Daily
the Brown
vol. cxlvi, no. 58
‘Renaissance’ reporter mixes media and medicine Driver gets
By Shefali Luthra
Senior Staff Writer
Sanjay Gupta is lucky, he says. He
has always been good at telling
stories.
It was a skill that came in handy
far more often than many doctors
might expect. From writing for the
hospital drama “ER” to drafting pol-
icy speeches for former President
Bill Clinton’s administration to his
current job as CNN’s chief medi-
cal correspondent, Gupta has fre-
quently found himself bridging the
gap between medicine and media.
But it is a gap easier to bridge
than most people think, Gupta told
a packed Salomon 101 last night.
Both in medicine and the media,
you have to do a lot of reading, he
said. You can “improve the quality
of people’s lives.” You need to main-
tain your credibility. And you need
to know and understand the people
you work for — whether they make
up your audience or your patients.
Once upon a time, Gupta said,
doctors were “renaissance folks”
To finance Kertzer reflects as term winds down
projects, U.
to take on
more debt
By Mark Raymond
Senior Staff Writer
The University’s debt has risen by
almost $500 million over the past
decade, largely to finance infrastruc-
ture improvements on campus, ac-
cording to Beppie Huidekoper, ex-
ecutive vice president for finance and
administration. The accumulation
of debt is part of a broader trend in
higher education, and Brown plans
to borrow more in the coming years,
Huidekoper said.
In 2000, the University’s debt
stood at $115 million. This figure
has since increased about six-fold
— to $609 million.
Administrators in 2000 saw a
need to repair infrastructure flaws
they viewed as liabilities. The Uni-
versity decided to fund these proj-
ects largely through debt, Huideko-
per said.
Universities and other non-
profits began accumulating large
amounts of debt about 40 years
ago, when the government began
to incentivize borrowing as a means
to fund institutional growth. For
example, the federal government
began to pay debt services on certain
continued on page 6
news....................2-6
CITY & State.....7-11
inside
Sports............12-13
editorial............14
Opinions.............15
ArtS.......................16
Thursday, April 28, 2011
eight years
for death of
Schaefer ’13
CNN reporter Sanjay Gupta told stories of his career in Salomon 101 yesterday.
— along with medicine, they were
knowledgeable about politics, cul-
ture and writing.
“Nowadays, things have become
so hyper-specialized,” Gupta said.
Gupta’s own journey to reporting
By emma wohl
Senior staff Writer
When Provost David Kertzer ’69 P’95
P’98 steps down from his post June
30, his five-year term as the Univer-
sity’s second-ranking administrator
will draw to a close, though he will
remain on the faculty as a professor.
He leaves after a term marked by
a national financial crisis, a heated
tenure debate and a renewed interest
in his own activist past as the Uni-
versity revisits its relationship with
the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps.
As as undergraduate, Kertzer was
one of the most vocal members of
the Campus Action Council — an
activist organization founded in
Suspects in two-night
robbery spree detained
By Lucy Feldman
Staff Writer
Five armed robberies occurred on or
near Brown’s campus early Tuesday
morning and yesterday morning.
Two suspects, one male and one
female, were identified by victims
and arrested yesterday morning.
The robberies yesterday occurred
within a four-block radius between
Brown Street and Hope Street, ac-
cording to Providence Police De-
partment reports.
Around 3:28 a.m. yesterday, three
Herald editors — two male juniors
Editors’ note
This is The Herald’s last issue of the semester.
For updates, see browndailyherald.com.
Thanks for reading.
Herald
Rachel Kaplan / Herald
was the result of a “strange conflu-
ence of events,” he said. As a stu-
dent in the University of Michigan
at Ann Arbor’s seven-year medical
program, Gupta spent his free time
writing about medicine and health
1966 and a successor to Students
for a Democratic Society and other
radical student groups — and served
on its executive board during his se-
nior year.
He actively protested the Vietnam
War and fought for civil rights, said
Robert Cohen Jr. ’68 P’13, a college
friend of Kertzer’s and fellow campus
activist.
But despite his past, Cohen said
he was not surprised Kertzer re-
turned to Brown as a faculty mem-
ber. “David was a scholarly kind of
guy,” he said.
When Kertzer came back to the
University to teach in 1992, not many
people remembered or remarked
upon his political past, he said. Twen-
and one female junior — were ap-
proached on Charlesfield Street by a
male and a female in a light-colored
sedan. While the female suspect re-
mained silent, the male got out of
the vehicle and asked for directions
to the Fish Company, according to
statements filed with the Providence
police by the victims. Wielding a
wrench or other tool, he then de-
manded money. The students gave
him $40 and two cell phones. The
male suspect then returned to the
vehicle and fled eastbound on
continued on page 13
D&C
Our readers get a
diamond — find out why
care. After graduation, while com-
pleting his residency, Gupta worked
as a White House Fellow, advising
current Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton and writing speeches on
health care.
It was at the White House in
1997 where Gupta met Tom John-
son, CEO of CNN at the time.
Johnson wanted to create a medi-
cal unit on the news network and
asked Gupta if he would help him.
But Gupta, who did not quite un-
derstand what the job would entail,
turned him down.
Then, four years later, he ran into
Johnson at an airport. Johnson was
still interested.
And this time, so was Gupta.
Since then, Gupta said he has
earned the “dubious honor” of being
CNN’s most traveled reporter. He
has reported on Hurricane Katrina,
the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
and most recently the tsunami in
Japan.
And with each trip, he said, he
continued on page 4
ty-three years had passed, and Brown
was a very different place.
Kertzer was a professor of social
science, anthropology and Italian
studies before taking on his current
position as provost in 2006. He re-
mains on the faculty — though his
duties as provost do not allow him
the time for classroom teaching, he
said he has continued to serve as a
first-year and sophomore adviser.
Recently, the resurgence of the de-
bate about allowing ROTC back on
campus has brought about renewed
discussion of Kertzer’s activist past.
As a student, he was a leader in the
fight to get ROTC off campus.
continued on page 2
Jarret t on Gender
Valerie Jarrett, senior adviser to President Obama, spoke of policy, political
change and passion during her talk in Salomon 101 yesterday.
weather
diamonds & coal, 14
Since 1891
By Katrina Phillips
Staff Writer
Daniel Gilcreast, the driver who
struck and killed Avi Schaefer ’13
last February, was sentenced to
eight years in the Adult Correc-
tions Institution in an emotionally
charged hearing yesterday.
Magistrate Judge William
McAtee handed down a 15-year
sentence for Schaefer’s death and
a 10-year sentence for injuring
Marika Baltscheffsky ’13 in the
same incident. Gilcreast will only
be required to serve eight years for
both sentences. He was also sen-
tenced to pay a $6,000 fine and have
his driver’s license suspended upon
release from prison.
The 24-year-old Gilcreast was
arrested Feb. 12, 2010, after striking
Schaefer and Baltscheffsky at the
intersection of Hope and Thayer
streets. A passenger in the vehicle
warned Gilcreast of the pedestrians,
but he did not stop.
Gilcreast was the first person
in Rhode Island forced to sub-
mit to a blood alcohol test under
a law passed in November 2009.
Gilcreast’s blood alcohol content
was .220, more than three times
the legal limit, at the time of the
accident.
Gilcreast pleaded no contest to
two of five counts — driving under
the influence, death resulting, as
well as driving under the influence,
serious injury resulting.
The remaining three counts —
driving to endanger, death result-
continued on page 2
Stephanie London / Herald
See full coverage on page 5.
t o d ay tomorrow
65 / 53 67 / 45
2 Campus News
calendar Schaefer’s ’13 killer to serve eight years
Today april 28 ToMORROW april 29
continued from page 1
6 P.m. 7 p.m.
Environmental Film Festival, Attitude Dance Company’s Spring ing, driving to endanger, personal
Wilson 102 Show, Alumnae Hall Auditorium injury resulting and possession of
marijuana, first offense — were
10 p.m. 8 p.m.
dismissed.
Charity A Capella Concert, Brown/RISD Drag Show, Schaefer’s parents, his twin
Brown-RISD Hillel RISD Auditorium brother Yoav Schaefer and sev-
eral of his friends attended the
menu sentencing. In lieu of a statement
from the attorney general, the fam-
ily presented a video in Schaefer’s
SHARPE REFECTORY VERNEy-WOOLLEY DINING HALL
memory before speaking to the
LUNCH court. The video contained clips
Hot Turkey Sandwich with Gravy, Turkey Cutlet Sandwich, Zucchini of Schaefer being interviewed in
Mashed Potatoes, Chicken and Lo and Summer Squash, Stuffed Shells, Hebrew, photos of him and friends
Mein Noodle Stir Fry Milk and White Chip Cookies and brief statements from friends
about how he inspired and taught
DINNER
them.
Salt and Pepper Jerk Chicken, Pesto Chicken Caesar Salad Wrap, “Avi Schaefer was — and contin-
Pasta, Baked Sweet Potatoes, Maine Vegetarian Sub Sandwich, Cajun ues to be — my hero,” one friend
Blueberry Pie Corn Salad, Maine Blueberry Pie said in the video. Sami Jarbawi ’12,
who identified himself as Schae-
Sudoku fer’s Palestinian friend, spoke of
how Schaefer “proved to me that
friendship has no limits.” Schaefer,
a former Israeli soldier, worked to
improve Israeli-Palestinian rela-
tions on campus.
The video also displayed written
quotes, including a statement by
President Ruth Simmons. Several
Kertzer to return after sabbatical
continued from page 1
But he has mostly stayed out of
the current debate. “It was another
epoch, and those were different
times,” he said. “Obviously, as pro-
vost that hasn’t been my task.”
Though his academic career was
Crossword rooted in the humanities, Kertzer
said some of his biggest accomplish-
ments as provost were expansions
in the sciences. He spearheaded the
task of combining the Cognitive and
Linguistic Sciences and Psychology
departments into one program — the
Department of Cognitive, Linguistic
and Psychological Sciences. Accom-
panying the project was the renova-
tion to the Metcalf Chemistry and
Research Laboratory, a renovated site
that will provide a home for the CLPS
department when it opens next year.
Another major accomplishment
stemmed from unlikely circum-
stances. Like most of the academic
world, Kertzer was surprised by and
unprepared for the 2009 financial
crisis. “All our models were ‘keep
expanding,’” he said. But after the
University — along with many of its
peers — lost 25 percent of its endow-
ment, he had to devise a new plan.
“A good part of my middle years
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Daniel Gilcreast was sentenced
yesterday to eight years in prison.
of Schaefer’s friends were moved
to tears by the display.
Laurie Gross-Schaefer, Schae-
fer’s mother, spoke of her final
conversations with her son and
the void his death caused. She ex-
pressed concern for his three broth-
ers, including his twin, “who can
stand at the mirror and see Avi’s
face but not feel him by his side.”
It is important to nurture the seed
Schaefer planted in his short life,
she said.
Schaefer’s father, Arthur Gross-
Schaefer, spoke about the Avi
as provost were spent trying to pro-
tect the academic programs and the
student experience,” he said.
In the midst of the economic
downturn, Kertzer was “able to stay
focused on key academic priorities,”
said Richard Spies, executive vice
president for planning and senior
adviser to the president. “He in-
sisted that what needed to be done
be done with the right standards,”
Spies added.
Throughout the process of de-
ciding what could and must be cut,
Kertzer remained conscious of the
fact that “it wasn’t just a decision to
be made for the moment. It was a
decision for the future,” said Arthur
Matuszewski ’11, who served with
him on the University Resources
Committee, a committee chaired
by Kertzer and tasked with recom-
mending the University’s annual
budget.
Another more controversial
hallmark of Kertzer’s final year as
provost was the introduction of new
standards for faculty tenure. At the
heart of the issue was the fact that the
University has a substantially high-
er rate of approving faculty tenure
than peer institutions. So Kertzer,
following a recommendation from
Herald
Matthew Burrows, Treasurer
Isha Gulati, Secretary
Business
(401) 351-3260
gm@browndailyherald.com
The Brown Daily Herald
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Schaefer Fund, created to support
constructive dialogue about the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict at North
American universities in his son’s
memory.
He described the fund as the
family’s way of continuing Schae-
fer’s legacy, and he encouraged Gil-
creast to find his own. “Be Avi’s
voice, as Avi has lost his voice,” he
told Gilcreast.
“I do not seek excessive punish-
ment,” he said. He then described
the four steps he believes Gilcreast
needs to take for redemption —
none of which involve imprison-
ment or financial restitution.
Gilcreast said in a statement to
the court, “There is nothing I can
say or do to make right the hor-
rifying events.” He acknowledged
through tears that his actions “have
drastically changed the course of
many families and friends,” includ-
ing that of his own family and those
of Schaefer and Baltscheffsky.
McAttee described this case as
among the most difficult he has
ever heard in 22 years on the bench.
He told the court he could “cer-
tainly appreciate what an incredible
person (Schaefer) must have been.”
the Corporation, proposed a new
time line for the tenure process that
would add a year to the probationary
period for assistant faculty members
while beginning the review period a
year earlier.
Kertzer cited faculty quality as
one of his priorities during his years
as provost. Students “want to study
with some of the great scholars in
the field,” he said.
But the response from the faculty
to Kertzer’s proposal was mixed.
“We had very different visions
of what the problem is,” said Cyn-
thia Garcia Coll, chair of the Faculty
Executive Committee and professor
of education, adding that she views a
high tenure rate as a positive.
“He represents the Corporation.
There are going to be places where
you’re going to clash,” she said.
“I give David enormous credit”
for raising the issue of revisions to the
tenure plan, Spies said. “The process
by which faculty are appointed and
promoted and supported is the most
important thing we do.”
On July 1, Mark Schlissel P’15,
dean of biological sciences at the
University of California at Berke-
ley, will officially take over Kertzer’s
duties as provost. “From my point
of view, there’s a value in passing the
torch, to let someone with new ideas
look at things,” Kertzer said.
Schlissel’s experience at Berkeley
will help him adapt well to his new
role, Coll said. Brown and Berke-
ley “are both institutions that have
thought and acted outside the box.
I’m hoping that vision will prevail
here,” she said.
Kertzer said he plans to go back
to teaching, but his immediate next
step will be a year-long sabbatical,
during which he will go to Italy and
work on his latest book. “I think of
myself first and foremost as a scholar
and teacher and a writer,” he said. “I
just need to get back to my writing.”
The Brown Daily Herald
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Renovated Metcalf to open in October New TWC director to be
By Greg Jordan-Detamore
Senior Staff Writer
 
The Metcalf Chemistry and Research
Laboratory, currently under renova-
tion, will reopen in October as the
new home of the Department of
Cognitive, Linguistic and Psycho-
logical Sciences. The project’s final
completion is set for Sept. 30, and
the department will move in the next
week, said David LaPlante, program
manager for Facilities Management.
The project is currently on schedule.
The $42 million renovation of
the 74,000 square-foot building is
progressing “very well,” said Stephen
Maiorisi, vice president for the De-
partment of Facilities Management.
The CLPS department was
formed by the July 2010 merger
of the cognitive and linguistic sci-
ences and psychology departments.
“Bringing them together physically
was an important part of bringing
them together as a department,” said
Richard Spies, executive vice presi-
dent for planning and senior adviser
to the president. The consolidation
will “move the academic program
forward for students and faculty,”
he said.
Hunter Laboratory will be mostly
vacated when psychology faculty re-
locate to Metcalf, he said. Adminis-
trators are drafting plans to renovate
Hunter, a project that “wouldn’t be
possible if we didn’t undertake the
Metcalf project.”
A possible use for Hunter, once
renovated, will be to help house the
School of Engineering, which will
need more space in the near future
due to the University’s commitment
to increase the size of the engineer-
ing faculty, Spies said. But any use of
Hunter for engineering would only
be a short-term solution. The Uni-
versity needs a major new facility for
engineering, Spies said.
Opening in October, the renovated Metcalf Chemistry and Research Laboratory
(above) will house the Department of Cognitive, Linguistic and Psychological
Sciences.
Metcalf’s chemistry and research
buildings — built in 1923 and 1938,
respectively — are connected by a
space that will feature new lounges
on each floor and new confer-
ence rooms. The design will “give
the building a new core, a heart,”
LaPlante said. A glass wall will look
out onto Lincoln Field, with doors on
the other side opening onto a central
public courtyard, also accessible from
Waterman Street. A glass public art
installation will also make for “a great
addition,” he said.
The part of the building most fre-
quented by undergraduates will be
the 225-seat auditorium — a “state
of the art teaching space,” according
to the Facilities Management website.
The research building on Lincoln
Field will mostly house faculty of-
fices. The chemistry building, which
sits on Thayer Street, will consist of
laboratories and will also house a
departmental library and a skylit
“dome room” for faculty conferences,
LaPlante said.
The former attic, which held
unused exhaust fans, will be trans-
formed into graduate student offices,
a graduate student lounge and show-
ers for bicycle commuters. “It’s going
Campus News 3
Leers Weinzapfel Associates
to be beautiful up here,” LaPlante
said.
Labs and offices have already been
assigned to specific faculty members,
and labs have been “designed to their
specific needs,” he said.
Metcalf will be “very energy, en-
vironmentally conscious,” LaPlante
said. The goal is to get a LEED Silver
rating from the U.S. Green Building
Council.
New sidewalks and street trees
will be placed around the building,
he said, and the portion of Thayer
next to Metcalf will also be repaved.
“A mix of gifts and debt” will be
pay for the project, Spies said.
The Metcalf renovation was
not the first plan for a new home
for CLPS. A new building at Angell
Street and the Walk, on the site of
the Urban Environmental Lab, had
previously been proposed to house
the new department. But financial
realities in 2009 made the cost of a
new building prohibitive, and contro-
versy over eliminating or displacing
the environmental lab added to the
site’s problems. The Corporation ap-
proved renovation work on Metcalf
continued on page 11
announced this month
By Joseph rosales
Senior Staff Writer
The Third World Center’s yearlong
search for a new director is coming
to a close, said Ricky Gresh, senior
director for student engagement.
The search committee hopes to
make an official announcement
before finals period ends May 20,
Gresh said.
Since Associate Dean of the
College Karen McLaurin ’74 left
the position last spring, the center
has been under the guidance of
Associate Protestant University
Chaplain William Mathis. The
University chose to postpone the
search until the start of this school
year to focus on preparing the cen-
ter for the fall semester.
The search began in October
when a search committee and
a student advisory board were
formed. Gresh, who chairs the
search committee, said it was im-
portant for the administration to
have a strong collection of diverse
student perspectives on the advi-
sory board.
After a series of interviews, four
finalists were selected from the
pool of applicants before spring
break. When classes resumed, the
four candidates participated in a
two-day program on campus —
taking tours, attending welcome
receptions and speaking at com-
munity forums on the mission and
objectives of the center.
Student participation has been
crucial to the search, Gresh said.
About half the audience at each
of the four forums were students.
“We wanted to have not just
casual, but intensive student feed-
back,” he said.
Gresh said he was glad to see so
much response from the student
body because the center director
will work closely with students.
“People that are looking for
these kinds of jobs are looking
because they love to work with
students,” he said. “I think there
was really the desire and also the
expectation on our end to have
their involvement, and the expec-
tation on their end that they would
have an opportunity to have their
voice heard.”
Saudi Garcia ’14, who will be
a Minority Peer Counselor next
year, said she hopes the new direc-
tor will help the center become “a
place with more dialogue.”
The new director should have
an open mind about the role of
the center on campus and should
be willing to work with other de-
partments and community efforts,
Garcia said. She said she hopes
the director will make an effort to
draw more support from graduate
students of color, as they do not
have as big an input at the center
as other groups.
Gresh said the process has
been “really exciting” because of
the possibilities open to the new
director.
“There are both opportunities
and issues that students in par-
ticular, but also the institution,
alumni and faculty, see and can
be addressed,” Gresh said. “We’re
ready to really get in there and
work with someone.”
The University hopes to have
the new director start July 1.

Project seeks to spark religious dialogue

By Daniel Sack
Contributing Writer
Every Tuesday this semester, about
20 students gathered in J. Walter
Wilson for the Brown Religious
Literacy Project, a non-for-credit
class designed to promote dialogue
about world religions.
Ben Marcus ’13, the creator of
the project, said the name of the
project is slightly tongue in cheek
because it is impossible to become
fully religiously literate in any one
religion in one semester — or ever.
“The goal is to make people in a
way realize how little they know
and to give them the hunger and
the skills to further their knowl-
edge about one tradition or mul-
tiple traditions,” he said.
The project followed a 13-week-
long schedule and primarily cov-
ered five religions — Christianity,
Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism and
Islam. The class covered each of
these religions for two weeks, the
first of which involved a visit from
a chaplain from the Office of the
Chaplains and Religious Life and
a professor from the Department
of Religious Studies, who offered
views on different approaches to
religion. Every other week, class
was dedicated to student-led dis-
cussion.
During the 12th week, partici-
pants researched and presented
on traditions not covered during
the class.
The student wrote journal as-
signments and completed weekly
readings. They also took part in
two field trips, attending either a
religious service­— like Mass or a
Shabbat service — or a meeting
of a religious association, like the
Brown Muslim Students’ Associa-
tion. Marcus said he provided texts
from news sources and asked the
chaplains and professors to provide
reading material, which ranged
from text books to scripture, to
foster discussion.
Marcus said he decided to
create the project last year when
he tried talking to friends about
Switzerland banning minarets,
an architectural part of Islamic
mosques. But he said his friends
did not know what minarets were.
“That was sort of a wake-up call to
me that there are a lot of intelligent
people at Brown who are woefully
ignorant about matters of faith,” he
said. “So this is sort of a project in
bringing together different people
from different academic paths to
sort of talk about religion and why
it’s pertinent to our society.”
The Department of Religious
Studies does not offer its own
course on world religions because
many professors feel the con-
straints of teaching a class would
prohibit it being truly fulfilling,
Marcus said.
The class had “the luxury of try-
ing things that wouldn’t necessar-
ily be possible in a credit-bearing
course” because it brought together
perspectives from the office of the
chaplains and the religious studies
department, he said. Because the
course was not offered for credit,
he said it also allowed “students
who had a full courseload but were
interested in issues of religion to
take part without stress or anxiety
about grades and to be more open.”
Maddie Johnston ’13, a human
biology concentrator, said her
courseload was primarily filled
with science courses, so the proj-
ect offered her a different venue for
discussion. “I feel that this has been
a missing part of my education, to
just get to talk about big questions Thanks for partying!
that don’t have answers,” she said.
4 Campus News
Gupta recounts travels,
CNN reporting in lecture
continued from page 1
learned that some things are univer-
sal — that compassion comes from
“all sorts of different places” and that
“hopes, dreams and aspirations are
evenly distributed across the world.”
His worlds of media and medi-
cine come “crashing together,”
Gupta said. For example, when he
was reporting in Iraq, the naval doc-
tors he was with came to him with
a marine who had been shot in the
head. Originally declared dead, the
man — named Jesus — was found
to have a pulse.
They asked Gupta if he would
step out of his role as a journalist,
just for that moment.
“There (were) no tools to do
what I needed to do,” Gupta said.
But he was able to open Jesus’
skull, removing a blood clot and
the shrapnel lodged inside.
After the procedure, he looked
for something to clean the wound
and protect it from infection. He
used the only sterile thing they
had — a used IV bag. He said he
did not know if he would ever see
Jesus again.
After he returned home, Gupta
received a call from San Diego. It
was Jesus’ doctor. Jesus was doing
great, the doctor said, and he would
love to see Gupta.
In 2009, Gupta was considered
for the position of surgeon general.
But he turned it down. The surgeon
general cannot practice surgery,
Gupta said, and if he left neuro-
surgery for four or even eight years,
there was no guarantee he would be
able to return to it. Medicine, Gupta
said, is his first and primary love.
But still, Gupta said he is inter-
ested in health care reform. The
current health care debate, which
he characterized as “ideologically
charged,” will go down as an “em-
barrassing chapter” in American
history, he said. For now, he rec-
ommends that Americans look at
health care “broadly,” perhaps re-
defining the culture of American
health care.
Ultimately, though, he said it
is most important to emphasize a
“more healthy America.”
“We have an obligation to do
what’s right by our bodies,” Gupta
said.
The talk, hosted by the Brown
Lecture Board, was followed by a
question-and-answer session in
which one student asked Gupta
what gave him the confidence to
apply for a job at CNN — especially
when he had no prior experience in
journalism.
“I’m pretty confident with fail-
ing,” Gupta said in response. “I
enjoy having the dreams. I enjoy
having the ambition.”
Q&A with Sanjay Gupta
Sanjay Gupta came to campus
yesterday to speak about the
relationship between media and
medicine. After his lecture, he sat
down with The Herald.
The Herald: What do you hope
students took away from your talk
today?
I think it’s my own life experience,
as someone who wasn’t entirely sure
where their life was going to lead,
and when it was going in different
directions. And I think that that story
can sometimes be helpful when
people are trying to make their own
decisions in life about what they
want to do.
How did you end up choosing
to combine medicine and
journalism?
You know, it’s interesting.
Because I really thought that when
I started, I didn’t know what I’d
be doing exactly. I thought I’d be
covering, as I said, the health care
discussions of George W. Bush’s
presidency. It really was a pretty
unusual thing because of what
happened in the world at that time.
With the attacks of 9/11, and then I
essentially was going to Afghanistan
and all of that. I think I really enjoyed
it and thought it was valuable to
do, so I thought it was a worthwhile
thing to incorporate in my life. So
that was really it. I mean, I never
trained as a journalist. If anything, I
was a writer, and it was mainly policy
writing, you know speech-writing. It
was never journalism, per se. So it’s a
pretty atypical path.
Do you find there to be any
benefits or drawbacks to
combining fields that are so
different?
Well, you know, I think that if
you’re truly interested in the field,
there may be more in common than
you think or than you realize. I mean,
you get the sense that people have
interests in wildly different things —
like what is it about those things that
tie them together in the person’s
mind? And so for me, that’s where
I focus a lot of my attention. I think
medicine and journalism are actually
very similar. We spend a lot of time
educating patients as doctors, and
I do a lot of the same thing as a
medical reporter. It’s along the same
spectrum of providing knowledge.
When you first began medical
reporting, did you ever have
trouble explaining that to friends
or family — what exactly you
were doing?
That’s a good question, I’m
trying to think if I did. I don’t
think that I ever really did. I think
everyone always sort of saw me
as — especially since I’d already
worked at the White House — I
think people already saw me as kind
of unconventional just from pure
clinical medicine. I think that people
sort of saw this in some ways as an
extension of what I’d already been
doing.
I think for the most part, it sort of
made sense to my close friends and
family.
What ultimately led you to decide
not to be surgeon general?
It was a tough decision. I think
that ultimately it was timing
more than anything else. I mean, I
obviously had done public service
before, when I worked at the White
House. I did not think that to be
in my early 40s no longer with
the ability to practice surgery was
something I wanted to be in. I like
practicing surgery, and if I’m away
from it for four years — especially
eight years — you’re probably not
going back to neurosurgery. That’s
what I’d been told. And I didn’t
think it was the right time for me
to do that. And like I said, most of
the other surgeon generals were
much older — already retired. As an
internist or infectious disease doctor,
perhaps. I think as a neurosurgeon,
it would be tough.
There are a lot of changes you
see in broadcast today — a lot of
the talk formats and a lot more
opinion-based journalism. As
someone who is in the media but
not trained as a journalist, what
do you think of such changes? Do
they affect how you report?
I think the biggest thing I would
say is you know, I touched on this in
the speech, but I think the biggest
problem for me with opinion-based
journalism is not so much that you
can’t have informed opinions out
there. In fact, I think it’s probably
less honest to simply assume that
nobody has any opinions at all. I
think what’s troubling is that there’s
not always two viewpoints on them.
The Brown Daily Herald
Thursday, April 28, 2011
There are sometimes just right and
wrong, and I think that if that’s the
case, you’ve got to call it. You’ve got
to, or it gets confusing to viewers,
and it’s not helpful. It possibly can
damage them if you misrepresent
things as equal when one is just
simply not correct.
What are your thoughts about
what would make an effective
health care system?
Well, you know, I talked about (it)
in the speech. I think that ultimately
there has to be two goals. One
is that I think that you’ve got to
make sure people actually have
access to the health care that’s
available to certain segments of the
population, and I think that that’s
improving. It’s not like countries
that have government-run health
care systems, but I think it will
increase when we have it. But I
think the larger issue — and the
one that I think often gets missed
in this — is that we’re not a very
healthy country. We like to compare
ourselves to places like France, but
in France, they’re a lot healthier than
we are. They’re healthier, they have
more individual responsibility, and I
think that simply insuring people for
health care, while very important,
can’t be the ultimate goal. I think
what we want is a healthier America,
one where we don’t have as much
disease as we’ve been sort of
dealing with in the past several
decades.
I hear you used to sing in the glee
club in college. Will we ever hear
you sing on the air?
(Laughs) Probably not. College
was a really long time ago. Some
things you’re going to leave in the
past.
What advice would you give to
Brown students?
I sort of was saying this in
response to one of the questions.
But I think, you know, obviously
having a specific dream I think is
really important, but I think you
have to be comfortable with failure,
as I said. Failure in the sense that you
may not always get all the dreams
that you want, but enjoy the process
of dreaming and enjoy the process
of going after those goals.
— Shefali Luthra
The Brown Daily Herald
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Gov. Chafee ’75 comes to campus to support wrestling team
By Tony BAkshi
Sports Editor
Gov. Lincoln Chafee ’75 P’14 and
other alums, as well as players and
coaches of the four varsity teams that
were suggested for elimination by the
Athletics Review Committee, met
with committee members yesterday
to pitch their teams’ cases for survival.
Chafee, a former captain of the
men’s wrestling team, spoke about
the value of the sport to his colle-
giate experience, said Robert Hill
’88, a former wrestler and current
co-president of Friends of Brown
Wrestling.
“(Chafee) was there to be an ad-
vocate for Brown wrestling,” said
Hudson Collins ’11.5, a student
representative of the wrestling team
present at the meeting. “He’s willing
to take time out of his busy schedule
to come speak not only about the
importance of preserving the Brown
wrestling program but also the other
teams in general.”
The four teams that last week’s
committee report recommended
eliminating — men’s and women’s
fencing, wrestling and women’s ski-
ing — were each allocated an hour
to meet with committee members.
Seven committee members were in
Campus News 5
attendance, including committee
chair Richard Spies, executive vice
president for planning and senior
adviser to the president, and Direc-
tor of Athletics Michael Goldberger.
Representatives from each team
came prepared with support docu-
ments and financial data intended to
counter the explanations for the cuts
outlined in the committee’s report.
“I think a lot of our points reso-
nated with the members,” Collins
said. He said the arguments brought
before the committee were a result
of “collaboration between current
wrestlers, coaches and a very strong
alumni base.”
Hill said current team members
and alums — three of whom traveled
from other states to attend yesterday’s
meeting — have been “developing
talking points and establishing and
re-establishing our position” since the
committee’s proposal was released
last Thursday.
“We each spoke individually
about wrestling and the Brown expe-
rience and our opinion that wrestling
and the other sports are very impor-
tant to Brown in terms of diversity
and opportunity and academics,”
Hill said.
Professor of Biology Ken Miller
’70 P’02 also attended the wrestling
meeting, and he spoke as an “advo-
cate for student-athletes in general,”
Collins said.
At the meeting on women’s ski-
ing, representatives for the women’s
varsity ski team and men’s club ski
team — both of which are recom-
mended to be cut — presented “facts
(the committee members) previously
didn’t know,” including details about
the varsity team’s training and travel-
ing schedules, said Krista Consiglio
’11, captain of the women’s ski team.
Though the report specifically
noted concerns about the safety of
continued on page 11

Jarrett discusses gender, dispenses advice

By Nicole Boucher
News Editor
Valerie Jarrett, senior adviser to
President Obama, discovered her
passion for public service after mov-
ing from an elite Chicago law firm in
the Sears Tower to a cubicle facing
an alley in the mayor’s office, she told
a nearly full Salomon 101 yesterday
afternoon.
In her lecture, part of the
Doherty-Granoff Forum on Women
Leaders, Jarrett interspersed anec-
dotes of her personal journey from
city politics to the White House with
advice for finding success after col-
lege. She placed particular emphasis
on how her gender influenced her life
journey and laid out the obstacles
women continue to face in the labor
force.
“A lot has changed since I was in
school,” Jarrett said. Women made up
25 percent of her University of Mich-
igan law school class in 1981, com-
pared to 50 percent in her daughter’s
law school class last year. And the
first legislation Obama signed was
the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, de-
signed to help women facing wage
discrimination take legal action.
But Jarrett, who chairs the White
House Council on Women and
Girls, said glaring gender dispari-
ties persist. A report conducted by
the council last month documented
the continued gaps between men
and women in the labor force, par-
ticularly in the areas of science and
technology. Women earn about 75
cents for every dollar a man earns in
comparable occupations, she said.
Jarrett transitioned from policy
talk to advice about life after col-
lege. “Since I’m old enough to be
your parent, I get to tell you what I
think,” she said.
She implored audience members
to follow their passions, as she did by
entering public service. “I was do-
ing what everyone else in the world
thought I should do,” she said of her
job at the law firm. But she said she
was “miserable” until a friend sug-
gested she go into public service,
telling her “you will feel like you are
part of something much bigger than
yourself.”
As deputy chief of staff for Chi-
cago Mayor Richard M. Daley, Jarrett
hired Michelle Obama and began an
advising relationship with the Obam-
as that continued on the campaign
trail and in the White House.
Students should also seek to es-
cape their comfort zones and seize
opportunities, Jarrett said. “Oppor-
tunity almost never knocks at the
opportune moment.”
After her speech, Jarrett answered
policy questions.
Jarrett acknowledged the prob-
lems faced by cities, which must bal-
ance budgets by cutting vital services.
Lack of coordination between agen-
cies prevents the federal government
from enacting policies to address
urban decline, she said. “Cities are
the economic engine of our country
and need to be seen as places of op-
portunity, not just challenge.”
Jarrett ended with an anecdote
encapsulating the substantive change
that can come from public service.
The night before the health care
reform bill passed, Obama held a
large party for all staffers and advisers
involved in its passage. As the crowd
was leaving Obama’s event, Jarrett
said she asked him how the jubilant
night compared to election night,
and he replied, “There’s no compari-
son. Election night simply created
the possibility of change. Tonight,
we’ve actually changed.”
6 Campus News
With looming team cuts, UCS provides forum for student-athletes
recruits face hard decisions
By Madeleine Wenstrup
Sports Staff Writer
After making it to the Idaho
state wrestling finals last spring,
Ken Staub ’15 was recruited by
schools across the country, in-
cluding Brown. “When I went to
the Brown campus, I got a feeling
that this was the place for me,”
Staub said. But with his deci-
sion already made and Brown’s
wrestling team in danger of being
cut, Brown may no longer be the
ideal fit.
With the wrestling team, men’s
and women’s fencing teams and
women’s ski team in danger of
being eliminated, Staub and 11
other recruits are now facing a
decision they never thought they
would have to make when schools
were courting them just months
ago — whether to go to a college
that might not have their sport.
“They put their goals in line,
everything set. Now, all of it is
shattered — destroyed,” said fenc-
ing Head Coach Atilio Tass.
Most of the recruits found out
about the potential cuts after the
Athletics Review Committee re-
leased its recommendations last
Thursday. Wrestling Head Coach
Dave Amato called each of his
seven recruits to break the news.
“I had to let the players and
parents know,” he said. “They
were devastated. I had moms cry-
ing, dads crying, people yelling.
It was a nightmare.”
Many of the athletes were
early-decision applicants and ap-
plied to no other universities. For
those who did apply elsewhere,
they have until this Sunday to
determine if they want to accept
Brown’s offer. Some have already
turned down athletics scholar-
build and maintain a more competi-
tive athletics program which would fencing teams said the Athletics
ships, even full rides, to compete
for the University next year.
The recommendations, if ac-
cepted by President Ruth Sim-
mons, will be sent to the Corpo-
ration at its May meeting. In the
meantime, the fates of the four
teams and the 12 recruits hang
in the balance.
“I am definitely considering
Harvard and (Boston College)
now,” said Nika Rosenthal ’15, a
skiing recruit. “Skiing was a huge
part of my decision to come to
Brown.”
Skiing Head Coach Michael
LeBlanc said some of his recruits
may have fewer choices. “The op-
tions for a great school with a
competitive program is limited,”
he said.
“I really like Brown. I love the
campus, the no requirements,”
Rosenthal said. “I am still de-
ciding if I like it enough without
the skiing.”
Wrestling recruit Zack Tanen-
baum ’15 — who applied early
decision — is not sure if he has
other options. “I’m really uncer-
tain,” he said. “If they cut the pro-
gram, I might go somewhere else.”
The Athletics Review Com-
mittee report said the University
would help student-athletes inter-
ested in transferring if the cuts go
through, but the implications are
unclear for recruits.
Of the three coaches and four
recruits interviewed, none knew
whether recruits who had already
committed would be able to shift
schools at the last minute.
As their senior years of high
school wind down, many recruits
are scrambling. “What are they
going to do?” Amato asked. “They
feel like they have nowhere to go
right now.”
Members of the wrestling and
By David Chung
Senior Staff Writer
The Undergraduate Council of Stu-
dents hosted administrators and
student-athletes at its final general
body meeting of the semester last
night, providing a venue for them to
exchange their ideas and concerns
about the recommendations made
last Thursday by the Athletics Re-
view Committee to cut four varsity
sports teams.
Representatives of the men’s
wrestling and men’s and women’s
fencing teams attended the meet-
ing, where they listened to Richard
Spies, executive vice president for
planning and senior adviser to the
president, as he reviewed the ratio-
nale for the suggested cuts. Spies
said the University is seeking to
U.’s $609 million debt to increase
continued from page 1
university-held loans in the 1970s
to promote research expansion,
Huidekoper said.
“The longer-term trend is that
borrowing has increased, but most
of the borrowing increased in the
past 15 years,” said John Nelson,
managing director for higher edu-
cation and nonprofits at Moody’s
Corporation.
The period from 1994 to 2008
was a “golden era” for higher edu-
cation, he said. “Everything was
moving in the same direction and
people became very optimistic about
the future.”
“Interest rates were very low,
demand for higher ed was rising
during that period and the stock
market did very well,” he added.
Though universities borrowed
heavily during this time-span, “if
you just dial the clock back a de-
cade or 15 years before that, they
went through a long period of aus-
terity,” he said. In the 1980s and
early 1990s, universities tended
to defer maintenance and capital
projects. It was only in the mid-90s
that “things turned around and the
sector boomed.”
Since the financial crisis struck in
2008, universities have been cutting
costs and borrowing less, Nelson
also allow student-athletes to pursue
their academic goals more easily.
Spies told the council that an
athletics program with 34 varsity
teams would be more “sustainable”
than the current program, which
supports 37 varsity teams. But he
said the committee did not use a
“formula” to determine which teams
to cut. Instead, he said the com-
mittee reviewed Brown’s athletics
teams using a broad array of criteria
including competitiveness, facilities
and cost.
To those who oppose the com-
mittee’s recommendations because
they believe the changes will not
noticeably improve the athletics
program, Spies said, “I don’t accept
that as a valid argument.”
said. But their longer-term strategies
still involve borrowing.
Though universities are looking
“more business-like” in the way they
manage funds, they do not usually
aim to make a profit, he added. “The
goal is to become more efficient so
you can expand the university over
time and either make your product
better or enroll more students,” he
said. “It comes off to some stake-
holders that they’re being more cor-
porate, but really what they’re doing
is following tried and true steps to
make themselves more efficient and
market themselves better.”
But William Simmons, professor
of anthropology, said he is not sure
dependence on borrowed money is
a positive change for universities.
He said this dependence is part
of a broader trend toward “multi-
versities” — a phrase coined in the
1960s to describe a shift toward in-
creased reliance on external fund-
ing and “larger and more complex”
universities.
Universities are “becoming less
and less insular and more outer di-
rected,” he said. “In the long run,
that is probably not a good thing.”
“Universities have always defined
themselves as spaces that were pro-
tected from societal, religious and
financial influences so what they did
could be trusted,” he said. “That kind
The Brown Daily Herald
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Review Committee’s deliberations
and decisions lacked transparency.
Kathy Nguyen ’13, a member of
the fencing team, questioned the
“very large investment” the report
said is required to sustain a com-
petitive fencing program. She said
the committee’s report lacked suf-
ficient quantitative data.
Members of the wrestling team
also expressed their disappointment
over the recommendations, saying
the cuts would decrease diversity
on campus and limit the college
experiences of student-athletes.
“They’re taking away our choice,”
said Marcos Aranda ’13, a mem-
ber of the men’s wrestling team.
“They’re taking away our oppor-
tunity.”
of thing still exists, but it exists in
competition with many other things
in a political and economic sense.”
But Huidekoper said the ap-
proach Brown has taken with its
finances doesn’t indicate a shift in
priorities.
“I don’t think we’re corporatiz-
ing,” she said. “I think if we were
borrowing to invest and make a
profit, that would be a different
story.”
The vast majority of universities
have borrowed within their means,
despite a handful of exceptions, Nel-
son said.
“From a long-term perspective,
universities are not really overly lev-
eraged,” he said. “As the debt is going
up, the endowment is going up, the
revenue is going up and the private
donations are going up.”
Though Nelson said he sees uni-
versities borrowing less since 2008,
Brown will likely continue to borrow
money in the future to fund projects
like residence hall renovations, due
to its inability to fund such large
projects through the normal operat-
ing budget, Huidekoper said.
“I think we will be borrowing
more in the next five years,” she said.
“Currently short-term debt is very
attractive because interest rates are
low. Now is about as good a time as
ever to borrow.”
The Brown Daily Herald
Thursday, April 28, 2011
In fiscal storm, University keep eyes on Jewelry District
By Claire Peracchio
City & State Editor
The state’s political leaders call it a
once-in-a-generation economic op-
portunity. Set to be completed at the
end of 2012, the 10-year relocation
of Route 195 has cleared 20 acres of
prime real estate in Providence’s Fox
Point and Jewelry District, some of
which Brown is eyeing for further
expansion.
The area, known as the Knowl-
edge District, has been billed as a
hub for research in medicine and the
life sciences — an engine for growth
in Rhode Island’s still-struggling
economy.
But there is currently no pro-
cess in place to sell the land, and
recent discussions have stalled on
the issue of taxation, particularly for
tax-exempt nonprofits like Brown.
The prospect of subtracting land
from the tax base of a city facing a
two-year $122.6 million deficit by
selling to a nonprofit has until now
been a political non-starter.
The city’s fiscal woes complicate
Brown’s expansion plans, said Rich-
ard Spies, executive vice president
for planning and senior adviser to
the president. “It means that what
might seem like a really terrific idea,
investment by a not-for-profit, all
of a sudden seems a lot more scary
for the city because they’d like to
have some tax revenues from that,”
he said.
Now, the General Assembly is
considering a bill that would finally
establish a process for selling the
land. For the city’s expansion-mind-
ed nonprofits, the stakes are high.
My way on the Iway
In February, Gov. Lincoln Chafee
’75 P’14 traveled to the Houston
Medical Center with a delegation
including President Ruth Simmons
and Spies. None of the nonprofits as-
sociated with the 1,000-acre medical
center pay property taxes.
The key to cultivating a hub
of medical research and develop-
ment like Houston’s is collaboration,
Chafee said at a hearing on the I-195
legislation.
But for Chafee, Providence
Mayor Angel Taveras and state leg-
islators, collaboration has not been
entirely forthcoming. The ques-
tion of creating a commission to
oversee the disposal of the land has
emerged as a sticking point between
the governor and mayor. Chafee fa-
vors establishing a commission to
streamline zoning, permitting and
selling the land, which is currently
owned by the state’s Department of
Transportation.
Taveras opposes the commission
and hired a private design firm in
March to zone and plan the area.
The firm’s study —funded with
federal dollars — will be complete
in September. Taveras has publicly
stated his support for the current
bill.
The bill will most likely be re-
City & State 7
vised before passage, said Sen.
Dominick Ruggerio, D-Providence.
Ruggerio, the legislation’s sponsor, is
meeting with city stakeholders and
estimates that legislation regulating
the disposal of the land will not be
passed until June at the earliest.
His bill sets out guidelines for
selling or leasing the land and stipu-
lates it should be disposed of in a
way that benefits the public inter-
est. But the bill’s most important
language concerns taxation. If a
nonprofit cannot come to an agree-
ment with the city on a voluntary
tax contribution, the Department
of Transportation may require that
it pay property taxes in full.
For Spies, this provision is sim-
ply not applicable. “I say, if the city
doesn’t agree, then we’re not going”
to buy the land, he said.
Triggering investment
While many are concerned
Brown’s tax-exempt status means
it will not have to pay taxes on I-195
land, the University currently pays
the full value of property taxes on all
but one of its Jewelry District build-
ings purchased in the past decade.
That one building, at 70 Ship St.,
was the first building the University
purchased in the Jewelry District
and is home to the Alpert Medical
School’s Laboratories for Molecular
Medicine.
Brown currently owns 11 build-
ings and leases two in the Jewelry
District, all of which were purchased
from private sellers. The I-195 par-
cels it has expressed interest in are
located to the north of its current
holdings.
Brown is not the only nonprofit
looking to purchase I-195 land.
Since 2008, Johnson and Wales
University has expressed interest
in land bordering its current hold-
ings, which would be used for “im-
mediate needs,” including academic
buildings and student dormitories,
said Lisa Pelosi, a spokesperson for
Johnson and Wales.
The I-195 land is also a potential
site of expansion for the state’s public
universities and private hospitals,
which, unlike the city’s private uni-
versities, make no payments to the
city in lieu of taxes. The University
of Rhode Island and Rhode Island
College have proposed creating a
combined nursing building on the
I-195 land in the Jewelry District.
“The Brown Medical School on
Richmond Street hopefully is going
to be a trigger for additional invest-
ment in the health sciences in that
area,” said Edward Quinlan, presi-
dent of the Hospital Association of
Rhode Island.
The state’s private universities
have been more specific in express-
ing which parcels of the I-195 land
they would like to purchase, and un-
til there is a clear structure in place
for selling the land, other institu-
tions will be less precise, Quinlan
added.
‘Economic powerhouses’
When Taveras addressed the Fox
Point Neighborhood Association at
its March board meeting, he told
attendees that all options to reduce
the city’s deficit were being consid-
ered — even further raising the city’s
high property taxes.
Fox Point residents understand
the role that Brown plays in the
state’s economy, said John Rous-
seau, a member of the Fox Point
Neighborhood Association. But
they also want others to bear the
burden of paying for Providence’s
fiscal problems. “Otherwise, we’ll
just continue to be the only people
taxed in town,” he said.
But many witnesses at the April
14 hearing on Ruggerio’s I-195 leg-
islation were less measured in their
remarks about the University. Some
asked what gives Brown the right
to expand into the Jewelry District
without paying taxes on valuable
property. Homeowners are suffering
under the burden of high property
taxes — why can’t Brown pay more?
Colleges like Brown are now
“economic powerhouses” with
more to their mission than simply
teaching students, said Mike Patch,
president of the Providence Apart-
ment Association, at the hearing.
While the leadership of the Jew-
elry District Association does not
always agree with the city’s univer-
sities, the Jewelry District is ripe
continued on page 8
8 City & State
U. continues tax contribution discussions Speaker shifts support from
continued from page 7 according to a November 2010 tributions of as much as 25 percent gay marriage to civil unions
Providence City Council Report. of what they would pay if they paid
for new development, said Phoebe
Blake, head of the planning and
zoning committee of the associa-
tion.
“Fifty percent of the land area
here is surface parking lots,” she
said. “We are looking forward to
development.”
Brown is conscious of its public
perception, but its actions are not
dictated by it, Spies said. Unlike the
city’s public school system, which
the mayor has targeted for millions
of dollars in cuts by firing teach-
ers and closing schools, Taveras
does not directly control private
universities like Brown. This, Spies
acknowledged, presents a challenge
for the mayor.
While the University wants to
assist the city, contributions should
“be defined in terms of our mission,
which is teaching and research,”
Spies said. “It’s not to fund the city
and everything that comes with it.”
Reaching an understanding
In 2003, Brown, the Rhode Is-
land School of Design, Providence
College and Johnson and Wales
signed a memorandum of under-
standing with the city of Providence
stipulating that the institutions
would contribute nearly $50 million
in voluntary contributions over 20
years. Tax-exempt nonprofits own
15 percent of the land in Providence,
In fiscal year 2009, Brown paid
$3.34 million in property taxes and
voluntary payments to the city. Since
2009, none of the University’s prop-
erty has been taken off the tax rolls,
a process that would require Brown
to gradually draw down tax pay-
ments under the agreement. While
discussion has taken place about
establishing a different agreement
for the I-195 land, no such agree-
ment currently exists, Spies wrote
in an email to The Herald.
Since the 2003 memorandum,
made during the administration
of former Mayor and current Rep.
David Cicilline ’83, D-RI, Provi-
dence’s financial outlook has dark-
ened. Cicilline’s successor, Taveras,
has publicly stated his willingness to
keep all options on the table to raise
revenue — including taxing student
dormitories, imposing a mandatory
student residence fee and increasing
the amount that the University pays
in exchange for city services.
The Taveras administration
has not approached the University
about specific proposals, Spies said,
but conversations about Brown’s
contributions to Providence are
ongoing.
Taveras is not the only New Eng-
land mayor to consider further tax-
ing nonprofits. In Boston, Mayor
Thomas Menino has issued letters
to the city’s nonprofits seeking con-
property taxes in full. Like Provi-
dence’s agreement, Boston nonprof-
its also make voluntary payments.
Similar payment programs for
nonprofits also exist in Baltimore,
Bristol, Detroit and Cambridge,
Mass. Providence’s agreement with
nonprofits generated $2.5 million
in fiscal year 2010, roughly $2 mil-
lion less than similar agreements
garnered in Cambridge and New
Haven in recent years, according
to a 2010 report by the Lincoln In-
stitute of Land Policy.
But discussions about taxing
the I-195 land are complicated by
the fact that nonprofits are the only
entities that have openly expressed
interest in the land so far, according
to Spies. There has not yet been a
public bidding process on the land.
“There isn’t anybody lined up to pay
taxes, so they’re not choosing be-
tween a tax-exempt investment and
a taxable investment,” Spies said.
Brown’s expansion over the next
decade is inevitable, Spies added,
but whether that development oc-
curs in the Jewelry District is not.
“If the Jewelry District is a place
where everyone would like us to
concentrate at least some of our
growth, then that will happen,” he
said. “If the decision is that isn’t a
good place because there are better
uses for it, then it will go someplace
else.”
By MORGAN JOHNSON
Staff Writer
Rhode Island Speaker of the House
Gordon Fox, D-Providence, sent
a letter to House representatives
yesterday announcing his decision
to support civil unions after what
he deemed to be an unsuccess-
ful attempt to pass gay marriage
legislation.
Fox, who is gay, said his per-
sonal support for gay marriage
rights has not changed. But he
recommended halting progress on
the current marriage equality bill
and is instead sponsoring a civil
union bill currently being drafted.
If passed, the bill will grant gay
couples in civil unions the same
rights currently offered to straight
couples in Rhode Island.
Fox said he is pessimistic about
the likelihood that the gay mar-
riage bill — which is currently be-
ing debated in the House — could
realistically pass the Senate, adding
that he believes the civil union bill
will ultimately lead to increased
rights for gay and lesbian couples
because it enjoys greater bipartisan
support.
Gov. Lincoln Chafee ’75 P’14
said in a statement that though
he supports Fox’s opinion on the
matter, he had been an advocate of
the marriage equality bill and was
The Brown Daily Herald
Thursday, April 28, 2011
hoping for its enactment this year.
“My response is, I’m really dis-
appointed, but I still plan to fight
for equality under the law,” said
Rep. Arthur Handy, D-Cranston,
in an April 27 Providence Journal
article. “I think it’s outrageous that
we’d be talking about anything less
than that for same-sex couples.”
Marriage Equality Rhode Is-
land said in a statement Tuesday
it does not support legalizing civil
unions as an alternative for gay
marriage. After Fox’s announce-
ment, the group released another
statement reinforcing their op-
position to compromising their
support of gay marriage for civil
unions.
“It’s somewhat of a shock to us,”
said Jessica Mitter ’13, a member
of the Queer Political Action Com-
mittee. She said the organization
did not expect the decision given
Fox’s past commitment to the bill.
“I’m not sure the situation is as
bad as he says it is,” she said of
the gay marriage bill’s prospects
of passage.
The committee set up a Face-
book event encouraging students
to call Fox and urge him to change
his mind. She said that given
Chafee’s support, the state should
not pass up an opportunity to ad-
vance gay rights. “I feel like this is
giving up,” she said.
The Brown Daily Herald
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Forum addresses school interventions Report blames Cicilline
By Rebecca ballhaus
City & State Editor
When Shannon Hernandez’ hus-
band began working in Massachu-
setts this year, she decided to stay in
Providence with her daughter, who
is currently enrolled in kindergar-
ten at Mary E. Fogarty Elementary
School in Lower South Providence.
But with the latest blow to the city’s
public schools — this month the state
department of education targeted
five low-achieving schools, including
Fogarty, for intervention — Hernan-
dez is considering leaving the state
to join her husband.
She was one of five Fogarty El-
ementary parents at a meeting held
by the Providence Public School De-
partment Tuesday night to solicit
feedback on four possible transition
models to turn the school around.
Four school department offi-
cials — one of whom translated the
meeting into Spanish — attended.
In addition to the five parents, one
teacher also attended. Once targeted,
schools have to choose from four
models — closure, restart, turn-
around and transformation. Both
the turnaround and transformation
models require the schools to replace
their principals, but turnaround also
mandates that all teachers be fired
and a maximum of 50 percent be
hired back.
The forum was intended to both
inform parents and allow them to
offer their input on their model
preference before Superintendent
Tom Brady makes the official rec-
ommendation to the education
department May 20, said Dorothy
Smith, executive director of school
transformations.
“It’s important to get all of those
thoughts and get them to the su-
perintendent,” Smith said. “I’m sure
he’ll make a decision that … is best
for the kids and will improve their
outcomes.”
“It’s unacceptable that the schools
are what they are,” she added. “I look
at it as they’re not being forced to
do something, they’re being offered
assistance.”
The choice of schools was “statis-
tically driven,” based on a formula
that takes into consideration data
like test performance, attendance
rate and graduation rate from the
past four years, said Elliot Krieger,
JWU building gets green award
By Jordan hendricks
Staff Writer
Johnson and Wales University’s new
$42 million Cuisinart Center for
Culinary Excellence was awarded
LEED Gold certification by the U.S.
Green Building Council this month.
The award is the second-highest
environmental acknowledgment a
building can receive.
The certification is based on a
100-point scale whose credits are
“weighted to reflect their environ-
mental impacts,” according to the
council’s website. The scale, which
also has 10 possible bonus points
for innovation, measures sustain-
ability, water efficiency, “energy and
atmosphere,” resource use and en-
Five Providence schools have been selected for intervention this month.
spokesman for the state education
department. “The idea is to com-
pletely reform education in these
schools, so it’s a pretty dramatic ef-
fect that (the interventions are) going
to have.”
For the first half hour of the meet-
ing, Smith went over each model and
its implications for the school.
Officials then opened the forum
to discussion, asking the parents
for their feedback on each model.
School closure was swiftly rejected as
an option. “What about the commu-
nity?” asked Rith Am, the father of a
kindergartner at the school. “People
have gone to school here for years.”
“We have nowhere else to send
kids,” Smith told The Herald.
One mother noted the benefit of
teacher evaluations mandated by the
transformation model. “It gives the
teachers time to improve if they’re
lacking,” added the teacher attending
the meeting, who did not announce
her name. Under the transformation
model, if after a year a teacher still
does not meet prescribed standards,
he or she would be dismissed.
Officials also emphasized the
importance of choosing a sustain-
able model that does not depend
too heavily on federal funds. “What’s
going to happen in year four when
federal money is gone?” Smith asked.
At the end of the meeting, each
parent was given a blue sticker to
place on a chart listing the four mod-
els. Am said he was somewhat torn
between the turnaround model and
the transformation model. “I hate to
see people lose their jobs,” he said.
“But you might find somebody with
more knowledge if you get rid of —
vironmental quality. To attain gold
certification, a building must receive
at least 60 points. Platinum, which
requires 80 points, is the only higher
certification.
Of Rhode Island’s eight gold-
certified buildings, four — includ-
ing Brown’s Rhode Island Hall — are
located in Providence. No building
in the state has received the platinum
certification.
The Cuisinart Center is the first
academic building JWU has “built
from the ground up,” said Miriam
Weinstein, manager of communica-
tions and media relations at the uni-
versity. The building reflects JWU’s
commitment to “green initiatives,”
she said.
The university has also been
City & State 9
Rebecca Ballhaus / Herald
I’m sorry to say this — dead weight.”
But, he added, “I’m going to vote for
transformation anyway to give them
a chance to improve things.”
The interventions come on the
heels of several tumultuous months
in the school department. In Febru-
ary, Mayor Angel Taveras fired all
1,926 of the district’s teachers and
recommended four schools for clo-
sure.
“All these processes need to go
forward regardless,” said Christina
O’Reilly, spokeswoman for the
school department. “They just hap-
pened to coincide with each other.”
The superintendent announced
this month that he will resign in July,
after making his recommendation in
May. “The structure of the district
remains intact,” O’Reilly said. “The
work will go forward regardless of
what the leadership structure looks
like.”
Brady has extensive knowledge
of the school district after a three-
year term as superintendent, Smith
said. “I’d hate to put that decision
on someone walking through the
door,” she said.
Hernandez lamented the meet-
ing’s low attendance. “It’s just the
community. I think a lot of parents
look at school like it’s not a big deal,”
she said. “This is what caused this —
there’s no making sure your kid is up
to standards.”
Hernandez said she agreed with
the education department’s choice
of schools. “They’re doing pretty bad
with their scores,” she said. “They
need to get kids involved in school.
… This is how they end up on the
street.”
renovating other buildings to make
them more environmentally friendly
in past years.
“It’s a building everyone’s proud
of,” she said, adding that it fosters “a
sense of ownership and community
participation.”
The building, located on JWU’s
Harborside Campus, has four sto-
ries. It contains 30 teaching labs
and classrooms, nine hot kitchens,
as well as bake shops, pastry and
chocolate labs, microbrewery labs
and meat cutting and fabrication
labs. The roof allows rainwater to
be stored and reused for irriga-
tion. Large windows allow light to
stream into the building, creating
an “energy booster for everybody,”
Weinstein said.
’83 for R.I. deficit
By CHip lebovitz
Staff Writer
A financial report released last
week holds the administration of
former Providence Mayor and cur-
rent U.S. Rep. David Cicilline ’83,
D-R.I., responsible for the city’s
$110 million deficit for the next
fiscal year.
The report — commissioned
by the Providence City Council
— presents the Cicilline adminis-
tration as financially irresponsible.
“While factors and events be-
yond the city’s control contributed
to Providence’s weakening financial
condition, the prior administration
did not recommend the difficult
choices necessary avert a fiscal
crisis,” the report reads.
It cites Cicilline’s unilateral
withdrawal from the rainy day
fund — an attempt to brighten
the appearance of the city’s fiscal
situation — as a significant factor
leading to the expansionof the city’s
budget deficit. The move has come
under fire in the months prior to
the report’s release. In his last two
years in office, Cicilline reduced the
value of the fund by $17.5 million.
The city’s charter does not permit
withdrawal from the reserve fund
without the city council’s approval.
The Cicilline administration
had unreasonable expectations of
financial success for certain initia-
tives and failed to provide “pro-
jections of year-end surpluses or
deficits” to allow the council to be
kept abreast of the city’s financial
status, the report goes on to state.
The report also points to the
national recession, housing mar-
ket collapse and a 19 percent — or
$49.6 million — reduction in state
aid from 2008-11 as key factors in
the increased deficit. These factors
had a definite impact but were not
the main cause, said Gary Sasse,
the city council’s fiscal adviser and
co-author of the report. “Even with
the loss of state aid, there is still
underlying debt,” he said.
The report aimed to establish
the causes of the deficit and make
recommendations to balance the
city’s budget, Sasse said. It suggests
four potential remedies, includ-
ing allowing the city council to
be more “involved” in budgetary
matters.
The authors briefed the office of
Mayor Angel Taveras on their find-
ings, but no concrete steps have yet
been taken to employ the report’s
suggestions in future fiscal poli-
cies, he said.
Councilman Miguel Luna spon-
sored a resolution last week ask-
ing the council to hire a lawyer to
investigate the expenditures of the
Cicilline administration.
Cicilline fired back against ac-
cusations of fiscal irresponsibility
in a email to his supporters last
week. The email refers to Sasse’s
record as “chief architect of the
state’s finances” under former Gov.
Donald Carcieri ’65 and calls the
cuts supported by the Carcieri ad-
ministration “draconian.”
“Getting lectured on fiscal re-
sponsibility by the same individual
who led the charge to drastically
cut revenue sharing to cities, leav-
ing a $50 million hole in the Provi-
dence budget, is like an arsonist
blaming a homeowner for the fire
he set,” he wrote in the email.
“The report speaks for itself,”
Sasse said. In response to the con-
tent of Cicilline’s email, he said he
did not wish to be diverted from
the issue at stake. “The problems
of the city are too important to get
involved.”
10 City & State
Students, educators seek answers to R.I.’s ‘brain drain’
By Kat Thornton
Senior Staff Writer
As with the classic question of the
chicken or the egg, political leaders,
students and educators are scratch-
ing their heads over which came
first — brain drain or the lack of
jobs in Rhode Island.
“Brain drain” refers to the migra-
tion of students who, after gradua-
tion, leave the state in search of jobs
elsewhere. High unemployment is
an issue nationally but is particu-
larly acute in Rhode Island, where
double-digit jobless rates have been
the norm since 2009.
Experts say the state has consis-
tently underfunded public educa-
tion over the last 20 years, resulting
in a population that is not skilled
enough to meet the needs of busi-
nesses weighing a move to Rhode
Island. The state’s tax structure and
burdensome regulations also dis-
courage business.
But there is potential for growth.
Rhode Island’s small size makes it a
hospitable place for entrepreneurs,
and organizations working to boost
the state’s student retention rates
deny the existence of a brain drain
at all. Instead, they say, Rhode Is-
land jobs are available if students
take the time to look.
By the numbers
Eighty percent of Rhode Island
students that attend private colleges
and universities leave the state upon
graduation, according to Dan Egan,
president of the Association of In-
dependent Colleges and Universi-
ties of Rhode Island. Eight percent
of students that choose to stay after
attending a private institution are
originally from out-of-state. These
numbers came from a two-year sur-
vey conducted by Bridge, a program
run by Egan’s organization that aims
to connect institutions of higher
education with state businesses.
One-third of all Rhode Island
college students stay in the state
after graduation. At the Community
College of Rhode Island, nearly all
graduates remain in the state, said
Anne Marie Marge, a staff member
at the college’s career center. The
average age of the college’s gradu-
ates is 28.
Of the members of CCRI’s class
of 2009 that sought employment
after graduation, nearly 20 percent
chose to leave the state. Almost all
the college’s students are Rhode Is-
land residents, Marge said.
Out of Brown’s class of 2010,
6 percent of graduates said they
planned to stay in Providence
after graduation, making it the
third most popular choice, after
New York and Boston. Andrew
Simmons, director of the Career
Development Center, added that
many Brown students staying in
Providence were employed by the
University to conduct research.
Bad for business
Rhode Island’s relative under-
funding of public education has
resulted in a high proportion of
unskilled workers, said Leonard
Lardaro, professor of economics
at the University of Rhode Island.
As a result, companies do not try
to hire in Rhode Island, he said.
Rhode Island has the highest
unemployment rate in New Eng-
land and the fourth-highest in the
country. Eleven percent of Rhode
Islanders were unemployed in
March 2011.
“About half of our current unem-
ployed have a high school education
or less,” Lardaro wrote in an email to
The Herald, adding that employers
are perennially frustrated because
the state’s labor force lacks adequate
skills to meet their employment
needs. Young people up to age 24
have the most difficult time finding
jobs due to increased job competi-
tion and the decreasing value of a
bachelor’s degree.
The state has one of the low-
est business ratings in the nation,
Lardaro said. “When people think
of a great place to do business, they
never think of Rhode Island,” he
said. Instead, businesses seeking
highly skilled workers go to Mas-
sachusetts, he added.
According to national test stan-
dards, Rhode Island consistently
scores below neighboring New Eng-
land states. Rhode Island ranked
23rd, while four other New England
states scored in the top five, accord-
ing to a 2009 national standardized
test measuring student performance
in 4th grade reading,.
According to Anne Marie Marge
at CCRI, “soft skills” like teamwork
and communication are more im-
portant than technical skills in the
job search process. “The state re-
ally needs to realize how important
education is. Every job is going to
need good communication skills,”
she said.
Lardaro said another problem
is the state tax structure. Rhode Is-
land’s tax rates are high compared
to other states, and numerous fees
and regulations place an undue bur-
den on businesses. Andy Posner
MA’09, co-founder and director of
The Capitol Good Fund, said Rhode
Island levies a $500 charge — called
the “franchise tax — on all busi-
nesses, regardless of whether or not
the business reports income.
“Going back to the late 1980s,
we went after just about any type of
revenue from fees we could find,”
Lardaro wrote in an email to The
Herald.
Student choices
“From all the people I know who
graduated last year, I can count the
number who stayed in Rhode Island
on one hand,” said David Coates,
student senate president at the Uni-
versity of Rhode Island.
He said corporations are gener-
ally “extremely pleased” with the
quality of URI graduates, but there
are no places for these students to
Rhode Island Superior Court settles
indoor human trafficking case
By Chip Lebovitz
Staff Writer
The first case involving Rhode Island’s
indoor human trafficking law was
settled this month in Rhode Island
Superior Court.
Magistrate Judge William McAtee
gave defendants Andrew Fakhoury
and Joseph Defeis the maximum sen-
tence — 10 years jail time and 10
years of suspended probation. Until
their arrest, the two ran a prostitution
ring out of an apartment in North
Providence.
“This case dispels the myth that
human trafficking is limited to immi-
grants being brought to this country
and sold into servitude,” said state
Attorney General Peter Kilmartin
in an April 13 press release. “Human
trafficking strips victims of their free-
dom and dignity.”
Attorneys began investigating
find “quality” jobs in Rhode Island.
Many engineers are going abroad,
and financiers find work in Con-
necticut, he said. Others go to Mas-
sachusetts for entry-level jobs. But
the state’s scarcity of nurses means
one growing job field in the state is
nursing, he added.
Rhode Island has higher-level
positions, but not many entry-level
jobs, Egan said.
Max Abrahams ’11 said he
“didn’t even bother” actively look-
ing for work in Providence. “Fox-
borough, (Mass.), is the only place
you can work — the only place
with an industry or employment,”
he said.
“Between a Google job search
and Brown Career Services, there
was nothing available,” he added.
But Kayla Ringelheim ’11 found
a local job through her undergradu-
ate extracurricular activities. Ringel-
heim said she will be working with
Farm Fresh Rhode Island through
a program funded by Americorps
VISTA. “It was something I knew I
wanted to do because I volunteered
with Farm Fresh in my junior and
senior years,” she said.
“Providence and Rhode Island
have a lot to offer that a lot of stu-
dents don’t get to see, because there
is so much happening on campus,”
she said. Ringelheim said staying on
campus the summer of her sopho-
more year showed her there are job
opportunities in the state.
But for individuals without a
specific connection or interest, jobs
in the private sector are a minority,
she added.
Entry-level jobs are not abun-
dant in Rhode Island, and the
weight of student loans can push
students to find higher-paying work
out of the state.
Posner said he offered two of his
student interns full-time jobs last
year, but they turned them down
for higher-paying Wall Street jobs.
Rep. Chris Blazejewski, D-Prov-
idence and East Providence, has
introduced a bill called Opportunity
RI that he hopes will confront the
state’s brain drain problem. The bill
the case when a worried mother
informed the Yonkers, N.Y. Police
Department that her daughter had
suddenly moved to Rhode Island
under suspicious circumstances.
The daughter had been invited by
Fakhoury, a childhood friend, to join
him in Rhode Island, the mother told
the Providence Journal.
The Providence Police Depart-
ment and the Yonkers Police Depart-
ment were able to trace the woman
via Internet ads that listed the address
of the North Providence apartment.
When officers arranged a meeting
with the woman, they were offered
sexual acts for fees of $150 and $250,
according to the Journal article.
“Prostitution isn’t just in the
streets,” Sgt. Patrick McNulty told
the Journal last week. “Human traf-
ficking is a real thing in the U.S. It
needs to be taken seriously.”
In 2009, state Senator Paul Jabour,
The Brown Daily Herald
Thursday, April 28, 2011
“seeks to halt the cycle of students
leaving the state” by providing cred-
its that both students and employers
can claim for working or hiring in
the state, Blazejewski said.
“I think the lack of job oppor-
tunities is really the core reason
students leave,” he said. People go
where the jobs are, but also where
they can find high-paying jobs to
pay back student debt, he added.
A silver lining
While big corporations may not
look to Rhode Island to do business,
small business owners say there is a
growing niche for small business-
es and entrepreneurs in the state.
Ninety percent of non-government
Rhode Island employers have 20 or
fewer employees on their payroll,
Lardaro said.
Andy Cutler, founding partner
of Cutler and Company, moved to
Rhode Island from New York and
started a communications design
consulting firm that has worked
with students to jumpstart initia-
tives like A Better World by Design,
a design conference organized by
Brown and Rhode Island School
of Design students.
Cutler said Rhode Island is a
“wonderful place” to be an entrepre-
neur. He said the small size of the
state gives start-ups an unparalleled
opportunity to gain recognition and
influence in the community.
Cutler added that the start-up
cost here is “tiny,” especially in
comparison to New York or Bos-
ton. “Dollar by dollar, Providence
blows away New York City,” he said.
Posner said he wanted to stay
in Rhode Island after completing
his masters at Brown because it is
a small state where he can garner
the attention of state political lead-
ers in a shorter amount of time
than would have been possible in
a bigger city.
The brain drain is largely a
perception problem, according to
Egan.
“We don’t believe the brain drain
exists,” Egan said. “We’re a brain
gain state.”
D-Providence, sponsored legislation
in the Senate to close a loophole in
the state’s prostitution law that al-
lowed indoor prostitution, as ruled
in 1998 by the state Supreme Court.
The legislation passed in 2010.
“Prostitution is normally con-
sidered outside solicitation,” Jabour
said, but his 2009 legislation allowed
“officers to go behind doors” based
on suspicious behavior, including
“lewd conduct.”
Technological advancements
aided the migration of prostitution
from the streets to indoor locations,
Jabour added.
Rhode Island was the second-
to-last state to outlaw prostitution.
The act is still legal in some areas
of Nevada.
But Jabour said the current law is
“sufficient” in providing police with
the tools needed to prosecute indoor
prostitution.
The Brown Daily Herald
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Drunk driving remains a stubborn problem in Rhode Island
By Morgan Johnson
Staff Writer
Since February 2010, two high-
profile campus accidents involving
drunk driving have raised aware-
ness of the issue at Brown. A hit-
and-run two weeks ago that injured
two students came just over a year
after the Feb. 12, 2010 death of Avi
Schaefer ’13, who was struck by a
car on Thayer Street. Though drunk
driving incidents in Providence and
Rhode Island have not increased
significantly in the last few years,
experts agree that the issue — both
for pedestrians and drivers — is a
serious problem in the state.
According to Mothers Against
Drunk Driving, Rhode Island cur-
rently ranks as the fourth-most-
dangerous state for drunk driving.
Drunk driving accidents have
not increased in recent years, said
Gabrielle Abbate, executive director
of Rhode Island’s MADD chapter.
“It’s more like we’re stuck in neutral.”
Despite a decrease in total high-
way fatalities over the past few years,
Rhode Island still reports a high
number of fatalities related to al-
cohol impairment.
The official figures do not nec-
essarily reflect the total number
of incidents that occur, said Paul
Porter, an emergency room doctor
Athletes defend teams
against cuts
continued from page 5
ski team members traveling to New
Hampshire and western Massachu-
setts for practices and competitions,
Consiglio said after doing the calcula-
tions, the team found it travels less
than other varsity teams.
Consiglio said she came out of the
meeting satisfied. “We thought it was
a positive experience, and we think
that we educated them about Brown
skiing and how great of a group we
are,” she said.
Caitlin Taylor ’13, a representa-
tive for the fencing squads, said her
meeting also went well. “We outlined
counter-arguments for everything
they had in their review,” she said.
“We presented personal stories to
make them realize that we’re real
humans and provided them with a
set of solutions.”
The proposed solution includes
forming an endowment funded by
alums and parents, which would
“secure the future of Brown fencing
for the next five years,” Taylor said.
“The parent who presented on
behalf of the adults of our committee
outlined a five-year financial plan and
just explained in detail about what
Metcalf on schedule
continued from page 3
at its May 2010 meeting, and work
began in June.
Before the renovation, the build-
ing was partially vacant and occu-
pied by the Department of Cogni-
tive and Linguistic Sciences. Spies
11
at Rhode Island Hospital. Porter drunk driving, Horwitz said. He the presence of drugs or alcohol
said his hospital receives about 300 pointed to a recent article on the in cases resulting in fatalities out
patients injured in vehicle accidents front page of the Providence Jour- of respect for the victims, he said.
involving alcohol each year, though nal contending that drunk drivers “No one wants that publicity, but
the actual number of patients could receive little more than “a slap on it was good because it made parents
be triple that amount. Lately, the the wrist” for a first-time offense. communicate with their kids,” La-
hospital has seen an increase in the “If that’s the message the media Cross said of the media attention
number of hit-and-run victims that is sending, it doesn’t matter what following the accidents. In 2007,
it treats, he said. the laws are. If the belief on the the year the most recent fatality oc-
But victims are not the only ones street is that the consequences are curred, 38 individuals were arrested
suffering on account of drunk driv- inconsequential, you have no de- for underage drinking. That number
ing. terrence,” Horwitz said. He added was seven in 2010.
State penalties for drunk driv- that he submitted an op-ed to the LaCross said other towns in
ing are particularly onerous for the Journal criticizing their portrayal Rhode Island, such as Glocester, Herald Staff
Two female students were hit by a
poor, said Andrew Horwitz, presi- of drunk driving penalties, but it have experienced as many as four
drunk driver near the corner of Hope
dent of the Rhode Island Associa- was rejected. drunk driving related fatalities in and Charlesfield the night of April 9.
tion of Criminal Defense Lawyers Rhode Island media outlets one year. Barrington’s affluence
and associate dean of academic af- have also been accused of sensa- could also have attracted media a car without injuring anyone, he
fairs at Roger Williams University tionalizing drunk driving incidents. attention, he said, adding that Bar- said.
School of Law. “My opinion is that Barrington gained a reputation as rington has continued to receive Abbate disagrees. “An irrespon-
we have penalties for the first-time a trouble spot for adolescent alco- attention for drunk driving even sible action that hurts someone else
drunk driver that are too harsh and hol abuse after seeing four fatalities though the town has not had a fatal- should always be held to a higher
particularly punitive to poor peo- between 2005 and 2007 involving ity in four years. standard,” she said. Changing at-
ple,” he said. intoxicated teenagers. Experts contend that drunk titudes towards drunk driving is
Since Rhode Island does not give “I actually created a lot of the driving laws are flawed. Horwitz key to confronting the problem,
convicted first-time drunk drivers a media publicity,” said Barrington said blood alcohol content should she added.
provisional license to drive to and Police Chief John LaCross. LaCross be given more consideration. Under “There is no silver bullet to
from work or school, low-income said he felt obligated to report pos- current law, a driver with a blood drunk driving, but we know what
individuals arrested for drunk driv- session of alcohol and marijuana in alcohol content of .08 who hits works,” Abbate said. “People have
ing are at high risk of becoming the car of one of the victims to raise someone they likely would have to admit there is a problem, take
unemployed, Horwitz said. “The awareness in the community about hit sober would receive a harsher ownership and then support those
irony is they are asked to pay a huge the dangers of substance abuse. Of- penalty than someone with a blood measures. Drunk driving is every-
set of fines and grossly exaggerated ten law enforcement officers hide alcohol content of .25 who crashes one’s business.”
insurance rates.”
Local media coverage has down-
played the severity of penalties for comics
Cloud Buddies! | David Emanuel
our options are in terms of venue
and coaching staff and how much it
would cost,” Taylor said. “We’re able
to raise the money in the time given.”
Taylor’s teammate Andrew Pin-
tea ’12 said he and his teammates
addressed the evaluative criteria —
Dr. Bear | Mat Becker
which include categories such as
history, competitiveness, cost and
gender equity — that the committee
used in its decision-making process
at the meeting.
But Pintea also expressed doubts
about the effect the hour-long con-
versation will have on the ultimate
decision. “I think the meeting went
as well as it could have, but I know
as much as I did before about how
much (committee members) are go-
ing to take out of this,” he said. Dot Comic | Eshan Mitra and Brendan Hainline
Members of the athletics com-
mittee could not be reached for
comment.
Taylor said she thought this meet-
ing was only the start of conversa-
tions between administrators and
the team members committed to
saving their sport. “I definitely feel
better having been able to speak to
(committee members) on a very in-
timate level,” she said. “But the fight’s
not over.”
Gelotology | Guillaume Riesen
described the space as a “good fit” for
the merged departments. “It’s good
bones, and it’s going to be a great
building.”
Check out www.blogdailyherald.
com for photos from The Herald’s hard
hat tour of the building.
12 Sports Thursday
Okafor ’11 on way to pro soccer Bruno struggles in
By Sam Wickham
Sports Staff Writer
Soccer player Jon Okafor’s ’11 child-
hood dream became a reality when
he was drafted 40th overall in the
Major League Soccer SuperDraft
by Chivas USA Jan. 13.
“I’ve always played soccer, and
it has definitely been my biggest
passion,” Okafor said. “I can fully
focus on playing now, and I’m pretty
excited about that.”
He is the eighth Brown player to
be picked since the draft’s inception
in 2000.
In his four years of playing at
Brown, Okafor has been an inte-
gral part of the midfield, netting a
career 14 goals and providing 12
assists. His play guided Bruno to
three NCAA Tournament appear-
ances and helped the team reach the
tournament’s Sweet 16 last season.
Okafor’s unassisted goal in the open-
ing round against Boston College
helped spark the Bears’ run deep
into the tournament.
Despite being drafted by Chivas,
Okafor is not guaranteed consis-
tent playing time with the California
club. Bothered by a recurring ham-
string injury during the preseason,
Okafor was told to return to Brown
to finish his degree and rehabilitate.
He will get a second chance to play
with the team this summer after
graduation. Though the injury is
a setback, Okafor said he remains
hopeful that his connection with
the club will prove beneficial.
“Basically, the way it works in the
MLS is once someone gets drafted,
the team that drafts you has your
rights for the first year,” Okafor said.
Bears swept by Big Green, playoff hopes threatened
By Lewis Pollis
Contributing Writer
The baseball team’s chances of mak-
ing the Ivy League playoffs all but
disappeared this weekend after be-
ing swept in a four-game series at
Dartmouth Sunday and Monday.
The Bears (9-27, 6-10 Ivy) are
now third place in the league’s Rolfe
Division, four games behind Dart-
mouth (23-10, 10-6) and Yale (22-
16, 10-6), with just four conference
games left in the season.
“They were clearly better than
us,” said Head Coach Marek Drab-
inski. “We didn’t hit good enough
overall. We had one very well-
pitched game”
Bruno fell behind early in game
one of the series, as Dartmouth took
a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first
inning off Brown starting pitcher
Matthew Kimball ’11. Shortstop
Graham Tyler ’12 hit a three-run
home run to put the Bears on top
3-1 in the top of the fourth inning,
but Kimball ran into trouble in the
late innings. The Big Green rallied
for six more runs in the fourth and
fifth innings to beat Brown 7-3.
“It was probably the best stuff
(Kimball has) had,” Drabinski said.
“He had five very good innings. …
It was really one bad inning.”
The Bears’ advantage after Tyler’s
home run was the only time in the
series that they had the lead.
Okafor’s ’11 14 goals for Brown helped him achieve his spot in the MLS draft.
“At this point, it is kind of compli-
cated with roster spots, so I’m just
training, and if they call me back
up in the summer, I’ll go back out
there and hopefully get a contract.”
Men’s soccer Head Coach Patrick
Laughlin has high hopes for Okafor
as his former player progresses to the
next level. He said Okafor’s athleti-
cism and feel for the game make him
already equipped for the big leagues.
“Jon has shown a great deal of
ability each year,” Laughlin said. “He
possesses an extreme level of athleti-
cism. And I think this year, he was
able to bring it all together and really
demonstrate on a consistent basis his
talent and ability to beat defenders
one-v-one , set up goals for others
and score goals himself. He is just
a really dangerous player.”
The Brown senior remains open-
minded about playing at the next
level, whether it be at Chivas or else-
where. If his trial with MLS does not
work out, Okafor will look to join a
United Soccer Leagues side or play
in Europe. He said he appreciates
the opportunity to finish his studies
Dartmouth struck early again
in game two of the Sunday double-
header, taking a 5-0 lead in the first
inning and adding six more runs
in the fourth, fifth and sixth. Third
baseman Ryan Zrenda ’11 had an
RBI single in the fourth inning, and
first baseman Cody Slaughter ’13 hit
a two-run home run in the ninth,
but it was not enough, and the Bears
fell 11-3.
“We never pitched,” Drabinski
said.
Monday’s first game, the third
of the series, was the closest of the
weekend, as starting pitcher Heath
Mayo ’13 found himself in a pitch-
er’s duel against Dartmouth starter
Kyle Hendricks. Down to their last
strike in the top of the seventh in-
ning, the Bears scored on center
fielder John Sheridan’s ’13 RBI single
that tied the game 1-1. But the Big
Green responded in the bottom of
the inning — first baseman Jason
Brooks doubled home the winning
run to give Dartmouth the 2-1 vic-
tory.
Drabinski praised Mayo’s perfor-
mance and cited the offense’s failure
to take advantage of a bases-loaded,
no-out situation in the first inning
as the difference in the game. “We
had opportunities,” he said. “You’ve
got to score.”
The series finale was another
blowout. The Big Green struck early
yet again, taking a 7-0 lead in the
Jonathan Bateman / Herald
at Brown, even if it means delaying
his entrance onto the Chivas squad.
“I would definitely like to play
in the MLS, but I wouldn’t say that
MLS is my only goal at this point,”
Okafor said. “I just want to be a pro-
fessional player at any level, because
I feel I can work my way up. But at
the same time, I’m really happy that
I’m able to be here and finish out
my degree.”
While Okafor’s future in pro-
fessional soccer might not yet be
certain, Laughlin noted that certain
habits can help players find success
at the next level.
“The biggest thing for a player
as he moves on in the pro ranks is
that you have to make sure you’re
physically and mentally prepared
for the challenges and rigors that a
physical environment has,” Laughlin
said. “And enjoy it, because it doesn’t
last forever.”
“I’m in it, and I’m going to go for
it,” Okafor said. “And if it doesn’t
work out, I’m not going to look back
on it and regret going for it.”
Matt Kimball ’11 pitched five strong innings against Dartmouth last weekend,
striking out 10, but had a tough fifth, giving up five runs.
third inning. Sheridan and Tyler
each knocked in a run in the fifth
inning, and left fielder Jon Suzich
’12 drove in a run in the sixth be-
fore stealing two bases and scoring
on a throwing error, but it was not
enough to lift Bruno. Dartmouth
won 11-4.
Bruno regained some momen-
tum Tuesday against the University
of Rhode Island, taking a 2-0 lead in
the first inning on Zrenda’s two-run
home run. URI took the lead later
and was up 6-4 in the eighth inning,
but the Bears rallied for three runs
to earn a 7-6 victory.
Ivy championships
By Sam Rubinroit
Sports Staff Writer
The men’s and women’s golf teams
concluded their seasons in New Jer-
sey last weekend at their respective
Ivy League Championships. The men
finished seventh in a field of eight,
and the women earned sixth in a
seven-team field.
The men were led by captain Mi-
chael Amato ’11, who earned second
team All-Ivy honors and finished
seventh individually with a three-
round score of 220 (74-78-76) in
his last tournament for the Bears.
“He stepped up as I knew he
would,” said men’s Head Coach
Michael Hughes. “I’ve been with
him all four years, and it was very
emotional for me seeing him go.
It’s difficult to watch him move on,
but he’s obviously off to bigger and
better things.”
Behind Amato’s leadership, Bru-
no finished with a 54-hole score of
952 after rounds of 318-316-318.
The team ranked fifth after the first
round and reached as high as third
place before a disappointing final
round. Yale clinched the team cham-
pionship by 20 strokes with a score of
908. Despite coming in just one spot
ahead of last place, the Bears were
hardly discouraged with the finish.
“You obviously expect to do well
and be in the top half of the field, but
for a team that has gotten last the
last three years, just to get out of the
basement is a good thing,” said J.D.
Ardell ’13. “You really have to take
Jonathan Bateman / Herald
After their unsuccessful weekend
at Dartmouth, Drabinski said the
team “showed a little grit and fight.”
“I liked the way the guys bounced
back,” he said.
Yesterday, Brown fell to its eighth
defeat in the last nine games, drop-
ping a 5-4 decision at home to Bry-
ant University.
The Bears next play a double-
header at Yale Friday, followed by
another two games at home against
Yale the following day. In order for
the Bears to make the playoffs,
they must win all four games, and
Harvard (9-32, 5-11) must sweep
The Brown Daily Herald
Thursday, April 28, 2011
baby steps. This shows everyone that
we can play with any of these teams,
and there’s a lot of optimism going
into next year.”
The men’s squad features a young
roster — Amato is the only senior
departing after this season. In ad-
dition to Amato, the Bears sent two
sophomores — Jack Mylott ’13 and
Ardell — and two first-years — Peter
Callas ’14 and Kyohei Itamura ’14 —
to the Ivy Championship.
“We’re losing Mike, but you
regroup and you rearm yourself,”
Hughes said. “With the Ivy League
tournament, it’s all about experience.
We have kids who have played in a
couple of Ivy championships now,
and it will be the same nucleus for
two more years after this.”
Though he is on his way out,
Amato said he is optimistic about
the future of the team he will leave
behind.
“Going forward, I think everyone
knows what they need to work on,”
he said. “We have two really good
golfers coming in who can take my
place, and hopefully next year, we’ll
do a little bit better.”
While the men started their
tournament strong and slowly fell
behind, the women’s squad struggled
from the outset. After 36 holes, the
team ranked last in the field with a
two-round score of 655 (331-324).
But on the final day, the Bears clawed
back with rounds of 73 and 76 from
juniors Carly Arison ’12 and Megan
continued on page 13
Dartmouth. In that case, Brown
would be in a three-way tie with
Yale and Dartmouth for first place
in the Rolfe Division.
“The odds are not in our favor,”
Drabinski said, but that does not
mean he is giving up on the week-
end series. “I hope we can go out
on a high note,” he said. “I’d like to
get four solid starts … (to) give the
seniors a winning note to go out on
and play spoiler a little bit.”
The Bears have been plagued
by inconsistent pitching all season,
Drabinski said. Of the pitchers who
were expected to be the team’s start-
ers before the season, only Kimball
is still in the rotation. “From week-
end to weekend, we didn’t have a set
rotation,” he said. “I can honestly say
that’s a first for me.”
The Bears’ hitting has also been
a consistent problem. “We didn’t hit
the way that we did last year,” Drab-
inski said. So far, Bruno has hit for
a team average of .261 with a .678
on-base-plus-slugging percentage
in conference games, down from
a .337 team average and .975 OPS
last season.
“We put ourselves in this posi-
tion,” he said. “Very rarely do you
have guys all coming back and …
most of them have underachieving
years, and unfortunately that’s what
we’ve had.”
“It’s been a huge disappoint-
ment,” Drabinski said.
The Brown Daily Herald
Thursday, April 28, 2011
PPD apprehends two
mugging suspects
continued from page 1
Charlesfield.
The victims described the male
subject as white, around 5 feet 8
inches tall, of medium build with
facial hair and wearing a white tank
top. The female had dark hair and
was wearing a dark sweatshirt, ac-
cording to the police report.
At approximately 3:40 a.m., a
vehicle and suspects of the same
description approached two seniors,
one male and one female, at the
intersection of George and Brook
streets. The male suspect asked for
directions to Thayer Street before
demanding money from the victims.
The victims threw their wallets, cell
phones and keys on the ground. The
suspect took the wallets and phones
but left the keys. He returned to the
vehicle and headed eastbound on
George toward Hope, according to
the police report.
A male senior was robbed in
the same fashion at approximately
3:47 a.m. on the corner of Hope and
Young Orchard streets. After asking
for directions to Thayer, the male
suspect reached into the victim’s
front jacket pocket and took his wal-
let, according to the police report.
The subject drove away northbound
on Hope.
Around 12:30 a.m. Tuesday, a
female Providence resident was
held at knife-point on downtown
Weybosset Street near Peck Street.
A white male suspect and a female
suspect with long curly hair took
Despite tough season end,
golfers remain optimistic
continued from page 12
Tuohy ’12, respectively.
“We started out poorly, but I was
proud of their finish on the last day,”
said women’s Head Coach Danielle
Griffiths. “Megan and Carly had
good finishes. We had two scores
in the 70s, but it seemed like at least
somebody had a rough day every-
day.”
Tuohy’s three-round score of 237
(77-84-76) made her the Bears’ top
finisher and earned her 18th place
individually. Arison improved each
round, carding scores of 91, 76 and
73 for a total tournament score of
240.
In the past three years, Griffiths
has improved her team’s finish in the
Ivy Championship by one spot each
year. In 2007-08, the team earned
seventh place, in 2008-09, the team
finished sixth, and last year, the team
came in fifth place. But this year, the
Bears faced a talented field.
“The top four teams in the Ivy
League are top-100, so they’re tough
to beat,” Griffiths said.
While the men’s squad is com-
prised of first-years and sophomores,
the women’s roster features a more
seasoned group. Bruno sent three
juniors to the Ivy Championship
alongside Susan Restrepo ’11 and
Sarah Guarascio ’11, who each
played their final tournament for
13
her cell phone, jacket, ATM card
and $15 before fleeing “down Peck”
in a silver sedan, according to the
police report.
At around 1:16 a.m. the same
night, a female senior and male ju-
nior were walking on Brook near
Waterman Street when a man exited
a vehicle holding a knife with a four-
inch blade and demanded money.
The male victim gave him approxi-
mately $35. The suspect searched
the female victim’s jacket but did not
take money from her. The vehicle
continued north on Brook and then
turned into Fones Alley. The victims
stated there were three others in the
vehicle, including a light-skinned
Hispanic female in the passenger
seat, according to the police report.
According to the report, while
the victims of yesterday’s second
robbery were providing statements
to Providence police, a police pa-
trol car stopped a silver vehicle with
passengers matching the victims’
descriptions of the suspects at the
intersection of Pine and Chestnut
streets. Police escorted the victims
of all three of yesterday’s robberies
to the intersection, where they all
identified Jayson Esposito of North
Providence, 26, and Venessa Vi-
veiros of Pawtucket, 23, as the pair
who robbed them.
In an email sent yesterday around
12:30 p.m., the Department of Pub-
lic Safety announced to the commu-
nity that the two people responsible
for all five crimes had been arrested
earlier in the morning.
the Bears.
Despite the end-of-season results,
both teams — with four juniors on
the women’s squad and a young
group of players on the men’s side
— are excited for the future.
“There is a definite difference
between the first time you play at
Ivies and the second,” Ardell said.
“Last year, there were some definite
nerves with me thinking, ‘Oh wow,
this is the one tournament that really
matters.’ This year, I knew I could
compete with any of these kids, and
I had beaten a lot of them before.
Having a young team that has expe-
rienced all of this before is only going
to help us going forward.”
14 Editorial & Letter The Brown Daily Herald
Thursday, April 28, 2011

diamonds & coal Editorial comic b y a l e x y u ly

A diamond to the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps. At this point,
students are so tired of the debate over whether to end the ban on
ROTC that they’ll allow it back on campus just so everyone will
stop talking about it. Congratulations on successfully waging a war
of attrition.

A diamond to the administrators at University Hall, who have

established or are planning online professional master’s programs, an
off-shore MBA program and increased corporate funding of research.
If we promise you more diamonds, will you promise to focus on teach-
ing undergraduates again?

Cubic zirconia to Mayor Angel Taveras, who proposed closing four

Providence elementary schools in response to the city’s budget crunch,
and to the Athletics Review Committee, which proposed cutting four
varsity teams in response to the athletics department’s budget crunch.
There’s a win-win solution here somewhere, and we’re pretty sure it
involves wrestling and sword-fighting with schoolchildren.

Two diamonds to Alice: one for each of your diamond earrings. They
sparkle almost as much as the newsroom after you’ve come through it.

A diamond to Officer Chuck, for keeping our bodies safe from

hoodlums and our stomachs safe from hunger.

Coal to the muggers who began their robbery of three Herald editors
early yesterday morning by asking for directions to the now-defunct
Fish Company. Armed robbery is one thing, but abusing the memory
of Fish Co. will not stand.

And a diamond to the Providence Police Department and Depart-

ment of Public Safety officers who detained said muggers within 20
minutes. We bet you can catch the naked donut runners in 10.

121 words to big bird. That’s wassadeal.

And a final diamond to our readers. Without you, we’d just be

ranting, self-righteous college students. OK, even with you, we’re letter to the editor
ranting, self-righteous college students. But you give us an excuse.
See you in September.
Judicial system still unfair to women
To the Editor: the accusing student.” This is not a weakness in the

quote of the day

system but is absolutely necessary to counteract the
The story in yesterday’s Herald (“Emails under- historical swagger some men adopt when they want
line rape procedures’ flaws,” April 27) suggests but to have sex with a woman who is either opposed or

“We’re a brain gain state.”

does not spell out the issue which weighs heaviest
with me. Women have always been at a disadvan-
tage when threatened with coercion or worse in a
sexual encounter with a man. The judicial system
— Dan Egan, president of the Association has improved but in my opinion is primarily a male-
dominated system and is biased against women. In
of Independent Colleges and Universities the story, Azhar Majeed, associate director of legal
of Rhode Island and public advocacy for the Foundation for Individual
Rights in Education, told The Herald universities can
See brain drain on page 10. have a “tendency to tilt the playing field in favor of
ambivalent. A man needs to beware that a woman
will carry the full authority of the University with
them if there is any dispute about a sexual encounter.
This should be spelled out in University guidebooks
as a preventative check on the masculine impulses
of some men who have not yet learned the meaning
of empathy in sex. Then, perhaps, there would be a
level playing field.
Tom Bale ’63

CorrectionS
t h e b r ow n da i ly h e r a l d An article in yesterday’s Herald (“Demystifying UFB: Funding process draws mixed reviews,” April 27)
Editors-in-Chief Deputy Managing Editors Senior Editors incorrectly identified Health Leads as a Category S group. Health Leads is a Category II group. The article
Sydney Ember Brigitta Greene Dan Alexander also stated that Health Leads receives funding from the Swearer Center for Public Service. The group only
Ben Schreckinger Anne Speyer Nicole Friedman
Julien Ouellet receives funding from the Swearer Center for its summer programs and not during the academic school year.
editorial Business
The Herald regrets the errors.
Kristina Fazzalaro Arts & Culture Editor General Managers Office Manager
Luisa Robledo Arts & Culture Editor
An article in yesterday’s Herald (“Faculty considers offering language certificates,” April 27) incorrectly quoted
Matthew Burrows Shawn Reilly
Rebecca Ballhaus City & State Editor Isha Gulati Kerry Smith, professor of history and chair of the East Asian studies department, as saying the proposed
Claire Peracchio City & State Editor
Talia Kagan Features Editor
Directors certificates would increase enrollment in language departments by 10 to 15 students. He said enrollments
Aditi Bhatia Sales would increase by 10-15 percent. The Herald regrets the error.
Hannah Moser Features Editor
Danielle Marshak Finance
Alex Bell News Editor
Margot Grinberg Alumni Relations
Nicole Boucher News Editor
Lisa Berlin Special Projects Due to an editing error, an article in Monday’s Herald (“Taekwondo wins first national title,” April 26) incor-
Tony Bakshi Sports Editor
Ashley McDonnell Sports Editor Managers rectly stated that the Brown Taekwondo team had an intensive week of training for nationals during spring
Ethan McCoy Asst. Sports Editor Hao Tran National Sales break. The week of intensive training was during winter break. The Herald regrets the error.
Tyler Rosenbaum Editorial Page Editor Alec Kacew University Department Sales
Hunter Fast Opinions Editor Siena deLisser University Student Group Sales
Michael Fitzpatrick Opinions Editor Valery Scholem Recruiter Sales
C O R R E C T I O N S P olicy
Jared Davis Sales and Communications
Graphics & Photos Lauren Bosso Business Operations The Brown Daily Herald is committed to providing the Brown University community with the most accurate information possible. Corrections may be
Abe Pressman Graphics Editor Emily Zheng Business Analytics submitted up to seven calendar days after publication.
Alex Yuly Graphics Editor Nikita Khadloya Alumni Engagement C ommentary P O L I C Y
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Hilary Rosenthal Photo Editor The editorial is the majority opinion of the editorial page board of The Brown Daily Herald. The editorial viewpoint does not necessarily reflect the views of
Arjun Vaidya Special Projects
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The Brown Daily Herald
Thursday, April 28, 2011
In God we hope, in reason we trust
By hunter fast
Opinions Editor
Brown’s motto, “In Deo Speramus,” is a ves-
tige of the time of the University’s found-
ing, when our collected scientific knowl-
edge often failed to protect us from nature’s
vicissitudes, whether they came in the form
of plagues, floods, earthquakes or whatever
else. In that era, it made sense for us to have
a motto that acknowledged our near-com-
plete helplessness in the face of the forces
of nature and that invoked the divine in
the interest of our protection and advance-
ment.
The era of modernity, however, calls not
for a motto that announces our passivity
before the various threats to our survival,
but for one that extols our ability to seek
truth through the systematic exercise of
reason. In the past century, it has been sci-
ence, not religion, that has prevented out-
breaks of disease, created new agricultural
methods to sustain growing populations
and generally improved the human condi-
tion.
Indeed, to passively hope for divine sal-
vation is to reject in the same moment one’s
ability to rationally save oneself by forming
solutions from observation. We could have
hoped for God to eradicate smallpox, but
with science we did it ourselves. We could
have hoped for God to somehow make the
land more fertile so as to avoid famine, but
By Daniel Crowell
Guest Columnist
In a recent opinions column (“In the drug
war, keep your eyes on the real killer,” April
22), Hunter Fast ’12 was incensed by the
suggestion that Brown students should be
mindful of their participation in the illegal
drug market. According to Fast, we should
be proud to exercise our right to smoke
marijuana, even if doing so can contrib-
ute to gang warfare, as Sofia Ortiz-Hino-
josa ’11 pointed out in her thoughtful col-
umn (“4/20 and the drug war,” April 18).
The blood is truly on the hands of prohi-
bitionist governments, he says. But his po-
sition brings up a question that should be
of great concern to all Brown students who
care about political reform or believe in any
sort of social contract — when can we just-
ly break the law?
Though it may not be obvious on cam-
pus, recreational use of cannabis is dis-
tinctly illegal. In Rhode Island, possession
of less than one kilogram of marijuana for
non-medical purposes is punishable by a
$200-$500 fine and up to one year in pris-
on. Possession of more than one kilogram
is a felony that results in markedly more se-
vere punishments. In Rhode Island, about
1,000 people are arrested annually on mari-
juana charges, most of whom are not under
the protection of an Ivy League university.
I will not challenge Fast on his assertion
we instead developed a chemical process —
now known as the Haber process — to eas-
ily mass-produce nitrogen-based fertilizer .
These things were not done — at least
not provably — by divine intervention.
These feats were accomplished by our abil-
ity to forge new understandings through
reason, rather than accepting concepts
from whatever ancient book one chooses to
follow. Our motto should be one that cel-
ebrates our University’s fundamental quest
for discovery and inquiry, not one that ex-
presses our hope that everything will even-
tually pan out.
In placing our trust in reason, we are ultimately
trusting ourselves — not outside forces —
to improve our world.
Furthermore, our motto should be one
that is consistent with the epistemic stan-
dards one would expect in academia. No
one can say with certainty that God exists
or not because the concept of God is in-
herently unfalsifiable. Reason, on the other
hand, refers merely to our ability to draw
conclusions about the world without the
assistance of divine revelation.
Pot is actually illegal
that these are bad laws. But there is a differ-
ence between a law that is misguided and
a law that is fundamentally unjust. Many
of us who support the legalization of mari-
juana still believe the government ought to
ban the sale of extremely hazardous sub-
stances, such as heroin, if it can do so ef-
fectively. If you stand with me in that camp,
then you do not believe that the prohibi-
tion of a drug violates our rights to priva-
cy and free enterprise. Cannabis laws are
Pot smokers on campus are a far cry from noble
crusaders.
based on inaccurate appraisals of the drug’s
dangers and of the government’s ability to
enforce this prohibition, but they do not in-
fringe on any basic right.
In general, we are required to obey the
law, even if we find its demands silly or dis-
agreeable. This is because we recognize we
ought to have a legal system by which we
collectively decide which actions are per-
mitted rather than leaving all choices to
the individual. It is often the case that our
neighbor deems a law disagreeable while
we recognize it protects people. We expect
him to follow it despite his disapproval.
Therefore each of us, being liable to mis-
judge, ought to obey the law faithfully. We
Opinions 15
To illustrate the point, suppose you are
writing a paper for SOC 1620: “Globaliza-
tion and Social Conflict.” If you were to ar-
gue that global disparities in economic de-
velopment patterns were caused by aliens
in an invisible pink spaceship using mind
control rays to subtly influence people’s
economic decisions, you could never be
proven wrong, but you probably would not
receive as good a grade as you would have
had you discussed the role of import-sub-
stitution policies.
This is because, in academic arguments,
statements must be traced back to some
empirical foundation, one that is demon-
strably true. In academia, unlike in reli-
gion, it is insufficient to have an assertion
that cannot be disproven. Indeed, the spirit
of free inquiry fostered at Brown demands
a falsifiable intellectual basis that can be
usefully called into question, since ratio-
nality entails not only the formation of new
theories, but also the refinement — along
collectively petition to change laws, but we
do not simply disobey them. Otherwise, we
behave like a driver who fails to acknowl-
edge a stop sign because he has decided
that its placement is inconvenient and un-
necessary. Even if he is correct, by granting
himself an exception, he disregards the fact
that there are rules of the road. And if he
escapes punishment, he betrays his neigh-
bor who is caught and fined for the same
infraction.
Of course, marijuana prohibition is
more than inconvenient. It contributes
to drug wars and unduly penalizes many
people. But is it reasonable to suggest that
smoking more pot rectifies this situation?
Certainly not. Indulging in illegal drugs
enables black markets, which by nature are
bad markets — unreliable, unaccountable
and prone to any sort of abuse. In order to
conscientiously consume pot, you need a
really good reason.
Fast argues there is a good reason —
current laws “infringe on fundamental
rights to privacy, free enterprise and self-
determination.” If he is right that the gov-
ernment violates our essential liberties by
with the occasional discrediting — of old
ones.
We are reaching a point in our history
as a species when our understanding of
the world consists not of speculation but
of testable theories that provide a reliable
framework for the betterment of our con-
dition. These scientific models come about
not through hope but through our own
perspiration and our willingness to think
critically. In placing our trust in reason,
we are ultimately trusting ourselves — not
outside forces — to improve our world.
If you individually want to hope in God,
no one has any right to stop you. But it is
not the place of rigorous scholars to sit pas-
sively and wait for truth to fall out of the
sky. Religion may be comforting in hard
times, but reason alone can be relied upon
to garner results for a better future. We can
hope for solutions to the world’s problems,
but a simple emotion alone will not give us
the ability or the resolve to engineer them.
Modernity necessitates an active outlook
that seeks to confront global crises and de-
feat them by use of our intellectual agency.
If we as a University wish to pay hom-
age to ideals that have served us well, then
our buildings and our seal should not be
emblazoned with “In Deo Speramus,” but
instead with “In Ratione Speramus” — In
Reason We Trust.
Hunter Fast ‘12 will choose a path that’s
clear — he will choose free will. Thanks
for reading.
attempting to quash drug markets, then an
upstanding citizen ought to resist. Indeed,
Fast is correct to encourage civil disobe-
dience. Anyone whose spirit truly reviles
a law ought to publicly declare it. Smoke
proudly and face the criminal charges. Af-
ter all, civil disobedience defeats injustice
by demonstrating the wrong endured by
honest citizens.
And that is precisely why pot smokers
on campus are a far cry from noble cru-
saders. Fast may have “gratitude to live in
a place where someone can commit an act
of public civil disobedience … without fac-
ing legal repercussions,” but has it occurred
him that breaking the law without risk of
penalty is a ridiculously weak form of civil
disobedience, if it can even be called that?
Is it at all concerning that this privileged
type of “civil disobedience” is possible for
Brown students but not for other residents
of Providence, given the fact that Rhode
Island still enforces marijuana prohibi-
tion? To suggest that we engage in any hon-
est form of civil disobedience by smoking
marijuana dishonors those who have made
actual sacrifices to protect our liberties.
Sometimes, things are remarkably sim-
ple. Pot smokers at Brown enjoy getting
high. At the very least, they should drop
any pretensions of helping the world in the
process.
Daniel Crowell ’13 has jaywalked in the
past but reckons that he is a decent-
enough citizen. He can be reached at
Daniel_Crowell@brown.edu.
Daily Herald Arts & Culture
the Brown
BTV competition showcases student talent
By Sophia seawell
Staff Writer
James Franco and Aaron Sorkin may
have been the notable speakers at last
week’s Ivy Film Festival, but Brown
Television is making strides to ensure
that University students themselves
take up the mantle of great filmmak-
ing for the future. Last semester, BTV
created a competition in response to
a lack of opportunities for screen-
writers to showcase their work, said
Seicha Turnbull ’11, executive pro-
ducer for the competition. The three
winning scripts — “Appetite,” “The
Undergraduate” and “Whole Grain”
— were developed into short films
that will screen at Avon Cinema this
evening.
The screenplays were judged
blindly, with only one person on
the panel knowing who wrote each
script. Criteria included characteriza-
tion, dialogue, plot development and
level of entertainment.
Only then could the work begin.
“Everything had to be written and
reworked,” Turnbull said. “We work-
shopped all the scripts afterwards.
Turning (a screenplay) into a movie
requires so much fiddling.”
“Appetite,” which runs roughly
seven minutes long, was written by
Nik Gonzales ’12 and directed by
Sam Eilertsen ’12. The film begins
with Danny, a college kid “moping
around about the fact that he’s in
love with this girl but hasn’t asked
her out yet,” Eilertsen said. Because
Danny’s roommate, Abe, is dating a
girl out of his league, Danny decides
to ask him for advice. The rest of the
MainGreen.TV captures students on video
By Miriam furst
Staff Writer
MainGreen.TV, a website that uses
multiple forms of media to record
events and profiles of students on
campus, has garnered significant
student attention since its April 13
launch.
“The heart of the website is stu-
dent profiles,” said Alicia Maule ’11,
founder and executive director of
MainGreen.TV. Though the website
also features a blog, “the richness of
the site is that we profile students in
two-to-three-minute beautiful vid-
eos and accompany them by inter-
views and photo shoots,” Maule said.
MainGreen.TV “humanizes stu-
dents outside of academics,” she said.
“We feature artists, social innovators,
activists and entrepreneurs.”
The website “enriches the cul-
ture of Brown” because it showcases
students’ talents, said Jamila Woods
’11 — the website’s most recently
profiled student. She said she likes
that each profile comes with a video,
biography, interview and photos.
“People on this campus are really
well-spoken and passionate about
what they do, so to get them in front
of the camera to talk about it is easy,”
said Gabe Gonzalez ’12, one of the
website’s three videographers.
Though Maule brought this
multimedia website to campus,
the underlying idea behind it came
from Benjamin Millstein, a junior at
movie focuses on Abe’s response,
which reveals his creepy, stalker-like
tendencies.
“It’s more like a sketch than a typi-
cal short film,” Eilertsen said. “The
whole thing kind of builds up to a
punch line.” Eilertsen compared the
humor found in “Appetite” to South
Park: “It will make people laugh and
also kind of uncomfortable over the
fact that they’re laughing.”
“The Undergraduate,” which
runs approximately 11 minutes, is a
drama that explores the relationship
between student and professor. It
was written and directed by Hannah
Levy ’13 and Herald Design Editor
Gili Kliger ’12. The two directed a
similar production as a final project
for MCM1700B: “Approaches to Nar-
rative,” but it required “extensive re-
writes” for the competition, she said.
“Living in college, our perception
of adults is very warped — they’re
either professors or people cleaning
your bathroom, and there’s not a lot
of in-between,” said Michael Stew-
art ’13, who plays a student named
Jake in the film. “You kind of end
up building up these professors and
what they are. Once you start scratch-
ing the surface, you start realizing
what is there is not always pretty.”
“Whole Grain,” written by Kath-
leen Braine ’11 and directed by Cal-
vin Main ’12, is what Turnbull called
“the big mama” — a 35-page script
that turned into a 40-minute movie.
“A lot of graduating seniors
worked on the project,” Main said.
“It kind of became the last hurrah
project for them.”
“Whole Grain” deals with the
Northwestern University. Millstein
started Massive.TV at Northwestern
in the fall of 2009 because “he wanted
to get people who were in the arts
together to not just find out who they
are, but also to connect them,” Maule
said. A year later, Millstein founded
an affiliate called Kuumba.TV at
Washington University in St. Louis.
“We want to create websites that
are about digital storytelling,” Mill-
stein said. After the idea succeeded
at Washington University and North-
western, Millstein told Maule to go
ahead with MainGreen.TV, Maule
said.
“Alicia has by far showed us that
this can really work as a process and
she by far was the most efficient at
setting one of these up,” Millstein
said. “It’s amazing that she set it up
in two months.”
In December, Maule bought the
domain for the website and has been
working devotedly on the project this
semester, she said. Through word of
mouth, emails and the help of the
Department of Modern Culture and
Media, Maule established a network
of people dedicated to working on
MainGreen.TV.
She noted that Mark Tribe, as-
sistant professor of modern culture
and media, has been especially sup-
portive in creating MainGreen.TV
because he has allowed videogra-
phers to use MCM cameras. Tribe
said he has offered his assistance with
the project because it is “a great idea
transition from high school to col-
lege, exploring “the pains and insecu-
rities and ambiguities of high school
and romantic relationships,” Main
said. Because the movie is from the
perspective of college students, “it’s
from a viewpoint that’s both nostalgic
and good riddance,” he added. “Di-
recting this has taken all of us back to
our high school days and how much
we miss them and how we’re so glad
they’re behind us.”
“It was pretty easy to flash back
and pull from my high school experi-
ence,” said Emily Kassie ’14. Like her
character Alexa, who is the only one
of her friends to leave Ohio in the
movie, Kassie left her peers in Can-
ada to attend school in the Northeast.
Kassie said she encourages stu-
dents to see “Whole Grain” not only
because the story is “relatable,” but
also because “it’s a pretty great ex-
perience to see how students can
craft a film.”
Though “Whole Grain” was the
largest production, “the amount of
work that has gone into all these
works is enormous,” Eilertsen said.
“We’ve had a lot of people pretty
much devoting their entire spring
semester to these projects,” Turnbull
said. In fact, many involved in pro-
duction did so as independent study
projects, allowing them “to focus on
it without feeling like they’re skiving
off their work,” Turnbull said.
BTV is “hoping to make this an
annual thing,” she added. “We’ll see
how this goes.”
“This screening is a big step for-
ward for BTV and film making at
Brown,” Eilertsen said.
whose time has come,” he wrote in
an email to The Herald.
“A flowering of interdisciplinary
creativity is in full swing in the arts
at Brown, and MainGreen.TV is pro-
viding a high-profile online showcase
for it,” he added.
In addition to student profiles,
the website’s blog also showcases stu-
dents’ talents, accomplishments and
activities. “The blog’s biggest asset
is that we have really great access to
multimedia,” said Khalila Douze ’13,
the blog’s editor-in-chief. “We have
great videographers and photogra-
phers so the content of our blog is
very high quality.”
Douze said the blog centers its
posts around events on campus. In
addition, any student can submit a
piece, including creative originals or
opinion articles. “We just launched,
so it’s still in the process of being
established, but we definitely have
something new up there every week,”
she said.
Though Maule is graduating, she
said she hopes and predicts the web-
site will flourish. “I think everyone
on the team is excited about it,” she
said. “I want it to exist way beyond
me.”
She also wants to spread the idea
of digital storytelling using multi-
media. “I need to move on from the
micro of MainGreen.TV. Potentially,
I’ll be working nationally on trying
to get these up or bringing them to
all the Ivy League schools,” she said.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
News in brief
Roth ’77 to give 2011 Baccalaureate
Kenneth Roth ’77 P’12, human rights advocate and executive
director of Human Rights Watch, will give the 2011 Baccalaureate
address Saturday, May 28 at the First Baptist Church, the University
announced yesterday. Per Brown’s tradition, two seniors will speak at the
Commencement ceremony May 29.
Brown will award 10 honorary doctorate degrees at this year’s 243rd
Commencement.
Degree recipients will include three-time Olympic ice hockey
medalist Katie King Crowley ’97, online media mogul Arianna Huffington,
New York Times columnist and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Nicholas
Kristof, Professor Emeritus of Mathematics and National Medal of Science
winner David Mumford, three-time Oscar-winning actor and director Jack
Nicholson P’12.5, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Ida Nottage
’86, particle physicist Lisa Randall, commander of NASA’s 1971 Apollo 15
lunar mission David Scott and persecuted Chinese poet Zhenkai Zhao,
according to the press release.
Roth, Kristof, Mumford, Nottage and Scott will give presentations and
participate in discussions over the course of Commencement Weekend.
— Jake Comer
Stripped-down ‘Rent’
exposes play’s dark side
By gillian michaelson incredibly versatile vocal and act-
Arts & Culture Staff Writer ing range allows him to hit Roger’s
every note. Rothman also achieves
If ever there were a version of “Rent” great success, but she seems to play
your grandmother could approve the audience hot and cold. Her more
of, Musical Forum’s version starting serious second act leaves chills —
tomorrow night would most defi- especially her explicit depiction of
nitely not be it. With sex, drugs and Mimi’s drug use — but some of her
rock ‘n’ roll, the Forum unleashes other scenes never heated up past a
a monster of a production on the sustained lukewarm.
world. The two other relationships driv-
Jonathan Larson’s classic musi- ing the show are between Maureen
cal follows the highs and lows of (Alexis Aurigemma ’13) and Joanne
eight avant-garde friends living in (Madeleine Heil ’13) and Collins
New York’s Alphabet City during (Malcolm Shanks ’11.5) and An-
the height of the AIDS epidemic at gel (Raques McGill ’13). These two
the end of 1990s. It tells the story of
romantic meet-cutes in abandoned
relationships provide a solid bal-
ance between lighthearted humor
lofts and friendships that can sur- and deathly seriousness that helps
vive the threat of disease, eviction ground the show and bring relief
and poverty — as well as those that from the conflict of the other char-
can’t. “Rent” shows suffering on the acters. McGill, in particular, is a
winter streets of New York City for pleasure to watch on stage, where
what it was. “So many people were he bewitches the audience with his
dying, and nobody was talking ability to move, act and sing with
about it,” said Chantel Whittle ’12, seeming effortlessness.
director of the production. “Until The ensemble also acts as a
finally, someone was willing to.” strong backbone, complementing
Whittle’s interpretation looks at the principles at every turn. No
the musical through a very serious number is left undeveloped as their
lens, taking a show that has been incredible vocal talents and deep in-
accused of being dated and rework- vestment in the show shine through
ing it for a new audience. The pro- their performances. The ensemble’s
duction removes the sentimentali- dancing also makes a significant im-
ties that colored previous versions pact — though it sometimes steals
— stripping down the musical to attention from the main action.
a bare-bones version that focuses The members of the ensemble
on the relationships between the — and the company as a whole
characters. — make excellent use of the space
The production takes the darker provided, even venturing into the
facets of the show that have always audience at times.
been implicit and makes them Overall, the depth of this pro-
explicit through blocking, dance, duction refuses to be stifled. Its
tone and design. The set, lights and strength and total investment
costumes all communicated this has the power to bring tears and
message in a cohesive manner that laughter, fear and love. Whittle’s
brought the overall show and each interpretation makes unexpected
member of the company together. connections between the cast and
The roles of the two loft renters, the audience and brings to life a
Mark (Brian Cross ’12) and Roger musical often cited as a phenom-
(Ben Freeman ’13), and the erst- enon. As ensemble member Annie
while drug-addicted dancer Mimi Kocher ’14 says, “This production
(Nora Rothman ’13) are expertly does Jonathan Larson justice.”
executed, making up the serious
core of the show. Cross manages to
finesse Mark’s struggle with isola-
tion into a believable journey to- Intensity and humor converge in
wards connection, while Freeman’s Musical Forum’s latest production.