Daily
THE BROWN
vol. cxlviii, no. 49
INSIDE
Page 3
To the future
Prof awarded for forwardlooking research Page 11
Human interest Asher ’15 calls for “moral” immigration policy
Checkmate Central Falls High’s chess team travels to Nashville
today
65 / 47
tomorrow
48 / 42
since 1891
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10, 2013
Poll: Undergrads say U. should offer minors Less than 25 percent oppose the creation of University-sanctioned secondary areas of study By KIKI BARNES SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Page 12
Herald
Over two-thirds of students believe the University should offer minors, according to the Herald poll conducted in March. Roughly sixty-one percent of students would pursue a minor, while 6 percent said they would not pursue a minor but feel the option should be offered. Twenty-three percent of students said they do not believe the University should offer minors. Almost 16 percent of students said they would still pursue a minor if given the option. Ten percent of students reported
having no opinion. Females supported both the creation and pursuit of minors at a higher rate than did males, with over 67 percent saying they would pursue a minor and would like the University to offer them, compared to 52 percent of males. Physical science concentrators, including math and computer science concentrators, were twice as likely to answer they think the University should offer minors but would not pursue one, at 10 percent compared to 5 percent in all other concentration areas. Seniors were less likely to want the University to offer minors and pursue one if offered, at 55 percent, compared to 69 percent for first-years. Under the Open Curriculum, the University does not offer minors to undergraduates. M a n y / / Minor page 5
W E AT H E R M O O D S W I N G S
SYDNEY MONDRY / HERALD
After a week of low temperatures in Providence, students were greeted with warmth and sunshine on the Main Green Tuesday and Monday.
Panel refutes link between mental illness and gun violence Researchers In the third ‘Guns In America’ event, experts said mental illness is not a major cause of violence By ADAM TOOBIN CITY & STATE EDITOR
While an improvement in the United States’ mental health care system would be “amazing, ... we should be frank about what (reductions in violence) we’re going to see,” said Richard Friedman, Cornell professor of clinical psychiatry, director of the psychopharmacology clinic at Weill Cornell Medical College and regular New York Times contributor, during a Janus Forum panel about mental health in relation to gun violence last night. On the panel, Friedman joined Jeffrey Swanson, professor in psychia-
try and behavioral sciences at Duke University School of Medicine, and Doris Fuller, executive director of the Treatment Advocacy Center, an organization committed to reforming how courts order an individual to receive mental health care. The event was the third talk in the “Guns in America” series, a Janus Forum event co-sponsored by the Political Theory Project and the Office of the President. The first event featured speakers discussing the role of gun control in the reduction of gun violence. The second focused on society’s cultural relationship to guns. In the wake of the massacre at Newtown Elementary School last year, when Adam Lanza murdered 26 students and teachers, his mother and himself, President Christina Paxson called for a campus dialogue on gun violence and its causes.
Haakim Nainar ’14, an executive director of the Janus Forum, said the organization worked with Paxson to design panels that looked at every facet of gun violence in America. Friedman began the panel by pointing out that only 4 percent of gun deaths annually in the United States can be attributed to individuals with mental illnesses — far lower than most people think, he said. If America could hypothetically solve the problem of mental health issues leading to violence, “you’re likely to see a reduction in suicides, not homicides,” he said. Every year in the United States, firearms kill 30,000 people — 17,000 by suicide and 13,000 by homicide, Friedman said. While only a small percentage of the homicides are due to mental health issues, the majority of people who commit suicide have an
illness like depression, he said. Disproportionate media coverage of mass killings “creates distorted perception of the risk” of mental illness in influencing gun violence, Friedman said. Mass killings “represent 0.13 percent of all homicides in the United States,” he said. Focusing on mental illnesses as a major cause of gun violence can lead lawmakers to implement policies that cast too wide a net, Friedman said. For example, the New York state government just passed a law that requires mental health professionals “to report any patient they think is at risk of hurting themselves or anyone else,” he said. “Clinicians now fear they have to meet this very ill-defined threshold, (so) the system will be filled with false positives, (and) it might discourage patients from seeking treatment.” Swans on / / Guns page 2
Los Andes brings Bolivian bites to Providence With most meals under $20, patrons can get a taste of South America on Federal Hill By ADAM TOOBIN CITY & STATE EDITOR
Those who feel the Sharpe Refectory has dulled their taste buds should make the trek to Los Andes, where Peruvian meets Bolivian and flavor meets generosity. A casual passerby might mistake Los Andes for a low-rent incubator of food poisoning, but as all true Providence residents know, exteriors can be misleading. Entering the
restaurant, visitors realize they have stumbled into a place of family reunions, community gatherings, first dates and anniversaries — a neighborhood spot. Though most patrons of Los Andes seem to know Peruvian and Bolivian food like the backs of their hands, the staff takes pride in explaining each element on the extensive menu to newcomers. The restaurant’s menu features a weekly list of chef ’s choices that provide an easy guide to the wide variety of offerings. While not necessarily the most affordable options on the menu, the list’s selections prove the Providence chef ’s expertise in crafting the cuisines of Peru and Bolivia. This week the chef is offering a veal entree and a swordfish dish as well as a grilled chicken served in a cognac sauce and a baked lobster paella. The star of this eclectic dish is a half-pound / / Bolivian page 7
ADAM TOOBIN / HERALD
While most of the Peruvian- and Bolivian-inspired entrees are under $20, some dishes at this Federal Hill hole-in-the-wall exceed $40.
map brain activity to read dreams The study matched patterns in subjects’ neural activity with imagery in their dreams By ADAM HOFFMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
The science fiction trope of reading another person’s thoughts may b e one step closer to reality, thanks to recent developments in research related to the decoding of dreams. In a study published last Thursday in the journal Science, a joint team of researchers from Japan and Brown used a machine-learning paradigm to decode the brain activity of subjects during early sleep stages and reliably determine the content of their dreams. During the study, which lasted about three years, the neural activity of three subjects in early sleep was recorded using functional MRI, which localizes brain activity to particular brain areas by tracking blood flow. The researchers also used EEG, which measures electrical activity along the scalp, to understand brain activity at specific times to determine the subject’s stage of sleep. Though dreaming is often associated with REM sleep — a state in which the body is paralyzed but the brain is highly active, like in waking moments — dream-like images known as hypnagogic hallucinations are often associated with early non/ / Dreams page 4 REM sleep.
SCIENCE & RESEARCH
2 university news
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10, 2013
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The final panel in the Janus Forum “Guns in America” miniseries focused on mental health and what role — if any — mental illness plays in gun violence.
CROSSWORD
/ / Guns page 1 argued that the federal guidelines preventing individuals with mental illnesses from obtaining firearms are ineffective at preventing violent behavior, particularly mass killings. Americans believe all people with mental illnesses look like the mass murderers in Newtown, Virginia Tech and Aurora, CO, while in reality everybody from “your grandmother to your neighbor’s intoxicated boyfriend” is at risk, he said. The selective federal prohibition on gun ownership fails to curb violence because “the criteria we have are both over-inclusive and underinclusive,” Swanson said. He cited a study that looked at the mental health of perpetrators of mass killings. The research found that 88 percent of killers had not been taking antipsychotic medication at the time of the homicide, 74 percent were not in contact with any mental health spe-
cialist and 62 percent had never been admitted to a psychiatric hospital. Though studies have found that individuals with a gun-disqualifying illness — or history of illness — “were more likely to commit a violent crime … prohibited categories correlate poorly with violence risk, especially over time,” Swanson had written on slides he displayed. Swanson added that proper mental health care could have saved the lives of about 100,000 of the 300,000 people who have died from gun violence over the past decade by reducing the number of suicides. Fuller spoke of the need to strengthen laws allowing judges to order people who are a threat to themselves or others into psychiatric hospitals. She referenced her own daughter’s battle with mental illness as she discussed the limits of current mental health care policy. During a psychotic break, her daughter was involuntarily
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. POSTMASTER please send corrections to P.O. Box 2538, Providence, RI 02906. Periodicals postage paid at Providence, R.I. Subscription prices: $280 one year daily, $140 one semester daily. Copyright 2013 by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. All rights reserved. EDITORIAL
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treated at a psychiatric hospital. She spent two months with an attendant never more than a few feet away because she continually tried to pluck her eyes out. She believed it would save the world. “She could imagine killing someone,” Fuller said her daughter has told her, if the voices in her head command her to do it. “When the commands are coming at her, she believes they are real,” she said. “People like her do need to get treatment.” Americans place a premium on civil liberties, she said, but everybody loses when people who could have been saved by a court order kill themselves or others. “People will find a way to hurt themselves if they are not treated,” she said. About 10 to 15 percent “of people with schizophrenia will eventually die of suicide.” Paxson told The Herald that she thought the quality of the panels was “amazing” and that she “learned a lot.” She cited Tuesday’s discussion of mental health as the panel she found most informative. Following the panel, students, professors and speakers went to Paxson’s house for a dinner and discussion. Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Kilmartin, who attended the panel, spoke briefly about the nine pieces of gun control legislation — which he helped draft — that were introduced into the General Assembly yesterday. One bill would guarantee that Rhode Island begin to provide mental health and substance abuse records to the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System, a move the state has long resisted, the Providence Journal reported Tuesday.
university news 3
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10, 2013
THIS WEEK IN HIGHER ED
BY MATHIAS HELLER UNIVERSIT Y NE WS EDITOR
Cornell president rejects immediate divestment from coal Cornell President David Skorton said at a Student Assembly meeting Thursday that the university’s administration does not intend to immediately divest from the fossil fuels industry, the Cornell Daily Sun reported Friday. Skorton cited the university’s financial constraints as a reason to remain invested in fossil fuel companies for the near future, adding that Cornell will make a “very serious effort” to make future investments in the sustainable energy sector, the Daily Sun reported. Over 20 student organizations at Cornell have submitted letters to the university’s administrators calling on the university to divest from fossil fuel companies, the Daily Sun reported.
Amid outcry, Swarthmore College’s commencement speaker cancels Former World Bank president Robert Zoellick cancelled his plans to speak at Swarthmore College’s commencement ceremony in Swarthmore, Pa., after his selection drew criticism from students, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported Monday. Zoellick, a Swarthmore alum who had been invited to speak at the upcoming ceremony in June, announced via an email released by Swarthmore President Rebecca Chopp that he did not want to “disrupt what should be a special day” for graduating students and their families by introducing controversy into the event. Public outcry over Zoellick’s selection began last month after students participating in a discussion forum hosted by the Daily Gazette, one of Swarthmore’s student newspapers, assailed his past job experiences. Critics highlighted Zoellick’s World Bank presidency and support for U.S. military action in Iraq as evidence that he should not have been selected. Chopp defended Swarthmore’s decision to invite Zoellick and said the school “is very proud to claim him as an alumnus,” the Inquirer reported.
Proposed changes to North Carolina election laws target student voting College students in North Carolina may see changes to their out-of-state voting abilities if legislation proposed by Republican lawmakers clears the North Carolina statehouse, the Greensboro News and Record reported Friday. The proposed changes to North Carolina’s election laws include ending payment of a tax exemption of up to $2,500 to parents for a dependent child if their child registers to vote outside their home precinct, a change that Democratic legislators assailed as seeking to curtail college students’ turnout on Election Day. North Carolina Republicans are also pushing for an end to same-day voter registration and a shortened early-voting period in the state, claiming these measures will save money and prevent voter fraud, the News and Record reported.
Tailgate crash victim’s estate sues Yale for negligence An attorney representing the estate of Nancy Barry, the woman killed by a U-Haul truck at the 2011 Harvard-Yale football game tailgate, filed a negligence suit against Yale, the Yale Daily News reported Monday. The attorney, Paul Edwards, alleges that Yale failed to appropriately maintain safety at the tailgate, where Barry and two other individuals were struck by the truck driven by a Yale undergraduate. Edwards said in a press release that Yale “permitted and encouraged organizations to rent large box trucks to bring to a designated section of the Yale Bowl parking lot to host their alcohol-fueled tailgate parties,” the Daily News reported. Yale spokesman Tom Conroy disputed the university’s culpability for the accident, adding that Yale feels “the deepest sympathy for (Barry’s) family and loved ones,” the Daily News reported. Edwards also filed suit against other parties involved in the U-Haul crash, including the city of New Haven and Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity, Inc., as the truck had been assigned to the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity tailgate area.
Prof awarded for computer innovation The W. Wallace McDowell Award of $2,000 was given to Herlihy for his ‘futuristic’ concept By MARI LEGAGNOUX CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Professor of Computer Science Maurice Herlihy became the first Brown faculty member last month to win the IEEE Computer Society’s W. Wallace McDowell Award. The honor is given to individuals who make notable contributions to information technology fields and specifically for Herlihy, for making “fundamental contributions to the theory and practice of multiprocessor computation,” according to the IEEE website. “I got the award email a couple weeks ago,” Herlihy said. “But the headline said ‘congratulations,’ and my mailer thought it was spam and put it in the spam folder.” Herlihy said he was pleased to
win the award because it validated the benefits of thinking ahead in research. Herlihy and his fellow researchers have worked to coordinate computers’ activities with multi-core processors, or the ‘brains’ of a computer, The Herald previously reported. “At the time that my colleagues and I were working on this, parallel (computer) machines didn’t really exist. So we looked ahead and said, ‘Someday, parallel (computer) machines are going to be very important.’ And we thought about what it would take to get them to work.” Herlihy said other computer scientists were skeptical about researching such a “futuristic” concept but that his team persisted. “This is why research that isn’t immediately applicable is important,” he said. “Because eventually, some of these things will become important, and when that happens, it would be nice to have a head start.” Herlihy linked his success to the University’s cultivation of faculty members’ work, adding that the award
is a strong testament to the University. “Brown is a great place to do research, and students are a great resource for doing this kind of work,” Herlihy said. Professor of Computer Science and Chair of the Department Roberto Tamassia wrote in an email to The Herald that he is “delighted that Maurice’s pioneering work has received major scientific recognition and has had a significant impact on the design of today’s computers.” Marquita Ellis GS, who assisted Herlihy in his research, said she was grateful to have worked with him, adding that his “genuine encouragement and guidance has given (her) confidence to pursue further knowledge and learning in our field.” “I hope my peers will take advantage of the great opportunities we have to learn from, pursue research with, perhaps even be mentored by our Brown professors,” she added. Herlihy said he hopes to use the reward money of $2,000 to take a trip to Istanbul for personal enjoyment.
4 science & research / / Dreams page 1
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The researchers awoke the subjects every six minutes and asked them to report the general content of their dreams. “We had to get as many dream samples as possible,” said Masako Tamaki, a post-doc in the Department of Cognitive, Linguistic and Psychological Sciences and the secondary author of the study. Subjects’ responses were typically muddled due to their disoriented states, according to the study. The experimenters categorized the images broadly because they did not have the technology to examine specific details about the dreams. While awake, subjects viewed images that fell into the same categories they had reported dreaming about, such as human faces or furniture. While they viewed the images, the researchers recorded their neural activity. The team was able to use the data to construct a computer algorithm for each individual that paired particular brain activation states with corresponding visual imagery, with an accuracy of 60 percent, according to the study. “There’s something in common between what goes on in dreaming and what goes on in perception,” said Jack Gallant, an associate professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, in an article about the study published in the Los Angeles Times last week. Tamaki said she hopes this research can eventually be expanded
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10, 2013
so that researchers can create more generalized algorithms to decode the dreams of a large number of people. Such a decoding mechanism could potentially help reveal the unconscious thoughts of coma patients, she said. “The strides that are being made in this type of science are remarkable,” said Mary Carskadon, professor of psychiatry and human behavior at the Alpert Medical School and director of sleep research at Bradley Hospital, who was not involved in the study. “I find this whole new world of computational analysis to be so interesting and to have potential ... for doing some really good things,” she said. But Carskadon added there could also be a “dark side” to this type of research, noting that companies like Google and Facebook use similar methods of computational machine learning to analyze data to predict human actions to their advantage. This research is only a preliminary step toward an understanding of the function of the vivid dreaming that occurs during REM sleep, which still remains an enigma in sleep science research, Tamaki said. Both Tamaki and Carskadon said studying dream content during REM sleep poses several challenges, due to increased difficulty of obtaining a sufficiently large sample of REM trials, the unreliability of image content reports obtained from REM sleep and the difficulties associated with keeping the subjects asleep while in an fMRI machine, which is about as loud as an airplane engine.
university news 5
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10, 2013
/ / Minors page 1 students said they are against this policy, citing employers’ inability to recognize students’ varied academic interests post-graduation, a viewpoint that Ira Magaziner ’69 P’06 P’07 P’10 — one of the principle architects of the Curriculum — called “narrow preprofessionalism.” How well a student is educated matters more than what professional fields an area of study can lead to, Magaziner said. Mathew Kelley ’14 said he does not believe the University should offer minors. “It goes against the Open Curriculum,” Kelley said. “It’s just an easy way to tack on achievements.” Kelley added that though he does not believe minors offer benefits, he would support the University implementing language certification, which is similar to a minor in a foreign language. Students in the sciences, who face more concentration requirements, would probably be more interested in minors because they do not have the time to complete a double concentration, Kelley said. “Humanities concentrators would be able to stack on three or four minors,” he said. Sha Sha ’15 said she feels very strongly that the University should offer minors. Her pre-medical track influenced her to concentrate in the sciences, though she is also interested in economics. “If I concentrate in economics, I would have to take a fifth year,” Sha said, adding that she feels minors are good options for students with diverse interests. Charlotte Kim ’16 said she would probably pursue a minor, though she would have to do more research about the requirements. “I don’t think it would hinder our agendas (to have the option).” Many students expressed surprise about the disparity between genders. “I wouldn’t have guessed that,” said Emily Regier ’14. “I would imagine (minors) are pretty gender neutral.” Magaziner, Elliot Maxwell ’68 and the other contributors to the creation of the Open Curriculum followed the philosophy that “a liberal education has a value in itself,” making minors,
If the University offered minors, would you pursue one? Yes, but I do not think the University should offer minors Yes, and I think the University should offer minors
No, and I do not think the University should offer minors No opinion
Total
Male Female
Humanities/Arts Social Science Life Science Physical Science 0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
GREG JORDAN-DETAMORE / HERALD
Secondary areas of study are often “built-in,” she said. Bergeron said double concentrations and independent concentrations are ways for students to integrate secondary areas of study into their
“If this is what students want, there should be a discussion.”
Peggy Chang Director of the Curricular Resource Center
or specified secondary areas of study, unnecessary, Magaziner said. Students should have the option of a minor if they are willing to convince the administration, Magaziner said. “There’s no harm in the University offering (minors).” Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron expressed similar sentiments, noting that of the roughly 80 concentration programs offered — many with multiple tracks — over 40 percent are interdepartmental.
No, but I think the University should offer minors
experience at Brown, and 20 percent of students complete two concentrations. She added that students’ transcripts show if they have completed significant coursework in an area of study outside of their concentration. Bergeron said the University is “cautious about building our system in that way, because we already have a lot of choice,” and too much choice may overwhelm students and undermine the academic process.
Director of the Curricular Resource Center Peggy Chang said she feels ambivalent about offering minors. “I don’t know that Brown recognizing it elevates the accomplishment,” she said. “Students should be able to narrate what they did effectively and make sense of what they’ve studied.” Chang said she is not in favor of double concentrating, because “unless you are truly invested in two different areas,” a double concentration will limit a student’s ability to explore other studies. The option to pursue a minor would present a similar problem, she said. “(This issue) merits a much longer discussion among students, faculty and staff,” Bergeron said. She added that there are significant logistical problems to consider if the University were to add minors to the curriculum. “Every department who has a concentration would have a partial
concentration (or multiple ones),” she said. Awarding minors to students would be very difficult to organize in departments like the Department of Economics, which is struggling with a lack of resources and too many concentrators, Chang said. If the University were to implement minors, it would likely reference the secondary academic programs at comparable institutions, Chang said. Princeton offers “certificate programs” to undergraduates, which require both coursework and a senior thesis to complete, according to the university’s website. Harvard undergraduates have the option of pursuing one “secondary concentration,” which requires four to six “half-courses” for completion, according to Harvard’s website. “If this is what students want, there should be a discussion,” Chang said. Magaziner said a discussion would be a good idea and would support the University’s philosophy that students
shape the curriculum. “It’s always good when students are asking questions about the curriculum and thinking about how to improve it,” he said. Methodology Written questionnaires were administered to 1,202 undergraduates March 13-14 in the lobby of J. Walter Wilson and the Stephen Robert ’62 Campus Center during the day and the Sciences Library at night. The poll has a 2.55 percent margin of error with 95 percent confidence. The margin of error is 3.9 percent for the subset of males, 3.4 percent for females, 5.1 percent for first-years, 4.7 percent for sophomores, 5.4 percent for juniors, 5.2 percent for seniors, 3.8 percent for students receiving financial aid, 3.4 percent for students not receiving financial aid, 6.5 percent for varsity athletes and 2.8 percent for non-athletes. Find results of previous polls at thebdh.org/poll.
6 university news MUSIC ON THE GREEN
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10, 2013
TODAY IN UNIVERSIT Y HISTORY
BY HANNAH LOE WENTHEIL SENIOR STAFF WRITER
April 10, 1997 Civil rights activist and Reverend Jesse Jackson delivered a speech the night before about the “the American Dream,” addressing a jam-packed auditorium. “Between black, white and brown, the gap is not as big as it is between have and have-not,” he said, The Herald reported at the time. James asked young listeners to be the voice of change and to fight against the notion that the civil rights movement is dead. James added that race must be a source of dignity, pointing to Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr., as people who fought for their rights peacefully, The Herald reported at the time. Through education, affirmative action and a unified voice, Americans may lessen the economic gap between races, he said, urging audience members to “challenge the powers that be and make them the powers they ought to be.”
April 10, 1992
JUSTINA LEE / HERALD
A group of Brown musicians gave an impromptu concert on the Main Green yesterday afternoon.
The University was hit with a lawsuit for allegedly violating the Title IX amendment demanding equal opportunity for both sexes in collegiate athletics, The Herald reported at the time. Nine members of the gymnastics team filed charges at the U.S. District Court in Providence and took up the case with the help of Trial Lawyers for Public Justice. At the time, females made up 49 percent of undergraduate athletes, a statistic higher than the national average of 39 percent, The Herald reported. The lawsuit was filed in response to the University’s decision to reduce the women’s gymnastics and volleyball teams to club status, but the University refused to settle, The Herald reported. Arthur Bryant, then-executive director of TPLJ, said the action signified that the University “has shown it would rather spend money fielding a team of defense lawyers than a team of female athletes.”
April 10, 1973 Faculty members met to decide the future of the University’s S/NC grading option. Each attendee voted on an Educational Policy Committee proposal that, if put into effect, would allow professors to petition to opt out of offering their classes S/NC. Some faculty members requested a limit to the number of classes students could take S/NC. Student petitioners responded by offering their signatures and speaking out in defense of the grading option changes, The Herald reported at the time. Surveys taken at the time indicated that the overwhelming majority of the student body favored the S/NC option, The Herald reported. A study conducted at the time by then-Dean of Academic Affairs Lee Verstandig PhD’70 P’12 and Jon Rogers ’74 indicated that the grading option had no adverse effect on graduate school admissions.
arts & culture 7
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10, 2013
RIPTA Route 56
Los Andes
903 Chalkstone Ave. CHALKSTONE
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ATWELLS
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/ / Bolivian page 1 Maine lobster, but chicken, clams, mussels, squid, chorizo and shrimp also play feature roles. The prices at Los Andes can be disappointing — the lobster paella costs almost $40 — but the portions are generous and the food better than anything on Atwells Avenue, the Fed-
eral Hill strip where Brown students often venture for a meal off campus. The vast majority of entrees cost less than $15 — a reasonable price for a hearty meal. But restaurant-goers may be tempted to order a few glasses of the well-known sangria, which can break a tight budget. If you want to go to Los Andes — as you should — and are watching
your wallet, split the ceviche appetizer and paella entree. The ceviche will wake you up, teasing you with evocative bites of tilapia, squid, shrimp and mussels bathed in a lemon sauce that will restore color to your face. The restaurant’s classic paella, which combines chorizo, chicken, squid, mussels, littleneck clams and shrimp in a piping hot bowl of rice, will re-
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mind you what it feels like to be full and happy. Two typical diners can have a good-sized meal for about $10 each. If ocean-dwellers don’t tickle your fancy, the Pacumuto — a shish kebab with beef, chicken, chorizo, peppers and onions — will not let you down. The wisest visitors to Los Andes know they can trust the waiters and
GREG JORDAN-DETAMORE / HERALD
chefs who work there for foolproof advice. Take the 31 bus from Kennedy Plaza for a 10-minute ride, walk one block and eat what your waiter puts in front of you. Los Andes is open from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday, 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday and 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday.
8 feature
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10, 2013
COURTESY OF FRANK DELBONIS
Students from Central Falls High competed in the Supernationals tournament in Nashville, placing eighth out of 64 teams.
/ / Chess page 12
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weren’t nervous at all” at Supernationals, said Cameron Pita, an eighth grade student at Calcutt, citing the weekend competitions against adults as very helpful in their preparations to compete against less-experienced peers. “We were all happy to go,” Pita said. Pita was the team’s highest scorer and tied for 27th place out of approximately 400 competitors in his division at Supernationals. “It was really exciting to be in the top 10,” he said. Adofo said he “was pretty excited” about the team’s finish, but he said, “I could have done better.” Chess can help to develop critical thinking skills, said DelBonis, who helped start the team in the fall of 2000. But fundraising for the team is a regular challenge. “Every year it seems we come up a
bit short,” DelBonis said of the team’s finances. This year, the team needed $8,000 to attend the Supernationals tournament. “We were really worried about it,” DelBonis said. The trip probably would not have been possible without the help of local chocolatier Garrison Confections, he said. Actor Alec Baldwin, who has previously donated to the Central Falls Public Library, also donated $2,500 to help defray the team’s expenses. Still, “we want to continue to fundraise,” DelBonis said, to give students more opportunities to compete in local, regional and national tournaments. DelBonis is currently working to establish a scholarship fund to help pay college expenses for team members when they graduate. Because the team is valuable in so many different ways, DelBonis said, “we want to continue to do this for the kids.”
university news 9
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10, 2013
/ / Reading page 12 ciate Professor of History Nancy Jacobs, who teaches HIST 0980E: “Continental Histories,” attempted to hold an extra class the Sunday after Nemo hit but was unable to because the weather conditions prevented her from getting to campus. Students and professors said students understand the need for getting classes back on track. Juan Mora ’15 said “the only adjustment that my professors made that day was to push everything back and meet two days
out of reading period, which I am personally indifferent about.” But other students said finding alternate times to meet has been a hassle. Lianne Blinn ’15 said she was unhappy that her classes would all extend into reading period and that one course scheduled additional classes. Though many classes are still feeling the effects of this time loss, professors and students generally said they agree with the University’s decision to cancel classes on the day the storm hit and said safety is the biggest concern.
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10 editorial EDITORIAL
Cutting off what sustains us
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10, 2013
EDITORIAL CARTOON b y a n g e l i a wa n g
With government funding for research reduced from $140 billion to $130.5 billion — a nearly 7 percent decrease — many have expressed concern about the federal sequester’s effects on funding for research grants. As scientific research and development becomes increasingly politicized in the national sphere, the University must strive to maintain its focus on innovation and individual research in scientific pedagogy. We urge Brown officials to advocate for a national reprioritization of research funding. We acknowledge that research and development constitute only a fraction of the national budget, which must be adjusted to prioritize economic recovery, fiscal debt and national defense. But cuts to grants and university funding will have far-reaching effects that will seriously harm America’s long-run competitiveness. Not only does discouraging innovation set a precedent that will damage industry and infrastructure, but funding cuts also exacerbate other salient issues like student debt. Eliminating funding for research universities can encourage higher educational institutions to seek compensation through tuition, further hiking prices for a young generation, of which a huge percentage is already weighed down by a millstone of debt. These slashes to research budgets will undoubtedly affect Brown research institutions. In 2011, federal money constituted over $40 billion of the $65 billion spent by universities on research, the Huffington Post reported. In fact, the University received over $58 million in funding awards from the National Institutes of Health in the 2012 fiscal year. But like other non-defense agencies, the NIH faces a 5 percent cut that will reduce its funding capacity by $1.6 billion — a decrease that may very well be reflected in research grants to universities. Following research and development cuts, the National Science Foundation alone will fund 800 to 1,000 fewer grants than it previously has. With 58 percent of admits to the Brown class of 2017 expressing interest in the life or physical sciences — an uptick indicative of a wider trend of increased enrollment and interest in the sciences — this is a concerning development in government attitudes towards investment in the future. Government rhetoric about the importance of research, science and a new generation of scientists is meaningless without the commitment to actually encouraging these crucial elements of a successful economy. We urge the government to rearrange its priorities to support national funding of research, and we ask Brown officials to take an active role in this discussion. As one of the leading universities in research and development across the nation, its perspective on the potential damage caused by the cuts to research and funding is unparalleled. We can and should be involved with the discussion that may lead to a solution of such a critical issue. 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.
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opinions 11
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10, 2013
When we talk about immigration reform ADAM ASHER Opinions Columnist According to family folklore, in 1914 my great-grandmother Eva Gilman — referred to as “Bubbe,” the Yiddish word for grandma — caught the last ship out of the port of Vilnius in Lithuania before World War I broke out. Whether or not it was, in fact, the last ship is impossible to tell, but we do know that she ended up in Boston, where she lived until her death in 1988. She raised five children, three of whom served in the United States Armed Forces in World War II, and helped run her brother-in-law’s butcher shop in Dorchester, a working-class neighborhood in South Boston. My family history is filled with great American immigrant stories like this. Now imagine that her last name was not Gilman, but Garcia. Instead of Kaunas, Lithuania, her city of origin was Guadalajara, Mexico. Lastly, imagine her being flown out of the United States with her husband and being forced to leave her five children behind while she “got legal,” something which might never happen. For many undocumented immigrants living in the United States, that is the scariest nightmare imaginable, because it often comes true. Now that politicians in Washington have realized that there sure are a heck of
a lot of Hispanics in the country, and they overwhelmingly want our broken system of immigration to change, there’s been a lot of talk about immigration policy. Republicans have, in general, stopped talking about Mitt Romney’s infamous “selfdeportation” policy, instead opting to talk about heightened border security and paths to citizenship for skilled workers. Democrats continue to sing the same tune they’ve sung for years — that we should
immigration reform and gay marriage — is how utterly devoid they seem to be of what Maureen Dowd, in a recent column in the New York Times, called “the human factor.” She compares Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy’s near poetic opinion in the landmark 2003 case Lawrence v. Texas, which struck down anti-sodomy laws in Texas, to Chief Justice John Roberts’s “Karl Rove” questioning in Hollingsworth v. Perry. In the oral arguments,
Border security and e-verify may prove to be good carrots for lawmakers, but moral justice has always driven our most significant policy changes.
normalize the status of undocumented workers already living in the United States, a practice also known as “amnesty.” There is so much policy discussion, in fact, that the human cost of our immigration policy gets lost in the crossfire. Terms like “normalization” and “securing the border” are commonplace. “Compassion,” not so much. One of the common threads between two of the hot-button issues of 2013 —
Roberts repeatedly referred to the political power of the “the lobby supporting the enactment of same-sex marriage laws,” implying that it has already effectively won. The case was not about two humans being free to love one another and have that love formally recognized, but rather about political reality. Practicalities are essential when it comes to discussing policy, and I’m not expecting senators to come together and
sing “Kumbaya.” It is possible, though, that politicians underestimate the power of our humanity and capacity for compassion and empathy. Border security and E-verify may prove to be good carrots for lawmakers, but moral justice has always driven our most significant policy changes. If there’s one lesson to be gleaned from the 2012 presidential election, it is that the country has irrevocably changed. For the first time in our country’s history, being a white male no longer makes you “normal.” Women, black Americans, gays, Latinos — this diversity is the new normal. So the question now is, do we fully welcome all Americans into the tent, or do we try to keep the divisions between us alive in the face of overwhelming historical tides? How we deal with immigration is one of our first tests. We can either let the 11 million undocumented workers in the country languish while Congress sits around and does nothing, or we can push our lawmakers to follow through. Not because it’s good politics — which it is — but because people are suffering, and the government has a chance to alleviate that suffering. When we talk about immigration reform, we are not only talking about our would-be Hispanic brothers and sisters. We are talking about our country’s future, and the futures of everyone in it. Adam Asher ’15 is majoring in Classics. You can follow him on Twitter (@asheradams).
Sensitivity in contemporary times DAVID ROMERO Opinions Columnist I remember a peculiar moment in my first year at Brown during the Third World Transition Program, the pre-orientation event run by the Third World Center, which effectively and powerfully introduces topics related to social oppression. One of the Minority Peer Counselors talked casually to me and a group of other students at the Sharpe Refectory, saying, “It’s hard to party after doing something like TWTP. You have to deal with the fact that a lot of the songs you’ll dance to are sexist.” One reaction to this statement would be to tell the person to just have fun and not be so “politically correct” about everything. Another would be to urge him to take a stand against any and every type of oppression wherever it presents itself — whether in popular culture or in your personal life. But this begs the question: Is either option practical or even desirable? Is it possible to “have it both ways”? To dedicate yourself to social justice while not being a party pooper? I will problematize both options to think of ways that we can enact the changes we want to in productive ways. To start off with the first hypothetical suggestion, I take issue with the commonly used phrase “politically correct,” because the term distorts the reality of social inequality. Oddly enough, people who use the term apply it to issues regarding the po-
litical sphere. Therefore, when people are charged with being too politically correct, they are accused of having the ulterior motives of a vote-seeking politician. In reality, this term does not apply to most of the situations for which it is used because most of us are not thinking like politicians when forming our opinions. The phrase “politically correct” is therefore a calculated tool for discrediting someone else’s opinion. Regardless of my disdain for the term “politically correct,” I still wish to problematize the first suggestion. The suggestion amounts to telling someone to simply ig-
sion of fighting against and reversing social ills. Many of us would like to think that we contribute to positive changes in society, and what better way to do so then by standing up and rebelling against oppression each time that you see it? As Martin Luther King, Jr., aptly put it, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” The quote suggests that if you don’t point out injustice everywhere you see it, then you’re part of the problem. For starters, passionately reacting to every social problem is not an intellectually efficient endeavor. An example of this is
There is no need for any of us to feel like cowards when we don’t immediately act when confronted with social injustice.
nore the casual societal wrongs that plague our everyday lives. This dismissive and potentially victim-blaming method may have been accepted in the past but will no longer fly in our contemporary times. Every representation, no matter how seemingly small or unimportant, is a site of meaning that has the potential to subjugate vulnerable populations. The second route is a little trickier because it is an idealized, if unrealistic, vi-
the Kony 2012 viral video campaign, which once upon a time was convincing enough to gather 55 million views in a week and gain the support of President Obama. Every Brown student who saw that activist video would agree that egregious wrongs were being committed to a vulnerable population of children in Uganda. It was clear that action from a large group of people was necessary. But if one were to take immediate action, one wouldn’t meditate
upon the significant shortcomings of the campaign. One would see the oppression and do anything to aid the effort without knowing the full story. Immediately becoming a passionate supporter for any cause is dangerous given the incredibly complex problems of our time. Issues such as the violence depicted in the Kony campaign demand to be understood in all of their complexities. Understanding serious issues takes a lot of time, and acting immediately when spotting what appears to be a clear problem may be more complicated than one originally thought. To find a middle ground between passivity and over-exuberant activism, you must know when and how to be offended. You will find that taking action against offensive statements or cultural products often happens in retrospect. If you hear a sexist song during a party, it probably won’t do you any good to point it out to every attendee on the spot. Having conversations whenever possible is the best route to take. There is no need for any of us to feel like cowards if we don’t immediately act when confronted with social injustice. By taking time to react, you are giving the requisite amount of thought to the issue. The intellectual endeavor of social justice takes time and is rarely accomplished by virtue of instinct. David Romero ’14 likes to soak everything in before speaking, which makes talking to people kind of awkward. He can be reached at David_Romero@Brown.edu.
daily herald university news THE BROWN
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10, 2013
SCIENCE & RESEARCH ROUNDUP BY SAHIL LUTHRA, SCIENCE & RESEARCH EDITOR
Nobel laureates ask Congress not to cut research funding A group of Nobel laureates, including Professor of Physics Leon Cooper, signed a letter to Congress urging its members not to cut research funding as part of the budget sequester, the New York Times reported. The letter, which will be made public today, was sent in advance of today’s announcement of the Obama administration’s budget plan. Funding for research and development has dropped by nearly $32 billion since 2009, the Times reported. The government provides most funding for research through organizations such as the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and NASA. “We urge you, even in these financially troubled times, to keep the budgets of the agencies that support science at a level that will keep the pipelines full of the younger generation upon whom our economic vitality will rest in future years,” the group wrote in the letter.
Forced withdrawal in prison discourages methadone therapy
BRITTANY COMUNALE / HERALD
Classes were extended into reading period this semester due to the snow day earlier this year. Classes that do not observe reading period have had to adjust their schedules in other ways. Herald file photo.
Nemo snow day shortens reading period Professors have adjusted class schedules to compensate for time lost due to the winter storm By YVETTE RODRIGUEZ CONTRIBUTING WRITER
As the semester nears its end, most students and faculty members said making up for the day of classes lost due to Winter Storm Nemo has not proved particularly inconvenient. After the storm caused classes to be canceled Friday, Feb. 8, the University chose to shorten reading period by one day to make up for the loss. Faculty members were told to “use the first day of reading period, which is a Friday, to make up for the lost Friday
earlier in the semester,” said Provost Mark Schlissel P’15. Most professors have chosen to make up for the lost class time by extending class into reading period, a choice made easier by the fact that the spring semester’s reading period is longer than the fall semester’s reading period. Some classes already do not observe reading period, like CHEM 0350: “Organic Chemistry.” Assistant Professor of Chemistry Sarah Delaney, who teaches CHEM 0350, said her Tuesday and Thursday section of CHEM 0350 was not canceled. Her section was able to catch up to the MWF section of CHEM 0350, which is taught by another professor and was ahead in the material because the other section missed a day of class.
Some professors who planned to continue into reading period before the winter storm have used other ways to make up for the lost class time. Adjunct Lecturer in Economics Amy Serrano, who teaches ECON 1110: “Intermediate Microeconomics,” canceled section and used that time to lecture. “Whatever inconvenience this posed to students was made up by the fact that students like reading period,” Serrano said. Friday seminars were especially affected, as the lost day meant students missed their only class period of the entire week. Professors have coped by consolidating or moving more quickly through material or setting alternate times to meet. For instance, Asso/ / Reading page 9
Central Falls chess team wins eighth place Twelve local middle and high school students competed with 63 other teams at Supernationals By ALEXANDER BLUM STAFF WRITER
Members of the Central Falls High School chess team traveled hundreds of miles this weekend to Nashville, Tenn. But far from their home turf, the team’s goal was the same as always: checkmate. The team, which comprised four students from Central Falls High School and eight middle schoolers, placed in the top 10 in Supernationals, a national chess tournament sponsored by the United States Chess Federation that takes place every four years. Nearly 5,300 fellow chess enthusiasts competed in the tournament. “This was the best team we have ever had,” said coach and Central
FEATURE
Falls High history teacher Frank DelBonis GS’12. “We’ve won more tournaments than anyone in the last decade.” DelBonis said the team’s “hard work and dedication” helped propel them to the tournament, which he described as the “biggest and most competitive.” The Central Falls High team placed eighth out of 64 teams. Central Falls has received negative press in the past few years for its struggling school system, and the city is in state receivership as it emerges from bankruptcy. But DelBonis said the school has “great students and great teachers,” though this is “not always reflected.” “We have an amazing group of kids,” DelBonis said. “All our chess members were above proficient (academically).” DelBonis works with Dan Amadio, a math teacher at the high school, to manage the high school and middle school chess teams, while Gina Dufresne, a school psychologist at Robertson Elementary School in
Warwick, manages the elementary school chess club. DelBonis said the high school team’s success can be partially attributed to the strong chess foundation many students develop in elementary school under Dufresne. Bryan Boche, a sixth-grade student at Calcutt Middle School, said Dufresne motivated him to continue playing chess. Dufresne “was always fair and wanted us to do the right thing,” Boche said. He attended the Supernationals tournament to compete against high school students even though he is in middle school. “I wasn’t nervous,” Boche said, adding that he was very excited to attend and would not have been disappointed if he lost because it was his first time at a national tournament. The high school team meets twice a week after school to practice and regularly competes in adult tournaments on the weekends to “get ready” for tournaments, said Sam Adofo, a freshman at Central Falls High who has been playing chess since fifth grade. “ We / / Chess page 8
The fact that many prisons mandate methadone withdrawal means drug users requiring methadone treatment may not seek this therapy, according to a study co-authored by University researchers. The study was published online last month in the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment. Methadone is often used as a treatment for addiction to opioids like heroin, according to a press release from the Miriam Hospital. But methadone, an opioid, is not allowed in most prisons. If imprisoned, patients who are on methadone therapy may experience withdrawal symptoms worse than withdrawal symptoms from drugs like heroin, the authors wrote in the study. When they surveyed patients in drug treatment programs in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, the researchers found that many users felt discouraged from entering methadone treatment because of the risk of worsened withdrawal symptoms if they were ever incarcerated. Addressing this barrier to treatment is a “health and human rights imperative,” the authors wrote in the study.
Carbon analysis provides clues to history of Moon, Mars A study by University researchers analyzed the release of carbon into the atmosphere on different terrestrial bodies. The findings, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could help scientists better understand the history of bodies such as Mars and the Moon. Under Earth’s crust is the mantle, a solid layer containing carbon compounds. The mantle can melt into magma that flows toward Earth’s crust, transporting the carbon and then releasing it into the atmosphere as a gas. On Earth, the atmospheric carbon takes the form of carbon dioxide, but scientists were unsure about the form of atmospheric carbon released on other terrestrial bodies, according to a University press release. In the study, the researchers analyzed volcanic rock similar to that found on Mars and the Moon. They discovered that carbon is released from this rock in the forms of carbon monoxide and methane gas, according to the release. As a result, planets like Mars may historically have been warmer than they are today — perhaps warm enough to support liquid water, according to the release.
Chemists identify cheaper way to synthesize acrylate A new way of synthesizing the chemical compound acrylate could facilitate the production of materials like disposable diapers and polyester cloth. The synthesis was described in a study by Brown and Yale researchers published online last month in the journal Organometallics. Historically, acrylate has been synthesized from propylene, an expensive derivative of crude oil, according to a University press release. In working to identify a cheaper alternative, scientists have long theorized that carbon dioxide and propylene could be used in the production of acrylate. The roadblock to achieving this synthesis was figuring out how to break open a five-membered ring containing carbon, nickel and oxygen. The researchers hypothesized that a Lewis acid, which accepts electrons, could take the electrons in the bond between oxygen and nickel and allow the acrylate synthesis to be completed. In the study, the researchers used a strong Lewis acid derived from boron and found that it broke open the ring and allowed the acrylate formation, according to the release. In future studies, the researchers will work to see if there is a weaker, more efficient Lewis acid that can also work.