tax code may be coming, we call on the state to ensure that any changes to the tax code are accompanied by strong, effective accountability and impact-measuring mechanisms. The taxpayers of Rhode Island deserve no less.

Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board. Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.

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Opinions The Brown Daily Herald

Thursday, October 29, 2009 | Page 11

High concerns about Iraqi higher education DAN DAVIDSON Opinions Columnist I sometimes call Brown my “dream school.”

We benefit from vast academic and social freedoms, and can explore countless disciplines in a safe environment. For our peers in Iraq, however, college life is often more like a nightmare than a dream.

The State Department’s 2008 Human Rights Report on Iraq noted that universities are yet another battleground for sectarian factions. Militias and terrorist groups use violence to control schools’ operations and policies. Hundreds of professors have been killed, and countless more have fled the country.

At one of Iraq’s most storied universities, Baghdad’s Mustansiriya University, around 24,000 students risk their lives to pursue their educations. They see their friends blown up in suicide attacks on campus. A blast wall surrounds their school buildings. The New York Times reported that since 2007, “more than 335 students and staff members” have been killed or maimed. Policymakers in the United States are surely aware of the terror Iraqi students face every day. Yet the current administration’s rhetoric seldom suggests Iraq’s higher education woes are on the radar.

When President Obama announced his plan to end the war in Iraq earlier this year, there was no mention of supporting the country’s educational infrastructure.

Meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki last week, Obama stressed that security, good government and fair elections are the keys to success. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appeared at a conference aimed at spurring investment in Iraq, and underscored the importance of economic development.

The administration is certainly not wrong in placing great emphasis on Iraq’s security, government and economy. After meeting with the Prime Minister, however, Obama claimed that focusing on these issues will help turn Iraq into a country where “children

ally without growing its college-educated population.

Though, even as we are told Iraq is improving, the situation at Mustansiriya remains grim. Last week, Prime Minister al-Maliki ordered the school temporarily closed in an effort to dismantle the Students League, a gang terrorizing the community.

Professors and administrators say that the group “controls campus activities and security, as well as aspects of grading, admissions and even which courses professors teach.” Those who speak out publicly against the Students League are often killed.

The administration should consider a strong Iraqi higher education system a prerequisite for stability and prosperity, not a benefit to be reaped in the future. are well educated.”

I believe the administration should consider a strong Iraqi higher education system a prerequisite for stability and prosperity, not a benefit to be reaped in the future.

The 9/11 Commission Report found that poor education and violent extremism are often linked. If the administration is concerned about security in Iraq, they must support education at all levels.

Educational attainment is one of the strongest predictors of electoral participation — if more Iraqis pursue and acquire college degrees, we should expect more civic engagement. As for economic progress, it is self-evident that Iraq will struggle to compete glob-

The U.S. must put pressure on Prime Minister al-Maliki to resolve this situation.

His decision to close the school came after years of compelling evidence that Mustansiriya was spiraling out of control. Al-Maliki finally acted only after a professor came to him covered in blood from a beating the Students League gave him.

Some allege that the prime minister’s hesitance to act stems not just from a lack of concern (which would be alarming enough).

Certain administrators and professors at Mustansiriya, along with Iraq’s minister of higher education, claim that there are close ties between al-Maliki’s Dawa party and the Students League.

Allegations aside, what is happening at Mustansiriya University and other schools throughout Iraq is of grave concern. Students and professors are frequent victims of civil and human rights violations. It is hard to imagine how Iraq can fully recover from the ousting of Saddam Hussein and ensuing sectarian warfare if the higher education system is left to rot.

U.S. Agency for International Development touts monetary assistance to Iraqi universities and a program designed to build professors’ skills as major successes of their efforts in higher education. While these programs are well-intentioned, at a place like Mustansiriya, they are useless. Professors’ skills are of little relevance if gangs use violence to control every aspect of teaching.

Students may appreciate a newly renovated classroom, but they still have to risk beatings or worse just walking around campus.

The U.S. must continue to work for a peaceful and prosperous Iraq. Our focus, however, should be deeper than keeping tabs on how many bombs go off a day and how much foreign investment is occurring.

Strengthening Iraq’s universities is one of the best ways we can help that country stabilize, by building critical human capital. Ignoring the problems at institutions like Mustansiriya will only undermine our efforts to foster a better future for the region.

Dan Davidson ’11 is a political science and music concentrator from Atlanta, Georgia. He can be reached at daniel_davidson@brown.edu

A sound decision

BY ADRIENNE LANGLOIS Opinions Columnist If you’ve been at Brown longer than, say, three days, you’ve probably noticed that there is always a significant amount of construction on campus. Indeed, wherever one turns, there are tarp-covered fences labeled “Building Brown” — the undeniable sign of all sorts of construction, from new science buildings to the future Faunce student center. There’s only one constant to these construction projects — if you’re in a hurry to get somewhere fast, they’re probably in your way and bound to make you grumble a little.

Recently, a new construction site sprang up on what I thought to be the finished Pembroke Walk. Those hurrying around the tarpcovered fence will notice a sign proclaiming the current pile of dirt to be the site of the future Creative Arts Center, an exciting-looking glass building that will feature a recording studio, multimedia lab and recital hall.

While the CAC is sure to be a boon to Brown’s artistic community, there are more urgent needs than a new recital hall. The University already has a beautiful and acoustically sound space for recitals and small concerts: Grant Recital Hall. What Brown doesn’t have — and sorely needs — is a concert hall.

“What’s a concert hall?” you may ask.

“Why do we need another performing space?

Don’t we already have Sayles Hall, Stuart Theatre, Alumnae Hall and Grant Recital Hall?”

Well, yes. But these spaces are far from adequate. Brown is blessed with a vibrant community of musical groups but cursed by its lack of performance space. Those spaces that do exist are, as a rule, either acoustically unsound or overbooked.

Because Sayles, the orchestra’s typical performance space, is almost always in use, the 80-plus member musical group must practice in the acoustically poor interior of Alumnae Hall and then switch to Sayles the week before. The 40-plus member Wind Symphony frequently has to squeeze onto

Enrichment calls for concert halls as one element of its goal for “improved infrastructure.”

It’s not only Brown’s music groups that are suffering for lack of performance space.

Since the Department of Theatre Arts and Performance Studies closed Ashamu to use by student groups, the University’s many student dance groups have struggled to find appropriate practice spaces on campus. Solution: Build a concert hall with a sprung floor and acoustic dampening panels and you automatically have another safe stage that Im-

Brown is blessed with a vibrant community of musical groups but cursed by its lack of performance space. Those spaces that do exist are, as a rule, either acoustically unsound or overbooked. the tiny Grant stage. And I’ve attended more than one a capella concert in Salomon 001 where the solos have been trumped by the noise from concerts upstairs. A real concert hall would be acoustically sound, significantly larger than a recital hall, and accommodate groups of all sizes and instrumentations.

Lest those of you who dislike hour-anda-half-long Mahler symphonies dismiss the plight of Brown’s small but mighty music community, let me assure you that a concert hall on campus would benefit more than just those who love music. Brown’s administration recognizes this; the Plan for Academic

pulse, Fusion, Badmaash and all the rest can use for practice and performance.

Even those students who avoid artistic performances at Brown would benefit from the construction of a concert hall. Every time an influential or interesting leader comes to speak, hundreds of students are shut out of the speech for simple lack of facilities. But if architects outfit the concert hall’s spacious interior with a projector, retractable screen and moveable podium, it could also accommodate the inevitable massive crowds the next time John Krasinski and Barack Obama come to give a dual comedy routine/speech together.

There is, of course, the question as to whether there is room for such a sizeable building on Brown’s campus. My purely unscientific assessment is this: Since Brown seems to be able to conjure up space for other buildings where it doesn’t exist, they should be able to do the same thing for a concert hall, even if it involves moving a couple dozen houses around. After all, they’ve done it before.

Even if the concert hall did have to be built on the outskirts of campus, there would be an added benefit to this scenario. A new concert hall would attract nearby residents to productions, thus encouraging greater community involvement and cooperation with the University.

Building a concert hall is an initiative that would benefit everyone at Brown and in the surrounding community. Whether or not students even enter the doors of the concert hall, they would undoubtedly benefit from the prestige such a building would impart on our school.

I will graduate this spring, long before the University will probably even consider erecting those tarp-covered fences around a concert hall construction site, and as a rule, I’ll be happy to leave those Building Brown roadblocks behind. Still, I’d gladly celebrate rather than grumble about a concert hall construction site, even if it was on my way to class — its benefits would far outweigh the minor inconvenience of changing one’s daily routine.

Adrienne Langlois ’10 advises you not to knock hour-and-a-half-long Mahler symphonies until you’ve tried them.

Today

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A ‘Last Lecture,’ a lasting legacy

The Brown Daily Herald

five

56 / 36

59 / 49

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Page 12

inside

1

weekend

to m o r r o w

Cross country cruises through the mud

Bop Scenes concert PW upspace, tF green ● Fri. 8 am

PoSt-

7

to day

4

2

industry Standtill ft/ renaissance

aS 220, 115 empire St. ● Fri. 9 pm

aePi: Wriston rising Wriston Quad(Big tent) ● Sat. 10 pm

c a l e n da r

Today, october 29

friday, october 30

5:30 pm — “Sleep and Meditation,” 202 BioMed Building

3 PM — Edible Car Competition, Manning Walk

7 pm — “What Is the EU’s Future?”

Joukowsky Forum

9 pm — Spooky, Sassy and Sweet: A Brown’sTones Halloween Experience, Salomon 001

5

3

thriller PhiSi (Sears House) Fri. 10 pm

Poetry evening/the work of greece’s “Yiannis rtsos” crystal room, 2nd flr. alumnae Hall ● tues. nov. 23 6 pm

comics Dot Comic | Eshan Mitra and Brendan Hainline

menu Sharpe Refectory

Verney-Woolley Dining Hall

Lunch — Grilled Ham and Swiss Sandwich, Vegan Tofu Raviolis with Sauce, Savory Spinach

Lunch — Hot Roast Beef on French Bread, Baked Macaroni and Cheese, Nacho Bar

Dinner — Roast Turkey with Sauce, Stuffing, Mashed Potatoes, Butternut Squash Formato

Dinner — Meatloaf with Mushroom Sauce, Tomato Quiche, Mashed Sweet and White Potatoes

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Hippomaniac | Mat Becker

crossword

Classic Deep-Fried Kittens | Cara FitzGibbon

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