Friday, March 1, 2013

Daily

THE BROWN

vol. cxlviii, no. 26

INSIDE

Page 5

Imagine that Lecturer probes human happiness, imagination

One year after Paxson’s election, professors and students reflect on the president’s approach SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Mama lovin’ Phaedra production delves into themes of illicit desire Page 7

Take notes Students and alums pursue careers in music industry today

45 / 30

tomorrow

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since 1891

FRIDAY, MARCH 1, 2013

Paxson lauded for ‘bottom-up’ leadership style

By SABRINA IMBLER

Page 6

Herald

One year after her selection, President Christina Paxson has earned acclaim on campus for what faculty members and students called receptiveness to the community and decisive leadership.

Paxson entered the University without a set agenda and with a willingness to listen, get to know people and respect the institution, said Barrett Hazeltine, professor emeritus of engineering. Many other community members interviewed echoed his opinion.

“She didn’t show up with preconceived notions of what had to happen at Brown,” said Neal Fox GS, a member of the Campus Advisory Com-

mittee, which helped select Paxson as president. “She came and spent an inordinate amount of time meeting with department heads, trying to understand the culture of Brown, see where people were and understand where Brown is as a whole.”

Faculty members and students interviewed praised Paxson’s success in reaching out to all members of the community through what Hazeltine called her “bottom-up” approach to setting her agenda and effecting change at the University. Paxson visited many department heads in their own offices, a choice applauded by faculty members.

Paxson’s execution of strategic planning has garnered widespread approval for her collaboration with the community and faculty-generated, interdisciplinary strategic initiatives.

She has started to implement strategic planning changes earlier than did her predecessor, former President Ruth Simmons, who took a year or / / Paxson page 3 two to accli-

HERALD FILE PHOTO

Paxson, who was elected a year ago, has been praised by students and faculty members for an openness to learning.

Slavery and Justice Center teach-in reopens discussion New group The speakers reflected on the legacy of slavery at the University and the center’s role in promoting justice

By KATHERINE CUSUMANO SENIOR STAFF WRITER

The Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice continued its spring semester events series with a teach-in last night exploring the University’s Slavery and Justice report, released in 2006.

The event, “Slavery, Justice and the University,” featured talks by Seth Rockman, associate professor of history, Marco McWilliams, founder of the Providence Africana Reading Collective, and Anthony Bogues, professor of Africana studies and director of the center.

Rockman’s introductory remarks focused on how the University has set itself apart from peer institutions in its willingness to ask difficult questions about its troubled past and mov-

ing forward.

During the question and answer session that followed the teach-in, Rockman said the University’s efforts have shown that an institution’s reputation will not be ruined by confronting its past — instead, the consequences will be overwhelmingly positive.

“The University offers the space to think and really think hard about what has been and what can be,” he said.

Rockman then reflected on the history of the Slavery and Justice report. As of the 2011-12 academic year, many of the promises contained in the report had not come to fruition, he said.

Some people had “doubts as to whether anything would happen at all,” he said. The report was only the

beginning of a wider conversation that must take place about the work involved in slavery and justice and opened up questions about the role of accurate history and narrative in social justice, he added.

He urged students to take a leading role in efforts to spread the center’s work.

“You must push. You must drive the faculty beyond its comfort,” he said.

McWilliams then took the floor with an understated retelling of the 1955 lynching of Emmett Till in Mississippi. This year marks the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, he said, which calls for reflection about whether the 13th Amendment really abolished slavery.

He said the dynamic of slavery has changed but similar institutions remain, citing prisoners on work release as a “captive audience” for labor.

Each generation needs to deter-

mine what slavery and justice mean in its own moment, which entails reorienting styles of thought and challenging ingrained ideas, he said.

“You don’t know how many times I’ve been called into the principals’ offices,” he said jokingly.

Bogues began his speech with the genesis of the Slavery and Justice report, which arose from “robust discussions” aimed to “smash the idea that somehow slavery was just a southern phenomenon,” he said.

The University could not shy away from its history — its founders, the Brown brothers, were entrenched in the slave trade, Bogues said.

After deciding to label slavery a crime against humanity, the committee had to decide what sort of repair it could undertake, he said. One result was the Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice, which serves as a center for scholarly research and public education. / / Slavery page 3

Researchers merge disciplines to create robotic bat wing The robotic wing may also be integral for the development of bat-sized camera-carrying aircrafts

By JESSICA BRODSKY CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Bats are incredibly agile and maneuverable flyers, but they are also uncooperative research subjects. Since bats are unlikely to follow directions from humans, University researchers developed a robotic bat wing to study how changing different parameters, such as wing motion and wind speed, affect the bat’s ability to fly.

The researchers described the ro-

SCIENCE & RESEARCH

botic bat wing in a study in the journal Bioinspiration and Biomimetics last month. It is not the first robotic wing — others mimicking bird and insect flight already exist, said Joseph Bahlman GS, who led the project and designed and constructed the robotic bat wing as part of his dissertation.

But the new wing is unique because of its ability to actively fold and expand just like a real bat wing, Bahlman said.

The work was conducted in the labs of Kenneth Breuer ’82 P’14 P’16, professor of engineering, and Sharon Swartz ’84, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and engineering, who served as senior authors on the paper.

Understanding bat flight may hold the key to building bat-sized flapping aircrafts, also known as micro aerial vehicles, said / / Bats page 2

COURTESY OF JOSEPH BAHLMAN

The lightweight robotic wing is made of cables connecting motors to joints based on the muscular systems and tendon structures of a real bat wing.

aids peers facing U. discipline

SCIS aims to help undergraduates navigate Academic Code or Code of Conduct hearings

By SAM HEFT-LUTHY SENIOR STAFF WRITER

When circumstances called on Skylar Albertson ’13 to help his fraternity navigate the University disciplinary process, he found the overwhelming amount of information difficult to process.

“It’s complicated at times when you don’t want things to be complicated,” he said.

Albertson, vice president of the Brown chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, has teamed up with other members of the ACLU — as well as members of the Undergraduate Council of Students — to form the Student Conduct Information Service, a group that will assist students facing Academic Code or Code of Conduct hearings.

SCIS is currently evaluating undergraduate applicants for its first class of “associates,” and Albertson said he expects the group to be operational by the beginning of next year.

The idea came from similar programs at the University of California at Berkeley and University of North Carolina, Albertson said. Those programs provide “public defender” services to other students, but concerns about liability forced SCIS to become an “informational resource” rather than a source for concrete advice, he added. / / Conduct page 2

2 university news C ALENDAR FRIDAY

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/ / Conduct page 1

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When students are accused of disciplinary violations, they receive formal “charge letters” indicating what they are accused of and what the next step will be. From there, students can be assigned faculty advisers to help them prepare for an academic hearing and discuss their choices going forward.

Albertson said SCIS will be another service students can consult to have the information explained to them.

Senior Associate Dean for Student Life J. Allen Ward said the administration has tried to support SCIS, giving advice and input throughout the planning process.

“The students indicated that they felt that there was a lack of awareness in the student body … around the code,” Ward said. “I think that this is an experiment on their part to see if they can contribute greater awareness and see that students who feel that their rights have been compromised have options.”

Ward said he believes the University does an adequate job of informing students of their rights and responsibilities — all undergraduates are required to take an online tutorial about the Academic Code and the Code of Conduct, and both codes are published

/ / Bats page 1

CROSSWORD

Soon-Jo Chung, an assistant professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who studies bio-inspired flight.

Chung was not involved in the study.

“The mainstream model for bioinspired flight is insects,” Chung said.

But “it is difficult to put anything meaningful in a small, insect-scale airplane because you have to miniaturize everything.”

Bat-sized aircrafts would be big enough to carry small equipment, such as cameras, and could access areas that are too difficult or too dangerous for humans to reach, he said.

Building a bat wing The robotic wing was inspired by the lesser dog-faced fruit bat, a medium-sized bat that the researchers have already studied extensively, Bahlman said. When fully extended, the robotic wing is 20 cm long. “We really wanted to make sure that we could produce something that was life-sized and moved at life-like speeds,” he said.

Bahlman spent two and a half years constructing this specific model.

Like human hands, bat wings have many joints. He designed the robot’s skeleton to include seven of the joints most important for mimicking the motion of bat flight, using cables to act as the tendons that operate these

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD FRIDAY, MARCH 1, 2013

on the University’s website.

Still, some students say the disciplinary process at Brown can be intimidating when it seems like one student is against the whole institution.

“I’ve had friends who have gone through the disciplinary process, and it was way more of an undertaking than I think they expected,” said Ali Kirsch ’15. “When you’re in that process and you’re already feeling maybe like the administration is against you, then I think it’s probably good to have peer support.”

Albertson said SCIS will remove some of that fear from the process.

“It’s not an important part of Brown to every student at every time,” he said.

“But it’s a very important part of Brown to particular students at particular points in time.”

SCIS is meant to provide students with a less intimidating means of determining their options without feeling like they have formally started the disciplinary process, Albertson said.

“A lot of times when you’re sitting there in the room and you’re face-toface with administrators finding out about potentially serious consequences … some stuff could go in one ear and out the other,” he said. “We think it’s important that students be able to come to their peers and say, ‘Let me

make sure I’ve got all this straight.’”

Albertson said he hopes the University will include SCIS on the list of available resources as part of the initial charge letters sent to students.

“What that does is it protects students’ privacy,” he said. “We’re not being notified every time something happens, but students are being notified whenever they’re in a tough situation that they could reach out to us if they want.”

Ward said the administration is looking for ways to help “publicize the existence of the group,” including possibly listing SCIS on brochures or other publicly available materials.

Albertson said SCIS associates will be able to take a “big-picture” view of the disciplinary system at Brown and make suggestions to UCS and the administration when they believe the code could be working more effectively.

“Right now if there’s a student who has a disciplinary or behavioral issue, changing the process is going to be at the back of their mind,” he said.

Administrators hope SCIS will be able to “raise awareness around the code and awareness around respect and civility in general,” Ward said. “The code belongs to all members of the community at Brown.”

joints in a live bat. The cables connect to three motors.

“The actuation system is similar to and inspired by real muscular systems since these cables connect a motor to a joint, the same way a tendon connects muscle to a joint,” Bahlman said.

Bahlman used a 3-D printer to create the plastic skeleton and covered it with a thin rubber sheet for the wing’s membrane. The membrane was particularly challenging to build because the researchers needed a material that was lightweight, thin and stretchy.

To collect data, the researchers suspended the bat wing inside a wind tunnel using force transducers, which measure the aerodynamic forces produced by the bat wing, including lift, the force generated to counteract gravity, and thrust, the force generated to move forward. The researchers also measured the power output of the motors to determine the energy required for the wing to flap, Bahlman said.

Bahlman, Breuer and Swartz are currently working on another paper on the results of their experiments with the bat wing.

“Learning why it breaks gives us a lot of feedback on the mechanical stresses real animals have,” Breuer said.

The breaks also revealed how bats naturally cope with the stresses of flying. For example, to better understand why the robot’s elbow joint broke open, the researchers examined the structure of a real bat’s elbow joint and realized that the robot’s joint needed ligaments as reinforcement, Bahlman said.

“I like how this project in particular was a great example of how the biology informs the engineering, but the engineering also informs the biology,” Bahlman said.

But interdisciplinary research also has its challenges. Breuer described scientific disciplines as having different “cultures.” When Swartz and Breuer began their collaboration over 10 years ago, they had to overcome disciplinary differences including jargon, definitions of good experiments and ways of framing questions, Breuer said.

“I think both of us would say that the work we’ve done together has been some of the most rewarding work of our scientific careers,” Swartz said.

Bahlman said he finds interdisciplinary research both challenging and rewarding.

“The benefit is that you learn both worlds. The challenge is that you have to learn both worlds,” Bahlman said.

Swartz and Breuer’s research group was selected by the National Science Foundation to present its work at the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s meeting in Boston last month.

“One of the things that the Foundation likes to do is support work that breaks new ground, and some of that most exciting new work is at disciplinary interfaces,” Swartz said.

The group spent three days sharing their work with a wide audience, ranging from children to anthropologists and astrophysicists.

“I’ve never been more proud of my research group than I was over those three days,” Swartz said.

Groundbreaking interdisciplinary research Throughout the development process, the robotic wing broke frequently. But those breaks turned out to be blessings in disguise.

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD FRIDAY, MARCH 1, 2013

/ / Paxson page 1 mate before starting, said Chung-I Tan, professor of physics and chair of the Campus Advisory Committee.

In that short time, Paxson has already developed a keen understanding of the culture of the University, Fox said.

While some students expressed approval of Paxson’s work thus far, others said they are still learning who she is and what her presidency might mean to them. Tomorrow will mark the one-year anniversary of her election as the University’s 19th president.

Tan cited what he called Paxson’s personable but no-nonsense style of leadership as a primary reason for her rapid progress so far. “She understands academic excellence. She engages all the senior administrators in the process, which in turn engages the whole academic community in this effort,” Tan said.

Several other faculty members praised Paxson’s open and gracious nature in her dealings with the community.

During Winter Storm Nemo, Paxson invited Tan — who at that point had lost power in his home —

“We were inspired by the fact that she wakes up every morning, works out and still has time to take care of her dogs.”

Alana Bhatla ‘16

Faculty praise All faculty members interviewed sensed widespread support for Paxson among professors, many of whom mentioned her solicitation of ideas for Signature Academic Initiatives, or faculty proposals for collaborative research projects.

“I’ve been impressed by her in that she’s willing to listen and she’s active in getting to know people and know the institution,” Hazeltine said. “I respect her for that.”

Upon Paxson’s selection last March, Roberto Serrano, professor of economics and department chair, deemed her a “wonderful choice for Brown,” and he said his opinion remains the same a year later. “She’s a terrific choice.”

Hazeltine commended Paxson for coming to speak to him about his teaching, as he noted that many of her predecessors seemed most interested only in professors whose primary purpose was research.

Paxson does oversee research appropriately, Hazeltine said, concentrating on quality rather than quantity of research.

“Ninety percent of the important research is done by 10 percent of the people, and (Paxson) is really trying to reward that kind of path-breaking work,” Hazeltine said.

to visit her until he regained power.

“My power came back, and I couldn’t take advantage of her offer,” Tan said with a chuckle. “‘Darn it,’ I thought.”

/ / Slavery page 1

emancipation.

“We don’t live in a post-racial society,” Bogues said, adding that the structural legacies of slavery are visible in education and justice.

Last night’s teach-in was the first in a series of four planned for the semester, said Sharina Gordon ’13, the event’s organizer.

The series was created after a group of students brainstormed

At the heart of public education is the need to construct a narrative involving slaves’ perspectives instead of simply a story in which “freedom is given from above,” he said, citing an exhibit about the history of slavery in France in an abolitionist museum that fails to account for the involvement of the slaves in their own

Relating to students Around 54 percent of students said they had no opinion or did not feel familiar enough to express their satisfaction or dissatisfaction with Paxson’s selection in a poll conducted

by The Herald last spring.

Since coming to campus, Paxson has been a very visible part of the community, lighting candles at Brown/RISD Hillel on a cultural holiday and even walking her poodles around campus, said Undergraduate Council of Students President Anthony White ’13.

Paxson holds open office hours once a month, which is less frequent than Simmons, who held them twice a month. The shift is likely due to her spending more time adjusting to the University, White wrote in a follow-up email to The Herald. He added that he expects her office hour frequency will increase in coming years.

Paxson has developed an “extremely positive” relationship with UCS, White said.

“You had to have wondered about someone who has never been a university president, who has never had

HERALD FILE PHOTO

Paxson’s visibility has been notable during her first year as she has met with a variety of faculty, attended student events and even walked her poodles on campus. to interface with an undergraduate student body,” White said. “But it comes from her nature from wanting to seek opinions and wanting to learn about Brown as much as teach us things from her perspective.”

While many students said they have yet to familiarize themselves with Paxson, most students who said they had interacted with Paxson commended her as a welcoming figure.

Alana Bhatla ’16 had the opportunity to meet Paxson several times.

Would Christina Paxson Do?) in their daily decision-making. “We were inspired by the fact that she wakes up every morning, works out and still has time to take care of her dogs,” Bhatla said. “So we thought, let’s just try to be Christina Paxson.”

But Stoni Tomson ’15, a member of the Student Labor Alliance, criticized Paxson for refusing to cut the University’s contract with Adidas and for her response to students protesting about the contract.

“When strategic planning becomes a part of her legacy, that’s when the cult of Paxson will begin.”

Anthony White ‘13 UCS President

She held the banner with Paxson during convocation, had dinner at the president’s house through UCS and interviewed Paxson over video for a UCS fireside chat. “I find her very inspiring as a person,” Bhatla said.

“She’s very personable, intelligent, and you can tell she is planning things for the future.”

Bhatla found such a role model in Paxson that she and her roommate coined the motto “WWCPD?” (What

alongside Bogues about how best to resume discussions about slavery and justice.

The University’s entire student body has turned over since the report came out, so its ideas need to be reintroduced, she said.

The center will also host a range of other events throughout the semester, including film screenings, lectures and musical performances.

“President Paxson has refused to honor Brown’s legacy in anti-sweatshop work,” Tomson wrote in an email to The Herald. “She has refused to take students’ voices seriously and displayed a blatant disregard for Brown’s code of conduct.”

‘Her own president’ The legacy of the “cult of Ruth” still lingers in the minds of upperclassmen after Simmons’ departure, but

Paxson is working to define herself as an individual and be recognized for her own way of problem solving and reaching out to constituencies, White said.

“I didn’t know whether she could fill the shoes of Ruth Simmons,” White said. “But as I got to know her over time and see her in action, there’s no need. She’s an effective leader in her right.”

“When strategic planning becomes a part of her legacy, that’s when the cult of Paxson will begin,” White added.

While Simmons was an incredible president who raised the bar for Brown, Paxson has identified that positive direction and reevaluated how the university can raise that bar again in a targeted way, Fox said.

“I think that she is her own president right now, and that’s important,” Fox said.

Paxson’s expertise in economics and public policy — fields where scholars submit papers to policymakers as opposed to crafting theoretical research papers — supports her pragmatic agenda, Hazeltine said.

“She’s interested in real-world problems, things she thinks will have an influence beyond academia,” Hazeltine said. / / Paxson page 9

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4 university news

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD FRIDAY, MARCH 1, 2013

Author reevaluates evolving cybersecurity threats Susan Landau explains in a lecture why the current debate over cybersecurity is misguided

By CARA LEMIRE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Even cybersecurity experts are vulnerable to cyber attacks.

In a lecture yesterday afternoon, author and Guggenheim Fellow Susan Landau said she has “no doubt” her computer is vulnerable, and as a result, she is very cautious about security.

Landau urged audience members to think critically about cybersecurity during “Cybersecurity: Asking the Right Questions,” the fourth part of a colloquium on cybersecurity, which was held in the Joukowsky Forum in the Watson Institute for International Studies. Around 30 people, mostly students and professors, listened to Landau speak.

Researchers, politicians and the general public are asking the wrong questions about cybersecurity, Landau said. To make progress in the field of cybersecurity, she said, it is necessary to reframe the current debate to discover new solutions. Landau reframed these questions by first defining and discussing key ideas like attribution — a means of identifying an attacker — wiretapping and wireless infrastructure protection.

Landau countered the idea that we should rework Internet protocols to be more concerned with attribution and instead argued that some anonymity is important and that government-mandated attribution could stifle innovation.

Landau then differentiated between two different types of cyber attacks: ones that damage and ones that spy. Both require a vulnerability to work, she explained. Spying attacks disappear quickly, whereas damaging attacks often remain undetected for a significant length of time and then wreak havoc. Moreover, cyber attacks differ in the way they are executed — through multi-step attacks, multistage attacks or a mixture of the two.

Landau discussed the security processes of certain organizations.

The Recording Industry Association of America’s war against illegal downloading is especially relevant to college-aged students, many of whom illegally download music, textbooks and videos.

Landau stressed that the RIAA isn’t interested in the identity of the person who downloads illegal content — it is only interested in the downloader’s IP address. With the IP address alone, the RIAA can send out a collection letter threatening to sue the owner of the address if he or she does not pay for the illegally downloaded material. For other situations, law enforcement officials need more than just the IP address to prosecute someone, Landau said.

Landau also spoke abut wiretapping, explaining the difference between Public Switched Telephone Network, the standard landline and cellphone network, and Skype. It is easy to wiretap cell phones and landlines because they are centralized forms of communication, Landau said. In contrast, Skype is a “peerto-peer” form of communication and is therefore difficult to wiretap, she said.

Landau said wiretapping could be very effective in certain circumstances. While it has proven to be ineffective in kidnapping cases and is rarely used in that situation, it can play a large role in drug investigations, which benefit from and rely heavily on wiretaps, she said.

Landau kept listeners entertained through vivid narratives and explained concepts through the use of hypothetical questions, sometimes offering computer science-specific jokes and anecdotes. While explaining Skype’s impenetrability, Landau used an “Alice and Bob” diagram, a common tool in computer science lessons, which caused laughter and chatter amongst the crowd.

Landau ended the talk with a discussion on what society needs from cybersecurity. She acknowledged that law enforcement and emergency responders need secure ways to communicate in the event of natural di-

BRITTANY COMUNALE / HERALD

Cyber attacks are meant to either cause damage or to spy on targets, Susan Landau said. Both forms of attack require vulnerability in the system before they can launch, she added.

BRITTANY COMUNALE / HERALD

Addressing an audience of about 30, Landau said wiretapping was simpler for landlines and cell phones but more difficult for the program Skype. sasters and cited Hurricane Katrina as an example of failed communica-

tion. In terms of communications surveillance, Landau emphasized the

importance of clever solutions and infrastructure.

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD FRIDAY, MARCH 1, 2013

science & research 5

Speaker explores link between imagination and happiness A bestselling author described peoples’ misconceptions of the sources of their joy

By MICHAEL DUBIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Imagination is a “life-simulator” that often poorly predicts what will bring us happiness, said Daniel Gilbert, professor of psychology at Harvard and New York Times bestselling author, in a lecture Thursday afternoon.

The talk marked the launch of the program for Ethical Inquiry, said Bernard Reginster, acting director of the program and professor of philosophy, who introduced the lecture. The program represents an effort to explore what defines a “happy or meaningful” life and will continue to host lectures throughout the spring, Reginster said.

The conception of happiness as elusive is modern, Gilbert said.

“For the first time in the history of our species, large populations of people on our planet have everything they want or could reasonably want,” Gilbert said. “And guess what? They’re still not happy.” It must then be true that the things people have decided to aim for do not make them happy, he added.

Imagination allows people to learn from experiences we have not actually had. “So nature has given you this ability to pretend — to simulate in your imagination a variety of futures and figure out which one is the good one, which one is the bad one,” he said.

But imagination is flawed, Gilbert said. When people are asked to predict their future happiness in a variety of

situations, they often get it wrong.

He identified four principal reasons why people are poor predictors of their own future happiness.

Imagination has “tunnel vision,” he said. It paints a general sketch of people’s futures but does not include all the details. Though these small details may seem trivial, there are so many of them that they make a major difference in our experiences, he said.

Gilbert described one study that asked both Californians and nonCalifornians how much happier they think people who live in California are compared to people who live elsewhere. The study showed that both groups thought that Californians were happier, but the actual difference in happiness was nonexistent. The reason they all misjudged their happiness, Gilbert said, is because they imagined California as beaches and surfing, ignoring the fact that the details of their daily lives — work, commuting in traffic, marriage — would be the same.

People cannot envision a world outside of the present, Gilbert said.

He cited one recent study that surveyed 18-year-olds on how much they thought they would change in the next 10 years and asked 28-year-olds how much they had changed in the previous 10 years. The study found that 28-year-olds said they had changed much more than 18-year-olds predicted they would. This poor predictive ability transcends age, Gilbert said.

People also underestimate their abilities to overcome misfortune, Gilbert said.

People respond to trauma in four different ways, he said. Twenty percent is devastated for an extended period of time, 5 percent is initially fine but then sees its happiness decrease over

LAUREN GALVAN / HERALD

Harvard professor Daniel Gilbert kicked off the program for Ethical Inquiry with a speech on the problems with modern humans’ attempts to predict future happiness. time and 25 percent is unhappy at first and then recovers. But by far the largest group of people, Gilbert said, is the 50 percent that is resilient and does not experience a considerable decline in happiness.

People tend to see the world in a way that allows them to feel better, Gilbert said. Depending on the circumstances, one can call this either rationalization or coping skills, but either way, the “brain exploits ambiguity” to make a person happier, he said.

Another reason why people misjudge what will make them happy is

that the advice they receive is often misguided, Gilbert said. For example, parents often advise children that marriage, money and their own children will make them happy.

While marriage and money increase happiness, children actually detract from it, Gilbert said. One study showed happiness peaks at the first child’s birth and then declines severely. Another study found that being with their children brought women slightly less happiness than shopping for groceries did. “The only symptom of empty-nest syndrome is nonstop smiling,” he said.

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Gilbert compared having children to bragging about cashmere socks — ­ people tell others they bring them happiness because they cost a lot of money, he said. He also compared rearing them to using heroin, noting that they can “crowd out” other sources of happiness in life. Raising kids is like watching a no-hitter in baseball, he added — largely boring except for a few great moments.

But, Gilbert added, “maybe the fact that we have and love children even though they don’t always make us happy is the most noble, wonderful thing about us.”

6 arts & culture

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD FRIDAY, MARCH 1, 2013

Desire and psychological turmoil riddle ‘Phaedra’ The production features high fashion, color motifs and a ‘Baroque Noir’ theme

By CAROLINE SAINE STAFF WRITER

The age-old story of unrequited love is brought to life in Jean Racine’s “Phaedra,” a classic French Neoclassical tragedy that captures a woman’s torturous desire for her stepson. The power and destructiveness of this passion are reimagined in the current production of the play, put on by Sock and Buskin and the Department of Theater Arts and Performance Studies.

With her husband missing, Phaedra, played by Natalie McDonald ’15, awaits her death while wracked with a powerful sense of guilt over her illicit love for her stepson Hippolytus, played

by Michael Chiboucas ’13.5. Unable to suppress her desires yet unwilling to confess them, Phaedra descends into psychological turmoil.

Phaedra, who is plagued by her illicit want, laments her feelings toward her stepson despite having committed no crime. “What wrong can you have done to be so crushed with guilt?” asks her nurse Oenone, played by Michelle Migliori ’14. “There is no innocent blood your hands have spilt.” To Phaedra, the sheer desire is crime enough.

Director Spencer Golub, professor of theater arts and performance studies, emphasized drama in his adaptation — simultaneously highlighting the power and vulnerability of the mind. Though Phaedra can construct a convincing narrative to justify Hippolytus’s rejection of her, she becomes entirely consumed by the strength of her guilt and her passions.

While mainly faithful to Racine’s original play, Golub’s adaptation incorporates new characters and new lines of dialogue, taking liberties based on his interpretation of what’s offered in the text, Golub said.

The cast includes 10 actors playing 12 roles, a departure from Racine’s original cast, which included only eight parts. The extra characters add another layer of meaning to Phaedra’s psychological state, at times seeming to embody her inner consciousness.

Migliori is subtle but engaging as Oenone, both a powerful voice and Phaedra’s closest confidante. Migliori showcases both the depth of Oenone’s love for Phaedra and highlights the nurse’s knack for careful, well-intentioned manipulation. Chiboucas as Hippolytus is earnest and arresting, portraying the challenges of a man striving for virtue while suffering the burdens of an overwhelming and forbidden love.

But McDonald commands the stage as tragic heroine Phaedra, ex-

EVAN THOMAS / HERALD

Overwhelmed with lust, Phaedra, played by Natalie McDonald ‘15, addresses themes of illicit love and unrequited passion. Michael Chiboucas ‘13.5 also stars in this riveting neoclassical tragedy. uding at once the force of passion and the anxiety of unrequited love, acting with incredible skill and energy to portray the plight of a woman driven mad by desire.

Golub creates an elaborate, mythic world. Characters engage with the set as well as with each other, creating a sensation of constant activity and kinetic confusion as the eye is drawn to different characters moving and interacting with the stage.

The set design revolves around the use of a turntable with bedroom scenes

on both sides. Golub said he wanted to “tell a larger story — a more novelistic, more cinematic story,” through the set’s visual elements, allowing the stage to “preform itself ” throughout the play.

Elaborate costumes, set designs and color motifs confront the audience. Costumes and makeup are dark and drawn from haute couture fashion, reflecting what Golub referred to as the play’s larger “Baroque Noir” stylistic theme. While visually stunning, the intricate staging and cos-

tume design distract from the power of Phaedra’s raw, stark emotion.

In his director’s note in the playbill, Golub writes that desire is capable of “shaking our beliefs to the point that we may become unrecognizable to ourselves.” His adaptation of the drama highlights, above all, how powerless people are in the face of their desires.

“Phaedra” runs Feb. 28 to March 3 and March 7 to March 10, Thursday to Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Stuart Theatre.

Man-made forest conveys fragility of environment PearlDamour’s project, which began in New Orleans, made its debut in Providence this week

By JULIE YUE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

“How to Build a Forest,” an installation created by the Obie Award winning collaborative team PearlDamour, made its Providence debut in the Perry and Marty Granoff Center for the Creative Arts Wednesday and Thursday.

Each day, the building team — a group of artists and volunteers — assembled and disassembled a man-made forest over the course of eight hours.

According to the installation’s field guide, this exhibit was a manifesto on the beauty and fragility of our environment, an opportunity to see an “ecosystem in process” and an impetus for the question, “Where do things go when we are done with them?”

In Studio 1, an art form blurred the line between installation and performance art as “builders” scurried around, building a forest on a stage full of beautiful and ethereal props. The spectator was immediately asked to take a seat by a greeter who announced, “(A) ranger will be with you shortly.” The ranger, like the forest itself, had a fairy-like quality. After handing the visitor a field guide, she gave a brief introduction to the piece and explained that she can be summoned back with a birdcall.

The building of the forest looked like a scene from Dr. Seuss’ imagination. Iridescent fairy lights illuminated the long ropes that pulled up sheer fabric tubes, mimicking tree growth. Velvety, animal-shaped rugs

were strewn around the floor. Old neck ties were suspended by seemingly nothing, and wire nets with mica hung in the background, making a glittering waterfall. The “builders” busily constructed their forest, working for hours on end. Barefoot and in powder blue outfits, they looked like characters out of a children’s book — like elves in the woods or remarkably clean railroad conductors.

“The workers don’t talk much,” the ranger said. “Don’t take it personally.”

After taking off their shoes, audience members actively engaged in the environment — they walked around the forest and watched as the workers raised the trees higher and higher. Though the builders made a lot of noise by plopping and moving the wire supports and pounding on the floors, the forest maintained its meditative, ethereal quality.

At a brief glance, the project seemed lighthearted, especially with the sounds of wind chimes and bird songs filling the stage. But the field guide conveyed a darker, more tragic understanding of the work, listing the natural materials from which each structure in the forest was made to show how these resources are mutated. “(The forest’s) ingredients were originally of the earth,” according to the field guide.“But humans have processed them in such a way that they can’t go back to the earth without causing harm.” The guide continued to explain that the project strived to “build for things that can’t be rebuilt.”

PearlDamour is an amalgamation of the names of the two artists, Katie Pearl and Lisa D’Amour, who have been collaborating for over 15 years.

They specialize in interdisciplinary, large-scale art forms, mixing theatre

LAUREN GALVAN / HERALD

On Wednesday and Thursday, the Granoff Center for the Creative Arts was home to an artistic forest scene.

The building was the smallest space in which the exhibit has been displayed. and installation. Pearl is currently an MFA candidate in writing for performance at Brown, and D’Amour is the University’s playwright-at-large.

This particular exhibit was done in collaboration with visual artist Shawn Hall and featured the work of sound artists Brendan Connelly and Christopher DeLaurenti and light designers Miranda Hardy and Peter Ksander.

The project had its beginnings in New Orleans, and its structures were built in a warehouse there. According to the artists’ webpage, this project was “initially inspired by the loss of 100 old pine trees” due to Hurricane Katrina on a property owned

by D’Amour’s family. After the British Petroleum oil spill in 2010, the project became even more crucial to the two artists.

“We always hoped to have a piece

that would bring people together in an experience and allow them to consider their role in a larger space,” Pearl said. At Brown specifically, she said she hoped the piece would bring different departments and disciplines together.

The artists’ highest priority is to have the piece shown in New Orleans for the first time, Pearl said. It was showcased at New York City’s The Kitchen in 2011 and Duke University in 2012 and will be shown at Vanderbilt University later this year.

Granoff was the smallest space in which “How to Build a Forest” has been shown, so an overlook room was incorporated for audience members to view the performance from a distance.

“Every space is different,” Pearl said, and the Granoff has been a “rare, interesting challenge.”

“How to Build a Forest” received a steady flow of spectators and generally positive reactions from the audience.

“It was a little bit overwhelming,” Christina Davis ’15 said, calling it “an uncommon way to convey the message but a very powerful message.”

Shanna Chen ’15 pointed to the interactive element as her favorite part of the installation. “I definitely enjoyed sitting on the forest ground and experiencing the building of the forest.”

At 10 p.m. both days, the forest was torn down as spoken word poems were read aloud. “If we don’t build it up,” a builder read aloud, “we will all drift away.”

And then the room was empty — the workers wiped the dust off their bare feet, put on their shoes and strode out of the performance space.

arts & culture 7

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD FRIDAY, MARCH 1, 2013

From folk to soul, students and alums pursue pro music careers Brown musicians release albums, perform in bands and write blockbuster theme songs

By BERIT GOETZ CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Pitchfork and BBC Radio 1 darling Nicolas Jaar ’12 is not the only rising musical star with Brown connections.

The University boasts an impressive array of musicians who are releasing EPs and albums, playing local and global shows and leveraging the power of social media to advance their musical careers while they are still at — or just out of — Brown.

Several factors unique to the Brown environment, including University-owned recording facilities, student-friendly performance venues in Providence and a highly collaborative community, have influenced their artistic development, student musicians said.

Andy Suzuki & The Method Forty-four thousand dollars is no small sum, especially for recent college graduates. But it is the sum New Yorkbased trio Andy Suzuki & The Method needs to independently release its second full-length album this April, said frontman Andy Suzuki ’09. Since its 2008 debut at The Underground in the Stephen Robert ’62 Campus Center, the band — Suzuki, Kozza Babumba ’06 and Jason Gorelick ’12 — has garnered favorable reviews on NPR and in Keyboard Magazine and Time Out New York, rising above the wash of musical post-graduate projects with distinctive instrumentation —piano, electric violin and djembe — and an intriguing, genre-bending lyrical pop sensibility.

In order to put together what Suzuki called its “definitive project” — an album slated to feature a seven-piece

band, a string quartet and professional recording, mixing and mastering — the group turned to the power of crowdsourcing. An ambitious ongoing campaign on Indiegogo, a crowdsourcing website, raised nearly $9,000 in its first week, landing Andy Suzuki & The Method a spot on the popular fundraising platform’s homepage.

The band’s success goes beyond Generation Y social media strategies: Good old-fashioned networking is still at a premium. “A lot of the impressive opportunities we’ve had ... have

that while he was a student at Brown, a friend recorded and produced his senior-year, full-length album “300 Pianos” partly at the University and partly at Suzuki’s home in New York.

Some instrumental tracks on his second EP, “The Ghost Stories EP,” were recorded in Perry and Marty Granoff Center for the Creative Arts, Suzuki said, adding that the band began living together and recording intensively at the Carriage House in Connecticut this week.

For Gorelick, the youngest mem-

“I’ve always thought about writing music in the context of songs, verses, chorus ... I’m definitely a verse-chorus kind of guy.”

Clyde Lawrence ’15

come to us through our friends,” said Gorelick.

Gorelick, a computer science concentrator, said he chose to “study abroad” at Columbia to continue playing with the group after his bandmates both graduated.

Through friends in the computer science department at Columbia, the band arranged a three-week tour of Southeast Asia. A sponsorship from Kentucky Fried Chicken Brunei allowed the group to become the first international artist to tour the country in 10 years, Gorelick said.

If all goes well with the funding campaign, the band hoped to make its East and West Coasts and London their next destinations, he added. The group also performed at the South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin in 2012.

The process of navigating a postcollege music career has been “nightand-day different” from pursuing it while at Brown, said Suzuki, who left the Jabberwocks after two years to focus on his own music. He added

ber of the group, driving back and forth between New York and Providence nearly every weekend to perform took a toll on his involvement on campus. “My Brown experience was defined by something very separate from Brown,” he said.

Still, it was facilities and programs specific to the University that brought the group together. Babumba and Suzuki met through a mutual friend at the Gate in 2005 and began playing Suzuki’s music together around campus. Babumba continued to commute to Brown for shows after he graduated.

Gorelick joined the duo in 2008 after meeting Suzuki at a beginningof-the-year meeting for students in the Music Department’s Applied Music Program, through which he was taking jazz piano lessons, Suzuki said.

Clyde Lawrence When you have already written the theme song of a major Hollywood blockbuster by the age of 5, where else is there to go as a composer? For Clyde Lawrence ’15, Brown was a good start.

Theater students push boundaries Student directors and producers move off College Hill to explore ‘real world’ theater

By RILEY DAVIS STAFF WRITER

Studying abroad, exploring independence and breaking away from the “Brown bubble” are not unusual activities for students, but they can take unique forms in the world of theater. Undergraduates are taking their futures into their own hands — producing and directing their own plays and even traveling abroad to work on professional productions.

Cheno Pinter ’14 spent a month of winter break as an assistant producer of a play at the English Theatre Berlin, the only exclusively Englishspeaking theater in the city.

“It’s the first thing I’ve ever done totally on my own,” Pinter said. “And I chose to do it because I’m really interested in bringing English theater to other countries and how international theater is dealt with.”

Pinter said she already knew she wanted to visit Berlin, so she sought

EVAN THOMAS / HERALD

Cheno Pinter ’14 produced theater in Berlin over her winter break. She is one of many students who are looking to expand their theater experiences. an opportunity to work in theater there. “I just sent a bunch of emails to (the English Theatre Berlin) saying that I knew they didn’t explicitly take interns, but that this is who I was, this is what I’d done and this is what I’d do for them,” Pinter said. “And they said yes.”

During her stay in Berlin, she worked on a production called “Big Love” by Charles Mee. Based on the Greek play “The Suppliants,” the play tells the story of fifty brides-to-be who run away to Italy to avoid marrying their cousins. / / Theater page 9 Balancing

His childhood composition was blindselected as the pageant theme for the 2000 blockbuster “Miss Congeniality,” which his father, Marc Lawrence, cowrote, Lawrence said.

Since then, Lawrence has made a name for himself as a self-described “blue-eyed soul, pop and blues” songwriter and performer. In high school he performed regularly at the Carlyle Club on Madison Avenue in Manhattan with jazz singer Steve Tyrell, and he has appeared on NBC’s “The Today Show”, Fox’s “Good Day New York” and ABC’s “TAXI TV.” He recorded “Homesick,” a seventrack album, over the course of the spring 2012 semester, returning to his hometown of New York City for several weekends of additional recording with Cloud 9 Studios on Long Island before completing the album over the summer, he said.

One challenge student artists face is balancing online and electronic sales with selling physical copies. On Jan. 5, Lawrence played a CD release party in New York, selling all 100 physical copies he had thought to bring along, he said. A second order, for release on campus, resulted in the “embarrassing” experience of wheeling 500 CDs from J. Walter Wilson to his room last month, Lawrence added. Though he now periodically mails those copies to radio stations and blogs, Lawrence

’13 and Greg Nissan ’15, as well as trumpet player Matt Block ’13. Album artwork was done by suitemates Danny Sobor ’15 and Tom Sullivan ’15, a photo editor for The Herald.

Brown’s recording studios in Granoff had a considerable impact on Lawrence’s recording process. He was deeply excited upon seeing Granoff during a pre-college visit to Brown, he said, adding that he hoped to go to a school where music could be an extracurricular while he pursued a degree in psychology.

Next summer, Lawrence will be scoring a full-length soundtrack for an “indie film with some romantic elements,” he said. “I’ve always thought about writing music in the context of songs, verses, chorus. … I’m definitely a verse-chorus kind of guy,” he said. He looks forward to taking a different approach for this project, creating more cohesive background music, he said.

Lawrence will play March 8 at The Spot in Providence.

Kayla Ringelheim Several notable folk acts have come out of Brown over the years, including singers Erin McKeown ’00, Catie Curtis ’89 and Mary Chapin Carpenter ’81, and Deb Talan ’90 of The Weepies and Providence-based indie folk band The Low Anthem.

“A big part of our philosophy ... was trying to connect Brown songwriters with the city at large.”

Kayla Ringelheim ’11 Singer -songerwriter

said he is “no marketing guru.”

As for other Brown artists, the collaborative spirit of Lawrence’s musical classmates has served him well. The party featured the talents of bandmates Johnny Koh ’13, Sam Askin

Singer-songwriter Kayla Ringelheim ’11 should be added to the list.

The Boston-based folk songstress got her start at Club Passim in Harvard Square and recorded her first EP in / / Music page 9 2007. She

8 sports friday

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD FRIDAY, MARCH 1, 2013

BASEBALL

Bears travel to LSU for season opener The squad will play a series of road games before returning home in April to battle Bryant

By GEORGE SANCHEZ CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Bruno’s baseball season will begin in Baton Rouge, La., this weekend, as the Bears face off against the No. 4 Louisiana State University Tigers tonight at 8 p.m.

“It will be a great experience for many of the players to play against a top-10 team in front of 10,000 people,” said Head Coach Marek Drabinski. “I tell them to try and get a W. It does not matter who you play. Do the best you can every time you put on a uniform.”

New assistant coaches Grant Achilles and Mike McCormack were previously assistant coaches at Georgetown University and St. Mary’s College of California, respectively.

“They have brought a good, positive atmosphere to the team,” said JJ Franco ’14, an infielder. “They are very committed to their job and have spent a lot of time with the hitters.”

“The team has gotten a lot stronger. We are really eager for the first game,” Franco said, adding that the

squad’s conditioning has been much harder than in the past.

Over the course of this month, the Bears will be playing on the road against highly-regarded teams, including LSU and Auburn University. Ivy League play begins March 30 against Cornell, the 2012 Ivy League champions.

Bruno is coming off a 9-35 season (Ivy 6-14), during which the team was plagued with many injuries. But with the return of key players, as well as a strong group of first-years, the expectations are high, Drabinski said.

“Every season our top goal is to win the league,” Drabinski said.

“The key difference between this year’s team and last year’s is the talent and depth — we definitely have players that are capable of attaining All-Ivy honors, including possible first-teamers.”

Bruno’s first home contest of the year comes April 2 against Bryant University. The Bears will take on several conference opponents at home in April, including four games against Harvard as well as two home games each against Penn, Columbia and Yale. Ivy League play ends on April 27 in a doubleheader against the Yale Bulldogs.

Bruno will also play Nicholls State University Saturday and Sunday.

/ / AOW page 12 pal from elementary school?

Yeah, he’s actually coming to this weekend’s game — he comes to so many games. I look to him for a lot of guidance in a lot of different areas, and he’s always been there since fourth grade.

You have 13 brothers and sisters.

Are sports a part of your relationship with them?

Yeah, it always has. I was adopted — 11 of us were adopted. My mom had kids of her own. So it’s a big family. I’m the youngest (and) my sister just turned 50. My siblings that were closest in age to me — we grew up playing in the back yard, all different kinds of sports. We had makeshift basketball courts and a big enough yard that we could play football.

What’s the most significant thing you’ve learned during your career at Brown? And being the leader of a team?

That success takes a lot of hard work, especially in a program where ... we had some struggles. You can work together with a lot of different people, different dynamics, different personalities — ­ you can accomplish a lot and we have accomplished a lot.

We’re a very visible sport, so reputation and representation is huge — I think I’ve learned that as well.

In your last game you hit the milestone of 1,000 career points,

and the last woman on the Bears basketball team to have done that was seven years ago. How does it feel to be part of that legacy?

It is a great feeling. It’s just remarkable to know that all the hard work I’ve done for the last four years has shown through. I’ve had such a supportive and great team. For me, it came at a really good time after being in a really hard losing streak that was hard to deal with emotionally and physically.

Do you plan on continuing playing basketball following graduation?

Yeah, my coaches and some other people that I’ve spoken to have told me that I have the potential to play overseas. My dream would be to play in France — they have so many great leagues over there. But there are so many great leagues around the world, and it’s just something that I think while I’m capable and able that I should (try).

What do you think will be the most challenging aspect of transitioning from college to professional ball?

It’s kind of like starting over the recruitment process again. I’ve been here four years, and I’m one of the seniors on the team. And now you’re starting fresh. Brown has definitely taught me how to network, to navigate and to find my way — so that’s going to be a challenge, but I’m definitely ready for it.

arts & culture 9

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD FRIDAY, MARCH 1, 2013

/ / Paxson page 3 What’s next?

When Simmons announced her intended resignation in Sept. 2011, she “left Brown in an incredible place,” Fox said. “In the last year since we selected Paxson, four other universities that we compete with on a day-to-day basis picked new presidents” — Dartmouth, Princeton, Yale and MIT. “Brown had its pick of the litter,” Fox said. “It was either a stroke of luck or a stroke of wisdom.”

Paxson will continue to work on strategic planning until the committee’s final recommendations are submitted to the Corporation in May. After that, Brown’s 250th anniversary will play an important role in Paxson’s mission to generate excitement about the University, engage the broader community and fundraise, Tan said.

Fox similarly highlighted reaching out to alums as major financial resources as a focus he would want to see over the next couple of years.

The Plan for Academic Enrichment centered on expanding the University by increasing the size of the faculty 20 percent in fewer than 10 years, Serrano said.

He predicts less growth under Paxson for a number of reasons, including the global financial crisis, but he still encourages some growth of the University.

“The ratio of students to faculty is high, and we need to bring that down,” Serrano said. “As the chair of (the economics) department, I wouldn’t be happy with a zero percent growth rate.”

/ / Theater page 7 schoolwork and industry experience is possible as an undergraduate, Pinter said. After moving back to Brown, she continues to prove this — she is currently producing “New Weird America,” a devised, or scriptless, piece conceived and directed by Ari Rodriguez ’13.

The show opened Feb. 22 at 95 Empire, a Providence-based theater company. The production, the cast of which is mainly Brown students, is based on a Chilean folk dance called La Cueca, which uses handkerchiefs as the only means of interaction between the dancers.

When explaining the themes, Rodriguez said the piece is meant to highlight the interaction and occasional disparity between cultures in the past and present. “People have this sense that they don’t have a form to their day-to-day cultural experience, and yet we do live by this tremendous amount of codes,” he said.

Rodriguez agreed with Pinter that it is possible to take part in theater off-campus. “It is hard, but it was a lot easier than I thought,” he said. “We have to problem solve, and there’s nobody we can run to, but that’s what directing is anyway.”

Skylar Fox ’15 understands the added complications of working in real-world theater, he said. Fox has

Many of the issues raised by the faculty members interviewed have already been addressed in some regard in the strategic planning committees’ interim reports released in January, those interviewed said — such as the development of new workspaces for grad students, the creation of interdepartmental buildings and the renovation of existing classroom spaces.

Hazeltine specifically praised the theme of interdisciplinary collaboration that guided many of the preliminary recommendations of strategic planning, citing the importance of interdisciplinary initiatives at a small university like Brown.

“She’s really committed to making this not just a Paxson presidency, but to make it Brown University coming together, challenging Brown in similar ways that (Simmons) was able to,” Fox said. “She’s being critical and saying, ‘Where do we want to go?’”

Serrano cited the progress toward making Brown a strong research university and undergraduate college under Simmons’ Plan for Academic Enrichment as a path on which the University should continue.

Even with Brown’s undergraduate focus, Paxson clearly understands that a vibrant graduate school is necessary for the University’s recognition as a research institution, Fox said.

“If we can continue down that path — with Brown as a leader in the academic world with wonderful faculty and students and make a significant change in the world — that’s a good goal to have,” Serrano said.

“Paxson is definitely the right leader for that kind of project,” he said.

directed shows in the Boston area, and in 2010 he created The Circuit Theatre Company — a student-driven theater group based in the Boston area.

The company gives high school and college students an opportunity to become involved in the theater world through summer productions.

“Young theater artists have a lot of energy and exciting ideas about doing things that they want,” Fox said. “So what we hope (Circuit Theatre) will become is a place where young artists can actually do the things they want to do — direct full productions, actually have their written work produced on a full scale.”

The company has successfully produced several plays over past summers and continues to grow in scale and popularity, he said.

He said that while he finds the work fulfilling, it has posed challenges. “It’s really easy to get space at Brown,” Fox said. “It’s very difficult to book space outside of Brown because we’re competing against some really big theater companies that have a lot of pull.”

Balancing schoolwork and the theater company can also be difficult. “It’s crazy. I spend a lot of time at the computer or (on) the phone while I’m here season planning,” he said. “It’s fun work. It’s work I like to do.”

B R I D G E - B U I L D I N G B E AT S

JUSTINA LEE / HERALD

Heartbeat Music, a youth band consisting of both Palestinian and Israeli musicians, performed at Hillel last night. The group seeks to foster collaboration and understading between different cultures through music.

/ / Music page 7 went on to sing for four years with the Higher Keys while at Brown, she said.

The summer between her sophomore and junior years at Brown, she stayed in Providence making connections with a network of local studentfriendly performing venues, including AS220, a downtown artists’ collective, the speakeasy at Local 121 and Taza

Café, which had a now-defunct Sunday night open mic, Ringelheim said.

She added that she hosted Brown’s In-The-Round section of the Brown Folk Festival for two years, playing with headliner McKeown.

“A big part of our philosophy … was trying to connect Brown songwriters with the city at large,” she said.

Most recently, Ringelheim released her LP “Wandering Feet” with pro-

ducer Lorne Entress, doing much of the recording at his studio outside of Hartford, Conn., between May and September 2012.

Ringelheim, who currently balances a job at Farm Fresh Rhode Island with playing one or two shows a month, said she sees music as “something that can enrich my ‘mainstream’ life.” Ringelheim will play a series of shows in Canada in May.

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10 diamonds & coal DIAMONDS & COAL

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD FRIDAY, MARCH 1, 2013

EDITORIAL CARTOON b y j a s o n co n n o r

A diamond to the undergraduate who acted as the production manager for “New Weird America” and said of the show, “The more and more I watch it, the more I laugh and am moved by it.” We understand — we feel the same way about “I Knew You Were Trouble: Goat Edition.”

Cubic zirconia to the graduate student who said building the membrane of his robotic bat wing was particularly challenging because he needed a material that was lightweight, thin and stretchy. We’ve got your back — we think our first-year Residential Peer Leader has something you could use.

A diamond to the Blue Room, which was the fourth most frequently used phrase on the MyCampus Survey in association with “dining,” after “food,” “eat” and “love.” The Verney-Woolley Dining Hall, saddened by its unpopularity, is giving it the finger — the chicken finger.

Coal to the Undergraduate Council of Students vice president, who said Brown suffers from more alcohol-related crimes than its peer institutions. We don’t appreciate that jab at our dance moves.

A diamond to the early cultures concentrator who said she plans to write a senior thesis on “the ubiquity of dragons in the mythologies of many early cultures.” We assume by that she means she is writing the next installment of “Eragon.”

A diamond to the undergraduate co-founder of Common Sense Action, who said, “It’s not about what we think, it’s about what the community thinks.” That’s why on Wednesdays we wear pink.

Coal to Harvard psychology professor Daniel Gilbert who said, “For the first time in the history of our species, large populations of people on our planet have everything they want or could reasonably want.” All in one convenient location — Sky Mall.

A diamond to Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, who said of drug reform in South America, “The number one obstacle is public opinion in these countries.” That’s Anne Hathaway’s number one obstacle as well.

Cubic zirconia to Sara Wolitzky ’04, co-producer for Kunhardt McGee Productions, a company behind the film, “MAKERS: Women Who Make America,” who said choosing people for the movie was “torturing because there really are so many women” to pick from. Binders full of women, perhaps?

A diamond to the undergraduate who was so inspired by President Christina Paxson that she and her roommate now preface the choices they make every day by thinking the phrase “WWCPD?” (What Would Christina Paxson Do?). That Jesus guy is so last century.

Coal to the student who says he gets UCS mixed up with all the other three-letter acronyms, unless he agrees to remember the most important one: BDH.

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LE T TER TO THE EDITOR Call for bipartisanship lacks substance To the Editor: Andrew Kaplan’s ’15 and Sam Gilman’s ’15 op-ed piece (“American youth must take a stand on the sequester,” Feb. 28), like their stance, is incoherent. Their only stated political position is debt reduction. The sequester, for all of its other assorted vices and virtues, will cut the debt.

I’m against the sequester, but that is objectively what it will do. Their principle and only policy stance is more or less entirely coextensive with the sequester taking place. And yet, they are against it, saying because even though we’re cutting the national debt we’re not doing it the right way.

Kaplan and Gilman are being disingenuous with respect to

their goals, and it causes me to question their motivations.

Why would one be so passionately against expanding the debt, and yet expend so much energy advocating against a policy occurrence that will do the literal opposite? That doesn’t make any sense. On the other hand, I understand how they benefit by winning a prestigious $10,000 national prize and listing on their resumes that they founded and served as co-presidents of a political group that espouses the sort of mushy bipartisan mainstream groupthink advanced by respectable bourgeoisie opinion leaders. Color me skeptical.

Bradley Silverman ’13

CL ARIFIC ATION An article in Thursday’s Herald (“Doctoral students desire closer undergraduate ties,” Feb. 28) reported that a student viewed the Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning as a tool for undergraduates that had potential to provide marketable experience for graduate students. The Sheridan Center was in fact established for graduate students to hone their teaching and professional skills, in addition to improving undergraduate teaching.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“The only symptom of empty-nest syndrome is nonstop smiling.”

— Daniel Gilbert, Harvard professor and bestselling author See happiness on page 5. facebook.com/browndailyherald

@the_herald

browndailyherald.com

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taking sides 11

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD FRIDAY, MARCH 1, 2013

Are Ivy League students more obligated to give back to the world than other students?

YES

NO

Everyone on this campus wants to be happy as an adult. Happiness does not lie in hedonism or in the simple satisfacBY NICO ENRIQUEZ tion of our desires. This is shown by the Opinions Columnist fact that we can experience boredom. If we were to satisfy all of our desires and seek out all the pleasurable experiences As a kid, I always wondered why I was we could think of, we would end up like so lucky and felt guilty — to have toys, Billy Madison, completely bored and to have parents who weren’t divorced, not very happy. to live in a quiet and safe neighborhood The only way to achieve long-term — and to this day I have never learned happiness is through meaningful strugwhy I have been blessed with all these gle and eventual success. If you develthings. The guilt would nag at me for op a strong, loving relationship with weeks. your future spouse, if you succeed at So I did what any worried kid would work and feel capable, if you publish a do: I asked my book, then you will mom. To parabe happy. Every phrase, she told meaningful sucme it was just the cess you achieve The only way to achieve is a form of giving weird way the world worked and back. long-term happiness then she said all But how do we that really matgauge if it is meanis through meaningful ters is that when ingful? The only struggle and eventual you are blessed measure any of us with good fortune, should use for our success. you make sure achievements is you are worthy of our own. And funthat good fortune. damental to that And, most impormeasure is the use tantly, she said to of our own baseuse it to make good fortune for others. line.

All of us — every Brown student and If we started off with a blessed childevery Ivy Leaguer — have won one of hood and a lot of luck or if we found the most important and most random luck along the way, we owe it to ourlotteries of our lives: the college lottery. selves to feel that most of what we have We are the 9 percent. No matter who is a result of our accomplishments and you are, you got lucky. not some random twist of fate. We were I follow my mom’s rule because it lucky to be accepted into this glorious makes my life mean something. It al- university, and now our happiness and lows me to hold my head up tall, to look the good of the world depend on our a homeless man in the eye and have a struggles to give back. genuine conversation with him even as I walk around a school that spends as much money as multiple countries put Nico Enriquez ’16 can be reached at together. juan_nicolas_enriquez@brown.edu.

simply babysitting on weekends.

Placing this responsibility on Ivy GABRIELLA League students is not only overly idealCORVESE istic, but also extremely condescending.

Opinions Columnist Being an Ivy League student is certainly a privilege, but we are not the only students at renowned institutions. Let us There is no denying that being a student keep in mind that the “Ivy League” itself at an Ivy League school is a privilege. We is little more than an athletic conference. live on historically distinguished cam- Certainly, the title is now synonymous puses with esteemed educators and op- with academic prestige, but being a stuportunities many in academia will nev- dent in the Ancient Eight does not and er see. That being said, our status as Ivy should not automatically designate us as League students does not automatically saviors to the rest of the world. Rather designate us as the saviors and protec- than aim to help the world within the Ivy tors of the rest of the world. We should League sphere, why not share that oblistrive to do what is good, but we should gation to help with everyone else? Truly also pursue our giving back to the own interests and world takes more passions, whatever effort than what a We should strive to they may entail. group of private The notion that college students do what is good, but Ivy League stufrom the Northeast we should also pursue dents hold more of can give. an obligation to inBoth during our our own interests and fluence the world is educations and afexcessively idealispassions, whatever they ter graduating, tic. The utilitarian chances are we will may entail. approach of doing “give back” to the the most good may world in some way. “give back” more to The impact of that the world, but it is not the most effective contribution will differ from person to when considering individual contingen- person, and there is nothing wrong with cies. Contributing to the world is benefi- that. Not all of us will have the desires or cial, but how can one be an effective al- resources to become the next successful truist when one’s own well-being is not philanthropist or leader of a charity, and accounted for? Our educations are more there is nothing wrong with that, either. than one-way passes that end in giving We should each aim to secure our own back to the word. They are also pathways happiness and well-being and be helpful to exploring our own passions and indi- to others, but we should not feel a stronvidualities. It is through learning about ger duty to give back than anyone else. ourselves that we can learn how to help others, no matter how long that process takes. We should pursue our desires and Gabriella Corvese ’15 thinks writing then use our educations to benefit ouropinions columns is a good way to selves and others, whether that means give back and can be reached at performing international charity work or gabriella_corvese@brown.edu

Corvese’s Rebuttal

Enriquez’s Rebuttal

First and foremost, I admire my opponent’s integrity and desire to return his fortune to the world. That being said, it is naive to assume good fortune is simply a consequence of luck and that our personal fulfillments rely on reciprocating this luck.

The only “luck” that contributed to our lives was the environments into which we were born, conditions over which we had no control. Many were blessed with resources from the onset while others had to overcome great adversity. But our paths through these lives, including our acceptance into the Ivy League, were based on more than just luck. Admissions officers did not just pick our names out of hats. They considered our academic talents and our commitment to our communities, among many other factors. We all worked hard to get here, and our obligations should be to continue pursuing our successes, not repaying a fictional lady luck.

Ivy League schools are not the only academic institutions that diligent individuals attend. Plenty of other schools have low acceptance rates

— U.S. News and World Report lists a 7.1 percent acceptance rate at Stanford University and a 9.7 percent report at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. These numbers indicate qualified students, not a lottery. Why are Ivy League institutions more responsible to save the world than other schools?

We should not feel this obligation and instead should pursue our passions, whatever they may be. Besides, with the opportunities provided to us, it is practically inevitable that we will contribute to the world some way, large or small.

I do agree excessive hedonism diminishes character and contributes to boredom. We should seek a balance between satisfying our desires and being helpful individuals. Billy Madison, the lazy, indulgent heir in an Adam Sandler movie, initially does not appreciate the value of education. But at the film’s end, he decides to go to college and become a teacher — a choice he made. Our educations provide us with the resources to fulfill our dreams, and we should do with it what we would like, not what we feel obligated to do.

Corvese brings up several good points, and I agree with many of them. My main quarrel with her argument is she assumes too much of the opposing opinion and takes too narrow a view on what constitutes giving back.

Corvese wrongly assumes that because I support “giving back,” I do not support the exploration of “our own passions and individualities,” especially over extended periods of time. I fully agree with Corvese that “learning about ourselves” is essential to helping the world. I do not think they are mutually exclusive. We have to identify our passions and the fields that will encourage us to produce our greatest work before we can set off to change the world for the better.

Although she does argue that “giving back” can be done in multiple ways, at several points Corvese indicates that the maximum, or ideal, method of giving back is through gaining status as a “successful philanthropist or leader of a charity.” I think that some of the most successful cases of giving back were com-

pleted by people who were selfish, crazy, nowhere-near-philanthropist types: artists. People like Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin have given back and made the world a better place. They brought emotions, beauty and the accompanying self-exploration to a level that no philanthropist, however well-intentioned, could produce.

My opponent’s argument that my suggestion that we are more obligated to give back is “overly idealistic” and “extremely condescending” is flawed because I never argued Ivy League students are constitutionally better than anyone — I only argued that they were more lucky. This is, statistically, a fact. I honestly do contend with her belief that we “should not feel a stronger duty to give back than anyone else.” It is up to every one of us to look at what we have been given in our lives and ask, “Did I earn this or was I lucky?” In my case, it is a mix of both. For that reason, I strive to prove I am worthy of that random good fortune by making sure I give back as much as possible.

daily herald sports friday THE BROWN

W. LACROSSE

FRIDAY, MARCH 1, 2013

ATHLETE OF THE WEEK

Bears beat Patriots to Dixon ’13 scores 1,000th point co-captain comes open regular season The from a large family and New assistant coach Sarah Holden brings ‘swag’ and expertise to the women’s squad

By HALEY ALVAREZ CONTRIBUTING WRITER

The Brown women’s lacrosse team traveled to Fairfax, Va., last weekend to play the Patriots of George Mason University in Bruno’s first regular-season game. The Bears (1-0) conquered the Patriots (0-3) 15-10, with co-captain Bre Hudgins ’14 tallying six points to lead the Bears to victory.

“I thought we all had a lot of fun and overcame a lot of uncontrollable conditions as a team, which was why we were successful,” Hudgins said. “We played as a team and were always backing each other up.”

The team captains his season, in addition to Hudgins, are Lindsay Minges ’13 and Tara Rooke ’13.

“I just hope to be a great leader for this team,” Hudgins said. “We have so much potential, and I know all of us are so focused on making history and getting to the Ivy Tournament.”

The women’s lacrosse team has a talented freshman class of nine players who are expected to have a “huge impact” on the team’s success this season, Hudgins said. But the team lost goalie Isabel Harvey ’12 when she graduated last year.

“We’re really going to miss Harvey, but (Kellie Roddy ’15) got a lot of time as well last year,” said Abbey Van Horne ’14, a starting defender. “I think her and

Tori Holland (’16) complement each other well.”

Van Horne added that she is excited about the defense, as the returning defensive players have a lot of experience playing together and have “great chemistry.”

In addition to new players, the Bears have added a new assistant coach to their staff: Sarah Holden, a recent graduate of Syracuse University and former attacker for the Big Orange, who came aboard in October.

“I love what Sarah has done for our attack so far and also love having her as someone who played so recently and knows exactly the shoes we are in,” Van Horne said. Holden has helped increase the “team swag” by providing spirit gear, she added. Holden joins the women’s lacrosse staff alongside returning Head Coach Keely McDonald ’00, who is entering her ninth season, and Assistant Coach Meg Miller, who is in her seventh season with the Bears.

The women’s lacrosse team finished last season with a 6-8 record. A major aspect that the Bears want to focus on this season is team chemistry, Van Horne said.

“In the off-season, we had a lot of leadership training and worked a lot on creating values to get everyone on the same page,” Van Horne said.

The team’s roster is also relatively young, with 17 underclassmen and just four seniors. This “makes it easier to integrate the freshmen and make it really clear what the team is all about,” Van Horne said.

The Bears will take on the Columbia Lions at Stevenson Field at 1 p.m. Saturday.

hopes to play basketball after graduation

By MEG SULLIVAN SPORTS STAFF WRITER

As her time in college comes to a close, Sheila Dixon ’13, co-captain of the women’s basketball team, can look back on an impressive career characterized by dedication and accomplishment. An integral player for the women’s basketball team since her freshman year, Dixon led the team in scoring as a sophomore and junior.

She earned the team’s award for Most Valuable Player during her sophomore season and was selected as the Cox Sports Division I Rhode Island Women’s Player of the Year in her junior season. Dixon was selected to the All-Ivy Second Team both years.

Last Saturday she led her team to victory against Dartmouth, breaking an eight-game losing streak, and surpassing 1,000 career points. For her excellence at Brown, The Herald has selected Dixon as Athlete of the Week.

The Herald: When did you start playing basketball?

Dixon: Fourth grade — ­ it’s a funny story. My principal — who’s now one of my very close mentors — saw me playing football and basketball at recess. I told him ‘I want to play in the NFL, I want to be the first woman to play in the NFL.’ He was like ‘Yeah, that’s not going to happen, you’re not going to do it.’ But he was like, ‘You

DAVID DECKEY / HERALD

Sheila Dixon ’13 started playing basketball in fourth grade after her former principal and current mentor encouraged her to attend a basketball camp. could play basketball.’ He got me sent up to Sienna College’s basketball camps on a full scholarship. I went there fourth grade to ninth grade, and he continued to get me scholarships freshman (through) senior year of

high school. It was through Fast Break Fund, a program for lower-income families.

Are you still in contact with your princi/ / AOW page 8

Down the deep rabbit hole of intergalactic competition TOM SHAW Sports Columnist

HOME GAMES THIS WEEKEND FRIDAY

W. Basketball vs. Cornell 6 p.m. @ Pizzitola M. Ice Hockey vs. Cornell 7 p.m. @ Meehan SATURDAY

W. Tennis vs. Boston University 1 p.m. @ Pizzitola W. Lacrosse vs. Columbia 1 p.m. @ Stevenson Field M. Ice Hockey vs.

Colgate 4 p.m. @ Meehan W. Basketball @ Columbia 6 p.m. @ Pizzitola SUNDAY

W. Lacrosse vs.

Manhattan 1 p.m. @ Stevenson Field

A few weeks ago, “His Airness” and “Sir Charles” reached new milestones in their careers. Michael Jordan proved he was still the best Michael on his own underachieving team, while Charles Barkley finally got his total cholesterol under 300. Oh, and they also both turned 50.

“But with advances in modern science and (their) high level of income, it’s not crazy to think (I) can live to be 245, maybe 300,” in the words of Ricky Bobby. So in honor of these two greats fighting Father Time, I’ve decided to break down their greatest Hall of Fame performances. That’s right — “Space Jam.” Originally a series of collaborative Looney Tune and Nike commercials (actual dialogue: “Get your Hanes on, lace up your Nikes, grab your Wheaties and your Gatorade, and we’ll pick up a Big Mac…”), “Space Jam” has become a revisionist history of M.J.’s return to the league after his first retirement. I hope that, when America is excavated 2,000 years from now, our future conquerors will know Michael only returned to basketball because his struggle to prevent the enslavement of an animated civilization reignited his basketball passion.

For the uninformed, “Space Jam”

tells the story of Danny DeVito’s animal spirit, Mr. Swackhammer, who runs a failing amusement franchise called Moron Mountain in the film. Because it’s the mid-90s and the Xbox hadn’t been invented yet, DeVito decides the only way to bring entertainment to Moron Mountain is to kidnap Bugs Bunny and co. and force them to tell the same jokes on repeat forever (looking at you, Brown Noser). To lure the lovable cartoons, he dispatches a squad of tiny aliens packing serious heat and absolutely no IQ. (The blue one would fit right in at Brown — he is clearly on way too many drugs for a children’s movie.)

Here’s where things get interesting.

Like any chill bro, Bugs takes advantage of these dimwits and challenges the small-statured invaders to a game of basketball with the Tune’s freedom on the line. This leads to the aliens stealing the talent of Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, Muggsy Bogues, Larry Johnson and Shawn Bradley. There are only three reasons for the inclusion of Bradley over Hakeem Olajuwon. One: the aliens needed an irrational confidence token white guy.

Two: the blue alien was too high to realize what was happening at the time. Three: Hakeem was too busy naming and having tea parties with his championship rings to participate in a movie about Michael Jordan coming back to steal his dreams.

The creation of the Monstars and the self-dubbed “Mean Team” forces the Tunes to interrupt possibly the great-

est golf trio of all time — M.J., “Larry Legend” and Bill Murray — and enlist Michael’s help. I believe Bird was missing too many vertebrate at this point to even participate in a literally Kevin Garnett “Anything-Is-Possibleeeeee!!!”

Tune game.

After a series of training montages and the death of the innocence of Jordan’s children after they witness Bugs and Daffy Duck robbing their home for Mike’s gym gear, the Tune Squad finally makes it to the hardcourt. The team actually boasts incredible talent, featuring starting guards Tasmanian Devil and Michael Jordan and forwards Daffy Duck, Lola Bunny and pointguard Bugs. The Monstars run up the score early as both teams use game plans based entirely on NBA Jam — dunks on dunks on dunks.

The tide changes when the Tunes find “Michael’s Secret Stuff ” and, believing the tap water to be steroids (maybe it was sourced from a Miami clinic), far too enthusiastically consume the illegal performance enhancer, which nicely sets up the ultimate “You’ve had it in you all along!” feel-good moment. Seeing the Tune’s renewed confidence — in an act that’s just Michael being Michael and in no way foreshadowing Jordan’s future issues with gambling — Michael somehow finds a way to up the stakes beyond the enslavement of an entire civilization by trading himself for the NBA talent.

Of course the real star of the game turns out to be referee Marvin the Mar-

tian, as the number of uncalled fouls would make even Tim Donaghy blush.

I’m willing to accept that the animators essentially foreshadowed this year’s AllStar game featuring loud dunks and absolutely zero defense, but I’m pretty sure crushing an opponent’s skeletal structure and hooking up explosives to the basket violates at least one of Naismith’s rules.

Surprisingly, the use of motor scooters in-game is perfectly legal. Somewhere along the line, Bill Murray shows up because he’s friends with the producer, gets confused for Dan Aykroyd and joins Club Trillion — one minute played followed by nine zeroes in other statistics — while Michael becomes compelled by the power of Christ, extending his arm about 30 feet to slam the game-winning dunk.

I actually take back what I said about the explosives — the only unrealistic thing about this movie was that there wasn’t a foul called on every single one of M.J.’s possessions.

Back in the real world, Charles loses a pick-up game against a group of fivefoot tall girls, but the real highlight is the shrink questioning Patrick Ewing’s impotence in a children’s movie. Just as the bumbling NBA stars are about to give up, Mike returns with everyone’s talent, and no one lives happily-ever-after except for Jordan.

And that, my friends, is how you distort history into a mushroom-fueled, psychedelic basketball nightmare. I believe I can fly!