Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Daily

Herald

the Brown

vol. cxlvi, no. 114

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Since 1891

Is the University suffering an identity crisis? 20 strike on Main Green to protest UC Davis crackdown

President Ruth Simmons has turned the undergraduate Ivy into a sprawling, global research University. This series examines how the institutional shifts of the last decade impact undergrads and Brown’s future.

By Nicole Friedman Senior Editor

Mission drift?

Part 1 of a 4-part series

The University mission statement grew out of its charter, a document bold enough to create a governance structure for a school with no home, professors or students. The motley crew of New England Baptists and in-

tellectuals that gathered in Newport in 1764 — the original Corporation — had their charter signed by the Royal Governor of Rhode Island, who was appointed by King George III. They could never have foreseen the Watson Institute for International Studies, Alpert Medical School, the Ivy League, celebrity students or the sprawling, global institution the University has become.

The majority of the University’s nearly 250-year history would be unrecognizable to students today. At the beginning there was not only no University Hall, there was no College Hill — Brown, called Rhode Island College before 1804, was located in

Herald file photos

continued on page 2

Though Henry Wriston championed Brown’s identity as a “university-college,” Ruth Simmons has departed from that model and pursued rapid expansion.

By Elizabeth carr Senior Staff Writer

About 20 students and faculty members met on the Main Green at 10 a.m. yesterday in a walk-out supporting the Occupy movement at

city & state

of $118,000 — more than half of the $222,320 awarded in total — was used to purchase Texas Instruments calculators for public school math classrooms in 2009. Members of the committee that oversees the fund said the company’s relationship with Simmons, who currently sits on its board, allowed the fund to take advantage of a steep discount on the calculators.

The steering committee designated providing financial support for local schools particularly important given the troubled state of the Provi-

the University of California at Davis, where campus police used pepper spray against protesters last week.

The meeting was part of a national day of action as students and professors at 58 colleges across the country refused to attend class.

The day of action included a series of soapbox speeches in the afternoon. “We cannot stand for the fact that other students who are peacefully protesting are being attacked by the police,” said Luke LattanziSilveus ’14, addressing 15 students on the Green. “Their struggles are our struggles.”

“That’s just the kind of violence the system spits out on people every day,” said Lindsay Goss GS in another a speech.

“I’ve never really seen a moment like this,” Professor of English William Keach said, referring to the protests that have cropped up across the

continued on page 3

continued on page 5

Local schools fund struggles for money Writer combines fiction and city & state history

By Sahil Luthra Senior Staff Writer

Ha Jin’s rule for writing is straightforward: Make the story “interesting.” Applying that rule is more complicated.

The author ­— whose real name is Jin Xuefei but who has, per Chinese tradition, adopted a pen name — spoke to a crowd of nearly 100 last night in Martinos Auditorium as part of the Year of China. Jin read from his latest novel, “Nanjing Requiem,” and described his writing process.

For Jin, inspiration hit after he arrived in the U.S. as a graduate student. Though he had learned about the Rape of Nanjing when he lived in China, the role of Westerners had been downplayed. One historical figure in particular — Minnie Vautrin, an American missionary who served as the dean of Jinling Women’s College — captured his attention. Vautrin played a key role in establishing a refugee camp at the college, and Jin decided to make her the focus of his novel.

But the road to writing the novel was not easy. Jin, a profes-

inside

continued on page 3

news....................2-4 CITY & State............5 editorial...............6 Opinions................7 SPORTS....................8

Two years after becoming the first black president of an Ivy League university, President Ruth Simmons appointed a committee to investigate the University’s formative ties to the Atlantic slave trade. In 2007, responding to the report submitted by the Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice, which singled out the University’s need to address enduring inequalities in public education due to racial segregation, Brown committed to raising “a permanent endowment

in the amount of $10 million to establish a Fund for the Education of the Children of Providence.”

As Simmons prepares to step down this June, efforts to raise money

for the fund that bears her unmistakable imprint have stalled, sidelined by other development projects in a difficult fundraising climate. The fund’s current value of $1.26 million has not grown since 2009 and lags far behind its original $10 million goal.

The fund’s largest grant payout

Students fall short of sex expectations

By Alexandra Macfarlane Staff Writer

Despite the widespread attention Brown has garnered as the home of the infamous SexPowerGod party, the University is less sexually freewheeling than its reputation suggests. Poll results reveal Brunonians

the herald poll may be having less sex than their peers across the country: Most students have only had one sexual partner or none at all this semester.

According to a recent Herald poll, 37.5 percent have not had any sexual partners this semester, and

36.4 percent have had one. A small percentage — 9.3 percent — had two partners this fall and an even smaller percentage — 5.3 percent — had three to five.

Meanwhile, 44.5 percent of college students nationwide had one sexual partner and 29.2 percent had none in the year spanning spring 2010 to spring 2011, according to the American College Health Association’s National College Health Assessment.

The poll’s findings are consistent with the estimates made by Health Education, a division of Health Services , said Naomi Ninneman, health continued on page 5

New Programs Too Soon The University is expanding its summer abroad offerings

campus news, 2

How many sexual partners have you had so far this semester?

The New Curriculum may be overly free for first-years opinions, 7

Kyle McNamara / Herald

No Charter A proposed academy stirs local controversy City & state, 8

weather

By Morgan Johnson Senior Staff Writer

t o d ay

tomorrow

64 / 52

56 / 37

2 Campus News calendar Today

November 29

4 P.m.

ToMORROW

november 30

5:30 p.m.

How to Find an Internship,

Panel on Summer Research

CareerLAB Library

Opportunities, Petteruti Lounge

8 p.m.

8 p.m.

Special Events Committee’s Candy

Sex and the MTV Culture,

Land, Sayles Hall

Wilson Hall 101

menu SHARPE REFECTORY

VERNEy-WOOLLEY DINING HALL LUNCH

Grilled Tuna Sandwich, Spinach and Feta Pie, Tomato and Feta Quiche, Chocolate Chip Cookies

Shaved Steak Sandwich, Vegan Stuffed Peppers, French Green Beans, Chocolate Chip Cookies

DINNER Sesame Chicken Strips with Mustard Sauce, Vegan Chow Mein and Tofu with Chow Mein Noodles

Turkey Pot Pie, Tortellini Provencale, Baked Potatoes with Sour Cream, Saigon Beef and Ham, Magic Bars

Sudoku

The Brown Daily Herald Tuesday, November 29, 2011

OIP offers new summer programs

By Neelkiran Yalamarthy Contributing Writer

The Office of International Programs is offering several new options for summer abroad programs this year, including an architecture program in Barcelona and history, language and art programs in Greece and Turkey. The OIP will also offer a studio art program in a yet-to-be-determined location in Spain.

Originally directed by the Office of Continuing Education, summer study abroad programs are now managed by the OIP to link “undergraduate experiences abroad,” wrote Dana Pratt, manager of short term study abroad and global initiatives, in an email

shorter programs to help reduce costs. But Pratt added that despite financial issues, there seems to be a “significant interest” in the programs.

Ibeabuchi Oteh ’13 said he is considering summer study abroad as an alternative to an internship.

He called such programs important cultural experiences, but said he wishes there was more dialogue between the OIP and the Office of Financial Aid to better address financial concerns. But he would pursue a summer study abroad regardless of financial aid, he said.

Summer study abroad programs range from four to seven weeks long and vary in enrollment from 12 to 35 students among the seven offered programs.

Wriston’s vision no longer applies to U. continued from page 1

Crossword

to The Herald.

The new summer study abroad programs will remain structurally similar to current ones, she wrote.

Pratt added that the OIP is working to communicate more with the departments leading these programs. It is also considering environmental issues, health care and business as themes for future summer programs, she wrote.

A downside of summer study abroad programs is that University financial aid does not apply to tuition and living expenses. But the OIP is keeping fees at a minimum and offers a small number of need-based grants, Pratt wrote.

The OIP also recommends loans and summer jobs for students in

the nearby town of Warren until 1770. The campus consisted of just one building until 1822. Professors lived on campus and students could only speak to each other in Latin. In 1869, more than a century after its founding, the University enrolled just 195 students.

The language of Brown’s mission statement has been open enough to encompass the University’s activities through centuries, wars and upheavals. As the institution has evolved, so has the means by which it fulfills its mission. For more than a half-century, former President Henry Wriston’s vision of a university-college and the New Curriculum have defined Brown’s approach to satisfying these open-ended goals.

More recently, under President Ruth Simmons, Brown has seen explosive growth and rapid change.

The institutional developments of the past 10 years, laid out and implemented under Simmons’ Plan for Academic Enrichment, have begun reshaping Brown’s identity as it navigates the 21st century.

But while both Wriston’s outline of a university-college and the report

by Ira Magaziner ’69 P’06 P’07 P’10 and Elliot Maxwell ’68 that led to the New Curriculum are built on extensive philosophical underpinnings, the major decisions of the last decade have been made without the same explanation of institutional philosophy.

As the University continues to

Daily

the Brown

expand and invest, it is increasingly unclear not only whether the administration’s interpretation of Brown’s mission is changing but also whether the University community notices or cares.

Without more discussion of the philosophy behind major changes, Brown risks running adrift of its mission without a clear sense of why where it is going is better than where it has been.

As Brown searches for its next leader, this four-part series will place the changes of the last decade in broader context, explore the motivations behind them and examine whether they indicate a drift of mission that requires the attention of all members of the Brown community.

Growing beyond the ‘universitycollege’

The well-worn phrase “university-college” was first used to describe Brown in the early 20th century. But it was Wriston who truly enshrined the term in his 1948 presidential report to the Corporation.

“A university-college is an institution which puts primary emphasis upon the liberal arts, bringing to their cultivation the library, laboratories and personnel resources of a university,” he wrote. “Its central business remains the increase of knowledge, the inculcation of wisdom, the refinement of emotional responses and the development of spiritual awareness.”

The University still alludes to the concept, boasting that Brown

Herald

www.browndailyherald.com 195 Angell St., Providence, R.I.

Ben Schreckinger, President Sydney Ember, Vice President

Matthew Burrows, Treasurer Isha Gulati, Secretary

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

POSTMASTER please send corrections to P.O. Box 2538, Providence, RI 02906.

Periodicals postage paid at Providence, R.I. Subscription prices: $280 one year daily, $140 one semester daily.

Copyright 2011 by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. All rights reserved. editorial

(401) 351-3372 herald@browndailyherald.com

Business

(401) 351-3260 gm@browndailyherald.com

uniquely combines the intimacy of an undergraduate residential college with the academic opportunities and prestige of a major research university. But Wriston’s definition of a university-college does not match Brown’s profile today.

Wriston criticized schools that taught technical or professional skills for failing to prepare students for the questions and demands they would face in the world. He used the term “vital necessity” more than once in his report to describe the liberal arts, which he considered essential for students, society and the University.

The value placed on the liberal arts was reinforced this year with the newly launched Humanities Initiative. But the school’s focus on professional training has grown and will continue to do so — with planned master’s programs in areas such as business analytics and health care management.

“Against the tendency to allow the liberal arts to occupy a secondary position Brown has been almost uniquely emphatic,” Wriston wrote.

“Brown, for example, is one of very few members of the Association of American Universities which incorporates even engineering education within the liberal arts college instead of segregating it in a separate school.”

Today, he could not make such as a boast. In 2010, the University approved the separation of engineering into its own school.

Wriston also criticized “educational empires so vast as to be beyond the control of their faculties and beyond the comprehension of their boards of management or their administrative officers.” But the University has continued to expand — into the Jewelry District of Providence, the graduate schools of Europe and Asia and the web of online education. As it outgrows its traditional borders, geographical and otherwise, it comes more to resemble the model Wriston consciously rejected.

The Brown degree

In 1969, the New Curriculum redefined Brown. Its shadow still looms large over campus, and it continued on page 4

The Brown Daily Herald Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Campus News 3

Linked to Simmons’ legacy, fund lags goal Chinese author mixes continued from page 1 dence public school system, where 48 of the district’s 49 public schools failed to meet minimum federal achievement standards at the time of the committee’s final report.

Since the fund began accepting applications from charter schools in 2011, its increasingly large and more competitive applicant pool has added more fundraising pressure.

The fund awarded two grants to the Paul Cuffee School, the state’s largest charter school. Paul Cuffee is the only school to receive this distinction since the fund’s inception.

The fund’s most recent grant totaled $24,320 and was used to purchase document cameras and LCD projectors for Paul Cuffee’s elementary school classrooms in August.

“The temptation is to give (funds) to the charter schools because they really perform,” said Artemis Joukowsky ’55 P’87, chancellor emeritus and chair of the fund, which is run by a four-person committee chosen by the Corporation. He said committee members were particularly impressed by the quality and effort of the schools’ applications.

The fund has paid out successively smaller grants since awarding its first in 2009. If its endowment reaches $10 million, the fund committee will be able to give out up to $500,000, or 5 percent of its endowment, in grants per year.

“We still have a long way to go,” Joukowsky said. He is uncertain if the

fund will be able to reach its original financial goals and is currently in talks with the University’s advancement office to solicit more donors. Current donations are also accepted directly through the fund’s website.

School administrators applying for grant money fault hte fund’s application for a lack of detail. Jennifer Steinfeld, grant writer for the Providence Public School District’s planning and development department, said she appreciates past support from the fund but wishes its application forms were less open-ended.

“I’d like to see more clarity from them about what they’re looking for,” she said.

“They ask very few questions but want a level of detail that they’re not actually specifying,” said Julia Karahalis, director of institutional advancement at Paul Cuffee. She added that she appreciates the creative freedom the application allows grant writers.

Joukowsky said the fund committee does not select grant recipients based on specific school subjects or age groups. Instead, it favors grant proposals that provide the most direct benefit to students.

“Our mission is to help the kids and not the bureaucracy behind the public school system,” Joukowsky said.

The fund committee hopes to maintain support for a wide variety of school activities, including the arts.

Karahalis would like to see more grants in the future to support electronic resources like Kindles for the school.

After the fund’s grants are awarded, committee members ask schools to follow up with the fund once the money is spent. The fund committee asks schools for information on how the money has been allocated, Joukowsky said. In his opinion, some schools have not adequately acknowledged the University or the fund committee for the grants.

But the Paul Cuffee School invited fund committee members to observe students using the equipment purchased with grant money.

“Seeing their investment is one of the most delightful parts of this,” Karahalis said of the visit.

Some of the committee members hope to invite a wider range of Providence schools to apply for grants in the future. Joan Sorensen ’72 P’06 P’06, a Corporation member and member of the fund committee, said limited funding has prevented the fund from accepting applications from innercity Providence private schools, where many students cannot pay full tuition.

Sorensen hopes the fund’s close ties to the Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice, an important part of Simmons’ legacy at Brown, will aid fundraising efforts.

“This committee was her baby,” Sorensen said. She suggested at the last Corporation meeting that the University donate to the fund on Simmons’ behalf as a way to acknowledge her dedication to it.

“We haven’t done that with some of our other presidents,” Sorensen said.

“Ruth is a different story.”

fact and fiction in novel continued from page 1 sor at Boston University, spent his sabbatical in Berlin working on a manuscript. When he returned, his wife and son read the manuscript and told him it just did not feel right. Though discouraged, Jin sat down to revise it. After he sent the new manuscript to his editor, he received the same feedback: Vautrin’s story felt important, but something about it “didn’t gel.”

The problem, it turned out, was Vautrin herself. Several other authors had written biographies of her, and she had led a life without scandal. As a fiction writer, Jin found it difficult to sustain the novel’s energy without inventing information about her.

The solution, he decided, was to introduce a new fictional character. Anling, the fictional Chinese protagonist of the novel, was introduced as an assistant to Vautrin. Through Anling, Jin broadened the novel beyond historical fact. Anling’s husband’s sympathies with the Japanese, for instance, allowed Jin to explore the role of the Japanese, both as agressors and victims.

It only took four months to pen a manuscript after Jin decided to insert Anling’s character.

Though Jin’s decision to include

a fictional character necessarily shifted from focusing on Vautrin’s voice, Jin decided this was worthwhile. Her voice already existed, whether in the other books about her or in Vautrin’s diary. “What she needed,” he said, “was a story.”

The change allowed Jin considerably more creative license, as he could provide his own interpretation of events in her life without betraying history.

An instance only briefly mentioned in Vautrin’s diary, for instance, became a pivotal plot point in the story. The scene finds Vautrin blaming herself after the Japanese capture women in the college to serve as prostitutes for the army. Jin does not delve into Vautrin’s psychology in the scene and instead focuses on Anling’s perception of her.

Certainly, blending history with fiction created its share of complications. For example, a reader of fiction might expect details such as a character’s height, but Jin did not necessarily have those details about the novel’s historical figures.

In the end, Jin decided to limit his research to focus on telling the story. The final blend of fact and fiction, Jin said, was important only insofar as the story became believable — and, of course, “interesting.”

4 Mission Drift?

The Brown Daily Herald Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Simmons tenure marked by much action, little reflection continued from page 2 largely defines Brown’s national reputation. Yet more than 40 years after its educational principles passed a faculty vote, the New Curriculum hardly works as its founders envisioned.

Modes of Thought courses were a central component of the New Curriculum, designed to be co-taught by professors from multiple departments and offered in such plenitude as to comprise the majority of firstyear courses. But they quickly died out and have been replaced by the less multi-departmental and interdisciplinary First-Year Seminars.

And the principles of the New Curriculum have come under attack from students who request pluses and minuses as transcript-boosters, administrators who strengthen course prerequisites and faculty members who disregard undergraduate advising.

Brown is defined by its innovative curriculum, which brought it into the national spotlight and attracted the bright applicants who made it a top-ranked institution. But the Brown degree’s connotations and prestige are changing as Simmons’ PAE goals continue to unfold.

The University announced plans to launch professional master’s degree programs in 2013, which would involve little on-campus learning and could be taught exclusively by adjunct faculty members without permanent appointments. With these programs in place, a Brown diploma would no longer signify that the graduate studied under Brown faculty or was held to world-class academic standards.

Such curricular changes have been tried and abandoned before.

Former President Francis Wayland launched his New System in 1850 to expand Brown’s offerings to students who were more inter-

ested in professional advancement than four-year liberal arts degrees.

By 1856, the loosened requirements and three-year bachelor’s of philosophy program had lowered the University’s academic standing. ThenPresident Barnas Sears 1825 wrote to the Corporation, “No college has ever resorted to extra measures in order to facilitate the acquisition of academic honors without incurring the ridicule and contempt of other colleges. … We are flooded by a class of young men of little solidity or earnestness of character, who resort to this college not so much for the sake of sound learning as for the sake of cheap honors. We are now literally receiving the refuse of other

liberal arts and non-pre-professional coursework. As Brown’s educational values conflict with its search for new revenue streams, its operations take it farther afield from the principles of the university-college and the New Curriculum.

More money, more programs

The PAE is essential for the University’s survival as a top institution, Simmons told The Herald.

“I think when I first started, and I went to the Corporation and said that I didn’t think that the current model that we’re on is sustainable, a lot of people just couldn’t fathom that because it feels perfectly fine right now,” said Simmons, who was

find themselves commuting to meet their daily academic needs.

The launch of the School of Engineering enjoyed widespread support among administrators. It boosted the University to a position in line with its peers and is expected to bring more funding and prestige to Brown engineering. But because the school was approved with little on-campus discussion or debate, its impact on the undergraduate experience has yet to be articulated.

Administrative strengthening

Such limited campus dialogue surrounding the major developments of Simmons’ tenure makes a thorough assessment of them dif-

Brown’s Mission Statement “The mission of Brown University is to serve the community, the nation and the world by discovering, communicating and preserving knowledge and understanding in a spirit of free inquiry, and by educating and preparing students to discharge the offices of life with usefulness and reputation. We do this through a partnership of students and teachers in a unified community known as a university-college.” colleges.”

By 1876, the Corporation had increased requirements and added a year to the bachelor’s of philosophy curriculum.

The University has a long history of continuing education, beginning with its offering of courses for the public in 1890. The professional master’s programs now offer more opportunities for the University to extend the Brown education beyond the ivory tower of those privileged enough to gain admission and afford tuition.

But when the Office of Continuing Education plans to open degree-granting courses taught by non-University faculty, a Brown degree is no longer associated with

president of Smith College and an administrator at Princeton before heading to College Hill. “It’s only if you are out and about in the rest of the world, seeing what our peers are doing, that you come to understand how much Brown would be falling behind,” she said.

But the PAE requires money for everything from hiring professors to adding academic programs to continuing construction, and the University is constantly seeking new sources of revenue to continue to fund growth. But at times it seems money, rather than academics, has become the end in itself.

The orientation toward money can be read in the names of campus’ newest buildings. Older edifices are named after former presidents or even beloved faculty, such as Professor of History and Political Economy Jeremiah Lewis Diman 1851. But the newest, biggest buildings all bear the names of donors: the Perry and Marty Granoff Center for the Creative Arts, the Stephen Robert ’62 Campus Center and the soonto-open Jonathan Nelson Fitness Center, Katherine Moran Coleman Aquatics Center and David Zucconi ’55 Varsity Strength and Conditioning Center.

Master’s programs, which increase tuition income but not financial aid costs, have proliferated over the past 10 years. The University awarded master’s degrees in 38 programs in 1991, 39 programs in 2001 and 53 programs in 2011, according to the Office of the Registrar.

The expansion of the engineering division into a separate school has allowed for increased investment in the program, both in the form of new faculty hires and external grants. An enlarged engineering program will bring corporate partnerships and research funds to the University, but such revenue could come at the loss of Brown’s reputation as a true liberal arts university. And if the proposed engineering building is located off main campus in the Jewelry District, undergraduate students will

ficult.

Major University decisions have historically included extensive community involvement, committee evaluations and multiple reports.

The New Curriculum, for example, started as a Group Independent Study Project before traveling through committee assessment, widespread discussion and a faculty vote.

The 1967 Advisory Committee on Student Conduct loosened curfews and liquor rules, the 1969 Special Committee on Educational Principles recommended the New Curriculum and the 1969 Pembroke Study Committee inspired the merge of Pembroke College and Brown.

But the era of influential committees is over.

All three of those historic committees included administrators and students but were chaired by faculty.

The University’s more recent high-profile committees — the Committee on ROTC, the Athletics Review Committee and the Committee on Tenure and Faculty Development Policies — have all been chaired by administrators. The ROTC committee, despite much fanfare, precipitated no major shifts, and the athletics committee saw its most important recommendation, the cutting of varsity teams, rejected.

Student activism has changed as well. In a Herald faculty poll conducted this semester, 57.4 percent of respondents — and 82.6 percent of those who have worked at Brown more than 20 years — indicated that student activism has decreased since they were undergraduates.

While campus activism has not died, it is far less widespread. While 500 rallied in 1969 in support of the New Curriculum, only 15 undergraduates attended a recent forum on the ongoing presidential search.

The four-year model, in which the student body sees a 25 percent turnover each year, lends itself to weak institutional memory among undergraduates. The debate over adding pluses and minuses to the

grading system, which seized campus in 2006, is forgotten today. And ongoing discussions over the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps could be lost to memory by the time the class of 2019 enters the Van Wickle Gates.

Simmons told The Herald she is not concerned if students do not engage with broad institutional shifts.

The impact of the PAE, she said, will be appreciated by alums who benefit from the University’s increased prestige after graduating.

“The same students who don’t notice it today because they’re here, and they’re absorbed in their studies and their activities will care about it a good deal when they leave Brown,” Simmons said. “There are certain things that happen within our University that are of greater interest to faculty and administration and to some extent to alumni than to students.”

A call for self-study

With limited resources and ambitious goals, the University constantly faces tough decisions about how to best allocate money.

“We have to be careful stewards of those resources,” said Provost Mark Schlissel P’15 in August. “For me, it’s very important not to make the wrong trade-off between doing lots of things sort-of and doing a smaller number of things really well.”

The mission itself, while lofty, does not directly determine these choices: The task of aligning Brown’s means and mission is left to each generation of leadership, guided by two-way dialogue from the top down and the bottom up.

The mission, like the Constitution, must be “interpreted in each generation anew, but it’s written in a way that’s broad and ambitious and aspirational, that can meet each generation’s interpretation,” said Schlissel, who has a copy of the mission statement hanging over his desk in University Hall.

As the University prepares to bid farewell to a visionary president and to select a new leader, the mission again comes to the forefront as the most prominent and permanent statement of Brown’s identity and purpose.

The remainder of this series takes stock of the past decade and provides a snapshot of the institution as it now stands. It will compare institutional decision-making in the 1970s to that of the present day, analyze the role of Brown’s peers in shaping its identity and examine the extent to which the need for money shapes, and may distort, University priorities.

The presidential search process makes this series especially timely, but the questions raised in these articles have been, and will continue to be, debated within and beyond The Herald’s pages.

“We feel that institutional selfstudy must be a very important part of the activity at the institution,” wrote the authors of the MagazinerMaxwell report, which first proposed the New Curriculum. “The questions of what, how and why raised in the process of self-examination, as well as by the use of institutional selfstudy, will accent the need for human relevance in education.”

City & State 5

The Brown Daily Herald Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Students mostly talk, less action Ralliers say charter will continued from page 1 educator at Health Services. She added that those numbers always surprise students. Students are under the impression that “everybody is having sex,” she said.

Before seeing the results, Katherine Xiong ’14 estimated that students had an average of three to five partners this semester.

Students get the idea that everyone around them is having sex both because students often exaggerate their sexual exploits and because everyone interprets sex differently, said Jenn Conti ’12, co-chair of Sexual Health Education and Empowerment Council, an undergraduate student group.

Assumptions of behavior toward sex are skewed because people are more vocal about having sex than not having sex, said Aida Manduley ’11, co-chair of the group.

No one says, “This weekend, I didn’t have sex,” Jenny Tsai ’13 said.

The misconception is especially strong for first-years, who often think that college is “a land of sexual bountifulness,” Manduley said.

But almost half of polled firstyears have found College Hill to be far less plentiful. First-years are

having less sex than upperclassmen — 49.8 percent have had zero sexual partners this semester, compared to 28.6 percent of seniors.

Conti suggested the difference comes from the fact that first-years are building friendships rather than finding hookups.

John Hammond ’12, who estimated results similar to the actual poll results before finding out the outcome, originally thought firstyears were more promiscuous.

Brown has a “casual sex scene,” he said, where people are “down to get down.”

But Ben Winkler ’11, a founding member of the Sexual Health Awareness Group, or SHAG, said he believes if the poll asked about number of hookups as well as sexual partners, the difference between first-years and upperclassmen might narrow. As a Residential Counselor, he suggested first-years are finding physical intimacy even if that intimacy does not necessarily count as a sexual partner, he said.

The results also do not take into account that a person in a monogamous relationship may have only one sexual partner while having sex multiple times a week, Conti said.

Poll results also suggested male

students have had more sexual partners than female students this semester. Over half of polled males ­— 55.9 percent — have had at least one partner, compared to 48.3 percent of polled females.

Often, when the outcome of a sexual encounter is ambiguous, men have a tendency to round up, whereas women might round down, Winkler said.

Despite the differences and ambiguities associated with sex and sexual partners on campus, “sex is a hot topic no matter where you go, because it’s an important part of being human,” Manduley said. “After all, sex is how we all got here.”

Methodology

Written questionnaires were administered to 851 undergraduates November 2–3 in the lobby of J. Walter Wilson and the Stephen Robert ’62 Campus Center during the day and the Sciences Library at night.

The poll has a 3.1 percent margin of error with 95 percent confidence.

The margin of error is 4.6 percent for the subset of males, 4.3 percent for females, 6.4 percent for seniors, 3.6 percent for non-seniors, 6.3 percent for first-year students and 3.6 percent for non-first-years.

Profs cancel class to support Occupiers continued from page 1 country. He noted that the economic crisis is particularly trying for students battling massive loans and a bleak job market.

Keach said he has been more involved with the Occupy movement in Boston, where he lives, but that the events at UC Davis encouraged him to support Occupy College Hill.

He added that he knows many professors who are sympathetic to the Occupy movement and said he was surprised that more did not cancel classes or turn out in support of the students.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature Ipek Celik cancelled her 10 a.m. class COLT

1812F: “Violence and Representation” and her 2 p.m. class COLT 1812I: “Collective Struggles and Cultural Politics in the Global South.”

While passing out flyers advertising the day of action outside Sayles Hall, she said that though she has always deemed protesters’ requests valid, she had not been involved in the Occupy movement before the violence at UC Davis.

“I thought it was important for my students to know where I stand,” Celik said, adding that she was unsure whether the walk-out could potentially progress into a longterm strike. “If there is going to be a prolonged strike, it needs to be a solidarity action,” she said.

Michelle Cho, a postdoctoral fel-

low in International Humanities, also canceled classes yesterday. “My intentions were to raise awareness among the students in the class about the continuing activity about the Occupy colleges movement,” she said.

Having received her master’s degree from the University of California at Irvine, Cho said that she has been carefully following the movement’s progression.

The policy of the Board of Regents at the University of California “really monetizes the education experience that really goes against the principles of liberal education,” she said. “This is an educational philosophy that we have to stand up against.”

hurt public schools continued from page 8 process favors students with greater parental support. That form of admission “tends to cream off students who have parents who are more involved,” she said.

“I’m sure they’ve got a readymade pool of applicants,” said Daniel Wall, a public school teacher at the Juanita Sanchez Educational Complex. “They’re pulling out kids who would succeed in any school department,” he said.

Protesters also fear that the mayoral academy would divert funding from Providence public schools,Wall said. According to the most recent data, the Providence public school system spends roughly $15,000 annually on each of its more than 23,000 pupils.

“For corporate companies like Achievement First, the bottom line is the dollars and coins they will bring back to corporate headquarters,” said Councilman Jackson.

The letter presented Monday also raised concerns about Achievement First’s “harshly disciplinarian, ‘no excuses’ model of education,” and outlined opposition to its schools’ “utilization of shunning and public stigmatization” as disciplinary tools. These methods discourage critical thinking and stymie emotional development, the letter stated.

“Achievement First’s militaristic view of education will be a failure,” said Jackson.

Achievement First initially submitted an application to es-

tablish a school in Cranston, but the application was rejected by the Rhode Island Board of Regents for Elementary and Secondary Education in September. Another application to open a school in Providence has been submitted and currently awaits consideration by the Board of Regents.

The Rhode Island Department of Education has scheduled public hearings on the application for Dec. 7 and 8.

“If this proposal was deemed ‘not good enough’ for Cranston about two months ago, then why should we believe it’s good enough for Providence today?”

Wall asked.

The application has garnered the support of the Providence School Board, but Wall said he does not believe “the approval of the school board, appointed by the mayor, constitutes support of the policy.”

The protesters suggested the government focus its energy on fixing existing public schools.

“It’s a badly injured system,” said Victoria Ruiz, a member of the Olneyville Neighborhood Association.

Protester Jean Link, whose daughter attends Charles N. Fortes Elementary School, carried a poster covered with photos that depicted the school’s dilapidated state and extended the governor a “personal invitation” to visit her daughter’s school.

“We don’t take care of our schools,” she said. “As a taxpayer, I want my money to go to my public school.”

comics Fraternity of Evil | Eshan Mitra, Brendan Hainline and Hector Ramirez

Dreadful Cosmology | Oirad Macmit

twitter.com/the_herald

6 Editorial Editorial

The Brown Daily Herald Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Editorial cartoon

by lo r e n f u lto n

Embracing experiential diversity Brown’s effort to diversify the student body should be about more than just race, religion and ethnicity. It should emphasize finding students with as varied life experiences as possible. This holistic diversity will foster the formation of more rounded, inclusive classes and more fully reflect American society. According to The Herald, President Ruth Simmons sent 11,000 letters encouraging prospective minority applicants to apply last year. We applaud this effort to increase minority applicants and recommend that similar engagement be made with prospective veteran applicants.

The millions of current and former members of the armed forces are strikingly underrepresented on campus. Just six of the more than 6,000 undergraduates are veterans. Brown should increase its efforts to recruit veterans. (There are more than 300,000 veterans and veterans’ dependents enrolled in institutions of higher education, according to the New York Times). We have previously registered our concern about Brown’s isolation from the military, which is disproportionately poor and southern. Increasing veterans’ enrollment will help to bridge this divide.

Veterans’ contribution to the campus community is obvious.

Their perspectives offer classmates and professors valuable insight into the unique experience of serving in the military. Undoubtedly, a discussion on the impact of the Iraq War on civilian populations would be enriched by the insights of a student who has served in Fallujah. A public lecture critical of drone airstrikes in the Afghanistan-Pakistan tribal region would benefit from a veterans’ experience coming under fire from Pakistan. David Salsone ’12.5 previously told The Herald, “We, as veterans, add to classroom discussion. We bring a different perspective.” Veterans have frankly seen and done far more than many undergraduates, some of whom are just 17 years old. As our community reflects on our relationship with the Department of Defense and Reserve Officer Training Corps, as we learn about our country’s military history and our current involvements around the world, it is vital that we increase military perspectives on campus to add to these academic and intellectual conversations.

Increasing veterans’ recruitment will also serve other diversity objectives. Service members often come from socioeconomic backgrounds less advantaged than those of typical Brown students.

Currently, Brown lacks an effective program to recruit veterans.

Besides a sparse webpage, Brown does little to attract veteran applicants. Chaney Harrison ’11.5 said, “Brown is simply not doing a good job of attracting student veterans.” Other schools, most prominently Columbia, do much more.

Columbia, which has 210 veterans enrolled, specifically recruits veterans. According to the New York Times, it targets veterans, both active-duty and students, even sending admissions officers to military bases. Though Columbia is a special case — its school of general studies is specifically designed for non-traditional students — its recognition of the importance of veterans on campus, and its success in attracting them, speaks to the potential for Brown to substantially increase the number of veterans enrolled.

quote of the day

“This type of reform is very sexy right now.”

— Sam Adler-Bell ’12.5 See protesters on page 8.

Correction A headline in Monday’s Herald (“Senior brings dance to abandoned mall,” Nov. 28) incorrectly identified choreographer Elise Nuding ’11 as a senior. In fact, she is an alum. The Herald regrets the error.

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

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

C O R R E C T I O N S P olicy The Brown Daily Herald is committed to providing the Brown University community with the most accurate information possible. Corrections may be submitted up to seven calendar days after publication.

C ommentary P O L I C Y The editorial is the majority opinion of the editorial page board of The Brown Daily Herald. The editorial viewpoint does not necessarily reflect the views of The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. Columns, letters and comics reflect the opinions of their authors only.

L etters to the E ditor P olicy Send letters to letters@browndailyherald.com. Include a telephone number with all letters. The Herald reserves the right to edit all letters for length and clarity and cannot assure the publication of any letter. Please limit letters to 250 words. Under special circumstances writers may request anonymity, but no letter will be printed if the author’s identity is unknown to the editors. Announcements of events will not be printed. advertising P olicy The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. reserves the right to accept or decline any advertisement at its discretion.

Opinions 7

The Brown Daily Herald Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Changing a cheating culture

By Ethan Tobias Opinions Columnist Scheming to defraud, falsifying business records and criminal impersonation — these are just a taste of the criminal charges being levied against Long Island high school and college students who allegedly cheated on the SAT. According to prosecutors, the high schoolers paid college students to take the test for them at several schools. The scandal has already led to accusations against 20 students and has exposed just how easy and pervasive cheating is on standardized tests.

And these cases may just be the tip of the iceberg. For years, when the College Board and Educational Testing Service suspected cheating, test scores were canceled and test takers refunded, but high schools and colleges were never notified.

The system has created a perverse set of incentives that allows students to get away with cheating and to try again free of charge in the event they are caught. But while it is easy to blame the College Board, which administers the SAT, the fault lies much deeper and closer to home. As students attending an elite university, we are all probably aware of the pressure to succeed that is placed upon us by our parents, our teachers, our peers and most importantly ourselves.

It is this constant pressure to succeed — as success becomes less of a means to happy, fulfilling lives than an end in itself — that drives young people, not so different from us, to pay as much as $2,500 to have someone sit for a standardized test in their stead.

While very few Brown students may have done something that drastic, many do go through the trouble of illegally purchasing Adderall to fuel all-night paper writing sessions, and others benignly copy friends’ answers on homework they have

more so would he be in an introductory biology course?

It is impossible to fully remove the pressure to cheat, but universities could do a better job of reducing the incentives.

Brown’s Admissions Office’s website already makes perfectly clear that “mere quantitative credentials don’t adequately explain admission decisions.” The website goes on to explain that the University’s approach looks at the quality of the applicant as a whole, not just their scores on standardized testing.

If high schoolers were reassured that a so-so SAT score is not the end of the world — and one out-of-this-world score does not make up for years of slipshod work — there would be less incentive to cheat. not yet finished. And when that upperclassman friend just happens to mention that he has some old tests saved from that really hard chemistry class, it is hard to resist taking a peek.

The problem is that an individual cannot cheat his way through life, and it is better to recognize limits earlier rather than later. What were the Long Island students going to do when their stellar SAT scores earned them fraudulent entry into a top school? If a student is willing to cheat just to get in the front door, how much

In fact, students who received perfect marks on one of the SAT sections still had barely more than a 20 percent acceptance rate for admission to the class of 2015. If the University wanted to accept only students with perfect SAT scores, it could easily do so. Instead, it makes seeking out candidates with diverse strengths a priority.

Other institutions should follow Brown’s lead and announce that SAT scores are merely one facet in a toolbox of ways they can evaluate candidates. Per-

haps by knocking the SAT off its pedestal, the craziness surrounding it will die down.

If high schoolers were reassured that a so-so SAT score is not the end of the world — and that one out-of-this-world score does not make up for years of slipshod work — there would be less incentive to cheat. Even without cheating, the amount of money families spend on SAT preparatory classes and tutoring — often thousands of dollars — is absurd and distorts the SAT as a means to compare students between different socioeconomic statuses.

Ultimately, all the focus on getting good SAT scores accomplishes is to diminish the test’s value as a tool in helping colleges find the strongest students, since the affluent can, sometimes literally, buy good test scores for themselves.

In light of the current cheating scandal, it is important that the College Board review its practices to make it more difficult to impersonate someone else to take the SAT. But since no amount of security will prevent cheating, the best we can hope for is to reduce the incentive.

Beginning this endeavor will not be easy, but it starts by creating a culture that does not let our grade point averages or standardized test scores define who we truly are.

Ethan Tobias ’12 is a biology concentrator from Long Island, N.Y. He can be reached at ethan_tobias@brown.edu.

Questioning the New Curriculum

By Oliver Rosenbloom Opinions Columnist The most sacred dogma at Brown is that the New Curriculum benefits all students.

I certainly appreciate the opportunity to design my own curriculum, but I’ve also come to realize that the New Curriculum has serious drawbacks that do not receive enough attention here at Brown.

The biggest strength of the New Curriculum is also its most fundamental flaw.

Proponents of the New Curriculum point to the freedom it affords students to design their entire course of study. But this freedom can also be a curse for students who are not able to handle it in a responsible, intellectually enriching manner. As a junior, I feel that I have finally found the optimal way to navigate the New Curriculum, but when I look back at my first year, I realize that I misused this newfound academic freedom when I first arrived at Brown.

Many students, especially first-years, are simply not in the position to handle full academic freedom. Instead of designing a wellrounded curriculum that spans many academic disciplines, they flock to the subjects they enjoyed in high school. They avoid college coursework in areas that they disliked in high school, and they completely neglect new disciplines in favor of the subjects they already have demonstrated an expertise in.

As a first-year, I did not fully appreciate the value of an education spanning many disciplines. I did not understand that taking

courses outside of the humanities would expose me to new methods of thought, even if the subject material itself did not excite me.

Instead of seeking to become a well rounded student ­— the fundamental goal of a liberal arts education — I focused on the subject areas that I most enjoyed. I know that I am not alone in abusing the freedom offered by the New Curriculum.

This unbalanced curriculum design is understandable, especially for students who suffered through rigorous high school coursework that allowed no intellectual exploration. It is tempting to use this freedom

there is a clear difference between the most enjoyable curriculum and the most rewarding curriculum. First-years can place too large an emphasis on creating an enjoyable curriculum because they only recently finished high school, where a lack of academic freedom can be intellectually stifling. Such students would have a better educational experience if they were forced to take at least some classes that they did not enjoy yet still carry enormous intellectual value.

Many first-years do in fact enter Brown with the proper mindset to handle the freedom of the New Curriculum. Furthermore,

Many students, especially first-years, simply are not in the position to handle full academic freedom.

as an excuse to take easy or comfortable classes instead of challenging ones. Firstyears who lack college experience and a deep appreciation for a broad-based education cannot always be expected to take a wide range of classes on their own initiative.

Many students, my first-year self included, would benefit from some curriculum requirements that forced them to sample new disciplines. In hindsight, I realize that

most students who abuse this complete freedom upon arrival learn to handle it in a more enriching way as they spend more semesters here. Yet I would still argue that some students leave Brown without a proper understanding of the most beneficial way to handle the New Curriculum. Instead of using it as an opportunity for a wide range of intellectual exploration, they use it as an excuse to avoid challenging and unfamiliar courses and subject areas.

Due to the New Curriculum’s academic freedom, some students leave Brown without a true liberal arts education or a specific skill set for the workplace. They do not receive technical or vocational training nor do they become well-rounded scholars.

This critique of the New Curriculum requires a few qualifications. Students who do not receive a well-rounded education at Brown have only themselves to blame, because they chose their own curriculum. The basic argument against it is simply that not all college students are able to take advantage of this freedom.

Furthermore, there are flaws in any curriculum design. Regardless of the presence or absence of curricular requirements, some students at every school will graduate without taking full advantage of their college years.

My critique of the New Curriculum should not be construed as an argument for other curricular designs. After two and a half years as a Brown student, I am profoundly grateful for this curriculum because I am now capable of handling it in a responsible manner. I know that most Brown students either enter college with the proper mindset for the New Curriculum or quickly acquire it. I am merely acknowledging that there are serious drawbacks to this curriculum, especially for younger college students, and we ignore these flaws at our own risk.

Oliver Rosenbloom ’13 is a history concentrator from Mill Valley, Calif.

He can be contacted at oliver_rosenbloom@brown.edu.

Daily Herald Sports Tuesday the Brown

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

M. BasketBall

Bears go one for four in NIT Season Tip-Off

By Sam rubinroit Assistant Sports Editor

Herald file photo

Aileen Daniels ‘12 led the Bears to win the Dead River Company Classic title.

W. Basketball

Brown Bears beat Black Bears in title game By madeleine wenstrup Sports Staff Writer

Over Thanksgiving break, the women’s basketball team traveled to Orono, Maine and captured the Dead River Company Classic title.

The Bears (3-3) defeated Evansville 55-47 Friday evening and then took down the tournament’s host team, the University of Maine, 61-59 in an overtime nail-biter to win the tournament.

Head Coach Jean Burr said the Bears entered the tournament “really anxious to do well” after a 6449 loss to Bryant last Tuesday.

The first half of Bruno’s opener against the Evansville Purple Aces (1-4) was a back-and-forth affair — the score was tied six times in the first 20 minutes of play. Cocaptain Hannah Passafuime ’12 netted a jumper right before the halftime buzzer, sending the teams to the locker room deadlocked at 26.

“We were on the attack mode,” Burr said. “And you could really see it.”

After the break, the Evansville squad surged ahead with a 13-4 run to go up 39-30, its biggest lead of the night.

Lindsay Nickel ’13 began Bruno’s charge back, scoring a jumper and a three-pointer to narrow the deficit to four at the 11:10 mark.

Propelled by Nickel’s initiative, Bruno fought back to tie the game at 44 with six minutes of play remaining.

The teams remained close until the one-minute mark, when Passafuime and guard Sheila Dixon ’13 went on the attack. Their combined seven points in the last minute put the Bears on top at the end of the game and sent them to the final round of the tournament.

Co-captains Aileen Daniels ’12 and Passafuime were the high scorers of the night, netting 17 points apiece. Passafuime went six for 12 from the field, including two of three from three-point range.

“The seniors’ fight and determination was really evident,” Burr said. “They had a lot of hustle.”

The next day, the Bears had to face the tournament hosts on their territory.

“It was a hard-fought battle on their home court,” Burr said. “We knew we had the chips against us going into the game.”

Despite the unfriendly environment, the Bears started off hot, taking a five-point lead in the first three minutes. The Bears continued to dominate, going up 19-10 with seven minutes remaining in the first half.

But the Black Bears (2-3) did not back down, going on a 14-8 run to cut the deficit to three at the halftime mark.

Bruno was able to build its lead back up to seven with 12 minutes remaining, but that would be the last time the Bears could sit comfortably. The Black Bears inched closer, but with the help of back-to-back three-pointers from Nickel, Bruno was able to go up by six with 1:50 remaining in the second half.

“Nickel really stepped up this weekend,” Burr said. “There was an air of determination there.”

But in the last 90 seconds, Brown missed four free-throw opportunities and with 19 seconds remaining, Maine guard Ashleigh Roberts put in a layup to tie the game at 56. After several missed opportunities from both squads, the teams went into overtime.

In extra time, just one player from each team scored. Corinne Wellington put in a jump shot and a free throw for the Black Bears, but point guard Lauren Clarke ’14 outscored Wellington, putting up five points to give the Bears the 61-59 win and the title.

Daniels was named the tournament MVP with 29 tournament points and a combined 13 rebounds. Passafuime was given All-Tournament Team honors after netting 25 points and 16 rebounds in the two games.

The Bears will return to the Pizzitola Center to face Fairfield Wednesday evening at 5 p.m. and will then host the Brown Bear Classic this weekend.

The men’s basketball team fell below the .500 mark Sunday night, losing to Sacred Heart 77-64 after dropping three of its four matchups in the National Invitation Tournament Season Tip-Off. The squad (3-4) lost its first three games of the tournament — falling to Albany 77-68, Manhattan 54-52 and George Mason 74-48 — before toppling Monmouth 79-71 in its final game in the consolation bracket. The week before the Bears defeated Hartford 59-52.

Stephen Albrecht ’12.5 had a breakthrough performance against the Monmouth Hawks (0-6), leading the team with 22 points on eight of 13 shooting from the field, including four of eight from threepoint range. Sean McGonagill ’14 added 18 points and eight assists, while Andrew McCarthy ’13 and co-captain Matt Sullivan ’13 contributed 13 points apiece.

The Bears unleashed an impressive shooting display, connecting on 61.2 percent of shots from the field and 50 percent from beyond the arc as a team.

“It was an honor to be invited to play in the most prestigious annual tournament,” said Head Coach Jesse Agel. “We competed really, really well, and we had a chance to win those other three games.”

After their victory against Monmouth, the Bears traveled to Connecticut to face Sacred Heart (4-3), losing a game that was closer than the final score indicated. Despite falling behind by as many as 15 points in the first half, Bruno battled back to cut the Pioneers’ lead to eight at halftime. The Bears stormed out of the gate in the second half, grabbing a three-point advantage with just over 10 minutes remaining. But Sacred Heart responded with a 13-1 run and held on to the lead for the remainder of the game.

For the second straight game, Albrecht was the Bears’ leading scorer, finishing with a careerhigh 23 points. Albrecht — who

Sam Rubinroit / Herald

Sean McGonagill ’14 led the men’s team through seven games in scoring, assists and steals.

was forced to sit out last season after transferring from the University of Toledo — connected on eight of 17 shots from the field and six of 12 from beyond the arc. His six three-pointers rank 10th-best in school history.

“Stephen had his second great offensive performance, and he is beginning to show himself as a really good player,” Agel said. “He’s been injured, so he had a really short window of opportunity to practice and get back. I’m absolutely amazed at what he has been able to do without getting the repetitions that one would need to be at the top of his game.”

Albrecht’s recent emergence as a scoring threat has also reduced the pressure on his teammates.

“I’m always looking for guys on the perimeter when I drive from the wing, so me and him working together was really helpful,” said McGonagill, the team’s point guard. “He took advantage of open shots and knocked them down, so he really stepped up and gave us a big burst of energy throughout the game.”

Several players on the young Brown squad have been forced to take on a larger scoring role in the absence of the team’s leading scorer, co-captain Tucker Halpern ’13. The squad has also been plagued by other injury and eligibility issues.

“Whatever can go wrong has gone wrong,” Agel said. “I give our guys an unbelievable amount of credit to keep battling and not using it as an excuse at all.”

The Bears face an arduous stretch in their next three games — they challenge the University of Rhode Island Wednesday and then visit the University of Iowa and Providence College.

“Brown’s history against URI and Providence in the last 10 years has not been one of success,” Agel said. “But to go out to Iowa is a great … chance for us to get to the Midwest, where some of our guys played.”

“Iowa will be a new experience,” McGonagill, a native of Brookfield, Ill., said, “but I think it will be nice for some of us Midwest guys because we get to see our family and a few friends.”

Protesters decry proposed school

By Phoebe Draper Contributing Writer

Roughly 30 members of various neighborhood and education groups gathered at the State House Monday morning to protest the proposed Providence mayoral academy. The charter school would be operated by Achievement First, a nonprofit organization that runs 20 academies in New York and Connecticut.

After a brief press conference in the lobby of the capitol building, the protesters proceeded to the office of Gov. Lincoln Chafee ’75 P’14. The protesters — who said they were there to contest the notion that broad community support exists for the school ­­— called for the rejection of Achieve-

ment First’s application and renewed support for Providence’s existing public schools. The group presented the governor’s secretary with a letter signed by seven City Council members and 21 Providence-based coalitions.

“Achievement First is the worst kind of corporately funded topdown school reform,” said Sam

city & state Adler-Bell ’12.5. “This type of reform is very sexy right now, but it isn’t necessarily supporting public school students.”

One of the protesters’ main concerns is that charter schools like the mayoral academy serve an elite few and leave behind the majority of public school students.

“You make a choice of either supporting public education for all our children or corporate education for a few of our children,” said Kevin Jackson, Providence city councilman for Ward 3.

“The answer is not to take resources from the many to provide the alleged benefit to the few,” said Kathy Crain, former president of the Providence School Board.

Admission to the mayoral academy would be determined by a lottery if applications submitted by interested parents outnumbered spots at the school.

Ellie Wyatt, a retired public school teacher and member of the Coalition to Defend Public Education, said the application continued on page 5