Daily
the Brown
vol. cxlvi, no.53
Professional degrees
to debut in fall 2012
By Lindor Qunaj
Senior Staff Writer
The University plans to offer profes-
sionally oriented master’s programs,
two to four of which are projected
to begin enrolling students as early
as fall 2012, according to a report
published by the Office of the Pro-
vost March 14.
Designed for mid-career pro-
fessionals who often cannot be on
campus for long periods of time,
these programs will feature a blend
of technology-based pedagogical
methods. While their exact models
and instructional formats are still
being worked out, Karen Sibley,
dean of continuing education, said
there will probably be intensive pe-
riods of traditional class time on
campus for a few days at the start
and end of each program, while
the remainder of the instruction
ResLife locks
DTau out of
frat lounge
By Alex bell
News Editor
The Office of Residential Life changed
the locks on the first floor lounge and
basement common spaces belonging
to Delta Tau fraternity at approxi-
mately 4 p.m. Saturday during Spring
Weekend “to prevent a recurrence
of unauthorized folks attempting to
host parties that were not registered
events,” wrote Richard Bova, senior
associate dean of residential life and
dining services, in an email to The
Herald.
All on-campus events where al-
cohol will be served or attendance
is expected to exceed 100 must be
registered with the Office of Student
Life three weeks in advance.
Students confirmed a DTau party
was shut down at least once Friday.
Michael Spector ’13 said he re-
membered the party getting shut
down around 11:30 p.m. Pablo Ar-
turo Galindo ’13, a DTau pledge, also
estimated the party was shut down
around that time.
Hayley Sparks ’14, who recalled
the Friday party was broken up twice,
speculated the party was shut down
because students had not complied
with earlier instructions to end the
party and some were on the awning
outside a second-floor window.
When she returned to the fra-
continued on page 2
featUres................3
inside
news....................4-6
editorial............10
Opinions.............11
CITY & State.........12
Thursday, April 21, 2011
will be done online.
The new programs will be
held to the same standards as any
degree-granting program at the
University, and quality assurance
will play an important role in their
planning and implementation, Sib-
ley said. “They better not be wa-
tered down,” she said.
Classroom and online learn-
ing cannot be directly compared,
just like a story told live cannot
compare to one film, Sibley said.
“A movie is simply a different con-
veyance of entertainment than a
theater performance,” she said. “It’s
not about something being better
or worse.”
‘Promising areas’
Biomedical technology, business
analytics and health care manage-
continued on page 4
Support for Hispanics scrutinized
By Joseph Rosales
Senior Staff Writer
Though the University has made
efforts to increase support for the
growing Hispanic undergraduate
population, students, faculty and
administrators still feel that issues
remain.
The Office of Institutional Di-
versity and the Office of the Dean
of the College hired a consultant
in spring 2009 to conduct con-
versations with students, staff and
faculty to learn about the experi-
Oldest alum Coleman ’25 celebrates 107 years
By Jordan Hendricks
Contributing Writer
“We never get old. Every year
you’re more beautiful,” Reverend
Naomi Craig of Providence told
Beatrice Coleman ’25 at her birth-
Features
day party yesterday. And if Craig’s
words are any indication, Coleman
is certainly the most beautiful liv-
ing holder of a Brown degree.
Presumably Brown’s oldest
alum, Coleman celebrated her
107th birthday yesterday at a
small gathering of students and
faculty at Tockwotton Home at
Fox Point.
continued on page 2
Inspired
Mark Baumer GS uses
oddity in teaching fiction
Features, 3
Herald
Brown is green
Stephanie London / Herald
Hordes of Brunonians descended on the Main Green yesterday at 4:20 p.m. to
celebrate the unofficial “4/20” holiday by toking up. The Blue Room reportedly
recorded its highest ever single-day sales total.
ence of Hispanic undergrads at University’s Hispanic student
Brown, according to Maitrayee population over the past decade,
Bhattacharyya, associate dean for Bhattacharyya wrote. In the 1988-
diversity programs. 89 academic year, there were 337
“We are interested in under- undergrads who identified as His-
standing the experiences of all of panic, according to the Office of
our students and what we can do Institutional Research. Last year,
to support students having the that number had increased to 550,
best overall experience at Brown,” a 63 percent increase in 21 years.
Bhattacharyya wrote in an email The University also felt there
to The Herald. was a need to help Hispanic stu-
The University hoped to gain dents who were struggling aca-
a better understanding of the demically.
Hispanic experience at Brown
because of the increase in the continued on page 6
Beatrice Coleman ’25, the University’s oldest alum, celebrated her 107th birthday at a party yesterday in Fox Point.
weather
Post-
mourns Michael Scott, is
going to read this summer
Post-, inside
Since 1891
State sued
over school
funding
formula
By REbecca ballhaus
City & State Editor
The school committees of Paw-
tucket and Woonsocket filed an
amended petition to a lawsuit
April 7 against the state for alleg-
edly failing to provide the districts
with adequate funds for education
under its new funding formula.
city & state
The suit was originally filed in
February 2010, before the Gen-
eral Assembly passed the funding
formula. “The concern was there
was a mismatch between what the
state expects from school districts
in terms of providing quality edu-
cation for kids and the resources
that the state makes available to
do that,” said Samuel Zurier, one
of the districts’ two attorneys.
“We like the performance stan-
dards that the state department
of education is developing, and
the school district would love to
… be able to give the kids a shot
at meeting those standards,” he
added. “The problem is there’s
not enough resources to do it.”
The state funding formula di-
vides $682 million in education
aid among 53 districts annually.
Some districts will receive in-
creased funding, and others will
continued on page 7
Courtesy of John Marciel
t o d ay tomorrow
56 / 34 54 / 38
2 Campus News
calendar 107-year-old alum an ‘inspiration’
Today april 21 ToMORROW april 22
continued from page 1
6:30 P.m. 6:30 p.m.
Free Final Cut Video Editing Class, “Floorgasm” Breakdance Showcase, Organized by Brown’s under-
CIT 269 Faunce Multipurpose Room graduate chapter of Alpha Kappa
Alpha — a non-residential black
8 p.m. 8 p.m.
sorority — Coleman’s birthday
An Evening of Food Porn, The Vagina Monologues, party featured some of her biggest
Smith-Buonanno 106 Granoff Center fans. In attendance were family
members, current members of
menu AKA and three former presidents
of its graduate chapter, faculty
from the Office of Alumni Rela-
SHARPE REFECTORY VERNEy-WOOLLEY DINING HALL
tions and Craig, who at 94-years
LUNCH old, was one of Coleman’s former
Chicken Pot Pie, Falafel in Pita with Italian Sausage and Pepper piano students as a “youngster,”
Tzatziki, Zucchini and Parmesan Sandwich, Grilled Cheese and she said. Coleman joined AKA,
Sandwich, Rice Krispie Treats Tomato Sandwich, Rice Krispie Treats the oldest Greek organization for
black women, during her years at
DINNER
Pembroke College and continued
Earth Day Dinner featuring Baked Chicken, Shells with Broccoli, her involvement in the organiza-
Visiting Chef Jody Adams ’79 Sweet and Sour Pork Saute, Country tion for the rest of her life.
Wedding Soup, Frosted Brownies Even at 107 years, Coleman —
affectionately known as “Bea” to
Sudoku most — was still the life of the
party, sporting a large birthday
balloon on her wheelchair and
chatting happily with attendees.
“Do they know the alma
mater?” Coleman almost im-
mediately asked of the sorority
members. Originally from Rhode
Island and passionate about both
Brown and history, Coleman is
known to scold those who do
not know the words to two songs
— Brown’s alma mater and “The
Star-Spangled Banner” — both of
which she sang to the crowd and
later played on the piano. Party
organizers provided copies of the
lyrics for the less-prepared guests.
“She’s 107 and still so full of
pep,” said Beverly Ledbetter, vice
president and general counsel and
acr oss to bear a former president of Iota Alpha
— the graduate chapter that ad-
vises AKA undergraduates.
But Coleman’s resume hardly
ends at AKA and the quality of
“pep.”
“Such a tiny girl so deeply in-
volved in history, but Beatrice
smiles blissfully and says, ‘His-
tory is — beautiful!’” the 1925
yearbook says of her. She devoted
much of her life to teaching his-
tory. After she graduated in 1925,
Daily
the Brown
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Brown’s oldest alum Beatrice Coleman ’25 is still the “life of the party” at 107.
unable to find a school for black
children in Providence, Coleman
moved to Philadelphia to teach
at St. Mary’s Academy for Girls.
While she never married or
had children, Coleman continued
reaching out to youth by teaching
piano lessons, acting as an assis-
tant leader of a Girl Scout troop —
one of her former troop members
was also in attendance — and of
course, maintaining involvement
with her sorority sisters at AKA.
“She never missed a sorority
meeting until she was 101,” said
Bettye Williams-Clanton, current
graduate adviser to AKA and a
former president of Iota Alpha.
On display was a poster with
Coleman’s graduation picture and
two large cards with the signatures
of over 200 Brown students. Wil-
liams-Clanton said this was ap-
propriate, as Coleman was always
“making sure absolutely everyone
in the sorority got a birthday card
on their birthday.”
The sorority members orga-
nized the cards for her by asking
students in J. Walter Wilson, the
Sharpe Refectory and Emery-
Woolley dining hall to sign. The
Herald
Matthew Burrows, Treasurer
Isha Gulati, Secretary
Business
(401) 351-3260
gm@browndailyherald.com
The Brown Daily Herald
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Courtesy of John Marciel
group asked each signer to do-
nate $1 and raised about $150
for Breeze Against Wheeze, a 5K
run and 3K walk in May that sup-
ports Hasbro Children’s Hospital’s
Asthma Camp.
The cards included comments
from undergraduates from “all
walks of life,” Ledbetter said.
Coleman is “the stuff of legend,”
wrote Saudi Garcia ’14, and she
is a “hero,” wrote Margaret Con-
nelly ’14.
“You are an inspiration. Thank
you for leading my way!” read a
message from “Yeshi ’12.”
“Congrats! Here’s to 107 more!”
Shawn Patterson ’12 wrote in thick
blue pen.
Of course, no birthday party
is complete without presents.
Coleman received a Brown throw
blanket, a “Trailblazer’s Certifi-
cate” calling her an “icon who
courageously and independently
embarked on an education at
Pembroke College” and an offi-
cial certificate signed by President
Ruth Simmons congratulating her
on her birthday and for being “one
of our ever-truest alumnae” and
an “inspiration to black students.”
Future access
to lounge
unclear
continued from page 1
ternity Saturday, she said she found
“literally 60 cases of beer” in a soph-
omore’s room. She said a member
of the fraternity moved it from a
basement closet when he saw the
locks being changed on the common
spaces. The University’s decision to
change the locks “seemed pretty ex-
treme,” she said.
The fraternity’s leadership de-
clined to comment on the situation.
Bova would not comment on
whether similar action has been
levied against other Greek houses
or whether DTau will regain access
to its common spaces.
Theta Delta Chi member Bradley
Griffith ’12 said administrators have
restricted Thete brothers’ use of their
common spaces this semester.
The Brown Daily Herald
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Fiction teacher Baumer GS draws inspiration from ‘weirdness’
By Sarah Forman
Staff Writer
In most courses — even at Brown
— it would have come as a bit of
a shock for an instructor to an-
nounce that for the first 60 minutes
of a seminar, no one was allowed
to speak or leave the room.
But not one of the students in
Mark Baumer’s GS fiction writ-
ing workshop seemed particularly
fazed by Baumer’s proclamation
after he wrote, in uneven, capital
letters, “The art of subtle weird-
ness” on the board of his classroom
in the Rockefeller Library Monday
evening.
“He acts like that every day,”
explained Ana Almeida ’12, a stu-
dent in the class, after the hour
of silence. The political science
concentrator had divided her
quiet time between napping and
doodling. Other students passed
notes, read from textbooks, medi-
tated and covered their bodies in
sheets of newsprint. For several
minutes, paper airplanes marked
with comments and messages flew
through the air.
“You never know what to
expect, obviously,” said Ryan
Provencher ’12, a mathematical
physics concentrator sitting next
to Almeida. “I mean, this is unlike
any class.”
Baumer himself is unlike any
other instructor.
Since graduating from Whea-
ton College in Massachusetts in
2006, where he majored in English
and was a designated hitter on the
baseball team, Baumer has hitch-
hiked from Maine to California,
walked across the country on foot
and eaten pizza every day for a
three-month stretch. He blogged
about these feats, and others, and
he continues to post videos and
short pieces of prose about his
life in Providence as a graduate
student in Brown’s prestigious
Program in Literary Arts.
“I’m really big on just doing
things,” he explained, sitting be-
side a life-size but headless pink
mannequin that happened to be
in his office.
For example, on the first day
of class this semester, he wore a
white, full-body, hazmat-style suit
to class. Perhaps as a result, half of
the 40 students who shopped the
first class failed to show up the
following week.
Baumer said he often takes on
unconventional tasks or intention-
ally breaks social norms to spark
creative ideas for his blogs and
more formal writing.
“There’s nothing more unin-
spiring than just staring at a blank
Word document,” he said. “A lot of
times when I can’t think of any-
thing to write about, I’ll just do
something.”
Both this semester and last fall,
Baumer encouraged the students
in his fiction workshops to take
similarly experimental and uncon-
ventional steps to improve their
writing.
“Mark takes a different tact
than most professors,” said Kelsey
Shimamoto ’13, who took Baum-
er’s class last fall. She said students
wrote profusely and explored new
literature styles through reading
assignments like Urs Alleman’s
“Babyfucker,” but that the class
never used the conventional
method of collectively critiquing
students’ work. “We had almost
no criticism for the entire course.”
Instead, Baumer gave his stu-
dents experiments and assign-
ments that taught them how to
think differently and expand their
minds to help them come up with
material.
“I think most people in that
class didn’t need to be taught how
to write. … Anyone can write a
story,” Shimamoto offered. Instead,
Baumer’s class was about “learning
how to write something interest-
ing.”
Nick Gomez-Hall ’13 was en-
rolled in Baumer’s class in the fall
and said he thought it was “the
most consuming, stimulating
course that I’ve taken at Brown.”
Gomez-Hall insists that the more
novel assignments he received
— like creating a diversion as a
class so someone could sneak piz-
zas past a door guard into their
classroom at the Rockefeller Li-
brary — were exercises in drawing
meaning out of everyday things.
During other class periods, Bau-
mer instructed his students to
take a two-hour walk, convince
a stranger in the library to give
them a dollar and walk from the
basement to the second floor of
the Rock with their eyes closed.
But not all students are fans of
Baumer’s unconventional teach-
ing.
“I imagine that some people
wish there was more instruction —
and I do as well — but I can under-
stand why there isn’t,” said Edward
Friedman ’14, a prospective liter-
ary arts concentrator currently in
the course. “I can definitely under-
Feature 3
stand why people wouldn’t like it.”
After rarely finding the writing
workshops he took as a student
useful, Baumer said he thought it
would be better to “abandon that
atmosphere” of conventional cri-
tique and instead give his students
a safe space to try on new methods
and ideas.
“It’s tough for the students,”
Baumer said, because they end
up needing to take more initiative
and independence in their writing.
“It’s just better for me to create
something different.”
Baumer still gives his students
some feedback, and he spent the
second half of Monday’s class
holding individual conversations
with each student about the writ-
ing he or she had turned in while
the rest of the group responded to
short writing prompts generated
Sarah Forman / Herald
by other students.
With his unorthodox, and sometimes downright unusual, teaching methods,
Sarah Marion ’12.5 — a visual Mark Baumer GS aims to teach his students “how to write something interesting.”
arts concentrator — said she was
impressed by the level of encour- sissippi, hit a golf ball from Texas years, he is sure he will not go into
agement he gave during her indi- into South America or spend some academia.
vidual conference. time traveling through Antarctica “When I’m ready to wither and
“You can tell that he really cares after graduation. While Baumer die, that’s when I’ll be a teacher,”
about his students,” she said, add- said he still does not know what he said. “I’m not ready to wither
ing that Baumer had referenced he wants to do over the next few and die.”
specific sentences she had written
weeks earlier during their con-
versation.
Baumer’s course is one of four
sections of LITR 0110A: “Fiction
I” workshop being offered this se-
mester, all of which are taught by
master of fine arts candidates.
“Each 0110 class is taught dif-
ferently and very much based
on the instructor,” wrote Brian
Evenson, director of the literary
arts program, in an email to The
Herald. “Considering the var-
ied interests and approaches of
Brown’s undergraduate writers,
we find that students tend to be
able to find instructors well suited
to helping them grow as writers,
as well as instructors to challenge
their unexamined assumptions
about what writing is or can be.”
Natasha Katoni ’12, a student
in Baumer’s class, said her room-
mate is in a different Fiction I
section, and the two classes are
“totally different.” Because Baumer
is graduating this May, and since
every section of Fiction I has its
own structure and syllabus, Brown
may never see another class quite
like Baumer’s.
Baumer said he is “looking
forward to just working a job for
a year” and taking a break from
academic writing and teaching. He
might take a boat down the Mis-
4 Campus News
New professional master’s programs to boost revenue
continued from page 1
ment are examples of the “likely and
promising areas” being investigated
for potential degree programs, but
specific fields of study have not yet
been defined, said Rod Beresford
P’13, associate provost and profes-
sor of engineering. The Univer-
sity’s goal is to develop programs in
markets that are “established” but
“have not been saturated,” he said
at a March 22 faculty forum held to
elicit feedback on the initial plan-
ning of the programs, according to
the forum minutes.
Over the past year, the Univer-
sity has looked at specific programs
being offered at other institutions
as examples of potential directions
it can take but does not intend to
copy from them directly. Accord-
ing to the report from the provost’s
office, “it may be informative to
consider some of these peer pro-
grams, not necessarily to suggest
particular models for emulation,
but simply to gain an appreciation
for the variety of activity that is
taking place.”
In the report, possible profes-
sional master’s programs are com-
pared to existing offerings at other
universities, including Northwest-
ern University, the University of
California at Santa Barbara, Penn
and Yale.
The market for such programs
has grown significantly as the num-
ber of adult students earning grad-
uate degrees has “approximately
doubled” in the last 10 years, ac-
cording to the report. “Although
this growth surge has largely by-
passed Brown, many peer institu-
tions have benefited.”
While Sibley said Brown has
seen its peer institutions building
up these sorts of programs over the
past decade or more, it has not ac-
tively pursued such initiatives until
more recently. “Up until now, we
haven’t had the capacity for what-
ever reasons,” she said. “But we’ve
reached a juncture now where we
have the capacity.”
There were discussions about
professional master’s programs in
the past, but these talks “became
more serious” six to nine months
ago, Beresford said.
Fitting in at Brown
Due to their highly interdisci-
plinary nature, the programs could
be affiliated with several related
departments, such as computer
science and applied mathematics.
But faculty members questioned
whether the programs’ lack of af-
filiation with departments will iso-
late them, according to the faculty
forum minutes.
The University will bring in ad-
junct faculty to design and teach
some of the courses in these new
programs, so the programs will
not be “an imposition on existing
Brown faculty,” Beresford said. But
non-adjunct faculty members will
be consulted during the creation
and implementation of the courses
and will need to approve major de-
cisions. Some professors have also
expressed interest in being more
closely involved with and teaching
in these programs, Sibley said.
At the March 22 forum, faculty
members raised concerns that it
may be difficult to find an adequate
supply of adjunct instructors in the
area and “ensure quality of faculty
who are hired by a committee” in-
stead of a department, according
to the minutes.
When professional master’s stu-
dents are on campus, their classes
will meet during evenings and on
weekends to avoid interfering with
scheduled classroom use, accord-
ing to the report. Students will also
stay in hotels and not require on-
campus housing, according to the
faculty forum minutes.
The professional master’s pro-
grams and the University’s atmo-
sphere of liberal learning “fit to-
gether perfectly,” Sibley said. The
new master’s programs, she added,
are meant to “contend with a world
that is global, fast-changing and re-
quires a lot of humanistic thinking.”
Sibley cited the popularity of the
new IE Brown Executive MBA pro-
gram as evidence of the importance
of liberal arts in the professional
master’s program initiative. Stu-
Possible professional master’s degrees
• Executive master of business analytics
• Executive master of information “very different audience,” one that
technology
• Executive master of technology
management
• Professional master of biotechnology
• Executive master of environmental
entrepreneurship
• Professional master of environmental
management
• Executive master of health care
management
• Professional master of public health
— Provost’s Initiative in Executive and
Professional Education Prospectus
dents came to the MBA program
because “it wasn’t that standard box
of tools” that any business program
will provide, she said. “They wanted
it because of the liberal arts con-
tent.”
Richard Fishman, a professor
of visual art who was heavily in-
volved in the development of the
IE MBA, explained that though
he was initially skeptical about
professional master’s programs,
his experiences with the business
program were positive and “allayed
concerns about eroding Brown’s
reputation in order to leverage a
revenue stream.”
Diversifying revenue
One objective of the new mas-
ter’s programs is to address the
goal set in the Plan for Academic
Enrichment to diversify the Univer-
sity’s revenue sources and lessen its
reliance on undergraduate tuition
money, which contributes more
to University income than at peer
institutions, according the provost’s
office’s report.
“We want to generate a new
revenue stream, of course, but we
want to do it in a mission-centered
fashion, and we want to make a dif-
ference in the world,” Sibley said.
“These are people who can imme-
diately transfer their skills from
degree to difference.”
Though it is “premature” to
specify the tuition and fees students
will pay for these programs, the
University’s biology master’s of arts
program currently offered to Pfiz-
er Pharmaceuticals employees is
“probably a good model,” Beresford
wrote in an email to The Herald.
That program charges $4,991 per
course and requires eight courses
to complete the degree, according
to the Office of Continuing Educa-
tion website.
While financial aid was part
of the budget for the IE business
program, most students did not re-
quire this support. Beresford wrote
that “financial aid is not expected
to play a large role” in the new
programs, because the majority
of students in these programs will
be professionals whose employers
will pay for their education.
At the forum, Sibley and Beres-
ford stated that the “initial invest-
ment is high,” but the University
should “break even in two years” if
each program enrolls a minimum
of 15 students. Most of these start-
up costs will go toward creating
online course material and hiring
program leaders and instructors.
The Brown Daily Herald
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Factoring these expenses into the
financial model, Provost David
Kertzer ’69 P’95 P’98 said to the
faculty that one-third of the pro-
grams’ gross revenue will be “net-
ted” by the University, according
to the forum minutes.
Along with boosting revenue,
the professional master’s programs
will benefit the undergraduate ex-
perience, Sibley said. “I don’t know
exactly what it will produce, but
we believe that it’s going to bring a
valuable new understanding about
teaching and the use of technology.”
The programs will also bring
“high-achieving professionals in
contact with campus and regular
Brown faculty” and reach out to a
is less drawn to the University’s
current degree offerings, Beres-
ford said.
The road ahead
Though there is “strong interest
in seeing these programs develop
at the level of the president and
the Corporation,” Beresford said
the new programs will not begin
to enroll students until fall 2012
at the earliest.
“There is an increasing demand
for education at the master’s level,
and Brown needs to be responsive,”
wrote Peter Weber P’12, dean of the
Graduate School, in an email to The
Herald. “If many students seek an
education in an area where Brown
has strength and expertise, then it
is in keeping with Brown’s mission
to provide such educational op-
portunities.”
Interest in master’s programs
among students and administrators
across the country is not limited
to these professional fields, where
Sibley said the “demand curve is
already huge.”
The University’s current master’s
programs have been growing at a
rate of 10 percent per year, Weber
said. Compared to PhD programs,
which provide stipends to students,
most master’s programs are not as
constrained in size by funding
concerns.
Before a new degree program is
formally introduced, the initiative
must be supported by the Academic
Priorities Committee, the Graduate
Student Council, the Faculty Ex-
ecutive Committee and the faculty
before being sent to the Corpora-
tion for a final decision.
The report proposes moving
forward at a “brisk pace” and bring-
ing proposals for new programs
before the Graduate Council at the
beginning of the fall with the goal
of gaining full faculty approval by
the end of the semester. In contrast,
the proposal for the IE MBA pro-
gram took 15 months to develop,
according to the faculty forum
minutes.
The planning and implemen-
tation process for these new pro-
grams will be overseen by the
provost’s office, but the Office of
Continuing Education will also
supply “managerial staff and re-
source support,” according to the
report. An “advisory council on ex-
ecutive and professional education”
could also be established imme-
diately to coordinate the process,
according to the report.
The Brown Daily Herald
Thursday, April 21, 2011 Campus News 5
UCS supports ‘brain drain’ bill
By David Chung
Senior Staff Writer

The Undergraduate Council of

Students passed a resolution at its
general body meeting last night
urging the Rhode Island General
Assembly to approve the “Op-
portunity RI” legislation.
The bill, which has garnered
bipartisan support in the Gen-
eral Assembly and at colleges
and universities around the state,
addresses the “brain drain” cur-
rently affecting Rhode Island, said
Jeremy Feigenbaum ’11, presi-
dent of the College Democrats of
Rhode Island and a former Herald
opinions columnist, at last week’s
Herald File Photo
UCS meeting. If the bill passes, UCS discussed plans to set up SciLi patio seating at its meeting yesterday.
it will grant tax credits to gradu-
ates of Rhode Island universities working with Matthew Tsimikas, committee is working with the
and colleges who are employed assistant director of athletics and Office of Residential Life to sup-
in the state. The bill aims to cre- physical education, to evaluate ply bathrooms with sanitary nap-
ate more skilled jobs and boost satellite gyms. Abhinay Reddy kins for females. Rattner added
the economy by providing an ’13, a committee member, said that temporary tables will be set
incentive for students to remain administrators have expressed up at the Sciences Library patio
in Rhode Island following gradu- support for the project, but fund- by early May and that once per-
ation, Feigenbaum said. ing remains a limiting factor in manent seating is introduced, the
The Admissions and Student effecting change. Campus Life temporary tables will be moved
Services Committee has been Chair David Rattner ’13 said his to the Andrews Hall patio.

www.browndailyherald.com
6 Campus News
Students, profs seek more Hispanic faculty and student support
continued from page 1
“We were having a sense that
some of our students were not
doing as well as they could,” said
Cynthia Garcia Coll, professor
of education. “The question was,
were we failing to provide some
supports that are needed?”
With information gathered
from the consultant, the Univer-
sity has begun working on initia-
tives to improve the experience of
the Hispanic student population,
according to Bhattacharyya. These
initiatives include amplifying ef-
forts to recognize the varying aca-
demic skill sets and personal cir-
cumstances of incoming students,
establishing a stronger advising
program and increasing commu-
nication with students about the
University’s resources.
The consultant recommended
a system to provide immediate
supplementary financial support
to students who need assistance
closing modest gaps in their fi-
nancial situations, Bhattacharyya
wrote. The Office of Campus Life
and Student Services is currently
working on establishing such a
system.
‘A rare breed’
For Garcia Coll, the lack of
Hispanic faculty at Brown is “pa-
thetic.”
Out of 682 faculty members,
20 are listed as Hispanic on the
Office of the Dean of the Faculty
website. This 2.9 percent is lower
than the national average of His-
panic faculty in private four-year
institutions — 3.2 percent — ac-
cording to the National Center for
Education Statistics.
“We feel like a rare breed,” Gar-
cia Coll said.
Evelyn Hu-DeHart, profes-
sor of history and director of the
Center for the Study of Race and
Ethnicity in America, also said she
believed there is a need for more
Hispanic faculty. The University
needs to be clear on its definition
of Hispanic because it is unclear
if those 20 faculty members self-
identify as Hispanic, she said.
“I think the University has a re-
sponsibility when they claim there
are 20 to make sure that the 20 are
meaningful, because we stake a
claim on diversity these days in
higher ed — that it is an educa-
tional asset and that we benefit in
higher ed when there’s diversity,”
Hu-Dehart said.
Students have complained to
Garcia Coll about the small num-
ber of Hispanic faculty members,
she said. During Puerto Rican
Heritage Week in March, a stu-
dent told her she felt she could
not learn about her Puerto Ri-
can history, because there is no
Hispanic professor in the history
department who can teach it.
“We’re nowhere to be seen in
the curriculum except for some
Enrolled Hispanic Undergraduates
very specialized things,” Garcia
Coll said.
Ana-Irma Patete ’13, president
of Machado House, also said she
has noticed the lack of Hispanic
faculty. “We need more Latinos in
academia,” Patete said. “It would
be nice to find more of our people
in our faculty.”
But Hispanic staff and faculty
are very supportive of one another,
said Maria Suarez, associate dean
of student life. Though she said
she feels the University needs
more diversity, she added she will
sometimes “look at quality over
quantity,” Suarez said.
Overcoming challenges
Students and administrators
also agree there needs to be a
strong advising system for His-
panic students because their col-
lege experiences tend to be differ-
ent than those of other ethnicities.
There is a divide between the
Hispanics who come from mid-
dle-class, second- and third-gen-
eration homes and the Hispanics
who are some of the first in their
families to go to college, and the
University needs to address that
gap, Garcia Coll said.
“They are sitting side by side
and expected to perform at the
same level as everybody else, when
they haven’t had the tools to do
that,” she said of first-generation
Hispanic students.
Mercedes Domenech, associ-
ate dean of medicine, minority
recruitment and retention, has
seen Hispanic applications rise
immensely since she started in
1988. Her first year, the University
received 547 applications from
students who identified as His-
panic. This year, there were 2,963
Hispanic applicants, a 442 percent
increase.
She sees cautiousness among
Hispanic students when she re-
cruits in communities that rarely
send students to Brown, she said.
“You have to go where everyone
goes, and then you have to go
where no one goes” when re-
cruiting, she said. “Talent is ev-
erywhere.”
“That’s what education is
all about — giving people the
chance,” she said.
Part of the discrepancy has to
do with the differences in culture,
Patete said. Some Hispanic stu-
dents feel they are not capable of
being successful because of their
backgrounds, she said.
“If you got into Brown, there’s
no reason why you can’t graduate
other than insecurities,” she said.
Patete has also noticed there
is some self-segregation in the
Hispanic community. Though she
The Brown Daily Herald
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Gili Kliger / Herald
said she finds self-segregation to
be natural, she still thinks open-
ing up to other groups would be
better for all involved.
“I think it’s important for the
Latino community to show soli-
darity but not to alienate,” she
said.
Looking ahead
Students have been working
with administrators to find solu-
tions to these issues. Holly Do-
erflinger ’13 has informally met
with administrators this semester
about improving Hispanic stu-
dent retention, hiring a Hispanic
dean and increasing support for
the Hispanic student population.
“Right now, it’s such a crucial
time” because the Third World
Center is in the process of hiring
a new director, Doerflinger said.
Through her conversations
with various deans, she and other
members of the Brown University
Latino Council, a student group,
have thrown around ideas that
she hopes will eventually become
a set of recommendations for the
University.
Patete said it is the duty of the
Hispanic students to fix problems
they see. Students need to start a
dialogue within the community
about how to improve support
for Hispanic students, but they
should also be confident in their
abilities to succeed academically,
she added.
“We need to be confident be-
cause we deserved it, not because
of our race,” she said.
Because the students are part
of the University, they have every
right to give opinions about what
they feel needs to be changed,
Garcia Coll said. “There’s noth-
ing like students organizing and
standing up and giving a good
rationale for why things should
change.”
With the Hispanic population
in the United States continuing to
grow, Garcia Coll said improve-
ments in the Hispanic undergrad
experience will be good for the
University.
“As I say,” she said, “it’s not a
coincidence that our ATMs are in
English and Spanish.”
The Brown Daily Herald
Thursday, April 21, 2011
School funding formula provokes lawsuit amendment
continued from page 1
experience a decrease, according
to the formula, which will go into
effect July 1. All changes will be
phased in over a period of seven
to 10 years.
Pawtucket and Woonsocket
are slated to receive increased
funding, by $1.5 million and $1
million, respectively.
“While it’s better than not hav-
ing a funding formula … our op-
position is that even when fully
implemented over a seven-year
period, it is still not going to pro-
vide equity and education,” said
Thomas Conlon, business admin-
istrator for the Pawtucket School
Department. “There will still be
some districts that will be able to
spend more per pupil to provide
an adequate and meaningful and
equitable education.”
Until recently, Rhode Island
was the only state in the country
without a funding formula.
“It is the responsibility of the
state to make sure that the chil-
dren in the state of Rhode Island
would have access to schooling
opportunities and high-quality
instruction,” said Kenneth Wong,
professor of education and chair
of the department. Wong, along
with several graduate students,
was heavily involved in the devel-
opment of the funding formula.
“I was very pleased to see that
actually 71 percent of students in
the state received more funding
as a result of the state funding
formula,” Wong said. “It would be
nice if 100 percent would receive
more money, but 71 percent is still
a strong number.”
He added that education fund-
ing is the responsibility both of
the state and of local govern-
ments. “Woonsocket and Paw-
tucket are going to get more fund-
ing, but at the same time the local
(communities) also need to think
about how they would prioritize
education in their community and
then to think about how many re-
sources they would want to spend
on their own.”
Pawtucket and Woonsocket
are among the top four highest-
funded cities in the state, re-
ceiving over 80 percent of their
education funding from the state,
Wong said.
The plaintiffs’ attorneys also
cited the fact that the formula
does not automatically allocate
money for educating special needs
students as a fundamental flaw.
But the money will be given
in categorical funding outside of
the formula, Wong said. “There
is a lot of additional funding …
and there are other commitments
the state is going to provide to the
two communities.”
State funding is based on spe-
cific data incorporated into the
funding formula, Wong added.
“The formula is based on a very
careful analysis of how much it
costs to provide core instructional
services to the children. It also
takes into consideration the local
fiscal capacity and the concentra-
tion of low income children,” he
said.
The formula counts low in-
come children as needing an in-
creased 40 percent in funding.
Because data on special education
and English as a Second Language
students is often unreliable, Wong
said, the formula concentrates
on more concrete data such as
income. The formula’s creators
found overlapping needs between
ESL, special needs and low in-
come students. “If we consider
the concentration effect of low
income children in our formula,
… then I think that would ad-
City & State 7
Herald File Photo
The cities of Pawtucket and Woonsocket are questioning the state’s school funding formula, which will redistribute
money among school districts.
dress a substantial amount of the
problem,” Wong said.
Three Rhode Island cities filed
a similar lawsuit about 15 years
ago, Zurier said. The plaintiffs
won at the trial level but the case
was thrown out by the state Su-
preme Court. “One of the chal-
lenges of bringing this case was
making a case for why things are
different now,” he said.
“We ought to let the formula
run for about three years and then
see if there are ways that we can
fine-tune and change it,” Wong
said. Education funding is “both
a state and a local responsibility,
and we need to see how the cities
respond and work with the state in
terms of prioritizing education.”
“We knew that not everyone
was going to be happy with the
formula, but we felt it was fair and
equitable,” said Larry Berman,
spokesman for House Speaker
Gordon Fox, D-Providence. Fox
will continue to look at the for-
mula and “tweak it” with time,
Berman said.
“Pawtucket and Woonsocket
did get more money, but I think
they want even more,” he said.
“But it’s the best that the General
Assembly could do.”
8 City & State
Health dept. grants three licenses to sell marijuana
continued from page 12
investors that have pledged finan-
cial support through personal non-
guaranteed loans.”
Its application projects that
Greenleaf will generate $1.9 mil-
lion in total revenue by 2012, em-
ploy nine full-time employees and
provide medication to 533 patients.
Summit, the largest of the three
centers, will be located in Warwick.
According to Summit’s applica-
tion, Cuttino Mobley — a former
University of Rhode Island and
NBA basketball star — will be the
sole funder of the center and the
only one to hold a security inter-
est in the center’s property. He is
donating $500,000 to the center
as well as providing a $3.5 million
line of credit that is available for
immediate use.
By the end of its third year of op-
eration, Summit plans to employ 80
people and service 8,000 patients.
The center projects total profits of
$16.5 million.
Assessing the need
JoAnne Leppanen, executive di-
rector of the Rhode Island Patient
Advocacy Coalition, said she was
in favor of Greenleaf ’s application
from the start because its less cen-
tral Portsmouth location means it
can serve patients that otherwise
could not access medical marijuana.
Though Summit’s application
was “impressive,” it came as “a bit of
a surprise because there is so much
out of state involvement,” Leppanen
said, pointing to the fact that the
center’s entire line of credit comes
from a person “with no authority”
over the center’s leadership.
The Department of Health
estimates 40 percent of medical
marijuana patients are Medicaid,
Supplemental Security Income or
Social Security Disability Insurance
recipients, according to Greenleaf ’s
application. Nick Testa, a caregiver
from South Kingstown, explained
that some patients currently re-
ceive their medication for free from
friends or family.
“If it’s one dollar, it’s too expen-
sive,” he said of these patients.
Though the centers plan to
charge prices ranging from $40 to
$80 per eighth of an ounce depend-
ing on the strain, all three plan to
provide reduced-cost or free medi-
cation to patients who demonstrate
financial burden.
Summit’s board of directors will
determine the amount of capital
necessary to reinvest in the opera-
tion. The remaining balance of net
income will be used to provide dis-
counts and free medicine to those
living with cancer and AIDS, as
well as those on medical, state or
federal disability.
Ultimately, Leppanen said, she
hopes the relationship between the
three centers will be a collabora-
tive one. If one center runs out of
a particular strain of marijuana, for
example, it should feel comfortable
enough to call on another center
for help.
While Bock said the three cen-
ters have communicated about
plans to collaborate, they have been
preoccupied by preparations for
their respective official openings.
After the centers are up and run-
ning, he hopes to sit down with
the other two teams to find ways
to work together, he said.
Marijuana education
Some patients, given the option
of a compassion center, might still
choose to resort to an individual
caregiver. For some, growing their
own medication is more than a hob-
by, “It’s a lifeline,” Leppanen said.
For patients who are unable to
grow their own marijuana and who
would otherwise face chronic pain
each day, caregivers are “unsung
heroes,” Leppanen said.
Testa said he began to grow the
plants for “personal reasons.” His
friend was “extremely sick” and pro-
viding him with a reliable source
of medication was one of the best
ways to help.
But patients must find a doctor
willing to sign off on their medical
marijuana cards, which can prove
difficult.
According to Beardsworth, the
Health Department is legally pro-
hibited from informing patients of
doctors willing to prescribe medical
marijuana.
The current application, avail-
able on the Health Department’s
website, requires a physician to
check off one of six conditions that
would make a prospective patient
eligible for the card.
“The education level is fairly
low,” Bock said, pointing to the
Rhode Island medical community.
One of the most important goals
of his center is to provide doctors
and patients with the knowledge
necessary to understand the ba-
sics of the program. But there will
be no direct connection to physi-
cians, though he hopes the center
will gain a better understanding of
which doctors regularly prescribe
marijuana, Bock said.
According to Leppanen, the
more doctors know about the pro-
gram, the more receptive they will
be to the drug. Often, patients have
to educate their doctors about the
benefits of medical marijuana.
Leppanen said her organization
tries to promote medical marijuana
as a chance for people to regain
their lives from pain, rather than
an opportunity for profitable drug
distribution. “We want them to talk
in terms of medicating, not smok-
ing,” Leppanen said.
“We don’t need people trying to
hijack this program for their own
personal goals,” she added. “This is
a medical program, and it has to be
respected for that.”
In the future, Leppanen said her
organization hopes to be able to
screen qualifying patients at the
center and call doctors with the op-
tion of either taking the patient or
rejecting them. In this way, “there’s
not the risk of the doctor falling
under the category of ‘pot doc,’”
she added.
‘Pot doc’
Josiah Rich, professor of medi-
cine at the Warren Alpert Medical
School, is one of ten physicians
whose name was published in the
Providence Journal in March 2010
as a top prescriber of medical mari-
juana in the state.
Though some doctors were
outraged by the article, Rich said
he was not because it’s part of his
practice.
While some patients approach
him for the card for instances of
nausea and pain, others are looking
for recreational use.
“In both these instances,” he
said, “I’m happy to fill out the pa-
perwork.” Rich said that he feels it
is unhealthier for his patients to get
arrested than it is to smoke mari-
juana legally.
Rich said he thinks the centers
will provide doctors a level of com-
fort. “Now patients have a place to
go,” he said.
Caregivers and patients across
the state have also voiced concerns
that three centers won’t be sufficient
to satisfy the demand for medical
marijuana. Beardsworth said the
department plans to monitor the
need on an ongoing basis. If there
is more demand than the centers
are able to fill, the department will
raise the issue with the General As-
sembly.
According to Leppanen, there
are currently about 3,500 patients
in the Rhode Island system. Green-
leaf ’s application projects the num-
ber could increase by 40 fold.
Rich expressed surprise at the
number of patients that the centers
expect to be serving. “I can’t see a
whole lot of physicians running to
prescribe a whole lot of marijuana
in Rhode Island, but I might be
wrong,” he said.
A database of physicians pro-
vides a way for the Health Depart-
ment to monitor overall prescrip-
tion trends, Beardsworth said. “If
we see anything that raises a ques-
tion mark for us, then we can take
a look.”
‘Nightmare scenario’
Rep. John Carnevale, D-Prov-
idence and Johnston, recently in-
The Brown Daily Herald
Thursday, April 21, 2011
troduced legislation that would end
the individual caregiver system by
2013, allow the state police to con-
duct unannounced inspections of
compassion centers and prevent
anyone with a drug conviction from
being licensed as a caregiver.
Should Carnevale’s bill pass,
patients would have no choice but
to get their medication from the
compassion centers.
Leppanen called this a “night-
mare” scenario, saying a compas-
sion center with unlimited money
could bring on what is known as
“the Wal-Mart syndrome.” A center
that charged far lower prices could
run the others out of business and
secure a monopoly.
Bock was quick to express his
distaste for the bill. “I think that
there is a way for the compassion
centers and the caregiver and pa-
tients to work synergistically to-
gether,” he said.
Rep. Edith Ajello, D-Providence,
said she sees the legislation as a
“typical law enforcement response,”
adding that “moneyed interests”
seeking to profit from the mari-
juana industry could be a driving
force behind the bill.
“Somebody keeps pushing this
bill,” Leppanen said. “We want to
know who.” She said most people
she has spoken with think the leg-
islation has almost no chance of
passing.
On the other end of the spec-
trum, Ajello introduced a bill last
month that would legalize mari-
juana in Rhode Island for everyone
over 21 years of age.
Bock expressed concern that a
move to legalize marijuana could
“diminish” the center’s work.
Though Ajello said members of
the bill’s committee were “clearly
interested” in the proposal, she does
not expect it to pass in Rhode Island
for at least a couple of years. This
would give the compassion cen-
ters time to “get up and running,”
Ajello said.
But it is important to remember
that these centers have yet to prove
themselves, said Moffat of SSDP.
Despite the optimistic patient and
revenue projections of the applica-
tions, there is no guarantee that the
centers will be efficiently distribut-
ing medication or even still running
in two to three years, he said.
The Brown Daily Herald
Thursday, April 21, 2011 City & State 9
Despite unpopularity, PPD chief stays on
continued from page 12
outsider to become chief in the
department’s history. Esserman
has never been a street officer.
A Dartmouth College graduate,
he holds a law degree from New
York University and worked as
an attorney in New York City be-
fore becoming assistant chief of
police in New Haven, Conn. He
later served as chief of police in
Stamford, Conn. Former Mayor
and current Rep. David Cicilline
’83, D-RI, appointed Esserman
upon taking office.
Guido Laorenza, chief of police
before Esserman, said there were
some isolated problems in the
department prior to Esserman’s
tenure, and little has changed
since then.
Esserman has attempted to cre-
ate the impression of doing more
to eradicate corruption than he
actually has, Laorenza said, adding
that Esserman cares more about
his self-image than the depart-
ment. “He is certainly not what
he appears to be,” he said.
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Laorenza said most of the other
police chiefs in Rhode Island and
many of his own officers do not
like Esserman.
But Horwitz said Esserman has
earned many supporters during
his tenure. Esserman’s ambitious
agenda for turning around the
department meant he was “not
going to be a popular person,”
Horwitz said.
Multiple former and active
members of the Providence po-
lice force declined to comment.
While Esserman has not been
able to fully address all the depart-
ment’s problems, “he has made a
lot of positive changes,” Horwitz
said.
According to the press release,
Esserman was tasked with “lead-
ing the department’s efforts to
increase public safety through
a citywide community policing
model that would re-engage the
public in a meaningful way.” The
report cites the implementation
of this policy as one of Esserman’s
most significant achievements.
“I support the community
comics
policing model that the depart-
ment has put into place and look
forward to working with Chief
Esserman and all members of the
force to continue with program-
ming that reduces crime, enhances
public safety in Providence and
deepens trust between police and
the community,” Taveras said in a
press release.
Laorenza said he does not
think Esserman has been very
effective and cannot be given all
the credit for moving the depart-
ment forward. Esserman is merely
“presenting a front,” he said.
Overall, there are still problems
in the department that have not
yet been fixed, Horwitz said.
Pare’s report includes 17 rec-
ommendations and eight new
goals for improving the depart-
ment.
“I believe (Pare’s) analysis and
recommendations set the right
direction as we move forward
to build on the Department’s
strengths and address areas where
we can improve,” Taveras said in
the press release.
10 Editorial The Brown Daily Herald
Thursday, April 21, 2011

Editorial Editorial comic by julia streuli

An unwelcome
diversion
At the beginning of this month, the state Senate took up an uncon-
troversial bill that would start the process of setting up a state health
care exchange. The legislation is necessary to comply with the federal
health care reform law President Obama signed last year. In fact, the
Providence Journal reported that the exchange must be established
by summer, or Rhode Island could lose out on “millions of dollars
in federal planning grants.”
But the bill has become a lightening rod of controversy. At the
behest of anti-abortion advocates, Senate President Teresa Paiva
Weed, D-Newport and Jamestown, added an amendment restricting
abortion access “moments before the bill came before” the Senate
Health and Human Services Committee for a hearing. On its face,
the amendment seems to simply echo federal law and prohibit any
tax dollars from going towards abortion.
But in actuality, the new language is an aggressive assault on abor-
tion rights. If the amendment becomes law, women receiving even
the smallest federal or state subsidy could not purchase insurance
covering abortion through the exchange. Furthermore, insurance
plans could not offer abortion coverage to non-subsidized individuals
if they enroll even a single subsidized person. As a result, it is likely
that no one purchasing health insurance through the exchange would
be able to get abortion coverage.
Lest anti-abortion forces forget, this is a medical procedure deemed
a fundamental constitutional right by the United States Supreme
Court. Preventing women from purchasing insurance that covers
this legal procedure, even if they use their own money, is outrageous.
It is especially insidious that this policy targets low-income women
— the most likely to be receiving federal or state subsidies — many
of whom will be the first users of the state exchange.
How Paiva-Weed went about adding the language is in many ways
as unsettling as the amendment itself. Members of the Senate com-
mittee only realized how drastic the last-minute language was after
it had been passed to the floor, where the whole Senate approved it.
Such a divisive issue deserves open debate, not sneaky maneuvering.
Sun rises, sun sets
But the real question is why our Senate president would even
insert such a polarizing matter into a straightforward, non-partisan
bill in the first place. Why risk derailing legislation that is essential
Herald inbox waits for you
to Rhode Island’s compliance with the federal health care law? Why
reignite the abortion debate at all at a time like this? Rhode Island’s
Your letters, your love
economy and fiscal health are in dire straits, and citizens are as
divided as ever on a host of political issues. Leaders should strive
to bring people together, not drive them apart. Sadly, Paiva Weed’s
amendment does the latter.
Fortunately, the amendment is not guaranteed to become law. The
House is considering a bill right now that would set up the exchanges
without the abortion language. We strongly urge the House to pass
this clean bill, which would give the Senate an opportunity to concur
letters@browndailyherald.com
and leave this sordid episode behind. Let’s start down the road toward
providing insurance to the thousands of Rhode Islanders who lack it
and put aside a debate that can only serve to divide our community.

Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board. Send comments
to editorials@browndailyherald.com. quote of the day
t h e b r ow n da i ly h e r a l d
“I’m happy to fill out the paperwork.”
Editors-in-Chief Deputy Managing Editors Senior Editors — Professor Josiah Rich, on requests for medical marijuana cards
Sydney Ember Brigitta Greene Dan Alexander
Ben Schreckinger Anne Speyer Nicole Friedman
Julien Ouellet
See marijuana on page 12.
editorial Business
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Correction
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The Brown Daily Herald
Thursday, April 21, 2011
AG dishonestly uses semantics to obscure truth
By chris
norris-leblanc
Opinions Columnist
In his recent guest column (“Secure Com-
munities will protect all communities,”
April 19), Attorney General Peter Kilmar-
tin informed us that “it is not and has never
been our mission to crack down on illegal
immigration.” He justifies this statement by
stating, “That role is limited to federal of-
ficials, not the Office of the Attorney Gen-
eral.”
Since most of Kilmartin’s column is ded-
icated to an unduly verbose, dogmatic and
painfully one-sided description of how ex-
actly the Secure Communities program op-
erates, it is important to first clarify this jum-
bled mess.
In actuality, Secure Communities allows
for one basic process to occur — whenever
someone is arrested, their fingerprints will be
run not only through the national FBI data-
base, but also through the records of the De-
partment of Homeland Security. After this, if
the person who was arrested is found to be
here illegally, his or her case is forwarded to
Immigration Control and Enforcement for a
deportation recommendation.
When removed from Kilmartin’s rheto-
ric, the purpose of Secure Communities is
completely transparent. It is about identify-
ing undocumented people after they are ar-
rested and very obviously has no effect on
documented U.S. citizens. Furthermore, on
By Michelle Uhrick
Opinions Columnist
I remember sitting in one day on one of
those ad-hoc social experiments that pro-
fessors often conduct to prove a point. The
professor asked the women in the lecture
hall who wanted to have children to raise
their hands. A handful went up. The profes-
sor then asked for the same show of hands
from the men. More than twice as many
shot up.
If this experiment were replicated in al-
most any classroom at Brown, the result
would probably be the same. Women are
less likely to say they plan on having chil-
dren because, for them, children require a
careful plan. Recent studies have revealed
this is not something that can be overcome
even at the most elite education level. A
survey of Harvard Business School gradu-
ates in their 30s and 40s found that nearly a
third of female graduates were only work-
ing part-time, and another third were not
employed.
Although no survey of Brown alums ex-
ists, a recent study of Yale graduates found
that, of women in their 40s, only 56 percent
were still in the labor force. Of the men in
their 40s, 90 percent were still working.
This gap is huge and shows why so many
women were unwilling to say that they
wanted children without serious consider-
ation, even in an informal classroom sur-
ICE’s website it clearly states the purpose of
Secure Communities is to “quickly and ac-
curately identify aliens who are arrested for a
crime and booked into local law enforcement
custody.”
Though it seems as if Kilmartin assumed
his citizenry is incapable of performing a
Google search, I am going to go ahead and
give him the benefit of the doubt. Hell, I am
going to throw the guy a bone and even as-
sume that he both read and understood the
purpose of Secure Communities. But the
implications of trusting his intelligence lead
At the root of Secure Communities is the assumption
that illegal immigrants are, above all, the single greatest
threat to the safety of the American people.
directly to a lack of trust in his integrity. If
Kilmartin is a competent public official, it
means he tried to obscure the truth by ap-
pealing to his community’s fear of crime.
By going on to say the power to enforce
immigration law will continue to be restrict-
ed to ICE, Kilmartin uses an utterly semantic
difference to try and bolster his previous un-
truth. Though in the end, ICE will technically
have the final say as to whether or not an un-
documented person is deported, they would
have no input at all if normal law enforce-
ment officers did not have the ability or right
to check on someone’s immigration status.
This is, once again, a dishonest and disingen-
uous representation of the situation at hand.
The gender wage gap
vey. The fact that this gap extends all the
way to the top proves that no measure of
success can make this commitment easier.
Unsurprisingly, the male-female wage
gap reflects this. The average woman with
a bachelor’s degree earns $37,800 per year.
The average man with a bachelor’s degree
earns $66,000 per year. The gap between
men and women with college degrees may
be even larger than that of their less-edu-
cated counterparts because educated wom-
en are more likely to have high-income
What would men do if having a career automatically
precluded them from having a family and home life?
Some might say all men would have a career anyway,
and not whine about it, but I am not so sure.
spouses, meaning they have greater finan-
cial flexibility to stop working. Plenty of ar-
ticles have lamented the plight of the mod-
ern working woman who cannot, as it turns
out, have it all. Is that just the way it is? The
wage gap is simply the result of women’s
desire to have children and to raise them
and the incompatibility of this desire with
the corporate world. In the modern day,
Opinions 11
This rhetoric fails to stand up to any sort
of critical analysis and only holds weight in
the purview of hysteria. But Kilmartin is not
alone in using and supporting arguments
framed in this way.
At the root of Secure Communities is the
assumption that illegal immigrants are, above
all, the single greatest threat to the safety of
the American people. In fact, the document
on ICE’s website entitled “How does Secure
Communities benefit law enforcement?”
states explicitly that it “prioritizes enforce-
ment action toward the greatest threats to
public safety.” As this program only makes
changes which pertain specifically to undoc-
umented immigrants, the assumption of that
sentence is fairly implicit.
As is usual for issues involving undocu-
mented immigrants, this one breaks down
to the same core component — xenophobia.
Sure enough, Kilmartin’s greatest defenders
as he introduced Secure Communities were
the local champions of anti-Hispanic hyste-
ria and bigotry, the Rhode Island far right and
specifically the Tea Party.
The question we must ask, then, is this —
how did Democrat Peter Kilmartin get him-
self tangled up in the far right ideology of xe-
nophobic immigration policy? Or possibly, if
women face the same world and the same
options as men — they just make different
choices.
But the fact of the matter is that the op-
tions for women are actually not the same
as they are for men. Even life-long, dedi-
cated, childless career women do not face
the same world. The most grueling — and
highest-paying — jobs are easier if dinner
is ready and the laundry is done when the
breadwinner arrives home at 11 p.m. on a
Friday night. These benefits are not pure
conjecture, either — in 2010, an analysis of
census data revealed that married men with
children actually made 14.3 percent more
than their childless counterparts, which is
probably due to both the support of hav-
ing their other halves stay home and the
pressure of being the primary breadwinner.
Many women might happily embrace the
option of simply dropping in every couple
a staunch Democrat can be aligned with this
sort of bigotry, are the two parties really as
different as we often like to think they are?
I would like to finish with a final header
from the document about how Secure Com-
munities benefits law enforcement — Secure
Communities “reduces opportunities for al-
legations of racial profiling.” Notice the lan-
guage here, specifically that the issue is not
racial profiling but rather those nagging alle-
gations of it happening. By this logic, the real
problem is finding a way to reduce the credi-
bility of racial profiling allegations against law
enforcement officers.
Whereas xenophobia provides the cul-
tural logic for this program, this gives us a
glimpse into the ways in which it will practi-
cally serve to protect racist behaviors on the
part of law enforcement officers.
This law is dangerously close to Arizona
SB 1070 in that it gives, albeit indirectly, the
power of ICE officers to every law enforce-
ment officer where it is enacted. Former Gov.
Donald Carcieri ’65 got voted out for a rea-
son, and one of Gov. Lincoln Chafee’s ’75 P’14
largest campaign promises was to change the
way the Rhode Island government was deal-
ing with undocumented immigrants. Chafee
— please keep your promise. And to Kilmar-
tin — next time you want to address your
public, remember that we are not mindless
children ready to accept any ideology, even if
it is made more palatable by rhetoric.
Chris Norris-LeBlanc ’13 is from Rhode
Island. He can be contacted at
chris.norris.leblanc@gmail.com.
weeks to go with the kids to an amusement
park or the zoo while pursuing their ca-
reers, safe in the knowledge that their chil-
dren are being well-raised. But for the vast
majority of women this possibility is sim-
ply not available to them and will never be
no matter how educated or accomplished
they become. What would men do if hav-
ing a career automatically precluded them
from having a family and home life? Some
might say all men would have a career any-
way, and not whine about it, but I am not
so sure.
Radical feminists and hack psycholo-
gists alike are quick to blame women for
their own impractical choices and even for
the unhappiness that can come from being
put in a position of being unable to do two
things well. But women know they cannot
simply focus on their careers and expect all
the other aspects of their lives to fall into
place. Even the exact same level of suc-
cess will not bring women what it brings
men, and women likely internalize this
early in their careers. The lifestyle of which
both genders dream does not end in lone-
ly desperation. Everyone wants to be Jack
Donaghy, not Liz Lemon. But the fact of
the matter is that almost no one is actually
given a choice between the two.
Michelle Uhrick ’11 is an international
relations and economics concentrator
about to be flung out into the big wide
world. She can be contacted at
michelle_uhrick@brown.edu.
Daily Herald City & State
the Brown
Three marijuana compassion centers to open in R.I. Taveras
By Amy Rasmussen
Senior Staff Writer
In less than three months, Rhode
Island’s first compassion centers will
open their doors to the thousands
of patients seeking a state-regulated
source of medical marijuana.
After months of careful delibera-
tion and an initial rejection of all 15
applications in the fall, the Rhode
Island Department of Health an-
nounced its three selections from
the second pool of applicants March
15.
A 2009 amendment to the 2006
law legalizing medical marijuana
allowed the department to license
up to three non-profit compassion
centers, according to the Depart-
ment of Health’s website.
The law defines a compassion
center as a non-profit organization
that cultivates and dispenses “mari-
juana, or related supplies and edu-
cational materials,” to card-carrying
patients who have designated the
center as a primary caregiver.
Until the amendment was
passed, patients lacked a state-
regulated source of marijuana. The
act allowed patients to designate up
to two caregivers — often family
members or friends — to cultivate
and provide them with the drug.
Each caregiver is allowed to cul-
tivate up to 24 plants and service
up to five patients. A center may
provide marijuana for an unlimited
number of patients, but like indi-
vidual caregivers, it is only allowed
to dispense two and a half ounces
of usable marijuana per 15 days to
each qualifying patient.
Though there is still work to be
done, the compassion center selec-
tions signal a move towards broader
acceptance of marijuana, said Jared
Student sues public high school over prayer
By Sophia Seawell
Contributing Writer
Jessica Ahlquist, a sophomore at
Cranston High School West, filed
suit early this month against her
school because it refused to remove
a prayer painted on the wall of its
auditorium.
At her high school — which
Ahlquist described as “predomi-
nantly Catholic” — she and a
friend first noticed a prayer
painted on the wall in the audito-
rium about a year ago. “I thought,
‘I don’t think that belongs here,’”
Ahlquist said. “But we weren’t
about to say anything as freshmen,
and I was still kind of in the closet
with my atheism.”
Ahlquist did research on the
topic and discovered the pres-
ence of a prayer in a public school
could be illegal, she said. She then
discussed it with her father, who
asked her if she wanted to take ac-
tion. During this time, a mother of
two children in the Cranston pub-
lic school system filed a complaint
with the American Civil Liberties
Union.
The ACLU wrote to the school
asking for the prayer’s removal,
and the school subsequently estab-
to retain
Esserman as
police chief
The recently licensed compassion centers will provide patients with a state-regulated source for medical marijuana.
Moffat ’13, president of Students for
Sensible Drug Policy. “We’re trying
to re-contextualize this plant,” he
said, “to put it in a place where we
can have it as a part of community
and society without treating the
people who use it like criminals.”
The Department of Health is
currently receiving 50 to 75 new
applications per week — up from
around 30 in November 2010 — for
both caregivers and patients, ac-
cording to spokeswoman Annema-
rie Beardsworth. With the recent
licensing of the compassion centers,
she said the department expects the
number of individual caregivers in
the state to decrease.
Not-for-profit?
All three centers are required by
law to operate as non-profits. Com-
passion centers must allocate profits
to fund the centers’ operations or
donate them to a charitable cause.
lished a subcommittee, made up of
community members, to evaluate
the ACLU’s demands. The ACLU
threatened to sue, Ahlquist said.
Ahlquist attended the subcom-
mittee’s first meeting and told the
group, “As an atheist, I have the
same rights as any religious child
to feel like I belong here.”
“I knew atheists weren’t really
liked, but I didn’t expect the gasp
that I heard,” she told The Her-
ald. She described the meetings
as “hate-filled.”
“People were really immature
and rude,” Ahlquist said. “Full-
grown adults were trying to make
me feel ostracized and ridiculed.”
Administrators at the high
school did not return request for
comment.
Ahlquist quickly began receiv-
ing attention from local media. “It
was all over the Internet and (the
Providence Journal) — it was kind
of crazy and weird for me,” she
said. Soon after, Ahlquist received
an email from the ACLU asking if
she would be a plaintiff in the case
against her school. The original
plaintiff “backed out because she
didn’t want her children to be tar-
geted,” Ahlquist said.
“When I got that email, there
Revenue projections for all three
centers are expected to top $1 mil-
lion by 2012. Summit Compassion
Center, projected to be the most
profitable by far, expects to generate
revenue in excess of $25 million by
that time.
The Slater Compassion Center,
named in honor of the state rep who
served as a primary sponsor of the
bill to legalize medical marijuana,
will be located in Providence. The
center estimated that it would need
$1.6 million in start-up funds.
The center plans to serve 550
patients beginning in July 2011.
The application projects that Slater
will provide marijuana to 1500 pa-
tients, employ 32 full-time workers
and generate a total revenue of $3.9
million and $206,570 in profits by
2013.
Slater has budgeted approxi-
mately $3,700 per month for ad-
vertising purposes, according to
was no doubt in my mind,”
Ahlquist said. She wanted to join
the lawsuit. Though she initially
feared the reactions of her peers,
she “didn’t think for a minute that
was a good enough reason not to
do it,” she said.
At a second meeting months
later, the subcommittee voted 4-3
in favor of keeping the prayer and
fighting the ACLU. One member
who voted to remove the prayer
said she “wished she could keep it
up, but she knew they would lose
to the ACLU,” Ahlquist said.
“There is a strong, persuasive
precedent” for the case, said Ly-
nette Labinger, one of Ahlquist’s
two attorneys. Both Labinger and
Ahlquist cited the court case Lee
v. Weisman, in which a Providence
parent sued a school over the in-
clusion of a prayer in its graduation
ceremonies. The case made it to the
U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled
the prayer was unconstitutional.
Ahlquist’s case was filed in ear-
ly April, Labinger said, and the
school has until May 20 to file a
response.
Labinger called it a “consider-
ably daunting task” for a sopho-
more to take part in such a lawsuit.
“I’m very much in awe of her ma-
Herald File Photo
the application. The majority of this
money will go to advertising that
medical marijuana is available in
a safe and legal manner through
the center. Slater plans to take out
advertisements in the Providence
Journal and Rhode Island Monthly,
along with various other publica-
tions.
Dr. Seth Bock, a current caregiv-
er and owner of an herbal dispen-
sary, will head the Greenleaf Com-
passion Center. The center, which
will be located in Portsmouth,
expects to serve a chronically ill
patient population in Newport and
Bristol counties, according to its
application.
At $400,000, Greenleaf ’s start-
up funding need is the smallest
of the three centers. According to
Greenleaf ’s application, the money
has been raised from a “group of
continued on page 8
turity,” Labinger added.
“I’m certainly optimistic about
this,” she said. “Our case is too
strong — we have more evidence
than the other side could possibly
even lie about having. There are so
many other cases like mine.”
Ahlquist, who is the only ac-
tive plaintiff along with her father,
because she is under 18, plans to
continue to spread awareness as
she waits for the school’s response.
“There are so many more athe-
ists than people think there are,”
she said. “Three friends have re-
cently told me that they are, and I
think it’s a really important thing
that atheists can feel comfortable
in school and in society.”
After Ahlquist was contacted by
a high school group coordinator
of the nationwide Secular Student
Alliance, she began to investigate
starting a secular group at her own
high school for atheists to come
together and “realize they’re not
completely alone.”
“It’s more that just taking the
prayer down. It’s more than the
tiny little issue of what hangs on
a wall in a public school,” she said.
“It’s about people being willing to
fight for what is right and do the
American thing.”
Thursday, April 21, 2011
By Sarah Mancone
Staff Writer
Despite mixed reviews of Col.
Dean Esserman’s tenure in office,
Providence Mayor Angel Taveras
announced April 12 that he will be
keeping him as the city’s chief of
police. Esserman’s contract expired
Jan. 1 this year.
The decision came following
the release of a report by Public
Safety Commissioner Steven Pare
that recommended retaining Es-
serman as police chief. The report
praises positive changes under
Esserman, including his “efforts
to diminish political influence in
the hiring process, a reduction of
crime in Providence and adoption
of a community policing model
that has garnered national rec-
ognition.”
But Esserman’s time as police
chief has been marked by con-
troversy. He was suspended Feb.
7 following a “verbal altercation”
at an officer training session.
According to multiple press re-
ports, Esserman threatened to
throw coffee at an officer when
he coughed repeatedly during the
chief ’s speech.
Esserman’s contentious rela-
tionship with the police union
culminated in an overwhelming
“no confidence” vote in June 2009.
The union pointed to Esserman’s
unpredictable behavior and ten-
dency to publicly criticize lower-
ranking officers.
During the 2010 mayoral cam-
paign, Taveras was the only can-
didate to say he would consider
retaining Esserman as chief.
When Esserman assumed the
position in 2003, he took the helm
of a “very, very troubled police
department,” said Andrew Hor-
witz, president of the Rhode Island
Association of Criminal Defense
Lawyers and associate dean of aca-
demic affairs at Roger Williams
University School of Law.
Corruption in the higher ranks,
inadequate training, a long history
of violence and a serious morale
problem plagued the department
when Esserman took charge, Hor-
witz said.
The police department has seen
a number of high-profile corrup-
tion cases in recent years. Last
June, 24 people, including four
Providence police officers and one
Department of Corrections em-
ployee, were charged in Operation
Deception, an FBI investigation
of a cocaine operation led by an
officer’s brother. The trial of Provi-
dence Detective Robert DeCarlo,
who was accused of police brutal-
ity following an arrest in a College
Hill parking lot, is still ongoing.
Esserman did not come up
through the ranks of the Provi-
dence police, and this unconven-
tional route made him the second
continued on page 9