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Sleeping inStudents make use of the V-Dub’s extended breakfast hours

Sports, 7in SOVieT RUSSiA…Alum’s film on life in Soviet Russia makes it to Sundance

Arts, 4BeATing The ClOCkBrian Judge ‘11 fights for a post-circadian society

Opinions, 11

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deDaily Heraldthe Brown

vol. cxlv, no. 13 | Friday, February 12, 2010 | Serving the community daily since 1891

Brown skier looks to bring olympic gold to CaymanBy AniSh gOnChigAR

Staff Writer

Dow Travers ’12 was on a ski lift at the Mountain Ski Resort in New Hampshire when he agreed to an interview with The Herald on Sunday. Travers was compet-ing in a race for the Brown ski

team, just days before he headed to Vancouver to compete in the giant slalom — the first athlete to represent the Cayman Islands in the Winter Olympics.

The Cayman Islands is a Brit-ish territory of 56,000 people lo-cated in the Caribbean. The tax-exempt trio of islands is known for its abundance of coral reefs and white beaches, in addition

to having more registered busi-nesses than citizens, according to BBC News.

Though the picturesque islands don’t immediately conjure images of alpine skiing, Travers said his interest first emerged during fam-ily vacations to the Beaver Creek Ski Resort in Colorado. Travers began racing when he was 13 after an exchange program in France.

Travers said his Olympic am-bitions began several years ago when his coach told him he would be able to compete if he improved in a few specific areas.

“A few years ago, my coach told me I could qualify if I got my points down to a certain level. And I focused on getting those points down, and he was right,”

Dating site gives lovelorn hopeBy TAliA kAgAn

Senior Staff Writer

At the beginning of each semester, Kai Huang ’11 and Arune Gulati ’11 would make a list of five girls they had crushes on. Then, at the end of the semester, they would review their progress.

“I was like 0 for 25,” Huang said. “It was never good.”

Then, this past summer, while hoping that a crush would chat

with him in an “online Facebook death stare,” Huang thought of a potential alternative to the uncer-tainty of modern romance.

That initial concept, grown out of “experiences of repeated failures and awkwardness,” now exists in the form of Prospect and Meeting, a Web site that Huang founded, he said. Users with a Brown e-mail address can enter up to five students they are in-terested in. If users’ crushes list

them too, the matched students each receive an e-mail notifying them that they have a match — and telling them who it is.

The site launched Saturday. Already over 900 students have registered, Huang said.

“It can be hard to date people at Brown,” said Gerardo Tejada ’10, who was featured in the pro-motional poster series that Huang

S N OW P l Ac E l I k E R AT T y

Nick Sinnott-Armstrong / HeraldFacilities Management monitors campus for snow and ice around the clock. See article on page three.

Cancun trip canned over alcoholBy kRiSTinA FAzzAlARO

Staff Writer

The 2011 Class Board recently canceled a planned spring break trip to Cancun because of liability concerns about alcohol consump-tion expressed by the Student Ac-tivities Office, according to Director of Student Activities Phil O’Hara ’55. A University-sponsored spring break trip is unlikely to happen now, O’Hara said.

Neil Parikh ’11, president of the class board, e-mailed the student body on Feb. 4 to announce the trip’s cancellation, six days after he sent an e-mail to all undergraduates that the board was sponsoring a trip through STS Travel, which included the company’s party package.

“Due to liability, reputational, and logistical concerns, the trip will no longer be associated with Brown University or the Class Coordinat-ing Boards,” Parikh wrote in the second e-mail.

The original Jan. 29 e-mail’s in-clusion of the line “All day parties and free drinks” was what forced the SAO to ask the board to rescind Brown’s official sponsorship of the trip, O’Hara said. “Brown has to protect itself from liability suits,” he said.

In their “exuberance” to find out

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Curtain rises on Pw’s thrilling ‘Until Dark’By lUiSA ROBledO

Staff Writer

High-pitched notes ring quietly in the background — a prelude to a sinister outcome. The dim lights shine over the Hitchcockian apartment set, as an uneasy atmosphere settles in. “Wait Until Dark,” which opens Friday night at Production Workshop and runs through Monday, is an emotional thrill from beginning to end.

“This play flips everything you

know,” said director Lee Taglin ’10, smiling. “It creates expectation and satisfaction in different ways.”

Alone in her apartment, a recently blinded Susy Hendrix (Leah Cogan ’13) falls victim to a trio of con men. Believing that a heroin-filled doll is at her house, the men make Susy the

target of their manipulative games and test her limits.

“It’s a story about a woman’s sur-vival — a blind woman surviving,” said Alexandra Keegan ’12, the stage manager.

Taglin chose Frederick Knott’s play to mark his directorial debut because of the different climactic elements of the script, he said. He wanted to focus on the characters and their interactions and create a “thrilling experience” for the audi-ence.

“This is a piece we’re very proud of,” Taglin said, adding that he felt lucky to have worked with such a passionate team. “It’s been phenom-enal.”

Cogan transformed into “the world’s champion blind woman,” as Susy mockingly calls herself in

courtesy of Alexandra keeganleah cogan ’13 plays Susy Hendrix, a recently blinded woman, in Pro-duction Workshop’s “Wait Until Dark.”

U. trashes plan to cut papersBy ClAiRe peRACChiO

Senior Staff Writer

The Organizational Review Commit-tee’s recommendation that newspa-pers be eliminated from University dining halls will not be enacted, Richard Bova, senior associate dean of residential and dining services, wrote in an e-mail to The Herald.

The ORC, which was charged with reducing expenditures by $14 million in order to stem the drain from the University’s endowment, recommended eliminating a pro-gram that provided the New York Times and the Providence Journal to students for $33,000 per year, ac-cording to the report the committee released on Feb. 2.

Originally a program initiated by the Undergraduate Council of Students, the newspaper service is currently funded through the Din-ing Services budget. If the program were to continue, the ORC’s report recommended, it should “return to being funded by UCS and the stu-dent activities fee.”

“During the ORC process, one of the guiding principles was to seek savings that wouldn’t hurt the student experience,” said Marisa Quinn, vice president of public af-fairs and University relations.

President Ruth Simmons will present a set of recommendations

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FeATURe

ARTS & CUlTURe

gOT The lOVe BUg?BlogDailyHerald asks how students really feel about Valentine’s Day

The blog today

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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.

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FRIDAy, FEBRUARy 12, 2010THE BROWN DAIly HERAlDPAgE 2

CamPUS newS “It creates this kind of subtle world of mysteryon campus.” — Roman gonzalez ’11 on Prospect and Meeting

In first week, new a.m. option ups V-Dub trafficBy AnA AlVARez

Senior Staff Writer

More students have visited the Verney-Woolley Dining Hall dur-ing morning hours since Brown Dining Services introduced con-tinental breakfast there Monday, and most have expressed praise for the change, said Ann Hoffman, director of administration for Din-ing Services.

From Monday to Wednesday, Dining Services saw a steady in-crease from 80 to 119 students who ate at the V-Dub from 9:30 a.m. to 11 a.m., the new extended hours, according to data provided by Hoffman.

On Wednesday, the busiest day, 29 percent of the students who ate in the morning attended the continental breakfast. Every day saw an increase from the previous week in the number of students who attended breakfast.

Students at the continental breakfast on Wednesday said they were pleased with the new option.

According to Hoffman, Jared Furuta ’10, assistant unit manager for Dining Services, wrote in an e-mail to Hoffman that the continen-tal breakfast is ideal for students with later classes who normally would not wake up early to go to breakfast.

Dorothy Lutz ’13 said she did not used to get breakfast because

of late classes but now takes ad-vantage of the new continental breakfast.

“I am a really big fan since my class starts at 11,” she said.

David Sanchez ’13 said he liked and took advantage of the new op-tion, which “is very convenient.”

Hoffman said Janet Parris, food services manager of the V-Dub for Dining Services, wrote in an e-mail that attendance at the continental breakfast varied during the time slot. While continental breakfast is chaotic between 9:30 a.m. and 10 a.m., the V-Dub calms down from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m., Parris wrote.

Hoffman added that it is still too early to be sure if this increase will continue in the coming weeks.

“At the beginning of the semes-ter, we see typically high counts in all of our operations and high counts at breakfast,” she said, “but after a while that goes away. It takes time to settle into patterns.”

Only one customer has com-plained so far about the absence of hot food options at the continental breakfast, Hoffman said.

“This person misunderstood what would be of fered,” she said.

Most other students are satis-fied with the current options.

While enjoying her breakfast, Karin Wefald ’13 said, “I don’t mind not having hot breakfast because there is still other stuff accessible.”

made for Prospect and Meeting. The site could make dating “less threatening,” he said.

“The reason it works is it’s this return to (the) playground inno-cence of just having a crush on someone,” said Phil Kaye ’10, an-other student featured in the post-ers. He compared Prospect and Meeting to “the giggling friend” who tells two people of their mutual crush.

A fortuitous intersectionThe site’s name comes from

Huang’s musings of two summers ago. While thinking of a failed romantic endeavor as he walked home along Prospect Street, he no-ticed the romantic potential of the intersection of Prospect and Meet-ing streets, and filed the thought away.

Last summer, when Huang brought up the idea for the site to several friends, Ben Martadarma ’11 said he realized it sounded familiar. At his New York public high school, Stuyvesant, it was tradition for se-niors to post “crushlists” several weeks before graduation. The lists, which were first posted on a wall in the school building, were typed up and put online for students to search for potential matches.

Martadarma, a computer science concentrator, told Huang the pro-gramming for this site would not be too hard. Gulati and another friend, Tyler Parker ’11, who worked on the site’s design, were also involved. Martadarma began programming over winter break.

Then, a week later, Huang called with some bad news.

Huang had found out about Good Crush, a site that worked the same way. Unfortunately for Huang, this one was already set up and had a slick interface as well as networks for many different universities.

“I cannot remember the last time I was that depressed about anything,” Huang said.

Crushed hopesGood Crush, which also allows

users to list up to five crushes and has the same match-up feature,

grew out of a student project that founder Josh Weinstein debuted at Princeton in 2007.

Weinstein also went to Stuyve-sant High School. But while Marta-darma hadn’t even posted a senior crushlist, Weinstein had been heav-ily involved. He was the first one to post the lists online, a task that took him “three days of nonstop typing,” he said.

In 2007, Weinstein brought the concept with him to Princeton. When he launched the site as a student government Valentine’s Day project, over 30 percent of the student body signed up within 24 hours, he said.

Weinstein decided to expand it nationwide — he is officially launch-ing the site with over 20 colleges for Valentine’s Day. But he also in-cluded networks for schools where he is not officially launching, such as Brown. As of Monday, there were about 30 Brown users, he said.

Almost 15,000 crushes have been sent on Good Crush, accord-ing to a counter on the site.

Back on prospect StreetMeanwhile, Huang decided to

go ahead with the project, believing in the local appeal — and clever name — of Prospect and Meeting, he said.

The programming took a total of two-and-a-half weeks, Martadarma said. He then tested the site with friends to make sure it was secure. Passwords are encoded, and he is the only one with access to the lists. But he is not looking, he said.

In the past week, there have been a few bugs to work out. For example, until several days ago, us-ers could list themselves as a crush — something that 25 students did, he said.

It seems like many students who have used it so far have listed friends to test it out, said Marta-darma, who hasn’t yet heard of an actual romantic match despite over 150 matches on the site. Still, he said there has been a lot of curiosity and excitement.

Others are skeptical. “It doesn’t seem like it would work,” said Na-thaniel Jeffries ’13, adding that he

wouldn’t want to meet someone that way.

Some students she has spoken to react negatively, saying they “don’t need a dating site to get play,” said Alicia Maule ’11, another student featured on the site’s promotional posters. “But it’s fun.”

There is another potential, she said. “It could be a form of sexual liberation for those who don’t have the confidence or support or experi-ence in that realm,” she said.

Meet your matchOn Wednesday morning, Ro-

man Gonzalez ’11 received an e-mail that he had been listed, and spent the whole day thinking about it, he said.

He said he is intrigued by the site. “It creates this kind of subtle world of mystery on campus,” he said. It “awakens everybody’s con-sciousness that there are people who like other people.”

The site can also awaken ten-sions. Gonzalez knows two people who are dating, but who each re-ceived a notification from someone else. There was an awkward curi-osity that neither felt they could pursue, he said.

Beyond notifications, there is the question of what to do when you actually receive a match.

Maule probably wouldn’t e-mail her match, but would instead “ex-tend (herself) more verbally and physically” when with them, she said.

Huang said if he were to receive a match, the interaction probably would be awkward — but “beauti-fully awkward.”

Huang wants to expand the site, with features like a blog or the po-tential for two lists during the sexu-ally charged time period known as “senior scramble.” One would be the traditional list of crushes, while the other could be for just “hooking up,” he said.

In the meantime, he is working hard to promote the site. One of his dreams is for every student on campus to receive at least one noti-fication from the site, he said.

“Everyone is liked by someone,” he said.

The ‘awkwardly beautiful’ power of lovecontinued from page 1

Nick Sinnott-Armstrong / HeraldNew dating site Prospect and Meeting has attracted over 900 registered users and made more than 150 match-es.

Travers said.Travers has been steadfast in

his dedication to training. Though he ordinarily struggles to practice 50 days a year — in addition to Brown ski team’s month-and-a-half-long, biweekly trainings — he took the last year off from school to dedicate 200 days a year to ski-ing.

On top of Travers’ sheer com-mitment to skiing, he manages to find time for a second passion — rugby. As a freshman, Travers joined the Brown rugby team and soon became instrumental to its success.

“Soon after coming to Brown, Dow became one of our starters,” said Brown Rugby Coach David LaFlamme. “He’s a very aggres-sive player.”

Rugby team captain Andrew

Alvarez ’11 also praised Travers’ commitment to the team. “Last fall season, he was at every practice and at every game. That’s just the kind of guy he is,” Alvarez said. Alvarez added that the team was not surprised that Travers had reached the Olympic level in ski-ing “because he really is talented at both sports.”

Travers’ role on the team also led Brown rugby to tour the Cay-man Islands in the spring of 2008. The team played three matches there, the last of which was against the Cayman National First XV team. Travers’ performance in that match led the Cayman Islands to invite Travers back to play for them in a World Cup qualifier. Travers said he wants to play rugby in the 2016 Olympics, LaFlamme said.

One of the main reasons that Travers, a potential geobiology concentrator, chose Brown was be-

cause it was a place where he could pursue three of his passions.

“I came to Brown because it was one of the universities where I could balance academics with the athletics that I do,” Travers said. “It was one of those places where I could ski and play rugby and get a great education.”

Travers said it has been “incred-ibly difficult” to balance his athletic and academic commitments. “Most of my professors have been very flexible, though I’ve been having a bit of trouble with the deans,” he said.

With the Opening Ceremony taking place Friday night, Travers said he is “feeling sore and tired from weeks of training,” but he expects to do his best when he competes. “I don’t really want to leave anything behind on that hill, and I want to make my country proud.”

CamPUS newSFRIDAy, FEBRUARy 12, 2010 THE BROWN DAIly HERAlD PAgE 3

“Nothing at Brown can have alcohol be the advertising centerpiece.” — Director of Student Activities Phil O’Hara ’55

travers skis from beaches to Browncontinued from page 1

Facilities attacks icy sidewalksBy AniTA MAThewS

Staff Writer

The flurry of blizzard predictions for Wednesday’s weather was the kind of forecast that mobilizes Fa-cilities Management to prepare the sidewalks for the worst of storms. Though the actual snowfall often falls far short of meteorologists’ expectations, as in Wednesday’s case, Facilities doesn’t take any chances.

“We plan for the worst, and hope for the best,” said Donna Butler, director of custodial services.

While it takes a substantial staff to clear the snow and ice on Brown’s campus, the department is also responsible for neighboring streets and city sidewalks — a job it tackles with over a dozen plows, said Patrick Vetere, grounds su-perintendent.

About 50 Facilities staff mem-bers volunteer to be on call to help with preparations like salting or plowing, a group known as “Ev-ergreen.”

Sometimes “we have to have staff report in the middle of the night,” said Carlos Fernandez, assistant vice president of facili-ties operations and engineering. “Through proper communication and planning, we are able to inform our staff (in advance). We try to be proactive.”

Fernandez said the staff is very faithful — “they support Brown to the end.”

This dedication is especially helpful for a job that often demands doing the same duties multiple times. According to Fernandez, it is not unusual for the salt that Facilities spreads on the sidewalk before a storm to be washed away by rain and melting snow, making it necessary that Facilities staff ap-

ply more. “Safety is always a concern,”

Butler said, “whether students are on campus or not.”

Even during winter break, she said, when the majority of students returns home, Facilities operates as it does when the University is in session, if only for the Provi-dence residents who frequent the campus.

Fernandez said he and others on the Facilities staff feel a sense of personal responsibility when they hear about people injuring them-selves on the ice.

The custodial staff also main-tains areas around University build-ings like the Rockefeller Library to

protect them from the wear and tear caused by storms, though this is not required.

Vetere said his staff is always exploring new technology to aid in the clearing process. The new-est salting product that Facilities uses is enhanced with magnesium chloride, which melts “ice at lower temperatures and is less damaging to plants and masonry.”

Though the rapidly changing New England weather is a chal-lenge, Fernandez said he has learned what to expect and how to improve Facilities’ preparation for winter weather.

“After taking a few falls,” he said with a smile, “you learn.”

how many students would be inter-ested in such a trip, the members of the board did not show the text of the Jan. 29 e-mail to one of the advisers assigned to the organiza-tion, O’Hara said.

“Nothing at Brown can have alco-hol be the advertising centerpiece,” he said. “There has to be something more to it.”

O’Hara said he told the board that it could research spring break

trips and discuss the details with him, but he would have to approve any University-wide e-mails sent by the board. He said he would have removed the remark from the e-mail if the SAO had seen the e-mail before it was sent.

“We tried to plan the trip out of interest from the student body,” Parikh said in an interview with The Herald. “It’s unfortunate that the administration doesn’t want to go forward, but we hope to pursue it in the future.”

from those proposed by the ORC and the University Resources Com-mittee to the Corporation later this month. However, Simmons and oth-ers “recommended that this should be reconsidered,” Quinn said, be-cause the proposed cut would result in “minimal savings compared with other actions.”

“There is a real value for the com-munity in having newspapers avail-able to students,” Quinn said.

As a result, it is “unlikely that it

is something that will be forwarded” by Simmons to the Corporation, said Quinn of the proposal.

“The ORC recommendations that were posted on the Brown website are just that: recommendations,” UCS President Clay Wertheimer ’10 wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. “They were submitted to President Simmons ... One item that she is NOT recommending is removing newspapers from the dining halls.”

— With additional reporting by Zung Nguyen Vu

Nick Sinnott-Armstrong / HeraldWednesday’s snowstorm was not as bad as predicted, but Facilities Management still had plenty of plowing and shoveling.

Sao never approved class board’s Cancun e-mail

continued from page 1

U. to recommend keeping newspapers in dining halls

continued from page 1

www.browndailyherald.com

arts & CultureThe Brown Daily Herald

FRIDAy, FEBRUARy 12, 2010 | PAgE 4

Film fest brings Israel to College hillBy SARA lUxenBeRg

Staff Writer

The second-annual Israeli Film Festi-val of College Hill begins on Saturday with the Providence premiere of the Oscar-nominated film “Ajami.” For the committee of nine students who organized the festival, the seven films to be featured will serve to portray Israel in a cultural — as op-posed to a political — light.

The festival committee was “born out of frustration,” said Danya Chu-dacoff ’11, its co-director, who first had the idea to start the film festi-val as a freshman. “Last year, there was a frustration with the way the country of Israel is discussed and appreciated on campus,” she said.

“There was really no venue for students to discuss Israel in any other context” besides the politi-cal, she added.

The first Israeli Film Festival, held last year, concentrated on his-toric Israel. This year, the committee chose films that “gravitated toward what Israel is like on a day-to-day basis,” Chudacoff said.

Jenna Zeigen ’12, the committee’s other co-director, said “the predomi-nant way to look at Israel” is through a political lens. People forget that “Israel is a country in itself, with liv-ing, breathing people,” she said.

“I hope this film festival can bring them to light in all their diversity,” Zeigen said.

One film that highlights this di-versity is “Turn Left at the End of the World,” which will be shown on Feb. 14 and 18 and is co-sponsored by the Watson Institute’s Year of In-dia. In exploring the lives of Indian and Moroccan Jews in Israel, the film provides “insight into commu-

nities that people don’t really know existed,” Chudacoff said.

Jesse Golden-Marx ’13, another member of the festival committee, will give an educational presentation at the screening. The committee is trying to address the common mis-conceptions that Israel is extremely orthodox or only a violent country, he said.

Another film that speaks to di-versity is “A Matter of Size,” a film about an Israeli who discovers sumo wrestling in Israel. The screening is co-sponsored by the Japanese Cul-tural Association and will be shown on Feb. 14 and 17. The film “shows there are other cultures that do ex-ist inside of Israel,” Golden-Marx said.

The festival also seeks to empha-size Tel Aviv in new ways with films like “Or (My Treasure),” a movie about prostitution and its effects on a mother-daughter relationship. The film, which will run on Feb. 15 and 18, delves into “gender issues in Israel” and is more universally relat-able, Chudacoff said. “It’s day-to-day, it’s human, it’s one of the things that happens in a big city like Tel Aviv.”

The film festival will also touch on themes that people often asso-ciate with Israel, such as political conflict and the Holocaust. “Free Zone,” which will be screened on Feb. 16, is “the most political film we have,” Chudacoff said. “We picked it because the film itself is a discus-sion.”

“It’s not conclusive,” she added. “It just kind of exposes a certain real-ity and ironies of the situation.”

“Free Zone” is the only film in the line-up in English. The rest are primarily Hebrew with English sub-titles.

“Summer of Aviya,” to be shown on Feb. 15 and 17, will explore is-sues surrounding the Holocaust. “We want to keep talking about it, discussing it, remembering it,” com-mittee member Sarah Levy ’12 said of the Holocaust. “This is a good way to do so in an Israeli context.”

The committee members worked hard to bring this year’s film festival to life. “We had to write a lot of grant letters and fill out a lot of applica-tions,” Zeigen said. The committee reached out to local synagogues, campus groups, academic depart-ments and nationwide Jewish orga-nizations, she added.

“Our attendance last year was pretty good,” Chudacoff said, adding that the committee expects an even better turnout this year. “The word is out more,” she said. “There’s more of an interest in it now.”

The film festival has no target audience, Chudacoff said. “We want to have this discussion with every-one.”

Chudacoff especially encouraged people to attend the festival’s opening screening of “Ajami,” which is nomi-nated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards.

“It’s the Providence premiere. The Avon doesn’t even have this film yet,” she added.

The committee emphasized the diversity portrayed in the film and its realistic quality. “The actors aren’t professional actors. They’re actual people from the neighborhood of Ajami,” Zeigen said.

In choosing this Oscar-nomi-nated film, the committee is also “showcasing success in the Israeli cinema industry, which is something to be very, very proud of,” Chuda-coff said.

alum’s documentary on Soviet era hits SundanceBy MiRiAM FURST

Staff Writer

“My Perestroika,” a documentary that director Robin Hessman ’94 described as an “unusual look of life behind the Iron Curtain,” was featured in the 2010 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, at the end of January.

Hessman said the film follows the lives of five people who were childhood classmates growing up in Moscow “behind the Iron Curtain.” By the time these five people graduated from college, the Soviet Union had collapsed and they needed to figure out how to live in a new society. “My Per-estroika” portrays Soviet Russia from a personal point of view, as opposed to a political or sociologi-cal point of view, Hessman said.

Caroline Libresco, one of the festival’s senior programmers, said they saw many documentary films about contemporary Rus-sia during the selection process because 2009 marked the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Ber-lin Wall.

“There is much to say about the impact and interplay of the old communist and the new capitalist system on Russian life and soci-ety,” Libresco said. “What makes ‘My Perestrokia’ such a special film is that it examines that very dynamic in a deep, microcosmic way.”

In addition to filming the five main characters’ current lives, Hessman integrated their home movies from the 1970s and 80s. “My Perestroika” also includes shots of the Soviet propaganda that surrounded the characters during their childhood.

“Hessman’s close relation-ship with her subjects is evident in their tremendous ease and candor in front of the camera,” Libresco said. “All of these factors conspire to make it an exquisite and important film.”

Hessman said she began re-search for the film in 2004, but has had a strong interest in Rus-sia since her time at Brown. She began to work on the film after realizing that, despite the end of the Cold War, there are still many misconceptions about what life was truly like in the USSR.

After interviewing many peo-ple for the film, Hessman found a married couple who were childhood classmates. Hessman wanted to use the couple, Boris and Lyubov Meyerson, who both became history teachers, because she wanted to explore “what it’s like for them to teach history to-day, compared to the history they learned in the Soviet Union when certain things were forbidden,”

she said. What’s more, both teach chil-

dren born after the fall of the So-viet Union who lack “real com-prehension of what the country was like when their parents grew up,” Hessman said. After deciding to follow the Meyersons in her film, Hessman found three other of their former classmates: Olga Durikova, a single mother who rents billiard tables for a living; Andrei Yevgrafov, a businessman; and Ruslan Stupin, a punk musi-cian.

Hessman’s main goal in mak-ing the film was “to try to make people know life behind the Iron Curtain emotionally, rather than intellectually” and to understand “what our generation of Russians had gone through,” she said.

Hessman has no familial ties to Russia, but became interested in the country “because they were the enemy,” she said.

At Brown, Hessman concen-trated in modern culture and media and Russian language and literature. She is grateful that Brown allowed her “to make her own path,” she said.

She also said Brown’s open curriculum made it possible for her to study abroad for a large por-tion of her undergraduate career. During the spring of her fresh-man year, she studied abroad in a language program in Leningrad during the city’s last year with that name — the last year of the Soviet Union. Hessman continued to spend time abroad in Russia, spending only four semesters on campus at Brown.

“I’m grateful to Brown because any other school would’ve had too many distribution requirements to let me go away that much,” she said.

While on campus, Hessman said, one of her most profound experiences was volunteering for and then working as an assistant to Richard Manning, a film archi-vist in the Department of Modern Culture and Media.

Hessman also took many film classes with Leslie Thornton, professor of modern culture and media studies, who has stayed in contact with her former student. Thornton said Hessman “was fierce in pursuing her goals. She was very focused, ambitious, ef-fective, and passionate.”

“Robin did something that I’ve never seen any other student do,” Thornton said of Hessman’s decision to enroll in film school in Moscow her junior year. “She knew the kind of experience she wanted and knew it wasn’t going to happen on Brown’s campus, so she did something much more dramatic.”

the beginning of the play. Although Cogan’s eyes have the emblematic blank stare of a blind person, she manages to convey emotions power-fully. Through her gestures and facial expressions, she connects with the audience members and draws them into her chaotic situation. She suc-ceeds in fooling viewers into thinking that she is completely blind, without seeming dull or flat.

Cogan’s use of props is also bril-liantly coordinated. Without exag-gerating her inability to see, she

stumbles into furniture with an almost-natural clumsiness. Her move-ments are flawless, yet spontaneous enough to still look real.

But it’s the dynamic interaction between the actors that makes this play so captivating. They are visibly engaged with each other’s perfor-mances, which allows them to cre-ate the ideal emotional atmosphere. They respond almost viscerally to each change in mood and tone.

“It’s a beautifully collaborative project,” said Assistant Director Nick White ’10.

The cast and crew came back to

Brown to rehearse a week before classes started. They lived together and spent up to eight hours per day on stage. “It was great,” Taglin said, laughing. “When you live together, you really break through.”

For White, those seven days were “an incredible learning experience,” he said, adding that it had been an ideal atmosphere to allow actors to try something new every night. “We all learned from each other,” he said.

“After living so closely,” Taglin said, “this play is pulsing and ready to burst — pshboom!”

Cogan ’13 dazzles in new Pw showcontinued from page 1

www.diamondsandcoal.com

world & nationThe Brown Daily Herald

FRIDAy, FEBRUARy 12, 2010 | PAgE 5

Online today: Ratty vs. V-Dub: Who wins? www.blogdailyherald.com

By MiChelle kAUFMAn

Mcclatchy neWSpaperS

The 2010 Winter Olympics get un-derway Friday with the first indoor Opening Ceremonies in the event’s 86-year history, and that is looking like a wise decision. It rained all day Thursday and more rain is forecast through Saturday, threatening the start of some of the ski events.

Despite a few unavoidable leaks on Twitter and Facebook, the ex-travaganza remains shrouded in mystery.

Pop stars Bryan Adams and Sar-ah McLachlan are expected to be in the show at 60,000-seat BC Place, but will Celine Dion join them? Will there, in fact, be two cauldrons, one indoors and one outside by the wa-terfront? Most importantly, will The Great One, hockey legend Wayne Gretzky, light the cauldron?

Word is the show will feature Aboriginal drummers and acrobats from the world-renowned Canadian Cirque du Soleil. It will cover themes ranging from Canada’s wilderness to its passion for winter sports.

More than 2,500 athletes and 10,000 journalists have gathered in this beautiful-but-snowless city, and a television audience of 3 billion is expected to tune in over the course of the 15-day competition.

Here are 10 Reasons to Watch

(in no particular order) …

Shani davis vs. Chad hedrick, Round 2

One of the spiciest Olympic rival-ries is between U.S. speedskating “teammates” Shani Davis and Chad Hedrick. Davis, the world-record holder at 1,000 and 1,500 meters, refuses to train with the U.S. team, appear in its media guide, or accept its money. He does things his way, and his mother, Cherie, wears Dutch orange rather than red, white and blue. Davis and Hedrick feuded four years ago over Davis’ decision not to compete in the team pursuit, and the icy relationship continues.

$100 Million QuestionCanada did not win a single gold

medal at the 1976 Montreal Olym-pics or the 1988 Calgary Olympics, and genial Canadian athletes and fans are tired of being the nice guys. A $100 million “Own the Podium” campaign was launched, and Canadi-ans are poised to sing “Oh, Canada” and watch their Maple Leaf rise up the flagpole. No team is under more pressure than the hockey team. Any-thing less than gold will be consid-ered a massive disappointment.

lindsey Vonn’s ShinNBC executives surely are ner-

vous as the anointed American star

of the Games, skier Lindsey Vonn, is questionable after injuring her shin during a Feb. 3 training run. Vonn is not only one of the best U.S. female skiers in history, but she is blonde and photogenic. She appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated last week, and also appeared in this month’s SI Swimsuit Issue. Will this be the Vonn-couver Olympics, or will she follow Bode Miller as American ski bust?

he’s BackOh, yes: Short Track speedskater

Apollo Anton Ohno is back, feeling comfortable just a few hours from his hometown of Seattle. He could leave here the most decorated U.S. Winter Olympian ever. He has five medals — two golds, one silver, two bronze — and Bonnie Blair has six.

wanted: American ice princessThe last time the U.S. failed to

win a medal in women’s figure skat-ing was 1964. This could be the year the U.S. medal streak ends. There are only two American skaters com-peting, rather than the usual three, because of country’s poor perfor-mances at recent world champion-ships. The best medal hope is na-tional champion Rachael Flatt, who has the technical difficulty but may lack the artistry to finish ahead of

favorites Kim Yu-Na of South Korea and Japanese skaters Mao Asada and Miki Ando.

nordic CombinedNo, we’re not kidding. For the

first time in Olympic history, the United States has a chance to win a medal in this sport, which is ski jumping plus cross-country skiing. Todd Lodwick is in his fifth Olym-pics, Bill Demong and Johnny Spill-ane are each in their fourth, and they finally figured out how to keep up with the Europeans.

They’re wearing what?Even if you are not a fan of figure

skating, it’s worth tuning in just to see the costumes. It used to be just the women’s costumes that dropped jaws, but now the men have joined the fun. Johnny Weir wears faux fur, Evan Lysacek wears feathers, and Evgeni Plushenko is known for his over-the-top outfits. Russian ice dancers Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin just ditched their aboriginal costumes because they were deemed offensive.

Brooms and StonesIf you’ve never watched curl-

ing, this is the time to start. The strange-looking sport involving brooms and 42-lb. granite stones is huge in Canada, with more than 1 million participants. There is ma-jor pressure on the Canadian men’s and women’s curling teams to bring home the gold.

Skicross CrashesThe new Olympic sport of ski-

cross features a pack of four skiers racing downhill at the same time, bumping each other as they negoti-ate turns, moguls and jumps. Think NASCAR on skis.

The Snow leopardA wild lynx wandered onto the

Olympic downhill course on Wednes-day. Thankfully, there were no ski-ers on the run at the time. During the Games, watch out for Kwame “The Snow Leopard” Nkrumah-Acheampong, a 35-year-old former safari guide from Ghana who is his country’s only representative at these Games. He is entered in the slalom and giant slalom.

VAnCOUVeR 2010 winTeR OlyMpiCS

opening details remain mysterious

www.blogdailyherald.com

editorial & LettersPAgE 6 | FRIDAy, FEBRUARy 12, 2010

The Brown Daily Herald

J U L I A S T R E U L I

President Simmons and Goldman Sachs

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letter to the editor

editorial

Goldman Sachs has been arguably the most contro-versial financial firm throughout the recent economic crisis. Critics have accused Goldman Sachs of selling financial products to institutional investors and bet-ting against those same products with its own trading money, as well as hastening American International Group’s collapse by liberally valuing its losses on securities that AIG insured.

Goldman Sachs received $12.9 billion in taxpayer money as a result of the eventual AIG bailout. On top of that, the firm also received a $10 billion loan through the government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program. Nonetheless, in 2009, Goldman set aside $16.2 billion for employee compensation — almost $500,000 per employee. In this context, we want to say a few words on President Ruth Simmons’ role as member of Goldman Sachs’ Board of Directors and compensation committee.

In evaluating President Simmons’ board mem-bership, it is important to distinguish two ways in which she contributes to the corporate governance of Goldman Sachs. First, President Simmons brings to the board a unique sensitivity to the views of women, minorities and young people. She is one of two women on the board, the only African American and the only member whose primary background is in education.

In an interview with the editorial page board, President Simmons said she has worked to convey minority employees’ issues to the firm’s management and helped build an initiative to provide business management education to 10,000 women in develop-ing countries throughout the world. She also said she keeps the company in touch with young people’s values — things like sustainability, equality and work-life balance.

When it comes to these issues, we can’t imagine a better advocate than President Simmons. In this regard, her perspective has a tremendously posi-tive impact on Goldman Sachs. And since the firm

employs 32,500 people worldwide and plays a major, global role in allocating capital and managing finan-cial risk, President Simmons’ board membership has positive ramifications on an international scale.

At the same time, as a member of the Board of Directors, President Simmons is responsible for exercising oversight in all areas of the firm — including the firm’s more controversial financial and compensation practices. When we take into account these actions, we are less enthusiastic about President Simmons’ board membership. We worry about whether her views on financial issues can in fact shape policy at Goldman Sachs to the same extent as her views on human resources issues. Fortunately, Simmons herself is very mindful of this concern.

“I am constantly probing, questioning whether or not I can make a difference. The moment that I feel I cannot make a difference, I’m gone,” she told the editorial page board. We want President Simmons to hold herself to that statement, and knowing her, we trust that she will. The relative moderation of Goldman Sachs’ 2009 employee compensation has been a nice gesture. CEO Lloyd Blankfein’s bonus fell well short of what many expected. Yet, the firm’s efforts to improve in the area of corporate citizenship must not stop there.

In the coming months, Goldman Sachs will exert great influence on America’s economic recovery and the government’s effort to design a new financial regulatory framework. We are glad that President Simmons will have a central seat at the table as both these processes move forward, and we hope — for the country’s sake — that her voice is heard loud and clear.

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

Amenities not key to college quality To the editor:

Ethan Tobias’ column (“What Toyota can teach Brown,” Feb. 11) sadly condones the continued race of colleges and universities to compete on the basis of country club-like amenities. Brown’s repu-tation is built not on newspapers and paninis, but rather the qual-

ity of its faculty and students. In-stead of lamenting the loss of shiny new buildings and luxuries we can reasonably forgo, let’s insist that Brown maintain or increase finan-cial aid, BIAP funding, and faculty and staff positions.

Nick Hagerty ’10Feb. 11

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Only one spring info session left!Feb. 15, 8 p.m. at 195 Angell St.

From The Herald, Wednesday, January 22, 1986

FRIDAy, FEBRUARy 12, 2010 | PAgE 7

opinionsThe Brown Daily Herald

Enough is enough. I was up late trying in vain to write a paper recently about the pass-ing of the literary visionary J.D. Salinger, so I ventured to the OMAC in hopes of going for a run to get the creative juices flowing. As they say: Might makes write. But after braving the cold Providence night, I arrived at the entrance of the OMAC to discover that it was closed!

Some of you will surely say, “Why don’t you just go running outside?” Please. Don’t even get me started on how dangerous it is to go running in Providence at night. And besides, I am from the South, so there’s no way you’re getting me to run outside when it’s this cold. As I was staring hopelessly into the dark cavern of the OMAC, another midnight runner bounded up the stairs ea-gerly, only to be met with my depressing, “It’s closed.” The person’s face sank like the Titanic. We walked back towards Thayer Street in silence. I hadn’t experienced such a slight since President Ruth Simmons de-clined one of my t-shirts with her face silk-screened on it.

Not being able to exercise late at night impacted my academic experience. What could be more important to us as Brown students than the sanctity of academics? I mean, imagine how ridiculous it would be

if I couldn’t get a spicy with at one in the morning after stumbling drunkenly down Thayer Street and rubbing my head on the sneeze-guard above the lettuce. If midnight runs are as much a part of one’s work rou-tine as blacked-out chicken sandwiches, then it should be given the same status by the powers that be. Some people prepare for

class on Thursday by dressing scantily and going pole dancing on Wednesday. Is my habit really so ridiculous?

We ought to give equal status to all study routines, with complete and total disregard for all potential haters. As Ralph Waldo Em-erson says, consistency is the hallmark of a sensible institution. Plus, Brown had almost $3 billion. We should be able to afford to keep the lights on all night in the OMAC just like we can afford to keep stacks of room-temperature cheese next to a hotel pan of fried chicken. It’s just common sense.

It is unfair that my parents are suffering

a small loss of value from this arbitrary and seemingly irrelevant policy. I’m sure it was designed by some Corporation bureaucrat to maximize costs and minimize services. If not, then it is probably a law that Gov. Don-ald Carcieri ’65 passed to appease the pow-erful people-who-look-for-a-flashing-green-light lobby. I demand instant satisfaction of

my most ridiculous whims! Or else what are our parents paying all this money for?

As serious as this concern may seem to me, I think this exposes a much darker un-derlying problem that we all must face: we haven’t become a post-circadian society. We all thought that the beginning of the age of the 24-hour convenience store was going to change the way we think about sleep habits. But the sad reality is that it hasn’t. Tedeschi still closes at two in the morning. Closed-minded time bigots are winning. We cannot let them.

The notion that nighttime is for sleeping

is an oppressive discursive construct that is propagated by the diurnalist hegemony. It is a narrowly equatorial discourse bor-dering on nocturnalist. People like us who live closer to the poles experience night and day as fluid and ambiguous categories that help contextualize the various life-pro-cesses that constitute our dominant cultural practices. For most, the equinox is a Pagan-esque primitive that is a sadly distant ideal. Our progressive sensibilities demand that everything anyone does must be celebrated regardless of how idiotic it is and our con-servative sensibilities demand that every-thing be sacrificed on the altar of efficiency regardless of how valuable it is.

But all this isn’t to say that there must always be a temporal hierarchy of privilege when it comes to using gymnastical facili-ties. Who are the administrators of the Ol-ney-Margolies Athletic Center to say that these ought to be inflexible boundaries? We can’t tacitly cede the agency each of us has over the fitness of our own bodies to soul-less bureaucrats.

As a wise man from Alberta once told me: “The problem with Fukuyama is that he’s not Tocqueville.”

Take heart, Brunonians: It is darkest just before dawn.

Brian Judge ’11 is just trying to get in top form for the laydeeezz at Fish co.

workin’ on my fitness

In his Feb. 1 column, “Haiti: Where morality meets reality,” Brian Judge ’11 ended on a strong note: “But in the end, it isn’t about us and what we want for Haiti. It is about what Haitians want for Haiti.” The logic there is unimpeachable, though the rest of Judge’s article argues a rather different point: “If we want to feel good about our dogmas, then we should go on saying that Haiti is just fine as it is, and it is only our own prejudice that says that it ought to be different. If we want to ac-tually mitigate suffering, then we need to be willing to be paternalistic.” That’s where dis-agreement arises.

No one has said that Haiti is just fine as it is, but the idea that Haiti could develop along the path of Taiwan by hosting American sweatshops is absurd. Haiti’s problem has never been a lack of integration into the cap-italist world economy, or even insufficient “Protestant work ethic.” On the contrary, the “Protestant work ethic” that powered capital-ism in countries like England and the Neth-erlands was built on protectionism at home, access to capital and the coerced work ethic of people bought and sold as slaves in Jamai-ca and Barbados, Curacao and Suriname.

While Haiti has certainly fared worse than many other ex-colonies for numerous historical reasons, no country has pulled it-

self up from such thorough subjugation. Tai-wan had access to significant amounts of capital and development aid, and like China, Japan and South Korea, has enjoyed a de-gree of autonomy that no Atlantic World col-ony has ever seen.

That said, the international community has the opportunity to be either helpful or harmful. The appropriate course of action is, of course, to honor the policies that (as Judge said), “Haitians want for Haiti.” But not all Haitians speak with one voice, and perhaps more importantly, Haitian politics are cir-cumscribed in a larger world political system

where “what Haitians want” is systematically ignored. In 1825, Haiti was required to pay reparations to France for the latter’s loss in slave property resulting from the success-ful rebellion of Generals Toussaint and Des-salines. Opening the twentieth century, the United States occupied the country militar-ily from 1915 to 1934, creating the conditions for the brutal father-son regimes of Francois and Jean-Claude Duvalier. If that all seems like ancient history, the nation’s first demo-cratically elected president, the immensely

popular priest Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was overthrown for the second time in 2004 with American support.

In short, Haitians do not need a change of culture, for it is not Haitian culture that has impeded “progress” for centuries. Rather, it is the “international community” (read: ex-colonial powers) that needs to change its cul-ture; for it is those same nations of the “de-veloped world” that have consistently jeop-ardized the wellbeing of Haitians as a people over the past two centuries. To merely drop Haiti into competition for the scraps of in-dustrialization that America leaves to other

countries (i.e. textiles) is a grotesque policy in light of Haiti’s history and the enormous debt that the former colonial powers owe to Haiti and, yes, scores of other former colo-nies they have left in the same position.

To that end, I believe the appropriate steps are clearer than many would like to ad-mit. First, large amounts of money need to be issued to Haiti, with no strings attached. Haiti must not be left open to predatory creditors and corporations. Secondly, money should go to Haitians to the greatest extent

possible. It should go to the Haitian govern-ment and to Haitian organizations. Institu-tions like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, led by countries like the United States, have controlled Haiti for more than long enough; the idea that they know best is almost laughable by now. Finally, all is for naught if Haitians do not have a demo-cratic government in which they have faith. The least that the U.S can do to that end is not undermine democracy where it does ex-ist. The answers for Haiti will have to come from its neighborhoods, labor and commu-nity organizations and churches rather than American banks.

I am not Haitian, and I obviously do not speak for the Haitian people. Unfortunately, the final decisions about how to deal with Haiti will most likely be made in the United States and Europe, giving the residents of those countries a degree of responsibility in seeing justice done. There are already grass-roots organizations in Haiti organizing for a better future for their country, and the same organizing needs to be done here in the United States. Opposing the predetermined policies of powerful banks and corporations, at home and abroad, is an uphill battle, but the stakes of losing are simply too high to not take it up.

Alexander campbell ’10 is a history concentrator from louisville, kentucky.

He can be reached at alexander_campbell@brown.edu.

haiti: making morality meet reality

The answers for Haiti will have to come from its neighborhoods, labor and community

organizations and churches rather than American banks.

We should be able to afford to keep the lights on all night in the OMAc just like we can afford to keep stacks of room-temperature cheese next

to a hotel pan of fried chicken. It’s just common sense.

By BRIAN JUDgEopinions coluMnist

By AlEXANDER cAMPBEll

Guest coluMnist

got something to say? leave a comment online!Visit www.browndailyherald.com to comment on opinion and editorial content.

FRidAy, FeBRUARy 12, 2010 PAgE 8

Today 34

Facilities keeps snow and ice at bay

Film fest brings Israel to college Hill

The Brown Daily Herald

35 / 17

TOdAy, FeBRUARy 12

4:00 p.M. — Ron’s Right Arm: Syn-

thesias, Sensoriums, and the Experi-

ence of Recording Studio Work, Orwig

315

7:30 p.M. — Dancing with the Profs,

Alumnae Hall

TOMORROw, FeBRUARy 13

10:00 A.M. — Sexual Assault Peer

Education Training, Wilson 105

7:00 p.M. — Israeli Film Festival

Screening of “Ajami” (2009), Mac-

Millan 117

excelsior | kevin grubb

dot Comic | Eshan Mitra and Brendan Hainline

hippomaniac | Mat Becker

ShARpe ReFeCTORy

lUnCh — Vegan Vegetable couscous,

Hot Pastrami Sandwich, White Pesto

Pizza

dinneR — Stuffed Shells Florentine,

Onion Rings, cheese Pizza, Salmon

Provencal

VeRney-wOOlley dining hAll

lUnCh — chicken Fingers, Baked

Vegan Nuggets, Baked Potato Bar,

Raspberry Swirl cookies

dinneR — grilled chicken, Risotto

Primavera, cheesy grits Souffle, Veg-

etarian Minestrone Soup

Coal to cutting varsity teams. We thought they wanted to trim the University’s budget — not FishCo’s revenue.

A diamond diamond to Senior Associate Dean of the Faculty Carolyn Dean, who told The Herald this week that postdocs received a salary increase last year to maintain equity. Who better to comment on equity than Dean Dean?

Coal to 2011 Class Board President Neil Parikh ’11 for arranging “all day parties and free drinks” in Cancun for the junior class without asking permission. We can’t imagine what the University found objectionable.

Diamond to State Rep. John G. Edwards, D-Dist. 70, for introducing a bill to decriminalize pot. We would confuse you with the former senator, but we know you’d never cheat on your Mary Jane.

Coal to the marriage equality rally that was postponed this week because of poor weather conditions. It doesn’t count if it was just raining gay men.

A diamond to the University for partnering with Pfizer, maker of Viagra. We assume this is part of a plan to help our endowment grow.

Coal to the University for hosting the unattractive Samsung charging stations in eateries around campus. Then again, this isn’t the first time the University has overlooked appearance — these are the same people that brought us Grad Center, after all.

Diamond to Robin Hessman ’94 for becoming interested in Russia “because they were the enemy.” That’s like when we were mean to the pretty girl in our second-grade class because we like-liked her.

Coal to the University’s decision to keep bringing our competitors into the dining halls. The Herald was looking forward to its monopoly of your breakfast table.

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sports around the bend

coMics

36 / 22

today toMorrow

diaMonds and coal

The men’s basketball team will host Dartmouth on Friday at 7 p.m. at the Pizzitola Center and Harvard the following night — same time, same place. The Crimson (15-5, 4-2 Ivy League) and Big Green (4-16, 0-6) are the only two Ivy teams that Brown (7-16, 1-5) has yet to play.

The wrestling team will host a dual meet against Harvard at noon on Saturday in the Pizzitola Cen-ter and another against Lehigh two hours later, the team’s final home meets.

The women’s hockey team (2-18-4, 0-15-3 ECAC) will host Cornell (11-8-6, 10-2-6) on Friday night at 7 p.m. in Meehan Auditorium. The Bears will stay at home on Saturday to take on Colgate (9-17-4, 5-9-4) at 4 p.m. Brown will look to snap its eight-game losing streak.

After two home weekends, the men’s hockey team (7-13-3, 5-8-3) will hit the road to face No. 6 Cornell (13-6-3, 10-3-2) on Friday and Colgate (11-11-5, 8-6-1) on Sat-urday.

Cabernet Voltaire | Abe Pressman