April 14, 2009 Issue

8/14/2019 April 14, 2009 Issue

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/april-14-2009-issue 1/12

www.browndailherald.com 195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island [email protected]

News.....1-4Metro........5Sports...7-8Editorial..10Opinion...11Today........12

Quakers triumph

Men’s lacrosse falls to Penn

in a hard-fought match

plagued b bad weather

Sports, 7mayor in the ’hood

Mayor Cicilline ’83 spoke to

College Hill residents about

the econom esterda

Metro, 5Court Costs

Dan Davidson ’11 argues

it should be easier to pa

off court debt

Opinions, 11

i n s i d e

DailyHeraldthe Brown

vol. cxliv, no. 51 | Tuesday, April 14, 2009 | Serving the community daily since 1891

Cb By Lauren Fedor

Senior S taff W riter

The aculty’s decision last week

to rename Columbus Day “Fall

Weekend” on the University cal-

endar has garnered more attention

both locally and nationally than the

average code revision, with Provi-

dence mayor David Cicilline ’83 and

Rush Limbaugh, the high-prole

conservative pundit, among those

decrying the move.

Though the aculty’s vote last

Tuesday seemed to refect stu-

dent opinion — a recent Herald

poll suggested that the majority

o Brown students disapproved o

continuing to call the holiday Co-lumbus Day — the resolution has

prompted a wave o criticism rom

city leaders, who said the move

was hypocritical and disrespectul

to Italian-Americans.

“Brown University made itsel an

eample to the nation by careully

exploring its ties to the slave trade

and using that process to promote

greater understanding,” Cicilline

said in a press release Thursday.

But the decision to “simply erase

the celebration o an incredibly sig-

nicant moment in world history

and Italian-American culture or the

sake o political correctness does

just the opposite,” he said.Cicilline added that “as an Ital-

ian-American,” he took “particular

oense” to the decision.

Cicilline’s communications di-

rector, Rhoades Alderson, told The

Herald Monday that the mayor be-

lieves the role o higher education is

to “get at the truth” o “complicated

parts o our nation’s history.”

Brown “set the standard or do-

ing that” with its work exploring its

historical ties to the slave trade, Alderson said, but Cicilline elt the

Columbus Day decision was done

“in the opposite spirit.”

“It was just kind o deleting (the

event) rom history, rather than us-

ing it to promote understanding,”

Alderson said.

Cicilline was not the only one

upset with the aculty’s decision.

Members o local Italian-American

organizations epressed their dis-

satisaction in a Providence Jour-

nal article last week. The Italian-

UCS

By Ben sChreCkinger


This year’s Undergraduate Council o

Students and Undergraduate Finance

Board elections are the most com-

petitive in years, with more candidates

contesting or more spots than in other

recent elections.

Five o 10 UCS and UFB leader-

ship positions are contested this year,

while a year ago only the races or

UCS president, UCS vice president

and UFB chair were contested. There

are our candidates running or UCS

president and three or vice president,up rom just two each in 2008.

The combined seven candidates

competing or UCS’ top two positions

are the most since at least 2005.

Twelve students are running or

six at-large seats on UFB. Those posi-

tions were uncontested last year, as

only ve students ran. Two candidates

are running or UFB chair, unchanged

rom last year, and the position o UFB

vice chair will be contested or the rst

time since 2007.

“Usually — or UCS especially — a

lot o the races have been uncontest-

ed,” said Elections Board Chair Lily

Tran ’10, also the current UFB chair.

This year, races or the chairs o

the UCS Campus Lie, Admissions

and Student Services and Student Ac-

tivities committees are uncontested.

There are no candidates or UCS

treasurer or or head delegate to the

Ivy Council. Previously, Brown’s head

delegate to the Ivy Council has been

internally elected by UCS.

Tran said she hopes the increased

competition o this year’s races and

a greater number o active endorse-

ments announced by student groups

will translate into higher voter par-

ticipation. Just 1,346 ballots were cast in last year’s election, representing

about a quarter o the undergraduate

student body.

The elections board has tried to

acilitate greater student interest by

introducing a debate or UFB candi-

dates, held at last week’s Brown Uni-

versity Activities Council meeting, and

moving the UCS presidential debate to

Wriston Quadrangle, Tran said.

Almost every candidate or UCS

president and vice president has

named Brown’s nancial situation

or nancial aid as his or her primary

ocus or the coming year.

The elections board enorces a

complex set o rules governing every aspect o campaigning. Candidates are

U. By anne simons


The University has extended a

policy allowing students to pre-register or all classes regardless

o outstanding tuition balances,

according to an e-mail sent to stu-

dents Monday by Provost David

Kertzer ’69 P’95 P’98.

According to Kertzer’s e-mail,

students will be able to pre-reg-

ister or the all semester even

i they have an unpaid balance

in excess o $1,000, which has

been the limit or pre-registration

eligibility in previous years.

Students will continue to ac-

crue late ees on their outstanding

balances.

The University changed the

existing policy last semester in

response to the concerns o some

amilies whose nancial situation

was seriously changed by the eco-

nomic downturn, The Herald re-

ported in November.

“The economic challenges and

uncertainties acing our students

and their amilies have not dimin-

ished in the intervening months,”

Kertzer wrote in his e-mail.

About 360 students benetedrom the changed policy last se-

mester, The Herald reported in

January.

Kertzer’s e-mail also reminded

students that nancing options

are available or amilies who did

not qualiy or University aid, in-

cluding ederal loan programs.

“The Oce o Financial Aid

is available to provide advice on

nancing options to both aided

and non-aided amilies,” the e-

mail said.

The Herald reported in No-

vember that the University would

allow students with an outstand-

ing balance o up to $7,500 to

return to campus or the spring

semester, increasing the limit

rom $5,000.

Kertzer’s e-mail Monday did

not say whether that speciic

policy would be etended.

Courtes of Librar of CongressJohn Vanderln’s 1847 painting depicts Columbus landing on the West Indies islandcalled Guarnahani b the natives — which he named San Salvador — on Oct. 12, 1492.

S k k, bBy aLiCia Chen

ContributingW riter

In high school, her classmates’ par-

ents hired her to make cakes — but

it wasn’t until last semester that Kelly

Schryver ’11 created TillieCakes, her

own cake-baking company.

“Kids on campus cannot get cus-

tom cakes rom scratch very eas-

ily,” Schryver said. “Either you go

to Coldstone’s or trek all the way

out somewhere.”

Ater developing a business

proposal in ENGN 0090: “Manage-

ment o Industrial and Nonprot

Organizations,” Schryver started

her own company to make cakes or

birthdays, baby showers, holidays

and other occasions.

Schryver named TillieCakes ater

the cook in the movie “Pollyanna.”

“There was this scene I loved

as a kid,” she said. “She has a cake

booth where she gives out giant

slabs o cake.”

Though her roommates some-

times pitch in, Schryver bakes and

decorates all o the company’s orders

hersel. Her creations — including

vanilla “pupcakes” with conection-

ary canines and a bold blue Obama

cake — have earned rave reviews

rom her customers, helping her

business spread through word o

mouth, she said.

“I really like how she can custom-

ize it,” said Jessica Fadale ’10, recall-

ing a brightly hued cake that she

ordered or a riend’s birthday.

Schryver has about one cake or-

der a week, she said, and students

on campus oten recognize her as

the “cake girl.” Schryver has even

seen one o her cakes as the back-

ground image o another student’s

Qidong Chen / Herald

“Pupcakes” are popular items from Kell Schrver’s ’11 baker business,TillieCakes. Her “custom cakes from scratch” earn rave reviews, she said.

continued on page 2

continued on page 4 continued on page 3

Read The Herald’s profiles of

the candidates for UCS and

UFB leadership p 3

Feature

8/14/2019 April 14, 2009 Issue


sudoku

Stephen DeLucia, President

Michael Bechek, Vice President

Jonathan Spector, Treasurer

Alexander Hughes, Secretary

The Brown Daily Herald (USPS 067.740) is an independent newspaper serv-ing the Brown University community daily since 1891. It is published Monday through Friday during the academic year, excluding vacations, once duringCommencement, once during Orientation and once in July by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. Single copy ree or members o the community.POSTMASTER please send corrections to P.O. Box 2538, Providence, RI02906. Periodicals postage paid at Providence, R.I. Oces are located at 195

Angell St., Providence, R.I. E-mail [email protected]. World Wide Web: http://www.browndailyherald.com.Subscription prices: $319 one year daily, $139 one semester daily.Copyright 2009 by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.

etoal po: 401.351.3372 | Bsss po: 401.351.3260

DailyHeraldthe Brown

TUESDAy, APRIL 14, 2009THE BROWN DAILy HERALDPAGE 2

CUS wS “I watched a lot of Martha Stewart as a kid.” — Kell Schrver ’11, TillieCakes founder

F F By CaitLin trujiLLo

Contributing W riter

The inaugural Providence Palestin-ian Film Festival wraps up Wednes-

day ater a week o screenings

designed to draw attention to the

Israeli-Palestinian confict.

Since it kicked o last Thurs-

day, the week-long estival has

shown three eature lms, a series

o short documentaries and an

exhibit o photographs taken by

students at Palestinian universi-

ties. The event was sponsored by

Common Ground, a student group

dedicated to bringing “marginal-

ized and unique voices” about the

confict to campus, according to

the lm estival’s Web site.Saturday aternoon in Carmi-

chael Auditorium, Nitin Sawhney,

a research ellow at the Massachu-

setts Institute o Technology, pre-

sented short lms rom his project

“Voices Beyond Walls.” The short

movies were made by Palestinian

children during storytelling work-

shops in reugee camps over the

last several summers.

The short lms portray aspects

o chaotic Palestinian lie, ranging

rom the tragedy o a girl losing

her arms in a land mine explo-

sion to the joy another girl derives

rom releasing a captured bird,

and encompass everything rom

the intensity o a youth basketball

tournament between Palestine and

Jordan to the maturation o a boy

who learns to value his educational

opportunities.

Sawhney said in a discussion a-

ter the screening that the children

concentrated the stories’ narrative

ocus on the compelling stories o

Palestinian lives, with the wide-

spread violence pressed into the

background. He said he learned

many lessons rom the children

and hoped to extend the program

to Gaza and to spread awareness

o modern Palestinian lie.“This is really a crucial issue,

and the American psyche isn’t rec-

ognizing it as such,” Sawhney said

during the discussion.

Other screened documentaries

and shorts included the rst two

o Maryam Monalisa Gharavi’s

“Inessential” series, lms that

attempt to illustrate how Israeli

government restrictions have

devastated shing and arming

industries in the region, and Phil-

ip Rizk’s “This Palestinian Lie,”

which documents the nonviolent

protests o some rural Palestinians

as they reuse to vacate their land

and homes.

On Sunday night, Avon Cinema

hosted the independent lm “Salt

o this Sea,” in which a Palestinian-

American woman named Soraya returns to her amily’s homeland in

an attempt to regain her deceased

grandather’s assets, which were

lost upon his 1948 eile. The lm

explores the issues o Palestinian

treatment at the hands o Israelis

and the contrast between Soraya’s

desire to regain her history and

her riend Emad’s wish to leave

Palestine behind him.

Film estival co-chairs Joanna

Abousleiman ’09 and Chantal Ber-

man ’10.5 said they were inspired

by events like the Boston Palestine

Film Festival, which ran last Oc-

tober, and wanted to expand thescope o eatured lms to include

lesser-known works and more re-

cent releases.

“We wanted to present a new

perspective,” Abousleiman said.

In order to support the estival

and help acquire the lm rights,

Common Ground received a grant

rom Brown’s Malcolm S. Forbes

Center or Research in Culture and

Media Studies, she said.

“Film’s a great way to get

people interested in the issues,”

Berman said, adding that she

and other group members were

pleased with the turnout this year

and were hoping to be able to r un

the estival again net year.

Monday night, also at Avon, the

estival screened part our o the

six-part documentary “Chronicleso a Reugee,” which, like “Voices

Beyond Walls,” delves into the

lives o Palestinian reugees and

their dilemmas o identity and

citizenship. Director Adam Sha-

piro, a human rights activist, led

a discussion o the lm ater the

screening.

The estival began last Thurs-

day with a screening at Avon Cin-

ema o “Slingshot Hip Hop,” a 2008

documentary that ollows a variety

o Palestinian hip-hop groups.

Last Friday Common Ground

also hosted an exhibit at the Cogut

Center or the Humanities o pho-tographs taken by Palestinian stu-

dents. The artists are students at

Birzeit University, near Ramallah

in the West Bank, and An-Najah

University, in Nablus.

On Wednesday, the last day

o the estival, the flm “Private”

will be shown at Avon Cinema at

9 p.m. It will be ree and open to

the public.

Bk By sydney emBer


The Brown Bookstore will begin

reviewing applications or a new

director this week, said Assistant

Vice President or Financial and

Administrative Ser vices Elizabeth

Gentry. Former director Manuel

Cunard abruptly resigned in early

February.

Gentry and several bookstore

employees declined to comment on

Cunard’s sudden resignation.

“It’s not something to be dis-

cussed,” Gentry said about Cunard’s

decision to step down. “When it’s

a personal situation, it’s not some-

thing we discuss,” she said. “He

did a lot when he was here. He’s

not here anymore.”

The bookstore has been operat-

ing without a permanent director

since Cunard’s resignation, though

Gentry said the Bookstore’s man-

agement team has been under her

guidance. Her position at Brown

oversees bookstore organiza-

tion, she said, adding that she is

currently “standing in with the

management team in place” until

a new director is ound to ll the

vacancy.

Cunard, who could not be

reached or comment, stepped in

as director o the Bookstore in late

November 2006, seven months ater

he resigned as director o auxiliary

services and campus services at

Wesleyan University, a position he

held or our years. According to

the Wesleyan Argus, Wesleyan’s

student newspaper, Cunard re-

signed to pursue consulting work

ull-time and to visit his daughter

and granddaughter requently in

Virginia.

During his two-and-a-hal year

tenure at the Bookstore, Cunard

Jesse Morgan / Herald

The Providence Palestinian Film Festival showcased films at the AvonCinema about the lives of modern Palestinians.

cell phone, she said.

Despite the growing popularity o

her baked goods, Schryver is hesi-

tant to call TillieCakes a ull-fedged

business.

“The reason why I don’t entirely

call it a business is because the prot

margin is really slim. But I’m not

doing it or the money,” Schryver

said.

Schryver calls hersel a sel-

taught baker. “I watched a lot o

Martha Stewart as a kid,” she said.

“Food Network’s my avorite.”

Schryver said she oten impro-

vises decorative techniques to makeher unique cake stylings. One o her

avorites was a cake adorned with

President Obama’s ace.

To create the Obama image,

Schryver said she experimented

with a variety o methods beore

hitting on the innovative technique

she used to make the large decora-

tion. She rst created the design in

royal icing on top o wax paper. Ater

she allowed the decoration to set,

she transerred the image — based

on Shepard Fairey’s iconic posters

— to the cake.

Schryver bakes all o her cakes

rom scratch, without any shortcuts.

“The homemade aspect is very im-portant to me,” she said.

She adds special ingredients,

like almond extract to her vanilla

buttercream rosting, to make the

cakes etra favorul.

“In the end you’re eating a cake,

so it has got to taste good too,”

Schryver said.

Though her company has been

getting more recognition on cam-

pus, Schryver said she is not sure

how much she wants to expand. She juggles other activities like being a

tour guide and playing on the club

lacrosse team with baking or Till-

ieCakes.

But Schryver is experimenting

with other avenues to pursue her

culinary passion.

She has started lming a cook-

ing show or Brown Television and

is considering working at a pastry

shop this summer, she said.

Last Tuesday, Schryver could be

ound in the Minden Hall ground-

loor kitchen, putting the inal

touches on two cake orders. Ater

she spread buttercream rosting on

each cake and added piped bordersand other decorations, Schryver’s

unique culinary creations began to

take shape.

She plans to take TillieCakes

“one step at a time, testing out the

ropes and then taking it one step

urther,” she said, as she careully

ashioned a rose rom pink butter-

cream rosting. “It’s right where it

needs to be r ight now.”

Qidong Chen / Herald

One of Schrver’s cake designs,depicting the 44th president.

S’ -- k

continued from page 1

continued on page 4

8/14/2019 April 14, 2009 Issue


CUS wSTUESDAy, APRIL 14, 2009 THE BROWN DAILy HERALD PAGE 3

S UCS, UFB

allotted a certain number o pointsand a spending limit o $45 or their

campaigns. Table slips, events and

even Facebook groups cost a certain

number o points.

Violations o campaign rules also

cost candidates points.

During this year’s campaign, a

member o the elections board was

made an administrator o the cam-

paign Facebook group o UCS Com-

munications Chair Clay Wertheimer

’10, a candidate or UCS president.

The rules violation cost

Wertheimer 15 o the 100 points

allotted to UCS presidential candi-

dates, though, according to Tran, theelections board member “accidently

joined the Facebook group and was

made an administrator by someone

other than Clay.”

Tran said the system ensures

that each candidate has access to

equal resources, preventing any

unair advantage.

But some candidates have ound

creative ways around the restrictive

guidelines.Supporters o UCS Student Ac-

tivities Chair Ryan Lester ’11 and

Wertheimer, or eample, have put

up campaign-themed prole pictures

on their Facebook accounts.

Campaigning ends and voting

begins today at noon. Students can

vote online on MyCourses until noon

Thursday. Results will be announced

Thursday at midnight on the steps

in ront o Faunce House.

The candidates or UCS presi-

dent are Paris Hays ’10, UCS Vice

President Mike MacCombie ’11,

Lester and Wertheimer. UCS vice-

presidential candidates are UCSmember Evan Holownia ’11, UCS

Treasurer Harris Li ’11 and UCS

member Diane Mokoro ’11.

Candidates or UFB Chair are

current UFB members Salsabil

Ahmed ’11 and Jose Vasconez ’10.

Vice-chair candidates are Neil Parikh

’11 and Juan Vasconez ’10.

V UCS, UFB b


Hays wants to include underrepresented campus constituencies and improve

Brown’s image among peer institutions. The major internal change Hays would

propose to UCS is the implementation o task orces to ollow through on impor-

tant priorities.

Hays, rom Los Angeles, is the only presidential candidate not already on UCS’s

executive board. He served as a general body member last year. He currently

serves on Greek Council and has chaired the Ivy Leadership Summit.

“I’m running because I eel I owe it to the student groups to have a chair who will listen to each student,” Ahmed says.

Ahmed would rely less on precedent and instead evaluate proposals “on a case-by-case basis.” Ahmed, who hails rom Connecticut, says she sees no roomor personal politics on UFB and writes in her platorm, “I would not tolerateblock voting based on personal dierences/alliances.” An at-large UFB member and the board’s secretary, Ahmed has ser ved or two semesters on UFB.

“I love Brown,” Wertheimer says. Wertheimer says he has had “the quintes-sential Brown education,” arriving as a student o the sciences beore deciding to

concentrate in English literature and nally doubling up with economics.

Wertheimer says that o the candidates or president, he has “the strongest

relationships with administrators.” He cites his eperience with internal reorm

chairing a UCS assessment task orce last year. Wertheimer, rom Juneau, Alaska,

is the UCS communications chair.

MacCombie sees “the potential that UCS has to improve the lives o college

students in meaningul ways” and wants the council to be more responsive to

the student body. An advocate o the council’s “Ratty oce hours,” he says the

dialogue with students resulting rom the hours has shaped his platorm. He plans

to continue to ght against pre-requisites and to improve advising.

MacCombie, rom Chagrin Falls, Ohio, is the current UCS vice president, and

has served on the council or two years.

Lester says UCS does not need to improve its priorities as much as it needs to

improve its ability to make change real. He is running a process-oriented campaign

“based on the idea that I know how to accomplish” the council’s goals, he says.

He would create a UCS “liason” to University committees and invite representa-tives o those committees to UCS meetings or requent consultation.

Lester, who hails rom Logan, Utah, currently serves as UCS Student Activities

Chair and has ser ved as appointments chair.

p h ’10

slbl a ’11

Cl W ’10

m mcCb ’11

r L ’11

UCS Vice Presidential Candidates: A transer student, Evan Holownia ’11 served this year as a

general body member on UCS’ Admissions and Student Services committee. He wants to improve the

council’s “internal and eternal communication,” he says. He would like to see a stricter UCS attendance

policy and increased accountability or general body members’ individual roles in the council’s projects.

Harris Li ’11 says he would complement an administration-oriented president. He says he has the most

experience dealing with administrators and the personality to uniy eorts across the council’s various

committees. Li, the current UCS treasurer, has served two years on the council. UCS has elected him

Brown’s head delegate to the Ivy Council both years. Diane Mokoro ’11 says she has not missed “a

single meeting” o UCS. “I know ever ybody’s name. I know the code like the back o my hand,” she says.She says she will prioritize the University’s nancial situation net year and work to preserve students’

Brown eperience as well as retaining as many sta and aculty as possible. Mokoro ser ves on UCS’ com-

munications committee.

Vote on mycourses.brown.edu beginning at 12 p.m. today. Voting ends Thursday at 12 p.m.

UCS President

By Ben Schreckinger, with additional reporting by Brian Mastroianni

UFB Chair

Vasconez, UFB’s longest-serving member at ve semesters, plans to distributea list o guidelines to student groups to give them a more solid idea o how to con-struct unding requests. “I groups knew how the board has historically unded”dierent types o requests, they could “better prepare budgets,” he says. Vasconez,rom Northridge, Cali., cites his eperience on both the nancial and student groups sides o campus aairs. He has served as UCS treasurer and Ivy Council -nance chair and has been a member o the UCS student activities committee.

j Vcz ’10

UFB Vice Chair Candidates: Neil Parikh ’11 wants to address the “rustration and distrust” with which

student groups view UFB, according to his platorm. He believes the solution is to have UFB take a more active

role in the planning o student group events, to reach “a solution that benets everyone.” Parikh is the president

o the Class o 2011. Vice-chair candidate Juan Vasconez ’10 is running because he wants to “help lead and

teach” a young UFB “to allocate money responsibly.” Vasconez, brother o Jose, says he would open a dialogue

to help student groups understand the hard decisions UFB has to make and to create an atmosphere in which

UFB is “not dictating policy, but creating policy with student groups.”

Vasconez has also served previously on UCS and raised $25,000 or Brown at the University call center.

8/14/2019 April 14, 2009 Issue



CUS wS “Are we going to stop Presidents Da because Thomas Jefferson had slaves?”

— Michael Hogan ’11, on Brown’s renaming Columbus Da

American community has long

regarded Columbus — an Italian

explorer who made his rst voy-age to the Americas in 1492 — as

an important historical gure and

cultural icon.

“Columbus was the one that

opened up this part o the world

to Western civilization,” Raymond

Dettore, Jr., ormer president o the

Italo-American Club in Providence,

told the Journal.

Anthony Baratta, president o

the Commission or Social Justice

o the group Sons o Italy, told the

Journal that Columbus Day is a

“patriotic” holiday. “I don’t know

why the aculty would have chosen

this route,” he said.Bob Kerr, a columnist or the

Journal, said Monday that he

thought the aculty’s decision was

“a little detached” rom the local

community, especially considering

that a large number o Providence’s

residents are o Italian descent.

Kerr wrote an opinion piece or the

Journal on Friday, headlined “Di-

erent ways o looking at the same

guy,” mocking the measure.

“I didn’t think it was a great

decision,” he said yesterday. “I’m

amazed that people at Brown

wouldn’t realize, ‘Whoa, wait a

minute, this is going to make us

look a little silly.’” The story quickly reached the

national media. On Thursday, two

days ater the aculty’s vote, r adio

personality Rush Limbaugh at-

tacked the decision.

Reerring to Brown students

who supported the aculty’s deci-

sion as “spoiled, rotten little skulls

ull o mush with brains that repre-

sent the arid expanse o the Sahara

Desert,” Limbaugh said the change

was “idiocy.”

“Next they’re going to come

along and get rid o Halloween,”

he said.

The Associated Press and Fo

News were among the national

media organizations to pick up

the story.

Meanwhile, most Brown stu-

dents continued to support the ac-

ulty’s move, despite the way it was

received outside College Hill.

“I denitely support the deci-

sion,” Avi Kenny ’11 said. Colum-

bus is “undeserving o a holiday,”

he said.“What they teach us in elemen-

tary school is misleading — hero

worshipping,” said Josh Marcotte

’11, calling the aculty’s decision “a

progressive step.”

Araceli Mendez ’12 said she too

supported the change, but under-

stood why some groups, such as

Italian-Americans, might see it as

oensive. “It’s not that complicated

o an issue, but I understand where

they’re coming rom,” she said.

Michael Hogan ’11 said he gen-

erally approved o the decision to

rename Columbus Day, but ex-

pressed some concern about the

precedent such a move might set.

“Are we going to stop Presidents

Day because Thomas Jeerson had

slaves?” he asked.

The aculty vote was preceded

by months o pressure rom a small

group o students who wanted the

University to stop recognizing

Columbus Day. The students had

originally proposed that the Univer-

sity take a dierent day o , but themonths o dialogue ended with the

proposal to change only the name

o the holiday, in part because some

aculty and sta wanted the Univer-

sity’s October holiday to coincide

with that o local schools.

Columbus Day, observed

on the second Monday in Octo-

ber, has been a ederal holiday

since 1971.

Cb continued from page 1

Last month a Brown Daily Herald poll ound two-thirdso the spoiled, rotten little skulls ull o mush with brainsthat represent the arid epanse o the Sahara Desert sup-ported changing the holiday’s name. ... ‘That’s right, Mr.Limbaugh, you don’t want to admit it, but the multiculturistshave been right all along. This is because Columbus brought syphilis; Columbus brought racism, sexism, homophobia,environmental destruction.’ I know it’s unny, but it’s sad torealize this level o idiocy is being rewarded. Net they’regoing to come along and get rid o Halloween.

— Radio transcript of April 9 episode of “The Rush Limbaugh Show”

r Lb fcl’ c

Clb d

oversaw the store’s recent r enova-

tions and the opening o the College

Hill Cae.

Cunard has also held positions

at Wake Forest University, Loyola

University in New Orleans and Colo-

rado State University. He was the

executive director o the National

Association o College Auxiliary

Services, a support organization

that osters inormation sharing andthe development o proessional re-

lationships in higher education.

Gentry said the search or a new

director is currently underway.

“The position is open, and we are

accepting applications,” she said.

Though the nal hiring decision

will belong to Gentry, she said a

search committee o people rom

around campus will provide input

about the hiring. Her decision willbe based on the committee’s rec-

ommendation ater applicants un-

dergo a ormal inter view process,

she said.

But Gentry said a nal selec-

tion could take “another month or

two.”

She said it was unclear when a

new director would be in place.

S bk continued from page 2

S- k By mattheW sCuLt

Contributing W riter

Ask a child i he would rather do

physical therapy or play with a re-

mote control car and the answer will

be obvious. But now researchers at

Brown and the Rhode Island School

o Design have designed a way or

him to do both, by creating toys

specially developed or children

with neuromuscular diseases.

The toys, originally designed

by students in a joint Brown-RISD

course, are meant to complement

the benets o physical therapy or

children with Cerebral Palsy, said

Proessor o Orthopaedics Joseph

Crisco o the Warren Alpert Medi-

cal School.

By using the toys, the children

eectively “have therapy or a much

longer period o time,” Crisco said,

adding that the key o the project is

to disguise therapy as play.

The development o the toys re-sulted rom a collaboration between

Crisco, Clinical Assistant Proessor

o Clinical Neurosciences Karen

Kerman ’78, RISD Associate Pro-

essor o Industrial Design Khipra

Nichols and students in Crisco’s

course, “Toys or Rehabilitation.”

Crisco said he and his colleagues

came up with the initial concept or

the product in the all o 2006. His

students designed the actual toys

throughout the all semester. The

students worked on several dier-

ent concepts, including specially

designed walking shoes to help

children with climbing disabilities

and remote-controlled toys or chil-

dren with hemiplegia, he said.

According to Crisco, many

children with neuromuscular dis-

eases are unable to use the same

toys as their riends and siblings

because these toys requently re-

quire the use o ne motor skills,

such as pulling a trigger or press-

ing a button. To overcome this

problem, Crisco’s students pulled

out the wires o common toys and

redesigned them to be controlledthrough movements o the wrist

or arm.

The result is similar in concept

to the Nintendo Wii remote, Crisco

said, ecept that the new toys re-

spond only to movements made by

the orearm — which is enclosed in

a brace — rather than to ull-body

and arm movement.

As the goal o the project was

to use the toys or “targeted joint

therapy,” Crisco said, the designers

did not want the toys to respond i

the child were “standing on (his)

head.”

The researchers’ goal is to sendthe toys home with the children to

augment their other therapy, Crisco

said, adding that the toys have data

logging capabilities which can tell

doctors how much the children

have been using them.

In 2008, the group received a

grant to develop prototypes o the

toy controllers and began conduct-

ing a small pilot study. Now the

researchers are applying or und-

ing rom the National Institutes

o Health to upgrade the toys to

commercial quality.

I the researchers get und-

ing, Crisco said he would like to

involve students in urther develop-

ing the toys and researching their

eectiveness.

Courtes of Brown.edu

A line of tos designed b Brown and RISD students in a 2006 coursetargets children with neuromuscular diseases and impaired motor skills.

”

“

8/14/2019 April 14, 2009 Issue


etroThe Brown Dail Herald

TUESDAy, APRIL 14, 2009 | PAGE 5

“The longer the wait, the worse it will be.” — Cit Councilman John Igliozzi on the Providence budget supplement

B b CBy sara sunshine


Governor Donald Carcieri ’65 an-

nounced last week he would nei-

ther sign nor veto the Rhode Island

legislature’s budget-balancing pro-

posal, passed two weeks ago by both

houses. Without his signature, the

$7.2 billion plan became law last

week.

In a statement to state lawmak-

ers, Carcieri said, “I am allowing this

bill to become law, but without my

signature and noting my concerns.

For the sake o all Rhode Islanders,

I epect all these concerns will be

addressed by the end o the legisla-

tive session.”

Though the governor’s decision

drew criticism rom state Repub-

licans, a veto would not have pre-

vented the budget’s implementation,

as there were enough votes in the

General Assembly to easily override

any veto, according to an April 8

Providence Journal article.

The supplemental budget cuts

millions rom municipal unding and

limits changes to the state’s public

pension system.

The plan also contains an addi-

tional $1-per-pack tax on cigarettes,

making Rhode Island’s the highest

such ta in the country.

The increased cost could lead

to a drop in sales, resulting in de-

creased revenue or Rhode Island

businesses, said Bill Felkner, ex-

ecutive director o the Ocean State

Policy Research Institute, a liber-

tarian-leaning group.

Rhode Island already has one

o the highest cigarette-smuggling

rates, Felkner added, and prohibi-

tively expensive cigarettes will only

cause that to increase.

The budget’s provisions about

labor contracts also caused some

concern among Rhode Islanders.

A stipulation requiring all con-

tracts be presented to the public

beore government approval, which

Felkner said would have saved the

state a signicant amount o money,

was removed rom the nal budget,

he said. It was removed because

“the unions have a great deal o

control,” Felkner added.

In a press conerence last week,

Carcieri said labor issues such as

“minimum manning” provisions that

were unaddressed in the budget are

still harmul to cities and towns.

But many legislators were con-

tent with the nal budget. “Some-

times under very, very dicult

economic times, you have to put

aside your dierences and move the

state orward, and I think this was a

very good rst step,” House Finance

Committee chairman Steven Costan-

tino told the Journal, according to

the April 8 article.

But “a lot o the money… has

strings attached to it,” Felkner said.

“It’s not the nancial relie it’s been

portrayed to be.”

C, C By anish gonChigar

S taff W riter

About 40 members o the College

Hill Neighborhood Association

turned out to discuss city and

neighborhood issues with Provi-

dence Mayor David Cicilline ’83 at

Moses Brown School last night.

The mayor emphasized the

eects o the recession on

Providence.

“It would be an understatement

to say that we’re in a really chal-

lenging budget time,” he said.

Cicilline said the city’s immedi-

ate ocus should be on creating jobs

and laying the oundation or eco-

nomic recovery. He said the key torebuilding Providence’s economy

will be investing in knowledge-

based industries, adding that he

has been working in Washington,

D.C., to unnel stimulus money

to Brown and the Rhode Island

School o Design.

Cicilline also commended

the Providence Police Depart-

ment or being a model city po-

lice orce, saying “the police de-

partment is and continues to be

etraordinary.”

Chie o Police Colonel Dean

Esserman, who was in attendance,

added that the Providence police

orce is on the road to becomingthe irst teaching police orce in

the United States.

Another issue on the agenda

was the public school system.

Cicilline said he is working hard

with Providence Public Schools

Superintendent Tom Brady to ad-

dress key ailings in the system.

A major goal, said Cicilline, would

be to work on bridging the per-

ceived separation between school

and ater-school activities.

Members o the CHNA raised

concerns about graiti. Cicilline

agreed that graiti is a serious

problem but said there is no solu-tion other than to continue ight-

ing it.

Esserman said a majority o

vandals are high school students

tagging their own neighborhoods.

The police department is taking

new initiatives to prevent graiti,

such as talking directly to parents

and school oicials, he added.

A more divisive issue brought

up at the meeting was parking

enorcement. Cicilline said park-

ing complaints are split between

people claiming that parking en-

orcement is too strict and peoplecomplaining that parking enorce-

ment is too lenient.

“Everyone I’ve asked this ques-

tion to has strong views one way or

another,” Cicilline said, adding that

he is a big proponent o on-str eet

parking and that he is working on

pilot programs in several neighbor-

hoods to reorm parking.

College Hill resident Alan Gore

told The Herald that this was his

irst time attending a neighbor-

hood meeting, and he thought

the mayor seemed very on top o

things.“I thought it was very inorma-

tive,” Gore said.

C

b By joanna WohLmuth

Metro editor

With less than three months re-

maining in the city’s scal year,

Providence must rush to close a

$16.1 million decit resulting rom

slashed state aid and unmet rev-

enue goals.

Ward 7 Councilman John Ig-

liozzi, chairman o the City Council

Finance Committee, said he hopes

to see a supplemental budget pro-

posal rom the oce o Mayor

David Cicilline ’83 by the council

meeting this Thursday.But Igliozzi said city ocials

seemed “noncommittal” about

their timeline or presenting bud-

get revisions when he last spoke

with them.

The City Charter requires that

the budget be balanced at the end

o each scal year, which runs rom

July 1 to June 30.

Because o the procedural steps

required — including the certica-

tion o the decit and presentation

o a supplemental budget by the

mayor’s oce, as well as multiple

votes and public hearings in the

council — the budget revision

process will likely take a monthto complete, Igliozzi said.

With only 11 weeks to make

up the deicit in Providence’s

$641-million operating budget or

the current year, the city will need

to work quickly. About 55 percent

o the total budget is allocated

or education with the remainder

going or city ser vices, including

recreational activities, police and

re departments, parks and snow

removal, Igliozzi said.

The decit will not aect the

allocation o money to schools, so

the city must nd a way to make

it up through savings elsewhere,Igliozzi said. Due to Rhode Island’s

crippling oreclosure and unem-

ployment problems, raising taes

is also not a possibility at this time,

he said.

O the total decit o $16.1 mil-

lion, about $7 million comes rom

unmet city goals or revenue rom

taxes, property sales and consolida-

tion o city departments, Igliozzi

said. The other $9 million was

cut rom state unds allocated to

make up or lost revenues rom

tax-exempt properties, such as

hospitals and institutions o higher

education, which make up about

52 percent o land in Providence,

he said.

“Some o it was sel-inficted and

some o it is something that wasn’t

in our control,” Igliozzi said.

Though Providence o cials

have known or months that thestate may cut the city’s unding,

the eact amount was not known

until early April, when the General

Assembly voted to restore about

hal o the state’s revenue-sharing

money or cities and towns.

There has been discussion o

selling city properties, consolidat-

ing city departments and seeking

concessions rom unions, Igliozzi

said, adding that retroactive pay

raises given to nonunion employ-

ees may also be cut.

Cicilline’s director o adminis-

tration, Richard Kerbel, told the

Providence Journal last week that

closing the decit will be a “signi-cant challenge.” The mayor’s oce

is primarily ocusing on conces-

sions rom unions and nonunion

personnel to achieve a balanced

budget, he told the Journal.

The mayor’s oce could not be

reached or comment Monday.

Kerbel is largely responsible or

drating the supplemental budget

proposal, Igliozzi said.

Providence is already strug-

gling to ll the projected decits

in the budget or the next scal

year, and the problem will only

be compounded by any lingering

decits, Igliozzi said“They are going to have to be-

come more rugal and put together

a serious nancial plan on how to

run the city without the additional

$16 million or the net quarter,”

Igliozzi said. “The longer they wait,

the worse it will be.”

Anish Gonchigar / Herald

Providence Maor David Cicilline ’83 spoke at a meeting of the CollegeHill Neighborhood Association last night, covering issues from parking toschool vandalism.

8/14/2019 April 14, 2009 Issue


world & ationThe Brown Dail Herald


U.S. b U.. By miChaeL a. FLetCher

t heW aShington PoSt

WASHINGTON — The Obama

administration appears to be

standing by its decision to boycott

the World Conerence Against

Racism next week in Geneva,

despite eorts to ocus and tone

down language in a drat coner-

ence document viewed as hostile

toward Israel.

The preliminary conerence

document ran 45 pages and called

or reparations or slavery, con-

demned the “validation o Islamo-phobia,” and asserted that Israel’s

treatment o the Palestinians is

grounded in racism.

In response to objections

raised by negotiators rom the

Obama administration, the docu-

ment has since been dramatically

shortened and many o its sharp

statements have been removed.

Still, the administration seems

uninterested in attending, stoking

rustration among activist groups

who have said that it is ironic that

the nation’s rst black president

would choose that course.

“For his administration not to

be present at this global conver-sation is a disappointment,” said

Imani Countess, senior director

or public aairs at TransArica

Forum, an advocacy group that o-

cuses on U.S. oreign policy. “For

President Bush not to participate,

that would have been epected.

For Barack Obama’s administra-

tion not to participate sends a dis-

appointing signal. It says these

issues are not important.”

TransArica sent a letter to

Obama late last week urging him

to send a delegation to the United

Nations-sponsored meeting, say-

ing that to do otherwise wouldcontradict his promise to engage

even with nations that hold views

that are contrary to those held

by the United States. Moreover,

the letter said, U.S. participation

would send an important message

to the rest o the world.

“U.S. participation in the con-

erence is critical or both sym-

bolic and political reasons,” said

the letter, which was also signed

by other leaders, including Jesse

L. Jackson and the heads o the

Congressional Black Caucus

Foundation, the NAACP Legal

Deense and Educational Fund,

and the National Coalition on

Black Civic Participation.

“Nations are watching your

administration and will decide

either to withdraw, or to lower

the level o their participation,

i the U.S. doesn’t participate,”

the letter continued. “Reduced

global participation would mark

a signicant setback to eorts to

overcome racial inequality around

the world.”

White House spokesman

Tommy Vietor said that although

progress has been made in re-

vising the drat text, concerns

remain. “We hope that these

remaining concerns will be ad-

dressed, so that the United States

can re-engage the conerence ne-

gotiations in the hopes o arriving

at a conerence document that we

can support,” he said.

The White House oered no

urther details. But last week a

bipartisan group o House mem-

bers sent a letter to Obama con-

gratulating him or deciding to

boycott the meeting, which is

scheduled to begin Monday.

“We applaud you or making it

clear that the United States will

not participate in a conerencethat undermines reedom o e-

pression and is tainted by an anti-

Zionist and anti-Semitic agenda,”

said the letter signed by seven

members o Congress.

Israel and several Jewish ad-

vocacy groups have urged the

United States and other nations

not to take part in the conerence.

Canada and Italy have said they

will not attend, and several other

U.S. allies, including Australia,

are considering not participating,

according to representatives o

several advocacy groups.

The week-long conerence is

expected to bring together del-egations rom countries around

the globe and representatives o

hundreds o nongovernmental

organizations to take stock o the

progress made in ghting bias

since the last World Conerence

Against Racism was held in Dur-

ban, South Arica, in 2001. At that

gathering, much o the discussion

ocused on Israeli treatment o

Palestinians. The United States

walked out o that meeting to pro-

test an eort to compare Zionism

to racism.

The United Nations has been

working on next week’s coner-ence or the past three years,

mostly without input rom the

United States. Ater Obama took

oce, he sent a delegation to

Geneva, raising hopes that his

administration would become a

ull partner in the eort. Hopes

were lited urther when Obama

had the United States rejoin the

U.N. Human Rights Council.

But ater sending the delega-

tion to a preliminary meeting in

Geneva, the administration de-

clared the meeting’s document

unocused, hostile to Israel and

essentially not salvageable. Ater

that, the document was heavily

edited. Its original length was cut

by hal and specic mentions o

Israel and the need to pay repara-

tions or slavery were deleted.

The new drat created a sense

among advocacy groups that the

administration would reverse its

decision. But the changes have

apparently not been sucient to

win Obama’s support.

“This is a big blow,” Countess

said. “Given the high priority the

administration places on inter-

national engagement and multi-

lateralism, this is just a little bit

bafing.”

b f CbBy miChaeL d. shear

and CeCiLia kang

t heW aShington PoSt

WASHINGTON — President Obama

Monday announced a series o steps

aimed at easing the U.S. relationship

with Cuba, breaking rom policies rst

imposed by the Kennedy administra-

tion and stepping into an emotional

debate over the best way to bring

democratic change to one o the last

remaining communist regimes.

White House ocials said the

decision to lit travel and spending

restrictions on Americans with amily

on the island will provide new support

or the opponents o Raul and Fidel

Castro’s government. And they saidliting the ban on U.S. telecommunica-

tions companies reaching out to the

island will food Cuba with inorma-

tion while providing new opportuni-

ties or businesses.

Obama let in place the broad trade

embargo imposed on Cuba in 1962.

But just days beore leaving to attend

a summit with the leaders o South

and Central America, he reversed

restrictions that barred U.S. citizens

rom visiting their Cuban relatives

more than once every three years and

lited limits on the amount o money

and goods Cuban Americans can send

back to their amilies.

He also cleared away virtually allU.S. regulations that had stopped

American companies rom attempt-

ing to bring their high-tech services

and inormation to the island.

“All who embrace core democratic

values long or a Cuba that respects

the basic human, political and eco-

nomic rights o all o its citizens,”

White House press secretary Rob-ert Gibbs said Monday in announc-

ing the new Cuba policy. “President

Obama believes the measure he has

taken today will help make that goal

a reality.”

Under the new rules, ocials say,

there is likely to be an explosion o

new charter fights to the island, and

direct commercial fights could ollow.

Gits and money will fow reely rom

U.S. relatives or the rst time. And

the announcement could open the

door or the American inormation

revolution to enter the island nation —

in the orm o Howard Stern on Sirius

radio, iPhones and Wikipedia. The moves were hailed by many

advocates o greater openness toward

the regime, including the business

community, which sees new oppor-

tunities or commerce. But it was im-

mediately criticized by those on the

right and the let who said it either

went too ar or not ar enough.

Reps. Lincoln and Mario Diaz-

Balart brothers and Florida Repub-

licans who are rom Cuba, issued a

joint statement calling the move a

“serious mistake” that represents a

concession to a repressive regime.

They said the money fowing into

Cuba would reach communist lead-

ers, not the people.“President Obama has violated his

pledge o January 20 by unilaterally

granting a concession to the dictator-

ship which will provide it with hun-

dreds o millions o dollars annually,”

their statement said. “Unilateral con-

cessions to the dictatorship embolden

it to urther isolate, imprison and bru-

talize pro-democracy activists.”On the other side o the issue, Car-

los Pascual, director o oreign policy

at the Brookings Institution, praised

the policy shit as a good rst step that

recognizes what he called 50 years o

ailed policy toward Cuba.

But Pascual, who was born in

Cuba and came to the United States

at age 3, said democratic change in

the country will not come until the

U.S. trade embargo is lited. Most

nations now have diplomatic relations

with Cuba, leaving the United States

virtually alone in its attempts to en-

orce the embargo.

“It isn’t enough,” said Pascual, who has been mentioned as a pos-

sible candidate to be U.S. ambassador

to Mexico. “In and o itsel, it’s not

going to produce a radical change

in Cuba. But it’s a recognition that a

change is necessary.”

White House ocials cast the

policy shit as the beginning o a

change in direction that Obama sig-

naled when he was a candidate. Dur-

ing the campaign, Obama promised

to ease travel restrictions and said he

was open to dialogue with the Castro

regime without “preconditions.”

Gibbs said the ball is now in Cu-

ba’s court.

“The president has made clear that he is willing to talk to our ad-

versaries,” Gibbs said, adding: “I do

think there are steps that we would

— that the Cuban government can

SL By sCott WiLson,

ann sCott tyson and

stephanie mCCrummen

t heW aShingtonPoSt

WASHINGTON — As dusk be-

gan to all Sunday, the Somali pirates

holding Capt. Richard Phillips were

growing edgy.

As they bobbed behind the U.S.S.

Bainbridge as it towed their lieboat

arther out to sea, one pirate radioed

the Navy destroyer and demanded

to know how ar they had been taken

away rom the sanctuary o Somalia’s

coast.

“Very ar,” came the reply rom

the Bainbridge, whose commander

had oered to pull them to calmer

waters.

“Thank you,” the pirate negotiator

responded, according to a U.S. mili-

tary timeline, his politeness masking

menace. “I we cannot (reach the) So-

mali coast, we will kill the indel.”

Soon ater, three shots rang out

rom the Bainbridge in indistinguish-

able succession, elling the three pi-

rates in the lieboat. Bound tightly,

Phillips could not move to celebrate

the end o his ordeal until Navy

SEALs climbed aboard the small

crat and set him ree.

“It was pretty remarkable that

these snipers nailed these guys,” said

a senior military ocial amiliar with

the details o the rescue operation

who spoke on the condition o ano-

nymity. “You think o rough seas, 75,

80 eet away, and under darkness, and

they got them. Three pirates, threerounds, three dead bodies.”

The precision volley culminated

a ve-day conrontation on the pale

blue seas o one the world’s most

unstable nations, a place that still

haunts U.S. oreign-policy makers

with images o dead U.S. Army Rang-

ers being dragged through the capital

during a ailed U.S. intervention in

the 1990s.

This time the Navy took the lead

against a orce o our, and then three,

teen-age Somali pirates conned to

the cramped quarters o a cargo

ship’s lieboat. But the challenge

o preserving the lie o Phillips, a

53-year-old Vermont resident, loomed

large enough or President Obama’s

new national security operation that

he was brieed as many as ve times

a day as three U.S. warships and an

18-oot dinghy squared o on the

Indian Ocean.

Three det sniper shots ended a

drama that appeared initially as an-

other example o a muscle-bound U.S.

military unable to adapt to today’s

unpredictable security threats. In

the end, U.S. special orces easily

deeated lightly armed, untrained

men in a battle that U.S. ocials say

will not end piracy.

The pirates had likely been track-

ing the Maersk Alabama or days

when on Wednesday our pirates in a

small crat tossed ropes and grappling

hooks rom the shadow o the cargoship’s looming blue hull. They carried

pistols and AK-47 assault rifes.

The Maersk Alabama’s crew,

a mix o young men and veterans,

locked themselves in sae areas o

the ship as they were trained to do.

Some improvised.

One sailor, A.T.M. Reza, orced

one o the pirates into the engine

room, where he stabbed the pirate

in the hand. The crew then used the

wounded pirate as leverage to orce

his comrades rom the ship.

As part o the negotiations, Phil-

lips agreed to board the lieboat with

the pirates, crew members said. The

deal called or him to swim back tothe Maersk Alabama once the lieboat

was saely away. The pirates never

let him go.

By the end o Thursday, the pi-

rates’ lieboat had run out o uel.

The U.S.S. Bainbridge had by then

steamed more than 300 miles to arrive

on the scene. Aided by FBI agents,

the ship’s ocers communicated

with the pirates by radio, eventually

persuading them to allow a boat with

provisions to approach.

According to Somali elders and

a pirate in the coastal shing village

continued on page 9

continued on page 9

8/14/2019 April 14, 2009 Issue


SportsuesdayTUESDAy, APRIL 14, 2009 | Page 7

The Brown Dail Herald

B G bb BBy Benjy asher

SPortS editor

Following an 8-6 win over Bryant on

Thursday, the baseball team trav-

eled to Dartmouth or a our-gameseries against the Ivy League lead-

ers. The series began with three

close losses or Brown, but the

Bears closed out the series with a

12-9 win, in which they came back

rom an 8-3 decit.

With eight league games let in

the season, Brown’s league record

now stands at 8-4, three games be-

hind Dartmouth, which is 11-1 in

Ivy League play.

First baseman Pete Gresko

’11 led the way or Brown in Sun-

day’s win with a triple and two

home runs, bringing his season

total to a team-high eight homers.

Co-captain Matt Nuzzo ’09, playing

in the designated hitter spot, went

3-or-4 — including a three-run

homer — and scored two r uns.

“Ater losing the rst three and

being down big in that last game,

we easily could have packed it in,

but we did a good job o coming

back and keeping the season alive,”

Gresko said.

Bw 8, B 6

Bryant got out to a 6-2 lead in the

third inning o Thursday’s game,

but Andrew Bakowski ’11 and Matt

Kimball ’11 kept the Bears (13-15-1,

8-4 Ivy) in the game, each pitching

two shutout innings o relie.

Nuzzo hit a two-run homer to

make it a one-run game in the bot-

tom o the seventh inning, and the

Bears tacked on three more runs in

the seventh to secure the 8-6 win.Outelders Dan Shapiro ’09 and

Daniel Roso ’12 led Bruno with

three hits each, and Rob Papen-

hause ’09 added three RBI.

d 5, Bw 2

In the rst game o Saturday’s

doubleheader, the Big Green (14-

10, 11-1) took a 2-0 lead in the bot-

tom o the rst inning, but Brown

cut the lead to 2-1 in the top o

the third, when Gresko’s RBI

single drove in outelder Chris

Tanabe ’10.

Ater the rough rst inning,

starting pitcher Mark Gormley ’11

retired eight consecutive batters

until, with two outs in the bottom

o the ourth, he surrendered a

solo home run, giving Dartmouth

a 3-1 lead.

Catcher Matt Colantonio ’11 led

o the th inning with a double

and later came around to score, but

the Big Green struck or two more

runs in the bottom o the sith to

take a 5-2 lead into the nal inning.

In the seventh inning, back-to-back

Dartmouth errors put runners at

the corners with only one out and

the heart o the order coming up,

but Dartmouth closer Ryan Smith

struck out Nuzzo and Gresko to

put the game away.

d 5, Bw 2

In Saturday’s second game, the

Bears had only one batter reach

base in the rst our innings, andDartmouth took a 2-0 lead in the

bottom o the ourth on a two-run

triple. In the th inning, Roso’s

second double o the game drove

in Papenhause to cut the lead to

2-1, but the Big Green answered,

expanding the lead to 4-1 by the

end o the sith inning.

They eventually held on or the

win, again by a score o 5-2.

“On Saturday, I think we orced

the issue a little too much,” Nuz-

zo said. “We didn’t play terribly,

but we had opportunities that we

could have capitalized on, and we

didn’t cash in on those, and they

got everything out o us that they

could.”

d 14, Bw 9

In the rst game o Sunday’s

doubleheader, pitcher Matt Boy-

lan ’10 struggled early, as the Big

Green took a 5-0 lead at the end

o the second inning — but then

the Bears’ bats suddenly came to

lie.

Brown sent 11 batters to the

plate in the top o the third, capital-

izing on si hits and a Dartmouth

error to score seven runs, capped

w. By meghan markoWski

SPortS S taff W riter

The women’s water polo team (18-

12) battled rival Harvard again on

Saturday aternoon and pulled

out a close

victory, win-

ning by one

goal, 7-6.

Sarah Glick ’10 led the team

with three goals, while Lauren Pre-

sant ’10 ollowed with two. Joanna

Wohlmuth ’11 and Rita Bullwinkel

’11 each added a goal. Wohlmuth

led the deensive eort with threesteals, while Glick and Presant

added two steals apiece.

It was the Bears’ second win

over the Crimson this season,

having deeated them 11-10 on

April 4.

“We would have rather it not

been so close,” said Wohlmuth,

who is a Herald Metro editor. “We

had a similar thing happen last

game, when we went up and then

allowed them to get back in the

game.”

Glick tallied Brown’s rst goal

just 45 seconds into the game and

added her second goal with 3:49 let

in rst quarter. Bullwinkel also hada goal in the rst quarter to give

Brown a 3-1 lead heading into the

second period.

The Bears’ scoring streak con-

tinued in the second quarter with

goals by Presant and Glick to in-

crease their lead to 5-1.

“We got o to a 5-1 lead but Har-

vard is a good team and I knew

they weren’t going to make things

easy or us,” said Head Coach Felix

Mercado.

Harvard came right back in the

third quarter, scoring two goals

and keeping Brown at bay, cutting

Bruno’s lead to 5-4. Harvard had

many attempts to tie it up, but ell

short, as one shot hit the post and

Glick came up with a steal on an-

other attempt.

Wohlmuth put one in the back

o the net to start the nal quarter,

but Harvard, down by two, came

back and tied it up, 6-6.

Presant wouldn’t let Harvard

take the lead, scoring the game-

winning goal with 1:55 let.

Despite the close nish, “I never thought we were going to lose the

game,” Mercado said.

The Bears’ deense, led by goal-

ie Stephanie Laing ’10, who had 10

saves, and Katherine Stanton ’11,

came up big to capture the 7-6 win

or Brown.

“Harvard called a timeout ater

we went up and a Brown player

was ejected, so we were in a man-

down deense. Harvard actually

got the ball to their post player,

but Kat (Stanton) made a steal,”

Wohlmuth said. “It was a bit o a

scary moment, but luckily Kat was

on top o it.”

“We are playing them again next

weekend at Northerns and we will

have another opportunity to have

things go smoother,” Wohlmuth

said.

Mercado added, “It is hard to

beat a team three times, but I think

we will prepare the same way we

did and we are having a team meet-

ing to get the girls ocused. They

are very hungry and have a point

to prove to Harvard that the rst

two wins weren’t a fuke.”

. QkBy eLisaBeth aVaLLone

SPortS S taff W riter

Saturday’s reezing temperatures,

heavy rain and strong winds made

the conditions or Brown’s matchup

against Penn (3-7, 2-4 Ivy) ar rom

ideal. The No. 11 Bears ell to Penn,

7-6, ater two ourth-quarter goals

gave the Quakers the nal edge.

The loss brings the Bears to 9-2

overall and 2-1 in the Ivy League.

First-hal goals by Andrew Fein-

berg ’11 and Brady Williams ’09

gave the Bears an early 2-1 lead,

but Brown trailed Penn 3-2 at the

end o the rst hal.

A goal just over a minute ater

haltime gave the Quakers a 4-2 lead,but quad-captain Kyle Hollingsworth

’09 retaliated 17 seconds later with a

goal o o an assist rom Feinberg.

But Penn maintained a 5-3 lead head-

ing into the ourth quar ter.

With 8:52 let in the game, the

Bears rallied with goals by Hol-

lingsworth and Williams, tying the

game 5-5. But the Quakers answered

with two goals o their own, putting

the Bears in a 7-5 decit late in the

ourth.

Reade Seligmann ’09 closed in on

the Quakers with a goal at 1:55 let

on the clock, but the Bears could

not catch up.

Head Coach Lars Tiany ’90complimented deenseman Peter

Fallon ’11 or his “exceptional” play.

Fallon shut down Penn’s Craig An-

drzejewski, who came into the game

as Penn’s leading scorer with 17

goals on the year. Fallon added ve

ground balls and a ew key steals to

his statistics to support quad-captain

Jordan Burke ’09 in goal.

“We are obviously pretty disap-

pointed with the outcome o the

game but happy to ace Harvard

mid-week,” Fallon said. “We won

the ground ball battle and played

a really tough game, but a lot o

things didn’t go our way. We gave

up too many shots close to the net,and need to orce shots to the side

where we know Jordan will make

the saves or us.”

Burke posted 15 saves to keep

the Bears within reach throughout

the game.

“Saturday was a tough loss, but

we played hard and were happy with

the eort,” Burke said. “Wednes-

day night is a huge game — a must-

win game that we’re really ecited

about.”

The Bears ace Harvard (5-4, 1-2)

this Wednesday at 7 p.m. in Cam-

bridge, Mass.

“I think both teams have some-

thing to prove, and neither will be

willing to give an inch,” said quad-

captain Jack Walsh ’09, looking

orward to Harvard. “We will cer-

tainly have to earn everything in

the game and that is exactly how

we want it.”

continued on page 8

Justin Coleman / Herald

The men’s lacrosse team narrowl lost to Penn amid unfavorable weatherconditions on Saturda afternoon.

BwHarvard

7

6

8/14/2019 April 14, 2009 Issue



SSuesday “We had more clutch hits on Sunda, and that’s reallwhat it came down to.” — Pete Greskoff ’11, first baseman

o by a two-run homer by center

elder Steve Daniels ’09, which

gave Bruno a 7-5 lead.But the Bears were unable to

maintain the lead. Dartmouth,

trailing 9-6 going into the bottom

o the sixth, exploded or an eight-

run inning to take a 14-9 lead, and

Brown ailed to produce any runs

in the seventh inning, losing its

third consecutive game.

Bw 12, d 9

In the nal game o the series,

Nuzzo gave the Bears an early lead

with a three-run homer in the rst

inning, but Dartmouth countered

with three runs o its own in the

bottom o the inning, and by theend o the third inning, Brown

trailed, 8-3.

But the Bears chipped away at

the lead, beginning with an RBI

single o R yan Zrenda’s ’11 bat in

the top o the ourth. In the next

inning, Gresko laced an RBI triple

to right eld and later scored on a

ground ball, cutting Bruno’s decit

to just 8-6.

Daniels hit an RBI triple in the

top o the sixth to make it a one-run

game, and in the seventh inning,

Gresko and Shapiro connected

or back-to-back homers to give

Brown a 9-8 lead.

Meanwhile, Bakowski held theBig Green in check, allowing just

one run in three and two-thirds

innings o relie. With the score

tied, 9-9, heading into the ninth

inning, Nuzzo led o with a single,

and Gresko came through again,

drilling his second home run o the

game over the right eld ence to

put Brown ahead, 11-9.

“I think I just got a ew pitches

to hit in that game, and I took ad-

vantage o them,” Gresko said.

“We had more clutch hits on Sun-day, and that’s really what it came

down to.”

Ater Shapiro reached base with

a walk, Tanabe drove a double

down the right eld line to score

Shapiro, giving the Bears an in-

surance run, and Rob Wilcox ’10

pitched a one-two-three bottom o

the ninth, capping o two-and-two-

thirds innings o shutout relie.

“The team showed a lot o char-

acter and heart, and we still believe

in our hearts that we have a shot at this,” Nuzzo said. “All we can do

now is control what we do, winning

these next eight games and taking

it one game at a time.”

The team will host a double-

header today against Marist, and

will then travel to Storrs, Conn. to

take on UConn tomorrow, beore

resuming Ivy League play with a

our-game home series against Har-

vard (8-21, 6-4) this weekend.

D 4- continued from page 7

Justin Coleman / Herald

Matthew Kimball ’11 pitched two shutout innings against Brant Thurs-da. The Bears beat the Bulldogs 8-6.

8/14/2019 April 14, 2009 Issue



world & ation

and must take.”

There are some indications the

Cuban leaders are ready to do that.

Last week, a delegation rom the

Congressional Black Caucus visited

Cuba and met ace to ace with Fi-

del Castro, spending one-and-a-hal

hours with him at his home.

According to Rep. Barbara Lee,

D-Cali., one o the three delegation

members, Castro told them Cuba

is open to talks with the Obama

administration “without precondi-

tions.” In an online column beore

the meeting, Castro wrote that “we

are not araid o dialogue with theUnited States,” adding, “That is the

only way to achieve riendship and

peace between peoples.”

The Obama administration had

telegraphed or weeks that the travel

and money restrictions would be

lited. But the new rules or telecom-

munications rms were a surpriseand sent stock prices o several com-

panies higher in trading Monday.

The changes do not alter the

Cuban government’s long-standing

eorts to hinder oreign companies

operating on the island. But U.S.

rms will no longer ace American

restrictions against building under-

water ber pipes or beaming satel-

lite signals to Cuba. Satellite radio

and television operators can now try

to bring their content to residents

there. And cellphone operators will

be able to pursue partnerships with

Cuba’s local network operators or

roaming contracts so U.S. custom-ers can use their phones while on

the island.

The changes will challenge the

nation’s monopoly telecommunica-

tions service provider rom Venezu-

ela, analysts said.

o Harardhere, the pirates were de-

manding $6 million in ransom and

sae passage to shore in exchangeor Phillips’ release.

But the negotiations collapsed

Friday over whether the pirates

would be arrested, the local elders

said. Sometime that day, a desperate

Phillips jumped rom the lieboat in

an attempt to swim to the USS Bain-

bridge, only to be hauled back on

board ater the pirates opened re.

From then on, Phillips was tied up.

In Washington that Friday eve-

ning, Obama received two national

security briengs on the situation.

Based on those reports, the White

House said, the president gave “the

Department o Deense policy guid-ance and certain authorities to allow

U.S. orces to engage in potential

emergency actions.”

Deense Secretary Robert Gates

said Monday that the Deense De-

partment twice requested the author-

ity to use deadly orce because two

groups o Special Operations orces

were involved in the operation. Each

required its own sanction. He said

that “the approval was given virtually

immediately in both cases.”

A senior administration ocial

said that the president did not deny

any operational request made to him

and that he knew the broad outlines

o the operation that the Navy hadplanned. The ocial said that “our

people tried a variety o ways to re-

solve the situation peaceully, and

the guidance all along was that the

overriding interest was the captain’slie.”

Gates said the our pirates involved

in taking Phillips hostage were 17 to

19 years old — “untrained teen-agers

with heavy weapons.”

By Saturday, according to U.S.

military ocials, the pirates began

experiencing withdrawal ater days

without khat, a mildly narcotic lea

chewed or its stimulant eects. The

pirate whom Reza wounded in the

hand asked the USS Bainbridge or

medical attention, eectively sur-

rendering.

“They were realizing they were

in a no-win situation,” the senior mili-tary ocial said. “They were foating

around in rough waters, they were

tired. ... These guys didn’t have their

chew with them.”

Rising weather whipped up the

seas, and the driting pirates agreed

to allow the USS Bainbridge to tow

them to calmer waters. By then, the

USS Boxer, an amphibious assault

ship with 1,000 crew members, and

the guided-missile rigate USS Haly-

burton had joined the Bainbridge.

That evening dozens o Navy

SEALs parachuted rom C-17 trans-

port aircrat into the sea, making

their way with infatable Zodiacs to

the Bainbridge. The lieboat, once

strung out roughly 200 eet rom the

Bainbridge, had been pulled to within

80 eet o the antail, a deck at the

vessel’s stern.

The pirates appeared to be run-ning out o options when they threat-

ened to kill Phillips over the radio.

Navy SEAL snipers, monitoring

the lieboat through rife scopes,

watched as two pirates raised their

heads out o a lieboat hatch. Inside

the lieboat, the third pirate moved

toward the captain, pointing his AK-

47 at his back.

Believing Phillips was about to be

killed, the on-scene commander gave

the snipers the order to re. When

a Navy SEAL arrived at the lieboat,

Phillips was bound, according to the

senior military ocial, who said the

captain “was anchored to the interior o the boat.”

News o the rescue ltered out

to the crew on the Maersk Alabama,

docked at the Kenyan port o Mom-

basa, on Sunday evening.

With the 18 other members o the

crew around him, rst mate Shane

Murphy said at a Monday news con-

erence that “right now, right this

minute, ships are being taken.” He

called on Obama to “end this pirate

scourge.”

In remarks Monday at the Marine

Corps base in Quantico, Va., Gates

said that “there is no purely military

solution” to a piracy problem he de-

scribed as rooted in Somalia’s poverty

and instability.

T k continued from page 6


U.S.-Cb

8/14/2019 April 14, 2009 Issue


ditorial & LettersPage 10 | TUESDAy, APRIL 14, 2009

The Brown Daily Herald

A L E x Y U L Y

w UCS

C O R R E C T I ON S P O L I C Y

The Brown Daily Herald is committed to providing the Brown University community with the most accurate inormation possible. Correc-

tions may be submitted up to seven calendar days ater publication.

C O M M E N T A R Y P O L I C Y

The editorial is the majority opinion o the editorial page board o The Brown Daily Herald. The editorial viewpoint does not necessarily

refect the views o The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. Columns, letters and comics refect the opinions o their authors only.

LE T T E R S T O T H E E D I T O R P O LI C Y

Send letters to [email protected]. Include a telephone number with all letters. The Herald reserves the right to edit all letters or

length and clarity and cannot assure the publication o any letter. Please limit letters to 250 words. Under special circumstances writers may

request anonymity, but no letter will be printed i the author’s identity is unknown to the editors. Announcements o events will not be printed.

A D V E R T I SI N G P O LI C Y

The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. reserves the right to accept or decline any advertisement at its discretion.

letter to the editors

editor ial

s sff W Mitra Anoushiravani, Ellen Cushing, Sdne Ember, Lauren Fedor,

Nicole Friedman, Britta Greene, Sarah Husk, Brian Mastroianni, Hannah Moser, Ben

Schreckinger, Caroline Sedano, Melissa Shube, Anne Simons, Sara Sunshine

staff Writer Zunaira Choudhar, Chris Duff, Nicole Dungca, Juliana Friend, Cameron

Lee, Kell Mallahan, Christian Martell , Heeoung Min, Seth Motel, Jotsna Mullur, Lauren

Pischel, Leslie Primack, Anne Speer, Alexandra Ulmer, Kla Wilkes

s sff W Nicole Stock

s B ac Max Barrows, Jackie Goldman, Margaret Watson, Ben Xiong

B ac Diahndra Burman, Stassia Chzhkova, Caroline Dean, Marco

deLeon, Katherine Galvin, Bonnie Kim, Maura Lnch, Cath Li, Allen McGonagill, Liana

Nisimova, Thanases Plestis, Agathe Ronce, Core Schwartz, William Schweitzer, Kenneth

So, Evan Sumor tin, Hadar Tagun, Anshu Vaish, Webber Xu, Lndse yess

d sff Katerina Dalavurak, Gili Kliger, Jessica Kirschner, Joanna Lee, Maxwell

Rosero, John Walsh, Katie Wilson, Qian yin

p sff Qidong Chen, Janine Cheng, Alex DePaoli, Frederic Lu, Quinn Savit, Min Wu

C e Sara Chimene-Weiss, Sdne Ember, Lauren Fedor, Miranda Forman, CaseGaham, Anna Jouravleva, Geoffre Ki, Frederic Lu, Jordan Mainzer, Kell Mallahan,

Madeleine Rosenberg

Wb dvl Jihan Chao

Marlee Bruning, Gili Kliger, Katie Wilson, Dsns

Kelly Mallahan, Seth Motel, Madeleine Rosenberg, Cpy eds

Lauren Fedor, Emmy Liss, Anne Simons, Jenna Stark, Joanna Wohlmuth, Nh eds

the brown daily herald

B hh Lvvs Le Lg tl

mw Vlg mllj WlCz klj sB aaw Bcalx mzvk W

Chris Jesu Lee

Stephen Lichenstein

Eunice Hong

Kim Perley Justin Coleman

gphcs edgphcs ed

Ph edPh ed

Sps Ph ed

Graphics & photos

BuSiNeSS

Kathryn Delaney

Seth MotelMarlee Bruning

Jessica Calihan

Anna Migliaccio

Julien Ouellet

Neal Poole

ProDuCtioN

Cpy Dsk Chf Cpy Dsk Chf

Dsn edDsn ed

ass. Dsn edass. Dsn ed

Wb ed

eDitorial

Arts & Culture EditorArts & Culture Editor

Features EditorFeatures Editor

Higher Ed Editor

Higher Ed EditorMetro EditorMetro EditorNews EditorNews Editor

Sports EditorSports Editor

Asst. Sports EditorAsst. Sports Editor

editor-in-chief

sv dLc

senior editors

rcl aC Cllsc Lw

associate editors

n jFl k

mcl scl

ManaGinG editors

mcl BcCz F

oPiNioNSSarah Rosenthal opnns ed

editorial paGe board

James Shapiro

Nick Bakshi

Zack Beauchamp

Sara Molinaro

William Martin

ed P edBd bBd bBd bBd b

General ManaGers

alx hj sc

office ManaGer

sw rll

directors

ell dslv

Cl kl pl mk kjl C

ManaGers

kll Wk Balx CC sm Bw

Ss DcSs DcSs Dc

Fnnc Dcass. Fnnc Dc

lc SsNn Ss

unvsy Ssrc Ss

Cd nd Ccns

PoSt- magaziNe

Arthur Matuszewski

Kelly McKowen

ednChf

ednChf

Several o this year’s presidential candidates are dedicated members o the

Undergraduate Council o Students who have ser ved in leadership positionsand taken the lead on important initiatives. But o the our candidates in the

running, Clay Wertheimer ’10 is the best choice.

As the primary liaison between students and the administration, the presi-

dent’s most important unction is to respond to student concerns and deal e-

ectively with the administration. As communications chair or UCS, Wertheimer

has done an impressive job o keeping students inormed and engaged.

The recent upswing in the council’s approval ratings owes in part to

Wertheimer’s achievements, including a revamped Web site, a widely dis-

tributed midyear report on UCS’ progress and an open membership policy.

By publicizing the council’s work, Wertheimer has helped to counter UCS’

image as a sometimes insular and opaque body.

Paris Hays ’10 oers an eciting list o ideas, but his lack o involvement

with UCS over the past year may hinder his eorts. Mike MacCombie ’11 and

Ryan Lester ’11 ser ved this year as vice president and student activities chair,

respectively. Both o them have considerable experience working with the

council, but we question their ability to ar ticulate a concrete vision. Wertheimer’s platorm is realistic and straightorward, i somewhat mod-

est. The elimination o course prerequisites and increased student input in

University spending decisions number among the more ambitious proposals,

in addition to smaller, more immediate suggestions or improving student

lie. Out o all o the candidates, Wertheimer is in the best position to get his

agenda passed.

m ’11 f uCs vc

Diane Mokoro ’11, a UCS at-large representative, stood out among the

vice-presidential candidates. The vice president’s job involves keeping the

committees on track and on deadline. It helps to be outgoing and in touch

with members’ concerns. Mokoro ts the bill . In particular, she will be able to

recognize and address sources o riction in UCS, given her work on an internal

review survey that gauged members’ satisaction with the council.

Mokoro plans to better publicize UCS’ work and to expand Ratty oce

hours, through which UCS members go rom table to table soliciting eed-

back about the council. These goals, along with her record o reaching out to students beyond the council, make Mokoro the most promising candidate

or vice president.

Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board. Send comments to

[email protected].

Awareness of impact key to sustainability t e:

In response to Katherine Hermann’s column (“First things rst — learn how to r ecycle a bottle,” Apr. 10):

Anyone who says that Brown students are not ecited

about the small problems with sustainability does not

know the right Brown students.

Not only do a large population o Brown students

understand and practice correct recycling procedures,

the student group Beyond the Bottle is currently tr ying

to eliminate plastic water bottle use at Brown altogether.

By inorming students and encouraging them to rell

and reuse water bottles, this group is addressing sus-

tainability by starting at the very root o the problem

o wasted plastic.

Another Brown group, Real Food Now, is working

to bring more sustainable, locally grown ood options

to Brown. Eating squash rom the Ratty that is grown

on a arm only a ew miles away signicantly reducesthe gas required or transportation, making the ood

we eat on campus more sustainable.

While Hermann suggests that interest in campus

sustainability is only in “big, fashy, green ideas,” nothing

is more important than making students aware o their daily environmental impact. A campus energy monitor-

ing system can make a dierence not because it will fash

in bright colors that Brown is sustainable, but rather

because it will clearly quantiy or students the impact

o simple steps such as turning o the lights in their

dorm rooms. The cur rent problem with sustainability

is that student are uninormed. Most are not recycling

capped bottles and leaving the light on in their rooms to

spite the environmentally conscious, but simply because

they don’t yet understand the impacts.

Eorts toward sustainability are not “ailed”; rather,

they are not yet nished. At Brown, everyone should

look a little harder beore doubting the excitement about

sustainability on campus.

a hx ’11April 12

corrections

An article in Friday’s Herald (“Panelists discuss being gay in the business world,” April 10) quoted Kyle Poyar

’10 as saying that Brown University does not give medical coverage benets to domestic partners. In act, same-

sex domestic partners are covered under the University’s Health coverage plan, “subject to meeting specic

eligibility criteria,” according the the University’s Benets Enrollment Decision Guide, as posted on the Human

Resources Web site.

An article in Monday’s Herald (“W. la alls to No. 20 Cor nell squad in Ithaca,” April 13) incorrectly stated that

goalie Maddie Wasser ’10 was put in at haltime and made only one save on seven chances. In act, Wasser was

put in the game 15 minutes into the rst hal, where she saved three o ve shots. In the second hal, she made

one save on seven shots. The Herald regrets the er ror.

An article in Monday’s Herald (“Simultaneous Passover and Easter causes or celebration,” April 13) reported that

the traditional seder hosted at Hillel on April 8 was presided over by Rabbi Mordechai Rackover. The traditional

seder was in act run by Ethan Tobias ’12.

8/14/2019 April 14, 2009 Issue



pinionsThe Brown Dail Herald

Students at the New School withstood pep-

per spray attacks by police last week while

trying to orce the ouster o their contro-

versial president, continuing the tradition

o a year o occupations as part o a national

campaign or accessible education. The be-

leaguered administrators they target could

almost be orgiven or thinking that the goals

o student power movements end where they

begin — on campus.

Tucked away in the demands o another group o student occupiers, this time at New

York University — alongside investment

transparency and a tuition reeze — was a

call or annual scholarships or 13 Palestinian

students and NYU support or the recon-

struction o the University o Gaza. A ew

weeks prior, students at Hampshire College

won a two-year campaign or their university

to divest rom Israel. And at Brown, students

galvanized by Israel’s winter assault on the

Gaza Strip organized under the banner o

Break the Siege.

These emerging movements refect a

rising consciousness among student activ-

ists that our universities are complicit in

the Israeli apartheid. As long as American

universities continue to energize the Israeliapartheid economy with their investments,

our student power will mean that we retain

leverage over the situation i n Palestine. We

can reprise the student role in ending theSouth Arican apartheid, working on our

campuses to answer the grassroots call or

BDS: boycott, divestment and sanctions.

BDS is designed to remove the interna-

tional economic dynamo that permits the

Israeli government to pursue policies o

apartheid. The BDS campaign is not a Pal-

estinian government initiative. “The call or

BDS came directly rom Palestinian society,”

said Jesse Soodalter ’94 MD ’09, an organizer

around Palestinian issues on campus.

BDS is designed in recognition o the

act that the powerul national governments

sympathetic to Israel are not going to come

to the aid o the Palestinian people. Com-

bined with the systematic dismantling o the

political and international leverage o the

Palestinian people through the destruction

o inrastructure and the exclusion o Pales-

tinian labor rom the Israeli economy, these

political circumstances mean that only inter-

national grassroots initiatives can achieve

change.

Students nationwide are ramping up their

own eorts to support the BDS initiative,

and historical precedent is on their side.Divestment has proved a popular, easible

and eective tool. The global movement

or divestment rom Darur, a cause behind

which Brown’s administration elected to

throw its weight, is only the latest example.

BDS programs were the international pres-

sure that broke down apartheid in South

Arica, and students and universities had a

major role to play in those initiatives.

And within the present BDS movement,

the student demands at NYU and divest-

ment at Hampshire College are part o a

much broader international campaign that

is well under way. An Amnesty International

leader has called on the United States gov-

ernment to end military aid to Israel. And

the aculty members who have signed on to

the academic and cultural boycott o Israel

represent 143 American universities.

But unlike Darur or South Arica, Israel

is not a politically easy issue. There are

a lot more Zionists on campus than there

were pro-apartheid South Arican students.

Universities take more in donations rom

Zionists than rom the Janjaweed. And thus

Brown, despite its historically progressivestance on similar situations in South A-

rica, East Timor and Darur, remains re-

sistant when it comes to Israel. President

Ruth Simmons has publicly opposed the

academic boycott and Chancellor Thomas

Tisch served on the publication committee

o Commentary, a magazine literally ounded

around the Zionist cause.

So while students on campus must work

to prevent the University rom throwing its

economic weight behind apartheid (it all

comes back to institutional transparency

and accountability, doesn’t it?), BDS ad-

vocates at Brown must also work to reute

the image that to be pro-Palestine is to hold

a taboo position. The recent internationalcoalescence around BDS is evidence that

it is, in tr uth, mainstream.

At Brown, those eorts begin with reut-

ing the idea, prevalent even on this campus,

that anti-Zionism is the same thing as anti-

Semitism, which reeks o the very ethnic

purity the Jewish community should have

learned to avoid. “Calling anti-Zionism or

BDS activism anti-Semitism is itsel an act

o ethnic essentialism,” Soodalter said. “It

presumes to dene Jewish identity as Zi-

onist. It attempts to erase the eistence o

anti-Zionist Jews.” Like me.

Simon Liebling ’12 is Jewish (he

swears) and from New Jerse. He can

be reached at

[email protected].

S

A recent New York Times article highlight-ed one o the ways that states, burdened with

massive budget shortalls, are lling their

coers. In Florida, Georgia, Michigan and

elsewhere, state judicial systems are crack-

ing down on people who owe ees and nes

to the courts.

Criminal convictions carry penalties be-

yond the sentence. In addition to any nes

assessed to individuals as a result o their

crime, going to trial can also involve ees to

help cover the cost o ser vices like public de-

enders or cour thouse security.

Failure to pay court ees and nes can

result in jail time, oten or several days and

sometimes or over a week.

The practice o incarcerating people or

ailing to pay o their cour t debt is wrong onseveral ronts. Its legality is questionable: it

sometimes causes states to lose money, and

in many cases it punishes people who legiti-

mately cannot pay what they owe, unneces-

sarily derailing their lives.

Under current law, states cannot imprison

someone or owing money. State authorities

claim, however, that when they incarcerate

people over court debt they are punishing

the violation o a court order, not the debt

itsel. Technically a person who hasn’t paid

o his court debt is violating a court order.

But this argument is a weak justication or

jailing people over debt.

Admittedly, the ees that these states

have been aggressively collecting will helpthem support their court systems. But im-

prisoning people or ailing to pay their ees

cuts into the state’s earnings because o the

costs o incarceration. The cost o incarcerat-

ing someone or even a ew days can negate

any monetary gains rom collected ees.

Imprisonment or overdue ees is a par-ticularly unair punishment given that those

who are apprehended have already served

out their sentence. It’s a little ironic that

states are jailing people who have already

“paid their debt to society.”

The policy is especially unair because

many people imprisoned over court debt

don’t have the means to pay what they owe.

When states incarcerate people or court

debt they are essentially punishing them or

their pover ty.

These problems and others led Rhode Is-

land to reevaluate court debt incarcerations.

A 2007 report by the Rhode Island Family

Lie Center ound that 15 percent o the time,

debt-related incarcerations cost the statemore than it would have received rom the

individual.

The study also ound that many o the

incarcerated needed income assistance and

many were unemployed, homeless or dis-

abled. They simply could not cover their

debts and were locked up as a result. A 2008 law reormed Rhode Island’s pro-

cedures or handling court debt and related

incarcerations. States that collect ees more

aggressively should rst consider the rea-

sons or the law and the changes it made.

I states want to keep revenue rom court

ees and nes fowing in, they should adopt

a more feible approach instead o cracking

down on debtors and throwing them in jail.

Courts should reduce outstanding bal-

ances or those who can’t aord to pay o all

o their debt in order to avoid unnecessary

imprisonment and increase the likelihood o

payment.

In Rhode Island, courts are now required

to consider an individual’s ability to pay when assessing ees. Other states should

ollow suit.

Additionally, states should make it as

easy as possible to pay o their court debt.

More feible payment plans would help, as

would a greater number o locations where

people can pay.

States should careully evaluate how

court debt incarcerations aect their citi-

zens beore stepping up enorcement e-

orts. The economic crisis might put states

already hampered by budget problems in an

even deeper hole, but it will denitely make

it harder or the those struggling nancially

to meet their debt obligations.

The incarceration o people who can’t a-

ord to pay o their court debt taints the judi-cial system. States should learn rom Rhode

Island and end this unair practice.

Dan Davidson ’11 is a political science

concentrator from Atlanta, Georgia. He

can be reached at

[email protected].

w .I. b

It’s a little ironic that states are jailing people

who have alread “paid their debt to societ.

As long as American universities continue to

energize the Israeli apartheid econom with their

investments, our student power will mean that we

retain leverage over the situation in Palestine.

SIMON

LIEBLING

opinions coluMnist

DAN DAVIDSON

opinions coluMnist

g ? Now ou can comment online!Visit www.browndailherald.com to comment on opinion and editorial content.

8/14/2019 April 14, 2009 Issue


tuesday, apriL 14, 2009 page 12

Today5

7

Providence races clock to fix deficit

Baseball earns one win, three losses

The Brown Daily Herald

53/ 34

today, apriL 14

4:oo p.m. — “Global Health and Hu-

man Rights: Time for Change,” Jim

yong Kim, Andrews Dining Hall

7:00 p.m. — Sports and Media

Symposium Featuring Bill Russell,

Chris Berman ’77

tomorroW, apriL 15

7:00 p.m. — “Understanding the

Financial Crisis and Land Use: Is

Development Dead?” Barus and

Holle 153

8:00 p.m. — Mr. and Mrs. Brown and

Class Fashion Show, Sales Hall

ACROSS1 E-junk5 Honshu port

10 No.-crunchingpro

13 Shakespeareanbetrayer

14 Fancy calligraphystrokes

16 Wahine’s gift17 11:00 a.m.

restaurantpatrons?

19 The wholeenchilada

20 Ocean color21 Em and Bee23 Caboose’s place24 “I’m fuh-reezing!”26 Held title to29 Fraternity nerd?34 Ace the exam36 Caboose’s place37 Deadlocked38 Banned bug killer39 Advice from the

auto club?42 Ginger __43 Noun follower,

often45 Big oaf46 Crocodile hunter

of film48 Whimsical

Barbie?51 Future

sunflowers52 Deadlocked53 Fed. workplace

watchdog55 Military bigwigs58 Answer62 “__ said it!”63 Quite

small-minded?66 Seasoned salt?67 Patriot Adams68 Organ knob69 The Sixties, for

one70 Like dirt roads

after rain71 Pigeon-__

DOWN1 Bro and sis2 Downsize

4 Mutt5 __ Jackson:

rapper IceCube’s birthname

6 Jean of “SaintJoan”

7 Make __ for it8 Relatives9 Org. with Patriots

and Jets

10 Extended family11 Animal hide12 Has a bug15 Predatory lender18 Plastic, so to

speak22 Egg on24 Out of shape?25 Made over26 Like most movie

rentals27 Angler’s boot28 Explosive stuff,

briefly30 Drive away31 Sidestep32 Went sniggling33 Patched pants

parts35 Livelihood

40 Product withearbuds

41 Upper bodystrengthener

44 Crunchysandwiches

47 Most spiffy49 Speaks like Daffy50 Plundered54 In a furtive way55 Mega- or

giga- ending

56 Lion’s warning57 Mystique58 It may be

ear-piercing59 “Leave __ me”60 Plains native61 Big Apple

enforcement org.64 It’s used for

battering65 Flightless big

bird

By Billie Truitt

04/14/09

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

[email protected]

Cb Vl | Abe Pressman

e tw | Dustin Fole

t o ab Zb | Kevin Grubb

sharpe reFeCtory

LunCh — Quinoa and Veggies, As-

paragus Spears, Fried Fish Sandwich

with Tartar Sauce

dinner — Vegetable Frittata, Fiery

Beef, Sticky Rice, Pork Stir Fry, Ginger

Sugar Snap Peas and Carrots

Verney-WooLLey dining haLL

LunCh — Buffalo Wings with Bleu

Cheese Dressing, Shitake and Leek

Quiche, Stewed Tomatoes

dinner — Chicken Ricotta Dijon-

naise, Vegan BBQ Tempeh, Parmesan

Mashed Potatoes, Wax Beans

hl -lcBwdlhl.c

The Herald debuted an upgraded Web

site Monda. The new site features an

overhaul of the visual design as well as

several new features for users.

Registered users can now comment

on content from the editorial and opin-

ions sections.

Increased multimedia capabilities will

allow for more videos and slideshows to

accompan the text of articles.

A new Flyerboard system will host

student groups’ advertisements and

tableslips at no cost alongside paid

local advertisements.

74calendar

Menu

crossword

the news in iMaGes

coMics

48/ 34

today toMorrow

web refresh

1

Documents

April 14, 2009 Issue