Daily
the Brown
vol. cxlvi, no. 25
Bookstore
to install
alarms
after thefts
By Louisa Chafee
Contributing Writer
After three notebook computers
were stolen from the Brown Book-
store in the past month, the store
has decided to install alarms on all
laptops to prevent further thefts.
According to Steven Souza, the
director of the Brown Bookstore,
someone outside the Brown com-
munity stole a laptop from the
bookstore several weeks ago. The
thief had been loitering in the com-
puter area, he said. When a worker
placed a laptop behind the counter
to retrieve another for a student
customer, the man reached behind
the counter and walked out with
the laptop.
Souza contacted the Depart-
ment of Public Safety that day when
he noticed one of the display lap-
tops was missing. Bookstore and
DPS staff looked at footage from
security cameras and used a screen-
shot of the man’s face to identify
him. DPS handed the case over to
the Providence Police Department,
continued on page 2
Alum’s producing career Celestial fly-by brings first
heats up with ‘On the Ice’ glimpse of comet’s interior
By morgan johnson
Contributing Writer
Despite its chilly location and subject
matter, “On the Ice,” produced by
Cara Marcous ’97, is heating up the
film festival circuit.
Feature
The 2011 Sundance Film Festi-
val selection tells the story of two
teenagers trying to get away with
murder in Barrow, Alaska, writer-
director Andrew Okpeaha MacLean’s
hometown. The two teenage friends
attempt to cover up the accidental
murder of their friend during a fight
on a seal hunt, and “On the Ice” ex-
plores their return to their home-
town, Marcous said. “Their relation-
ships deteriorate,” she said, “and they
have to make the decision of what
kind of people they want to be.”
Two weeks ago, the film won Best
First Feature at the Berlin Interna-
tional Film Festival. “Total surprise.
We are over the moon,” Marcous
wrote in an e-mail to The Herald
Terminated
news...................2-5
inside
CITY & State.....6-9
City Hall crowd protests
editorial.............10
teacher dismissals
Opinions.............11
Thursday, March 3, 2011
e d u c at i o n i n c r i s i s
Mayor Angel Taveras’ decision to issue dismissal notices is raising uproar over the extent of state policymakers‘ power
to make sweeping changes in the face of sky-high budget deficits.
State’s $300 million deficit takes toll on education
By Katherine long
Staff Writer
Last Tuesday, Mayor Angel Tav-
eras issued termination notices
to all 1,926 Providence public
school teachers, citing the city’s
dire budget deficit. The move ig-
nited a controversy over how far
state politicians can go to address
financial challenges.
According to recent estimates,
the state and its municipalities face
soon after getting the good news.
In addition to the Berlin festival and
Sundance, the film was shown at the
Istanbul International Film Festival.
All of the success is quite an ac-
complishment for Marcous — this
is the first narrative feature film she
has produced.
From Brown to Barrow
Film is a fairly new medium for
Marcous, who was once more fa-
miliar with the drama of live pro-
ductions.
At Brown, Marcous studied the-
ater, anthropology and literature and
immersed herself in the campus the-
ater scene, she said. In addition to
joining the comedy group Out of
Bounds during her first year, Mar-
cous said she was involved in over
15 theater productions at Brown.
“She was a great actor,” said Lowry
Marshall, a theater arts and perfor-
mance studies professor who taught
Marcous. “She was widely cast and
wrote a lot.”
continued on page 2
City & State, 7
Herald
deficits as far as the eye can see.
Rhode Island has a $290 million
shortfall for the next fiscal year
Putting Rhode Island’s
public schools to the test
First in a five-part series
that is projected to grow to $375
million by 2016. Yesterday, Taveras
reported that Providence is facing
a nearly $110 million deficit for the
By Natalie Villacorta
Senior Staff Writer
Professor of Geological Sciences
Peter Schultz has a lot of luck with
comets. Just 49 years ago, he con-
vinced a girl to stay up until 3 a.m.
to watch a meteor shower — this
girl became his wife. And this past
Valentine’s Day, he came up close
and personal with a comet he has
been researching since 2005.
The comet’s name is Tempel 1,
and the NASA mission is called Star-
dust-NExT. The spacecraft Stardust
flew by Tempel 1 Feb. 14, getting a
glimpse of the comet’s surface and
revealing a side researchers had never
before seen. “I’m ecstatic,” Schultz
said.
Schultz works with other re-
searchers from Cornell and the
University of Washington to study
the composition of comets. In 2005,
their mission Deep Impact was
the first to get an inside look at a
comet, providing information about
the appearance of its surfaces and
composition. Before Deep Impact,
Post-
tries Whipahol, gets
weird with Shakespeare
Sophia Seawell / Herald
upcoming fiscal year. Almost $40
million of that deficit resides in the
Providence Public School District.
With policymakers looking
to the education system for cuts,
the state’s schools are feeling the
strain.
In addition to firing teachers,
Taveras announced yesterday that
he plans to close four to six schools
to rein in the city’s deficit.
continued on page 7
comets had only been seen from
a far distance. This initial mission
cost $330 million. In comparison,
Stardust-NExT was cheap, totaling
just $29 million.
The night Stardust-NExT flew
by Tempel 1 was full of tension,
Schultz said. “It was like finals here
at Brown.”
Researchers were expecting to
receive five images immediately
after the spacecraft passed by the
comet, around 10 p.m. But as they
waited tensely in mission control
in the jet propulsion laboratory in
Pasadena, Calif., the images never
came. Schultz went to bed.
After a restless night, he awoke to
a surprise — the images had not only
appeared, but successfully captured
all the researchers had hoped to see.
Comets consist of a head — the
bright spot visible to the human eye
and surrounded by an envelope of
dust and gas called a coma — and
a tail, which extends tremendous
distances. Made of ice and dust, they
continued on page 6
weather
Post-, inside
Since 1891
Campus
debate
on ROTC
intensifies
By Mark Raymond
Senior Staff Writer
The recent congressional repeal
of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and
the creation of a committee to
review the University’s Reserve
Officers’ Training Corps policy
has intensified the debate over
whether ROTC should be rein-
stated on campus.
Since the decision to end the
on-campus ROTC program in
1969, students interested in par-
ticipating in ROTC have only
been able to do so through a part-
nership with Providence College.
Earlier this semester, President
Ruth Simmons formed a com-
mittee to research the University
ROTC policy and issue recom-
mendations this spring, which has
increased student mobilization
for and against ROTC.
Provost David Kertzer ’69 P’95
P’98, who was a member of the
committee that examined ROTC
policy in the 1960s, said the re-
cent repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t
Tell” brings the ROTC debate
“back to some of the earlier is-
sues about having a department
of military science and having
faculty chosen by the military.”
When he was a student on the
committee, Kertzer wrote a
minority dissent rejecting the
committee’s recommendations
to modify the on-campus ROTC
program but not eliminate it en-
tirely. Kertzer opposed what he
thought was a “culture conflict”
between the University’s liberal
arts atmosphere and the norms
of the military science depart-
ment, he said.
“The very idea that the fac-
ulty of Brown University has a
‘responsibility’ to devise military
training programs on campus
must be seriously challenged,”
Kertzer wrote in his report, ac-
cording to a 1969 Herald article.
Though he strongly opposed
Brown’s ROTC program as a stu-
dent, Kertzer said “it was a differ-
ent environment in the late six-
ties,” and the prospect of going
to war upon graduation had an
effect on student opinion.
As debate continues to perme-
ate campus, the University’s posi-
tion will depend on the current
committee’s findings.
continued on page 3
t o d ay tomorrow
24 / 14 37 / 32
2 Campus News The Brown Daily Herald
Thursday, March 3, 2011

calendar Bookstore
Today March 3 ToMORROW March 4

4 P.m. 7 p.m. thefts spur

“Exclusivity at the TWC” Workshop, imPulse Dance Spring Show,

8 p.m.
Faunce Multipurpose Room
9 p.m.
Alumnae Hall
increased
“As You Like It,”
Stuart Theatre
IMPROVidence Show,
Salomon 001 vigilance
menu continued from page 1
Courtesy of Cara Marcous
who have put out a warrant for the Cara Marcous ’97 (above) won an award for her first feature film at the Berlin
SHARPE REFECTORY VERNEy-WOOLLEY DINING HALL International Film Festival last month.
man’s arrest, but he has not been
LUNCH apprehended.
Baked Vegan Nuggets with Dipping
Sauces, Hot Turkey Sandwiches
Honey Mustard Chicken Sandwich,
Vegetarian Pot Pie, Milk and White
Executive Director and Chief of
Public Safety Mark Porter did not Alum finds success
with first feature film
with Gravy, Edamame with Peppers Chocolate Chip Cookies respond to requests for comment.
Two more laptops were stolen
DINNER
from the bookstore Feb. 25. Again,
Italian Vegetable Saute, Chicken Pork Medallions in Portabello the thief loitered in the technology continued from page 1
and Lo Mein Noodle Stir Fry, Sauce, Au Gratin Potatoes with department but brought an appa- less than thrilling, learning the busi-
Chocolate Oatmeal Squares Fresh Herbs, Vegan Paella ratus to cut the security cord. DPS Marshall said she gets the feeling ness side of producing is crucial, she
was notified the same day, but a that Marcous can do “anything she added.
Sudoku suspect has not yet been identified.
Because of this second theft,
wants,” adding, “she’s very attractive
and enthusiastic.”
Marcous’ previous experiences
at Sundance, first in 2008 for the
Souza said the bookstore will be After graduating, Marcous fo- short version of the film and then in
putting alarms on the laptops. “We cused more on the writing and pro- 2009 as part of fellowship program,
thought we were secure with locks duction side of theater. While work- helped her know what to expect for
on them,” Souza said. Bookstore ing in New York with Peter Dubois “On The Ice.” She promoted the film
administrators are also looking into MA’97, Marcous accepted a grant through multiple screenings, panels
placing tracking programs in the to work with Perserverance Theatre and meetings with distributors.
computers with help from Com- in Juneau, Alaska for a month, she Foreign distribution deals for the
puting and Information Services. said. Some of her new Alaskan ac- film are already in place, and the
They hope to never reach the point quaintances put her in contact with next step is deciding on American
of having security staff patrol the MacLean, who has “similar artistic distributors, Marcous said. The film
store, Souza said. “We’ve got to help interests in theater and film,” she will most likely screen at the Boston
ourselves. Be observant,” he said. added. The two met upon her return Independent Film Festival as well as
“It’s the nature of the beast,” to New York. at several more festivals in the sum-
Souza said, adding that “we lose mer, she added.
inventory every year,” but “three The Road to Sundance Critics have generally praised
computers in a couple of weeks is Marcous and MacLean first the film for its cinematography and
inordinately high.” The first theft worked together on a documen- regional authenticity. The most com-
was due to “procedure not being tary in 2005. She then went on to mon critique of the film seems to
followed,” Souza said. He said the produce his short film “Sikumi (On focus on the inexperience of the film’s

Across to bear culprits are probably people who

steal for a living, and he is wor-
the Ice).” In 2008, the film won the
Jury Prize in Short Film at Sundance.
actors. Selling the film has been dif-
ficult because all of the actors are un-
ACROSS academy award loser by Jonah Kagan ‘13 ried the bookstore is considered With the film’s success, Marcous and knowns, Marcous acknowledged, but
1 Kickass an “easy target.” MacLean decided to turn the short she added it has stood out because
5 PBS science
show A laptop and an iPhone were into a feature-length film, she said. “it’s a unique project.”
9 Acct. summary also stolen from the GeoChem MacLean wrote the screenplay “We met hundreds of people,”
13 Kitchen drawer?
14 Actress Olin Building Feb. 4. while Marcous served as a “sound- Marcous said of the film’s casting
15 Deposed Iranian Two males who are not students board” during its development, process. All of the actors in the film
16 Hang flaccidly
17 Bit of work were caught on surveillance cam- discussing ideas and changes with are Inupiaq, as is MacLean, and —
18 Prefix with wolf or era Feb. 4 leaving the GeoChem him, she said. The film was shot in with the exception of one Canadian
rabbit
19 Recent Best Building after being inside for 10 MacLean’s hometown of Barrow, Inuit actor — have no previous acting
Supporting Actor minutes, according to WPRI. A Alaska, best known for being the experience.
nominee
22 ___ Bud MacBook Pro laptop and an iPhone northernmost city in the U.S.
23 Suffix with urban were reported stolen from a lab in “I pretty much run the show,” Juggling roles
24 Terre Haute sch.
25 Whitehouse or the building the same day. The Marcous said of her various responsi- “My heart’s still in theater,” Mar-
Reed, for RI Providence Police are looking into bilities as a producer, which involved cous said, but in the meantime, she
26 Eastern “way”
27 Sub-feathers coat the situation, according to WPRI. pre-production, editing, casting, plans to focus on producing film in
28 “___ Diego, financing, sound and nearly every order to firmly establish her career.
which of course
in German means aspect of the film’s creation. She still has a strong interest in
a whale’s vagina”
(“Anchorman” The other BDH “I think for me the creative side
of producing is the most rewarding,”
writing and is currently working on
a film script. If she were to give up
quote)
29 Seattle’s ___
Field
60 Greeting from
lolcats or the
11 One who
might sing “La
45 Recently
closed blogdailyherald Marcous said. The most challeng- on writing, “I’d resent my career,”
31 Effs up main character of Bamba” Wednesday ing aspect of the filmmaking pro- she said.
33 Mayor-elect of
Chicago
12-Down
61 Type of beer
12 Hilariously bad
movie whose
night spot
46 Kicks the
.com cess came from working around the For now, acting is on the back-
34 Disney Channel served at the main characters bucket film’s tight budget, she said. Though burner. “When I decided to focus
movie about a Ratty can be found 47 Latin dog
surfer who moves 62 Famous mother at the start of 50 Newton or more in producing, I was letting go of

Daily Herald
to Vermont of eight 19-, 34-, and Asimov the Brown acting in a way,” she said, adding that
39 Seethe 63 VapoRub maker 54-Across 55 Not into
40 Harold of 64 Maternal 13 Come clean 56 Frat letters she loves and misses acting but that
“Ghostbusters” “Twilight” 20 Bolt on a track? 58 Gobbled the reality of the lifestyle can often be
41 Vice president character 21 Hot dog ___
Spiro et al. 65 Bio. and geo., stick
www.browndailyherald.com difficult and less than inspiring. “It’s
44 OS of choice for e.g. 30 Monastery titles 195 Angell St., Providence, R.I. not the only thing I love,” she said.
Brown students 66 Those, in Toledo 31 Korean leader
45 “So the ___ won’t Syngman ___ Ben Schreckinger, President Matthew Burrows, Treasurer Mentors and fellow students from
DOWN
let me be or let 1 Eff ups 32 Orch. section Sydney Ember, Vice President Isha Gulati, Secretary Marcous’ Brown years have been in-
me be me, so let 2 Not as good 34 Cult following of
me see” (Eminem Insane Clown The Brown Daily Herald (USPS 067.740) is an independent newspaper serving the fluential in shaping her career, she
3 “Don’t worry
lyric) about me” Posse Brown University community daily since 1891. It is published Monday through Fri- said. At Brown, “I’ve learned what
48 “Mine!” 4 Drink in a pouch 35 “I want to eat day during the academic year, excluding vacations, once during Commencement, once
49 “___ right?” that!” true artistic collaboration is,” she said,
5 “Nobody’s during Orientation and once in July by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. Single copy free
51 Suffix with morph laughing.” 36 “I share your adding that she still thinks about the
52 Glass or feeling!” for each member of the community.
6 Count ___ (2004 artists she respected here and is still
Gershwin Jim Carrey role) 37 Savoriness POSTMASTER please send corrections to P.O. Box 2538, Providence, RI 02906.
53 Hasty escape 7 Travel papers 38 “Well done Periodicals postage paid at Providence, R.I. in contact with many of her collabo-
54 Noted yellow 8 They might get with that tricky Subscription prices: $280 one year daily, $140 one semester daily.
saxophonist action!” rators from college.
broken by a good Copyright 2011 by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.
57 It’s parallel to the juke 39 “That did not Solutions and When you get to a point in your
radius work!” archive online at
9 Direction from acrosstobear.
editorial Business
career when you have a project “and
59 Eastern princess Bos. to Prov. 42 ___-Mart
43 Smug looks wordpress.com (401) 351-3372 (401) 351-3360
10 Recent remake of Email: brownpuzzles herald@browndailyherald.com gm@browndailyherald.com
can hire all of your friends,” she said,
an 80’s TV show @gmail.com “it’s totally the dream.”
The Brown Daily Herald
Thursday, March 3, 2011
New trustee to grow alumni network Philbrick ’78 shares passion
By Julian Ezenwa
Contributing Writer
Following the sudden December
death of Joseph Fernandez ’85,
George Billings ’72 has taken on
the responsibility of maintaining
connections with nearly 100,000
alums as president of the Brown
Alumni Association. Billings, who
is also the newest trustee of the
Corporation, said he plans to con-
tinue Fernandez’ work in building
relations between current students
and alums.
“If you’re in class with very in-
teresting, competent people, all of
those competent, good, commit-
ted and interesting people go on
and use all those adjectives when
they graduate,” Billings said. “The
93,000 (alums) are a community
that you as an undergraduate
are a part of. So how could I not
want to make it possible for more
people to connect?”
Future plans
Billings said he will continue to
strengthen the association’s exist-
ing programs, in part by better in-
tegrating the student and alumni
populations. He said the associa-
Students debate, committee considers University’s ROTC policy
continued from page 1
“The committee has the task
of opening up this discussion so
that these views can be weighed
carefully in a manner consistent
with the spirit of open inquiry
and intelligent discourse that
should exist in a university en-
vironment,” Simmons wrote in
an e-mail to The Herald.
“Brown students would benefit
from what ROTC can offer, and
the military would benefit from
what Brown students can offer,”
wrote Lynn Della Grotta ’13, a
member of Students for ROTC,
in an e-mail to The Herald. The
group advocates for the return of
an on-campus ROTC department,
according to its website.
Even before “Don’t Ask, Don’t
Tell” was repealed, there was talk
about whether ROTC should
come back to Brown, she wrote.
“The repeal should only make us
want to move with diligence and
urgency.”
Joy Joung ’11 was the only
Brown student participating in
the Patriot Battalion ROTC pro-
gram at PC last year, but she was
tion’s Alumni Schools Committee
currently interviews more than 90
percent of applicants, the first step
in establishing a bond between
alums and the next generation
of undergraduates. He also men-
tioned BRUnet, a job networking
website that connects students
to alums who are established in
prospective career fields. Cur-
rently, about 5,000 alums list their
contact information and work ex-
perience in a directory students
can access on the site.
Billings said the association
will also work to maintain inter-
national connections through so-
cial networking initiatives and
by continuing to support Brown
clubs and reunions.
“I figured the best way we can
honor Joe is to continue the good
works that he and others started
over the decades,” Billings said.
“That’s one part of it. I hope we
can broaden our outreach and
appeal to more members of the
Brown community.”
The Corporation approved
Billings as a new trustee Feb. 12,
filling the slot reserved for the
association’s president. While
Billings said he is still learning
discharged in October after un-
dergoing brain surgery this sum-
mer. In a Feb. 25 Herald article,
Joung said one first-year male is
now the only Brown student in
the battalion.
She added she would support
bringing ROTC back to Brown,
though she does not mind the
current system. “If I could save
the 10-minute drive to Providence
College, I would,” she said. “The
biggest inconvenience is having
to leave campus.”
According to Major Tucker
Shosh, an enrollment officer with
the program, one Brown student
participates in the program every
two to three years.
Though the number of Brown
students in the battalion is low,
Joung said this is not the pro-
gram’s fault.
“My experience with the bat-
talion at PC has been excep-
tional,” she said. “They welcome
Brown students and don’t treat
me any differently.”
While opposition to a military
presence at Brown is not as vis-
ible on campus as it was in the
late 1960s, there are still students
Campus News 3
about his new role, he believes
the University’s highest governing
body is aware of the challenges
it must address in the upcoming
years. “Brown, like all institu-
tions, is adapting to maintain its
relevance on the global stage,” he
said. “One of Brown’s challenges is
determining what resources need
to be raised and what resources
need to be applied in carrying on
Brown’s strength into the future.”
Billings said he believes his
expertise as a management con-
sultant provides the skills neces-
sary to fulfill his role as a trustee.
He currently serves as president
of consulting firm Billings and
Company.
“My work in the past has in-
volved fixing organizations that
were profoundly broken and, in
some cases, working with orga-
nizations that were very healthy
but had a lot of opportunities,”
he said.“I would put Brown ab-
solutely in the latter category —
healthy, relevant enterprise with
great opportunities facing it.”
Billings added that his experi-
ences in consulting have given
continued on page 4
opposing the return of ROTC.
Julie Pittman ’12, a member
of the Coalition Against Special
Privileges for ROTC, said there
are still many reasons why the
University should not allow the
military to return to campus.
“It comes down to issues of
academic freedom, academic
standards, militarization of the
campus, tacit approval of military
policy and the rampant discrimi-
nation against transgendered in-
dividuals, as well as the record
of sexual assault in the military,”
she said.
Pittman added that allowing
the military to have a say in the
appointment of professors would
conflict with the University’s aca-
demic standards and “threaten
faculty governance, much like the
current debate around tenure.”
Madeleine Jennewein ’14, co-
president of transgender advoca-
cy group GenderAction, said the
repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”
failed to address the military’s
categorization of transgender
individuals as having a “mental
disorder.”
Regardless of what the com-
for learning through writing
By Max Ernst
Contributing Writer
Non-fiction writer Nathaniel Phil-
brick ’78 P’08 discussed his meth-
ods of choosing topics, finding and
synthesizing sources, conducting
on-site research and developing
characters in a question-and-an-
swer session yesterday in the List
Art Center.
An audience composed pri-
marily of community members
gathered to hear moderator Steven
Lubar, director of the Haffenreffer
Museum and the John Nicholas
Brown Center, ask Philbrick about
his writing and research methods.
A brief forum for audience par-
ticipation followed the formal
discussion.
The discussion between Phil-
brick and Lubar centered on the
preparation needed to write his-
torical narratives, but Lubar also
asked about the motivation behind
the author’s writing.
“The reason why (my writing)
works is because I’m learning,”
Philbrick said. “I am fascinated
with America and am interested
Herald Archives
In 1969, Provost David Kertzer ’69
P’95 P’98 opposed ROTC’s presence.
mittee reviewing ROTC policy
concludes, there is a shared degree
of skepticism all around about the
likelihood that ROTC will return
to campus. “What we don’t know
is whether the military would
even be interested in establish-
ing a program here,” Kertzer said.
“It is quite expensive for them to
set up these programs.”
Joung said even with the re-
peal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,”
she is not sure the University will
change its policy.
in the engine behind the history.”
Philbrick, who recently pub-
lished “The Last Stand: Custer,
Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the
Little Bighorn,” said writing each
book is nearly a three-year project.
He typically spends the first year
creating a bibliography, reading
a variety of topical materials and
finding sources. After gathering all
the necessary materials, he spends
the next two years “working on the
book chapter by chapter.”
“I’m not the most organized
person, but I have developed a
system for this,” Philbrick said. “I
read as sporadically as I can but
I organize my notes by chapter.”
Though Philbrick has little edu-
cational background in history and
does not work for a university, he
has discovered a passion for writ-
ing diverse historical works simply
because the novelty of each subject
is interesting to him, he said. “My
books all have to be as different as
possible,” he added.
Philbrick said his unique contri-
bution to literature is providing his
continued on page 6
“I think it’s a step, but I don’t
think it’s enough to swing the
decision the other way,” Joung
said. “It’s great that they’re having
the discussion, but right now it is
more of a discussion about the
logistics of what it takes to have
ROTC on a campus.”
Shosh said students partici-
pating in the ROTC program
through the Patriot Battalion have
not explicitly expressed a desire
for a program at Brown.
“The students have had no
issues with it,” he said, adding
that students from the University
of Massachusetts at Dartmouth
travel 45 minutes to participate
in PC’s battalion.
Administrators agree the com-
mittee’s findings will ultimately
guide this debate.
“It may well be that the armed
services have no interest in estab-
lishing a unit at Brown or that our
students may prefer a Providence
College option,” Simmons wrote.
“Neither possibility absolves us
from determining whether ban-
ning an ROTC unit from Brown
should be current University
policy.”
4 Campus News
Alumni president to further student-alum connections
continued from page 3
him the ability to develop long-
term solutions for organizations.
Leadership experience
Billings’ leadership history ex-
tends back to his days as president
of the Class of 1972. Since then,
Billings has stayed involved with
the Brown community.
Prior to becoming president
of the alumni association, he
served on its board of governors.
He was also a vice-chair for the
Campaign for Academic Enrich-
ment, the University’s largest fun-
draising initiative, which topped
off at $1.61 billion when it came
to a close Dec. 31.
“Thanks to the campaign for
academic enrichment, there are
even more dedicated faculty and
of course a lot of new programs
and new initiatives,” Billings said.
“George was one of the active
members soliciting gifts and out-
reaching to alumni around the
The Brown Daily Herald
Thursday, March 3, 2011
country,” said Jerome Vascellaro,
co-chair of the Campaign for Aca-
demic Enrichment. “I think he is
a very special person.”
Billings said he has seen Brown
change over the years. “Brown is
a much more cohesive place now
than it was when I was there,” he
said. “I was at Brown during the
height of the Vietnam War, and
that was a period of unsettlement
throughout the world.”
But at its heart, the University
remains the same, he said. “Brown
then, as now, had an extraordi-
nary, dedicated faculty with the
continuing commitment to teach-
ing at the undergraduate level,” he
said. “That’s one thing that’s really
important. I think it goes to the Courtesy of the Brown Alumni Association
foundation of Brown’s relevance Trustee George Billings ’72 hopes to continue a blossoming initiative to
and strength.” strengthen alumni relations.
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The Brown Daily Herald
Thursday, March 3, 2011
UCS names Elections Board chair, U. Resources Committee member
By David Chung
Senior Staff Writer
The Undergraduate Council of
Students commenced the spring
elections and appointments
process with two student ap-
pointments and announced the
progress of various projects at its
general body meeting last night.
The council unanimously mo-
tioned for Anthony White ’13, a
member of the Student Activities
Committee, to serve as Elections
Board chair for the UCS, Un-
dergraduate Finance Board and
class board elections in March
and April. White will oversee the
elections process and address the
complaints and concerns of can-
didates and students. UCS also
recently appointed former Her-
ald staff writer Ben Noble ’13, a
member of the Campus Life Com-
mittee, to a two-year term on the
University Resources Committee.
The committee reviews Univer-
sity budget needs and submits a
proposal annually to President
Ruth Simmons.
Applications for positions on
other University committees are
currently available and must be
submitted March 8 by 11:59 p.m.
The Admissions and Student
Services Committee is continu-
ing its efforts to obtain Brown
e-mail addresses for alums, im-
prove satellite gyms and introduce
a program that would allow stu-
UCS discussed plans to renovate the Bears Lair and continuing efforts to establish permanent Brown e-mail addresses.
dents to monitor the statuses of
dormitory washing machines and
dryers online. Committee Chair
Chris Collins ’11 announced the
committee plans to present a reso-
lution on behalf of UCS next week
encouraging the establishment
of permanent Brown e-mail ad-
dresses. Though the University
administration will make the
final decision, UCS resolutions
have been influential in past de-
cisions, and there have been “no
steps backwards” in the process
thus far, he said.
The initiative to renovate the
Campus News 5
Bears Lair, increase funding for
fitness equipment and place De-
partment of Facilities Manage-
ment staff in charge of cleaning
satellite gyms is gaining sup-
port. Currently, the University
outsources cleaning of satellite
gyms. The committee is working
with Matthew Tsimikas, assistant
director of athletics and physical
education, to move the project
forward, Collins said.
The implementation of Laun-
dryView, the application that
would make washer and dryer
statuses viewable online, also
Sophia Rabb / Herald
remains likely, he said, because
Richard Bova, senior associate
dean of residential and dining
services, has consistently ex-
pressed support for the project.
Collins, Bova and Andrew Tran
’11, chair of Residential Council,
will meet March 9 to assess the
project’s priority level.
Noble and Campus Life Chair
David Rattner ’13 have been
discussing potential changes to
SafeRide with Transportation
Manager Carleia Lighty. They are
seeking to install maps on cam-
pus indicating SafeRide routes
and are discussing the potential
installation of trackers in vans
so students can be aware of the
van’s locations when planning
trips across campus. The lat-
ter initiative will be expensive,
Rattner said. Both Harvard and
Northeastern University currently
use tracking systems.
Rattner and Noble are also
hoping to modify SafeRide routes.
Students have complained about
the inefficiency of the current
system, so they said they hope
to introduce a shortened route
between the Sciences Library,
Keeney Quadrangle and Perkins
Hall between the hours of 9 p.m.
and 1 a.m. The Alpert Medical
School’s move to the Jewelry Dis-
trict will also affect the redrawing
of routes, Rattner said.
Peter Johnson ’13, who sits
on the Campus Life Commit-
tee, is meeting weekly with the
management of the Blue Room
to improve its services based on
feedback collected last semester.
He said he is working to increase
the number of signs displaying
prices and hopes to add variety
to Blue Room fare by offering
food from various Thayer Street
eateries in addition to Kabob and
Curry.
UCS will soon begin its spring
budgeting process and submit a
budget request for next year, UCS
President Diane Mokoro ’11 an-
nounced.
6 Campus News
Philbrick emphasized the importance of addressing a range of historical events in his writing yesterday.
Author speaks to personal take on history
continued from page 3
own viewpoint on historical events.
Though he said it is hard to pick
fresh topics, he enjoys surprising
people with the subjects he selects
and providing his personal take
on history.
“If I picked a cagey topic, I
wouldn’t have a passion for it,”
Philbrick said. “It would drive you
crazy to focus on other works that
have already been produced.”
Impact site smaller than expected
continued from page 1
differ from rocky asteroids. Comets
are “the closest thing to nothing that
anything can be and still be some-
thing,” Schultz said.
At the center of a comet’s coma
is the solid nucleus — four miles
across in Tempel 1.
In the Deep Impact mission, a
probe was released into the nucleus
of Tempel 1, creating a massive ex-
plosion. The spacecraft measured
the composition of the ejecta to get
a look inside a comet. But because
there was so much ejecta obscur-
ing their view, the researchers were
unable to see the crater created by
the impact.
One of the goals of this year’s Val-
entine’s Day mission was to see the
site of the 2005 impact. The research-
ers were curious about the size of the
crater, which turned out to be much
smaller than they expected. Schultz
hypothesizes that the crater “healed
Philbrick also discussed visiting
the sites where historical events
occurred to conduct research and
understand the setting underlying
particular actions.
“Place is where primary docu-
ments meet the land,” he said. “If
you haven’t seen the place, what
do you really know?”
Four audience members asked
Philbrick questions related to his
work following the conversation
between him and Lubar. Queries
Courtesy of Peter Schultz
Schultz is involved in a project that
entails close-up observation of
Temple 1.
itself.” He compared the probe’s im-
pact to throwing a rock into snow.
“We may have hit a spot that was
pretty soft,” Schultz explained.
The main purpose of Stardust-
NExT was to see what the other side
of Tempel 1 looked like, since the
first mission had been unable to im-
age the entire comet. The researchers
found that the comet was covered
with other craters, indicating a histo-
Stephanie London / Herald
ranged from further questioning
about his books and research to
the future of primary sources in
the digital age.
“In the future, research will in-
volve different technology, but in
the end, it will turn out about the
same,” Philbrick said. “There has
been a radical change in the kinds
of evidence we have created, but
people are still writing interesting
books and examining all kinds of
evidence.”
ry of impacts, as well as smooth and
layered areas, which suggest Tempel
1 may be the result of two comets
colliding. The pictures collected by
Stardust-NExT complete the picture
of Tempel 1, the first comet of which
all sides have been seen.
Comets are leftovers of the early
solar system, Schultz said. Some re-
searchers think that comets brought
the organic compounds that are the
building blocks of life to Earth. “We
could be reassembled pieces of a
comet,” Schultz said, laughing.
Other theories hypothesize that
oceans were formed when comets
containing water collided with the
Earth. Though this individual mis-
sion may not answer all the ques-
tions scientists have about the origin
of Earth, its findings are significant.
Before, comets were just astronomi-
cal objects, Schultz said. But now,
having seen below the surface, sci-
entists have a lot more questions to
answer.
The Brown Daily Herald
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Higher ed by Greg Jordan-
Detamore
news roundup senior staff writer
New website to expose corruption
in higher education
UniLeaks, a website similar to WikiLeaks, is making its way to
college campuses across the globe. UniLeaks accepts anonymous
submissions of “restricted or censored material … which is in some
way connected to higher education” to publish on its website,
according to the UniLeaks submission guide.
“We welcome the challenge of exposing to public scrutiny
the corruption and mismanagement which our sources are in the
process of uncovering among U.S. colleges,” according to a Feb. 28
open letter from UniLeaks to American college presidents.
“In an appeal to both academics and students, UniLeaks has
invoked America’s historical commitment to a free and open
education system in addition to the nation’s commitment to
openness and transparency in government,” according to a Feb. 28
UniLeaks media release.
UniLeaks will also be posting content related to institutions
in other countries, including Australia and the United Kingdom.
Establishment of the site was partially inspired by student actions in
response to the U.K. government’s recent cuts to university funding,
according to a Feb. 20 open letter from UniLeaks to U.K. university
vice chancellors.
Yale to change financial aid policies
Yale will increase financial aid for some low-income families
while reducing aid for higher-income families starting this fall.
Parent contributions will not be required for families earning less
than $65,000 per year — compared to a previous limit of $60,000 —
according to a Feb. 18 Yale Daily News article. But families earning
over $130,000 will contribute more than in the past.
“The drop in endowment, our desire to help more folks on the
lower end and our belief that making moderate adjustments on the
higher end will still enable complete economic diversity” were the
major driving factors behind the decision, Yale’s Director of Financial
Aid Caesar Storlazzi said in the article.
Just over half of undergraduates received financial aid in the
2009-10 school year, with an average package size of $34,433,
according to Yale’s financial aid website.
Brown does not require a parent contribution of those making
less than $60,000 with assets valued at less than $100,000, according
to the Office of Financial Aid website.
The Brown Daily Herald
Thursday, March 3, 2011
R.I. battles deficit with cuts to education spending
continued from page 1
“We simply cannot have a situa-
tion next year where we have more
teachers on the payroll than we
can afford to pay or have expens-
es that exceed our resources,” he
wrote in a letter addressed to all
Providence residents Sunday. Tav-
eras emphasized in the letter that
not all teachers will be dismissed,
but due to a March 1 deadline for
alerting teachers of changes to
their job statuses, notifications
were sent to all teachers “to retain
the maximum flexibility we could
to manage significant cuts to the
school budget.”
In Cranston, the school com-
mittee approved a plan to cut an
array of sports teams, all middle
school instrumental programs
and teacher salaries and benefits
to reduce the Cranston School
Department’s $6.3 million deficit.
Besides music programs, “there
isn’t much to cut anymore,” Cran-
ston Superintendent Peter Nero
told the Providence Journal Jan.
19.
As it stands, both school dis-
tricts are counting on receiving
state aid, provisioned under the
state’s new education funding
formula, in order to operate next
year.
But that money is up in the air.
State funding in jeopardy
The state’s budget woes have
been brewing for several years.
Rhode Island currently faces a
deficit that is almost one-tenth of
the state’s general revenue. Cities,
themselves suffering shortfalls, are
counting on state aid to bridge
their budget gaps.
“Over the past few years, the
state refused to make cuts that
could help to relieve its struc-
tural deficit,” said Ashley Denault
MPP’07, policy analyst for the
Rhode Island Public Expenditure
Council.
Instead, it used one-time fed-
eral stimulus funds to fill holes in
its budget, according to Denault.
Meanwhile, state tax revenue de-
Over 1,000 rally against teacher dismissals at City Hall
By SOPHIA SEAWELL
Contributing Writer
Over 1,000 demonstrators gath-
ered outside of City Hall yester-
day to protest the firing of all of
Providence’s 1,926 teachers.
Teachers, students, union lead-
ers and local politicians spoke in
support of Providence teachers
who received notice of their ter-
minations last week. The firings
are meant to give the Providence
School Board more flexibility in
its budget, Mayor Angel Taveras
wrote in a letter addressed to
Providence residents. Teachers
received notice in time for the
school board to meet a March 1
deadline for notifying them of
their job status.
City Councilman Kevin Jack-
son promised teachers he would
continue to support them “fully
Protestors opposed last week’s firing of all Providence public school teachers at a rally yesterday. Mayor Angel Taveras
issued the dismissal notices as a response to the city’s budget deficit.
clined as taxpayers were hit by the
recession.
In the past two years, state
funding for education has fallen
by $47.7 million, while other aid
to cities has dropped by over
$149 million, according to Dan-
iel Beardsley, executive director of
the Rhode Island League of Cities
and Towns.
But last summer, Rhode Island
Education Commissioner Debo-
rah Gist, state legislators and edu-
cation experts designed a funding
and strongly” and told the crowd
that he had spoken up in the
school board meeting last week.
Seven other councilmembers
were also present at the rally.
Randi Weingarten, president
of the American Federation of
Teachers, called the dismissals
“destabilizing to kids and dehu-
manizing to teachers.”
Speakers drew several com-
parisons between Providence and
Wisconsin, where thousands of
workers are protesting legislation
that would restrict their collective
bargaining rights. In a speech to
the crowd, Steve Smith, presi-
dent of the Providence Teachers
Union, announced that Taveras
was “insulted by the reference
to Wisconsin” because he con-
sidered the two situations very
different. “He’s right,” Smith said.
“It’s worse.”
City & State 7
Stephanie London and Sophia Seawell / Herald
formula for school districts that
would increase total state aid for
education by 12.3 percent — to
$700,250,084 — by dispensing
funding to districts based on en-
rollment. The formula, slated to
go into effect this July, increases
funding to historically underfund-
ed districts, such as Barrington,
Warwick, Providence and Crans-
ton, while decreasing funding to
charter schools and many affluent
districts. Before the law autho-
rizing the funding formula was
In Providence, teachers have
been terminated instead of be-
ing laid off, making them ineli-
gible for unemployment benefits
and preventing them from being
hired back based on seniority. The
crowd echoed this complaint with
chants of, “Negotiate, not termi-
nate!”
Protesters and speakers voiced
their concerns about the firings’
effect on the district’s students.
“We have children crying at home
and asking questions in the class-
room,” said Diane Almestica,
the Parent Teachers Association
president at Kennedy Elementary
School in Providence.“The board
needs to realize who they’re pun-
ishing most — the kids.”
Ruth Nelson, a teacher in the
Providence Public School Dis-
trict, said her students are con-
fused and worried but that she
enacted last June, Rhode Island
was the only state lacking such a
formula.
Reductions in funding for dis-
tricts that stand to lose state mon-
ey will be phased in over 10 years.
Districts gaining money will make
the transition over seven years.
But the state’s deficit means the
funding formula’s implementation
could be in jeopardy. Districts will
not know about the status of state
funds until March 8, when Gov.
Lincoln Chafee ’75 P’14 proposes
does not have answers for them.
“I don’t even know what’s going
to happen today,” she said.
Providence public school stu-
dents also attended the rally. An-
geline Gwein, a student at Hope
High School, said the dismissals
will “affect future generations”
of students.
Seven-year-old Alfred Lima
said, “We must support all teach-
ers — well, especially the ones
getting fired,” eliciting a round of
laughter from an otherwise seri-
ous crowd.
Teachers from several nearby
cities came out to show their sup-
port. Donna Rogers, who used
to teach in Providence, said she
is “worried the same thing will
happen” in Warwick, where she
now teaches.
“If they start here, they’ll
spread,” Deb Renaud, a teacher in
the budget for the coming fiscal
year. Even then, the budget must
be approved by the General As-
sembly, a process that can take
months.
“In creating the funding for-
mula, the Rhode Island Depart-
ment of Education projected that
all general revenue funds that used
to be supplanted by (stimulus)
funds will be restored,” Denault
said. “While this might not be the
case, the main issue for next year
isn’t the status of the funding for-
mula itself but how the phase-in,
phase-out transition will be af-
fected by the budget crisis.”
While the state is receiving $75
million in federal Race to the Top
funds for the coming school year,
those funds are not designed to
fill budget shortfalls, according
to Gist.
“The Race to the Top funds are
for specific things that will help us
to transform our system,” such as
specialized training for teachers
and administrators, hiring con-
sultants and developing teacher
evaluation systems, Gist said. She
added that the state’s education
spending places it among the top
five in the nation.
“Rhode Island invests pretty
generously in education,” she said.
Looking for cuts
But in Cranston, the outlook
will be grim if the funding formula
aid does not materialize.
“When the superintendent
says there isn’t much more to cut,
there isn’t much more to cut,” said
Stephanie Culhane, a member of
the Cranston School Committee.
“We’ll have to go back to the draw-
ing board and redesign our budget
for the coming year.” The com-
mittee is also considering making
more cuts in the next two years.
“Would we move to make those
cuts sooner? It’s a possibility,” she
said.
Providence will also face prob-
lems if it does not receive its share
of formula funding.
continued on page 8
Narragansett, said of the firings.
“It’s just the beginning.”
Despite the teachers’ frustra-
tion, many protestors called for
communication and compromise.
“We need to negotiate, not liti-
gate,” one speaker said.
Julie Latessa, a teacher in
Providence, told the crowd that
she and her coworkers are “flex-
ible,” adding, “we know how to
cooperate.”
Sentiments ranged from des-
perate to hopeful. Ann McGhee,
a teacher at West Broadway El-
ementary School, said this is “the
only time in my life I’ve felt pes-
simistic, and I’m an optimistic
person.” She added that she sees
“no hope” for the situation.
Others, like Nelson, were less
worried. “I have no fear,” she said.
“What doesn’t kill you makes you
stronger.”
8 City & State
Backed by students and PAC, former R.I. rep. fights corporate control
By Hannah Abelow
Contributing Writer
David Segal, a former state repre-
sentative who garnered support
from students for his congressio-
nal bid last September, has stayed
active in politics since finishing
third in the first district Democratic
primary.
In October, he co-founded a
political action committee with
activist Aaron Swartz called De-
mand Progress. As a member of
the Rhode Island House of Repre-
sentatives for District 2, Segal was
an important ally for University
student groups supporting pro-
gressive causes.
Segal said he intends to use the
PAC to promote the policies he
advocated while in office and to
“try to push back against corporate
control of governments and the
power of the incredibly wealthy
in this country.”
So far, Demand Progress has
focused on the issues of free speech
and “Internet freedom.” It was able
to influence the outcome of the
vote to renew the Patriot Act in
Congress because other groups
opposing the controversial law,
demoralized by their inability to
block its passage in previous years,
stayed on the sidelines this year,
Segal said. Congress renewed the
act — but for two months instead
of three years — and plans to look
into ways to reform it.
“We are hoping to broaden the
menu of issues we work on and
start working on issues of corpo-
rate control,” Segal said.
Following his unsuccessful run
for Congress, Segal campaigned for
other candidates for local office in
Rhode Island and Massachusetts,
he said.
Lyndsey Barnes ’11, who
worked on Segal’s campaign dur-
ing the summer and fall, said she
was encouraged by Segal’s actions
after he lost the primary. “He pretty
much started the PAC right after
the primary, and that means a lot
Looming cuts test schools’ creativity
continued from page 7
The city is currently renegoti-
ating its contract with the Provi-
dence Teachers Union, a $120 mil-
lion package of teacher salaries,
benefits and personnel costs.
“There’s more pressure to ob-
tain financial concessions, and
it reduces the room to negotiate
other parts of the contract,” said
City Councilman Sam Zurier, a
former member of the Providence
School Board. He added that the
City Council’s public hearings will
allow negotiating parties to ex-
change information about teach-
ers’ work and salary expectations
as well as potential savings.
“It’s an open question if the ne-
gotiations will conclude that we
can maintain the current cost of
the contract,” he said. The contract
contains regulations for the length
of great things about his future,”
she said.
Barnes originally joined Segal’s
campaign because she supported
his advocacy for burial rights for
same-sex partners. “The Brown
community still has a lot of sup-
port for him because he was so
involved with us for the past eight
years,” she said.
Alex Campbell ’10, who also
volunteered for Segal’s campaign,
said students still support Segal
for the same reasons they “were
attracted to his record and what he
stands for in the first place.”
While he has not ruled out run-
ning for office in the future, the
31-year-old Segal said he is en-
joying a break from public office,
which he has held since he was 23
years old. He was first elected to the
Providence City Council in 2002.
“I definitely think he has a fu-
of the teacher work day, length of
the school year, teacher salaries,
mandatory teacher training days
and parent-teacher conferences,
as well as seniority rules that can
affect layoff decisions. In Rhode
Island, teachers cannot be laid
off based on any criterion other
than years of service. Both sides
recognize the teacher contract as a
major factor influencing the qual-
ity of education in Providence.
On Tuesday, Taveras an-
nounced that students, teachers
and parents will find out March 7
which schools will be closed and
where displaced students will be
sent. The school board will also
vote on rescinding teacher dis-
missal notices March 14.
“I do not want to prolong this
period of worry and uncertainty
for any student, teacher or citi-
zen any longer than we have to,”
The Brown Daily Herald
Thursday, March 3, 2011
ture in politics, whether it’s with
something like the PAC he’s do-
ing right now or if he decides to
run again,” Barnes said. “I think
that a lot more people are aware of
who he is and what he stands for,
which sets him up to have a future
in Rhode Island or elsewhere.”
Will Emmons ’09, campaign
manager for Segal’s 2008 General
Assembly reelection campaign and
a member of his congressional
campaign staff, said he would be
happy to campaign for Segal if he
ever decides to run again.
“I think the PAC is off to a re-
ally exciting start,” Emmons said,
adding that he is impressed by Se-
gal’s extensive network of contacts
and ongoing work with Demand
Progress.
“I think that David has an ex-
citing life ahead of him regardless
of what he decides to do,” he said.
Taveras said in a March 1 Journal
article.
Creative stopgaps
Officials and experts recog-
nize that schools will have to be
resourceful in compensating for
budget cuts.
“Districts will have to be cre-
ative. It’s been a really challeng-
ing past couple of years,” Denault
said. “At both the state and the
local level, it’s time to start taking
a long-term approach.”
Part of that creativity might
mean turning to unusual sources
of aid. In Cranston, the New Eng-
land Laborers’/Cranston Public
Schools Construction Career
Academy, the city’s public char-
ter school, donated $79,928 to the
city’s school department to save
the district’s sports programs. The
money had been earmarked for
sports over the years as the char-
ter school tried unsuccessfully to
build its own athletic facilities, ac-
cording to a Feb. 8 Journal article.
Meanwhile, a group of Crans-
ton residents is expected to launch
Music is Instrumental, a 15-week
program meant to fill the void left
by cuts made last year to music
programs in elementary schools.
More than 200 students have
already enrolled in the program,
which offers classes in 12 of the
district’s 17 elementary schools.
Other districts have not been so
lucky. In January, Portsmouth vot-
ers rejected a proposal to restore
$765,301 to the school depart-
ment’s budget by raising property
taxes.
Despite the difficult financial
situation, Gist remains optimis-
tic that her extensive docket of
reforms — which include tough-
ening requirements to enter the
state’s teacher training programs,
starting rigorous yearly evalua-
tions of educators, expanding pub-
lic charter schools and revamping
high school graduation require-
ments — are feasible.
“Right now, we are completely
confident that we will be able to
move forward with our reform
efforts, but we will have to watch
our funding decisions,” Gist said.
The Brown Daily Herald
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Remembering Asst. Eliminating course catalog a mistake
Coach Denis Chartier
To the Editor:
We are writing to share with the
Brown community a tribute to our
coach “Denny” — who will forever
be in our hearts — and share what
we will remember about him (“Body
of assistant coach found,” Feb. 28).
The candy — he made every-
thing sweeter with the one-pound
bag of jolly ranchers he brought to
every game and practice.
His attentiveness and sensitiv-
ity — he would pull us aside to ask
what was wrong or give gentle but
constructive criticism.
His desire to make everyone’s
life a little brighter — he drove his
small silver Honda Fit to our field
so that we could blast (Joyce Chun’s
’11) remix to the beep test as we ran
our fitness tests.
His unconditional encourage-
ment — he kept a positive attitude
no matter what and had a unique
ability to make everyone around
him feel special.
His playfulness — his handshake
and the “high four” he would give
to lighten the mood and make us
laugh. He would tease us about
boys, our favorite sports teams and
the dynamic duo’s sweaty goalie
gloves.
Find our City & State series
Education in Crisis: Putting Rhode Island’s public schools to the test
on browndailyherald.com/education-in-crisis
His dedication to us and to the
program — individual sessions any
time, anywhere. His glasses would
go flying when he would put his
body on the line as goalie during
the four-goal game. He spent count-
less hours bringing new players to
our team.
His loyalty to Brown — he left
his head coaching position to be
our assistant coach.
His sweet tooth — he had des-
sert before dinner, always in large
quantities.
His selflessness — when Gina
(Walker ’11) tore her anterior cru-
ciate ligament, he said he wished it
had been him. He offered to drive
(Joanna Price ’12) home when she
tore her Achilles tendon so she
would not be uncomfortable on
the bus.
He loved his family — he let us
hold the babies after games and
invited us into his office to look
at photos. His grandkids adored
their “Pepe,” and he would tell us
his plans for his upcoming wedding
anniversary.
We remember how much he
loved our family. And we will never
forget.
The Women’s Soccer Team
To the Editor:
There has been an assertion
that the paper Course Announce-
ment Bulletin is superfluous and
replaceable by an online system
(“U. to phase out course catalog,”
March 1). Justifications seem to
include a concern for conservation
regarding paper waste. Frankly,
this rings tinny — compare with
other debatable expenses, and one
wonders. After all, many copies of
the glossy and great Brown Alumni
Magazine end up in recycling bins,
too. Another point is about up-to-
the-minute information lacking in
the static paper bulletin. Both are
points that have some merit but do
not carry the day.
I believe that the Brown cur-
riculum can be viewed as a delight-
ful menu, with annually changing
“specials” along with standard
but welcome fare. Diners — stu-
dents! — need to see this menu,
displayed logically and categori-
cally and with appealing, legible
graphics, in order to consider from
the full range of possibilities. This
means of providing information
Cloud Buddies! | David Emanuel
Dr. Bear | Mat Becker
Dot Comic | Eshan Mitra and Brendan Hainline
Letters 9
is foundational to good choices,
along with good sense and per-
haps solid advice from others with
“taste.” Sure, the online Banner
system has the information, but as
with digital clocks, it is displayed in
individual nuggets and in a starkly
unappealing fashion. If we know
we are seeking a sirloin steak, we
can search for it and probably find
it. But what of the other tasty op-
tions that are invisible in this sterile
electronic system?
A course book is the global po-
sitioning system to our garden of
curricular riches. Invitingly and
historically decorated by (Professor
Emeritus of Art Walter Feldman’s)
art prints, it is a true “page turner.”
I’m a double alum, long term dean,
adviser, faculty member at Brown
and veteran of the New Curricu-
lum that was enacted in the first
year of my college class in 1970.
I cannot conceive of working out
course choices and arrangements
other than by this book. Despite
whether other institutions have ad-
opted this, or whether some opine
that students trash these books, I
believe that the paper Course An-
comics
nouncement Bulletin is a right for
all who wish for it and not an item
to be purchased for an extra fee by
tuition-paying students.
Fine, go electronic for all man-
ner of paper trail processes such as
concentration declarations. I still
and will write all over pads with
and for students, working out the
details like a big and changeable
puzzle. But our minds are still pro-
grammed in the analog fashion at
many levels. To legislate the digi-
tal approach to our course menu
seems a heavy-handed and prob-
ably misguided approach. Good,
clear information is at the core of
good academic — any, really —
decision-making. It is oxygen.
Save the old-fashioned but ex-
cellent paper Course Announce-
ment Bulletin, and provide it
gratis to all who request it! Offer
the choice. Isn’t that a lot of what
Brown is all about?
Marjorie Thompson ’74
PhD’79 P’02 P’07 P’09 P’12
P’14
Associate Dean of Biological
Sciences
10 Editorial The Brown Daily Herald
Thursday, March 3, 2011

Editorial Editorial comic b y a l e x y u ly

IR is on the right track
International relations is one of the largest concentrations at Brown
and by far the biggest without a department. So it is not surprising
that a recent change in the concentration’s requirements precipitated
a widespread brouhaha on campus. Though the revisions include a
few minor changes, perhaps the most controversial is the increase in
required classes from 11 to 14 in addition to a language component
that could add up to six more.
Without a doubt, the increased course load makes IR the most
extensive bachelor of arts concentration. Keeping in mind that most
students come to Brown with enough foreign language experience to
be able to fulfill the language requirement in fewer than six classes,
though, the revised curriculum will probably not be any more onerous
than the average bachelor of science degree.
What’s more, it appears that the changes, which are several years
in the making, will have a positive effect on the concentration as a
whole. Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron wrote in an e-mail to
the editorial page board that the increased course load is necessary
because of IR’s interdisciplinary nature.
According to a final report issued by the advisory committee that
formulated the changes, the fact that IR does not have a departmen-
tal home and its resulting dependence on other departments and
concentrations has resulted in an unsustainable breadth that harms
“intellectual depth and coherence.”
By consolidating the tracks, focusing the core requirements and
ensuring a relationship between future IR concentrators’ chosen
language, course of study and possible study abroad program, the
new IR curriculum should ensure that students who graduate with
a degree in IR have a coherent program and specific skill set. As one
member of the advisory committee remarked, the old program looked
less like a concentration than a general education curriculum in the
social sciences.
Some have speculated that the changes were motivated by a desire
to decrease the number of students who chose to concentrate in IR.
Though this might be a side effect of beefing up the program, we do
not think it factored into the final decision. Claudia Elliott MA’91
Clarification
An article in Wednesday’s Herald (“Student activities endowment stagnant,” March 2) described the goal for
PhD’99, associate director of the IR program, wrote in an e-mail to endowing a student activities fund as a “$20 million goal” and stated that the Undergraduate Council of Students
the editorial page board that many students failed to develop focused, initially set a fundraising target of $17 million to $21 million. The current fundraising target is $17 million.
coherent programs under the old system. The new requirements should
go far toward fixing this problem.
Much has been made of the plight of second-semester sophomores,
many of whom were likely blindsided by these changes. Elliott said the
IR program has eased this burden by allowing flexibility for sophomores
who had already taken certain classes in anticipation of fulfilling the
quote of the day
old requirements or who had not strictly lined their language up with
their other classes. We hope that any future unanticipated hardships that
“The closest thing to nothing that anything can be
”
may be caused by this switch will be met with similar accommodations.
We applaud the thought and effort that went into formulating these
alterations to the IR curriculum. The old program had some serious and still be something.
drawbacks, and we expect these changes will go a long way toward
remedying them. To students for whom the additional classes are a — Professor of Geological Sciences Peter Schultz, on comets
bridge too far, we recommend the Department of Political Science’s
international and comparative politics track. To a certain degree, IR’s See fly-by on page 1
difficulties are a result of its unique situation. But we urge other con-
centrations to undergo a similarly thorough self-examination — call
it a second Campaign for Academic Enrichment.

Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board. Send comments
to editorials@browndailyherald.com.

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The Brown Daily Herald
Thursday, March 3, 2011
By Ian Trupin
Opinions Columnist
Arguments for and against reinstating the
Reserve Officers’ Training Corps as a cred-
it-bearing institution on campus have ani-
mated this opinions section for some time
now. But as lengthy as the debate has been,
an important consideration has not re-
ceived enough attention — the University’s
reputation and its associated financial in-
terests.
When President Ruth Simmons creat-
ed a committee to reconsider Brown’s rela-
tionship with ROTC this month, she cre-
ated a forum for a dialogue with enormous
symbolic significance, though less practical
urgency. As has been frequently asserted,
the 1969 and 1981 decisions to deny ROTC
special access to our campus were essen-
tially critiques of the U.S. military. Though
other pretexts were used to justify the de-
cisions, such as questions over the aca-
demic rigor of ROTC courses, opponents
of ROTC were motivated by distaste for
the wars, occupations and discriminatory
practices of the U.S. military.
From the beginning, the question of re-
storing ROTC privileges has been a ques-
tion of the University’s public stance to-
wards the military. As the constituents of
a private, publicly subsidized educational
institution grounded in the common good,
do we feel bound to open our doors to a
military presence of any kind?
It must be recognized that militarization
in higher education — or the rejection of
it — can take many forms, of which ROTC
affiliation is only the most visible. In 2008,
By Susannah Kroeber
Opinions Columnist
It is not elitism that worries me about
Brown graduates. That elitism is defined by
a quest for higher learning and knowledge.
It is not the large number of students who
pursue careers for no reason other than a
desire for money. It is not the graduates
who spend their first year out of Brown en-
gaging in activities with no motivation oth-
er than to build their resumes. At least they
are honest about the relative value of their
careers.
It is an idealism bordering on religious
fervor that truly scares me. Every year, we
send new graduates out into the world,
and with their highbrow education, many
of them choose to go to far-flung regions
kept obscure by poverty, lack of economic
opportunity and political disenfranchise-
ment.
Some of these students participate in
programs like the Peace Corps, which
stress immersion in the local language and
culture in the hopes that America’s youth
will better understand the diverse world we
live in. Others embark on service projects,
building houses or schools or attempting to
augment local medical services.
Most of us agree that these are noble en-
deavors. But there is one activity that fun-
damentally unsettles me — the project of
Painting Brown Khaki
the University received $8.6 million of its
research funding from the Department of
Defense. Though Brown is apparently not
one of the many universities in this country
that welcomes classified research, our cam-
pus’ research ties to the military are never-
theless strong.
To some extent, this is to be expected
given the augmentation of Brown’s engi-
neering programs. Nationwide, the De-
partment of Defense is the largest source
of federal funding for engineering depart-
ments at research universities.
Other military-university connections
are perhaps less obvious. There is, for exam-
ple, a biology lab at Brown whose investiga-
Something is lost when we subordinate our academics
to the interests of the military, be it financially or
symbolically.
tion of bat flight is financially underwrit-
ten by the Air Force, which hopes to cre-
ate a new generation of remote-controlled
drones. Even the social sciences, with their
allegedly leftist bent, have not been free of
military patronization. In 2008, the De-
partment of Defense announced the Mi-
nerva Research Initiative, an $18 million
initiative to employ social science scholars
at universities around the country in a se-
ries of research projects of interest to the
Pentagon.
Clearly, there are strong financial incen-
tives for universities like Brown to main-
tain ties with the military. That the interac-
tion between campuses and programs like
Evangelizing English
teaching English to the poor and disen-
franchised youth in non-English speaking
countries around the globe.
Organizations such as the China Educa-
tion Initiative — a group that has recently
contributed to bathroom stall decorations
— say that they produce teachers who “de-
velop a deep understanding of the causes
of educational inequity” and that their pro-
gram creates “long-term systemic change.”
The organization’s website states, “Chinese
language skills are a strong asset” but not
essential. Never mind the fact that the State
In faraway rural areas, teaching English is about as useful
as teaching calculus in sixth grade.
Department ranks Chinese in the top tier
of most difficult languages to learn, which
would suggest that a six-week crash course
would not be enough to communicate with
those who have had minimal English lan-
guage exposure.
How does a two-year commitment be-
gin to address systemic challenges? How
does minimal knowledge of local languag-
es or dialects create an atmosphere where
teachers can get a real sense of the causes of
educational inequality? And why is English
the most important skill to teach children
who have limited opportunities to be edu-
cated in their native language?
Opinions 11
ROTC is a determinant of the perceived
compatibility of universities with military
interests is also unambiguous.
The Solomon Amendment II of 1996 re-
quired that universities allow ROTC and
military recruiters access to their students
or lose their eligibility for federal funding.
As Brown students may access the ROTC
program at Providence College, Brown
is not in violation of this law. But this law
demonstrates the political forces that may
be brought to bear against an institution
that does not accommodate the military to
its satisfaction.
So is it worthwhile to object? Propo-
nents of the reintroduction of ROTC on
campus suggest that military affiliation can
diversify both the campus and the military.
But in assuming that militarization can oc-
cur as an equal exchange on our campus,
their argument is flawed on every level.
Besides being repulsively elitist, the ar-
gument that Brown students could infil-
trate and change the conservative military
culture from the top down ignores the rig-
idly normative culture that is so well em-
bodied by the slogan “Army of One.” This
restrictive and unequal basis of interaction
is also reflected by the nature of research
funded by the Department of Defense.
A glance at the Minerva Initiative’s grant
application forms shows that the military is
The idea that knowledge of English is
more important than literacy in one’s na-
tive language or basic math skills is prepos-
terous. But it has roots in Western notions
of civilizing and proselytizing. Europeans
brought their languages to Africa and the
Americas — even when indigenous peo-
ples managed to obtain political control,
prevalence of European language persist-
ed, such as that of English and Afrikaans in
South Africa after apartheid.
By teaching English to poor people with
little access to education, we are making
our own lives easier, not improving theirs.
We are ensuring that we can communi-
cate in our own language wherever we go,
rather than taking the time to learn a bit
of the local tongue. We are ensuring that
our own national ideas and philosophies —
such as democracy and Christianity — can
be transmitted with greater ease to other
countries. We are, with a nicer varnish, at-
tempting to civilize.
Not many people take the time to no-
tice that efforts to increase native language
literacy rates would be much more use-
ful. After all, it should be more important
for people to read labels on food contain-
fully supportive of free academic inquiry,
as long as it is restricted to one of five top-
ics including Chinese military technology
research, the strategic impact of religious
and cultural change in Islam and terrorist
ideologies. As Catherine Lutz, chair of the
Department of Anthropology, has written,
“based on the history of other disciplines
fed by Pentagon funds … we know that
whole fields, not just individual research-
ers, are militarized in the process.
In a similar vein, the Network of Con-
cerned Anthropologists denounced anoth-
er Pentagon social science research pro-
gram, Human Terrain System, for reasons
including the lack of informed consent of
the subjects and the possibility that sub-
jects might be harmed as a consequence of
participation. In such programs, the mili-
tary is clearly not accommodating the eth-
ics and principles of other disciplines but
selectively using them.
Something is lost when we subordinate
our academics to the interests of the mili-
tary, be it financially or symbolically. If we
do so, what will become of those whose
moral and political beliefs prevent them
from participating in academia when the
results of their work will be destructively
employed? I ask this as the grandson of a
man who was forced against his conscience
to develop biological weapons while serv-
ing in the U.S. military.
Regardless of what the committee de-
cides, it will undoubtedly ignore the broad-
er context of military-University relations.
Yet we must make these connections if we
want to be good advocates for the kind of
Brown we can wear comfortably.
Ian Trupin ’13 is a COE concentrator who
loves Ethiopian food as much as life itself.
ers, street signs, job advertisements, gov-
ernment documents and local newspapers
than the New York Times.
It would also be more useful to help
with math education so that children who
will most likely grow up to be farmers or
small merchants will be able to grasp the
basics of accounting and banking. It does
not take an extensive knowledge of a for-
eign language to teach basic mathematical
concepts. If foreign teachers could do this,
it would free up the native language teach-
ers to teach reading and writing, which
they are probably most qualified to do.
It would be lovely to think that all stu-
dents could benefit from a young, foreign
teacher coming into their village or town
for a couple years to teach English. It would
be lovely to think that this will help them
go to college or get a better job. But in plac-
es where most kids are barely literate by the
time they graduate high school — if they
even make it that far — it is far more likely
that the best we can do right now is help
with basic education, even if that does not
include English.
In faraway rural areas, teaching Eng-
lish is about as useful as teaching calculus
in sixth grade. All we are accomplishing
is a process of indoctrination. We are say-
ing that America is on top, so everyone else
should be able to understand us.
Susannah Kroeber ’11 is a Slavic studies
and history concentrator who has spent
13 years living in the developing world.
Daily Herald City & State
the Brown Thursday, March 3, 2011

Blood tests facilitate Bill aims to amend R.I. constitution

cancer detection
By Ted Burke
Contributing Writer
Simple blood tests can provide
surprisingly accurate indications
of bladder cancer, according to
research conducted by Carmen
Marsit, assistant professor of pa-
thology and laboratory medicine.
His paper published in the
Journal of Clinical Oncology Feb.
22 indicates that certain patterns
of methylation, a mechanism
that controls the way genes are
expressed, are associated with
bladder cancer. After examining
a variety of blood samples, Marsit’s
team could predict with promis-
ing accuracy which patients had
cancer.
Patterns of methylation also
serve as an indication of carcino-
genic exposure over a person’s life,
which otherwise can be hard to
detect.
“We kind of see it as an inte-
grated measure of risk,” Marsit
said. “We can’t tell every exposure
a person has had. There’s no way
to keep track of all of that.”
“Bladder cancer is difficult to
detect,” Marsit said. In the future,
methylation markers may be a
much easier way to detect the dis-
ease. “Clinically, it could become a
very useful tool,” he said.
Previously, researchers looked
specifically at bladder tumors.
Marsit’s research took a new ap-
proach, trying to identify the
changes to DNA methylation that
were not in the target tissue, but
in the blood.
Marsit’s research is far from fin-
ished. “We don’t know how pre-
dictive it is,” Marsit said. The next
step is to determine if the patterns
are diagnostic or predictive. As of
right now, it is uncertain whether
the methylation markers associated
with bladder cancer are present
before the cancer starts growing or
are consequences of cancer. “We’re
kind of teasing out who might get
the best use out of this,” he said.
The research may also be ap-
plicable to other cancers, especially
those that are hard to detect. “This
is better than looking for little mu-
tations,” Marsit said. He hopes to
look more deeply into methylation
testing for other forms of cancer
in the future.
Marsit’s research team consist-
ed of Brown researchers Devin
Koestler GS, Assistant Professor
of Community Health Andres
Houseman, Professor of Commu-
nity Health Karl Kelsey, Postdoc-
toral Research Associate in Com-
munity Health Brock Christensen
and Dartmouth Professor of Com-
munity and Family Medicine in
Epidemiology Margaret Karagas.
By Kat Thornton
Senior Staff Writer
A bill was introduced in the State
Senate yesterday to amend the state
constitution and restore the Rhode
Island Ethics Commission’s jurisdic-
tion over legislators.
State Sen. Edward O’Neill, I-
Lincoln, North Providence and
Pawtucket, introduced the Senate
version of the bill, which state Rep.
Michael Marcello, D-Scituate and
Cranston, originally introduced in
the House of Representatives Feb.
15. The ethics commission cur-
rently has the power to investigate
and prosecute all state officials other
than members of the General As-
sembly. If passed, the bill would re-
store powers to the commission that
the Rhode Island Supreme Court
removed in 2009, when it ruled 3-1
that the speech-in-debate clause of
the state constitution — which has
historically exempted legislators
from civil suits or prosecution when
proposing bills — made lawmakers
immune to the Code of Ethics dur-
ing legislative acts.
John Marion, executive director
of Common Cause Rhode Island,
an organization that promotes
ethics in politics and is a propo-
nent of the bill, said the state has
the “strongest ethics commission
in the country,” but that without
authority over the 113 members
of the General Assembly, it is not
strong enough.
“Given the long history of cor-
ruption (in Rhode Island), it makes
sense that we should have a pow-
erful ethics commission,” he said.
Most recently, three former
North Providence city councilmen
pled guilty to charges of bribery and
corruption this week. The council-
men resigned last May after being
indicted twice.
North Providence Mayor
Charles Lombardi called reinstat-
ing the commission’s authority
over the General Assembly “a great
idea.” He said the situation in North
Providence was “embarrassing” and
“exhausting.”
“It takes you away from man-
aging government, and that’s why
we’re here,” Lombardi said.
But some worry that giving
more jurisdiction to the commis-
sion would vest too much power
in the body.
Ross Cheit, associate profes-
sor of political science and public
policy and vice-chair of the ethics
commission, said he was concerned
about the commission having both
the ability to define the code of eth-
ics and to enforce it.
Cheit also said the commis-
sion deals largely with conflicts of
interest that arise in the General
Assembly because the state’s leg-
islators only work part-time. For
example, the case that led to the
2009 Supreme Court decision in-
volved a state senator who received
significant commissions for selling
health insurance to CVS employees
while opposing legislation in the
Senate that would be detrimental
to the Rhode Island-based phar-
macy chain.
“We have a rich history of cor-
ruption in this state,” Cheit said, but
the most well-known cases involve
criminal violations — which would
be handled by prosecutors, not the
ethics commission.
Steve Brown, executive director
of the Rhode Island Affiliate of the
American Civil Liberties Union,
said legislators could be “paralyzed”
by the bill. He said he feared they
would refrain from voicing their
concerns and those of their con-
stituents to avoid punishment for
conflict of interest.
Brown said he believes the
speech-in-debate clause is impor-
tant because it protects legislators
from harassment. The bill would
give the ethics commission “un-
bridled discretion” over what leg-
islators could say in public settings,
Brown said. “We think this sort of
power should not be vested in one
agency.”
He said there are ways to fight
corruption in the state without
giving the ethics commission free
reign, like creating separate divi-
sions of the commission for defin-
ing and enforcing ethical standards.
The House passed a similar bill
introduced by Speaker Gordon Fox
last year, but the Senate did not vote
on it.

RIPEC report shows dire state finances

By Jeffrey Handler
Staff Writer
With Rhode Island facing a $290
million budget shortfall, the Rhode
Island Public Expenditure Council
released a report last week on the
state’s financial outlook. Though
the information in the report is not
new to officials, it provides a com-
prehensive overview of the fiscal
challenges facing the state.
“I don’t think anything in the
report is necessary a surprise,” said
Ashley Denault MPP’07, policy ana-
lyst for the non-profit public policy
organization. “What we’ve done is
kind of outlined a way that we think
the state needs to start approaching
the budget, taking a longer-term
look.”
Rhode Island is the highest
spending state per enrollee in Med-
icaid, according to a study by the
Kaiser Family Foundation. Growth
in Medicaid has exceeded growth
in other areas of the state’s budget.
Denault attributed high expendi-
ture rates to the structure of Rhode
Island’s Medicaid program. Due to
rapidly increasing medical costs,
Medicaid takes up an increasing
share of Rhode Island’s budget. But
decisions made at the state level
can control the growth of Medic-
aid spending, she said, adding that
reducing Medicaid expenditures
requires determining better ways
to fund Medicaid for both the state
and its patients.
The report also suggests Rhode
Island avoid tax increases that would
Got tips?
put it at a disadvantage compared other states.
to neighboring states. The state’s tax “We’re seeing the revenues re-
policy should not be merely a short- cover,” Denault said, “but a lot of
term attempt to increase revenue, the current recession is related to herald@browndailyherald.com
but rather focus on efforts to “attract the revenues, not necessarily to the
and retain business,” according to expenditure.”
Denault.
The three largest outlays in
Rhode Island’s budget are human
services, employee and operating
costs and local aid, the report found.
The first two categories have grown
substantially over the past decade.
Local aid, which includes state sup-
port for municipalities and educa-
tion aid, has been cut in recent years
due to chronic deficits.
The council emphasizes “re-
aligning the state’s priorities with
regard to the expectations of local
government” to cope with cuts in
funding for the state’s 36 municipali-
ties, Denault said.
Gov. Lincoln Chafee ’75 P’14 has
studied the budget issue closely, said
Samuel Levitt, Chafee’s communica-
tions officer.
The governor seeks a “long-term
investment-based approach” to
spending that will balance compet-
ing needs to reduce deficits, main-
tain existing programs and promote
economic growth, Levitt said.
But the current budget deficit is
not just the result of the overspend-
ing by the state government.
Severe revenue declines due to
a tough economy have exacerbated
the state’s deficit, Denault said. Since
the recession hit Rhode Island be-
fore the rest of the country, its tax
revenue saw declines earlier than