THE
BROWN DAILY HERALD vol. cxlix, no. 45
since 1891
FRIDAY, APRIL 4, 2014
Med students discover residency placements
W. LACROSSE
Bears win fifth Ocean State Cup in five years
Despite tough competition, most Alpert students place into one of top three choices
Gion leads with careerbest five goals, Hudgins contributes three scores and two assists in blowout
RYAN WALSH / HERALD
Undergraduate Council of Students presidential candidates Asia Nelson ’15, Jonathan Vu ’15 and Maahika Srinivasan ’15 square off in a debate Thursday.
By LAINIE ROWLAND
At debate, candidates tout different priorities
SPORTS STAFF WRITER
Bouncing back from its first two losses of the season last week, the women’s lacrosse team defeated Bryant University 15-7 Monday to win the Ocean State Cup. Bruno has taken the Cup in each of the five years it has been awarded. “We haven’t lost yet,” said Janie Gion ’15, who scored a career-high five goals, the most of any player in Monday’s game. “We pride ourselves on being the best team in Rhode Island.” The memory of recent narrow losses may have spurred the Bears to action on the field. “We had just lost to Dartmouth by one and the game before that to Denver by one. We were definitely very fired up,” Gion said. Despite the energy, Bruno (8-2, 2-1 Ivy) struggled in the early minutes against the Bulldogs (6-3). After Gion fired Brown’s first goal a minute into the game, Bryant jumped out to a 4-1 lead with four consecutive goals. Lisa Vendel scored three of the four and accounted for over half of the Bulldogs’ offensive total on the day. The Bears took a timeout five minutes into play, which helped swing the momentum toward their side, Gion said. Gion responded with her second goal, jumpstarting Bruno’s response to » See W. LACROSSE, page S3
Candidates for top UCS, UFB posts promote plans for connecting students with resources, admins By CAROLINE KELLY SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Candidates for leadership positions on the Undergraduate Council of Students and the Undergraduate Finance Board used Thursday night’s debate to push their
platforms and address a host of issues, such as the role of student government, mental health resources and adding a student representative to the Corporation. Asia Nelson ’15, Maahika Srinivasan ’15 and Jonathan Vu ’15 faced off in the UCS presidential debate, often focusing on the Council’s ability to directly influence administrators to improve student resources. Alex Drechsler ’15 and Sazzy Gourley ’16 debated their platforms for the UCS vice presidency, while Alex Sherry ’15 and Dakotah Rice ’16 outlined
their uncontested campaigns for UFB chair and UFB vice chair, respectively. The Council’s relationship with the student body drove much of the discussion among UCS presidential candidates. “UCS isn’t necessarily pushing its boundaries and its limits currently, and I think there’s a lot that we could be doing in terms of integrating other community organizations,” said Nelson, a UCS general body member. Nelson emphasized the importance of reaching out to other » See DEBATE, page 2
By EMILY WOOLDRIDGE SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Ninety Alpert Medical School fourthyear students opened letters containing “the culmination of years of hard work” the day before spring break, in a shower of giant red and white balloons, said Katrina Chu MD’14. On Match Day, held this year on March 21, medical students nationwide discover to which residency programs and specialties they will devote the next three to seven years of their lives. “Brown’s students placed into some of the most prestigious residencies in the country,” said Alexandra Morang, director of medical student affairs and » See MATCH DAY, page 3
Major illness diagnoses erode student life balance Facing long-term treatment, students may take time off or rebalance their college priorities By ANDREW JONES SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Surrounded by three doctors in the hospital room, with his family living on the other side of the globe, Robert Lee ’17 was incredulous when he received his diagnosis. Leukemia. “You’ve got to be kidding me, right?” he asked the doctors.
FEATURE
Just days earlier, he had been going about his normal routine — singing with the Jabberwocks, going to class, riding his bike. After a rambunctious a cappella performance during Family Weekend in which he had been jumping, running and rolling around the stage, he woke up the next morning with back pain. Brushing it off as a minor bruise, he followed Health Services’ advice to take some Advil. But the stinging persisted. In the next few days, the sharp pain escalated to a “13
out of 10,” he recalled. He found himself unable to focus and perform routine tasks, so he decided to call EMS. After an ambulance ride to Miriam Hospital, several diagnostic tests, conversations with numerous doctors and hours of waiting in the hospital room, the doctors returned with news: Lee’s body was producing abnormal white blood cells, an indicator of acute lymphoblastic leukemia. While many students spend all four years at Brown happily contained within the College Hill bubble, those diagnosed with major illnesses are jolted into confronting an unexpected set of challenges,
dealing with the complexities of leavetaking, managing hospital visits in different cities and confronting a host of other issues. Post-diagnosis decisions Once he came to terms with the diagnosis and the whirlwind of action had subsided, Lee was confronted with practical decisions about if and how to continue with his education at Brown. Leukemia treatment would require chemotherapy and radiation, and he would be battling symptoms of fatigue and weakness at the same time. Piling » See ILLNESS, page 4
Spring Weekend ‘After Dark’ party announces lineup Performers, including Bixel Boys and Tukker, encompass wide range of musical genres By MICHAELA BRAWN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
“After Dark 2014” released its full lineup March 27, giving Brown and Rhode Island School of Design students another event to look forward to amid the Spring Weekend festivities. The After Dark party commences at the end of Friday’s Spring Weekend concert, running from 10 p.m. until 3
COURTESY OF OBERGE
inside
This year’s “After Dark” party, which features dance music-based acts, will take place at Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel on the Friday night of Spring Weekend, from 10 p.m. until 3 a.m. Last year’s party sold out.
Sports
Commentary
The baseball team will host Princeton and Cornell this weekend after beating Siena
A $1.1 million donation will finance the renovations of the lacrosse team locker rooms
Sundlee ’16: Americans must be prepared to deal with climate change effects
Tartakovsky ’08: Crimes in Israel must be discussed openly in order to achieve democracy
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ARTS & CULTURE
a.m. at Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel. This year’s lineup includes Vito and Druzzi — DJs for electronic dance group The Rapture — Bixel Boys, the Range (the pseudonym of DJ James Hinton ’10) and Tukker. All the acts are dance music-based, but Olivia Fialkow ’14, one of the event’s coordinators, said this year there will be “different sounds and different (sub)genres.” A small group of Brown upperclassmen, working under the name “Oberge,” organized the event and brought the acts to Providence. Alex Oberg ’12.5, one of the organizers, described the party as being “by Brown students, for Brown students.” Oberge aims to bring musicians to Providence » See AFTER DARK, page 4 t o d ay
tomorrow
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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD FRIDAY, APRIL 4, 2014
Break in Berlin: Students enjoy ‘comparative modernism’ course Now in third year, spring break program focuses on music and humanities in Europe’s ‘new city’ By ZACH FREDERICKS STAFF WRITER
While many Brown students enjoyed a stereotypical sun-soaked spring break, 10 undergraduate and graduate students spent a week centered on the theme of “comparative modernism” in Berlin hosted by the Cogut Center for the Humanities. Led by Michael Steinberg, director of the Cogut Center and professor of history and music, the group attended rehearsals at the Berlin State Opera, sat in on seminars at Bard College in Berlin and received a tour of the BarenboimSaid Academy, a music school that grounds its education in politics, world affairs and humanities for students from the Middle East. The goal of the program was to expose students interested in music, the humanities and Berlin to the intersections of these subjects that have shaped the rapidly changing city, Steinberg said. The term “comparative modernism” refers to how the modern world is understood through arts and the humanities, Steinberg said. In accordance with this theme, the group was encouraged to view Berlin as a place for new
developments in these disciplines, he added. “The argument is to think of an international program that would connect Brown’s campus to Berlin and understand Berlin as a world city that is the only truly new city in the West,” Steinberg said. Students on the trip bore witness to comparative modernism in two clear contexts: France and Germany in the 19th century, and Europe and the Middle East today. Program participants attended rehearsals of Wagner’s opera “Tannhauser” and studied the opera in the context of Baudelaire’s essays, examples of the “cutting edge” competition between France and Germany in the 1860s, Steinberg said. . The excursion to rehearsals of “Tannhauser” was “a highlight which shed light on many crucial questions pertaining to Wagner’s music, its aesthetic and political impact, to the issue of the role of art at the turn of the 19th century,” wrote Laura Scurriatti, professor of comparative literature at Bard College, in an email to The Herald. “The idea was to understand Berlin as a place of East-West encounter,” Steinberg said. This theme emerged in the remnants of the city-dividing Berlin Wall and in Berlin’s exceptionally large Turkish population, he said. Undergrads who participated in the program expressed satisfaction with their experiences.
COURTESY OF LESLIE UHNAK
The Cogut Center for the Humanities sponsored a week-long program over spring break for 10 undergraduate and graduate students to visit Berlin, where they explored the city’s history and culture. “Apart from being treated to great the Cogut Center website and through institutions was mutually productive and food and getting to schmooze with encouragement from faculty members beneficial, Scurriatti wrote. professors, the coolest part was explor- across many departments. “We hope that this brief but intense ing Berlin,” said Jonny Abrams ’15, a “We tried to get the word out as encounter might have alerted students to program participant. “They trusted in broadly as possible,” Steinberg said. different learning and teaching methodour professionalism.” Steinberg said the application process ologies and approaches, and sparked an David Kaufman ’16 said the program was highly selective, though he declined interest for the respective areas of study did a good job of exposing participants to specify the number of applicants or and courses,” Scurriatti wrote. to the sights of Berlin. acceptance rate. This marked the third “curricular “Berlin has the same wealth of cul“We got a wonderful group of stu- pilot” of the Brown-in-Berlin trip, acture as a London or a New York even dents and also a very diverse one, which cording to the program’s website. If the though it’s very up and coming,” he said. I think is important,” Steinberg said. program garners positive feedback, it “As a 20-year-old passing visitor walking Though the Cogut Center’s Brown- could be expanded to a study abroad around a young city, you feel just a part in-Berlin program is only three years opportunity during the semester instead of everything that’s going on around you, old, Bard College in Berlin, one of the of over spring break, Steinberg said. as if you’ve always lived there.” main partners, is a more established pro“It was a lot of work,” he added. “It The program was advertised via gram. The partnership between the two was not spring break in Cancun.”
Scientist links research in Antarctica to search for life on Mars Geoscientist Dickson reports on Antarctic studies related to possibility of water on Mars By MEGHAN FRIEDMANN STAFF WRITER
The warm atmosphere of Flatbread Company provided a sharp contrast to Jay Dickson’s compelling description of his research experiences in Antarctica. It was hard to imagine holding a frozen cylinder of refried beans over a hot saucepan with the aroma of pizza wafting through the restaurant in which he was speaking. Dickson, a science data analyst in the department of Geological Sciences, presented his lecture entitled “Freeze Frame: Time-lapse Photography in the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica,”
SCIENCE & RESEARCH
» DEBATE, from page 1 student groups to “make sure that all students on campus feel represented.” “The first role of UCS is to be seeking out student opinion,” said Srinivasan, chair of the UCS Academic and Administrative Affairs committee. “We should be asking people what they need and what they want and how they want it,” she said, adding that she aims to “cultivate a cohesive community” by “bringing in as many … diverse perspectives into the room” as possible. Vu, the class of 2015 president and a former UCS alumni liaison, urged Council members to get “out of Petteruti Lounge (and) onto the Main Green” by holding events and forums besides general body meetings. UCS presidential candidates highlighted different priorities unique to their campaigns. Nelson said she hopes students will
to over 80 faculty members, students and other attendees as part of Science Underground, an initiative sponsored by the Science Center, the Triple Helix and the scientific research honors society. Jessica Brodsky ’14, one of the event’s coordinators and a former Herald science staff writer, said Dickman’s presentation brought Antarctica — a continent that is often difficult to conceptualize — to life. “The speakers broadened the realm of what is possible,” she said. Dickson attempted to translate the harsh, Antarctic conditions for audience members by asking them to visualize stepping off a plane to both a “spectacular view” and 6 to 10 feet deep ice. McMurdo Station, where Dickson and his team train before research projects, “feels like
a grimy little mining town mixed with a college town.” Training, which lasts approximately one week, is an integral part of research in Antarctica, Dickson explained. Once the researchers move out to McMurdo Dry Valleys, where Dickson’s project is based, “half of (their) time is spent just surviving,” he said. For water, snow is melted in pots, and all food provisions eventually freeze, he added. Dickson has visited Antarctica multiple times to study the McMurdo Dry Valleys, which are part of the 2 percent of Antarctica’s surface not covered with ice, he said. Given the harsh conditions, researchers need very compelling reasons to venture so far south, said James Head, professor of Geological Sciences, in his introduction of Dickson’s lecture. Landing in the valley “looks like a rover landing on Mars,” Dickson said. In fact, the
valleys’ similarities to Mars is precisely why Dickson goes there. Parts of the valleys are so dry that snow instantly turns to vapor, Dickson said, skipping the liquid water phase. Dickson’s research specifically explores water. Photos from Mars show gullies that behave similarly to how water behaves on Earth, he said, and if these gullies are indeed made of water, “there’s been more water on the surface of Mars recently … than we thought.” To study water movement, Dickson sets up time-lapse cameras, which take photos at five-minute intervals, and assembles them into short movies. Equipment also records data at regular intervals, and Dickson said he compares the data against the photos during analysis. Using these techniques, Dickson’s team has studied Don Juan Pond, the saltiest body of water on Earth. Scientists have long wondered about where the
shallow pond receives its water. In a series of photos Dickson observed “water tracks,” a system of water percolating through the soil that is located near the pond. The tracks darken when water is present, and photos showed that this darkening occurs almost instantly, rather than in a gradual riverlike movement. The darkening of the water tracks corresponds with a peak in humidity, suggesting the salt in the soil absorbs the water in the air. Based on this logic, the atmosphere may actually be the source of Don Juan Pond’s saline water, Dickson said. These results imply it might be possible that liquid water on the surface of Mars comes from the atmosphere, Dickson said. The dried-up salt lakes on the planet’s surface could have stories similar to those explaining Don Juan Pond, he added.
use the hashtag “Brown See It Say It” to report their concerns to the Council. The hashtag would boost the Council’s “accessibility and accountability” and set it “in the right direction in terms of amplifying student voices,” she said, adding that this technique would highlight issues “that are happening in our daily lives that the administration may not know are happening to us.” In light of the University’s impending capital campaign, Vu stressed the importance of implementing universal needblind admission to “ensure the future of not only the students that are here but the students to come.” He also described plans to reform dining options to more accurately “reflect the desires of students.” Srinivasan said while advising is not a particularly “sexy” topic, it “affects every Brown student’s experience at some point.” “We just need a support system and a network that will carry us through all
four years,” she said, urging improvements in concentration advising and adviser training. Though the three UCS presidential candidates differed in their individual priorities, all expressed support for greater diversity among Psychological Services staff members and the addition of a student representative to the Corporation. Srinivasan said she thinks the Corporation’s lack of a student representative is “ridiculous.” In the UCS vice presidential debate, Drechsler and Gourley squared off over mental health resources and transparency in University governance. Gourley outlined ways in which “Psych Services can be more accessible,” saying it must “hire the staff that they need to represent the student body as a whole.” Drechsler expressed concern over how “when you call Psych Services, they
ask you directly, ‘Do you have an emergency?’” rather than conducting more comprehensive assessments like those on which many peer institutions rely. He encouraged Psych Services to place more patients at professional, off-campus facilities. Gourley described the “importance of exploring as an undergraduate all the things that make an undergraduate education have value.” Discussing his intention to be a receptive leader, he said he would “prioritize what the students want to see.” “Administrators really consider UCS to be the voice of the students,” Drechsler said. “We need to act like that’s our role and make sure that we’re doing that.” He also acknowledged his leadership of the undergraduate group working with UCS to get a student representative added to the Corporation. If elected, Drechsler would continue to work on “making sure” that plan
becomes a reality, he said. Candidates for UFB leadership positions proposed specific ideas for streamlining the student group funding process. Sherry, UFB vice chair and the only candidate for UFB chair, said he would work to ensure the Board was “responsive to the student body.” He added that he would strive for “positive and hopefully stress-free interactions with UFB” and ensure student groups applying for funding would “receive the best possible advice.” Uncontested UFB vice chair candidate Rice, a UFB representative, described plans to “write a really accessible guide where people can really understand how to navigate” the student group funding process. The debate was sponsored by the Undergraduate Council of Students and The Herald and moderated by current UCS President Todd Harris ’14.5 and Herald Editor-in-Chief Eli Okun ’15.
university news 3
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD FRIDAY, APRIL 4, 2014
» MATCH DAY, from page 1 head of the residency advising program. “We are right there with our peer institutions, even though we are a really young medical school.” According to students’ self-reported data, 90 percent were placed into one of their top three choices, Morang said. This percentage has remained fairly consistent throughout recent years, she added. Eight students will remain in Rhode Island at hospitals affiliated with the Med School, while more than 20 others will complete their residencies elsewhere in New England, according to the Med School’s website. Eight will call San Francisco their home. Libby Flores MD’14 decided to stay in Providence because Brown’s OB/GYN program is one of the strongest in the country, she said. “When you interview at other hospitals and they mention Brown’s faculty, it’s like they are talking about rock stars,” she said. Flores can bypass the apartmenthunting scramble and the difficulties of adjusting to a new home that many of her classmates face: Next year, she will live with her partner, who works at the Rhode Island School of Design. Internal medicine, pediatrics and family medicine are often the most popular fields for students, but “lifestyle specialties,” such as dermatology, provide flexibility and higher salaries and are gaining popularity nationwide, Morang said. Thirty-eight students at Brown were offered primary care residency positions, according to the Med School’s website. This number has also remained fairly consistent over the past few years, Morang said. The Med School is supportive of primary care, despite the field’s lower pay and perceived lower prestige, and will “put its money where its mouth is” in 2015 when it offers an integrated primary care and public health curriculum, Flores said. An atypical application The National Resident Matching Program is very different from other job application processes. Students are placed in a residency using a Nobel Prizewinning algorithm that takes students’ and hospitals’ preferences into account. The placement is a contract. “If you were to back out, it would go on your record,” Flores said, which would
hurt a student’s chance of getting placed into a residency in the future. “It’s tough — at the last minute, some people realize they really don’t want to go.” Students with strong academic records in fields like pediatrics often apply to about 12 or 15 residencies, Morang said, but those in more competitive specialties like dermatology or plastic surgery can sometimes apply to 50 or 70. Interviews are conducted in person at prospective hospitals and can make or break an application, said Jenna Lester MD’14. Along the “interview trail” this year, some students got stranded in “odd places” due to the flight delays and cancellations that come with winter weather, she said. “I heard someone took over 30 plane flights, and that was before the interviewing season was over,” Lester said. There’s a fear among students that “if I cancel this interview, what if I don’t get matched?” In smaller specialties, scheduling interviews can be especially difficult because hospitals don’t coordinate with each other and interview times often overlap, Chu said. Peculiar interview questions keep students on their toes, students said. Multiple recalled being asked, “If you could be any kind of fruit, what would you be and why?” “They want to see your thought process and how you present yourself,” Chu said. Throughout the application process, students base their preferences not only on the strength and rigor of prospective programs, but on the location and social climate, said Heather Jones MD’14. On interview days, students often have lunch with a hospital’s residents to get a sense of whether they fit in. Broken bones and budgets Several hundred medical students who entered the National Resident Matching Program this year were not placed into residencies, according to a statement released by Darrell Kirch, president and CEO of the Association of American Medical Colleges, a nonprofit organization that represents medical schools in the United States and Canada. “There are more students graduating from medical school, but the number of residency spots hasn’t changed” over time, Morang said. “It’s getting more competitive every year.” Specialty programs have especially high levels of competition. At some
hospitals, students may be fighting for a plastic surgery program with only three available spots. The AAMC is concerned that federal budget cuts to teaching hospitals make expansion of residency training programs “highly unlikely,” according to the statement. As a result, some programs may not even generate enough clinical revenue to stay afloat. Due to the shortage in residency spots for medical school graduates, there will not be enough doctors trained to combat the nation’s physician shortage, which is expected to increase to 90,000 doctors by 2020, according to the statement. With overwhelming debt from student loans, many Brown students said not having a job after graduation would be devastating. “It has been scary, even at Brown,” Jones said. The cost of the matching application process itself is another load students carry. The interviewing process can cost thousands of dollars — the application fees, airplane flights, hotel stays, car rentals and cab fares add up. Though some hospitals cover the costs of boarding and travel, many students foot the bill or take out even more loans, Lester said. The Med School’s financial aid director keeps the high costs of the application process in mind when she’s drafting financial aid packages for fourth-year students, Morang said. There are also waivers outside Brown for which students can apply. Care and counseling There are 42 specialty advisers and nine Careers in Medicine faculty members who advise academies, learning communities that bring students of different class years together, Morang said. Advisers work extensively with alums, who often let students stay at their homes for free during the interviewing season and offer firsthand perspectives on the hospitals students are applying to. “I didn’t feel like I walked into an interview unprepared,” Lester said. Some students have also worked to improve the advising process. Unlike undergraduate or graduate college admission, there aren’t GPA or test score databases for residency admission, which makes it difficult for students to rank programs or know where they stand in the applicant pool, Jones said. Rahul Banerjee MD’14 designed a
» COSTUMES, from page 12
CAMILLA BRANDFIELD-HARVEY / HERALD
Jenna Spencer ’14 and Shadura Lee ’16 appear in “El Grito del Bronx,” a play that uses a wide range of costumes to depict various time periods.
a coherent picture. Discussions of this vision usually start before the rehearsal process even begins to make sure that there is an overlap between disparate artistic factions, Carrier said. “For the most part, ‘El Grito’ called for more modern day clothes. So I would go to different thrift stores, like Savers, and look on Amazon.com,” Carrier said. “But in other cases, you might have to visit speciality websites or make some of the pieces by hand.” In order to maintain a cohesive aesthetic, the costume and props departments will often check with each other about color and style, wrote Ronald Cesario, the University’s costume shop manager, in an email to The Herald. Budgetary concerns usually also play a major role in such planning stages, but financing was not an issue for this show. “I honestly never asked (about the budget) because I knew it was going to be a second-hand show and I knew
HERALD FILE PHOTO
Fourth-year Alpert Medical School students sometimes apply to 50 to 70 residency programs to ensure acceptance into their preferred specialty. website to solve this problem, providing anonymous advice from students graduating this year about specialties, the interview process and the beginning of med school, Banerjee wrote in an email to The Herald. He added that he does not know if other med schools have developed “a solution as robust as ours.” The website has already received about 40 responses, Banerjee wrote, adding that he hopes to expand the system so alums can submit responses. Brown’s personal advising experience and student camaraderie is unheard of at many other institutions, students said. At other med schools, and even during residencies, “there is a sense of sink or swim, of doing things on your own,” Flores said. “It’s good to be independent,” but distancing oneself from peers and patients is problematic in a hospital setting where camaraderie is necessary for efficiency and success, she added. Stethoscopes and strawberries A video of fourth-year Brown students dancing to Pharrell Williams’ “Happy” from rooftops and places all across the globe jazzed up Match Day. Strawberries, sparkling wine and a jazz band enlivened the happy occasion. Friends and family came from out of
town for the celebration, which students said is more exciting than graduation. “It was so surreal,” Jones said. “This is something I’ve wanted since my fourthgrade career project.” “It didn’t hit me until I found out one of my really good friends matched at the same hospital,” Chu said. “We’ve been living together for a really long time. I teared up a little bit.” “Every school has a celebration, but everyone does it differently,” Morang said. Brown has “one of the more exuberant celebrations,” while at the same time respecting students’ privacy, she said. “A lot of schools have each student take the envelope, open it and read the name in front of everyone,” Morang said, which can be uncomfortable if students don’t receive the placement they were hoping for. After developing close relationships with students, Morang was especially touched by Match Day, she said. But the most emotional time for her occurred a couple days before, when Morang received the match list. “That precious time of knowing how thrilled they are going to be before they open that envelope and knowing how hard they worked for it, anticipating their joy — that’s really special,” she said.
I wasn’t going to be spending a lot of money,” Carrier said. “But usually, the designer has no control over the budget.” The costume director takes measurements of the actors before the rehearsal process begins in order to collaborate with the performers and get a feel for their appearances. This information allows Carrier to craft practical, functional costumes that provide the actors with freedom of movement throughout the rehearsal process while maintaining the play’s intended atmosphere, she said. “In this play, costumes function together as a group. So there are gas station attendants that have a particular look, and characters that play mothers have their own look. Yet when you put it together, it all makes one picture,” Carrier said. Strong costumes often help solidify an actor’s performance. Vincent Tomasino ’14, assistant director for “El Grito,” said he finds great value in the choice of an actor’s shoes. “In ‘El Grito,’ there are lots of clothes
that we even wear today. But once an actor puts on shoes, it changes the way they walk and move,” Tomasino said. “It’s one thing to act like you are wearing something and a completely other thing to actually be in it.” During tech rehearsals, actors must remain in their costumes in order to become totally immersed in their characters, Tomasino said, adding that this requirement is helpful in discovering the particular limitations that final costumes might pose. For example, in Shakespearean theater, actresses often rehearse in full skirts, helping them to understand how to move in an Elizabethan-style dress. In rehearsals, costumes help actors become aware of what they are doing with their bodies, Tomasino said. “We think about time differently. We think about steps differently. We put personas forward differently in different time periods,” said Ken Prestininzi, the play’s director. “Costumes are about how we present ourselves knowingly and unknowingly.”
4 feature » ILLNESS, from page 1 homework, essays and exams on top of all the physical turmoil would have made for an arduous semester. Reluctant to leave Brown just a few months into his first year, Lee initially planned to complete enough academic work to receive a reduced amount of class credit. But once his treatment began, the disease became a full workload in itself. “Obviously he didn’t manage to write a line, and we had to face the reality that it was going to be a marathon and uphill battle to fight,” wrote Rosa Ling P’17, Lee’s mother, in an email to The Herald. Because Lee’s parents live in Hong Kong, they were unable to be with him for the first few days after his diagnosis. Lee decided to take a medical leave of absence for the remainder of the year, hoping to return in the fall of 2013. After his diagnosis, he spent the next two months in the hospital receiving treatment and was subsequently in and out for follow-ups and help with symptoms. As disappointed as he was to leave campus, Lee came back to Brown this fall with renewed purpose in his studies, he said. “I sort of had a year to figure out what I wanted to do,” he said, adding that he is now taking advantage of firstyear seminars and has decided he will study Business, Entrepreneurship and Organizations. A leave of absence can be just what a student needs when diagnosed with a serious illness, said Maria Suarez, associate dean and director of student support services in the Office of Student Life. Students are usually referred to the OSL by a parent, a private physician or Health Services. Though many students do not want to skip semesters, they usually report that it was valuable time away from Brown, she said. “What students don’t realize … is that being discharged from the hospital doesn’t necessarily mean you’re ready to come back to the rigors of Brown academics,” she said. Students who opt to stay on campus after being diagnosed with a major illness have the option to take on a reduced workload by enrolling in one to three classes. Deciding the best way to cope with a diagnosis academically involves an individualized discussion between students, parents, doctors and the administration. A patient student “Everyone around you is focused on grades or relationships or normal things, while you’re focused on your next treatment or doctor’s appointment,” said Sarah Pierce ’16. In October of her first year, Pierce noticed that her lymph nodes were swollen — a routine case of mononucleosis, she thought. When she went to Health Services for treatment, a chest X-ray revealed a much more severe ailment. After she was taken to the hospital, diagnostic tests revealed that she had Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.
» AFTER DARK, from page 1 who may not otherwise have been inclined to perform here. Cheno Pinter ’14, who is a member of Oberge alongside Fialkow and Oberg, explained that these DJs often play venues in nearby New York and Boston, passing right by Providence. In prior years, Spring Weekend after-parties have been shut down by police, making events complicated and unreliable, Fialkow said. Oberge’s After Dark aims to create a “safe space”
Diagnosis with a serious illness generally requires specialized medical care, leaving students no option but to travel to specific hospitals, said Edward Wheeler, director of Health Services. Health Services primarily aims to connect students battling serious illness on campus with specialist medical professionals in the community, he said, adding that the office can offer routine tests and administer some medications but lacks most of the sophisticated technology required by these students. “We try to ease the difficulty of staying in school while you’re dealing with a major illness,” Wheeler said. Most of Pierce’s chemotherapy occurred at Hasbro Children’s Hospital, where she received four three-week cycles of high-dose cocktail drugs targeted to eliminate cancerous cells. When diagnostic scans showed that she still tested positive for lymphoma in February 2013, Pierce was forced to decide between continuing chemotherapy and radiation or opting for a bone marrow transplant, which leaves the patient permanently infertile. She ultimately decided to undergo four more cycles of chemotherapy followed by three weeks of radiation. Pierce endured short interruptions to her schedule to go to Miriam Hospital each week for treatment, but said the schedule was convenient overall. Still, she began to notice distinctive differences between her own life and her peers’. She felt like she was living in two separate bubbles — one on College Hill and another at the hospital. It was difficult to reconcile the differences between her two lives, but she said each sphere lent itself to the other in unexpected ways. Her rigorous treatments instilled a powerful work ethic in her studies. Academics provided a much-needed distraction from chemotherapy and radiation, so at times she lost herself in her schoolwork. Pierce and Lee both remarked that their exposure to suffering patients in the hospital was one of the most meaningful experiences of their treatment processes. “Brown is a bubble. People here think they have problems,” Lee said. “You don’t know problems until you see people at the clinic.”
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD FRIDAY, APRIL 4, 2014
RYAN WALSH / HERALD
Sarah Pierce ’16, Jordan Brint ’16 and Robert Lee ’17 were all diagnosed with major illnesses during their time on campus. While each experienced unique challenges, all have sought to balance disease with campus life. student who likes economics, you’re a college student with leukemia.”
Academic atrophy Struggling to stay awake, Jordan Brint ’16 couldn’t see the page fading in front of her eyes. It was nearly impossible to finish homework when both her vision and her physical stamina were unreliable. Her memory had been spotty, too, and she felt drained, drowsy, depleted of energy. Brint, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and hydrocephalus in the fall of her sophomore year, said her diseases placed a practical roadblock in her path to achieving academic excellence. Because her symptoms can be so unpredictable, Brint takes advantage of the days when she is feeling healthy by completing homework weeks in advance, she said. On any given day, she could be struck with bouts of fatigue, headaches, dizziness, blurry vision and pain in her
hands, feet and legs. Much of the time, Student Employment and Accessibility Services aided her by granting extra time on exams and excusing her absences from classes, Brint said. As part of the OSL, SEAS provides the majority of on-campus logistical support for students, said Catherine Axe, director of SEAS. The office offers services, such as a transportation shuttle and note-taking in class, to work with students on a caseby-case basis to help buffer their illnesses’ impact on their campus experience. SEAS can also talk to course instructors so students do not have to repeatedly explain their situations when they need to miss class or require extended time for exams, Axe said. For faculty members, accommodating a student becomes much more difficult when the illness requires the student to miss more than a couple weeks of class, said Elena Festa, professor of cognitive, linguistic and psychological sciences. “I post all of my slides, they have friends who they can get notes from, but it’s not the same thing as being in class,” she said. Though she expressed gratitude for the help provided by the University, Pierce did not feel like she was fully informed about campus resources for students with illnesses. She was not aware of the daytime shuttle to the hospital or that she could use EMS transport for free under her insurance plan. Her research mentor originally provided her with taxi vouchers to help with transportation to appointments. Through all the accommodations that professors and SEAS provided for her success, Brint expressed a desire to be treated like a normal 20-year-old. “I don’t want to be a pity case to a professor.” Many students see college as the prime of their lives, so diagnosis with a serious illness can throw a wrench into the perception of a normal student experience, Wheeler said. “When you’re in college, you’re looking for an identity,” he added. “Then you throw this at them, and suddenly you’re not just a college
where students do not have to “worry about cops” and can “celebrate music and have fun.” The group hopes to create an event geared toward Brown and RISD students over 18, Oberg said. Lupo’s stood out as an ideal venue for the party based on its expansive size. Oberg said he and his peers hope to open up the event to as many people as possible. Oberge is not affiliated with the Brown Concert Agency and is not formally recognized by Brown as a student group. The After Dark party sold out
entirely last year. The organizers received a lot of positive feedback from students excited about last year’s performance by LCD Soundsystem DJ James Murphy, and as a result, attendees said they eagerly anticipated more events in the future, Fialkow said. Pinter said she heard fellow students declare After Dark the “best party at Brown” and the “best event yet.” The group struggled to find artists this year because coordinators had to compete with bookings for the Coachella music festival and European tours,
Fialkow said, adding that this year’s lineup is more diverse than the previous year. She said the group is excited to “support Brown (alums), current Brown students (and) artists from Providence.” Despite having more difficulty finding artists to perform, Oberg said the group “doubled production from last year” and will now be incorporating “light shows and visuals.” Pinter also said the group is very conscious about feedback and is working to improve with every new concert. Oberg said the organizers “don’t
‘Peace, calm, love’ “People feel fairly invincible, and they don’t think about their mortality,” said Monica Kunkel, nursing coordinator at Health Services. College students have much of their lives ahead of them, she added, which makes it difficult for these students to live in the present and deal with their illnesses. It is easy to not realize that mental health risks can also stem from battles with major illnesses, said Sherri Nelson, director of Psychological Services. Many people undergo periods of depression and anxiety during the time of diagnosis and treatment, she added. To combat this trend, Psych Services offers two relevant support groups for students with serious illnesses. One group aims to support students with chronic medical conditions by providing a forum for discussion of social, academic and health problems. “You don’t really know there’s someone else out there who’s dealing with what you’re dealing with until you come to the group,” said Mark Rubinstein, a psychotherapist at Psych Services and the leader of the group. He added that living with a serious illness presents certain challenges to which most people cannot relate, such as painful symptoms, stigmatization and potential derailment of post-graduation plans. “You might think it’s very dreary, but they’re actually very talkative and positive,” he said of the meeting’s attendees, usually five to six students. A second support group, Back at Brown, holds weekly meetings to provide peer and professional aid to students returning to campus after medical leave. Lee and his family have tried to maintain a positive attitude — the best kind of support possible — throughout the diagnosis and treatment process, Ling wrote. Solace from chemo and radiation came partially in the form of an online
journal of his experiences after his cancer diagnosis, Lee said. It was his outlet for the wide range of emotions he felt day to day in the hospital. Often capping entries with “Peace, calm, love,” Lee attempted to approach his treatment with resilience and grace. Moving forward Running 12 half-marathons in 12 months seems like a terrifying prospect to most people, but Pierce is doing just that after her bout with lymphoma. She received her six-month-clear scans in January and has already completed two races since then, raising money for cancer research during each race. Because of his fight with cancer, Lee wants to help other people for the rest of his life, he said. He has realized that rather than fretting over small things in life, he should appreciate the things he does have and how lucky he is to afford all necessary treatments. Kalie Boyne ’16, a close friend of Lee, said his friendliness and generosity are nothing new. In their “jam sessions” in their first-year residence hall, Lee always encouraged anyone who wanted to sing, even though everyone knew he had the best voice in the group, she said. Over spring break, Brint underwent brain surgery in which doctors placed a small passage called a shunt in her brain to divert spinal fluid from her brain to her abdomen through an inserted tube. The surgery is intended to relieve fluid pressure in the brain and relieves some of the symptoms of hydrocephalus. With a dark line snaking down her neck from the inserted tube, Brint still feels the painful aftereffects of the procedure, she said. The buzzing headache and extreme fatigue will persist for a couple more weeks while she recovers. The effect that multiple sclerosis could have on the rest of her life remains to be seen, as she could remain relatively able or end up relying on a wheelchair. Brint is planning to spend the year after graduation traveling. She says she wants to go everywhere. want to infringe on Spring Weekend turnout,” so tickets are now available via presale in order to avoid a rush of people coming to After Dark early to obtain tickets. “They put on a great show last year, and we managed to share audiences with few problems,” said Will Peterson ’14, publicity chair for BCA. Though some of Oberge’s organizers will graduate this spring, they anticipate another show in the fall and hope underclassmen will pick up where they leave off, Fialkow said.
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
SPORTS BULLETIN
FRIDAY, APRIL 4, 2014
BASEBALL
Winless in Ivies, Bears trounce Saints and prep for homestand Columbia and Penn sweep Bruno before Bears win home openers against Siena By ANDREW FLAX SENIOR STAFF WRITER
The baseball team dropped its first four Ivy League games this week, but rebounded to sweep a doubleheader against Siena College in its home opener Thursday in front of its conference home games against Princeton and Cornell this weekend. Columbia: Monday, March 31 In the first game against Columbia (8-14, 2-2 Ivy), Bruno fell victim to a seven-inning, complete-game shutout by Columbia starter and 2013 First Team All-Ivy pitcher David Speer. In five starts, Speer has a 3.00 ERA in addition to an impressive .833 walks plus hits per inning pitched, or WHIP, and a strikeout to walk ratio of 14. He was untouchable, giving up just three hits and no walks while striking out seven. The poor offensive showing means Bruno squandered one of the best performances of the season from Anthony Galan ’14 (L, 1-2). He allowed only one earned run — and three unearned — on seven hits in six innings. The Bears were trailing just 1-0 until an error led to three unearned runs in the bottom of the sixth on a triple, sacrifice fly and home run. In the late game, the Bears were mowed down once again by an excellent Lions pitcher. George Thanopoulos tossed eight two-hit innings while striking out nine and walking two. On the season, his numbers are eerily close to Speer’s: 2.66 ERA and .836 WHIP with a 3.75 K/BB ratio. The Bruno pitchers threw well once again, but it was for naught. Christian Taugner ’17 (L, 1-3) allowed two earned runs, amazingly the most he has allowed in a start this season, on five hits and a walk while striking out seven over seven innings. In relief,
JESSE SCHWIMMER / HERALD
After experiencing an offensive power outage against Ivy foes Columbia and Penn, the Bruno bats surged in the Bears’ home opener against Siena, outscoring the Saints 14-7 and 4-3 in the Thursday doubleheader. Austin French ’16 allowed two runs check, allowing two runs on six hits in Specifically, Drabinski said the seven runs on two home runs — by on three hits. 6.1 innings, and while Bruno scored team believed it let the second game Wes Van Boom ’14 and Kerr — and “We ran into two real good pitch- in the sixth and seventh innings to against the Quakers slip away. The eight hits to crush any hope of a Saints ers,” Head Coach Marek Drabinski. make things interesting, it could not Bears had the bases loaded with comeback. “I wasn’t that disappointed.” complete the comeback. two outs in the ninth, down 3-2, but The pitching situation was inThe next game, as indicated by Henry struck out to end the game. teresting, as five pitchers took the Penn: Tuesday, April 1 the identical final score, was quite “We all felt we could have won mound for Bruno, and none recorded The Bears fared better with the similar. Bruno reached base 10 times that one,” Drabinski said. more than five outs or allowed more bats the next day but still lost both including six walks, but again could than two runs. French started the games of the doubleheader against the only cash in on two runs. Huntley, Siena: Thursday, April 3 game and got four outs before he was Quakers (11-10, 4-0), again by iden- Jake Levine ’16 and Nick Fornaca ’15 The Bears took out their frustra- pulled after allowing two runs on one tical scores, 3-2. The losses dropped each reached base twice, with two tion over their Ivy losses with two hit and four walks. He was succeeded Bruno to 0-4 in Ivy League play. walks for Huntley and a walk and a wins over the Saints (5-20, MAAC by Jake Spezial ’17, Taylor Wright Game one was somewhat reminis- hit for Levine and Fornaca. 5-1) in their first two home games ’15, Nathan Mann ’15 and Ritchie cent of the two Bruno had played in Bruno continued to control the of the season. (W, 1-0) for five, three, five and four New York City the previous day. The Penn offense, as starter Lucas WhiteIn the first game, the Bears seemed outs, respectively. offense hit a bit harder, with six total hill ’14 (L, 1-2) allowed three runs determined to make up for all the In the nightcap, the Bears eked out hits including a hit and RBI each from in 7.1 innings on just three hits, a runs they failed to score earlier in the a thriller, winning 4-3 despite a late catcher Josh Huntley ’17 and center- walk and six strikeouts. Max Ritchie week, smashing Siena 14-7. Siena comeback attempt. fielder Robert Henry ’17. The pitching ’17 also retired the only two batters Eight of Bruno’s nine batters reHenry continued his offensive was strong too, as Dave St. Lawrence he faced. corded at least one hit as the team success, with two hits and an RBI, ’15 (L, 0-3) gave up three runs in six Drabinski was generally happy combined for 15. Henry and J.J. while Huntley, Franco, Kerr, Van innings on ten hits while striking out with his team’s execution, but felt Franco ’14 each had three hits and Boom and Fornaca also contributed six in the complete-game loss. that the offense suffered from a lack scored three runs, and Dan Kerr ’15 hits. Bruno had seven hits and drew Despite the improved showing in of timeliness. was 1-3 with two runs scored and a four walks, but did not score past the both aspects of the game, it was — “I thought our pitching and de- three-run homer that helped break third inning. just narrowly — not enough. Penn fense were good all four games,” he the game open in the sixth. The Bears Ritchie started the second game starter Connor Cuff held the Bears in said. “We didn’t get that big hit.” entered the frame tied 7-7, but scored » See BASEBALL, page S3
Donation enables major lacrosse locker room revamp James and Mary Lawrence P’16 donate $1.1M for first renovations of teams’ facilities in over 30 years By ALEXANDRA CONWAY SPORTS STAFF WRITER
The men’s and women’s lacrosse teams were bestowed a gift by parents of current Brown students, accepted at the February meeting of the Corporation. Players and coaches of the lacrosse teams said these gifts come at a time at which both programs are in need of renovated facilities, players say. The lacrosse teams received a $1,100,000 donation from James Lawrence P’16 and Mary Lawrence P’16 to support the renovation project at the Pizzitola Center. Though the University provides funding to the athletic department, with 37 varsity sports and a growing number of competitive club teams,
donations and team fundraising are used to supplement the cost of the programs. The Brown University Sports Foundation (BUSF), led by executive director Davies Bisset ’85, does copious behind-the-scenes work including connecting alumni donors to current teams and parents in order to build relationships and ensure support for Brown’s athletic department, according to the BUSF website. “Without their work, our athletic programs would not be able to supplement our athletes the necessary facilities and equipment,” said men’s lacrosse team Head Coach Lars Tiffany ’90. “This never would have happened without a group of fans, parents and alumni wanting to make this happen,”
added Keely McDonald, head women’s lacrosse coach. Facility enhancements and capital projects at Brown are most often dependent upon gifts from alumni and parents. For instance, the lacrosse field behind the Olney-Margolies Athletic Center, Meister-Kavan Field, was built 10 years ago thanks to significant gifts from Bill Kavan ’72 and the Meister brothers, all four of whom played lacrosse and served as captains during their times at Brown. “Not only do our varsity sports rely upon former players and supporters of our program for capital projects, much of our varsity athletic teams’ annual budgets are dependent upon fundraising,” Tiffany said. The project is specifically focusing on the construction of new, year-round locker rooms. The lacrosse teams’ gift was a process in the works for the past few years.
The current locker rooms have served their teams for over 30 years now. “Our men’s team is in the same space that I used as a player in the later 1980s,” Tiffany said. When teams are in-season, they are designated specific locker rooms, but when out of season, those locker rooms are assigned to the next season’s sports team. “Having a year-round locker room will be critical for the team — especially out of season,” McDonald said. These new locker rooms may prove to serve an even greater purpose by attracting new student-athletes to choose Brown. Newer facilities frequently held a special allure. “Such an enhancement to the facilities is greatly needed if we are to continue to pursue the most talented recruits and provide quality and competitive surroundings for our studentathletes,” Tiffany said.
The project is slated to be completed by the end of this summer, and in addition to the brand new lockers and shower spaces, there will also be rooms for team meetings and film reviews. Both coaches and players expressed the positive impact this new project will have on their teams, especially in terms of team rapport. “It’s supposed to be really nice with couches, TVs…the whole nine yards,” said Nick Piroli ’15, who plays for the men’s lacrosse squad. “I could see it not just being a locker room but also a spot where we got to hang out, relax.” “It goes along with the fresh start and the revamping the program has undergone in the past two years,” said Anna Lanpher ’16, a member of the women’s lacrosse team. “We are elevating the program to the next level, and having a new locker room is just icing on the cake.”
S2 march madness
SPORTS BULLETIN THE BROWN DAILY HERALD FRIDAY, APRIL 4, 2014
Disguised as Cinderellas, The culmination of Madness: blue bloods do it again Your guide to the Final Four BY NATE SVENNSON sports columnist
The NCAA’s annual college basketball tournament is one of America’s most cherished sporting traditions, and this year’s edition of March Madness has been particularly special. There have been exhilarating games and epic collapses, buzzer beaters and a record number of games that have gone into overtime. All these factors have contributed to an unprecedented number of viewers tuning in to catch a glimpse of the action. But the truth of the matter is that most viewers are watching for one reason: to see David conquer Goliath. Sure, people have office pools and cheer for their alma maters, but what makes March Madness so special are the upsets, and this year’s tournament has featured a bevy of them. Upsets are exciting, unpredictable and make for compelling television. It seems people can more easily relate to the Florida Gulf Coast University and Virginia Commonwealth University squads of the world than to the Dukes and Louisvilles. Interestingly enough, a 1991 study published by researchers at Bowling Green State University found that 81 percent of viewers rooted for the “less favored” team over the course of the tournament. From the very get-go, this year’s tournament has given the average fan plenty to cheer about. The first game of the so-called “second round” (which, by the way, is the most inane moniker in all of sports) saw the Dayton Flyers upset highly favored Ohio State. From there, schools like Stephen F. Austin State, Mercer College, North Dakota State and even our fellow Ivy Harvard scored wins in games they were heavily favored to lose. While all the aforementioned team, except Dayton, which also upset Syracuse, failed to win after the first round, upsets continued to take place. In fact, this weekend’s Final Four will be only the third in the history of the tournament to feature two teams seeded seventh or worse (2000 and 2011 were the other two instances). So, which small schools transcended their status to crash college basketball’s premier event? What previously unknown programs are this year’s George Mason and Butler? The answers, of course, are Kentucky and Connecticut, the proverbial little engines that could. Two of this year’s biggest “Who the hell are they?” teams going into the tournament, Kentucky and the University of Connecticut, have both proven they deserve to be treated with the same level of respect afforded the traditional blue bloods of college basketball. Kentucky, a team starting five first-years, wasn’t expected to make it past the second round (I mean their second game. But it’s called the third round. Se-
riously, screw this naming system) where they were set to face traditional powerhouse Wichita State, the nation’s only undefeated team headed into the tournament. But Kentucky would not be denied its 15 minutes of fame. In arguably the tournament’s most exciting game, the young Wildcats showed the nation that their feet were just the right size for Cinderella’s slippers, beating one of the country’s most storied programs 78-76. They shocked the Shockers and then went on to make March Madness history by beating both last year’s champion (Louisville) as well as last year’s national runner-up (Michigan) in their next two games. Based on its performance so far, Kentucky has earned its place among the NCAA tournament’s most memorable giantkillers. UConn has been equally impressive as Kentucky. Like the Wildcats, the Huskies were not expected to make it out of the second (damn it, third) round, where they faced off against Villanova. Despite their status as longshots, UConn went on to win that game as well as their next two contests against Iowa State and Michigan State, proving that Kevin Garnett was correct when he yelled “Anything is possible!” following Game 6 of the 2008 NBA Finals. Hopefully, those familiar with the landscape of college basketball were able to recognize that the last two paragraphs were written with my tongue firmly in my cheek. Kentucky and Connecticut are two of the most successful basketball programs in the nation and, despite their seeding this year, not a soul should be surprised they made it to the Final Four. The narrative that is being disseminated by media outlets like ESPN and Bleacher Report is that these two teams are underdogs who have overcome staggering odds to make it all the way to the Final Four. Though both teams have had their problems throughout the year, they are universally recognized as exceptionally talented teams. Sure, Kentucky starts five first-years, but those five players constitute one of the most talented recruiting classes in the history of college basketball. And yes, UConn had its problems rebounding and playing defense, but the Huskies are led by one of the country’s most dynamic playmakers Shabazz Napier and are coached by rising star Kevin Ollie. Both of these teams had huge expectations at the beginning of the season, and by making the Final Four, they have effectively lived up to them. So please, let’s stop calling Kentucky and UConn underdogs and recognize them for what they really are: national championship contenders that are performing like they were expected to.
Nate Svensson ’14 is a traditional powerhouse, and his compliance director can be reached at nathan_svensson@brown.edu.
BY DEREK LEVINSON sports columnist
After a tournament full of the buzzer-beaters, overtimes and upsets, the number of men’s college basketball teams in the hunt for the national title has dwindled to four. March Madness will conclude this weekend as Connecticut, Florida, Kentucky and Wisconsin battle to be the last one standing. UConn: Often, the leading scorer on a team gets too much attention, at the expense of his teammates getting the accolades they deserve. But if there is anything that cannot be overhyped, it’s Shabazz Napier. Only one player leads a premier team in points, rebounds and assists. Even better, his name is Shabazz. Since Kemba Walker’s title run in 2011, the Huskies’ go-to offense has been to give the ball to their best player and let him create his own shot. This is generally considered terrible basketball. UConn is not a very efficient offensive team, especially for one with such skilled guards. The squad’s success this season has been primarily due to a surprisingly effective defense, which improved drastically from last year. UConn could probably do better on offense if it worked harder at getting other guys open looks and gave Napier the chance to attack when defenses are scrambling. But why should they? A contested three by Napier is nearly as good as an open shot by anyone else, and watching his hero-ball has been one of the best things about this tournament. The real downside is that it leads to ball-hogging by some of UConn’s lesser stars. When DeAndre Daniels and Ryan Boatright get touches, they’re more likely to be aggressive knowing that they probably won’t get another opportunity in that possession. Boatright especially has been an inefficient scorer all season, and UConn is much better when he distributes the ball. He and Daniels together will use as many possessions as Shabazz does, and likely with similar one-on-one moves. But with the game on the line, Shabazz is getting the ball. And he’s not going to pass. Florida: Shabazz, meet Scottie Wilbekin, the best on-ball defender in the country. There’s a possibility that Florida Head Coach Billy Donovan gives the assignment of containing Napier to someone else to avoid his best offensive threat tiring or getting in foul trouble, but chances are Wilbekin will be guarding Shabazz for a significant chunk of Saturday’s game. How much that matters is up for debate. To basketball strategists, it seems intuitive that defending the point guard is of the utmost importance. After all, the point guard runs the offense. Defending him should be a team’s first priority. But some basketball statisticians believe they have proven that frontcourt defenders are far more important than guards. Fortunately for Florida, they also have Patric Young, the SEC Defensive Player of the Year. Centers are frequently recipients of that award, but Young earned it for different reasons than most. At 6 feet 9 inches, he is short for a center on a major college team and therefore not an elite shot-blocker, though he is a very good one. Young’s value comes from his quickness relative to others in his weight class. Young, even more than Wilbekin, is responsible for the success of Donovan’s aggressive defensive schemes. He can help liberally, hedge hard on screens or double-team a player on the baseline and still get back to his man. He is as good or better in the post, where his success is no mystery. The dude is jacked. In every Florida game I’ve watched this year, the announcers have mentioned Young’s biceps, and I still wish they would cut to him more. If there are two things that cannot be overhyped, the second is Young’s sculpted body.
Kentucky: The story line for Kentucky this year is that a team full of first-years finally figured it out. After struggling all year, they learned how to play together just in time for the tournament. That explanation makes some sense. After all, first-years typically have less experience, so we might expect a young team to have a steeper learning curve than others and perform better at this point in the year than it did the rest of the season. But remember just two weeks ago when Mercer beat Duke or Stanford beat Kansas or Dayton beat Syracuse? The announcers raved about how those senior-laden teams knew how to perform in big moments, and the first-year phenoms who led their teams to great regular-season records could not come through in the clutch. If we used the same reasoning for Jabari Parker and Tyler Ennis that explained Kentucky’s success, we would expect their teams to thrash the lowly mid-majors they played. The truth is that the experience gained over the last three months probably doesn’t matter as much as we think. Kentucky did not suddenly become good — they were always good. When announcers claim that Kentucky is playing their best basketball of the season right now, they’re correct. But any team that makes the Final Four is playing their best basketball of the season. Even Florida has played better than ever, and they were the top seed coming into the tournament. Every Final Four team is playing better than ever, and the most likely explanation for this is random chance. Some teams will overperform and some will underperform. The ones that overperform will go on in the tournament. Kentucky’s success suggests that it overperformed in the tournament and underperformed in the regular season. But we knew that already. A team that can start all future NBA first-round picks and barely wins two-thirds of its games is clearly underperforming. Wisconsin: Kentucky is eighth in the country in blocks per game. That’s great news for the Badgers. In the last week, Kentucky coach John Calipari has almost certainly shown his team hours of film on Wisconsin and said the phrase “Don’t leave your feet” a hundred times. It doesn’t matter. Kentucky is going to bite on the pump fake. Everyone the Badgers have played this year has fallen into that trap, and Kentucky is ill-equipped to break that trend. Wisconsin will need to use that, because they are at a severe athletic disadvantage. Several announcers have noted that this is the most athletic Badger team Head Coach Bo Ryan has ever had, but they’re really only talking about forward Sam Dekker. Dekker was supposed to be the star of this year’s team, and he does play a key role, but this team has hardly deviated from Ryan’s traditional style of play. Wisconsin’s ball movement is outstanding, and they do a great job playing insideout once they have gotten the ball in the post. Center Frank Kaminsky scored 28 points in their last match-up against Arizona, and his scoring ability has been highly touted, but one of the reasons he scores so easily is because he is a great passer. Arizona refused to double-team Kaminsky in the post, even when he was scoring half of Wisconsin’s points. Everyone who plays for Wisconsin can shoot, and Kaminsky will find the open man. Kaminksy is the Badgers’ best player, but point guard Traevon Jackson may be the most important. He’s the only guy on the team who can create his own shot. Wisconsin is a patient offensive team, and when they inevitably run out of time on the shot clock, their best bet is to put the ball in Jackson’s hands. Jackson has a tendency to take contested shots when Wisconsin doesn’t need them, but his one-on-one skills make him a necessary asset.
Derek Levinson ’17 wants to talk more about Patric Young’s biceps. Join the conversation at derek_levinson@brown.edu.
sports commentary S3
SPORTS BULLETIN THE BROWN DAILY HERALD FRIDAY, APRIL 4, 2014
Why Badgers will claim crown BY JACK BLASBERG sports columnist
It did not take long for Warren Buffet to get out of the woods. By the second day, any and all hopes of claiming the investor’s billion-dollar reward for a perfect bracket were dashed by the slew of upsets that earn the NCAA men’s basketball tournament the name March Madness. Jabari Parker, hailed by many as the NBA’s next superstar, suffered an unceremonious end to his Duke career at the hands of 14-seed Mercer. Harvard repeated last year’s spoiler effort with a win over five-seed Cincinnati. Undefeated Wichita State failed to advance out of the second round. Above all these previously unsuspected outcomes, it is possible that the success of a favored team is the most unexpected storyline of the tournament thus far. This weekend in Arlington, Tex., the Wisconsin Badgers join the Florida Gators, the Connecticut Huskies and the Kentucky Wildcats in the Final Four. A perennial Big Ten power, Wisconsin has played in the tournament for the past 12 years but has largely disappointed its high seedings, failing to advance past the Sweet Sixteen in all but one of those years. Though this year’s Badgers are the first to make the National Semifinals in Head Coach Bo Ryan’s 13year tenure, and their opponents have won a combined five championships in the past decade, I predict that they will be the team cutting down the nets on the last night of the season. Here is the roadmap to their championship. In the Western Regional Final against Arizona, junior forward Frank Kaminsky put his Wisconsin teammates on his back to the tune of 28 points and 11 rebounds in the one-point overtime victory. Displaying his versatility, the seven-footer made three out of five three-pointers and shot 55 percent from the field
overall. Another strong performance against Kentucky in the Final Four will be crucial in order for his team to advance. This season, the Wildcats averaged 41.3 rebounds per game, ranking fifth in the nation in that category. Much of their production on the boards came from first-year phenoms Julius Randle and Willie Cauley-Stein. Randle, also the team’s leading scorer with 15 points per game, racked up 10.5 rebounds per game while Cauley-Stein added 6.5. Unfortunately for Kentucky, the Wildcats will likely have to do battle in Arlington without their tallest player — 7-foot center Cauley-Stein has missed the past game and a half with an ankle injury. His absence would open up Wisconsin’s ability to run its offense through Kaminsky, who would hold an advantageous mismatch against the 6-foot-9 Randle or 6-foot-8 Alex Poythress. Lastly, the Badgers’ more experienced upperclassmen, embodied by leader Traevon Jackson, will further tip the scales in their favor against another John Calipari-coached team that features five first-year starters. In the other semifinal, red-hot senior Shabazz Napier is doing his best to replicate the magic Kemba Walker displayed in leading the Huskies to their last National Championship three years ago. Napier, a first-year on that 2011 team, has averaged 23.3 points per game over four tournament games. He leads seventh-seeded UConn into its clash with the top overall seed, Florida. The Gators, a senior-led team devoid of one-anddone NBA talent, have won their past thirty contests. Who, you ask, was the last team to beat them? Back on Dec. 2, then-No. 12 UConn defeated the Gators in a 65-64 thriller. History repeats itself until it doesn’t, and early April can be a strange time for teams that tore through the regular season. UConn, like its champion predecessors, is peaking when it matters most and will have the best player on the floor. Like Walker in 2011, Napier has been dynamite with the ball in
his hands late in tight games, typified by his three clutch free throws at the end of regulation that buried Michigan State once and for all. That is enough for me to push UConn forward into the championship game. In the National Championship game, Kaminsky once again will be the beneficiary of size mismatches. In addition to leading the Huskies in scoring, Napier, a point guard, is tied for the team lead in rebounds per game. This is not a good sign for a team hoping to slow down a dominant big man. UConn’s other leading rebounder, DeAndre Daniels, has the height to match up decently with the Badgers’ best player but is still undersized at 6-foot-9, 195 pounds. While matchups such as these are important to keep in mind, intangibles are as important as any factor in determining college basketball’s ultimate master. With all due respect to the loyalty Napier showed his alma mater — he declined to transfer despite Connecticut’s NCAA tournament ban last season — the best narrative of the weekend is Coach Ryan’s first Final Four. Every year, the Badgers’ coach would attend the games with his father, yearning to one day coach on the big stage. Butch Ryan will not be in the stands to watch his son’s dream become reality Saturday, having passed away last August at the age of 89. The players’ excitement at reaching this point is as much for their coach as for themselves. There is still work to do, though. Two more wins and they will secure the first National Championship for Wisconsin men’s basketball in over 70 years. They have the talent, they have the experience and they have that elusive extra ingredient. They are not Cinderella, but the slipper fits. The Wisconsin Badgers will be your 2014 National Champions.
» BASEBALL, from page S1 and allowed just one run on two hits in two innings. Chris Smith ’15 (W, 1-0) relieved him and pitched four strong innings, but recorded no outs in the seventh inning, putting two runners on that would eventually score. Spezial entered but gave up a hit to the lone batter he faced and was pulled for Wright, who got three outs to earn the save and end the game. Bruno’s three errors during the game made play a bit tougher, which frustrated Drabinski. But overall, the coach was satisfied with the two wins. “I was pleased with the sweep,” Drabinski said. “It gives us some momentum going into the weekend.” With their busy week behind them, the Bears now turn their focus toward their weekend homestand against Princeton and Cornell. Bruno will take on the Tigers in a doubleheader Saturday, and the Big Red in two games Sunday. The Tigers (7-12, 2-0) have a losing record, but are 2-0 in the Ivy League after sweeping Dartmouth last weekend. They hit a decent .259/.327/.331 as a team, and are led by sophomore infielder Danny Hoy with his stellar .365/.420/.514 line. Their pitching is less inspiring, as they have a 6.50 team ERA, 1.77 WHIP and 1.12 K/BB ratio. But the Tiger pitchers allowed just three runs over two games to the Big Green in their contests last weekend, so they are
certainly no pushovers. The Big Red (10-10, 2-2) are a remarkable 8-4 on the road, and having played just four home games all season, Cornell is accustomed to the traveling life. It opened at home against Dartmouth and Harvard last weekend, going 1-1 against each. The team has played a relatively easy schedule so far, contributing to some strong statistics. Cornell’s team batting line is an impressive .281/.357/.408, and no individual showing is better than Ryan Karl’s .312/.369/.636, which includes five home runs. The team’s pitchers have combined to post a solid 3.54 ERA and 1.40 WHIP. Drabinski said that to win, the team would need to keep playing as well as it has and to tighten up a few aspects of its game. “We’re going to have to pitch like we did last weekend, we’re going to have to clean it up a little defensively from (Thursday),” he said. “I’ve got confidence that our offense will come around.” The key to success, Drabinski said, was the clutch hitting that the Bears lacked this past week. “It just comes down to timely hitting, because the games are so close in our league and the teams are so close competitively,” he said. “It comes down to the team that capitalizes on (its) opportunities.” The Bears’ first game is against Princeton, Saturday at noon.
Follow Sports! @bdh_sports
Jack Blasberg ’16 always does his best to replicate Kemba Walker. Ask him about his stepback jumper at john_blasberg@brown.edu.
SCHEDULE Away
Home
Philadelphia, Pa. - Saturday 1 p.m.
Cambridge, Mass. - Saturday 7 p.m.
Brown Softball Field - Saturday 12:30 p.m.
Murray Stadium - Saturday 12 p.m.
Men’s Lacrosse @ Penn
Women’s Lacrosse @ Harvard
Softball vs. Cornell (DH)
Baseball vs. Princeton (DH)
Last meeting Penn 10, Brown 3 (2013)
Last meeting Brown 15, Harvard 9 (2013)
Last game Bryant 6, Brown 2
Last game Brown 4, Siena 3
(6-3, 1-1 Ivy) || (4-3, 1-2)
Lewisburg, Pa. - Saturday 11:30 a.m.
(8-2, 2-1 Ivy) || (5-4, 2-1)
(2-16, 0-2 Ivy) || (8-15, 0-2)
(6-10, 0-4 Ivy) || (7-12, 2-0)
Women’s Water Polo @ Bucknell v. Princeton
Seattle, Wash. - Saturday 8 a.m.
Brown Softball Field - Sunday 12:30 p.m.
Murray Stadium - Sunday 12 p.m.
Men’s Crew @ Washington
Softball vs. Princeton (DH)
Baseball vs. Cornell (DH)
(14-12, 2-0 Ivy) || (23-1, 2-0)
Last race Defeated Boston University
Last meeting Princeton 5, Brown 0 (2013)
Last meeting Cornell 4, Brown 1 (2013)
Lewisburg, Pa. - Saturday 7 p.m.
Philadelphia, Pa. - Saturday 1 p.m.
Women’s Water Polo @ Bucknell v. Mercyhurst (14-12, 2-0 Ivy) || (9-8, 0-2 CWPA)
(2-16, 0-2 Ivy) || (7-17, 0-2)
(6-10, 0-4 Ivy) || (10-10, 2-2)
Men’s Tennis @ Penn
Pizzitola - Friday 2 p.m.
Providence - Saturday 1 p.m.
Women’s Tennis vs. Penn
Women’s Crew vs. Radcliffe
Last match South Florida 6, Brown 1
Last match Florida International 4, Brown 3
Last race Defeated Princeton and Michigan State
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
FRIDAY, APRIL 4, 2014
SPORTS BULLETIN athlete of the week
Bernstein ’15 caps impressive season with All-American honor Bruno’s 184-pounder upsets higher-seeded Kenny Courts to break Bears’ 16-year drought By CALEB MILLER SPORTS EDITOR
At the Division 1 National Wrestling Championships last weekend, fans from across the country watched Ophir Bernstein ’15 make University history. The 184-pound captain won three of his first four matches to become the first Brunonian All-American in 16 years. In the process, Bernstein pushed his season win total to 36, the secondhighest in program history. In the match that decided who would claim the coveted All-American label, Bernstein faced off against Ohio State’s Kenny Courts. Despite holding a lower seed and having lost to Courts early in the season, Bernstein dominated his Buckeye opponent 9-4. With the ink still wet in the Brown record books, The Herald has decided to make the All-American our Athlete of the Week.
DAVID DECKEY / HERALD
A former Brown coach told Ophir Bernstein ’15 on his campus visit that he could be an All-American. Last weekend, Bernstein proved him right.
Herald: How did you get started in wrestling? Bernstein: My dad was a really successful wrestler, and he actually wrestled in the Olympics for Israel. Wrestling is one of those sports where it’s a family thing, and my brother and I both wrestled. My dad got me into
it, but once I started I definitely developed a love. How did you choose Brown? I visited Brown, Columbia and Harvard. Going into it, Brown was a far third choice, but seeing the student body and learning more about the open curriculum, the campus, the team, the coach — I just fell in love. Looking back, I can’t imagine going anywhere else, so it was definitely a good pick. Did you know when you signed to wrestling at Brown that you could be a D-1 All-American? It’s funny that you say that, because I remember when I was on my recruiting trip, the assistant coach at the time (John Clark) told me, “If you come here and work hard, we think you have a chance to be Brown’s first AllAmerican in a while.” I thought it was a little far-fetched, because at the time of my recruiting trip, I hadn’t even won a state championship in high school. The position I was put in, with the coaches and great teammates, made it a realistic goal, but at the time I was like, “No way.” Is it difficult to have to switch head coaches halfway through your career? I didn’t find the transition hard at all. It’s sad to see the old coaches go. I loved them, but the new coaches fit in really great at Brown. They definitely
have us headed in the right direction. Everybody on the team is motivated now and shares the same goals. When you faced Ohio State’s Kenny Courts in the Las Vegas tournament at the beginning of the season, did you ever think you would see him again on such a big stage? Before I wrestled him, I didn’t really think about that. But after I wrestled him and lost to him, I thought, “I sure hope I see him again.” I didn’t want to end on a loss. What’s your favorite takedown move? My signature move is the low single (an attack on the opponent’s near leg, below the knee). I’ve been doing that since high school, and it’s my bread and butter. But I’m trying to work in some more stuff. Is it ever difficult to perform in an individual sport that puts you all alone on a big stage like nationals? There’s definitely pros and cons to it. If you lose a match, you have nobody to blame but yourself. You can’t say, “Oh, if our second baseman would have caught that ball, we could have won.” On the other hand, all the glory goes to you when you win. I’ve played team sports also, but it’s a different feeling winning a team sport versus an individual match. You know that it’s you, and your guts and determination that got you there.
» W. LACROSSE, from page 1 Bryant’s early lead. Richael Walsh ’16 followed Gion with a goal of her own to narrow the score to 4-3, and co-captain Bre Hudgins ’14 scored twice to give the Bears the lead. After Bryant scored to tie the game at five, Kerianne Hunt ’17 and co-captain Grace Healy ’14 scored one a piece. Piling on, Gion notched an impressive three more goals to push her total to five by the end the half. Bruno would not relinquish the lead for the rest of the game. Entering halftime, the Bears led 10-6 and had outshot the Bulldogs by eight. They entered the second stanza with a rock-solid defense that allowed only one more Bryant goal. Though Bruno eased into its offensive domination during the first half, the Bears’ talented defense starred in the second. “We prepared really well,” Gion said. “All of our defenders scouted well, and they each shut (their opponent) down really well.” The first 12 minutes of the second period were scoreless, as neither defense budged. Hudgins eventually opened the door for the Bears, taking advantage of a defensive breakdown to fire her third goal of the game into an empty net. Hudgins leads the team and the Ivy League with 30 goals on the season. Healy scored her second goal of the game two minutes later off an assist from Danielle Mastro ’14, one of Mastro’s whopping five total assists on the day. The Bears continued to hold off the Bulldog offense as Hunt scored her second goal and Mastro her first late in the contest. With the Bears leading 14-6, Bryant netted its only goal of the half with five minutes left. Mollie Lane ’17
JESSE SCHWIMMER / HERALD
Ivy League leading scorer Bre Hudgins ’14 carries the ball up the field. Hudgins carried Bruno as well, scoring three goals in a 15-7 win over Bryant. notched her first collegiate goal and the last goal of the game with one second remaining, topping off Brown’s 15-7 win over Bryant and its unbroken fiveyear ownership of the Ocean State Cup. The team often refers to its focus on the “little things” in lacrosse as a main reason for its success. Bruno remains tied for second place in the Ivy League, though its overall win percentage is the highest in the conference. Kelly Roddy ’15 continues to
lead Ancient Eight goalies with a commanding 50 percent save percentage. As Mastro racks up her assists and goals, she joins her teammates in leading the conference, outperforming all of her peers in total points. The Bears will travel to Cambridge Saturday to take on Ivy rival Harvard (44, 2-1 Ivy). The game will be broadcast on ESPN3 as both teams — currently tied for second in the Ivy League — will try to climb the conference ladder.
today 5
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD FRIDAY, APRIL 4, 2014
menu SHARPE REFECTORY
at t i t u d e VERNEY-WOOLLEY
LUNCH Cavatelli Primavera, Spinach and Arugula Saute, Vegan Tofu Hot Dogs, Original Veggie Patties
Breaded Chicken Fingers, Lobster Bisque, Vegan Cannellini Bean and Tomato Soup, Vegan Nuggets
DINNER Yellow Beans with Marinara Sauce, Baked Vegetable Melange, Vegan Brown Rice Pilaf, Onion Rings
BBQ Beef on a Bun, Macaroni and Cheese with Avocado and Tomato, Vegan New Potatoes with Vinaigrette
JOSIAH’S
THREE BURNERS
QUESADILLA OR GRILLED CHEESE
Gnocchi Bar
Make-Your-Own Quesadillas
BLUE ROOM
SOUPS
DINNER ENTREES
Clam Chowder, Minestrone, Beef with Bean Chili
Naked Burritos
RYAN WALSH / HERALD
Members of the Attitude Dance Company rehearse in preparation for their 10th Annual Show, which takes place today and Saturday. The group performs a variety of styles, including jazz, hip-hop and contemporary.
sudoku
comics A & B | MJ Esquivel ’16
Bacterial Culture | Dana Schwartz ’15 RELEASE DATE– Friday, April 4, 2014
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle c rNorris o s sandwJoyce o rNichols d Lewis Edited by Rich ACROSS 1 Biblical kingdom near the Dead Sea 5 Blue 8 Chew (out) 12 Old empire builder 13 Construction materials 16 Donald’s address, in comics 17 Like a dotted note, in mus. 18 Bob preceder 19 Tiny fraction of a min. 20 See 4-Down 22 See 8-Down 24 Dander 25 Some tech sch. grads 26 Soweto’s home: Abbr. 27 Great time, in slang 28 Rain cloud 30 Fair ones 32 Julius Caesar’s first name 33 Said 34 Tandoori bread 35 See 30-Down 36 Grilling sound 39 Macduff and Macbeth 41 Charity, e.g. 43 Slipped past 45 Sunday best 46 Soccer star Freddy 47 __ Simbel, site of Ramses II temples 48 Michaels et al. 49 Galoot 50 See 51-Down 52 See 53-Down 54 “Was __ loud?” 55 Having no room for hedging 57 ’20s tennis great Lacoste 58 Designer Saarinen 59 Cynical response 60 Leftover bits 61 40th st. 62 Whiz 63 “Over here!”
DOWN 1 Not where it’s expected to be 2 Windsor resident 3 Scholarly milieu 4 With 20-Across, working again, aptly 5 Fine cotton threads 6 Awards named for a location 7 Kids’ card game 8 With 22-Across, what red hair often does, aptly 9 Banner 10 Amtrak speedsters 11 Store with a star 14 Choruses 15 Queasy near the quay 21 Roman god 23 Earned 29 Squeeze plays involve them 30 With 35-Across, a financially sure thing, aptly 31 Pelé’s first name 33 Jackson follower
35 1995 Will Smith/Martin Lawrence film 37 Running pair 38 Malicious types 40 Try, as a case 41 Record 42 Seer’s challenge 43 Corrected, in a way 44 Dawn goddess 45 Prefix with carbon
46 Gallic girlfriends 48 Running back Haynes, first AFL player of the year 51 With 50-Across, do some selfexamination, aptly 53 With 52-Across, trivial amount, aptly 56 Equinox mo.
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
calendar TODAY
APRIL 4
3 P.M. A TRIBUTE CONCERT TO PROFESSOR JAMES M. BAKER
Faculty members in the Department of Music will join 11 alums who concentrated in music to perform a concert in honor of Professor of Music James Baker’s retirement. Grant Recital Hall 5 P.M. THE GLOBAL LOWLANDS IN THE EARLY MODERN PERIOD: 1300-1800
Professor Karel Davids from Amsterdam’s Vrije University and Mariët Westermann, vice-president of the Mellon Foundation, will explore Dutch transnational networks and Dutch 18th-century art. MacMillan 117
TOMORROW xwordeditor@aol.com
04/04/14
APRIL 5
7 P.M. ATTITUDE DANCE COMPANY’S 10TH ANNIVERSARY SHOW
Attitude Dance Company, a multi-style and self-choreographed group, will hold a two-hour show to celebrate its 10th anniversary. Alumnae Hall 7 P.M. AFROPOLITAN: THE MODERN AFRICAN
Brown’s African Student Association will hold its annual cultural show featuring performances, fashion and food from different parts of the continent. Kasper Multipurpose Room
SUNDAY
APRIL 6
6:30 P.M. THE SECRET LIFE OF EATING AT BROWN
Brown University Gilbert and Sullivan presents a play by Phoebe Nir ’14 featuring a compilation of students’ responses to a survey on food, body image and their relationships to eating. The Underground 8 P.M. BOBRAUSCHENBERGAMERICA
Directed by Thomas Finley ’14 and written by Charles Mee, the historiographical play explores American life in the 20th By Kurt Krauss (c)2014 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
04/04/14
century. Production Workshop Downspace
6 diamonds & coal
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD FRIDAY, APRIL 4, 2014
DIAMONDS & COAL Coal to the proposed pilot program for Rhode Island adults to obtain college degrees by partnering with Charter Oak State College, a Connecticut public online college. Apparently, once Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron goes to Connecticut, the whole state follows. A diamond to “Freeway” Rick Ross, who said of the value of libraries, “Nobody told me there was books in there that could help you get money.” If our future incomes are proportional to the amount of time we spend crying in the Sciences Library, we’re in luck. A diamond to Paul Thacker, a fellow at Harvard, who said, “There’s a lot of egos and a lot of money at stake.” Sounds like our experiences at Ultra over spring break. A diamond to the undergraduate who said, “The porn screening is going to be cool.” It would have been the perfect opportunity for the John Street masturbator to finally show his face on campus. Cubic zirconia to the “El Grito del Bronx” actress who said, “When I put on the dress, I just said, ‘Wow.’” Don’t you know it’s “Say Yes to the Dress”? K I M B E R LY S A LT Z
Coal to the Spring Weekend “After Dark” organizer who said the event would aim to create a space where students didn’t have to “worry about cops.” Has anybody ever worried about cops on Brown’s campus?
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Coal to the student who spent spring break in Germany with the Brownin-Berlin program and said, “It was not spring break in Cancun.” Well put.
Don’t depoliticize the Anthony talk
Cubic zirconia to the medical student who said of the residency program matching process, “It has been scary, even at Brown.” Every year, a first-year at SexPowerGod thinks the same thing.
To the Editor:
A diamond to Don Fecher, who bought Mama Kim’s and will extend the food truck’s hours to 2 a.m. Mama Don’s just became our new favorite latenight drunchie spot. Cubic zirconia to the student who said, “Wrestling is one of those sports where it’s a family thing.” Nothing says love like a chokehold.
Got something to say? Leave a comment online! Visit www.browndailyherald.com to comment on opinion and editorial content.
I opened Thursday’s Herald to find Nava Winkler’s ’14 column, “Israel/Palestine: The fine line” (April 3), which I hoped would be another insightful view on the conflict, among the various op-eds and letters to the editor this week. But the opinion unfortunately perpetuated some of the most harmful paradigms around discussion of this issue, and, even more misleading, the column attempted to claim a neutral, apolitical stance. The writer attempted to paint the situation as complicated and paradoxical, most aptly summarized in the phrase “the reality remains that it’s not that simple.” This attempt to make the conflict too complex to understand whitewashes the occupation and human rights violations that have been perpetrated by Israeli forces. Understanding the nuances of the issue is vastly different from making
claims regarding ownership of land, for instance, which obscures the fact that this is indeed an occupation, and 20,000 Palestinian homes have been demolished since 1967. Also, the rhetorical question of “Huh … so what are we fighting about again?” serves to yet again hide Israeli apartheid behind a veil of supposed complexity and lack of lucidity. This week has fostered extremely productive conversations, even between a few of the protesters and the event planners themselves, who were able to have a dialogue and voice their concerns to each other earlier this week. Columns that attempt to place this conflict in a stagnant impasse or, as the author puts it, “an unconstructive, emotional, hateful mess” and depoliticize a political situation are extremely harmful to the Brown community moving forward. Peter Makhlouf ’16
Q U O T E O F T H E D AY
“People here think they have problems. You don’t know problems until you see people at the clinic.” — Robert Lee ’17
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commentary 7
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD FRIDAY, APRIL 4, 2014
The future of American resilience ROBYN SUNDLEE opinions columnist
On the morning of March 22, one million cubic yards of earth slumped off of a hillside in Snohomish County, Wash. The wall of mud has taken the lives of 30 people so far. The immediate cause of this horrific tragedy is unseasonably warm weather accompanied by heavy rainfall. The area had recently been logged, and the sudden downpour left the soil oversaturated and unstable, dealing a crippling blow to the hillside’s structural integrity. Landslides such as this one are not usual for the region. But rising temperatures, accompanied by heavier rainfall in decades to come will ensure that mudslides like this will no longer be aberrations. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recently concluded in its report that, when it comes to the climate changing, the worst is yet to come. This latest catastrophe comes in the wake of a slew of foreboding climate-induced disasters that underscore the notion that global warming may not be just a looming spectre somewhere in the distant future. Many members of the scientific community believe we are witnessing the phenomenon now, and that is too late to entirely reverse the effects of global warming. The best course of action now is to focus on making sure our society will hold strong in the face of impending climate hard-
ships. In addition to pursuing paths towards sustainability, we need to work on bolstering our resilience. Resilient responses to disaster are something that Americans need to be especially concerned about. We have prided ourselves on being hardy in the face of adversity in the past. But as we approach what may be one of the greatest challenges facing humanity, this American flintiness has shown signs of softening. Our society is reliant on a fragile electric grid
that governments are beginning to make preparations to adapt to the changing climate in spite of opposition from conservatives and nay-sayers. But partisan gridlock in the face of these environment challenges will cost lives if it persists, making it essential that our politicians find paths to compromise over the issue. The key to ensuring our country is united in facing this threat will be to appeal to the resilience of the American spirit — something we take pride in
back to normal as quickly as possible. Some communities are working to establish disaster-proof communication networks. Others are training civilians as auxiliary emergency responders. All will help communities bounce back quicker and stronger. Finally, resilience depends on learning from the past. Reflection on the causes of the Washington landslide can help ensure that future damage is mitigated or minimized. Obviously, land degradation must be
The best course of action now is to focus on making sure our society will hold strong in the face of impending climate hardships. and decaying infrastructure. When our power is cut off we are rendered practically helpless. Nine out of 10 Americans live in an area that puts them at significant risk of natural calamities, a risk that will only grow with climate change. Great nations will be the ones that attempt to effectively deal with these changing conditions. It is not just physical unpreparedness that is leaving the United States brittle. Above all, resilience requires unity. For this reason, it is imperative that all citizens recognize the threat and respond with solidarity as well as the confidence that we can weather the storm. Republican obstinance to climate-related policy will fade eventually — it’s just a question of time. The study by IPCC found evidence
and share. Stephen Flynn, the founder of the Center for Resilience Studies at Northeastern University, has identified several factors through which resilience is achieved. One is robustness — the strength to withstand and continue functioning in the wake of disaster. This means investing heavily in infrastructure such as bridges, roads and dams, and devising substitute systems in the case that our main ones fail. The second is resourcefulness — being able to roll with the punches. It requires that our emergency personnel be properly equipped and prepared to respond efficiently to the type of challenges that will accompany climate change. Third is rapid recovery — the ability to get everything
halted, but people must also come to terms with the possible need for relocation. We must be flexible and willing to pay whatever cost it takes to endure. By being physiologically and psychologically ready to cope with high-stress situations we stamp out feelings of fear and helplessness. Thankfully, President Obama’s administration is finally starting to show signs of stepping up to the plate. The president recently announced a $1 billion resiliency fund to assist communities in combatting storm surges and flooding. This is an important move toward bracing the United States for impending climate change, but the effort will have to come from the grassroots as well as state and national government. Maintaining a robust society in the
face of hardship requires individuals, companies and local communities to take all measures within their span of control. Some climate change activists have protested this approach, arguing that it will draw funding and research away from halting the source of global warming. This claim raises a valid concern, but it is one that fails to comprehend the immediacy of the threat to human life. This latest report from the IPCC makes it clear that if efforts aren’t made to prepare for climate change as well as waylay it, human suffering and damage will be compounded in the next decade. It is likely that facing the effects of climate change will be our generation’s World War II. It will be an effort that will take all of us. Building resilience to oncoming climate change challenges should be a bipartisan effort, because it draws on traditions of volunteerism and grit that both parties can agree upon. It is important that we support President Obama’s resilience initiatives so that we may be more prepared as a society for the next Sandy, Katrina or Oso. Rajendra K. Pachauri, chairman of the intergovernmental panel, noted soberly that “nobody on this planet is going to be untouched by the impacts of climate change.” The situation is clear — we’re all in this together.
Robyn Sundlee ’16 loves talking about the weather. She can be contacted at robyn_sundlee@brown.edu.
Apartheid must be discussed in the open BY JOSHUA TARTAKOVSKY guest columnist
If a liberal arts university hosted a group of former American soldiers that proudly took part in war crimes in Iraq or Vietnam, attendance were limited to an exclusive group of students and the meeting were held in a confidential setting, surely there would be a public outcry. Similarly, if a student group hosted a person who unabashedly supported apartheid in South Africa, such a gathering would not pass unnoticed. On Wednesday, Brown/RISD Hillel found it appropriate to host Sgt. Benjamin Anthony, a former occupying soldier in the Israeli army who defends Israel’s apartheid and war crimes. Attendance was closed to the wider Brown community. For some reason, this is seen as acceptable. As a Brown alum who also served in the Israeli Occupation Forces, I find this development rather disturbing. I do not wish to selfrighteously point fingers at Anthony for crimes he committed, since soldiers in all armies tend to follow orders. I personally enforced a system of apartheid that ensured that Palestinians would not enjoy freedom of movement, unlike neighboring Israeli settlers, and would not be able to sleep peacefully at night due to random military incursions into homes. However, it is less clear to me why Israel is allowed to evade scrutiny for its crimes, while it is fully committed to an illegal occupation that is now in its
47th year and that shows no sign of ending, as its settlements are constantly expanding. In the Occupied West Bank, a double legal regime applies: Palestinians are subject to military law of the occupation authorities, while Israeli settlers living in the very same area are tried in civil courts of the state of Israel. Palestinian children are frequently arrested and jailed in harsh conditions. Similarly, Palestinians do not enjoy the same access to water as Israeli settlers. Even within the 1948 borders, Israel does not treat all its citizens equally, as over 50 laws intentionally discriminate against non-Jewish citizens of Israel and Palestinian-
challenged, not discussed behind closed doors. Supporters of Israel often claim that while Israel’s actions may be far from perfect, it is defending itself from terrorism. Here lies their mistake. Israel is not defending its democracy, for Jews are no longer a majority between the river and the sea. It is defending an ethnocracy while keeping 1.8 million Palestinians in Gaza under an illegal siege and occupying three million Palestinians in the West Bank. Palestinians, both as citizens of Israel and as residents of the West Bank, were seen as a “demographic threat” by current Israeli leaders, as Ynetnews reported in February. Would it be appropri-
While I used to defend Israel as a student at Brown, in recent years, my eyes have opened to the harsh reality in Palestine. Israelis can get arrested for Facebook posts. These actions should not pass unchallenged. While I occupied Palestinians in the Jordan Valley, where homes are frequently demolished and water sources confiscated, Anthony stated that he served in Hebron, where apartheid is even more overtly visible. In this city, Palestinians are forbidden from walking in roads designated for Jews only, children are often beaten and arrested by soldiers, and settlers frequently attack Palestinians while soldiers look on. These issues should be brought to light and
ate to call an ethnic minority such a term in the United States? As long as Israel is occupying Palestinians, it cannot rightly claim it is defending itself. The reality in the Occupied Territories is unbearable. Palestinian non-violent demonstrations are frequently repressed, and the Israeli army seeks to “create (a) sense of persecution” among civilians on a daily basis, as one soldier recounted in a 2011 video on the website Breaking the Silence. In besieged Gaza, anyone who gets within a buffer zone of the
fence or beyond a limit in the sea is fired at. While Jews from all over the world can receive immediate Israeli citizenship, Palestinians under occupation are given neither Israeli citizenship nor an independent state. While I used to defend Israel as a student at Brown, in recent years, my eyes have opened to the harsh reality in Palestine. More significantly, I formed many friendships with Palestinians, visited various cities and now view Palestinians as equal human beings who have preserved a rich indigenous culture, contrary to Zionist claims. I came to see that there is no reason why Jews and Palestinians cannot live peacefully in one state where discrimination on the basis of religion or ethnicity will not be practiced. Just as I made Palestinian friends at Brown and believe there is no inherent difference between myself and them, so too do I think that the same reality can prevail in the Holy Land and that attaining justice and equality are not impossible goals. Yet for democracy to replace apartheid and for the walls that separate my friends and me to fall, Israel’s crimes must be debated in an open forum, and its policies and laws must be challenged.
Joshua Tartakovsky ’08 is an IsraeliAmerican graduate of Brown and the London School of Economics and an independent researcher and filmmaker. He supports Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel and can be reached at joshua.tartakovsky@gmail.com.
FRIDAY, APRIL 4, 2014
THE
BROWN DAILY HERALD arts & culture RISD Museum exhibit explores historical journey of graphic design ‘Now in Production’ tracks changes in printed, interactive graphic design through medium’s history By GRACE YOON CONTRIBUTING WRITER
“Graphic Design: Now in Production,” the Rhode Island School of Design Museum’s latest exhibition, is by any measure an ambitious project. Co-organized by Minneapolis’ Walker Art Center and the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York, the exhibition aims to demonstrate the breadth and depth of contemporary work in graphic design. Showing now in the Chace Center, the works are divided into printed materials like posters, periodicals, books, informational design pieces and television titles. The first room tackles two of the most iconic forms of graphic design: posters — some presented independently, others in a series — and books, arranged in glass display cases. The exhibit circles relentlessly around the interaction of form and content, establishing but sometimes clouding meaning. Anthony Burrill’s poster “Oil & Water Do Not Mix” is a compelling inclusion. On the top two rows, the words “Oil
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& Water” appear dark yellow against a white background, whereas on the bottom two rows, “Do Not Mix” is white against a dark yellow background color. The page is divided by a squiggly line representing water. The content of the poster is articulated visually, almost before one reads the words themselves. Upon closer examination the viewer learns the piece is “printed with silkscreen ink made from oil spilled in the 2010 Gulf of Mexico,” according to the exhibition text. But form can also elude and even deny content. “Felt-Tip Prints” by Daniel Eatock counters Burrill’s work by asking “whether a poster needs to have a message at all,” according to the exhibition text. The work comprises four posters, each white with droplets of inks of various colors scattered across the papers. In front of these posters is a sheet of white paper balanced on tips of several feltmarkers. Despite the supposed lack of message, it is still fascinating to see the work both in progress and finished. If the first room houses some of the more iconic forms of graphic design, the next room spotlights the discipline’s expansion into varied forms and more interactive objects. “On the Origin of Species: The Preservation of Favoured Traces” by Ben Fry demonstrates how, contrary to the popular belief that scientific ideas remain fixed, Darwin’s famed text changed throughout its publishing
COURTESY OF THE RISD MUSEUM
“City of Words” is on display in the new Rhode Island School of Design Museum exhibit “Graphic Design: Now in Production,” which traces the evolution of graphic design through a wide range of printed materials. history, according to the exhibition text. A printed version of the entire “Origin of Species” hangs on the wall, legible only as color-coded blocks of text. A computer allows visitors to track Darwin’s progress toward a final version. In some cases the museum space inhibits experiencing some of the more interactive objects, notably Fry’s redesign of Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein.” An open copy of the book reveals that the text has been stylized using a variety of
formats. The overt inconsistency in the letter forms, according to the exhibit text, does have a logic: “The most common characters are employed at the beginning of the book, and the text devolves into less common, more grotesque shapes and forms toward the end.” It may have been more effective if one could pick up the book and witness that transformation across the pages. Certainly some pieces in the collection stand out, but the real revelation is
how much color, typography, images and symbols structure lived experiences. It’s a bit overwhelming to accommodate the entire “evolution of graphic design” in a single exhibition, so to fully enjoy the exhibit, leave ample time. There will be a two-part discussion with the co-curators of the exhibition, Andrew Blauvelt and Ellen Lupton, April 16. Another event April 17 will allow visitors to meet some of the featured designers.
Sibling drama takes center stage in intense ‘Bronx’ For ‘Grito,’ ‘El Grito del Bronx’ costumes fit crowds set with merry-goround, but emotion never actors and spins out of control atmosphere By GRACE YOON
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
In the very first scene of “El Grito del Bronx,” light illuminates the center of the stage as Lulu, wearing a white wedding dress, glides toward center stage, approaching a frame. She contemplates this simulation of a mirror and gazes through it as an unknown man, eventually revealed to be her brother Papo, emerges from the far left of the stage, walking straight through the mirror. They start slow dancing, but as they rotate in the center of the stage — which spins in a slow circle — Papo’s grip on Lulu’s head and waist suddenly intensifies. They struggle until Lulu finally breaks free. As the scene exemplifies, “El Grito” centers on the relationship between siblings Magdalena Colon, also known as Lulu — played by Jo’Nella Ellerbe ’15 — and Jesus Colon, or Papo, played by Kevin Kelly ’15. Though the play opens with Lulu’s wedding day, the story begins with Lulu and Papo’s childhood days during the 1970s and continues to 1991. This timeline comprises Lulu’s relationship with Ed, a Jewish reporter played by Fletcher Bell ’16, while living in the Bronx, N.Y., and her subsequent move to Connecticut. Meanwhile, Papo, incarcerated for having committed 18 murders, sits in a death row prison cell in Ohio. The set is divided into three main parts: The far left primarily serves as the
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prison cell and the far right as Ed and Lulu’s home. In the center is the merrygo-round, which functions as both part of a playground and the visiting room of the Ohio prison, among other roles. In regard to the show’s set, dramaturg Jose Samuel Clair notes in the program, “Each place intersects and develops perspective on other locations. The story bleeds, cries, and emotes with no pat closure, no formal forgiveness.” Though the thought behind the set may be consistent with the theme of the show, it can leave the audience confused in the midst of the non-linear narrative. Often the merry-go-round spins rapidly, which can help add to the chaos on stage, but the actors’ voices get lost amid the cacophony. Kelly succeeds in dominating the stage by fully embracing this mad, violent, overpowering character. His mannerisms are especially convincing — the way he licks his lips, sticks his tongue out or bites his upper lip, his eyes darting as he speaks. He remains on stage even during Ed and Lulu’s scenes, shifting on the bed in his cell, kneeling or leaning and subtly banging against the chains. In one scene, while Ed and Lulu sit on their bed on the merry-go-round and converse, Kelly approaches and starts turning the set piece. In spite of Papo’s aggressive nature and regardless of her haunted childhood memories, Lulu cares deeply about Papo, sometimes at the expense of her relationship with Ed. The story is complex, and considering the amount of ambience and chaos on stage, it can be easy to get lost. Audience members might find themselves trying to piece the story together as it progresses. Nevertheless, what is more important are the raw emotions expressed by the actors — emotions the audience might not even
Play relies heavily on costume design to portray shifting time periods and locales By ISABELLE THENOR-LOUIS STAFF WRITER
COURTESY OF MARK TUREK
Kevin Kelly ’15 plays Papo, the murderous brother of the main character in “El Grito del Bronx.” immediately grasp. The experience will leave you with the cry of the Bronx echoing in your ears, and its pains and sorrows gnawing in your stomach.
“El Grito del Bronx” runs through April 10 in Leeds Theater, Tuesday through Saturday at 8 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m.
When Jo’Nella Ellerbe ’15 first began practicing the opening scene of “El Grito Del Bronx,” she found it difficult to move as if she was wearing her character’s bridal gown. The play, which debuted in Leeds Theater Thursday night, follows a young woman on the cusp of marriage and her fraught relationship with her violent, imprisoned brother. Ellerbe considers herself as in a “completely different place” from her character, Lulu, who is at an age where “marriage is a real possibility in the near future,” she said. But this sentiment changed drastically when she was placed in the dress while being fitted in the costume shop. “For that scene, now it feels more truthful,” Ellerbe said. “When I put on the dress, I just said, ‘Wow.’” Alison Carrier, costume director for “El Grito” and a freelance costume designer for theater at Brown, plays a central role in creating this visual for the audience. Since the play traverses many different time periods, Carrier works with various artistic directors, in areas from props to staging, to develop » See COSTUMES, page 3