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www.browndailyherald.com 195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island [email protected] News..... 1-4 Metro........5 Sports...7-8 Editorial..10 Opinion...11 Today ........12 QUAKERS TRIUMPH Men’s lacrosse falls to Penn in a hard-fought match plagued by bad weather Sports, 7 MAYOR IN THE ’HOOD Mayor Cicilline ’83 spoke to College Hill residents about the economy yesterday Metro, 5 COURT COSTS Dan Davidson ’11 argues it should be easier to pay off court debt Opinions, 11 INSIDE D aily Herald THE BROWN vol. cxliv, no. 51 | Tuesday, April 14, 2009 | Serving the community daily since 1891 Columbus change spurs response BY LAUREN FEDOR SENIOR STAFF WRITER The faculty’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-profile conser vative pundit, among those decr ying the move. Though the faculty’s vote last Tuesday seemed to reflect stu- dent opinion — a recent Herald poll suggested that the majority of Brown students disapproved of continuing to call the holiday Co- lumbus Day — the resolution has prompted a wave of criticism from city leaders, who said the move was hypocritical and disrespectful to Italian-Americans. “Brown University made itself an example to the nation by carefully 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 of an incredibly sig- nificant moment in world history and Italian-American culture for the sake of political correctness does just the opposite,” he said. Cicilline added that “as an Ital- ian-American,” he took “particular offense” to the decision. Cicilline’s communications di- rector, Rhoades Alderson, told The Herald Monday that the mayor be- lieves the role of higher education is to “get at the truth” of “complicated parts of our nation’s history.” Brown “set the standard for do- ing that” with its work exploring its historical ties to the slave trade, Alderson said, but Cicilline felt the Columbus Day decision was done “in the opposite spirit.” “It was just kind of deleting (the event) from history, rather than us- ing it to promote understanding,” Alderson said. Cicilline was not the only one upset with the faculty’s decision. Members of local Italian-American organizations expressed their dis- satisfaction in a Providence Jour- nal article last week. The Italian- UCS elections offer fierce competition BY BEN SCHRECKINGER SENIOR STAFF WRITER This year’s Undergraduate Council of Students and Undergraduate Finance Board elections are the most com- petitive in years, with more candidates contesting for more spots than in other recent elections. Five of 10 UCS and UFB leader- ship positions are contested this year, while a year ago only the races for UCS president, UCS vice president and UFB chair were contested. There are four candidates running for UCS president and three for vice president, up from just two each in 2008. The combined seven candidates competing for UCS’ top two positions are the most since at least 2005. Twelve students are running for six at-large seats on UFB. Those posi- tions were uncontested last year, as only five students ran. Two candidates are running for UFB chair, unchanged from last year, and the position of UFB vice chair will be contested for the first time since 2007. “Usually — for UCS especially — a lot of the races have been uncontest- ed,” said Elections Board Chair Lily Tran ’10, also the current UFB chair. This year, races for the chairs of the UCS Campus Life, Admissions and Student Services and Student Ac- tivities committees are uncontested. There are no candidates for UCS treasurer or for 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 of this year’s races and a greater number of 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 of the undergraduate student body. The elections board has tried to facilitate greater student interest by introducing a debate for 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 for UCS president and vice president has named Brown’s financial situation or financial aid as his or her primary focus for the coming year. The elections board enforces a complex set of rules governing every aspect of campaigning. Candidates are U. to extend forgiveness policy for preregistration BY ANNE SIMONS SENIOR STAFF WRITER The University has extended a policy allowing students to pre- register for fall classes regardless of 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 for the fall semester even if they have an unpaid balance in excess of $1,000, which has been the limit for pre-registration eligibility in previous years. Students will continue to ac- crue late fees on their outstanding balances. The University changed the existing policy last semester in response to the concerns of some families whose financial situation was seriously changed by the eco- nomic downturn, The Herald re- ported in November. “The economic challenges and uncertainties facing our students and their families have not dimin- ished in the inter vening months,” Kertzer wrote in his e-mail. About 360 students benefited from the changed policy last se- mester, The Herald reported in January. Kertzer’s e-mail also reminded students that financing options are available for families who did not qualify for University aid, in- cluding federal loan programs. “The Office of Financial Aid is available to provide advice on financing options to both aided and non-aided families,” the e- mail said. The Herald reported in No- vember that the University would allow students with an outstand- ing balance of up to $7,500 to return to campus for the spring semester, increasing the limit from $5,000. Kertzer’s e-mail Monday did not say whether that specific policy would be extended. Courtesy of Library of Congress John Vanderlyn’s 1847 painting depicts Columbus landing on the West Indies island called Guarnahani by the natives — which he named San Salvador — on Oct. 12, 1492. Sophomore cooks up cake, business BY ALICIA CHEN CONTRIBUTING WRITER In high school, her classmates’ par- ents hired her to make cakes — but it wasn’t until last semester that Kelly Schr yver ’11 created TillieCakes, her own cake-baking company. “Kids on campus cannot get cus- tom cakes from scratch very eas- ily,” Schryver said. “Either you go to Coldstone’s or trek all the way out somewhere.” After developing a business proposal in ENGN 0090: “Manage- ment of Industrial and Nonprofit Organizations,” Schryver started her own company to make cakes for birthdays, baby showers, holidays and other occasions. Schryver named TillieCakes after 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 of cake.” Though her roommates some- times pitch in, Schryver bakes and decorates all of the company’s orders herself. Her creations — including vanilla “pupcakes” with confection- ar y canines and a bold blue Obama cake — have earned rave reviews from her customers, helping her business spread through word of 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 for a friend’s birthday. Schr yver has about one cake or- der a week, she said, and students on campus often recognize her as the “cake girl.” Schryver has even seen one of her cakes as the back- ground image of another student’s Qidong Chen / Herald “Pupcakes” are popular items from Kelly Schryver’s ’11 bakery 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 Page 3 FEATURE

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

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Page 1: Tuesday, April 14, 2009

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

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

Quakers triumphMen’s lacrosse falls to Penn in a hard-fought match plagued by bad weather

Sports, 7mayor in the ’hoodMayor Cicilline ’83 spoke to College Hill residents about the economy yesterday

Metro, 5Court CostsDan Davidson ’11 argues it should be easier to pay off court debt

Opinions, 11

insi

deDaily Heraldthe Brown

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

Columbus change spurs responseBy Lauren Fedor

Senior Staff Writer

The faculty’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-profile conservative pundit, among those decrying the move.

Though the faculty’s vote last Tuesday seemed to reflect stu-dent opinion — a recent Herald poll suggested that the majority of Brown students disapproved of continuing to call the holiday Co-lumbus Day — the resolution has prompted a wave of criticism from city leaders, who said the move was hypocritical and disrespectful to Italian-Americans.

“Brown University made itself an example to the nation by carefully 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 of an incredibly sig-nificant moment in world history and Italian-American culture for the sake of political correctness does just the opposite,” he said.

Cicilline added that “as an Ital-ian-American,” he took “particular offense” to the decision.

Cicilline’s communications di-rector, Rhoades Alderson, told The Herald Monday that the mayor be-lieves the role of higher education is to “get at the truth” of “complicated parts of our nation’s history.”

Brown “set the standard for do-ing that” with its work exploring its historical ties to the slave trade, Alderson said, but Cicilline felt the Columbus Day decision was done “in the opposite spirit.”

“It was just kind of deleting (the event) from history, rather than us-ing it to promote understanding,” Alderson said.

Cicilline was not the only one upset with the faculty’s decision. Members of local Italian-American organizations expressed their dis-satisfaction in a Providence Jour-nal article last week. The Italian-

UCS elections offer fierce competitionBy Ben sChreCkinger

Senior Staff Writer

This year’s Undergraduate Council of Students and Undergraduate Finance Board elections are the most com-petitive in years, with more candidates contesting for more spots than in other recent elections.

Five of 10 UCS and UFB leader-ship positions are contested this year, while a year ago only the races for UCS president, UCS vice president and UFB chair were contested. There are four candidates running for UCS president and three for vice president, up from just two each in 2008.

The combined seven candidates competing for UCS’ top two positions are the most since at least 2005.

Twelve students are running for six at-large seats on UFB. Those posi-tions were uncontested last year, as only five students ran. Two candidates are running for UFB chair, unchanged from last year, and the position of UFB vice chair will be contested for the first time since 2007.

“Usually — for UCS especially — a lot of the races have been uncontest-ed,” said Elections Board Chair Lily Tran ’10, also the current UFB chair.

This year, races for the chairs of the UCS Campus Life, Admissions and Student Services and Student Ac-tivities committees are uncontested.

There are no candidates for UCS treasurer or for 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 of this year’s races and a greater number of 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 of the undergraduate student body.

The elections board has tried to facilitate greater student interest by introducing a debate for 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 for UCS president and vice president has named Brown’s financial situation or financial aid as his or her primary focus for the coming year.

The elections board enforces a complex set of rules governing every aspect of campaigning. Candidates are

U. to extend forgiveness policy for preregistrationBy anne simons

Senior Staff Writer

The University has extended a policy allowing students to pre-register for fall classes regardless of 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 for the fall semester even if they have an unpaid balance in excess of $1,000, which has been the limit for pre-registration eligibility in previous years.

Students will continue to ac-crue late fees on their outstanding balances.

The University changed the existing policy last semester in response to the concerns of some families whose financial situation was seriously changed by the eco-nomic downturn, The Herald re-ported in November.

“The economic challenges and

uncertainties facing our students and their families have not dimin-ished in the intervening months,” Kertzer wrote in his e-mail.

About 360 students benefited from the changed policy last se-mester, The Herald reported in January.

Kertzer’s e-mail also reminded students that financing options are available for families who did not qualify for University aid, in-cluding federal loan programs.

“The Office of Financial Aid is available to provide advice on financing options to both aided and non-aided families,” the e-mail said.

The Herald reported in No-vember that the University would allow students with an outstand-ing balance of up to $7,500 to return to campus for the spring semester, increasing the limit from $5,000.

Kertzer’s e-mail Monday did not say whether that specific policy would be extended.

Courtesy of Library of CongressJohn Vanderlyn’s 1847 painting depicts Columbus landing on the West Indies island called Guarnahani by the natives — which he named San Salvador — on Oct. 12, 1492.

Sophomore cooks up cake, businessBy aLiCia Chen

Contributing Writer

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 from scratch very eas-ily,” Schryver said. “Either you go to Coldstone’s or trek all the way out somewhere.”

After developing a business proposal in ENGN 0090: “Manage-ment of Industrial and Nonprofit Organizations,” Schryver started her own company to make cakes for birthdays, baby showers, holidays and other occasions.

Schryver named TillieCakes after 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 of cake.”

Though her roommates some-times pitch in, Schryver bakes and

decorates all of the company’s orders herself. Her creations — including vanilla “pupcakes” with confection-ary canines and a bold blue Obama cake — have earned rave reviews from her customers, helping her business spread through word of 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 for a friend’s birthday.

Schryver has about one cake or-der a week, she said, and students on campus often recognize her as the “cake girl.” Schryver has even seen one of her cakes as the back-ground image of another student’s

Qidong Chen / Herald“Pupcakes” are popular items from Kelly Schryver’s ’11 bakery 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 page 3

Feature

Page 2: Tuesday, April 14, 2009

sudoku

Stephen DeLucia, PresidentMichael Bechek, Vice President

Jonathan Spector, TreasurerAlexander Hughes, Secretary

The Brown Daily Herald (USPS 067.740) is an independent newspaper serv-ing the Brown University community daily since 1891. It is published Monday through Friday during the academic year, excluding vacations, once during Commencement, once during Orientation and once in July by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. Single copy free for members of the community. POSTMASTER please send corrections to P.O. Box 2538, Providence, RI 02906. Periodicals postage paid at Providence, R.I. Offices are located at 195 Angell St., Providence, R.I. E-mail [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.

editorial phone: 401.351.3372 | Business phone: 401.351.3260Daily Heraldthe Brown

TUESDAy, APRIL 14, 2009THE BROWN DAILy HERALDPAGE 2

CampUS newS “I watched a lot of Martha Stewart as a kid.”— Kelly Schryver ’11, TillieCakes founder

Film Fest showcases palestinian lifeBy CaitLin trujiLLo

Contributing Writer

The inaugural Providence Palestin-ian Film Festival wraps up Wednes-day after a week of screenings designed to draw attention to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Since it kicked off last Thurs-day, the week-long festival has shown three feature films, a series of short documentaries and an exhibit of 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 conflict to campus, according to the film festival’s Web site.

Saturday afternoon in Carmi-chael Auditorium, Nitin Sawhney, a research fellow at the Massachu-setts Institute of Technology, pre-sented short films from his project “Voices Beyond Walls.” The short movies were made by Palestinian children during storytelling work-shops in refugee camps over the last several summers.

The short films portray aspects of chaotic Palestinian life, ranging from the tragedy of a girl losing her arms in a land mine explo-sion to the joy another girl derives from releasing a captured bird, and encompass everything from the intensity of a youth basketball tournament between Palestine and Jordan to the maturation of a boy who learns to value his educational opportunities.

Sawhney said in a discussion af-ter the screening that the children concentrated the stories’ narrative focus on the compelling stories of Palestinian lives, with the wide-spread violence pressed into the background. He said he learned many lessons from the children and hoped to extend the program to Gaza and to spread awareness of modern Palestinian life.

“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 first two of Maryam Monalisa Gharavi’s “Inessential” series, films that attempt to illustrate how Israeli government restrictions have devastated fishing and farming

industries in the region, and Phil-ip Rizk’s “This Palestinian Life,” which documents the nonviolent protests of some rural Palestinians as they refuse to vacate their land and homes.

On Sunday night, Avon Cinema hosted the independent film “Salt of this Sea,” in which a Palestinian-American woman named Soraya returns to her family’s homeland in an attempt to regain her deceased grandfather’s assets, which were lost upon his 1948 exile. The film explores the issues of Palestinian treatment at the hands of Israelis and the contrast between Soraya’s desire to regain her history and her friend Emad’s wish to leave Palestine behind him.

Film festival 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 the scope of featured films to include lesser-known works and more re-cent releases.

“We wanted to present a new perspective,” Abousleiman said.

In order to support the festival and help acquire the film rights, Common Ground received a grant from Brown’s Malcolm S. Forbes Center for 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 run the festival again next year.

Monday night, also at Avon, the festival screened part four of the six-part documentary “Chronicles of a Refugee,” which, like “Voices Beyond Walls,” delves into the lives of Palestinian refugees and their dilemmas of identity and citizenship. Director Adam Sha-piro, a human rights activist, led a discussion of the film after the screening.

The festival began last Thurs-day with a screening at Avon Cin-ema of “Slingshot Hip Hop,” a 2008 documentary that follows a variety of Palestinian hip-hop groups.

Last Friday Common Ground also hosted an exhibit at the Cogut Center for the Humanities of 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 of the festival, the film “Private” will be shown at Avon Cinema at 9 p.m. It will be free and open to the public.

Bookstore to search for new directorBy sydney emBer

Senior Staff Writer

The Brown Bookstore will begin reviewing applications for a new director this week, said Assistant Vice President for Financial and Administrative Services 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 found to fill the vacancy.

Cunard, who could not be

reached for comment, stepped in as director of the Bookstore in late November 2006, seven months after he resigned as director of auxiliary services and campus services at Wesleyan University, a position he held for four years. According to the Wesleyan Argus, Wesleyan’s student newspaper, Cunard re-signed to pursue consulting work full-time and to visit his daughter and granddaughter frequently in Virginia.

During his two-and-a-half year tenure at the Bookstore, Cunard

Jesse Morgan / HeraldThe Providence Palestinian Film Festival showcased films at the Avon Cinema about the lives of modern Palestinians.

cell phone, she said. Despite the growing popularity of

her baked goods, Schryver is hesi-tant to call TillieCakes a full-fledged business.

“The reason why I don’t entirely call it a business is because the profit margin is really slim. But I’m not doing it for the money,” Schryver said.

Schryver calls herself a self-taught baker. “I watched a lot of Martha Stewart as a kid,” she said. “Food Network’s my favorite.”

Schryver said she often impro-vises decorative techniques to make her unique cake stylings. One of her favorites was a cake adorned with President Obama’s face.

To create the Obama image, Schryver said she experimented with a variety of methods before hitting on the innovative technique she used to make the large decora-tion. She first created the design in royal icing on top of wax paper. After she allowed the decoration to set, she transferred the image — based on Shepard Fairey’s iconic posters — to the cake.

Schryver bakes all of her cakes from 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 frosting, to make the cakes extra flavorful.

“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 for Till-ieCakes.

But Schryver is experimenting with other avenues to pursue her culinary passion.

She has started filming a cook-ing show for Brown Television and is considering working at a pastry shop this summer, she said.

Last Tuesday, Schryver could be found in the Minden Hall ground-floor kitchen, putting the final touches on two cake orders. After she spread buttercream frosting on each cake and added piped borders and 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 further,” she said, as she carefully fashioned a rose from pink butter-cream frosting. “It’s right where it needs to be right now.”

Qidong Chen / HeraldOne of Schryver’s cake designs, depicting the 44th president.

Student’s made-from-scratch cakes delight

continued from page 1

continued on page 4

Page 3: Tuesday, April 14, 2009

CampUS newSTUESDAy, APRIL 14, 2009 THE BROWN DAILy HERALD PAGE 3

Stiff competition for UCS, UFBallotted a certain number of points and a spending limit of $45 for their campaigns. Table slips, events and even Facebook groups cost a certain number of points.

Violations of campaign rules also cost candidates points.

During this year’s campaign, a member of the elections board was made an administrator of the cam-paign Facebook group of UCS Com-munications Chair Clay Wertheimer ’10, a candidate for UCS president.

The rules violation cost Wertheimer 15 of the 100 points allotted to UCS presidential candi-dates, though, according to Tran, the elections 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 unfair advantage.

But some candidates have found creative ways around the restrictive guidelines.

Supporters of UCS Student Ac-tivities Chair Ryan Lester ’11 and Wertheimer, for example, have put up campaign-themed profile 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 front of Faunce House.

The candidates for UCS presi-dent are Paris Hays ’10, UCS Vice President Mike MacCombie ’11, Lester and Wertheimer. UCS vice-presidential candidates are UCS member Evan Holownia ’11, UCS Treasurer Harris Li ’11 and UCS member Diane Mokoro ’11.

Candidates for UFB Chair are current UFB members Salsabil Ahmed ’11 and Jose Vasconez ’10. Vice-chair candidates are Neil Parikh ’11 and Juan Vasconez ’10.

Voting in UCS, UFB elections begins today

continued from page 1

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 of task forces to follow through on impor-tant priorities.

Hays, from 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 feel 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 from Connecticut, says she sees no room for personal politics on UFB and writes in her platform, “I would not tolerate block voting based on personal differences/alliances.” An at-large UFB member and the board’s secretary, Ahmed has served for two semesters on UFB.

“I love Brown,” Wertheimer says. Wertheimer says he has had “the quintes-sential Brown education,” arriving as a student of the sciences before deciding to concentrate in English literature and finally doubling up with economics.

Wertheimer says that of the candidates for president, he has “the strongest relationships with administrators.” He cites his experience with internal reform chairing a UCS assessment task force last year. Wertheimer, from Juneau, Alaska, is the UCS communications chair.

MacCombie sees “the potential that UCS has to improve the lives of college students in meaningful ways” and wants the council to be more responsive to the student body. An advocate of the council’s “Ratty office hours,” he says the dialogue with students resulting from the hours has shaped his platform. He plans to continue to fight against pre-requisites and to improve advising.

MacCombie, from Chagrin Falls, Ohio, is the current UCS vice president, and has served on the council for 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 of those committees to UCS meetings for frequent consultation.

Lester, who hails from Logan, Utah, currently serves as UCS Student Activities Chair and has served as appointments chair.

paris hays ’10

salsabil ahmed ’11

Clay Wertheimer ’10

mike macCombie ’11

ryan Lester ’11

UCS Vice Presidential Candidates: A transfer 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 external communication,” he says. He would like to see a stricter UCS attendance policy and increased accountability for 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 unify efforts 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” of UCS. “I know everybody’s name. I know the code like the back of my hand,” she says. She says she will prioritize the University’s financial situation next year and work to preserve students’ Brown experience as well as retaining as many staff and faculty as possible. Mokoro serves 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 five semesters, plans to distribute a list of guidelines to student groups to give them a more solid idea of how to con-struct funding requests. “If groups knew how the board has historically funded” different types of requests, they could “better prepare budgets,” he says. Vasconez, from Northridge, Calif., cites his experience on both the financial and student groups sides of campus affairs. He has served as UCS treasurer and Ivy Council fi-nance chair and has been a member of the UCS student activities committee.

jose Vasconez ’10

UFB Vice Chair Candidates: Neil Parikh ’11 wants to address the “frustration and distrust” with which student groups view UFB, according to his platform. He believes the solution is to have UFB take a more active role in the planning of student group events, to reach “a solution that benefits everyone.” Parikh is the president of the Class of 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 of 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 for Brown at the University call center.

Page 4: Tuesday, April 14, 2009

TUESDAy, APRIL 14, 2009THE BROWN DAILy HERALDPAGE 4

CampUS newS “Are we going to stop Presidents Day because Thomas Jefferson had slaves?”— Michael Hogan ’11, on Brown’s renaming Columbus Day

American community has long regarded Columbus — an Italian explorer who made his first voy-age to the Americas in 1492 — as an important historical figure and cultural icon.

“Columbus was the one that opened up this part of the world to Western civilization,” Raymond Dettore, Jr., former president of the Italo-American Club in Providence, told the Journal.

Anthony Baratta, president of the Commission for Social Justice of the group Sons of Italy, told the Journal that Columbus Day is a “patriotic” holiday. “I don’t know why the faculty would have chosen this route,” he said.

Bob Kerr, a columnist for the Journal, said Monday that he thought the faculty’s decision was “a little detached” from the local community, especially considering that a large number of Providence’s residents are of Italian descent. Kerr wrote an opinion piece for the Journal on Friday, headlined “Dif-ferent ways of 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 after the faculty’s vote, radio personality Rush Limbaugh at-tacked the decision.

Referring to Brown students who supported the faculty’s deci-sion as “spoiled, rotten little skulls full of mush with brains that repre-sent the arid expanse of the Sahara

Desert,” Limbaugh said the change was “idiocy.”

“Next they’re going to come along and get rid of Halloween,” he said.

The Associated Press and Fox News were among the national media organizations to pick up the story.

Meanwhile, most Brown stu-dents continued to support the fac-ulty’s move, despite the way it was received outside College Hill.

“I definitely support the deci-sion,” Avi Kenny ’11 said. Colum-bus is “undeserving of a holiday,” he said.

“What they teach us in elemen-tary school is misleading — hero worshipping,” said Josh Marcotte ’11, calling the faculty’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 offensive. “It’s not that complicated

of an issue, but I understand where they’re coming from,” she said.

Michael Hogan ’11 said he gen-erally approved of 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 Jefferson had slaves?” he asked.

The faculty vote was preceded by months of pressure from a small group of students who wanted the University to stop recognizing Columbus Day. The students had originally proposed that the Univer-sity take a different day off, but the months of dialogue ended with the proposal to change only the name of the holiday, in part because some faculty and staff wanted the Univer-sity’s October holiday to coincide with that of local schools.

Columbus Day, obser ved on the second Monday in Octo-ber, has been a federal holiday since 1971.

Columbus change spurs criticismcontinued from page 1

Last month a Brown Daily Herald poll found two-thirds of the spoiled, rotten little skulls full of mush with brains that represent the arid expanse of the Sahara Desert sup-ported changing the holiday’s name. ... ‘That’s right, Mr. Limbaugh, you don’t want to admit it, but the multiculturists have been right all along. This is because Columbus brought syphilis; Columbus brought racism, sexism, homophobia, environmental destruction.’ I know it’s funny, but it’s sad to realize this level of idiocy is being rewarded. Next they’re going to come along and get rid of Halloween.

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

rush Limbaugh on the faculty’s decision to rename Columbus day

oversaw the store’s recent renova-tions and the opening of the College Hill Cafe.

Cunard has also held positions at Wake Forest University, Loyola University in New Orleans and Colo-rado State University. He was the executive director of the National Association of College Auxiliary

Services, a support organization that fosters information sharing and the development of professional re-lationships in higher education.

Gentry said the search for a new director is currently underway.

“The position is open, and we are accepting applications,” she said.

Though the final hiring decision will belong to Gentry, she said a search committee of people from

around campus will provide input about the hiring. Her decision will be based on the committee’s rec-ommendation after applicants un-dergo a formal interview process, she said.

But Gentry said a final selec-tion could take “another month or two.”

She said it was unclear when a new director would be in place.

Search underway to fill bookstore positioncontinued from page 2

Student-designed toys help kids with motor disordersBy mattheW sCuLt

Contributing Writer

Ask a child if 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 of Design have designed a way for him to do both, by creating toys specially developed for children with neuromuscular diseases.

The toys, originally designed by students in a joint Brown-RISD course, are meant to complement the benefits of physical therapy for children with Cerebral Palsy, said Professor of Orthopaedics Joseph Crisco of the Warren Alpert Medi-cal School.

By using the toys, the children effectively “have therapy for a much longer period of time,” Crisco said, adding that the key of the project is to disguise therapy as play.

The development of the toys re-sulted from a collaboration between Crisco, Clinical Assistant Professor of Clinical Neurosciences Karen Kerman ’78, RISD Associate Pro-fessor of Industrial Design Khipra Nichols and students in Crisco’s course, “Toys for Rehabilitation.”

Crisco said he and his colleagues came up with the initial concept for the product in the fall of 2006. His students designed the actual toys throughout the fall semester. The students worked on several differ-ent concepts, including specially designed walking shoes to help children with climbing disabilities and remote-controlled toys for chil-dren with hemiplegia, he said.

According to Crisco, many

children with neuromuscular dis-eases are unable to use the same toys as their friends and siblings because these toys frequently re-quire the use of fine motor skills, such as pulling a trigger or press-ing a button. To overcome this problem, Crisco’s students pulled out the wires of common toys and redesigned them to be controlled through movements of the wrist or arm.

The result is similar in concept to the Nintendo Wii remote, Crisco said, except that the new toys re-spond only to movements made by the forearm — which is enclosed in a brace — rather than to full-body and arm movement.

As the goal of the project was to use the toys for “targeted joint therapy,” Crisco said, the designers did not want the toys to respond if the child were “standing on (his) head.”

The researchers’ goal is to send the 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 of the toy controllers and began conduct-ing a small pilot study. Now the researchers are applying for fund-ing from the National Institutes of Health to upgrade the toys to commercial quality.

If the researchers get fund-ing, Crisco said he would like to involve students in further develop-ing the toys and researching their effectiveness.

Courtesy of Brown.eduA line of toys designed by Brown and RISD students in a 2006 course targets children with neuromuscular diseases and impaired motor skills.

Page 5: Tuesday, April 14, 2009

metroThe Brown Daily Herald

TUESDAy, APRIL 14, 2009 | PAGE 5

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

Budget proposal unsigned by CarcieriBy sara sunshine

Senior Staff Writer

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 of all Rhode Islanders, I expect all these concerns will be addressed by the end of the legisla-tive session.”

Though the governor’s decision drew criticism from 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 from municipal funding 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 tax in the country.

The increased cost could lead to a drop in sales, resulting in de-creased revenue for Rhode Island businesses, said Bill Felkner, ex-ecutive director of the Ocean State Policy Research Institute, a liber-tarian-leaning group.

Rhode Island already has one of 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

before government approval, which Felkner said would have saved the state a significant amount of money, was removed from the final budget, he said. It was removed because “the unions have a great deal of control,” Felkner added.

In a press conference last week, Carcieri said labor issues such as “minimum manning” provisions that were unaddressed in the budget are still harmful to cities and towns.

But many legislators were con-tent with the final budget. “Some-times under very, very difficult economic times, you have to put aside your differences and move the state forward, and I think this was a very good first step,” House Finance Committee chairman Steven Costan-tino told the Journal, according to the April 8 article.

But “a lot of the money… has strings attached to it,” Felkner said. “It’s not the financial relief it’s been portrayed to be.”

Cicilline, Chna discuss local issuesBy anish gonChigar

Staf f Writer

About 40 members of 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 ef fects of 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 focus should be on creating jobs and laying the foundation for eco-nomic recovery. He said the key to rebuilding Providence’s economy will be investing in knowledge-based industries, adding that he has been working in Washington, D.C., to funnel stimulus money to Brown and the Rhode Island School of Design.

Cicilline also commended the Providence Police Depart-ment for being a model city po-lice force, saying “the police de-partment is and continues to be extraordinary.”

Chief of Police Colonel Dean Esserman, who was in attendance, added that the Providence police force is on the road to becoming the first teaching police force 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 failings in the system. A major goal, said Cicilline, would be to work on bridging the per-ceived separation between school and after-school activities.

Members of the CHNA raised concerns about graffiti. Cicilline agreed that graf fiti is a serious problem but said there is no solu-tion other than to continue fight-ing it.

Esserman said a majority of vandals are high school students tagging their own neighborhoods. The police department is taking new initiatives to prevent graffiti, such as talking directly to parents and school officials, he added.

A more divisive issue brought up at the meeting was parking enforcement. Cicilline said park-ing complaints are split between people claiming that parking en-forcement is too strict and people complaining that parking enforce-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 of on-street parking and that he is working on pilot programs in several neighbor-hoods to reform parking.

College Hill resident Alan Gore told The Herald that this was his first time attending a neighbor-hood meeting, and he thought the mayor seemed very on top of things.

“I thought it was very informa-tive,” Gore said.

City faces deadline to solve budget woesBy joanna WohLmuth

Metro editor

With less than three months re-maining in the city’s fiscal year, Providence must rush to close a $16.1 million deficit resulting from slashed state aid and unmet rev-enue goals.

Ward 7 Councilman John Ig-liozzi, chairman of the City Council Finance Committee, said he hopes to see a supplemental budget pro-posal from the office of Mayor David Cicilline ’83 by the council meeting this Thursday.

But Igliozzi said city officials seemed “noncommittal” about their timeline for presenting bud-get revisions when he last spoke with them.

The City Charter requires that the budget be balanced at the end of each fiscal year, which runs from July 1 to June 30.

Because of the procedural steps required — including the certifica-tion of the deficit and presentation of a supplemental budget by the mayor’s office, as well as multiple votes and public hearings in the council — the budget revision process will likely take a month to complete, Igliozzi said.

With only 11 weeks to make up the deficit in Providence’s $641-million operating budget for the current year, the city will need to work quickly. About 55 percent of the total budget is allocated for education with the remainder going for city services, including recreational activities, police and fire departments, parks and snow removal, Igliozzi said.

The deficit will not affect the allocation of money to schools, so the city must find a way to make it up through savings elsewhere, Igliozzi said. Due to Rhode Island’s crippling foreclosure and unem-ployment problems, raising taxes is also not a possibility at this time, he said.

Of the total deficit of $16.1 mil-lion, about $7 million comes from

unmet city goals for revenue from taxes, property sales and consolida-tion of city departments, Igliozzi said. The other $9 million was cut from state funds allocated to make up for lost revenues from tax-exempt properties, such as hospitals and institutions of higher education, which make up about 52 percent of land in Providence, he said.

“Some of it was self-inflicted and some of it is something that wasn’t in our control,” Igliozzi said.

Though Providence officials have known for months that the state may cut the city’s funding, the exact amount was not known until early April, when the General Assembly voted to restore about half of the state’s revenue-sharing money for cities and towns.

There has been discussion of selling city properties, consolidat-ing city departments and seeking concessions from unions, Igliozzi said, adding that retroactive pay raises given to nonunion employ-ees may also be cut.

Cicilline’s director of adminis-tration, Richard Kerbel, told the Providence Journal last week that closing the deficit will be a “signifi-cant challenge.” The mayor’s office is primarily focusing on conces-sions from unions and nonunion personnel to achieve a balanced budget, he told the Journal.

The mayor’s office could not be reached for comment Monday.

Kerbel is largely responsible for drafting the supplemental budget proposal, Igliozzi said.

Providence is already strug-gling to fill the projected deficits in the budget for the next fiscal year, and the problem will only be compounded by any lingering deficits, Igliozzi said

“They are going to have to be-come more frugal and put together a serious financial plan on how to run the city without the additional $16 million for the next quarter,” Igliozzi said. “The longer they wait, the worse it will be.”

Anish Gonchigar / HeraldProvidence Mayor David Cicilline ’83 spoke at a meeting of the College Hill Neighborhood Association last night, covering issues from parking to school vandalism.

Page 6: Tuesday, April 14, 2009

world & nationThe Brown Daily Herald

TUESDAy, APRIL 14, 2009 | PAGE 6

U.S. appears set to boycott U.n. sessionBy miChaeL a. FLetCher

the WaShington PoSt

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration appears to be standing by its decision to boycott the World Conference Against Racism next week in Geneva, despite efforts to focus and tone down language in a draft confer-ence document viewed as hostile toward Israel.

The preliminary conference document ran 45 pages and called for reparations for slavery, con-demned the “validation of Islamo-phobia,” and asserted that Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians is grounded in racism.

In response to objections raised by negotiators from the Obama administration, the docu-ment has since been dramatically shortened and many of its sharp statements have been removed. Still, the administration seems uninterested in attending, stoking frustration among activist groups who have said that it is ironic that the nation’s first 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 for public affairs at TransAfrica Forum, an advocacy group that fo-cuses on U.S. foreign policy. “For President Bush not to participate, that would have been expected. For Barack Obama’s administra-tion not to participate sends a dis-appointing signal. It says these issues are not important.”

TransAfrica 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 would contradict 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 of the world.

“U.S. participation in the con-ference is critical for both sym-bolic and political reasons,” said the letter, which was also signed by other leaders, including Jesse L. Jackson and the heads of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, the NAACP Legal Defense 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 of their participation, if the U.S. doesn’t participate,” the letter continued. “Reduced global participation would mark a significant setback to efforts to overcome racial inequality around the world.”

White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said that although progress has been made in re-vising the draft text, concerns remain. “We hope that these

remaining concerns will be ad-dressed, so that the United States can re-engage the conference ne-gotiations in the hopes of arriving at a conference document that we can support,” he said.

The White House offered no further details. But last week a bipartisan group of House mem-bers sent a letter to Obama con-gratulating him for deciding to boycott the meeting, which is scheduled to begin Monday.

“We applaud you for making it clear that the United States will not participate in a conference that undermines freedom of ex-pression and is tainted by an anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic agenda,” said the letter signed by seven members of Congress.

Israel and several Jewish ad-vocacy groups have urged the United States and other nations not to take part in the conference. Canada and Italy have said they will not attend, and several other U.S. allies, including Australia, are considering not participating, according to representatives of several advocacy groups.

The week-long conference is expected to bring together del-egations from countries around the globe and representatives of hundreds of nongovernmental organizations to take stock of the progress made in fighting bias since the last World Conference Against Racism was held in Dur-ban, South Africa, in 2001. At that gathering, much of the discussion focused on Israeli treatment of Palestinians. The United States walked out of that meeting to pro-test an effort to compare Zionism to racism.

The United Nations has been working on next week’s confer-ence for the past three years, mostly without input from the United States. After Obama took office, he sent a delegation to Geneva, raising hopes that his administration would become a full partner in the effort. Hopes were lifted further when Obama had the United States rejoin the U.N. Human Rights Council.

But after sending the delega-tion to a preliminary meeting in Geneva, the administration de-clared the meeting’s document unfocused, hostile to Israel and essentially not salvageable. After that, the document was heavily edited. Its original length was cut by half and specific mentions of Israel and the need to pay repara-tions for slavery were deleted.

The new draft created a sense among advocacy groups that the administration would reverse its decision. But the changes have apparently not been sufficient 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 baffling.”

obama lifts sanctions against CubaBy miChaeL d. shear

and CeCiLia kang

the WaShington PoSt

WASHINGTON — President Obama Monday announced a series of steps aimed at easing the U.S. relationship with Cuba, breaking from policies first imposed by the Kennedy administra-tion and stepping into an emotional debate over the best way to bring democratic change to one of the last remaining communist regimes.

White House officials said the decision to lift travel and spending restrictions on Americans with family on the island will provide new support for the opponents of Raul and Fidel Castro’s government. And they said lifting the ban on U.S. telecommunica-tions companies reaching out to the island will flood Cuba with informa-tion while providing new opportuni-ties for businesses.

Obama left in place the broad trade embargo imposed on Cuba in 1962. But just days before leaving to attend a summit with the leaders of South and Central America, he reversed restrictions that barred U.S. citizens from visiting their Cuban relatives more than once every three years and lifted limits on the amount of money and goods Cuban Americans can send back to their families.

He also cleared away virtually all U.S. regulations that had stopped American companies from attempt-ing to bring their high-tech services and information to the island.

“All who embrace core democratic values long for a Cuba that respects

the basic human, political and eco-nomic rights of all of 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, officials say, there is likely to be an explosion of new charter flights to the island, and direct commercial flights could follow. Gifts and money will flow freely from U.S. relatives for the first time. And the announcement could open the door for the American information revolution to enter the island nation — in the form of Howard Stern on Sirius radio, iPhones and Wikipedia.

The moves were hailed by many advocates of greater openness toward the regime, including the business community, which sees new oppor-tunities for commerce. But it was im-mediately criticized by those on the right and the left who said it either went too far or not far enough.

Reps. Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart brothers and Florida Repub-licans who are from Cuba, issued a joint statement calling the move a “serious mistake” that represents a concession to a repressive regime. They said the money flowing into Cuba would reach communist lead-ers, not the people.

“President Obama has violated his pledge of January 20 by unilaterally granting a concession to the dictator-ship which will provide it with hun-dreds of millions of dollars annually,” their statement said. “Unilateral con-

cessions to the dictatorship embolden it to further isolate, imprison and bru-talize pro-democracy activists.”

On the other side of the issue, Car-los Pascual, director of foreign policy at the Brookings Institution, praised the policy shift as a good first step that recognizes what he called 50 years of failed 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 lifted. Most nations now have diplomatic relations with Cuba, leaving the United States virtually alone in its attempts to en-force 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 of itself, it’s not going to produce a radical change in Cuba. But it’s a recognition that a change is necessary.”

White House officials cast the policy shift as the beginning of 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

navy SeaLs end hostage situationBy sCott WiLson,

ann sCott tyson and

stephanie mCCrummen

the WaShington PoSt

WASHINGTON — As dusk be-gan to fall Sunday, the Somali pirates holding Capt. Richard Phillips were growing edgy.

As they bobbed behind the U.S.S. Bainbridge as it towed their lifeboat f arther out to sea, one pirate radioed the Navy destroyer and demanded to know how far they had been taken away from the sanctuary of Somalia’s coast.

“Very far,” came the reply from the Bainbridge, whose commander had offered to pull them to calmer waters.

“Thank you,” the pirate negotiator responded, according to a U.S. mili-tary timeline, his politeness masking menace. “If we cannot (reach the) So-mali coast, we will kill the infidel.”

Soon after, three shots rang out from the Bainbridge in indistinguish-able succession, felling the three pi-rates in the lifeboat. Bound tightly, Phillips could not move to celebrate the end of his ordeal until Navy SEALs climbed aboard the small craft and set him free.

“It was pretty remarkable that these snipers nailed these guys,” said a senior military official familiar with the details of the rescue operation

who spoke on the condition of ano-nymity. “You think of rough seas, 75, 80 feet away, and under darkness, and they got them. Three pirates, three rounds, three dead bodies.”

The precision volley culminated a five-day confrontation on the pale blue seas off one the world’s most unstable nations, a place that still haunts U.S. foreign-policy makers with images of dead U.S. Army Rang-ers being dragged through the capital during a failed U.S. intervention in the 1990s.

This time the Navy took the lead against a force of four, and then three, teen-age Somali pirates confined to the cramped quarters of a cargo ship’s lifeboat. But the challenge of preserving the life of Phillips, a 53-year-old Vermont resident, loomed large enough for President Obama’s new national security operation that he was briefed as many as five times a day as three U.S. warships and an 18-foot dinghy squared off on the Indian Ocean.

Three deft sniper shots ended a drama that appeared initially as an-other example of a muscle-bound U.S. military unable to adapt to today’s unpredictable security threats. In the end, U.S. special forces easily defeated lightly armed, untrained men in a battle that U.S. officials say will not end piracy.

The pirates had likely been track-

ing the Maersk Alabama for days when on Wednesday four pirates in a small craft tossed ropes and grappling hooks from the shadow of the cargo ship’s looming blue hull. They carried pistols and AK-47 assault rifles.

The Maersk Alabama’s crew, a mix of young men and veterans, locked themselves in safe areas of the ship as they were trained to do. Some improvised.

One sailor, A.T.M. Reza, forced one of the pirates into the engine room, where he stabbed the pirate in the hand. The crew then used the wounded pirate as leverage to force his comrades from the ship.

As part of the negotiations, Phil-lips agreed to board the lifeboat with the pirates, crew members said. The deal called for him to swim back to the Maersk Alabama once the lifeboat was safely away. The pirates never let him go.

By the end of Thursday, the pi-rates’ lifeboat had run out of fuel. 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 officers 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 fishing village

continued on page 9

continued on page 9

Page 7: Tuesday, April 14, 2009

SportstuesdayTUESDAy, APRIL 14, 2009 | Page 7

The Brown Daily Herald

Big Green too much for baseball BearsBy Benjy asher

SPortS editor

Following an 8-6 win over Bryant on Thursday, the baseball team trav-eled to Dartmouth for a four-game series against the Ivy League lead-ers. The series began with three close losses for Brown, but the Bears closed out the series with a 12-9 win, in which they came back from an 8-3 deficit.

With eight league games left 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 Greskoff ’11 led the way for 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-for-4 — including a three-run homer — and scored two runs.

“After losing the first three and being down big in that last game, we easily could have packed it in, but we did a good job of coming back and keeping the season alive,” Greskoff said.

Brown 8, Bryant 6Bryant got out to a 6-2 lead in the

third inning of 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 of relief. Nuzzo hit a two-run homer to

make it a one-run game in the bot-tom of the seventh inning, and the Bears tacked on three more runs in the seventh to secure the 8-6 win. Outfielders Dan Shapiro ’09 and Daniel Rosoff ’12 led Bruno with three hits each, and Rob Papen-hause ’09 added three RBI.

dartmouth 5, Brown 2In the first game of Saturday’s

doubleheader, the Big Green (14-10, 11-1) took a 2-0 lead in the bot-tom of the first inning, but Brown cut the lead to 2-1 in the top of the third, when Greskoff ’s RBI single drove in outfielder Chris Tanabe ’10.

After the rough first inning, starting pitcher Mark Gormley ’11 retired eight consecutive batters until, with two outs in the bottom of the fourth, he surrendered a solo home run, giving Dartmouth a 3-1 lead.

Catcher Matt Colantonio ’11 led off the fifth inning with a double and later came around to score, but the Big Green struck for two more runs in the bottom of the sixth to take a 5-2 lead into the final inning. In the seventh inning, back-to-back Dartmouth errors put runners at the corners with only one out and the heart of the order coming up, but Dartmouth closer Ryan Smith struck out Nuzzo and Greskoff to

put the game away.

dartmouth 5, Brown 2In Saturday’s second game, the

Bears had only one batter reach base in the first four innings, and Dartmouth took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the fourth on a two-run triple. In the fifth inning, Rosoff’s second double of 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 of the sixth inning.

They eventually held on for the win, again by a score of 5-2.

“On Saturday, I think we forced 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 of us that they could.”

dartmouth 14, Brown 9In the first game of Sunday’s

doubleheader, pitcher Matt Boy-lan ’10 struggled early, as the Big Green took a 5-0 lead at the end of the second inning — but then the Bears’ bats suddenly came to life.

Brown sent 11 batters to the plate in the top of the third, capital-izing on six hits and a Dartmouth error to score seven runs, capped

w. water polo prevails over rival harvardBy meghan markoWski

SPortS Staff Writer

The women’s water polo team (18-12) battled rival Harvard again on Saturday afternoon 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 followed with two. Joanna Wohlmuth ’11 and Rita Bullwinkel ’11 each added a goal. Wohlmuth led the defensive effort with three steals, while Glick and Presant added two steals apiece.

It was the Bears’ second win over the Crimson this season, having defeated 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 first goal just 45 seconds into the game and added her second goal with 3:49 left in first quarter. Bullwinkel also had a goal in the first 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 off to a 5-1 lead but Har-vard is a good team and I knew they weren’t going to make things easy for 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 fell short, as one shot hit the post and Glick came up with a steal on an-other attempt.

Wohlmuth put one in the back of the net to start the final 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 left.

Despite the close finish, “I never thought we were going to lose the game,” Mercado said.

The Bears’ defense, led by goal-ie Stephanie Laing ’10, who had 10 saves, and Katherine Stanton ’11, came up big to capture the 7-6 win for Brown.

“Harvard called a timeout after we went up and a Brown player was ejected, so we were in a man- down defense. Harvard actually got the ball to their post player, but Kat (Stanton) made a steal,” Wohlmuth said. “It was a bit of a scary moment, but luckily Kat was on top of 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 focused. They are very hungry and have a point to prove to Harvard that the first two wins weren’t a fluke.”

m. lacrosse team falls to QuakersBy eLisaBeth aVaLLone

SPortS Staff Writer

Saturday’s freezing temperatures, heavy rain and strong winds made the conditions for Brown’s matchup against Penn (3-7, 2-4 Ivy) far from ideal. The No. 11 Bears fell to Penn, 7-6, after two fourth-quarter goals gave the Quakers the final edge.

The loss brings the Bears to 9-2 overall and 2-1 in the Ivy League.

First-half 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 of the first half.

A goal just over a minute after halftime gave the Quakers a 4-2 lead, but quad-captain Kyle Hollingsworth ’09 retaliated 17 seconds later with a goal off of an assist from Feinberg. But Penn maintained a 5-3 lead head-ing into the fourth quarter.

With 8:52 left 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 of their own, putting the Bears in a 7-5 deficit late in the fourth.

Reade Seligmann ’09 closed in on the Quakers with a goal at 1:55 left on the clock, but the Bears could not catch up.

Head Coach Lars Tiffany ’90 complimented defenseman Peter Fallon ’11 for 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 five

ground balls and a few key steals to his statistics to support quad-captain Jordan Burke ’09 in goal.

“We are obviously pretty disap-pointed with the outcome of the game but happy to face Harvard mid-week,” Fallon said. “We won the ground ball battle and played a really tough game, but a lot of things didn’t go our way. We gave up too many shots close to the net, and need to force shots to the side where we know Jordan will make the saves for 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 effort,” Burke said. “Wednes-day night is a huge game — a must-win game that we’re really excited about.”

The Bears face 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 forward 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 / HeraldThe men’s lacrosse team narrowly lost to Penn amid unfavorable weather conditions on Saturday afternoon.

BrownHarvard

76

Page 8: Tuesday, April 14, 2009

TUESDAy, APRIL 14, 2009THE BROWN DAILy HERALDPAGE 8

SportStuesday “We had more clutch hits on Sunday, and that’s really what it came down to.” — Pete Greskoff ’11, first baseman

off by a two-run homer by center fielder 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 of the sixth, exploded for an eight-run inning to take a 14-9 lead, and Brown failed to produce any runs in the seventh inning, losing its third consecutive game.

Brown 12, dartmouth 9In the final game of the series,

Nuzzo gave the Bears an early lead with a three-run homer in the first inning, but Dartmouth countered with three runs of its own in the bottom of the inning, and by the end of the third inning, Brown trailed, 8-3.

But the Bears chipped away at the lead, beginning with an RBI single off Ryan Zrenda’s ’11 bat in the top of the fourth. In the next inning, Greskoff laced an RBI triple to right field and later scored on a ground ball, cutting Bruno’s deficit to just 8-6.

Daniels hit an RBI triple in the top of the sixth to make it a one-run game, and in the seventh inning, Greskoff and Shapiro connected for back-to-back homers to give Brown a 9-8 lead.

Meanwhile, Bakowski held the Big Green in check, allowing just one run in three and two-thirds innings of relief. With the score tied, 9-9, heading into the ninth inning, Nuzzo led off with a single, and Greskoff came through again, drilling his second home run of the game over the right field fence to put Brown ahead, 11-9.

“I think I just got a few pitches to hit in that game, and I took ad-vantage of them,” Greskoff said.

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

After Shapiro reached base with a walk, Tanabe drove a double down the right field line to score Shapiro, giving the Bears an in-surance run, and Rob Wilcox ’10 pitched a one-two-three bottom of the ninth, capping off two-and-two-thirds innings of shutout relief.

“The team showed a lot of 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, before resuming Ivy League play with a four-game home series against Har-vard (8-21, 6-4) this weekend.

Dartmouth dominates 4-game setcontinued from page 7

Justin Coleman / HeraldMatthew Kimball ’11 pitched two shutout innings against Bryant Thurs-day. The Bears beat the Bulldogs 8-6.

Page 9: Tuesday, April 14, 2009

TUESDAy, APRIL 14, 2009THE BROWN DAILy HERALDPAGE 9

world & nation

and must take.”There are some indications the

Cuban leaders are ready to do that. Last week, a delegation from the Congressional Black Caucus visited Cuba and met face to face with Fi-del Castro, spending one-and-a-half hours with him at his home.

According to Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., one of the three delegation members, Castro told them Cuba is open to talks with the Obama administration “without precondi-tions.” In an online column before the meeting, Castro wrote that “we are not afraid of dialogue with the United States,” adding, “That is the only way to achieve friendship and peace between peoples.”

The Obama administration had telegraphed for weeks that the travel and money restrictions would be

lifted. But the new rules for telecom-munications firms were a surprise and sent stock prices of several com-panies higher in trading Monday.

The changes do not alter the Cuban government’s long-standing efforts to hinder foreign companies operating on the island. But U.S. firms will no longer face American restrictions against building under-water fiber 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 for 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 from Venezu-ela, analysts said.

of Harardhere, the pirates were de-manding $6 million in ransom and safe passage to shore in exchange for 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 from the lifeboat in an attempt to swim to the USS Bain-bridge, only to be hauled back on board after the pirates opened fire. From then on, Phillips was tied up.

In Washington that Friday eve-ning, Obama received two national security briefings on the situation. Based on those reports, the White House said, the president gave “the Department of Defense policy guid-ance and certain authorities to allow U.S. forces to engage in potential emergency actions.”

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Monday that the Defense De-partment twice requested the author-ity to use deadly force because two groups of Special Operations forces 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 official said that the president did not deny any operational request made to him and that he knew the broad outlines of the operation that the Navy had planned. The official said that “our

people tried a variety of ways to re-solve the situation peacefully, and the guidance all along was that the overriding interest was the captain’s life.”

Gates said the four 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 officials, the pirates began experiencing withdrawal after days without khat, a mildly narcotic leaf chewed for its stimulant effects. The pirate whom Reza wounded in the hand asked the USS Bainbridge for medical attention, effectively sur-rendering.

“They were realizing they were in a no-win situation,” the senior mili-tary official said. “They were floating around in rough waters, they were tired. ... These guys didn’t have their chew with them.”

Rising weather whipped up the seas, and the drifting 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 frigate USS Haly-burton had joined the Bainbridge.

That evening dozens of Navy SEALs parachuted from C-17 trans-port aircraft into the sea, making their way with inflatable Zodiacs to the Bainbridge. The lifeboat, once strung out roughly 200 feet from the

Bainbridge, had been pulled to within 80 feet of the fantail, a deck at the vessel’s stern.

The pirates appeared to be run-ning out of options when they threat-ened to kill Phillips over the radio.

Navy SEAL snipers, monitoring the lifeboat through rifle scopes, watched as two pirates raised their heads out of a lifeboat hatch. Inside the lifeboat, 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 fire. When a Navy SEAL arrived at the lifeboat, Phillips was bound, according to the senior military official, who said the captain “was anchored to the interior of the boat.”

News of the rescue filtered out to the crew on the Maersk Alabama, docked at the Kenyan port of Mom-basa, on Sunday evening.

With the 18 other members of the crew around him, first mate Shane Murphy said at a Monday news con-ference 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.

Three pirates killed in hostage resolutioncontinued from page 6

continued from page 6

U.S.-Cuba agreements open communication channels

Page 10: Tuesday, April 14, 2009

editorial & LettersPage 10 | TUESDAy, APRIL 14, 2009

The Brown Daily Herald

A L E x Y U L Y

wertheimer for UCS president

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Several of this year’s presidential candidates are dedicated members of the Undergraduate Council of Students who have served in leadership positions and taken the lead on important initiatives. But of the four 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 function is to respond to student concerns and deal ef-fectively with the administration. As communications chair for UCS, Wertheimer has done an impressive job of keeping students informed 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 offers an exciting list of ideas, but his lack of involvement with UCS over the past year may hinder his efforts. Mike MacCombie ’11 and Ryan Lester ’11 served this year as vice president and student activities chair, respectively. Both of them have considerable experience working with the council, but we question their ability to articulate a concrete vision.

Wertheimer’s platform is realistic and straightforward, if somewhat mod-est. The elimination of course prerequisites and increased student input in University spending decisions number among the more ambitious proposals, in addition to smaller, more immediate suggestions for improving student life. Out of all of the candidates, Wertheimer is in the best position to get his agenda passed.

mokoro ’11 for uCs vice presidentDiane 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 fits the bill. In particular, she will be able to recognize and address sources of friction in UCS, given her work on an internal review survey that gauged members’ satisfaction with the council.

Mokoro plans to better publicize UCS’ work and to expand Ratty office hours, through which UCS members go from table to table soliciting feed-back about the council. These goals, along with her record of reaching out to students beyond the council, make Mokoro the most promising candidate for vice president.

Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board. Send comments to [email protected].

Awareness of impact key to sustainabilityto the editor:

In response to Katherine Hermann’s column (“First things first — learn how to recycle a bottle,” Apr. 10): Anyone who says that Brown students are not excited about the small problems with sustainability does not know the right Brown students.

Not only do a large population of Brown students understand and practice correct recycling procedures, the student group Beyond the Bottle is currently trying to eliminate plastic water bottle use at Brown altogether. By informing students and encouraging them to refill and reuse water bottles, this group is addressing sus-tainability by starting at the very root of the problem of wasted plastic.

Another Brown group, Real Food Now, is working to bring more sustainable, locally grown food options to Brown. Eating squash from the Ratty that is grown on a farm only a few miles away significantly reduces the gas required for transportation, making the food we eat on campus more sustainable.

While Hermann suggests that interest in campus sustainability is only in “big, flashy, green ideas,” nothing is more important than making students aware of their daily environmental impact. A campus energy monitor-ing system can make a difference not because it will flash in bright colors that Brown is sustainable, but rather because it will clearly quantify for students the impact of simple steps such as turning off the lights in their dorm rooms. The current problem with sustainability is that student are uninformed. 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.

Efforts toward sustainability are not “failed”; rather, they are not yet finished. At Brown, everyone should look a little harder before doubting the excitement about sustainability on campus.

ana heureux ’11April 12

correction

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 benefits to domestic partners. In fact, same-sex domestic partners are covered under the University’s Health coverage plan, “subject to meeting specific eligibility criteria,” according the the University’s Benefits Enrollment Decision Guide, as posted on the Human Resources Web site.

An article in Monday’s Herald (“W. lax falls to No. 20 Cornell squad in Ithaca,” April 13) incorrectly stated that goalie Maddie Wasser ’10 was put in at halftime and made only one save on seven chances. In fact, Wasser was put in the game 15 minutes into the first half, where she saved three of five shots. In the second half, she made one save on seven shots. The Herald regrets the error.

An article in Monday’s Herald (“Simultaneous Passover and Easter causes for 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 fact run by Ethan Tobias ’12.

Page 11: Tuesday, April 14, 2009

TUESDAy, APRIL 14, 2009 | PAGE 11

opinionsThe Brown Daily Herald

Students at the New School withstood pep-per spray attacks by police last week while trying to force the ouster of their contro-versial president, continuing the tradition of a year of occupations as part of a national campaign for accessible education. The be-leaguered administrators they target could almost be forgiven for thinking that the goals of student power movements end where they begin — on campus.

Tucked away in the demands of another group of student occupiers, this time at New York University — alongside investment transparency and a tuition freeze — was a call for annual scholarships for 13 Palestinian students and NYU support for the recon-struction of the University of Gaza. A few weeks prior, students at Hampshire College won a two-year campaign for their university to divest from Israel. And at Brown, students galvanized by Israel’s winter assault on the Gaza Strip organized under the banner of Break the Siege.

These emerging movements reflect 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 Israeli apartheid economy with their investments, our student power will mean that we retain leverage over the situation in Palestine. We

can reprise the student role in ending the South African apartheid, working on our campuses to answer the grassroots call for BDS: boycott, divestment and sanctions.

BDS is designed to remove the interna-tional economic dynamo that permits the Israeli government to pursue policies of apartheid. The BDS campaign is not a Pal-estinian government initiative. “The call for BDS came directly from Palestinian society,” said Jesse Soodalter ’94 MD ’09, an organizer around Palestinian issues on campus.

BDS is designed in recognition of the

fact that the powerful national governments sympathetic to Israel are not going to come to the aid of the Palestinian people. Com-bined with the systematic dismantling of the political and international leverage of the Palestinian people through the destruction of infrastructure and the exclusion of Pales-tinian labor from the Israeli economy, these political circumstances mean that only inter-national grassroots initiatives can achieve change.

Students nationwide are ramping up their own efforts to support the BDS initiative,

and historical precedent is on their side. Divestment has proved a popular, feasible and effective tool. The global movement for divestment from Darfur, 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 Africa, 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 of a

much broader international campaign that is well underway. An Amnesty International leader has called on the United States gov-ernment to end military aid to Israel. And the faculty members who have signed on to the academic and cultural boycott of Israel represent 143 American universities.

But unlike Darfur or South Africa, Israel is not a politically easy issue. There are a lot more Zionists on campus than there were pro-apartheid South African students. Universities take more in donations from Zionists than from the Janjaweed. And thus

Brown, despite its historically progressive stance on similar situations in South Af-rica, East Timor and Darfur, 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 of Commentary, a magazine literally founded around the Zionist cause.

So while students on campus must work to prevent the University from 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 refute the image that to be pro-Palestine is to hold a taboo position. The recent international coalescence around BDS is evidence that it is, in truth, mainstream.

At Brown, those efforts begin with refut-ing the idea, prevalent even on this campus, that anti-Zionism is the same thing as anti-Semitism, which reeks of the very ethnic purity the Jewish community should have learned to avoid. “Calling anti-Zionism or BDS activism anti-Semitism is itself an act of ethnic essentialism,” Soodalter said. “It presumes to define Jewish identity as Zi-onist. It attempts to erase the existence of anti-Zionist Jews.” Like me.

Simon Liebling ’12 is Jewish (he swears) and from New Jersey. He can

be reached at [email protected].

Student power for palestine

A recent New York Times article highlight-ed one of the ways that states, burdened with massive budget shortfalls, are filling their coffers. In Florida, Georgia, Michigan and elsewhere, state judicial systems are crack-ing down on people who owe fees and fines to the courts.

Criminal convictions carry penalties be-yond the sentence. In addition to any fines assessed to individuals as a result of their crime, going to trial can also involve fees to help cover the cost of services like public de-fenders or courthouse security.

Failure to pay court fees and fines can result in jail time, often for several days and sometimes for over a week.

The practice of incarcerating people for failing to pay off their court debt is wrong on several fronts. 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 for owing money. State authorities claim, however, that when they incarcerate

people over court debt they are punishing the violation of a court order, not the debt itself. Technically a person who hasn’t paid off his court debt is violating a court order. But this argument is a weak justification for jailing people over debt.

Admittedly, the fees that these states have been aggressively collecting will help them support their court systems. But im-prisoning people for failing to pay their fees cuts into the state’s earnings because of the costs of incarceration. The cost of incarcerat-ing someone for even a few days can negate

any monetary gains from collected fees.Imprisonment for overdue fees is a par-

ticularly unfair 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 unfair because many people imprisoned over court debt don’t have the means to pay what they owe.

When states incarcerate people for court debt they are essentially punishing them for their poverty.

These problems and others led Rhode Is-land to reevaluate court debt incarcerations. A 2007 report by the Rhode Island Family Life Center found that 15 percent of the time, debt-related incarcerations cost the state more than it would have received from the individual.

The study also found that many of 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 reformed Rhode Island’s pro-cedures for handling court debt and related incarcerations. States that collect fees more aggressively should first consider the rea-sons for the law and the changes it made. If states want to keep revenue from court fees and fines flowing in, they should adopt a more flexible approach instead of cracking

down on debtors and throwing them in jail.Courts should reduce outstanding bal-

ances for those who can’t afford to pay off all of their debt in order to avoid unnecessary imprisonment and increase the likelihood of payment.

In Rhode Island, courts are now required to consider an individual’s ability to pay when assessing fees. Other states should follow suit.

Additionally, states should make it as easy as possible to pay off their court debt. More flexible payment plans would help, as would a greater number of locations where people can pay.

States should carefully evaluate how court debt incarcerations affect their citi-zens before stepping up enforcement ef-forts. The economic crisis might put states already hampered by budget problems in an even deeper hole, but it will definitely make it harder for the those struggling financially to meet their debt obligations.

The incarceration of people who can’t af-ford to pay off their court debt taints the judi-cial system. States should learn from Rhode Island and end this unfair practice.

Dan Davidson ’11 is a political science concentrator from Atlanta, Georgia. He

can be reached at [email protected].

why r.I. reformed court debt

It’s a little ironic that states are jailing people who have already “paid their debt to society.

As long as American universities continue to energize the Israeli apartheid economy with their investments, our student power will mean that we

retain leverage over the situation in Palestine.

SIMON LIEBLING

opinions coluMnist

DAN DAVIDSONopinions coluMnist

got something to say? Now you can comment online!Visit www.browndailyherald.com to comment on opinion and editorial content.

Page 12: Tuesday, April 14, 2009

tuesday, apriL 14, 2009 page 12

Today 57

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

Holley 153

8:00 p.m. — Mr. and Mrs. Brown and

Class Fashion Show, Sayles 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 Downsize3 Juanita’s water

4 Mutt5 __ Jackson:

rapper IceCube’s birthname

6 Jean of “SaintJoan”

7 Make __ for it8 Relatives9 Org. with Patriots

and Jets10 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(c)2009 Tribune Media Services, Inc. 04/14/09

04/14/09

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

RELEASE DATE– Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword PuzzleEdited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

[email protected]

Cabernet Voltarie | Abe Pressman

engima twist | Dustin Foley

the one about Zombies | 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

herald re-launches Browndailyherald.com

The Herald debuted an upgraded Web site Monday. 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 accompany the text of articles.

A new Flyerboard system will host student groups’ advertisements and tableslips at no cost alongside paid local advertisements.

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