Daily Herald the Brown
vol. cxliv, no. 78 | Monday, October 5, 2009 | Serving the community daily since 1891
Back from
abroad, just
glad to be
back in class
By Anne Simons
Senior Staf f Writer
Coming back to Brown after
studying abroad usually means
a return to more homework and a
rekindled love for the Rock.
But for those returning from a
spring semester in France, it also
means a return to a stable class
schedule free from student-led
strikes.
At several universities in Paris
and Lyon, student protests fu-
eled by unpopular government
reforms regarding the standard-
ization of European university
degrees disrupted more than
half the semester.
The disruptions left universi-
ties with the challenge of salvag-
ing the semester for their local
students, said Annie Wiart, last
year’s director of the Brown in
France program. This included
canceling spring break, length-
ening class hours and extending
the semester into the summer.
The Brown in France pro-
gram took measures to ensure
that Brown students would be
able to return with a full semes-
ter’s worth of credit. In Paris, the
program organizers put together
four courses — taught by French
professors — for Brown students
only. In one-on-one meetings, the
program strongly encouraged
students to take advantage of
these courses, Wiart said.
Some students who wanted
to be certain they would receive
sufficient class credit took three
of these Brown-organized cours-
es. But others tried their luck
at French universities, remain-
ing enrolled in courses there.
Most students ended up taking
at least one of the Brown-offered
courses, Wiart said.
“Nobody wanted to take the
risk” of ending up with too few
credits, Wiart said.
“Students who wanted to get a
full load certainly had the oppor-
tunity,” said Kendall Brostuen,
director of International Pro-
grams. The majority of students
received the equivalent of four
Brown credits for the semester,
he said.
Brostuen acknowledged that
creating separate courses was
“not a perfect system.” Some
students were disappointed
continued on page 2
inside
News.....1-3
Arts.....4
Spor ts.....5
Editorial....6
Opinion.....7
Today..........8
www.browndailyherald.com
hea d s of state
Running back Zachary Tronti ’11 carries the ball through the rain in Bruno’s 28-20 victory over URI Saturday.
Blue Room game graduated poker pros
By Matthew Klebanoff
Staff Writer
While their classmates were writing
papers and working on problem sets,
a small group of Brown students
were making high-stakes decisions
that could win or lose them hun-
dreds, and sometimes thousands,
of dollars.
Since then, the stakes of the game
have risen — several young alums
who once hunched over cards in
Faunce House or stayed up late into
the night playing online poker have
gone professional, some winning
millions in just a few years.
Many of the professional card
sharks who emerged from Brown
New efforts to boost U.’s
international profile
By Dana Teppert
Staff Writer
The University’s internationaliza-
tion initiative — an effort to enhance
Brown’s profile abroad — has a new
leader at its helm and is launching
programs to encourage scholarly
dialogue and global health research
this year.
Matthew Gutmann, the new vice
president of international affairs, is
carrying forward an internationaliza-
tion agenda with help from Michael
Kennedy, the new director of the
Watson Institute for International
Studies, said Provost David Kertzer
’69 P’95 P’98.
“Two very creative and talented
people are coming up with new pro-
Arts, 4
recession drama
Black theater company
founder discusses its
future
195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island
got their start in the Blue Room
Game — a friendly poker game
that met in the basement of Faunce
House in the early 2000s. According
to freelance writer Ryan Goldberg
’05, a regular at the meetings, the
game reached its peak during the
FEATURE
2004-05 school year and began to
decline after 2007.
Players met four times each
week, with the highest turnout on
Friday afternoons, Goldberg said.
Of the 30 or so players who came to
the more popular games, most were
men, but a small group of women
played regularly.
Though the Blue Room Game
grams and new proposals,” Kertzer
said. “The students have a lot to look
forward to.”
This summer, Brown inaugurated
an annual series of workshops on
diverse subjects such as global gov-
ernance and development studies,
bringing together 150 young aca-
demics from 55 countries and lead-
ing scholars from Brown and other
schools, Gutmann said.
Titled the Brown International Ad-
vanced Research Institutes, the work-
shops have been the most prominent
outgrowth of internationalization so
far this year.
This summer’s institute was “very,
very successful,” Gutmann said, not-
ing that another will be held next
summer. The University received a
Jesse Morgan / Herald
See Sports, page 5
was serious training for intelligent
and ambitious young poker players,
Goldberg remembers its lightheart-
ed environment.
“It was serious, but no one was
overly intense,” Goldberg said. “It
was quite social.”
Jared Okun ’07, who ran the game
from 2005 to 2007, quickly rose up
the ranks of the professional poker
world after graduating from Brown.
A double-concentrator in computer
science and economics, Okun said
he first decided to check out the Blue
Room Game after hearing about it
through the Brown Daily Jolt.
At the time, Okun didn’t have
continued on page 2
Matthew Gutmann will lead the University’s internationalization efforts.
grant from Santander Universidades,
a charitable division of the Spanish
bank, Banco Santander, to fund the
program for three years.
Gutmann has taught in Brown’s
department of anthropology since
Sports, 5
field hockey wins
Field hockey leads in stroke-
offs to beat Vermont, 3-2,
this Sunday
Numbers tell
sad story for
top schools’
endowments
By Caitlin Trujillo
Staff Writer
After a dismal year for university fi-
nances nationwide, losses reported
by peer schools have been on par with
the Brown endowment’s 26.6 percent
decline.
HIGHER ED
Harvard and Yale, the two wealthi-
est U.S. universities, both saw the total
value of their endowments tumble by
nearly 30 percent between July 2008
and June 2009, the schools reported
recently.
Princeton, the third-wealthiest Ivy,
fared slightly better, losing just under
24 percent of its endowment, which is
now valued at $12.6 billion.
Brown’s endowment, which had
hovered near $2.8 billion before last
year’s financial crisis, stood at just over
$2 billion this summer.
Brown and other universities
suffered their worst losses in the
fall of 2008, and many had already
announced big declines last winter.
Cornell, for instance, reported a 27
percent decline in January, according
to the Cornell Daily Sun, but earned 2
percent on its endowment from Janu-
ary through June, Joanne DeStefano,
Cornell’s vice president for finance
and CFO, wrote in an e-mail to The
Herald.
Penn fared best among Ivy League
schools, losing 15.7 percent of its en-
continued on page 2
Nicholas Sinnott-Armstrong / Herald
1997 and assumed his new position
last month. He continues to be a pro-
fessor of anthropology and the direc-
tor of the Center for Latin American
continued on page 3
Opinions, 7
that’ll do, pig
When life gives you swine,
make bacon, writes Anita
Matthews
herald@browndailyherald.com
Page 2 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Monday, October 5, 2009

C ampus N EWS “The long-term sustainability of poker is not exactly there.”

— Mike Graves ’06, a Blue Room Game regular

Endowments plummet From Faunce House to Sin City

continued from page 1
dowment, the Daily Pennsylvanian
reported last month. Columbia also
reported a relatively small loss of
just over 16 percent, according to
the Columbia Spectator.
Dartmouth reported a decline
of 18 percent through December
2008 earlier this year, according to
its newspaper, the Dartmouth, but
the school has not yet released a
year-end figure, making it the only
Ivy that has yet to do so.
Penn benefitted from selling 10
percent of its public equities in early
2008, possessing a large amount of
assets in fixed income and apportion-
ing equity to quality stocks, accord-
ing to the Daily Penn and CNN. Har-
vard, meanwhile, performed poorly
in all but a few of its asset classes,
the university’s endowment office
reported in September.
Beppie Huidekoper, executive
vice president for finance and admin-
istration, said Brown’s endowment
suffered in part because of what she
called an “aggressive” portfolio.
“We just had a riskier portfolio
with a better upside and a more chal-
lenging downside,” she said.
But Brown has done well on
gifts and donations, Huidekoper
said, allowing the University to
continue with capital projects like
the renovation of Faunce House and
the construction of a new Creative
Arts Center.
Many private universities outside
the Ivy League experienced similar
losses. James Hurley, associate vice
president for Northwestern Univer-
sity’s office of budget planning, said
the school is currently looking at
a 23 percent loss, though data are
not complete because its fiscal year
ends in September instead of June.
The Stanford Management Com-
sudoku
pany reported an endowment loss
of 27 percent and the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology reported a
drop of 20.7 percent.
Though the financial market has
improved in recent months, schools
nationwide might lose an average of
approximately 20 to 25 percent of
their endowments once data from
fiscal year 2009 have been analyzed,
said Ken Redd, the director of re-
search and policy analysis for the
National Association of College and
University Business Officers.
The association will not release
its annual report on the overall
health of university endowments
until January.
At the same time, state govern-
ments are starting to cut appropria-
tions to public schools, which are
less likely to depend on endowments
but whose finances have also taken
a hit because of the recession, Redd
said.
“Public institutions may be in as
much trouble,” he said.
When endowments decline,
schools might freeze staff travel, stop
hiring and lay off adjunct faculty —
all measures that affect students,
Redd said.
But one area schools tend not to
cut during a recession, he added, is
financial aid. Many instead keep and
even expand aid to students “to the
extent that is prudent,” he said.
Brown has followed that model
and recently set aside funds for fi-
nancial aid increases, The Herald
reported last month. But the Univer-
sity has also slashed millions from
planned budgets, instituted hiring
freezes, scaled back services and
laid off some staff in the past year.
Other Ivies have also resorted
to layoffs and other cost-cutting
measures but have not decreased
financial aid.
continued from page 1
much experience with poker. He
played occasionally with friends dur-
ing high school, but after he started
attending the Blue Room Game his
sophomore year, he got serious about
it. That led to 10 to 30 hours of online
play each week and, eventually, an
income of $100 to $200 an hour.
Later in his time at Brown, Okun
took a course on the theory of poker
in the Division of Applied Mathemat-
ics. Bill Gazes, a professional player,
lectured in one of the classes and hit
it off with Okun. The two stayed in
touch, and during Okun’s senior year,
Gazes offered to back him financially
in tournaments while Okun was still
in school.
At that point, Okun had to make
a decision: He could either pursue a
conventional career in finance or try
his hand in the high-stakes world of
professional poker.
“I was applying to jobs on Wall
Street — trading jobs. And right at the
beginning of that process, I decided I
had the offer from Bill, and it was kind
of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,”
Okun said. “I could try it now when
I’m young, see if I did well. If I liked
it, I could do that. If not, after a year or
two, I could get a regular job.”
Okun’s parents were not happy
with his decision, but they have
“grown more accustomed to it in the
last couple years,” he said — possibly
a side effect of the more than $800,000
that he has earned through tourna-
ments and cash games.
Okun now lives in a condo in Las
Despite strikes, France still popular
continued from page 1
they had to take courses with oth-
er Brown students instead of with
French students.
But there were advantages. The
courses offered by Brown in France
were smaller and more intimate than
typical French university classes,
Wiart said, giving students more
access to their professors. They
could also go on field trips — to
the Louvre and other museums, for
instance — that would not have been
included in university classes.
Meredith Weaver ’10 studied
Vegas with his girlfriend, Brett Abar-
banel ’06, whom he met through the
Blue Room Game. He likes to alter-
nate his long hours of play between
casinos and online games, “just to
keep it fresh.” When he plays online,
he said, he usually starts at night —
taking advantage of the time differ-
ence that leaves his East Coast com-
petitors bleary-eyed while his own
judgment is still sharp.
While still at Brown, Okun intro-
duced his mentor, Gazes, to a friend,
Scott Seiver ’07, a fellow computer
science and economics concentrator
and a Blue Room Game regular. Just
as he did with Okun, Gazes offered
to pay Seiver’s entry fees to online
and live tournaments while Seiver
was still at Brown, according to the
Brown Alumni Magazine.
Since then, Seiver has earned over
$2 million through tournaments and
cash games, the magazine reported.
Seiver did not respond to The Her-
ald’s requests for an interview.
Surprisingly, the most successful
poker player to emerge from Brown
wasn’t a Blue Room regular. Isaac
Haxton ’08, a philosophy concentrator,
left Brown to earn over $4 million in
tournaments and cash games, accord-
ing to the Brown Alumni Magazine.
Goldberg said Haxton, who did
not respond to inquiries from The
Herald, chose to hone his skills in
online poker rooms instead of playing
with other students in Faunce.
Brown isn’t the only college to
spawn a large number of high-earn-
ing young players. Other Ivy League
schools, particularly Princeton, have
at Universite de Lyon II and Sci-
ences-Po, where strikes ended af-
ter Easter. She took three of the
Brown program courses offered in
Lyon. That way, if French university
classes didn’t re-start, she would still
get credit during her time abroad,
she said.
Once classes resumed at the uni-
versities, Weaver ended up being
able to take some of the courses
she had originally signed up for.
That meant she had to take seven
courses, but Weaver said she was
“relieved” to be in classes despite
the increased workload.
also yielded a few successful poker
pros, Goldberg said.
To the extent Ivy League grads
are more successful in professional
poker than their counterparts, it’s not
necessarily because they are smarter.
A crucial ingredient in their success
is access to extra spending money,
according to Mike Graves ’06, a Blue
Room Game regular who earned over
$700,000 and a bracelet at the World
Series of Poker in 2007 — the most
prestigious honor a professional
player can receive.
Graves won the massive payout
after his first year at the University of
Texas Southwestern Medical School,
where he is currently a medical stu-
dent.
Graves chose to pursue medicine
instead of professional poker because
he has wanted to be a doctor for years.
“It’s something I’ve idealized for a
long time,” he said.
The uncertainty of professional
poker also made Graves hesitate to
commit to it as a career.
According to Goldberg, poker
reached the peak of its popularity in
2003 through televised tournaments
and has since settled into a “mature
stage.” Getting enormous payouts
isn’t as easy as it used to be, he said.
For professionals to continue to earn
as much as they used to, they now
have to travel to tournaments outside
of the country.
“The long-term sustainability of
poker is not exactly there,” Graves
said. “By natural selection, the
games online will get tougher and
tougher.”
It was also a lot of work for the
universities themselves — schools
had to make up at least 80 percent
of the class time missed by extend-
ing class hours and doing away with
spring break, Weaver said.
Though Weaver was frustrated by
the uncertainty the strikes brought,
she said she now appreciates her
unique experience in France.
Last semester’s protests have
not affected this year’s application
numbers for Brown in France, Wi-
art said.
“France is a destination,” Bro-
stuen said.

Daily Herald
the Brown

Editorial Phone: 401.351.3372 | Business Phone: 401.351.3260

Stephen DeLucia, President Jonathan Spector, Treasurer
Michael Bechek, Vice President Alexander Hughes, Secretary
The Brown Daily Herald (USPS 067.740) is an independent newspaper serv-
ing the Brown University community daily since 1891. It is published Monday
through Friday during the academic year, excluding vacations, once during
Commencement, once during Orientation and once in July by The Brown Daily
Herald, Inc. Single copy free for each members of the community.
POSTMASTER please send corrections to P.O. Box 2538, Providence, RI
02906. Periodicals postage paid at Providence, R.I. Offices are located at 195
Angell St., Providence, R.I. E-mail herald@browndailyherald.com.
World Wide Web: http://www.browndailyherald.com.
Subscription prices: $319 one year daily, $139 one semester daily.
Copyright 2009 by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.
Monday, October 5, 2009
C ampus N EWS
New year, efforts to internationalize
continued from page 1
and Caribbean Studies.
He is also involved in the Univer-
sity’s new Global Health Initiative,
which will draw faculty and students
from various disciplines to work on
health-related concerns throughout
the world, including in China, India
and Kenya. The initiative will raise
the collective profile of Brown-spon-
sored international health efforts that
have “long operated on their own
and in separate departments,” the
University announced in a press re-
lease last week.
Establishing a center for the
study of global health was one of
the highest-profile recommenda-
tions of the committee whose work
was intended to lay the foundation
for Brown’s internationalization ef-
forts. The committee released its
recommendations in 2007.
“Brown is global. Our faculty and
students already do research and
study in dozens of countries,” Gut-
mann said. “One of our challenges
now is to get Brown out internation-
ally even more, and to further raise
its visibility throughout the world.”
Gutmann said he views his pri-
mary responsibility as developing
policies to guide the University as it
seeks to increase its global engage-
ment and international visibility.
“I’ve been teaching here a while,”
he said. “I know that this campus is
teeming with students that want to
learn deeply other languages, cul-
tures and history.”
Internationalization, Kertzer said,
involves enriching the educational
experience of Brown students by
making the University fully interna-
tional and enabling its students to
become “students of the world.”
In 2006, following a discussion
session on international education,
the Corporation endorsed what was
then an emerging strategic plan to en-
hance Brown’s presence in interna-
tional higher education. It appointed
a high-profile committee to begin
laying the groundwork for the effort.
As part of Brown’s commitment to
developing its international relation-
ship and programs, the position of
vice president of international affairs
was created in 2007.
David Kennedy ’76 served in
the position for nearly two years
before leaving Brown this summer.
Last year, Kennedy was the interim
director of the Watson Institute for
International Studies, a post now
filled by former Michigan University
professor Michael Kennedy.
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
— Matthew Gutmann, new vice president of international affairs
Gutmann said he is working close-
ly with Kennedy to achieve Brown’s
internationalization goals.
“We’re both new at this job. It’s a
work in progress, but so far it’s going
great,” he said.
The University is trying to in-
crease funding for international
students, mainly undergraduates,
a decision that was endorsed by
the Corporation in 2006, Gutmann
said.
“I think that’s going to be a chal-
lenge,” he said. The University needs
to figure out how to “get the word
out about Brown to (international)
students who are from families who
don’t have the funds to begin with.”
The Office of International Affairs
also provides funding for interna-
tional projects proposed by students
and for student and faculty travel
abroad.
Gutmann said the Brown Inter-
national Scholars Program, which
began last year, allowed 14 students
to conduct international research
projects this past summer. The of-
fice will fund up to 20 students this
coming summer, Gutmann said. Ap-
plications for the grants are due this
afternoon.
“We’re in a very exciting moment
in Brown’s history,” Gutmann said.
Page 3
“Brown is global.”
news in brief
Local baseball history at Bookstore
“It wasn’t like one day we just had baseball,” Rick Harris
said to a modest audience at the Brown Bookstore on
Saturday. “It’s kind of like a folk song. Baseball has a long
history.”
Harris is a social worker, but that’s just his day job. His
true passion is baseball, and when it comes to the history
of baseball in Rhode Island, he’s practically a walking
Wikipedia.
“As a social worker, you hear a lot of sad stories every
week,” Harris said. “You have to have other things in your life
that make you happy and relieve that stress.”
Harris uses primary sources to decipher history. A Brown
student’s diary from 1827 mentions “playing ball,” and is one
of the earliest written documentations of the game in Rhode
Island. Harris deduced from the diary and other sources that
in those days, the Brown “Base Ball Club” used to play on
the green near where the Van Wickle Gates are today. Brown’s
team got more serious by the late 1860s, traveling to play
against a few other schools, he said, and in 1879 Brown won
the Collegiate National Base Ball Championships for the first
time.
Harris published a book last year called “Rhode Island
Baseball: The Early Years.” He has several more on the way,
with one specifically about the role of Brown in the evolution
of baseball.
In the meantime, Harris has compiled a comprehensive
record of Brown’s baseball seasons since 1827 and a list of
Rhode Island firsts in the game, including the use of the term
“bullpen” — originally intended for parking carriages — and
the first use of turnstiles for crowd control in a ballpark.
“There are endless stories about baseball in Rhode
Island,” he said.
— Alex Bell
Arts & Culture
The Brown Daily Herald
Deep listening, walking with a master
By Corina Chase
Contributing Writer
As par t of this year’s Pixilera-
tions, the FirstWorks Festival’s
new media showcase, accordion-
ist and composer Pauline Oliveros
visited Providence to give a concert
last Friday and lead classes on her
work and unique artistic process.
Oliveros is “an American mas-
ter,” said Kathleen Pletcher, execu-
tive artistic director of FirstWorks,
an organization that brings promi-
nent artists and premieres of their
works to the city. “Her pioneering
in sound is just astounding.”
FirstWorks prides itself in
presenting firsts in the arts: mu-
sicians, dancers, filmmakers and
visual artists with interests in ex-
perimentation. The organization
evolved from First Night Provi-
dence, a New Year’s Eve festival
that began in 1985 and now offers
programming throughout the year.
Each fall, FirstWorks coordinates
the FirstWorks Festival, a seven-
week event filled with gallery open-
ings, performances and musical
concerts.
Last Thursday, Oliveros spoke
to students in MUSC 0200: “Com-
puters and Music” at Grant Recital
Hall. She said she has been fasci-
nated with “in-between-the-cracks
music,” even when she was young.
She enjoyed listening to her fam-
ily’s Victrola phonograph stretch-
ing and distorting the music. She
listened to the static between
channels on her grandfather’s
radio and to the cracks and pops
of her father’s short-wave radio.
When Oliveros entered the world
of electronic music, she enjoyed
the feeling of “inventing (her) way
through it.”
In 1953, Oliveros got hands on
a tape recorder, and, listening to
the playback, realized how much
more the tape recorder’s micro-
phone picked up than she heard
consciously. She concluded that
she was not really listening to the
environment around her. That in-
sight became the starting point
for her philosophy of “deep listen-
ing.”
Deep listening, as Oliveros
explained it, can be practiced by
anyone, even those who know little
about music. Oliveros called it a
form of meditation — listening to
listening, expanding attention and
awareness to the “whole space-time
continuum of sound.”
This idea and practice took
off in many directions, including
workshops in deep listening, one of
which Oliveros ran Saturday at the
Rhode Island School of Design’s
Memorial Hall.
Oliveros opened with her defini-
tion of deep listening and an expla-
nation of the practice. Nearly 50
participants — a mix of Brown and
RISD students, at least one Brown
professor and some Providence
residents — spent the first half of
the workshop trying two exercises:
the “extreme slow walk” and the
“extreme slow song.”
The extreme slow walk was just
that — walking extremely slowly,
becoming aware of the floor and
recognizing how a person’s bal-
ance shifts when moving. Oliveros
then asked ever yone to think of a
song they knew exceptionally well,
and to sing it as slowly as possible
(walking at the same time).
After singing his extreme slow
song, Zach Alterman ’12 said the
exercises reminded him of how
words are only “one of a trillion
forms of communication” and
helped him think about all the
modes of communication people
don’t normally use.
Though Oliveros will not be
giving any more per formances
or workshops, Pixilerations will
continue through Oct. 11, and the
FirstWorks Festival through Nov.
15. Upcoming events include a per-
formance by the all-male Taiwan-
ese dance company HORSE on Oct.
24, and, as part of the FirstWorks
Festival finale, Cirque Mechanics
on Nov. 14.
Monday, October 5, 2009 | Page 4
Founder discusses
theater company’s future
By Sarah Mancone
Contributing Writer
For theater companies during an
economic recession, the drama
isn’t just in the plays, as Donald
King ’93, artistic director of Provi-
dence Black Repertory Company
made clear at a public forum in
Rites and Reason Theatre on
Friday. Before the talk, King was
honored with the 2009 John Hope
Alumni Award for Public Service,
presented by the Brown Alumni
Association and the Swearer Cen-
ter for Public Service.
King founded Black Rep in
1996, when the company’s only
home was a Providence print
shop. Black Rep grew into one of
the city’s major theaters, ending
each of its seasons with Sound
Session, a seven-day summer fes-
tival culminating in a Caribbean
parade.
But the downturn made it
more difficult for Black Rep to
continue its programming. Due
to financial difficulties, Black Rep
entered receivership — a type of
bankruptcy in which a receiver
is appointed to run the company
— on Aug. 17.
But King said he and the com-
pany will attempt to put budgets
together and work as hard as
possible to “get us out of receiv-
ership.”
In an attempt to balance the
books, King cancelled some of
Black Rep’s public programs, in-
cluding an open-mike rap work-
shop, “Round Midnight: A Rap-
per’s Delight.” King said he found
it frustrating when some accused
Black Rep of moving away from
its urban mission.
“How much more urban do you
get than Providence Sound Ses-
sion?” he said. “We cannot let BET
and HOT 106 be the purveyors of
what is black.”
Support for Black Rep has re-
mained strong in Providence, King
said, and the company’s remain-
ing programs have continued to
be popular. This summer’s Sound
Session “was the biggest Sound
Session ever,” he said. “They don’t
want Black Rep to go away.”
At least a few of the approxi-
mately 30 people who attended
the talk — mostly faculty and
Providence residents, with some
students as well — seemed to
agree with that statement.
Richard Gray ’85 called Black
Rep “one of my favorite places
to go,” and Lowr y Marshall,
professor of theatre, speech and
dance, said she was amazed and
grateful for what King had accom-
plished.
“We really need you here,”
Marshall told King, earning the
applause of the room.
King said he plans to remain
positive and work through receiv-
ership.
“We hold our head up high,”
he said.
The forum was co-sponsored
by the Swearer Center, the De-
partment of Africana Studies and
the Center for the Study of Race
and Ethnicity in America.
SportsMonday
The Brown Daily Herald
Governor’s Cup Field hockey takes win in overtime
returns to College Hill
By Dan Alexander
Senior Staff Writer
With rainy skies overhead and a
slick ball under center, football’s
game against the University of Rhode
Island Saturday
URI 20 looked like it
Brown 28
would turn into
a run-dominat-
ed battle in the mud.
But the wet conditions didn’t stop
Brown Head Coach Phil Estes from
sticking to what the Bears do best:
giving the ball to wide receivers
Bobby Sewall ’10 and Buddy Farn-
ham ’10. Together, the duo scored
all four of Brown’s touchdowns in a
28-20 win that wasn’t as close as the
final score suggested.
URI, typically a passing team,
chose a different strategy. Rams’
quarterback D.J. Stefkovich only
passed once in the first quarter.
Stefkovich, URI’s backup quarter-
back, came off the bench 1:30 after
kickoff following an injury to starter
Chris Paul-Etienne. Paul-Etienne’s
injury, combined with the wet field,
forced URI to rush for most of the
first half, said URI Head Coach Joe
Trainer.
The weather “certainly affected
the passing game, but it’s still no
excuse,” he said. “There is no accept-
able reason for the way we played
today.”
URI actually outgained the Bears,
416 yards to 295. But the Rams com-
mitted 17 penalties, mostly holding
calls, putting them in 3rd-and-long
situations over and over again. URI
didn’t convert a third down until late
in the third quarter.
“We shot ourselves in the foot,”
Trainer said. “I don’t know if I’ve
ever been around a team that had
that many penalties.”
The Bears’ punter Nate Lovett
’12 gave Bruno a leg up in the field
position battle with eight punts, four
of which pinned URI inside their
20-yard line.
Lovett got the Bears out of trou-
ble and gave the Rams a long field
for much of the day. “He should get
a game ball for that,” Estes said.
The Rams couldn’t put together
long scoring drives, but did find the
end zone on three big plays — a 68-
yard run by Anthony Ferrer early in
the first quarter, a 75-yard intercep-
tion return by URI linebacker Rob
Damon in the second and a 55-yard
pass to Ryan Lawrence with just 3:14
left in the fourth quarter.
The referees had a busy day,
calling a total of 29 penalties. Estes
said both teams got away with some
calls, too.
“The game was sloppy from the
beginning,” Estes said. “I thought
they could have thrown 100 more
(flags), to be perfectly honest.”
A day of big plays
Every score in Saturday’s game
was the result of a big play. Of the
six touchdown drives, five took un-
der a minute. Four took just a single
play.
The game’s first score set the
tone. Just over five minutes into the
game, Stefkovich faked a handoff
and ran a quarterback counter up
the middle. On the next play, Ferrer,
URI’s running back, ran to the same
spot as he had a play before, but this
time the handoff was not a fake. Fer-
rer ran off the left tackle, juked a few
defenders and broke a tackle before
breaking out into open field.
“No one could catch up to Ferrer,
who doesn’t have great speed on a
dry field,” Trainer said.
“He’s a mudder. You know this is
his kind of track,” he said. “He has a
low center of gravity. His feet don’t
come up that high.”
Ferrer’s touchdown gave the
Rams a 7-0 lead early in the first
quarter.
Less than three minutes later,
the Bears scored their first touch-
down when Kyle Newhall ’11 spotted
Farnham wide open in the end zone.
Though the ball was underthrown,
no one from URI was close enough
to get to it before Farnham came
down with the 32-yard pass.
The Bears fumbled the snap on
the extra point attempt, making the
score 7-6 with 6:10 left in the first
quarter.
URI struck back on Damon’s
interception return early in the
second quarter, giving the Rams a
14-6 lead.
On the first play from scrimmage
after Damon’s touchdown, Newhall
threw a strike to Farnham, in double
coverage. Farnham got the ball be-
tween two defenders at the 15-yard
ine, broke through them and ran
into the end zone.
The 42-yard bomb, followed by
a successful two-point conversion,
evened the score at 14-14 with 8:50
left in the first half.
Just under five minutes into the
second half, it was the Brown de-
fense that made a big play. Kelley
Cox ’10 forced a fumble, giving the
Bears great field position at the URI
13-yard line. One play later, Sewall
scored on a reception in the front
right corner of the end zone, giving
Brown a 21-14 lead.
With just under a minute left in
the quarter, Sewall found the end
zone again, this time on a five-yard
run out of the wildcat formation. But,
for the second time of the game, a
big play led up to Sewall’s touch-
down.
On the previous play, Farnham
returned a punt 69 yards to the URI
5-yard line. He started the return to
the right, but cut across to the left
sideline, where he broke free and
almost reached the end zone.
The Bears held on to their 28-14
lead until Stefkovich completed a
55-yard touchdown pass with 3:14
remaining.
When the final whistle blew, the
Bears rushed onto the field to take
hold of the Governor’s Cup, awarded
annually to the winner of the in-state
rivalry. The win gave Brown its first
victory of the season and brought
the cup to Providence for the first
time since 2005.
“That almost felt as good as win-
ning the Ivy League Championship,”
Estes said.
Monday, October 5, 2009 | Page 5
By Andrew Braca
Sports Editor
stroke-off since beating Maine, 2-1,
on Sept. 7, 2008.
When Washburn stopped Wil-
liams’ shot, the Bears began to cel-
“We have very good penalty ebrate, believing they had clinched
After 100 minutes, the field hockey stroke-shooters,” Harrington said. the win, but the officials sent out
team remained deadlocked with “I’m very confident in our stroking Zysk, to her confusion.
Vermont, 2-2, on Sunday after- team and very confident in Caroline, “Honestly, I thought the refs
noon, sending the game to penalty our goalkeeper. She’s saved a few counted wrong and that I didn’t ac-
strokes. After the Bears had taken a strokes this year and made some tually need to take it, but I said, you
3-1 lead in the best-of-five stroke-off, really nice saves.” know what, I’ll just shut everybody
the Catamounts sent out Macken- Washburn saved Joanna Berger’s up and put it away,” she said.
zie Williams, who needed to beat shot to open the stroke-off, before Zysk beat Heavens on the ground
Caroline Washburn ’12 to keep the Bridget McNamara ’12 beat Heavens to the left side, finally allowing the
game alive. to her right to give Brown the 1-0 Bears to celebrate the 3-2 win. The
Washburn was feeling “a lot of lead. After Lauren Goracy scored stroke-off went in the books as a 4-1
nerves,” she said, “but you try and for Vermont, Hyland gave Brown victory for the Bears.
just collect yourself and think that a 2-1 lead. The Bears will now have six days
the only way this is going to happen Jenna Horowski next sent a shot off before they travel to Maine to
is if I stop it.” wide for the Catamounts, setting up face the Black Bears on Sunday.
Williams fired, and Washburn Cassie Puhalla ’11 for what would Zysk said the team will be confi-
dove to her right and smothered the turn out to be the game-winning dent after a crucial win.
ball to seal the 3-2 victory. goal. Puhalla had also fired the shot “Now we’ve beaten a team in a
It was “nerve-wracking,” said that beat Maine a year ago and went real battle,” she said. “We know we
Tacy Zysk ’11, “but as soon as we for the same spot again, finding the can fight, and when it comes down
knew that it was going to strokes, upper left corner to give Brown a 3-1 to grit and toughness, we know that
we just knew we were going to put lead with two strokes left. we’re going to be the winners.”
it away.”
The dramatic victory on Warner
Roof eased the sting of a 4-3 over-
time loss to Harvard on Saturday.
The Bears improved their record
to 4-6, though they stand 0-3 in the
Ivy League.
“I’m really proud of this team,
because they bounced back,” said
Head Coach Tara Harrington ’94.
“We came ready to play, we followed
the game plan and we finished.”
The team had lost two one-goal
games in a row leading into the
Vermont matchup, to Harvard and
Fairfield.
Against Vermont, Brown took
the lead just 4:08 into the game, off
a corner. After inserting the ball,
Leslie Springmeyer ’12 slipped to
the left post, where she knocked a
pass from Katie Hyland ’11 into the
far side of the cage.
But Allison Barnaby scored twice
in the span of a minute to give the
Catamounts a 2-1 lead with 9:28 left
in the first half.
“They were both goals that we
should have never let up,” Har-
rington said. “We know that as a
defensive unit.”
But the Bears were inspired to
keep fighting.
Brown tied the game with 18:20
left in regulation, as Springmeyer
beat Vermont goalie Kristen Heav-
ens on a corner play similar to her
earlier goal, with the assist going to
Whitney Knowlton ’10.
“As always, it’s so difficult to go
down in the game, but I think it gave
us fire and made us work so much
harder to tie it up and get that win,”
Zysk said.
With the game 2-2 after 70 min-
utes, the teams headed into over-
time.
The atmosphere heading into the
extra frames was loose and confi-
dent, Harrington said.
“We joked about being tough, and
we joked about eating tacks, nails
and barbed wire fence for breakfast,
lunch and dinner,” she said.
Heavens stopped two shots in
overtime for the Catamounts, while
Washburn blocked three, sending
the game into penalty strokes.
The Bears were ready, even
though they had not reached a
Editorial & Letters
The Brown Daily Herald

Page 6 | Monday, October 5, 2009

l e t t e r to t h e e d i to r

Academia necessitates
inquiry into religion
To the Editor:
There have been several interest-
ing pieces in recent weeks regard-
ing religion. Sadly, Mike Johnson’s
’11 column (“The two-thousand-year
(approximately) debate,” Sept. 29)
attempted to sidestep this impor-
tant issue altogether. He and others
have every right to remain “secure”
in their personal beliefs, just as he
wishes. However, the burden is on
them to remain secure, not on others
who wish to honestly scrutinize re-
ligion. They have the right to ignore
or disregard the scrutiny, not to stop
others from rational inquiry.
Creationists (yes, there are
creationists at Brown) have every
right to try to feel secure in their
beliefs, but they have no right to
stop others from pursuing biology
for fear that evidence of evolution
might reduce that security. Though
the beliefs Johnson mentions, like
the “guiding power that energizes
the human spirit,” are somewhat
less absurd than creationism, they
remain statements about the world
and should be investigated to de-
termine whether they are actually
true.
Free inquiry is at the heart of
academia. Regardless of the out-
come or how annoying some people
may find this practice, we must con-
tinue to question our own beliefs
and the beliefs of others to ensure
that they are based on evidence and
reason — not simply a wish that
they be true.
This scrutiny need not make
campus less amicable: Brown
Freethought and College Hill for
Christ have had an excellent rela-
tionship despite profound differ-
ences. We should not shy away from chris jesu lee
these topics for fear of offense. That
is not in the spirit of a university. e d i to r i a l
David Sheffield ’11
Co-founder
Brown Freethought
Assisting assistants
Sept. 30 It is unfortunate that only two of 200 undergradu- We encourage the Office of the Dean of the Col-
ate TAs attended the first installment of a four-part lege to look more closely at the training undergradu-
workshop series recently organized by the Office ate TAs already receive, and to take into account the

More content, more of the Dean of the College in conjunction with the
Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning. The
skills that are relevant to TAs in different depart-
ments. Once these factors are incorporated into a

photos, more often.

Herald reported Thursday that the optional work- workshop curriculum for undergraduate TAs, the
shops were established in response to a handful of Dean of the College could consider making work-
complaints about undergraduate TAs’ teaching and shops mandatory. A carefully constructed series of

blogdailyherald.com communication skills.

The second workshop — “Leading Group Dis-
required workshops would be the best way to improve
the quality of undergraduate TAs.
cussion” — was cancelled after only four students Departments that are found to already offer ad-
expressed interest in attending. The third and fourth equate training to TAs could be exempt from a re-
workshops — “Giving Effective Feedback” and quirement, while departments that have struggled
t h e b r o w n d a i ly h e r a l d
“Reaching Students” — will be held as planned. to provide support to TAs would probably find the
Editor-in-Chief Managing Editors Deputy Managing Editors Senior Editors
Given the number of undergraduate students cur- workshops highly beneficial.
Steve DeLucia Michael Bechek Nandini Jayakrishna Rachel Arndt
Chaz Firestone Franklin Kanin Isabel Gottlieb rently serving as TAs, and the necessity of relying In addition to the workshops, one other change in
Michael Skocpol Scott Lowenstein on undergraduate TAs because of certain Graduate school policy could contribute substantially to hold-
editorial Business School policies, we appreciate these efforts to bet- ing undergraduate TAs accountable. Currently, the
Ben Hyman Arts & Culture Editor General Managers Office Manager
Rosalind Schonwald Arts & Culture Editor Alexander Hughes Shawn Reilly ter prepare undergraduates for TA responsibilities. Guidelines for Undergraduate Teaching Assistants
Sophia Li Features Editor Jonathan Spector However, we also believe that such efforts could be developed by the College Curriculum Council only
George Miller Metro Editor
Joanna Wohlmuth Metro Editor
more closely tailored to TAs’ needs. obligate departments to provide feedback to under-
Directors
Seth Motel News Editor Ellen DaSilva Sales One reason the workshops failed to attract a large graduate TAs at the end of the semester.
Jenna Stark News Editor Claire Kiely Sales crowd might be their redundancy with training that This lax requirement on evaluation and feedback
Andrew Braca Sports Editor Katie Koh Finance
Han Cui Asst. Sports Editor Jilyn Chao Asst. Finance undergraduate TAs already receive from the profes- is problematic. Undergraduate TA turnover is high,
Alex Mazerov Asst. Sports Editor Christiana Stephenson Alumni Relations sors and departments with whom they will be work- and many undergraduates only work as TAs for
Katie Wood Asst. Sports Editor
ing. Undergraduate TAs in the computer science one semester, so at least some are unlikely to care
Graphics & Photos Managers department come to school over a week early to a great deal about a review at the end of the term.
Chris Jesu Lee Graphics Editor Kelly Wess Local Sales
Stephen Lichenstein Graphics Editor Kathy Bui National Sales
review course material and learn how to give students Moreover, by only requiring one evaluation at the
Eunice Hong Photo Editor Alex Carrere University Sales clear, appropriately detailed explanations. end of the semester, the current guidelines make it
Kim Perley Photo Editor Matt Burrows Credit and Collections Furthermore, many undergraduates work as TAs less likely that professors will find out about prob-
Jesse Morgan Sports Photo Editor
in departments like biology, chemistry, computer lems during the semester and nip those problems
production Opinions
Ayelet Brinn Copy Desk Chief Alyssa Ratledge Opinions Editor science,and economics, where leading a discussion in the bud. The CCC should rewrite the guidelines
Rachel Isaacs Copy Desk Chief Sarah Rosenthal Opinions Editor is less important than explaining complicated con- to encourage at least one mid-semester evaluation
Marlee Bruning Design Editor
Jessica Calihan Design Editor Editorial Page Board
cepts or checking over students’ assignments. The of undergraduate TAs.
Anna Migliaccio Asst. Design Editor James Shapiro Editorial Page Editor workshop on leading effective discussions might be On the whole, we think undergraduate TAs have
Julien Ouellet Asst. Design Editor Matt Aks Board member
irrelevant to a substantial number of undergraduate contributed positively to the learning experience at
Neal Poole Web Editor Nick Bakshi Board member
Post- magazine Zack Beauchamp Board member TAs. Brown. These changes will help to ensure that the
Arthur Matuszewski Debbie Lehmann Board member At the same time, TAs from all departments could continued use of undergraduate TAs is productive.
Editor-in-Chief
Kelly McKowen William Martin Board member
Editor-in-Chief benefit from workshops on giving feedback and com-
Jessica Calihan, Gili Kliger, Designers municating effectively with students. These are skills Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board.
Sarah Forman, Miranda Forman, William Tomasko, Copy Editors
that all TAs should be expected to develop. Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.
Nicole Friedman, Alex Ulmer, Night Editors
Senior Staff Writers Dan Alexander, Mitra Anoushiravani, Ellen Cushing, Sydney Ember,
Lauren Fedor, Nicole Friedman, Brigitta Greene, Sarah Husk, Brian Mastroianni, Hannah
Moser, Ben Schreckinger, Anne Simons, Anne Speyer, Sara Sunshine, Alex Ulmer, Suzannah
C O R R E C T I O N S P olicy
Weiss, Kyla Wilkes
The Brown Daily Herald is committed to providing the Brown University community with the most accurate information possible. Correc-
Staff Writers Shara Azad, Emma Berry, Alicia Chen, Zunaira Choudhary, Alicia Dang,
Juliana Friend, Anish Gonchigar, Sarah Julian, Christian Martell, Heeyoung Min, Jyotsna tions may be submitted up to seven calendar days after publication.
Mullur, Lauren Pischel, Kevin Pratt, Leslie Primack, Luisa Robledo, Dana Teppert, Gaurie C ommentary P O L I C Y
Tilak, Caitlin Trujillo, Monique Vernon, The editorial is the majority opinion of the editorial page board of The Brown Daily Herald. The editorial viewpoint does not necessarily
Senior Business Associates Max Barrows, Jackie Goldman, Margaret Watson, Ben Xiong reflect the views of The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. Columns, letters and comics reflect the opinions of their authors only.
Business Associates Stassia Chyzhykova, Marco deLeon, Katherine Galvin, Bonnie Kim, L etters to the E ditor P olicy
Cathy Li, Allen McGonagill, Liana Nisimova, Thanases Plestis, Corey Schwartz, William Send letters to letters@browndailyherald.com. Include a telephone number with all letters. The Herald reserves the right to edit all letters for
Schweitzer, Kenneth So, Evan Sumortin, Haydar Taygun, Webber Xu, Lyndse Yess
length and clarity and cannot assure the publication of any letter. Please limit letters to 250 words. Under special circumstances writers may
Design Staff Gili Kliger, Jessica Kirschner, John Walsh, Kate Wilson
Photo Staff Qidong Chen, Janine Cheng, Alex DePaoli, Frederic Lu, Quinn Savit request anonymity, but no letter will be printed if the author’s identity is unknown to the editors. Announcements of events will not be printed.
Copy Editors Sara Chimene-Weiss, Miranda Forman, Casey Gaham, Anna Jouravleva, advertising P olicy
Geoffrey Kyi, Frederic Lu, Jordan Mainzer, Madeleine Rosenberg The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. reserves the right to accept or decline any advertisement at its discretion.
Opinions
The Brown Daily Herald
Yes, I have swine flu. Yes, I’m comfortable with that.
ANDREA
MATTHEWS
Opinions Columnist
Last week, a rather unfortunate event swal-
lowed up my life for a few achy, cough-y,
feverish days. I caught swine flu, Purell
hand sanitizer be damned. Despite my every
effort to protect myself from H1N1, I was
hit and hit hard by the bug whose calling
card, a persistent cough, still lingers as I
write this column.
What did I do? I think perhaps Elizabeth
Kubler-Ross described it best in her five
stages of grief.
I began with denial: “Oh, it’s just a cough,”
I thought as my temperature spiked and my
joints began to ache. Maybe a trip to Health
Ser vices is in order, but only to check in.
After the diagnosis came anger. “How
could this happen to me?” Then refrain of
ever y Brown student: “I don’t have time
for this!”
After anger came bargaining: I’m con-
fined to my room? Fine. Friends refuse to
stand within a five-foot radius of me? Fair
enough. I’ll just stay in bed and get some
reading done. But that was when my im-
mune system threw its hands — and my
temperature — way, way up.
Then, perhaps a low electrolyte-induced
depression, and finally a dehydrated, cough-
wracked acceptance.
But here’s the wonderful thing about
A minor change, a major difference
BY SUSANNAH KROEBER
Opinions Columnist
Brown students defend the New Curriculum
almost as if it were a graduation requirement.
Against a hostile world of those who believe
Brown to be a free-for-all education system,
more representative of the late 1960s and 70s
than modern-day America, Brown students
stand together to advocate for a Satisfactory/
No-Credit grading system, the ability to design
our own concentrations and our complete lack
of distribution requirements.
This curriculum is the reason why many of
us chose Brown. It is a significant part of the
way we describe what distinguishes Brown
as an educational institution.
We see the New Curriculum as a demon-
stration of the University’s willingness to let
us make our own choices. This is the first time
that most students are allowed to choose every
single class, with no set requirements beyond
those within individual concentrations.
As much as we love the new curriculum,
when those from outside of Brunonia leave
the room, there develops a sense of discontent
within the idyllic kingdom. The concept of
taking a risk on courses outside your chosen
area of expertise without the pressure of per-
forming highly by choosing the S/NC option
is attractive, but many students focused on
graduate programs are concerned with how
the number of Satisfactories, as opposed to
As and Bs, will look. Our lack of distribution
requirements makes it possible to specialize
even more by making it feasible to double- or
even triple-concentrate.
swine flu: you will get better. Your time in
quarantine (Health Ser vices urges you to
remain alone in your room until you have
been fever-free for 24 hours) will be lonely,
physically uncomfortable and a total respite
from the outside world. Take advantage
of it!
For the Swined:
Take this moment to repeat after me:
This is probably not my fault. When it is
projected that 30 to 50 percent of the Brown
population will fall ill with swine flu, there’s
When it is projected that 30 to 50 percent of
the Brown population will fall ill with swine flu,
there’s a significant chance that no matter what
you do, you will catch it. Do yourself
a favor and stay home.
a significant chance that no matter what you
do, you will catch it. Do yourself a favor
and report your illness using FluNet, stay
home and get someone to buy you lots of
Gatorade.
Your professors will understand. They
may even thank you. Putting yourself
through the miser y of getting to class and
your peers through the anxiety of tr ying
to avoid you probably isn’t even worth the
Now think about the number of hoops we
have to jump through to exercise some of the
most innovative parts of the New Curriculum.
The addition of prerequisites into Banner
to prevent students from pre-registering for
certain courses, even with prior, non-Brown
background in a subject, is just one of the
limits on our choice. I don’t know many col-
lege students who try to pre-register for a
fourth-year language class without previous
introduction, but I’m sure that they could —
For many students, including myself, the lack of
minors forces those of us interested in multiple
disciplines to choose double concentrating over
simply taking diverse courses.
upon shopping that class — figure out that this
was not the appropriate course for them.
This problem of a fundamental lack of trust
between students and administrators is ex-
acerbated in scale by the process of creating
independent studies or concentrations. With
the New Curriculum’s birthday this calendar
year, there has been more than the usual dis-
cussion about the integrity of the curriculum
and how, if at all, it should be revised or re-
visited. Beyond the general arguments that
students lay out regarding the discrepancies
between the founding ideas and practice of
pain. If you’re able to work at home, I ap-
plaud you and your abnormally functional
fever-wracked brain. If you’re unable, con-
gratulations! You’re human!
Here’s a challenge. Rather than cycling
through the five phases I described above,
why not fast-for ward to “acceptance”? Stay
in bed, get some rest and clear some of
that sleep debt you’re already accumulat-
ing too early in the semester. Who knows,
maybe tr ying to work while sick with H1N1
increases the time it takes to recover. Will
you remember anything you read with a 102
degree fever anyway?
For the Swine-free:
People wearing masks have covered their
noses and mouths … but not their eyes and
ears. They can hear you when you snicker,
“Oh my god, swine flu!,” and they can see
you when you point at them. If they’re out
in public while suffering from symptoms,
they’re probably doing something that just
the New Curriculum, there is one issue with
it that stands out: minors.
I realize that with our use of “concentra-
tion” instead of “major,” the term “minor”
is potentially problematic, as there is not a
comparable pair for concentration. Beyond
semantics, the arguments for deliberately
prohibiting minors in the New Curriculum
seem to be well-conceived but have not proven
entirely applicable to Brown students.
One of the concerns when the New Cur-
riculum was designed was that students would
choose to form clusters of secondary interests,
having one major and then several minors ac-
count for all their undergraduate courses. This
would limit their desire to experiment with
other classes for which they did not have the
sufficient interest or experience to eventually
declare a minor.
For many students, including myself, the
lack of minors forces those of us interested
in multiple disciplines to choose double-con-
centrating over simply taking diverse courses.
This is in part due to the graduate school ap-
Monday, October 5, 2009 | Page 7
can’t wait. Must you make it even less pleas-
ant than it already is?
Fur thermore, just because you don’t
have H1N1 now does not mean you will
remain unspoiled. You’ve made it through
September, and for the moment the rise in
cases seems to be slowing, but our friends
at Health Services speculate that this might
just be the first round. (At least that’s what
my ver y friendly nurse suggested, but I
concede that this is hearsay.)
So treat others they way you would like
to be treated. Would you want your friends
to feed you Ratty takeout when you’re too
weak to get it yourself? Do you want a steady
supply of Gatorade and Kleenex? Be a friend.
Help a swined one out, and you’ll be much
more likely to receive help yourself in the
likely event that you are poxed.
How often does one receive the opportu-
nity to completely disconnect from reality for
a few days without serious repercussions? Of
course, one wishes this could be achieved
without catching a highly contagious and
unpleasant virus, but I would encourage you
to do what I did, and take what you can get.
Take your fever-filled days off. Be nice to
your friends when they do the same. Make
the best of a bad situation: When life gives
you swine, make some bacon.
Andrea Matthews ’11 has plenty of
extra masks, in case anyone needs one.
She can be reached at
andrea_matthews@brown.edu
plication system. For example, many teaching
schools require a major or minor in the subject
area you wish to teach.
Beyond the partially contrived world of
academia and its corresponding requirements,
showing a certain degree of acquaintance
with various subject areas without requiring
a very careful examination of an academic
transcript can be very useful for career op-
tions. A resume, not an academic transcript,
is the paper tool that helps you get a job. This
rarely includes a full list of course work; rather,
you are expected to give a concise summary
of your collegiate knowledge, most often lim-
ited to concentration and perhaps language
competency.
Having easy-to-recognize stamps (i.e., ma-
jors and minors) for each graduate’s degree of
competence in each subject is not a pitfall of
education. The fact is that what we learn in our
undergraduate experience transfers benefits
onto us in a manner that does not appear on
an academic transcript or resume.
Giving students a few more tools to as-
sert their qualifications does not detract from
Brown’s commitment to educating its students
in a liberal fashion, but may instead reduce the
stress upon students, as we would be more
concerned with personal development than
job qualifications. An option of minors would
allow some students to expand future career
opportunities and make them feel more com-
fortable with their educational experience.
Susannah Kroeber ’11 is a Slavic studies
concentrator from Beijing, China.
 Today 4
to day to m o r r o w
A new way to listen to the world
The Brown Daily Herald

Field hockey pulls away with an OT win

5
Monday, October 5, 2009
68 / 47 69 / 50
Page 8

r e p p i n g t h e t h e at e r comics
Live Longer Now! | Ricker, Seiden, Pruitt et al.

4 Birdfish | Matthew Weiss

c a l e n da r
Today, october 5 tomorrow, october 6

5 pm — Staged Reading by Najla Said, 4 PM — “Careers in the Common

Leeds Theater Good Community Hour: Idealist.org,”
J. Walter Wilson 411
8 pm — “50 Years of Textual Inter-
Cabernet Voltaire | Abe Pressman
course,” Painter Tom Phillips, 117 5 pm — Deadline for Changing Grade
MacMillan Options

menu
Sharpe Refectory Verney-Woolley Dining Hall

Lunch — Black Bean and Sweet Po- Lunch — Broccoli Quiche, Pepperoni
tato Ragout, Couscous, Barbecued French Bread Pizza, Green Beans
Chicken, Chocolate Krinkle Cookies with Tomatoes

Dinner — Beef Shish Kabob, Vegan Dinner — Chopped Sirloin Patties,

Dot Comic | Eshan Mitra and Brendan Hainline
Black Beans Taco, Whole Beets, Rasp- Savory Rice Pilaf, Carrots in Parsley
berry Mousse Torte Cake Sauce
RELEASE DATE– Monday, October 5, 2009

Los Angeles Times

c r o sDaily
s w oCrossword
rd Puzzle
Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
ACROSS 3 Combined two 37 Phone caller’s 48 Land, as a fish
1 Precious stones companies into “Bet you don’t 49 Supplies food for,
5 Burn a bit one recognize my as an affair
9 Roe source 4 Occupied, as a voice!” 52 Engaged in battle
13 Most eligible for desk 41 Facetious “Of 54 Start of a request
the draft 5 Goatee’s course” to a genie
14 Like a snowy location 42 Tell a story 56 Goes in haste
landscape 6 __ legs: rear 43 Mortgage bank, 57 FBI employees
15 “Royal” nuisance extremities e.g. 58 Depilatory
16 Put in 7 ’50s nuclear 44 Andy’s old radio product
Hippomaniac | Mat Becker
pigeonholes experiment partner 59 Wichita’s state:
17 Duncan __: cake 8 Answer 47 “__ Fideles”: Abbr.
mix brand 9 Designer’s detail, Christmas carol 60 Hockey surface
18 Reformer for briefly
whom a Bible 10 Coffee flavoring ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
book is named 11 What we breathe
19 What little girls 12 Genetic initials
are made of, so 14 “Just suppose ...”
it’s said 20 Beatles meter
22 “That makes maid
sense” 21 Some savings
23 The Blue Jays, plans, for short
on scoreboards 25 “__ That a
24 Place for a Shame”: Domino
napkin hit
27 Prof’s degree 26 Writing tablets
28 Spat 29 Supply meals for
31 C.S. Lewis’s “The 30 Iran’s official ADVERTISEMENT
Chronicles of __” language
33 Out of harm’s 32 Thoroughfare
way 33 Labor Day mo.
35 Border 34 Tidy
38 Prior to, 35 Jacob’s twin
poetically 36 College housing xwordeditor@aol.com 10/05/09
39 Courtroom figs.
40 Light lunch
45 “Queen of Soul”
Franklin
46 Supermarket
checkout unit
47 Rainbow shape
50 Hesitant sounds
51 Mexican Mrs.
53 “Beats me”
55 Pleasantly
concise
59 Fuzzy fruit
61 “Shucks!”
62 Castaway’s spot
63 Post-workout
woe
64 Spud
65 Use a swizzle
stick
66 Modernists
67 Previously,
old-style
68 Coop residents

DOWN
1 Grapevine news
2 Sufficient By Billie Truitt
(c)2009 Tribune Media Services, Inc.
10/05/09