Thursday, November 5, 2009

Daily Herald the Brown

vol. cxliv, no. 100 | Thursday, November 5, 2009 | Serving the community daily since 1891

Auditors evaluate Brown

Oh my Gourd!

By Alexandra Ulmer Senior Staff Writer

By Nicole Friedman Senior Staf f Writer

An extensive report on the University’s strengths and weaknesses was made available online to the campus community Wednesday. The report — written by a team of 10 faculty members and administrators from peer institutions — will serve as the basis for Brown’s re-accreditation from the New England Association of Schools and Colleges.

The report is largely based on the team’s visit to the University last April and evaluates Brown on 11 standards covering academics and the administration.

The University chose to have the NEASC team focus on the undergraduate program rather than examine all 11 areas equally, according to Provost David Kertzer ’69 P’95 P’98.

Though Brown was scheduled for re-accreditation review in 2008, the University requested and received a one-year deferral to allow the Task Force on Undergraduate Education to complete its internal review of Brown’s undergrad experience, he wrote in an e-mail to The Herald.

Since the University completed a separate, mandator y self-study before the NEASC team’s visit, the report “merely added a peer perspective on what we already knew,” President Ruth Simmons wrote in an e-mail to The Herald.

Several of the report’s recommendations and concerns are already being addressed. The NEASC team was particularly concerned with Brown’s high tenure rate, and an ad hoc faculty committee has been formed to examine the tenure process and present its findings to continued on page 2

Buyout plan offered to U. employees

Max Monn / Herald

The last farmers market of the season enjoyed gourdgeous weather.

The University unveiled a new early retirement program for eligible staff members Wednesday as part of its larger effort to cut costs.

Workers who qualify for the program would receive a lump-sum payment equal to a year’s base pay as well as $15,000 to aid their transition into retirement, according to an email sent to the entire staff yesterday morning by Beppie Huidekoper, executive vice president for finance and administration.

To be eligible, workers must be over 60 years of age, have worked at Brown for at least 10 years and currently work at least half-time — requirements that approximately 250 of the 3,000 staff members fulfill, Huidekoper said.

The retirement incentive plan comes as the University is “trying to absolutely minimize the number of terminations,” Huidekoper said.

The Organizational Review Committee is identifying areas that could be

rendered more efficient as Brown attempts to slash $30 million from its budget, she added.

This retirement program will help by “reducing compensation costs and creating additional vacancies to be used in the redesign of our administrative structures,” which the ORC will execute, Huidekoper wrote in the e-mail to the staff.

In addition to the payments, early retirees will be able to keep Brown’s health insurance plan until they are 65, provided they contribute $83 per month.

“We’re really hoping this is perceived as positive and supportive for the community,” Huidekoper said.

Many eligible staff members declined to speak with The Herald, though they expressed strong interest in the package, which was frequently described as “generous.”

But Fred Yattaw, 60-year-old manager of the University Mail Services, said that despite the proposal’s appeal, his financial situation continued on page 2

New Watson director looks to institute’s future small round table in his own office, Kennedy said his own academic interest in the Polish talks reflects his broader approach to directing Watson.

In an interview with The Herald Monday, Kennedy said he believes the mandate of the Watson directorship is to think about how different kinds of studies relate to one another and how knowledge and information can move between various disciplines.

Kennedy said he decided to come to Brown because he saw potential for a new leader to further develop an already strong

By Dana Teppert Staf f Writer

Michael Kennedy, the new director of the Watson Institute for International Studies, picked up a book from a shelf in his office and opened it to a page featuring a black-and-white photograph.

The image shows the 1989 Polish Communist Party negotiations that came to be known as the “round table talks” and resulted in an agreement that paved the way for freedom of speech, democratization and reform in Poland. Gesturing towards the

research institute.

“Watson had a terrific legacy but needed a new future,” he said.

“And there was an invitation to be creative which was too compelling to turn down.”

A sociologist who has studied global knowledge networks and the politics of energy security, Kennedy was previously the director of the University of Michigan’s Weiser Center for Europe and Eurasia and its Weiser Center for Emerging Democracies. He began his new job as director of continued on page 2

Courtesy of Brown.edu

Michael Kennedy, new director of the Watson Institute for International Studies.

Filmmaker views Haiti revolution through leader’s eyes named Toussaint Louverture , whom one historian interviewed in the film dubbed “black George Washington,” and another termed a “genius.”

As a member of Haiti’s plantationowning elite, Louverture became secretary for the rebel slaves when fighting broke out between them and the white landowners in 1791.

He acted as liaison to the white planters and originally tried to design a peace settlement that would push blacks back into slavery — a “stark recognition of 18th-century realities,” the film’s narrator says. The struggle lasted for about a decade until by

1804 the French revolutionary government had freed nearly a million slaves across the empire, and Haiti had won its independence.

“The Haitian revolution raises the most fundamental question in the Americas in the 19th century: slavery,” Professor of Africana Studies Barrymore Bogues said at the screening. Bogues served as a commentator throughout the film along with Walker and fielded questions on Haiti’s history.

Historians debate whether to idol-

Metro, 5

Sports, 7

Opinions, 11

reading is fun Brown student start a club for elementary students at Fox Point’s library

quaking it up Men’s soccer suffers a disappointing loss against the Quakers

helping out Providence offers a unique opportunity to volunteer, writes Kate Fritzsche ’10

By Alex Bell Staff Writer

Alex Bell / Herald

inside

Filmaker Noland Walker discussed his work on the Haitian revolution.

News.....1-4 Metro.....5-6 Sports.......7 Editorial..10 Opinion...11 Today........12

www.browndailyherald.com

At a screening of his 2007 documentary about the Haitian revolution at the Watson Institute for International Studies last night, filmmaker Noland Walker discussed the implications of the momentous event in the context of human rights and slavery.

Walker’s film, “Egalite for All: Toussaint Louverture and the Haitian Revolution,” chronicles the events of the Haitian revolution through the eyes of one of its most important leaders, an educated former slave

195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

C ampus N EWS

Thursday, November 5, 2009

“It’s important to understand how others see us.”

— President Ruth Simmons, on the recent reaccreditation report

Watson director assesses new post, int’l approach continued from page 1 Watson in July.

“Michael Kennedy has a terrific background for being the leader of Watson,” said Provost David Kertzer ’69 P’95 P’98. Kennedy’s previous leadership at Michigan and status as a respected academic give him an “ideal background” for the position, Kertzer added.

The position of Watson director was previously held by David Kennedy ’76 (no relation), who resigned unexpectedly in June.

David Kennedy, a former law professor at Har vard, was hired in 2008 to be the University’s first vice president for international affairs but also served as interim director of the Watson Institute after former director Barbara Stallings resigned from the post only months after his appointment.

David Kennedy had clashed with some colleagues at Watson over some of his proposals for Watson’s future, including an expanded legal studies program.

But Michael Kennedy, the new director, said he appreciates the “significance” of Watson’s growing global governance program and is fortunate to have colleagues with legal studies backgrounds. “Different kinds of expertise and cultural systems wind up shaping how we think of what is international and what is not,” he said.

Kennedy said that when he first began looking at the Watson director position, he thought the institute was a unique intellectual community.

“Brown and Watson seemed like a ver y special place, in particular because the community shares values and a commitment to interdisciplinarity and internationalization,” he said.

He also said he shares the Watson faculty’s interest in “how knowledge flows and ideas actually travel across the world.”

Having studied the internationalization of universities from an academic perspective, Kennedy said problems often arise

from such movements because that kind of effort “tends to be all over the map.” To be effective, they must be coupled with all of the endeavors a university takes up, he said.

“Watson cannot be the University’s only expression of internationalization, nor should it be,” Kennedy said. Watson has a particular contribution to offer, he added, because its researchers have always sought to think beyond the borders of traditional disciplines in order to address the world’s most pressing problems.

Watson has a “legacy of taking up the most challenging issues in the world and thinking about mobilizing knowledge to address it,” he said. The institute has an “incredible array of people who are on the cutting edge.”

When asked whether students can expect any new programs at Watson this year, Kennedy said he prefers not to think “in terms of programs, but in terms of networks and relationships.”

“We’re more ef fective if we think in terms of matrices of collaboration,” he said.

He added that he is working closely with Matthew Gutmann, the new vice president for international affairs.

Regarding the challenges he faces as the new director of Watson, Kennedy joked that the greatest challenge of his directorship so far has been “weathering the welcomes.”

Though he will not be in the classroom this year, Kennedy said he hopes to someday teach a class while balancing his administrative responsibilities. He said he remembers the difference that inspiring professors made in his own undergraduate experience and takes pleasure in working with students.

“There is so much intellectual vitality across campus,” he said.

“Part of what I see as a challenge is to think about how that terrific intellectual vitality across the campus can fuel Watson’s future.”

U. offers early retirement in effort to cut expenses continued from page 1 prevents him from retiring early. “I like the thought of retiring early,” said Yattaw, who has worked in Mail Services for 41 years. “But it wouldn’t be the prudent thing to do, financially.”

Eligible employees who do opt for early retirement must sign an agreement by Dec. 23 and choose

sudoku

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to retire either Apr. 15 or June 30, according to Huidekoper. “It’s really voluntary, totally up to the individuals,” she said.

As of Wednesday, Huidekoper said she had only received a couple of e-mails from staff — but “I can assure you that people are talking about it,” she added.

— With additional reporting

by Brigitta Greene

Grad students not integrated, report says continued from page 1 the faculty in the spring.

The report commended Brown’s improvements in tracking student writing progress and standardizing departmental evaluation forms, but asserted that more should be done in both areas. The NEASC team also cited limited student exposure to all disciplines, noting that 6 percent of students take no science or math classes and only 12 percent of students concentrate in the physical sciences.

Since the report was published, the Corporation has added a young alumni trustee position, in line with the report’s suggestion that Brown’s highest governing body should include more recent graduates. The evaluation also recommended having more graduate school alums on the Corporation, a suggestion that echoed other comments throughout the report that graduate students were less integrated than they should be into the Brown community.

The report was complimentary of Brown’s “distinctive, competitive and high-achieving” student body that is “diverse on all dimensions.”

The evaluation team suggested several improvements in on-campus life, including renovating residence halls and adequately staffing Health Services and Psychological Services to meet student need.

The University libraries, while “more than adequate” for undergraduate needs, have too much of a “historical disciplinary focus” to suit new interdisciplinary research, the report said, also noting that library funds cannot be reallocated in a flexible way.

The report also urged the University to increase funding for building maintenance, noting that the campus has not had a “full comprehensive external facilities audit” in 15 years.

Though the repor t praised Brown’s “enviable momentum” and Corporation leadership — “Far be it for the Committee to comment on an institutional structure that was put in place by the lucid brain of George III!” — it cautioned the University to ensure infrastructure and staff support are kept at pace with faculty and research growth.

The NEASC team’s suggestions were “very valuable to us,” Kertzer wrote. “Each senior member of the administration has been developing a plan to respond to suggestions put forth in the outside report.”

The report will be the subject of “broad campus discussion” this semester, Simmons wrote in a response letter to NEASC. The faculty will discuss the report and Brown’s tenure processes at a faculty forum on Nov. 17.

Though the NEASC team did not provide “a revelation of any bold new insights,” the report has great value to Brown, Simmons wrote to The Herald. “It is important to understand how others see us.”

Thursday, November 5, 2009

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

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Playwright gives voice to ‘Silent Spring’ author

By Caitlin Trujillo Staf f Writer

Kaiulani Lee is afraid of change.

“I’m chicken,” she said, speaking to a Salomon 101 audience Wednesday night about the thought of editing her long-running play, “A Sense of Wonder.”

“It’s like Pandora’s box. I’m so terrified of opening it up and never being able to close it again!”

Though she makes no conscious changes to the one-woman play about the life of biologist and writer Rachel Carson, Lee said the audience plays an integral role in interpreting the power of the play, in which she stars. The work explores the person behind the seminal book “Silent Spring,” which helped jumpstart the environmentalist movement.

Lee said she chose a lesserknown work of Carson’s for the play’s title, a name that speaks to Carson’s own character and place

in life.

“It was her sense of wonder that sustained her,” Lee said.

“A Sense of Wonder” comprises two acts that both open on Carson in a home environment, but the setting changes when the scenes transition.

The first act begins in Carson’s seaside cottage on the coast of Maine on a late afternoon in September 1963, a year after “Silent Spring” was published. The scene opens on Carson writing a letter to a friend, ruminating on the cycle of life and the solace she takes in nature.

Carson faces a cycle at that very moment. The summer is ending, and it is time for her to pack her belongings and return to her winter home in Silver Spring, Md. — back to a world full of the clamor of “Silent Spring” where she and her adopted son Roger must reunite with their “winter selves.”

She speaks often of Roger, her 11-year-old great nephew whom she adopted when his mother, and

Carson’s niece, died when the boy was five. Carson, who grew up poor in landlocked Pennsylvania, long dreamed of seeing the ocean, and it is fitting that her old love of writing enabled her to do so. As she addresses the audience, though, she tracks the development of her personal and career interests. She always wanted to be a writer, she says, but she fell in love with science during college.

The play explains how Carson attended Johns Hopkins University for graduate school to study zoology, but when her sister died and left Roger’s mother in her care, Carson began her search for a job that would enable her to raise her family, including her ailing mother. She worked for the Fish and Wildlife Service but began to write seriously after she submitted an article to the Atlantic Monthly. She started on a course that she says made her a continued on page 4

Filmmaker discusses Haiti documentary continued from page 1 ize Louverture for his leadership and intellect or to condemn him for the military power that he gained after the revolution — the aftershocks of which can still be felt in Haiti’s militaristic society today, Bogues said.

Walker said that although shooting the movie in the Dominican Republic with a mix of Dominican and Haitian actors and crew caused some racial tensions (the film relied heavily on historical re-enactments), the film still accomplished its main goal.

“We wanted to get across that the Haitian revolution was not just Haiti’s revolution,” he said. “It was an inclusive human rights struggle” “In the midst of the most absolute form of domination — racial slavery — there is hope,” Bogues added.

“That hope is important for all people who suffer from domination. That, to me, is the real story behind the Haitian revolution.”

Wednesday night’s lecture was the second in a two-part series on Haiti co-sponsored by Watson’s Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, the C.V. Starr Lectureship and the Department of French Studies. The first lecture, on Vodoun religion and culture, took place Oct. 30 — All Hallow’s Eve, a day when Haitians celebrate the passing of

ancestors.

“Without the Vodoun religion, we wouldn’t have had the Haitian revolution,” said Visiting Lecturer in Latin American Studies Patrick Sylvain, who organized and moderated both events.

“Vodoun remains very much centered in the history of the ancestors, and it remains very much centered around the whole aspect of freedom,” he said. “By the way that Catholicism was imposed on the slaves, in addition to slavery, Vodoun became the vehicle to which all of these tribes became unified.”

He said one of the major events leading up to the revolution was a religious ceremony in 1791, in which the slaves formed a pact of unity to achieve freedom, a central tenet of Vodoun.

The talk featured Marie Evans, a high priestess in the Vodoun religion.

Sylvain said the priestess described the roots of the religion in the area of Vodou, West Africa, and its emphasis on its followers’ ancestry in order to “demystify” the religion.

“In Hollywood, they call it Voodoo, but the term is Vodoun,” he said. “Vodoun means spirit, or spiritual world, whereas Voodoo is an American invention, in a sense, that portrays this negative aspect of pins and needles, and so forth.”

Evans’ talk was followed by a short dance by Jean Appolon, a professional Haitian dancer, about whom Sylvain is producing a documentary.

The recent events exploring Haiti fit well on Brown’s campus, where the John Carter Brown Library houses a world-renowned collection of Haitian artifacts.

“I believe it’s the largest collection of Haitian documents written at that time in American and the second largest in the world, after the National Library of France,” said the library’s director, Ted Widmer, who said he seeks to raise the library’s profile as a center for Haitian research.

The library hosted a conference and exhibit on Haiti in 2004 in honor of the 200th anniversary of the country’s revolution. Widmer said the library is about to undertake a project to digitize many of its rare Haitian documents in an effort to make them available to institutions in Haiti.

“I’m trying to build up our collection, digitize our collection and take what we’ve got and make it available to the people who care about it the most: the Haitians themselves,” he said.

UCS votes to increase activities fee by $8

By Suzannah Weiss Senior Staf f Writer

The Undergraduate Council of Students approved a resolution urging an addition of $8 to the student activities fee at Wednesday’s meeting, which would raise the fee to $178 for the 2010-2011 academic year. The UCS Student Activities Committee, chaired by Brady Wyrtzen ’11, developed the proposal, which passed without dissent.

Before the University implements this additional funding for student groups, the resolution must pass through the University Resources Committee, President Ruth Simmons and the Corporation, which will probably announce its decision in February, according to UCS President Clay Wertheimer ’10.

“It’s not going to happen overnight,” Wertheimer said, but “I think we are making a strong case for it.”

The increase to the fee does

not mean that $8 will be added to tuition, but instead that an additional $8 will be allocated from next year’s paid tuition fees.

“Each year, tuition increases, so it’s not necessarily taking away from other things,” Wyrtzen said of the proposal.

Reasons behind the decision to press for more funding include the growing number of student groups, increased costs for the Facilities Management to help groups hold events and limited funds from academic depar tments that students previously turned to, Wyrtzen added.

“We’re very hopeful that we’ve worked out the increase in cost very clearly,” he said.

The total increase in the student activities budget under this plan is about $44,000, according to the proposal. Approximately $34,000 account for supporting new Category II and III groups, and $10,000 account for increased continued on page 4

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

C ampus N EWS Playwright gives voice to ‘Silent Spring’ author continued from page 3

“biologist by day, writer by night,” culminating in her success as author. Writing comes naturally to Carson. “In some mysterious way, I believe the subject chooses the writer, not the other way around,” the character says, admitting that she never considers whether “I was doing it scientifically or poetically” — but the loss of privacy that accompanies fame strikes her as peculiar. Her cabin, a haven by her beloved sea, represents the sheltered world she wants to inhabit.

The first act ends on this note, and the second picks up months later in her Mar yland home, where she is again writing — this time a speech she is set to give in California. Whereas the first act is primarily a personal account, Carson opens up in the second act about environmentalism itself, in particular the harmful effects of insecticides on the earth.

She talks about writing “Silent Spring,” the book that started small before expanding under the wealth of research and information she found. Her health and personal life suffered during the 4 1/2 years she spent writing: Her mother died, and she was plagued by a host of ailments from ulcers to heart trouble to arthritis. In 1961, cancer sapped her of most of her strength. But Carson could not cease writing when she had such fascinating and complex material.

“It was like I was putting together the pieces of an enormous jigsaw puzzle,” she says.

Carson’s complexities shine through thanks largely to Lee’s per formance. They are often Carson’s own, taken from her speeches and writings, but Lee projects through the text a character who is both ver y old and very young. Lee’s Carson is full of good humor, wryly ridiculing the detractors who call her a “hysterical woman.”

But Lee also succeeds at conveying Carson’s solemnity. Carson jokes about not packing in order to avoid leaving the Maine cabin, but Lee’s voice is bittersweet without being cloying. When Carson explains to the audience how DDT, the harmful pesticide, kills wildlife or makes it infertile, she speaks with an air of authority that still hints at the woman’s own heartbreak.

During the second act, when Carson sits down to her desk but realizes she left her tea by her parlor chair, she debates whether she ought to get up or not.

The indecision Lee portrays is humorous, but Carson is exhausted from the radiation for her cancer. Her body aches, and she knows she is aging. Her spring, in some sense, has passed.

But then she stands up anyway, retrieves her tea and makes her way back to her desk, where she scribbles the last details of the speech she was earlier struggling to write.

Thursday, November 5, 2009

“It was her sense of wonder that sustained her.”

— Kailani Lee, creator and star of ‘A Sense of Wonder’

Ugandan Jewish leader talks coffee, peace

By Claire Peracchio Contributing Writer

For JJ Keki, a leader of the Abayudaya Jewish community of Mbale, Uganda, coffee and inter-faith cooperation make a delicious blend.

Keki spoke at Brown/RISD Hillel yesterday about the history of the Abayudaya in Uganda and his own efforts to start a coffee cooperative that fosters religious tolerance and economic development.

His visit was part of a speaking tour sponsored by the non-profit Kulanu, Inc., a Jewish organization that supports developing or dispersed Jewish communities around the world.

“We formed this cooperative not only to use coffee to improve the wellbeing of our community but also to spread our word of peace among the Mbale and other communities over the world,” Keki said.

Keki’s idea to start the cooperative came after witnessing the Sept. 11 attacks while on a visit to the United States as the mayor of Mbale. He realized that instead of using religious differences to create violence, the Muslims, Christians and Jews of Mbale could instead join together to foster religious tolerance.

Started in 2004, the cooperative is called Mirembe Kawomera, which means “delicious peace” in the Ugandan language of Luganda.

Since its inception, the cooperative has seen its profits quadruple and its workforce grow from 250 to 2,000 people.

“Where I live, there are many Muslims and Christians, but Jewish people are a minority,” Keki said.

“I wanted people to learn that we should not use difference to bring chaos. Because of our unity, farmers are encouraged to maintain their gardens and can pay for the education of their children.”

Keki is a member of the Abayudaya tribe, a group with a unique history that includes ties to Brown.

The Abayudaya are not ethnically Jewish and were founded in 1919

by Semei Kakungulu, a Ugandan statesmen who converted to Judaism after reading the Old Testament. While the Abayudaya practice the traditional Jewish dietary customs of keeping Kosher and obser ve Shabbat, they also practice unique biblical rituals and sing many of their prayers in African melodies.

The Abayudaya existed with little contact with the outside world for most of the 20th century, but

persecution under the Ugandan dictator Idi Amin forced many to go into hiding. This isolation ended when Matt Meyer ’94, a Brown student studying in Kenya, traveled to Mbale in 1992 to see the Abayudaya firsthand.

Meyer’s visit inspired him to lobby organizations in the United States to support the Ugandan Jews.

Meyer and his friends at the Hillel also contributed $1,000 to complete the construction of Mbale’s main synagogue.

Meyer’s efforts forged the connection with Kulanu, the organization behind Keki’s 30-venue speaking tour that also included a stop at Providence’s Temple Emanu-El, where he spoke, sang traditional songs that he had composed and sold CDs and Ugandan cof fee.

Keki, an accomplished musician, was nominated for a Grammy in the traditional world music categor y in 2005.

To Andrew Antar ’12, hearing Keki’s stor y offered a chance to learn something new.

“It was really interesting,” Antar said. “It’s fascinating to see how communities in Africa use religion as a rallying point for promoting sustainability, education and economic growth.”

UCS proposes addition to annual activities fee continued from page 3 costs of services, staffing and supervision for events.

“The money will definitely help new groups to blossom as new interests develop and new students have the will to create new organizations,” UCS Communications Chair Evan Holownia ’11 said. Still, “financial aid and maintaining the academic structures of the University” should be prioritized when it comes to funding, he added. “We understand that we need to be financially wary.”

Considering past years, the proposed addition of $8 to the fee is “not revolutionary by any means,” Wyrtzen said. Last year, UCS requested $8 and received $6; the previous year, it was granted $10 in response to an ambitious request

of $54.

Wertheimer told the UCS general body that he met with URC Chair and Vice President for Campus Life and Student Services Margaret Klawunn, who was “pleased” with this year’s proposal.

Tuition increases about 3.5 percent ever y year, but increases in the student activities fee from year to year have been “more gradual,” according to Wyrtzen, who said the resolution “represents students petitioning to have a slice of what we give to the University stay in our hands.”

“It’s an oppor tunity to help maintain the student experience here,” said Student Activities Director Philip O’Hara. “Brown is continuing to invest in new programs and new people.”

At the beginning of the meeting,

Vice President of Public Affairs and University Relations Marisa Quinn and Director of State and Community Relations Al Dahlberg gave a presentation on the histor y and current state of Providence property and student taxes. Besides meeting with Providence Mayor David Cicilline ’83, the administration has been brainstorming ways to convince the government that “keeping higher education accessible and affordable is paramount,” Quinn said, including social networking and other grassroots tactics.

Quinn and Dahlberg took students’ suggestions for ways to counter the myth that Brown does not already contribute to Providence’s economic well-being and gain support for an alternative solution to the city’s fiscal problems.

SportsThursday The Brown Daily Herald

Thursday, November 5, 2009 | Page 5

Quakers shake m. soccer out of top 25

By Katie Wood Assistant Spor ts Editor

The men’s soccer team (8-2-5, 3-2-0 Ivy) dropped out of the top 25 after a disappointing 1-0 loss to Penn (6-6-3, 2-2-1 Ivy) Sunday afternoon at Stevenson Field. Despite outshooting the Quakers 24-12, the Bears could not overcome an early score in the opening 15 minutes of play.

“We played poorly individually and as a whole — there’s no way of hiding it,” said co-captain David Walls ’11. “We weren’t as creative on offense, and we failed to compete on defense. It was disappointing to lose a very important game.”

Heading into the game, the Bears had tallied only two goals in their last three games, including a 1-0 shutout loss to Harvard.

The Quakers jumped on the Bears early, attacking the defense by stringing together a series of shots that barely missed the net.

Aaron Ross created the first shot of the game when he narrowly missed a header in the first minute of play. Another missed shot at seven minutes eventually led to the Quakers’ deciding goal at the 14:46 mark. Loukas Tasigianis waited patiently at the back post, received a cross, and tapped in a goal at the lower right corner past keeper Paul Grandstrand ’11.

Evan Coleman ’12 and Austin

Mandel ’12 created several great looks on goal at the 23- and 24-minute marks, respectively, but could not find the back of the net. Walls developed another scoring opportunity in the 32nd minute but failed to convert as well. Garon Smith held his own in net for the Quakers. He stopped three shots in the first half to prevent the Bears from tying up the game, heading into the break with a 1-0 lead.

“We had a lot of ‘half chances’ in the game,” Walls said. “When we got in decent positions, we made bad technical mistakes.”

The Bears offensive struggles continued in the second half as they failed to score the equalizer on 14 second-half opportunities.

The shot chart showed a dominant offense, but the Brown attack was not at the same level of intensity as earlier games in the season, such as a 5-0 win over URI on Sept. 19 and a 4-2 win against Princeton on Oct. 10.

Mandel led the Bears with five shots, while Walls and Thomas McNamara ’13 each added four to the total. Walls managed to create two shots on goal to lead the team. Grandstrand (7-2-5) recorded two saves but suffered his second loss of the season, both coming in Ivy League action against Harvard and Penn.

“The most concerning thing is not that we haven’t scored but that our offensive execution is not

where it needs to be at this point in the season,” Walls said. “We remember how well we were playing at the beginning of the season.

We’ve stopped doing the things that brought us success earlier, and we need to put back in the technical stuff and put together a refocused attacking mentality. We’re going to start scoring again soon.”

No. 12 Harvard defeated Dartmouth last weekend and sits alone at the top of the Ivy League with one loss. Dartmouth sits tied in second with Brown with only two games remaining on the schedule.

The last two games will be critical in the team’s search for an Ivy title and a postseason berth. The Bears travel to Yale on Saturday for their final regular season road game of the year in hopes of avenging a 2-0 loss last season before returning back to Providence to honor the senior class in the last home match of the year.

“We realized we had worked so hard to put ourselves in a fantastic position, but we failed to capitalize on the opportunity,” Walls said.

“We’re fortunate enough to have two games left. The loss wasn’t a disaster because it wasn’t the last game of the season where we would be forced to wait another nine months. Our focus will be on the performance and not the result, and we’ll bounce back with full confidence in our ability to win as a team.”

Cross country squads each take fifth

By Fred Milgrim Contributing Writer

Last Friday’s trip to the Bronx for the 2009 Ivy League Heptagonal Championship brought mixed emotions for the men’s and women’s cross-country squads. Both teams had great individual successes, but the day was bittersweet. Each finished in fifth place overall. Columbia took the men’s title, while Princeton claimed first for the women.

Leading the Bears with strong performances were Christian Escareno ’10, who won the silver medal for the men in a blisteringly fast 25:19.7 on the eight-kilometer course, and Ariel Wright ’10, who placed seventh in the women’s five-kilometer event with a time of 17:33.9. Both runners earned First Team All-Ivy honors for their top 10 effort.

Facing a lot of stress going into the race, Head Coach Craig Lake reminded the team that all the other runners were facing the same burdens, and that each of them was human. It rang true for Escareno, who feared stomach cramps might force him back into the pack.

“I stuck it out and ran behind the first-place runner for as long as possible. I have no regrets,” Escareno said. “I’m proud to be able to hold the silver medal.”

Escareno was one of three

Brown men in the top 10. Other runners to earn All-Ivy Honors were captain Duriel Hardy ’10, who placed seventh and earned a spot on the first team. Also placing in the top 10 for the men was John Loeser ’10 in a time of 25:43.1, earning him Second Team All-Ivy. On the women’s side, Herald Staff Writer Lauren Pischel ’11 finished behind Wright, taking 13th place with a 17:55.6 as well as a spot on the second team.

Also running strong for the women’s squad was Ari Garber ’12, who led the women in most of

their meets this year. She finished in 18:16.0, good for 22nd place.

Megan Fitzpatrick ’11 also ran well, turning in a time of 18:31.3.

“We didn’t, as a team, race our finest, but I think that there is definitely a huge potential for us to do really well at Regionals,” Pischel said. “I don’t think this was indicative — we’ve put in all this incredibly hard work.”

The Bears will be racing at Franklin Park in Boston on Nov. 14 in the NCAA Northeast Regional, where many of the Bears hope to capture a spot for Nationals.

Equestrian extends lead over regional competition

By Zack Bahr Contributing Writer

A 13-hour show last weekend left the equestrian riders little time for trick or treating. However, coming home with a “sweet” first-place title, the Bears had all the treats they could ask for.

Connecticut College presented just another opportunity for Bruno to show why they are the dominant team in the region this year. Trailing by one point in the final few events, Brown was able to take advantage of top three finishes in categories ranging from Open Flat to Open Fences to tie with Connecticut College.

“Conn. College had the advantage because it was their show and their horses,” said Lindsay Wong ’13.

The points earned at this show go towards the 114-point cumulative total that Brown has earned so far this year. Already leading the region by 16 points, Emily Bourdeau ’10 said, “At this point, we’re really far ahead. We expect to increase our lead. We have a very high standard

on the team, which is good, and that contributes to our success.”

Highlights of the show included Kelsey MacMillan ’12, Rachel Griffith ’10, Cara Rosenbaum ’12 and Rebecca McGoldrick ’12 all pointing up, or earning enough points to enter the next higher division in their respective class. Especially exciting was Griffith, who ended the show with a tie for most points on the day.

She competed in a close high point ride-off, where she took second.

With the season almost at its mid point, the Bears are looking ahead to what they want out of their season. “It’s been kind of expected that we send people to nationals every year,” Bourdeau said. “We’ve been there seven out of the past 10 years.”

But goals are higher this year, with Brown looking to not just send riders but rather the team as a whole to compete at the national level.

The Bears will have a welcomed rest this weekend before traveling to the University of Connecticut, where they look to expand their lead over the currently no. 2 Huskies.

Page 6

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

thursday, november 5, 2009

W orld& N ation s p o rt s i n b r i e f

M. tennis ends season with well-played tournament Four men from the tennis team competed at the Harvard Halloween Tournament this past weekend.

Andrew Yazmer ’12, Jimmy Crystal ’12, Luciano Musella ’13 and Miles Garrigues ’13 all played in both singles and doubles against players from six other schools. Yazmer advanced into the semifinals before he was stopped by Michael Hayes of Harvard. After each taking a set, the two fought a long battle in the third set, in which Yazmer fell 10-6.

Crystal also enjoyed a good singles tournament. After losing in the first round to Roope Kailaheimo of Stony Brook, Crystal fought his way back and won the final match in the back draw bracket against Davis Mangham of Harvard, 6-3, 6-4.

Musella also played well in the back draw bracket, advancing into the semifinals, but he was stopped there

by Mangham.

In the doubles competition, both pairs, Yazmer and Crystal and Musella and Garrigues, advanced through the first round. Yazmer and Crystal had a bye, and Musella and Garrigues narrowly defeated Dave Youvanoff and Ezra Bernstein of Brandeis, 8-6. But in the second round, Musella and Garrigues were stopped by Harvard after losing, 8-4. Yazmer and Crystal won their game against Dartmouth, 8-5. But the pair was defeated by the second Dartmouth doubles team in the semifinals and saw its tournament come to an end.

The men’s tennis team has concluded its fall season. It will kick off its winter season with three consecutive home stands. The first will be on the weekend of Jan. 23 when Brown hosts the University at Buffalo, Boston University and Bryant.

—Han Cui

Virginia GOP steers toward center

By Anita Kumar The Washington Post

Despite winning the governor’s race by a 17-percentage point blowout, Virginia Republicans insisted Wednesday that they had gained no broad mandate and would make their top priority the pragmatic platform that drove voters to the polls.

The state’s Republicans have recaptured the governor’s office after eight years out of power. But Gov.-elect Robert McDonnell made no mention Wednesday of issues that drive the party’s social conser vatives, such as abortion and gun rights. He told a packed news conference at the State Capitol that his focus would be to create jobs, keep taxes low and repair the state’s tattered budget.

“I just want to let everybody in Virginia know that I intend to govern the same way I campaigned,” he said. “I tried to tell people in a detailed way what we intend to do, and now that it’s time to govern, I want to go about the business of getting results and accomplishing those goals.”

McDonnell is likely to face competing pressures, in Virginia and elsewhere, from the party’s social conservative base and moderates who fear alienating independents.

Those voters backed Obama last

year but supported McDonnell and other Republicans on Tuesday. The party swept the state’s top three statewide offices and added six seats to its majority in the House of Delegates.

“Remember for years commentators were saying Republicans have to stop thinking they can win statewide elections on so-called divisive social issues and they ought to be more kitchen table-oriented like the Democrats? Well, we almost switched places this time, didn’t we?” said Frank Donatelli, chairman of GOPAC, a group that helps elect Republicans nationwide and sent money and resources to Virginia Republicans this year.

McDonnell and the other Republicans played down ideological issues Wednesday. When asked, House Republicans did say they will move to make Planned Parenthood ineligible for state funding and expand the death penalty.

The governor-elect and other Republicans said they will move quickly to pass bills that will offer tax credits to new businesses, make it easier to open charter schools, authorize oil and gas drilling off the coast and privatize the state’s liquor stores — proposals Democrats have opposed in the past.

McDonnell will also have the power to fulfill promises to immediately reopen the state’s rest stops, which were closed by Democratic Gov. Timothy Kaine over GOP opposition, and conduct a long-sought efficiency audit of the massive Department of Transportation.

After winning by a landslide at a time when voter identification with the GOP has plummeted nationally, McDonnell found himself the center of attention Wednesday.

He laughed off questions about a vice presidential run, even as he

fielded calls from President Obama, national Republican leaders and TV networks clamoring for interviews.

In contrast to McDonnell’s post-victor y approach, the last two Republican governors, James Gilmore and George Allen, had a confrontational style soon after they were elected. Allen promised at his 1994 inauguration to knock Democrats’ “soft teeth down their whiny throats,” and Gilmore declared Virginia “free at last” in 1999, when Republicans took over the General Assembly on his watch.

In comments this week, Allen sounded more like McDonnell.

“We need to keep the promises that we have made and not just keep playing tenacious defense against bad ideas but also promote positive, constructive ideas on the economy, on energy and on fiscal sanity,” Allen said.

Former Republican U.S. House speaker Newt Gingrich said the Virginia GOP could provide a model for Republicans who want to defeat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and her Democratic colleagues in next year’s midterm elections and Obama two years later. “Bob McDonnell might be the archetype of the campaign for 2010 and 2012,” Gingrich said.

Despite their gains Tuesday, Virginia Republicans still face limits on their power, including the Democrat-controlled state Senate. Democrats hold a one-seat advantage in Senate, and already Republicans are talking about whether McDonnell would follow in Gilmore’s footsteps and lure a couple of Democrats in GOP-leaning districts into his administration, paving the way to switch control of the chamber.

McDonnell sidestepped questions about that possibility Wednesday.

Metro The Brown Daily Herald

“Basically, there was no consensus of support for it.”

— Larry Berman, spokesman for Majority Leader Gordon Fox, D-Dist. 4 Thursday, November 5, 2009 | Page 7

For volunteers, reading is elementary Student, U. property taxes on hold for now

By Max Godnick Contributing Writer

Members of St. Anthony Hall, Brown’s co-ed literary fraternity, started a children’s writing workshop at the Fox Point Community Library earlier this week. The Fox Point Reading Club is an “informal participatory program to get kids actively involved in reading and writing,” said Alexander Wankel ’11, St. Anthony’s community service chair and founder of the club.

Wankel originally had the idea for such a club earlier this semester.

“I’ve been trying to get this program started as an outreach to the surrounding community,” he said.

At St. Anthony, “we have such great human resources of people who like reading and writing, so the program seemed like the perfect idea.”

Wankel’s main goals for the program are “to create a relationship with the community and librar y and to help teach a few kids an appreciation for reading and writing,” he said.

Wankel and three other members of the fraternity have already committed to coming to the library three times a week, but he explained that any fraternity member can work for a day.

The program started Monday and will hold sessions three days a week until the end of the semester, Wankel said. While the program is only planned until finals period, Wankel said he envisions it might continue into the next semester.

The Fox Point Library has gladly

By Joanna Wohlmuth Metro Editor

Kim Perley / Herald

Alexander Wankel ’11 reads with elementary school students along with other St. Anthony Hall members.

welcomed and appreciated community outreach efforts from the Brown community, Ann Schattle, the library’s children’s specialist, said. “We always welcome any sort of help from students, especially for after-school programs like this one,” she said.

Providence Community Library, which recently took over control of Fox Point and the eight other branches from Providence Public Library, has aimed to increase community programming at its libraries.

Other branches host such events as a chess club and a video and computer game club.

Schattle and Wankel worked together to promote and advertise the program to surrounding schools and teachers. Schattle met with teachers from the Vartan Gregorian Elementary School to discuss the program and handed out flyers to families in the neighborhood.

The club’s first meeting “went continued on page 8

While legislators were busy banning indoor prostitution and texting while driving, two bills that could have cost Brown millions did not make it onto the agenda of last week’s General Assembly special session — and though they are dead for now, their fate remains uncertain.

The first measure, a “student impact fee” first proposed by Providence Mayor David Cicilline ’83, would allow Providence and other municipalities to collect $150 per semester for every outof-state student attending a private college or university within their city limits.

“Basically, there was no consensus of support for it,” said Larr y Berman, spokesman for House Majority Leader Gordon Fox, D-Dist. 4, who sponsored the bill. “It needs more debate, (and) they wanted to finish the business that was more at hand.”

No decision has been made yet about the measure’s future, Berman said. But “there would have to be some changes to it” to gain legislator support, he added.

Another bill would partially eliminate a property tax exemption for large non-profits like hospitals and universities by requiring those nonprofits with holdings of over $20 million to 25 percent of the

normal property tax rate.

The bills would need to be reintroduced when the state House of Representatives and Senate reconvene in Januar y in order to receive further consideration, Berman said.

The University has lobbied against both measures since their proposal. President Ruth Simmons personally weighed in on the debate this summer, making the case that the bills are misguided. Two e-mails from Simmons in June urged community members to voice their opinions of the bill.

“While we were prepared for the possibility that the legislation to tax students may come up, we had hoped it would not emerge as an item for consideration” in the special session, wrote Vice President for Public Affairs and University Relations Marisa Quinn in an e-mail to The Herald. “We will continue to make the case with government officials that institutions of higher education and the students they serve are critical assets to be supported — especially during these challenging economic times.”

The proposed student tax would apply to over 95 percent of Brown undergraduate, graduate and medical students, adding up to about $2.3 million in total per year. It is unclear how much the property tax initiative would cost the University.

Page 8

M etro

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

“It’s about having one set of rules and making those rules public.”

— John Lombardi, city councilman

Residents win award for gas-meter fight

By Rebecca Ballhaus Contributing Writer

Preserve Rhode Island, a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting Rhode Island’s historic structures, awarded local politicians and community members an award Oct. 29 for their role in a legislative battle against the utility company National Grid’s decision to place gas meters outside of historic homes.

The group awarded the John H. Chafee Public Ser vice Award to City Councilman John Lombardi, D-Ward 13, State Senator Paul Jabour, D-Dist. 5, State Representative Steven Costantino, D-Dist. 8, community member Jessica Jennings and the West Broadway Neighborhood Association as part of its annual state-wide Rhody Awards.

Preserve Rhode Island gives out the Rhody Awards jointly with the Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission.

“The awards are about preserving a sense of place and connecting people to the historic structures around them,” said Susanna Prull, a preservation services representative for Preserve Rhode Island.

“We recognize homeowners for restoration projects on private homes, recognize larger developers who use historic tax credits to revitalize older buildings downtown, recognize skilled craftspeople and artisans — all the people that make preservation happen,” she added.

“It’s an honor and a privilege to receive an award like that,” Lombardi said. “People recognize you for preserving the historical significance of any neighborhood.”

Kari Lang, who has been executive director of the West Broadway Neighborhood Association for fifteen years, said the organization is “thrilled and honored” to receive the award. “For a group of neighbors to actually get legislation passed with the help of the elected officials is

Thursday, November 5, 2009

quite an exciting thing,” she said.

Lang added that the law against the gas meters will set a precedent for future preser vation cases.

“Rhode Island is one of the first, but this situation is occurring in other states too, and they may mimic our legislation,” she said.

The fight started last summer, when National Grid began to relocate gas meters in one area of western Providence without the property owners’ express permission. Prull said that, in some cases, “these were homes that the owners had been restoring over several years.”

As Lombardi describes it, the community began to “do (its) homework” and discovered that in other parts of the state, utility companies had given owners the opportunity to decide whether they wanted their gas meters relocated.

“It’s about having one set of rules,” he said, “and making those rules public so we can play by the same set.”

Lombardi said the gas meter relocation was too invasive.

“Imagine going home tonight and seeing a steel chair attached to the side of your house and a pipe hanging out of your sidewalk,” he said.

“What’s more, someone trampled your flowers and your grass and in front of that there’s a patch of asphalt.”

Together with Jabour and Costantino, Lombardi successfully passed legislation that requires all public utility companies in the state to consult property owners before moving any gas meters.

“We prevailed,” Lombardi said, comparing the case to the stor y of David and Goliath. “It was nice, a sense of accomplishment, and done in an energetic, professional, consensus-building way — at least as it applied to us.”

fa R M F R E S H

Nick Sinnott-Armstrong / Herald

A vendor makes a cheese sale at Wednesday’s farmers market on Wriston Quadrangle, the last of the year.

St. Anthony members tutor readers, writers continued from page 7 really well,” Wankel said. “We had a small group of five kids. We had them play a game and read to them. It was pretty fun.” Wankel said that he plans on reading stories to the children each meeting and then having a discussion about the story, followed by a creative drawing or writing exercise based on that day’s reading.

The overall structure of the program is designed to foster the children’s creativity, Schattle said.

“In school, kids don’t have exposure to creative writing. They do a lot of standardized testing and guided writing, but they don’t have a creative outlet,” she said.

The club is currently the only community outreach program of its kind at the Fox Point Library, Schattle said. However, this is not the first time that Brown students have gotten involved in volunteering at the library. “We’ve had Brown students volunteer before, doing things like tutoring,” Schattle said. “We’ve had work-studies from Brown volunteer here before.”

Children at Wednesday’s meeting enjoyed the program and planned on coming to more sessions. “I thought it was fun,” said Nick, a ten-year-old fourth grader from the Vartan Gregorian Elementary School, which is located across the street from the library. “I think it’s good that they are taking the time to read to us,” he said.

“I usually come here after

Kim Perley / Herald

Members of St. Anthony Hall began a volunteer project reading to children at Fox Point Library on Monday.

school and go on the computer or do my homework,” said Emani, a nine-year-old fourth grader from the same school. “It was cool that they were reading to me. I think I’ll come back again,” she said.

Schattle and Wankel both said they hope more students

will hear about the program and come to their sessions on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

“Hopefully as kids participate and tell their friends, the program will grow. That’s what we would like to see happen,” Schattle said.

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World & Nation The Brown Daily Herald

Reservist opts for deployment over college

By Tony Perry Los Angeles T imes

For many of the 136,707 military reservists and National Guard members on active duty, their call-up was an annoying diversion from civilian plans involving employment, family and education.

But not for Suyapa Lopez Padilla, 32, who recently became a U.S. citizen and has withdrawn from her studies at San Diego State University to accompany the Army’s 416th Civil Affairs Battalion to Iraq.

She could have avoided the deployment to finish her degree in international business. She had the opportunity to join the ROTC and become an officer, possibly delaying any deployment until missions to Iraq and Afghanistan are no longer commonplace.

“I knew I should go back to school, but my heart wasn’t in it,” Lopez said in a telephone interview from Fort Dix, N.J. “My heart was with this deployment, with my group.”

Lopez, now with the rank of specialist, said she soon will be promoted to sergeant. When the battalion deploys to Iraq in March, its mission will be to help Iraqi civilians with education, medical care, clean water, sanitation and other everyday needs.

Staying in the United States while the battalion went to Iraq was not an option for Lopez.

“I would feel guilty I was letting them down,” she said. “They need me.”

Born in Nicaragua, Lopez went to Europe when her mother was posted

there in her country’s diplomatic corps. She was in Germany when the Berlin Wall fell and later, after graduating from high school, worked for the United Nations.

In 2001, she came to America to be with her sister, whose Marine husband was deploying to Iraq from Camp Pendleton. She supported herself by working at a clothing store in Carlsbad, and in May 2007, she graduated with an associate of arts degree from Mira Costa College in Oceanside and transferred to San Diego State.

Drawn to the militar y, Lopez joined the Army Reserve last year and went to boot camp at Fort Jackson, S.C., and then advanced training at Fort Lee, Va. She had worried that as an older recruit, she would have trouble keeping up with the group.

It wasn’t a problem: She graduated with honors.

“I liked it so much, I regretted going back to college,” she said.

Back at school, Lopez, who is unmarried, continued to work full time at the clothing store and carry a full load.

San Diego State prides itself on being military-friendly. This semester, the campus has 913 veterans, 23 reservists, 154 active-duty and 120 military family members. The number of veterans is up 14 percent from last fall, as the new G.I. Bill has kicked in.

In April, Lopez was sworn in as a U.S. citizen and registered to vote.

Citizenship has sharpened her sense that she should go to Iraq with her battalion.

“I feel I have a duty to my country — it’s my country now,” she said.

Thursday, november 5, 2009 | Page 9

Senate extends tax credit, jobless aid

By Jim Puzzanghera and Richard Simon Los Angeles T imes

The Senate voted on Wednesday to extend and expand a tax credit for home buyers as an added boost for the recovering real estate market, and also approved a provision to continue giving aid to the long-term unemployed.

The measure, adopted on a vote of 98-0, would also extend and expand a tax benefit for businesses with losses. The House is expected to follow suit within days, and President Barack Obama is expected to sign it into law.

To keep fueling the real estate rebound, the legislation would extend the $8,000 tax credit for firsttime home buyers to April 30. It now is set expire at the end of the month. More importantly, it would also provide a new $6,500 tax break for existing homeowners who want

to move up to a new home, as long as they have lived in their current residence for five consecutive years out of the last eight.

The bill would also increase the level of qualifying incomes to $125,000 for individual tax filers and $225,000 for joint filers. Those earning up to $145,000 individually or up to $245,000 jointly would receive a smaller credit that decreases as income rises.

The tax credits apply to home purchases of $800,000 or less.

“Every economist will tell you we have to steady the housing market before the economy will turn around,” said Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn. “We can’t afford to let this tax credit expire now.”

With the unemployment rate at 9.8 percent and expected to go higher, senators voted to extend jobless benefits by 14 weeks in all states and 20 weeks in the hardest hit states.

The $2.4-billion extension of unemployment benefits gained bipartisan support after it was written to cover all states, making it more appealing to senators. It would provide a longer extension of benefits in the 27 states now with unemployment rates of 8.5 percent or higher.

Congress included an extension of unemployment benefits in the economic recovery bill approved this year, but up to 600,000 people have already exhausted their benefits, and an additional 700,000 are scheduled to lose them by the end of the year, according to the National Employment Law Project.

For all companies, the measure would allow them to use any losses this year or last year to offset taxes paid in the previous five years. A similar measure was included in the economic stimulus legislation approved earlier this year, but was limited to small businesses.

The Brow Daily Herald

Editorial & Letters The Brown Daily Herald

Page 10 | Thursday, November 5, 2009

E van D onahue and erik stayton

e d i to r i a l

Letters, please! 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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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

Rebecca Ballhaus, Jessica Kirschner, Julien Ouellet, Designers Anne Artley, Ayelet Brinn, Rachel Isaacs, Carmen Shulman, Copy Editors George Miller, Ben Schreckinger, Suzannah Weiss, Kyla Wilkes, 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, Matt Klebanoff, Etienne Ma, 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, Nicholas Sinnott-Armstrong, Kate Wilson Photo Staff Qidong Chen, Janine Cheng, Alex DePaoli, Frederic Lu, Quinn Savit Copy Editors Jenny Bloom, Brendan Burke, Sara Chimene-Weiss, Miranda Forman, Sarah Forman, Casey Gaham, Anna Jouravleva, Geoffrey Kyi, Jordan Mainzer, Joe Milner, Claire Peracchio, Lindor Qunaj, Madeleine Rosenberg, William Tomasko

Free to be queer This year has been tough for queer Americans. In the past two election cycles, campaigns for marriage equality in California and Maine, two of the country’s most progressive states, have been defeated at the ballot box. President Obama, who many in the gay community had hoped would effect an about-face in federal policy, has done little on signature issues like Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, which he could end with a stroke of a pen. Meanwhile, his vaunted political mobilization group, Organizing for America, refused to take a stance on the Maine referendum despite weighing in on the state’s election.

So it wasn’t great timing when all-male Morehouse College announced a controversial new policy banning cross-dressing by its student body. While hardly on the level of the previously mentioned issues, the policy represents a culture that, in many places, is still open to the sort of blatant discrimination against gays that is now unthinkable if analogous discrimination were targeted at racial or ethnic minorities. Even small-scale practices like these reinforce such retrograde norms among the affected community, emboldening bigots while sending GLBTQ students yet another message that their lifestyle is unacceptable to the “mainstream.”

The policy ought to be rejected.

William Bynum, the Morehouse vice president of student services, said the rule on crossdressing was aimed at “five students who are living a gay lifestyle that is leading them to dress a way we do not expect in Morehouse men.” Bynum does not contest that these students choose to cross-dress as a means of expressing their identity. Instead, he argues that such expression contravenes his college’s “expectations” of how men ought to dress — a clear statement that the rule is in practice and almost certainly intended to enforce norms of proper behavior that exclude some forms of GLBTQ identity. Singling out one group’s iden-

tity in a school dress code is discrimination. There’s no way around it.

The fact that Morehouse’s rules also ban other “inappropriate attire” hardly gets it off the hook. We have other concerns with those policies, but they’re in a separate class from the ban on crossdressing. If Morehouse administrators can’t tell the difference between pajamas and grillz, on the one hand, and clothing that expresses someone’s fundamental gender or sexual identity, on the other, than their prejudice is more deep-seated then we thought.

That the administration got a putative stamp of approval from the campus gay affinity group, Morehouse Safe Space, is also non-exculpatory. Though the group voted (after consulting with the administration) to approve the ban, its co-president is on record saying that the ban “verges on discrimination,” indicating that there might be more dissent than the university was letting on. Further, we question whether the organization speaks for the five students the University explicitly targeted or any other GLBTQ students who believe cross-dressing is an integral part of their identities.

Finally, we recognize that Morehouse is a historically black college and that cross-dressing, given its historical use in minstrel shows, has some unsavory connotations. But the context here is radically different: Self-expression can hardly be compared to racist stage performances. Nor can it help relations between the black and GLBTQ communities to equate the two.

In the new dress code, Morehouse claims an “outstanding legacy of producing leaders.” Repealing the cross-dressing position would help demonstrate that Morehouse is okay with some of those leaders being gay.

Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board.

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Opinions The Brown Daily Herald

Thursday, November 5, 2009 | Page 11

Community service: not just for college applications KATE FRITZSCHE Opinions Columnist Way back in 2005, my SAT writing prompt was “Do people do good things for selfish reasons or for good reasons?” My answer was a definitive “maybe” — there are people who do good work because they feel morally compelled to serve others, and there are people who do it because it makes them feel happy, or it makes them look good on college applications.

While the SAT graders didn’t love my response, I stand by it. If you are doing good work for any reason, I encourage you to keep doing it. And if you are not involved in any community service, I urge you to start helping, both because it is rewarding work and because it is necessary work.

There are huge international problems that deserve our attention, but unfortunately most of that work is not best achieved on a college campus. Spending breaks or time after college working overseas is a useful and meaningful experience for many Brown students, but while we are on College Hill, it’s most helpful to focus on issues that surround us. Additionally, many student organizations are designed to raise awareness of important national issues, but these efforts can be frustrating and often do not really change the outcomes of the bigger issues.

I encourage Brown students to be active helpers who are working to affect people’s

lives now. We all have gifts and talents that merited our acceptance to Brown, and these prepare us perfectly for helping others. Tutoring programs, advocacy work for underprivileged populations in Rhode Island or free athletic or artistic training for students at schools lacking resources are just some of the ways our skills could be used in a socially productive way.

As Brown students, we have a unique opportunity to help the community around us that we might not have had if we had attend-

issues. But small, consistent efforts can make a big difference in people’s lives.

Through the hard work of many Brown students, hundreds of Providence public school students are provided with safe and educational after-school programs that they would not otherwise be able to afford. I am involved with one of these: a program at William D’Abate Elementary School in the culturally diverse Olneyville neighborhood of Providence, where students are provided with arts, science, reading, writing, robotics,

We all have gifts and talents that merited our acceptance to Brown, and these prepare us perfectly for helping other. ed college elsewhere. Rhode Island’s unemployment rate rose to 12.3 percent in September, and Providence residents face even worse economic conditions than the rest of the state. According to a June 2009 report by Rhode Island KIDS COUNT, 41 percent of children in Providence live in families with a total income under the federal poverty line.

Of those children, about half live in “extreme poverty,” with their family income less than half of the federal poverty line.

Providence families are in great need of jobs, affordable housing and better educational opportunities to break the cycle of poverty. You may ask what we, as college students, can do on such fundamental structural

math, gardening and social studies clubs after school, all thanks to the efforts of current Brown students.

These programs give children a safe place to spend their afternoons, an after-school snack, mentors who care about their welfare and an educational experience unlike their daily classroom activities. They give parents two extra hours of child care, which can allow them to work longer hours or do many other things that benefit their children.

Seeing the smiles on kids’ faces when they learn to play a song on the recorder or listening to a girl tell you about her baby sister learning to crawl makes the effort of getting off the hill and planning an arts class more

than worth it. Knowing that you helped kids learn and kept them safe and happy is a great feeling, and Olneyville is only a short bus ride away from Kennedy Plaza. It’s not hard to commit to one afternoon a week for these children, but it means a lot to the kids to have someone consistently in their lives.

There are plenty of other ways to help besides working with children. Project Health and English as a Second Language programs through the Swearer Center for Public Service, among others, are active in helping adults in Providence. Project Health connects Rhode Island families with health care that aims to attack both physical health problems as well as the social forces that contribute to poor health. Through their volunteer work in hospitals and hours of follow-up with families, the undergraduates involved in the program are connecting people to social welfare programs, helping them access much-needed health care and giving them resources to continue helping themselves.

Getting off College Hill is important to give us a perspective on reality, and doing it in a way that makes positive changes in the lives of others will expand your understanding of the community while you help meet desperate needs of people around us. There is great need in areas near our campus, and there is so much that we are capable of doing to reduce it.

Kate Fritzsche ’10 feels morally compelled to serve others, and wants you to help her do it so you can look good. She can be reached at katherine_fritzsche@brown.edu.

The truth about Brown’s investments MARK MORALES AND ALEX CAMPBELL Guest Columnists Last fall, the Brown Student Labor Alliance learned of Brown’s investment in HEI Hotels and Resorts, the nation’s seventh-largest hotel management company. We were compelled to speak out after we heard stories from workers about conditions in HEI hotels, as well as HEI’s anti-union activity.

For over a year, students organizing around this issue have approached committee after committee, and without fail, the University has passed the responsibility (and the blame) along to the next administrative body. No one in the administration has taken any semblance of action, nor owned up to Brown’s complicity in the injustices committed by HEI. The University’s Advisory Committee on Corporate Responsibility in Investment Policy — the advisory body responsible for investigating the ethical implications of Brown’s investments — dismissed our claims as outside their purview. Kicked back to the administration, we were once again told we were looking in the wrong place.

What will it take to make the University care about the consequences of its investment decisions?

HEI’s business model involves maximizing profits by laying off workers and forcing the remaining workforce to shoulder the additional workload. Hotel housekeeping, already one of the most physically exhausting professions in America, is particularly demanding at HEI hotels, which have experimented with requiring housekeepers to

clean up to 32 rooms a day. Virginia Portillo, a housekeeper at the HEI Sheraton Crystal City, takes painkillers every day just to perform her job.

In October 2008, Elizabeth Martinez, a waitress at the HEI-owned Long Beach Hilton, came to Brown to speak about her work experience. She described how HEI pays poverty-level wages (a recent study revealed the median yearly gross earnings for workers at Martinez’s hotel were $19,240, well below the annual income needed to afford basic necessities). She also told students how she had to work unpaid through breaks just to get all the work done.

speaking tour of universities to discuss HEI’s treatment of workers, Hernan was rehired by the hotel, but as a housekeeper. Despite having accumulated experience and skills while working in the restaurant, Hernan was given a job with harder work and lower pay.

And yet he still speaks out.

Others have been even less fortunate: Ferdi Lazo, an employee at the same hotel, was fired for being late on one occasion, only days after leading a delegation protesting layoffs and supply shortages. He has not yet been rehired. The National Labor Relations Board is currently investigating charges of illegal anti-union activity at the HEI Sheraton

If HEI workers are willing to risk their livelihoods by speaking out, then surely Brown should be able to muster up some of the same courage.

On her return to work, the general manager and human resources manager brought her into an office and interrogated her for two hours. Handing her a copy of The Herald, the managers asked Martinez whether or not she stood behind the statements she made to students. In spite of her fear that she would be fired, Martinez reaffirmed that she stood behind the statements she had made to Brown students.

Hernan Romero, a worker at the restaurant in the Sheraton Crystal City, was laid off for months along with many of his coworkers, ostensibly for economic reasons even though the hotel hired temporary workers to keep up with business. After going on a

Crystal City.

Poor working conditions as well as the intimidation of pro-union employees have prompted workers to call for boycotts of the two HEI hotels. “For over a year, we have struggled to address our concerns with the managers at the hotel and let them know that we want them to agree to a fair process that will allow us, the workers, to decide to join a union in a manner free of intimidation and harassment,” said Martinez. “Calling for a boycott is not an easy decision for us to make, but we have tried all other options and this is the only one left.”

As students concerned about the livelihood of HEI hotel workers, we are asking

the University to respect the demands of the workers and withdraw our investment from the company unless HEI agrees to allow its workers to decide whether or not to unionize in a free and fair manner. We call on all students who pride themselves on their social engagement and commitment to justice to pressure the University into making positive change, here and now.

Idealistic as we may be, we understand that we live in a society where privately funded institutions, like Brown, depend upon the expansion of capital to maintain viability and continue to provide their invaluable service.

Although some of our personal convictions might dictate otherwise, we are not calling for the fundamental reorganization of the financial system Brown depends upon.

What we are asking for, now, is that the University resists the impulse engendered by our economic system to subordinate all its professed values — those for the dignified and humane treatment of people — to the pursuit of profit. If HEI workers are willing to risk their livelihoods by speaking out, then surely Brown should be able to muster up some of the same courage.

If the administration refuses to consider the ethical implications of its investments, which could vastly improve the daily lives and life prospects of thousands of workers, it affirms that the maximization of profit takes priority over a commitment to the basic human values it publicly espouses. Fundamentally, it will have failed.

Mark Morales ’10 and Alex Campbell ’10 are going back to Ruth’s office again soon.

Today The Brown Daily Herald

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Student tax bill dead for now

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48 / 35

46 / 32

Equestrian brings home first place

Thursday, November 5, 2009

spring’ gets a voice

Page 12

inside

post-

magazine

Brown university ● november 5, 2009 ● Volume 10 ● issue 17

3 c a l e n da r 2:30 Pm — A Reading by Poet Ilya Kaminsky, McCormack Family Theater

7 PM — MEZCLA...On A Boat, Salomon 101

8 pm — Night of the Electric Insects, Grant Recital Hall

8 pm — Brown University Chorus Concert, Sayles Hall

menu Sharpe Refectory

Verney-Woolley Dining Hall

Lunch — Hot Turkey Sandwich with Sauce, Bruschetta Mozzarella, Mashed Red Potatoes with Garlic

Lunch — Chicken Pot Pie, Broccoli Quiche, Baked Potato Bar

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

Dinner — Chopped Sirloin with Mushroom Sauce, Vegan Roasted Vegetable Stew, Mashed Potatoes

the major dilemma

five

weekend

friday, november 6

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comics

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tHe SPace PartY 63 governor Street ● Sat. 10 pm

mezcla: on a Boat

Salomon 101

Dot Comic | Eshan Mitra and Brendan Hainline

PoSt-

Today, November 5

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Fri. 7 pm

WHere tHe Wild tHingS are King House ● Fri. 10 pm

4

Freedom WitHout WallS gala Sayles Hall ● Sat. 8 pm

3 5

micaH Solomon talK grant recital Hall● Fri. 4 pm

crossword Hippomaniac | Mat Becker

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