Wednesday, November 19, 2014 by The Brown Daily Herald

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BROWN DAILY HERALD vol. cxlix, no. 113

since 1891

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2014

Research indicates persistent rape culture, Orchowski says Alternative lecture on sexual assault suggests researchers must work to find public health solutions By EMMA HARRIS SENIOR STAFF WRITER

RHEA STARK / HERALD

Wendy McElroy, a research fellow at the Independent Institute, argued in a debate Tuesday that rape culture does not exist. Jessica Valenti, founder of feministing.com, put the onus on society to counter rape culture.

Forum sparks tense sexual assault debate Forum veers from dealing with sexual assault on campuses, focuses on rape culture in United States By JOSEPH ZAPPA SENIOR STAFF WRITER

“How many of you came tonight knowing exactly who I am and thinking you know exactly what I’m going to say?” asked Wendy McElroy, research fellow at the Independent Institute, kicking off her 20-minute talk and setting a tense tone for a highly anticipated Janus Forum debate on sexual assault that filled around three-quarters of Salomon 101. McElroy’s impending arrival on College Hill spawned controversy

across campus. President Christina Paxson sent out a community-wide email Friday publicizing her personal disagreement with McElroy’s widely reported assertion that rape culture does not exist in the United States and cannot be used to explain individual incidents of sexual assault. The talk, titled “How Should Colleges Handle Sexual Assault?” largely deviated from the Janus Forum’s stated purpose for the event, centering instead on the question of whether rape culture exists, and then on the implications of the phenomenon for victims and perpetrators of sexual assault. The speakers also touched on how the debate over rape culture affects the disciplinary process for accused students. Some students protested the event or attended alternatives, such

as a University-organized presentation by Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior Lindsay Orchowski, titled “Research on Rape Culture.” But others came to challenge McElroy’s views. “I don’t think that you can just shy away with something you disagree with —you need to understand it better so you can refute it better,” said Kate Ferguson ’18, who is involved with Feminists at Brown. McElroy used personal experience to lay the groundwork for an argument that places more emphasis on individual, rather than cultural, explanations of rape. “I was raped and brutally so … I did not blame society. I did not blame the culture. I blamed the man who raped me,” McElroy said. » See FORUM, page 2

Lecturing to about 70 community members Tuesday afternoon, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior Lindsay Orchowski discussed the prevalence of a rape culture perpetuated by popular media. Jokes, graphic images and advertisements all “make (sexual assault) seem normal,” she said. “People believe rape is inevitable.” Orchowski’s talk, held in the Carmichael Auditorium in the Building for Environmental Research and Teaching, took place from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m., overlapping with the first hour of a Janus Forum debate entitled “How Should Colleges Handle Sexual Assault?” The Janus Forum debate featured Wendy McElroy, who argues that rape culture does not exist in the United States, and Jessica Valenti, who argues that it exists and must be combatted. In a community-wide email sent Friday evening, President Christina Paxson wrote that Orchowski’s lecture was organized by students and administrators to “provide the community with more research and facts” about sexual assault and organized as an “alternate” to the Janus Forum event. Focusing on rape culture on college campuses, Orchowski said data from surveys show that the “rate of sexual victimization is greater on

college campuses than in the general population.” In a study conducted in 1985, Mary Koss, a Kent State University psychology professor at the time, found that 54 percent of women reported experiencing “some form of sexual violence” between the approximate ages of 14 and 21, Orchowski said. Twenty-five percent of men self-reported having had “perpetrated unwanted sexual contact.” Because the study was retrospective, questions arose about whether the acts of violence were occurring in high school or college, Orchowski said. What makes these findings more impactful is the lack of change in the data reflected in a 2006-09 Ohio State University study, Orchowski said. The same surveys were used, and the data “remained remarkably consistent over time,” she added. Research on assault characteristics has revealed that about half of reported incidents involve alcohol, Orchowski said. Many sexual assault perpetrators are repeat offenders — though perpetrators comprise a “heterogeneous group,” they are often angry, “hypermasculine” and see acquiring sexual partners “as a game,” she said, adding research also shows that victims often know their offenders, and victims tell others about assaults about half of the time. Orchowski said only about 20 percent of sexual assault victims correctly labeled their assaults as “rape,” often reporting them as results of miscommunication or bad dates. Only about 1 percent of assaults are reported to the police, which » See ORCHOWSKI, page 2

OMAC alarm, Study finds adolescents naturally fall asleep later with age First study to track sprinklers individual adolescents functioned in over time substantiates previous research fire incident

By ANDREW FLAX SENIOR STAFF WRITER

inside

During Thursday’s electrical fire in the men’s track and field locker room in the Olney-Margolies Athletic Center, all fire prevention measures functioned properly, said Stephen Maiorisi, vice president of facilities management. Though several of the athletes present at the time of the fire observed that the sprinkler system did not immediately activate, Stephen » See FIRE, page 2

By SARAH NOVICOFF STAFF WRITER

New University research reinforces current recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics that suggest middle and high schools should not start classes prior to 8:30 a.m. The research reveals that older adolescents are more likely to go to sleep later than younger ones, but do not wake up significantly later in the morning. This was the first study to examine the trend with the same teenagers over time rather than a different sample at every age. The study, which was published in the journal PLOS ONE this month, measured behavioral and biological markers

SCIENCE & RESEARCH

Commentary

ZEIN KHLEIF / HERALD

Researchers tracked the sleeping patterns of adolescents, finding that as they age, teenagers stay up later due to delayed melatonin release.

Science & Research

Sundlee ’16: Cultural relativism is not an excuse for the acceptance of human rights violations

Isman ’15: BrownConnect allows students to more quickly achieve internship and job goals

Type 2 diabetes and heart disease may be linked to same genes, study finds

Leila Blatt ’15 combines premedical studies and Africana studies in integrated thesis

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Facilities Management says all systems worked properly during response to locker room fire

of sleep, collecting sleep diaries and data from subjects’ activity monitors, as well as saliva samples that demonstrate melatonin release. The brain releases melatonin upon ideal bedtime and only in the absence of light — a useful circadian marker for the best adolescent sleep onset, said Stephanie Crowley PhD’09, an assistant professor in behavior sciences at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, who was the lead author of the study and conducted the relevant research while a graduate student and post-doctoral fellow at Brown. The research shows that as the participants grew older, their melatonin release occurred later. In addition, the participants resisted their melatonin signal for a longer period of time, staying up long past their body’s ideal time likely due to academic demands, social interactions and the freedom that comes from the lack of parent-mandated bedtimes, Crowley said. The results demonstrate that early » See SLEEP, page 4

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2 arts & culture

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2014

REVIEW

Italian wine bar serves up soberingly delicious treats Enoteca Umberto succeeds from antipasto to freselle, daring patrons to find room for chocolate figs By EMILY PASSARELLI SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Stepping off the bustling streets of Federal Hill and into the cozy space of Eno-

teca Umberto is akin to visiting an Italian grandmother just before dinner time. The back half of the restaurant is itself a partially open kitchen — one that tempts the taste buds of diners sitting at the four tables in the front. Taking in aromas as rich and authentic as if prepared fresh from a garden out back, diners will likely find their mouths watering. The restaurant is a tight squeeze, but everything inside it contributes to an atmosphere of familiarity. Diners rest their coats on special shelves under the tables to free up room for food, and Umberto Bellini, the owner and sole

» ORCHOWSKI, from page 1 means researchers may be working with statistics that do not accurately reflect the prevalence of assault, she said. Orchowski began her lecture by defining her “public health approach” — researchers must find the best preventative strategies to ensure public safety as well as the best methods to assist those affected by “tragedies,” she said. “In order to end sexual violence, teamwork is vital,” Orchowski said. “From a public health standpoint, we all need to work together to help those affected by the experience and also

» FIRE, from page 1 Morin, director of environmental health and safety, wrote in an email to The Herald that the heat-activated sprinkler heads did respond to the fire. Acting Captain John Devlin of the Providence Fire Department, who responded to the incident, and Director of Facilities Services Deb Dunphy both confirmed that the locker room had a heat detector, not a smoke detector. Steam from showers can activate smoke detectors, making them impractical for the room. The fire was “10 or 15 feet away” from the heat detector, said Luke Muzikowski ’17, a member of the team who was present at the time of the fire. Both the detector and the sprinklers are activated when the room reaches a certain temperature, Devlin said, adding that the alarm and sprinkler systems were therefore not at the threshold temperature to activate the alarm by the time the runners left the locker room and the building was evacuated. “It worked exactly the way it was supposed to,” Maiorisi said. The fire destroyed belongings of multiple members of the track team, while one student also sustained minor injuries, The Herald previously reported. The University has agreed to replace the equipment the athletes lost in the fire, Muzikowski said, adding that he

waiter of the enterprise, recites specials to multiple tables at once. The separation between them is barely enough for him to navigate his balancing act of creamy pasta dishes, antipasto platters and trays topped with wine-filled glasses. Like the restaurant, the portion sizes are small. This is characteristic of an enoteca — or wine bar — and in fact, the wine and cocktail selection is as expansive as the food menu. But Bellini, with his southern Italian lilt, describes with fervor each of the dishes prepared by Lia Labbadia, the restaurant chef to whom he is engaged. The spinach and goat cheese salad, dressed with traditional southern Italian vinaigrette, was served with “some beautiful fresh pear, truly delicious,” Bellini said, kissing his fingers and spreading them out with a flourish. The salad was light, scrumptious and a perfect precursor to the La Collina antipasto, comprised of an array of “salumi” — prosciutto, salami, sopresada — and traditional Sicilian formaggi, or cheese. Olives, dried figs and crostini accompany these salty selections, and a honey drizzle across the cheese reminds patrons that they are enjoying the flavors of southern Italy.

A variety of bruschette are offered, arriving at the table in groups of three on a plate. The timeless, traditional tomato was delicious as expected, and the ricotta and artichoke bruschette provide interesting variations on this culinary standard. Panini and Freselle — plate-size, toasted slices of bread with various toppings — also characterize the menu’s more substantial offerings. The pasta dishes vary each night and are offered as specials. The desserts are heavy with flavor, leaving feelings of satisfaction after a meal that can easily turn into an Italian antipasto buffet. For a stomach not yet stuffed with taralli — crunchy crackerlike rings of baked dough — panettone will surely fill the last crevices. And the fichi al ciocolatto, or chocolate-dipped figs, sound so exotic, and are so small, that they’re impossible to not order. What the enoteca may lack in size, it makes up for in heart. While its dishes are small, an army of them waits to satiate and surprise with rich, authentic flavors. And though the restaurant may not actually be your grandmother’s kitchen, a few glasses of wine later, you’ll feel right at home.

Umberto Bellini, owner and sole waiter at Enoteca Umberto on Federal Hill, offers course after course of signature Italian plates in a homey setting.

promote change.” For researchers dealing with issues related to public health and safety — such as those focused on sexual assault — the key steps researchers must take include defining the problem, discerning the factors of risk and protection, identifying and testing preventative strategies with the community and, once solidified, implementing the programs nationwide. But these steps have yet to be completely fulfilled by sexual assault researchers, Orchowski said. While “great strides” have been made in sexual assault prevention work, researchers have not yet developed a program that is effective enough to

be disseminated nationally. Researchers must overcome the “lack of consensus” in the definition of sexual violence, Orchowski said. To compare studies, researchers need an “operational definition” that is specific, but such a definition has yet to emerge. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have categorized different forms of sexual violence, all of which are non-consensual and include abusive sexual contact, non-contact sexual abuse and rape, which they define as a completed sex act, she said. “Across definitions, consent is vital to our understanding of what constitutes sexual violence,” Orchowski said.

Orchowski broadly defined consent as the “overall ability to agree to or refuse an experience.” More specifically, “consent is defined as words or over-actions by a person who is legally or functionally competent to give informed approval,” she said. Vital to this definition is the acknowledgment that individuals may be unable to give consent at certain times or “unable to refuse,” she added. “Rape myths,” such as blaming alcohol or the victim for assaults, often contribute to perpetrators not considering themselves to be rapists, Orchowski said. “There is a misperception that false accusation is common,” she added. Across studies, only

5 to 7 percent of accusations are false, Orchowski said. On campuses, “deliberate targeting” of victims, the purposeful use of alcohol and peer reinforcement that certain actions are okay are prevalent, she said. To make their communities safer, bystanders must intervene, Orchowski said. By becoming more vocal, the silent majority of students against sexual assault can “shift the culture.” Students who attended the lecture said it was informative. Tiara Mack ’16 said it helped her to realize that sexual assault “is not something that can be cleared from campus during my time at Brown.”

met with Jack Hayes, director of athletics, to discuss the incident. But the athletes were not given a timeframe for when they might be compensated or when their belongings might be replaced, Muzikowski said. The athletics department is working with the University’s insurance office to clarify the details of how and when the athletes will be reimbursed for losses incurred as a result of the fire, said Senior Associate Director of Athletics-Facilities Tom Bold. Bold added that the locker room is currently being renovated and has already been stripped of its previous lockers and carpeting. The University is looking into changing the layout of the locker room, Bold said, noting that the current locker room’s “very tight space” contributed in part to the spread of the flames during Thursday’s fire. Muzikowski said that during their meeting, Hayes did not inform him what the team’s locker room situation will be in the meantime. The locker room status remains the “most unclear aspect” of moving forward after the fire, he added. The room could be ready for use in roughly a month if it is restored with the same layout, Bold said. But this timeline could be longer if the University decides to change the arrangement and needs to order different types of lockers.

» FORUM, from page 1

process, McElroy said. It is unacceptable that men can now be disciplined for rape through college hearings based on a preponderance of evidence rather than the traditional criminal justice standard of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. “Let’s not build justice for women on injustice for men,” McElroy said, closing her talk. Valenti never tackled the question of whether a preponderance of evidence or guilt beyond a reasonable doubt should be the standard for conviction of men in college hearings, but she did talk about other aspects of sexual assault as it relates to college campuses, such as the fact that alcohol plays a role in most sexual assault incidents. “Alcohol is not the problem,” Valenti said, chuckling at the notion. “What we need to discuss is the way rapists use alcohol as a weapon to attack and then discredit their victims.” Rapists benefit from others’ insistence that a victim’s inebriation is to blame for his or her assault, she added. Both speakers addressed how students might move forward in eliminating rape and sexual assault on campus. “Stopping someone from telling a rape joke or saying they got ‘raped’ by a test” would be a start, Valenti said, but she also urged students to hold university administrators responsible for addressing rape on campus.

Noting that Columbia and Barnard College students have recently written the names of accused student rapists on the walls of their schools’ buildings, Valenti said, “While I can’t officially suggest that you vandalize school property, I’m not against radical action.” Valenti expressed optimism for students and activists’ ability to combat rape culture and eliminate sexual assault on college campuses. She cited one encouraging sign as students helping Columbia student Emma Sulkowicz carry a mattress around as a symbol of the burden she bears while Columbia allows her rapist to remain on campus, Valenti added. Having already voiced concerns about the way male students are treated in the hearing process at universities, McElroy said “Rape is a criminal offense; go to the police,” adding, “It’s not an infraction of college policy; maybe the police do a piss-poor job but they do a better job than bureaucrats, academics, many of whom are ideologically biased.” “If students want to make a difference in the justice with which rape victims are treated, then you should be protesting at police departments and outside courtrooms,” McElroy said, adding that in doing so, “students … wouldn’t just be helping (themselves), (they) would be helping every woman in America.”

But Jessica Valenti, who offered her opposing perspective in a 20-minute presentation after McElroy’s, expressed frustration that some continue to question rape culture’s existence, adding that the debate leaves her “exhausted.” The contrast between the tones of the two speakers was striking. McElroy was defensive from the outset, commencing her talk by explaining that she has personally experienced sexual violence, identifies as a feminist and would not tolerate any claims that she belittles survivors. But Valenti seemed calmer, with her first statement affirmed by light applause from the crowd. Valenti highlighted several recent cases as evidence that American culture “gives rapists a social license to operate.” In one case, a lawyer described an 11-year-old victim of gang rape as a “spider” who lured men into raping her. McElroy said rape culture exists in places like parts of Afghanistan where “women are married against their will” and “murdered for men’s honor” but not in North America, where “rape is a crime that’s severely punished.” What’s more, those who politicize rape and assert the existence of rape culture imply that all men are guilty or that the accused do not deserve due

EMILY PASSARELLI / HERALD

university news 3

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2014

Students to help reform mental health services UCS appoints three undergraduates to take part in improving mental health support at U. By CAROLINE KELLY SENIOR STAFF WRITER

The Undergraduate Council of Students appointed three undergraduate representatives to the Mental Health Community Council Tuesday, said UCS President Maahika Srinivasan ’15. Maggie Jordan ’16, Dolma Ombadykow ’17 and Sabine Williams ’15.5 were selected out of a pool of 45 applicants. They will join representatives from the faculty, the Graduate School and the Alpert Medical School at the council’s first meeting Dec. 5. None of the three undergraduate representatives are UCS members. Positions on the council were opened up to the entire student body and applications were solicited through a Nov. 4 email that Srinivasan sent to undergraduates. The council aims “to provide advice and guidance on best practices for mental health services and policies,” said Margaret Klawunn, vice president for campus life and student services, who chose the council’s non-student members in conjunction with deans from the Med School and the School of Public Health. She announced the council’s creation in a Sept. 26 community-wide email. “We’re reviewing all of our mental health services,” Klawunn said, noting that the council will aim to assess programs and issues in Counseling and Psychological Services, the Office of Student Life, Student and Employee Accessibility Services and Health Services. The council’s charge outlines four goals for the 2014-15 calendar year: “Review the process for referrals to community providers to ensure that students receive high-quality, well-coordinated care when they transition to community providers,” “evaluate Brown’s success in supporting the needs of a diverse community,” “assess Brown’s policies for medical leaves, readmission and appeals” and “make recommendations on best practices for suicide prevention programs.” All three student representatives expressed excitement over being selected and having the opportunity to engage in University mental health policy. Jordan’s interactions with first-years as a Women’s Peer Counselor for the past two years propelled her to apply. “Some of them have been really well-supported and some of them have not, and I would really like to see what we can do to make

»GENETIC, from page 8 of biostatistics who was not involved in the study. “We are excited about the … genes we identified,” Chan said, as these genes allowed researchers to conclude that there might be a connection between the two diseases. It has long been recognized that Type

sure that all students feel adequately supported,” she said. Jordan said as a representative, she will advocate shortening the two-week wait time for CAPS appointments, hiring diverse new faculty members, “so that students from all different kinds of backgrounds can feel safe getting help” and increasing outreach and education to lower the stigma surrounding mental illness. Ombadykow said she was inspired to apply for a position on the council after helping UCS develop a resolution on mental health policy and presenting it to administrators. The resolution “pointed out a lot of flaws with CAPS, and I thought there was a lot of work that could be done by the student body to make those changes,” she said. Two main issues that Ombadykow aims to prioritize are reforming leavetaking policy and increasing the seven session limit for CAPS appointments. “CAPS should be more than a crisis intervention — it should be able to help students at all stages of mental health and their treatment processes,” she said. “I’m most passionate about making sure that students can receive long-term care at Brown.” Williams, who is returning after a semester of medical leave for mental health reasons, expressed her desire to act on issues that affected her as a student of color when navigating the leave-taking process. She experienced personal difficulty finding a therapist and psychiatrist of color as well as frustration with the seven session limit at CAPS. She added that she felt out of place while pursuing mental health support — a sentiment shared by other students she spoke with who identify as people of color, immigrants, children of immigrants or people from low-income backgrounds. The fact that other students felt they faced similar barriers reassured Williams, who has a Haitian heritage and comes from a “background where mental health and seeking therapy was not part of the norm.” Williams said she feels closely connected to issues of depression, anxiety disorders and trauma, as well as mental health issues that can arise following sexual assault. “But I also recognize the serious need to better support students (with) other mental illnesses or mental health issues who don’t fall into those categories, which are limited,” she said. When reviewing applications for representatives, UCS leaders tried to ensure that applicants would bring diversity, a passion for the issue and a true understanding of current mental policy to the council, Srinivasan said. UCS looked

for “people who had concrete ideas for what they wanted to see changed and visualized an improved mental health system,” she said. The large number of applicants, compared to the single digits for other University committees, “signaled a desperate need to talk about mental health and have more opportunities for students to be involved in talking about improvements and talking about engagement,” Srinivasan added. “All three candidates have incredibly different personal backgrounds, campus involvements and experiences with mental health and CAPS,” said Sazzy Gourley ’16, UCS vice president. “So together, they can speak to a broad range of student experiences with mental health on campus.” “There were so many powerful experiences that people wrote about in their applications, but there were also a lot of really creative solutions and ways that we can move forward in addressing a lot of the concerns that students have,” he added. The council was created due to both procedural reasons and in response to campus-wide dialogue about mental health policy, Klawunn said. “We’ve also been paying attention to some of the concerns that students have brought forward, and we’ve been looking at ourselves, our own services, and saying it would be good to have some further discussion. Issues change — they change depending on changes in our culture, changes in our population, and so we want to make sure that we’re keeping up with the ways that we’re seeing different needs.” The council is chaired by Butler Hospital Medical Director Steven Rasmussen ’74 MD’77 P’13 and comprises Columbia University Counseling and Psychological Services Director Richard Eichler, Professor of Behavioral and Social Sciences Kate Carey, CAPS Director Sherri Nelson, Associate Director of CAPS Jacqueline Twitchell, Associate Dean and Director of Student Support Services Maria Suarez, Director of Health Services Unab Khan, University Chaplain Janet CooperNelson, Professor at the Medical School Megan Ranney, Associate Dean of the College for Health and Personal Issues Carol Cohen, Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior Tony Spirito, Director of Student and Employee Accessibility Services Catherine Axe, Associate Dean of the Graduate and Medical Schools Jabbar Bennett and Klawunn. Other student representatives include Lianna Karp, who was chosen by the Medical Student Senate, and Michael Murphy GS, who was selected by the Graduate Student Council.

2 diabetes is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease, Loucks wrote, so this connection is not surprising. “Uncontrolled diabetes causes damage to the body’s blood vessels, making them more prone to damage from atherosclerosis and hypertension,” he wrote. Both atherosclerosis —the hardening of arteries — and hypertension, known as high blood pressure, lead to

cardiovascular disease. “People with diabetes develop atherosclerosis at a younger age and more severely than people without diabetes,” he wrote. Though they identified initial genes and pathways, the researchers plan to do more comprehensive assessments in the future, Chan said. “We need to further look into what develops the diseases.”

This Week in Higher Ed BY MAXINE JOSELOW AND TONYA RILEY, UNIVERSITY NEWS EDITORS

BYU students fight ban on beards Students at Brigham Young University circulated a petition and staged a protest in support of ending the Mormon-affiliated university’s ban on beards, the New York Times reported Tuesday. Administrators instituted the ban in the 1970s to discourage students from adopting the facial hair popular among hippies staging demonstrations at the time, the Times reported. Though times have changed, the ban has remained in place. The petition against the ban had garnered hundreds of signatures by Tuesday, the Times reported. Several students said they signed the petition because they felt the ban was antiquated and promoted a narrow view of Mormon identity by the Mormon Church. “We want the option and ability to express personality through facial hair,” senior Shane Pittson, who drafted the petition, told the Times. Protestors of the ban bicycled around campus sporting fake beards made of cardboard, the Times reported.

Documents reveal Harvard sexual assault policy change Harvard Medical School changed its policy for handling sexual assault allegations in 2008 following a U.S. Department of Education investigation into a sexual harassment case at the school, the Harvard Crimson reported Tuesday based on federal documents the paper acquired. The Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights handled the case, in which a female undergraduate alleged that Harvard Medical School mishandled her sexual harassment complaint against a male faculty member, the Crimson reported. It is rare for a case handled by the office to spur a policy change of this order. In the case, the undergrad claimed that an assistant professor allegedly harassed and assaulted her while she was working in his laboratory. She further claimed that administrators acted in an inappropriate manner by returning intimate photographs of herself to the professor. The undergrad’s 2008 complaint was one of at least 18 Title IX complaints filed against Harvard since 2002, the Crimson reported. Most of these other complaints did not result in full federal investigations into Harvard’s compliance with Title IX, though two of the complaints remain ongoing, according to a Crimson review of the federal documents, comprising a survey of more than 7,500 total Title IX complaints reviewed by the Department of Education from 2002 to 2014. Harvard tied with Columbia for facing the most complaints of any Ivy League institution since 2002, according to the Crimson’s review of the documents.

Yale harassment case comes to a close A five-year-old harassment case against the director of the Cardiovascular Research Center at Yale, Michael Simons, has resulted in his removal, the New York Times reported Saturday. Simons was suspended in 2013 for 18 months after being found guilty of sexually harassing a postdoctoral researcher, Annita Di Lorenzo, at the center, the Times reported. After female faculty members raised objections over the incident, he was removed from his post. The university also found that Simons inappropriately interfered with the professional advancement of Di Lorenzo’s husband, who also works at Yale. The complainant’s husband is also filing a complaint with the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities, the New Haven Register reported. While Simons was removed from his job as chief of cardiology and prohibited from entering any upper-level administrative roles at the time of the hearing, the provost at the time reduced the penalty to just 18 months of suspension, the Times reported. Simons was also accused of pressuring researchers into submitting grant proposals under the names of other professors and pressuring colleagues against speaking out in opposition to his decision. “I have never pressured anyone to speak up on my behalf, and was honestly grateful that many colleagues offered to,” Simons told the Times. “Nor did I, or would I ever, encourage anyone to submit material written by another professor.” The incident has also ignited faculty criticism of Robert Alpern, dean of Yale’s medical school, whom many allege supported the cover-up of Simons’ behavior, the Times reported.

CORRECTIONS A previous version of an Oct. 31 Herald article (“In conversation: Donald Margulies”) misspelled the name of Glenn Levin ’80. The Herald regrets the error. Due to an editing error in an article in Monday’s Herald (“Four U. studies under federal investigation,” Nov. 17) a quote from David Savitz was previously taken out of context: He said concern about the withdrawal of funding is just hypothetical and for the future, and that Brown is taking steps to avoid such a situation. Overall, researchers said they were concerned principally with effects on the peerreview process, not the withdrawal of funds. The Herald regrets the error. Due to an editing error, an article in Tuesday’s Herald (“Performance explores inequality in criminal justice system,” Nov. 18) incorrectly referred to Christopher Johnson as a member of the class of 2017. In fact, he is an adult artist in the Providence community. The Herald regrets the error.

4 metro

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2014

» MARIJUANA, from page 8 the mechanisms we use do very little to contain use of marijuana or the problems that result from it.” Problems that result from marijuana use drive mass incarceration, which is destroying many communities, Vincent said. “So yes, (marijuana) is a gateway drug — a gateway to broken lives and broken families,” he said. As a former police officer, Comery contributed a law enforcement perspective to the conversation. “Many of the calls that we receive at night are disturbances. And 99.99 percent of the time, the root problem of these disturbances was alcohol. But I’ve never gotten a call where two potheads were beating each other up,” she said. Comery also mentioned how the War on Drugs has distracted the police from more serious crimes. “The clearance rate for homicides in this country has plummeted since the War on Drugs has started,” Comery said. In 1980, the national homicide clearance rate — the percentage of reported homicides that are solved — was 72 percent, and in 2008, it decreased to 68 percent, she added. “We’re filling up our prisons with nonviolent drug users and we’re not getting the murderers.” Peter Friedmann, professor of health services, policy and practice, said he thought the forum was too one-sided. “They’re downplaying the risks associated with marijuana usage. There’s clear evidence that there is an increase in traffic fatalities while

LILY CRUZ / HERALD

Students, policy officials and Providence residents participate in a community forum on drug policy. The conversation centered around incarceration rates and health research, focusing in on the potential costs and benefits of legalizing marijuana. high, increases in lung cancer and long-term lung dysfunction associated with marijuana,” he said. “Yes, we already have alcohol, and we already have tobacco. And yes, alcohol and cigarettes may cause a lot more harm. But three wrongs do not make a right,” said John McGrath, a Providence resident. Pat Oglesby, former member of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, spoke about the potential revenue associated with marijuana legalization.

Oglesby founded the Center for New Revenue, a North Carolina nonprofit which focuses on marijuana taxation. “The average person asks, ‘What’s in it for me?’ The answer may be that there is some revenue coming in from marijuana tax that would make the state better, cut certain taxes and pay down debt,” Oglesby said. Michelle McKenzie, a public health researcher and mother, said “I feel strongly that we have to protect our young more. The fact is

that youth have access to marijuana through the illegal market,” adding that “I think we will have more control when we legalize and can thus regulate marijuana.” The forum was moderated by Jared Moffat ’13, director of Regulate Rhode Island, a “coalition of citizens and organizations committed to ending the failed policy of marijuana prohibition,” according to its website. The audience was primarily composed of Providence residents, with

a few Brown students and professors in attendance as well. McGrath said he thought the forum “did a very good job bringing the level of discussion to a mature, fact-based level of discourse.” Beth Cosby ’17 enjoyed the discussion. “It’s really interesting to see the different perspectives each of the panel members brought, and I like that they discussed both the public health perspective and the civil liberties perspective,” she said.

» SLEEP, from page 1

their own future works, examining what biological factors make one student more vulnerable to sleep shift while others are more able to reliably listen to their circadian markers. Crowley explained the AAP policy recommendation for later start times at schools may not go into place, despite the push from the AAP, because competing interest groups prioritize different things. Administrators worry about money because moving start times later will make staggering buses throughout a district — a common way to save money — more difficult, while parents want their children to partake in sports and extracurricular activities that are often more difficult to do in the dark. “I think everyone is out for the same reason — we want to make sure teenagers are getting their academic needs” and other needs met, Crowley said. “But we all look at it in a different way and with different priorities.” Despite the possibility that this study or others may not inspire policy changes, Crowley and Carskadon will continue to study sleep. “Sleep is the center of life. Think of another behavior we all do every day,” Carskadon said. “It’s our anchor behavior. We spend more time doing that one single behavior than anything else. And it’s not just a behavior — it’s fraught with all sorts of biological activity” like memory retention and metabolic processes. “You can study any field, certainly in biology and medicine, and sleep has something to do with it,” she added.

school start times are “robbing these kids of the sleep that they need, and that’s so ironic because, as a nation, we invest such huge resources in trying to educate children and then we undermine that ability to do so by degrading the very brain function that is critical,” said Charles Czeisler, a professor of sleep medicine at Harvard Medical School who was not involved in the study. “I think that this is a foundational study that is going to have a major impact on the field.” “For us, (it’s) an interesting and important finding and a way to put together this two-process model of sleep regulation with this motivational and behavioral change,” said Mary Carskadon, professor of psychiatry and human behavior and the senior researcher on the project. The biggest surprise of the study, Crowley said, comes in the individual variability the data reveals. Previous studies have examined the issue latitudinally — testing adolescents of different ages at the same time — whereas this study followed two groups, each for two and a half years. The first group began at around age 10 and the other at around age 15, with researchers monitoring the adolescents’ individual sleep patterns. The scientists then compared results of individuals within groups to track variability, as well as results between groups to analyze maturation trends. Crowley and Carskadon will likely each study the variability separately in

today 5

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2014

r e l ay f o r l i f e

SATELLITE DINING JOSIAH’S Turkey Dinner BLUE ROOM Mediterranean Pockets Soups: Hearty Country Vegetable, Tomato Florentine and Baked Potato ANDREWS COMMONS Pasta: Tortellini Carbonara, Wild Mushroom and Gorgonzola

DINING HALLS SHARPE REFECTORY LUNCH

DINNER

Spinach Pie Casserole, Chicken Fingers, Green Beans, Onions and Cherry Tomatoes

Edamame Beans with TriColored Peppers, Pork Teriyaki, Black Forbidden Rice

VERNEY-WOOLLEY LUNCH

DINNER

Sauteed Spinach with Garlic, Broccoli and Cheese Rice, Vegan Black Eyed Peas with Spinach

Shepherd’s Pie, Vegetable Frittata, Couscous, Hot Fudge Pudding Cake

sudoku

ZEIN KHLEIF / HERALD

Relay for Life held a lung cancer awareness campaign this week. Representatives including Christina Ngo ’18 and Niahm Sheehan ’16 helped people register for the relay event happening in the spring.

comics Mind Grapes | Willa Tracy ’17

crossword

Class Notes | Philip Trammell ’15

calendar TODAY

TOMORROW

7 P.M. 2018 CLASS BOARD SPEED FRIENDING AND

12:30 P.M. EXPOSING YOURSELF ONLINE: WORKSHOP

PIZZA

FOR PUBLIC HUMANISTS

Find new friends in just 60 seconds. All first-years are invited to attend. Kasper Multipurpose Room

At this workshop, attendees will learn tips and strategies for how to create an electronic portfolio and present themselves professionally online. 357 Benefit St.

7:30 P.M. SEX AND TECH: A SEX AND TECHNOLOGY WORKSHOP

This interactive workshop will explore how relationships, technology and sex intersect. Pizza and desserts will be served. Faunce 8 P.M. BOLT FINANCIAL AID FUNDRAISER AT BEN AND JERRY’S

Enjoy ice cream and learn more about the application process for becoming a leader for Brown Outdoor Leadership Training. Ben and Jerry’s

5:30 P.M. MATHEMATICS OF CRIME

Andrea Bertozzi, a University of California at Los Angeles professor, will share her experience as a member of the team that developed a computer program to find high crime areas. 121 South Main St. 7 P.M. “A PLACE AT THE TABLE”

The Food Recovery Network will host this food drive and documentary screening, with all donations benefitting the Women’s Center of Rhode Island. Bring non-perishable food items or travel-sized toiletries. Salomon 003

6 commentary

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2014

EDITORIAL

Islamic State destruction extends far beyond killings The beheadings of American and British journalists and aid workers, the many killings of Lebanese and Kurds and the unknown number of Syrians who have died due to the Islamic State are almost unfathomable in their tragedy. Undoubtedly, these murders exemplify the brutal tactics of Islamic State militants. And these horrific killings are only one aspect of the larger picture of destruction caused by war and violence in the Middle East. CNN published — inappropriately enough in its Style section — an article Nov. 5 entitled “The Greatest Buildings You’ll Never See: 19 Priceless Monuments Lost in Middle East Conflicts.” While this aesthetically pleasing slideshow was obviously intended to be a quick read, the subject of this article brings up a seriously underlooked consequence of violence in the Middle East. The ancient city of Bosra, the Great Mosque and Citadel of Aleppo and the crusader castle Crac des Chevaliers are just a few of the immeasurably important historical landmarks that have been damaged, or even completely destroyed, by the civil war and Islamic State attacks in Syria, among other nations. Most recently, this September, the Armenian Genocide Museum was destroyed by the Islamic State and rendered completely unusable in its current state. It is difficult to fully consider the loss of material things in the context of human suffering, but it is still crucial to acknowledge the importance of the destruction of these historical sites. Many of these sites offer valuable archaeological evidence on the empires of pre-Islamic Persia and contribute to the scarce art history discourse surrounding Near Eastern art. By exterminating these sites from memory, the Islamic State attempts to construct a history that places Persia as the representation of pure Islamic culture that developed independently of any preceding or external influences. Moreover, the destruction of such landmarks reduces the tourist economy and hurts the livelihoods of citizens who rely on such sites for business. Already, the violence that has seized Syria since 2011 has temporarily devastated the country’s tourism industry. As a country with unrivaled archaeological sites, Syria was once an extremely popular tourist destination, with tourism accounting for 12 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product in 2010. Naturally, fear of the widely reported violence in Syria — and the Middle East more generally — has temporarily hindered that industry. The escalating destruction of historic sites by the Islamic State and other violent actors in the Syrian wars may make such declines in tourist revenue irreversible. This devastation will only further decimate the Syrian economy, a trend many argue further perpetuates the chance for violence. Thus, when condemning the violence of the Islamic State and other militant groups, it is crucial to not only highlight the explicit loss of life but also the increasing architectural destruction and the reverberations that it could, and likely will, have on the livelihood of millions of citizens dependent on the tourism industry for economic survival. Undoubtedly, it is impossible to reserve equal empathy for people and material things, but it is extremely important to recognize the effect of the destruction of these priceless monuments in much more than just an ephemeral or intangible manner.

Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board: its editors, Alexander Kaplan ’15 and James Rattner ’15, and its members, Natasha Bluth ’15, Manuel Contreras ’16, Baxter DiFabrizio ’15, Manuel MontiNussbaum ’15, Katherine Pollock ’16 and Himani Sood ’15. Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.

A N G E L IA WA N G

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Janus Forum alternatives and freedom of choice To the Editor: There have been a lot of conversations generated by the Janus Forum event, “How Should Colleges Handle Sexual Assault?” To respond, two alternative spaces were created: the “BWell Safe Space” and “The Research on Rape Culture,” a lecture by Lindsay Orchowski, assistant professor of psychiatry and human behavior. Both of these events were planned to be at the same time as the Janus Forum debate, which is a decision that many have taken issue with. As one of the planners of Orchowski’s talk, I want to be very clear about why we did this. In a letter written to President Christina Paxson, which five student members of the Task Force on Sexual Assault signed, we wrote, “The arguments that Wendy McElroy makes are highly likely to cause secondary trauma to survivors and their supporters and would seem contrary to the University’s legal and moral obligations concerning sexual violence. Though traumatic, survivors likely would attend the event in order to have their voices heard and stand as a visible refutation of McElroy’s ideas.” Having a separate, University-sponsored event that argues that rape culture isn’t a debate, but a reality, takes that pressure off of survivors to prove themselves. It creates a space where there is room to debate interpretations and policy about these realities, but asserts that rape culture is a reality. Without alternative events, the pressure is put on survivors to go and listen to comments that might be harmful in order to refute them. The pressure is on survivors to show up and put their own experiences up for debate. We live in a culture where fears of false accusations are often put ahead of the need to show compassion to survivors. Too often we demand that survivors offer us their experiences to scrutinize in order for us to deem them credible or honest. Orchowski’s talk grounds us in research that affirms the experiences of survivors of sexual

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assault on campus, which is a necessary and direct alternative to the debate, allowing survivors to choose which narratives they want to be exposed to. In its recent column in The Herald (“In response to President Paxson’s most recent email,” Nov. 17), the Janus Forum wrote, “When students are forced to choose, events no longer serve to ‘provide the community with more research and facts about these important issues,’ as Paxson hoped for in her email.” I want to take a moment to dissect this language. While I believe it wasn’t meant to connote this, implying that choice is a thing you are forced to do — implying that choice is a burden — is disturbingly similar to rhetoric that we shouldn’t give survivors of sexual assault choices — for example whether or not they want to go to the police, because they shouldn’t be forced to make those decisions from a place of trauma. This rhetoric is infantilizing and designed to limit the agency of survivors of sexual assault. We cannot have informed conversations about sexual assault without the views of survivors, and in order to create spaces where survivors are safe to share their stories, we need to create spaces that affirm survivor agency. At the heart of the alternative events is the belief that having choices allows people to exercise agency. When we center our conversation around a group of people who have had a lot of choice and agency taken away from them, the only sensitive thing to do is create options and ways to reclaim agency and power. Having these events at the same time takes pressure off of survivors to assert their humanity and additionally provides an opportunity to assert agency over the types of narratives that survivors hear. Katherine Byron ’15

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commentary 7

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2014

BrownConnect: encouraging exploration SAMANTHA ISMAN opinions columnist

Simply finding an internship is hard. What do you do if you don’t even know where to start looking or who to ask? Now imagine finding and even obtaining an internship you really like but not being able to take it because the pay is too low. The University’s recently debuted BrownConnect service manages to ease some of our worries. BrownConnect is a “website and search engine where students can search for internship and research opportunities in a wide range of fields and locations, as well as financial support for low-paid or unpaid internships,” according to a University news release on the initiative. This means that information that had to be collected from various different resources is now nicely displayed for us on one page. Beyond just making students’ lives easier when searching for a job — and getting a job we like —, BrownConnect offers both the opportunity and encouragement to truly explore our passions and interests. It allows students to focus more on the type of internship that they would like to take part in and less on the internship’s compensation level by making Undergraduate Teaching and Research Awards and Linking Internships and Knowledge program easier to obtain and accessible to a greater part of the student population. And it allows students to continue exploring their academic interests outside the classroom. As a completely new website, BrownConnect is also much more appealing and easi-

er to use than BRUnet. Though one does not necessarily replace the other, BrownConnect’s more modern approach to networking makes the whole process a lot more enjoyable. This means that simply logging in to BrownConnect will not be as daunting. Moreover, when you log into BrownConnect, the site automatically links to your Job and Internship Board profile, displaying internships that might interest you on the homepage. The personalization of the search also makes the whole process seem much less

based on interests and demonstrates that these interests exist in concrete formats. The initiative puts the University in a much more positive light, demonstrating its increased commitment to an exploration of interests that begins with the open curriculum. The new initiative allows students to continue that exploration outside of the classroom, and even away from the school and campus experience. Additionally, BrownConnect has created “154 new internship opportunities, funded 254 … LINK awards … and increased the

Beyond just making students’ lives easier when searching for a job — and getting a job we like — BrownConnect offers both the opportunity and encouragement to truly explore our passions and interests.

futile. Before, we could spend hours looking for the perfect job. And while the job and internship suggestions might not always be exactly what students are looking for, they demonstrate an availability of interests that many previously feared they might not find. BrownConnect thus gives students an opportunity to look beyond what they already know. By including all the information a student might need in one single place, it encourages people to look for something that truly inspires them. Similarly to the open curriculum, BrownConnect allows students to make choices

number of UTRAs,” according to the University’s news release. This increase in funding and internship opportunities demonstrates that, even at the beginning stages, the program has already had a positive impact on the student body. This program also allows students who might not have had the opportunity to work in a big city or go without pay to take exciting and career-furthering internships that are under-compensated or require expensive living situations. BrownConnect gives everyone the same chances of obtaining jobs in sectors, such as fashion or magazines, that might have

been reserved for wealthier students in the past. According to a January Forbes article, “for many unpaid internships to be legal, students must fork over cash for college credits.” BrownConnect encourages students not to think this way, but rather to realize that there are ways to receive funding from Brown for the things they really want to do. This new initiative acknowledges that there is a lot to be learned from internship experiences and helps students realize that, too. BrownConnect encourages people to go out into the world for three months and have new and enriching experiences by simplifying the internship search process and the connection of students to possible employers. Moreover, it helps students realize that Brown’s network extends far and wide and that most alums want to help. BrownConnect combines the openness and focus on personal growth and enrichment that exists at the University and provides students with a backbone from which to grow, thus allowing us to create new experiences to complement our academic tracks. The program provides guidance for the job search as well as the opportunity to talk to people in the industries of our interest. It also makes the process of attaining funding more straightforward and more common. But most of all, it encourages all of us — regardless of what we are studying, what our parents want us to do or what our financial situations are — to explore our interests and continue learning.

Sami Isman ’15 encourages everyone to visit BrownConnect and can be reached at samantha_isman@brown.edu.

Cultures of hatred ROBYN SUNDLEE opinions editor

Indonesian female police recruits are being forced to undergo virginity tests, the Guardian reported Tuesday. Not only is this process humiliating, it also leaves these women in pain. This is yet another example of gendered violence based on cultural values. Indonesian culture is patriarchal and prizes virginity, therefore infringing on the human rights of women. In the modern world of colliding cultures, there are few tensions more salient than that between cultural relativism and human rights. While it is necessary to consider an individual as a member of a social group, individual rights must be respected over group rights. This is because the individuals who stand to suffer most from a cultural relativist regime would inevitably be women and children. While I come from a Western background and have been primed to accept the language of human rights, I believe such rights’ fundamental basis is applicable to all peoples, regardless of their cultural origin. The language of human rights has certainly been exploited to justify invasions and improper interventions. But cultural relativism has been used to justify

inaction and indifference in the face of injustice. I suspect that invocations of cultural relativism are all too often an excuse for misogyny, or at least an excuse for patriarchal societies. Violent or coercive attitudes toward women in patriarchal societies can never be excused by cultural relativist explanations, and active steps to prevent such oppression are imperative. In today’s atmosphere of political correctness, it is essential to distinguish polite acceptance from

viewing it as pure acts of violence that can be halted. In a more extreme example, many beleaguered aid workers in the Congo have come to see rape as a cultural force, rather than a violent act of war. Lisa Shannon, a veteran aid worker in the Congo, wrote for the New York Times on how the war greatly increased the incidence of rape. The use of rape as a tactic was left unchecked, and therefore the problem was exacerbated. Here we see the consequences of accepting violence

product of a society plagued with misogyny. This is not to suggest that oppression of women is not present in the Western world. It most certainly is — though perhaps more often in what appear to us to be less overt forms. I have already discussed more extreme examples of the ways in which culture can be a force for evil, but it is also worth addressing its more subtle influences. Western women’s desires for labiaplasties is indicative of how patriarchal cultures undermine regard for

Violent or coercive attitudes towards women in patriarchal societies can never be excused by cultural relativist explanations.

blind apathy, and to fight for the rights of those who have been disenfranchised and abused. Human rights are the only metric by which to ensure some measure of equal treatment for all people worldwide because they serve as a balancing force for other controlling bodies, including culture. As soon as cultural forces become overtly coercive or violate bodily autonomy, they cross a line of acceptability. Perhaps it is some kind of perverse coping mechanism to explain the debasement of half the population as part of a culture, instead of

as part of a culture. It legitimizes the aggressors and silences the victims. We see this same phenomenon in many Middle Eastern societies. King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia is lauded as a reformer for making minute gestures towards women’s liberation. Meanwhile, women continue to be treated as second-class citizens, with their movements entirely controlled by men. It has become accepted that women in these countries will be, in Western eyes, mistreated. Because this is accepted by the international community, it is perpetuated. Violence against women is the

natural bodies through debilitating gender binaries. These procedures are no more acceptable than those of genital cutting in places like Sierra Leone. In these cases, it is sometimes the individual’s choice to undergo changes. But can one really make the argument that without societal pressures, many of these people would still feel the need to permanently alter their flesh in dangerous fashions? How precious is culture when it impels us to potentially mutilate that which is meant to give pleasure? Perhaps many would find this view too idealistic, but it seems

logical that any cultural force that infringes on innate personal preferences regarding sexuality or physicality should be considered suspect and potentially insidious. The point is not that other cultures should assimilate with our own. The point is that all cultures should not subjugate and shame those who do not conform to manufactured and baseless gender expectations. All individuals should have the right to make their own choices and be entitled to bodily autonomy. We should all have the right to break from our culture and criticize it openly if it suits us. It can be tempting to chalk up acts of violence and injustice like virginity tests to simple cultural differences. It is easy to dismiss drastic procedures with complex and questionable social underpinnings as simple self-esteem boosters. Such conclusions are far too shallow. Instead, we need to dissect our societal values to find which are rooted in hate, and then banish these traits. We have a conception of culture as being an inherently positive force. It is who we are and where we come from. But we must remember that culture is not sacrosanct. When a culture embraces hatred, it must be reformed.

Robyn Sundlee ’16 can be reached at robyn_sundlee@brown.edu.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2014

THE

BROWN DAILY HERALD

science & research

Diabetes, heart disease share genetic origins Forum participants favor

marijuana legalization

New research implicates shared genes and pathways for the two diseases

Community members discuss potential tax revenue, other benefits for Rhode Island

By JASON NADBOY SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease may share the same genetic origin, according to a recent study that integrated data collected from over 15,000 women and was conducted by University researchers. Researchers examined the genomes — or entire set of genes — of the white, black and Hispanic women included in the study. “The findings are quite early,” said Kei Hang Chan, lead author of the study and postdoctoral research associate. But finding a connection between these two diseases can lead doctors to treating these diseases simultaneously, and in doing so, help many people. The research, published in the American Heart Association journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Genetics, “improves mechanistic understanding of the potential common causes of Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease,” wrote Eric Loucks, an assistant professor of epidemiology who was not involved with the research, in an email to The Herald. When conducting the genomic research, the scientists initially looked for a number of different genes that were present in women with either

By ELENA WEISSMANN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

The “huge explosion” of the American prison population is connected with the fact that 56 percent of federal offenders are in prison for nonviolent drug offenses, said Diego AreneMorley ’16, president of Students for Sensible Drug Policy, during the community forum “Regulating Marijuana in Rhode Island: A Public Health and Safety Approach” held at List Art Center Nov. 18. Many of these nonviolent drug offenders are African-American, he said, adding that “there are more African-American men imprisoned in the criminal justice system than there were enslaved in the 1850s.” Organized by Brown’s chapter of SSDP, the forum featured a wide range of panelists, including state Sen. Joshua Miller, D-Cranston, Warwick, President of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s Providence branch James Vincent and retired Providence police officer Elizabeth Comery. The experts discussed the benefits

METRO

COURTESY OF BROWN UNIVERSITY

University researchers located genes linked to both diabetes and heart disease in a recent study that analyzed data from more than 15,000 women. cardiovascular disease or diabetes, but not in healthy women, Chan said. “We did not start off with a hypothesis,” she said, adding that the researchers were just looking for genetic differences. After locating common genes, the team then conducted pathway tests to further understand how the genes interact with one another, Chan said. The research uncovered eight pathways that were common across ethnicities, Chan said, but a few additional pathways were ethnicity-specific. The

common pathways regulate important bodily functions including cell-to-cell communication and structural support for tissue, according to the study. The researchers next analyzed the genes and their pathways to locate which genes are actually related to the diseases, Chan said. The study “provides crucial knowledge for identifying biomarkers and pharmaceutical targets for drug discovery,” said Xi Luo, an assistant professor » See GENES, page 3

of state legalization of marijuana, while also acknowledging some of its potential consequences. Panelists also discussed the possibility of regulating marijuana in a similar manner as alcohol, “Health costs associated with alcohol are eight times greater than those associated with marijuana,” said Mason Tvert, the director of communications at the Marijuana Policy Project, a national organization aimed at making marijuana legal. “In an ideal world, no one would want to use marijuana or alcohol. But the fact remains that in the real world, these substances are out there,” he said. “By making alcohol legal and marijuana not, we are incentivizing the use of a more harmful substance.” Among other topics, the experts focused on the discrepancy in incarceration rates across races, the health risk posed by marijuana compared to other substances, the opportunities for tax revenue and the risks involved in marijuana legalization. “Facts are sometimes manipulated by people who are afraid that youthful attraction to marijuana will mushroom with de-legalization,” said David Lewis, founder of the University’s Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies. “But somehow the research misses the point that under the current criminal justice system, » See MARIJUANA, page 4

RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT

Student blends sciences, Africana Studies in senior thesis This profile is part of a series focused on Brown faculty and students engaged in science and research, with the purpose of highlighting and making more accessible the work being pursued at all levels across disciplines. BY ISOBEL HECK SCIENCE & RESEARCH EDITOR

Though Leila Blatt ’15 has taken courses across a range of disciplines, she said she began to realize her final papers were always related to one topic: the experience of black women. This long-standing passion began to form the basis of Blatt’s thesis project when she simultaneously took BIOL 1920B: “Health Inequality in Historical Perspective” and AFRI 0570: “20th Century Black Feminist Thought and Practice in the U.S.” during the fall of her junior year. As a former pre-medical student and Africana Studies concentrator, “I was looking for a project that merged (these) interests,” Blatt said. Noting that she came into Brown thinking she would concentrate in history, Blatt said when diving into projects, her approach “is to set up a historical context before jumping to a current context.” For her thesis, Blatt started researching the mid-1800s with a focus on J. Marion Sims — an American physician some consider to be the father of gynecology — who experimented on enslaved Black women’s genitalia without the use of anesthesia. Despite her interest in black

women’s reproduction in the past, Blatt said she wanted to shift her focus to the present-day relevance of this research, focusing on “activism in light of that history.” Blatt’s thesis centers on the activist group SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective. The group’s goal is “to educate women of color and policymakers on reproductive and sexual health and rights” and frame information about these rights in “culturally and linguistically appropriate” ways, according to the collective’s website. This past summer, she immersed herself in research on SisterSong and on one of the collective’s most famous founders, Loretta Ross, Blatt said. Hours of archival research and secondary reading formed the basis of her understanding of SisterSong, as well as of the broader fields of black feminist organizing and critical race theory in a biomedical framework, she said. From that accumulation of material, Blatt has examined the racialization of different groups of women, with the lens that “each person’s struggle isn’t the same, but that it’s beneficial and necessary to think about mutual investment in each other’s struggles,” she said. In her thesis, she hopes to explore this framework and look more closely at how SisterSong chooses to present the work they do and at how the group’s activism “informs bio-citizenship,” which Blatt defines as “the intersection of government, social

institutions and individual liberty as one conceptualizes their biological and medical body.” Blatt said she also plans to write about the collective’s relationship with other organizations like Planned Parenthood and its link to larger medical institutions and services. Planned Parenthood is a “super big household name,” Blatt said, but the organization’s founding is tainted by the fact that its founder, Margaret Sanger, was a eugenicist. While some argue Sanger used eugenics “as a tool” to promote women’s reproductive rights, others say she used birth control to limit black women’s reproduction. “This complicates Planned Parenthood’s relationship with the black communities and black reproductive justice organizers,” Blatt said. Recently, SisterSong published a letter to Planned Parenthood asking that the organization reframe their stance on women’s health as a matter of “reproductive justice,” Blatt said. SisterSong also noted that if Planned Parenthood were to alter their framework in this way, they would “have to consult the people that created that framework. Black women and women of color have to be at the table.” While Blatt said she does not wish to debate the controversial history of Planned Parenthood’s founding, she does hope to question “what it would mean if Planned Parenthood were to take an anti-racist (stance) in light of that history.” With “all of this political rhetoric”

COURTESY OF LEILA BLATT

Leila Blatt ’15, an Africana Studies concentrator, is focusing her thesis on black feminist organizing and “bio-citizenship,” she said. in mind, Blatt said she will conclude her thesis by exploring the intersection between “political self and biological self ” and how that manifests in SisterSong’s relationship to medical services. The thesis process has been one of academic self-discovery, Blatt said. “It’s a good exercise in figuring out whether

going into the academy is right for me.” After recently deciding not to pursue medicine, Blatt said her research has also opened her eyes to other lines of work, like that which goes on in community organizations. “It’s good to think about how that works and what avenues I have to pursue that,” she said.