Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Daily

the Brown

vol. cxlviii, no. 16

INSIDE

Page 4

Traveling tech Students abroad capitalize on blogging, social media

Obama pushes broad liberal agenda in speech In his State of the Union address, the president discussed a goal to promote low tuition rates city & state Editor

Head hunting The University searches to fill key administrative posts Page 7

Dumb dollars

Enriquez ’16 takes issue with consumer ignorance today

41 / 27

tomorrow

43 / 34

since 1891

wednesday, february 13, 2013

By sona mkrttchian

Page 5

Herald

President Obama stressed the importance of preparing students to meet the new demands of globalized markets to alleviate the nation’s persistent economic problems in his annual State of the Union address Tuesday night.

The president also urged legislators to unite and reform policy on gun control, immigration and social services, calling for bipartisan compromise in the 113th Congress.

“To grow our middle class, our citizens must have access to the education and training that today’s jobs require,” Obama said, proposing that Congress incentivize the nation’s institutions of higher education to keep tuition rates low by reforming the Higher Education

Act. Colleges with greater “affordability and value” should receive the most federal aid, he added.

The U.S. education system needs to prepare students better to contribute to the engineering and technology industries, Obama said. To achieve this, Congress needs to incentivize these industries to bolster growth and interest across the country, he added.

Outlining goals for his second term, Obama focused on elevating the American middle class in particular through economic policies aimed at strengthening the nation’s manufacturing, technology and research industries.

“The agenda that he laid out was much more ambitious than I was hoping for,” said Taylor Daily ’13, former president of Brown Students for Obama. “This is the kind of agenda I was dreaming would happen.”

“It’s not a bigger government we need, but a smarter government that sets priorities and invests in broadbased growth,” Obama said.

Ju s t i n / / Obama page 3

Sydney Mondry/ Herald

The Brown Democrats held a viewing party in Metcalf Auditorium for President Obama’s State of the Union speech Tuesday night.

Protesters ‘work out’ to support factory workers Digital The Student Labor kindness Alliance demonstrated against the University’s boots up contract with Adidas the heart By elizabeth koh features editor

Approximately 20 students from the Student Labor Alliance protested the University’s current contract with Adidas Tuesday afternoon, staging a “workout for workers’ rights” on the Main Green and in the Stephen Robert ’62 Campus Center before delivering a letter to President Christina Paxson’s office.

Six schools — Cornell, Oberlin College, Rutgers University, the University of Washington, the College of William and Mary and Georgetown University

— have already ended their contracts with Adidas, according to the website of United Students Against Sweatshops, a group with which SLA is affiliated. According to SLA’s letter to Paxson, Adidas refused to pay severance to workers at the PT Kizone garment factory in Indonesia when the factory closed in April 2011, allegedly withholding $1.8 million in wages from workers and thereby violating the University’s vendor code of conduct.

Adidas currently supplies apparel for Brown varsity sports teams, The Herald previously reported. But the University has notified Adidas that it does not intend to renew their contract given concerns over “the adequacy of (Adidas’) response in support of the workers at PT Kizone,” wrote Marisa Quinn, vice president for public affairs and Universi/ / Protest page 2

Sites for anonymous compliments tap into tendencies toward spontaneous praise

By Jessica Brodsky contributing writer

ELIZABETH KOH / HERALD

Student protesters marched through the Blue Room, chanting slogans that called for the University to break its contract with Adidas.

Pitch perfect: Exploring a cappella audition traditions At a midnight meeting, the 11 groups induct new members into their singing community By andrew jones Contributing writer

The “midnight meeting,” an a cappella tradition often thought to be shrouded in mystery and intrigue, will be held Thursday to determine which auditioners have earned a spot in one of Brown’s 11 a cappella groups. With every a cappella group member in attendance, this week’s meeting, the culmination of two weeks of auditions and callbacks, will kick off a cappella’s spring season.

“Crazy,” “intense” and “stressful” are just a few of the adjectives a cappella “Czar” and Brown Derby Josh Linden

arts & culture

’14 used to describe the atmosphere of the late-night meeting. Though Linden said the meeting usually becomes hectic, he said its organizers use a wellordered system to place singers into the group with which they are most compatible. The Czar, who is elected annually, is responsible for maintaining order at the meeting and ensuring that all groups have an equal shot at securing their desired singers.

Before the meeting, each auditioner lists his or her preferences of groups on a notecard. Once the groups have evaluated each auditioner and selected their top prospects, they are ready for the midnight meeting to begin. The “elves,” who are third-party participants in the meeting that do not belong to any a cappella group, assist the Czar in handling preference cards and assigning singers to groups.

At the start of the meeting, the groups take turns announcing their most desired singers. Once a name

is on the table, any of the groups can verbally express interest in that particular auditioner. The Czar’s elves then check the auditioner’s preference card and match the singer with the highestranked group that expressed interest.

A match requires consent from both the singer and the group — if only one of the two parties expresses interest in the other, the deal falls through. This process continues until the meeting attendees have come to a conclusion about every auditioner, Linden said.

While group members deliberate over their prospective members, auditioners anxiously await the announcement of their musical fate. During the auditions, the singers were told to stay in their rooms on the night of the meeting, with their shoes on and their cellphones close by, Linden said. If a singer is chosen by a group, he or she will be swept away at midnight for celebration and socializing with his or her fellow singers. If no group selects a particular

singer, he or she will receive a conciliatory phone call, he added.

“There’s a lot of waiting and anxiety,” said Rachel Ossip ’15, a member of the Alef Beats. “But sometimes that’s necessary.” Nerves are an inevitable part of performing, and the audition, callback and midnight meeting process serves as good practice for the stress of real performances, she added.

While the groups’ audition styles vary, all aim to make a good match between singers and groups, Linden said. Most groups include both singing and socializing portions in their initial auditions and subsequent callbacks.

“It’s like a really nerdy rush,” Linden said. Auditions generally involve the standard measures of vocal ability — participants sing verses, pitch matches and scales. Many also include icebreakers and ways for the auditioner to get a feel for the group and vice versa.

The Jabberwocks ask each auditioner / / Auditions page 2 to tell a

“Thank you for being you.” Such a sentence may be found once a year inside a Valentine’s Day card — or every day, on Brown University Compliments, a Facebook page that was started by BlogDailyHerald just before Thanksgiving 2012.

The page, which provides a forum for Brown students to submit anonymous compliments to each other, has over 2,100 likes and several hundred compliments just three months after its founding.

“I really could never have imagined how big it got,” said William Janover ’15, one of the page’s founders and moderators and managing editor of BlogDailyHerald.

Shortly after Brown University Compliments was founded, it was joined by Brown Admirers, another Facebook page for students to express their positive thoughts about each other, albeit with a more romantic twist and not necessarily anonymously. The page’s moderators declined to comment because they did not want to reveal their identities.

Facebook pages like Brown Uni/ / Compliments page 2 versity

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5 p.m.

thursday

/ / Protest page 1 FEbruary 14

4 p.m.

The Better Angels of Our Nature

March for Marriage Equality

Salomon 101

Main Green

6:30 p.m.

8 p.m.

“Girl Rising” Sneak Peek Screening

Singles Against Sexual Assault

Metcalf Auditorium

Graduate Center Bar

menu SHARPE REFECTORY

VERNEy-WOOLLEY

LUNCH Spinach Pie Casserole, Chicken Fingers with Dipping Sauces, Vegan Nuggets with Dipping Sauces

Beef and Broccoli Szechuan, Quinoa Veggies, Sauteed Spinach with Garlic, California Blend Vegetales

DINNER Vegan Stir Fried Noodles with Tofu, Orange Teriyaki, Korean Style Marinated Beef, Vegetable Egg Rolls

Bourbon BBQ Chicken Quarters, Macaroni and Cheese with Avocado and Tomato, Whole Green Beans

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ty relations, in an email to The Herald.

The decision not to renew the contract, which was influenced by students’ concerns, was made last semester, Quinn wrote.

Despite the decision, “we do not believe that evidence warrants breaking the legally binding contract prior to its expiration,” Quinn wrote.

Protesters said the University needed to do more than allow Adidas’ contract to expire.

“Justice delayed is justice denied,” SLA member Stoni Tomson ’15 said.

The letter accuses the University of “(continuing) to accept Adidas’s shameless lies” and asks that the University “put Adidas on notice for its violation of our vendor code of conduct.”

Students displayed signs saying

/ / Compliments page 1 Compliments and Brown Admirers have been springing up at schools all over the country, including Washington University in St. Louis and Yale.

The first of these pages was started at Queens University in Canada last September, Time reported last November.

Giving compliments feels good and people have a natural tendency to be kind to each other, said Fiery Cushman, assistant professor of cognitive, linguistic and psychological sciences.

Evidence has shown that children as young as one year old enjoy being generous, Cushman said. “If you put them in a situation where they can give someone a helping hand, they spontaneously do it. It doesn’t matter if you reward them. In fact, if you reward them, they actually do it less.”

“We have a nice little warm glow when we do something nice for others,” said Bertram Malle, professor of cognitive, linguistic and psychological sciences. But people don’t shower each other with compliments, Malle said.

“If you do it too much, it loses some of its power. It becomes a little tool of ingratiating people or indicating that you want something from them.”

The anonymity of Brown University Compliments is one of the page’s defining features, because it eliminates

/ / Auditions page 1 joke at the beginning of the audition to ease some of the tension and stress surrounding the event, Linden added.

Linden said the biannual midnight meeting, which is held once in the fall and then again in the spring, might have started in 2006, around the same time Brown’s Intergalactic Community of A Cappella was formed. IGCAC

the brown daily herald wednesday, february 13, 2013

“honor your promise,” “Brown take Adidas down” and “I won’t stand for sweatshops.” After exercising on the Main Green, the protesters marched into the Blue Room with their signs, chanting slogans such as “When Adidas workers are under attack, what do we do? Stand up — fight back” and “Ban Adidas, ban, ban Adidas.”

The protesters encouraged students in the eatery to join the SLA in pressuring Brown to cut its contract with Adidas.

Protesters then entered University Hall to deliver their letter to Paxson, but were told by Heather Goode, the president’s office assistant, that she was in a meeting. Goode said she would deliver the letter to Paxson later that afternoon.

The protesters then left the building, chanting, “We’ll be back!” But as

the group exited the building, students saw Paxson outside and presented their demands to her.

Paxson acknowledged the group’s concerns, noting there was “a lot of discussion” about cutting the contract. “(Adidas knows) we’re not renewing their contract, and I think that’s about as far as I can go,” she told the group.

“I know you’re not happy with it.” The students extended Paxson an invitation to attend a presentation April 16 from one of the PT Kizone workers who had been denied severance, which she asked the protesters to remind her of as the date drew nearer.

Students said they were pleased they were able to speak with Paxson in person and added that they hope Paxson will accept their requests.

“The reality is, she can do more,” Tomson said.

the possibility of complimenting because of ulterior motives, Malle said.

Complimenters do not expect to get anything in return, allowing them to express their “pure, honest, positive view(s),” he added.

The anonymity may also explain the page’s growing popularity. “Every time someone gets one of these gifts, they feel compelled to do something for somebody else,” Cushman said.

If you compliment someone face-toface, they are likely to compliment you back. But in an anonymous situation, the person praised does not know whom to compliment in return.

“So you could imagine, because you don’t know whom to reciprocate to, it actually grows and grows and grows the network of people who get involved,” Cushman said.

But some students expressed concern about relying on social media to communicate feelings about others.

“It’s a good way to make people feel good, but it’s also a cowardly way to tell someone you like them or tell someone you think they’re cool,” said Ramya Mahalingam ’14.

“We don’t seem to be very good at saying things to people’s faces,” said Rebecca Kagan ’13. She added that the number of “likes” a compliment receives makes the page feel like a “popularity contest.”

Pages like Brown University Compliments run the risk of unintentionally upsetting those who don’t receive compliments by making them feel excluded, Malle said. “That’s the flipside of our need to belong and our high sensitivity and responsiveness to positive social interactions,” he added.

“But just because somebody doesn’t post something online, doesn’t mean that there’s nobody out there who has anything nice to say about you,” said Joanna Lustig ’13, who is writing a thesis on social media and reputation.

Amy Gonzales, assistant professor of telecommunications at Indiana University, said the negative aspects of social media and online interactions dominate popular media and research.

“In reality, they actually take up a lot less space. I’m sure there are a lot of sweet things happening like (those) happening at Brown, but that stuff doesn’t hit the media and by extension isn’t the focus of research,” Gonzales said. She compared Brown University Compliments to a “flash mob support group.”

That is exactly what Janover and his co-founders wanted, Janover said.

They hoped to create a nice space that he said was the “opposite of all these really negative spaces that the Internet has a reputation for.”

originally held the meeting to form a more cohesive bond among groups and have a more organized audition and selection process, Linden added.

Linden said he attributes the popularity of a cappella at Brown — ­ which has more a cappella groups per capita than any other university in the country, according to the IGCAC website — partly to its uniqueness. At many other schools with prominent a cap-

pella scenes, the singers view it as a much more serious and formal commitment.

“Music is their life,” Linden said, noting that many of the singers at other schools are music majors.

Here, a cappella is more of a “side interest” for many of the singers, who are also involved in other activities, Linden said. “It’s a culture thing at Brown.”

Nate Wardwell ’14, a member of the Brown Derbies, said a cappella’s popularity at Brown is “self-perpetuating.”

“There are so many groups that it just kind of builds on itself,” he said.

Because the upcoming meeting will be held on Valentine’s Day, Linden said he expects many of the attendees will dress festively. Though more hype surrounds the fall midnight meeting because of the many incoming freshmen auditioning, he said he expects this week’s meeting to be exciting as well. The groups are eager to welcome new members into the a cappella community.

Admittance into an a cappella group means entrance into a family, Linden said. “It’s a great community to be a part of.”

www.browndailyherald.com 195 Angell St., Providence, R.I. Shefali Luthra, President Samuel Plotner, Treasurer Lucy Feldman, Vice President Julia Kuwahara, 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 and once during Orientation by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. Single copy free for each member of the community.

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university news 3

This week in Higher ed

by Mathias Heller Universit y Ne ws Editor

Columbia topped the list of the 10 most expensive private colleges and universities in U.S. News and World Report’s 2013 rankings. The list, released yesterday, reported that Columbia undergraduates face a bill of $47,246 for tuition and fees for the current academic year, excluding room and board.

Vassar College, Trinity College, Wesleyan University and Bucknell University rounded out the list of the five most expensive private schools. The only other Ivy League institution to make the top 10 was Dartmouth, which came in ninth with a tuition-and-fees total of $45,042.

/ / Obama page 1 Braga ’16, a member of the Brown Republicans, said he appreciated the president’s remarks about extending opportunities for the middle class but said he was disappointed by what he called a lack of specificity in many proposals, adding that there is a “dichotomy between what the president says and how he acts.”

“I’m glad he’s talking about the middle class,” Braga said. “I just think that it’s enough of talking. … We need to start acting on these things.”

Braga said the president’s proposals for education reform were a good sign, but, “as a conservative,” he believes education is best regulated at the state level.

“States have the capacity to address the needs of the people closest to them,” he said.

The Brown Democrats hosted a screening of the speech in Metcalf Auditorium. Many students at the screening were excited to hear Obama’s endorsement of equality for gay and lesbian members serving in the nation’s armed forces.

“I was particularly moved by the president’s mention of personal stories of people affected by gun violence,” said

Sofia Fernandez Gold ’14, president of the Brown Democrats. “He did a good job of highlighting gun control legislation and the importance of passing it right now.”

She added that it was difficult to hear the president urge legislators toward bipartisanship, given how polarized Congress remains.

Obama implored legislators to vote on gun control legislation — regardless of their position on the issue — to pay respect to gun violence victims across the country. The president paid homage to the victims of the Newtown, Conn., and Aurora, Colo., shootings, adding that his agenda will be completely ineffectual unless Congress moves “to protect our most precious resource — our children.”

“In the two months since Newtown, more than a thousand birthdays, graduations and anniversaries have been stolen from our lives by a bullet from a gun,” Obama said.

“This country only works when we accept certain obligations to one another and to future generations,” he said. “It remains the task of us all, as citizens of these United States, to be the authors of the next great chapter in our American story.”

THAYER

Columbia ranked most expensive private university in 2013

IN MA

Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette has requested the U.S. Supreme Court hear an appeal in a case involving the use of race in college admission decisions. The Court already has a race-admission case — Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin — on its current docket, and if it takes up the Michigan case, it could defer the latter until next term, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported Feb. 6.

The Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, passed in 2006 by the state’s voters, amended the Michigan constitution to ban public universities from giving preference to students based on race, gender, ethnicity or national origin, including in the admission process.

Last November, the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 8-7 that the law violated the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause by disadvantaging students of racial minorities . But the law’s supporters say it is necessary to protect equal treatment of all racial groups, and Schuette argued that Michigan voters have the right to ban racebased admission practices in their state.

POWER

By KaTherine lamb Senior Staff Writer

Developments in the Jewelry District are well underway for Rhode Island universities hoping to take advantage of the growing “Knowledge District” — a term local universities and politicians have been using to define the approximately 19 acres of space for urban development downtown that was freed by the I-195 relocation project.

For the area neighboring the University’s new Alpert Medical School building, Johnson and Wales University has plans to build up to three academic buildings and renovate an existing building, and the University of Rhode Island and Rhode Island College plan to bring a nursing school facility to the area, said Lisa Pelosi, director of the office of communications and media relations for JWU. Mayor Angel Taveras, the Providence Department of Planning and Development and a special advisory committee created the Providence Downtown and Knowledge District Plan in 2012, which states priorities and goals for the area as it develops, said Robert Azar, acting director of current planning for Providence.

The vision for the area is to create a centrally located “place that has a mix of all kinds of different uses with a focus on knowledge industries,” Azar said. “That includes education and healthcare institutions, research and development and supportive services.”

Development in the area will be a way to “harness emerging knowledgebased industrial development to create jobs, drive innovation and entrepreneurship, improve sustainability and enhance public health and quality of life,” Taveras wrote in an introduction to the plan.

The plan was meant to serve as a kind of blueprint for directing the city, businesses and institutions with an interest in expanding into the area, which include Brown, JWU, Rhode Island College and URI, Azar said.

“As an outgrowth of (the plan) we created new zoning regulations that allow for the growth of those type of uses,” Azar said.

Master plans, which lay out long-term visions for the developments of university campuses in the area, have to be reviewed by the city, Pelosi said.

“We feel that having the institutions in close proximity fosters collaboration, and we hope that it will result in spin-off businesses,” Azar said. “It’s not just collaboration, but also the opportunity to share facilities.”

URI and Rhode Island College announced their plans for a shared nursing school facility in 2010, The Herald previously reported.

The plans were made possible by Question 3 on the ballot last November, said Jane Williams, dean and professor of nursing at Rhode Island College. The vote approved borrowing nearly $132 million for a new shared building, according to Providence Business News.

A feasibility study was completed a year and a half ago, though planning is still underway, Williams said.

“What we’re focused on right now is the renovation and expansion of our campus,” she said.

Sharing facilities should allow institu-

DY ED

Supreme Court urged to consider another affirmative action case

S.

The Institute for College Access and Success advocated large-scale new investments in federal assistance to college students in a report on reforming U.S. financial aid policies the group released Tuesday.

The report is part of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s Reimagining Aid Design and Delivery project, which aims to increase U.S. students’ college completion rate.

The report’s recommendations include doubling the maximum size of Pell Grants for low-income students, making the financial aid application process easier to understand and increasing funding to universities that accommodate low-income students.

Fifteen other organizations participated in the Gates Foundation’s financial aid reform project, which gave $3.6 million in grants to groups interested in revamping higher education policies. Yesterday’s report is the first in the project to support significant new investments in financial aid, InsideHigherEd.com reported.

R.I. institutions aim to convert shared property into a hub for knowledge, technology and research

DYER

Report calls for widespread financial aid reforms

Universities make plans for Jewelry District

PIN E

the brown daily herald wednesday, february 13, 2013

Former I-195 lands in the Jewelry District

ELM

INT

PO

195 Greg Jordan-DEtamore / Herald

After purchasing land near Pine Street in the fall, Johnson and Wales University plans to build up to three new academic buildings. tions to purchase more expensive equipment that may have made little sense for both to purchase individually, Azar said.

“Such a facility would be equipped with the latest technology and would allow URI and RIC to increase combined undergraduate enrollment,” wrote Dave Lavallee, assistant director of communications and marketing for URI, in the URI alumni magazine.

Meanwhile JWU completed a purchase of two parcels of land last November, which expanded and squared off their existing campus, Pelosi said.

The property purchased, located along Pine Street and Friendship Street, will be the site of up to three academic buildings, Pelosi said. She said JWU is still planning how they will use the parcels of land.

JWU’s second Jewelry District project is a complete renovation of an existing building on Clifford Street, which will house a new center for physician assistant studies, Pelosi said.

The 18,000 square-foot building, originally constructed for jewelry manufacturing, requires total interior renovation, but JWU’s “first choice is always to

go in and rehab a building,” Pelosi said, adding that maintaining the facade of the building “allows the character of the Jewelry District to continue.”

The building will house the first physician assistance program in the area and take Rhode Island off the list of four states without such a program, Pelosi said.

Following JWU’s study of demand for professional degrees, it made sense to pursue physician assistance because of the current need for primary care in the state, Pelosi said.

“The Department of Health sees welltrained physician assistants as a vital part of the primary care workforce,” wrote Dara Chadwick, public information officer for JWU, in an email to The Herald.

The physician assistance program will not only foster collaboration between universities, Pelosi said, but “the whole premise of the physician assistant is a person who works directly with a medical doctor — that on its own is a collaboration.”

JWU has submitted an application for the physician assistance program to the Department of Health, and it is currently being reviewed, Chadwick wrote.

4 feature

the brown daily herald wednesday, february 13, 2013

Technology connects students abroad with life back home Facebook, Twitter and blogs allow students to stay in touch with both old and new friends

By Sonia Phene Senior Staff Writer

Students studying abroad adapt to an array of changes, from the food they eat to the classrooms where they study. But for many students, the only technological habit that changes in a foreign country is the adapter they plug into the wall.

As students go abroad looking for adventure and new experiences, more and more bring with them some of the comforts of home: phones and computers. As technology becomes more pervasive, students are turning to high-tech ways of enhancing their time abroad.

Surfing overseas Regardless of location, the Internet is a constant hotspot for many students.

It links them to social media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, and provides them with another way to stay in touch with friends and family.

The Internet is easy to access all across Europe, said Catherine Nam ’13, who studied abroad in Italy through the Brown in Bologna program. She found

that “technology was prevalent” in all her trips in and outside of Italy, she said.

Leah Stansky ’14 said she realized how much she depended on the Internet when she lost her wireless connection the first week of her study abroad program in Copenhagen.

“I couldn’t email. I couldn’t contact my mom,” she said. “I realized how much it made me feel alone.”

During the rest of her time abroad, she had access to the Internet on her phone and at school, in addition to her apartment’s wireless connection, she said.

Hannah Cockrell ’13 purchased Internet access with her roommates for convenience and used it to check Facebook daily while she studied in France, she wrote in an email to The Herald.

She used Facebook primarily to share photos of her travels with friends and family from home, she wrote.

Many students said they saw the Internet as a positive addition to their study abroad experience.

“I felt I gained a major level of independence studying abroad on my own, but I might have felt alone more often — detracting from my positive experiences in Berlin — without the use of technology,” said Felicia Iyamu ’14.

Facebook and Skype were especially

helpful in connecting with loved ones during moments of homesickness, she added.

Bloggers abroad With so many new experiences to share, students said they often turned to the Internet as an outlet to describe their adventures, keeping blogs on websites such as Tumblr or WordPress.

Terra Laughton ’14 blogged through Tumblr when she studied abroad in Italy and Cuba in spring 2012 and fall 2012, respectively. The two places were very different in terms of access to technology, she said.

She set goals of posting to her blog once a day in Italy and once a week in Cuba because it would have been “frustrating” to spend so much time on a computer in Cuba, she said.

In addition to reflecting the accessibility of technology, her blogs documented the differences in the two study abroad programs, she said. Much of her Italian blog consisted of pictures and descriptions of food, while her Cuban blog turned into a series of short stories with accompanying photographs.

Nam, who said friends regularly call her a “foodie,” kept a food-centric blog during her time in Italy, she said.

“One of the reasons was to chronicle what I ate,” she said. “If I cooked it at home, I tried to think what I liked about a dish and what I didn’t. If I ate out, I talked about the restaurant.”

The blog was also a way to “keep in touch with a lot of people, rather than reaching out individually,” she said.

Iyamu used her blog whenever she wanted to share a revelation about herself or German culture, she said, adding that she did not blog frequently in order to avoid being stressed about updating it.

“It was impossible to write daily updates because I wanted to consume my experience moment by moment without immediately having to think about how to share that with others on my blog,” she said.

Some students start off keeping blogs but discontinue them as the study

// Climate page 8 years, it is possible that the “dice get subtly loaded by climate,” Fox-Kemper said. Increased moisture in the air due to global warming could contribute to events like wildfires, droughts and tornado activity, he said. Local ecosystems are affected by changes in weather and will need to adapt if storms like Nemo and Sandy become more frequent, he added.

There are three different strategies that could be implemented to address climate change and the impact of future

courtesy of Catherine Nam

Whether students are in Cuba or Germany, blogs often help students record their experiences abroad and collect and share pictures. abroad program continues.

Laughton said she was more diligent about blogging her experiences in Cuba and Italy toward the beginnings of both trips.

“I have never had the patience for journaling,” wrote Cockrell. She tried keeping a blog on Tumblr during her first month studying abroad but stopped after that, she wrote.

Friends old and new Students said social media can be useful for staying in touch with friends and family no matter how far — or close.

Joanna Zhang ’13.5, who took a semester off to work at the White House, said she used texting, Facebook and emails to commumicate with friends at Brown. Having access to social media kept her in the loop of what her peers were doing, she said, citing the perusal of Facebook albums as an example.

“You’re definitely able to keep tabs more,” she said. “It makes the transition coming back easier because it was more like you were there semi-vicariously.”

Stansky said social media helped

her stay in touch with friends despite the time difference. She would check Facebook in the morning when she woke up, which was when her friends in the United States were most active on the site, she said.

In addition to helping students connect with friends back home, social media can also help them maintain new contacts.

Due to the high costs of international phone service, students sometimes use Facebook messages to coordinate with their new peers abroad. Iyamu said she used this method in Berlin, and Nam said she found it helpful in Italy.

Facebook facilitated social interactions in their new environment, students said. Cockrell said she joined Facebook groups for exchange students to learn about weekend trips and events.

Though destinations and experiences varied among students, many said their uses of technology remained the same: seeking new friends and catching up with old.

“When you’re in a new place, it’s natural to look for the familiar,” Nam said.

storms, Fox-Kemper said. Governments can either spend money to fix weatherrelated issues as they arise or implement policies to reduce overall greenhouse gas emissions. They could also undertake a more aggressive approach — geoengineering — in which people could deliberately alter the climate to reverse changes already made. For example, dust could be put into the atmosphere to mimic the cooling effect of volcanic dust. But this approach could have many unforeseen consequences that are not necessarily beneficial, Fox-Kemper said.

Governments will balance interests

of the present generations with those of the future in determining policy, FoxKemper said.

Regions should exercise caution and conduct a cost-benefit analysis before allocating resources to deal with weather-related issues, Seefeldt said. Cities should not waste money on equipment that is not going to be regularly used in response to a few devastating storms.

Though the impact of storms like Sandy and Nemo can be devastating, “the variations in weather are part of what makes the Earth a place that is habitable for us,” Fox-Kemper said.

university news 5

the brown daily herald wednesday, february 13, 2013

U. looks to fill admin vacancies Brazilian senator talks

country’s economic rise

Students will offer input in the final stages of selection for the deputy dean of the College

The speaker cited political change and education as crucial to sustaining Brazil’s future

By Eli Okun University news editor

In its second semester under President Christina Paxson, the University is currently searching for replacements for several key administrators who are stepping down for a variety of reasons.

Deputy Dean of the College Stephen Lassonde announced his departure last month — he will leave at the end of spring break to become dean of student life at Harvard. The search committee to select his successor had its first meeting yesterday and intends to find a candidate by the end of the semester, said Vice President for Campus Life and Student Services Margaret Klawunn, who is chairing the committee.

The committee, which comprises four other administrators, one professor and one student, is seeking a “dynamic, collaborative and creative administrator,” according to the official job description for the position. Klawunn said the committee is conducting a “national search” that is open to internal candidates as well.

The committee plans to solicit student input and have some students meet with finalists who will be identified later in the semester, she added.

The goal, Klawunn said, is to “get a replacement who can do as good a job as (Lassonde) has.”

Lassonde said his replacement should have strong multi-tasking and social skills, adding that the individual should be “able to keep the big picture in mind but also can really grasp the details of the work of each person in the office.”

In the months between Lassonde’s departure and his successor’s arrival, current Associate Dean of the College for Writing and Curriculum Kathleen McSharry will serve as interim deputy dean of the College. McSharry said she is preparing to assume three core responsibilities of the position — chairing the Committee on Academic Standing, serving as case administrator for the Standing Committee on the Academic Code and serving on the College Curriculum Council.

McSharry is working with Lassonde and Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron to delegate remaining responsibilities of the position to other members of the office, she said.

The University is also in the market for both a chief investment officer, who manages the endowment, and a chief information officer, who heads the University’s Internet Protocol infrastructure and technology efforts.

Cynthia Frost, the University’s former chief investment officer, retired at the end of 2012. The Corporation, the University’s highest governing body, has convened a subcommittee of its Committee on Investment to choose a replacement, The Herald reported in December. Frost was the University’s

By ISOBEL HECK staff writer

courtesy of brown university

Deputy Dean of the College Stephen Lassonde was just one of several administrators this year to announce their plans to step down. first and only chief investment officer, having arrived at Brown when the role was established in 2000. David Schofield and Ken Shimberg, both managing investors in the Investment Office, are currently serving as acting co-chief investment officers.

The search process to replace Vice President for Computing and Information Services Michael Pickett has just begun, with the search committee set to meet for the first time later this month, said Beppie Huidekoper, executive vice president for finance and administration and the committee’s chair.

The committee is expected to include four faculty members and four administrators, with a consultant set to help plan the search, which is taking place at the same time as several other universities’ searches for comparable positions, Huidekoper said.

Huidekoper cited Pickett’s “huge accomplishments” as a high bar for his successor to live up to, mentioning the renovation of the University’s data center, the establishment of a backup offsite location for its information, the replacement of several outdated information systems and stronger relationships with faculty members as part of Pickett’s legacy.

Vice President for Research Clyde Briant will step down at the end of this year after announcing plans last month to return to the engineering faculty. The search committee for his successor, which has been assembled but has not yet met, is chaired by Provost Mark Schlissel P’15, who said he has already solicited suggestions of potential candidates from among the faculty.

The Herald previously reported that the search committee plans to look at its senior faculty for a replacement before opening up the search to external candidates. The committee also comprises seven faculty members — the majority in the sciences and math — and Senior Associate Provost Elizabeth Doherty.

Schlissel said he was looking for “somebody with the vision to look across the Brown campus and identify areas of opportunity to enhance research here,” adding that the position entails administering a large research bureaucracy and representing the University’s research work elsewhere.

Briant has testified before Congress, met with heads of federal research agencies and served on statewide committees, Schlissel said.

Schlissel is also leading the search to replace Dean of Medicine and Biological Sciences Edward Wing, who announced in November his intention to take a sabbatical at the end of this year and then return to the faculty.

The process is underway, Schlissel said, and there are plans to conduct interviews in two stages during March and April and select a successor by the end of the year. The University has advertised the position in a number of media outlets and is considering both internal and external applicants, said Schlissel, adding that there has been significant interest thus far.

A successful candidate would likely come from a leadership position at a medical school and would understand the many layers of administration and experience such a job demands, Schlissel said. “It’s a complicated, diverse job.”

www.browndailyherald.com

Brazil faces ongoing challenges as the country strives to continue its economic growth in the long-term, said Cristovam Buarque, a member of the Brazilian senate, in a lecture last night.

Buarque’s talk — entitled “Is the Rise of Brazil Sustainable?” — was the second in the Brazilian politician and academic’s three-part lecture series at the Watson Institute for International Studies.

Buarque highlighted key changes that he said led to growth in Brazil’s economy. He linked the upswing to a series of events in the past couple of decades, discussing the “Real Plan” of 1994, which included economic stabilization, a new monetary anchor, contractionary fiscal policy and a more solid financial system. But he said the country faces a trade-off between the short- and long-term.

The main roadblock to maintaining stability in Brazil is a failure among leaders to look to the future, Buarque said. “We are working in the very, very short term and not looking to the long term, even the middle term.”

Buarque described four significant pillars of the Brazilian economy — political democracy, sound macroeconomic policies, the country’s import-export production model and its conditional cash transfer program, which seeks to increase the economic performance of lower-income workers.

Brazil faces the potential for dangerous “exhaustion” of each of these key pillars, Buarque said. He noted that corporatism, corruption, bureaucracy and legal-constitutional challenges pose potential threats to the country’s status as a political democracy. Brazil “needs reform to (the)

political situation,” he said.

Buarque criticized the country’s executive power structure, comparing the president of Brazil to an emperor who has too much power to make laws. Buarque added that Brazil’s Congress has difficulty overturning laws instituted by the president because of the short time frame the legislature is given to participate in the lawmaking process.

Turning his attention to the other three pillars of Brazil’s development, Buarque said a lack of national saving, high interest rates, high levels of debt and public expenditures and a lack of attention paid to education are potential risks to the country’s sustainable growth.

Buarque, who served as Brazil’s minister of education from 2003 to 2004, stressed education as a key influence on the Brazilian economy. He said education is not valued enough in Brazil and that he fears for the future of his country’s economy without education reform.

Efforts to improve Brazilian schools need to be focused on the national level instead of a local one, Buarque said.

“The way to do that is not to improve the (current) education system, but to create a new one,” he said.

Buarque said he fears students in his country’s school system are not learning the right information for the 21st century, and he stressed the importance of regaining an edge in making high-tech products.

Brazilians face the danger of being too optimistic about their growth prospects, Buarque said. He said optimism has the potential to blind people to the problems facing the country.

“We need a shock in Brazil, a shock of reality, to wake up (to) the situation.”

Though he stressed that he is not a pessimist, Buarque said he does not see much support for large-scale change in his country.

“The problem is not how to grow,” he said. “The problem is what kind of growth.”

6 editorial Editorial

Editorial cartoon b y i va n a lc a n ta r a

Let’s talk about love

It’s fair to say many Brown students are involved in activism, whether through the Swearer Center for Public Service, advocacy groups, student political organizations or any other number of causes. In a 2011 Herald article on student activism, a faculty poll showed 57 percent of faculty members believe student activism is lower today than when they were in college. In that article, Robert Self, professor of history, attributed such a decline to the absence of a “unifying issue” for our generation. This is a fair assessment: The growth of social media in particular has expanded the number of causes students can support. With so many issues to address and engage with, it’s not surprising that student activist groups splinter off to so many diverse avenues.

But there are two events tomorrow most Brown students will find in their common interest, and we encourage them to participate in both.

Whether your Valentine’s Day plans include a self-indulgent, chocolatecovered evening, an afternoon of romantic gestures or simply business as normal, dedicating an hour or two to these causes will promote a sense of student unity on issues relevant to all of us and present an opportunity to have a meaningful impact on the wider Providence community.

The first, One Billion Rising@Brown, is a flash mob dedicated to raising student awareness of sexual assault in Brown and Providence and around the world. Taking place on the Main Green at noon, it provides “an alternative way to celebrate Valentine’s Day” that promises to both be fun and use the cultural capital of the holiday to highlight an issue that permeates an aspect of all societies and certainly affects at least one person each of us knows.

The second, the Brown + RISD March for Marriage Equality, will take place tomorrow from 4 to 6 p.m. Students plan to wear red, rally on the Main Green and take their voices to the State House, where there will be live music and short speeches from members of the group. We join the Brown University Queer Alliance and the Brown Democrats in supporting this event and urge anyone with the time to throw on that red shirt in their drawer to help out and take to the streets. The bill to legalize samesex marriage passed the Rhode Island House of Representatives 51-19, a resounding and encouraging majority, but many have speculated that support is not as strong in the Senate, and opponents like the National Organization for Marriage Rhode Island have pledged using grassroots support to block the bill’s passage.

As the last state in New England to hold out on granting marriage equality to same-sex couples, Rhode Island represents an important step on the road to fulfilling the promise of equal rights in life and love. While many on campus have closely followed the debate, a Valentine’s Day rally signifies a crucial opportunity for students to lend their voices to a cause that needs public support.

This will resonate particularly on a holiday firmly entrenched in our culture as significant for everyone, regardless of relationship status. Taking two hours to show our passion and engagement in the community surrounding us can make a noticeable impact on state legislature.

Valentine’s Day is marketed as a day for individual, romantic love, but we encourage Brown students to redefine that boundary. No matter how you choose to celebrate the holiday, we strongly urge all students to consider using part of the day to spread love around the communities that bind and shape our collective college experience. We’ll see you at the State House.

Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board: its editor, Dan Jeon, and its members, Mintaka Angell, Samuel Choi, Nicholas Morley and Rachel Occhiogrosso. Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.

t h e b row n da i ly h e r a l d Editors-in-Chief Lucy Feldman Shefali Luthra

Managing Editors Elizabeth Carr Jordan Hendricks

editorial Greg Jordan-Detamore Strategic Director Sections Arts & Culture Editor Hannah Abelow Arts & Culture Editor Maddie Berg City & State Editor Sona Mkrttchian City & State Editor Adam Toobin Features Editor Elizabeth Koh Features Editor Alison Silver Science & Research Editor Sahil Luthra Science & Research Editor Kate Nussenbaum Sports Editor James Blum Sports Editor Connor Grealy University News Editor Mathias Heller University News Editor Alexandra Macfarlane University News Editor Eli Okun Editorial Page Editor Dan Jeon Opinions Editor Matt Brundage Opinions Editor Lucas Husted Opinions Editor Maggie Tennis Multimedia Emily Gilbert Photo Editor Sam Kase Photo Editor Sydney Mondry Photo Editor Tom Sullivan Photo Editor Danny Garfield Video Editor Angelia Wang Ilustrations Editor Production Sara Palasits Copy Desk Chief Brisa Bodell Design Editor Einat Brenner Design Editor Kyle McNamara Design Editor Sandra Yan Assistant Design Editor Joseph Stein Web Producer Neal Poole Assistant Web Producer

the brown daily herald wednesday, february 13, 2013

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Letters, please! letters@browndailyherald.com

Correc tion Due to an editing error, the summary deck of an article in Tuesday’s Herald (“New $2.9 million magnetic tool will further research,” Feb. 12) incorrectly described the magnetic field of a new device as “frigid.” In fact, the magnet itself will be cooled. Magnetic fields do not have temperatures. The Herald regrets the error.

quote of the day

“We don’t seem to be very good at saying things to people’s faces.”

— Rebecca Kagan ’13 See protest on page 1. facebook.com/browndailyherald

@the_herald

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opinions 7

the brown daily herald wednesday, february 13, 2013

Let’s throw money at it

By Nico Enriquez Opinions Columnist I have a confession to make. My parents are paying for every cent of my college education: $220,000 or more over four years. I am supremely in their debt.

Sadly, I have no concept of what it truly represents. You could call me spoiled or ungrateful — and I admit sometimes I am both of those. In this case, it’s similar to how, as Americans, we look at our $16.4 trillion deficit or at our 601 percent increase in medical spending over the last 30 years.

We cringe and keep walking — or spending.

In fact, there is a lot that we can learn from the parallel ascent of tuitions and medical costs.

There are several problems with how we practice medicine. Part of the problem with medical care is that many consumers are too removed from the actual costs. Most people likely don’t know that it can cost anywhere from $10,000 to $32,000 to give birth to a baby. People are generally given the bill for their medical care upon treatment, when it is too late to refuse or search for cheaper options.

Normally, competition and consumer choice lead to greater efficiency and better value for the consumer. Still, if consumers don’t know the product’s true costs, then price competition cannot exist. With medical care, there is no direct incentive for con-

sumers to push for more efficiency — their insurers will cover it. Our hospital incentive system is also terrible. Doctors are commonly compensated for how many procedures and tests they prescribe and not based on successful outcomes or efficiency.

The incentives say more is better, no matter what. The result of opaque costs and backward incentives is that we pay 250 percent more per person per year than does the average developed nation — and we still have a lower life expectancy.

Our system of higher education suffers from the same fundamental issues. During

financial aid, apply for scholarships or are saddled with debt. Any individual in my generation who would be sufficiently worried about the college process to start a movement against tuition hikes generally decides that a better use of time would be to apply for a couple of extra scholarships or student loans. On campus, the only sustained movement to help with the student tuition burden is fighting for financial aid, but wouldn’t it help more people to fight the tuition increases alone? Our apathy, or in some cases our misdirected action, is bleeding us dry.

There is a lot that we can learn from the parallel ascent of tuitions and medical costs. the application process it is definitely easy to figure out the cost of tuition, but what about room and board, textbooks and transportation? And where does that $50,000 or more actually go? Does it fund things directly related to your concentration? Or does it go to obscure sports teams, random school conferences and lawn maintenance?

Isn’t our education about getting an education and not all the random country-club frills our school can throw at us? Just like in medical care, the majority of consumers have no real incentive to push for efficiency and greater value. Upper-class students receive family funding. Lower- and middle-class students receive need-blind

Our rankings-obsessed incentive system does not help the matter either. The most influential college ranking system is the U.S News and World Report’s annual list. According to an article by U.S News and World Report on its ranking methodology, “academic quality” factors such as “faculty resources … financial resources (and) alumni giving” account for 35 percent of a school’s score. There is no mention of a tuition cost-benefit valuation or any sort of efficiency rating. The ratings suggest that the more a school pays for random crap, the better the school. We’ve seen how well that idea works in public education. This system stirs a veritable tuition arms race for

any school, like Brown, that wants to stay near the top of the rankings, and it results in the nation’s massive long-term climb in tuition. If the current trend of an average annual price increase of 4.4 percent at Brown continues, then a Brown education will cost over $70,000 per year by 2026. Hurray.

So what solutions do we have? I have two simple ideas that would at least help slow the increase in costs for both industries: Inform the consumer and change the industry incentives.

Multiple studies have shown that the more informed people are about their finances, the less they spend. The government should mandate that both industries reveal costs and future costs upfront.

A good model would be like the information cards car dealerships display about gas consumption, smog ratings and ownership costs. If there were a measly 1 percent annual reduction in tuition or health care due to this mandate, it would still be a massive change.

Changing industry incentives would be much more difficult. The health care battles would, once again, be huge. There would have to be some sort of popular movement against current college ranking ideology.

When either system becomes too broken, the public will come to the conclusion that these institutions must change their incentives and, ideally, there will be an improved system.

Nico Enriquez ’16 likes sea turtles. Please send fan mail to nenriquez3@gmail.com.

Not just another civil war Zachary ingber Opinions Columnist Sixty thousand people are dead in Syria.

That number is three times the capacity of our football stadium, substantially more than the number of American soldiers who lost their lives in Vietnam and higher than the number of deaths in all of the other Arab Spring countries combined. Yet I have not seen a demonstration, memorial service, Main Green tabling event or seldom a Brown Daily Herald article acknowledging not only the magnitude of the situation but also its impact on the Brown student body.

Maybe we don’t acknowledge it. But I find that hard to believe. I can only imagine the vigorous protests surrounding the Vietnam War and South African Apartheid. We are a campus that cares deeply about human rights and extols ideals of self-determination, democracy and equality. Why are we quiet on Syria?

And for those who say that this is just another civil war we cannot interfere with, we must not be so naive. First and foremost, this situation is nothing short of a crisis.

Bashar al-Assad’s forces continue to mow down civilians via attack helicopters and artillery strikes. Bands of loyalist thugs raid towns and rape Syrian women. Civilians looking to flee the violence spill into Jordan daily and will soon cause a refugee crisis of epic proportions in a country already shaky

from unrest. Cross-border skirmishes with Israel could heat up a recently quiet border and involvement by Lebanon and its Hezbollah-controlled government could entirely destabilize the Levant. This is not just another civil war.

On a campus of staunch President Obama supporters, I am surprised this is not a more serious topic of discussion. Obama, a champion of the Arab Spring and self-determination, as evidenced by his hasty ushering of Hosni Mubarak out of power, has done little to help the Syrian people. It seems

the Watson Institute for International Studies, it is unacceptable that the student community has proved to be complacent. Where is Brown’s chapter of Amnesty International? Where is the Janus Forum event discussing intervention in Syria?

I have come to the conclusion that, unfortunately, the Brown student body has come to view this conflict as just another Middle Eastern struggle, just another Arab uprising. We must not do this. By presupposing conflict and strife in the Arab world, we are undermining the fundamental right

We are a campus that cares deeply about human rights and extols ideals of self-determination, democracy and equality. Why are we quiet on Syria?

incongruous with his outspoken advocacy for a no-fly zone over Libya and direct aid to Libyan rebels. Yet what people fail to realize is the violence in Syria dwarfs the violence in Libya that justified international intervention. We, as a campus, voted for Obama.

Why are we quiet when he does not keep his word? This is not an assault on Obama’s character but merely an appeal to our beliefs as idealistic college students.

The quiet on campus is eerie. While there is no doubt that Syria is a topic of intellectual discussion within the Salomon Center and

the Arab people have to democracy and self-governance. I understand democracy elsewhere will not look like American democracy, but I also know the Syrian people deserve a chance. Perhaps this issue is not as appealing to Brown students because there is no big bad Western power to criticize, but that does not diminish the significance in any way.

So what do we do? First, we need to talk about this more. More articles, more lectures, more debates and more tabling on the Main Green. We have great scholars on

international politics and international relations — let’s get them to talk to students.

Political groups, such as the Brown Democrats and Republicans, can align with advocacy groups such as Amnesty International to rally students around this cause.

We can also put pressure on our elected officials. Brown is undoubtedly a political hub for Rhode Island elected officials. Petitions, phone calls and letter-writing campaigns need not only be for domestic policy.

Representative David Cicilline ’83, D-R.I., as well as Senators Sheldon Whitehouse, DR.I., and Jack Reed, D-R.I., are extremely active on foreign policy matters. If we share our concerns with them, they can in turn amplify the discourse in our federal government.

I am not advocating a specific policy for Obama to pursue. I am simply saying that we, as a campus concerned with social justice, should be discussing Syria more. Thousands are dead and there is a deranged ruler on the verge of using chemical weapons against his own people. One can write pages about the security imperatives regarding intervention or the geopolitical ramifications of getting involved. But it is more than clear that Brown students need to wake up. We are all capable of grappling with serious international issues and engaging in productive discourse. We have a strong voice, and we must use it.

Zach Ingber ’14 would be happy to discuss the Syrian conflict over a delicious wrap at East Side Pockets. He can be contacted at Zachary_ingber@brown.edu.

daily herald science & research the Brown

wednesday, february 13, 2013

Prof ’s book explores ‘illicit trade’ The new book examines the history of the black market and its ties to current U.S. policy

by sahil luthra, science and research editor

Fruit fly disease results from dual mutations Though nuclear DNA is more commonly studied than mitochondrial DNA, concurrent mutations in both can result in unique diseases. In a study published last month in the journal PLOS Genetics, researchers from Brown and Indiana University examined a fruit fly disease resulting from mutations in both sets of genes.

To conduct the study, the researchers combined genetic material that had mitochondrial or nuclear mutations. Though neither “simw 501” mitochondrial DNA nor “Oregon R” nuclear DNA individually caused harm to the fruit flies, the combination of the two mutations resulted in problems with development, energy and reproduction, according to a University press release.

The study “has relevance to human disease, but it’s also relevant to all organisms because these two genomes are in all animals and all plants,” said David Rand, the study’s senior author and professor of biology, in the release. “This coevolution of mitochondrial and nuclear genes has been going on for millions of years in millions of organisms and is going on in human populations today.”

By Phoebe Draper Senior Staff Writer

Often overlooked pieces of American history — the black market condom trade, the emergence of the porn industry and smuggling jewelry from Europe to the United States using cadavers — are brought to the forefront in a book by Peter Andreas, professor of political science and interim director of the Watson Institute for International Studies.

Published last month, “Smuggler Nation: How Illicit Trade Made America” traces the narrative of illicit trade activity in the U. S. spanning three centuries, Andreas said.

The Watson Institute for International Studies will sponsor a panel discussion on the book in the Joukowsky Forum today at 5 p.m.

The book hits close to home for readers on College Hill when Andreas describes John Brown — a member of the University’s founding family — smuggling molasses in the colonial years and gunpowder during the American Revolution, and later engaging in illicit slave trading.

“He very arrogantly defied anti-slave laws and helped other slave traffickers evade the law,” Andreas said.

John Brown’s brother, Moses Brown — a Quaker, pacifist and abolitionist — was involved in illicit acquisition of machinery from England during the early Industrial Revolution, Andreas said. Moses Brown hired Samuel Slater, who smuggled himself and designs of British textile technology out of England, violating strict British emigration laws, Andreas said.

Andreas’ interest in the topic of smuggling emerged from a gap he identified in the American historical narrative and in contemporary policy debates in Washington, he said. “The policy debates on issues of transnational crime are pretty much devoid of all historical perspective,” he said. “They act as if it’s an entirely new and unprecedented threat.”

A sort of “historical amnesia” grips Washington policymakers today, resulting in fingerpointing and limited selfreflection, Andreas said. To fill this sinkhole in the collective memory, Andreas decided to trace illicit trade throughout American history.

The research and writing process took Andreas five years. “I would ba-

Science & Research roundup

Injuries on the rise among older motorcyclists

courtesy of peter andreas

Professor of Political Science Peter Andreas discussed two of the University’s co-founders, John and Moses Brown, in his history of smuggling in America. sically mine the existing literature as well as some primary sources” including newspaper articles and documents, hunting for “nuggets of information,” he said. “A lot of it is buried,” adding that in dealing with an underground subject such as smuggling, “the data by definition is not precise.”

Andreas found a rich history of illicit trade in America, ranging from George Washington’s reliance on smuggled supplies from Europe during the American Revolution to massive slave trafficking after the slave import ban of 1808. Some women specialized in smuggling items inside their clothing, which worked until customs hired women to conduct body searches, Andreas said.

“It’s not just a story of law evasion. It’s also a story of law enforcement,” Andreas said. “It’s about the interaction between smugglers and anti-smugglers,” and how that interaction shaped the federal government and brought the United States to a time in which it has the largest prison population in the world, thanks partly to the War on Drugs, he said.

“The book departs in a very helpful way from the standard narrative of U.S. history, which tends to focus on the idea of the rule of law as at the center of our founding and our identity,” wrote Catherine Lutz, professor of anthropology and international studies, in an email to The Herald. Lutz is also a panelist in today’s discussion.

Andreas said he uncovered an essential irony during his research.

“A country that was born and grew up through smuggling is now the world superpower when it comes to anti-smuggling,” Andreas said. “Basically the U.S. is saying, do as I say, not as I did.”

Though “Smuggler Nation” is fresh off the press, Andreas is already considering his next projects.

“There’s always unanswered questions, especially in this area where sometimes you feel you are just at the tip of the iceberg,” he said. He is considering expanding the scope of his book and writing “Smuggler World,” he said, adding that diving into the drug story more deeply also interests him.

Older motorcyclists are more prone to injury than younger cyclists and generally suffer more severe injuries, according to research by Tracy Jackson GS and Michael Mello, associate professor of emergency medicine.

The findings were published online in the journal Injury Prevention last week.

Efforts to reduce these injuries are important because recent years have seen a dramatic increase in older motorcyclists — defined as those aged 60 and above — on the road, according to a press release from the journal.

To conduct the study, the authors examined the number of motorcycle injuries nationwide that required emergency care from 2001 to 2008. During that time, injury rates increased among all age groups, though the increase was highest for older groups.

Older motorcyclists were also significantly more likely to suffer chest and rib fractures and brain damage, the study found.

The authors speculated that decreased bone strength, reduced chest elasticity and other age-associated body changes may be responsible for the increased severity of injury, according to the press release.

Parental methamphetamine use linked to child behavioral problems Children who are exposed to methamphetamine prior to birth are more likely to suffer behavioral problems by age 5, according to a study by researchers at Alpert Medical School.

The study, published online in the American Journal of Orthopsychiatry last month, also examined the role of home environments. For both children who had been prenatally exposed to methamphetamine and children who had not been exposed, the study found that if the primary caregiver suffered from stress, the child was more likely to have behavioral problems.

These findings can be used to identify risk factors for behavioral problems in early childhood and may help identify prevention strategies, the authors wrote in the study. Methamphetamine usage in the U.S. has increased significantly in recent years, making it a particularly important risk factor to consider, the authors wrote.

Blizzard provokes climate change debate among scientists Some argue warming oceans contribute to the rising frequency of storms, while others find the link tenuous

By Kate Kiernan contributing writer

As thousands of people across the Northeast shovel out their driveways and trudge through the slushy remains of Winter Storm Nemo, climate experts continue to debate what caused the storm.

“Upward linear trends” in snowfall persisted throughout the 20th century, according to a report by the American Meteorological Society. On average, storms like blizzards, rainstorms and

hurricanes have become 30 percent more frequent in the United States over the past 60 years and will only continue to increase as the earth warms, according to a report by the Environment America Research and Policy Center.

Warmer ocean temperatures have resulted in increased moisture in the air, which can lead to heavier precipitation from storms originating over the seas. Melting ice in the Arctic has led to changes in air pressure and a shift in the jet stream that has put it into contact with the moist ocean air, creating the

necessary conditions for strong storms, according to a report by the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Having two destructive storms in the region only several months apart — Hurricane Sandy last October and Winter Storm Nemo last week — has fueled arguments from climate scientists that severe weather patterns will continue to develop.

“Rising ocean surface temperatures have already increased the temperature and moisture content of the air … setting the stage for heavier snow and rain storms,” wrote Brenda Ekwurzel, a climate scientist with the Climate and Energy program at the Union of

Concerned Scientists, in a Huffington Post article.

But some argue the storms do not provide enough evidence to draw conclusions about how climate change may affect weather. These types of storms are not unprecedented in this region, and having two such powerful storms within the span of four months does not illustrate future climate patterns, said Mark Seefeldt, an adjunct assistant professor of physics at Providence College who specializes in polar meteorology.

Nemo is the fourth biggest snowstorm on record to hit Providence, but three of the top 10 occurred 50 years ago between 1960 and 1962. A “theoretical

connection” between global warming and powerful storms is not enough to attribute every recent natural disaster to climate change, he said.

Changes in regional climate can affect weather for years to come without necessarily being a product of climate change, said Baylor Fox-Kemper, assistant professor of geological sciences.

For example, North Atlantic oscillation, which is the change in the circulation of the jet stream and its interaction with ocean temperature, can affect the weather, he said.

Even though a single weather event does not signal the overall climate t rends for / / Climate page 4