Daily Herald the Brown
vol. cxlv, no. 32 | Monday, March 15, 2010 | Serving the community daily since 1891
Fitness, aquatics center to open in Jan. 2012
By Talia Kagan
Senior Staf f Writer
Right now, Brown’s athletic com-
plex is unattractive, inconveniently
located and insufficient to meet
the community’s needs. But come
January 2012, the fenced construc-
tion site and asphalt parking lot
will be replaced by a red-bricked
fitness and aquatics center and a
grassy tree-lined quadrangle.
“Compared to most other in-
stitutions, (our athletic facilities)
were a far cr y from where we
should have been,” said Director
of Athletics Michael Goldberger.
Varsity athletes and community
members alike will benefit from in-
creased workout space, additional
dance studios and a larger pool fa-
cility, among other new features in
the plan, University administrators
said. Richard Spies, executive vice
president for planning and senior
adviser to the president, said he
hopes the new facility will be a
place “where so many people can
Faculty stick
together in work
and marriage
By Nicole Friedman
News Editor
Finding a tenured or tenure-track
position is hard enough, but locat-
ing two academic job openings at
once is next to impossible. Faculty
recruitment — a key priority of
the University’s long-term Plan for
Academic Enrichment — gets more
complicated when a prospective
hire’s spouse also needs a position,
and universities, including Brown,
are facing this situation more than
ever before.
In fact, one complicated dual
hiring decision led to a clarification
last month from the state Supe-
rior Court. Since Senior Lecturer
in American Civilization Beverly
Haviland’s position was negotiated
when the University was recruiting
her husband, Professor of English
and former Dean of the College Paul
Armstrong, the ongoing legal dis-
pute over her contract sheds light
on the uncertainties that can arise
when universities hire married or
long-term partners who both work
in academia.
But while such couples make up
36 percent of professors in America,
according to a 2008 study from the
Michelle R. Clayman Institute for
Gender Research at Stanford Univer-
continued on page 4
inside
News.....1-4
Section.....5-6
Spor ts...7-9
Editorial..10
Opinion...11
Today........12
www.browndailyherald.com
The Katherine Moran Coleman Aquatics Center and Jonathan Nelson ’77 Fitness
Center are combined into one building.
and will come together.”
Originally intended to be two
separate buildings, the Katherine
Moran Coleman Aquatics Center
and the Jonathan Nelson ’77 Fit-
Festival reveals new sides of Haiti
By Anita Badejo
Contributing Writer
Last weekend’s Ayiti Cheri Hai-
tian Film Festival revealed the
depth and complexity of Hai-
ti’s culture beyond the recent
earthquake-related publicity it
has received.
The festival, which took place
from March 12-14 in various loca-
tions around campus, was spon-
sored by the Center for Latin
Sex week kicks off with
‘Kink’ documentary
By Luisa Robledo
Staff Writer
As the images of lashing whips and
spanking fill the screen, the show-
ing of the documentary “Kink,”
followed by a panel discussion on
Sunday night, provided a kickoff
for what promises to be a mind-
blowing Sex Week. Using the film
as a platform for discussing the
intersection between race, ethnic-
ity and sexuality, the event aimed
to explore the different power
dynamics that can surface in re-
lationships.
“Kink and BDSM are worlds
in which power dynamics are
more explicitly discussed,” said
Aida Manduley ’11, the chair of
News, 5
Neighbors alerted
U. notifies residents of
summer construction
schedules.
195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island
Erik Ornitz / Herald
ness Center were combined to
cut costs and the Corporation ap-
proved the new center’s design
and the start of construction at
its Februar y meeting.
American and Caribbean Studies,
the Haitian Earthquake Relief Ef-
fort, the New England Festival of
Ibero-American Cinema and the
Alliance for Haiti. Festivalgoers
were asked to contribute at least
$5 at each film to raise money for
Boston-based nonprofit Partners
in Health.
The festival — whose name is
“Haiti my love” in Haitian Creole
— was organized in light of the
Jan. 12 earthquakeas an effort to
Brown’s Sexual Health Education
and Empowerment Council. “We
wanted to stimulate an honest and
truthful conversation.”
The film, which specifically fo-
cuses on African-American sexu-
ality, crosscuts between experts
and average people’s opinions
about different topics related to
kink. Asking outward questions
— like, “What’s the kinkiest thing
you’ve ever done?” and, “Is God
OK with kink?” — the documen-
tary explores a sexual realm that
is unknown to many. By combin-
ing both professional and common
perspectives, the film gives an in-
tegral insight to the practices and
continued on page 5
Construction will begin this
June, with the of ficial opening
planned for Januar y 2012, said
Stephen Maiorisi, vice president
for facilities management. The
project’s projected budget is $46.6
million, the majority of which will
be used for the three-level fitness
and aquatics center, he said.
Something old, something new
“Up in this area of campus,
the buildings didn’t feel like part
of Brown University,” Maiorisi
said.
Goldberger agreed. “It’s not
a ver y attractive combination of
buildings,” he said. The new rede-
sign will create a community hub
intended to give a sense of arrival
on Brown’s campus, he said.
The complex’s parking lots
will be relocated to the east of
the new quad. The temporar y
pool facility located behind the
Olney-Margolis Athletics Center
continued on page 2
better inform the University and
Providence communities about
the many dimensions of Haiti’s
culture and people.
Jose Tor realba, outreach
coordinator for the Center for
Latin American and Caribbean
Studies, expressed a desire for
“adding a cultural element” to
the large amount of recent dis-
cussion surrounding Haiti. He
continued on page 7
Students organized the Ayiti Cheri Haitian Film Festival to show dimen-
sions of Haiti beyond the earthquake.
Sports, 9
winning Streak
M. Hockey advances to the
ECAC championship after
defeating Yale.
Curriculum
council look
at concs. well
underway
By Anita Mathews
Staf f Writer
In keeping with a recommendation
by the Task Force on Undergradu-
ate Education, the College Cur-
riculum Council is continuing its
reviews of concentrations in seven
departments this year, said Dean
of the College Katherine Bergeron.
On the 2009-10 agenda are East
Asian studies, South Asian studies,
physics, gender and sexuality stud-
ies, American civilization, public
policy and American institutions
and Latin American and Caribbean
studies.
Though the order of concentra-
tion reviews is mostly determined
by the broader departmental ex-
ternal reviews that they follow,
Bergeron said this year’s lineup
demonstrates “an emphasis on
multidisciplinar y departments.”
She said that a priority of the re-
view is getting departments “to
articulate their goals apart from a
list of required courses.”
Some of these departments are
already wrapping up the review
process, which involves completing
a self-study, hosting a subcommit-
tee from the CCC, sur veying fac-
ulty and students in the department
and submitting a final proposal for
approval by the CCC.
The proposals may include
changes which stem from the
continued on page 2
Nick Sinnott-Armstrong / Herald
Opinions, 11
Application videos?
William Tomasko ’13
opposes applications’
video components.
herald@browndailyherald.com
Page 2 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Monday, March 15, 2010

C ampus N EWS “It’s fascinating feeling like you’re creating your own game.”
— Arthur Matuszewski ’11, on being a representative on the CCC

In new athletics complex,

green space and top facilities
continued from page 1
will be demolished once the new
center is built and replaced with
more parking, Maiorisi said. When
the plan is completed, the total
amount of parking by the facility
will be “roughly about the same,”
he said.
A new pedestrian walkway will
lead to the athletic fields behind
the OMAC, and a new green will
be by the planned fitness center,
according to plans drawn up by
the architecture firm designing the
new center and area, Robert A.M.
Stern Architects.
Maiorisi expects the new cen-
ter to earn a Leadership in Energy
and Environmental Design gold
certification, a distinction awarded
to construction projects that use
environmentally sustainable prac-
tices, he said.
Stern Architects studied other
buildings on campus to come up
with a design that felt like it fit,
Maiorisi said. The planned center’s
look is “traditional,” with a red-
brick exterior reminiscent of local
industrial warehouses, he said.
It might look familiar to those
who remember Mar vel Gymna-
sium, he added — a colonial-style
building located across the street
from the football stadium, which
closed in 1989 when the Pizzitola
Sports Center opened, according to
the Encyclopedia Brunoniana.
The gymnasium was demol-
ished, but its cupola was salvaged
and will be placed on top of the
new fitness and aquatics center,
Maiorisi said.
A new pool shapes up
After several years of compet-
ing of f-campus and practicing
in a temporar y aquatics facility,
Brown’s diving, swimming and
water polo teams will finally have
a permanent home.
The new pool will be 56 me-
ters long, Goldberger said. A stan-
dard Olympic-sized pool is only
50 meters long, but the extra six
meters were added to allow for
bulkheads which can divide the
pool into three sections, allow-
ing for greater flexibility of use,
he said. During competition, the
bulkheads can be pushed to the
side.
With the bulkheads, recreation- Erik Ornitz / Herald
al swimming can occur alongside An open green quadrangle is featured in the design of the complex.
team practices, he said. Recre-
ational swim hours are currently
limited, but in the new facility, the Harder, better, faster, stronger The new strength and condi- feet of increased fitness space on
pool could be open to recreational The center will also solve the tioning area, which will include the top floor of the center, accord-
swimmers for eight to 12 hours a crunch for varsity strength and mostly free weights and weight- ing to Maiorisi. This new area will
day, he said. conditioning facilities, which cur- lifting platforms, will be located in include roughly 150 new exercise
The new center will also have rently forces some teams to lift the fitness center, east of the pool. machines such as treadmills and
separate lockers for the water as early as 5 a.m., Goldberger With about 12,000 square feet rowing machines, he said.
polo and swim teams, as well said. exclusively for varsity athletes, Three new dance studios, lo-
as separate lockers for visiting Several years ago, an indepen- the center will triple the number cated on the ground floor, will also
teams, “which they haven’t had dent assessment of the varsity ath- of teams it can accommodate at increase physical education class
for three years,” Goldberger said. letics program noted that Brown’s once. Team conditioning will now of ferings, Goldberger said.
Recreational swimmers will have program was most lacking in occur mainly between 3 p.m. and A lobby on the ground floor
their own set of lockers as well, strength and conditioning facili- 7 p.m., and there will no longer be may have vending machines or a
he added. The new space means ties, Goldberger said. The current lifting before 6 a.m., Goldberger cafe similar to the current Fried-
that intramural inner-tube water facility, located in the Pizzitola said. There will also be a rehabili- man Cafe, Goldberger said.
polo will be able to return, Gold- Center, has 3,700 square feet — tation area, he said. The new plans are par t of a
berger said. falling far short of the 14,000 that “I think that’s going to improve desire to improve University
The plans include permanent the assessment recommended, ever y team we have,” Goldberger infrastructure, Spies said. “It is
seating for 400 spectators, accord- according to Goldberger. said. ver y much a par t of the Plan for
ing to the sketches. There will also “We were putting athletes in Academic Enrichment.”
be additional temporar y seating ver y awkward times to work out,” Works out for everyone “I think it’s a great statement
available for competitions, Gold- Goldberger said, noting that such Non-varsity athletes will also about athletics and physical edu-
berger said. crowding could be unsafe. benefit from nearly 10,000 square cation,” Goldberger said.

sudoku
CCC cycles through concentration reviews
continued from page 1
CCC’s suggestions, as well as
from the department’s own plans
— whether recruiting additional
faculty, which requires funding ap-
proval, or restructuring course re-
quirements in the concentration.
Sheela Krishnan ’10, a student
representative on the CCC, said
that during the review discussions
there is “definitely a lot of back-
and-forth. Everyone has their own
opinions and ever yone’s opinions
are heard, which is great. It’s amaz-
ing in that ever yone comes to the
table with open minds.”
Krishnan, a human biology con-
ferings” and “how a humanities
concentration is achieved.” As a
student, she said she has enjoyed
seeing “how the concentration ties
in with the idea of liberal learning
at Brown.”
Arthur Matuszewski ’11, a for-
mer Post- editor-in-chief who is
serving his second year as student
representative on the CCC, said he
thinks the review process is crucial
in keeping up with the changing
needs of students. “Seeing the new
curriculum be reinvented and rein-
scribed has been the most phenom-
enal part to me,” Matuszewski said.
“As a student (representative on
the CCC), in part, defining Brown
would necessitate a revision of the
advising framework, Wang said. By
undergoing the review, the depart-
ment received insight on the coun-
tr y-track question from the CCC,
particularly with regard to how
similar departments handle the
issue. The CCC also independently
recommended clarifying wording
about course requirements on the
department Web site, something
Wang said the faculty had not pre-
viously considered. Wang said the
review was useful because there
was “two-way communication. It
was a reciprocal process.”
Bergeron said reciprocity is a
particularly important aspect of

Daily Herald
centrator who was on the subcom- becomes defining what you want the second round of concentration
the Brown
mittees for the South Asian studies your own educational experience reviews. “I think tr ying to articu-
and East Asian studies reviews, to be. It’s fascinating feeling like late clearly the intellectual goals
Editorial Phone: 401.351.3372 | Business Phone: 401.351.3260 said she has been able to witness you’re creating your own game.” (of a concentration) needs to be an
George Miller, President Katie Koh, Treasurer “the inner-workings of course of- Hye-Sook Wang, associate iterative process,” Bergeron said.
Claire Kiely, Vice President Chaz Kelsh, Secretary professor and chair of East Asian “It needs to be a conversation.”
The Brown Daily Herald (USPS 067.740) is an independent newspaper serv- studies, said the department had Bergeron also said she has
ing the Brown University community daily since 1891. It is published Monday not conducted this type of self-ex- been pleasantly surprised by the
through Friday during the academic year, excluding vacations, once during amination since its inception more outcomes of the reviews. “Faculty
Commencement, once during Orientation and once in July by The Brown Daily
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POSTMASTER please send corrections to P.O. Box 2538, Providence, RI concentration review allowed the students and their concentrations.
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Copyright 2010 by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. All rights reserved. eliminating the current countr y- to make their courses of study bet-
focused track system, and doing so ter.”
Monday, March 15, 2010
C ampus N EWS
Students whip up tastes of the world New incentive program to
By Alicia Chen
Senior Staf f Writer
While most Brown students have
to rely on the Sharpe Refector y
for some Tastes of the World, the
participants in the Office of Inter-
national Programs’ Top Chef com-
petition last Thursday displayed
some of the foods that these stu-
dents enjoyed when they studied
abroad.
FEATURE
Contestants gathered at 7 p.m.
in the OIP office for their chance
to show off their culinar y flair to
the strains of music from different
corners of the world,
The competition — which was
organized by OIP Associate Direc-
tor Ned Quigley — was part of a
“series of re-entr y events” for stu-
dents returning from study abroad,
said Adrian Doyle, an OIP study
abroad adviser.
It helps “keep them connected
to their countr y,” said Andrea Lip-
kin, an OIP study abroad adviser.
During the competition, four
judges carefully tasted each food
entr y and asked the contestants
questions about their dishes, which
they prepared beforehand and
brought to the competition.
After the tasting, the judges
gathered to make their delibera-
tions, leaving the contestants to
mingle. During this time, contes-
tants shared battle stories about
their guerilla cooking endeavors
in their dorms and reminisced
about their experiences studying
abroad.
The dishes represented an as-
sortment of delicacies from various
cultures. Rocio Bravo ’10 made tor-
tilla espanola — a Spanish omelette
appetizer made with potatoes —
and recounted the difficulty of peel-
ing the potatoes without a peeler.
Stephanie Le ’10 partnered with
Alexis Mancini ’10 to recreate An-
zac biscuits and Lamington cakes,
two dishes that they discovered
from their time abroad in Sydney,
Australia. The lack of some cook-
ing supplies limited the team’s op-
tions, Le said, adding that being
short an electric mixer “ruled out
some dishes.”
Michelle Morales ’11, who
partnered with Julia Salinas ’11 to
make limonada suiga — a lime,
condensed milk and ice water drink
— said the “stress seemed more
manageable” in Brazil.
After lengthy deliberations,
the judges announced that Amos
Lichtman ’10 won first prize for
the risotto and tiramisu that he
perfected during his time abroad
in Bologna, Italy, last spring.
David Goff ’10 won second prize
for his rendition of knackebrod, a
Stephanie Le ’10 prepared Australia’s Anzac biscuits and Lamington
cakes for the competition.
rye wheat and fennel seed cracker.
Goff grew to enjoy the traditional
Swedish snack during his time
studying abroad in Stockholm,
Sweden — however, he has not yet
won many converts to the unique
snack back at Brown, he said.
Kelsey Peterson ’10 earned
third prize for her trifle — an
English raspberr y, pudding and
custard confection — that she was
introduced to during her studies
junior year at University College
London.
The edible creations of the eight
contestants were evaluated by four
judges, who donned chef hats from
the Ratty.
Food Network enthusiast
Youenn Ker vennic, a lecturer in
French studies and resident direc-
tor of the Brown-in-France pro-
gram, said his French nationality
figured in the coordinators’ deci-
sion to include him as a judge.
www.browndailyherald.com
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
“If you bring in more money, you get more money.”
— Jan Hesthaven, Professor of Applied Mathematics
Alexis Mancini / Herald
Others were chosen because
they would bring a more objective
point of view to the judging table.
Associate University Chaplain for
the Roman Catholic Community
Henr y Bodah said he was just an
“innocent bystander” who worked
in the same J. Walter Wilson cor-
ridor as the event’s coordinators
when he was recruited to judge.
The event’s two other judges were
Senior Study Abroad Adviser Linda
Brault and Office of International
Student and Scholar Services Assis-
tant Director Jamie Kendrioski.
The first prize winner received
$50 and the second and third prize
winners each received $25. All con-
testants also received certificates
for a free scoop of ice cream at Ben
and Jerr y’s.
Reflecting on the night’s suc-
cess, Doyle said he hopes the
competition will become an an-
nual event.
support graduate students
By Sarah Mancone
S enior S taf f Writer
The Graduate School is launch-
ing a new research assistantship
incentive program designed to
bring in a greater number of
research assistants during the
2010–11 academic year.
The incentive plan was an-
nounced in a September 2009
memo while it was pending
Corporation approval for the
funding needed for its launch,
Dean of the Graduate School
Sheila Bonde wrote in an e-mail
to The Herald.
“The RA incentive program is
intended to enable departments
to bring in additional external
funding to suppor t graduate
education through research as-
sistantships,” Bonde wrote. “The
program reflects Brown’s strate-
gic aim of fostering a culture of
excellence in research.”
The incentive program is
meant to provide “a mechanism
for programs to grow by gain-
ing external suppor t that can
alleviate the demands placed on
the graduate school to suppor t
students,” Associate Professor
of Medical Science and Univer-
sity Resources Committee Vice
Chair David Sheinberg PhD’94
wrote in an e-mail to The Her-
ald.
“For ever y three new RA
appointments above a baseline
established by the Graduate
School, the program will be able
to fund one additional student,”
Bonde wrote.
This is beneficial to profes-
sors, because the money they
give to the University for three
new students will come back
to them in the form of an extra
fellowship, said Professor of
Applied Mathematics and URC
member Jan Hesthaven.
The program “puts incentives
in place that would tr y and get
faculty members to write more
grants,” Hesthaven said. “If you
bring in more money, you get
more money.”
“In late Januar y, each of the
depar tments that qualified this
year for a share of the funding
were advised of the amount that
would be provided, so that they
could factor it in to their doc-
toral admissions process this
spring,” Bonde wrote.
When professors get money
from outside resources to fund
assistantships, there is an over-
head that has to be paid to the
University, Hesthaven said.
Through this program, the
“overhead pays for the four th
student” and “doesn’t cost the
Page 3
University,” he added.
“In the ideal world, it’s a win-
win,” he said.
The program will commence
in the next academic year and be
available to any department that
brings in external funds to sup-
port research assistants, Bonde
wrote. This share in revenue will
enable graduate programs and
researchers to plan for growth in
a future fiscal year, she added.
While the program is meant
to aid all depar tments, it is
meant to specifically target sci-
ence and engineering depar t-
ments, Hesthaven said.
A number of faculty members
proposed and collaborated on
this program with the Graduate
School, including Provost David
Kertzer ’69 P’95 P’98 and Execu-
tive Vice President for Finance
and Administration Beppie Hu-
idekoper, Bonde wrote.
“The budget for FY 2010-
2011, which was approved by the
Corporation, includes a one-time
allocation of $250,000 from the
Provost’s budget to launch this
RA incentive program,” Bonde
wrote.
The URC “certainly discussed
the request and the requested
amount,” Sheinberg wrote, and
“determined that if the program
as described were to work there
would be a minimum amount
that would make sense to get
it going.”
After this initial allocation
of money, the program will be
self-suppor ting, using research
dollars brought in by grant re-
cipients for research assistant-
ships, Bonde wrote.
“The rationale behind the
one-time allocation is that this
allotment is designed to provide
a bank for the program that can
allow it to provide incentives to
existing programs that will,
themselves, fund the program
by winning external awards to
pay for RA-ships,” Sheinberg
wrote.
The program is a model
aimed at incentivizing growth
of the graduate programs “at
little or no cost to the Univer-
sity,” Hesthaven said.
The $250,000 allocation is a
way to get the process star ted,
and eventually the program
“pays for the cost,” he said.
This is a “once-in-a-lifetime
allocation,” he added.
The program is meant to be
long-term, Sheinberg wrote.
“The one-time allocation is not
intended to be a shor t-term
fix, but rather to ser ve as seed
money for a program that can
be self-sustaining.”
Page 4
C ampus N EWS
Faculty couples struggle to find tenure together
continued from page 1
sity, Brown has no written policy that
concerns married and partnered fac-
ulty, said Dean of the Faculty Rajiv
Vohra P’07. Nor does the University
plan to institute one, he said.
“Having a policy means different
things to different people,” Vohra
said. “What we have is a protocol,
or an understanding, about how we
help with job placement.”
The University addresses dual
career hires on a case-by-case basis
because it cannot guarantee that
tenured or tenure-track positions will
be available for both partners, Vohra
said, or that both partners will meet
departmental standards for avail-
able positions. Brown’s approach
and efforts to accommodate are no
different for same-sex couples, he
added.
Even without a “written explicit
policy,” the University has done “a
fair bit of hiring where we’ve found
a way to hire couples,” he said. “If
you look at the actual outcomes, I
think we are doing quite well.”
‘Good astrology’
“Double hires take a lot of …
good astrology, because you can’t
really control the situation,” said
Michael Steinberg, director of the
Cogut Center for the Humanities and
professor of history and music.
Steinberg arrived at Brown in
2005 with his wife, Associate Profes-
sor of Comparative Literature and
Italian Studies Suzanne Stewart-
Steinberg, who applied for an open
faculty spot at the University after
Steinberg was offered his current
job.
If Stewart-Steinberg had not also
been offered a position at Brown,
“we probably would have both
stayed at Cornell,” she said.
But not all academic couples can
choose between two institutions with
available positions for both partners.
Before Dean of the College Kath-
erine Bergeron and her husband
Associate Professor of Music Joseph
Rovan came to Brown in 2004, they
maintained a long-distance marriage
while working at institutions in Cali-
fornia and Texas.
“It’s great to be able to talk
about your life, not over the phone,”
Bergeron said of her marriage
now.
Bergeron and Rovan “didn’t go
on the job market” to find work
at the same institution — instead,
“the opportunities opened up,” she
said.
“I think that in our case, the Plan
for Academic Enrichment was a ben-
efit, because of the expansion of the
faculty that the University was un-
dergoing,” she said, which led to the
open positions and “possibilities for
recruitment” that allowed the couple
to move to Providence.
When one partner is applying
for a job at the institution where the
second partner already works, that
relationship may never come up dur-
ing the application process.
“Sometimes, frankly, I don’t even
know that we’ve hired a couple,”
Vohra said.
When Professor of Sociology
Mark Suchman applied to Brown,
his marriage to Nina Tannenwald
— who was already an associate
research professor of international
relations — was “no secret, but it
was not a formal part of the applica-
tion,” Tannenwald said.
Still, his marriage was a big con-
sideration — if Suchman had not
gotten a job at Brown, he and Tan-
nenwald would have both accepted
positions at another institution, she
said.
“We were willing to do the com-
muting thing for awhile, but we have
children, and it’s not sustainable or
viable over the long run,” Tannen-
wald said. “That’s basically the only
choice you have.”
Clarifying expectations
While dual career couples “can
present a great opportunity” to the
University, the general scarcity of
available faculty positions means
that universities sometimes have
to scramble to find a way to employ
a potential hire’s partner, Vohra
said.
For example, the University could
transfer funds so that a department
that wouldn’t normally have an open
position can hire, Vohra said.
When no tenured or tenure-track
position can be made available, the
University may offer a partner a
temporary or untenured job — an
option both Steinberg and Stewart-
Steinberg said they probably would
not have taken.
When the University offered
Armstrong a position as Dean of
the College in 2000, a five-year posi-
tion as visiting associate professor
and senior lecturer in American
civilization and comparative litera-
ture was offered to Haviland, who
held a tenured position at the time
at the State University of New York
at Stony Brook, The Herald reported
in July 2006.
Though Haviland’s position at
Brown was untenured, she accepted
based on the understanding that her
contract would be automatically re-
newed unless she failed to meet the
same job performance standards
that tenured faculty are held to,
according to the Feb. 11 Superior
Court decision.
Haviland appealed to the Su-
perior Court when the University
only renewed her appointment for
www.blogdailyherald.com
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
“Double hires take a lot of … good astrology.”
— Michael Steinberg, Cogut Center for the Humanities director
two and a half years. Haviland’s job
performance was evaluated against
the Department of American Civili-
zation’s standard of teaching excel-
lence, rather than by the standards
used to evaluate tenured faculty, ac-
cording to the court decision.
Because senior lecturers have
the “primary responsibility” of teach-
ing classes, the University’s “basic
commitment” to “ensure excellence
in teaching is of paramount impor-
tance,” Vohra wrote in an e-mail to
The Herald.
The court determined that it was
“reasonable” for Haviland to assume
her contract would be renewed for
the full five years, and the decision
further clarified that in the future,
“Haviland’s appointment shall be
renewed for additional five-year
terms” unless her conduct meets
the same standards that would deter-
mine “adequate cause for dismissal
of a tenured faculty member from
the University.”
Haviland did not sue the Univer-
sity, so the court decision is simply a
legal clarification of her contract.
“To the degree that the court
placed the special circumstances of
this instance above that fundamental
University responsibility” of enforc-
ing its standards of instruction, “I do
not believe this was a satisfactory
outcome,” Vohra wrote.
The University’s lack of a written
policy defining its approach to dual
career hires is “sometimes taken
to mean, if only we had a policy,”
disputes and dissatisfaction could
be avoided, Vohra said.
But “I don’t think in our context
that makes a lot of sense,” he said,
adding that it’s “not very fruitful to
have a cookie-cutter approach to
this.”
‘Quality control’
While recruiting top faculty mem-
bers is central to the University’s
mission, “recruiting an individual
is not just recruiting that person,”
Vohra said. Administrators try to en-
tice prospective hires in any number
of ways, including offering start-up
research packages, helping recruits
find housing and providing academic
positions for their partners.
When it cannot offer two long-
term jobs, the University can try
to help a partner locate available
positions at nearby institutions,
Vohra said. Brown is a member of
the New England Higher Educa-
tion Recruitment Consortium, a
collaborative search engine of job
postings at affiliated institutions
in New England. On occasion, the
University has collaborated with a
nearby college or university to offer
a dual career couple a job at each
school, Vohra said.
The University works to accom-
modate the needs of all potential
faculty members, but “one has to
be clear that there are certain re-
cruitments that are of far greater
value to the institution than others,”
Vohra said.
Of the 100 new faculty positions
called for by the Plan for Academic
Enrichment, 25 were allocated to
the Target of Opportunity hiring
program, which allows the Univer-
sity to bypass traditional search pro-
cedures when the chance to hire a
particularly distinguished professor
arises.
But regardless of how badly an
institution wants to recruit someone,
universities can do more harm than
good by offering a position to that
person’s partner if they are unquali-
fied for the job, Steinberg said.
“I think what a university will ask
itself is, ‘Would we hire this person
alone?’ ” Steinberg said. To do other-
wise, he added, could be damaging
to the institution as well as to the
professors’ personal relationship.
The 2008 Stanford report found
that 29 percent of faculty members
thought their departments had, in
fact, hired a partner whom they con-
sidered “underqualified.”  Despite
this, professors who are hired after
their partners are not less produc-
tive than other scholars in their disci-
plines, according to the survey.
Brown has a “very strict approach
to quality control” when hiring for
tenured or tenure-track positions,
Vohra said, and the University would
never ask a department to hire some-
one “it might otherwise not wish to
hire given its own standards.”
Because departments are ulti-
mately allowed to decide whether
or not they wish to hire someone,
the University could not institute a
policy that guarantees placement for
dual career couples, Vohra said.
“There’s no question about it, that
we don’t always succeed” in accom-
modating dual career couples, he
said. “Nor do I think one would want
a system where the only definition of
success is that anytime you decide
to hire one person, you succeed in
hiring the partner as well.”
Looking ahead
Though faculty positions are par-
ticularly hard to find in the current
economic climate, rising numbers
of couples make it increasingly im-
portant and valuable for university
hiring policies to accommodate dual
career hires, according to the Stan-
ford study.
Universities appear to view hiring
faculty couples as “advantageous,”
because “more and more one sees
this happening at universities across
the country,” Bergeron said.
Large universities and those
located in remote areas are more
Monday, March 15, 2010
likely to have written policies outlin-
ing their approach to hiring faculty
couples, Vohra said. Since it is rela-
tively easy for Brown to shift funds
from one department to another,
or help organize partner hires at
nearby schools, such a policy would
not be helpful to the University, he
said.
Junior faculty members are at
more of a disadvantage when at-
tempting to find dual career positions
because they have “fewer weapons
on the table,” Steinberg said.
Discussing their partners be-
fore receiving a job offer could be
“risky” for junior faculty, Tannen-
wald said.
“I think for beginning professors
those kinds of things are generally
not disclosed and I think it’s prob-
ably in their interest not to do that,”
she said.
But though there is no formal
point in the hiring procedure for
applicants to bring up their partners,
academic couples pose “a common
enough situation that I don’t think at
this stage that people find it all that
difficult to bring it up,” Vohra said.
The University recognizes that
dual career hires can be a “very good
recruitment tactic,” Vohra said.
Faculty couples can be lucrative
for institutions because they will
probably stay in those positions until
retirement, rather than go through
another double job search, Tannen-
wald said.
“They are more likely to really
invest in institution-building, be-
cause they see themselves more
likely to be there in the long haul,”
she said.
While dual career hiring is “going
to have to increase” in the future
as faculty couples increase, Tan-
nenwald speculated there may be a
“downturn over the next few years”
due to the economy.
With less money to spend, institu-
tions have fewer open spaces to hire
faculty — which are “the most im-
portant resource a university has,”
Steinberg said.
“The kind of black comedy way to
put it is, there’s no spousal problem
if there’s no position to begin with,”
he said.
When the economy does im-
prove, Vohra said he hopes to hire
a staff member devoted to providing
resources and facilitating partner
placements for potential hires.
For the time being, “we try to do
the best we can given the circum-
stances and, of course, given the
constraints we have,” he said.
“Once we fill a faculty position
— especially a tenured faculty posi-
tion — we hope to do it in a way that
we get the best people we can and
that they stay here for a very, very
long time.”
Page 5
C ampus N EWS
U. informs neighbors of construction
By Qian Yin
Staf f Writer
The University is reaching out to
its neighbors to inform them of
the impending construction of the
new aquatics and fitness center,
said Jennifer Braga, government
relations and community af fairs
liaison.
Construction of the Katherine
Moran Coleman Aquatics Center
and Jonathan Nelson ’77 Fitness
Center — located at the corner
of Hope and Cushing streets —
will begin this summer and is
projected to end Januar y 2012,
Braga said.
A letter was delivered last
Wednesday to Moses Brown
School, the Wheeler School and
residents along Stimson Avenue,
which will be affected by the con-
struction, Braga said. The letter
contains general information
about the construction project and
a picture of the design of the build-
ing. It also promises continuous
communication with the neigh-
bors throughout the construction
process, she said.
The work schedule for the con-
struction will be from 7 a.m. to 5
p.m., said Stephen Maiorisi, vice
president for facilities manage-
ment. Maiorisi said the construc-
tion parking will be on site, so
parking will be available to the
community after 5 p.m.
As for the dust that construc-
tion will generate, “the key is to
have really good communication
with the neighbors,” Maiorisi said.
He added that steel erection is
not as loud as some other kinds
of construction.
As with all major University
construction projects, there will be
a Construction Mitigation Plan to
minimize the impact of construc-
tion on the neighborhood, said
Albert Dahlberg, director of state
and community relations. Some of
Panel confronts sexual stereotypes
continued from page 1
the people of the kinky world.
Audience members said they
found the film eye-opening. “The
film was amazing,” said Chihiro
Hashimoto ’13. “It was so informa-
tive, and it opened a new realm of
discussion for me.”
After the screening, a panel ex-
plored some of the more complex
issues revolving around the relation-
ship between racial and ethnic iden-
tity and sexuality. The self-selected
student panel, embodying a range
of sexual identities, explored topics
such as BDSM and cultural stereo-
typing in the bedroom.
“For me, race doesn’t go into
power dynamics,” said Eduardo Gar-
za ’12. “Part of the beauty of being
in a relationship is sharing intimate
experiences with someone.”
Gypsy Vidal ’12 shared her own
experiences with racial stereotyp-
ing. She said she tries to discuss
the University’s actions include
systems for directing pedestrians,
traf fic control plans, dust- and
noise-control measures, badges
for off-site parking for contractors
and wheel cleaning for vehicles
departing the complex to prevent
spreading dirt, Dahlberg said.
The University will hold a
series of meetings open to the
public to discuss issues related
to the construction of the center,
Dahlberg said. The first meeting
will be held March 31 to give a
quick over view of the project and
to discuss the design and the park-
ing reconfigurations, he said. The
second meeting, to be held in June
before the construction begins,
will provide more details about
the project, he said.
E-mail invitations to the meet-
ings will be delivered to members
of the larger community surround-
ing the University, including insti-
tutions and residents in College
Hill, Fox Point, Jewelr y District
and Mount Hope areas, Braga
said.
Ms. Soltani, who lives at 19
Stimson Ave. and declined to give
The Herald her first name, said
she is concerned about the dust
and noise that the construction
will bring.
“That means our summer is
ruined,” Soltani said, adding that
it was so dusty when the old Smith
Swim Center was being demol-
ished that she had to keep her
windows closed. She hopes the
construction will “go fast,” she
said. She received the letter from
the University and said the effort
to communicate with neighbors is
“absolutely appreciated.”
Gar y Esposito, the Wheeler
School’s business manager, said
someone from the Wheeler School
will attend the University’s meet-
ings to learn more about the con-
struction. He said he is concerned
about the potential impact of the
power dynamics openly with her
partners.
“I’m constantly aware of them,”
she said. “I think they’re so impor-
tant in life, relationships and inter-
actions.”
Through his discussion of how
black men can be perceived in sex-
ual situations, Malcolm Shanks ’11.5
said, for him, his race has played a
leading role in his sexual identity
and his relationships. When the
panel spoke of viewing race play —
an invocation of fantasies and ro-
mances, mysteries and dreams — as
a positive, he said that most of the
stereotypes he’s dealt with tend to be
more denigrating than sensual.
“Trust me,” he says. “They’ve
never asked me to sing like Nina
Simone.”
He explained that some of the
images revolving around the black
male have a connotation of domi-
nance or can allude to slavery.
The screening and discussion
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Monday, March 15, 2010
“They’ve never asked me to sing like Nina Simone.”
— Malcolm Shanks ’11
Y o ho !
construction, but is confident that
the University will be “sensitive”
about the issue as “they always
are.”
In the past, the University has
always communicated with the
community before major con-
str uction projects, Braga said.
She said she has received mainly
positive feedback regarding the
University’s notifications and no
complaints about the construction
projects.
“We’ve been really vigilant
about minimizing impact and
about communicating things that
are coming up,” Braga said.
The University has been “ver y
informative and ver y proactive”
with construction projects, Es-
posito said. He said he has been
constantly receiving e-mails from
the University informing him of
developments in the construction
of the Perr y and Marty Granof f
Center for the Creative Arts.
Son Ho, owner of Phonatic
Restaurant, located opposite the
creative arts center currently un-
der construction, said the project
is taking a long time and the noise
and blocking of the sidewalk is
creating inconvenience for his
customers. He said a light that
was left on at night used to bother Alex Bell / Herald
The pirate a cappella group, Arrr!!!, performs under Wayland Arch
people sitting in the restaurant. in traditional garb.
In response to the community’s
requests for regular meetings, the
University will hold bimonthly
meetings open to the public re-
gardless of whether there is a new
construction project, Braga said.
She said the goal of these meet-
ings is “to build a sense of commu-
nity between people at Brown and
our neighbors,” to keep the com-
munity informed of the construc-
tion and other topics of interest
and “to create a regular two-way
dialogue.”
— With additional reporting
by Talia Kagan
was the first in a series of sex-
themed events that will be taking
place around campus for the rest
of the week, including a discussion
on the relationship between physical
ability and sex, “the joys and plea-
sures of strapping it on” and an in-
depth workshop on the importance
of good communication for the suc-
cess of a relationship, according to
event descriptions. There will also be
three raffles with prizes such as sex
toys, including a vibrator that syncs
with people’s iTunes and iPods.
Manduley said the main purpose
of Sex Week is to empower people
and to incite them to explore and
better understand different aspects
of sexuality that may get overlooked
by society.
“It’s important to unpack these
categories — gender, sexuality and
sexual expression — and go beyond
defining them,” she said. “We want
to show students what people think
and not what people should think.”
Arts & Culture
The Brown Daily Herald
On stage, words of female
prisoners come to life
By Sarah Mancone
Senior Staff Writer
Five women dressed in black stand in
a line while the audience waits patient-
ly. As the first words are spoken, the
entire audience becomes very quiet.
No one shuffles in his or her seat. No
one speaks. They just listen.
They listen to the words of incar-
cerated women telling tales of being
raped, beaten, tortured and aban-
doned, during which some members
of the audience are moved to tears.
They listen to phrases like “You
ain’t been beat by your own mama,”
“He then proceeded to rape me” and
“If I ever left him, the result would be
the death of my children.”
These words were recited during
“Any One of Us: Words from Prison,” a
performance of writings from women
in prison wanting to tell their stories,
presented in Smith-Buonanno Hall
last Thursday.
Two writings from “Any One of
Us” are original works by women
from Rhode Island’s Adult Correc-
tional Institute. Tab Glavin, who
co-produced the event with Shanna
Wells, said she hopes to present the
stories at the prison next year.
Other writings come from the
Robert Scott Correctional Facility
in Plymouth, Mich.; Bedford Hills
Correctional Facility in Bedford Hills,
N.Y.; Broward Correctional Institution
in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.; and San Fran-
cisco County Jail No. 8. They were
read by volunteer actresses Rhonda
Araujo, Kim Baker, Kristen Butler,
Carolyn Mark and Maria Mendes.
According to Glavin, the concept
started as a writing workshop that Eve
Ensler, writer of the “Vagina Mono-
logues,” ran for 10 years.
“The words were so very pow-
erful” that they evolved from just
a writing workshop into not only a
performance but also a book and a
film, Glavin said.
The different stories that were told
are moving, and they are real.
One is about a 9-year-old girl
who was drugged and raped by her
brother.
Another is about an incarcerated
woman who was raped by a correc-
tional guard and threatened with “ma-
jor misconduct” if she told anybody.
“My body was no longer mine,” she
said.
One girl was raped by two men
in an abandoned building. “I crawled
out of that building,” the performer
said.
There were multiple stories of
severely abusive husbands and boy-
friends. “If this is love, then please
hate me,” one prisoner wrote.
“You beat me, I let you,” another
performer said.
Writing these stories down was
“very cathartic for these women,”
Glavin said.
This event is meant to show the
complexity of imprisoned women’s
situations and “bring attention to end
violence against women and girls.” It
is bringing the issue out and “throw-
ing it in people’s faces,” Glavin said.
“You need to care about this.”
“Any One of Us” was hosted by the
Coalition Against Relationship Abuse,
the Sexual Assault Task Force and the
Alpha Chi Omega sorority.
The proceeds went to OpenDoors,
a program that provides long-term
case management services for for-
mer prisoners reintegrating into the
community.
Abuse victims constitute 79 per-
cent of women in federal and state
prisons, and female prisoners are
three to four times more likely to
have experienced abuse than male
prisoners, according to a pamphlet
distributed at the event. Ninety per-
cent of women now in prison for kill-
ing their husbands or boyfriends did
so in order to protect themselves from
violence.
“People need to hear the truth,”
Glavin said. “There’s a story why this
woman is going to jail.”
“It doesn’t justify it, but it certainly
qualifies it,” she added.
The recitations have a clear pro-
gression from acts of abuse toward
these women to their feelings of anger
and ultimately revenge to punishment
for their retaliation.
“You say, ‘Lock them up.’ I say,
‘When were they free?’ ” one woman
read.
“You say, ‘An eye for an eye.’ I say,
‘I long to see,’ ” another added.
A panel discussion about issues
affecting women in prison followed.
Four participants answered questions
posed by Wells and the audience.
Sol Rodriguez, executive director
of OpenDoors, said prison is particu-
larly difficult for women because they
have “lost years of their lives, years
of their children’s lives.”
“Women tend to suffer more
quietly,” said panelist Koren Car-
buccia from SER-Jobs for Progress.
“Sometimes things hurt so bad” that
women tend to just put them aside,
she added.
To help these women, judgment
must be withheld, said Liz Tobin
Tyler, director of public service and
community partnerships at Roger Wil-
liams School of Law. “Listening is a
huge part of it,” she added.
“They just need somebody to be a
friend to them,” said panelist Robyn
Frye from Providence Re-entry Ini-
tiative. Frye added that people often
get too caught up in statistics, and
there is “no connection to a face, no
connection to a soul.”
A woman’s situation behind bars
does not preclude the fact that she
has an amazing story to tell, Carbuc-
cia said.
The event was presented by Until
the Violence Stops: Rhode Island, a
week-long festival bringing attention
to violence directed toward women.
This is the festival’s third year in the
state. Other parts of this festival in-
cluded multiple performances of “The
Vagina Monologues,” a peace photo
exhibit, a sex trivia night and an all-
male event, which were all fundrais-
ers for organizations formed to aid
women, Glavin said.
This event is “the hardest to hear,”
Glavin said. “It’s very staggering for
you.”
“It’s very shocking,” she said, “but
it’s real.”
B oom B oom P ow
Students exhibit Taiko drumming skills in a performance on Saturday night in Sayles Hall.
After fourth ‘fifth symphony’, Beethoven up next
By Jonathan Chou
Contributing Writer
Music filled Sayles Hall as the Brown
University Orchestra amazed audi-
ences with a wonderful performance
of “Music from the Year 1915.” Led
by Senior Lecturer in Music Paul
Phillips, the orchestra held its third
concert of the academic year Friday
and Sunday.
Igor Stravinksy’s “Chant du Ros-
signol” opened the concert, followed
by Sergei Prokofiev’s “Violin Con-
certo No. 1 in D major, op. 19” with
co-concertmaster Catherine Chiu
’12 as violin soloist. The last piece,
Jean Sibelius’ “Symphony No.5 in
E flat major, op. 82,” perhaps the
highlight of the concert, continued
the theme of fifth symphonies that
was chosen in the beginning of the
Raffel ’79 brings book to campus
By Fei Cai
Staf f Writer
Vanity Fair has called her book “as
sharp and bright as stars.” O, The
Oprah Magazine says her stories
“strikingly explore how small mo-
ments can influence personal and
familial identity.” And on April 14,
she will be coming to Brown to
read from her new book.
“Further Adventures in the
Restless Universe,” a collection of
21 short stories about the struggles
of family life by Dawn Raffel ’79,
will be published by Dzanc Books
and released Tuesday. Raffel has
been critically acclaimed for her
other works, which include the
novel “Carr ying the Body” and
the collection of short stories “In
the Year of Long Division.”
Next month’s event, which
will take place at the McCormack
Family Theatre at 7:30 p.m., was
coordinated by the Literary Arts
Program.
Professor Brian Evenson, chair
of the Literar y Ar ts Program,
wrote of Raffel’s past readings in
Monday, March 15, 2010 | Page 6
year.
Phillips said the process of choos-
ing the repertoire is “one of the most
challenging parts of the job.”
The Stravinsky that opened
the concert was a “very challeng-
ing piece,” Phillips said. But in the
short time they had to practice, the
members of orchestra had “risen
to the challenge.” Bass player Ed
Backlund ’13 said they could only re-
hearse five to six hours a week, but
added that the concerts “went pretty
well given the time we had.”
Chiu, who was brilliant during
Prokofiev’s “Violin Concerto,” began
studying violin at the age of 10 and
won the 2009 Concerto Competition
last year, earning her a soloist spot
in the concerts. She brought the
audience to its feet at the end of her
performance, receiving flowers and
an e-mail to The Herald, “Dawn is
an excellent reader, almost hyp-
notic sometimes. She works so
closely and so consciously with the
dynamics of her fiction that by the
time she reads a story aloud she’s
almost memorized it. I’ve seen her
‘read’ a story without ever having
to look at the page that the story
is written on.”
Raffel said the title of her new-
est book came from a memory of
a book her father read to her as a
child in place of bedtime stories.
The book, “The Restless Universe”
by Max Born, claimed to be a lay-
man’s guide to physics that even
a child could understand, which
her father took literally, she said.
Hence, the title became a symbol
of family and personal life.
The stories were influenced by
the recent death of her parents,
she said.
“Loosely, I guess all of my sto-
ries are about family,” she said.
“ ‘In the Year of Long Division’
is about the divide of impulses and
of what we’re trying to express,”
she added.
Alex Bell / Herald
a thunderous standing ovation.
Sibelius’ “Fifth Symphony” was
quickly withdrawn after its 1915
premiere in Finland because Sibel-
ius was dissatisfied with the piece.
Only in 1919 did he release its final
version, performed at the concerts.
In the last movement especially, the
orchestra demonstrated Sibelius’
signature techniques, including the
use of a suspenseful mood, created
by changes in dynamics and pace as
well as bow strokes such as tremolo
— a very fast reiteration of the same
note — throughout the piece. The
powerful and moving composition
resulted in shouts for encores.
The year’s concerts will con-
clude on April 30 and May 2 with
the “Season Finale,” completing
the theme with Beethoven’s “Fifth
Symphony.”
While many of the stories cen-
ter around family issues, Raffel
also said that her new book “is
about different aspects of people
trying to connect and understand
each other.”
As a way to promote her book,
Raffel collaborated with Luca Dipi-
erro, co-director of the film “60
Writers/60 Places,” to create a
short film resembling a trailer for
one of the stories from the book,
“The Heir and His Relatives.” The
bright and colorful images, set in a
planetarium, are accompanied by
voiceovers of Raffel reading lines
from the story.
“The video took me by sur-
prise,” she said. “It was ver y
impressionistic, and I liked what
(Dipierro) did with it.”
Raffel added that there are a lot
of visual images in her work, and
she believes they come from being
surrounded by visual artists, par-
ticularly her sister and mother.
“I often start a work with a vi-
sual image that is charged for me
continued on page 7
Page 7
A rts &C ulture
At festival, spotlight on Haiti’s struggles Alum shares personal
continued from page 1
said he proposed the film festival
to push discourse on Haiti beyond
the sentiment of, “I feel guilty and
I have to help because there was
an earthquake.”
Torrealba, who has also co-
ordinated the University’s Latin
American Film Festival for the
past three years, said “instead of
exploiting the guilt feelings,” he
aimed to convey “a conscious-
ness of what the culture is. I
think when you know somebody
or something or a culture and you
feel it’s related … it’s easier for
you to care for that.”
Kona Shen ’10, one of four stu-
dents who organized the festival,
expressed similar sentiments. “I
think there’s really a need to show
different sides of Haiti, consid-
ering that we’re in a recover y
stage,” she said. “The beauty of
the films is that we can show dif-
ferent sides of Haiti through the
lens of filmmakers.”
The festival kicked of f Fri-
day evening with a screening
of “How to Conquer America in
One Night” by Haitian director
Dany Laferriere. In French with
English subtitles, the film is set
mainly in Montreal and, while
largely a comedy that drew much
laughter, is a telling and poignant
commentar y on the hardships
facing Haitians who immigrate
to America, whether they have
spent years tr ying to acclimate
or are new arrivals full of hope
and wonder.
Films such as this provided
Haitian perspectives on issues
surrounding the countr y, as op-
posed to views circulated by the
media that don’t necessarily give
weight to the opinions of Haitians
themselves.
Shen, who is traveling to Haiti
next week to finish research for
her senior thesis said the orga-
nizers tried to combine some
of the few films they knew had
received recognition with some
lesser-known films, so that the
festival would represent a mix-
ture of mainstream films and low-
budget documentaries.
The second day began with
“The Agronomist,” which profiles
the life of Haitian radio journal-
ist and human rights activist
Jean Dominique. Shen cited it
as a “really amazing … powerful
film” that is “heartbreaking” and
speaks to recent events. Another
film of the four shown Saturday,
“Poto Mitan: Haitian Women, Pil-
lars of the Global Economy,” is
about Haitian women’s roles in
globalization.
Festival organizers invited
Myrdell Belizaire and Judith Al-
exandre of the Association of Hai-
tian Women in Boston to be guest
speakers after the screening of
“Poto Mitan.” The two women
spoke about issues pertaining to
Haiti’s current economic situa-
tion and challenges to the nation’s
development and also answered
audience questions.
Toward the end of the dis-
cussion, they urged caution in
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
“I write when I feel like I’m going to explode if I don’t write.”
choosing how to contribute to re-
lief efforts in Haiti. Many assume
that when they donate money to
Haiti, their funds are going to the
poorest and neediest Haitians, Al-
exandre said. But the bureaucracy
surrounding many organizations
prevents this.
“For those who want to (help),
do a little bit more research before
you choose to donate to the orga-
nization,” she said. “I want money
to go into helping people.”
The festival screened four films
Sunday, closing with “Dr. Farm-
er’s Remedy for World Health,” a
CBS “60 Minutes” segment about
Partners in Health founder Paul
Farmer.
According to Shen, the festival
was part of “building a foundation
for the long-term commitment
that Brown wants to make” in
promoting the study of Haitian
issues.
The University is already
furthering its unique programs
regarding Haiti. According to
the Center for Latin American
and Caribbean Studies Web site,
the John Carter Brown Librar y
houses the second-best collection
of materials on colonial Haiti in
the world and is in the process
of digitizing its Haitian materials
in partnership with Wyclef Jean’s
Yele Haiti. The University is also
one of few outside Haiti to offer
two full years of Haitian Creole,
and the annual Haitian Studies
Association conference will take
place on campus in November of
this year.
history through fiction
continued from page 6
in a way that I don’t understand,”
she said. “The way to unpack it is
through writing.”
She added, “I write when I feel
like I’m going to explode if I don’t
write.”
Raffel said that “Further Ad-
ventures in the Restless Universe”
shares stylistic elements with her
prior works, “In the Year of Long
Division,” which is full of extremely
compressed stories, and “Carrying
the Body,” which is written in very
short vignettes.
As for upcoming works, Raffel
just finished a memoir also in vi-
gnettes. She is unsure when the
book will be published.
Despite the compactness of the
stories, the book took Raffel a long
time to complete. She began writing
the stories in 2001, not realizing she
would be writing a book.
“I revise by cutting,” she said.
“The book is ver y short, about a
hundred pages.”
www.blogdailyherald.com
Monday, March 15, 2010
— Dawn Raffel ’79
Evenson, who has read both of
Raffel’s previous works, wrote, “I
think Dawn has a remarkable at-
tention to language, a real sense
of rhythm and a genuine control of
sound that makes her work a plea-
sure to read. No word feels wasted.
She makes language palpable, but
not at the expense of story and nar-
rative progression.”
A semiotics concentrator at
Brown, Raffel said she had always
wanted to write but did not start
seriously until after college. She
first was a fiction editor, and though
she always had the desire to write,
she said it was very hard to do so
because she did not know what to
write about.
“It’s your life that gives you
something to write about,” she
said.
Raffel said she wants her book to
evoke emotions in its readers. She
usually does not give her characters
names so that they become more
universal: The events in her stories
can happen to any person.
SportsMonday
The Brown Daily Herald

Monday, March 15, 2010 | Page 8

baseball softball W. LACROSSE

Brown 4 Brown 5 FENCING Equestrian
South Carolina 8 Central Conn. 6 Princeton 16
Brown 6 NCAA qualifiers 2nd at Johnson and
Brown 7 Brown 12 Adam Pantel ’10 Wales
South Carolina 10 Coppin St. 1 M. LACROSSE Caitlin Taylor ’13
SCOREBOARD 2nd at Trinity
Brown 5 Brown 12 Brown 18
South Carolina 6 Hampton 2 St. Joseph’s 4

M. LACROSSE

Bruno shuts down St.

Joe’s despite weather
By Andrew Braca
Assistant Spor ts Editor
The No. 17 men’s lacrosse team
demolished St. Joseph’s, 18-4, on
a rainy, windswept Saturday after-
noon in Philadelphia to advance to
2-1 on the season, but Head Coach
Lars Tiffany ’90 was more pleased
with his team’s effort than the large
margin of victory.
“That is ver y satisfying as a
coach, to know that in a torrential
downpour we are excited to play, to
compete and to demonstrate how
much we care about each other
and how much we care for this
program,” he said.
Andrew Feinberg ’11 led the
way with three goals, but the of-
fense came from many sources,
as 11 players scored goals, includ-
ing five with two apiece, and eight
players handed out assists. Tiffany
said that the entire 32-man travel
roster saw action.
“What was so gratifying was
to see the (backups) get their op-
portunity and make the most of
balls are not affected as much by
wind and rain,” Tiffany said, but he
still wondered before the game if
teams would have a football-style
advantage going with the wind. “I
don’t think it really makes a differ-
ence, but it was enough to make me
think that way.”
The Bears continued to control
the game in the second half, out-
scoring the Hawks 5-1, despite fac-
ing even tougher conditions.
“I really commend the men be-
cause they stood on the sidelines
for an extended period of time,” Tif-
fany said. “By the time I told them
to run into the game, they were
cold, but they made no excuses and
we overcame the challenge.”
Brown received strong play
from a pair of goalies. After Matt
Chriss ’11 notched two saves in
five first-half tries, he gave way to
Wills Curley ’13, a native of nearby
Berwyn, Penn.
“Wills, going home, was able to
make five saves and gave up one Courtesy of dspics.com
After scoring three goals on Saturday, Parker Brown ’12 writes about going on the road and winning by a
goal in the second half,” Tiffany
landslide again St. Joseph’s.
said. “He played very well.”

Parker Brown ’12: Floodgates open at St. Joe’s

it, and demonstrate to me that we
do have depth, that we’re able to
rely on others to step up and make
plays,” he said.
Parker Brown ’12 scored the
first of his three goals 30 seconds
into the game, and the Bears were
off to the races, notching the first
six goals of the game against the
Hawks (0-7). Tiffany said he was
pleased that the Bears did not let up
from there, as many teams would
have done with a large lead.
“I was ver y proud of the men
that they did not allow the lull to
occur, and every one of them who
stepped in the game competed at a
very high level,” Tiffany said.
The Bears sailed into halftime
with a 13-3 lead despite having to
battle a constant downpour and
high winds that ravaged the field
consistently from one goal to the
other.
“If it had been a football game,
one direction you could have
thrown the ball 80 yards, the other
direction maybe 30 yards. Lacrosse
www.browndailyherald.com
It all added up to a significant
defensive improvement, surrender-
ing only four goals after giving up
15 in a March 6 loss to Hofstra and
12 in Tuesday’s overtime victor y
over Hartford. Tif fany credited
the upswing to “increased inten-
sity and enhanced pressure on our
opponent,” but he said he is not
completely satisfied.
“We know that our next oppo-
nent, Har vard, is a much better
offensive team, with a lot more
weapons, so certainly we will not
rest on any laurels from this game,”
he said.
The Bears will travel north to
face the Crimson (3-1) in their Ivy
League opener Saturday, knowing
they need to win more face-offs
after losing 14 out of 25 to the
Hawks.
“Despite the margin of victory
this past Saturday, we still strug-
gled at the face-off ‘X,’ ” Tiffany
said. “Against an opponent such
as Har vard, we cannot continue
to give them the ball.”
For the name on the front, and back, of my jersey
The men’s lacrosse team hit mauled
St. Joe’s, 18-4, in Philadelphia on
Saturday, and Parker Brown ’12
helped lead the Bears’ attack with
two goals and two assists. Here is
how it went down from his perspec-
tive.
As my road-trip roommate
and personal life counselor Rob
Schlesinger ’12 sat down next to
me on the bus last Friday, with
his renowned cowboy boots and
BoSox hat in tow, a sense of relief
came over me as we pulled away
from the Ratty. Long bus trips, like
the one we took last Friday to St.
Joe’s that eclipsed five hours, pro-
vide me and my teammates ample
opportunity to zone out, watch
movies, sleep, Facebook creep
and, most importantly, an excuse
not to work because it makes us
“car sick” (unless, of course, you
actually have work due, or you are
a machine a.k.a. Jason Pohanka
’11). By the time we checked into
our hotel at 12:30 a.m. Saturday
morning, my mind was cleared of
all the stress from last week and
focused on our next opponent: the
Hawks of St. Joseph’s.
After a rejuvenating sleep and
exceptional breakfast from the
Crowne Plaza Hotel thanks to the
efforts of Assistant Coach Errol
Wilson (or at least Bob and I felt
good — our third roommate, Sam
“Caviezel” Ford ’13 was appointed
the fold-out cot even though he is
6’4” and I am 5’9” — sorr y Sam),
our team took the field with a
sense of urgency and purpose
that over whelmed our young
opponent. In the third game of
the season, the Brown men’s la-
crosse team improved to 2-1 in a
convincing 18-4 victor y over St.
Joe’s on Saturday afternoon. Fac-
ing torrential downpours from the
opening face-off, our team em-
braced Coach Tiffany’s message
to squeeze these opportunities
to play when it is easy to make
excuses. Yeah, man.
The Bears jumped out to an
early lead in the first quar ter
thanks to a very balanced offense,
despite the river of water flowing
in front of our sideline. Eleven
different Bears scored during the
game, including Shane McHugh
’13, Matt Shakespeare ’10, Johnny
DePeters ’13, and Dan O’Brien ’12,
who each scored their first career
goal. With soggy socks and our
newly promoted Riddell helmets,
the Bears moved the ball with ease
around the St. Joe’s zone defense
and finished the first quarter lead-
ing, 9-1.
The Brown defense, when the
ball managed to get onto our de-
fensive side of the field, swarmed
the St. Joe’s offense, putting the
ball on the ground and clearing
the ball efficiently. Wills Curley
’13 got some hometown love as
he replaced Matt Chriss ’11 in
the second half and played solid
in his first Division I action. The
defense simply over whelmed St.
Joe’s, and I wish I could make
more shout-outs, but what more
is there to say? One goal allowed
in the first, two in the second, one
in the third and no goals allowed
in the fourth quarter — I think it
speaks for itself.
Like Coach Tiffany told us at
the beginning of the day, Saturday
was less of a test of our lacrosse
ability as it was a test of our char-
acter. We could either slip by St.
Joe’s and go home somewhat satis-
fied, or come out flying and make
a statement in the first quarter. I
think we did the latter, and the bus
ride home from St. Joe’s was full
of good vibes, good energy.
Next Saturday is a bigger test:
our Ivy opener at Harvard. 3 p.m.,
Har vard Stadium. Get some.
— Parker Brown ’12
Page 9 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Monday, March 15, 2010

S ports M onday “We were all playing in the same crappy weather.”
— Alexa Caldwell ’11, women’s lacrosse player

W. LACROSSE

Incessant rain and clouds

Jack Maclellan ’12 scored the Bears’ only goal in the rubber match vs. Yale, which was enough for the win.
M. HOCKEY
Brown shocks No. 6 Yale, heads to ECAC semis
By Dan Alexander
Spor ts Editor
Goalie Michael Clemente ’12 stared
through his metal facemask out
onto the ice as the final minutes of
game three of the ECAC quarterfi-
nals winded down. He had held No.
6 Yale, the top goal-scoring team in
the league, scoreless so far.
But the Bulldogs’ offensive
attack, which averaged 40 shots
on goal per game and was led by
the third-leading scorer in the na-
tion, was gunning for him. And
with the Bears ahead by only one
goal, Clemente couldn’t afford any
mistakes.
“You’re just going one shot at a
time — deny the shot and control
the rebound,” Clemente said.
He did just that — 44 times,
without slipping up once.
Clemente maintained his shut-
out until the final buzzer sounded,
sending Brown to the ECAC Hock-
ey semifinals in Albany, N.Y., for
the first time since 2003.
“It’s definitely the best time of
year to be playing hockey,” Clem-
ente said.
The Bears will look to pull an-
other upset next Friday when they
take on No. 9 Cornell in the ECAC
semifinals on Friday.
“Game one, we came out on
fire,” Clemente wrote in an e-mail
to The Herald. “The offense was
clicking and the defense limited
their second chances. I was beat-
ing passes, getting to the top of the
crease and eating pucks.”
After a scoreless first period,
Buvinow lit the lamp just seven
seconds into the middle frame on
a shot from the far side of mid-ice
that found its way through traf-
fic and between Yale goalie Billy
Blaise’s legs.
Volpatti, who is tied for the most
goals on Brown, had his 15th of the
season 57 seconds after Buvinow’s
to give the Bears a 2-0 lead.
The teams traded goals in the
opening 6:18 of the third period,
and neither team scored again
until the Bulldogs got one with
38 seconds left after pulling their
goalie in favor of an extra attacker,
narrowing Brown’s lead to 3-2,
where it stayed until the buzzer
sounded.
Yale 6, Brown 3
Neither Clemente’s play nor
Backman’s absence could slow
down the Bulldogs’ offense Sat-
urday night.
Broc Little — the third-leading
goal scorer in the nation — scored
Jonathan Bateman / Herald
gained from the goal died quickly
when Yale added its fifth goal just
1:10 later.
Volpatti scored for the sixth
game in a row on a five-on-three
power play with 6:08 left in the
third period, and Scott Van der
Linden ’10 matched a late Yale goal
with his first of the season in the
last minute of the game, making
the final score 6-3.
“We just tried to turn it around
a little bit in the third period to just
try to get some momentum going
into tonight, and it looks like it paid
off,” Maclellan said after Sunday’s
game.
Brown 1, Yale 0
It was just a little off from the
start for the Yale, as Marc Arco-
bello put one off of the pipe less
than two minutes into the game.
The one-inch miss came back to
haunt the Bulldogs.
Maclellan scored the only goal
of the game shorthanded 9:21 after
the opening faceoff.
Two Yale defenders collided,
leaving the puck lying open and
Maclellan punched it out, raced
down the ice and fired it past the
goalie from one stride inside of
the blue line.
It was Maclellan’s second short-
dampen Brown’s spirits
By Tory Elmore
Spor ts Staf f Writer
If you were at the women’s lacrosse
game on Saturday, you might re-
member the weather — or be
scarred by it.
Monsoon-like rain soaked the
dedicated athletes and fans, while
25 mph winds ripped lacrosse
sticks and umbrellas alike free of
slipper y hands.
Coming off a week of pristine
practice conditions — so atypical of
Providence in March — the Bears
succumbed to the abrupt climate
change and a dominant Princeton
squad, losing the game, 16-6.
“The weather was definitely
hard to play in,” Alexa Caldwell
’11, who led the Bears with four
ground balls, two draw controls
and three forced turnovers, wrote
in an e-mail to The Herald. “Both
teams had to make adjustments.
… We were all playing in the same
crappy weather.”
Indeed, both teams dropped the
ball more than usual, and, unfor-
tunately for the Bears, Princeton
capitalized on almost ever y mis-
take.
Though Molly McCar thy ’10
and Katelyn Caro ’12 gave the
Bears an early 2-0 lead within five
minutes of the opening draw, as
the first half drew to a close, the
13th-ranked Tigers went on a five-
goal run, essentially putting an end
to Brown’s hopes of a 3-0 home
record.
“At the very end of the first half
we let down on defense — had
some miscommunications that
resulted in a couple quick goals
by Princeton,” Caldwell wrote.
“That’s when they took the lead
for the rest of the game,” she add-
ed. “I think if we hadn’t let down in
those last three minutes it would
have been entirely different, but
for the rest of the game we were
fighting to clear that deficit.”
Despite the 10-goal loss, the
Bears are eager — and confident
— for a rematch.
“Coming into the game we all
knew it would be a fight, and we
wanted to strike first — which we
did,” said offensive standout Caro,
who scored twice. “We had the ef-
fort and the fight the whole game,
we just didn’t put all the pieces
together.”
“All we can do now is focus on
what’s ahead and know that we will
get another shot at Princeton in the
Ivy Tournament,” Caro added.
Brown will need a win on
Wednesday at Yale to keep hopes
of the tournament alive, as only
the top four of eight Ivy League
teams qualify.
“I think the team is very excited
to rebound from this game against
Yale on Wednesday,” Caldwell said.
“We are on a mission to make it to
the Ivy Tournament.”

This weekend’s series all came
down to game three after Brown
beat Yale on Friday, 3-2, then lost
on Saturday, 6-3.
Brown 3, Yale 2
just 26 seconds into the game.
Three other Bulldogs added goals
in the first two periods, giving Yale
a 4-0 lead heading into the final
frame.
“Saturday we got off to a slow
Read
handed goal of the series.
Neither team scored for the
rest of the night. The Bears lost
on the shot charts, 44-21. But with
Clemente shutting down Brown’s
goal, Maclellan’s one was all the

It was a similar stor y Friday
night, when Yale was held to un-
der three goals for just the second
time since January, as Clemente
stopped 37-of-39 shots.
Yale’s normally explosive of-
start,” Clemente wrote. “I let in a
couple soft goals.”
In a third period plagued by
penalties, Brown mounted a come-
back that made the final score look
more exciting, but never gave the
Share
Bears needed.
“It’s pretty impressive to get a
shutout against the No. 1 offensive
team in the countr y,” Maclellan
said.
When the clock finally showed

fense fizzled while missing its
leader, Ivy League Player of the
Year Sean Backman, who broke
his foot earlier in the week.
Brown’s offense did its part,
thanks to Bobby Farnham ’12, Jeff
Buvinow ’12 and tri-captain Aaron
Volpatti ’10 — who each had one
assist and one goal on the night.
Yale crowd much to worry about
as the Bears couldn’t get closer
than three goals away.
The Bears’ first goal on the
night came shorthanded, when
Jack Maclellan ’12 executed a 2-on-
1 rush after a turnover in the neu-
tral zone, making the score 4-1. But
any momentum Brown could have
Recycle
0:00, the Brown benched poured
onto the ice to celebrate with Cle-
mente. Maclellan said everyone on
the team had a word of congratula-
tions for the goalie.
When asked what those final
moments were like, Clemente
simply said, “Lots of fun. Lots of
smiles.”
Editorial & Letters
The Brown Daily Herald

Page 10 | Monday, March 15, 2010

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

Oxford’s system more than

just tutorials
To the Editor:

As someone who studied at Oxford in my junior year abroad, I am

naturally sympathetic to arguments offered by David Sheffield ’11 and
Sean Quigley ’10 in their recent columns in favor of adopting the tutorial
method of learning (“What could Brown do for you?” Feb. 25; “Being truly
collegial,” March 9). However, both columnists failed to properly situate
the Oxbridge system within its overall institutional context. This is criti-
cal for understanding the tutorial method: In order to apply to the Oxford
colleges, prospective British students must identify the subject area they
wish to pursue and receive top marks on their “A level” exams. The process
of preparing for A levels consumes the last two years of sixth form (high
school). If accepted by one of the colleges, students spend their three
years at Oxford absorbed in the single subject area they scored highest
on in their A levels.
Thus, the tutorial method can be an effective means of academic
exploration — provided that a student is fully committed to his or her given
subject area. It enables a deeper and more intimate understanding of a
discipline. But how reasonable is it to expect a 17-year-old to determine the
sole subject area in which to earn a university degree? In a world where
interdisciplinary collaboration is essential, how effective is it to restrict A be P ressman
one’s range to a single domain? Institutions are embedded in a unique
social setting that should be examined more deeply before latching on to
the next big reform. e d i to r i a l
Christopher Hardy ’10
March 9
Make it count
This month, Rhode Island residents will receive sur- Employment as an enumerator is a great op-
Do you have ideas? veys for the 2010 census. The only problem is there portunity for students to support the local com-
aren’t enough people to go door-to-door surveying munity and get directly involved in a core process
Do you want to share feelings? households that fail to return the form by mail. We of our political system. The results of the census
Send us all your thoughts. encourage students to help resolve this issue by
getting jobs with the local census office.
are critical to apportioning representation fairly and
distributing federal funds effectively. But the job,
The U.S. Census Bureau will mail out forms which lasts about eight weeks, isn’t just noble. It’s
letters@browndailyherald.com during March, with a target return date of April also profitable: Enumerators earn $15 to $17 per
1. Census-takers, also known as enumerators, will hour, more than most on-campus jobs at Brown.
then visit households that filled out the form in- Most Brown students meet the basic employ-
correctly or didn’t return it at all and conduct the ment requirements easily. The national census
t h e b r o w n d a i ly h e r a l d sur vey in person. These door-to-door visits take Web site especially encourages bilingual speakers
place from April to July. Administrators try to hire to apply, and there’s no shortage of those here on
Editor-in-Chief Managing Editor Deputy Managing Editors Senior Editors
Ellen Cushing enumerators who live in the neighborhoods they campus. Enumerators usually conduct door-to-door
George Miller Chaz Kelsh Sophia Li
Emmy Liss Seth Motel will survey. This year, the census bureau plans to sur veys in the evenings and on weekends, mak-
Joanna Wohlmuth
hire 2,300 people to serve as enumerators in Rhode ing the job reasonably compatible with students’
editorial Business
General Managers Office Manager Island’s communities. schedules. And given the experience many stu-
Anne Speyer Arts & Culture Editor
Suzannah Weiss Arts & Culture Editor Claire Kiely Shawn Reilly Despite Rhode Island’s 12.7 percent unemploy- dents already have canvassing for political causes,
Brian Mastroianni Features Editor Katie Koh ment rate, officials are having difficulty hiring we feel students are exactly the type of qualified,
Hannah Moser Features Editor Directors
Brigitta Greene Metro Editor Kelly Wess Sales enough qualified applicants to carry out the census, enthusiastic applicants the local census offices
Ben Schreckinger Metro Editor Matthew Burrows Finance according to a recent Providence Journal article. hope to find.
Sydney Ember News Editor Margaret Watson Client Relations
Nicole Friedman News Editor Christiana Stephenson Alumni Relations
Many applicants do not have sufficient language and In an ideal world, every household would com-
Dan Alexander Sports Editor literacy skills to conduct the survey. Further, since plete the form accurately and return it by mail
Andrew Braca Asst. Sports Editor Managers
the start of the testing process for potential hires on time. For every one percent of the population
Han Cui Asst. Sports Editor Arjun Vaidya Local Sales
Marco deLeon National Sales last year, there has been considerable attrition in that doesn’t return forms by mail, the government
Graphics & Photos Aditi Bhatia University Sales the pool of applicants still interested in the position. spends $85 million to locate them, U.S. Census
Stephen Lichenstein Graphics Editor Jared Davis University Sales
Alex Yuly Graphics Editor Trenten Nelson-Rivers Recruiter Sales Many of Rhode Island’s unemployed may also be Bureau Director Robert Groves told the New York
Nick Sinnott-Armstrong Photo Editor Maximillian Barrows Business Operations worried about losing their access to unemployment Times in January.
Max Monn Asst. Photo Editor Jilyn Chao Sales Analytics
Jonathan Bateman Sports Photo Editor Alexander Carrere Special Projects benefits by taking a temporary job. But as long as some households don’t respond,
Kathy Bui Staff The Providence office plans to fill a total of citizens need to step up and make sure everyone
Production Opinions 1,200 openings, but its director told the Providence is counted. We hope students will take advantage
Kelly Mallahan Copy Desk Chief Michael Fitzpatrick Opinions Editor
Jordan Mainzer Asst. Copy Desk Chief Alyssa Ratledge Opinions Editor Journal that it is still short of target recruitment. of this opportunity to participate in an important
Marlee Bruning Design Editor
Editorial Page Board And the census office in Warwick — which is re- nationwide process and make a good chunk of
Anna Migliaccio Asst. Design Editor Matt Aks Editorial Page Editor sponsible for surveying communities like Newport change for doing so.
Julien Ouellet Asst. Design Editor Debbie Lehmann Board member
Neal Poole Web Editor William Martin
and Woonsocket — has less than 60 percent of the
Board member
Melissa Shube Board member applicant pool size needed to ensure that all posi- Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board.
Post- magazine Gaurie Tilak Board member tions are filled by qualified enumerators. Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com
Marshall Katheder Editor-in-Chief Jonathan Topaz Board member

Marlee Bruning, Leor Shtull-Leber, Designers

Sarah Forman, Aida Haile-Mariam, Christine Joyce, Dan Towne, Copy Editors
Nicole Friedman, Heeyoung Min, Goda Thangada, Suzannah Weiss, Night Editors
Senior Staff Writers Ana Alvarez, Alexander Bell, Alicia Chen, Max Godnick, Talia Kagan,
Sarah Mancone, Heeyoung Min, Kate Monks, Claire Peracchio, Goda Thangada, Caitlin Trujillo
Staff Writers Anna Andreeva, Shara Azad, Nicole Boucher, Kristina Fazzalaro, Miriam Furst,
Anish Gonchigar, Sarah Julian, Matthew Klebanoff, Sara Luxenberg, Anita Mathews, Mark
Raymond, Luisa Robledo, Emily Rosen, Bradley Silverman, Anne Simons, Sara Sunshine
Senior Sales Staff Katie Galvin, Liana Nisimova, Isha Gulati, Alex Neff, Michael Ejike,
Samantha Wong
Design Staff Caleigh Forbes, Jessica Kirschner, Gili Kliger, Leor Shtull-Leber, Katie Wilson
Web Staff Andrew Chen, Warren Jin, Claire Kwong, Michael Marttila, Jeffrey Matteis, Ethan
Richman
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Opinions
The Brown Daily Herald
Charlie bit my Common App
William Tomasko
Opinions Columnist
A high school senior speaks to the camera in
a fake British accent and describes his pas-
sions for video games and philosophy. An-
other displays her drawings and paintings.
Another shows off original dance moves rep-
resenting pie charts and scatter plots.
These are all YouTube videos, and they all
exist because of Tufts University. Starting this
year, each Tufts applicant has the option of
including a link to a one-minute video that, ac-
cording to the instructions on the admissions
application, “says something about you.”
In Tufts’ supplement to the Common Ap-
plication, on top of two mandatory essays,
the video presentation is one of several pos-
sibilities for an optional submission. (The
other possibilities are essay questions.) Out
of around 15,000 applicants this year, 1,000
have chosen to send in videos.
When I first learned about Tufts’ new
policy, one of my concerns was that this new
option would disproportionately benefit ap-
plicants who could afford fancy video cameras
and editing software.
Apparently, though, around two-thirds of
the applicants who chose to submit a video
are also applying for financial aid. The Tufts
Daily reported last year that 55 percent of
students admitted to the class of 2013 qualified
for financial aid. Therefore, it seems like less-
well-off students are not disproportionately
shying away from the video option.
Organic food is bovine manure
DAVID
SHEFFIELD
Opinions Columnist
Many forms of pseudoscience are linked to
political ideology. The last presidential admin-
istration perfectly demonstrated how some
sets of pseudoscientific ideas can tag along
with other political beliefs. While President
Barack Obama has done a good job of restor-
ing science to most of the White House, the
new organic vegetable garden on the White
House lawn shows that faulty views of reality
are not limited to any political party. It is no
surprise that Brown does not have hordes
of creationists or climate change deniers.
They are here; but by far, the most prevalent
pseudoscientific beliefs on campus are about
things like organic farming.
The naturalistic fallacy underlies most of
the organic ideology. This is the belief that
natural is better. According to this fallacy,
fertilizer that comes out of a cow is better than
fertilizer that comes out of a factory because
the former one is natural. But being natural
obviously does not mean that something must
be good. Which is better: all-natural hemlock
or a synthetic poison? Rather than blanket
statements, each claim must be individually
justified.
Some of the many claims that supporters of
organic food make are that synthetic pesticides
and fertilizers are dangerous to human health,
organic farming is better for the environment
and supporting organic farms helps smaller
Furthermore, when interviewed for a Feb.
21 Boston Globe article, the dean of under-
graduate admissions at Tufts, Lee Coffin, in-
sisted that the committee would not evaluate
videos based on their production value.
Rather, the admissions officers would be
looking for applicants to show the “spark” they
would “bring to the class.” Coffin explains that
he values videos that “feature an appealing
narrative or clever conceit that introduces us,
more deeply, to an individual student.”
Even if the videos do not disadvantage
less-privileged students, the new option is
Each Tufts applicant has the option of including a
link to a one-minute video that, according to the
instructions on the application, “says something
about you.”
still flawed. The school may be looking too
deeply at a questionable source.
While it’s valuable for colleges to look be-
yond grade point averages and standardized
test scores, it’s clear that they already do so.
Schools can put that data in context by un-
derstanding students’ general background
and high school information. They can use
extracurricular activities to find out applicants’
interests and how avidly they pursue them.
If colleges want more insight into a student’s
personal qualities and character, they can
examine recommendation letters and conduct
interviews with applicants.
farmers instead of large corporations.
Natural fertilizers like manure actually
have serious problems. Feces, you may recall,
are not very sterile. They can contain patho-
gens like E. coli and salmonella. Remember
the big recall on organic spinach a few years
ago? That’s what happens when you grow your
food in a toilet and fail to properly sanitize it.
These pathogens are abundant and get on
conventionally grown produce too, but there
are more ways to protect consumers using con-
That’s what happens when you grow your food in
a toilet and fail to properly sanitize it.
ventional methods. The rules for organic food
in the United States prohibit irradiating food
to kill off the dangerous bacteria. Irradiation
uses ionizing radiation to kill off living things
on your food — it does not turn it radioactive!
Synthetic fertilizers are instead made directly
from the desired nutrients without the added
pathogens.
Next on the list is the claim that pesticides
are not on your conventionally grown produce.
They are. They’re also inside your food. Long
before humans, plants evolved pesticides and
fungicides to kill off their would-be attackers.
This accounts for most of the pesticides you
consume. There are also synthetic pesticides
found on both conventional and organic pro-
Admissions essays can demonstrate
students’ skills in critical thinking and self-
expression. While a YouTube video is a valid
form of self-presentation, it is less substantive
than an essay. Students can use the YouTube
submissions to practice packaging themselves
into virtual sound-bites. That is an important
skill for a political campaign, but it is less
suited to academic success.
The medium is limiting, but it is also too
revealing. In a Feb. 22 New York Times article
about the new Tufts policy, Coffin said he
is excited that this aspect of the admissions
process will be “completely transparent,” even
though he admits, “it didn’t occur to me that
these videos would be so public, and so fol-
lowed.” One of the video submissions that I
mentioned at the beginning has attracted over
100,000 views on YouTube.
Admissions decisions are frequently frus-
trating because we can only guess at schools’
reasoning, but the process does not need this
kind of transparency. I went to a small, private
high school in which it felt like everyone knew
(and thought he or she had a right to know)
everyone else’s college-related business. I
would never want to exacerbate that tension
duce but the levels are low and safe.
Contrary to what pushers of organic food
would like you to believe, pesticides can also
be used on organic food. The only catch is that
farms are required to use natural pesticides,
rather than the synthetic ones designed to
cheaply kill the desired bugs while doing the
least collateral damage. I fail to see why a
natural poison is better for you than a synthetic
one. Luckily, we regulate the use of both to
ensure their safe use.
Then there is the claim that organic food
is better for the environment. Again, the facts
contradict the organic hype. Conventional
agriculture has its problems but intensively
farming the least amount of land that we can
leaves room for natural habitats. The agricul-
tural scientist Norman Borlaug saved more
lives than anyone else in history by breeding
plants that produced more food per year than
anyone had before. Each farm could then
feed more people. He summed up the effect
of universal organic farming as follows: “Even
if you could use all the organic material that
you have — the animal manures, the human
waste, the plant residues — and get them
back on the soil, you couldn’t feed more than
Monday, March 15, 2010 | Page 11
by posting my essays or extracurricular activi-
ties (with my full name next to them) on the
Web for everyone to see.
Now that anyone with an Internet connec-
tion can view these videos, it will only increase
stress. When applicants can see exactly how
well their peers are doing, it increases the
pressure on them to succeed. That stress
already leads privileged students’ families
to pay small fortunes to private admissions
counselors.
If more schools start accepting video sub-
missions, a new industry of professional You-
Tube consultants will arise. These consultants
can become experts in creating videos that will
appear to be uniquely personal, no matter how
many thousands of dollars were spent on them
or how many dozens of staffers worked on the
production. Admissions officers will have a
harder time identifying an applicant’s “spark”
when it could be the product of a professional
image consultant.
Adding a new video component to applica-
tions ultimately puts additional pressure on
already-crazed students and parents, especially
when the whole world can and will judge their
creations, and it does not add substantively to
the content of an application.
Tufts should end this practice when they
start taking applications for the class of 2015,
and other colleges should think twice before
they implement it.
William Tomasko ’13 is an undecided
concentrator from Washington, D.C.
He can be reached at
william_tomasko@brown.edu.
4 billion people. In addition, if all agriculture
were organic, you would have to increase
cropland area dramatically, spreading out into
marginal areas and cutting down millions of
acres of forests.” Organic farming not only
puts rainforests and other ecosystems at risk
due to the need for more arable land, but it also
means less food for an already starving world.
Calls for organic food come from countries of
plenty, not countries that are still struggling
to feed their people.
Finally, there is the claim that buying or-
ganic is a blow to corporations. Wrong again.
Corporations like Dole and Chiquita might be
evil, but they are not stupid. Organic foods
sell for much more than conventionally grown
counterparts. When organic food became
vogue, the large corporations were right there
to sell overpriced products to the new market.
Sorry, but unless you’re going out of your way
to research each product’s origin, odds are
you are still supporting Big Agra.
To quote the Food Standards Agency, the
British agency in charge of food safety: “Con-
sumers may also choose to buy organic food
because they believe that it is safer and more
nutritious than other food. However, the bal-
ance of current scientific evidence does not
support this view.”
David Sheffield ’11 is a math-physics
concentrator, who thinks everything
is more fun when it’s irradiated. He
can be contacted at
david_sheffield@brown.edu.
 Today
The Brown Daily Herald
t h e n e w s i n i m ag e s
2 Dot Comic | Eshan Mitra and Brendan Hainline
c a l e n da r
Today, March 15
7 P.M. — Persian Storytelling: The
Epic of Bizhan and Manizheh, Kassar
House
7 P.M. — Activism is NOT Enough,
John Hay Library
menu
Sharpe Refectory
Lunch — Gnocchi alla Sorrentina,
Spicy Fries, Rice Krispie Treats
Dinner — Roast Pork Loin Calypso,
Belgian Carrots, Brown Rice Garden
Casserole, Ambrosia Cake
crossword
6 Alum writes of “Restless Universe” to day to m o r r o w
M. lacrosse scorer recaps game
8 43 / 36
Monday, March 15, 2010
49 / 35
Page 12
comics
Cabernet Voltaire | Abe Pressman
tomorrow, March 16
4 P.M. — Community Council
Meeting, Hillel
8 P.M. — Jazz Combos Concert, Grant
Recital Hall
Excelsior | Kevin Grubb
Verney-Woolley Dining Hall
Lunch — Shaved Steak with Mush-
room and Onions, Artichoke and Red
Pepper Frittata, Rice Krispie Treats
Dinner — Chicken Milanese, Cheese
Ravioli, Wax Beans, Ambrosia Cake
Fruitopia | Andy Kim
Hippomaniac | Mat Becker
STW | Jintao Huang