Wednesday, April 9, 2014 by The Brown Daily Herald

THE

BROWN DAILY HERALD vol. cxlix, no. 48

since 1891

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 9, 2014

Panelists talk Drinking it in: Alcohol culture draws new scrutiny Amid concerns over binge university drinking on campus, U. plans for external review endowments, of policies investments By RILEY DAVIS AND JOSEPH ZAPPA

Janus Forum speakers discuss ways to yield positive returns in tough financial times

SENIOR STAFF WRITERS

The first in a two-part series exploring substance use and abuse at Brown.

UNDER THE INFLUENCE

By SHAVON BELL CONTRIBUTING WRITER

“It is a challenging time” for university finances, said Beppie Huidekoper, executive vice president for finance and administration, expressing a sentiment that became an overarching theme of the Janus Forum’s Tuesday discussion “We The Corporation: The Ethics of Managing a Billion Dollar University Budget.” The talk featured presentations by Huidekoper and Dan McCollum, managing director of the Investment Office, followed by a panel that also included Lynn Pasquerella PhD’85, president of Mount Holyoke College, and John Baugher, associate professor of sociology at the University of Southern Maine. Huidekoper’s and McCollum’s presentations served as primers on the University’s financing operations, with Huidekoper educating the audience on the budget as a whole, and McCollum addressing the endowment. “We’ve maxed out on a lot of our sources of revenue,” Huidekoper said. Compared to the 10 years of former President Ruth Simmons’ tenure, which spanned the 2002 through 2012 fiscal years, the University has needed to work harder to bring in sufficient funding, she added. Budgets for both this and next » See JANUS, page 2

SAM KASE / HERALD

A Campus Life Advisory Board survey found that 45 percent of students binge drink — five drinks in two hours for men, or four drinks for women.

“I just kept drinking shots. Next thing I know, I woke up in a hospital,” recalled David, a senior. It was a sunny May afternoon during sophomore year, and David, whose name has been changed to preserve anonymity, was drinking vodka outside with some close friends. After David fell unconscious, his friends called Emergency Medical Services. When he woke up in a hospital

bed, he was still heavily intoxicated and “could not fathom” or remember what had happened. David’s experience highlights a culture of substance use at Brown centered on alcohol — one that is drawing heightened scrutiny from University administrators this year. While students may see alcohol as less harmful than other substances, some administrators wonder if undergraduates may be a bit too comfortable drinking. A Campus Life Advisory Board survey first announced at a December faculty meeting found that 45 percent of students binge drink, a figure administrators called significantly higher than the national average for full-time college students enrolled in two- or four-year universities and colleges. Following those survey results, the advisory board has called for an external review of alcohol use at the University, said Frances Mantak ’88, director of health education. A ‘concerning’ finding » See ALCOHOL, page 3

Researchers seek to enhance medicine with Google Glass Study finds that Google Glass technology gives doctors chance to assess patients globally, helps office workflow By ANDREW JONES SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Medical professionals and patients may someday be able to see through the eyes of a doctor — literally. Physicians and researchers at Rhode Island Hospital are conducting a study to test the feasibility of using Google Glass as an interface for physician consultation in an emergency department setting. Google Glass is a wearable

SCIENCE & RESEARCH

computer that takes pictures and videos, accesses the Internet and carries out voice commands, according to the product’s website. Using this technology allows doctors to see live video and audio streams of a patient from anywhere in the world. In this pilot study, emergency department physicians treating patients with dermatological issues wear Google Glass, which records video and audio that is relayed to an on-call dermatologist. This feedback allows the dermatologist to see and hear the

patient in real time and provide treatment advice without being present. “It’s pretty much like the dermatologist is in the room,” said Roger Wu, emergency medicine resident and a co-investigator of the study. Physicians involved in the study are examining whether Google Glass is practical in this type of setting and whether patients are comfortable with the device’s use. So far, patient responses have been positive, Wu said. “From an anecdotal perspective it sounds like patients are excited about video consultations,” he added. Using Glass in dermatology consultations is one example of the “limitless” potential of technology in medicine, said Ismail Nabeel, assistant

professor of general internal medicine at the Ohio State University College of Medicine, who is not involved in the pilot study. Using Glass in physician consultations makes for more efficient health care, Wu said. Easy access to specialists in an emergency department could prevent misdiagnoses by general physicians. Google Glass could also improve workflow during a patient’s visit, said Peter Chai ’06 MD’10, emergency medicine resident and a study co-investigator. During consultations, doctors are often looking down at a computer or a piece of paper, but use of Google Glass’s recording technology » See GOOGLE, page 4

Students concerned about labs’ irrelevance, lack of credit In classes with disparities between lecture and lab, some students question one-credit-per-course rule By MOLLY SCHULSON SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Every week Claire Walker ’16 attends section, completes reading, studies for a quiz and writes a report. But Walker does not earn a full course credit for these activities — they are mandatory components of the laboratory portion of CHEM 0350: “Organic Chemistry.” The lab “takes up more time than any other class,” Walker said. As students gear up to register for

LILY CRUZ / HERALD

inside

During lab for CHEM 0330: “Equilibrium, Rate and Structure,” Kelsey Sandquist ’17, Ashley Urrutia ’17 and Elizabeth Lopez ’17 prepare for experiments that may include material not covered extensively in lecture.

Commentary

Science & Research

Asher ’15: Robots’ inevitable takeover of jobs is not to be feared

Johnson ’14: Look at the rate of tuition increase, not acceptance rate, for the class of 2018

Researchers study sexual reproduction of Candida yeasts, formerly thought to be asexual

A new study looks at the benefits of chronotherapy for pregnant women in their third trimester

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SCIENCE & RESEARCH

next semester’s courses, many must take into consideration the additional and often unrecognized commitment lab courses require, and fill their carts accordingly. Despite the time commitment, many students, not just in organic chemistry, have trouble seeing the connection between a course’s lab and lecture portions. “Studying for the lab would in no way help me prepare for the test,” Walker said. The perceived disconnect Many students expressed frustration at the irrelevance of the material learned in labs to the lecture components of courses. Professors recognize these frustrations but contend that labs still impart crucial skills to students. » See LABS, page 4 t o d ay

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2 university news

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, APRIL 9, 2014

This Week in Higher Ed BY MAXINE JOSELOW, UNIVERSITY NEWS EDITOR

Organization attacks affirmative action

DAVID BRAUN / HERALD

Beppie Huidekoper, Dan McCollum, Lynn Pasquerella PhD’85 and John Baugher participate in Tuesday’s Janus Forum discussion, which focused on the ethics and difficulties of managing university budgets.

» JANUS, from page 1 fiscal year are running deficits, she said, adding that though the University has reserve funds, the administration will “have to be judicious” in utilizing them. McCollum echoed Huidekoper’s message of employing careful and calculated financial management in his presentation. Investors at Brown work to ensure the best returns with the lowest risks, McCollum said. The endowment is invested mostly in stocks, equity-like credit and hedge funds, with the broad strategy of consistent, long-term growth, he said. Last year, endowment funds accounted for 16 percent of the operating budget. Financial stress brought about by decreased sources of revenue is further complicated by many of the University’s more holistic goals, such as those outlined in President Christina Paxson’s strategic plan. The University’s many objectives — including maintaing a high-quality faculty, increasing financial aid, bettering the student experience and complying with laws and regulations — are “all conflicting in some ways,” Huidekoper said. The University is now trying to increase revenue by raising tuition and boosting the size of the student body. Administrators noted that the “integrity” of the groups chosen for

investing is another factor in university financial management. “Let’s just say we didn’t get involved with Bernie Madoff. I think there was an opportunity to do so,” Huidekoper said during the panel, which turned away from the fundamentals of budgeting at Brown toward the event’s larger theme of the ethics of higher education financial management. When a student asked about the budgetary consequences of divesting from major coal companies, McCollum said doing so would lead to “a certain risk that we would lose access” to some of the best-performing financial managers in the industry. If strings were attached to financial managers’ investing strategies, they might change or restrict their services to the University, he added. Fielding a question about the ethics of divesting from certain industries, Baugher said, “I’d rather pay a little higher so that my children could have a sustainable planet.” The same student asked if Baugher would be willing to lose his job in order ensure those types of ethical investments, to which he responded yes. Baugher continued to emphasize institutional integrity as he recounted an experience receiving a letter of retrenchment from USM. The letter stated that his position was discontinued only for “financial reasons,” he said.

Baugher condemned USM’s financial restructuring, which involved layoffs of faculty members and reshuffling of academic departments, as a series of “regressive reforms” and a “full-frontal assault on academic freedom.” Drawing from these experiences, Baugher now underscores “transparency, shared governance and academic freedom” as crucial metrics for higher education finance, he said. Pasquerella called for a shifted focus in budgetary decisions, saying many university administrators regard higher education not as a “public good, but as a private commodity.” Instead of embracing this view, Mount Holyoke has tried to maintain a “commitment to access,” she said. About 80 percent of students attending Mount Holyoke receive financial aid, she said, adding that the institution has frozen tuition and continued involvement in Massachusetts’ Five College Consortium to balance its budget. Students can take classes at neighboring institutions, helping to reduce costs for each college in the partnership. Baugher also highlighted access to higher education, saying that the nation has to work toward “getting beyond this idea of me and my people.” “We might take that value of access and think bigger than just Brown,” he said.

The Project on Fair Representation, a nonprofit organization working to challenge the use of race in undergraduate admission, launched three websites Monday encouraging rejected applicants from Harvard, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Wisconsin at Madison to sue these institutions over racial discrimination, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported Monday. The websites criticize the universities for relying on affirmative action and encourage rejected applicants to contact PFR about mounting lawsuits, the Chronicle reported. PFR blames Harvard in particular for allegedly “discriminating against Asian-American students by using a ‘quota’ or ‘ceiling’ to limit their admission to the university,” according to a PFR press release. “Were you denied admission to Harvard? It may be because you’re the wrong race,” reads the homepage of the website targeting Harvard. The organization’s efforts come after the Supreme Court’s ruling in Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin last June, which called for colleges and universities to “ensure that each applicant is evaluated as an individual and not in a way that makes an applicant’s race or ethnicity the defining feature of his or her application,” the Chronicle reported. Edward Blum, director of PFR, provided legal counsel to plaintiff Abigail Fisher, who alleged that UT denied her admission because she was white, the Chronicle reported. Following the court’s decision, several colleges and universities have reevaluated their race-conscious admission policies to avoid similar legal battles, the Chronicle reported.

Schools amp up spending on sports

Most colleges and universities have increased spending on athletics over the last decade, while maintaining or decreasing spending on teaching, research and public service, according to a report released Monday by the American Association of University Professors, the New York Times reported. At public four-year schools, while athletic expenditures jumped by almost 25 percent, expenditures on teaching remained level and spending on public service and research dropped, according to the report. Division III schools without football programs increased athletic spending the most, doubling the average amount they allocated to each student athlete from 2004 to 2012, the Times reported. Institutions that rely heavily on tuition may view student athletes as a significant source of tuition revenue, Saranna Thornton, co-author of the report and professor of economics at Hampden-Sydney College, told the Times. “The American culture is so in love with athletics that even though many people know the right thing to do, they can’t do it,” William Kirwan, chancellor of the University System of Maryland, told the Times.

Florida State faces sexual assault investigation

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights is investigating Florida State University’s response to a rape allegation against the school’s star quarterback, the New York Times reported Thursday. The investigation will examine how the school dealt with a female undergraduate’s complaint last spring against Jameis Winston, who became the youngest Heisman Trophy winner in history in December and led his team to a national championship in January, the Times reported. William Meggs, state attorney for Leon County, found insufficient evidence to mount criminal charges against Winston last spring, the Times reported. But Florida State administrators may have violated Title IX laws by not responding immediately to the complaint and by scheduling a meeting with Winston but not the female undergrad, USA Today reported Friday. The school’s handling of the case may have created a “hostile educational environment” for the female undergrad and victims of sexual assault, according to an April 3 DOE press release, the Times reported.

Dartmouth rethinks sorority prerecruitment

Female undergraduates rushing sororities at Dartmouth next year will participate in a “sorority-blind” pre-recruitment process, according to changes the college’s Panhellenic Council announced Monday, the Dartmouth reported. Under the “sorority-blind” system, the names of the sororities hosting pre-recruitment events will be kept hidden until the end of the events, the Dartmouth reported. Several measures will be taken to enforce the anonymity of the sororities, such as holding the events outside of Greek buildings and prohibiting members in attendance from wearing their letters or revealing their affiliations, the Dartmouth reported. The new system aims to reduce students’ reliance on “preconceived notions” about certain sororities when deciding which is right, Rachel Funk, a junior and Panhellenic Council president, told the Dartmouth. The changes also aim to “level the playing field” among sororities vying to attract new members, Jessica Ke, a junior and vice president of public relations of the Panhellenic Council, told the Dartmouth.

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» ALCOHOL, from page 1 The advisory board conducted its survey in conjunction with the Dartmouth Collaborative, a group of colleges and universities that examines heavy drinking on campuses. The survey relied on the definition of binge drinking provided by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism: the consumption of five or more drinks in two hours for men and four or more drinks in two hours for women, or the number of drinks typically required to raise someone’s blood alcohol concentration above 0.08 percent. Thirty-six percent of nationwide respondents to the survey indicated that they binge drink, administrators said. In comparison, finding that 45 percent of Brown students binge drink was “concerning,” said Allen Ward, senior associate dean for student life. Mark Wood, professor of psychology at the University of Rhode Island, and Bob Saltz, senior research scientist at the Prevention Research Center in Oakland, Calif., will visit campus for two days in May to conduct the external review of student drinking. They will talk to administrators, staff members and students about alcohol use on campus, in addition to reviewing the University’s alcohol policies, Saltz wrote in an email to The Herald. “The external review will look at how we respond and help us see if we have in place the right kind of practices to identify and help intervene with students who are having difficulties around substance abuse,” Ward said. The researchers will produce a report illuminating what it means “to become part of the social fabric here with respect to alcohol,” he added. The report’s findings could prompt the University to adjust its alcohol policies, Mantak said. The University is trying to be as “transparent as possible” about the review, Ward said, but he added that administrators would have to discuss its findings before relaying them to the broader Brown community. Binging at Brown Administrators might be concerned that 45 percent of students reported having four or five drinks in two hours, but David said this amount is a “conservative” definition of binge drinking. “I remember drinking nine, 10 drinks freshman year before even going out,” he said, adding that 45 percent of students “binge drinking” seems like a low estimate. A Herald poll conducted March 3-4 found that about 85 percent of undergraduates drink alcohol. “There’s so much alcohol around that if you can’t find it, you’re just not trying hard,” said Ryan, a junior in a fraternity whose name has been changed to maintain anonymity. For those older than 21, alcohol becomes “entrenched in every single event” in their social lives, he said, whether eating breakfast at Loui’s Family Restaurant or attending parties on Friday and Saturday nights. Though most upperclassmen have reached the legal drinking age, Ryan said it is uncommon for juniors and seniors to drink to the point of getting sick. Firstyears who have not yet learned to pace themselves may be more likely to engage in binge drinking, he said. “I don’t want to put on the image that once you’re a junior (or) senior you understand how it works and you don’t drink,” David said. “It becomes a different type of drinking once you’re a junior.

“My first two years here, the party culture was very centered around pregaming very hard and going to frat parties, dancing and hooking up. That was expected,” he said. But juniors and seniors are more likely to drink while hanging out with friends, he added. The link between partying and drinking heavily may be a distinctive characteristic of the first-year experience. “Because we were starting college, there was a need to up the ante and go hard every weekend,” David said, adding that as a first-year he felt “the sense that I would be a little excluded if I didn’t drink as much as other people or didn’t go out as often.” ‘Not a homogenous group’ Like first-years, athletes have a reputation for drinking heavily, but the truth of this stereotype is more widely debated. “Even as seniors, we still have this perception of athletes as the biggest drinkers,” David said, but he added that he is not sure if the perception is accurate. Nina, a sophomore varsity athlete whose name has been changed to preserve confidentiality, said she strongly disagrees with the idea that athletes drink more than other students. “We’re not a homogenous group,” she said. “You can’t say that all athletes drink the same.” Male athletes drink no more than fraternity brothers at the parties they throw, Nina said. “They are drinking a lot. Men are chanting. It’s basically identical.”

“There’s so much alcohol around that if you can’t find it, you’re just not trying hard.” Ryan

A JUNIOR Though her team’s bonding activities — such as “Beer Olympics” and pregaming large parties — incorporate alcohol, Nina said her teammates have never pressured her to drink or made drinking a mandatory part of any event. Tyler, a sophomore varsity athlete whose name has been changed to maintain anonymity, said he thinks drinking facilitates team bonding. “It definitely helps bring the team together,” he said. “If you’re trying to have a team bonding experience and you want to do something fun, alcohol is the really cheap, easy thing to do.” Though Tyler also said he has never felt pressure to drink, he added that staying sober can be isolating when all his teammates are partying. “People are in a different world when they’re drunk, and (sober teammates) just don’t feel like a part of that.” Many students cited fraternities as popular drinking destinations. “I think on average, fraternities do drink more than the average student group,” said Luke, a junior fraternity brother whose name has been changed to maintain anonymity. But higher drinking rates may occur among many tight-knit student groups on campus, not just fraternities, he said. “If we were at a university that didn’t have a Greek system, you would see a stigma associated with the athletic teams for drinking more, I would imagine, but also with groups like a cappella … (that) comprise a more consistent friend group.”

Men are more likely to binge drink than women, according to the advisory board’s survey. Brown’s female binge drinking rate is comparable to that of the other universities surveyed, but the male rate is significantly higher than the national average. “Sometimes (drinking) becomes a competition,” David said, adding that male students may drink more to embody “the perception of a tough college guy.” Beyond the bottle It’s the first day of the spring semester, and Ryan walks into the room of a student he has never met. The first thing he sees is a desk covered in cocaine and molly. “You have too much money, but thank you,” he recalled thinking as he indulged in the substances. “It was a lot of fun and it was really cool,” he said, adding that he may repeat the experience over Spring Weekend, when use of less common drugs tends to peak on campus. To Ryan, drugs like cocaine and methylone, a variant of molly, are just a quick route to euphoria and are not necessarily more harmful than alcohol. Though most undergrads do not use such hard drugs regularly, marijuana has a firmer hold on campus, according to the results of a spring 2013 Herald poll. After alcohol, marijuana is the most commonly used illegal substance on campus, with almost 49 percent of poll respondents reporting they had used it in the past year. About 69 percent of undergrads favor the drug’s legalization, while about 14 percent disapprove, according to this semester’s Herald poll. “Brown has a reputation as a college of people who smoke a lot,” David said. “I don’t want to say it’s entirely accurate, but I do know a large number of people that smoke.” Though marijuana use is widely accepted, it is also “polarizing,” David said, as some people “swear by it” while others viscerally reject it as immoral. Ryan said that, despite some stigma attached to smoking marijuana, both alcohol and marijuana are “equal-opportunity drugs” that are not limited to certain groups based on money or connections. Some students said in certain social situations, marijuana may be more accepted than alcohol. “If you went high to class or went high to the gym, then that’s your thing, but if you went drunk to class or drunk to the gym, you’re going a little bit hard,” Ryan said. Unlike alcohol, marijuana use seems more common among upperclassmen than among first-years, David said, adding that students may become more comfortable with marijuana after a couple of years on campus. Hallucinogenic mushrooms, cocaine, LSD and amphetamines — including study drugs like Adderall — are each used by about 4 to 6 percent of undergrads, according to last spring’s Herald poll. Spring Weekend often marks a period of greater student experimentation with substances. Drugs are especially easy to find around Spring Weekend, when those who sell them increase their inventories to meet a high demand, Ryan said. “I know people who only consider using molly or acid during Spring Weekend because Spring Weekend is a time when everybody feels it appropriate and okay to let loose more than the norm,”

From what sources do you usually obtain alcoholic drinks at Brown? (Circle all that apply.) 35.1% 32.1% 28.9% 18.4%

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, APRIL 9, 2014

JILLIAN LANNEY / HERALD

David said. Greek, program and sports houses may be hot spots for less prevalent drugs because these communities “have networks of communication that are tighter and are consequently more capable of pushing them in the first place,” Ryan said. Ryan and Luke, both fraternity brothers, attributed the frequency of substance use in fraternities to the tightknit relationships among the brothers, rather than the personalities of the users. Policy in practice Administrators stressed that the University’s drug and alcohol policy is built around awareness and safety, not punishment. The EMS process is free and confidential for students, administrators said. After being EMSed, students are required to speak to a Health Services staff member about why the incident occurred and how to drink responsibly. “We promote that we provide medical attention for drug (or) alcohol consumption and the opportunity for evaluation without any disciplinary consequences to prioritize students’ health and safety,” wrote Margaret Klawunn, vice president for campus life and student services and interim dean of the College, in an email to The Herald. “We usually make a big push to get this information out broadly before Spring Weekend.” EMS coordinators did not respond to requests for comment on the service’s policies and procedures. Though the Department of Public Safety always arrives with EMS, its main concern is students’ health, not discipline, said Paul Shanley, deputy chief of DPS. “Our first and foremost issue is to make sure that students get the necessary medical treatment.” Some students incorrectly believe they will be referred to Psychological Services after being EMSed. But this is not a requirement, said Sherri Nelson, director of Psychological Services. “If, in the context of talking with a student (who has been EMSed), the person interviewing them picks up on some psychological issues, then they’re going to come see us.” ‘Keeping students safe’ Being EMSed “really made me start thinking about if drinking as heavily and as frequently as I did was worth it,” David said. “I was very lucky to have friends who sent me to the hospital,” he said, adding that he appreciated that EMS and the University did not notify his parents of the incident, though the hospital sent them a bill. A majority of students are comfortable calling EMS, according to this semester’s Herald poll. Only 4 percent of respondents said they have refrained from calling EMS because they feared

disciplinary action, while 8 percent indicated they have declined to call for a friend for the same reason. Compared to students at some peer institutions, Brown undergrads are less likely to worry about the disciplinary consequences of seeking medical help. A spring 2013 Yale College Council survey found that around 15 percent of Yale undergrads had chosen not to seek medical help while intoxicated due to fear of punishment, and 19 percent had not called for a friend for the same reason, the Yale Daily News reported last year. David’s first year on College Hill was the “only time” he said he could imagine having been afraid to call EMS. None of Nina’s teammates have been EMSed during her time at Brown, she said. But if the need arises, she and her teammates have no qualms about calling for help. “EMS is free, and also it’s confidential, and we all know that,” she said. Tyler said his teammates get EMSed occasionally but do not fear disciplinary consequences or their coach’s reaction to an emergency room trip. “It helps that you don’t face any disciplinary charges,” he said. “People are more responsible about it, and definitely aren’t that afraid to seek medical help.” Luke said his fraternity brothers are comfortable calling EMS for brothers or students attending their parties. But they accompany students requiring medical attention out of their building before EMS arrives on the scene in order to minimize the risk of probation for the fraternity, he said. Fraternities are liable to receive disciplinary action for incidents in their on-campus buildings that violate the Code of Student Conduct. “We take certain precautions before we EMS somebody, such as take them outside before we EMS them, or take them to their dorm before they’re EMSed,” he said. Several student groups strive to educate undergrads about substance use, ramping up their efforts around Spring Weekend. “We try and teach people how fast your body processes alcohol and what physiological differences impact how much you can safely drink,” said Gordon Wade ’15, a leader of Students for Sensible Drug Policy, a group advocating for reform of drug laws. He added that he thinks the University does a good job educating students about substance safety and keeping its policies non-punitive. “At some schools, you can get in a lot of trouble if you or one of your friends has to have medical attention for drinking or drug use,” Wade said. The University “places a much higher priority on keeping students safe and on getting people medical attention if they need it.” The second article in this series will appear tomorrow, spotlighting issues of drug dependency among Brown students.

4 science & research »LABS, from page 1 John Palmer ’16 said the lab for CHEM 0330: “Equilibrium, Rate and Structure” often focused on “one small thing” mentioned in lecture that was unimportant to know for exams. Zach Zuchowski ’17, who is currently enrolled in CHEM 0350, said the course’s lab also often seems “out of order compared to what we (are) learning in class.” But Jody Hall, manager of undergraduate laboratories, said some former students of BIOL 0200: “The Foundations of Living Systems” thought the labs and lectures were “extremely well connected,” while others thought the labs had nothing to do with lecture material. Hall is coteaching the course this semester while Professor of Biology Kenneth Miller ’70 P’02 is on sabbatical. “If the student approaches (a course) expecting that there’s going to be correlation and there isn’t, then that’s disappointing,” Hall said. For some courses, like CHEM 0350, the connections between the lab and lecture “might not be obvious to somebody who is just starting out,” said J. William Suggs, associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry. But the connections may become clear as students gain more knowledge and lab experience. Kathleen Hess, a senior lecturer in chemistry who is in charge of the labs for CHEM 0350 and CHEM 0360: “Organic Chemistry,” noted that at the beginning of the sequence, it is difficult for students to do experiments directly related to the lectures “because they haven’t learned how to work with molecules.” Once mid-semester passes, students begin doing experiments more closely related to the lectures, Hess said. “Finally, at lab six of seven, we are doing a reaction that … we learned about in class,” Walker said. Once students are in CHEM 0360 they are “ready to go,” Hess said, adding that the second semester’s labs are

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, APRIL 9, 2014

more lecture-related. She added that she collaborates with the lecture instructors to plan out the labs, which she tries to make “as complementary as possible” to lecture topics. Despite students’ concerns, Suggs said the best way to talk about organic chemistry might not be the best way to demonstrate it. “There’s no logical reason to assume that they’d follow the same narrative,” he said. Students acknowledged that some classes have a more direct connection to their labs. Palmer is currently enrolled in CSCI 0180: “Computer Science: An Integrated Introduction,” a course with a two-hour lab that is “pretty closely related” to the lecture, he said. Lectures introduce topics that students explore “hands-on” in the lab, Palmer said, adding that concepts on the homework are usually “exactly related” to what students do in the lab beforehand. Credit change debate Some students also question why they must put in additional time to laboratory courses without receiving additional credit. “We at Brown have the philosophy that (the lab) is part of the course,” Hess said. There has been talk about making the lab a separate course in the past, Suggs said, which would mean that students could optionally register for just one course component. Many other schools follow this model. For example, the University of Michigan has completely separate lab and lecture courses, wrote John Wolfe, associate chair for undergraduate education in the department of chemistry at Michigan, in an email to The Herald. “Each of these courses has a separate instructor, and the grades are separate as well,” Wolfe wrote. The two courses are “strongly recommended” to be taken together, but it is not required, he added. About seven years ago, the University discussed having students receive

LILY CRUZ / HERALD

In addition to regular lectures for CHEM 0330: “Equilibrium, Rate and Structure,” students attend pre-lab lecture once a week to prepare for a four-hour laboratory. an additional half credit for the lab component of CHEM 0350, Suggs said. “We really thought it was going to happen, but then various people around the University pointed out that some Brown students like to take five courses,” he added. The half-credit course would cause these students to go over the five-credit maximum for the semester. Had it been up to the department, the credit change “probably would have happened,” Suggs said, adding that faculty members believe most people who take CHEM 0350 or 0360 are not enrolled in five credits’ worth of courses. But “Brown is all about freedom,” Suggs said. “Students have the option to do their education the way they think makes sense for them, and I certainly support that.” Walker said CHEM 0350 and

0360 labs would not be as frustrating if credit were given for the lab itself. “I think it’s definitely something they should consider changing,” she said. Some courses outside of the chemistry department do have optional halfcredit labs, Palmer said, citing CSCI 1730: “Introduction to Programming Languages” and CSCI 1729: “Programming Languages Lab” as examples. Students at Michigan who do not take the lecture and lab classes together often refrain from doing so because they have “complicated schedules” or they previously dropped the lecture and are repeating it, Wolfe wrote. But Michigan’s chemistry department conducted a study that showed students in general chemistry courses that took lecture and lab courses concurrently performed better in both courses than students who took them separately, Wolfe wrote.

Though Suggs supports giving students additional credit for labs, he does not think lectures and labs should be taken separately, calling the practice “100 percent wrong.” At Brown, Suggs said, the “rare cases” when students took lecture before lab ended in disaster. But some students may be interested in taking only the lecture, and the lab’s large time commitments may dissuade students from taking certain science courses as they are currently offered, Zuchowski said. Walker said she loves the lectures and concepts in CHEM 0350 but that the lab component makes the course “unpleasant.” “You hate it when it’s happening,” Suggs said. “But once it’s over, you sort of look back and say, ‘I am happy that I was able to make use of that experience.’”

» GOOGLE, from page 1 would allow the emergency physician and dermatologist to give full attention to the patient, he added. Dermatology consultations were the physicians’ first area of choice to test Google Glass’ feasibility because it is a “visual and relatively safe specialty,” Wu said. Rhode Island Hospital is not the only medical facility experimenting with the technology. Nabeel and his colleagues have implemented Google Glass in operating room settings to teach medical students about orthopedic surgery. The surgeon wore the Glass to give the students a first-person video view of the surgery while narrating the process. “That’s a unique perspective that the student has — seeing through the eyes of a surgeon and hearing him speak,” Nabeel said. Though he said he is intrigued by the numerous applications of the technology in medicine and beyond, Nabeel said there are some necessary improvements before the device can

COURTESY OF ROGER WU

A new pilot study offers evidence that by using Google Glass, dermatologists might be able to perform consultations from external locations. become part of mainstream health care. For example, because the camera sits on the right periphery of the frame of the glasses, it does not always capture full images when used up close. The camera also does not track the

user’s eye movement, which is vital for its use in medicine, Nabeel said. The Google Glass trials at Rhode Island Hospital are part of a larger group of projects in which physicians are trying to integrate technology into a medical setting, Wu said.

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, APRIL 9, 2014

menu SHARPE REFECTORY

d e s s e r t h e av e n VERNEY-WOOLLEY

LUNCH Chicken Fingers, Pork Lo Mein, Pasta Primavera, Vegetable Medley Stir Fry, Rice Krispie Treats

Beef Pot Pie, Caesar Salad Pizza, Vegan Quinoa Stuffed Portobello, Rice Krispie Treats

DINNER Saturday Night Jambalaya, Vegan Oven Roasted Tofu, Roast Beef Au Jus, Pound Cake with Strawberries

Meatloaf with Mushroom Sauce, Mashed Potatoes, Szechuan Spicy Stir Fry, Pound Cake with Strawberries

JOSIAH’S

THREE BURNERS

QUESADILLA OR GRILLED CHEESE

Stuffed French Toast

Gourmet Grilled Cheese

BLUE ROOM

SOUPS

DINNER ENTREES

Chicken and Wild Rice, Butternut Squash and Apple, Baked Potato

Naked Burritos

sudoku

LILY CRUZ / HERALD

Ben and Jerry’s celebrated Free Cone Day Tuesday. From 12 to 8 p.m., a line of students and community members wrapped around surrounding buildings, waiting to get their hands on a free ice cream cup or cone.

comics Eric & Eliot | Willa Tracy ’17

RELEASE DATE– Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle crossword Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis ACROSS 1 Lead-in for bird or walk 4 Nervous and irritable 9 Thai cash 13 Musician Turner 14 Words Alice read on a cake 15 Month in Madrid 17 Waist bag 19 Once more 20 “It’s __ bet”: “No risk” 21 Everlasting, to a poet 22 Cal. entry 25 Herbal remedy for indigestion 27 Custard dishes 30 River in NW France 31 “The StarSpangled Banner,” e.g. 32 Countdownending numero 33 Leveling wedge 37 Pen name 38 Renege 41 Amin of Uganda 42 Twice vier 44 Word of surprise 45 __ Zee: area where the Hudson River widens 47 Taj Mahal home 49 Heavenly higherups, in Christianity 50 Piece of Le Creuset cookware 54 Chess piece 55 People with skill 56 Place to store valuables 59 Station 60 Sense of humor 64 Old hat 65 Popeye creator Segar 66 Type of museum 67 Kane’s Rosebud, e.g. 68 Nobel-winning Irish poet 69 It may need a boost DOWN 1 Peanut butter brand

49 Verse segment 2 Alias, for short 35 Snake River 3 Hankering state 50 Hula Hoop et al. 4 They may be 36 Belarus capital 51 “Golden Boy” done by ones 39 Tide type dramatist who have gone 40 Roofer’s supply 52 India neighbor too far 43 Stage in a frog’s 53 Small egg 5 Family nickname life 57 Workbook 6 Support crews 46 Medicare section chapter 7 Game show for physician 58 Strong alkalis personality services 60 “30 Rock” star 8 “__War”: Shatner 48 Destroyed the 61 Be indebted to series inside of, as a 62 Pick on 9 Defeated 63 Outer: Pref. building 10 49-Across, por ejemplo ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE: 11 Soul partner 12 Puzzle video game with three heroes 16 Top draft status 18 “Of course!” 21 Along the way 22 Red Sea port on its own gulf 23 __ Wars: Rome vs. Carthage 24 Tuner’s concern 26 Words to Nanette? 28 Playboy nickname 29 Political fugitives 32 Island instrument 34 River horse 04/09/14 xwordeditor@aol.com

Against the Fence | Lauren Stone ’17

calendar TODAY

APRIL 9

12 P.M. SPRING WEEKEND AIRBRUSHED TANKS

Professional air brush artists will be on campus to create custom-made airbrushed tank tops for Spring Weekend on Faunce Steps. If it rains, the event will move to the Kasper Multipurpose Room. Stephen Robert ’62 Campus Center 5:30 P.M. SPEAK THE SPEECH: TALKING SHAKESPEARE’S TEXTS

Shakespeare on the Green presents a workshop with Starveling and Valentine that will focus on reading and directing Shakespeare’s texts clearly and effectively. Sayles 306

TOMORROW

APRIL 10

5 P.M. SPEC CARNIVAL

The Special Events Committee will kick off Spring Weekend with its annual carnival, featuring free food, inflatable rides and student group performances. Main Green 8 P.M. PRIDE PROM By Bernice Gordon (c)2014 Tribune Content Agency, LLC

The theme of this year’s pride prom is “SECS and EXECS.” Sponsored by the Queer Alliance, this dance is a place for 04/09/14

LGBTQ+ and allied students to come dance all night long. Stephen Robert ’62 Campus Center

6 commentary

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, APRIL 9, 2014

EDITORIAL

Flexibility necessary for grad programs For years, students have talked about the law school crisis. After an explosion of law students led to a massive oversupply, recent difficulties for law graduates in the job market have sharply depressed application numbers, causing five law schools to shut down in the last two years. It seems likely that reducing the number of law schools will have positive benefits for remaining law graduates, but students today are still burdened by expensive law school tuition. However, as the New York Times reported this week, Brooklyn Law School is taking an innovative approach to this problem. Through a combination of tuition cuts, reductions in merit pay and increased options for students to graduate early, Brooklyn Law is hoping to curb the increasingly exorbitant law school costs that burden graduates with large amounts of student debt. As the costs of higher education continue to grow, graduate schools — particularly law schools — need to pursue these and other innovations in order to bring down costs for their student body. Similar strategies, such as creating three-year primary care tracks, are being considered in medical schools. This is necessary to maintain the health of graduate programs throughout the country, which have seen their numbers decline steadily in recent years as students wise up to the realities of high tuition and a contracting job market. This past year saw the first increase in graduate school enrollment in several years, but this rise was driven primarily by a greater number of international applicants. If we’re to keep our own domestic students interested in professions that require a graduate degree, graduate schools need to follow in the vein of Brooklyn Law and find ways to make these graduate degrees — which come at the cost of several years and several hundred thousand dollars’ worth of income — worth more in the long run or less expensive to obtain in the first place. One way this could be accomplished is by more heavily connecting graduate programs with jobs or other paid opportunities in areas that are in high demand. Another more practical way for law schools to remain cost-effective for students is to offer a wider array of degree programs, including shorter programs (not unlike a master’s degree) that would allow law students to obtain jobs in legal or law-related fields either before or without finishing the rest of their law degree. As technology becomes ever more capable of handling increasingly precise tasks, graduate programs need to adapt and train students for careers that are still in demand. Graduate programs need regulation from their own governing bodies to ensure that students who enroll in programs with expensive tuition and opportunity costs can be reasonably certain of finding good jobs upon graduation. This may lead to fewer overall programs (suited to fit the needs of the job market), and more accelerated or distance-learning programs. This process starts with straightforward reporting of job-placement rates, with mechanisms that protect against nefarious practices such as hiring law school graduates to do simple paperwork to inflate these figures. True accounting of the realities of graduate programs may not be good for any individual program, which can always find another way to spend tuition dollars, but it is in the overall best interest of students. The moral hazard of graduate programs continuing to expand without regard for student interest has been underreported, but it has harmed students who were just trying to establish careers of their own.

I VA N A L C A N TA R A

Q U O T E O F T H E D AY

“Brown is all about freedom.” — J. William Suggs, associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry

See labs on page 1.

Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board: its editors, Matt Brundage ’15 and Rachel Occhiogrosso ’14, and its members, Hannah Loewentheil ’14 and Thomas Nath ’16. Send comments to editorials@ browndailyherald.com.

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, APRIL 9, 2014

I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords ADAM ASHER opinions columnist

For an introvert like me, the self-checkout kiosks at CVS are a dream come true. I feel blessed to live in an age where, in the span of three minutes, I can locate and purchase deodorant, paper towels and SunChips without having to make eye contact with a single human being. Of course, I also have to deal with the occasional shame of impotently tapping at the screen as the kiosk tells me that an employee is on the way to assist me, but let’s stick to the positives for now. Rather than considering why employers would want to use machines instead of humans, it is probably more of a challenge to consider why they wouldn’t. An ATM can’t show up late for work with a hangover, an assembly-line robot isn’t going to get distracted in conversation and forget to screw in a bolt, a self-checkout machine can’t make judgmental comments about your purchases — despite what we might infer from its tone. Let’s face facts: We humans are flawed, often unreliable, creatures. For the foreseeable future, the rule will be that if a job can be automated and performed by a non-human, it will be. Bill Gates is in agreement on this point. Speaking at the American Enterprise Institute — an economic think tank — about technology’s impact on the labor force last month, Gates predicted, “Technology over time will

reduce demand for jobs, particularly at the lower end of skill sets,” Business Insider reported. “Twenty years from now, labor demand for lots of skill sets will be substantially lower. I don’t think people have that in their mental model.” A January article in the Economist agrees with this outlook, observing that for the first time in history, technological advances have not brought with them a surge of job creation and wage increases. And if you’re looking for a third opinion, as far back as 1970, Buck-

easily automated or outsourced. The second reason I’m not as worried about the impending robocalypse is that it’s possible that the ultimate worst-case scenario — a world where most menial labor is outsourced to robots — isn’t all that worst-case. The big issue seems to be that we may one day not have enough jobs for everybody. In fact, we already don’t have enough jobs for everybody. Wages for most professions have stayed flat. No, this is not President Obama’s fault — this is a phenomenon that goes far be-

For the foreseeable future, the rule will be that if a job can be automated and performed by a non-human, it will be. minster Fuller stated, “It is a fact today that one in 10,000 of us can make a technological breakthrough capable of supporting all the rest,” and that this fact calls into question the “specious notion that everybody has to earn a living.” There is a paradigm shift happening before our eyes, and we need to readjust our “mental models” accordingly. I’m not writing this as a doomsday column. First off, as students at a first-class university, we’re in okay shape. It will be a long time before people trust computers to make important decisions, and it may never be possible for robots to become community leaders. Brown trains us to fill vital societal roles that are not

yond politics and beyond our borders. For example, odds are no politician ran on the platform of phasing out ticket sellers at the Providence train station in favor of ticketing machines — it just made sense. So the question before us is, if a large portion of the population simply has no vital economic task to fulfill, what happens then? One possibility is a minimum, government-supplied income. In the United States, it’s the most cringeworthy of policy suggestions. For our culture, to imagine a society in which a significant portion of the population receives a monthly income, with no strings attached, simply for being human, is anathema.

But this is not necessarily true of the world as a whole. The Liberal Party of Canada, which holds the third-most seats in the Canadian parliament, recently adopted basic income as a party platform. Basic income has already been tested in the city of Dauphin, Manitoba. Not only were the results of this experiment not disastrous; they were, by most standards, very encouraging. So as much as basic income may sound like a fringe, loony idea to us here in the United States, our neighbors to the north are slowly getting on board with it. But basic income has yet to be put to the true test of nationwide implementation in any country. And even if its results are mindblowingly positive, the political realities of the United States will likely put the kibosh on its adoption by our government in the foreseeable future. We have not yet taken Fuller’s words to heart, and possibly never will. Nevertheless, basic income serves as an example of the kind of radically out-of-the-box thinking that’s only going to become more important to adapt to in a world changing at an astounding rate. We must not become Luddites — we cannot afford to. Year by year, we’re getting better at integrating technology into our lives, redrawing the lines between what is possible for humans and what is possible for machines. Honestly, we’re not even sure what a “machine” is anymore. It is, in short, a very cool time to be in college trying to sort this all out.

Adam Asher ’15 is concentrating in classics.

The wrong number gets all the attention GARRET JOHNSON opinions columnist

Over the past few weeks, thousands of high school seniors around the country went online and discovered whether they had been admitted to America’s most prestigious colleges. Getting into college today is as difficult as it has ever been, and American colleges love to trumpet just how selective they have become. On Brown’s webpage the day after admission decisions were released, the University boasted that it had admitted just 8.6 percent of applicants to the class of 2018. Notably absent from the site was any mention of how unaffordable this university, along with many others, has become. You think it’s hard to be admitted to Brown? Wait until you see how hard it is to pay the bill. Indeed, the University’s press release mentions the low admission rate before diversity, financial aid or the academic breakdown of the incoming class. Dean of Admission Jim Miller ’73 then notes that this class of first-years “represents the fruits of a 250-year institutional commitment to excellence and inclusivity.” While I appreciate the modest efforts taken by the University to increase diversity and combat growing income inequality and social immobility, it is a bit odd to brag about the many students you rejected and simultaneously cele-

brate “inclusivity.” And what is inclusive about almost $60,000 in yearly costs? As you might expect, this phenomenon is not limited to Brown. Princeton trumpeted its acceptance rate — 7.28 percent — to the hundredth of a percentage point. Even public universities, whose mission is to serve the general public of their states, like to tout their exclusivity. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill highlighted that it accepted just 28 percent of applicants

There’s more than just a hyperlink between these two stories, though. In the United States, we conflate the selectivity of a college with its quality of education, and that’s why colleges brag so frequently about how elite, exclusive and nearly unattainable they are. Most college rankings — including the well known U.S. News and World Report list — at least partially tie the selectivity of an institution to its overall score. The admission percentage has

this kind of hyperinflation of tuition and fees cannot continue in the “long term” (“With no end in sight, tuition increases concern admins,” March 15, 2012). But when does the “long term” begin? Next year, total undergraduate costs will be $59,428 per student. How high does the cost of Brown have to get before we start to address the problem? Not surprisingly, the University did not honor its 3.8 percent tuition increase with the same vigor and enthusiasm as it did its 8.6 per-

In today’s world, where we’re told that 47 percent of Americans are leeches on society, where 0.1 percent of Americans control 20 percent of the wealth and where your 6.26 percent chance of getting into Yale is all over the newspaper, what’s the point of trying? to its class of 2018. Obviously there is not enough room at Brown for all 30,432 students who applied this year. There is no question that admission decisions need to be made and that some people must be turned away. And colleges are not fully to blame for our national obsession with acceptance rates. The media love to examine which colleges are hardest to get into. Business Insider ran a full-length article titled, “Ivy League admission letters just went out — here are the acceptance rates for the class of 2018,” complete with a “See Also” link to a story on “The Best 50 Colleges in America.”

become a defining characteristic of the American university. But there are other, more important numbers that deserve our focus, like 3.8 percent. That’s this year’s rate of increase in Brown’s tuition, as The Herald reported in February (“Corporation approves 3.8 percent tuition hike,” Feb. 10). Last year it was 4 percent, and 3.5 the year before that. For reference, the current inflation rate in the United States is 1.1 percent, meaning that Brown’s tuition is growing more than three times as fast as the price of everything else in the economy. In March 2012, Provost Mark Schlissel P’15 told The Herald that

cent acceptance rate. And yet we all know the cost of college is becoming an unsustainable burden for most American families. Everyone has seen questionable spending by the University during their time here — a 650-pound cake made to look like University Hall, for example — and wondered where exactly their money is going. I’ve picked on Brown because I’m a student here, but this is a national problem. Selective schools celebrate the people they’ve turned away, while sheepishly announcing their latest unaffordable tuition figures. Every year, the exclusivity of our best colleges makes the papers,

while the problem of their astronomical prices is never addressed. In many ways, the way we treat these two statistics is emblematic of other problems in America today. We like to think about individual stories of greatness, like the kid who gets into Harvard after a childhood in poverty, or the heroic efforts of surgeons in the aftermath of a shooting, but we often choose to ignore the stories that trouble us. We don’t ask why so many children grow up in poverty, why at least 18,000 Americans die every year from a lack of health insurance or why we have a gun violence problem. Similarly, colleges prefer to emphasize how “elite” they are, rather than their ballooning tuition rates. In today’s world, where we’re told that 47 percent of Americans are leeches on society, where 0.1 percent of Americans control 20 percent of all wealth and where your 6.26 percent chance of getting into Yale is all over the newspaper, what’s the point of trying? Colleges, by focusing on their extreme selectivity, aren’t helping. Rather than touting their prolific rejections of qualified students, colleges should pay attention to the increasing burden they place on American families.

Garret Johnson ’14 is a former Herald opinions editor. His column appears on alternate Wednesdays. He can be reached at garret_johnson@brown.edu.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 9, 2014

THE

BROWN DAILY HERALD science & research Science & Research Roundup BY ISOBEL HECK, SCIENCE & RESEARCH EDITOR

A strong and ductile steel

A group of University engineers have developed a new method of creating steel that makes it stronger while preserving its ductility, according to a University press release. The method, described in a paper published this month in the journal Nature Communications, was established through collaboration with engineers at three Chinese universities and the Chinese Academy of Science. The method helps to solve a common problem engineers face with steel — as steel is made stronger, it becomes less ductile. This is particularly problematic for structural applications such as the use of steel in buildings or bridges, because if steel is not ductile, it can shatter, according to the release. But the new way of producing steel, referred to as twinninginduced plasticity steel, deforms only the outside of the material, making it stronger while leaving the inside intact, thereby preserving its ductility. “It’s critical in this kind of system to push this strength-ductility limit as far as possible,” Huajian Gao, professor of engineering and senior author on the paper, said in the release.

Epidemiologists develop new method to analyze data sets

A new model developed by University researchers combines multiple sources to produce a better analysis of disease data. Presented in two new papers recently published online, one in the journal Biostatistics and the other in the journal Annals of Applied Statistics, the model examines the effects of three sources on disease presentation — DNA differences, gene expression and methylation, according to a University press release. The model can analyze data sets to help epidemiologists understand the link between genomics and disease, according to the release. Combining the three different sources of data makes the model innovative, as past models have focused on only one. “Our integrated approach outperforms single-platform approaches,” said Yen-Tsung Huang, an assistant professor of epidemiology who developed the model with colleagues, in the release. “Applied to real data sets, it works.” Huang plans to apply the new model to sets of brain cancer data in a future research project with Professor of Epidemiology Dominique Michaud.

Prof. wins award to study sleep therapy

The Seleni Institute — a nonprofit organization that seeks to improve the mental health and wellness of women — gave its inaugural research award to Katherine Sharkey, assistant professor of medicine, Monday. With the grant, Sharkey plans to research the “feasibility, safety and efficacy” of a form of sleep therapy in pregnant women with anxiety during their third trimesters, according to the Seleni Institute’s press release. The therapy, known as chronotherapy, could be a viable option for women with anxiety who do not want to take medications while pregnant. It has recently been discovered that a pregnant woman’s sleep patterns during the third trimester of pregnancy have an effect on her mood and behavior after giving birth, Sharkey said in the institute’s release. “We have long believed that patterns and quality of sleep are crucial to perinatal wellness,” said Nitzia Logothetis, founder and executive chairwoman of the Seleni Institute, in the institute’s release. “We are proud to support Dr. Sharkey and her team.” Receiving the award is “a very great honor,” Sharkey said in the institute’s release.

COURTESY OF STEPHEN JONES

Researchers have found that Candida yeasts sexually reproduce, a discovery that may lead to improved treatment of infections in humans. Understanding yeast reproduction could affect future drug development.

Lab explores implications of fungal sex Researchers look at existence of sexual reproduction in Candida yeasts By CONNOR MCGUIGAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

In a laboratory on the fifth floor of the Biomedical Center, a group of University researchers carefully observes sexual acts that have never before been witnessed by humans. Associate Professor of Biology Richard Bennett investigates the sexual cycle of Candida yeasts, a group of unicellular fungi notorious for infecting humans. In the last two months, he and his colleagues have published two papers that detail aspects of sexuality in Candida species. The lab is dedicated to exploring Candida biology, but Bennett says there is an additional motivation to his research on fungal sex: It may help humans fight infection. Candida pose little threat to healthy humans — they often reside in people’s guts. But when the immune system is impaired or the yeasts move into places where they are not supposed to be, they can cause serious infection. Stephen Jones GS, a doctoral student in the Bennett Lab, said Candida infection is an acute issue in hospitals because the patients have weakened immune systems. While visiting the hospital for one condition, patients can develop an infection if hospital surfaces are infested with the fungus. “Secondary (Candida) infections end up being more deadly than the initial condition they came into the

clinic for,” Jones said. When Bennett began studying Candida yeast, virtually every species in the group was classified as completely asexual. Scientists simply never observed them having sex — reproducing by exchanging genetic information. Instead, these fungi were thought to reproduce exclusively by producing identical copies of themselves through a process called budding. Fourteen years ago, a lab in which Bennett worked was the first group to observe sex in Candida albicans. Bennett eventually formed his own lab, and continues to debunk the notion of Candida asexuality. “The more and more we study these species, the more we find examples of species that have the ability to do sex,” Bennett said. He now suspects that most Candida species can reproduce by swapping genetic material. Mating often occurs in “sexual biofilms,” mat-like Candida communities bound to a surface. These outgrowths show up on hospital appliances and can be difficult to eradicate, as they adhere firmly to the material. Jones, who investigates sexual biofilm formation, compared the communities to a “club,” where “social lubrication” leads to mating. But in sexual biofilms, sexual pheromones take the place of alcohol as the social lubricant. Mating occurs when two yeasts send out projections from their cell body, which fuse and form a sort of bridge through which genetic information is transferred. Maintaining the machinery necessary for sex requires energy and can

be costly for yeasts. Bennett said he believes there must be some benefit to maintaining the ability to have sex under certain conditions. He detailed these benefits of sex in a review article published this month in the journal Nature. Candida infections are often found in the mouth or skin of humans, where they face a hostile environment. The yeasts must withstand the human immune system and antifungal treatment to grow. To survive, they must adapt. Occasional sexual reproduction, which shuffles genes and gives rise to new combinations, may be beneficial to the yeast, as it allows Candida to quickly evolve in response to a host’s defenses. “In general, sexual reproduction is a way to adapt to a changing environment,” Bennett said. Joseph Heitman, director of the Center for Microbial Pathogenesis at Duke University, said understanding yeast sexual reproduction “is likely central … to the development of drug resistance against widely used antifungal drugs.” He added that Bennett and Jones’ review “covers a very broad view of the field.” Bennett said his lab’s theory regarding the benefits of fungal sex fits what scientists have observed so far, but the picture of fungal sex is still emerging. He noted that Jones examined the mechanisms of sex in a species believed to be asexual just two years ago in a different paper this year. Bennett also said he was interested in looking at how fungal sex plays out inside our bodies, rather than in a petri dish. “We know a lot about it in vitro. … We know a lot less about where this happens in humans.”

UCS/UFB elections are now open. Voting ends Thursday, April 10 at noon.