Thursday, April 10, 2014

THE

BROWN DAILY HERALD vol. cxlix, no. 49

since 1891

THURSDAY, APRIL 10, 2014

Students confront substance dependency UCS expresses support for Campus support systems student on Corporation include deans, peer groups like Alcoholics Anonymous

Council votes unanimously to back resolution, with no members voicing concerns

By EMMAJEAN HOLLEY AND EMILY WOOLDRIDGE SENIOR STAFF WRITERS

By CAROLINE KELLY

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

SENIOR STAFF WRITER

UNDER THE INFLUENCE On a perfect April afternoon, Fred, then a first-year, was stoned for the first time.

By the end of May, he was smoking on a near-daily basis. After a few months, Fred “greened over the cliff.” He was smoking at least three joints a day by winter break of his sophomore year.

Fred, a junior whose name has been changed to maintain confidentiality, said he didn’t realize that “the short-term pleasure and immediate gratification smoking gave” him would lead to a habit that spiraled out of control.

Fred identifies as someone who has struggled with addiction. But according » See DEPENDENCY, page 2

ANGELIA WANG / HERALD

One student said his dependence on substances made him feel like he was trapped in an “unfurnished hell that you can never leave.”

The Undergraduate Council of Students passed a resolution in support of the student group working to add an undergraduate representative to the Corporation at its general body meeting Wednesday.

UCS President Todd Harris ’14.5 will present the document entitled “UCS Statement of Support for Students on the Corporation” to the Corporation, the University’s highest governing body, at its May meeting.

After considering the resolution for around 20 minutes, the Council members unanimously approved the measure.

The paragraph-length document is meant to show general UCS support, rather than provide a blueprint outlining the specific steps the Council

will take to further the group’s goals, Harris said. “It makes a more powerful statement to say that we’re all behind an issue that we want to work with the Corporation on solving,” he added.

“This is something that everyone can get on board with and say is important,” said Alex Drechsler ’15, chair of the UCS Student Activities committee, leader of the student group pursuing an undergraduate Corporation representative and UCS vice presidential candidate. “Details are something that we can figure out in the future,” he added.

Though the Council’s decision serves as an indicator of undergraduate support, the group also plans on reaching out to the Graduate Student Council and the Medical Student Senate to solicit additional student input and support. These interactions with other student governments could generate more material to present to the Corporation at its October meeting.

The Council also passed a resolution endorsing the goals of Inertia, a student group aiming to support students of color studying science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

R.I. could see first woman, TAPS professor bows out after 28 years Latino or Asian governor

By LINDSAY GANTZ STAFF WRITER

Though Rhode Islanders have never elected a person of color or a woman to the governor’s office, the upcoming gubernatorial contest offers the state an opportunity to buck this trend.

General Treasurer Gina Raimondo would be the state’s first female elected governor, Providence Mayor Angel Taveras the first Latino American and Cranston Mayor Allan Fung the first Asian American. In the state, Taveras was the first Latino mayor, Fung the first Asian American mayor and Raimondo the first Democratic female treasurer.

Over the past decade, minority populations have been growing, according to the Equity Profile of Rhode Island, prepared by the University of Southern California Program for Environmental and Regional Equity, which outlines demographic trends in the state and analyzes disparities across socioeconomic groups. The Latino population of Rhode Island has grown by 44 percent in the past ten years, and the Asian American

inside

METRO

and African American populations have grown by 28 and 23 percent, respectively, according to the report.

But these minority groups remain underrepresented among Rhode Island’s elected officials.

“I think there is definitely a lack of representation,” said Pablo Rodriguez, president of Latino Public Radio. “In terms of Latinos, we have an increasing presence in the workforce and an increasing percentage of children.”

Having a diverse range of candidates with a wealth of experience and knowledge will allow different people to be represented, said Mary Grace Almandrez, assistant dean of the College and director of the Third World Center.

“I don’t see the needs of their specific community being exclusive to the needs of all communities,” Almandrez said. “What they determine to be important may be informed by their background,” she added.

“Issues of women are important for the health of the economy,” said Tricia Rose, director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America and professor of Africana studies, adding that leadership in state government has historically been male-dominated.

“We are really excited to see more women get involved,” said Allie Schaefer ’17, vice president of the Brown » See DIVERSITY, page 3

TOM SULLIVAN / HERALD

Retiring Theater and Performing Arts Professor Lowry Marshall has taught Pullitzer Prize winners and Tony-nominated actors.

Students laud Lowry Marshall’s mentorship, performance insights and commitment to U. theater

By CAMILLA BRANDFIELD-HARVEY SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Lowry Marshall moved about her cluttered office, highlighting the several photographs and promotional posters that adorn it. “You know who that is,” she said, as she passed by a photograph of her and Morgan Freeman. A photo of Marshall and Paul Sills, a founder of the Second City in Chicago, leans against books on her shelf, next to a magazine cutout of John Krasinski ’01 resting on a large frame.

“John’s first role at Brown was in drag in my production of Tennesse Williams’ ‘Camino Real,’” she said.

Marshall, professor of theater arts and performance studies, marvels at many posters of past shows and photos of former students, who are now Pulitzer Prize winners, Tonynominated actors and graduates of the world’s most prestigious MFA programs. Through various Theater and Performing Arts classes and the summer theater program she established, Marshall helped to nurture

Metro

Commentary Sindhu MD ‘17: NCAA athletes deserve stipends and improved education

Upadhyay ’15: The negative effects of the Affordable Care Act are obscured by policy victory

Two Brown alums, Aaron Regunberg ’12 and Heather TowYick ’98 are vying for district seat

Failure of pension settlement negatively impacts gubernatorial candidate’s political campign

PAGE 7

PAGE 7

PAGE 8

PAGE 8

weather

Gubernatorial contestants reflect diversity of state’s changing demographics

each of their voices.

After 28 years of teaching and directing at the University, Marshall has recently announced her retirement.

Though Marshall tends to shine a spotlight on her students and their remarkable evolutions as actors and writers, not dwell on herself, many students said Marshall has been integral to their development and to the advancement of Brown’s theater program.

“If you’re interested in doing theater, you come to Brown knowing who Lowry is,” said Skylar Fox ’15.

Fox performed in Marshall’s productions of “Lady Windermere’s Fan” in the fall of 2011 and in “A Streetcar Named Desire” last semester. He has also taken her TAPS 0230: “Acting” and TAPS 1160: “Style and Performance” courses.

“Before I met Lowry, she was this character that I had heard about,” said Josh Linden ’14, who has taken “Acting” and TAPS 1210: “Solo Performance” with Marshall. “There’s a Lowry vernacular that gets passed around the community.”

Marshall has become so famous within the theater community that her students have recorded “Lowry-isms” and developed impersonations that don’t always resemble the real figure.

“You can’t talk about Lowry without a southern accent,” said Alex Lee ’14, a Brown/RISD dual degree student. “There’s a Lowry impression, but Lowry doesn’t sound like it,” added » See MARSHALL, page 3 t o d ay

tomorrow

56 / 45

66 / 45

2 university news

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD THURSDAY, APRIL 10, 2014

» DEPENDENCY, from page 1 to the diagnostic criteria and varying expert opinions, the boundaries between abuse, dependence and addiction are often cloudy.

A survey from the 2012-2013 academic year found that at least once a month roughly 25 percent of University students smoke marijuana and 80 percent drink alcohol, according to University data. A smaller subset of students lurk in the shadows of these numbers — those who become dependent on chemical substances.

“Chemical dependence is a diagnostic term used by health professionals to refer to what the general population would call ‘addiction,’” wrote Kathleen McSharry, dean of chemical dependency, in an email to The Herald. Chemical dependence is characterized by a loss of control over frequency of use and dosage levels as well as a craving for the substance, she wrote.

Until last year, substance abuse and dependence were distinct categories in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. This understanding changed when the DSM’s fifth edition collapsed these categories into the mildto-severe continuum of “substance use disorder,” said Jane Metrik, assistant professor of behavioral and social sciences.

But the criteria put forth in the DSM “were not designed with a residential college student in mind,” she said.

Each year, McSharry sees approximately 50 students who come to her wanting to cut back on alcohol or other substance use, generally providing “moderate or intensive support” to roughly 12 of these students who are attempting to maintain total sobriety, she wrote.

McSharry works with more students who are struggling with alcohol problems than with marijuana, which she believes “reflects patterns of use in the student population,” she wrote.

“Brown has a very small number of undergraduate students who have accepted a diagnosis of chemical dependency,” McSharry wrote.

“We don’t place a heavy emphasis on specific diagnoses,” said Sherri Nelson, director of Psychological Services, which provides counseling for students struggling with mental health issues, including substance dependence. Psychological Services’ assessment of a student’s substance abuse problem instead depends on how it impedes that student’s ability to function academically and socially, she said.

The college bubbler “When I was headed over to the party, I was like, ‘I’m only going to have

ANGELIA WANG / HERALD

Brown is the only university in the country with a dean of chemical dependency. About 50 students per year seek help cutting back on substance use from Kathleen McSharry, who currently holds the position. a couple drinks,’” Paul said, but “it was never enough.”

One night last fall, during one of his worst relapses, Paul woke up drunk with scratches on his knees and over thirty marks on his arm, one for each drink he had consumed the previous night.

Paul, a senior whose name has been changed to maintain confidentiality, still doesn’t know what happened that night.

Paul started imbibing heavily when he was young — he was only 12 when he first blacked out from drinking. Alcohol helped him deal with his anxieties, he said.

At Brown, he drank with friends at pregames, but said he might as well have been drinking alone. “It wasn’t about going to the party or having a good time, it was about drinking and smoking,” Paul said.

In residential college communities, the perception of what constitutes normal drug use is skewed, Fred said.

At first, “I was smoking and still doing totally fine in school,” Fred said. “I knew many, many people who did the same thing.”

The flexibility granted to residential college students can help expedite drug dependency due to a lack of “real-world consequences,” McSharry said.

Jordan, a first-year whose name has been changed to maintain confidentiality, said he appreciates the lax attitude toward marijuana on campus, especially since high school had “an awful detrimental impact on (his) psyche” and “killed (his)

creativity.”

“This society works so hard to make me closed-minded, and drugs are one efficient and accessible way to counteract that,” he said.

After a month-and-a-half streak of staying clean over summer vacation, Fred couldn’t resist smoking when he returned to Brown.

“If you go back to where your problem started, the environment is triggering,” McSharry told The Herald.

On College Hill, McSharry said students are most likely to acknowledge drug dependency during their sophomore or senior years. “Sophomore year is the first hump, when students who used a lot in high school and their first year of college start to struggle academically and come to Brown’s attention,” McSharry said. Students who ask for help during their final semesters “are usually not in trouble, but they recognize their drug use is not consistent with their future goals.”

A ‘furnished hell’ Red flags begin to flutter when a student devotes a disproportionate amount of time to a substance at the expense of academics and other commitments, McSharry said.

Fred started focusing on extracurriculars he could do while high, and his grades began to slip. The decline led to stress, which he coped with by smoking more. Though he was aware of his family’s strong history of alcoholism, he never expected that it would predispose him to

a dependence on marijuana.

Genes are a major player in the development of all substance abuse disorders, Metrik said.

When Fred noticed his appetite had become virtually nonexistent when he was sober, he realized something was wrong.

“One of the most elemental ways to survive wasn’t an instinct to me unless I was high,” he said. “That was a huge wake-up call.”

For Jordan, drug use that felt like “fits of joy and ecstasy, shedding a layer of skin and being reborn” soon induced bouts of pessimism. He realized that the happiness that comes with marijuana is “fleeting.”

At first, smoking serves as a way to deal with problems, but “then you’re having more problems that stem from this plant,” Jordan said.

The constant need to return to a substance often leads to introversion, which Jordan said feels like a “furnished hell that you can never leave.”

“I used to study until I would go to sleep, but now I study until it’s time to smoke,” said Michael, a sophomore whose name has been changed to maintain confidentiality.

Even when students make the choice to put down the joint, they face another obstacle — withdrawal symptoms.

“If someone dependent on marijuana abruptly quits using, withdrawal symptoms may develop between 24 to 48 hours later,” Metrik said, adding that symptoms like anger, irritability, anxiety, decreased appetite, weight loss, nervousness and difficulty sleeping typically resolve in about one or two weeks.

When Fred forced himself to stop smoking for one month last year, he said it was “probably the lowest” point in his life. He suffered multiple breakdowns and his outlook on life “just (went) to the gutter,” causing him to quickly relapse.

Michael recently challenged himself to abstain from smoking for a week “to see if I could do it and to see if it would

help me cut down,” he said.

During that week, he noticed a slight increase in his stress level, difficulty falling asleep as well as cravings, though he said none of these symptoms were particularly challenging to deal with. Still, when the week was over, he immediately returned to his normal levels of use.

Some students don’t experience withdrawal symptoms, Metrik said, though the absence of symptoms does not mean they are not dependent upon a substance.

Road to recovery The University’s resources and policies surrounding drug dependency are predicated on “an educational harmreduction model,” McSharry said.

“As far as resources go for students with drug dependency, Brown is better than most schools,” she said, citing on-campus support groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous and the Early Sobriety Group as safe spaces for students to discuss their substance use disorders.

“Brown is the only school in the country to have a dean of chemical dependency,” she added.

The Early Sobriety Group is a resource specifically for Brown students who choose “to abstain from substances.”

The group “connects students with others who do not use,” creating an environment conducive to avoiding past drug habits, McSharry said.

Paul met with McSharry the first day he stepped on campus. A week before leaving for college, Paul told his mother he was scared — he didn’t know if he would be able to stay sober. They searched for resources online and easily found the Early Sobriety Group.

Members of the Early Sobriety Group were “the biggest support in my freshman year,” Paul said. “I was locked in as soon as I got here — within a week I had eight really close friends that understood me.”

For Paul, chapters of AA, both on campus and in the Providence » See DEPENDENCY, page 3

university news 3

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD THURSDAY, APRIL 10, 2014

» DEPENDENCY, from page 2 community, have been another source of support throughout his addiction and recovery.

Paul said AA “cultivates a spiritual experience,” for him.

Even with the University’s support networks, the stigma attached to drug dependency prevents some students from seeking help.

Fred decided to seek out on-campus resources to help him stay clean. But even after speaking with McSharry, he was under the impression that there was no peer support group for students struggling with substance problems, he said.

A little help from my friends Alex, a first-year whose name has been changed to maintain confidentiality, said he would always smell marijuana when returning to his room late at night.

“I wondered if he just started or started six hours ago,” he said, referring to his roommate.

Alex had never met someone who smoked as much as his first-year roommate before coming to college. Alex “didn’t have a problem with anyone smoking,” but grew concerned when he became aware of weed’s potent effect on his roommate’s behavior.

“My roommate that smokes and roommate that doesn’t smoke are two completely different people,” Alex said about his roommate’s dual behavior.

Alex struggled internally for a solution but ultimately avoided confronting his roommate in order to maintain a peaceful living environment.

He sometimes wonders if he is passing on the opportunity to help a friend, feeling that his subtle attempts to address his roommate’s behavior have been

» DIVERSITY, from page 1 University Republicans. Though no Republican women are running in the gubernatorial race, Rep. Doreen Costa, R-Exeter and North Kingstown, Deputy Minority Leader Rep. Patricia Morgan, R-Coventry, Warwick and West Warwick, and political newcomer Ana Santana are among the Republican candidates running for House seats this fall.

“Women have had a very difficult time winning statewide office,” said Marion Orr, director of the Taubman Center for Public Policy and American Institutions and professor of political science, adding that Taveras is the first serious Latino gubernatorial candidate in Rhode Island’s history. Taubman Center polls from Oct. 9 indicated Taveras’ increasing popularity across the state of Rhode Island, he said.

There have previously been female candidates for the state’s executive office — Myrth York, a former Rhode Island state senator made three unsuccessful bids as a Democrat for the governor’s seat. York endorsed Raimondo in March.

“I think it is very important that two-thirds of the candidates would be breaking the status quo of Rhode Island, especially given that demographics in Rhode Island are changing,” said Joshua Bronk ’16, intern for the Taveras campaign.

A variety of constituencies are pushing to have their issues addressed, and increased diversity in government would encourage a more holistic approach to these challenges, Bronk said.

ineffective.

Many students become discouraged if their efforts to help a friend dealing with dependence don’t lead to immediate changes in behavior, McSharry said.

McSharry said she advises students to talk to a professional “to develop a script” and “adopt an attitude of curiosity” rather than condemnation to help a friend with drug dependence.

“I try to help students understand that what they achieve is very modest,” while reminding them that even if change isn’t immediately noticeable “there is always an impact,” she said.

A random phone call from her older brother made Kerry, a first-year student who said she smokes on a nearly daily basis, consider quitting.

“He told me, ‘I don’t like smoking because I don’t like feeling happy for no reason — I want to be happy because I’m doing work I’m proud of, because I’m hanging out with cool friends,’” Kerry said. “That really resonated.”

Fred, who is now six months sober, said he would not have accomplished this feat without his friends.

Michael does not plan to curb his smoking in the near future. “I haven’t had any concrete goals, just a sort of floating ‘oh, I should smoke less’ concept. I guess my problem now is that my priorities are a little skewed because of how much I smoke,” he said, adding that he plans to cut down at some point but that he does not think his current smoking habits will “severely impact” his life “in the long run.”

Paul has been sober for three months, but he still attends Alcoholics Anonymous meetings nearly every day. The space where he addressed his addiction has become a place for Paul to help others struggling with drug dependency.

Increased voter participation may be an important aspect of the election, Almandrez said, adding that citizens “can empower themselves by educated voting.”

“I’m very, very interested in education and how it will lead to community members being fuller participants. I would like to see the candidates talk more about education reform,” Almandrez said.

Elizabeth Burke Bryant, executive director of Rhode Island KIDS COUNT — a nonprofit organization that works to improve the outcomes of the children in Rhode Island — said that she is excited that issues related to children are already being addressed. She said she hopes expanding access to early childhood education, boosting Head Start program funding, closing the achievement gap and supporting low-income students will remain important topics throughout the election.

The health care and education systems in Rhode Island remain underdeveloped, said Jing Yi ’13, who said she observed some of these challenges while working with the Rhode Island Free Clinic, an organization providing healthcare to low-income individuals. “The resources are not catering to the needs of the Spanishspeaking population,” Yi added.

Changing demographics in Rhode Island may influence the political climate of this election season, Orr said.

Minority voters in particular may significantly influence the outcome of the state’s elections. “We see that in the way candidates reach out to minority groups,” he added.

» MARSHALL, from page 1 Alejandra Flavia ’14. Flavia and Lee have taken Marshall’s beginner and advanced classes, participated in her summer theater program and worked closely with her on the Sock and Buskin board.

Before arriving at Brown in 1986, Marshall attended the University of South Carolina. She worked as an actor in New York before she returned to school to earn her MFA from Florida State University/Asolo Conservatory.

She also taught at Kalamazoo College in Michigan and coordinated the MFA program at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro.

Marshall did all this while raising twin toddlers, Logan MarshallGreen — who is now known for his performances on “The O.C.” and in the film “Prometheus” — and Taylor Marshall-Green — a reality television producer who currently produces the show “My Cat from Hell” on Animal Planet.

Reflecting on simultaneously studying for her MFA and raising her sons, Marshall said, “I depended on the kindness of strangers, as Blanche DuBois would say, and I got a lot of good strangers who helped me out.”

When Marshall earned a teaching position at the University in 1986, she moved with her young twins to Cranston. Once at Brown, Marshall founded the annual Alumni Cabaret, which brings together past and present performers for commencement, and started the Brown/Trinity Playwrights Repertory Theatre in 2005. She also established “Solo Performance,” a class that culminates in a festival of solo shows.

Lee said “Solo” is the best class she has taken at Brown. “It’s a different beast,” she said. “You come into class every day, you cut your heart out, and

you put it on the table, and everybody has to touch your heart.”

In the class, students work with Marshall over the course of the semester to write and produce a 50-55 minute solo show. Though students write one-character shows, they work collaboratively. “Solo but not alone” is the class’s motto, which is also emblazoned on all of the shows’ promotional posters.

Additionally, with Marshall’s guidance and superior perception, the course becomes “half acting class, half psychoanalysis,” Linden said.

Marshall’s students said she has an astonishing intuition and knows exactly what actors or scenes require.

“She’s a very practical, intelligent thinker about how things function on stage, how people function on stage,” Fox said, adding that Marshall provides “a map for how to work as an actor and director.”

Marshall also employs this instinct in her productions. She pays close attention to every detail on a stage, said Anna Reed ’15, who has taken “Acting,” performed in “Lady Windermere’s Fan” and starred as Blanche DuBois in “Streetcar.”

To prepare for “Streetcar,” Marshall traveled to New Orleans the summer before rehearsals began. She wanted to understand the city that playwright Tennessee Williams conceptualized.

“There’s not a lot of truth in the way Williams deals with the geography in New Orleans. He moves things around,” Marshall said. So she returned to the city to follow his footsteps.

“I felt like I was on his tail the whole time. I was chasing behind him, going to places where he had written the play itself, seeing the restaurants and eating in the restaurants, one where he had been a waiter,” she said. “I felt him come to life in New

Orleans.”

In addition to understanding the intention of the author and the demands of the text, Marshall has the capacity to recognize the needs of her students and to mentor accordingly. When Marshall noticed Reed’s rigid physicality as Blanche — what she called “Velcro arms’’ — Marshall encouraged Reed to wear gloves, Reed said. Reed then wore large, red gloves for the latter half of the rehearsal process and soon realized what she did with her hands during each delivery.

Many of Marshall’s students had these revelatory experiences. Flavia said, “It was with Lowry that I discovered what kind of actor I was.”

For Reed, Marshall’s acting class “taught me what it took to be an actor.

Prior to all of that, acting was very much putting on a mask and working outer to inner.”

Students said working with Marshall pushed them to find their dramatic voices for writing or to develop deeper identities for acting. And Marshall believes Brown students in particular have a special intellectual capacity to do so.

“Brown is the best place in the country to teach acting,” Marshall said. “The people who come here to do theater come because they want the intellectual stimulation of a place like Brown.”

Unlike in other bachelors of fine arts programs, “We teach our students what to say,” she added. “They have something to say rather than know how to say something.”

The success of the students’ performances and solo productions are due in part to student talent, but Marshall is always at the core. “You couldn’t write Brown’s history of acting without Lowry being one of its protagonists,” Reed said.

4 university news

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD THURSDAY, APRIL 10, 2014

Lecture examines balance between civil liberties, suppression of racism

RYAN WALSH / HERALD

Erik Bleich ’91, professor of political science at Middlebury College, cited Germany’s ban on Holocaust denial speech in 1990 to demonstrate how history and politics influence legislation.

Professor highlights shift from protecting democratic liberties toward fighting racism, discrimination

By EMILY DUPUIS STAFF WRITER

“How much freedom should racists have?” asked Erik Bleich ’91, professor of political science at Middlebury College, in his Wednesday lecture that explored how the United States and Europe strive to combat racism without infringing on citizens’ rights.

The talk was the fourth and final

installment of a lecture series entitled “Antisemitism and Islamophobia” inspired by a course in the Judaic Studies department of the same name. The lecture drew around 20 undergraduates in the class to Petteruti Lounge and was followed by a discussion sesssion including Bleich and class members.

Bleich explained why “different countries have gone in different directions” with legislation that aims to curb

racism. Bleich also spoke about how much freedom is currently granted to racists — in domains such as freedom of speech, freedom of association and freedom of opinion — and how much freedom they should be allowed in the future.

The “overarching historical pattern” since World War II has been a movement away from protecting freedom and toward fighting racism, he said, with countries moving “at varying speeds in different domains.”

Bleich pointed to Great Britain and Germany as representative of the

national differences in approaches to curtailing racism. Great Britain passed three laws on race relations in the 1960s and the 1970s restricting racial discrimination and certain forms of racial speech, in addition to banning incitement to racial hatred.

“If your words incite action, the action itself is criminal,” Bleich said. “It’s different in these laws … racial hatred is an opinion, (but) if you’re inciting an opinion, even a legal one, you are deemed to be contravening the law.”

Britain has passed more restrictions since the 1970s, including a 1991 law that instituted additional penalties for racial motives in aggravated offenses, Bleich said.

Germany has taken a different path in checking racism. Though the country has enacted measures against certain kinds of racist speech, particularly Holocaust denials, it has fewer limitations on racist discrimination and hate crimes.

The United States, in an “important contrast,” has expanded freedom for racist speech, he said.

“Americans tend to think, haven’t we always had this radical freedom of racist speech? Isn’t that part of our Constitution?” Bleich said.

But these freedoms are not written into the Constitution, and the freedom to say “whatever horribly offensive racist thing we want in public” actually stems from a series of Supreme Court decisions from the 1920s through the 1970s, he said.

The United States has been “internally inconsistent” by restricting freedom of opinion as motive “further and faster than any other country” while at the same time allowing more racist speech, he said.

America “is the leader in restricting racial discrimination and a leader at the state level in passing hate crime laws,” Bleich said. “America decided that these forms of racism are dangerous, destructive and unacceptable.”

The reason for different outcomes in different countries is Bleich’s theory of “context and confluence,” which focuses on “shifts in multiple interacting variables at a particular moment in time,” he said.

Governments “can’t make policy change at any moment at any time in any country, there have to be certain windows of opportunity that open or critical junctures that come together to allow it,” Bleich added.

Bleich used the German laws passed in the 1990s banning Holocaust denial to illustrate his theory. Simultaneous factors — such as a spark in racist activity throughout the world, international pressure on Germany to pass such laws and the legal ambiguity of previous Holocaust denial laws — merged to create a climate where such laws could be passed in Germany.

Bleich also stressed the importance of considering the effects of racismrestricting laws.

“If these anti-racist laws radically restrict important freedoms, then they’re a big problem, but in most cases they don’t,” he said. “The way in which these laws have been enforced has not been heavy-handed; it has not been oppressive.”

Restricting liberty can be justified when it prevents harm to others, Bleich said, noting that while some kinds of harm are measurable, such as when an individual suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from a hate crime, racism that creates an atmosphere of hatred is “harder to judge.”

In resolving the tension between limiting racism and supporting freedoms, it is necessary to “focus on democracy and liberal democracy, mobilize people, challenge opinions, try to convince them and get them on your side,” Bleich said. “It’s a way to think about balancing any two core values.”

Margot Hauer ’15 said she appreciated Bleich’s idea of “context and confluence,” adding that she was interested in how this idea applied to the postHolocaust era.

Elayne Oliphant GS, a post-doctoral student studying religious studies, said she read Bleich’s book entitled “The Freedom to Be Racist” before attending the lecture and “loved the model of a public engagement with the author.”

“It’s such a different experience from reading books or discussing books in class,” she added. “It gives the author a chance to make (his) case.”

» RAIMONDO, from page 8

While other Democratic gubernatorial candidates contractor Todd Giroux and political newcomer Clay Pell have not released any extensive policy plans, Taveras has promoted three proposals over the past several months on early childhood education, pay equity for women in the state and a hike of the state’s minimum wage.

settlement “an embarrassing chapter in Rhode Island’s history,” placing partial blame on the mediation between the unions and Democratic politicians, which aimed to “work out an agreement behind closed doors to change the law,” in a March 25 Providence Journal op-ed.

today 5

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD THURSDAY, APRIL 10, 2014

menu SHARPE REFECTORY

ta n k t i m e VERNEY-WOOLLEY

LUNCH Lentil Croquettes with Spicy Raita, Hot Turkey Sandwich with Gravy, Tortellini Angelica, Dill Potato Salad

Gourmet Roast Turkey Sandwich, Ginger Sugar Snap Peas and Carrots, White Chocolate Chip Cookies

DINNER Chicken Vegetable Pasta Saute, Slow Roast Pork Loin with Herbs, Braised Fennel, Grasshopper Cheesecake

Chicken Helene, Vegan Siena Roasted Couscous, Stir Fry Indian Curry with Chicken, Zucchini with Corn

JOSIAH’S

THREE BURNERS

QUESADILLA OR GRILLED CHEESE

Stuffed French Toast

Made-to-Order Quesadilla

BLUE ROOM

SOUPS

DINNER ENTREES

Corn Chowder, Hearty Country Vegetable, and Turkey Chili

Mango Chicken with Veggies, Vegetable Tikka Masala

sudoku

ASHLEY SO / HERALD

Professional airbrush artists designed Spring Weekend tanks for students Wednesday afternoon. The event, held on the Main Green, was sponsored by the Stephen Robert ’62 Campus Center.

comics Class Notes | Philip Trammell ’15

RELEASE DATE– Thursday, April 10, 2014

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle c rNorris o s sandwJoyce o rNichols d Lewis Edited by Rich ACROSS 1 “Find your own road” automaker 5 Bitter disagreement 11 26-Across download 14 Minuscule lake plant 15 Wee hr.

16 Dude 17 RASPBERRY 20 Vampire’s bane 21 T-man, e.g.

22 Courageous 23 Hermey of TV’s “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” e.g.

25 Take out 26 BLACKBERRY 32 Newtonian elements?

33 Is ready for business 34 Big runners 35 Bustle 36 Natural resource 37 Educational org.

38 Chloé fragrance maker 40 Good-sized chamber ensemble 42 Baseball family name 43 HUCKLEBERRY 46 Goal line play 47 Kitchen tool 48 Like wasted milk in Westminster 49 Its HQ is named for George Bush 52 Schisms and chasms 56 STRAWBERRY 59 __ kwon do 60 Sherlock Holmes’ instrument 61 Small case 62 Wanted-poster letters 63 Use 64 Percolate DOWN 1 Fresh answers, say 2 Oodles 3 Lago contents

4 Ones showing varying amounts of interest?

5 Facility about 350 miles NW of LAX 6 Beau Brummel, for one 7 Brusque 8 Steamed 9 Word with cry or out 10 Future citizen, perhaps 11 Not particularly challenging 12 “Law & Order” figure 13 County fair mount 18 Mark of rejection 19 Like James Bond 24 Ubiquitous insurance spokeswoman 25 To whom reporters report: Abbr.

26 Dracula feature 27 Brainstorming cry 28 Historical segment 29 Simmons competitor

30 Show contempt 31 Son of Isaac 32 Fundamental of science 39 Harvest output 40 Spider-Man nemesis Doc __ 41 Select 42 Occasionally 44 From around here 45 Podiatrist’s concern

48 Mlle., in Monterrey 49 Recipe verb 50 Cruise destination 51 Related 53 You’ve got it coming 54 “No argument here” 55 Ignore 57 Pack quantity 58 Senator Sanders of Vt., on ballots

Bacterial Culture | Dana Schwartz ’15

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

calendar TODAY

APRIL 10

5 P.M. SPEC PRESENTS: CARNIVAL 2014 xwordeditor@aol.com

04/10/14

The Special Events Committee kicks off Spring Weekend with its annual carnival. The carnival is SPEC’s largest event of the semester, and includes free food, inflatable rides and student group performances. Main Green 7 P.M. PERFORMANCE: CAMP SANCTUARY

The Department of Africana Studies’ Rites and Reasons Theatre puts on “Camp Sanctuary,” written by Nicholas Donias ’12, as part of the 2014 Black Lavendar Experience. The play follows the story of a Chicano youth, whose parents send him to a gay conversion camp in Mexico. Churchill House

TOMORROW

APRIL 11

4 P.M. AMERICAN PROMISE: FILM SCREENING AND PANEL DISCUSSION

American Promise, a documentary, follows the experiences of two middle-class African American parents in Brooklyn, N.Y. whose sons enroll in a prestigious private school. Smith-Buonano 106 5 P.M. ARCHIVING ELECTRONIC MUSIC CULTURES: PROCESS, PEDAGOGIES, AND POLITICS

Tara Rodgers, composer and theorist, will share her insights from the Pink Noises project, which promotes women in electronic music. Rodgers will also introduce her two new projects, an artist book and digital archive. Granoff Center

By Jeffrey Wechsler (c)2014 Tribune Content Agency, LLC

04/10/14

for the Creative Arts, Martinos Auditorium

6 commentary

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD THURSDAY, APRIL 10, 2014

EDITORIAL

A Civil Service G.I. Bill The Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944 (known as the G.I. Bill) is widely recognized as a major driver of the postwar growth that also changed the character of American universities. Over 2 million veterans used funding from this bill to pursue higher education, while other veterans received low-cost loans or unemployment insurance. As of 2009, the updated G.I. Bill, known as the Post-9/11 G.I. Bill, applies to any veteran or active member who has served at least 90 days since Sept. 11, 2001, or 30 days prior to a service-connected disability. Those who served at least three years (or were disabled) receive full tuition for four years at any public two- or four-year school that grants degrees. Veterans are also entitled to stipends for housing, books and other academic expenses.

As tuition costs, even at state institutions, continue to rise, it is imperative that we create other avenues for students to work toward college scholarships.

Students should not have to serve in the military to receive help in attending college if they come from families with fewer resources. Elite institutions with large endowments can provide generous aid (and should, in our opinion, provide more), but the vast majority of students do not attend schools with these resources. Even encouraging students to opt-out of private schools for less expensive options at public schools is insufficient, as state funding cuts have shifted tuition burdens onto these schools’ students and, leaving public colleges with significant funding gaps. Students should have another option — to engage in civil service so they do not have to burden themselves or their families with overwhelming costs.

There is international precedent for this kind of reward for civil service.

While we would only support non-mandatory programs, some nations still have some form of mandatory service. In Germany, roughly 90,000 men per year pursue noncombat military work, civil service or foreign development. In Taiwan, all men over 18 spend two years serving, but they may opt to instead pursue other opportunities, such as environmental work or service abroad as goodwill ambassadors. In the United States, we have a model in AmeriCorps, which employs 80,000 people per year working in nonprofits. We could have recent high school grads repairing our crumbling infrastructure, aiding in schools, helping senior citizens or serving any other needs that our nation has. There are many avenues that students who are so inclined could pursue.

Aside from the community benefits of such a program, students themselves would gain as well. Most students entering college do not know what they want to pursue, and often lack real-world experience or any concept of what interests them. A student volunteering in a tutoring program could decide to pursue teaching, or a student working on repairing infrastructure could develop an interest in plumbing, for example, and go on to pursue vocational training. In any event, most students stand to benefit from a few years of work before making decisions that could affect their future careers, especially if they receive tuition assistance as a result. While we would strongly urge that such a program be voluntary, we think that the existence of a pre-college civil service volunteer program could repair community deficiencies while giving incoming college students access to tuition and time after high school to figure out what to do with their lives. It would be a worthwhile national investment on many levels.

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.

www.browndailyherald.com

K I M B E R LY S A LT Z

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Article misleads on campus consumption To the Editor: We write to offer a broader perspective on the University’s work to address alcohol and substance use, in response to the article by Riley Davis and Joseph Zappa (“Drinking it in: Alcohol culture draws new scrutiny,” April 9). We appreciate the authors’ clear description of Emergency Medical Services and how well they are embraced by students. However, the article did not articulate the overall context of harm reduction in which the University’s policies and programs are based, nor did it mention other services and programs available on campus.

Health Education offers many programs, educational materials and an extensive web site, all of which are designed to provide students with accurate information and harm reduction strategies. Residential Life and the Residential Peer Leaders work to create respectful communities in which alcohol and other drug use are not disruptive. Student Activities staff work with student organizations to emphasize broad appeal and safety in event planning and implementation. Dean of Chemical Dependency Kathleen McSharry provides support for students in recovery and educates the campus community about the impact of alcohol and other drugs. The Office of Student Life and Psychological Services also regularly supports students whose lives are disrupted by substance abuse. And the Student Conduct system addresses incidents in which a student’s alcohol or drug use causes individual or community harm.

Perceptions of use are always higher than what is actually true. For example, Brown students believe that 87 percent of their peers have smoked marijuana in the past 30 days, far more than the 25 percent who have. It’s unfortunate that the authors of this article relied so heavily on a few anonymous interviews. In doing so, they have contributed

Editorial Leadership

Sections

Visuals & Production

Business

Editor-in-Chief Eli Okun

Arts & Culture Editors Katherine Cusumano Andrew Smyth

Design Editors Brisa Bodell Einat Brenner Assistant: Loren Dowd Assistant: Carlie Peters Assistant: Taylor Schwartz Assistant: Sean Simonson

General Managers Jennifer Aitken Nicole Shimer

Managing Editors Mathias Heller Sona Mkrttchian Adam Toobin Senior Editors Maddie Berg Kate Nussenbaum BLOG DAILY HERALD Editor-in-Chief William Janover Managing Editors David Oyer Georgia Tollin POST- MAGAZINE Editor-in-Chief Ben Resnik COMMENTARY Editorial Page Editors Matt Brundage Rachel Occhiogrosso Opinions Editors Gabbie Corvese Sarah Rubin Maggie Tennis

Features Editors Sabrina Imbler Maggie Livingstone Metro Editors Kate Kiernan Katherine Lamb Science & Research Editors Isobel Heck Sarah Perelman Sports Editors Caleb Miller Dante O’Connell University News Editors Kiki Barnes Michael Dubin Maxine Joselow Tonya Riley

Photo Editors Head: Tom Sullivan Brittany Comunale David Deckey Emily Gilbert Samuel Kase Sydney Mondry Video Editor Henry Chaisson Graphics Editors Andersen Chen Avery Crits-Christoph Greg Jordan-Detamore Jillian Lanney Web Producer Joseph Stein Copy Desk Chief Claire Postman Assistant: Sara Palasits Illustrations Editor Angelia Wang

Directors Sales: Winnie Shao Finance: Sarah Levine Finance: Sameer Sarkar Alumni Relations: Alison Pruzan Business Dev.: Melody Cao

facebook.com/browndailyherald

Location: 195 Angell St., Providence, R.I. www.browndailyherald.com

to misperception of use on campus. Consider the results of two well-constructed anonymous, web-based surveys of Brown students conducted in 2012 and 2013: • 1 out of 5 Brown students don’t drink • 3 out of 4 Brown students haven’t smoked marijuana in the past 30 days • Less than 10 percent of Brown students have ever used ecstasy or MDMA We regularly see students who don’t drink or use any drugs. Some students feel isolated and outside the norm, when in fact they are part of the majority that isn’t drinking heavily or using drugs. We also see students who recognize that one or more of their friends is using alcohol and drugs in harmful ways. They don’t like it when friends turn into ‘people I don’t recognize.’ They want support for establishing other options, but they often feel caught up in the false belief that ‘this is what everyone does in college.’ Highlighting the extreme doesn’t help us come up with solutions.

The University is fortunate to have one of the most diverse and most interesting student bodies in the world. We cherish this diversity and work very hard to foster a campus environment that supports all students. We hope that future Herald articles on this topic will present a more complete picture of students’ attitudes and behaviors around drugs and alcohol.

Margaret Klawunn, Vice President for Campus Life & Student Services, Interim Dean of the College Kathleen McSharry, Bruce Donovan ’59 Dean of Chemical Dependency MaryLou McMillan ’85, Senior Director for Planning and Student Engagement Allen Ward, Senior Associate Dean for Student Life Frances Mantak ’88, Director of Health Education

@the_herald

Editorial contact: 401-351-3372 herald@browndailyherald.com

browndailyherald.com

Business contact: 401-351-3260 gm@browndailyherald.com

Office Manager Shawn Reilly

Corrections: The Brown Daily Herald is committed to providing the Brown University community with the most accurate information possible. Corrections may be submitted up to seven calendar days after publication.

Sales Managers Regional: Edward Clifford Regional: Sarah Pariser Regional: Ananya Shukla Regional: Jessica Urrutia Student Group: Moniyka Sachar

Commentary: The editorial is the majority opinion of the editorial page board of The Brown Daily Herald. The editorial viewpoint does not necessarily reflect the views of The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. Columns, letters and comics reflect the opinions of their authors only.

Finance Managers Collections: Jacqueline Finkelsztein Collections: Joshua Tartell Operations: Jessica O’Dell Alumni Relations Manager Engagement: Sarah Park Business Dev. Manager Project Leader: Kaden Lee

Letters to the Editor: Send letters to letters@browndailyherald.com. Include a telephone number with all letters. The Herald reserves the right to edit all letters for length and clarity and cannot assure the publication of any letter. Please limit letters to 250 words. Under special circumstances writers may request anonymity, but no letter will be printed if the author’s identity is unknown to the editors. Announcements of events will not be printed.

Advertising: The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. reserves the right to accept or decline any advertisement at its discretion.

The Brown Daily Herald (USPS 067.740) is an independent newspaper serving the Brown University community daily since 1891. It is published Monday through Friday during the academic year, excluding vacations, once during Commencement and once during Orientation by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. Single copy free for each member of the community. Subscription prices: $280 one year daily, $140 one semester daily.

Copyright 2014 by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.

Periodicals postage paid at Providence, R.I. Postmaster: Please send corrections to P.O. Box 2538, Providence, RI 02906.

commentary 7

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD THURSDAY, APRIL 10, 2014

Stopping the madness KUNAL SINDHU opinions columnist

And then there was one.

In the span of just 19 days, 67 out of the 68 teams in the 2014 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament have been eliminated. Despite its brevity the tournament has become firmly ingrained in the country’s cultural fabric since its inception in 1939. Its popularity — and notorious unpredictability — consistently spawns thousands of formal and informal bracket challenges, inspires millions of Americans to neglect work and generates intense interest from around the globe.

The NCAA, for its part, has been extraordinarily effective in transforming this interest into cold, hard cash.

Of the $11 billion in annual revenue that the NCAA generates, approximately $740 million comes directly from its contracts with CBS and Turner Sports to broadcast the tournament.

As revenues have surged in recent years, pay for coaches and executives has followed in lock step. Pay for coaches across all sports, for example, has increased 26 percent over the past four years, while inflation has only driven prices up 7.7 percent over the same period.

While top NCAA executives and coaches now make well in excess of $1 million, the players who actually generate the NCAA’s revenue have

not enjoyed a similar windfall. The NCAA’s laws of amateurism forbid student-athletes from receiving compensation for their talents while in college. While this policy has always generated some dissent, the NCAA has historically used the allure of amateurism to effectively insulate itself from charges of exploitation.

Two recent actions, however, have, for the first time, threatened the NCAA’s privileged position. A former star basketball player on UCLA’s 1995 men’s championship basketball team,

mously point out, most college athletes “go pro in something other than sports.”

These benefits, as it turns out, can be quite lucrative. At most schools, athletes are given free tuition, housing, food and access to quality medical care. Northwestern football players, for example, receive nearly $75,000 in tuition and other benefits annually.

The dirty little secret, however, is that the NCAA’s member institutions actually do a very poor job educat-

America’s underperforming elementary, middle and high schools. However, if one of the NCAA’s prime justifications for withholding pay is the promise of a quality education, it is not unreasonable to hold it accountable for ensuring that its players leave college with the concrete, functional skills necessary to succeed in the workforce, regardless of their incoming abilities. By that standard, the NCAA’s own, it is clear that the association is currently failing abysmally.

Additionally, while the North-

The dirty little secret, however, is that the NCAA’s member institutions actually do a very poor job educating their studentathletes.

Ed O’Bannon, is leading a class-action lawsuit against the NCAA for improperly using images of former college athletes for commercial purposes. And two weeks ago, in a groundbreaking decision, the National Labor Relations Board ruled that Northwestern football players have the right to unionize on the grounds that they are employees of the university.

Are these lawsuits justified? Unsurprisingly, the NCAA and its supporters have argued all along that paying college athletes is misguided.

After all, student-athletes are students first, and athletes only second. By facilitating the benefits of a solid education, the NCAA argues that it sets up its student-athletes for a long, productive post-collegiate career in the labor force. After all, as its commercials fa-

ing their student-athletes. While success in the classroom and in athletics are by no means mutually exclusive, with rigorous training schedules, frequent travel and an athletic culture that promotes winning over all else, it has become exceedingly difficult for student-athletes to keep up with their classmates academically.

A recent analysis by CNN estimated that only between 7 and 18 percent of student-athletes on revenue-generating teams at 21 public institutions can read at an elementary school level. Recent research of 183 football and basketball players at the University of North Carolina from 2004 to 2012 found that only 30 percent read at an eighth-grade level or higher.

Of course, much of the fault for these alarming statistics lies with

western scholarship is particularly generous, on average, a full Division I scholarship is worth only $25,000.

While this is still a significant amount of money, it is often not enough to cover pocket money for players from disadvantaged backgrounds and is significantly less than the average American salary. Players in this year’s Final Four, for example, had to pay between $2,300 and $5,400 in additional annual academic costs that their scholarships did not cover. At a time when NCAA coaches and executives are making record amounts of money, this is particularly perplexing.

It isn’t hard to see a compromise here — athletes should, at a minimum, be provided with a small stipend to pay for the general academic and living expenses that are beyond

their scholarships. In fact, the NCAA almost allowed its members to do this back in 2011, but ultimately decided to table the proposal after some of its members balked. This stipend should be indexed to inflation to ensure that student-athletes, especially those from less-advantaged backgrounds, are able to live an average college life.

Moreover, an independent body, free of oversight from the NCAA, should be charged with ensuring that colleges are actually adhering to their promises to educate their athletes. By stripping schools that fail to make sufficient academic progress of the ability to field athletic teams at all, and thus jeopardizing an important revenue stream for schools across the country, this regulatory body would likely spur universities to spend far more time monitoring and investing in the education of their student-athletes.

Free labor is fundamentally at odds with the goals of a free, capitalist society. Thus, defeat, whether through the O’Bannon lawsuit, the unionization movement at Northwestern, or some future legal action, is inevitable for the NCAA. For an organization that has shown a strong desire to protect its finances over the interests of its student-athletes in the past, there will likely be no better time than now to strike a settlement and limit any further damage to its privileged position.

Kunal Sindhu MD ’17 can be contacted at kunal_sindhu@brown.edu.

ACA numbers lie JAY UPADHYAY opinions columnist

On the first day of April, the official enrollment numbers for the health care exchanges of the Affordable Care Act were first made public.

Obama and his administration claimed victory: 7.1 million Americans had signed up, beating their forecasts by 100,000 enrollees despite technical difficulties with the federal website.

The announcement seemed to strike a blow to the Republican Party, which had little part in shaping the ACA or expanding the Medicaid program. Yet when one digs deeper into these numbers and the health reform law, the outcome is hardly as clear as what is being touted.

First, the 7 million figure was one targeted by the Congressional Budget Office last October. The administration then used this figure as its own policy goal. Nevertheless, if CBO guidance is used as a benchmark, the ACA is a complete and utter failure. The CBO has revised the 10-year cost estimate for the ACA to be $1 trillion above the figure initially put forth by the Obama administration. Though increased access to health insurance is undoubtedly a goal of reform, costs must also play a significant role in policymaking. Without a sense of proportion, spending could exceed project returns, resulting in inefficient use of taxpayer money. Benefits must be weighed against costs, an obvious point seemingly lost in the administration’s frenzy of rhetoric. Is providing insurance for 25 million Americans at the cost of $2 trillion — or $80,000 per person over 10 years — really a

victory for the administration? Talk about beating projections.

Continuing with CBO estimates, let’s take a look at the updated February 2014 estimated labor market impacts of the ACA. In the long run, the CBO estimates the health care reform bill will reduce total hours worked by up to 2 percent. This is a core issue the administration is tossing aside for short-run figures, even if expanding the public’s options, providing generous premium subsidies and increasing government spending has stimulative economic effects that outweigh some of the incentive issues implicit in the ACA. However, to see the law’s true long-term ef-

who signed up for coverage in the exchanges, around two-thirds were actually previously insured. If one of the cornerstones of the ACA is to reduce the number of uninsured, then it’s unclear how 7.1 million is a noteworthy figure. In fact, assuming the ACA hadn’t passed, CBO analysts projected 10 million Americans would still purchase coverage through insurance brokers and companies anyway.

Stack this against the CBO-provided 8 million person figure projected for enrollment under the ACA for that same time period, and it becomes apparent that a 2 million enrollee shortfall actually exists in the non-exchange market.

Benefits must be weighed against costs, an obvious point seemingly lost in the administration’s frenzy of rhetoric. fects, it’s as simple as examining how premium subsidies in exchanges are wage-indexed. As one earns income beyond a minimum threshold of the federal poverty level, benefits decrease. Combine this with employers’ lower willingness to hire new employees due to relatively malaise economic growth and increased costs of labor from providing new workers with health insurance under the ACA, and the result is a projected reduction in the number of hours worked, less total labor force compensation and a fall in overall employment.

Abstracting from these outside factors and focusing on the 7.1 million figure touted by the Obama administration still reveals many inconsistencies in the story. Of those

Digging deeper into the enrollment numbers reveals another problem: the risk pool.

Under the ACA, insurance companies have limited pricing options to account for the riskiness of their consumers. This is because lawmakers attempted to make the insurance market increasingly equitable for all, regardless of pre-existing conditions and other risk factors. In this situation, it’s important to enroll a combination of both healthy and sick to make premiums and prices relatively balanced across the insurance pool. However, through the end of February, only 25 percent of those who signed up were young individuals. Because young individuals are a fairly accurate proxy for the healthy, this raises concerns

about the actuarial stability of the law itself.

Simply put, if the risk pool largely comprises sick individuals, and prices are set to reflect a balanced combination of both healthy and sick, then the financial health of insurance companies is in danger.

The Obama administration will continue touting the enrollment figure as an unimaginable success given the difficulties they faced, and liberals will use these figures in the midterm elections to show how “successful” policymaking can be without the support of traditionally Republican states. However, there are many issues with the ACA with regard to cost, stability, economic effects and long-term impact. Browsing options in states like Illinois and Wisconsin reveals deductibles equal to thousands of dollars for even the least comprehensive of plans. It’s clear that a pragmatic approach is merited given the complex, evolving issues with large-scale health care reform.

But the argument is often shaped in terms that makes it impossible for bipartisan influence. Changes to Medicaid or Medicare are portrayed as cutting the safety net. Obama misapplying Romney’s state health care plan somehow makes Republicans flip-floppers for not supporting something supposedly borne out of their own party. Perhaps leadership change in Washington in upcoming years is what’s needed, or perhaps the problem is within the current diametrically opposed nature of our politics. Either way, we can’t keep kicking the can down the road and hoping these issues will work themselves out on their own.

Jay Upadhyay ‘15 is an economics concentrator.

THURSDAY, APRIL 10, 2014

THE

BROWN DAILY HERALD Alum vies for vacated district seat

metro Spotlight on the Statehouse

BY KATHERINE LAMB, METRO EDITOR This week in the General Assembly, the Senate Commerce Committee held hearings to review Gov. Lincoln Chafee’s ’75 P’14 P’17 appointees to the Rhode Island Commerce Corporation and the I-195 Redevelopment District Commission. Elementary school students will join legislators tomorrow in the Statehouse rotunda for the third annual Child Care Awareness Day hosted by the Permanent Legislative Commission on Child Care.

Mammogram Measure

A bill requiring health care providers to offer patients undergoing mammograms basic information about their breast density was approved by the Senate Tuesday.

There is significant evidence that high breast density increases the risk of developing breast cancer, according to the American Cancer Society. The legislation stipulates that patients with particularly dense tissue will receive a notice stating, “The presence of dense tissue can make it more difficult to detect cancers” and that they “may benefit from supplementary screening tests,” according to a General Assembly press release.

The “Dense Breast Notification and Education Act” is currently under review in the House, and if approved, will go into effect Oct. 1.

How low can the sales tax go?

COURTESY OF THE REGUNBERG CAMPAIGN

Aaron Regunberg ‘12, who is running for a seat in the Rhode Island House of Representatives, said he would establish a weekly ‘hold your Rep accountable session,’ if elected.

Candidates compete to replace former speaker of the house, who resigned after office raid in March

By KERRI COLFER STAFF WRITER

Aaron Regunberg ’12, co-founder of the Providence Student Union, and Miriam Ross, a Providence business attorney, are slated to compete for the District 4 seat in the Rhode Island House of Representatives vacated March 22 by former Rhode Island Speaker of the House Gordon Fox, D-Providence, amid a federal investigation.

Heather Tow-Yick ’98, executive director for Teach for America and another possible candidate, wrote that she has filed a notice of organization, the first required campaign finance reporting form, and will make a decision in the coming weeks, in an email to The Herald.

Ross said she intends to knock on every door in the district in order to gain a better understanding of the community before the Sept. 9 primary election. “The biggest and most important piece is walking the district and learning about the voters,” Ross said

Ross, who ran for a seat in the Rhode Island Senate in 2010, said her greatest concerns for District 4 include access to jobs, infrastructure and education.

“We need to create jobs for people in this state because it’s really the doorway for so many things,” she said.

Ross said she believes her experience as a business attorney has prepared her to enact change that benefits the business community and the rest of the constituency. “My entire practice for the last ten years has focused on the entrepreneurs and small businesses in Rhode Island,” she said. “I understand the challenges they have and the regulatory issues that they face.”

If elected to represent District 4, Regunberg hopes to improve public school education, protect women’s reproductive rights, support small businesses and provide property tax relief through restoring state aid, he wrote in an email to The Herald.

“My work fighting alongside students has shown me the challenges our schools

face and also the power for transformative change when we engage and involve young people, parents and educators in our education policy-making,” Regunberg wrote.

Regunberg added that he will work to promote transparency and democracy in the House.

“If elected, I plan to institute and publicize a weekly ‘hold your Rep. accountable’ session, where I sit in a coffee shop one night a week so that any constituents can come, sit down and share their concerns or ideas with me,” Regunberg wrote.

Samuel Bell GS, Rhode Island State Coordinator for the Progressive Democrats of America, dropped out of the race and then pledged his support to Regunberg.

“I decided that it was important that we not split votes,” he said, adding that he believes Regunberg “stands for the right kind of middle-class values that define Rhode Island politics.”

Bell said the critical issues the General Assembly is currently facing are “pretty standard Republican and Democrat issues,” such as women’s reproductive rights, gun control and tax cuts for the wealthy.

Two bills calling for a reduction of Rhode Island’s sales tax, which currently stands at 7 percent, were introduced in both chambers Tuesday

by Rep. Jan Malik, D-Barrington and Warren, and Sen. Walter Felag, D-Warren, Bristol, Tiverton.

“We may want to pretend that a 7 percent sales tax is not hurting us as a state, but there is no denying that Rhode Islanders are driving to Massachusetts and Connecticut to save money,” Malik said, according to a General Assembly press release.

One of the bills calls for a 4 percentange point reduction of the sales tax, which would bring the figure down to 3 percent for all purchases. The other calls for a drop to only 6 percent and includes no changes to the current tax level for the purchase of meals and drinks, hotels, telecommunication services and cars but eliminates all tax on other purchases, including liquor and wine.

“While we are not wedded to one proposal, we believe that either piece of legislation, if adopted, will have an enormous positive impact toward kicking our economy back into gear,” Malik said in the release.

Malik and Felag said they believe the loss in state revenue from a lower sales tax will be easily offset by increased economic activity after the passage of either bill, according to the release.

Bruins on the Boulevard

Legislation approved by the Senate Tuesday creates a specialty Rhode Island license plate bearing the Boston Bruins logo.

The $40 payment required for the license plate will be split evenly between the state and the Boston Bruins Foundation, which supports athletic, academic, health and outreach organizations, according to a General Assembly press release. The $10 renewal charge will also go toward supporting the foundation.

“Rhode Islanders are passionate about rooting for their teams, and they’re nearly as passionate about their license plates,” said the bill’s sponsor, Senate Majority Whip Maryellen Goodwin, D-Providence, according to the release. “At the same time, fans who order these plates will support organizations that do great work in their communities.”

The bill will be sent to the House for further consideration.

Pension settlement breakdown challenges candidate’s campaign strategy Union vote raises questions for General Treasurer Gina Raimondo’s gubernatorial campaign

By KATHERINE LAMB METRO EDITOR

The proposed settlement to end the battle over Rhode Island’s pension overhaul unveiled in February by Gov. Lincoln Chafee ’75 P’14 P’17 and General Treasurer Gina Raimondo was ultimately voted down Monday.

Following the November 2011 legislation overhauling the state’s pension system in an attempt to close the projected pension deficit, state unions filed a lawsuit against Rhode Island.

The proposed pension settlement, described by Chafee and Raimondo as a solution preferible to bringing the case to court, was rejected by 61 percent of police officers in the state’s

unions who were eligible to vote on the matter, WPRI reported.

Raimondo first made national headlines in 2011 with this widely contested pension overhaul. This week’s defeat comes in the midst of a new phase of Raimondo’s gubernatorial campaign, after she released a series of four policy proposals on manufacturing, infrastructure, workforce development and tourism as part of her economic plan designed to promote job growth. Raimondo has not yet released the details of the fifth and final policy proposal in her plan.

In the aftermath of the vote, Raimondo clashed with Providence Mayor Angel Taveras, one of Raimondo’s opponents in the Sep. 9 primary.

“Had Treasurer Raimondo chosen to sit down with labor in 2011, rather than waiting until a court ordered her to negotiate, we may have saved Rhode Island two and a half years of litigation with no end in sight,” said Taveras’ campaign spokeswoman Dawn Bergantino, according to Rhode Isand Public Radio.

“The mayor missed 80 percent of pension meetings during the first half of his term,” Raimondo’s campaign manager, Eric Hyers, said in response, according to Rhode Island Public Radio. Providence’s “pension fund is $700 million short of what it needs to pay retirees and is funded at a lower percentage than when he took office and after his pension ‘reform.’”

Republican gubernatorial candidate Ken Block called the pension » See RAIMONDO, page 4

HERALD FILE PHOTO

General Treasurer Gina Raimondo faces Providence Mayor Angel Taveras, Clay Pell and Todd Giroux in the September Democratic primary.