By Ashley Aydin

Contributing Writer

Rebecca Maxfield ’13 has always been a fan of “Jeopardy!,” but she never thought she would actually compete on the show. She finally got her chance in a show taped this winter and airing Wednesday night at 7:30.

Maxfield competed in

“Jeopardy!”’s latest college cham-pionship tournament, which in-cluded participants from many universities around the nation.

To get on the show, Maxfield said she first had to complete an online test. After scoring high enough, Maxfield advanced to an audition in Boston, where she had to complete another test. Soon after, she practiced how to play the

game, and finally, last semester, was flown to the taping in Cali-fornia.

“I hadn’t been expecting it one way or another. I kind of forgot about it actually, but it was really exciting when I found out,” Max-field said.

The college championship

www.browndailyherald.com 195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island herald@browndailyherald.com

News....1–3Nation.....4Metro........5Editorial..6Opinion...7Today........8

’Til deATh dO We PARTR.I. domestic partners can now make the necessary arrangements

Metro, 5AidinG hAiTiWBRU spun the tracks, listeners gave the cash

News, 2An AmAZOniAn lAW Yue Wang ’12 doesn’t want to pay RI sales tax on her online textbooks

Opinions, 7

insi

deDaily Heraldthe Brown

vol. cxlv, no. 5 | Tuesday, February 2, 2010 | Serving the community daily since 1891

Haitian librarian joins JCBBy Alex Bell

Senior Staff Writer

Patrick Tardieu, the chief conserva-tor at Haiti’s oldest library — the Bibliotheque Haitienne des Peres du Saint-Esprit in Port-au-Prince — is the John Carter Brown Library’s newest visiting scholar. Tardieu ar-rived in Providence Monday morn-ing after a two-week stay with family in Montreal, where he sought refuge after the earthquake in Haiti.

But Tardieu’s responsibilities and status at the library remain unclear after the rush to get him here.

Tardieu managed to escape Haiti to Montreal on Jan. 15 on a Cana-dian relief plane’s return trip, he said. A colleague of John Carter Brown Library Director Edward Widmer put him in touch with Tar-dieu, Widmer said.

“He’s not a refugee if he has a home,” said Widmer, motioning to the library. “A network of people is coming together now that has never even existed.”

Tardieu is living in housing pro-vided by the library for its visiting

Courtesy of Jeopardy! ProductionsRebecca Maxfield ’13 competed in “Jeopardy!”’s college championship tournament, which will air Feb. 3.

r.I. haitians help, pray, wait for newsBy CAiTlin TRujillO

Senior Staff Writer

Pictures and fliers line the walls of the hallway at Elmwood Avenue Church of God in Providence. There are pho-tos of the congregation as they sing, pray and participate in other church and community events.

Among these photographs and posters, though, one letter stands out. It relays the news of the death of Elysee Joseph in the earthquake that devastated Haiti last month. Joseph had been the coordinator of poverty relief efforts in Haiti for the Church of God, a Christian denomination to which Elmwood belongs. In his life, Joseph had visited the church — which serves 400 members of the Haitian diaspora in Rhode Island — on multiple occasions.

As the largest Haitian congrega-tion in the state reels with the rest of Rhode Island’s Haitian community at the unfolding crisis, many are find-ing ways to move forward with relief efforts for their home country. Yet even as the Elmwood Church takes in donations of food and clothes for the survivors in Haiti, Rhode Island’s Haitian diaspora must deal both with the relief efforts for those overseas as well as their own private feelings.

The Rev. Gerard Rhau, a preacher with the Church, was in Haiti when the earthquake struck, according to his nephew John Wagnac. While there, Rhau filmed everything he could capture on his video camera. Rhau is staying in Haiti to help with relief efforts, but upon his return to the United States he intends to edit the footage into a DVD for the congre-gation to watch, Wagnac said.

For Wagnac, who says he “can-not count how many” aunts, uncles and cousins he has in Haiti, getting in touch with Rhau and his friends and family members who live there — including an aunt who was visit-ing for her daughter’s engagement party — proved to be a frustrating and frightening challenge.

“The worst thing is I couldn’t get them on the phone,” Wagnac said, adding that he had no calling card and had to make the international phone calls with his cell phone.

Wagnac, who has been with the Elmwood Church since he moved to the United States in 1993 and serves as its sound engineer, said if he was unable to contact anyone at all, he was going to book a flight to Haiti,

Freshman’s ‘Jeopardy!’ bid airs wed.

Prof ’s book tells the story of a cat’s eerie sixth senseBy lindOR QunAj

Contributing Writer

When Oscar the cat first came to Steere House Nursing and Rehabili-tation Center in the summer of 2005, he wasn’t particularly friendly. He lived on the third floor unit, where the vast majority of patients are criti-cally ill, often in advanced stages of dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. He did his own thing — hiding behind medicine cabinets, sitting on windowsills and just generally keeping to himself. According to Executive Director and Adminis-trator Julie Richard, he was not the “type of cat you curl up with as you read a book.”

But a couple of months later, when Jack McCullough came to visit his gravely ill elderly mother, Oscar was sitting there, right by her side, just a few hours before she passed away.

The cat made national headlines after Assistant Professor of Medi-cine David Dosa published an ar-

ticle about him in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2007. Oscar has since appeared in a wide range of publications and television broad-casts. And now, Dosa is set to release a new book entitled “Making Rounds with Oscar: The Extraordinary Gift of an Ordinary Cat” Tuesday.

The book’s title alludes to Oscar’s ability to detect when patients are nearing death. Oscar keeps these patients companyin their rooms for their final hours. While Dosa said he was somewhat skeptical when he first heard about Oscar, it soon became clear to him and to the staff at the nursing center that Oscar was unique.

Richard further explained that the situation became apparent soon after the stray cat was brought in from a local animal shelter.

“Once in a great while, Oscar would basically position himself nearby or at someone’s feet,” she said. “We knew it was more than

S l I M M I N g d OW N

Nick Sinnott-Armstrong / HeraldAs promised, pedestrians can now walk through a narrower passageway under Faunce Arch.

continued on page 3continued on page 2

continued on page 2continued on page 5

meTRO

jWW GeTs A niCKnAmePop culture ruins yet ano the r Amer i can institution

The blog today

just typical catlike observation. It was an uncanny ability to be around at the right time ... and we noticed that at those times, the patients were always at the end of life.”

Though fascinated by the story from the start, Dosa said that writ-ing about his experiences with Oscar was “a spur-of-the-moment decision.” After initially writing the shorter article in 2007, Dosa began receiving calls about Oscar from all over the world.

He was “originally reluctant,” but Dosa ultimately decided to write the book. “One striking thing about all the publicity was that there was this sense that Oscar was really unusual (and) I thought it would be a nice idea,” he said. “It was worth writ-ing about it amidst all of the sound bites.”

Patients’ families have had a largely positive opinion of Oscar’s presence, Dosa said. Though many of the 41 patients at the home have lost the ability to communicate and express their opinions about the cat, their families enjoy the company Oscar provides.

“My fear initially was that there would be a mass exodus, but the converse is actually true,” said Dosa. “People find his presence impor-tant.”

Oscar was present during the final days of both McCullough’s mother and aunt.

“When you’re going through the grieving process, it’s interesting how you’ll accept anything that gives you comfort,” said McCullough, who used to work at Alpert Medical

School. “So when something as gentle as a kitty cat comes over, you go ahead and accept it.”

And even though the patients may not be able to verbalize their thoughts, McCullough said that his mother — along with other patients — loved Oscar and the other cats that call Steere House home.

Richard stressed that the cat’s ability is not strange. “Oscar is not a harbinger of death and it is not some bizarre mythical-like ability,” she said. “That is totally false.”

Aside from the great amount of comfort Oscar brings to patients and their families, both Dosa and Rich-ard said there is other significance in Oscar’s story and the book that has now been published to recount it.

“Twenty years ago, no one would ever have an animal companion in a nursing home,” Dosa said. “We’ve come to grips with the notion that animals are important and lots of study on animals in health care in-stitutions has been done.”

Richard added that the book and the story it tells will get people “to talk about an aspect of care in this country that many people don’t want to talk about.” She explained that in-stitutions like Steere House are “not about a procedure or some fancy clinical intervention but rather about good, old-fashioned care.”

But for McCullough, the book means something different. “Read-ing the chapter about my mother and aunt became a catharsis for me. It helped me to heal.”

If the book helps another reader find hope, “then I know I did the right thing by telling my story,” he added.

sudoku

George Miller, PresidentClaire Kiely, Vice President

Katie Koh, TreasurerChaz Kelsh, Secretary

The Brown Daily Herald (USPS 067.740) is an independent newspaper serv-ing the Brown University community daily since 1891. It is published Monday through Friday during the academic year, excluding vacations, once during Commencement, once during Orientation and once in July by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. Single copy free for each members of the community. POSTMASTER please send corrections to P.O. Box 2538, Providence, RI 02906. Periodicals postage paid at Providence, R.I. Offices are located at 195 Angell St., Providence, R.I. E-mail herald@browndailyherald.com. World Wide Web: http://www.browndailyherald.com. Subscription prices: $319 one year daily, $139 one semester daily. Copyright 2010 by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.

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

TUESdAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2010THE BROWN dAIlY HERAldPAgE 2

CamPuS newS “I’ve always been a huge nerd.”— “Jeopardy!” contestant Rebecca Maxfield ’13

Show raises funds for haitiBy AniTA mATheWs

Contributing Writer

As most Brown students were just returning to campus for a new se-mester, the 360 Degree Experience in Sound on 95.5 WBRU hosted a pay-by-play fundraiser for Haiti Jan. 24. All donations went to the church-based organization Provi-dence-Haiti Outreach.

The event — which began at 6 a.m. and lasted for 20 hours — raised over $5,000, with the ma-jority of callers pledging between $10 and $20, said Programming Director Quyen Ngo ’12. Listeners also donated clothes and shoes, including “a lot of Nikes,” said 360 staff member Henry Kerins ’11. Toward the end of the fundraiser, shortly after one DJ made a remark about a need for tents in Haiti, one caller donated a 4-room, 10-person tent.

“We didn’t have a lot of time

to advertise,” said Urban Promo-tions Director Peter Drinan ’11. He added that 360 was worried that people would already have donated as much as they were willing to the “Hope for Haiti Now” telethon, which involved dozens of celebri-ties and non-profit organizations and aired just two days before.

But their concerns quickly dis-solved as WBRU’s listeners exhibit-ed a generosity that impressed the staff and volunteers. One listener called repeatedly to make $50 do-nations before making a final $500 contribution, Kerins said.

“The response was inspiration-al,” said Drinan.

Over the course of the broad-cast, listeners heard from Francis Guidice, executive director of Prov-idence-Haiti Outreach, and others involved with the organization who had been in Haiti recently.

“We didn’t want to have a radio-a-thon without a voice for the or-

ganization we were funding,” Ngo said.

Providence-Haiti Outreach re-builds schools in Haiti and helps displaced children, which Ngo said she thought encouraged listeners to pledge.

“That’s the good thing about having a local organization be the focus,” she said. “Our station caters to the huge community connec-tion.”

As the 360 staff works on trans-ferring the clothing donations to Providence-Haiti Outreach, they will continue to update listeners on the ways in which their dona-tions are helping the earthquake survivors, Ngo said.

“Our station’s efforts for Haiti reflects some of the changes in terms of (the media’s ability to) mobilize people,” said Ngo. “Our duty is to use the apparatus that we have to help in whatever way possible.”

tournament, created in 1989, is part of “Jeopardy!”’s new initiative to open their contestant search process to a wider range of people. “Since online testing began in 2006, more than half a million people have taken the test online, and helped expand “Jeopardy!”’s contestant pool to in-clude more women, minorities and students,” wrote Jeff Ritter, senior publicist of “Jeopardy!,” in an e-mail to The Herald.

The tournament included 15 stu-dents from universities including Penn, Yale, Columbia, the Univer-sity of California at Los Angeles and other prestigious schools competing for a $100,000 cash prize.

Maxfield said her experience wasn’t intimidating at all because she had competed in Quizbowl in high school and still participates in Quizbowl at Brown.

“I’ve always been a huge nerd,” she said.

Bella Maxfield P’13, Rebecca’s mother, was present in the crowd while Rebecca played. She said that Rebecca was always interested in trivia throughout middle school and high school. She added that Rebecca had experiences partici-pating in trivia competitions such as aired Quizbowl challenges against other academic teams in high school and the New York state geography championship, in which she earned 11th place.

“She loves that stuff,” Bella said.

Maxfield said she didn’t study intensely for the competition.

“I’m always on sporcle.com, a trivia quiz site — which is what I’m on right now actually,” said Max-field.

She said she has always been a fan of “Jeopardy!,” but she did not

get to hang out with Alex Trebek.“He’s strange off-camera. While

they were filming for the commer-cial breaks, he would just talk to the audience,” she said.

Bella, who received the phone call before Rebecca did, informed her daughter that she was going to be on “Jeopardy!.”

“I thought it was incredible,” she said.

Bella said she was very excited to be in the audience.

“You’re at the edge of the seat the whole time because it’s not re-ally like any one person dominates for the whole. It was lots of fun,” she said.

The tournament’s quarterfinals will air from February 1 to 5 at 7:30 pm on CBS WPRI-TV. Maxfield will be on the February 3 show at 7:30 p.m. The tournament will run until February 12 when a winner will be announced.

Student competes for $100,000 prize

Courtesy of Quyen Ngogospel dJs with the 360 degree Experience in Sound spin their records during a fundraiser at WBRU Jan. 24.

continued from page 1

Providence’s oscar the cat comforts the dying

continued from page 1

CamPuS newSTUESdAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2010 THE BROWN dAIlY HERAld PAgE 3

“I was thinking about preserving the memories.”— Haitian library conservator Patrick Tardieu

President Barack Obama’s $3.8 trillion budget blueprint for 2011, released Monday, proposes a $17 billion increase to the Pell grant program, the main federal program to aid low-income students, which would expand the program’s rolls by a million students.

The budget also proposes to increase the maximum annual grant from $5,350 to $5,710. The higher grants and expanded eligibility would almost double the overall spending on grants from $18.2 billion in the 2008 fiscal year to $34.8 billion, according to Inside Higher Ed.

The administration also proposes to make Pell grants an entitlement, making the program’s funding mandatory so that every qualifying student is guaranteed a grant every year, according to the budget.

The budget includes a three-year spending freeze on non-security discretionary spending, and identifies 126 duplicative, ineffective or outdated programs to terminate or reduce — but proposes to increase overall education spending by $2.9 billion or 6.2 percent, Office of Management and Budget director Peter Orszag said in a White House press release.

Burglary at Columbia compromises 1,400 social security numbers

An office break-in at Columbia resulted in the release of the Social Security numbers of about 1,400 people, the Columbia daily Spectator reported Friday.

Three password-protected laptops that held the Social Security numbers of more than 1,000 current and prospective students, past and current employees and alumni were stolen, Columbia spokesperson Robert Hornsby wrote in an e-mail to The Herald.

Affected individuals were notified of the incident by e-mail and regular mail, and have been offered identity theft protection services, Hornsby wrote.

The New York City Police department and Columbia Public Safety are conducting an investigation of the crime, he wrote.

nyu bans smoking within 15 feet of all entrances

New York University will prohibit smoking around university building entrances and ventilators beginning next fall, NYU spokesperson John Beckman wrote in an e-mail to The Herald.

The amendment to the current smoking policy — which bans smoking in all university buildings — was adopted after the Office of Compliance received about 2,000 responses to an e-mail describing the proposal last October, Beckman wrote. About 80 percent of the e-mails were “supportive,” and “some people asked us to go farther,” he wrote.

The proposal came about after a lit cigarette butt started a fire in a library stairway, Beckman wrote. It was also prompted by faculty and student complaints about cigarette smoke that traveled into office and dormitory spaces, sometimes through outside air vents, he added.

Though NYU public safety officers will remind smokers of the stricter restriction, enforcement will depend largely on compliance from smokers, Beckman wrote.

“Once the (no smoking) signs are up, I suspect there are members of the NYU community who may take it upon themselves to remind smokers of the policy,” he wrote.

Smoking is banned in Brown residential and dining facilities, according to the smoking guidelines for Brown facilities.

Obama proposes Pell grant boost during overall spending freeze

higher ed roundupby heeyoung min

senior staff writer

scholars, he said. Widmer said Tardieu will likely

receive a modest living stipend, though Tardieu has not asked for such an allowance.

“He’s not in any sort of known category of visiting scholar here,” Widmer said.

Tardieu said he hopes to study the collection of Haitian history at the library and at other libraries in New England, which he said tend to be rich in Haitian docu-ments because of the strength of the abolitionist movement in the region during the colonial period. Tardieu also said he wants to help raise money for relief in Haiti, es-pecially among scholars who have an interest in the area.

Widmer recently established a fund called Saving Haiti’s Libraries, he said.

The connection between the two libraries, Tardieu said, seemed almost too perfect. Tardieu has been working to digitize his own library’s collection, just as the John Carter Brown Library is beginning its own project to digitize Haitian documents.

Tardieu, operating without high-quality scanners and software, taught himself to become proficient in rotating, cropping and adjusting scans of texts on the computer to make them as readable as he could given financial constraints. With documents that are more legible, he said he uses optical character recognition software, which cre-ates computer-readable text from images of the documents.

Tardieu said the damage to his library is extensive. Though the library is still standing, he is con-cerned the coming rainy season will bring strong winds and rain, which can damage the books.

Widmer said librarians around the world had been waiting on edge to hear scattered reports after the earthquake on the condition of the “very well-regarded” collection Tar-dieu manages, which focuses on colonial slavery, Widmer said.

In the days after the earthquake, Tardieu said he lived and slept out-side of his house in a group of 30 people, including neighbors and newborns.

“In the moment, it was like no-body felt emotion,” Tardieu said.

Tardieu said that he was dis-turbed by how numbed he felt by the overwhelming presence of death, which led him to focus on the fate of his library’s collection in the days after the earthquake.

“I wasn’t thinking about the deaths,” Tardieu said. “I was think-

ing about preserving the memo-ries.”

But Tardieu said he is now more immediately concerned with people than with books. Though he will return to Port-au-Prince this week to examine potential options for relocating his library, he empha-

sized that now is not the time to focus on a long-term solution for his library.

“The moment now is to give food, to care for the person in the hospital,” Tardieu said. “What will be the message to save books when we could save people?”

haitian library creates link with JCB continued from page 1

Alex Bell / HeraldHaitian library conservator Patrick Tardieu leaves the John Carter Brown library Monday.

www.diamondsandcoal.com

world & nationThe Brown daily Herald

TUESdAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2010 | PAgE 4

China surges in dino researchBy eRiC AdleR

MCClatChy neWSpaperS

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Lost in time, hidden beneath the earth for millions of years, dinosaurs aren’t creatures that reveal their secrets quickly.

Yet two new and surprising dino-discoveries recently have come out of the University of Kansas. Not surpris-ing, both have emerged from fossils found in a nation that in the past de-cade has risen to utterly transform the study of the prehistoric past.

More than ever, this is the age of the Chinasaurs.

“Whether you are looking for ma-rine reptiles or birds or dinosaurs, or whatever, China is developing so fast right now it is staggering.” said Philip Currie, professor of dinosaur paleo-biology at the University of Alberta and vice president of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology. “I’d say that right now it is number one in the world for most major fossil finds.”

The first KU discovery, announced in December, looks at fossilized teeth of a nasty turkey-sized dinosaur to show that some meat-eating dinosaurs not only clawed or chomped their victims, but also oozed venom from glands in their mouths like cobras or Komodo dragons to poison their prey.

The second finding, published last week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences is sure to reignite the ongoing fight over the origin of flight.

Paleontologists David Burnham and Larry Martin and animal flight expert David Alexander — all with KU — worked with Chinese scientists to create a model using bones cast from a 125-million-year-old, four-winged glid-ing dinosaur named microraptor to show that the pheasant-sized critter probably did not run on the ground, as many scientists contend.

The scientists instead present evidence suggesting that the sharp-toothed carnivore, an ancestor of mod-ern birds, always lived in the trees, spreading its wings and coasting from branch to branch.

The paper is a direct challenge to the “ground up” notion of flight, the theory that modern birds evolved from feathered dinosaurs that first ran on the ground before evolving the ability to take wing.

“With 7-inch flight feathers on its feet, it was implausible that it would even walk,” Burnham said.

To be sure, for nearly 130 years — ever since the late 1870s, when great long-necked dinosaurs were discovered in the American West —

the United States reigned supreme as the site of new dinosaur discoveries. But in the past five years, China has usurped North America in a dino-race that, to the extent it exists, is as col-legial as it is competitive.

In paleontology — whether the focus is dinosaurs, prehistoric mam-mals, 500-million-year-old sea crea-tures or even early humans — China is now ranked first among fossil-hunting sites.

“It’s not just dinosaurs, but fossil mammals, too,” said famed dinosaur hunter Bob Bakker, curator of the Houston Museum of Natural Sci-ence. “They have great stuff: complete saber-tooth cat skeletons, three-toed horses. The Chinese have magnificent fossil rhinos.”

As far as dinosaurs go, University of Pennsylvania paleontologist Peter Dodson keeps a running tally of the number discovered in different coun-tries.

“I knew China had been close to the United States,” he said. “I discov-ered to my surprise, chagrin, amaze-ment that as of last summer, China not only had already surpassed the United States, but shot past it. I honestly didn’t think we would ever relinquish our position, but things have happened so fast in China.”

metroThe Brown daily Herald

TUESdAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2010 | PAgE 5

“It was a disaster before the disaster.”— Marie gabriel, of the Haiti Charity Hope Foundation, on Haiti

Domestic partners gain funeral rightsBy ReBeCCA BAllhAus

Contributing Writer

The Rhode Island General Assembly voted last month to override the veto by Gov. Donald Carcieri ’65 of a bill that will allow domestic partners to make arrangements for each other’s funerals. The bill defines domestic partners as those in an “exclusive, in-timate and committed relationship,” in which the couple lives together and is financially interdependent.

Sen. Rhoda Perry P’91, D-Dist. 3, whose district includes College Hill, said the bill makes it “crystal clear” that domestic partners are on “the same tier” as spouses when it comes to funeral arrangements for loved ones.

“I wish it hadn’t been necessary,” Perry said. “I am glad that we had at least one bill last year that helped a struggling community, a commu-nity that has to fight for all of its civil rights. From that standpoint, it’s good policy.”

As one of the two sponsors of the bill, Perry said she was inspired by the tragic story of Mark Goldberg,

who, after his partner of 17 years committed suicide, spent over a month trying to recover the body and bury it. “He called me personally to let me know all the problems he was having with the Department of Health and the coroner’s office and the funeral home and the crematory, so I became very acutely aware of his problem,” Perry said.

Of the legislature’s override, Perry said, “It’s hard to be elated over a right that is almost a civil right as far as I’m concerned — being able to bury the man or woman you love without having the bureaucratic nonsense.”

The House voted again to ap-prove the bill, 67-3, and the Senate did so, 29-3, easily providing the two-thirds vote necessary to over-ride the veto issued by Carcieri last November.

Carcieri’s press secretary Amy Kempe indicated the bill was super-fluous, citing an “existing process prescribed by law to allow two in-dividuals or an individual to name another individual to oversee funeral arrangements.”

Following criticism of last No-vember’s veto, Carcieri indicated his openness to reciprocal rights legisla-tion that would extend benefits not only to gay and lesbian couples, but other types of committed relation-ships as well. Kempe cited elderly individuals “living together and shar-ing resources for financial reasons” as another group that would benefit from such legislation.

“It’s as simple as filling out the form which is available on the De-partment of Health’s Web site. It doesn’t require special legislation for a group of individuals,” Kempe said.

“This bill is important — if it weren’t, the governor would not have made the decision to veto it,” said Linda Zang ’10, the advocacy chair for the Brown Queer Alliance. She called his veto “unconscionable” and an “attack on the human dignity of gays and lesbians and Rhode Is-landers in general.”

Zang called the override a “great victory.” “It shows just how tough the struggle for equality is,” she said.

assembly thwarts 27 Carcieri vetoesBy ClAiRe PeRACChiO

Senior Staff Writer

Rhode Island’s General Assembly began its 2010 session last month by overriding vetoes of two impor-tant electoral reform bills — one allowing 16 and 17-year-olds to pre-register to vote and the other mandating special elections to fill U.S. Senate vacancies.

The state’s legislators have overturned several of the 27 vetoes issued by outgoing Gov. Donald Carcieri ’65 at the close of the 2009 legislative session. The veto over-rides represent the convergence of Democratic political clout in the General Assembly and of the im-minent departure of a Republican governor, said Wendy Schiller, associate professor of political science.

“Because Rhode Island is an overwhelmingly Democratic state, the legislature will almost always win,” she said.

Schiller attributed the “cycle of veto and overturn” to the re-lationship between Carcieri, who is prohibited by term limits from seeking reelection, and a Demo-cratic legislature emboldened by the governor’s lame duck status.

Democratic support for the pre-registration bill was strengthened by new evidence linking youth mo-bilization to votes for Democrats, Schiller said.

Also a factor for the support for the Senate vacancies legislation was a rumor that when Department of Defense Secretary Robert Gates resigns, Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., will be a favorite to take his place, according to Schiller. Rhode Is-land legislators would like to avoid the messy and protracted Senate vacancy struggles like those that took place recently in Illinois and New York, she said.

Ari Savitzky ’06 — the chair-man of FairVote Rhode Island, an organization that supported both electoral reform bills — hails their recent passage as “a great thing for Rhode Island’s democracy.”

Being registered to vote is one of the most important deter-minants of electoral participation, especially for young people, and

incorporating voter registration into civics classrooms in Rhode Island public schools offers an opportunity to further swell the ranks of participating young peo-ple, Savitzky said.

Savitzky credited the bills with having “broad bipartisan support,” and he cited the help of the Brown Republicans during his own time at Brown in advocating for the voting reform bill that allows preregis-tered teenagers to automatically be eligible to vote once they turn 18.

Sen. Rhoda Perry, D-Dist. 3, whose district includes College Hill, also supported both bills.

“I think it is always a good idea to have people in an electoral dis-trict choose (their representatives) rather than having the governor appoint someone,” she said of the Senate vacancies bill.

Perry attributed the overrides largely to the Democratic majority of supporters in the legislature, but she stopped short of defining the pre-registration bill in strictly political terms.

“I look at it not as a partisan issue but as an education issue,” she said.

Rep. David Segal, D-Dist. 2, lauded the changes for “encourag-ing people to engage in the political process throughout their lives,” though he recused himself from voting on the reform bills due to his prior work on behalf of FairVote at the national level.

The pre-registration act had passed in the General Assembly multiple times in past years, but until recently, had always been killed by a veto, Segal said.

Opponents of the legislation were concerned that allowing pre-registration would add a new category of voters that could be manipulated for the purpose of fraud, according to Segal. But the positive results of similar legis-lation in states such as Florida, North Carolina and Hawaii have largely assuaged those fears, he said.

“On the whole, the reforms should encourage people’s faith in governance structures and encour-age participation,” Segal said.

which he has not visited since 2002. He has his own family here, but his aunts and uncles in Haiti were the ones who took care of him when his parents moved to the United States in the 1980s and he stayed in Haiti until they could send for him.

Fortunately for Wagnac, his visit-ing aunt was able to call the church and let them know she was fine. Other friends and family members in the United States told Wagnac that they had made contact with his loved ones in Haiti, though he has not been able to talk to them himself so far.

But even knowing friends and fam-ily are alive, the situation for Rhode Island’s Haitians remains distressing. Marie Gabriel, the founder and presi-dent of the Rhode Island-based Haiti Charity Hope Foundation, said she has siblings in Haiti now sleeping in the streets. The house her sister lived in was damaged in the earthquake. Although it has not collapsed, Gabriel said her sister feared it was not safe. A school next to the site where some of her family members live did col-lapse in the earthquake, leaving all of the children buried inside. Gabriel said reports from Haiti indicated that rescue workers had yet to search the rubble.

The Haitian government, Wagnac and Gabriel both said, is corrupt and has failed its citizens by not creating the infrastructure needed to deal with a disaster of this caliber.

Haiti had been struggling with poverty and corruption before the destruction wrought by the earth-quake. Though Wagnac and Gabriel both praise the international relief efforts, both expressed their belief that Haiti’s inability to cope with the disaster is a consequence of the coun-try’s preexisting circumstances.

“Way before that earthquake, we

needed help,” Wagnac said.Gabriel expressed a similar senti-

ment. “It was a disaster before the disaster,” she said.

Wagnac expressed concern that although the aid that is now pouring in is welcome, it is not getting to the people of Haiti. He recalls being con-founded by an incident reported on CNN in which the medicine at a Hai-tian airport sat around without being distributed to the sick. Gabriel feels the international aid efforts could be better organized, including the differ-ent local groups that are trying to help but should, in her opinion, collaborate instead of working alone.

“It’s wonderful to see how many countries are willing to help Haiti,” said Gabriel, “but we don’t know who’s in charge.”

Still, Gabriel emphasizes that the aid is “a blessing,” and Wagnac said he is pleased to see so many parties working together. Their own groups — the Elmwood Church and Gabriel’s foundation — are putting together efforts to aid Haiti. Wagnac spent last Saturday morning and afternoon col-lecting all of the donations that have poured in from other churches and organizations, who have dropped off food and clothing with the Elmwood Church. However, he still needs an-other container for storing all of the donations that have poured in, and someone to handle the items’ ship-ping.

Gabriel, for her part, is concerned that the necessary resources are not available to continue building — or to reconstruct — the foundation’s proj-ects in Haiti, including an orphanage for children. She and the foundation are organizing fundraising events — including one with the Elmwood Church over a week ago — and she is working to put together a plan to visit Haiti in late February, with at least two mission trips planned thereafter.

But there is hope for Haiti, Wag-nac and Gabriel said, to come out of the devastation of the earthquake stronger than before. Wagnac hopes international help will spur the institu-tion of better building codes, marked streets, and improved phone service on the island. Wagnac said with im-proved regulations and more con-struction hopefully will come more jobs to stimulate the economy. It will take time, both said, but they remain adamant that the people of Haiti have the resolve.

“It could take us a long time, but we will get out of it because we are strong,” Gabriel said. “We have faith.”

Wagnac and Gabriel say they are driven by faith and religious deter-mination, even when faced with the denouncement of fellow Christians. Neither of them heard Pat Robert-son’s remarks that Haiti was suffering as a result of long ago signing a “pact with the Devil” directly, though they have heard the general idea. Wagnac said he found the remarks tasteless.

“I’m not saying he’s lying about it, I’m not saying he’s making it up,” Wagnac said, “but this is not the right time to say those things while people are hurting, and it might prevent cer-tain people from helping out.”

Wagnac does, though, maintain that God works in “mysterious ways” and should be a source of comfort for those grieving.

“We have no right to question him,” he said. “By praising and wor-shipping him, we find joy even with this disaster. That’s what God’s there for — to give you joy.”

Gabriel said they must learn to forgive Robertson for his “ignorant” remarks, saying they were inappropri-ate coming from a fellow Christian.

“Why don’t you go give people the gospel?” she said. “We need support. We need prayer.”

r.I. haitians offer hope, help for homecontinued from page 1

www.blogdailyherald.comwww.diamondsandcoal.com

editorial & LettersPAgE 6 | TUESdAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2010

The Brown daily Herald

E R I K S T A Y T O N A N D E VA N D O N A H U E

Syllabus day

C O R R E C T I O N S P O L I C YThe Brown Daily Herald is committed to providing the Brown University community with the most accurate information possible. Correc-tions may be submitted up to seven calendar days after publication.

C O M M E N T A R Y P O L I C YThe editorial is the majority opinion of the editorial page board of The Brown Daily Herald. The editorial viewpoint does not necessarily reflect the views of The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. Columns, letters and comics reflect the opinions of their authors only.

L E T T E R S T O T H E E D I T O R P O L I C YSend letters to letters@browndailyherald.com. Include a telephone number with all letters. The Herald reserves the right to edit all letters for length and clarity and cannot assure the publication of any letter. Please limit letters to 250 words. Under special circumstances writers may request anonymity, but no letter will be printed if the author’s identity is unknown to the editors. Announcements of events will not be printed.

A D V E R T I S I N G P O L I C YThe Brown Daily Herald, Inc. reserves the right to accept or decline any advertisement at its discretion.

letter to the editor

editorial

The last time the Brown community broached the subject of holidays, the University eliminated Colum-bus Day amidst fierce debate and controversy. We are certain, though, that Columbus Day enthusiasts and detractors alike will appreciate our new recom-mended tradition.

We propose that Aug. 27, 2010 — five days before the beginning of shopping period for the Fall 2010 semester — be declared Syllabus Day. To honor Syllabus Day, the administration should mandate that all professors upload their course syllabi to the Web by this date. This simple measure will directly benefit both faculty and students.

Professors are currently encouraged to upload their syllabi to courses.brown.edu, the University’s online course database. We applaud recent efforts undertaken by the Provost, the Dean of the College and the Undergraduate Council of Students to increase faculty participation. However, The Herald reported last week that just over one-third of the courses offered this semester had syllabi on their Course Preview Pages at the beginning of shopping period.

A new, University-wide mandate would be no more than a minor inconvenience to professors. Syllabi are likely completed a week prior to the beginning of the semester, and many are recycled from year to year. Uploading these syllabi electronically should take no more than a few minutes.

As students and professors have noticed once again, the first week of classes is often wasteful. Over-stressed students rush to classes without knowing what will be covered. Professors, perhaps frustrated because they are not able to begin teaching imme-diately, frequently focus the most of the first class meeting on the content of the syllabus.

Because the first meeting of class tends to be simply an exercise in syllabus distribution, students are forced to delay their final registration and attend another class to get a feel for the professor’s teach-ing style. As a result, students often leave classes

dissatisfied or more uncertain than when they came in. Furthermore, the large crowds of students attend-ing some classes are often forced to stand or sit on stairs in auditorium halls, creating discomfort and even fire hazards.

Making syllabi available online ahead of time can alleviate many of these problems. If the University adopts our proposed suggestion, then next fall stu-dents will be expected to have read syllabi prior to the first class meeting. This measure will make students’ shopping decisions more informed and allow profes-sors to change the usual first day routine. We hope professors will take advantage of this opportunity to commence teaching — or at least previewing in detail — course content right away. Since the first day’s attendance will more accurately reflect the likely class size, professors will also be able to make more informed judgments about rooms, sections and TAs. And instead of listening to logistical information they could have easily read on their own, students will be able to focus on the material and determine whether the professor’s teaching style appeals to them.

As the online system develops, we hope the Course Preview Pages can also become an extensive database of syllabi from past semesters. For students decid-ing whether to take semesters off, study abroad or just planning in advance for concentration require-ments, perusing syllabi from previous years can be tremendously useful. Access to old syllabi will also aid students embarking on independent research.

We don’t expect that Syllabus Day will elicit the same kind of camaraderie as other days Brown stu-dents are fond of celebrating (like Spring Weekend and April 20). But we do think that a few minutes of professors’ time can go a long way in making a notice-able, positive difference in academic life at Brown.

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

senior staff Writers Ana Alvarez, Alexander Bell, Alicia Chen, Max godnick, Talia Kagan, Sarah Mancone, Heeyoung Min, Kate Monks, Claire Peracchio, Jenna Steckel, goda Thangada, Caitlin Trujillostaff Writers Shara Azad, Nicole Boucher, Kristina Fazzalaro, Anish gonchigar, Sarah Julian, Matthew Klebanoff, Kevin Pratt, luisa Robledo, Emily Rosen, Anne Simons, Sara Sunshine, dana Teppert, Monique Vernon, Connie Zhengsenior sales staff Katie galvin, liana Nisimova, Isha gulati, Alex Neff, Michael Ejike, Samantha Wongdesign staff Caleigh Forbes, Jessica Kirschner, gili Kliger, leor Shtull-leber, Katie WilsonWeb staff Andrew Chen, Warren Jin, Claire Kwong, Phil Park, Ethan RichmanPhoto staff Qidong Chen, Janine Cheng, Alex dePaoli, Frederic lu, Quinn SavitCopy editors Nicole Boucher, Sarah Forman, Claire gianotti, Christine Joyce, Sara luxenberg, Alexandra Macfarlane, Joe Milner, lindor Qunaj, Carmen Shulman

the brown daily herald

Anne speyersuzannah WeissBrian mastroiannihannah moserBrigitta GreeneBen schreckingersydney embernicole Friedmandan AlexanderAndrew Bracahan Cui

Stephen LichensteinAlex YulyNick Sinnott-ArmstrongMax MonnJonathan Bateman

Graphics EditorGraphics Editor

Photo EditorAsst. Photo Editor

Sports Photo Editor

graphics & photos

BuSinESS

Kelly MallahanJordan MainzerMarlee BruningAnna MigliaccioJulien OuelletNeal Poole

Productioncopy desk chief

Asst. copy desk chiefdesign Editor

Asst. design EditorAsst. design Editor

Web Editor

EditoriAlArts & Culture EditorArts & Culture Editor

Features EditorFeatures Editor

Metro EditorMetro EditorNews EditorNews Editor

Sports EditorAsst. Sports EditorAsst. Sports Editor

editor-in-chief

George miller

senior editors

ellen Cushingseth motel

joanna Wohlmuth

deputy managing editors

sophia liemmy liss

managing editor

Chaz Kelsh

oPinionS Michael FitzpatrickAlyssa Ratledge

opinions Editoropinions Editor

editorial page board

Matt AksDebbie LehmannWilliam MartinMelissa ShubeGaurie TilakJonathan Topaz

Editorial Page EditorBoard memberBoard memberBoard memberBoard memberBoard member

general managers

Claire KielyKatie Koh

office manager

shawn Reilly

directorsKelly Wessmatthew Burrowsmargaret WatsonChristiana stephenson

managers

Arjun Vaidyamarco deleonAditi Bhatiajared davisTrenten nelson-RiversAlexander CarrereKathy Bui

SalesFinance

client relationsAlumni relations

local Salesnational Sales

university Salesuniversity Salesrecruiter Sales

Special ProjectsStaff

PoSt- mAGAzinEMarshall Katheder Editor-in-chief

Anna Migliaccio, designer

Claire Gianotti, Alexandra Macfarlane, Jordan Mainzer, copy Editors

Nicole Friedman, Talia Kagan, Ben Schreckinger, Caitlin Trujillo, night Editors

Bookstore not to blame for textbook pricesTo the editor:

Though textbook costs are ab-surdly high, Mike Johnson mis-places blame (“Can’t buy me...text,” Jan. 27). A Herald article from 2006 (“Publishers source of rising text-book costs,” Dec. 7) says the Brown Bookstore usually has a profit mar-gin of around one percent, which I can’t imagine this economy has improved since then. Most of the fault — and your money — accrue to publishers, which the article says have been raising book prices at more than four times the inflation rate.

Amazon can often offer lower prices because it doesn’t provide the convenience of a store where we can browse textbooks and easily return the ones we decide against. I don’t blame anyone for checking book prices with online retailers. But when the price difference between the bookstore and Amazon is 10-15 percent or smaller — as it is much of the time — I am inclined to support one of the last independent univer-sity bookstores.

nick hagerty ’10Jan. 28

corrections

In a column in Thursday’s Herald (“In defense of Ruth,” Jan. 28), an incorrect value was given for the losses to the Brown endowment over the course of the current financial crisis. In fact, the endowment lost $740 million over the 12 months ending June 30.

An article in Monday’s Herald (“Open mic raises thousands for Haiti,” Feb. 1) incorrectly stated that “kembe firme” means “stay strong.” In fact, it is “kenbe fem.”

A Web version of an article in Monday’s Herald (“In troubled economy, students turn to unpaid internships,” Feb. 1) incorrectly identified Willy Franzen as Willy Frenzen.

The Herald regrets the errors.

letters, please!letters@browndailyherald.com

TUESdAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2010| PAgE 7

opinionsThe Brown daily Herald

Between the two sure things in life — death and taxes — Amazon.com seems determined to eschew at least the latter in many places in this country. Collecting sales tax on Amazon.com was a largely ignored issue because, in most states, the online store has no legal obligation to collect taxes if it does not have a physical presence or “nexus” in one state. This issue gained public attention, however, when a new law in North Carolina started to require online stores like Amazon.com to charge sales tax this year. Amid the public-ity and controversy this move engendered it is time for Rhode Islanders to ponder the consequences of a similar law that came into effect here a few months ago.

Sour at the huge pricing advantage local companies lose to online retailers and allured by the prospect of a new source of state rev-enue in these difficult fiscal years, Rhode Island passed a law a few months ago to force e-retailers that have local business affiliates to assess sales tax on goods sold to Rhode Island residents. Fair as it may sound to Rhode Island businesses, I would clap my hands on this action of state government if it were re-ally helping local businesses and increasing government’s revenue. But the new law has so far achieved little of its aim and even hurt Rhode Island business.

Rhode Island was bound to lose her battle with Amazon over taxation from the very be-ginning. Unlike big states such as New York where marketing affiliates play a vital role of Amazon’s sales performance, Rhode Island,

with the nation’s fourth-smallest state econo-my, could not really use Amazon’s local affiliate program as leverage to pressure Amazon. As a matter of fact, when Amazon promptly cut off all of its marketing affiliates in Rhode Island last summer to avoid charging Rhode Island sales tax, it had little to lose. Consequently, the new law failed to bring any relief to Rhode Island’s strapped finance.

From the beginning the most vocal pro-ponents of the new state law have been local retailers who demand a level playing field for big, national e-retailers and honest, tax-paying Rhode Island businesses. So the Amazon tax

was supposed to help their situation because the tax could make the Amazon price less competitive and help the local businesses in the process.

Has that happened? Suspending the Ama-zon affiliate program in Rhode Island has hardly hurt Amazon’s allure to Rhode Island consumers, to whom Amazon continues to offer the most competitive price. Had Amazon chosen to keep the affiliate program in place, however, small Rhode Island businesses would continue to face fierce competition from online retailers. Even if Amazon ended up paying taxes in Rhode Island, it still possesses a huge advantage over small local businesses simply due to its overwhelming company size and

operational scale. While not charging sales tax affords Amazon a small boost, in the final analysis the economy of size is its decisive advantage. Separately, those local companies that were previously Amazon affiliates would find it harder to survive after suddenly losing what they used to rely on. Companies will col-lapse and jobs will vanish. The consequence of the new law would substantially hurt the already feeble local businesses and terrible economic performance of the state.

Notwithstanding the long odds small states face in battling big corporations, can the Ama-zon tax be justified on the moral ground that

it restores some measure of tax equitability between customers with different shopping habits? It is certainly true that fairness and equality are indispensable virtues in levying taxes. But taxation is also a powerful tool that serves other purposes such as redistributing wealth, discouraging unwholesome consump-tion or spurring innovation and production. Be-cause of this, states are usually discriminating in creating and eliminating taxes. Therefore, states may choose to provide tax incentives to businesses to attract investments and stimu-late the local economy. Prudent use of taxation is vital to the health of the whole economy. For states like Rhode Island, whose unemployment rate tops 12 percent, the most urgent need is

to create jobs by building a more favorable cli-mate for businesses to come and stay instead of chasing elusive tax revenues.

Ultimately, the Internet economy, rapidly growing in size and diversity, probably re-quires us to think of new ways of coping with it. Whereas Amazon.com began selling CDs and books, its future growth may well depend on sales of digital materials like MP3 music downloads or electronic books delivered di-rectly to Kindles. Economic transactions that take place on the World Wide Web may prove ever more elusive to local authorities’ intent on taxing those economic activities. The way the Internet economy can enlarge the trea-sury of Rhode Island may thus be an indirect one: by encouraging local businesses to work with it. The fiscal health of the state may be restored if the local businesses can enrich themselves through it. On the contrary, the fiscal health of the state may deteriorate if it chooses to shield local businesses from the virtual economy.

Therefore, we should repeal our Amazon tax in Rhode Island. The state government’s proclaimed principle of equitable taxation is at the very least misleading when the new law is doing nothing to address the most serious problem of the state’s economy. At the same time, the state government misdiagnosed the real situation and put local businesses at stake by shortsightedly attempting to in-crease tax revenue on the very business it should keep.

Yue Wang ’12 is a political science and German studies concentrator from

Shanghai. She can be contacted at yue_wang@brown.edu

repeal rhode Island’s amazon tax

During a reception for international students at the Faculty Club last month, Vice President for International Affairs, Matthew Gutmann, was questioned by concerned students about why the Watson Institute has not yet taken to starting programs on contemporary China and Southeast Asia.

I had to agree with the need for such a question — after a browse of the “People” page on the Watson Institute for International Studies website, I found that out of all the distinguished scholars and faculty members, there is only one professor each to list as a part of his or her “Areas of interest” China and Asia-Pacific. In fact, in my six semesters at Brown, I remember only one course with Southeast Asia in its title or description ever being offered, and a quick search of Mocha now shows that even this course is not in the curriculum at all this academic year.

I use the examples of contemporary China and Southeast Asia on the basis that these regions seem to be increasingly important in both a global academic perspective, and in that increasing numbers of Brown students have personal ties to them. With this background explaining the areas’ growing significance to the Brown community and to academia, it is logical that subsequent increasing attention

should be paid to ensure that more opportuni-ties in these areas exist.

Also, for the purposes of students coming from international backgrounds, the Univer-sity’s keeping a diversity of regional academic foci in mind allows better facilitation of advis-ing honors programs, student projects and initiatives, and rapport between faculty and students.

Gutmann replied very simply to this student’s query: the lack of these specific programs can be attributed to the fact that

students, even if interested, had never devel-oped this interest to actively make them be a reality at Brown. He implies, I assume, that if one or more enthusiastic students decided to devote time in presenting their ideas for a brilliant plan to increase Watson’s Asia capa-bilities, then the realization of desired East and Southeast Asia foci at Watson would become a priority for the faculty.

Gutmann’s words should have left us with a sense of idealistic hope, a real liberal atti-tude towards how we, as students, can cause change in our own academic administration. This idea is possibly the best true way to de-

clare ourselves as a liberal higher education institution, the highest achievement of stu-dents’ initiatives.

Yet the idealism doesn’t seem to cut it — there is still a nagging feeling in me that these concerns cannot possibly be so easily solved. Very few of us have attempted to undertake the task of setting up a formal academic pro-gram before, and those of us who have tried to fill the gaps between what we have been learning and what we would like to learn have most probably been redirected to the path of

proposing an Independent Study Project of some kind.

The first subsequent question that should pop into a Brown student’s head when facing this important task should be the question of who to talk to for such a project. Who do we talk to, if we believe that Brown should hire a new faculty member who specializes in an area not already represented, or if we have a suggestion to improve Brown’s image and standing as a cosmopolitan research institu-tion? Which administrator, dean or advisor should we approach if we want to get further than just being encouraged to take advantage

of the independent study opportunities? Who is someone we perceive to have power, and at the same time, with whom we can feel comfort-able enough to discuss these questions?

It is no doubt fantastic that students can take a class for course credit on virtually any-thing we want, and that we are encouraged to develop our own independent curricula. But these opportunities can by no means make up for students’ suggestions that Brown can do more administratively. Without the initial steps and guidance that will lead students on a transparent and supported path to attempt to deal with such administrative questions, our liberal dreams cannot be realized.

Perhaps the solution can be to develop a more established system of communication about academic programs between students and faculty — a process of academic advising for faculty and administrators from students. Students can address deficiencies and suggest academic programs we would find beneficial to Brown and its community. An organized body could provide the messenger channel to those who make decisions and provide the necessary information and resources to students wanting to effect more meaningful change. Who knows, this might be the next revolutionary step to reaching our ultimate open curriculum.

Sarah Yu ’11 is an international relations and history concentrator from Sydney,

Australia. She can be reached at xia_yu@brown.edu.

our say in academics

Without the initial steps and guidance that will lead students on a transparent and supported

path to attempt to deal with such administrative questions, our liberal dreams cannot be realized.

For states like Rhode Island, whose unemployment rate tops 12 percent, the most

urgent need is to create jobs by building a more favorable climate for businesses to come and stay instead of chasing elusive tax revenues.

YUE WANg opinions columnist

SARAH YUopinions columnist

TuesdAy, FeBRuARy 2, 2010 PAgE 8

Today 37

NYU bans smoking near entrances

Assembly overrides governor’s vetoes

The Brown daily Herald

35 / 21

TOdAy, FeBRuARy 2, 2010

6:00 P.m. — Zugunruhe lecture Series:

The Trouble with Nature, list 120

7:00 P.m. — RI Philatelic Society

125th Anniversary Celebration, John

Hay library

TOmORROW, FeBRuARy 3, 2010

4:30 P.m. — Effective Interviewing

with Professor Barbara Tannenbaum,

MacMillan 117

7:00 P.m. — “BlAST! The Movie,”

Barus & Holley 168

dot Comic | Eshan Mitra and Brendan Hainline

Cabernet Voltaire | Abe Pressman

excelsior | Kevin grubb

shARPe ReFeCTORy

lunCh — Chourico with Potatoes

and Onions, linguini with Tomato and

Basil, Chocolate Oatmeal Squares

dinneR — Carne gizado, Vegetable

Frittata, Honey Batter Bread

VeRney-WOOlley dininG hAll

lunCh — Tomato Quiche, Italian

Vegetable Saute, Coconut Crescent

Cookies

dinneR — Chicken Pot Pie, Rice

and Orzo Pilaf, Chocolate Oatmeal

Squares

3 21calendar

menu

crossword

the news in images

comics

36 / 21

today tomorrow

hippomaniac | Mat Becker

sTW | Jingtao Huang