Monday, April 15, 2013

ge 6

Daily

Herald

THE BROWN

vol. cxlviii, no. 52

INSIDE

Page 6

Folksy notes

Brown Folk Festival showcased regional bands

UCS encounters low engagement in elections Members expressed concern that a new voting interface will result in decreased voter turnout

By MAXINE JOSELOW SENIOR STAFF WRITER

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Pushing politics Conference aims to inspire student political activism Page 11

Pres position Guest columnist Paxson responds to Divest Coal today

58 / 41

tomorrow

61 / 52

since 1891

MONDAY, APRIL 15, 2013

In this week’s Undergraduate Council of Students and Undergraduate Finance Board elections, Brown may battle historically low voter turnout compared to peer institutions.

The University had the lowest voter turnout for student government elections in the Ivy League last year, the Daily Pennsylvanian reported.

Just 28 percent of Brown students hit the polls last year. Yale boasted the highest turnout with 56 percent of students casting votes, followed

by Harvard with 54 percent, Dartmouth with 53 percent and Penn with 50 percent.

Though Brown’s turnout falls short relative to peer institutions, it has seen incremental improvement in recent years, said UCS President Anthony White ’13. Participation increased

from 26 percent in 2010 and 2011 to 28 percent in 2012, he said.

“But we could definitely get better in line with our peers,” White said, adding that participation should be “at least” 50 percent.

Changing the system This year’s election will be decided using a new voting system, a change Council leaders said could have unpredictable effects on turnout.

Students will vote this year by taking an emailed survey on Qualtrics — an online data collection software — instead of on the MyCourses website.

The change is a result of the ongoing University transition away from MyCourses software.

At the UCS meeting last week, UCS Vice President Brandon Tomasso ’13 expressed concern that the new voting system could decrease turnout, The Herald previously reported.

At the meeting, Tomasso said he was worried because students cannot vote if they delete the email with the link to the Qualtrics survey.

“My concern is that people will delete that email and then meet a candidate they like and develop an interest in the elections,” Tomasso said at the time. “Then they go back, and they can’t vote.”

White said he is worried the email with the Qualtrics survey may end up in students’ spam boxes.

Despite these concerns, White said Qualtrics may actually increase turnout because it has a “more aesthetically pleasing and streamlined” interface than MyCourses.

“Rather than having to click through dozens of pages, you can do it all in one sweep down the page,” White said.

Endorsement excitement Elections coordinators at Yale attributed high voter turnout in Yale College Council elections to student

groups’ engagement in the elections process.

“A lot of student groups on campus get very involved in the elections,” said Omar Njie, vice president of the Yale council last year. Njie said the LGBT Cooperative pushed for candidates to support the “hot-button issue” of gender-neutral housing options in 2012.

A key event during elections period is the endorsement meeting, during which representatives from student groups fire questions at candidates, Njie said.

Student groups select a candidate to endorse after the meeting, and the endorsements appear on the ballot, he said.

The UCS Elections Board does not hold an endorsement meeting, though student groups can choose candidates to endorse. UFB candidates may only be endorsed by Category III student groups, while any categorized student group can endorse a UCS candidate.

Eleven / / UCS page 2

Few change religious practices during college years Startup Only 1 percent of students practice a different religion after coming to Brown

By EMILY PASSARELLI STAFF WRITER

Forty-two percent of students did not practice a religion before coming to the University and still do not practice a religion, according to a Herald poll conducted in March.

Twenty-nine percent of students said they practice the same religion with the same commitment level as they did before coming to Brown. A minority of students said their religious practices have changed since matriculating, with 9.5 percent practicing the same religion with more commitment, 12 percent practicing

the same religion with less commitment and 1.4 percent practicing a different religion since starting at the University.

One percent of students have begun practicing a religion since matriculating, while 5 percent do not practice a religion but did so before coming to Brown. The Herald received 1,183 student responses to the question of religious commitment on its poll last month.

Though nearly half of poll respondents indicated they do not practice a religion, some students and faculty members said religion has a large presence on campus.

Janet Cooper Nelson, chaplain of the University, said students’ religious preferences have not drastically changed in her 23 years on campus.

The percentage of students who say / / Religion page 3 they do not

How have your religious views shifted since you came to Brown?

I now practice a religion but I did not before coming to Brown 1% I now practice a different religion than I did before coming to Brown 1%

I now do not practice a religion but I did before coming to Brown 5%

They haven’t — I did not practice a religion before and I do not now 42%

Lacking U. permission to deliver spicies with, Crunchbutton’s CEO was asked to halt the service

I now practice the same religion with less commitment 12%

I now practice the same religion with more commitment 10%

They haven’t — I have practiced the same religion with the same commitment 29% ABIGAIL SAVITCH-LEW / HERALD

Nearly half of students still do not practice a religion at Brown, while about one-fifth of students practice a religion with a different commitment level.

Film fest unites industry professionals, students The 12th annual Ivy Film Festival emphasized documentaries and the film-making process

By MICHAEL WEINSTEIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Sundance Film Festival draws Hollywood stars ready to hit the slopes, and Festival de Cannes attracts A-listers looking to lounge on yachts.

But there are few festivals where audience members leave their backpacks in the aisle while rubbing shoulders with acclaimed film veterans.

What distinguishes the Ivy Film Festival from these world-class festivals is that it is a college event with college students — the best of campus culture and the best of film.

The 12th annual IFF included

ARTS & CULTURE

advanced screenings, student film selections and industry guests. Festival Directors Mahima Chawla ’13 and Evan Sumortin ’13 led a student organization of 22 coordinators and 74 staffers to put on the festival.

Both Chawla and Sumortin said they were excited and surprised by the turnout at many of this year’s events.

“What we were most excited about this year was the great attendance, especially for our official selections, which we really concentrated on this year,” Sumortin said.

Chawla attributed this increased student attendance to their recent attempts at publicity, including giving out popcorn on the Main Green.

Chawla and Sumortin have directed the IFF since the beginning of the academic year, putting on nine events throughout the fall and spring.

“We wanted the lead-up to the festival to be huge,” Chawla said. “I think people started / / IFF page 5

faces legal threats from U.

JUSTINA LEE / HERALD

Acclaimed director Wes Craven gave the keynote speech at this year’s Ivy Film Festival. Craven’s works include “Scream” and “The Hills Have Eyes.”

By MICHAEL DUBIN STAFF WRITER

Online food-ordering service Crunchbutton, which delivered Josiah’s spicy chicken sandwiches with cheese for a short period at the end of last semester, is embroiled in a legal dispute with the University that may result in a lawsuit, Xconomy reported earlier this month.

Crunchbutton, which is based in Providence, offers one-click ordering of top food items from local restaurants online or by phone and also operates in Washington, New Haven, Conn., Cambridge, Mass. and Venice Beach, Calif.

Judd Rosenblatt, founder and CEO of Crunchbutton, confirmed that the startup company received a cease and desist letter from Edward von Gerichten, associate counsel at the Office of the Vice President and General Counsel Dec. 6.

The letter accused Crunchbutton of engaging in activities that capitalized on the University’s “name and reputation” and exploiting University “facilities and goods for personal private gain” without permission, according to a letter Rosenblatt gave to The Herald that Keith Fayan, an attorney representing the company, wrote to von Gerichten April 2. The letter also claimed Crunchbutton was presenting itself in a way / / Delivery page 4

2 university news C ALENDAR TODAY

APRIL 15

6:30 P.M.

TOMORROW

/ / UCS page 1 APRIL 16

2:30 P.M.

Mass Incarceration Discussion

Reading by Novelist Percival Everett

List Art 120

McCormack Family Theater

8:00 P.M.

7:00 P.M. Romeo and Juliet

Lecture Board Presents: Ron Paul

TF Green, Downspace

Salomon 101

MENU SHARPE REFECTORY

VERNEY-WOOLLEY

LUNCH Roast Beef on a Sesame Roll, Sauteed Zucchini, Chicken Cutlet Parmesan, Green Beans with Roasted Tomatoes

Bacon Ranch Chicken Sandwich, Swiss Broccoli Pasta, French Fries, Green Beans, Frosted Brownies

DINNER Cider Glazed Turkey, Macaroni and Cheese, Baked Sweet Potatoes, Chocolate Sundae Cake

Spinach Pie Casserole, Italian Meatballs with Sauce, Italian Couscous, Chocolate Sundae Cake

student groups, including the Special Events Committee and emPOWER, endorsed UCS presidential candidate Todd Harris ’14.5 this year. Seven student groups, including Brown Refugee Youth Tutoring and Enrichment and the African Students Association, endorsed Afia Kwakwa ’14, and one group, Brown Taekwondo, endorsed Daniel Pipkin ’14.

Still many leaders of student groups told The Herald their organizations are not very invested in student government or its elections.

“The key issues that we’re focused on don’t really pertain to UCS,” said Sofia Fernandez Gold ’14, president of the Brown Democrats.

“Our engagement in the elections process is a lot lower than our engagement in issues,” said Alexander Mechanick ’15, president of Brown

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD MONDAY, APRIL 15, 2013

for Financial Aid. BFA often bypasses student government and deals directly with administrators, faculty members and students to promote its goal of expanding financial aid, Mechanick said.

Last year, BFA endorsed all three candidates for UCS president, but this year it endorsed none of them.

“At Brown there are a lot of different outlets to make change and speak to administrators” besides student government, said Manya-Jean Gitter ’13, chair of the UCS Academic and Administrative Affairs Committee, adding that student groups do not have to rely on UCS as the only “channel for change.”

Visibility Yale elections coordinators said the publicity of campaigns also helps draw Bulldogs to the polls.

Candidates advertise through

SUDOKU www.browndailyherald.com 195 Angell St., Providence, R.I. Shefali Luthra, President Samuel Plotner, Treasurer Lucy Feldman, Vice President Julia Kuwahara, Secretary The Brown Daily Herald (USPS 067.740) is an independent newspaper serving the Brown University community daily since 1891. It is published Monday through Friday during the academic year, excluding vacations, once during Commencement and once during Orientation by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. Single copy free for each member of the community.

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Facebook and other social media platforms, display posters around campus and talk to students in person, Njie said.

Brown students told The Herald they did not think UCS elections have a very visible presence on campus.

All three candidates for UCS president have created Facebook events publicizing their campaigns. As of press time, 89 students had clicked “attending” for Pipkin’s Facebook event, and 1,731 had been invited.

For Harris’ event, 151 out of 1,480 invitees had clicked “attending,” and for Kwakwa’s, 215 out of 1,969 invited students had clicked “attending.”

Angela Guo ’16 said she probably would not know elections were occurring if her roommate were not running for UCS treasurer.

“There is a lack of publicity,” she said, adding that her only additional exposure to the elections came through occasionally reading Facebook posts or seeing candidates collecting signatures in dining halls.

Daphne Xu ’14 said certain aspects of the election were unclear because they were not publicized enough, such as candidates’ platforms and how voting works.

Dylan Gattey ’16 said it “makes sense” that Brown’s voter turnout is low, given the low level of contact between students and candidates and between students and UCS in general.

“I don’t think there’s a public interaction between the student government and the student body,” Gattey said. “There’s not that big of an impetus to vote, because people don’t see how it impacts them.”

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD MONDAY, APRIL 15, 2013

Lecture Board revamps ticketing procedures Lecture Board will now use an online distribution system that will not include physical tickets

By GABRIELLE DEE STAFF WRITER

Brown Lecture Board is introducing a “complete overhaul” of its ticketing system, starting with the ticketing process for former U.S. Rep. Ron Paul’s lecture on campus Tuesday, said Rahim Makani ’14, Lecture Board president. Under the new system, Brown IDs now act as tickets. Half the tickets for events are available online, and the other half are distributed in person, Makani said.

“I’ve been wanting to implement online ticketing for a long time,” Makani said. Makani said he wanted to ensure there would not be a “giant crash” on the website dispensing tickets. But the Brown Card Office assured Makani this would not happen, he said.

For the Ron Paul event, Lecture Board is using Eventbrite to collect student ID card information and distribute online tickets, he said. Because of this online option, Lecture Board is switching to a policy of one Brown ID per person on the in-person distribution days, Makani said. Previously, one student could get tickets for two IDs. Many students said they were happy with the change.

Waiting in line discourages students from acquiring a ticket at all,

said Lauren Behgam ’15. “It’s always during the worst times,” she added.

“I’d like the system to be all online,” Behgam said. “It’s ineffective in person.”

Under the in-person ticketing system, people are “not accountable and cut the line a lot,” said Nicole Salvador ’15. “It’s also a fire hazard,” she said, referring to past instances of ticket lines overcrowding J. Walter Wilson.

Lecture Board is also eliminating physical tickets. Tickets are now credited to the Brown ID, either by entering Banner ID and Brown ID information online or by swiping the ID in person, according to the Facebook event page for the Ron Paul speech.

Lecture Board will email students accredited with tickets before the event as a reminder, Makani said. At the event itself, the Brown ID serves as a ticket, and ushers will be present with guest lists, he added.

Lecture Board has “access(ed) a feature of the (ID) card that has never been utilized before,” including by any other student group, Makani said.

The inspiration for this change came from wanting to improve the “clunky” iPhone scanning system used at last year’s Spring Weekend, he said.

“I’ve heard horror stories” about Lecture Board’s old ticket distribution system, said Mia Stange ’14. “Initiating a new system is good.”

The new system is more “equitable,” especially for those whose schedules do not line up with distribution times, Stange said, but offers no reward to those who would wait in person for tickets.

Follow us on Twitter! @the_herald

university news 3

ALAN SHAN / HERALD

Nearly 12 percent of students said they practice the same religion with less commitment since arriving at Brown — Peter Fernandez ’13, who attends Catholic mass, said many first-years may not know where the church is.

/ / Religion page 1 practice religion does not accurately reflect religious practices at Brown, she said.

Students can define the act of practicing a religion differently, Nelson said, adding that for some, religious commitment may be public service or yoga, while others may attend services.

Muslim Chaplain Robert Coolidge said the percentage of students who do not practice a religion may not include those who are spiritual and do not explore their religions through specific faith communities.

Students and religious leaders on campus said religion has a cultural dimension — many undergraduates may not have had any religious background before attending the University and do not view college as a time to begin to explore faith. “Religion is a place of tradition,” Nelson said.

Shopping period for religion The diversity of student definitions of religion makes the Brown community as a whole more “religiously literate,” Nelson said.

Most students who have changed their religion since starting the University are seniors.

“Brown hasn’t affected me to the extent of making me convert to another religion or turn me into an atheist, but it did give me the ability to question and challenge Catholicism’s current approach to the modern world,” Giancarlo Hidalgo ’16, who identifies as Catholic, wrote in an email to The Herald.

Students said their peers use their college years to construct their own identities and may not initially see religion as a way to define themselves.

“College is a time for the exploration and examination of the self.

Students for the first time are out on their own, and religion is one of their personal decisions,” said Executive Director of Hillel Marshall Einhorn.

Berit Goetz ’13, a contributing writer for The Herald, said that given the University’s reputation as a liberal school, the vibrance of religious communities on campus is striking.

Brown’s openness allows those of the Muslim faith to be welcomed, Coolidge said, adding that though Muslims are a small community, they are “a respected minority.”

Committed to ‘a part of

something’ Coolidge said he was surprised that over a quarter of students continue to practice the same religion with the same commitment level as they did before coming to the University, as there is little pressure in college to maintain religion.

The majority of students who practice the same religion with the same commitment identify as Jewish or Catholic. Einhorn said the start of the University calendar around important Jewish holidays like Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur might affect Jewish students’ maintaining the same commitment to their faith. Many Jewish students who are away from home may come to celebrate the holidays, find a community with which they identify and consequently continue to practice Judaism at Brown, he said.

Chelsea Feuchs ’14, student president of Hillel, said she had such an experience. A fellow Jewish student came by her room to invite her to a Hillel barbecue on one of the first days of her first year, Feuchs said. Attending the barbecue “helped me get my bearings and helped me fit in,” she said, adding that she is more involved in a Jewish community on campus than she was at home. Most students who indicated a higher level of commitment to a religion since coming to Brown are first-years.

“Being welcome and feeling a part of something makes you feel at home again,” said Peter Fernandez ’13, who attends Catholic Mass on campus.

A break from the past But while some students said religious communities on campus are inviting, 11.9 percent of students practice the same religion with less commitment since matriculating.

“Brown’s liberal curriculum has the effect of making one see the world in a much broader scope of thought than the much narrower scope a single religious belief could offer,” Hidalgo wrote.

But the general college environment might cause undergraduates to stop practicing faith, Fernandez said.

“It’s not strictly Brown,” he added.

Students in a new environment in college seek balance between their academic and social lives. “It can be hard to mesh a lot of religious practices with University life,” Feuchs said.

Coolidge said it is hard to keep consistency in an environment that

provokes questioning. Catholics may be more likely to practice their religion with less commitment because those who attended Catholic schools may have felt a lack of “ownership of their faith” before college, Goetz said.

The hang-up of religion Some students said a lack of awareness of the religious opportunities on campus explains the 5 percent of students who stop practicing a faith.

Fernandez said that many first-years may not know where the church is — and after the first few weeks of not attending Mass, the activity fades from Catholic students’ routines, he said.

Religious beliefs on campus could be hard to pursue if students do not know who to turn to if they have questions about faith, Goetz said.

Outside of religious spaces, students generally feel comfortable practicing their religions, but there are exceptions, Coolidge said. By engaging in a religion, “they may feel they open themselves up to criticism that would get in the way of building relationships,” he said.

Nelson said in her years as University chaplain, she has sometimes heard religious stereotyping. “While religion can offer a lot in terms of community and support, it has a stigma,” Feuchs said. “People assume things when you mark yourself as religious.”

But Fernandez said he has been able to have religious conversations with non-practicing students. He said when he tells peers that he goes to mass, they may just ask him why he attends.

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.

4 university news / / Delivery page 1 that made it seem it had a business relationship with the University.

Rosenblatt said that when he launched Crunchbutton in Providence in September, he was encouraged by Brown students he knew to deliver the spicy with. He initially “tried to work with the official channels” to get consent for Crunchbutton’s delivery of the sandwich from Jo’s, he said. When the process stalled, he decided to proceed without official permission.

But Rosenblatt said when he received the cease and desist letter, he immediately took steps to comply with the University’s requests, including halting delivery service from Jo’s and deleting all records of Brown ID numbers attained through orders. The letter also demanded that Crunchbutton end its marketing and promotion on campus, according to Xconomy.

Crunchbutton has not delivered food from Jo’s or any other University establishment since the December cease and desist order, Rosenblatt said. The website still offers a spicy with delivery — but the sandwich now comes from Mirano Grill and Pizza, a local restaurant Rosenblatt said he began working with in February to produce a version of the spicy with.

Rosenblatt wrote to von Gerichten Dec. 12 to inform him of the actions he had taken to comply with the University’s demands, according to Fayan’s letter. He also noted that Crunchbutton did not seek or make profit from its delivery from Jo’s and proposed a meeting for further discussion.

Von Gerichten replied to Rosenblatt the following day suggesting that the latter’s regret was insincere, claiming that a University “product” remained among Crunchbutton’s offerings and again demanding that it be taken down, according to Fayan’s letter.

The continued existence of the spicy with on the website was accompanied by a message that said it would return soon, Rosenblatt wrote.

Rosenblatt responded to von Gerichten expressing a desire to work out differences, but he said his overtures were ignored.

Rather than directly contact Crunchbutton, the University has left voicemails for, sent emails to and generally “harassed” the partners of Providence startup accelerator Betaspring, one of Crunchbutton’s investors, Rosenblatt said.

In a March 18 letter to Betaspring, von Gerichten wrote that he was “preparing to file a lawsuit” against Crunchbutton for “knowing, intentional and bad faith failure to comply with a cease and desist order,” according to Fayan’s letter. “Despite … their temporary compliance, Crunchbutton has resumed its infringing practices of accessing Brown’s facilities to procure and then resell its food service items,” von Gerichten wrote.

He asked if Betaspring would accept service — notice of the lawsuit — on Crunchbutton’s behalf or if it had contact information for the company’s principals so he could serve them, according to Fayan’s letter. “(Von Gerichten) said (he) wanted to serve us … and that (he) couldn’t

get in contact with us, which is just blatantly false because (he has) our email address,” Rosenblatt said. “(He’s) sent us communications in the past, and we’ve responded amicably to them.”

The University’s action in the matter qualifies as tortious interference, violating at least two separate tort laws recognized by Rhode Island law, Fayan wrote in the letter.

“I am surprised and disappointed that the University would resort to tactics such as these — actionable conduct to be sure,” he wrote.

Fayan’s letter to von Gerichten also responded to his assertion that a University “product” remained available on Crunchbutton’s site.

“It appears that the ‘product’ you are referring to was actually identified on the Crunchbutton site as a ‘spicy with,’ which, as I understand it, is slang for a spicy chicken patty sandwich,” Fayan wrote. “This name — ‘spicy with’ — is not included on any menu at any University establishment. The U.S. Trademark and Patent database fails to reflect any protectable rights asserted in the generic slang ‘spicy with’ — by the University or anyone else.”

Von Gerichten wrote in an email to The Herald, “We’ve had issues to work out with Crunchbutton about their business practices relating to their promotional activities on campus and offering delivery service of products from Josiah’s without University permission and support.”

“We are pleased that they have ceased those activities, and we will be having discussions with Crunch-

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD MONDAY, APRIL 15, 2013

COURTESY OF CRUNCHBUTTON

Crunchbutton halted the delivery of Josiah’s spicies with in December, replacing them with a similar sandwich from Mirano Grill and Pizza . button about any issues that may remain,” he wrote. “We look forward to an amicable resolution.”

Von Gerichten declined to comment on the status of the University’s potential lawsuit against Crunchbutton and the charges that may be brought against the company.

Rosenblatt wrote in an email to The Herald that he has received no indication the University has changed course and decided to pursue “an amicable resolution.”

Spicy with orders are a “decently large amount of business,” he said.

Despite the controversy with the University, Crunchbutton has no intention to discontinue its delivery of spicies with from Mirano, Rosenblatt

said, adding that he does not want to disappoint students who enjoy the service.

While the Mirano version tastes better, delivery from Jo’s allowed students to use meal credits instead of cash to buy spicies with, Cliff Weitzman ’16 said.

Delivery from Jo’s allowed students to “make the most out of (their) meal plan,” he said.

Weitzman characterized the University’s response as unreasonable, adding that the University’s reaction seems to be at odds with its usual efforts on behalf of students.

“What Crunchbutton is trying to do is make the lives of students better,” Weitzman said.

arts & culture 5

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD MONDAY, APRIL 15, 2013

/ / IFF page 1 to trust our judgment about what we were doing.”

Though a necessary step, high attendance was not the goal of the festival. Chawla said the festival was not very different from those of past years, but there were certain aspects they wanted to emphasize.

“This year, we had a little more focus on documentaries that people wouldn’t normally get to see,” Sumortin said. As part of this effort, they hosted a series called Stories for Change throughout the year, which included screenings of documentaries on important social issues.

But the organizers of IFF wanted students to do more than just watch movies — they wanted students to learn how they are made. “We definitely wanted to cover all areas of the industry, which is why we had a screenwriter, we have a director, we have the producers,” Chawla said. “We wanted to focus on all those things that student filmmakers in particular would be interested in, not just one big star or one big actor.”

Wes Craven: A monster misunderstood To a crowd of audibly excited students at the packed Perry and Martin Granoff Center for the Creative Arts Sunday afternoon, film director Wes Craven spoke candidly about his religious upbringing, the invention of Freddy Krueger and the inner workings of the mind of the “Master of Horror.”

“I’ve had a lot of people say, ‘I wouldn’t want to go inside your mind,’” Craven said. “I have a very peaceful mind ... I’m actually interested in comedies and love stories, too, but no one will hire me for that.”

Craven, who directed many modern horror classics such as “The Hills Have Eyes,” “A Nightmare on Elm Street” and “Scream,” answered questions posed by the audience and moderator Michael Siegel, visiting professor of modern culture and media.

Craven was honest and funny when answering the thoughtful questions posed by a moderator who was clearly a genuine fan of the director’s work.

Craven began his film career as a messenger at a post-production company in New York after leaving jobs teaching at a university and a high school. “Don’t even worry about pay,” he advised aspiring student filmmakers. “Just get through the door.”

Soon after entering the industry, he wrote his first film, “The Last House on the Left.”

“I had never even seen a scary movie,” he said. “People thought we were horrible people for making that film.”

Because of his upbringing as a fundamentalist Christian, Craven questioned his role as a director of horror films.

“I was uncomfortable with my job. I thought maybe what they said about people who can’t accept God into their heart ... maybe they were right,” he said.

Craven also discussed his inspiration for the character of Freddy Krueger from his 1984 “A Nightmare on Elm Street.” The character was born when Craven read a newspaper article about a boy who was afraid he would die if he fell asleep and who, after five days of staying awake, fell asleep and died. The face of Freddy was inspired by a man Craven saw staring at him through his childhood bedroom window in the middle of the night.

But Craven did not come off as someone who relishes the horrendous and hard to watch. On stage he spoke casually with his wife who was flitting around the audience, taking pictures with an iPhone. He cracked jokes about a boy in the front row, who he said was too young to be there. And he likened his creative process to “doing the New York Times Saturday crossword puzzle — you just keep looking at the damn thing.”

Craven stayed around after the event for over half an hour, taking pictures, signing autographs and giving advice to aspiring filmmakers. He

even gave one student actress the name of a casting agency in New York, telling her to tell them Wes Craven told her to call.

Mark Heyman: An up-andcoming alum Screenwriter Mark Heyman ’02 returned to campus last week for a screenwriting master class, where he discussed the experience of writing “Black Swan” and working with acclaimed director Darren Aranofsky.

“It’s nice to be back at Brown,” he said as he walked on stage. “You have very nice buildings now. They really stepped up their game.”

About 130 students gathered in Granoff Friday to hear Heyman, who looked like a stereotypical former Brown student with black-rimmed glasses, a striped t-shirt and a bluegrey cardigan, answer questions about his career. His advice to students seemed especially valid and relatable because his path originated at Brown as a modern culture and media concentrator.

“Part of writing screenplays in general is that it’s just a blueprint,” he said. “A team of people are going to come breathe life into it, so it’s really just a skeleton.”

Heyman said he mostly wrote fiction in college, so he didn’t make the jump to screenwriting until after his time studying film at New York University, which he attended directly after graduating from Brown. He said the transition from fiction to screenwriting was natural for him, adding that he wasn’t very good at fiction.

He said he did not like the level

of description fiction requires. “Dialogue’s more fun, and you can just move through the pages,” he said.

Heyman seemed surprised when he asked how many aspiring screenwriters were in the audience. “Wow, that’s more than I thought. This is like the sadomasochistic group.”

He proceeded to give students advice about making it in screenwriting, which felt more relevant because of his recent entry into the industry. He said writing films was still “new to (him), which is sort of an asset and a liability at the same time.”

Heyman met Aranofsky, the director of “Black Swan,” while staying behind to take a photo for a friend after a class at which the director was a guest professor. Heyman acknowledged that it doesn’t help students much to hear it was a lucky circumstance that put him in contact with the director who later asked him to write an Oscar-nominated film. When he was in school, he said, industry guests would always say their careers began when “(they) sat next to so-and-so on the plane” and how that wasn’t helpful to him as an aspiring writer. He jokingly admitted, “Now I’m that asshole.”

Producers panel: Advice for the aspiring Saturday at noon, IFF held its firstever Producers Panel, a conversation with three successful film producers, two of whom are Brown alums. The panel included Christine Vachon ’83, producer of “Boys Don’t Cry” and “Far From Heaven,” Brad Simpson ’95, producer of “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” and “World War Z” and Michael Shamberg,

producer of “Pulp Fiction” and “Erin Brokovich.”

“A lot of people don’t know what a producer does,” Sumortin said.

“They’re sort of the gatekeepers for making a film, so knowing what they do and knowing what they work for is especially helpful for student filmmakers and screenwriters.”

One of the goals of the panel, and the festival as a whole, was to provide Brown and visiting student filmmakers with access to advice from industry experts, Sumortin said. The producers took the opportunity to tell the audience, a group of about 100 students and adults in Granoff Center, what they have learned in their careers thus far.

“You can do anything in the film business if you do it yourself,” Shamberg said. “If you have a good script about anything, you can get it made ... as long as you don’t expect to get paid.”

He told the young members of the audience to “find the talent of your generation” and then “attach yourself to their short film(s).”

Sumortin said he wants to be a producer, “so it was kind of selfish of me to get a panel of a lot of my idols.”

But he wasn’t the only one interested in the advice the producers offered. IFF events coordinator Jose Samuel Clair ’14, who also hopes to be a producer, said he thought the panel was very educational.

“It’s great to hear from two very well-known producers who are Brown alums and seeing what they were able to do afterwards,” Clair said. “It was very reassuring to hear the things that produc/ / IFF page 6

6 arts & culture

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD MONDAY, APRIL 15, 2013

Varied musical acts, vendors spice up folk festival In its fifth year, the Brown Folk Festival has become a popular venue for Northeastern bands

By WILL FESPERMAN STAFF WRITER

There were babies, dogs and beards aplenty on the Ruth J. Simmons Quadrangle Saturday when the fifth annual Brown Folk Festival kicked off in a celebration of live music. The noonto-midnight festival featured 13 acts from Providence and the Northeast, including two student bands.

Bands performed on the quad until 6 p.m., when the festival moved into Sayles Hall. Lucelle Pardoe ’16, one of the festival’s organizers, said the event’s outdoor half tends to have a laid back, family-friendly atmosphere, while the festival “becomes more of a dance party” inside Sayles.

After five years, the festival has become something of an institution at Brown, said Becca Rast ’13.5, another organizer, adding that the planning committee no longer needs to solicit bands to play. Instead, the process of finding performers mostly involves “people sending us their stuff,” Rast said.

If turnout is any indicator, the festival is developing a reputation among Brown students and community members alike. “That we have over 100 people here before 1 (p.m.) is a big deal for us,” Rast said as she surveyed the crowd on the quad.

Vendors set up shop around the quad, offering hand-crafted fiddles, face paint and henna tattoos.

The festival opened with Gill Moss, a folk-rock band from Providence.

Unlike the many accoustic acts of the day, Gill Moss featured a drum set and electric guitars. The band had a clean, cheery sound well-suited to the vocals of Leanne Luce, who gave a thoughtful delivery with a refreshing lack of affectation.

Brown’s pirate a capella group ARRR!!! also performed early in the festival. ARRR!!! has become a staple of the event, performing every year since the festival began. The two student bands — selected weeks earlier through an audition process — proved highlights of the festival. The Gano Street Jumpers performed upbeat ballads and classic bluegrass tunes with raspy-voiced energy and charm. The performers appeared to have fun playing together and their foot-stomping and tambourine-beating inspired members of the audience to tap or clap along.

Gouda, the folk duo of Mary Craig ’13.5 and Jonah David ’13.5, followed with another strong set. Craig played a charango, a 12-string Bolivian instrument, while David added percussion with foot stomps, cups and other small objects.

The charango’s ukelele-like jangle occasionally pushed the music into familiar twee territory, but David’s striking voice was an effective buffer.

Craig’s performance was most powerful and convincing when she allowed

ERIK OLSON / HERALD

Two student bands, along with 11 bands from across the Northeast, performed Saturday afternoon on Ruth J. Simmons Quadrangle. The second half of the festival was held in Sayles Hall until midnight. herself to belt the lyrics.

The festival had a rousing conclusion with performances by Tallahassee and The Mighty Good Boys. A crowd of students formed in front of the stage for these final acts.

Community member Elad Vilk said he had been looking forward to seeing Tallahassee ever since he listened to

their music online. Vilk said he liked that their music had “a bit more rock to it” than most folk acts. Many of their songs included heavy drums and electric guitar solos.

The Mighty Good Boys followed with the final, stand-out performance of the festival. The musicians — who describe their band on their website

as “a rock and roll band with healthy influence of Appalachian and other folk music styles” — gave a barrelling, kinetic performance that had audience members dancing and even bowing before them.

The band finished with a crowd pleaser — a rendition of “The Weight” — as the audience sang along.

/ / IFF page 5

and the silence that people had during it was very interesting,” he said. “There were a couple chuckles at a line that I had never heard people chuckle at. I couldn’t tell if maybe they thought it was a corny line.”

Though it was an educational experience to watch the audience watch his film, he said the process involved a lot of anxiety.

“It just makes time slow down a little bit. Once you see the film start to project, you kind of go numb,” Zapatka said. “You’re more concerned about the people who are watching it as opposed to the film itself.”

Zapatka, who saw a number of the other official selections at the festival, echoed Chawla and Sumortin when he said he was impressed with the quality of the student films.

“The caliber of films in this festival was just so high,” he said. “Even the films that I perceived to be the least strong were still incredible.”

Advanced screenings: Night vision This year, the IFF brought many screenings to campus of movies not yet released. A few of these advanced screenings, such as “The Way, Way Back” and “The East,” included men in suits surveying the theater with nightvision cameras to ensure no student recorded the films. The turnout was high for most screenings.

The Avon Cinema was almost at capacity for the screening of “The Way, Way Back.” The film, which will be released in early July, was directed by Jim Rash and starred Steve Carrell, Sam Rockwell and Amanda Peet.

At least 50 students did not get into the screening of “Kings of Summer”

last Thursday at Granoff. People stood against the back wall and sat on the air conditioners while a line stretched almost to the front door of the building. The film, directed by Jordan VogtRoberts, is a coming-of-age comedy about three teenage boys who move to the nearby woods. This was one of the best-attended events of the festival, and the crowd was eager to participate in the experience, laughing at jokes and applauding at climactic moments.

Another well-attended screening was “The East,” starring Brit Marling, Alexander Skarsgard and Ellen Page, which will be released at the end of May. Other advanced screenings included Providence local Laura Colella’s “Breakfast with Curtis” and “The Reluctant Fundamentalist,” which was followed by a question-and-answer session with director Mira Nair. A collection of documentaries, such as “After Tiller,” “Sons of the Clouds” and “Searching for Sugarman,” were also screened.

To generate excitement for Wes Craven’s visit, there was a midnight screening of “Scream” on Friday that filled Granoff to capacity, and the students in the crowd were restless, loud and partially intoxicated, creating the perfect environment for a horror film.

The crowd laughed every time a character mentioned a “cellular phone.”

One student yelled, “It’s not him!” at the screen, and another, “Where the tits?” through a collage of catcalls.

When a girl was eating ice cream during a scary part of the film, one girl yelled out, “Ice cream,” presumably a pun on, “I Scream,” and the audience erupted in laughter and applause. Wes Craven would have been proud.

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Student films: When the attendance reflects the quality This year, the IFF selected about 30 films made by graduate and undergraduate students from 21 different countries to be screened in one of the four IFF selection screening blocks.

Yesterday, an awards ceremony was held awarding one film from each category, including an audience choice award, which audience members voted on at the end of each screening block.

To advertise the films, IFF made a trailer with small previews of the films, which they hoped would show students the caliber of the official selections.

“We started playing (the trailer) before all of our films,” Chawla said.

“After watching the trailer, people could gauge the high quality of films.”

Sumortin said they wanted students to know how competitive it is to get a film accepted as an official selection, a challenge that no one understands more than the visiting student filmmakers. These visitors went to events, watched their own screenings and attended the awards ceremony.

Cory Zapatka made the official selection “R,” which won an award in the experimental category. The film was Zapatka’s thesis at Rhode Island School of Design, from which he graduated last year, and this is the second festival to which his film has been accepted.

Like many of the filmmakers visiting this week, Zapatka attended the screening of his film so he could watch the audience reactions in person.

“My film has a very dark story to it,

arts & culture 7

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD MONDAY, APRIL 15, 2013

Exclusive: Q&A with ‘Black Swan’ screenwriter Mark Heyman ’02 The Herald: When was the last time you were back at Brown? What were you here for?

Heyman: It’s been about five years, I guess. I went to my five-year reunion, and then ... the next year, my wife had a play ... a workshop kind of thing. She had one for plays here, so I came up here.

Cool, so she does acting?

No, she’s a writer.

A writer too? How does that work?

Do you get competitive at all, or do you help each other?

It’s pretty fine actually. The nice thing about it is ... when you’re writing something, it’s hard to ... talk about anything else, and someone who wasn’t a writer would be ... ‘shut up,’ but because I have to listen to her, she has to listen to me.

You didn’t meet her at Brown, did you?

I didn’t, although she did go to Brown. She was two years younger than me, and she also went to (New York University) grad school, but I didn’t meet her there either. We got set up by friends. ... I was like, you look really familiar.

How was your Brown experience?

Did you like it?

I did! Yeah, I had a really nice time here. I was (a modern culture and media) major, which was definitely kind of interesting.

I’ve heard mixed things about MCM majors.

I enjoyed it a lot, so. In a lot of ways it was super helpful, like I said in the (question and answer session), which

it really is. It’s really like breaking things down to their functional (parts).

Does that feel like the most prepared you were from Brown? Is that the aspect that really helped you?

Yeah, that critical thinking, and then just writing in general. I hadn’t done much of any type of writing before coming here.

You said you took a lot of fiction classes, right?

I took a lot of fiction classes, but even the critical writing, I think, having to break your ideas down and make ... an argument is actually similar to what you do in a screenplay. Each scene is sort of like, “What is this paragraph trying to prove?” ... You have to think through the structure.

And you could find that in aca-

demic essays, even.

I mean, it’s hard, because so much of what you read isn’t even written that well. People at a certain point get so smart that they don’t even have to write clearly anymore, but when you’re a student, you do. It’s good practice.

It seems like you made that jump from fiction to screenwriting pretty easily.

Yeah, it was much more a natural fit.

I feel like with fiction I was always ... hitting my head against a wall and feeling like I was pushing myself to be super descriptive and find really myriad ways of describing stuff, and I just don’t have the talent for that. So I prefer something where I can just say, ‘If it looks like a duck, it’s a duck.’ Then I don’t have to think of some new way to describe what this duck looks like.

Are you still in touch with Brown friends? Did you have a good group here?

Yeah, some. I stayed close with most.

Most of the people who were around me as a (first-year student) were the same people I moved into a house with. A lot of them are in New York now. We’ve been close for many years.

What were your memorable classes, professors in particular?

Yeah, I don’t know who’s still here.

(Former Professor of English) Nancy Armstrong was fantastic. I don’t know if she’s still around. ... She was MCM and English. She was great. ... And then Michael Silverman, I don’t know if he’s still around. ... Also MCM. He was my thesis adviser. I think those are the two that come to mind.

-Michael Weinstein

Bipartisan conference encourages student political involvement Gov. Lincoln Chafee ’75 P’14 and Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I. spoke on legislative careers in their keynote addresses

By EMILY BONEY AND ADAM TOOBIN SENIOR STAFF WRITER AND CITY & STATE EDITOR

The Rhode Island Student Political Empowerment Conference returned to Brown this year, bringing speakers to inspire students from around the state to enter the political process.

The event, which opened with a keynote address from Gov. Lincoln Chafee ’75 P’14 Friday night, featured training sessions in which Rhode Island policy leaders spoke about the various skills that brought them to the forefront of their fields.

Organizers said the event was bipartisan and led by members of various college political organizations from around the state. A former chairman of the California Republican Party, a senior organizer at the Progressive Change Campaign Committee and a career adviser from the University all ran training sessions.

CITY & STATE

Chafee chats “Didn’t the president say humble foreign policy? Didn’t he promise to regulate carbon dioxide…? Aren’t

deficits something we want to tackle, not bring back?” Chafee said about his experience as a moderate Republican under the administration of former President George W. Bush. In his keynote address, Chafee spoke about the difficulties that both he and his father, John Chafee — who served as governor of Rhode Island from 1963 to 1969 and as a U.S. senator from Rhode Island from 1976 to 1999 — faced as members of a Republican party that was slowly moving away from the policies they cared about.

Chafee detailed a list of confrontations with the more conservative wing of the Republican Party that ultimately led to his decision to become an independent that reached as far back as 1964, when supporters of Sen. Barry Goldwater, R-AZ, booed the moderate Republican New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller during the Republican National Convention.

Chafee pointed to the midterm elections of 1994 as a particular moment that shifted the Republican Party to the right. He said several newly elected “far-right” conservative senators tried to remove his father from the chairmanship of a committee because he refused to toe the party line.

After Chafee’s father died in 1999,

Chafee was appointed to serve out the remainder of his term in the Senate.

He promptly won reelection in 2000, serving as a part of the coalition of Republicans who were supposed to promote the agenda of the newly elected president. Chafee said he was immediately disappointed with the trajectory of Bush’s administration, following his positive relationship with former President George H. W. Bush, whose presidency he said would be remembered as a period of moderation.

Chafee cited the Iraq War as a major reason for his disenchantment with the president. He was the only Republican senator to vote against the Senate’s authorization of the use of force in Iraq.

Bush’s reelection in 2004 convinced Chafee that Rhode Islanders would not vote for a Republican senator in 2006, so he either had to leave the party or not run again, he said.

But the 2004 election had returned the Senate to the Republicans, so he was in a strong position to protect Rhode Island jobs during debates over important bills in 2005 and 2006. He had to decide between protecting himself and defending Rhode Island, he said.

Chafee decided to remain a Republican, a choice that led to his 2006 defeat by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., he said. Soon after the election,

he disaffiliated from the Republican Party and ran for governor as an independent in 2010. During the talk, he did not address speculation that he might run as a Democrat in 2014 when he faces reelection.

Reed ruminates Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., provided the final keynote address Sunday afternoon, discussing various pieces of legislation currently before the Senate and taking questions from the audience. While answering a question about a reform of Senate rules proposed by Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid, D-NV, Reed clarified he was talking about “the other Reed.” “I style myself as the young, good-looking one,” he said, “which I don’t think he finds funny.”

Reed, who serves on the Armed Services, Appropriations and Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs committees, discussed his efforts to prevent the interest rate on student loans — currently at 3.4 percent — from doubling to 6.8 percent. Total debt from student loans reached $1 trillion recently, surpassing the total amount of credit card debt held in the United States, Reed said. “We fixed (the interest rates) last year. Hopefully we’ll fix it this year.”

Reed also spoke optimistically about the prospects for reducing the federal deficit to a sustainable level.

Due to various deficit reduction measures including the sequester, which went into effect March 1, Congress has already achieved $2.4 trillion in deficit reduction over the next 10 years, he said. Though Congress still needs $1.6 trillion in reduction to reach a sustainable level, he said he does not think cuts to Medicare and Social Security — as proposed in President Obama’s recent budget — should be a part of that effort.

Shifting to foreign policy, Reed also spoke about the recent threats from North Korean leader Kim JongUn. “They have been trying to use their nuclear capabilities to influence aid,” he said. He also discussed his frustrations with the Syrian conflict in which 100,000 people have died.

“It’s a very difficult situation to try to resolve externally.”

Students in the audience asked

Reed about Obama’s budget, green energy and financial reform, which Reed, as a member of the Banking Committee, helped pass in 2009 through the Dodd-Frank Act. Panel pronouncements The first of two panels about Rhode Island politics featured members of the local media, and the second hosted four politically active graduates of Rhode Island colleges speaking about their experiences as activists, representatives and policy makers.

Sen. Adam Satchell, D-West Warwick, said he had a long history of advocacy for the public education system, and it was this interest that drove him to run for office. “I didn’t run to make friends. I ran to make a difference,” Satchell said.

Nicole Pollock ’08, who works in environmental advocacy, advised the audience to cast a wide net when looking for jobs. “It’s never going to be perfect,” Pollock said, “and that’s okay.”

Patrick Nagle ’10 works for MASSPIRG, a consumer advocacy group, and advocates for transportation funding in Massachusetts. He grew up in a small town and helped to found a Gay-Straight Alliance at his high school. He advised the audience to aim high.

“If you want to be president, you can do it,” he said. “We elect one every four years whether we like it or not.”

“I eat, sleep and breathe marriage equality” working for Rhode Islanders United for Marriage, said organization spokesman Devin Driscoll, who graduated from Providence College in 2008. Driscoll urged those interested in policy to have “a really strong work ethic” and not to be intimidated by those who don’t take young people seriously.

Organizers of the event Asne Oyehaug ’13 and Samantha Powell ’13 have both been involved in the conference since its first iteration in 2011. Powell said the idea was to bring students from different colleges across Rhode Island together, discuss important issues and “get involved and energized.” Both Powell and Oyehaug agreed that the training sessions had been smoother this year than last because they had “good feedback” on the trainers they selected.

8 sports monday

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD MONDAY, APRIL 15, 2013

KATIE LIEBOWITZ / HERALD

KATIE LIEBOWITZ / HERALD

During the 800-meter run, Reuben Feinman ’15 attempted to pass his University of Rhode Island opponent.

Sean Igelman ’14 successfully avoided hitting the bar during his pole vault event at the Springtime Invitational, which Bruno hosted last Saturday.

/ / Track page 12

of 10.65 and 21.66, respectively. He won the former event by a margin of .01 seconds, beating out rival Connor Reilly of Dartmouth, who had bested him in the preliminary heats.

Spooney was also a member on the winning 4x100-meter relay team, which clocked a time of 41.62.

“There were a few execution efforts with my race, but overall it went very well,” Spooney said. “It’s always good to win against an Ivy League rival, and Reilly is definitely a tough competitor.”

In other runs, Colin Savage ’14 earned second place in the 800-meter run with a time of 1:53.23, and

pole vault, which earned her the win.

Brown also earned first place in the high jump, with a winning height of 5-7 from Morayo Akande ’16.

Bruno’s success in the jumps continued with first-place performances from Brienna Crimmins ’14 and Osha Williams ’16. Crimmins won the long jump with a mark of 17-8.75, while Williams took first in the triple jump with a length of 37-8.

“The women did especially well in the long jump,” said Head Coach Tim Springfield. “Many of the athletes

jumped very close to their personal records.”

The team also performed well on the track. Emma Suchland ’16 earned a runner-up spot in the 100-meter dash, finishing the event in 12.28 seconds, and Colby Lubman ’14 made the same place in the 200-meter dash with a time of 25.33. In the 800-meter run, Sasha Teninty ’14 captured third by crossing the finish line in 2 minutes, 11.88 seconds.

On the men’s side, John Spooney ’14 led the team, winning both of his events. He won the 100-meter dash and the 200-meter dash with times

Ben Stephenson ’13 came in second in the 3000-meter steeplechase, finishing in 9:51.96. In the 400-meter hurdles, Zach Keefer ’13 finished five-tenths of a second behind first-place finisher Edward Wagner of Dartmouth.

“A lot of our sprinters did really well,” Spooney said. “There were some significantly good things you could see in the race that you couldn’t necessarily tell from the times our runners ran.”

The men’s team was led in the field

by Courtland Clavette ’15, who put out another strong performance in the shot put, winning with a distance of 52-6.

“Clavette had strong form today,” Springfield said. “He’s been good all year, and (he’s) an integral part of our team.

Going into the final few weeks of the season, the players stressed the importance of practicing well, with Springfield calling Brown’s current practice workout “fruitful.”

“We just really need to focus in these last three weeks of training,” Craker said. “We have to perfect our technique and manage our adrenaline.”

Bruno will next compete at the Larry Ellis Invitational at Princeton Friday.

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sports monday 9

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD MONDAY, APRIL 15, 2013

COMICS A & B | MJ Esquivel

Join the Club | Simon Henriques

Lonely Zoo| Daniel Moraff

EMILY GILBERT / HERALD

Tim Jacob ‘15 positioned himself to catch the ball in an attempt to take the lead over the Bulldogs.

/ / Lax page 12 lacrosse in high school against the best teams in the nation. It definitely prepared me for the intensity at the college level.”

Bruno improved on face-offs, winning nine of 20 compared to last week’s four of 16.

“The best surprise for us was our face-off play,” Tiffany said. “It was almost 50-50, and that was a bonus for us.”

Goalie Will Round ’14 made his

first start of the season in net, tallying eight saves for the Bears.

“Will has been very steady in practice for the last couple weeks,” Tiffany said. “He did a nice job.”

Brown will travel across town to face Providence College (8-5) Tuesday evening. Yale faces Stony Brook University (6-6) Monday night.

“We need to win out,” Blynn said.

“We can’t lose. We’re going to do it by having our offense play a full four quarters and by winning our faceoffs like we did last game.”

10 editorial EDITORIAL

Harris, Gilman and Sherry for Brown Starting Tuesday, students can begin to vote for Undergraduate Council of Students president and vice president and Undergraduate Finance Board chair.

While all of the candidates have their strenghts, we are pleased to endorse Todd Harris ’14.5 for UCS president, Sam Gilman ’15 for UCS vice president and Alexander Sherry ’15 for UFB chair.

Harris is a Meiklejohn peer adviser, a three-year member of UCS and a founder of the Brown Political Review, and he took last semester off to work for the Obama campaign. We were impressed with all three presidential candidates, but Harris’ specific ideas for improving the undergraduate experience made him stand out.

Harris identified three key issues he would like to improve upon: undergraduate advising, student-alumni networks and community engagement. Improvements in advising, an area that has long been criticized by students, would put students in closer contact with perhaps the University’s most valuable resource — its professors. Harris also promoted improved student-alumni connections as a mechanism for easing graduates’ experiences within the difficult employment market. We appreciate his focus on students’ futures after graduation.

The primary role of the UCS president is to act as a representative for the student body as a whole. We appreciated Afia Kwakwa’s ’14 clear experience within UCS and her engagement with many campus organizations. While she is committed to the issue of UCS relations with the student body, she did not identify clear and distinct priorities she would advance if elected. Similarly, Daniel Pipkin ’14 is knowledgeable about the needs of Brown students and is greatly invested in building relationships and connections with administrators, students and people off College Hill. But we wish he would have leveraged this experience into more specific initiatives rather than a general list of priorities.

While Kwakwa and Pipkin are both able representatives, Harris presented the most articulate and concise position. We endorse him wholeheartedly.

Gilman is running unopposed for UCS vice president, but he must receive the vote of five percent of the student body to win the position. We believe he is well qualified. Gilman is the current UCS treasurer, a Meiklejohn peer advisor and a founder of Common Sense Action, a student group that aims to engage youth voices in politics. Gilman works well with all three presidential candidates and is connected to the Providence community through his relationship with the Swearer Center for Public Service. We are confident he will be successful as vice president, and we endorse him without reservation.

Our decision was more difficult for UFB chair, as we believe that both Sherry and his opponent, Leila Veerasamy ’15, are well qualified. But Sherry suggested a system in which UFB would shepherd student groups through the funding process in order to make the system more transparent. He also emphasized improving efficiency, which is necessary given the University’s limited student activities budget. Finally, Sherry is a former member of UCS and has strong relationships with all three presidential candidates. These connections are crucial, particularly in the wake of last year’s controversy surrounding the proposed amendment that would have allowed UCS to control its own funding without UFB’s oversight.

Sherry will serve as a strong leader for UFB, and we give him our full support.

We urge all students to vote tomorrow. Though this should not be the case, UCS elections are often the only occasion when the student body engages with its government. Students should vote for the candidate that best represents their interests as a whole — but we strongly endorse Harris for president, as he is the most promising and inspiring candidate, and we believe he is the right and best choice for the University.

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD MONDAY, APRIL 15, 2013

EDITORIAL CARTOON b y a a n c h a l s a r a f

CL ARIFIC ATION

An article in last Friday’s Herald (“Poll results shed light on U. affairs and student life,” April 5) stated that over 25 percent of students used marijuana in the past year. Precisely 49 percent of students polled have used marijuana in the past year.

CORREC TION An article in last Thursday’s Herald (“Committee votes to make ombuds post full-time,” April 4) quoted a source who said most of Brown’s peer institutions do not offer unionized employees access to the ombudsperson’s services. In fact, most peer institutions do cover unionized employees, and some do not. The Herald regrets the error.

An article in Monday’s Herald (“Holocaust survivors remember harrowing past,” April 8) incorrectly stated that Holocaust survivor Steen Metz was freed from a concentration camp in April 1944. In fact, he was freed in April 1945. The Herald regrets the error.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“U.S. ... Patent database fails to reflect any protectable rights asserted in the generic slang ‘spicy with.’”

— Keith Fayan, attorney See crunchbutton on page 1.

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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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD MONDAY, APRIL 15, 2013

Next steps in the consideration of divestment CHRISTINA PAXSON Guest Columnist This year, the student group Brown Divest Coal requested that the University divest from a group of companies that either mine or burn coal for the production of power.

The actions of Brown Divest Coal are part of a larger national movement aimed at encouraging universities and colleges to divest from all fossil fuels. Though the students at Brown have so far focused on coal, they have indicated they intend to advocate for divestiture from all fossil fuels after the matter of coal has been decided.

Divest Coal’s request has been considered by the Advisory Committee on Corporate Responsibility in Investment Policies, a committee of faculty members, students, staff members and alums that considers issues of ethical and moral responsibility in investment decisions and makes recommendations to the Corporation.

I received a letter from ACCRIP April 9 that states that on Jan. 23 “ACCRIP voted by a margin of six in favor to two against, with one abstention, to recommend that ‘the University publicly divest from the fifteen coal companies’ that have contributed most egregiously to the social and environmental harms associated with the coal industry.”

The April 9 letter spells out criteria for divestment and includes arguments for and against the recommendation of divestment.

ACCRIP’s recommendation can be found

on the committee’s website.

Among the arguments in favor of divestment are that coal is a serious environmental hazard and that the mining and burning of coal make significant contributions to the problems of climate change and environmental degradation — consequences so grave it would be inconsistent with the goals and principles of the University to accept funds from that source. Arguments against divestment include concerns about the practical difficulties of monitor-

members, students and staff members who have developed creative strategies for reducing our energy use. The University is also making significant contributions to sustainability through its educational and research programs that deal with the complex nexus of scientific, social, political and economic issues that contribute to climate change and environmental degradation.

Over the past six months, I have had several discussions with members of Brown Divest Coal about whether divestiture from

I respect the passion and energy the students have devoted to this issue. But as the ACCRIP decision suggests, there are multiple points of view on the merits of divestiture. ing which companies should be excluded from the portfolio, as well as the view that encouraging clean coal techonologies might be a better approach until there exist viable alternatives to fossil fuels.

I expect there is wide consensus within the Brown community that climate change is a serious concern and that Brown should continue to strengthen its commitment to environmental sustainability. Brown has had remarkable success promoting sustainability on campus and in our surrounding community. Our 2012 Sustainability Progress Report indicates that in the past five years we have reduced our carbon footprint 29.4 percent below 2007 levels. This progress reflects the work of dedicated faculty

coal and, more broadly, from fossil fuel companies, are further steps the University should take toward promoting environmental sustainability. I respect the passion and energy the students have devoted to this issue. But as the ACCRIP decision suggests, there are multiple points of view on the merits of divestiture, even among those who feel strongly that climate change is a serious concern. The Corporation’s decision about divestiture from coal or, eventually, all fossil fuels, will require careful consideration of whether divestiture is likely to be an effective method of reducing the pace of climate change and whether divestiture would limit the ability of Brown’s Investment Office to steward a strong endowment in support of

the academic mission of the University.

In the coming years, Brown and many other colleges and universities will be challenged to make decisions about how best to respond to the serious problem of climate change. In the near term, the Corporation must decide whether to divest from the 15 coal companies named by Brown Divest Coal. After consultation with the Advisory and Executive Committee of the Corporation, which is charged with considering issues of social responsibility in investing, I have asked Donald Hood SCM’68 PhD’70 to head an ad hoc committee of the Corporation that will consider the request of Brown Divest Coal and ACCRIP’s recommendation. The committee, which includes Alison Cohen ’09, Laurence Cohen ’78, Samuel Mencoff ’78, Steven Price ’84 and Maria Zuber SCM’83 PhD’86 P’11, has broad expertise in the areas of environment, health, financial markets and public policy.

The committee is charged with consulting with members of the Brown community, including Brown Divest Coal, and reporting back to the Corporation.

Brown has a long and proud history of confronting important societal issues.

Though these issues often elicit strongly felt points of view, I hope that our community will approach the matter of divestiture from coal and other fossil fuels with the high degree of openness, respect and intellectual integrity that characterizes the best of our institutional values.

Christina Paxson is president of the University and can be reached at president@brown.edu.

On abortion ANDREW POWERS Opinions Columnist Abortion is the destruction of an entity. Yet this simplistic depiction does little to expose the underlying reasoning necessary to decide upon the moral permissibility of abortion. What can be exterminated safely without moral impact, and what should we be careful to preserve? Characteristics specific to the objects obviously play a role in such a determination.

But which traits are significant? It seems evident that for practically anything beyond the animal kingdom, we humans accept the morality of self-betterment irrespective of the negative effects we might inflict. This seems reasonable, as edible plants and useful minerals do not seem capable of feeling distress in any conceivable manner. Following this logic, few individuals have qualms concerning harming or even killing that which cannot perceive its own demise — nonconscious beings. This, too, seems intuitive since consciousness is prerequisite to suffering. Under such a view, the controversy of abortion is resolved quite cleanly in light of the factual evidence that a fetus simply is not conscious.

But is this really how we ought to condition our evaluations? Is the ability to perceive discomfort through conceptual awareness in those affected by an action a necessary condition in the moral judgment of that action? I think this is not the case

and would like to present a counterexample to dispel any such impressions.

Imagine your mother is in a serious car accident. She undergoes major neurosurgery, and the doctors place her in a medically induced coma to protect her brain from potential damage due to increased intracranial pressure. She is expected to make a full recovery.

You’ve never really gotten along with your mother and would stand to inherit her large estate if and only if she were to die in the next week. Having watched many medical television shows, you are confident that you would be able to fake her death as a complication of her current state. But is

leads to ridiculous consequences and thus is probably not a justification with which we should be satisfied.

So why do we have ethical qualms regarding the murder of the mother in the above situation? By changing one variable and holding all others constant, we can infer the answer. Imagine the same scenario, but in this case your mother had an adverse reaction to the barbiturates used to induce her coma and will die in the coming weeks.

In this case, the decision to kill your mother seems to have a smaller ethical component, and one would certainly find it much more reasonable to do so. This example demonstrates that we value expected conscious-

We don’t value children because of what they can do and what they are. We value children because of what they have the potential to do and what they have the potential to become. the proposition of murdering your unconscious mother really devoid of ethical considerations? Would killing her for profit be morally identical to cutting down a tree for lumber?

I think most would reject this claim and accept that the preservation of nonconscious individuals can, at least in some cases, hold weight, rather than accept the necessary outcomes of the alternative view.

Of course, this does not demonstrate that abortion is immoral, but merely that one naturally attractive line of justification

ness — of which present consciousness is an infinitesimal subset. Such an account is logical because it takes into account all predicted ramifications of our actions.

Our finding should not seem so surprising. As pragmatic thinkers, humans anticipate the future. This interpretation explains why the accidental death of a child is more tragic than the accidental death of an elderly man in hospice care. More potential years of consciousness are lost. We don’t value children because of what they can do and what they are. We value chil-

dren because of what they have the potential to do and what they have the potential to become. Obviously, the next step is to generalize this argument to include fetuses, which have nearly the same expected consciousnesses as newborns do and thus should be valued equivalently. But even so, this is not enough to justify a pro-life stance.

Fetuses may have sizeable worth, but why should anyone be legally required to experience massive inconvenience and pain to maintain that worth? There are actually universally accepted precedents for this — child rearing and animal breeding. As a society, we hold that individuals are morally responsible for that which they create, and this logic should apply to fetuses analogously since what we should truly value is the potential consciousnesses of individuals.

So, the parents of a fetus are morally required to act in its best interests, and thus abortion — the destruction of this potential consciousness — is unethical.

Personally, I believe the argument I’ve presented above is unsound. But as it would be prohibitively easy and meaningless to write a pro-choice piece at Brown, I thought I’d just share some of the issue’s more interesting considerations to make people question their assumptions for once.

Andrew Powers ’15 can be reached at andrew_powers@brown.edu and will respond to all questions and comments.

daily herald sports monday THE BROWN

SCOREBOARD

MONDAY, APRIL 15, 2013

W. LACROSSE

M. LACROSSE

Brown 15 Harvard 9

Penn 10 Brown 3

Brown 12 Bryant 9

M. GOLF 8th Place (Yale Spring Opener)

W. WATER POLO Marist 8 Brown 7

Arizona State 16 Brown 5

Hartwick 15 Brown 6

CSU Bakersfield 12 Brown 11

Michigan 11 Brown 7

Should the Utah Jazz make it into NBA playoffs?

TOM SHAW Sports Columnist With the NBA regular season winding down and the MLB still in the “there’s 150 more games” phase, this weekend’s biggest story was Kobe Bryant tearing his Achilles tendon in a much-needed win against the Golden State Warriors.

The Lakers are barely ahead of the Utah Jazz in the race for the eighth seed in the Western conference and the loss of Bean only makes that task infinitely harder. (Good thing Bill Murray will be able to absorb his minutes on the Space Jam All-Stars.) Worlds will collide when Kobe, while traveling to China in search of a revolutionary new treatment, will bump into recent 14-year-old pop sensation Tianlang

Guan, who made a splash at the Masters by carding the lowest amateur score and finishing 12 over for the tournament. Tianlang, upon meeting his childhood idol, will then proceed to wake up the next morning reeking of whiskey and without his Achilles tendon while Mamba strolls out the room.

A slightly more likely scenario has the Lakers blowing their remaining games due to Dwight “Clown Face” Howard spending all of his playing time coming up with gags for his TV interview and Steve “Eh?” Nash slipping into senility. Utah is deadly and would easily be a playoff team in the much weaker Eastern conference and actually belongs in the playoffs. In an age when teams are moving toward small-ball (the Boshtrich is not a true center), the Jazz have decided to go ultra-big. Whether it’s because of another basketball revolution or a product of

their extreme depth at the forward and center positions, Utah is playing a brand of basketball that isn’t really seen outside of the YMCA, based on the philosophy of “Let’s just get five really tall guys.” While it probably makes Gregg Popovich’s head explode seeing Utah solve its logjam at the big positions by simply playing all its big men at the same time, I’ve noticed other teams eschewing traditional positions and playing ultra-big or -small. In a recent Celtics game, Avery Bradley shared the floor with four forwards, later rotating off the ball with three other guards and the man-beast named Brandon Bass. These kinds of units play vastly different styles of basketball, and while Miami has clearly proven that going small works, the jury is still out on colossus ball. Simply put, it’s impossible to know if its current effectiveness is a result of smart coaching or simply a lack of game planning. For

TRACK & FIELD

Home advantage allows many to qualify for regionals at Springtime Invitational Seniors anchored the squads with strong performances in discus, pole vault and hurdles

BY LLOYD SY

this reason, Utah deserves a spot in this year’s playoffs, if only to see how mashing Big Al, Derrick Favors and Paul Millsap into the paint works in a seven-game series against the best in the NBA. Utah’s fortunes would also highlight the Laker’s severe misfortune moving forward. At first heralded as an absolute steal, last summer’s trade for Steve Nash leaves the Lakers without their first round draft pick. Normally, this transaction would be fine, but the value of a cheap rookie deal is especially high for a Lakers team far above the cap. The Lakers are on the hook for almost $40 million between just Kobe and Nash next year, two players that are likely to spend just as much time in suits as on the court, and Dwight will likely seek at least another $18 to 20 million per year to return. Add in the remaining contracts, and the Lakers could be paying more in luxury taxes than to

M. LACROSSE

Bears fall to No. 15 Yale in last quarter With the Ivy League Tournament less than a month away, Bruno loses by two after a slow start

SPORTS STAFF WRITER

KATIE LIEBOWITZ / HERALD

The men’s and women’s track and field members are perfecting their techniques for Friday’s Larry Ellis Invitational at Princeton.

The men’s and women’s track and field teams competed in the Springtime Invitational last Saturday, hosting over 1,000 athletes from rival schools at Brown Stadium. Though the meet was not scored for teams, the Bears defended their home territory with multiple individuals winning their events.

“We really used the fact that we were competing at our home facility to our advantage,” said women’s cocaptain Lacey Craker ’13. “There’s a level of comfort involved in competing where you practice.”

Craker herself benefited from the home-field advantage, winning the discus with a throw of 163 feet, 5 inches and the hammer throw with a mark of 192-6. Both throws surpassed ECAC-qualifying marks, earning Craker the right to compete at regionals in May. Craker called her performance “solid” and credited consistency in practice as the reason for her success.

The women also excelled at the javelin throw, with Niina Al-Hassan ’14 winning with a throw of 134-6 and Holleigh Bergstrom ’14 finishing in third with a mark of 129-9.

Hannah Wallace ’13 also hit an ECAC qualifying mark by jumping 12-5.5 on the / / Track page 8

players’ salaries. They do have enough television revenue that fielding a competitive team would be worth it, but the new collective bargaining agreement has repeat luxury tax offenders facing much harsher tax penalties — moving forward to the point that if the trend continues, the Lakers could be paying upwards of $300 million in taxes alone.

Money issues aside, the Lakers missing the playoffs gives us the opportunity to see Dwight cry in a dark corner, turn around to see Kobe glaring from across the room and resume crying.

Seriously, this year’s Lakers team is the biggest waste of talent since Dodgeball’s Globo Gym. The playoffs begin Saturday, and anything can happen between now and then. You could be unconventional like Utah: Stay in to read the paper and watch some games. Or be a normal person, come outside, enjoy Spring Week and get the die high.

By DANTE O’CONNELL SPORTS STAFF WRITER

The men’s lacrosse team fell to No. 15 Yale Friday after the Bulldogs (7-3, 3-2 Ivy) scored four consecutive fourthquarter goals to complete an 11-8 comeback victory. Brandon Mangan and Kirby Zdrill led the Bulldogs with hat tricks, while Henry Blynn ’16 led the Bears (5-5, 1-3) with a pair of goals.

“Our offense got off to a rough start in the first quarter, which really hurt us in the end,” Blynn said.

The result marked the fourth consecutive win for Yale and the fourth straight loss for Bruno, whose Ivy League Tournament chances are dwindling.

Yale started the contest off strong, taking a 3-0 lead early in the second quarter.

“It was a very slow start for us,” said Head Coach Lars Tiffany ’90. “We didn’t execute offensively or dominate the play. It’s just really frustrating to give up the whole first quarter.”

Brown responded with goals from Blynn and Nick Piroli ’15. Brendan Caputo ’16 also scored before the half, yet Bruno trailed 5-3 at the break.

“After the first quarter, it clicked for us, and we started chipping away at the lead,” Tiffany said. “We were really playing at a high level for the

rest of the game.”

John DePeters ’13 drew Brown closer just 25 seconds into the third quarter with his ninth tally of the season. But Yale scored the next two, making the score 7-4.

With just over a minute left in the third quarter, Brown started a run of four consecutive goals to take the lead. Blynn and Sam Hurster ’14 both scored before the end of the period.

“I just put my shoulder into the defenseman and shot around him,” Blynn said of his second goal.

In the fourth quarter, Kylor Bellistri ’16 and George Sherman ’13 scored within 90 seconds of each other to give Bruno its first lead of the game, 8-7.

“It showed a lot of heart, a lot of credit to the men for coming back, tying it and taking the lead,” Tiffany said.

The Bulldogs would not be outdone, and they put up their own four-spot to finish the game. Zdrill and Mangan both finished off their hat tricks, and Colin Flaherty buried Bruno on a score with 41 seconds left in the game.

Despite another loss, Blynn has been a bright spot for the Bears, leading the team with 22 goals. “(Blynn) competes with an intensity that is unwilling to relent,” Tiffany said. “Not only is he scoring goals, but he rides hard, and he’s a physical player.”

Blynn says his transition to NCAA lacrosse has not been difficult.

“We play the same offense I played in high school,” he said. “I played pretty high-level / / Lax page 9