Daily
Herald
the Brown
vol. cxlvi, no. 29
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Since 1891
Corporation to decide on creation of lit arts dept.
Ne ws in brief Med School may give out iPads
a “beehive of entrepreneurial activity,” Chafee said the sacrifice necessary to resolve its current challenges must be shared. “We have those hard decisions before us, but I believe our better future starts today,” Chafee said. “By directly confronting our challenges, we may take the first steps on a path to prosperity.” Projected revenue from new taxes in Chafee’s budget total $157 million. But, Chafee said, closing the state’s gaping deficit cannot come from tax increases alone. By eliminating waste and streamlining the way the state provides
The Alpert Medical School will decide this month whether to provide all first- and second-year medical students with iPads or laptops. But the details of the plan are still awaiting finalization, said Richard Dollase, director of curriculum affairs in the Division of Biology and Medicine. Though the department is “committed to going electronic,” further investigation into laptop and tablet models is necessary, as is coordination to ensure that a standardized model does not burden students, he said. In addition to the benefits of up-to-date technology, moving to an electronic system would save paper and printing costs, Dollase said. Providing students with electronic devices would make access to course materials easier, wrote Associate Dean of Medicine Philip Gruppuso in an e-mail to The Herald. But the school is also weighing the drawbacks — namely the high cost of the devices and the loss of paper class materials. A final decision is expected within the next two or three weeks, Dollase said. Penn’s Wharton School of Business will be giving iPads to its executive M.B.A. students starting next year.
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— Caitlin Trujillo
By Ashley Aydin Senior Staff Writer
inside
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news...................2-5 editorial..............6 Opinions...............7
Hilary Rosenthal / Herald
Gov. Lincoln Chafee ‘75 P’14 addressed Rhode Island’s budget woes at the State House last night.
Gov. Chafee ’75 proposes new textbook tax in budget address By Claire Peracchio City & State Editor
Gov. Lincoln Chafee ’75 P’14 proposed imposing new taxes on textbooks and taxi fares, while increasing funding for the state’s public universities and slashing spending on government services, in his address last night. Chafee laid out measures to rein in Rhode Island’s $295 million budget deficit and put the state on a path to economic growth in his address to state legislators. The fiscal road map offers an array of new taxes, targeted tax breaks and investments that Chafee said are intended to return Rhode Island to its past greatness.
Chafee proposed a two-tiered sales tax that would lower the state’s existing 7 percent rate — which Chafee called the highest in New England and one of the narrowest in the country — to 6 percent and would extend that rate to certain services not currently taxed. Under
city & state the plan, the state would also levy a 1 percent sales tax on currently exempt items like coffins, heating fuel and renewable energy products. The new tax would not extend to food, gasoline, prescription drugs or medical devices. Invoking Rhode Island’s legacy as
After hiatus, U. Hall bell ringing out once more By Aparna Bansal Senior Staff Writer
There’s just 20 minutes left. It’s quarter of, and — finally — 10 ’til. But the minutes keep dragging on. Time is up. Make it stop. Students waiting anxiously to get out of the 9 a.m. economics lecture may have been struck by the sound of silence this semester. The bell atop University Hall, meant to sound at the beginning and end of every class period, did not ring until Monday morning, according to Stephen Maiorisi, vice president for facilities management. Maiorisi wrote in an e-mail Saturday to The Herald that he was not aware the bell was not working. He confirmed early Monday morning that the bell had not been operating up to that point this semester and that it would be turned on. Since Monday, the bell has resumed ringing to signal the start and end of classes.
“I’m surprised that we hadn’t gotten a call earlier than now to let us know they weren’t working,” he told The Herald. He said the bell had not broken, but the electrical shop, a division within the Department of Facilities Management, had forgotten to switch them back on at the start of the spring semester. The bell must be programmed manually to turn on and off. Maiorisi said the electrical shop employs about 20 staffers, who are “extremely busy” filling several work orders a day. Power outages in several dormitories at the beginning of the semester may be the reason the shop forgot about the bell, he said. “Because they were busy with that emergency, maybe it just slipped their minds,” he said. Facilities has arranged for the electrical shop to receive an automated reminder from the work order management system so they do not have to “rely on their memory”
Pills, bills
NYUnion
U. saves on new health insurance plan
NYU grad students try to reverse Brown precedent
Campus News, 3
Campus News, 4
Herald file photo
The bell in University Hall, which signals class changes, resumed ringing Monday.
to remember to switch on the bell. Kathleen Furtado, an executive assistant who works at University Hall, said she did not notice the bell had not been ringing. “It goes to show we’re creatures of habit,” said Martha Newbury, executive assistant to the dean of the faculty, adding that she likes the bell because it makes “you feel on campus.” After they ring, she said she sees students crossing the Main Green and rushing to the Blue
Jump the gun Why firearms don’t belong on university campuses Opinions, 7
weather
The faculty voted to approve a proposal from the literary arts program to become the Department of Literary Arts during its March 1 meeting. The proposal will now go to the Corporation — the University’s highest governing body — for approval at its May meeting. The move to change the program into a department was “partly stimulated by an extremely positive external review,” said Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron. Since splitting from the English department in 2005, the literary arts concentration has become one of the largest at Brown — 11.4 percent of humanities students concentrated in literary arts in 2009 and 9.6 percent in 2010, according to the proposal. The program has 11.5 full-time faculty members, 11 teaching assistants, one visiting lecturer and replacement faculty. It offers nearly 70 courses a year, apart from independent studies and thesis courses, according to the proposal. The program split from the English department due to different approaches to literature, wrote Brian Evenson, directory of the literary arts program, in an e-mail to The Herald. “They approached literature from a scholarly perspective and we approached them from a craft (and) practitioner’s perspective,” he wrote. “We found ourselves moving sometimes in very different directions.” The move to make the program its own department is largely nominal. “If a unit is a department, it implies institutional stability and commitment that the word ‘program’ does not convey,” Carolyn Dean, senior associate dean of the faculty, wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. “In practice, departments and programs may be quite similar,” she wrote. “The term ‘program’ is simply an artifact of an earlier history that the University has not yet addressed as such.” Newer or innovative academic areas typically begin as programs, she wrote. Because the literary arts program already had its own concentration, a full rank of faculty and a graduate program, “it already operated as if it was a department,” Bergeron said. The program can already offer tenure and give the title “professor of literary arts,” Evenson wrote. Professors based in the English de-
Room to beat the sandwich line. “I haven’t heard them for a while. I miss them,” said Gwynne EvansLomayesva ’11, a resident of Slater Hall, of the bell’s peals. “They let me know when to go to class. Everything works better with them.” She added that the bell lets professors know when to start and stop classes. But Mark Blyth, professor of political science, said he had never heard the bell ring between classes. “Which bells?” he asked.
t o d ay
tomorrow
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2 Campus News calendar Today
MARCH 9
4 P.m.
ToMORROW
March 10
5 p.m. State of Brown Address with
“State Capture and State Failure,”
President Simmons, Salomon 101
McKinney Conference Room
10 p.m.
8 p.m. Underground Jazz Jam,
Interfaith Dating Forum,
The Underground
MacMillan 115
menu SHARPE REFECTORY
VERNEy-WOOLLEY DINING HALL LUNCH
Polynesian Chicken Wings, Vegan Stir Fry Veggies with Tofu, Grilled Key West Chicken, Lemon Cookies
Italian Sausage and Pepper Sandwich, Vegetable Strudel, Peas, Lemon Cookies
DINNER Cheese Quesadillas, Sustainable Baked and Breaded Pollock, Dal Cali with Yogurt, Macaroon Bars
Spicy Herb Baked Chicken, Vegan Veggie and Bean Stew, Roasted Red Potatoes, Macaroon Bars
Sudoku
Cr ossword
The Brown Daily Herald Wednesday, March 9, 2011
College-advising org. Lit arts may become gets $1.5m grant By Claire Schlessinger Contributing Writer
Four alums will receive federal funding to advise low-income Rhode Island high school students in the college advising process thanks to a recent grant to the National College Advising Corps. The organization, which recruits recent graduates to advise prospective college students in poor communities, recently received a $1.5 million Social Innovation Fund grant through the Pathways Fund of New Profit Inc. Part of that grant will go toward funding the four new positions for Brown alums. The new positions will allow the program — which already employs 12 alums in the state — to reach an estimated 1,200 additional high school students. Roger Nozaki MAT ’89, director of the Swearer Center for Public Service and associate dean of the College for community and global engagement, said Brown was included because of the success the organization has had partnering alums with Rhode Island schools. Students at Rhode Island schools participating in the program in were 14 percent more likely to go to college than students at similar schools without the program, Nozaki said. Students do not directly enroll in a program, but have a guide sta-
Daily
the Brown
tioned at the school on a full-time basis as a resource throughout the college preparation process, from choosing the right school to filling out financial aid forms, he said. “It’s exciting work for all of us,” Ashley Greene ’09, who works for the program at Dr. Jorge Alvarez High School in Providence, told The Herald last semester. “With a little bit of a push, these kids reach a height of potential that you didn’t realize they had.” Nicole Farmer Hurd, executive director of the National College Advising Corps, said the $1.5 million would enable the organization to add 50 advisers to the program nationwide, allowing it to reach an additional 15,000 students. The expansion will include preexisting programs in Rhode Island, North Carolina, Missouri, Illinois and at the University of California at Berkeley, and the creation of new programs in New York and California, she said. The funding will become available April 1 and is meant to last a year, but Hurd said since the grant is renewable, she hopes her organization will receive funding again. The National College Advising Corps became a national program in 2007 and received its initial funding from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, Hurd said. The initial gift was for $12 million, to be spent over four years in 10 states.
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department continued from page 1
partment before the split currently remain professors of English, but the shift to a recognized department will allow all faculty to be professors of literary arts. There will be no changes to concentration requirements, according to Evenson, and the program’s funding will not be altered because of the change, Evenson wrote. “The only advantage, which is a very slight one, is that it will give us a little more credence in the eyes of some other universities. But since we already have a solid reputation as a top-10 program, this is very minor,” he wrote. He added that he does not believe Brown is prioritizing departments. “This is a change that we pushed for ourselves.” “More funding would be something I would hope for,” said Nikolos Gonzales ’12, a literary arts concentrator. Gonzales, whose focus is screenwriting, said there have been times in advanced workshops when a graduate student not focusing in screenwriting would teach the material because there was not enough funding to support specialization. He also said he would like to see more help with post-graduation plans if the literary arts program becomes a department. Many concentrators are already under the impression that the program is in fact a department. “There’s a little confusion currently at Brown about what it means to be a program versus what it means to be a department, and our move to becoming a department tries to do our part to clarify what the difference is,” Evenson wrote. “I don’t think too many students actually knew that literary arts wasn’t a department already,” wrote Matthew Weiss ’12, a literary arts concentrator, in an e-mail to The Herald. “It’s true on their website it does say ‘literary arts program’ as opposed to department, but it’s listed along with all the other departments, so that’s not much of a clue.”
The Brown Daily Herald Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Campus News 3
After switch, U. saves Librarian eases pain of orgo on health insurance By Jonathan Staloff Contributing Writer
Last year’s shift to a new prescription drug plan has saved the University an estimated $300,000 while keeping employees satisfied, said Drew Murphy, director of benefits for Human Resources. The University cut prescription drug benefits out of its health plan in January 2010. Instead of financing pharmaceuticals directly, it joined universities like Columbia, Cornell and Princeton in the Preferred University Rx Purchasing Coalition and bought prescription drug coverage from Medco Health, Murphy said. Large, self-funded employers tend to carve out certain services to “save money without giving up any other benefit,” Murphy said. “Now everybody has the same benefit, both faculty and staff.” Until 2008 — when the University decided to become self-insured — employees could choose health plans from two providers, Blue Cross Blue Shield or United Health Care. “The card says Blue Cross or United, but in reality Brown is actually paying the bills,” said Karen McAninch ’74, business agent for the library workers’ union. “It directly saves a lot of money in administrative costs,” she added. McAninch said the University has saved about $3 million a year since switching to self-insurance. Health insurance costs for college employees are higher than other employer-based insurance plans and rise at greater rates, according to research cited in a Feb. 27 Chronicle of Higher Education article. Benefit Consulting Services founder Jeff Mitchell, who conducted the research, told the Chronicle that insuring a college employee costs more than $10,300 per year on average, whereas the national average for businesses is $8,500. Murphy said the shift to selfinsurance has allowed Brown to avoid rapidly growing costs. Costs increased 5.3 percent in 2009, 0.9 percent in 2010 and 9.5 percent this year, he said. Murphy estimated the University saved $300,000 in prescription drug coverage in 2010, which amounts to approximately 5 percent of its prescription drug costs. Health care costs usually see “conservative increases” of around 10 percent per year, and part of this year’s increase is due
to the Affordable Health Care Act, he said. The health care reform law now dictates that children of faculty and staff can stay on their parents’ plans until they are 26 years old, whereas before the law, children were covered through their parents’ insurance up to 19 years of age, or 25 if they were students. “Costs are going to climb. We are just trying to reduce how quickly they are climbing,” Murphy said. During the transition to Medco, the University compared differences in benefits of prescription drug coverage under Blue Cross/Blue Shield and United Health Care, combining the better benefits from each in the new plan. But the new plan has not been instated without employee complaints. McAninch cited a library worker whose co-payment used to be $7 for two medications but who now pays $25 for one and $40 for the other. She also said there have been issues with Medco not covering certain medications until they go through an authorization process as well as continued problems with automatic billing. “There were some complaints about preauthorization and quantity limits because (employees) did not have to do that before,” Murphy said. “We haven’t gotten one of those kind of complaints in six or seven months.” “I think there are relatively minor complaints, but I feel Brown should address them,” McAninch said. Of the approximately 7,000 faculty and staff members insured by Brown’s health plan, Murphy said 85 percent have seen no change in co-payments. Eight percent of co-payments have decreased, and 3 or 4 percent have increased, he said. McAninch said some prescriptions that were offered at a lower generic rate were shifted to a more expensive tier, but others drugs experienced a shift in the opposite direction. “Overall, it might even be a break-even situation for employees,” she said. “Our projection is that we will save money — that is shared by both the University and employees — but we are also providing what we feel is in many cases a better benefit than when we were carved in,” Murphy said.
By Hannah Loewentheil Contributing Writer
Lee Pedersen, scholarly resource librarian for physical sciences, holds office hours in the lobbies of MacMillan Hall and the Barus and Holley Building to serve as a resource for chemistry and engineering students. Pedersen said she relocated outside the Sciences Library in April 2005 because she wanted to form connections and interact with the community. Ever since, Pedersen has made herself available for eight hours per week to assist students in research. Pedersen created a new role for herself as a librarian. Pedersen’s position requires no additional cost from the University budget except for the price of a laptop computer to assist in database searches, Edwin
Quist, music librarian and interim coordinator for scholarly research, wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. Pedersen’s said her idea to hold office hours stems from the importance she places on forming personal connections. She said she wanted to distinguish her expertise in chemistry to students, because “librarians often get grouped together in clusters and do not get recognition” for their specialized knowledge. Pedersen has a PhD in chemistry. Quist wrote that in addition to the eight hours per week Pedersen spends out of the office, she also “gives numerous in-class presentations, participates in our chat service, ... creates online resource guides and consults with students and faculty both in her office and elsewhere on campus.” Quist wrote
that Pedersen has been a trendsetter in her department, encouraging other library specialists to follow her lead. Two years ago, Pedersen tried situating herself in the old mailroom in Faunce, but she did not interact with many students. She then relocated to the lobbies of MacMillan and Barus and Holley and said she has found more success. Pedersen performs traffic studies of student circulation to decide where to situate herself. Her transactions with students are splotchy, but she is especially busy during midterms and finals. On an average day, Pedersen will assist three to four students, she said. She also interacts with a consistent group of faculty members. continued on page 5
Budget address tackles pensions continued from page 1 health care and other services, Chafee projected the state could slash $60 million in the coming fiscal year and more in the following year. His budget also calls for $20 million in cuts to other departments “as a first step in a larger review of their operations and management.” Chafee’s budget would provide the money called for under the education funding formula passed by the state legislature last year. Before the law’s passage, Rhode Island was the only state without such a formula. “That’s good for Providence and good for our students,” said Rep. Edith Ajello, D-Providence, who represents the district that includes the University. Ajello was a leading advocate for legislation establishing a formula that would redirect state aid from wealthier school districts to historically underfunded urban areas like Providence. Chafee’s budget would also increase funding for state public institutions of higher education — which currently serve over 40,000 students — to the tune of $10 million. Citing a business climate that “has been targeted toward individual companies instead of creating an environment that fosters broad
economic growth,” Chafee proposed eliminating a tax credit intended for companies that created jobs in the state. Revenue from the elimination of the tax credit combined with the closing of corporate tax loopholes would allow the state to lower its corporate minimum tax from $500 to $250 for small businesses and reduce its corporate tax rate from 9 percent to 7.5 percent. Chafee contended the move would make Rhode Island competitive with neighboring states Connecticut and Massachusetts. Chafee’s budget also addresses the state’s underfunded public pension system, which faces an unfunded liability between $5 billion and $10 billion. The state pension system provides retirement benefits to public employees including teachers, police and firefighters. Rhode Island’s pension woes have even garnered the attention of national regulators. The Securities and Exchange Commission opened an investigation into the state’s reporting of its pension obligations Feb. 3. The governor called for all state employees to put the cost-of-living adjustment they would have received under their contract this year towards the state’s pension system. He asked for the nearly
25,000 state employees covered in the largest pension plan in the state to increase their pension contributions to 11.75 percent of their pay, from 8.75 percent from state workers and 9.5 percent from teachers. But many municipal pension systems also face staggering unfunded liabilities. Due to declining state aid and tax revenue, many of the state’s 39 cities and towns failed to make annual contributions to their pension plans, shortchanging a system intended to fund benefits negotiated between local governments and public employee unions. Chafee’s budget would offer additional state funding for municipalities that work to reduce their unfunded liabilities through the creation of a “Municipal Accountability, Stability and Transparency Fund.” While the governor’s proposed sales tax increase and cuts to state services may face opposition in the General Assembly — which must ultimately pass the budget — Chafee’s tone represents a welcome change, Ajello said. Chafee’s collaborative message has “made him an easier person to work with,” she said. “It’s easier to sit down and talk with someone about something when they’re not going after making points and drawing lines in the sand.”
4 Campus News
The Brown Daily Herald Wednesday, March 9, 2011
NYU grad students campaign for union, appeal Brown precedent By Aparna Bansal Senior Staff Writer
After weeks of hearings, graduate students at New York University are awaiting a decision from the National Labor Relations Board to determine whether they will be allowed to form a graduate student union. “It’s really just a waiting game,” said Daniel Aldana Cohen, a doctoral student at NYU and an organizer for the Graduate Student Organizing Committee. “We want the legal process to move as quick as possible, and NYU wants the exact opposite. They want to waste time and money.” In 2004, graduate students at Brown attempted to unionize, but the NLRB ruled that they are not employees and therefore cannot establish a union. Graduate students at NYU went on strike in 2005 to protest the ruling, which set a precedent for other private universities. Though part of the United Auto Workers — a labor union which represents workers in several different industries — from 2002 to 2005, their contract was not renewed when it expired that year. NYU students began protesting again in April 2010, and the NLRB, now controlled by Democrats, allowed for a new hearing on graduate student rights Oct.
25. The board ruled that the 2004 Brown case can no longer be used as a precedent to determine labor policy. Since October, the NYU administration and the union have been involved in hearings before the NLRB. Cohen said a decision will likely be announced within the next two or three months. “We’re really confident that we’re going to get a positive ruling,” he said. “We think the law is on our side.” Cohen said graduate students at NYU want to unionize to improve their terms of work — including better pay, health insurance, childcare, safety in labs and a proper grievance procedure for working conditions. John Freudenthal, a doctoral student at NYU and an organizer for the campaign, said he hoped to “eliminate the ridiculous precedent set by the previous NLRB.” “Graduate students are a class of low-paid, highly skilled workers that have been historically taken advantage of,” he said. “Just because we want an education doesn’t mean our labor should be exploited.” “We think we’re workers and we have a right. NYU disagrees,” Cohen said. He said he did not understand why the university opposes unionization, as the legal process costs money and is bad for their image as “a really progressive
university.” “It has to do with power,” Cohen said. “When an organization has power, it doesn’t want to give it out. For us, it’s unfair and problematic.” Standing its ground
“We think the university’s position is pretty straightforward and logical,” John Beckman, vice president for public affairs at NYU, wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. He wrote students who are accepted in doctoral positions at NYU are fully funded and that teaching and research assistantship responsibilities were “part of their education as they prepared for professional life.” Graduate students were accepted for their academic promise, not for their job skills as employees, he said. Because students considered assistantships to be work, they have been eliminated in favor of fellowship semesters, leaving students nothing to bargain over, he wrote. Adjuncts are already represented by the United Auto Workers and a second union is not needed, he added. “Their desire to be unionized does not make sense,” Beckman wrote. “Even if one thought the NLRB was correct in the NYU case and wrong in the Brown case, the facts and circumstances have changed dramatically.”
Beckman wrote that NYU has worked to improve financial aid, explaining that financial aid packages continue to include a stipend of over $20,000, full tuition scholarships and free health insurance premiums. Cohen said students from other private universities have been in contact with him and are waiting to see the “legal background” before they proceeded to campaign for unions at their universities. “The landscape of education depends on graduate student labor,” Cohen said. Not a parallel
“We’re watching the (NYU) hearings and wondering what will come out of them,” said Ryan Hartigan GS, a doctoral student and president of the Brown Graduate Student Council. He said there has been no motion to actively support the option to unionize at Brown, and it is important to draw a distinction between unionization and collective bargaining. He is open to the idea of establishing a “body of some form” — not necessarily a union — that allows for “clarity and transparency,” he said. Beverly Ledbetter, vice president and general counsel, said the “situations are different” for Brown and NYU, which makes it difficult to speculate what implications the NLRB decision for NYU would have for Brown. “The conditions vary so much on each campus,” said Kenneth Chay, professor of economics, who taught a class last semester on the economics of labor and population. While he found the previous NLRB ruling fair for students at medical, law or business schools, Chay said the situation is different for other graduate and doctoral students. After the first two years of graduate school when students begin dissertations, half of their time is spent as research or teaching assistants and they are no longer “typical students,” he said. Chay previously taught at the University of California at Berkeley, where he said departments in the sciences and economics gave their graduate students “good deals” while students in the humanities had a lot more incentive to unionize. “At Brown, they all seem to have decent deals,” he said, adding that the medical benefits for graduate students are “as good as you can get.” A union at Brown “would only be successful if students found salaries lower here than at comparable institutions,” Chay said. He said he does not get the sense students felt that way. The administration is “doing fantastic work” and is “readily available to discuss our concerns,” Hartigan said. The University was committed to its graduate students, having increased the doctoral-student stipend from $14,000 in 2002-03 to $19,500 this year, an increase of 39 percent, as part of the Plan for Academic Enrichment, Peter Weber P’12, dean of the graduate
school wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. He added that the Corporation will further increase this stipend to $20,500 for the 2011-12 academic year. For decades, graduate students at private universities have been subject to federal law prohibiting unionization, Ledbetter said. She added that the services graduate students offer still constitute a form of study, and without “intense mentoring, research and shepherding, there would be no such thing as a graduate program.” “In 2004, Brown argued that unionizing graduate students would have a deleterious effect on the academic relationship between faculty and graduate students,” Weber wrote. The NLRB “ruled that graduate teaching assistants, research assistants and proctors are students — not employees. … Brown University continues to support the 2004 decision and its findings.” Passion lags
Stefanie Sevcik GS, a doctoral student and former officer of the Graduate Student Council, called the lack of a union “scary.” It means “the administration has a lot of control over us in terms of teaching workload and pay,” she said. She said she hopes the NYU graduate students are successful, as it would give Brown students more leverage. “If NYU ends up having a union and are able to do something useful and productive with it, there would be more motivation for Brown students to want to unionize,” she said. But at previous council meetings, the topic was controversial — most members did not see the point of unionizing. Most students were “paranoid about funding” and “too busy” to do something about it, said Stephen Chambers, a doctoral student and a representative to the council. Unionization is “a really good idea theoretically, but I’m not sure that it’s something that Brown will do in the near future,” Sevcik said. “Ivy League graduate students have a pretty nice deal — we have jobs that other graduate students in the country would really love to have.” The decision to push for a union “depends on the particular group of people at any time,” Chambers said. Some graduate students work for a few years prior to returning to school. It is strange to come back and be classified as students while still earning wages, he said. “Graduate schools are aware that they have to be competitive,” Chambers said, adding that Brown has recently increased its stipends and dialogue on funding. If Brown graduate students were to form a union, he would push for better childcare and a formalized contract, he said, though he did not have a “whole lot of complaints.” He said he “would be surprised” if Brown graduate students did push to unionize. In light of the current job market, “people are just relieved to be here.”
The Brown Daily Herald Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Baseball swept in three-game opener continued from page 8 was up 2-1 going into the fifth. Utilizing precise bunting and solid hitting, Vanderbilt mounted an attack in the fifth and sixth innings that resulted in a combined five runs, a Brown loss and a series sweep. Despite losing the season opener, Colantonio said he has hope for
the rest of season. It was “tough to lose three … but we had them on the ropes,” Colantonio said. “They were definitely scared.” “Playing the best competition will prepare us against Ivy League teams,” he added. The Bears will travel to Austin, Tex. to play No. 6 University of Texas.
Librarian specializes in physical sciences continued from page 3 “Many of the subject specialists in the library do similar work in their assigned departments,” Quist wrote. Pedersen assists all of the physical sciences, “which include several very large departments scattered over several buildings,” he wrote. Pedersen interacts extensively with students enrolled in Lecturer in Chemistry Kathleen Hess’ organic and inorganic chemistry laboratory classes. “The fact that (Brown has) a librarian specialist to help with specific disciplines is a luxury that you will not find everywhere,” Hess wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. In
her classes, Hess emphasizes “the importance of using ‘authoritative’ resources,” she wrote. One chemistry student, Alexa Steuer ’14, said if Pedersen had not introduced herself during a class, she probably would have been unaware of her accessibility as a resource. Pedersen is “definitely helpful,” Steuer said. “She has a chat function over the Internet for questions, which I used doing two of my chem assignments so far.” Hess wrote that Pedersen will most likely interact with more students in the coming semesters because of her exposure in Hess’ chemistry labs.
Campus News 5 U. overhauls event-planning process By Leigh Carroll Contributing Writer
The University eliminated “several” staff positions to consolidate campus event planning, though no salaries were reduced, wrote Karen Davis, vice president for human resources, in an e-mail to The Herald. The Organizational Review Committee recommended creating the Brown Conference and Event Center last February as part of efforts to cut spending. The new office, formally called the Office of University Event and Conference Services, opened last summer. It merges several departments on campus including the University Events Office, the Conference Services Office and the University Event Support Office, said Julie Haworth, director of the new office. All campus event planning is now handled by either the Student Activities Office or the new 12-person University Event and Conference Services Office, a division of the Department of Facilities Management. “Previously, departments had to contact a number of different offices on campus … to plan their event,” Davis wrote. “The creation of the new Events Center has resulted in a ‘one-stop-shop’ — or single point of contact — for event plan-
ning and implementation.” The new office streamlines internal billing and reduces paperwork redundancy. Though Haworth originally worked in conference services, she was laid off and then rehired as the director of University Event and Conference Services. The new office works closely with other departments. It reports directly to Facilities Management and also works closely with the Office of Public Affairs and University Relations as well as the SAO, Haworth said. “A lot of the major events that we do come out of Public Affairs and University Relations — presidential events, guest speakers, dignitaries … so it is really important that we keep a strong connection,” Haworth said. Haworth said her office also maintains a “very strong connection to students” who have to plan events. Depending on the event, students go through the SAO for planning logistics, but must schedule the space with the Scheduling Office, a division now within Haworth’s office. University Event and Conference Services meets twice a week with the SAO to discuss “what types of things are coming onto campus and what kinds of student events have come in, are there any concerns,” Haworth said. Some University departments
also directly interact with Haworth’s office when planning their events. For example, the Department of Music now works with the office around Commencement and Spring Weekend, according to Ashley Lundh, events coordinator for the music department. Events taking place in department spaces do not have to be approved through University Event and Conference Services. In general, planning events with University Services goes smoothly, she said. Ashley Jones ’11, a member of Body and Sole, said that the student dance group sometimes uses the scheduling office website to reserve meeting spaces. “The feature that allows you to see which rooms are booked when is helpful,” she said. The Brown Concert Agency, the student group that plans Spring Weekend concerts, also uses the new office’s services. “We mainly go through the SAO when scheduling our events,” Serin Seckin ’11, BCA’s administrative chair, wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. But she wrote that BCA does directly contact Haworth’s office to reserve the Main Green. “We are in year one of building new efficiencies,” Haworth said. “But we are already seeing the results.”
comics BB & Z | Cole Pruitt, Andrew Seiden, Valerie Hsiung and Dan Ricker
Cloud Buddies! | David Emanuel
Dr. Bear | Mat Becker
Dot Comic | Eshan Mitra and Brendan Hainline
6 Editorial & Letter Editorial
The Brown Daily Herald Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Editorial comic
by sam rosenfeld
A Bridge to opportunity Graduation may still be months away, but it is already a safe bet that few seniors will stay in Rhode Island to begin work. Dan Egan, president of the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Rhode Island, told The Herald last week that the state retains fewer graduates from Brown than from other Rhode Island colleges and universities, where retention rates are “between 10 and 15 percent.” But Bridge, a new program spearheaded by the association and its member institutions, aims to increase these numbers. Bridge is in its formative stages, and much of the work currently being done involves surveying students to gather data that will guide the program. But Bridge’s focus is clear — eliminating the disconnect between Rhode Island’s opportunities and attractive features and students, who may scarcely travel off College Hill. Greater retention of Brown students would benefit the state and the University. There are far fewer residents with bachelor’s or advanced degrees in Rhode Island than in Connecticut or Massachusetts, which harms the state’s attractiveness to business. Keeping more Brunonians in-state would not only help ameliorate this problem, it would also strengthen ties between the University and the community. And a larger body of local alums would be very valuable to students looking to network. Connecting students to local internships will be a critical task if Bridge is to succeed. Richard Bendis, CEO of Innovation America, an organization that helped Philadelphia address poor retention rates, said in an Oct. 31, 2009 Providence Journal article, “Statistics say the more students you get engaged in internships as early as you can, the higher retention rate you’re going to have.” But in the same article Bendis pointed to “figures that show 64 percent of college graduates select a location to move to before they choose a job,” indicating that more goes into the decision to leave Rhode Island than employment considerations. To that end, the University must recognize that promoting staying in Rhode Island means more than matching students and employers. Nick Werle ’10 suggested to The Herald that Brown could make living around Providence more attractive by extending library and gym privileges to recent graduates. This is a sound idea — a free place to exercise and access to the library’s bountiful resources would be small but important incentives, especially in a poor economy when graduates are looking to save money. Economic incentives to keep students in-state would also increase Bridge’s effectiveness. The Herald reported yesterday that State Rep. Chris Blazejewski is championing legislation that “would provide graduates of Rhode Island colleges or universities a tax credit … if they remain in the state to work” and extend “tax credits to companies that volunteer to pay down the student loans of the graduates they employ.” Rhode Island’s businesses, government and colleges and universities all stand to benefit from greater graduate retention, and all have a role to play in achieving that goal. We look forward to seeing these efforts advance and encourage all students thinking about their future to take a look around the Ocean State. Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board. Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.
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le tter to the editor Teaching English benefits students in rural China To the Editor: In her column (“Evangelizing English,” March 3), Susannah Kroeber ’11 criticized the China Education Initiative, writing that “in faraway rural areas, teaching English is about as useful as teaching calculus in sixth grade.” Her article questions the initiative’s approach in tackling China’s education gap through its English teaching fellowships. As campus representatives for China Education Initiative, we would like to provide important background information on China’s education system to help readers better understand why our American fellows teach English. In China, students take tests to qualify for both high school and college admittance. While similar in concept to our SATs, these tests are the only factors that determine acceptance to higher education. This entrance test is divided in three subjects — Chinese language, math and English. Therefore, whether or not English is “useful” for these rural students, they must be proficient in order to have a chance to continue their schooling. However, in rural Chinese schools, most teachers are not trained in English and thus cannot adequately prepare their students for these exams. In fact, less than 5 percent of students in rural China go on to higher education, compared to 70 percent of their peers from China’s major cities. The initiative’s model tackles this problem by bringing proficient English speakers to teach these students, thereby helping them with their
chances for high school admittance. Perhaps the Chinese system of testing English as part of a national exam has a cultural elitism bend. However, our teaching fellows are simply trying to get students to succeed on this national exam and have a chance for higher education. Kroeber writes that “it is far more likely that the best we can do right now is help with basic education, even if that does not include English.” In addition to teaching English, the program provides basic education in Chinese. Teaching teams are comprised of both American and Chinese graduates, and our Chinese fellows are responsible for teaching major subjects such as Chinese literature, history, biology and math, just to name a few. The American and Chinese fellows work closely with each other to determine effective teaching practices and to share ideas in the hopes of creating a cross-cultural network dedicated to ending educational inequity in China. China Education Initiative not only places fellows in under-resourced schools to teach English, but also provides teachers in all subject areas with the aim of providing all students with access to quality education. We hope these additional facts will clarify any misconceptions about our organization. We believe in open dialogue and will be happy to speak to anyone who wishes to learn more about China Education Initiative. Helen Feng ’11 Jennifer Tan ’11
quote of the day
“Just because we want an education
”
doesn’t mean our labor should be exploited.
— John Freudenthal, NYU doctoral student See nyu on page 4. C O R R E C T I O N S P olicy The Brown Daily Herald is committed to providing the Brown University community with the most accurate information possible. Corrections may be submitted up to seven calendar days after publication. C ommentary P O L I C Y The editorial is the majority opinion of the editorial page board of The Brown Daily Herald. The editorial viewpoint does not necessarily reflect the views of The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. Columns, letters and comics reflect the opinions of their authors only. L etters to the E ditor P olicy Send letters to letters@browndailyherald.com. Include a telephone number with all letters. The Herald reserves the right to edit all letters for length and clarity and cannot assure the publication of any letter. Please limit letters to 250 words. Under special circumstances writers may request anonymity, but no letter will be printed if the author’s identity is unknown to the editors. Announcements of events will not be printed. advertising P olicy The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. reserves the right to accept or decline any advertisement at its discretion.
Opinions 7
The Brown Daily Herald Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Shooting for safety? BY ETHAN TOBIAS Opinions Columnist The Texas legislature is considering allowing students, faculty and staff to carry concealed firearms on University of Texas college campuses. The proponents of this change in the law argue that students require guns for protection — a devastating rampage, like the one at Virginia Tech, would not happen or would be stopped if some students and faculty had concealed weapons. They believe that trained security guards and police officers are not sufficient to bring down a gunman, while helpless students will be picked off one by one. The proponents continue that the new law would only apply to those students who already have a license to carry a concealed weapon, which means that armed students would have to be at least 21, have to have passed background checks and have to have taken a handgun course. This would seemingly ensure that any students who carried a weapon would be responsible enough to use one. Unfortunately, this line of thinking is naive and dangerous. College campuses should be secure and safe environments. Student safety should be among a university’s highest priorities. This legislation will endanger students’ lives and welfare and should be resisted by students throughout the country. A campus that allows students to carry
a concealed weapon exposes its students to severe risks. Even if the only people with guns were law-abiding, licensed students with no history of mental illness or criminal activity, the mere presence of handguns is an unnecessary risk. Imagine what could go wrong on a college campus. Students under the influence of alcohol, drugs or just the severe stress of schoolwork already make decisions they come to regret. Let’s not add guns to that mix.
tion of Representative Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., which resulted in the deaths of six people, including a federal judge and a nineyear-old girl. The way to prevent these terrible crimes is not by making guns more available or arming ordinary citizens. Imagine the confusion of police officers trying to figure out who is the killer on a rampage and who is the ordinary citizen firing back. And there is the potential for a protracted gun battle ensuing between
Students under the influence of alcohol, drugs or just the severe stress of schoolwork already make decisions they come to regret. Let’s not add guns to that mix.
The late teen years and early 20s are often the time when mental illness first manifests itself. The New York Times recently reported that record numbers of college freshmen say they are stressed. Making guns available to overstressed students with untreated mental illness will inevitably lead to some students taking those guns and harming themselves or others. It is not a question of if, but when. It seems that every year, some young person with a gun and the signs of mental illness goes on a rampage. There was Virginia Tech in 2007, Northern Illinois University in 2008 and, most recently, the attempted assassina-
students that could end in campuses looking an awful lot like the streets of Tripoli rather than the safe havens they should be. Students around the country should watch the Texas legislature apprehensively. If concealed weapons can be legally carried on university campuses there, it will not be long before legislature in other states consider following suit. This could set a dangerous precedent, and it moves the country completely in the wrong direction on the question of guns. More disturbingly, allowing licensed handgun owners to carry their weapons in more places is not being coupled to laws that
make it harder to obtain these weapons. Jared Laughner, the shooter in Arizona, purchased the gun legally, despite being suspended from college and deemed unfit to enlist in the armed forces. While the adage that “guns don’t kill people, people kill people” certainly holds true, a would-be assassin like Laughner would be unable to injure and kill so many people with just a knife. There will always be those people who, under stress and mental disease, go on a deadly rampage. The killer at Virginia Tech murdered 32 people before taking his own life. Allowing guns on campus would not be a deterrent to a gunman who already wants to die. But it is easy to conceive how an unsecured gun on a college campus might fall into the wrong hands. Every time President Ruth Simmons sends an e-mail to the student body informing them of a student’s passing, there is an incredible outpouring of grief. It feels like everyone at Brown is connected to everyone else, and the death of one student is a deep blow, even to those of us who did not know the deceased. Making guns more accessible to college students is a recipe for future heartache. Given the anguish that one student’s death can cause, the idea that a state legislature will put more students’ lives in jeopardy is an unforgiveable sin.
Ethan Tobias ’12 is a biology concentrator from New York. He can be reached at Ethan_Tobias@brown.edu.
The mission and purpose of Israeli-Palestinian Peace Week By Ethan Hammerman Guest Columnist In a recent column (“Shalom-Salaam: dialogue as distraction or dialogue as action?” March 7), Francesca Contreras ’11 critiqued two series of events on campus dedicated to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — IsraeliPalestinian Peace Week and Israelis and Palestinians: Working Together for a Better Future. Contreras rejects the possibility for compromise by portraying the IsraeliPalestinian issue as black and white, with no room for nuance, complexity or gradation. I respectfully disagree with her polarization of the conflict into a binary of helpless victim and relentless victimizer, and I want to encourage our community to look deeper into the multifaceted set of issues that truly make up the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Alongside a number of students organizing the week, I want to allow an entire umbrella of steadfast and committed opinions to be discussed throughout our programs. With a greater breadth of opinions, we wish to encourage more spirited — yet consistently civil — debate and discussion on campus. I both appreciate and admire Contreras’ strong stance, and I feel that it is necessary that she be present to share her perspective at our events. Her position is vital to understanding the nature of the conflict and working towards producing a just peace for Israelis and Palestinians alike. Throughout the week, we hope to delve into some of the more provocative and emo-
tionally laden questions surrounding IsraeliPalestinian issues. Despite Contreras’ assertion otherwise, we had certainly planned to discuss the issue of systematic violations of international law and occupation in all of our events. We do not intend to skirt around any of the main issues — we feel that it is necessary to attack each issue head on and actually cut to the core of the conflict. We will discuss issues of nationalism, political and religious identity and various other misconceptions about both peoples. It is only then that any real change can be implemented. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is incred-
peoples, are entitled to self-determination. We wish to show the full breadth of this conflict. People from all over the political, geographical and religious spectrum have lost their lives and livelihoods due to indiscriminate hatred, abominable racism and religious dogma. We will not only depict the conflicts within the region, we wish to inspire students to collaborate with each other and think and improve inter- and intra-community rifts here at Brown. The week will feature action-based components as well. Even before the discussion aspects of our events, we will be asking stu-
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is incredibly intricate, and Israeli-Palestinian Peace Week hopes to illuminate the nuances and complexities embedded in the situation, so that we can reach a place where we can make positive changes and find solutions. ibly intricate, and Israeli-Palestinian Peace Week hopes to illuminate the nuances and complexities embedded in the situation so that we can reach a place where we can make positive changes and find solutions. Although we will resist simplifying a complex situation into a binary issue, the assertion that the week ignores Palestinian suffering is inaccurate at best and offensive at worst. Though I cannot speak for the Jewish community as a whole, I am personally an advocate for Palestinian nationalism and believe that they, like all
dents to take action by donating two dollars for two states. One dollar will go to an organization that promotes peace and coexistence within Israel. The other will be donated to an organization that builds infrastructure in the Palestinian territories. By investing in tolerance in Israel and stability in Palestine, we will actively contribute to making the shared the two nations’ future viable and sustainable. We will also provide suggested actions for students at the end of each event throughout this week, and brainstorm ideas
to try and enact actual change that would benefit all sides. I, along with the rest of the committee that has spearheaded the week, opt for a true exchange within the marketplace of ideas. We invite and encourage Contreras, along with anyone who wishes to discuss or learn about this complex conflict, to attend our events and engage in civil discussion. Contreras has already been personally asked to take part in a program called “A Walk In Their Shoes,” an interactive experience that will give students new insight into the different perspectives that surround this complex conflict. Other events during this week include the Encounter mediation program — hosted by founder Benj Kamm ’06 — and an activity where we will analyze YouTube videos that present both sides and examine further the nuances of this conflict. All of these programs will be interactive and educational, and should inspire discussion and action on campus. If there is one issue on which Contreras and I undoubtedly agree, it is that the status quo in which Israelis and Palestinians live — without true peace and security — is unjust and unsustainable. As students at Brown and members of the Jewish community, we feel that it is our right and duty to bring our communities together to enact real, positive change for all parties. This is not about who is right and who is wrong — this is about the need for reasonable discourse on campus, and we will seek to make that happen.
Ethan Hammerman ’13 hails from Stamford, Conn. and considers himself to be a passionate centrist.
Daily Herald the Brown
URI responds to bias-related incidents
By Ilan Isaacs Contributing Writer
In response to recent bias-related incidents, University of Rhode Island President David Dooley issued a campus-wide memo Feb. 23 stating that hate-related behavior would not be tolerated.
In the memo, Dooley wrote that in recent weeks, community members have shouted homophobic taunts from cars, written hateful words on whiteboards in classrooms, drawn a swastika on the forehead of a poster of Martin Luther King Jr., vandalized a mezuzah — which contains a scroll of Hebrew scripture — and written hateful statements in permanent marker targeting URI community members of Latin descent. “Some students have the impression that the university has been hiding these things and hasn’t been doing anything about it,” said Tom Dougan, vice president for student affairs at URI. But that is not the case, he said. “We did not have a good year last year,” Dougan said. In response, the university created a bias response team last spring whose protocol was implemented in September. Since then, the bias response team has received 23 complaints, 10 of which were classified as relating to bias or hate, he added. In three of the cases, students were found to be in violation of university policy and were punished accordingly.
baseball
No. 2 Vanderbilt sweeps Bears in season opener
By Elizabeth Carr Staff Writer
city & state
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Herald file photo
Though bias-related incidents have sparked several initiatives at neighboring URI, Brown has not made any major changes in campus security.
“Assuming we identify who has committed the act, our sanctions can range anywhere from written reprimand to suspension,” Dougan said. One student arrested in the fall for hate-based vandalism is no longer a student at the university. But Dougan said he could not release specific information regarding the nature of the incident. Dougan said perpetrators are often not able to be tracked down because incidents are a “drive-by kind of thing.” The university also developed the position of chief diversity officer in conjunction with the bias response team. Kathryn Friedman, who was appointed Jan. 4 and reports to Dooley, will fill the role this year. Friedman said most universities try to hide any incidents of biasrelated behavior. “They don’t want it to affect their reputations,” she said. URI, by contrast, is working on a larger initiative to raise community consciousness so that students can feel “safe and secure in their intellectual and personal environment.” As part of the effort to celebrate “community equity and diversity,”
the university has facilitated discussions, trained residential leaders, offered diversity awards and sponsored Martin Luther King Jr. Week — a series of events that honor King’s efforts — in addition to a variety of other programs, Dougan said. Friedman is urging students to “start to have a conversation about what it means to be a civil institution.” She advised students to “respond to things they see and hear,” since a problem in punishing bias-related incidents is a lack of witnesses. The types of people targeted by these incidents varies, Friedman said, though she noted that LGBT students have been more frequent victims. At Brown, LGBTQ Resource Center Coordinator Kelly Garrett said graffiti is the most common bias-related incident she has encountered. The center talks to victims after an incident has occurred and acts based on what kind of support they are seeking, she said. “We try to educate the community on why this is not a part of the Brown community standards,” she said.
The baseball team (0-3) opened its season this weekend by suffering a three-game sweep at No. 2 Vanderbilt (11-1). The seasonopener was low-scoring, and the Commodores defeated the Bears 3-1. In the first game of a Sunday doubleheader, Vanderbilt edged past Brown 6-5, and won 6-3 in an abridged seven-inning game later that afternoon to sweep the series. Vanderbilt 3, Brown 1
Both schools sent out their number-one pitchers to duel Friday. Pitchers Matthew Kimball ’11 and Sonny Gray of Vanderbilt did not disappoint and received pitcher of the week honors in the Ivy League and Southeastern Conference for their performances. Returning to his native Nashville, Tenn., Kimball pitched seven innings of one-run ball, scattering six hits while striking out three. But he was outgunned by Vanderbilt’s ace. Gray, a projected first round Major League Baseball pick, also allowed one run, but struck out 15 and lasted a full nine innings. “(Gray’s) got the best breaking ball I’ve seen in college baseball,” Coach Marek Drabinski said. Kimball kept the Bears in the game in the first seven innings, but Andrew Bakowski ’11, coming in to relieve Kimball, allowed a leadoff double that kicked off a two-run Vanderbilt eighth inning. This proved to be all the support Gray needed, as he struck out two of the final three Bruno batters and led the Commodores to victory.
Vanderbilt 6, Brown 5
Due to rainstorms in the area, Saturday’s game was postponed, forcing the Commodores and the Bears to play a doubleheader Sunday. Vanderbilt scored three unanswered runs, one coming in the second and two coming in the third, before Bruno retaliated with a run of their own in the fourth. That would be all the run support pitcher Kevin Carlow ’13 saw in his 5.2 innings of work, as the Bears waited until the eighth to mount a rally. Outfielder Matt DeRenzi ’14 began the inning with a pinch-hit single, which was followed by another single from Josh Feit ’11. Both Brown batters, along with captain Matthew Colantonio ’11, ended up scoring in the inning to cut the lead to one. But Vanderbilt came back with three hits in the bottom half of the inning and, despite Colantonio’s RBI single in the ninth, Brown lost 6-5. Vanderbilt 6, Brown 3
After narrowly losing earlier in the day, the Bears struck first in the second game. First baseman Mike DiBiase ’12 and outfielder Wes Van Boom ’14, both of whom hit exceptionally well throughout the series, singled and scored in the top half of the second inning, giving Brown a 2-0 lead. “Truthfully, I thought we had them,” Colantonio said. He finished the game one-for-four with a run scored. Though Bruno’s starting pitcher Lucas Whitehill ’14 allowed a solo home run in the fourth, Brown continued on page 5
Grant will increase lab research opportunities for undergrads By Anna Lillkung Staff Writer
For the first time since 1993, undergraduates will receive funding from a Hughes Grant to conduct biomedical research. This summer, 24 sophomores and juniors will take part in a research program funded by the $1 million grant, but this number will increase to 32 students in summers to come, according to Professor of Medical Science Michael McKeown, a key figure in planning the program. The grant will help increase the University’s presence as a research institution in biomedical sciences, according to the most recent status report on the Plan for Academic Enrichment, published in October. The Hughes Grant is given every year to a number of institutions and individuals for biomedical research. Institutions meeting certain eligibility criteria are invited to apply and can then send in applications and proposals, according to the Howard Hughes
Medical Institute website. In 2010, the institute awarded $79 million to universities and researchers, according to its website. Before this year, Brown was among the few research institutions that did not receive funding, McKeown said. But last year, the University was one of nearly 200 institutions to receive an invitation from the institute to apply for the grant. Wendy Lawton, associate director of corporate and foundation relations, and Elizabeth Francis, director of corporate and foundation relations in the Division of Biology and Medicine, initiated plans for a proposal, with McKeown joining the efforts soon after. The University submitted a proposal, which was returned with comments on what needed to be improved or changed. The planners sent a second draft in July and learned they had been awarded the grant in August. The University received $1 million out of a possible $2.2 million, McKeown added. The grant money will be used
for two separate aims, McKeown said. There will be a summer research program for sophomores and juniors, and three new courses will also be developed — two for the science and society concentration and one in computational biology for first- and second-year students. Students will also learn how to do “real science” by working in small groups in labs with the support of teaching assistants and professors, he said. “We are trying to have a mixture of talents,” McKeown said, referring to how participants will be selected for the program. Sixtytwo applications were sent in before the Feb. 16 due date. The program aims to train sophomores and juniors who may not already have found their place in a lab but who could potentially conduct their own research during the rest of their undergraduate careers after participating in the program. There will be three different groups working on three different research projects this summer, ac-
Stephanie London / Herald
The Hughes Grant targets undergraduate research in the sciences.
cording to McKeown. One group will work on cell transplantation design with bioengineering modules under the leadership of Jeff Morgan, associate professor of
medical science, while another group will research fly neurology. “The beauty of this is that these are projects that faculty members want to see done,” McKeown said.