Friday, November 11, 2011

Daily

Herald

the Brown

vol. cxlvi, no. 106

Friday, November 11, 2011

Since 1891

DPS detains Robust forum addresses masturbator tuition, budget concerns suspect in car

By Mark Raymond This year’s forum attracted far Senior Staff Writer

By Lucy Feldman Senior Staff Writer

Department of Public Safety officers detained a man last night after he was seen masturbating in a parked vehicle on Hope Street. Witnesses do not believe the suspect to be the same man who has masturbated outside a John Street house on multiple occasions this semester.

At approximately 10:30 p.m., two female seniors, both residents of that house, were walking north on Hope Street by Power Street when they saw a man watching them from an idling blue sedan, one of the seniors said. As they passed the car, they saw the man was masturbating.

The students asked that their names be witheld so that the man cannot identify them.

The students turned on Power Street and called DPS. While on the phone, they saw the suspect drive north on Hope Street and turn left on George Street, one of the seniors said. Soon after, they saw the suspect driving north on Hope Street again, this time followed by DPS cruisers.

At approximately 10:35 p.m., the suspect pulled over on Hope Street

by Young Orchard Avenue, one of the seniors said. Officers arrested him and searched his car.

Officers blinded the suspect so continued on page 3

The University’s budgeting process is about making choices, said Provost Mark Schlissel P’15 at yesterday’s University Resources Committee forum.

The forum, which was held in Smith-Buonanno Hall, attracted about 60 people, more than half of whom were students. The forum’s purpose was to gather community input on next fiscal year’s budgetary priorities. Schlissel also outlined how the University has allocated spending in this fiscal year’s budget.

more attendees than last year’s budget forum, which only had one student in attendance.

Schlissel, who chairs the URC, said that while University revenue and expenditures have both increased significantly over the past decade, the proportion of dollars coming from each revenue source has not significantly changed. He also said while Brown has steadily increased its tuition rate, it has not done so to the same degree as many “Ivy plus” peer institutions. continued on page 2

David Deckey / Herald

Provost Mark Schlissel P ’15 discussed tuition increases at last night’s URC forum.

At Hillel, Cicilline ’83 reflects on term Bears look

By Elizabeth Carr Senior Staff Writer

“The Congress of the United States is a pretty broken place right now,” said Rep. David Cicilline ’83, DR.I., to a group of students at a Jewish Leadership Seminar at Brown/ RISD Hillel yesterday. “And if you weren’t aware of that, I’m here to tell you that it is.”

The former Providence mayor remembered the “urgency of the moment” of running the city. “We woke up as a team every day,” he said. But in his first 10 months in Congress, he found that same sense of urgency and cohesiveness nonexistent.

“There are people in the leadership of the House that are refusing really to take action, to do the things that we need to get the economy back on track,” Cicilline said in an interview with The Herald. “Congress is very committed to making sure that this is a oneterm president.”

The refusal of Republican leaders to put aside partisanship and work for the well-being of the country is unacceptable, Cicilline said. “The American people can’t wait for us to take action on a lot of important issues.”

During his talk, Cicilline told students that the deterioration of bipartisanship in Washington

is partially due to the changing culture and the “total breakdown of the relationship between the members of Congress.”

Members of Congress no longer move to Washington once they are elected, he explained, which limits their ability to build relationships with members of the other party and ultimately to respect their colleagues.

Instead, Cicilline said members of Congress are expected to constantly be in their home districts.

Republican leaders of the House of Representatives have emphasized this assumption by setting continued on page 3

Contemplating to climax: Meditation relieves sex woes A naked man passionately embraces a naked woman in a photograph.

How does that make viewers feel?

And how long does it take them to register their reactions? Females will take longer, according to a new study, because women are less in touch with their bodies.

Science

inside

Though their bodies may be showing signs of arousal, females are more likely to report feeling unaroused, leading to dissatisfaction in the bedroom. Meditation may be the answer, according to a new paper written by an undergraduate and a recent alum. Women who practiced meditation improved their ability to register physiological arousal, suggesting that meditation may be an effective treatment for

news....................2-4 ArtS......................5-6 Science..................7 OPINIONS.............11 SPORTS...................12

female sexual dysfunction.

Gina Silverstein ’09.5, lead author of the paper, got the idea for the study while taking UNIV 0540: “Introduction to Contemplative Studies,” taught by Harold Roth, professor of religious studies. The same areas of the brain they discussed in the class were also associated with female sexuality, her friend noticed. They realized the two had something important in common.

From talking with other women, Silverstein knew female sexual dysfunction was a big problem.

Many women complained they had trouble reaching orgasm or becoming and remaining aroused.

They would say, “I start thinking about other things. … And then I’m like, ‘Oh my god, my room is a mess,’ or ‘What if I’m not as cute as my partner’s last girlfriend?’ and ‘I hope I don’t look fat right now,’” Silverstein said.

Science, 7

The football team will look to stretch its winning streak to seven games against Dartmouth tomorrow at Brown Stadium on Senior Day. With only two games remaining on the schedule, the Bears (7-1, 4-1 Ivy) sit just one game behind Harvard (7-1, 5-0) in the Ivy League standings and remain in the hunt for the program’s first championship since 2008.

tion, emotion and psychological characteristics, about her interest in the subject.

Britton encouraged her to find

“We try not to make the final two games bigger than they are,” said outside linebacker Dan Smithwick ’12. “We try not to harp on that in our preparation. We’re treating it like any other Ivy League game, and we’re going to have to be on top of our game.”

The Big Green (3-5, 2-3) have been on the upswing the past few seasons. After snapping a 17-game losing streak in 2009 that stretched over two seasons, Dartmouth went 6-4 last season and finished fifth in the standings. The Big Green led Brown 28-20 going into the fourth quarter of last season’s matchup in Hanover, but a late rally propelled the Bears to a 35-28 win.

Dartmouth’s attack is led by senior running back Nick Schwieger, the school’s all-time leading rusher.

continued on page 7

continued on page 8

Courtesy of Willoughby Britton

Women who meditated improved their ability to detect bodily responses to erotic images, pointing to a potential treatment for female sexual dysfunction.

“Mediation is a clear answer,” she realized. She spoke with Willoughby Britton, assistant professor of psychiatry and human behavior, whose lab studies the effects of contemplative practices on cogni-

Tan in no time Private law Study shows that tanning is a surprisingly fast process

By ethan mccoy Sports Editor

Football

In Penn State scandal, Fast ’12 sees parallels to McCormick Opinions, 11

D&C

Joe Paterno ’50 gets coal — find out why diamonds & Coal, 10

weather

By Natalie Villacorta Senior Staff Writer

for seventh straight vs.

Dartmouth

t o d ay

tomorrow

51 / 36

56 / 41

2 Campus News calendar Today

NOVEMBER 11

12 P.m.

ToMORROW

november 12

The Brown Daily Herald Friday, November 11, 2011

About 60 exchange views on budget continued from page 1

4 p.m.

Veteran’s Day Ceremony,

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Main Green

Sayles Hall

5 p.m.

10 p.m.

“Lady Windermere’s Fan,”

DAM Concert (Palestinian Hip-Hop),

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Alumnae Hall

menu SHARPE REFECTORY

VERNEy-WOOLLEY DINING HALL LUNCH Chicken Fingers, Baked Vegan Nuggets, Vegan Rice Pilaf, Raspberry Swirl Cookies

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Sudoku

Schlissel added that Brown’s endowment is not yet able to cover as much of its operating costs as the endowments at institutions such as Harvard and Princeton, leaving the University more dependent on tuition.

At the forum, Schwartz said there is no conclusion about how much tuition is going to be raised in the next fiscal year budget, and added that he is trying to gauge whether students would be willing to see tuition rise to fund new and existing programs.

Though Schlissel said tuition will likely increase in the next budget, he did not specify how much it would rise.

“I can tell you I’d be very surprised if tuition didn’t go up, but I’d also be surprised if tuition went up drastically,” he said.

Several students in the audience expressed concern over the lack of attention to other areas on the list of revenue sources presented during the forum and questioned whether

tuition is considered after other aspects of the budget are determined.

Schlissel responded by saying tuition is always the “elephant in the room” in discussions involving the allocation of University resources and sources of revenue.

Dick Spies, executive vice president for planning and senior adviser to the president, expressed similar sentiments.

“The process is designed to make sure we don’t make any judgments about what should or shouldn’t be done until we’ve gone through the entire list,” Spies said.

Jason Lee ’12, chair of the Undergraduate Finance Board, mentioned his support for a 40 percent increase in the student activities fee, which currently stands at $170 and is a mandated fee included in the full tuition price.

Lee said student groups currently only receive about 40 to 50 percent of the funding they request and that the higher fee could allow them to receive 80 to 90 percent. He said when groups ask for funding from UFB, the groups are

accustomed to under-requesting funding. As a result, the increase in funding allocated to the groups would still not necessarily fulfill their budget needs.

Most students in attendance agreed that student groups on campus are underfunded.

Besides tuition increases, the other budgetary issue raised by audience members was low staffing, especially in the wake of the layoffs resulting from the economic downturn. One audience member expressed concern over what she said was the University’s insensitive approach to laying off workers during the crisis, while another expressed his desire for more staff to support research.

Schlissel said the University would like to hire more staff as the economy begins to recover, but he cautioned against a significant uptick in hiring before it is clear whether staff will be able to be retained in the coming years.

“The worst thing would be to ramp back up again and then have to lay people off again,” he said.

CourseKick revamps post-registration

By Austin Cole Contributing Writer

Cr ossword

Within a couple days of its Oct. 31 launch, CourseKick, Brown’s new social course scheduling website, had registered almost 500 users. By the end of the week, that number had grown to more than 1000. Now, over 20 percent of undergraduates have signed up.

It is little wonder that founders Dylan Field ’13, Devin Finzer ’13 and Sam Birch ’14 are feeling a sense of euphoria now that their creation, which began as a project for their computer science class last semester, has been released.

“It was incredible,” said Field, of the site’s first week in business. But the time since then has not been filled with constant celebration for the three founders. Instead, they have been working harder and faster to keep the site running efficiently.

“There was a lot of bug-fixing,” Field said. And lately the trio has been spending longer and longer nights improving their product.

Much of this time has been spent fixing expected glitches and responding to the overwhelming amount of user feedback, they said. From suggestions about how

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to improve upon the design, to late night texts about a bug that needs to be fixed, student responses have helped improve both the look and efficiency of CourseKick, they said.

Users have praised CourseKick for its ingenuity and convenience compared to Banner. “It’s very helpful because you can show conflicting ... classes side by side without the nasty red of (Banner),” said Aiden Schore ’15.

As web traffic has declined since the close of pre-registration, the founders have been developing new features and improving the style of CourseKick. “Devin’s been coding non-stop,” Field said.

Despite initial difficulties, they have succeeded in linking the site to Banner, and now users can export their CourseKick classes to their Course Scheduler, allowing for oneclick registration.

But one of the biggest additions to the site is the “recommendations” feature that gives students class recommendations based on courses they are currently shopping. It is going to be “like Pandora for classes,” Finzer said.

CourseKick will receive a facelift today, making the homepage more sleek and shifting the loca-

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tion of Facebook friends images from the “awkward bottom line” to a more prominent location at the site’s center.

The trio hopes all these additions will make the discovery of new classes easier and more enjoyable.

But they are also striving to make CourseKick a social experience that reflects the atmosphere of college life.

The changes are coming at the right time — some students complain that the site’s relatively small number of users make it less social than it could be. But Finzer said the small user base has allowed them to fix specific problems quickly and cater to users’ needs.

At the same time, the founders have been careful not to turn away newcomers by making the site overly complex. The goal is to draw users to the site because of its convenience and then keep them coming back by “improving the core product,” Field said. They are aiming especially to draw in first-years who will benefit most from the ability to find classes they may never have known about without CourseKick.

But they also understand that CourseKick is still at the beginning of its life. For an idea that was conceived over last winter break and began as a simple Facebook application, CourseKick has come a long way, Field said.

Field, Finzer and Birch are now working harder than ever to ensure their creation continues to develop.

Though this will likely mean even more sleepless nights and hours in the CIT, Field said they will continue to “strive forward” to give Brown students the best product possible.

Thanks for reading!

Campus News 3

The Brown Daily Herald Friday, November 11, 2011

Cicilline ’83 advocates bipartisan cooperation continued from page 1

Madeline Schlissel / Herald

Glenn Greenwald’s pro-legalization arguments gained the support of a large crowd Thursday.

Pro-legalization speaker dominates debate

By Aparaajit Sriram Contributing Writer

At times lawyer-like, at others sharp-tongued and defensive, Glenn Greenwald, a politics and law columnist for Salon.com, and John Walters, former director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy during the Bush administration, debated national drug policy before a crowd unafraid to voice its opinions.

In a Janus Forum debate titled “What if the U.S. Legalized All Drugs?”, the approximately 300 students, faculty and community members in attendance swelled in loud applause for Greenwald’s pro-legalization arguments while meeting Walters’ claims with a palpable lack of responsiveness.

The speakers presented 25-minute oral arguments before answering audience questions.

Greenwald’s presentation could not help but reveal his training as a lawyer. Never looking at his notes, he centered his argument on the premise that drug addiction and abuse should be “treated for what it is — ­ a health problem” rather than be criminalized.

The criminal justice system “destroys the lives of individuals that proponents of the drug war are trying to help,” Greenwald said. “What is it that we do to those we are trying to help? We take them and we charge them with crimes. We turn them into felons which in this climate renders them unemployable.

We put them into cages for many

years, and keep them away from their children and their families.”

Constantly echoing his refrain that prohibition and the war on drugs are the problems, rather than drugs themselves, Greenwald also made economic and race-based points, citing the disproportionate number of drug-related arrests wracking urban black communities and the massive, growing costs of drug policies that are compounded in this “age of austerity.”

Walters, faced with the onus of rebutting what was clearly the more popular side, began his argument by launching straight into empirical evidence, countering Greenwald’s claim that opponents of legalization often engage in “oralizing, fear-mongering and speculation.”

Constructing his argument using a series of charts based on statistics compiled by federal government and international agencies, Walters argued that drug use is inherently dangerous and will become “self-destructive.” Even if users initially consume drugs “for purposes of pleasure … it changes the way they perceive their own situation.”

He went on to claim that it is the obligation of the socially responsible to help abusers get treatment, even if they do not want it, and said there is no method that better achieves this end than law enforcement. Referencing a study conducted by the National Drug Court Institute, Walters said the “criminal justice system is the

Car masturbator detained on Hope continued from page 1 the students could identify him.

The senior identified the suspect as the man she saw in the car, but not the man she has seen masturbating twice outside her house, she said. Last night’s incident occurred two blocks from her John Street house.

She described the man as me-

dium height, bald and stocky. He is between 30- and 40-years old and wore a white T-shirt and jeans, she said. The suspect of previous masturbation incidents this semester is described as a white male in his 20s.

“I guess I feel disturbed that there are so many people targeting the John Street area for their sexual desires,” she said. “But I’m excited that (DPS) caught him.”

herald@browndailyherald.com

biggest referral for people to seek treatment,” with about 80 percent of treatment recipients originating in courts.

“I have met so many people who have graduated from drug court treatment who have said, ‘The day I was arrested was the luckiest day of my life. It saved my life. I got through it, I got sober and I got my life back,’” Walters said.

Audience questions sparked the most heated exchanges of the night.

Walters addressed students directly, telling them to “have the guts to tell the truth” and realize that drugs are nothing more than a “disease.”

When the topic of debate turned tangentially to Bush-era policies, Greenwald’s rhetoric veered toward vitriol as he criticized Walters’ comment that the Arab Spring was fueled by Bush administration efforts in the Middle East.

Following the event, many students agreed that Greenwald had won the debate. “Greenwald showed that the costs of the drug war massively outweigh any conceivable benefits,” said Alex Gourevitch, a postdoctoral fellow working with the Political Theory Project. “Walters offered no rebuttal, empirical or theoretical.”

But Angela Straccia ’14 said both sides had been convincing.

“There is no way you can ‘win’ this type of debate,” she said, “but presentation-wise, Greenwald was definitely better. Walters didn’t shape the context of the debate.”

a schedule that sends representatives to their home districts for one week each month, a policy that Cicilline said he suspects was devised to increase time available for campaigning.

Constantly being in campaignmode furthers the negativity in Congress, Cicilline said, adding that the time spent working toward reelection prevents representatives from making progress in Washington. “I think we should be with our sleeping bags in the capital,” he said.

In a move to combat partisanship, Cicilline has teamed up with Rep. Nan Hayworth, R-N.Y., to form the Common Ground Caucus, a group devoted to bridging party lines. Representatives are not permitted to join the caucus individually — they must do so in conjunction with a representative from the other party. The group does not have a political agenda — it focuses instead on bringing representatives together to build relationships through group activities like bowling and attending baseball games.

Bonding activities aside, Cicilline noted that Congress has a bundle of serious issues on its plate, the foremost of which he identified as battling the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. He has advocated the promotion of American manufacturing through the elimination of disadvantageous trade policies.

As a member of the House Committee on Small Business, Cicilline has worked to make capital more available to small businesses. He told The Herald it is important to strengthen the middle class by providing small businesses with what they need most — customers.

“What you need to have a strong economy is a really strong and robust middle class,” he said.

In the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Cicilline has advocated for the swift return of troops from Afghanistan. “I don’t think it’s the responsibility of the American people to build up other countries halfway around

the world,” he told The Herald.

“The time has come to redirect those resources back to the United States.” He added that America does not have an “honest partner” in Afghani President Hamid Karzai, noting that over 40 percent of U.S. aid to the country is stolen by the corrupt Afghani government.

Cicilline has also worked to protect retirees, opposing Republican attempts to privatize Social Security and Medicare. “These programs reflect our values,” he told The Herald, explaining that citizens who have paid into benefits programs for their entire lives did not deserve to see these programs cut while Congress offers subsidies to oil companies and tax breaks to millionaires.

Rhode Island is currently facing the prospect of cutting pensions for state employees, and Cicilline recognized that the system currently in place is unsustainable.

He had attempted pension reform when he was mayor of Providence, though he was ultimately unsuccessful.

But in the eight years he served as mayor, he was successful in attracting $3 billion in investments to the city, bringing crime rates down to their lowest levels in 30 years, instituting a formal ethics code to a city with a history of corruption and creating an awardwinning after-school program that is now being emulated in cities across the country, he said.

Despite these successes, 77 percent of residents polled in a University study blamed Cicilline for the city’s current budget woes.

Though GoLocalProv indicates that Cicilline is now leading Republican candidates John Loughlin and Brendan Doherty in polls, he could still be facing a tough reelection campaign over the next year.

His prospects are not helped by Congress’ 9 percent approval rating, though Cicilline noted, “Based on what hasn’t been happening over the past 10 months, I’d say that’s a fair assessment.”

With this in mind, his reelection strategy is simple — “I’m going to keep doing the work that I was elected to do,” he told The Herald.

Talks begin on new research building

By Neelkiran Yalamarthy Contributing Writer

The University is in the early stages of planning what may become a new building to enhance research facilities. A committee began discussing the possible building in September, but the project’s details — including what and where it will be — remain up in the air, according to Provost Mark Schlissel P’15.

A committee co-chaired by Vice President for Research Clyde Briant and Dean of the Faculty Kevin McLaughlin P’12 will determine how a new building would enrich University teaching and if that

building should be designated for a specific department or be interdisciplinary, Schlissel wrote in an email to The Herald. Its creation came after the University’s purchase of property at 198 Dyer St. in the Jewelry District last spring, Schlissel wrote.

The committee has about 15 members, including faculty members and a representative from the Department of Facilities Management. No students sit on the committee.

Bi-weekly meetings cover topics such as innovative lab designs and ways to “blend teaching space and learning space,” for future research buildings, Briant said.

Kenneth Breuer, professor of engineering and a member of the committee, said the group’s discussions have been very general, focusing on identifying issues for future discussion. Students will be consulted before final decisions are made, Briant said.

UCS Communications Chair Samuel Gilman ’15 said since the committee is exploratory and is not charged with making decisions, there are no direct consequences of not having student representation.

The committee hopes to release their findings to the provost by the end of this semester or early next spring.

4 Campus News

The Brown Daily Herald Friday, November 11, 2011

ResCouncil forums seek As construction goes on, Metcalf praised suggestions on housing

By Gadi Cohen Contributing Writer

By caitlin trujillo Senior Staff Writer

Students discussed alternatives to the housing lottery — including how to revamp the system or provide other choices for on-campus residence — during a series of forums conducted by the Residential Council this week.

ResCouncil hosted three forums ­Sunday, Tuesday and yesterday to solicit feedback on an array of housing issues affecting the student body.

Though students raised various topics at the meetings, ResCouncil consistently brought up the question of how to rework the housing lottery. Because Brown’s current housing system does not match any other school’s, a new lottery would have to be a “ground-up” creation, ResCouncil Chair Sam Barney ’12 told The Herald after Thursday’s forum. About 30 students attended Thursday’s event.

Input at the forums suggests students approve of their current ability to pick their rooms, ResCouncil Policy Committee Chair Emily Gould ’13 said during Thursday’s meeting.

ResCouncil is also considering moving the lottery online, but students at the meetings and in talks with ResCouncil were wary of this change. Participants expressed concern over the possibility that the website might crash, which would make the process more stressful, not less. Christina Kata ’14, who attended Tuesday’s meeting in Arnold Lounge, said she did not like the idea of moving the lottery online because the current system is entrenched in the campus experience.

“It was stressful enough in Sayles,” said Kata, referring to her first lottery experience last year, “But it was fun.”

Students and ResCouncil members at Thursday’s meeting pitched ideas to make an online lottery work, such as ranking top room combinations for a lottery group and then having an online system assign students rooms depending on list priority and room

availability. Students also suggested extending the number of days for the lottery and allowing more time to make room selections.

According to a survey circulated to the student body via Morning Mail, most students want to see the lottery spread across two weeks rather than having it limited to two nights, said ResCouncil Housing Lottery Committee Chair Andy Chang ’13 during Thursday’s meeting.

The forums also addressed issues such as reassessment of the suite fee, revival of the first-pick competition and furthering ResCouncil student outreach. Ben Farber ’12 attended Thursday’s meeting to voice his support for the first-pick competition, calling it a “fun Brown tradition” that can exist as long as rules on campaigning are clarified, he said.

Farber himself was part of a winning first-pick competition group in 2009.

Some members of student groups and programs attended the forums to give ResCouncil specific feedback. Maddy Jennewein ’14, co-president of the Queer Alliance subgroup GenderAction, attended Tuesday’s meeting to discuss with ResCouncil GenderAction’s proposal to expand gender-neutral housing options to first-year students and more dorms on campus, she said.

ResCouncil is working with GenderAction to provide feedback and counseling on the proposal, Barney said.

Brittany King ’12, a community assistant for Minden Hall, has never participated in the housing lottery, but because the students in her care do, it is important for her and other counselors to be knowledgeable about the process, she said.

Though ResCouncil might not incorporate specific policy proposals from the forums, the flow of ideas will help them brainstorm their next steps, Barney said. She added that further outreach attempts, like setting up tables on the Main Green or in the mail room, might be helpful in educating students about housing.

For students returning from the stark Sciences Library or a food frolic at one of Thayer Street’s generic restaurants, the newly renovated Metcalf Chemistry and Research Laboratory, with its red bricks and rows of white windows, is architectural eye candy.

But to the graduate students of the Department of Cognitive, Linguistics and Psychological Sciences, Metcalf is home. Though they moved in just over a month ago, most of Metcalf ’s new inhabitants already feel comfortable with the refurbished building. “(The renovation) is a great project,” said Xuan Zhao GS. “The settings of this building are comfortable, inviting and engaging.”

Students lauded the renovation for uniting psychology with cognitive and linguistic sciences under one roof. In 2010, the two departments merged to become the Department of Cognitive, Linguistics and Psychological Sciences.

A first-year PhD student, Zhao said he was pleased with the building’s “friendly environment.”

“By working with people from different labs in the same office, I’ve gotten better ideas about the ongoing research in the department and have got a better taste of interdisciplinary viewpoints,” he said.

The department’s graduate students and faculty agree that the final, physical unification of the departments provides a new space for intellectual cooperation between the two fields. Before the renovation, the two departments worked in separate buildings. The Department of Psychology was housed in

Tom Sullivan / Herald

Graduate students have occupied the renovated Metcalf for over a month now.

Hunter Lab and the Department of Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences was in Metcalf.

Michael Frank, associate professor of cognitive, linguistic and psychological sciences, said the building had been especially prone to leaking and flooding before the renovations. “The general sense of the building was that it was in desperate need of renovation,” Frank said. “It was a really dreary place to work at before.”

He said the renovated building, whose halls are still occupied by construction workers, embraces cutting-edge technology and has a more interactive architectural layout.

But some graduate students expressed concerns about the shared

work space.

Neal Fox GS said the renovated building is not ideal for students writing dissertations. In the renovated building, graduate students share an office with five or six other students.

But others see the new, more crowded working arrangement as an advantage. Anselma Hartley GS, who is writing her dissertation, said she felt the working conditions allow her to consult with academic peers more easily.

The Corporation, the University’s highest governing body, approved the project in 2009 after plans to build a new brain science building were abandoned because of the economic downturn, according to a 2009 Herald article.

Pension reform passes finance committees

By Hannah kerman and Kate Nussenbaum Contributing Writer and Staff Writer

The state House and Senate finance committees approved amended legislation to reform Rhode Island’s state-run pension system Thursday night. The bill, also known as the Rhode Island Retirement Security Act, passed the Senate committee 10 to one. In the House committee,

the bill passed 13 to two.

The bill will go to the full General Assembly for debate and a floor vote next Thursday.

The 122-page act, proposed by Gov. Lincoln Chafee ’75 P’14 and General Treasurer Gina Raimondo, aims to rein in the more than

city & state $7 billion shortfall in the state’s pension system. The bill would switch the majority of employees to hybrid pension plans, which provide retirees a small guaranteed benefit in addition to an individual investment account and raise the retirement age from 62 to 67 for workers that are currently ineligible to retire.

Following a series of revisions announced Wednesday night, the bill would allow studies to assess the funding levels of municipal pension plans and cost-of-living adjustments to be paid out every five years until the state-run plan is 80 percent funded. The original bill would have frozen cost-of-living adjustments for up to 19 years.

The committee meetings began two hours late after lawmakers finalized a second series of amendments behind the scenes. The amendments announced last night

would exclude current disability retirement laws from changes and would alter eligibility requirements used to calculate pension benefits.

Before voting, House Finance Committee Chair Helio Melo, DEast Providence, allowed committee members to ask questions about the amended bill. House Fiscal Adviser Sharon Reynolds Ferland clarified that the bill will not affect those who are eligible to retire before June 30, 2012.

Both the Senate and House committee chairmen acknowledged the long hours committee members spent discussing and revising the legislation. Senate Finance Committee Chair Daniel DaPonte, D-East Providence and Pawtucket, mentioned the 29 1/2 hours of testimony from 205 people that committee members took into consideration. Public input was a driving force in crafting the legislation, he added. “This is a classic example of our democracy, of our legislative process and how it works,” he said.

Patrick Mannix, a Providence resident who attended the Senate hearing, told The Herald he supports the reform legislation.

“This is the biggest issue facing our state,” he said. “It transcends politics.”

Arts & Culture 5

The Brown Daily Herald Friday, November 11, 2011

Art rocks: Nature in Documentary examines urban decay all its dimensions By sona mkrttchian Contributing Writer

By Suzannah Weiss Arts & Culture Columnist

Visual artists on campus are suddenly gung ho about rocks. The second floor of the List Art Center houses student drawings of rocks. Two locations in the Perry and Marty Granoff Center for the Creative Arts display three-dimensional rocks. The Granoff Center is also enthusiastic about trees and mud monsters and, according to a current exhibit pamphlet, “totemic responses to systems of physics in suspense.”

The description next to the List display states that rocks are indirectly experienced phenomena.

People usually see them divorced from their origins: when they are fallen from cliffs, composed of stones or severed from streams.

A rock, in order to be a rock, is either a fragment, broken off from a larger whole, or fragmented, emerging from pieces of various histories.

The exhibit may seem like just an exercise in technique for Drawing I students, but it is also a geological endeavor.

Though the modern academy’s specialization obscures the connection between biology and art, naturalists have traditionally also been illustrators. To illustrate this point — pun intended — think of Darwin, who sketched birds and beetles in his diary, or Lewis and Clark, who documented every sight from leaves to canoes. In fact, the John Hay Library boasts a rare folio of John James Audubon’s “The Birds of America,” a monument of both art and science.

Biology’s influence on art has been prominent from Da Vinci’s highly researched anatomical studies to the Rhode Island School of Design’s nature lab and the Museum of Modern Art’s recent synthetic biology exhibit. As for the reverse, the sciences are usually less eager to incorporate insights from the arts and humanities because scientific knowledge conventionally enjoys a privileged status.

But increasingly advanced technology may demand a resurgence of artists’ involvement with biology. It is common knowledge that artists are charged with the

task of representation, but scientists could learn a bit from them.

Such technological advances as chromosome dyes and neuroimaging call into question how best to represent physical phenomena. The color-coded pictures of brains seen in scientific journals and popular magazines started off as measurements of electrical currents that require extensive manipulation to become decipherable as results. This knowledge, like the observation of rocks, is indirectly gathered and inherently removed from its object.

It is generally not appropriate to quote Martin Heidegger in a college newspaper, but this is too fitting: “The essence of modern technology lies in … the destining of revealing.” Translation: Technology, broadly defined to include artists’ and scientists’ tools, reveals a truth while also determining what that truth is.

In this way, man-made inventions paradoxically hold sway over popular conceptions of nature.

Microscopes, cameras, pencil and plaster are technologies used in both art and biology to visualize and create elegant models of natural phenomena ranging from DNA to mountains. Art can provide scientists — or students trying to effectively memorize diagrams for science exams — with creative techniques to show nature and to preordain how it is seen.

Revealing and destining are two sides of the same coin of any technology used in any field, but the intervention of art in science may give rise to an emphasis on the latter.

Sociologist Nikolas Rose claims that recent discoveries surrounding the Human Genome Project have made biology flat — concerned only with the deepest explanatory level, which to many is the molecular.

The thing about flat images is that you can only see them one way. We need to make science 3D and thus viewable from many perspectives: as the creation of a body of knowledge’s destiny, as a model of reality that is not equivalent to reality itself, as a rock whose crevices cut across many axes but never point toward any single true identity that forecloses creativity.

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Violence, segregation and government housing might be heavy fare for a Monday evening, but that did not stop about 40 students, professors and community members from attending a screening of the award-winning “Pruitt-Igoe Myth,” a documentary exploring the decay of the Pruitt-Igoe housing project in St. Louis, Missouri, in the 1960s, at the Perry and Marty Granoff Center for the Creative Arts.

“Pruitt-Igoe Myth” lives up to its critical acclaim — it was featured in the 2011 Los Angeles Film Festival, among others.

The documentary skillfully presented testimonials from both former residents and experts to explain the “hyper-segregation” in St. Louis and how it played into the actual, physical decay of the housing project. The beautifully structured film lacks neither personality nor emotion.

The testimonials transform what might have been a dry and uninteresting topic into an emotional appeal to the audience. The speakers portray the housing project as a neighborhood rather than a government housing initiative.

The film furthered understanding of urban housing, segregation and the problems that residents face.

It follows the decline of the Pruitt-Igoe housing project from positive origins to its ultimate destruction. After the buildings existed in decrepit condition for several years — residents lived in filth without heat or maintenance — tenants were instructed to vacate their homes. Millions of Americans watched the buildings crumble on national television.

Rhode Island School of Design professors Lynette Widder and Ijlal Muzaffer decided to hold the screening as a supplement to a course they are co-teaching this semester called “Positions and Practice.” The course’s focus on humanitarian design plays into the documentary’s theme.

But “Pruitt-Igoe Myth” focuses more on social problems in 20th century America such as segregation and poverty. The documentary never really hits upon the critique of modernist design that is central to the architectural debate surrounding the issue. Widder said she would have included more on the death of modernism if she had directed the film.

“One of our goals in the class is to expand the role of architecture,” Muzaffer said. “It is limiting to architects and designers to not pay attention to the larger discussion.”

When the documentary began 10 minutes after the scheduled start time, original film from the

time period shot up on the screen, and the accompanying score evoked the drama and sadness being revealed. Minutes later, it became clear that the music was overpowering the voice track — there were some definite technical problems.

Several members of the audience requested something be done about the audio, but no one knew who was in charge of the screening. Several more decided to get up and leave.

Showing up 20 minutes late, Widder and Muzaffer discovered the technical problems were due to the unplugging of cables during building maintenance earlier in the day. At 7:05 p.m. — 35 minutes after the screening was set to begin — the film officially restarted about 20 minutes into the program. The audience, less 25 members, was left to wonder what was said in those first moments — a breakdown similar to the decay of the Pruitt-Igoe housing project.

Widder and Muzaffer are using a RISD Kyobo grant, which encourages inter-disciplinary study, to teach the course and hold various events at the CAC. Both were disappointed with the technical issues the screening faced and are now trying to hold another screening for a wider audience. Details have not been finalized.

6 Arts & Culture

The Brown Daily Herald Friday, November 11, 2011

Simultaneous national theater event explores gay relationships By sophia seawell Staff Writer

Gay marriage became legal in the state of New York July 24, 2011, and celebration erupted in LGBTQ communities across the country.

But what about the places where gay marriage is not yet legal? What about couples that choose not to marry? How do violence and resistance continue to affect gays across the country? “Standing on Ceremony,” a series of 11 mini-plays co-produced by the Department of Theatre Arts and Performance Studies and the Trinity Repertory Company, attempts to answer these questions.

“Standing on Ceremony” took place in over 50 theaters and universities simultaneously. There was a live-streaming introduction before the play and a question and answer session with the directors afterward.

The audience could submit questions via Twitter, but Stuart Theatre experienced technical difficulties and turned the live stream off early so the play could begin.

For Kristy Choi ’15, a supporter of gay marriage, the shared experience of “Standing on Ceremony” is what made the event memorable.

“This moment is special to us,” she said, “but we’re all united by the same message.”

“The Revision” — written by Jordan Harrison MFA’03 and directed

by Associate Artistic Director of Trinity Repertory Company Tyler Dobrowsky — featured a couple revising the traditional vows to highlight the way domestic partnerships and civil unions are treated differently under the law. To reflect these discrepancies, the couple change “husband” to “partner,” change “lawfully wedded” to “lawfully civilunioned domestic partner-ed” and “in sickness or in health” to “with best wishes for your continuing existence.” Though humorous, the play reminded the audience that separate is not the same as equal.

Wendy MacLeod’s “This Flight Tonight” reflected on how the majority of states still do not allow gay couples to marry. While waiting to board a flight to Iowa, Allie complains to her fiance that she wanted their friends to be at the wedding and that she had pictured the ceremony on the beach where the couple lived in California. “We can’t get married in California,” her partner reminded her. The play, also directed by Dobrowsky, successfully shows that while gay couples are not so different from their straight counterparts — one of the women expresses the universal fear of monogamy and the commitment that comes with marriage — they have unique obstacles placed in their way.

“On Facebook,” produced by the TAPS department, presented

a dramatization of an actual Facebook thread, capturing the way in which politics is currently debated on the social media website. A status lamenting the repeal of same sex-marriage in Maine causes a fiery debate, mostly between Bev, who says of gay marriage, “(The government) cannot and will not legislate biology,” and Shane, who asks in response, “Why should your thoughts … govern my choices?”

Doug Wright wrote the play, and Assistant Professor of Theatre Arts and Performance Studies Eng-Beng Lim directed. Alp Ozcelik ’13 also assistant directed. It effectively portrayed both the cliches and the individual emotional reactions that characterize these conversations.

Not all of the plays used humor to make their point — “London Mosquitoes,” also produced by the TAPS department, did quite the opposite. The play — written

by Moises Kaufman and directed

by Assistant Professor of Theatre Arts and Performance Studies Kym Moore — is about the eulogy a man gives at the funeral of his deceased partner, Paul. Ned Riseley ’12 was an assistant director.

The two men met in college, where they would double-date with girls and then go back to Paul’s room and “mess around.” One night, before leaving the room, Paul gave his future partner a kiss. The next day, when the man asked Paul what

the kiss meant, Paul responded, “I guess it means we should stop dating girls.” They remained together for the next 46 years. When gay marriage was legalized in New York, the main character asked his partner if they should get married.

“What does that say about the last 45 years?” Paul asked. “That we were just messing around? I stopped messing around the day I kissed you.” The intense romance of their story, coupled with the tragedy of Paul’s death, made “London Mosquitoes” the most poignant piece of the evening.

“London Mosquitoes” had a powerful effect on several audience members. “It gives me hope that true love exists for gay people, too,” said Leandro Zaneti ’12, the production manager of sound.

“It felt real,” said Irene RojasCarroll ’15, who identifies as queer.

“I could imagine it happening to me. I could imagine myself up there.”

“I loved the range,” said Zach Etheart, a student at Columbia University. “There was the hilarious and absurd and the heartbreaking, but it was still cohesive.”

Members of the Trinity Repertory Company, Brown undergraduate and graduate students, Rhode Island College students and actors from the 2nd Story Theatre in Warren and the Sandra FeinsteinGamm Theatre in Pawtucket par-

ticipated in the plays.

Rebecca Schneider, the chair of TAPS, wrote in an email to The Herald that the department was grateful for the opportunity. “Marriage equality is a human rights issue, and we in the Brown community should do everything we can to raise awareness, foster open debate and explore the questions involved,” she wrote.

“I am excited and relieved that many of these plays aren’t explicitly political but rather focus on the lived experiences of the ordinary people affected by discriminatory laws and social exclusion,” wrote Gabe Schwartz ’13, advocacy chair of the Queer Alliance in an email to The Herald.

Despite some technical difficulties with the live stream at the beginning and end of the plays, the event turned out “better than hoped,” said Emily Bruce, TAPS department manager. She said she was pleasantly surprised by “the response that actors got from the crowd” and the turnout, which exceeded expectations.

In New York, an off-Broadway run of the production kicked off the same night, but the Providence production was one night only.

Though other productions charged, the TAPS production was free. “We didn’t want a money barrier,” Bruce said. “And the point is to raise awareness, not money.”

Science 7

The Brown Daily Herald Friday, November 11, 2011

New method reveals protein structure Alum studies female

sexuality, meditation

By Kate Desimone Contributing Writer

Practically everything the human body does is the work of proteins.

And since the function of a protein is intrinsically tied to its structure, structural changes can have dramatic effects on human health and disease.

Associate Professor of Biology Rebecca Page and Associate Professor of Medical Science Wolfgang Peti have successfully developed a new process to determine the detailed structure of proteins, looking specifically at a protein complex called p38alpha-HePTP. Their findings, published Nov. 6 in the online journal Nature Chemical Biology, could have significant applications in the development of new pharmaceuticals.

The team’s research focused on p38, a member of the kinase family of enzymes. These proteins are part of the signaling pathway that initiates cellular response mechanisms, such as inflammation, cell death, growth and differentiation.

When the kinase malfunctions, it can cause Alzheimer’s disease, rheumatoid arthritis and cancer, Page said.

Their new method for determining protein structure integrates small-angle X-ray scattering and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, allowing a greater level of detail and representing “a new wavefront of biology,” said Dorothy Koveal GS, co-author of the study.

A greater-resolution molecular structure tells pharmaceutical developers which region a new drug should target to prevent diseaserelated kinase functions. “This is an entirely novel pathway for drug development,” Page said. It is relatively easy to find a drug that shuts off the kinase completely, but since kinases carry out a number of

continued from page 1

Peti Lab

An innovative method determined the detailed structure of a protein complex that may help drug development for the protein’s disease and cancer-related malfunctions.

other essential cell functions, this is not an ideal course of action, she added.

Page and Peti aimed to figure out how the protein HePTP interacts with the kinase p38. They used nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, which allows researchers to determine a protein’s chemical composition, giving a hint of the complex’s structure.

Looking at the differences in chemical composition of p38 compared to that of the p38alphaHePTP complex, the team knew which chemical subunits of p38 were affected by HePTP binding.

Therefore, they knew which regions of the kinase were directly involved in its interaction with HePTP. Small-angle X-ray scattering then allowed researchers to determine the protein’s three-dimen-

sional shape.

The research team is now looking to use their innovative technique to examine the structures of similar protein complexes, Page said.

The research was “quite laborintensive,” said Dana Francis GS, lead author of the paper.

For the SAXS data collection, the team would sometimes work 12-hour nights, from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., at the Brookhaven National Laboratory facility on Long Island.

“We would be up all night collecting data … and kind of going a little crazy,” Francis said.

The research also required very careful preparation of the samples, Page said. Several times, the team members would have to take shifts to carry out 72 hours of continuous preparation.

Calcium build-up leads to speedy tan

By Adam toobin Staff Writer

Humans can tan easier and faster than previously thought, according to a recent paper from the Department of Molecular Pharmacology, Physiology and Biotechnology.

Using the same mechanisms the eye uses to sense light, human skin can “see” ultraviolet light, almost immediately inducing tanning.

When UV light hits human skin, it triggers the accumulation of calcium in the skin cells. This build-up leads to higher levels of melanin, the chemical that causes the pigmentation of the skin, giving skin a darker tint known as a tan.

Scientists previously thought it took several days to produce a tan after exposure to UV rays, and Elena Oancea, assistant professor of medical science and lead author of the report, said her team encountered significant resistance from peer reviewers because the results were so unexpected. The five authors were forced to repeat their results to reduce doubts,

Oancea said.

Melanocytes, long-lasting skin cells, have the same proteins as the eye’s retina that detect light. But when these proteins in skin cells sense UV, they initiate a very different response from their cousins in the eye. “The tan is actually a self-defense mechanism,” Oancea said. UV light elicits the production of melanin in skin cells because it absorbs sunlight and protects the cell’s DNA from damage.

Despite the apparent health benefit of tanned skin, Oancea denies that attraction to tanned people might have any evolutionary significance. “Attractiveness is man-made,” she said. “If magazines showed fair-skinned models … people would find that type of skin more attractive.”

The researchers treated a tissue culture of human skin cells with a fluorescent calcium dye so the sample would glow in the presence of calcium. Oancea and her team, which included Jonathan Ciriello ’15, shined UV light onto the tissue culture and were shocked when in just 10 to 20 seconds the

cells lit up, Oancea said.

“The results were surprising,” she said. “It was a great feeling.”

The researchers noticed that only UVA light activated the chain of events that results in tanning. While UVA light makes up the vast majority of UV light, 5 percent is UVB — the carcinogen that causes melanoma. “The presence of UVA helps protect against UVB,” Oancea said. Melanocytes can stay in the body for 10 years, so they need to protect themselves. A mutation in a melanocyte can lead to melanoma, a particularly deadly cancer.

Humans are the only species that tan, which makes animal trials difficult. The uniqueness of human skin cells limits researchers’ ability to test the implications of these findings, Oancea said. Humans presumably developed this function after losing body hair.

Most other animals have body hair, so the sun poses less of a threat to their skin. Researchers at other labs are working on developing mice genetically modified to have human skin, Oancea said.

some answers in a data set from a large study on the effects of meditation on college students that is still being analyzed.

A unique aspect of the Britton lab is that Silverstein was able to investigate a question of personal interest, rather than simply work on an existing project, she said. Which also probably explains why the lab is overflowing — Britton said she gets a new research assistant application every week. “The lab operates on a much more personal and organic level,” Britton said.

Britton asks her students to think about how science can be done personally. “If the research you’re doing isn’t personally tapping into your own suffering, then you’re not doing it right,” she said she tells them. “This lab is about studying the sources of suffering and the alleviation of suffering. … Everyone suffers, so if this isn’t personally meaningful to you, then control, alt, delete. … Reboot.”

Silverstein’s study looked at three different groups. Two of the groups, one female and one male, were taught to practice meditation, while the control group of women were not. The subjects were presented with a series of photographs from the International Affective Picture System and were asked to rank the images on an arousal scale from one to nine. The researchers used reaction time as a proxy for interoceptive awareness, the ability to register bodily changes.

Four of the 31 photographs, such as a steamy shot of a man and woman making out, were erotic, chosen because they incite similar reactions in men and women. “When you show penises and vagina, men are like ‘yeah!’ and women are like ‘ew,’” Britton said.

Women took longer to decide how they felt about the erotic pictures. Britton snapped her fingers — “the men are like that,” she said.

In response to the other photos, both men and women had the same reaction time.

“We think the reason why women are taking longer is because they’re having all sorts of self-evaluative thoughts,” Britton said. These thoughts interfere with interoceptive awareness, distracting the women from experiencing their physiological arousal.

A delayed response to photographs was found to be significantly correlated to self-judgement, lack of self-compassion and increased anxiety.

After meditation training, the subjects retook the tests. “Every single one of our hypotheses panned out,” Britton said.

All of the psychological barriers were corrected in the meditating group of women, and their response time decreased. The control group of women, who took a music class instead of practicing meditation, showed no changes.

“When you have meditation address those concerns, to reduce anxiety, to reduce self judgment, then they can respond quicker to how their bodies feel,” said Annie Brown ’12, co-author of the paper.

Though previous studies have suggested that meditation is associated with improvements in bodily awareness and sexual dysfunction, this is the first to look exclusively at the effect of meditation.

“Whether it’s women at Brown or whatever cohort you want to identify, … we are really used to judging ourselves pretty harshly,” Silverstein said. “It can be pretty damaging to the psyche.”

This is why people gravitate toward contemplative studies at Brown, she said. “They get a taste of it, and they are like, ‘Oh my god, this is what I’ve been missing.’”

There have been 11 independent contemplative studies concentrators in the past five years, and many more students have built contemplative elements into their existing studies, Roth said. This year, Roth and other contemplative studies initiative faculty plan to apply for formal concentration status, which Roth said he thinks might double the number of concentrators. With the help of a three-year $150,000 grant from the Hershey Family Foundation, the initiative has hosted a series of lectures and workshops.

The doctrine of self-compassion “is definitely true in the bedroom, but pretty universally it is a hugely important,” Silverstein said. A “bad sex life is only one side effect,” Britton agreed. “Brown kids are not going to have any problem in life, but they are going to have a problem enjoying it because they can’t stop thinking about what they’re not good at.”

8 Sports Friday

The Brown Daily Herald Friday, November 11, 2011

Bruno prepared for Big Green rushers Young squad aiming

for fast start to season

continued from page 1 In the Big Green’s win over Cornell (3-5, 1-4) last week, Schwieger ran for 257 yards, breaking his own school single-game rushing record and eclipsing the 1,000-yard mark for the second straight season. Currently, he leads the Ivy League in rushing, averaging 127 yards per game.

The Big Green also poses a rushing threat with running backs Dominick Pierre and Greg Patton, a converted quarterback who is brought in for wildcat formations.

Much like the offense the Bears saw against Stony Brook (6-3) in the first game of the season, Dartmouth is a run-first team — quarterback Conner Kempe has thrown for half as many yards as Brown quarterback Kyle Newhall-Caballero ’11.5.

Still, Smithwick cautioned against overlooking the Dartmouth offense outside of Schwieger.

“This season, we’ve seen all different types of offenses and offensive weapons,” Smithwick said. “We know they’ll want to pound the ball, but they also have weapons all around the field. So we’re definitely going to be ready, and we realize it’s going to be another tall order for us in a league game.”

But the Bears defense has proven it is up to the task of stopping anyone this season. The unit ranks first in the Ivy League in scoring defense, surrendering only 16.2 points per game. In a 34-28 win over Yale (4-4, 3-2) last week, the Bears held the Bulldogs to a mere seven net rushing yards.

On the other side of the ball, Newhall-Caballero and the Bears will be matched up against a defense that has been inconsistent all season. Dartmouth shut out Columbia (0-8, 0-5) three weeks ago, only to surrender 41 points to Harvard the following Saturday. Led by tri-

continued from page 12

David Silverman / Herald

Stephen Peyton ‘12 and the Bears look to keep their win streak alive against Dartmouth tomorrow.

captain cornerback Shawn Abuhoff — also a dangerous returner — and safety Joey Casey, the Big Green will look to slow down a Brown attack that is averaging 24 points per game.

“They’re pretty big up front, and they have some athletes out on the edge,” Newhall-Caballero said. “They move around pretty well and try to just keep things in front of them and make plays when they can.”

Brown’s offense comes into the game fresh off one of its strongest individual performances of the year. In the win over Yale, running back Mark Kachmer ’13 ran for 192 yards — 95 of which came on

the longest run in school history — and scored three touchdowns.

While Kachmer rides the hot hand into the matchup, the passing game has been strong all year.

Newhall-Caballero ranks second in the Ivy League in yards per game and has thrown 14 touchdowns and only three interceptions this season. A trio of Bears’ wide receivers — Tellef Lundevall ’13, Alex Tounkara-Kone ’11.5 and Jimmy Saros ’12 — all rank in the top 10 in the league in receptions per game.

The matchup will be the final home game of the season and Senior Day for 28 Bears. The class of 2012 has a 26-12 overall record, has been a part of four Ivy teams with winning records and was part of the 2008 Ivy League championship team.

“It’s hard to believe it’s going to be our last home game for our senior class,” Smithwick said. “We’re trying not to get absorbed in everything else that’s going on. We just want to take care of business.”

Though Harvard is in the driver’s seat for the Ivy crown and controls its own destiny, its final two games against two-time defending champion Penn (5-3, 4-1) and at Yale will not be cakewalks.

If Harvard wins its final two games, Brown could conceivably finish at 6-1 in league play and still come in second. But both Smithwick and Newhall-Caballero said the team is not concerned with any of that.

“We have Dartmouth this week, and that’s what we’re going to focus on,” Newhall-Caballero said. “We’re going to go out and do everything we can to win this game and worry about what we can control. We can’t control what goes on in the Harvard game. We’re just going to play out the rest of our season and see what happens.”

’13. “I expect a lot of heart and a lot of want.”

The team returns four sophomores and three juniors, many of whom gained valuable experience early in their careers.

“Although we are young, we have guys who have played a lot of minutes since their freshman year,” said co-captain Matt Sullivan ’13. “So I think we are actually a relatively experienced team.”

Halpern, Sullivan, Andrew McCarthy ’13 and Tyler Ponticelli ’13 are the squad’s only returning upperclassmen. Halpern, the team’s leading returning scorer, averaged 12.6 points and 4.5 rebounds in 28.7 minutes per game last season.

Sullivan made a transition from point guard to shooting guard last year and averaged 5.7 points, including a career-high 22 points against Princeton. McCarthy has been an imposing defensive presence, and his 63 career blocks rank eighth-best in school history. Ponticelli, who sat out his freshman year due to injury, returned last season to play in 23 games for the Bears.

Sean McGonagill ’14, who stepped in as the team’s starting point guard last season, will be expected to help lead the team this season after being unanimously named Ivy Rookie of the Year last season. McGonagill was the team’s ironman and started all 28 games, during which he racked up 11.8 points, 4.4 rebounds and 5.4 assists on average. His 39-point performance against Columbia tied the Brown first-year scoring record. He also set a new freshman record with 147 assists on the season.

McGonagill shared some words of wisdom for the incoming firstyears who will be forced to contribute early on.

“The biggest thing is just keep-

ing your head and going stepby-step,” he said. “Don’t let the pressure get to you. Have a short term memory, but also look back on your mistakes and learn from them.”

The Bears will be dealing with the loss of a strong senior class, which included Peter Sullivan ’11, Matt Sullivan’s brother. Peter Sullivan, who ranks fourth on the school’s all-time scoring list, was sidelined for five league matchups last season, which Agel said helped prepare the team for his departure.

Bruno’s schedule this year includes a program-record 15 home games, with five of the team’s first six league matchups slated to be played in the Pizzitola Center. The squad will also be traveling to New York for the National Invitation Tournament Season Tip-Off and will face two early tests — against Iowa on the road and Providence College at home.

“We’ve had more home games here in the past few years than they’ve had in ages, so that’s obviously a positive,” Agel said. “You want to play at home to be able to build momentum going into the Ivy League season.”

The Bears face a difficult conference schedule, with many Ivy opponents boasting veteran squads. Harvard — led by reigning Ivy League Player of the Year Keith Wright — was the unanimous preseason pick to take home the league title.

The Bears will open their season at the Pizzitola Center Friday night at 5 p.m. against Johnson and Wales.

Though its first matchup comes against a Division III opponent, McGonagill said the team is treating this game no differently than an Ivy League one.

“Either way, every game is competitive,” he said. “No matter who (we are) facing, we are playing our hardest.”

W. basketball opens play with eye on revenge continued from page 12 nology Sunday afternoon. The Bears have bitter memories from last year’s game against NJIT. “There is some serious revenge after last year,” Nickel said. “We lost to them in a last-second play in a game that we were up.”

“This is the kind of challenge that we want in the non-Ivy season,” Burr said. “You always want to play tough opponents in the non-Ivy play, so we know what we need to work on.”

But Daniels said the Bears have made plenty of improvements and are prepared for the season

opener.

“We have been doing a lot of post improvement,” Daniels said.

“Other teams know we have excellent shooters, but we have been working on evening it out, getting better looks inside.”

Burr said the team wants to use the non-Ivy season as a way to get themselves ready for league play.

“We will look at each game as an opportunity,” Burr said. “An opportunity to build on some of the things that we will need to strengthen and polish up.”

The action starts this evening at the Pizzitola Center against UNH at 7:30 p.m.

twitter.com/the_herald

Sports Friday 9

The Brown Daily Herald Friday, November 11, 2011

Sheehan ’12 is now taking your letters continued from page 12 if it’s on your newspaper column.

Could you make another boring elaboration on NBA labor talks so I can leave him in his kennel overnight this weekend?” — Kelsey, 19, Wickenden Street, Providence, R.I. The NBA lockout, as I’ve outlined before, is a lot more serious than the NFL lockout earlier this year. It certainly seems like it’s going to come down to this latest round of talks. If the players don’t agree to the owners’ terms, it’s very likely that we are going to see a move to decertify the players’ union and pursue legal action. If that happens, the season is as good as dead.

“I’m an Indianapolis Colts fan, and I’m pretty sure we shouldn’t try to win another game all season.

We should change nothing and hope Curtis Painter doesn’t get hurt. It’d be awful if the next guy was actually good. What should we do if we get the first pick in the draft next year with regards to Andrew Luck? P.S. I just drew some clever graffiti.” — Timothy, 20, the Sciences Library bathroom, Providence, R.I. Great question, Tim. Luck seems to be a young, guaranteed All-Star quarterback. With Peyton Manning’s health concerns, it might be difficult to decide what to do. Teams like the Miami Dolphins will be dying to trade up for him, so you could exploit their needs and get more picks by letting them have Luck. Personally, I think you draft him and give him a couple of years on the bench being groomed

by Manning, who will probably go down as the greatest quarterback that ever lived. Then, you could trade the aging Manning to a team that needs a quarterback and get whatever young stars you might need in the deal.

“Do you think the New England Patriots’ recent losses are the reason for the return of your night terrors and bed-wetting?”

— Dominique, 18, Hunter Laboratory, Providence, R.I. What? How do you know about tha ... Oh, it’s a joke. Haha!

To answer the question, it certainly seems like my beloved Pats actually suck for the first time since 2002. Bluntly put, I don’t think the New York Giants are a great team this year. They had a pretty easy schedule for the first half of the season. Then again, the Patriots lost to them. The logical conclu-

sion? The Pats are bad. The personification of our defense would be Frankenstein’s monster, cobbled together from old, dead careers. If we don’t see a win this week against the New York Jets, it will make for dark days in New England.

“Is there any reason to feel bad for Joe Paterno ’50?” — Everyone trying to figure out this Penn State scandal, Everywhere, USA. The fact that his career had to end this way is tragic. He is probably the greatest coach in the history of college football. If you caught footage of the rallies that students were putting on in support of him, it’s clear how beloved he is. That being said, I don’t think anyone should be pitying Joe. If these allegations are true, and Mike McQueary told Paterno nine years ago that he saw a young boy being sexually assaulted by assistant coach Jerry Sandusky, and Paterno thought that telling the athletic director was enough, then it’s not really a question. You don’t let sex abuse slide and get to keep your job. Even if Paterno didn’t realize the full extent of Sandusky’s behavior, this is the kind of thing you have to follow up on. If this really was as overlooked and ignored as it is being reported, then we are talking about four or more grown men doing very little to stop child abuse. That’s unacceptable.

It’s sad that it had to end this way, but don’t feel sad for him.

“You have been tagged in 14 pictures in Lisa Ann’s album: ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ screening!” — Facebook, 7, Your Computer, Providence, R.I. I don’t know what this email is.

They must have the wrong address.

“With the Boston Bruins looking terrible in the early goings of the NHL season, the Boston Celtics locked out and only getting older, the Boston Red Sox coming off the worst collapse in baseball history, and the Patriots in a bona fide swoon, what sport are we going to raise our children on?” — Your Future Wife, Somewhere Big Enough For a Dog, USA I hear Major League Soccer is making a comeback. (Breaks down into hysterical tears.)

Sam Sheehan ’12 would love to do one of these with actual emails. Talk sports with him at sam_sheehan@brown.edu or follow him on Twitter @SamSheehan.

Mandel ’12 on memories and mess-ups continued from page 12 the Ivy League title.

Were you thinking about the title while you were taking the penalty kick?

Actually, no. Right when they called the penalty kick, I sprinted to get the ball so I could take the kick. I didn’t want anyone else to take it.

What is your most memorable soccer moment at Brown?

Hopefully it’s going to be on Saturday, after we win the Ivy League. But up to this point, making it to the round of 16 was pretty cool and getting to go to California. And just being in the NCAA tournament is awesome because you get treated like royalty.

You get good meals, you get nice hotels — it’s great. I hope we get another chance to do that this year, but winning the Ivy League would definitely be the top moment.

What inspired you to start playing soccer in the first place?

Probably my brother. It was a long time ago. I’ve played all different sports growing up. I played basketball, and I was hopeless in that because I was too short.

Who are some of your favorite soccer players and why?

Currently, Barcelona because their whole team, the best players are pretty much five-seven and under, and they rule the soccer world, so they’re probably my favorite.

Like (Lionel) Messi is awesome, and (Andres) Iniesta, those are my two favorite players. They’re small, they’re not incredibly athletic, but they’re close to the best players in the world.

What is your funniest or most embarrassing soccer moment?

Actually, it happened during a penalty kick where I went up — it was a little wet, so it wasn’t completely my fault — but I slipped, and barely touched the ball, and the goalie just ran and picked it up.

Luckily I was young, so it wasn’t that big of a deal. It was my first year of competitive soccer, so I was probably 11 or 12.

What are you going to miss the most about Brown?

Not having any responsibilities. I’m going to miss the team.

We were a really close group of kids and we get along really well.

Even if we have a little quarrel or misunderstanding in practice, we squash it pretty quickly. I’ve been

comics Cloud Buddies! | David Emanuel

Chester Crabson | Tess Carroll

lucky.

If you could have dinner with any three people, who would they be?

I don’t even know where to begin. I’d pick Iniesta, the soccer player on Barcelona. I just think he’d be an awesome person to hang out with. I would also choose — you’re going to get my really broad personality sense right here — I’m going to go with Seth Rogen, because I think we’d get along for some reason. And Scarlett Johansson, because she’s gorgeous and she’d just be good for us to look at while we eat dinner.

What would you say to your fellow classmates who agree with President Ruth Simmons’ recommendation that the University cut 20 admission slots for recruited athletes?

We’ve had a pretty rich history of athletics here and all the Ivy League schools have a pretty rich history in athletics. I understand why a lot of people would get upset at the fact that some of us get in over other people, but I would want them to know that all the work they put in academically, we also put in, and we put in work athletically.

10

The Brown Daily Herald Friday, November 11, 2011

diamonds & Coal

Editorial cartoon

by lo r e n f u lto n

A diamond to the plan to install a “Digital Scholarship Lab,” essentially a 16-by-7-foot, super-high-resolution television, in the Rockefeller Library by next fall. Administrators have also announced plans for an “Aquatic Studies Space” hot tub in the Sciences Library and a five-foot “Mind Expansion Accelerator” bong in the Perry and Marty Granoff Center for the Creative Arts.

A cubic zirconium to the 1 percent of student respondents to the Herald poll who expressed an interest in participating in an offcampus Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program. Apparently the 1 percent has started a movement of its own: Occupy Afghanistan.

Coal to the Brown study abroad program at the University of Cantabria, which was designed specifically for engineering concentrators and initially failed to attract a single applicant. If a program is created in the middle of Spain, and no one is around to attend it, does it really exist? Sorry, this is why no one designs programs specifically for philosophy concentrators.

A diamond to the team of undergraduates who have set out to crack the shorthand cipher allegedly written by Rhode Island founder Roger Williams in the margins of a 17th-century book in the holdings of the John Carter Brown Library. A word of advice to the sleuths: The crow flies at midnight — if you know what we mean.

A cubic zirconium to Gina Silverstein ’09.5, who in the course of her recent study inspired by the Contemplative Studies Initiative, found women reporting that during sex, “I start thinking about other things. … And then I’m like, ‘Oh my god, my room is a mess.’” That’s what she thought.

A diamond to Adjunct Assistant Professor of Modern Culture and Media David Bering-Porter, who told The Herald, “Zombies are the proletarian monster.” Yeah, werewolves are so bourgeois.

Coal to “The Virgin Suicides” and “Middlesex” author Jeffrey Eugenides ’83, who set his latest work, “The Marriage Plot,” on Brown’s campus in the 1980s. He told The Herald, “Brown really hadn’t had that many novels. … I decided I would try to rectify that.” By that, Eugenides of course means he will be donating all proceeds from sales of his book to the Library’s acquisition fund.

Coal to former star quarterback Joe Paterno ’50, who was fired

by Pennsylvania State University Wednesday night amid a sexual abuse scandal seizing his football program. Paterno admitted that what his former defensive coordinator did was bad but said it was nothing compared to what Brown football is going to do to Dartmouth tomorrow.

Coal to the car masturbator, who was caught by police late last night at the corner of Hope Street and Young Orchard Avenue.

Though the naked John Street masturbator — who has rocked the East Side with a months-long masturbation spree — remains at large, early signs indicate that the car masturbator won’t beat the rap: He was caught wet-handed.

t h e b r ow n da i ly h e r a l d Editors-in-Chief

Managing Editors

Senior Editors

Sydney Ember Ben Schreckinger

Brigitta Greene Anne Speyer

Dan Alexander Nicole Friedman Julien Ouellet

editorial Kristina Fazzalaro Rebecca Ballhaus Claire Peracchio Talia Kagan Amy Rasmussen Tony Bakshi Ethan McCoy Ashley McDonnell Sam Rubinroit Anita Mathews Sam Carter Hunter Fast

Arts & Culture Editor City & State Editor City & State Editor Features Editor Assistant Features Editor News Editor Sports Editor Sports Editor Assistant Sports Editor Editorial Page Editor Opinions Editor Opinions Editor

Graphics & Photos Abe Pressman Emily Gilbert Rachel Kaplan Glenn Lutzky Jesse Schwimmer

Graphics Editor Photo Editor Photo Editor Assistant Photo Editor Sports Photo Editor

Production Dan Towne Olivia Conetta Anna Migliaccio Katie Wilson Leor Shtull-Leber Neal Poole

Copy Desk Chief Assistant Copy Desk Chief Design Editor Design Editor Design Editor Web Producer

Business General Managers Matthew Burrows Isha Gulati

Office Manager Shawn Reilly

Directors Aditi Bhatia Danielle Marshak Margot Grinberg Lisa Berlin

Sales Finance Alumni Relations Special Projects

Managers Justin Lee Collections Collections Sam Plotner Nicky Robbins Invoice Staff Kevin Lynch Daniel Slutsky Analytics Jared Davis Sales and Communications Alumni Engagement Nikita Khadloya Emily Simmons Ad Relations Human Relations James Eng Angel Lee Business Development Owen Millard Business Development Gregory Chatzinoff Web Relations Post- magazine Editor-in-Chief Sam Knowles Editor-in-Chief Amelia Stanton BLOG DAILY HERALD David Winer Editor-in-Chief Matt Klimerman Managing Editor

le tter to the editor Eugenides ’83 reconstructs an odd campus To the Editor: Regarding your article on “The Marriage Plot” by Jeffrey Eugenides ’83 (“‘The Marriage Plot’: refraction of the real?” Nov. 8): Reading it now and at least one teacher is named outright, Professor Sears Jayne, but others are half-deconstructed. Zipperstein is very obviously Professor Emeritus of Modern Culture and Media Robert Scholes. The geography is very odd.

Much of the school seems to exist on Benefit or South

Main streets, people walk up to Hope Street from Wayland Arch, never turn but arrive on Wickenden Street and not Wayland Square. Madeleine lives in an apartment house, but no apartment house is around there. I don’t think anything was ever knocked down on Bowen Street. I think maybe Eugenides was stoned for four years at Brown. Very easy reading, middlebrown deconstruction for a best seller.

Richard Steingesser PhD’72

quote of the day

“When you show penises and vagina,

”

men are like ‘yeah!’ and women are like ‘ew.’

— Willoughby Britton, assistant professor of psychiatry and human behavior See bedroom on page 1.

Corrections Due to incorrect information supplied by a source, an article in Tuesday’s Herald (“New website builds entrepreneur community,” Nov. 8) incorrectly stated that the “Internships and Jobs” section of Browninnovation.org displays positions offered by local and alumni start-ups. In fact, any start-up company can display available positions, and the site is not limited to local entrepreneurs. The article also incorrectly stated that the new website provides a database of entrepreneurs’ profiles. In fact, there is no directory of people on the site. The same article incorrectly stated that the website may be embedded onto the Brown Entrepreneurship Program’s website. In fact, the new website will not be embedded on the program’s website. The Herald regrets the errors.

An article in Wednesday’s Herald (“U. ups diversity funding, staff,” Nov. 9) incorrectly stated that the Office of Student Employment has employed three new full-time staffers. In fact, the Office of Student and Employee Accessibility Services hired three additional full-time staffers. The Herald regrets the error.

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 11

The Brown Daily Herald Friday, November 11, 2011

Occupying the issue of social mobility

By Sam carter Opinions Editor

Two pieces caught my eye in the past week: “The Tyranny of the Meritocracy” by Megan McArdle in the Atlantic and “The Downward Path of Upward Mobility” by Fareed Zakaria in the Washington Post, both of which found their inspiration in a piece written by Brookings Institute fellow Scott Winship in the National Review, “Mobility Impaired.”

All three pieces treat, in some form or another, a troubling new dimension of American exceptionalism: Our current lack of upward social mobility, especially with respect to the ability of those at the bottom to — in the immortal words of Curtis Mayfield — move on up. And it’s pretty clear why this is such a devastating revelation: If we’re forced to point to just one key aspect of the American dream, it’s the idea of social mobility.

Without a sense that upward social mobility is actually possible, the American dream fast becomes an American myth.

I do not want to pretend to offer an explanation for why our upward social mobility is worse now than it was half a century ago or why countries in Europe, whose formerly rigid socio-economic societies impelled many of our ancestors to come to the United States, now offer a better chance at this mobility than we do. Trying to compre-

hend the causes of such disparities is far beyond my intellectual capabilities. But I will — perhaps too boldly — offer a suggestion for how these facts might be effectively used in the current political landscape.

The calling card, rallying cry and signmaking inspiration of the Occupy movement nationwide has been the notion of the 99 percent versus the 1 percent. From Oakland to Wall Street, the 99 percent have been protesting the rapidly increasing concentration of wealth among the nation’s top

Occupy movement is to the Democratic Party what the Tea Party is to the Republican Party.

Regardless of whether this is an appropriate analogy, the fact remains that people still consider the Occupy movement distinctly partisan. Though many protesters are trying to transcend party lines, some will stubbornly refuse to see them in this light. The lack of serious treatment by mainstream media at the movement’s inception certainly did little to help in this respect.

No inconsistency arises from protesting an unfair concentration of wealth and the tremendous obstacles to climbing the socioeconomic ladder.

1 percent of income earners. Say what you will about the 1 percent’s right to its wealth, the fact remains that their incomes have increased at a time when the economy is far from healthy.

From my understanding, the Occupy movement places its emphasis more on the problems of income inequality. But this notion of income inequality seems haunted by the specter of the phrase “redistribution of wealth,” which produces a knee-jerk reaction from some on the conservative end of the political spectrum. Perhaps as a result of this emphasis on income inequality, some commentators have even suggested that the

Here’s my suggestion: a shift in focus from income inequality to social mobility might garner more widespread support for the Occupy movement. If upward social mobility and the Horatio Alger story are in fact the key components of the American dream, then Americans from both ends of the political spectrum should advocate for its preservation. In other words, placing more emphasis on social mobility will allow the Occupy movement to capture the support not only of those who already find it a worthy cause but also those who might have been put off by the possibility of “redistribution of wealth” that they wrongly thought

lurked behind the emphasis on income inequality.

The traits needed to achieve social mobility — including, but not limited to, selfreliance and determination — come straight out of a conservative playbook for the behavior of upstanding citizens. Of course, if reinstating the possibility for social mobility entails bigger government, then these very same conservatives might not be so thrilled.

But even if Occupy were only able to attract those who thought slightly bigger government were a fair price to pay for more social mobility, it still might be a considerable gain.

This proposed shift in no way precludes the Occupy movement from continuing to protest the other issues that are fast becoming its hallmarks. No inconsistency arises from protesting an unfair concentration of wealth and the tremendous obstacles to climbing the socioeconomic ladder. One could even argue that they are, to some extent at least, two sides of the same coin.

Assessing the progress — let alone the efficacy — of the Occupy movement is exceedingly difficult. But what’s clear is the fact that it has, like the Tea Party during the 2010 midterm election cycle, the potential to slowly steep in the national consciousness. More emphasis on the slow disappearance of social mobility might only increase the effect.

Sam Carter ’12 is always open to suggestions. He can be reached at samuel_carter@brown.edu.

It can’t happen here Hunter fast Opinions Editor

The recent child molestation scandal at Pennsylvania State University and its fallout prompt reflection on the set of circumstances that allowed these atrocities to continue unabated for years. Jerry Sandusky, retired assistant football coach and alleged perpetrator, remained free to commit unspeakable acts on children in large part due to a bureaucracy at Penn State that was more committed to the defense of the football team’s image — and ergo, a massive revenue stream — than to the defense of the public.

An examination of the skewed incentives faced by school administrators and university police in responding to allegations against Sandusky demonstrates that a policy of handling criminal accusations against faculty, staff or students in-house represents a ticking time bomb that fundamentally jeopardizes the integrity of the institution. A conflict of interest in which an official’s salary is pitted against his or her obligation to the law creates an unacceptable danger to the public. But this is exactly what transpired at Penn State.

Indeed, Sandusky’s conduct was reported to university police by the mother of one of the victims in 1998. But the director of university police deliberately ordered a halt to the investigation of Sandusky without criminal charges, despite the discovery of at least one other victim.

And Sandusky was allegedly caught in

the act by Penn State personnel twice, first by janitor James Calhoun in 2000, then by graduate assistant Mike McQueary in 2002.

Though Calhoun and McQueary both reported the incidents to supervisors — including head football coach Joe Paterno ’50 — Sandusky was not reported to external law enforcement.

What could have prompted so many officials to ignore Sandusky’s repugnant crimes?

The profit motive is highly salient: According to Forbes, the Penn State football franchise stands to lose at least $10 million in annual revenue, 20 percent of its 2009 profit margin,

ings into its own bureaucracy instead of calling the police — government police, not the ones whose bosses are university administrators.

At Brown, this practice has been demonstrated with several recent sexual assault allegations involving students. While these incidents lack the potential for cataclysmic scandal of the Sandusky case, one case in particular — that of William McCormick and his anonymous accuser — highlights the damage that profit motives can inflict on the cause of criminal justice.

When allegations of rape were brought

Penn State is not the only collegiate institution with a tendency to funnel criminal proceedings into its own byzantine bureaucracy instead of calling the police — government police, not the ones whose salaries are contingent on following the administrators’ lead. over the Sandusky scandal. That, and the fact that the university police fall under the aegis of Penn State’s finance and business division — yes, law enforcement is handled by the same people responsible for ensuring that Penn State makes money — make clear the causes for the delay in bringing Sandusky to justice.

While the parallels between the Sandusky case and child molestation cases in the Catholic Church are obvious, there is a less apparent, but still very pressing, parallel to be drawn. Penn State is not the only institution with a tendency to funnel criminal proceed-

to the University administration against McCormick in 2006, administrators summarily expelled him from campus without anything resembling due process. According to McCormick — as a recent Herald editorial points out, McCormick’s narrative is the only one that has been made public by anyone involved (“The full truth,” Nov. 9) — the University deferred to its profit motive because the alleged victim’s father is an influential University donor.

By McCormick’s assertion, the father of the alleged victim used his wealth to deprive McCormick of his rights as an accused de-

fendant, going so far as to tamper with the process and with witnesses. Unfortunately, because the case was taken up by the University — an arbiter with an obvious conflict of interest — justice may never be possible in this case in any real sense. If McCormick’s allegations are true, then the witnesses have already been compromised to the point of possible inadmissibility in court.

Moreover, if one goes back, one can find numerous other instances of Brown mishandling similar cases, with similar aspersions upon the validity of the administration as a mediator. A 2010 Herald article (“Brown faces dilemma with assault allegations,” April 29, 2010) details several of these instances. One case is that of Adam Lack, a former Brown student who was pushed off campus in a manner similar to McCormick, but who eventually compelled the University to admit that its ad hoc system of criminal justice had failed.

The bungling of criminal investigations by private actors facing private incentives is a repeating process, both at Brown and at Penn State. For the latter, this process culminated in the catastrophic failure to punish among the most horrifying of crimes until it was far too late. This should be a wakeup call for Brown to defer immediately the role it has assumed as a de facto court of law to state authorities, so that unlike the frightened civilians in the Sinclair Lewis novel of the same name, students can say without trepidation that “it can’t happen here.”

Hunter Fast ’12 thinks that the Editorial Page Board’s “investigatory panel” should be a grand jury that is not nominated by the very people it seeks to investigate.

Daily Herald Sports Friday the Brown

Friday, November 11, 2011

Sheehan: Return to sender

M. Basketball

Bear cubs ready to begin Bruno careers

By Sam rubinroit Assistant Sports Editor

Brown is green — not the color or the environmental movement, but in terms of experience on the basketball court.

“We are probably one of the youngest teams in the country,” said men’s basketball Head Coach Jesse Agel. “We have no returning seniors in our program, and probably no other program in the country can say that.”

The Bears’ roster is split evenly between seven players who recorded minutes last season and

W. Basketball

seven who did not. It features five first-years — Christian Gore ’15, Rafael Maia ’15, Jon Schmidt ’15, Joe Sharkey ’15 and Longi Yiljep ’15. The team also welcomes Stephen Albrecht ’13, who sat out the 2010-11 season after transferring from the University of Toledo, and Jean Harris ’12, who took a yearand-a-half hiatus from basketball after playing his freshman and part of his sophomore year.

“We have guys with a mix of a lot of energy, skill and talent,” said co-captain Tucker Halpern

Sam Rubinroit / Herald

continued on page 8

The Bears are looking to Sean McGonagill ‘14 to step up and direct the team this year.

By Sam Sheehan Sports Columnist

M. SocCer

Seasoned Bruno battles Dartmouth for Ivy title 2-1 overtime wins. Small things like at Stevenson Field. In their four Bears set for that have got us here and will hope- years, the group played through fully let us beat Dartmouth, too.” multiple coaching changes and was new year Only 90 minutes stand between “We really picked up the first a key part of two NCAA TournaBy sam wickham Sports Staff Writer

By madeleine wenstrup Sports Staff Writer

Women’s basketball guard Lindsay Nickel ’13 said her team is ready to put practice into action when it tips off this weekend.

“It’s been a long pre-season,” she said. “Two weeks longer than last year, and we are excited to start playing.”

The team returns this year with all five of its starters, including guard Sheila Dixon ’13, 2010-11’s highest-scorer and rebounder on the squad, averaging 11 points per game. Last season, the team came away with a 10-18 overall record, going 6-8 in league play. With no players lost to graduation, Aileen Daniels ’12 said she looks forward to playing on a team where everyone is already on the same page.

“Everyone is back, and we are a lot more comfortable playing with each other,” she said. “We are a lot more confident. We have a lot more poise and are a better-oiled machine.”

With a great dynamic already in place, the pressure is on for the four newcomers on the team.

It has been a shaky start — two first-years are currently recovering from illnesses that put them out for a majority of the pre-season.

But Head Coach Jean Marie Burr said she has no doubt the rookies will add to the team’s level of play.

“They were highly recruited,” she said. “They are tough competitors, and we really need people who love the game, and they look very promising.”

The opening weekend is a big one for the Bears. Bruno goes up today against the University of New Hampshire, whom they beat on the Wildcats’ home court last year. The team will then take on the New Jersey Institute of Techcontinued on page 8

the men’s soccer team and its season-long goal — winning the Ivy League title. The Bears (10-4-2, 4-1-1 Ivy) are set to face Ivy rival Dartmouth (8-5-3, 4-1-1) Saturday at Stevenson Field in a match that will decide who claims the league crown. The championship would be Bruno’s first since the 2007 season and would also grant the Bears an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. But for the moment, the team is trying to focus on the task at hand.

“We’re taking it like just another league game because we don’t want to overthink it,” said Sean Rosa ’12.

Reaching this game has been a year-long process for the Bears. The team had a difficult end to September, losing three out of four games, including a 5-1 loss to the University of Kentucky. But Bruno has not lost a game since Oct. 1.

“We’re a scrappy team,” said Alex Markes ’15. “We pull out those 1-0,

two weeks in October, and we’ve just ridden that,” Rosa said. “We’re starting to peak at a good time.”

Individual players at both ends of the field have been stepping up.

Forward Austin Mandel ’12 scored game-winning goals against Penn and Yale last week, and Markes won Rookie of the Week honors for his staunch defensive play in the two shutout victories. The pair will look to continue their successes against a formidable Big Green side.

“They’re a very strong team,” said Head Coach Patrick Laughlin.

“They have one of the best strikers in the Ivy League, probably one of the best strikers to ever play at Dartmouth. … Beyond him, they are a well-organized, well-coached team. They’re coming here expecting to give us a really difficult challenge, and I know they will.”

Bruno’s eight seniors will be recognized before kickoff Saturday in what will be their last game

ment runs.

“Last year, we had great NCAA success,” Rosa said. “But we felt we were never really able to achieve success in the Ivy League, and I think this year is our year, finally.”

But the league champion might turn out to be neither Brown nor Dartmouth. Cornell could clinch the conference with a win of its own and a tie between the Bears and Big Green. With both teams playing to win, Stevenson Field should be rocking when the players step on the field for the 4 p.m. kickoff.

“It’s a coming together of everything we’ve worked on and learned this year,” Laughlin said. “I want them to enjoy the game and have fun and compete and get out there and do the best they can. Whatever the result is, that’s fine. If you can look at yourself at the end of the game and say, ‘We’ve done everything we can to be successful,’ then that’s a good day.”

(Note to the reader: Sports columnist Sam Sheehan ’12 consumed 17 Diet Dr. Peppers last Tuesday before locking himself in his room and not emerging until the following morning. He awoke to find several emails in his inbox asking him topical sports questions. After tracing the emails, we found that he not only wrote them himself, but he also ordered 15 more cases of Diet Dr. Pepper. He apparently does not remember writing the emails, though he answered all of them.)

“What’s your stance on Carson Palmer? Is he a guy that could pan out for the Oakland Raiders, or do you think it’s a regrettable trade?”

— Doug, 21, Keeney Quadrangle, Providence, R.I. I don’t think there’s any way that any quarterback for the Raiders succeeds while Darren McFadden is injured. Run DMC opens up the defense as the linebackers have to spy him on every play. Without him on the field, they can drop more guys into coverage or run nickel sets — formations with five pass-defenders. This is pretty brutal for Palmer, as the guy has only had four weeks to figure out an entire offense. I don’t think Palmer is the answer at quarterback, but I think the Raiders will be a playoffcaliber team when McFadden gets back.

“I love your column! I have a puppy I’m house training, and for some reason he will only go continued on page 9

Athlete of the Week

Mandel ’12 leads soccer on eve of championship

By Ashley mcdonnell Sports Editor

Forward Austin Mandel ’12 scored the lone goals in the men’s soccer team’s last two victories off penalty kicks. One win came against Penn on a snowy Saturday night at Stevenson Field, and the other came against Yale in overtime last weekend. These two key conference victories set up a dramatic Ivy League showdown tomorrow against Dartmouth, where the winner will be crowned the Ivy champion and receive a berth in the NCAA Tournament. For his clutch kicks from the spot, The Herald has named Mandel Athlete

of the Week.

The Herald: In the past two games, you’ve scored the winning goal off penalty kicks in two key Ivy matchups. What was running through your head when you lined up for those shots?

Mandel: I’ve taken a lot of penalty kicks throughout my career in soccer, so I knew where I was going to go, and I never really change my side. So I had a plan the whole time. I wasn’t that nervous. I knew that, if I hit it well, that the goalie probably wouldn’t save it — especially against Penn, I didn’t think the goalie would be able to move in the snow. And against Yale, the

Emily Gilbert / Herald

Austin Mandel ’12 has developed a knack for game-winning penalty kicks.

goalie guessed right, and there was a moment where my heart stopped because his hand was literally an inch away from the ball, but luckily

I hit it well enough and it went in.

Now we get the chance to play for continued on page 9