Monday, March 7, 2011

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vol. cxlvi, no. 27

Convocation kicks off new master’s program By Jake Comer Senior Staff Writer

The University’s business master’s program held convocation yesterday afternoon in Pembroke Hall for the inaugural class of Brown’s joint experimental business master’s program with Spain’s Instituto de Empresa. The 24 students sat interspersed throughout an audience of about 75 to listen to a series of short talks presented by leaders of the new program, including Brown and Insitute de Empresa faculty members who will teach courses in the program and Craig Cogut ’75, Corporation trustee and founder and co-managing partner of Pegasus Capital Advisors. Michael Steinberg, director of the Cogut Center for the Humanities

and professor of history and music, served as master of ceremonies. Collectively, the speakers emphasized the unique nature of the program as a liberal arts-focused M.B.A. taught by faculty from both IE and Brown. “What we do in this program is say, ‘Okay, let’s take the core of the M.B.A., let’s make sure you know everything you need to know about management, but let’s take the conversation further. Let’s take the conversation further by bringing in content from the humanities and social sciences that is usually not part of a management program,” said David Bach, dean of programs and professor of strategy and economic environment at IE and one of the academic directors of the IE-Brown continued on page 3

Herald

Monday, March 7, 2011

Since 1891

Mathematics institute to open today

Yo u l i k e i t ?

By Katherine Long Staff Writer

“There is a process in our contract that the administration knows about and did not follow,” Ferreira said. The faculty union plans to enforce the contract. “The union met with the ad-

The $15.5 million Institute for Computational and Experimental Research in Mathematics will officially open today at noon. U.S senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse, both democrats of Rhode Island, will join President Ruth Simmons in speaking at the celebration at 121 South Main St., where the institute will be housed. The institute is the first of its kind in New England to be funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation. Its goals include attracting top-level researchers to Providence and creating a reputation for the University as one of the top math research universities in the nation. It will support research on the convergence of mathematics and computation. Such research could spur advances in the studies of climate change, cryptography, cyber security, energy production and distribution, finance, personalized medicine, search engines and social networks, according to a University press release. It will establish a variety of programs, including “hot topics” conferences in the summers and undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral research projects that will pair students with mathematicians.

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Jessica Lilien / Credit

Sock & Buskin take on “As You Like It” in their fourth show of the season, which runs through March 13 in Stuart Theater. See review on page 5.

Mailboxes ‘No confidence’ vote shakes RISD By Miriam Furst “The overarching issue is perhaps Full Time Faculty Union. He said turn over, but S W the president and provost having the administration violated the Full and willfully ignored Time Faculty Contract in laying out combinations Spurred by the administration’s un- consistently the advice of faculty, especially de- the reorganization plan. The propopular plan to reorganize academic partment heads and deans, when posal should have first gone through faculty at the Rhode Island undertaking major changes that an elected faculty curriculum comdon’t change divisions, School of Design voted “no confi- affect academic instruction,” Sher- mittee and then to a full faculty vote. taff

Back on campus after a semester on leave, a junior went to check her mail. She entered the familiar combination and found, to her surprise, a bag of chocolates. Assuming it was a welcome gift for all students, she enjoyed the treat. But two weeks later, she received a package arrival notice listing an unfamiliar campus box number — and she began to have suspicions about the chocolates. It was only after asking University Mail Services about the unfamiliar number that she found out her campus mailbox had been changed. The junior — who asked that her name be withheld because it is illegal to open another person’s mail — realized her old mailbox had been reassigned to another student, but the combination had not been changed. She said if she had not received the package arrival notice, she might still be accessing another student’s mailbox. Four students — including the female junior — have reported to The Herald that their mailboxes were reassigned without notification this semester after they returned from studying abroad or leaves of absence. But the lock combinations were not changed, and all four students

inside

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news..................2-5 Arts....................6-7 editorial............10 Opinions.............11 SPORTS..................12

dence” in President John Maeda and Provost Jessie Shefrin by a margin of 147 to 32 March 2. The no-confidence vote comes as the result of a series of grievances against the administration, according to Mark Sherman, chairman of the Faculty Steering Committee.

man said. Three weeks ago, the administration announced an academic reorganization plan merging the Division of Architecture and Design and the Division of Fine Arts into a single Division of Undergraduate Studies, said Henry Ferreira, president of the

Bruno sweeps final weekend, finishes fourth By Madeleine Wenstrup Sports Staff Writer

One month ago, the women’s basketball team was crushed by Columbia 72-49 in New York. But Saturday, fresh off a victory over Cornell (6-21, 3-10 Ivy League) the previous night, the Bears were

sports hungry for an upset at home. In the final game of the season, the Bears (10-18, 6-8) charged past the Lions (7-21, 6-8) in a 65-55 win to end the season with a weekend sweep and a move to fourth in the league. “We knew what had happened last time,” said Lindsay Steele ’12. “Having lost to them before prepared us well and got us excited for this game.” Their preparation paid off. The Bears took an immediate lead after

Biblio-tech

Library creates new position that utilizes online resources

Campus news, 5

tip-off. But with 12 minutes remaining in the first half, the Lions flexed their muscles and responded, building an eight-point advantage before Bruno could recover. A three-point shot by co-captain Aileen Daniels ’12 put the Bears back on track, and with 3:23 remaining, Brown had taken back the lead 22-18. Columbia fought back to tie things up 22-22, before co-captain Hannah Passafuime ’12 hit a three to retake the lead heading into halftime. The Lions never came close again. The Bears surged out to an 11-point lead after halftime. The Bears’ 54 percent shooting from the floor in the second half carried them to victory. Daniels and Lauren Clarke ’14 led all scorers with 15 points apiece. Things were not as easy the pre-

Jonathan Bateman / Herald

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Lauren Clarke ’14 led Brown past Columbia Saturday with 15 points in a 65-55 win.

Real relics Tour features actual ancient artifacts

Arts & Culture, 7

weather

By Jackie Choi Contributing Writer

riter

t o d ay

tomorrow

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44 / 27


2 Campus News calendar Today

March 7

6 P.m.

ToMORROW

March 8

5:30 p.m. Careers in Education,

“Business of Chinese Food in

CDC Library

Mexico,” Barus and Holley 153

8 p.m.

7 p.m.

“History of Women in Print in the

Intel Information Session,

U.S.,” Smith-Buonanno 201

CDC Library

menu SHARPE REFECTORY

VERNEy-WOOLLEY DINING HALL LUNCH

Cajun Pasta with Chicken, Tortellini Provencale, Vegan Chana Masala, Spiced Vegetables, Butter Cookies

Baked Macaroni and Cheese, BBQ Chicken Sandwich, Italian Marinated Chicken, Butter Cookies

DINNER Vegan Roasted Veggie Stew, Texas Style Beef Brisket, Jumbo Couscous, S’Mores Bars

Tuscan Pork Roast, Pesto Pasta with Sundried Tomatoes, Moo Shu Chicken, S’Mores Bars

Sudoku

The Brown Daily Herald Monday, March 7, 2011

RISD students, board split over faculty vote continued from page 1 ministration before the vote of no confidence and told them they could either rescind their decision or the union will go forward with a grievance,” Ferreira said. If the administration does not respond, the issue could go to a board of arbitration that would determine whether the administration violated the contract. “President Maeda and Provost Shefrin have heard the point of view of the faculty and take it very seriously,” said RISD spokeswoman Jaime Marland. “President Maeda and his administration continue to have the full support of RISD’s Board of Trustees,” said Merrill Sherman, chair of the Board of Trustees, in a statement. The faculty, which requested a meeting with the Board of Trustees following the vote, is waiting to hear whether the board will meet with them. Students have also weighed in on the controversy. The Student Alli-

ance voted to release a statement asking for more cooperation between the faculty and administration the same day as the no-confidence vote. “We are concerned by the lack of communication from both parties and request an open dialogue that we wish to be included in,” said Undergraduate Student Alliance president Naomi Mishkin. RISD freshman Lauren Allegrezza said she stands with the faculty because she knows and respects them. Students created a website calling for student support for the faculty. A statement on the website ends, “RISD is not Maeda. Maeda will not be RISD.” “The (Strategic) Plan is wellmeaning and aspirational,” said Peter Simon, a RISD senior. “Most of the disagreement was based off of longstanding communication issues between faculty, students and administrators.” He said he hopes the controversy serves as a catalyst for improving communication within the school.

Switched mailboxes raise privacy concerns continued from page 1

Cr ossword

continued to receive mail at their old boxes, unaware the boxes had been reassigned until receiving mail that was not addressed to them — or in the case of the female junior, receiving the package arrival notice with a new mailbox listed on it. After bringing the mail to the student service window in J. Walter Wilson, students were told their mailboxes had been assigned to new owners. “I was never officially notified,” wrote Amitte Rosenfeld ’12.5, who returned this semester from a leave of absence, in an e-mail to The Herald. There is no inventory of extra

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mailboxes, so boxes must be put to use if their owners are not currently on campus, said Fred Yattaw, manager of Mail Services. “The mailboxes must find an owner,” he said. Mail Services has no time to notify individual students who return to campus from being away that their mailboxes have changed, he said. Students also raised concerns about the security and privacy implications of reassigning mailboxes without changing the combinations. Yattaw said making such modifications would be time-consuming and that there has never been a problem with unchanged combinations in his 43 years with Mail Services.

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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 member of the community. POSTMASTER please send corrections to P.O. Box 2538, Providence, RI 02906. Periodicals postage paid at Providence, R.I. Subscription prices: $280 one year daily, $140 one semester daily. Copyright 2011 by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. All rights reserved. editorial

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News in brief Planning begins for Iway lands Providence Mayor Angel Taveras has enlisted the help of a design firm to zone the city’s Jewelry District and surrounding areas following the relocation of I-195, according to a press release from the Mayor’s office. The firm, Perkins and Will, will determine how best to develop the area. Land parcels will open once the state finalizes the move of the highway. The University has previously expressed interest in aquiring plots freed up by the Iway project. In 2009, adminstrators from Brown and Johnson and Wales University lobbied state legislators to assure the two universities exclusive rights to purchase the lots. But city planners have insisted the land be sold at market value. The Jewelry District is home to the Women and Infants Hospital and the will house Brown’s new Medical Education Building. The area is a potential hub for businesses attracted by Providence’s biomedical and biotechnical resources. — Caitlin Trujillo

Mayor to speak at ceremony continued from page 1 “The role of the institute is to create the right environment — from the scientific vision and the setting of priorities to the infrastructure and computational tools — which supports the vital research projects of its participating scholars as well as the training and mentoring of the next generation of mathematicians,” Professor of Mathematics Jill Pipher, who will lead the institute, wrote in an e-mail to The Herald in September. Pipher will be among the speakers at the event. Other speakers will include Provost David Kertzer ’69 P’95 P’98, U.S. Rep. James Langevin, Mayor Angel Taveras and Sastry Pantula, head of the Division of Mathematical Sciences at the National Science Foundation. See tomorrow’s Herald for full coverage.


Campus News 3

The Brown Daily Herald Monday, March 7, 2011

Graduate School continues to expand, funding grows By Lindor Qunaj Senior Staff Writer

The graduate student body has grown 14 percent since a May 2008 report by the Working Group on Graduate Education recommended expansion, according to Dean of the Graduate School Peter Weber P’12. With 1,905 students enrolled in 48 PhD and 24 master’s programs as of last fall, Weber said the school intends to continue to increase both the number of students and the number of degree programs in the future. The committee, which consisted of professors, graduate students and administrators, developed six long-term recommendations for the Grad School, including the continued growth of the student population and increase in the number of programs offered. Other objectives included funding, diversity, instruction and data assessment. Prior to the enrollment increases, small incoming classes — as few as two students in some humanities programs — made it difficult for “cohort formation and peer learning,” according to the report. Jeremy Powell GS, a fourthyear doctoral candidate in the Department of Modern Culture and Media, which matriculates only two or three new students a year, agreed that creating a “cohesive cohort” is more difficult in small programs. He cited the “Current Perspectives in MCM” graduate symposium as a program designed to build community and provide a venue to present work but said these activities have been limited and largely organized “from the ground up.” Powell said he was not aware of any initiatives being planned by the Grad School to address these issues, adding that in many de-

partments, there have not been “enough students to warrant or even support” such programs. But as the number of grad students increases, community-building programs may “start to develop more naturally,” he said. For Seth Kadish GS, a fifth-year doctoral candidate in the planetary geosciences, the small size of his program — about 20 students — has not been an issue. “The department may seem small, but it seems more crowded than some others,” Kadish said, explaining that, for his program, most of the students’ workstations are housed in a single room. “We’re using the same software, the same data — it’s incredibly collaborative,” he said. Though some programs may not grow immediately, the recently formed School of Engineering will certainly expand, Weber said. Computational biology admitted its first doctoral class last fall, and the first two PhD students in Africana studies will enroll next semester. Lawrence Larson, the newly announced dean of engineering, will be involved in supplementing the school’s current offerings with courses and research in fields such as bioengineering and entrepreneurial studies, according to a March 4 Herald article. “We have a good size in some programs, but others still have a capacity to grow,” Weber said. He said there is also potential for significant growth in the master’s programs — one of the Grad School’s highest priorities. ‘Acute need’

The working group identified summer funding and conference travel support as areas of “acute need.” At the time the report was issued, summer funding for doctoral students was limited to

$2,500 for each of three summers, less than the stipend given to students for an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award. Though the Grad School has not added to that annual limit, it has increased the guarantee of summer support from three to four years, a decision Powell called “a definitive move in the right direction.” The increase was implemented starting with students who matriculated this year. But Powell said “offering someone a fourth year of summer funding potentially at the expense of sixth-year assistantship is not a good thing.” The University currently guarantees doctoral students five years of funding, and according to Powell, a sixth year of funding has been generally available. But there may be a “move coming down the pike to curtail the vast majority” of sixth-year support, Powell said. In many humanities disciplines, it can take longer than five years to complete a PhD, Powell said. Weber is currently meeting with doctoral students to “hear their thoughts about funding beyond the five-year guarantee and to discuss potential changes to the process of seeking and distributing funds,” Beverly Larson, director of communications for both the Grad School and the office of the vice president for research, wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. As a supplement to summer funding, which is part of the overall support package for PhD candidates, the Grad School began to offer summer research grants in July 2007. In the 200809 academic year — the academic year following the publication of the working group’s recommendations — 51 awards totaling $165,329 were made to students, a massive increase over the

$15,200 awarded the year before, Larson wrote in her e-mail. But that amount dropped substantially the following year. In 2009-10, 50 grants were made, but the total plummeted to $57,913 and the average award fell from $1,382 to $1,158. The funding available for conference travel and attendance has “not been adequate,” Powell said. “We would definitely benefit greatly” from additional funding for conferences, he said, adding that this concern has been discussed at multiple meetings with other students in his department. But these concerns vary across and within disciplines. Kadish — who works with Professor of Geological Sciences James Head ­— said his adviser, like many in the department, is well-funded and has been able to send students to conferences in places such as Iceland and Germany. “I honestly don’t even notice the effect that Brown funding has on us,” said Kadish, who called his situation “admittedly atypical.” He added that conference funding may be more of an issue for students working with professors who are just beginning their careers. Other recommendations

The Grad School has focused on addressing “pockets of need” where not enough teaching assistants are available, Weber said. Though the Grad School’s growth has solved some of these problems, there are still issues, particularly in courses where there does not exist a corresponding graduate program or department. “Just as undergraduate enrollments should not dictate the size of our doctoral programs, neither should uncertainty regarding instructional support inhibit or impair the curricular offerings of the College,” the working group wrote

M.B.A. program goes ‘beyond business’ continued from page 1 Executive M.B.A. Program. In the convocation’s keynote speech, Cogut shared vignettes of recent encounters with prominent business professionals who value a knowledge of the humanities. He said that last week, for instance, he met with the CEO of a large insurance company who told him that he likes to see a strong background in history from prospective hires. “Today’s business leaders must be so much more aware of the world as a whole,” Cogut said. Vani Nadarajah, associate admissions director at IE, also emphasized a different approach to the M.B.A. that goes “beyond business.” Her speech focused on the inaugural program’s participants and their diversity, qualifications and social consciousness. “People that are the participants in this program are very into people,” she said. They “have a real passion,

motivation, concern for their people.” Nadarajah also said that the IEBrown Executive M.B.A. Program is not just about being a good business leader, but also about being a global citizen. “It’s about being a different class of leader,” she said. “The emphasis is on people and ethics.” To provide such a background for their students, the program has enlisted faculty such as Brown Professor of Philosophy Bernard Reginster. He will be teaching a course called “Work, Meaning and Identity,” which he told The Herald he hopes will “contribute somehow to make them better businessmen.” But instead of providing students with some intellectual tool directly related to achieving success in the business world, Reginster said he will try to make them think about how their work shapes their identities. The 24 students, who work in 12 different industries and represent

more than a dozen nationalities, said the humanities-oriented approach was a major draw to the IE-Brown program. “You can get M.B.A. skills at any university,” said Mark Stover, owner of Pine Valley Property Services and a member of the inaugural class. But he said the opportunity for interdisciplinary study drew him to the program. The participants begin their first on-campus learning module today, which will last two weeks. The 15-month program ­— which is conducted predominantly online — calls for a total of seven weeks of “face-to-face” learning opportunities to be held in Providence and Madrid. Santiago Iniguez de Ozono, dean of IE, encouraged the participants to “keep an open mind” in pursuing this unusual track for an M.B.A. “There’s no program like this,” he said in his speech. “We are going to experience something which is unique.”

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in its 2008 report. The report suggested the Grad School improve support for teaching assistants and collaborate with departments to anticipate how many TAs will be needed for each course. Kadish — who served as a TA for GEOL 0050: “Mars, Moon and the Earth,” in fall 2007 — said the job required an “overwhelmingly large amount of work — or about a course and a half worth of work.” At the time, there were only two TAs for the course, which had an enrollment of approximately 75 students. “My general feeling is that each TA should not be responsible for more than 25 students,” Kadish said. The working group report also criticized “patterns of attrition among minority and international students” and recommended programs and structure to support those students. Former Grad School dean Sheila Bonde, professor of history of art and architecture, hired an assistant dean for recruiting and professional development, who focuses on recruiting minority students, Weber said. The Grad School has also begun to publish comprehensive information and statistics on each of the master’s and PhD programs. The working group called this sort of data compilation “a healthy exercise that promotes transparency,” which Larson agreed was a “good thing.” The process of data assessment has “evolved dramatically,” Weber said, and the reports include data about admission and funding sources as well as student demographic information such as age, ethnicity, gender and nationality. The expanded focus on data gathering “enables individual departments to see certain issues and take corrective measures as they see fit,” Weber said.


4 Campus News Local chiropractor shares Everest story By Meia Geddes Contributing Writer

Tim Warren, author of “Lessons from Everest,” has a mission: “Inspire as many people as possible to achieve a healthy, adventurous life.” Warren, a local chiropractor and inspirational speaker, talked to roughly a dozen students and young adults Saturday at the Brown Bookstore. Warren stressed the importance of enjoying the journey along the way to a goal. Drool frozen on his camera did not stop him from documenting his journey, but he could not linger when avalanches posed a constant risk — no matter how many changing shadows he wished to record. When Warren attempted to climb Mount Everest in 2007, he suffered altitude-related illness and made the “good, smart decision to turn around.” He said he felt conflicted afterward about mountain climbing, but realized he wanted to go back the following year. Warren showed a picture of a brain, illustrating his belief that one must bring the subconscious mind to the forefront with the aid of a catalyst, such as a screen-saver image of Everest. Along with all the challenges of summiting Everest, Warren faced the additional obstacle of a fear of heights. He forced himself to climb at the Rhode Island Rock Gym, “gradually stepped it up” and within a year had nearly eliminated the phobia. Beside Everest, Warren has climbed Kilimanjoro in Tanzania, Denali in Alaska and Acancagua in Argentina. Warren said he is fascinated by the human mind and its relationship to the realization of one’s full potential. Everest is different from other mountains, and summiting it requires different training, he said. At some points, Warren was “in despair.” But eventually, “I got my mojo back,” he said. Upon his return, he found his eyesight and tooth enamel had deteriorated due to lack of oxygen.

He said he did not always know what time it was and his vision was at times limited to his three-meter headlamp beam. He dropped through a snow bridge into a hole, from which — with the help of a friend and passing skiers — he extricated himself in 10 minutes. He also mentioned the potentially fatal consequences of forgetting to wear one’s crampons, which are heavy-duty spikes that provide traction on steep slopes. One lapse, and a climber can tumble down the mountain to his or her death. Warren said he could not have made the climb without the assistance of Sherpas, native guides hired to assist with the climb. Warren showed an image of a Sherpa carrying packs at least double his height on his back. Sherpas performed such onerous tasks as the setting up of about 150 ladder sections for the journey, Warren said. But his memories of the climb were not just of exertion. Movie night at camp featured the likes of “Superbad” and “Kill Bill,” with the mountaineers bundled up and clustered together as they watched. Another highlight of the trip was the presence of yaks, which he described as “cows on steroids.” The audience chuckled when Warren mentioned the Italian professional mountaineers who looked like Fabio Lanzoni, an Italian romance novel icon. Sitting at his laptop at ease among the audience, Warren conversed with its members throughout his presentation and question-and-answer session. Several people expressed an interest in mountain climbing, asking about such issues as caffeine intake and altitude sickness. Daniel Goodwin, who was visiting a friend at Brown, said he came to the talk because there are not many people who attempt or are able to climb Everest. Kelly McCullough said she attended the event because she is fascinated by stories about Everest. “You can live vicariously,” she said.

The Brown Daily Herald Monday, March 7, 2011

Q&A with Tim Warren By Meia Geddes Contributing Writer

Before his presentation, Warren sat down with The Herald for a question-and-answer session. Herald: How did you go about compiling “Lessons From Everest”? How did you narrow it down to seven lessons? I like the number seven because it’s a very spiritual number and if you look at all the major religions the seven just keeps popping up. (Those lessons) were seven that were just super meaningful for me on this climb and I suspect that they can be meaningful for anybody, not just climbing. My hope for this whole book is that — nobody’s going to climb Mount Everest: Only us knuckleheads climb Mount Everest — ­ but everybody has great difficulties or goals or things throughout their lives and my hope is that these seven lessons that really were sunk home for me on the second climb can be meaningful to people overcoming difficulties in their own lives. I just wanted to share. I had some music in me and I wanted to get it out. Could you talk a little about what led to your passion for climbing? Well, I started when I was very, very young. My parents were very outdoorsy and are still very outdoorsy. Summers and school vacations we got into the pick-up truck as a family and drove to New Hampshire and Maine and hiked and camped. And then one summer, which really got me enthralled with the outdoors, was for a whole two months when we got in that pick up truck. We visited a lot of national parks across the country and did a lot of hiking, and not technical climbing … but just a lot of backpacking. It was fantastic and I was totally hooked. And then going on to college and then to graduate school to become a chiropractor, I was just starting my practice here in Rhode Island. I was unable to really have a lot of time except for one three-day weekend per year where I went backpacking with a friend up north. I was always an endurance athlete, always a runner, a triathlete. In the early 1990’s I just kind of got the yen for more technical climbing, especially with a book

that came out in 1996 called “Into Thin Air” by Jon Krakauer, talking about Mount Everest. There seem to be two types of people: the people who have read that book and are horrified by it ... and the other people like me who probably have serious psychosis and are like “Wow, that’s cool.” Not that I had a goal in 1996 of trying to climb Mount Everest, but I knew then that I was going to do some climbing. So the next logical thing for me was I went up to Mount Washington. And then I decided to go to Mount Rainier. And there I set a goal that once a year I would climb one big mountain in the world. And I was still not thinking about Mount Everest at all. Then Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa… Denali in Alaska ... Yosemite National Park … the Rockies and Wyoming … back to Denali and Alaska and was able to get to the top. I still knew I didn’t have the stuff for Everest yet. I went down to Argentina, ... to Acancagua, … and then set the goal to climb Everest the next year. The whole endeavor is about two and a half months. And I did not make that in 2007, but realized there were some lessons I needed to learn and understand about myself, changed all those, and went back in 2008 and I was lucky enough to get to the top, becoming the only Rhode Islander who’s ever been to the top. Do you think the youth of today don’t move their bodies enough? It’s not limited to young people. Sadly, the younger generation may just be the first generation in the last dozen or so that does not outlive their parents because they don’t move enough. The world’s different now, and everybody is wired. It’s very simple that people need to move. In order for the body to work properly, the body has to move. Your mind has to move. Your mind has to constantly do new things and bite off more than it can chew and chew it, in order to be healthy. The brain is created that way. The body is created that way. People may know that innately, but doing it and knowing it are two different things so it’s part of my mission to get people moving, body and mind. Would you describe yourself as adventurous? Yeah, I would definitely de-

scribe myself as adventurous, but I would not describe myself as a thrill-seeker. It was never a draw for me to be an adrenalinejunkie. What is always a draw is to push to the limits. Now, do you know where your potential is until you really get up close to it? I know I pushed it as much as I could push it. Both physically and mentally. And that was glorious to be able to do that, and to survive and tell the tale in that aspect of my life. But how do I know what my potential is being a health-care practitioner? Being a business man? Being a father? Being a good mate? How do you know? So I’ve always been enthralled with that as an openended question and because you wear a lot of hats in life and you have to pay attention to those if you want to grow in all those dimensions. Do you have any advice for your audience? Find your own Everest. Determine what your own Everest is. If you don’t take precautions and you overestimate your abilities, Mother Nature can smite you down at will. And I knew that I was nothing more than a bug on the side of Mother Nature on Mount Everest. I never conquered any mountain that I climbed. I was just allowed to climb. And if it was not right, if the weather was not good, if the wind was too high, if I didn’t have a good feeling, if I was exhausted, turn my little rear end, go home, and climb another day. And that’s advice that I will give to people who are interested in climbing. But the main thing for humanity is move your mind, move your body, determine what your own mission is, what I term “your own Everest,” and put your passion into achieving that. Who or what motivates you in life? I get motivated from people that work hard at whatever their vocation is. They have a definite mission. Bill Gates doesn’t have to work a day in his life but he works every day. I’m impressed by that. There are people who create things, who build companies, who achieve things, who start movements because of sheer passion — not because there’s any logic in it — and succeed. That’s pretty motivating.


Campus News 5

The Brown Daily Herald Monday, March 7, 2011

Spring 2011 Grade Option Registrations Non-mandatory S/NC Mandatory S/NC

11.9% 6.6%

81.5% A/B/C/ NC

Katie Wilson / Herald

Over 18 percent of classes are being taken S/NC this semester, according to Robert Fitzgerald, University registrar.

Higher ed news r oundup

by natalie villacorta senior staff writer

Northwestern students attend after-class sex toy demonstration Herald file photo

The new digital humanities librarian will help students and faculty use modern technologies for digital research.

Library updates with new position By Nicole Grabel Contributing Writer

In an effort to keep up with modern technologies in digital resources, the University Library has created a new digital humanities librarian position. The librarian will help students and faculty use new methods of research. The search committee aims to fill the position by the end of May, said Ned Quist, interim coordinator for scholarly research and a member of the committee. The position requires knowledge of new technology and digitized research resources, and fits into the library’s larger goal to “look ahead to the future of libraries,” Quist said. “To be prepared for the future, it’s important that we in the library step up to talk about extended uses of technology,” said Harri-

ette Hemmasi, University librarian and head of the search committee. She said other universities already have similar positions and that it is almost “past time” the University created one. According to the job posting, the digital humanities librarian will work not just in one department, but “together with other scholarly resources librarians, the center for digital scholarship and other related library and campus partners.” This sort of crossdisciplinary work is “where everybody’s headed,” in the move towards a more modernized age, Quist said. This is not the only library position being created with an eye towards the future. The University is also looking for an e-science librarian, who will be “in charge of managing data sets,” Quist said. The creation of these positions

is an effort to “anticipate needs and meet those needs,” said Hemmasi. Last spring, the University reduced the staff of libraries by making cuts and enacting a new retirement plan to encourage older employees to retire. But more staff members left than the Library had anticipated, leaving additional funds to hire necessary librarians. After last year, “we had to evaluate which positions we needed to keep” and whether to “keep them in the same form” Hemassi said. The digital humanities and e-science librarian positions are updated versions of positions left vacant last year, Quist said. So far, 29 people have applied for the job of digital humanities librarian, Sheila Coleman, head of human resources and professional development, wrote in an e-mail to The Herald.

Northwestern University administration is investigating an after-class sex toy demonstration in response to strong reactions from national media sources and members of the Northwestern community, according to the Daily Northwestern. The demonstration was performed after a popular Human Sexuality course taught by Professor of Psychology John Michael Bailey and featured a naked non-student female being sexually stimulated to the point of orgasm by a motorized sex toy. Students were informed of the topic and explicit nature of the optional demonstration beforehand. University President Morton Schapiro released a statement last Thursday expressing disapproval of the demonstration. Bailey is defending the demonstration, saying it was educational about sexual diversity. About 120 students attended, and Bailey said he has received no student complaints.

LSE director resigns over Libyan donation scandal The director of the London School of Economics and Political Science, Sir Howard Davies, has resigned amid controversy regarding the school’s links with Libya, according to the Times Higher Education. The controversy arose after the university accepted a donation of 1.5 million p ­ ounds — about $2.5 million — from a charitable foundation run by Saif Gadhafi, an alum of the university and one of the sons of controversial Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. Last Thursday, the Times of London published an article detailing WikiLeaks cables from 2009 that revealed the London School of Economics had received funding from Libya’s government to train the country’s future leaders. According to the leaks, the university was one of several schools cooperating with Libya on student exchange programs. The university’s governing council has commissioned an independent inquiry of its relationship with Libya and Gadhafi. The council has received 300,000 pounds — about $500,000 — of the donation pledged by the Gadhafi foundation, and it has announced it will not accept the remaining balance.

New Hampshire debates legislation to prevent out-of-state students from voting The state of New Hampshire is debating legislation that would require out-of-state students to vote in their home states and not in New Hampshire, according to the Dartmouth. The bill would redefine the state constitution’s definition of domicile — ­ or residency requirements — ­ for voting in New Hampshire. Under the current definition of domicile, students can vote both at home and at school, Grafton County Treasurer Carol Elliot said at a hearing Thursday. Opponents of the bill say that its goal is to eliminate voter fraud, not to mandate where people vote. Students from Dartmouth, Plymouth State University, Keene State College and the University of New Hampshire attended the hearings and testified against the bill. Supporters of the bill argue that students are uninformed about candidates and issues. Rep. Gregory Sorg, R-Grafton, said he believes that students can also drown out the voices of permanent residents. Sorg said being domicile in a state requires more than physical presence.


6 Arts & Culture

The Brown Daily Herald Monday, March 7, 2011

Artist spotlight: Jina Park ’11 By Emma Wohl Senior Staff Writer

Jina Park ’11 has always been fascinated with how clothes shape people’s lives. “I think it’s really interesting that for work, a person would have to care about how they dress,” she said. Brown has no concentrations in fashion design or apparel, so Park had to find her own path in the world of design. She is concentrating in visual arts and economics but has been interested in fashion since freshman year. “Not to be discouraging to people who want to work in fashion, but I actually found it pretty difficult to work on fashion at Brown,” she said. Park has taken apparel classes at the Rhode Island School of Design and Parsons The New School for Design in New York City. She also studied abroad in Paris for one semester with the Internships in Francophone Europe Program. In Paris, “I ended up working for a menswear firm in the licensing department, which helped me … view the more business side of fashion,” she said. But Park said her most valuable experience came from working in the world of professional fashion. In 2008, she interned in New York with the designer Brian Reyes. Through her work with the designer, she explored the business side of the industry, she said. She even went to South Korea with the company’s executives as a translator. “If they ask for three designs in an hour, but you take an extra 10 minutes or so and you come

back with five, maybe that little bit extra will set you apart,” Park added. But in the end, “I decided I wanted to try the more creative side,” she said. At Brown, Park works in painting and drawing as well as in clothing. One of her works, “(Pre)vision,” was featured in the show “S(t)imulation” in the fall. Now it hangs behind her bed. The centerpiece of the painting is a giant eye with four quadrants of different colors. Many of Park’s paintings involve bold splashes of color. “Doing visual arts at Brown helped me explore a lot of the color schemes I’m attracted to,” she said. She was drawn to the style of the painter Gustav Klimt. “I use a type of reddish orange that’s present in a lot of Klimt’s work,” she said. Park is also influenced by the work of Jackson Pollock. In one of the works hanging in her room, the influence is quite literal — on a pane of Plexiglas, she splashed paint, focusing on her signature pallet of bold oranges, blues and reds. Now, with only a few months left as an undergraduate, Park is looking toward a future in the fashion industry. She is applying to graduate schools in fashion and hopes to get into a program in London. She emphasized the importance of perseverance. “There are quite a few people in the fashion mafias who went to Brown,” she said. But she has had to work to find people to support her, she added. “I’m still working,” she said.

Jessica Lilien / Herald

The ongoing production of “As You Like It” employs unorthodox sets and mixed media to modernize Shakespeare.

Production plays up ‘theaterness’ By Caroline Flanagan Contributing Writer

With musical numbers and dancing pandas, Sock & Buskin’s production of “As You Like It” is a fun and quirky adaptation of Shakespeare’s classic that is modern, young and unique. The play, directed by Nicholas Ridout in collaboration with the Department of Theatre Arts and Performance Studies, is the group’s fourth show this season. The cast members obviously enjoy themselves, charging the play with an infectious playfulness that lets the audience in on the fun. “It was one of the most fun experiences I’ve had,” said Mariagrazia LaFauci ’12, who played Phebe. Modern popular music can be heard throughout, putting a modern twist on the classic play. A wrestling match between Orlando and Charles becomes a dance battle set to the tune of “Eye of the Tiger.” The dialogue remained faithful to the original play, but Ridout included a colloquial twist that made it easier to understand. The banter between the characters, particularly

between Rosalind and Celia, was youthful and humorous. Ridout opted for a simplistic set in the first act — wooden fold-out chairs and a table. But once the characters arrived in the Forest of Arden, the set changed to an enormous red ramp with a red bridge over it, both of which were crafted specifically for the play. Although green and blue lights on the ceiling mimicked foliage, the stage ultimately failed to look at all like a forest. Ridout said he was trying to emphasize “theaterness” of the production. “The colors and shapes used for the set emphasize the perspective of the theater,” he said. He wanted to explore and highlight the idea of “a play within a play.” “In a way, the Forest of Arden is a theater,” he said. He included mixed media for similar reasons. During the transition to the Forest of Arden, he showed a mute video that the artists had made beforehand. They recited lines while facing the screen, narrating the video’s plot. With this technique, Ridout said he wanted to

highlight the role of the text to the words themselves. Throughout the production, Ridout did not want the audience to forget that they were watching a play — one reason why the actors read from their scripts at the beginning of the play. These were “experiments that contain a certain amount of risk,” he said. “But the audience seemed happy to go with them.” A number of audience members were confused by certain elements of the play, but enjoyed it nonetheless. “I had a lot of fun. I didn’t totally understand all the choices the director made, but I found it entertaining and that’s all I cared about,” said Leandro Zaneti ’12. “As You Like It” will run in Stuart Theater through March 13. Shows are at 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and 2 p.m. on Sunday.

This play aimed to entertain its audience and make them laugh, and it succeeded. It was a creative and unique interpretation of Shakespeare.


Arts & Culture 7

The Brown Daily Herald Monday, March 7, 2011

Dumas ’91 crafts Hermes scarves Rabbi brings hands-on By Sarah Mancone Staff Writer

Twenty years ago, Pierre-Alexis Dumas ’91 discovered the visual arts program at Brown. Now the chief creative officer of the luxury brand Hermes, Dumas will be speaking tonight at 8 p.m. in the Martinos Auditorium in the Perry and Marty Granoff Center for the Creative Arts about the creation of his new project Hermes Editeur, which launched in 2008. This project “tries to bridge arts and craft by inviting contemporary artists to develop a project with Hermes to be reproduced on silk,” Dumas wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. In his talk, he will provide an overview of the history of the Hermes silk scarf before addressing the Hermes Editeur series. The series came out of a collaboration with the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation in 2008 and with the French artist Daniel Buren in 2010. Dumas began working with Buren not only on the mass marketing of scarves, but also on creating a dialogue between an artist and a business, said Richard Fishman, professor of visual art and director of the Creative Arts

Council. The collaboration has led to the creation of more contemporary scarves, said Haruka Aoki ’12, who has worked in the fashion industry. “You can hang them up on walls and put them in a frame, and they could be art.” Hermes is a “timeless brand,” Aoki added. “It’s an icon.” Dumas recently sent Fishman a book of Buren’s photographs and said he was coming back to the U.S. His experience with the visual arts program at Brown had significant impact on his life, he wrote, and he wanted to come visit the University. “What inspired the talk was a desire to share that experience. I believe now is the time in my life to start doing that,” he wrote. The talk is “one of the spontaneous things the Creative Arts Council likes to do,” Fishman said. Hermes has maintained a sense that “the highest quality is worth striving for” in craft, design and aesthetics, he added. “Fine craft is disappearing,” he said, and Hermes is “a living museum” — one of the only companies that remains willing to support the design of fine, handmade craft and to train people in old world skills. Hermes is a family-owned

company that strives to achieve excellence through quality manufacturing, and its impact comes from valuing people before profit, Dumas wrote. Dumas became creative director of Hermes a few years ago and has kept the Hermes tradition while bringing in a fresh perspective, Aoki said. “People and organizations need to reinvent themselves,” Fishman said, and Dumas “wants Hermes to reinvent itself.” “I believe Hermes can lead the way for a new form of ethical capitalism in the field of art, craft, design and services,” Dumas wrote. The brand has a status connected to it as just a high-end luxury brand, Fishman said, but “Pierre-Alexis represents that it is much more than that.” Fishman said he expects a broad audience of people interested in Hermes’ reputation, the craft involved and the “relationships of contemporary artists to Hermes’ work on silk.” “I would like to help the audience to look at the world with a different eye. We tend to take our cultural heritage for granted when in fact it needs to be constantly challenged,” Dumas wrote.

Bell Gallery features student art By Amy chen Staff Writer

The bright, cheerful colors of the background contrast with the brooding darkness of the central figure. Todd Stong ’14 captures a certain loneliness in his contemplative self-portait, on display in the 31st Annual Student Exhibition in the David Winton Bell Gallery. The show — highlighting the talents of 38 student artists — consists of a diverse spectrum of paintings and sculptures. The myriad of original works includes complex portraits, abstract deconstructions and renderings of pop culture images, urbanity and media. Judges evaluated submissions on their skill and originality, and six winners were selected to receive cash awards, equally split between three males and three females. Judges used perspectives from their experiences in the art world and knowledge of art history in evaluating the works, said

Maya Allison, curator of the Bell Gallery. Most students who submit works are visual arts majors, Allison said. The two jurors were Lucky Leone, a Rhode Island School of Design professor and local artist, and Olive Ahyens, an artist based in Brooklyn whose work has been shown throughout the United States. This exhibit is unique from other annual shows because of the unexpected and surprising quality of students’ works, Allison said. “With other shows, I do research and find artists,” she said, “(but) student shows are always a surprise event.” This is because students typically organize the show and it’s a group effort, she added. “All the works are strong,” said Brice Peterson ’11, a visual arts and English concentrator, who was one of this year’s winners and an organizer of the exhibit. He said he thinks the show provides an interesting opportunity to see

what other students are doing and what’s happening in the department. “It’s very exciting to see what’s being made in the building around me,” Allison said. While you work in List, you see only bits of students’ art works, she said. “It’s nice to get a sense of what they are thinking.” This year’s winners are Aviva Grossman ’11, Kelly Winter ’12, Lamia Veerasamy ’12, Brice Peterson ’11, Michael Price ’11 and Harry Reis ’11.5. The awards were funded by the Gilbert Stuart Prize in Art, the Minnie Helen Hicks Prize in Art and the Roberta Joslin Prize in Art, according to a press release. The diversity of perspectives represented in the show — including portraits and abstract mixed-media works — showcases the eclectic talent of University students. The 31st Annual Student Exhibition will run in the Bell Gallery through March 13.

Got something to say? Leave a comment online! Visit www.browndailyherald.com to comment on opinion and editorial content.

history to Providence By Alexandra Macfarlane Contributing Writer

History just got real in Providence. Rabbi Shaul Shimon Deutsch, founder and curator of the Living Torah Museum in Brooklyn, N.Y., visited the Renaissance Hotel last night with a van full of priceless, ancient artifacts in tow. In front of a packed crowd, Deutsch wowed the audience with artifacts dating back to ancient days. He even let members of the audience hold them to demonstrate their uses and sizes. Most of the audience came from the Providence Community Kollel ­— an institute for the advanced study of Jewish texts — participating in a program called Jewish Unity Live. Deutsch said physical connection to the artifacts is essential to understanding and connecting with the Torah. His motto is, “If you touch history, it touches you.” This is the guiding principle of both his life and the life of the museum he founded. As a child, “I drove my teachers crazy,” he said. “I wanted to know what everything looked like and how everything worked.” His goal in finding these precious, ancient artifacts was not only to increase his understanding but also to collect them. It has been “my life’s journey to bring to learning something that we can relate to,” Deutsch said. In his collection in the 3,000 square-foot Brooklyn museum, there are 15,000 artifacts, 1,200 of which are from as early as 1800 B.C. He added that a full tour of the museum would take over 37 hours. The entire collection is valued at 30 million dollars. Deutsch’s stop in Providence was part of his larger tour with the museum. He travels to Jewish schools and communities around the country to keep the history

behind his ancient artifacts alive. He can only take a small number of his artifacts with him due to insurance costs. During his presentation, Deutsch invited members of the audience to participate. As he presented several weapons of the ancient Roman world, he asked a young man to come to the stage with him and hold the sword and shield that were once held by a gladiator. These were used to make a replica for the movie “Gladiator.” He presented other artifacts that would have been used on the battlefield, including a Roman legionaire’s whistle that still works today. The whistle was recently discovered in an ancient shipwreck at the bottom of the sea and was used to make replicas for the HBO television series “Rome.” “Everybody loves weapons,” Deutsch said. “And I have every kind of weapon.” Deutsch also presented to his audience a pair of ancient handcuffs that had also been discovered in a sunken ship. A young boy was subsequently handcuffed and led through the audience, smiling as he walked. “This is the way they would take you into exile,” Deutsch said, laughing at the boy’s expression. “The more you learn, the more you appreciate,” Deutsch said. For Deutsch, learning and collecting has given him “a whole new understanding of the ancient world and the Torah that surrounds it.” This is not the first time that these artifacts were available for students on campus. “Students at Brown who participate in the Maimonides Leaders Fellowship take a trip to the actual museum in New York,” Rabbi Lurie, director of the Maimonides Leaders Fellowship on campus, wrote in an e-mail to The Herald.


8 Sports Recap

The Brown Daily Herald Monday, March 7, 2011

Third quarter key in Bruno loss Men’s ice hockey

optimistic for next year

continued from page 12 game out of reach. Brown scored his sixth goal of the season with seven minutes left, but it served only as a consolation. “We were tied 4-4 at half, so we knew we could play with them,” Fallon said. “But in the third quarter, we got beat pretty badly, and that was the difference in the game.” The Bears have a quick turnaround before their next game, when they will travel to the University of Hartford (1-2) Wednesday afternoon. “There’s a balance here to not walk away from an early loss all negative and understand that we played a lot of good lacrosse,” Tiffany said. “But there’s also the balance that we can’t come away from this game thinking, ‘Okay, UMass is really good. Don’t worry about it. We’ll be fine.’ We certainly can’t do that because there’s so much more that we have to improve upon.” Fallon said the team is set for a strong three days of practice before the next game as it prepares to face an improved Hartford squad. “I think any time you have a loss, it’s a great thing to get back out there as soon as possible,” Fallon said. “Hartford’s a really good team and took us to OT last year, so we have to be ready for them.” Tiffany said the upcoming week

continued from page 12 35 seconds in, and less than two minutes later, Langlois doubled his side’s lead. Quinnipiac added two more in the third, while goalie Eric Hartzell kept the Bears off the scoreboard with 26 saves. Prior to this weekend, the Bears had been shut out only twice all year. “We definitely had our chances,” Hourihan said. “We had a couple of good opportunities, but it just didn’t seem like things were bouncing our way.” Quinnipiac will now advance to the quarterfinals for the sixth straight season. What’s next?

While the first-round exit was

a disappointing finish to the Bears’ season, Hourihan said the team has a bright future ahead. Despite losing key seniors captain Harry Zolnierczyk ’11, assistant captains David Brownschidle ’11 and Jeremy Russell ’11, along with Jesse Fratkin ’11, Brown will welcome back a score of nightly contributors, including 10 first-years. Among the returning players will be Hobey Baker Award finalist Jack Maclellan ’12, whose season was cut short by injury, and second team All-Ivy defenseman Dennis Robertson ’14. “We’re obviously going to miss a couple of great players,” Hourihan said. “Some guys are definitely going to have to step up but the future is bright. … We’re going to keep getting better.”

Bears beat Cornell in final minutes of game Jonathan Bateman / Herald

George Sherman ’13 scored two goals against No. 9 UMass, but it wasn’t enough, as the Pioneers beat the Bears 9-6 in a matchup of previously unbeaten teams.

is crucial in this young season, as a home March 12 matchup with St. Joseph’s University (0-3) will follow on the heels of the Hartford game.

“We have to make progress,” he said. “We have to make that next positive stride now. We’ve got to get back to work.”

continued from page 1 vious night. The crowd was on edge in the final minutes as Cornell and Brown traded blows. “Going into the game, we knew it was going to be a tight game,” Steele said. “They are a very good team, and they had been playing really well.” Bruno fell behind early, but guard Lindsey Nickel ’13 turned things around for the Bears. Her three-pointer ignited a 12-0 run to put the Brown ahead 26-22 with 3:40 remaining in the half. Passafuime found Nickel for open shots and also put in four points of her own in the last few minutes. “Hannah (Passafiume) took some really smart shots, and the way she passed the basketball, she was able to find the open players extremely well,” Nickel said. Daniels came onto the court after the break and scored five points to cushion Brown’s lead 36-26. But Cornell turned up the heat and tied the score with just under 10 minutes remaining. Forward Clare Fitzpatrick led Cornell with a game-high 19 points on sevenof-10 shooting. “They were shooting very well,”

said Head Coach Jean Marie Burr. “They were making some plays. They really stayed in it.” Both teams looked to secure a lead in the next few minutes, and with 3:34 to go, the Big Red inched ahead 53-52. Cornell’s aggressive defense made it difficult for Bruno to respond, but the Bears finally tied the game with a free throw by Daniels. “I was really proud of them,” Burr said. “They were very organized and knew what they were going to do. The execution was what became important, that and making stop after stop after stop.” With the clock ticking down, Cornell was forced to foul to try to slow things down. Free throws accounted for Brown’s final seven points. The Big Red saw a few opportunities in the final minute but could not sink the shots to take the lead from the Bears, and the game ended 60-55. The Bears finished their season on Saturday, and they ended on good note, moving up to fourth in the Ivy League rankings. “Overall, it was a great transition from last year’s season,” Sheila Dixon ’13 said. “The way we ended makes us confident for next season.”


Letters 9

The Brown Daily Herald Monday, March 7, 2011

LGBTQs against ROTC aren’t hypocrites ROTC should not receive special privileges To the Editor:

To the Editor: In response to Wednesday’s letter from Andrew Sia ’12 (“Distance deters ROTC participation,” March 2), despite the goals of Students for ROTC to “remove any and all stigmas” attached to the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, it must be recalled that the facts of the matter are unequivocal — the military is an institution rife with formal and cultural discriminatory practices. One in three women in the military experience some form of sexual assault or rape, versus one in six amongst civilians. Recent charges filed against the Department of Defense argue that military culture promotes this environment and fails to investigate assaults. Furthermore, transgender individuals are prevented from joining the military, a form of discrimination which explicitly violates Brown’s non-discrimination policies. Racial discrimination is also rampant. ABC in 2009 reported that while the vast majority of white officers perceive there to be less race discrimination in the military than among civilians, only approximately one-third of enlisted minorities agree. This is particularly concerning as whites are disproportionately represented among officers — 80 percent are white — and it is officers who set discrimination policies. These are the facts, not stigmas or prejudices. Students for ROTC have few truths on their side. For example, while Sia has done an excellent job describing how one gets to Providence College by 6 a.m., the facts end there. There is no evidence of any sort that students would be more likely to join ROTC were there buses provided. Conjecture is not a valid reason to change Brown’s current policy, especially given the aforementioned issue of discrimina-

tion and other concerns bringing back ROTC would raise. What we do know is that few students have said that changes of this sort would encourage them to join. Sia is the first we’re familiar with, and as a member of Students for ROTC, his position ought to be taken with a grain of salt. While Sia claims that Students for ROTC is not advocating for any special privileges, his claim that other extracurricular programs receive “freedom of access” is untrue. Student groups on campus are not provided with regular transportation services. Only Category III student groups — which receive this categorization based on group size and activity — have the opportunity to receive transport funding and must make budget requests from the Undergraduate Finance Board to fund transportation for conferences or other events on an individual basis. “Lack of adequate transportation” does not discourage students involved with Swearer Center for Public Service programs from participating in any of its various public service programs. While the center has a single van, students need to be authorized to use it, which few, even amongst its student coordinators, are. Finally, the parallel Sia draws is misleading. ROTC is not, strictly speaking, an extracurricular activity. First and foremost it is vocational training. While we must acknowledge that military involvement is a form of national service, it is equally an employment opportunity. Brown does not, and should not, drive any students to their jobs. We already spend enough on unlimited free Rhode Island Public Transit Authority passes — which even Rhode Island’s public college students don’t receive.

In response to Friday’s letter from Scott Friedlander ’12 (“LGBTQ activists hypocritical on ROTC,” March 4), to say that LGBTQ activists are restricting freedom of choice in the same way they protest the immorality of discrimination is ridiculous. Brown is a private institution. It has no obligation to offer any services that are not federally required. This is why there is a Reserve Officers’ Training Corps debate in the first place. If some people do not want ROTC here for ideological reasons, they are not oppressing anyone’s freedom of choice by expressing these opinions.

Furthermore, arguing that “potential members of ROTC will be joining for reasons that do not include enhancing this injustice” does not mean that the argument against injustice should be removed from the discourse altogether. I doubt anyone attends Brown for the purpose of funding potentially corrupt organizations, but look to the reason we have discussions on the ethics of Corporation funding. Because we believe Brown should not sponsor things that further injustice. I don’t think anyone who wants to join ROTC is immoral, but I think that if ROTC perpetuates severe injustice, it is important to recognize that when making a choice about

our campus. Freedom of choice does not mean that Brown has a mandate to provide every possible opportunity out there for its student body, especially one that certain groups see as inherently discriminatory. However, being a person means that America has a mandate to provide equal treatment. Marriage is a civil right, while ROTC is hardly a legal right. I’m sorry, I simply don’t see any contradiction in philosophies here, and believe LGBTQ supporters are capable of both defending and attacking ROTC’s presence on campus without being inconsistent. Yvonne Yu ’13

comics BB & Z | Cole Pruitt, Andrew Seiden, Valerie Hsiung and Dan Ricker

Cloud Buddies! | David Emanuel

Dr. Bear | Mat Becker

Kevin Casto ’13

Dot Comic | Eshan Mitra and Brendan Hainline

Hey Dot Comic, Sorry for partying. — The Management comics@browndailyherald.com


10 Editorial & Letter Editorial

Editorial comic

The Brown Daily Herald Monday, March 7, 2011

by julia streuli

The practical value of a humanities degree Last month, a Herald article (“Humanities departments tout practicality,” Feb. 24) reported that Brown has maintained a relatively constant number of concentrators in the humanities, even in the face of a decreasing national trend. We find this heartening given the temptation to forsake one’s passions to appear more hirable during the current job crisis. Even as the University seeks to expand its professional degrees by establishing a School of Engineering, Brown continues to attract students who are interested in liberal learning and gaining broad reasoning skills rather than job-specific knowledge. Here is yet another reason to be grateful for the open curriculum, which, as the Herald article points out, allows students to double concentrate in the humanities and the hard or social sciences and thereby acquire skills across multiple fields. We also commend the Department of Comparative Literature for factoring in our suggestion from last fall to provide current students with information about what alums are doing with their degrees, and we hope other departments will follow suit. It would be reassuring for students to receive input from alums about how their chosen field of study and even their particular courses within their field can help with the construction of a career. In some ways, humanities courses can even better prepare students than do the hard sciences for the types of problems they will be asked to solve in the workplace. In a Feb. 21 Inside Higher Ed column, Robert Elsinger calls for faculty to embrace the ambiguous areas of their fields when teaching students. Elsinger writes that, equipped with search engines and online publications, students are capable of tracking down the concrete facts for themselves. It is the experimental issues, on which even faculty may not have a definite answer, that students should wrestle with in order to mimic the kind of open-ended issues they will later encounter as doctors, consultants, lawyers and managers. Fortunately, Brown already seems to teach in this way, especially in the humanities. Asking students to confront the problems they study with a critical eye, and devising novel analyses of them, is not an uncommon initiative in classrooms on this campus. We encourage faculty to continue and expand this method of favoring the experimental over the established, both in the humanities and the sciences. We hope all students, particularly sophomores preparing to declare their concentrations, will not be dissuaded from following their academic passions due to issues of perceived practicality. We also hope the faculty will structure courses, concentrations and advising to confer a broadly applicable skill set upon graduates of their departments. Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board. Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.

letter to the editor Coal to The Herald To the Editor: Coal to the writer or editor or proofreader who allowed an “it’s” instead of “its” in the coal on the student activities endowment (“Diamonds and Coal,” March 4). Nancy Buc ’65

The Herald regrets the error.

quote of the day

“Mother Nature can smite you down at will.” — Tim Warren, author of “Lessons from Everest” See q&a on page 4.

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Opinions 11

The Brown Daily Herald Monday, March 7, 2011

From Marrakesh to Brown By Adil Lachgar Guest Columnist Hans Kung, a Catholic priest, once said, “There will be no peace among the nations without peace among the religions. There will be no peace among the religions without dialogue among the religions.” After Sept. 11, things have changed in the world, and religious intolerance has become widespread. Terrorism, wars and violence are a threat to the stability of humanity. We are all different ethnically, religiously and linguistically, but we all belong to the same big family of human beings. In fact, this world belongs to us. Therefore, promoting mutual respect and tolerance for people of different cultural and religious backgrounds is one of humanity’s missions. The only reasonable way of achieving this is through spreading the culture of peace, tolerance and dialogue. My love for teaching languages and my fascination with other cultures were the main motivations that fueled my desire to apply for the Fulbright Program. I was sure this program would eventually reveal a secret that would enable me to make correct judgments about all sorts of things. I had always dreamt of America — the land of dreams, the America of freedom, social justice and egalitarianism, the land of equal opportunities to live a decent life. I feel blessed to be a Fulbright scholar and a cultural ambassador of my country. Indeed, by sharing

my culture and teaching my native language, I found my calling in life. Being a Fulbright scholar and a foreign language teaching assistant at Brown completely changed my outlook on cultures, religions, customs, languages, people and life in general. Now, I think about all these things in a distinctive way and have a propitious understanding of them. Additionally, teaching my native language and sharing my culture helped me develop an understanding of the American lifestyle and bridge the gap

national students gave me the chance to meet people from different cultural and religious backgrounds. I tasted various dishes and learned how to cook different foods. Now, I have new friends, and I feel as if I have a home in each of their countries. On top of that, I have learned that interreligious and intercultural dialogue is urgent to the survival of the human species. Teaching Arabic to students from different countries enabled me to introduce students to Moroccan culture, customs and tra-

Being a Fulbright scholar and a foreign language teaching assistant at Brown has completely changed my outlook on cultures, religions, customs, languages, people and life in general. between Moroccan and American cultures. At the same time, it allowed me to share the culture of peace, dialogue and tolerance with social activities, through which we could explore deep concepts like hospitality, beauty and love. For instance, volunteering to prepare a glass of green tea with mint in an interfaith house convinced me that small positive actions can make significant changes in our lives and around the world. Representing Morocco, I seized the opportunity to present some understandable aspects of my language and culture through food, particularly tea. Moreover, being on campus with inter-

ditions. I believe that education is the key to success, and I appreciate how learning a language can be a strong tool for cultural understanding. As a teacher, I aimed to provide students with stimulating, challenging and healthy environments to allow them to become active learners. Additionally, my fundamental philosophy was to build students’ confidence in their ability to communicate effectively in a new language. I was happy to see the students’ thirst to know more about my culture and their eyes sparkling as they learned. What is more, during my time at Brown, class discussion and course syllabi proved useful to me. They paved my way,

improved my English and opened up my appetite for learning and research. Being a Fulbright scholar helped me maintain confidence in my commitment to public service and work with people. As a cultural ambassador, I was responsible for sharing my culture, spreading the notion of religious tolerance and mutual respect and organizing cultural events. Thus, joining the Brown Muslim Students’ Center and the Rhode Island Chapter of the Fulbright Association allowed me to interact with and meet people of different religious and cultural backgrounds. I believe that interfaith and intercultural dialogue has helped me foster discussion, understanding and respect among people of faith and those without a particular religious background. This invaluable experience taught me a lot about working with people and knowing how to win their respect. At the same time, it broadened my views on topics that involve religion, culture and society. In brief, I am convinced that the foreign language teaching assistant program has not only provided me the opportunity to improve my teaching skills, increase my English language proficiency and enhance my knowledge of American culture and society, but has also enabled me to understand myself and my culture and serve the community. Adil Lachgar is a Fulbright scholar and a foreign language teaching assistant from Morocco. He can be reached at lachgar2020@hotmail.com.

Shalom-Salaam: dialogue as distraction or dialogue as action? By Francesca Contreras Guest Columnist Israel’s public relations machine is working full force on campus this month in the form of the Watson Institute for International Studies’ conference “Israelis and Palestinians: Working Together for a Better Future” and Brown-RISD Hillel’s Israeli-Palestinian Peace Week. The events’ respective goals are to “bring together Israelis and Palestinians to foster better understanding between them” and to “talk to Brown students about religious pluralism and the value of building inclusive communities on campus … and to create a forum for dialogue without pushing any political agendas or sides.” Pluralism, understanding, peace and dialogue — sounds good, right? Unfortunately, the sound of Caterpillar bulldozers mowing over Palestinian olive gardens and homes for the construction of illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Israel’s unmanned drone attack on the southern Gaza Strip in late February do not sound quite so good. Consider this — in the West Bank today, over 400,000 Israeli settlers live in over 120 illegal settlements despite the fact that Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention clearly states, “The occupying power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” These settlements are built on prime agricultural land confiscated from Palestinian farmers and over key water resources such as the Western Aquifer basin. Amnesty International has accused Israel of denying Palestinians access to adequate water by main-

taining total control over the “shared” water resources and pursuing discriminatory policies. Israeli daily water consumption hovers at 300 liters per day, much of which is used to fill the settlements’ swimming pools and irrigate their lush lawns. Meanwhile, Palestinians barely get by on 70 liters a day. Today in the West Bank — an area the size of the state of Delaware — 74 percent of the main routes are controlled by 699 road blocks, including permanent or “flying” military checkpoints, where Palestinians often wait for hours and must show their identity cards or passes, while settlers are granted immediate passage. Since 2000, 69 women have

To what end, may I ask, does Hillel propose to “create a forum for dialogue without pushing any political agendas” when it is institutions like our University that invest in companies like Caterpillar that profit from the occupation and when it is our government that sustains these horrors through its annual $3 billion aid package to Israel? They are the ones who have chosen through their capital investments to push an agenda — the daily dispossession and violent subjugation of Palestinians. I am pro-dialogue, but only if the dialogue begins with the acknowledgment of the horrific reality on the ground and the irrefutable

I am pro-dialogue, but only if the dialogue begins with the acknowledgment of the horrific reality on the ground and the irrefutable fact that Israelis and Palestinians do not stand on equal ground. had to give birth at these checkpoints in some of the most unsanitary and inhumane conditions imaginable. Thirty-five of the newborns have died, and five mothers have perished. Palestinians in Gaza — who have lived under Israeli blockade since 2007 — are afflicted by a 70 percent poverty rate, a 50 percent unemployment rate, lack of medical equipment and physical deformities in children from malnourishment. In the winter of 2008, the Gaza Strip was bombed to smithereens. Unlawful white phosphorous burned through children’s skin to their bones, and over 1,400 Palestinians were massacred. The Israeli death toll? Thirteen.

fact that Israelis and Palestinians do not stand on equal ground. This type of dialogue is a necessary part of the process to end apartheid, and it is happening all the time. It includes Palestinian-Israeli journals and joint demonstrations like those in the occupied Arab neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah that protest the colonization of East Jerusalem. It includes community meetings, joint documents, bilingual poetry readings — all organized between Palestinians and Israelis against the occupation. The growing, grassroots, global and nonviolent Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel — supported by a diverse coalition of organi-

zations ranging from Palestinian Queers for BDS to Israeli Boycott from Within and the U.S.-based Jewish Voice for Peace — is the most promising case in point. Its goal is Israeli compliance with international law, and it has come to Brown in the form of a selective divestment campaign from the occupation. It holds the greatest potential for ushering in productive dialogue, and it is one that we should support and publicize at Brown. Unfortunately, these movements receive no air time whatsoever in the United States because they fly straight in the face of the U.S.-Israeli portrayal of the conflict as rooted in either some kind of “ancient hatred” between Arabs and Jews or some kind of natural Palestinian proclivity for terrorism. Too often, many well-intentioned groups insist that if we could just sit around a table and talk about it, then the conflict will simply disappear — unfortunately, if this approach ignores the imbalances of power, then it is destined to fail. If you get invited to Israeli-Palestinian Peace Week’s role-playing activity “that will ask participants to embody different political, ethnic and religious identities,” ask yourself if you would ask Tibetans and Chinese to engage in interfaith dialogue to resolve their long conflict. Ask yourself how any one of the 2.5 million West Bank Palestinians barred from using Jewish-only roads on their own land or subjected to Israeli military law while Israelis in the same territories are subjected to civilian law would respond. Or even better yet, go to their events, raise your hand and ask, “What about systematic violations of international law and occupation?” Francesca Contreras ‘11 is a MexicanAmerican Jew who spent her childhood in South Africa and Israel.


Daily Herald Sports Monday the Brown

Monday, March 7, 2011

M. Hockey

M. Lacrosse

Brown eliminated from ECAC tourney Bears suffer first loss

of season to UMass

By Ethan McCoy Assistant Sports Editor

After ending the regular season with back-to-back wins, the men’s hockey team finished its season with a whimper this weekend. The Bears (10-16-5, 8-12-2 ECAC) lost the first two games of a best-ofthree series to Quinnipiac (15-13-8, 6-9-7) 4-0, sealing their elimination from the ECAC tournament. The final weekend capped an up-anddown season for Bruno in which the team ended with a losing record but also defeated perennial powerhouse Boston University 6-1, beat then-No. 1-ranked Yale and won both games of the Cornell-Colgate road trip for the first time in Brown history.

By Ethan McCoy Assistant Sports Editor

Quinnipiac 4, Brown 0

The tournament’s opening game got off to a nightmarish start for Bruno. Only 15 seconds into the game, Quinnipiac forward Jeremy Langlois beat Mike Clemente ’12 on the game’s first shot to give the Bobcats a quick lead. “We just came out flat,” said forward Mark Hourihan ’14. “They got a goal right off the bat, and we never got anything going the whole game.” The Bears outshot Quinnipiac for the rest of the first period, but they were unable to capitalize on any of their chances. Quinnipiac, on the other hand, took advantage of its opportunities. On only their fourth shot of the night, the Bobcats

Jonathan Bateman / Herald

Mike Clemente ’12 let a puck sail past him just 15 seconds into Brown’s bestof-three playoff series against Quinnipiac. The Bears never recovered and lost the first two games of the series 4-0.

doubled their lead with a tap-in goal by forward Yuri Bouharevich. In the second period, Quinnipiac added another pair of goals to give themselves a four-goal advantage. After the final goal at 5:57, Clemente was pulled in favor of Anthony Borelli ’13, who stopped all 15 shots sent his way. The Bears’ undisciplined play precluded any chance of a comeback. They spent half of the first 10 minutes in the final period on the penalty kill and were unable to gain any offensive momentum.

Quinnipiac 4, Brown 0

The following evening was more of the same. Brown came out stronger than they had the previous evening, but neither side could break through in the first. Clemente, who had been shaky in the early going of Friday’s defeat, stopped all eight of the Bobcats’ shots. But in the second period, Quinnipiac wasted no time in finding the back of the net. Defenseman Zack Currie beat Clemente just continued on page 8

The No. 20 men’s lacrosse team suffered its first defeat Saturday, coming up short against the No. 9 University of Massachusetts at Amherst 9-6. The 50th game in the history of the regional rivalry went into halftime with the score all square, but the Minutemen (4-0) scored three-straight goals in the third quarter to build a 7-4 lead. From there, UMass never looked back and posted their fourth win of the season. “We played against a very formidable opponent,” said Head Coach Lars Tiffany ’90. “UMass has earned the number nine ranking in the country and they proved to us why they were undefeated.” But the Bears (1-1) managed to find some positive indicators to take away from the loss. Goalie Matt Chriss ’11 turned in another strong performance with 16 saves. “Matt Chriss was outstanding in goal,” Tiffany said. “He kept the score close as UMass went on spurts.” “We went in thinking we were definitely capable of winning,” said co-captain Peter Fallon ’11. “Obviously that didn’t happen, but we did a lot of things right. I thought we got really good play from Matt Chriss, our goalie. A couple of defensive possessions were pretty

good for us, but overall we need to get better as a team.” Tiffany was quick to praise Fallon,who shut down attacker Art Kell, UMass’ biggest weapon. “Team defense overall was decent, but there were some really good performances individually,” Tiffany said. “Captain Peter Fallon was stalwart in his one-on-one matchup against Art Kell, one of the best attackmen in New England, if not the country. Peter shut him out and did an outstanding job, and Peter was great with ground balls and the clearing game.” The game was neck and neck in the first half. Goals from co-captain Andrew Feinberg ’11 and Rob Schlesinger ’12 in the first quarter canceled out the Minutemen’s two scores. In the second, both teams again scored a pair of goals. After a Parker Brown ’12 tally, Bruno tied the game going into the half with only two seconds left on the clock, thanks to a masterful finish from George Sherman ’13. But the third quarter belonged to the Minutemen. UMass fired 14 shots, three of which found the back of the net. Sherman scored again in the final seconds of the third — this time with 14 ticks left on the clock — but UMass added two quick goals to extend its lead to 9-5 in the fourth and put the continued on page 8

M. Basketball

Sullivan, seniors end careers with two weekend losses By Sam Rubinroit Sports Staff Writer

After a season of heart-wrenching losses and upset victories, the men’s basketball team played its final games on a grueling road trip, falling to Cornell 75-66 and Columbia 91-74. The Bears (11-17, 4-10 Ivy) lost to Cornell (10-18, 6-8) Friday in a game emblematic of the rest of the season. Throughout the year, Bruno fell into the same pattern game after game, grabbing an early lead only to let it drift away as the game wore on. True to form, after building a first half advantage over the Big Red, the Bears watched it slip away thanks to a scoreless final 6:54 minutes. Bruno faced a myriad of challenges when the team faced the Lions (15-13, 6-8) the following night for the final game of the season. After a late-night arrival in Manhattan the night before, the Bears were plagued by a stomach virus that sidelined guards Garrett Leffelman ’11 and Matt Sullivan ’13. At game time, only eight Bears were able to play, including Tucker Halpern ’13, who was forced to fight through the sickness. Again, the weekend reflected the year — the Bears had faced

Sam Rubinroit / Herald

Peter Sullivan ’11, the fourth-leading scorer in Brown basketball history, walked off the court for the final time in his career Saturday after a 91-74 loss to Columbia.

unexpected setbacks all season. They lost captain Peter Sullivan ’11 to a shoulder injury in the middle of Ivy League play and got a major scare when rising point guard Sean McGonagill ’14 had to be rushed to the hospital to receive 20 stitches after a collision in practice. “We’ve been through a lot,” said co-captain Adrian Williams ’11. “We’ve seen the top of the mountain, and we’ve been at the

lowest troughs of the basketball spectrum, so to speak. It was really an emotional thing for us, but we’re just happy that we made it together.” Saturday’s game marked the end of the careers of Bruno’s four seniors — forwards Peter Sullivan and Chris Taylor ’11 and guards Williams and Leffelman. The four walked off the court for the final time Saturday, but they left their legacies behind.

Peter Sullivan’s 1,361 points rank fourth all-time on the career points list, and he set a school record last season by starting all 31 games. As co-captain, Williams provided much-needed guidance and support for the young team — McGonagill refers to him as a “big brother.” He played in 115 career games, more than any player in Brown history.

“Peter (Sullivan) and Adrian (Williams) have been captains for a couple of years now, and they’ve really matured,” said Assistant Coach T.J. Sorrentine. “We’ve got a great bunch of seniors. That class has been great leaders, and they stepped into that role.” Though the team loses four seniors, the young roster has shown signs of a promising future. In addition to McGonagill,Dockery Walker ’14 showed potential with his rim-rattling dunks and inside presence on offense. Halpern’s ability to score will make him a major player in future seasons. “I think they have phenomenal talent coming up behind us, so I’m not worried about them at all,” Williams said. “I know they’re going to be a really good team, and we have a freshman point guard leading the way. The whole squad is just young and talented, so I look forward to watching them play and progressing in the future.” “I think it’s a really bright future,” Halpern said. “We’re getting some really good recruits in, some pieces that we needed, and I think we have a good core sticking around. I really think we’ll have a shot in the next few years to go to the tournament. No question.”


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