thursday, december 5, 2013
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The December 5, 2013 issue of The Brown Daily HeraldTRANSCRIPT
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2013 since 1891vol. cxlviii, no. 122Daily HeraldTHE BROWN
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Post-bds, Brussels sprouts, and banalization. buh-bye!
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UNIVERSITY NEWS, 3 SCIENCE & RESEARCH, 8
Baby brainsA lecture examined the link between action and problem-solving in infants
No secretsA pair of panels investigated NSA programs, delving into privacy and security
By JOSEPH ZAPPASTAFF WRITER
Activism boils down to the “creation of tension,” said Kenneth McDaniel ’69 P’13, a participant in the 1968 pro-tests over Brown’s diversity, during a Wednesday teach-in on student activism throughout the last 50 years.
The teach-in, attended by about 75 people in Barus and Holley 168, was organized by a group of students in light of student activism this semester, said event coordinator Anselmo Fuentes ’16, who introduced the panelists.
Robert Lee ’80 P’15, chair of the Department of American Studies, said discussions of activism should focus on current challenges amid progress made by past collective actions. “We need to think of these gains that we have made as ongoing sites of struggle,” he said. “They need defending. They need expanding.”
Understanding the history behind activism provides a “blueprint on how to act now,” said Paul Tran ’14, who is conducting research on student activism as part of a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship in history, Africana studies and ethnic studies.
The fact that undergraduates have
Teach-in recounts history of activismStudents said past protests have informed current experiences both inside and outside the classroom
By KATE KIERNANSENIOR STAFF WRITER
The University plans to increase the portion of its endowment that it in-vests directly, limiting its reliance on intermediary financial managers in an effort to enhance the University’s flexibility with its assets and grow its cash holdings, wrote Chief Invest-ment Officer Joseph Dowling in an email to The Herald.
The University will still employ financial managers to help invest money from the endowment. But under Dowling’s supervision, the Office of Investment will look to independently manage more of the endowment, giving the University greater control over its funds.
The Office of Investment and the Investment Committee manage the endowment under the supervision of Executive Vice President for Fi-nance and Administration Beppie Huidekoper, Dowling wrote.
The Office of Investment cur-rently plans to use 5 percent of the endowment for direct investments, but that number could grow “based on the investment opportunity set, performance of direct investments and resources of the investment of-fice,” Dowling wrote.
The changes came when Dowl-ing was appointed last May, bring-ing with him experience in seeking out new investment opportunities, Huidekoper said. Dowling former-ly worked at Narragansett Asset
Management, an investment firm he founded in 1998.
The University has been “very sat-isfied” with the third party financial managers it has used for investing the endowment, Huidekoper said, and it will continue to use those financial intermediaries in conjunction with direct investments managed by the Office of Investment.
The endowment contributes about 16 percent of the University’s income and is its third largest source of revenue, Huidekoper said. Under-graduate tuition is the University’s largest income source, Huidekoper said.
The endowment is a revenue source and investment tool to help universities to pay for operating costs instead of increasing student fees, according to a Sept. 27 Bloomberg News article.
The University currently has about 1 percent of its endowment in cash assets, according to a state-ment from the Office of Investment. Available cash serves as an immediate source of funds for “times of stress” when the stock market plummets, Dowling wrote. It also gives the Uni-versity more flexibility to acquire as-sets if new investment opportunities become available, he wrote.
Total equity, including public stock, private equity and real assets like real estate holdings, make up 89 percent of the University’s assets. Since these assets are tied up in in-vestments, they are less accessible than cash holdings. The remaining 10 percent of the endowment is in-vested in fixed income assets, which provide a more stable income stream, according to the Office of Investment.
U. to undertake more direct investmentsLimiting the role of intermediaries will allow U. finance offices more flexibility with funds
By KATE KIERNANSENIOR STAFF WRITER
John Maeda, the 16th president of the Rhode Island School of Design, will resign at the end of the semester, ac-cording to a RISD press release.
Maeda will leave RISD to become a design partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byer, a Silicon Valley ven-ture capital firm, in January. He will also chair the recently formed eBay Design Advisory Board, according to the release.
Maeda’s contract was renewed March 2012 to last through June 2015,
The Herald previously reported.Maeda announced his decision via
a video compilation of clips of students and faculty members, during which he reflected on RISD’s evolution over his six years as president.
In the video, Maeda said technology use helped RISD become a preeminent design school, crediting the “artists, designers and scholars of RISD” as the force for change at the school.
Maeda came to RISD in the fall of 2008, following the resignation of then-President Roger Mandle. Maeda previously served as a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and associate director of research at the MIT Media Lab.
Esquire Magazine included Maeda among its “75 most influential people of the 21st century,” according to the
RISD president resignsThough his contract lasts to 2015, John Maeda will leave in January to work at a venture capital firm
» See ACTIVISM, page 5
F R O M G AT E TO CO M M O N S
COURTESY OF BROWN UNIVERSITY
Andrews Dining Commons, imagined above in a University rendering, will feature a study space for 125 students and a food service area. It is slated to open for the first week of classes in January. See andrewS, page 2.
By KATHERINE LAMBSENIOR STAFF WRITER
About four-fifths of undergraduates sup-port standardized test scores playing
either a small or moderate role in public high school
graduation requirements, according to a Herald poll conducted Sept. 30 – Oct. 1. About 12 percent of respondents said standardized test scores should play no role in public high school graduation requirements.
The responses come on the heels of significant state debate surrounding
a recently implemented state-wide re-quirement that students score at least “partially proficient” on the New England Common Assessment Program test or demonstrate substantial improvement between test cycles to receive a high school diploma.
Of the 80 percent of respondents who supported a small or moderate role in public high school graduation requirements, about half were in favor of a moderate role and half were in favor of a small role.
Natalie Tarr ’14, who volunteers for Algebra in Motion, an after school tu-toring program at Hope High School, said she strongly opposes high-stakes standardized testing.
At Hope High School, only 19 per-cent of students passed the math portion of the NECAP, and approximately 80
Poll: Students split on role of testingMany said they believe standardized testing gives certain groups of students unequal treatment
» See INVESTMENT, page 4
GREG JORDAN-DETAMORE/ HERALD
Other �elds
Arts/humanities
Non-white
White
Female
Male
All students
Mixed opinions on the role of standardized testsFemales, whites and humanities/arts concentrators were less likely than other students to say they support standardized test scores playing a major role in graduation requirements.
Question: “How much of a role should standardized test scores play in public high school graduation requirements?”
SIGNIFICANT MODERATE SMALL NONENO OPINION
21240415
2 41 43 12 2
8 42 37 12 2
4 38 42 15 2
7 46 38 8 1
4 35 44 15 2
5 44 38 10 2
» See TESTING, page 4
» See RISD, page 4
CITY & STATE
university news2 THE BROWN DAILY HERALDTHURSDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2013
8 P.M.
SPEC Presents: Candyland
Sayles Hall
8 P.M.
Brown Unheard Open Mic
The Underground
6:40 P.M.
Brown Motion Pictures Premiere
Salomon 101
9:30 P.M.
Brown Stand Up Comics Show
Salomon 001
SHARPE REFECTORY VERNEY-WOOLLEY
LUNCH
DINNER
Broccoli Noodle Polonaise, Baked Potato Bar, Slow Roast Pork Loin with Herbs, Red Potato with Dill
Swiss Steak, Stuffed Spinach Squash, Mashed Red Bliss Potatoes with Garlic, Green Beans with Tomatoes
Spinach Pie Calzone, Falafel, Hot Roast Beef on French Bread, Broccoli with Mushrooms and Red Onion
BBQ Beef on a Bun, Pumpkin Ravioli, Curly Fries, Peanut Butter Sandwich Bar, Vegan Garden Chili
THURSDAY DECEMBER 5 FRIDAY DECEMBER 6
c r o s s w o r d
s u d o k u
m e n u
c a l e n d a r
ASHLEY SO / HERALD
FUTURE LOCATIONAndrews Hall
CURRENT LOCATIONAlumnae Hall
RELOCATION: The Gate will be replaced in January by Andrews Dining Commons, which will feature a 24-hour study center.
By ALIZA REISNERSTAFF WRITER
Andrews Dining Commons, a new eatery, campus center and study lounge, is on schedule to open in Andrews Hall in January, Senior As-sociate Dean of Residential Life and Dining Services Richard Bova told The Herald.
The new eatery will be a relocated and expanded version of the Gate, the only current on-campus dining option on Pembroke campus besides the Verney-Wooley Dining Hall. Bova said Andrews Dining Commons will function as a place for students to eat, socialize and study.
The future use of the Gate’s cur-rent space is still undetermined, Bova said.
There will be two main food stations in the eatery. The first will include some of the Gate’s current selections, Bova said, serving various types of pizzas, paninis and pastas. It will have the same pizza ovens cur-rently used at the Gate. The second food station will offer an Asian fusion menu, with all the offerings contain-ing fresh vegetables and ingredients,
Bova said.The front of the new space will
feature a common area with seating for about 125 students, Bova said. There will be other seating for study-ing and socializing, including tables and more comfortable chairs and lounge areas.
Five glass-walled rooms around the edge of the room will offer a space for groups to eat and work together with some privacy, Bova said.
The space will include a seminar room for 25 people off a side hallway. The University will begin scheduling first-year and upper-class seminars in that space, Bova said.
There will also be a printing sta-tion in the new space, according to the Facilities website.
Andrews Dining Commons will have a contemporary aesthetic, with an open kitchen and a glass-enclosed staircase that will lead to a 24-hour study lounge on the first floor of Andrews Hall overlooking the patio, Bova said. This level will also have a large fireplace, according to the Fa-cilities website.
Bova said the project is running “right on schedule” and that, aside from a few touch-ups, the space will be complete by Dec. 20. He said he expects Andrews Dining Commons to be open and fully functional during the first week of classes in January.
The space will be open from 11
a.m. to 2 a.m. every day, Bova said. The V-Dub will continue operating only on weekdays, but Andrews Din-ing Commons will be open over the weekend.
Some students living on and near Pembroke campus said they are ex-cited about the new dining space. Many said they felt that a comparable venue near Pembroke has been lack-ing, adding that they welcome the new common area.
Scott Freitag ’14, who lives off-campus near Pembroke, said he is excited about the more healthful op-tions that will be offered in the new location. Freitag, a Herald opinions columnist, added that he especially hopes the eatery offers more high-protein foods than are currently avail-able at the Gate.
Andrews Commons to offer food, social spaceSet to open in January, the eatery will feature Asian fusion cuisine and a large common room
www.browndailyherald.com
university news 3THE BROWN DAILY HERALDTHURSDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2013
By WING SZE HO AND CAROLINE KELLY
STAFF WRITERS
The real-world impact and transparency of federal surveillance programs took center stage at a pair of panels presented Wednesday to a full Joukowsky Forum auditorium.
The conference, titled “Big Transpar-ency for the NSA: Perspectives on Spying and Privacy,” was hosted by the Watson Institute for International Studies and was moderated by Timothy Edgar, former di-rector of privacy and civil liberties for the White House’s national security staff and visiting scholar at the Watson Institute.
The first session, titled “Privacy and Transparency, Inside and Out,” featured four panelists who presented their per-spectives on the transparency of federal surveillance programs.
Jameel Jaffer, deputy legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union, questioned the National Security Agen-cy’s “scope of collection” of Americans’ and foreigners’ personal data and the NSA’s “scope of authority.”
Alexander Joel, civil liberties protec-tion officer at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, said the federal government is working to increase the transparency of data collection but added that intelligence agencies are “designed and built” to operate in secrecy, which naturally limits their transparency.
The “most troubling” issue about data collection is not that the federal govern-ment is “withholding” information but that officials are “misleading us” about the nature of data collection, Jaffer said. Intelligence agencies’ high level of secrecy means details of surveillance programs are not divulged, he added.
“These programs do not target any-one. They target everyone,” Jaffer said, responding to an audience member’s question about whether visiting intel-ligence agency websites increases a web user’s “vulnerability” to surveillance.
Jaffer cited the former communist state of East Germany as an example of
how “pervasive surveillance shut down activities” in daily life.
Steven Aftergood, senior research analyst at the Federation of American Scientists and publisher of the intelligence blog Secrecy News, said federal agencies have “conducted unprecedented declas-sification” of older documents in the past five years.
But Aftergood said intelligence agen-cies have declassified older documents to build credibility with the public, adding that this declassification process has not applied to newer documents.
John DeLong, the NSA’s director of compliance, said surveillance transpar-ency is crucial in an “open democracy.” DeLong focused his discussion on the Pa-triot Act’s Section 215, which authorizes the federal government to collect data on telephone communication between Americans and foreign terrorist orga-nizations, and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act’s Amendments Act Sec-tion 702, which allows officials to access the content of phone calls of foreigners not in the United States.
Section 215 aims “to see whether a terrorist organization is on telephone communication with somebody inside the (United States),” Joel said, adding that the program is “narrow” and “limited,” with fewer than 300 uses of the database last year.
Jaffer challenged Joel’s claim, saying there is “no regulation” on the use of the database.
DeLong said the program’s purpose is to ensure the NSA can provide the Fed-eral Bureau of Investigation with accurate phone numbers for suspected terrorists.
The second panel, titled “Transpar-ency — What Good Is It?,” consisted of Charles Savage, a Washington correspon-dent for the New York Times, Siobhan Gorman, a terrorism and intelligence reporter for the Wall Street Journal, and Ellen Nakashima, a national security re-porter for the Washington Post.
The panelists described their experi-ences working on intelligence stories, including the intelligence files leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
Savage described how his first at-tempts to pursue the Snowden story failed, but the federal government’s denial of his initial request to access classified
data led him to further investigate the story.
The story of intelligence agencies’ widespread use of personal data raises interesting questions, Savage said. The Snowden story has prompted discussions of whether concerns about the Patriot Act stem from the fact that the federal government has collected so much per-sonal data or from the sole existence of such metadata, he added.
“There’s a great debate that has been launched about life in the 21st century and going forward, when we’re all leaving these metadata trails … that I was unable, and failed, to get my hands around until Edward Snowden came along,” Savage said.
Gorman said reporters pursuing news about intelligence issues face a challenge from the inherent secrecy of potential sources. “Usually we’re at a dis-advantage, so to speak, in that we can’t actually read the material,” Gorman said.
The release of surveillance informa-tion in the Snowden case was important because “the documents then forced the government to actually try to start ex-plaining some of these things,” Gorman said. “It’s really sort of shaken the trees in a way that I don’t think we would have seen otherwise.”
Nakashima highlighted the need for balance between government secrecy and a well-informed public.
“There’s a predilection from the gov-ernment’s side to keep these programs a secret, because in their view, if you discuss them publicly, you might tip off targets,” Nakashima said. But she added
that agencies’ hesitation to release infor-mation is a “tactical concern,” voicing her support for securing “public consensus” for “sweeping collection programs.”
Some audience members said they enjoyed the second panel’s focus on real-world impacts of surveillance programs, but some who attended the first panel expressed mixed feelings.
“The issues were all spoken to and addressed in a very high and sophisti-cated manner,” said Merle Krueger, a resident of Lincoln, R.I., who attended the second panel. “It’s an exercise to me in public education, that particularly with this issue more than any other that I can
think of, is critically necessary.”Samuel Brebner ’16 said he saw the
forum as “putting a face” to “technical and international” dimensions of surveil-lance policies that he studied in CSCI 0180: “Cybersecurity and International Relations.”
The first panel’s presenters “didn’t go into the heart of the matter,” said David Katzevich ’16, describing the session as “underwhelming.”
Presenters on the first panel did not discuss the issue with enough nu-ance, said Jahmour Givans ’16, adding that panelists stuck to “slogans” in their speeches.
In panels, experts examine federal surveillance programsThe Joukowsky Forum hosted intelligence experts and prominent reporters to discuss NSA programs
ALEXANDRA URBAN / HERALD
In the first panel, experts discussed their experiences with federal surveillance programs and the National Security Agency.
university news4 THE BROWN DAILY HERALDTHURSDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2013
Satirical candidate set to lead Harvard student council
A Harvard junior who was elected vice president of the school’s Undergraduate Council after his joke ticket won a plurality of votes announced Monday that he would assume the council presidency instead of resigning as planned, the Harvard Crimson reported.
Gus Mayopoulos and his running mate, junior Sam Clark, who was elected president, ran on a satirical platform and defeated two tickets made up of council members in the election last month.
Both said they would resign immediately after their inauguration, but Mayopoulos reversed course Monday. Clark still plans to vacate his seat, making Mayopoulos president under the council’s succession rules, the Crimson reported.
The pair’s platforms included having tomato basil ravioli soup in dining halls every day and getting thicker toilet paper, as well as divesting from gender-neutral weekend shuttles — a combination of three hot-button issues at Harvard. They garnered 43 percent of the vote.
Mayopoulos told the Crimson that he and Clark initially ran to foster a conversation about the Undergraduate Council, but he now believes serving on the council would allow him to make the body more accountable to student wishes.
“I am hoping to dispel people’s fears that, ‘Oh, this is just going to be more of a joke,’” Mayopoulos told the Crimson. “It may be funny, but it won’t be a joke.”
Former UNC dept. chair indicted for not teaching classes
A former department chair at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was indicted by a grand jury Monday for accepting pay for a class he only pretended to teach, part of a long-running scandal unveiled in recent years at the university, the Raleigh, N.C.-based News and Observer reported.
Julius Nyang’oro, who chaired the African studies program for 19 years, was paid $12,000 for supposedly teaching AFAM 280: “Blacks in North Carolina,” a summer course in 2011. But the class, which comprised current and former football players, did not meet.
The indictment is the latest development in a scandal that took place over several years, considered one of the largest public university academic fraud schemes ever.
A university investigation commenced in 2011 found that more than 50 African studies courses had likely never met over the previous five years. When former Gov. Jim Martin began a follow-up investigation, he uncovered over 200 classes that had definitely or probably not met, dating back to the mid-1990s, as well as hundreds of unauthorized grade changes, the News and Observer reported.
The scandal has also raised questions at the university and nationally about the relationship between athletics and academics. Athletes accounted for 45 percent of enrollments in the identified no-show classes, compared to under 5 percent of the overall student body. The football team was by the far the most represented in the fraudulent classes.
BY ELI OKUN, UNIVERSITY NEWS EDITORTHIS WEEK IN HIGHER ED
The use of both internal and third party financial managers “varies across institutions,” wrote Ronald Ehrenberg, director of the Cornell Higher Edu-cation Research Institute in an email to The Herald, adding that most uni-versities have a separate committee that determines how to allocate assets among different kinds of investments.
Since the 2008 financial crisis, universities have been “much more focused on maintaining liquidity,” Ehrenberg wrote.
Universities that invested substan-tial proportions of their endowments in illiquid assets suffered when the stock market crashed, according to an Oct. 20 Wall Street Journal article.
The impact of the economic down-turn still affects the University as it works to regain its prime 2008 financial position, Huidekoper said.
Though the University’s $2.7 bil-lion endowment is now close to its peak 2008 value, other externalities will affect future financial invest-ments. The University does not have “the capacity to borrow much more,”
and some capital projects may be de-layed, Huidekoper said. The expected decrease in federal funding will also likely lead to “across the board” cuts to research, Huidekoper said.
Research funding cuts could be exacerbated by the continuation of the government sequester, which will take effect in January unless the U.S. Congress reaches a budget compro-mise. Many major research institu-tions are already experiencing cuts to direct research sponsorship, which could harm universities’ credit ratings, according to a Nov. 15 report released by Moody’s Investor Service.
Changes to the University’s invest-ment strategies will work in conjunc-tion with fundraising — particularly the upcoming 250th anniversary cel-ebration and the launch of President Christina Paxson’s strategic plan this past September. Balancing limited rev-enue with growth and the rising cost of programs like financial aid poses a continual challenge for the University, Huidekoper said.
—With additional reporting by Molly Schulson
» INVESTMENT, from page 1
press release.Under Maeda, RISD was ranked the
top design school in the world by Busi-ness Insider, according to the release. Applications to RISD increased during Maeda’s presidency, growing nearly 4 percent between 2012 and 2013 alone.
Maeda also prioritized scholarships for students — which his family helped fund with a six-figure gift — and increas-ing financial aid, according to the press release.
His presidency was not without con-troversy. RISD faculty voted no confi-dence in both the president and former provost Jessie Shefrin in the spring of 2011, following resistance to Maeda’s proposal to restructure academic de-partments. The plan was eventually not implemented.
Though there was no indication at the time that Maeda would resign, his prede-cessor’s tenure was marked by a similar sequence of events: Mandle resigned two years after receiving a no confidence vote from the faculty in 2006. Mandle said
the vote did not influence his decision to leave, The Herald reported at the time.
The news of Maeda’s departure sur-prised many, said RISD student Kevin Cochran, because the announcement came so close to the end of the semester.
But the no confidence vote and Mae-da’s history of tension with the faculty led many students to anticipate Maeda would eventually resign, Cochran added.
RISD has not yet announced plans for Maeda’s replacement. Representa-tives from RISD could not be reached for comment at press time.
percent of the school’s senior class retook the test in October for a second chance at graduating on time, The Herald previ-ously reported.
“I would remind people of the origi-nal intent of the testing, which is to raise the quality of education,” Tarr said, point-ing to teacher training programs and workshops as examples of other ways to accomplish this goal.
Standardized testing caters to more privileged students and marginalizes oth-ers, Tarr said. “The tests are created for a white, middle or upper class audience,” she said. “For others, it’s just inherently not fair.”
“Think of how demoralizing it would be to make it all the way to the end of high school and then to not meet the standard-ized test requirement,” said Evan Lunt ’16.
“It’s not conducive to community,” said Raven Carson ’16, because students who do not test as well as their peers feel “ostracized.”
The most common answer among white respondents was “a small role” — accounting for 42 percent of respon-dents — while the most common answer among non-white respondents was “a moderate role,” which accounted for 46 percent of answers.
Answers varied across academic
concentrations — a higher percentage of arts and humanities concentrators said scores should play a small role or no role in graduation requirements than students concentrating in other fields did.
Ben Williams ’16, a neuroscience concentrator, said standardized testing may be appropriate for math and gram-mar, but schools place too much em-phasis on testing in other subjects, even in the sciences. “There need to be other ways to evaluate performance,” he added.
Many said evaluating performance differently is particularly important for students with learning differences.
“Standardized testing measures a cer-tain kind of brain,” said Carly Margolis ’16. “There are all kinds of intelligence.”
Williams, who tutors through the Brown Refugee Youth Tutoring and En-richment program, said preparing his tutee — a senior at Hope High School who came to the United States from Ne-pal two years ago— for the NECAP has been “somewhat difficult and hectic.”
“His English is not at the optimal level, so preparing him for these tests is not the best use of my time or his time, since I’d rather be teaching him in other ways,” Williams said. “The sense I got from him was this wasn’t just challenging for kids from outside the country that are learning English as a second language. It’s a challenge for the kids who have grown
up here too,” he added. But many said eliminating standard-
ized testing would be impractical. “You have to standardize something,”
Carson said. But the NECAP was not designed as an evaluative tool and would be more appropriately used for data col-lection, he added.
“It’s certainly easier administratively if you’re just handing out the same thing to everyone and expecting a certain level of performance. That’s why it’s such an attractive policy,” Williams said.
Though testing may always be a fac-tor in measuring success, in the United States, extracurricular involvement and grade point average are more compre-hensive measures, said Alex He ’17.
“It’s unfair to measure everyone with the same test if they have different goals,” he said.
Andy Chan ’14.5 said the policy will “make a difference on the margin,” as the test will likely catch the students who would graduate high school but not necessarily go on to college, he said. Ad-ministrators might be able to positively spin standardized test scores by ending their punitive uses and allowing students who might otherwise be in danger of not graduating to demonstrate what they do know through the test, Chan added.
See online for The Herald’s polling methodology.
» TESTING, from page 1
» RISD, from page 1
city & state 5THE BROWN DAILY HERALDTHURSDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2013
Cat Ears | Najatee’ McNeil
c o m i c s
A Horse of Any Other Name |Zach Silberberg
only four years at Brown amplifies the need to see causes for change as ongoing campaigns, panelists said.
Students cannot “romanticize” their causes, Tran said, adding that activists must recognize that Brown “change(s) slowly over time and accept that we are here for four years.”
Multiple panelists said past activism can provide context for the gravity of current moments. The University “saw for the first time in a long time real, deep student anger” this semester, Lee said.
“I am so incredibly grateful for the Ray Kelly protest,” said Gina Rodriguez-Drix ’09, co-founder of the student group Coalition for Police Account-ability and Institutional Transparency.
McDaniel said he has been involved in many protest movements, which have been “two standard deviations out from the norm ... but always with a strong sense of where the center really lies.”
McDaniel highlighted his experi-ence participating in the 1968 student walkout intended to focus administra-tors’ attention on the need for greater racial diversity on Brown’s campus at the time. The class of 1969 had eight black males and virtually no Hispanic students, McDaniel said, pointing to
greater diversity in today’s student body as a positive result of activism.
Other panelists drew connections between past activist movements and the current realities of the Brown ex-perience.
“My degree would not exist if it were not for student activism,” Rodriguez-Drix said, referring to her concentration in Africana studies.
Though student activists have made progress over the years, ongoing cam-paigns still face many obstacles, includ-ing dissent within the Brown commu-nity, panelists said.
While some administrators support student activists, “the administration and the Corporation are not really your friends,” Rodriguez-Drix said.
“There are different voices within the Corporation,” Lee said. But as a whole, the body is a “reminder of what universi-ties are all about and who they serve,” he said, adding that the Corporation serves a “specific class.”
When students are unable to com-municate directly with administrators, they must remember that “these are peo-ple with whom we are dealing” and there are other ways to reach administrators other than direct dialogue, Tran said.
Authorities who are the focus of activists’ efforts usually “are doing the
best they can with what they have at that time,” McDaniel said, but effec-tive protest movements may have to “put organizations or individuals into potentially embarrassing situations” to achieve success.
“Making movements fun is what brings people in,” said Ian Trupin ’13.5, a former Herald opinions columnist and a student activist who addressed how to make change happen at the grassroots level.
Activists should also acknowledge that not all students will agree with a cause, Tran said.
Rodriguez-Drix said her activism efforts were most successful when she learned to build a bridge between dif-ferent groups of students.
Disagreement can sometimes arise over activists’ personal backgrounds and how different experiences inform their opinions, Rodriguez-Drix said.
“It’s very difficult when your posi-tion is called invalid because of how you look,” she said, citing one difficulty she faced while organizing student activist groups at Brown.
Student activism also yields ben-efits for movement participants as they learn about themselves throughout a campaign, Rodriguez-Drix said. “The process is the point.”
» ACTIVISM, from page 1
Follow us on Twitter: @the_herald
By JASON NADBOYSTAFF WRITER
The University aims to encourage students to shop locally this holiday season by providing gifts and offers during the “Brown Shops Local” event today from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Students, faculty members and staff who stop by the “Brown Shops Local” table at the Brown Bookstore will receive a free “Brown tote bag, beverage ticket for the College Hill Cafe, offers from the Bookstore and offers to several Providence retail hubs,” according to the University’s website.
The “Brown Shops Local” cam-paign, now in its second year, encour-ages students and faculty members to shop at community stores they may otherwise not know about, said Jen-nifer Braga, government relations and community affairs liaison.
The University organized shuttles for last year’s event to bring students, faculty members and staff from cam-pus to city shopping areas, including Wayland Square, Hope Street and South Main Street.
The Brown community “spends millions of dollars each year” in
Providence, Braga said. It’s good to “keep money in Providence.”
The group is “having people do it their own way” this year, only organiz-ing deals for the Brown community and leaving individuals to explore the city’s stores on their own, Braga said.
The event is part of the wider “Buy Providence” campaign, which began in 2005 under Mayor Angel Taveras.
“The intention is to encourage shoppers to think about buying closer,” said Ann Gooding, director of com-munications of the city’s Planning and Development department. It is important to help small businesses who hire locally, she said. “Investment is critical.”
“We definitely like working with Brown,” said Natalie Martello, owner of the store Shoppe Pioneer in the South Main Street district.
Students should see “how great South Main Street is,” Martello said, adding that Brown students tend to shop on Thayer.
Other retail hubs participating in “Brown Shops Local” — Hope Street, Downcity and Wayland Square shop-ping areas — will be hosting enter-tainment events such as a petting zoo and fire jugglers in addition to their shopping deals.
Providence has “growing and straightening merchant associations,” said Gooding, adding that businesses know collaboration will result in great-er attention to their individual shops.
Campaign aims to support local commerce‘Brown Shops Local’ at the Brown Bookstore today will offer deals to Providence stores
commentary6 THE BROWN DAILY HERALDTHURSDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2013
Access to course carts an advising overstepTo the Editor:
I am disturbed by the proposed initiative by the Dean of the College to allow Meiklejohn peer advisers access to their advisees’ course carts (“Meiks may gain access to first-years’ Banner carts,” Dec. 3). To begin with, exactly which of the myriad problems with first-year advising is this proposal attempting to solve? Is there evidence to sug-gest that the quality of Meiklejohn advising is impeded by the fact that advisers do not currently have access to their advisees’ Banner carts? Is there any relevant information to be found in a course cart that isn’t already in the advisee course preferences Meiklejohns receive?
The main objective of the Meiklejohn peer advising program, as I understand it, is to equip first-years with the
tools and support necessary to successfully navigate the Open Curriculum on their own terms. It is most definitely not one of its functions to micromanage course selection. It is neither the job, nor frankly the place, of Meiklejohns to critically scan through each item in a first-year’s course cart and dispense advice based on what is or isn’t there. Of course, if a first-year desires more specific help pertaining to courses, he or she is free to proffer such information during advising meetings. However, to grant advisers access to their advisees’ Banner carts, regardless of whether it ends up being opt-in or opt-out, sends the wrong message about the nature and role of the Meiklejohn advising relation-ship, not to mention the potential privacy issues involved.
Jonathan Kang ’12
Brown will undergo an external review of undergraduate alcohol con-sumption next semester, The Herald reported Wednesday. The move comes in the wake of a survey in which 45 percent of undergraduates surveyed admitted to binge drinking — an act defined as consuming four drinks for women and five drinks for men within about two hours. The figure, as Vice President for Campus Life and Student Services Margaret Klawunn noted, is distinctly higher than the national average binge drinking rate for college campuses: 36.5 percent of undergraduates. These results merit attention, and we hope that University efforts taken will continue to prioritize student health over unnecessary penalization — working foremost to promote safety.
Data about student binge drinking places Brown “in the middle of the pack” compared to five peer institutions, Director of Health Education Frances Mantak told The Herald last year. At that time, Klawunn told The Herald that University efforts aimed at preventing binge drinking were centered around a “harm reduction approach to target behaviors that are the most high-risk, like somebody being so intoxicated that they could die.” Such an approach is valuable and should be continued. For example, the University does not penalize students for calling Emergency Medical Services for peers in need, promoting an environment that prioritizes student safety rather than purely punitive action. We would strongly urge any reform to continue this potentially life-saving policy.
Several University policies have also worked to minimize student harm during high-risk events such as Spring Weekend, another policy we support. Throughout the weekend, Residential Peer Leaders patrol dorms, helping students who may have become incapacitated. Such a service can prevent needless losses such as those that have been highly publicized at other schools.
The value of these policies becomes clearer upon examining the harms unchecked undergraduate alcohol consumption has resulted in. Recent stories about the drinking culture at Dartmouth fraternities and about alcohol-related deaths at Cornell highlight a reckless relationship with alcohol that has placed students in very real danger. Policies that reduce the possibility of student harm are essential.
We cannot prevent every student from binge drinking to the point of severe endangerment, but we can take steps to minimize such occurrences and to safely deal with them when they do occur. For first-years, such efforts include strong RPL training and supervision on the weekends, when most episodes of binge drinking are likely to occur. They include education that is focused on how to drink responsibly and the associated dangers that come with alcohol consumption. Most of all, they involve fostering an ethic of com-munity responsibility — encouraging students to make the phone call that could save a friend’s, a roommate’s or a stranger’s life. On an administrative and on an individual level, we should do all we can to ensure that no Brown students suffer long-term harm from such a preventable cause.
Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board: its editor, Rachel Occhiogrosso, and its members, Daniel Jeon, Hannah Loewentheil and Thomas Nath. Send comments to [email protected].
Preventing unnecessary loss
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KIMBERLY SALTZ
E D I T O R I A L
L E T T E R T O T H E E D I T O R
Q U O T E O F T H E D A Y
“I definitely enjoyed watching the videos of the babies.” — Emily Thurston ’16
See babies, page 8.
Got something to say? Leave a comment online!
Over the course of this semester at Brown, we have seen a breadth of issues put at the forefront of both discussion and controversy. From questions of environmental awareness to new Uni-versity policies, there seems to be clear division among different groups of stu-dents. These differences often seem ir-reconcilable, just like the disagreements we see between elected officials in Washington. In some of these conflicts, the right answer is clear — for instance, Keeney Quadrangle vandals need to be punished, as do thieves of Brown fur-niture. But in many others, I believe it is possible to find common ground be-tween two conflicting positions.
Take the recent outcry by students over the University’s investments in coal companies. The underlying mes-sage of environmental consciousness is not one unique to Brown — President Obama pushed forth new regulation for power plants in the coal industry just this year. Opponents of the Brown Divest Coal campaign and of Obama’s green energy policies as a whole tend to be those who do not see the efficacy of focusing on climate issues and who would prefer to limit regulation on companies for economic reasons. Nev-ertheless, these two positions are not ir-resoluble.
If this debate expanded to include fiscal reforms, supporters of environ-mental issues could draw more sup-porters than they might expect. Car-bon emissions caps with tradable per-mits would limit economic distortion, as the right to pollute would now be al-located freely in a competitive market. Similarly, a carbon tax could be pitched as a way to reduce the deficit through environmental action, a more palat-able way of raising revenue than alter-
ing income or corporate taxes. The key here is recognizing that these issues are complex and multi-faceted, rather than simply shouting down the opposition.
Another example of this is the housing lottery. When the Universi-ty announced that the process might move online, there were responses of relief met with angry reactions of those who wanted to preserve tradition (“Housing lottery potentially to move online,” Sep. 4). Again, positions on this do not have to be a binary. Would it really be difficult for Brown to make physical attendance optional and allow those who did not want to show up at Sayles Hall to make their selections on-line? This seems like a common sense approach to rolling out new reform to a long-standing Brown tradition, but it wasn’t one definitively pushed forth by students or the University.
At the national level, the lack of substantive discussion between those who disagree has be-come a serious issue. It appears one either has to be for lower taxes and lower gov-ernment spending or higher taxes and higher government spending. But when you truly delve into these issues, things are not so black and white. A mixed posi-tion that worked from policy up instead of ideology down could gain support across party lines and from the Ameri-can people. Why are there not more mixed proposals? Why not reform en-titlement programs like Social Security, preserve food stamps — which have high multiplier effects on gross domes-tic product — and bring corporate and territorial taxes in line with those in the rest of the developed world? I am not saying I support all of these things, but I, like many others, would appreciate a more reasoned debate of these policy
areas.When a measured approach isn’t
taken, the results can be disastrous. The Affordable Care Act is a prime exam-ple. Passed with no Republican votes and vehemently opposed by the right throughout the election cycle and after, President Obama’s health care reform is the antithesis of bipartisan agreement. Even with the possibility of a govern-ment shutdown looming, Congress couldn’t reach a compromise on a delay or medical device tax repeal. So, with a sluggish online rollout and enrollment numbers below White House projec-tions, the conversation has become a matter of finger-pointing rather than problem solving. Maybe a more cen-trist shutdown solution that appeased some Republican wishes but retained the core of the Affordable Care Act would have spurned synergy instead of blame. Should Congress have de-layed the individual mandate by a year?
Whether you believe the answer is yes or no, there is room for debate.
Independent of what the issue or dis-cussion is, I do not think we see enough centrist policy at Brown or in Wash-ington. Anyone — protesters on cam-pus or the leaders
of our country — who claims to have the absolute legislative or executive prescription to the complex issues we face should not be trusted. Especially at Brown, a place where ideas and dis-cussion serve as a driving force of the Open Curriculum, I hope we can in-crease thoughtful propositions and phase out absolutist convictions.
Jay Upadhyay ’15 would appreciate policies borne from critical
thought rather than ideology
A few days ago, I watched the widely circulated video, “UCLA Has More Championships than Black Male Freshmen.” I was proud to see a group of black men acting to expose and counter an impor-tant issue: the lack of minority represen-tation in the post-secondary educa-tion system. Pride was then followed by disappointment, because the issue at hand would not ex-ist in a just world. The lack of minor-ity representation, particularly of mi-nority males, is not limited to any one post-secondary institution.
Why are there still issues with di-versity at post-secondary institutions? Definitely, discriminatory admission practices or lack of university out-reach into areas with large concentra-tions of minority students could be factors. Maybe a school also has sub-par financial aid, high application fees and requirements of several relative-ly expensive standardized tests. Very few of the nation’s students who make it successfully to the “submit” button on their college applications are of mi-nority or low-income backgrounds.
Within Brown’s class of 2017 is the largest group of students of color ever admitted to the University in any one application cycle. But of this group, many are from wealthy foreign or im-migrated families and over-represent-ed minority groups. Native minorities from low-income areas are under-represented and are the individuals for whom the University should most seek to improve recruitment efforts.
The number of metaphorical hur-dles a student must overcome to get into and through college increases if the student is poor or of color, and especially if the student is both — a common combination. Black, His-panic and American Indian children, according to a Teach for America re-port, are “three times as likely to live in a low-income area.” Students from disadvantaged or minority back-grounds have a much higher risk of falling victim to the prison system, street violence, becoming dropouts, having children at a young age and, simply, the loss of motivation that arises from the hopeless feeling of be-ing at a dead end.
A 2011 report from the College Board Advocacy and Policy Center found that, of males aged 15 to 24, 51 percent of Hispanics, 45 percent of black Americans, 42 percent of Americans Indians and 33 percent of Asian-Americans are in prison, out of work, homeless or dead. The same re-port found that young males of color are “overrepresented in special edu-cation.” Many of these students come from failing school districts and lack access to tutors, mentors and other vital resources. Many are expected to perform at lower levels and are rarely exposed to opportunities beyond high school.
Educational inequality involves disparities among people in regard to their access to quality education,
disparities which usually correlate to one’s racial and socioeconomic back-ground. Students who are victims of educational inequality are gener-ally from low-income backgrounds and have often already been exposed to inadequate health care, nutrition and housing. How can one succeed in this state? A 2011 article entitled “If I Were A Poor Black Kid,” argues that all that it takes is intelligence, a strong
work ethic, “a little luck,” some outside help and “the ability and the know-how to use the resources that are available” to lift oneself up from poverty and a failing educational system into a comfortable
lifestyle.This argument, penned by a self-
described middle-class and middle-aged white man, is extremely flawed. Those who have successfully made their way out of nothing were definite-ly aided by resourcefulness, by help and by talent. A poor youth will not magically transform into a successful college student without work on his part and on the parts of many others. It takes a village to raise a child, espe-cially when the child is of a disadvan-taged background.
Public schools in low-income areas should receive more funding, more experienced and passionate teach-ers and administrators, more up-to-date facilities and resources and more opportunities to provide advanced placement courses. The government has the ability to increase funding, and Brown University has the abil-ity to establish university-commu-nity partnership schools, much like Penn does. I would like to challenge the University to make a more active drive into low-income, minority areas than it currently does. Many students have their potentials limited because they are unaware of the opportunities available to them, something I have personally witnessed both as a public high school student and as a college access mentor for West Philadelphia public high school students.
It is my sincere hope that the equal and adequate education of all students will be a goal taken seriously by the U.S. government and colleges across the nation. When this dream becomes a reality, no school will have an excuse to provide sub-par education or lim-ited opportunities to the minds it is charged with educating and guiding.
All universities and colleges across the nation need to increase outreach and visiting programs for low-income and minority students, emphasize the affordability of college through finan-cial aid and scholarships, emphasize the possibility and the benefits of at-tending college and offer personal-ized guidance for students interested in college. Only when these efforts are undertaken can we begin to move, as a nation, towards satisfactory represen-tation of all backgrounds in post-sec-ondary educational institutions.
Armani Madison ’16 believes it is inexcusable that the government
spends just 2 percent of its annual budget on educating young minds. He can be reached at
commentary 7THE BROWN DAILY HERALDTHURSDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2013
A dream denied Reconciling differences
“It takes a village to raise a child, especially when the child is of a disadvantaged background.”
“The key here is recognizing
that these issues are complex and
multi-faceted, rather than simply shouting down the
opposition.”
ARMANI MADISON
opinions columnist
JAY UPADHYAY
opinions columnist
daily heraldTHE BROWN
city & stateTHURSDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2013
By SARAH PERELMANSENIOR STAFF WRITER
Holiday revelers will gather in the lobby of the Statehouse tonight to light Rhode Island’s first “Christmas tree” under Gov. Lincoln Chafee’s ’75 P’14 P’17 leadership, said Secretary of State A. Ralph Mollis. Chafee made national headlines in the first two years of his tenure when he called the state’s De-cember decoration a “holiday tree.”
Chafee decided to call this year’s tree a “Christmas tree” in response to protests over the name “holiday tree,” he said in a statement released by his office Monday.
“This presumably happy event became a focal point for too much anger,” he said.
Two years ago, carolers at the State-house cut short a children’s choir in the midst of singing and began their own rendition of “O Christmas Tree” in protest of Chafee’s use of the term “holiday tree.” Protestors carried signs bearing slogans such as “saving Christ-mas one tree at a time,” according to a 2011 Politico report.
Rep. Doreen Costa, D-Exeter and North Kingston, said she has held her own annual Christmas tree lighting ceremony on a different day than the state’s to allow citizens to light a “Christmas tree” rather than “holiday tree.”
Mollis said he urged Chafee in October 2012 to use the phrase “Christmas tree” to “put some of the unnecessary controversy behind him” and to allow citizens to focus on his ac-complishments, but Chafee had some reservations at the time, he said.
Mollis introduced the issue again this year and offered to run the light-ing through the Secretary of State office, he said. Chafee accepted the offer and sent official invitations to a “Christmas tree lighting,” Mollis added.
“All the credit needs to go to the governor,” Mollis said. “This could not have been done without (his) flexibility and leadership.”
Costa said she is “thrilled” by Chafee’s decision and canceled her annual Christmas tree lighting, which was scheduled for Dec. 11.
“There’s no need to have another Christmas tree lighting if there’s going to be one at the Statehouse,” she said.
Many people expressed support for the new name because it more ac-curately describes the tree.
“When they lit the Hannukia I didn’t call it a holiday candelabra,” said Henry Bodah, associate University chaplain for the Catholic community.
Mollis said the national ceremony in Washington calls the White House tree a “Christmas tree” and celebra-tions at the State House for Hanukkah and other holidays use the specific terms, so it is natural that the tree should be called a “Christmas tree.”
“I don’t have (objections to) it be-ing called a Christmas tree because there is no tradition involving a tree at this time of the year for Muslims,” said R. David Coolidge, associate University chaplain for the Muslim community.
Many people expressed surprise that Chafee’s decision in previous years to call the tree a “holiday tree” riled such a degree of protest, as the previ-ous governor also used the same term and received little backlash.
“Generally I object to the exclu-sion of Christmas as if we should be ashamed for celebrating Christmas,” Bodah said, adding that criticisms of Chafee were surprisingly heated, given that former Gov. Donald Carcieri ’65 saw few protests.
Despite previous controversies, Rhode Islanders should rejoice in the holiday season and celebrate its his-tory of religious freedom, Mollis said.
The Christmas tree lighting will take place tonight at 5:30 p.m. and feature performances by Damhsa Irish Dance Foundation, Quisqueya In Ac-tion Youth Group and Venezuelan Rhode Island Performers, according to Chafee’s invitation.
State lights ‘Christmas’ tree after naming controversyThe name ‘holiday tree’ spurred protest in past years from state residents and government officialsBy MAXINE JOSELOW
SENIOR STAFF WRITER
The Undergraduate Council of Students evaluated student groups’ appeals for
recategorization Wednesday at its last general body meeting of the
semester.Representatives from six student
groups who were displeased with the UCS Student Activities Committee’s categorization decisions — includ-ing Aldus, Biotechnology Investment Group, Brown International Scholarship Committee, Muslim Feminist Alliance, Partners in Health and TOMS Campus Club — attended the meeting.
After a half hour of heated debate, the Council voted 28 to 16 not to ap-prove TOMS Club as Category S, which would designate it a service group. At its general body meeting last month, the Council voted 17 to 14 to deny TOMS Campus Club Category S status.
TOMS Campus Club “works to raise awareness about issues of health and poverty in Third World countries, specifically the issue of children without shoes or eyesight,” said Jenna Davis ’16, a leader of the group.
Several Council members objected to TOMS Campus Club’s affiliation with a national, for-profit organization.
“It seems more like a marketing campaign instead of a service group,” said Kiera Peltz ’16, chair of the UCS communications committee and a for-mer Herald staff writer.
“Any awareness you did would have the TOMS name on it, and thus be advertising the company,” said Kevin Carty ’15, a UCS general body member and former Herald opinions columnist. “How do you square that with saying you want to be a service group?”
The Council debated for about 10 minutes before voting to approve Biotechnology Investment Group as Category 2. The group, which was previ-ously designated Category 1, will now be
eligible for $200 more funding.The UCS Student Activities Com-
mittee originally rejected the group’s request to become Category 2 because of its potential overlap with Brown In-vestment Group, said Alex Drechsler ’15, UCS student activities chair and a former Herald opinions columnist.
Biotechnology Investment Group owns stocks in the health care sector, while Brown Investment group does not, said Giuliano Marostica ’15, a mem-ber of Biotechnology Investment Group and a former UCS general body mem-ber, in his presentation to the Council.
The Council engaged in about 15 minutes of intense discussion before deferring its decision about Brown In-ternational Scholarship Committee to next semester.
Todd Harris ’14.5, UCS president, expressed concern that Brown Inter-national Scholarship Committee had similar goals to Brown International Organization.
Drechsler said he was worried that Brown International Scholarship Committee’s mission statement was too broad.
The group’s mission includes sponsoring scholarships for interna-tional students, “fighting for need-blind
admission for international students and creating a discourse on internationality,” said Leila Veerasamy ’15, a member of Brown International Scholarship Com-mittee and chair of the Undergraduate Finance Board.
The Council voted not to give Mus-lim Feminist Alliance Category 1 status, citing what members called a lack of well-defined goals and ideas for initia-tives.
Looking ahead, Muslim Feminist Alliance should consider “partnering with classes that deal with some of the same issues,” such as HIST 1975U: “Gender, Empire amd the Nation in the Middle East,” said Maahika Srini-vasan ’15, chair of the UCS academics and administrative affairs committee.
The Council voted to approve Aldus, a translation journal, as a Category 3 student group.
The UCS Student Activities Com-mittee originally rejected Aldus’ request to become Category 3 because its leaders did not gather the necessary 15 signa-tures, Drechsler said.
Though Partners in Health original-ly sought Category 1 status, the Council voted to constitute it as a Category S group because its mission included community service.
UCS re-categorizes student groupsCouncil members discussed student groups’ goals before making decisions
INDIRA PRANABUDI / HERALD
UCS denied the TOMS Campus Club Category S status and approved the Biotechnology Investment Group as Category 2.
By ASHNA MUKHICONTRIBUTING WRITER
Clad only in a diaper, a baby perches at the top of a slide and eyes toys at the end
of the path below him. Too young to walk, he slides down the slope to
end his journey at the rewards he sought. Variations on this scenario — de-
picted in a series of videos psychologist Karen Adolph showed during a lecture Wednesday evening — illustrate the role learning to learn plays in influencing
motor skill development, Adolph ar-gued.
Part of the Michael S. Goodman ’74 Memorial Lecture Series, Adolph’s talk, titled “Learning to Move,” attracted a small crowd of students and faculty members — mostly from the Depart-ment of Cognitive, Linguistics and Psy-chological Sciences — to the Friedman Auditorium in Metcalf Chemistry and Research Laboratory.
Using the baby videos and data from her research at the New York University Infant Action Lab, Adolph presented a series of experiments she conducted on infant movement, which demonstrated that as infants learn to problem solve they become better equipped to acquire skills such as walking.
Adolph first demonstrated experi-ments that monitored the actions and
behaviors of infants as they tackled a series of obstacles in the lab, such as going down a slope or crossing a bridge. The results indicated that after weeks of practice, the infants began to modify their footfalls before stepping through the obstacles. This phenomenon, Adolph said, exhibits the concept of flexibility — that infants “select actions adaptively” and modify them when faced with new circumstances.
This flexibility could be based on links between action and perception, Adolph said. Videos and data from her lab demonstrated how infants were in-fluenced by their mothers’ encourage-ment, as well as their visual and physi-cal engagement with the obstacle when deciding whether to tackle it, she said.
“Infants weigh and integrate multiple sources of information” to guide their
actions, she said. Adolph also argued that four sepa-
rate learning curves exist for sitting, crawling, cruising and walking. She concluded from her experimental results that infants have to “learn and relearn to move” as they progress to each new stage of movement.
In the videos, novice crawlers repeat-edly tackled obstacles beyond their abili-ties, while experienced crawlers acted according to the circumstances around them. But even experienced crawlers could not adapt their behavior when walking through the obstacles.
These results led Adolph to develop the idea that infants learn to learn — they learn to move through “sponta-neous activity, exploration and new solutions.”
Learning through the acquisition
of “static facts,” she argued, would not provide infants the flexibility required to navigate environments in which “novelty and variability are rampant.”
This conclusion was met with some criticism from the audience members, who argued that if the infants were actu-ally learning to learn the learning curves should reflect the process of adaptation.
“There must be a flipping point,” said Hugo Bruggeman, assistant professor of CLPS. “At some point your actions do relate to the experiences you have had.”
Students who attended the lecture said they thoroughly enjoyed Adolph’s presentation.
“I definitely enjoyed watching the videos of the babies,” said Emily Thur-ston ’16, “It was really interesting to watch the different decisions they were making.”
Lecture presents findings on developmental learning in infantsPsychologist Karen Adolph played videos of babies in various acts of problem-solving
UNIVERSITY NEWS
SCIENCE & RESEARCH
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