TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2013 since 1891vol. cxlviii, no. 75Daily HeraldTHE BROWN

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CITY & STATE, 3

Great minds Business Innovation Factory attracts those who wish to solve world problemsin

side

UNIVERSITY NEWS, 2 COMMENTARY, 7

R-rated rhymeMadison ’16 argues profane lyrics in music glorify problematic behavior

Weekend crimeFive laptops were stolen from dorms on Wriston Quad this weekend

By MARIYA BASHKATOVASENIOR STAFF WRITER

Government and university officials have responded with cautious opti-mism but some concern to President Obama’s recent student loan proposal that aims to make college more afford-able and accessible to students.

The plan includes several com-ponents — including the capping of student loan costs and encouraging innovation — but centers on a col-lege ranking system that will be tied to federal aid if the proposal receives congressional approval. In the rank-ing system, which should be com-pleted by 2015 and does not need to be passed by Congress, colleges will be “ranked on access, affordability

and outcomes,” according to a White House press release.

“What we want to do is rate (col-leges) on who’s offering the best value so students and taxpayers get a bigger bang for their buck,” Obama said in an Aug. 22 speech at the State University of New York at Buffalo.

If Obama receives congressional approval for the plan, the rankings will be tied to federal aid starting in 2017. Students at higher-ranked schools would receive more federal aid in the form of larger Pell grants and lower-interest student loans. Cur-rently, the federal government allots aid to schools based on the number of students enrolled, not by the gradua-tion rate or other metrics of student success. The federal government spends $150 billion on aid annually, while state governments collectively spend $70 billion.

The U.S. Department of Education currently releases a College Scorecard, which lists statistics about schools,

including net price per year, gradua-tion rate, loan default rate and median borrowing, with the aim of educating consumers about the costs of differ-ent colleges.

“The price of college for families and individuals has increased mark-edly in recent decades, because the public sector has shifted funding, has shifted responsibility to private indi-viduals because supply is relatively limited and because demand is high, under-informed and at times irratio-nal,” said Michael Dannenberg, direc-tor of higher education and education finance policy at the Education Trust, an advocacy organization focused on

Local universities respond to Obama’s aid planThe proposal would tie student federal aid to the new college rankings if approved by Congress

By SAM WICKHAMSPORTS STAFF WRITER

The men’s soccer team suffered two defeats on the road over the weekend, falling to Indiana University 2-1 Friday and Butler University 3-0 Sunday — dropping its record to 1-4-1.

Bruno battled back against the Hoo-siers in the second half but could not notch

a tying goal despite a spirited second-half performance. The Bears’ back line faced consistent pressure from the Bulldogs’ po-tent offense. The losses end Brown’s four-game road trip, on which the winless Bears were outscored by their opponents 8-2.

Brown 1, Indiana 2The defending national champions

(3-3-1) drew first blood 30 minutes into

the game. A free kick attempt from outside the box found the back of the net to give the Hoosiers the early 1-0 lead. Bruno edged Indiana in corners in the half but was outshot 7-2.

“I think we definitely challenged them,” said co-captain Josh Weiner ’14. “Their coach said after the game that we’re a tough team to play against, and that’s the kind of game we wanted to give them.”

The Bears came out with purpose in the second half and equalized midway through, thanks to Pepe Salama ’14, who

headed home a cross from Jason Pesek ’17. Salama led the team with four shots in the game, and Jack Kuntz ’14 and Nate Pomeroy ’17 each registered a single shot on goal for Bruno.

“We came out the second half and played the best soccer we’ve played all season,” said co-captain Ben Maurey ’15. “We kept on pressing, had more chances and created good opportunities. It was a loss, but it was probably the best game we’ve played all year.”

Despite Bruno’s goal, the Hoosiers

sealed their victory a minute later when a centered cross was headed into the net off a set piece.

“Early on in the season we’ve conceded a lot of set piece goals,” Weiner said. “I think going forward, that is going to be a point of emphasis for us, improving that and working on our one versus one defending.”

Brown 0, Butler 3Bruno fell behind early against Butler

Bruno returns home winless after match-ups against Indiana, ButlerThe squad will return to Stevenson Field to play Marist College in its first home match in three weeks

By SANDRA YANSTAFF WRITER

Though Rhode Island is the smallest state in the country, around a dozen colleges call it home, and more than two-thirds of the state’s students will graduate with debt, according to a 2012 study by the Project for Student Debt.

The schools’ financial aid policies vary widely, but their students face the same challenges: rising tuition rates, uncertain job prospects and the pres-sures of student loan repayment.

Cashing out for collegeThe question of affordability emerges

early for prospective college students. Many said it influenced which school they ultimately chose to attend.

Renee Lafond, a junior majoring in theater, said the cost of tuition and the prospect of paying back student debt

influenced her decision to attend Rhode Island College, where tuition is $7,602 annually. Lafond said she anticipates being around $8,000 to $10,000 in debt by the time she graduates and took out loans to qualify for a line of credit at the school bookstore.

“I could’ve easily opted to go to a dramatic academy in New York that would’ve cost me ($80,0000) a year,” said Lafond. “I tend to feel almost a little bad, because I decided to stay in-state and not go to an Ivy League, which a lot of my friends go to,” she added.

Marisa Landry, a sophomore at the University of Rhode Island, said her choice to attend the university depended in part on the financial aid package she was offered. She is receiving an athletic scholarship that covers much of her out-of-state tuition.

Tuition hikes often complicate stu-dents’ financial plans.

Catherine Cabral, a junior at Salve Regina University, said she remembers being taken aback by a $1,000 increase in tuition at the end of last semester. “(I) didn’t see the need for that,” she said,

R.I. college students cope with debt in a depressed economyStudents across the state balance their academic pursuits in college with the future prospect of debt

College debt weighs on students, sparking national action

ELIZABETH KOH / HERALD

As tuition at in-state schools such as Salve Regina University continues to rise, economic concerns may influence students’ academic pursuits.

» See AID, page 5

» See DEBT, page 4

HERALD FILE PHOTO

President Obama’s financial aid plan will rank colleges based on levels of access, affordability and outcomes.

» See SOCCER, page 8

INSIDE:Brown’s ranking could affect students’ abilities to receive government loans. Page 4. Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., led the charge this summer to keep loan interest rates from rising. Page 5.

MEN’S SOCCER

university news2 THE BROWN DAILY HERALDTUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2013

11:30 A.M.

Heavy Petting

Main Green

12 P.M.

Strategic Plan Campus Forum

List 120

4 P.M.

Oslo Peace Accords Anniversary

Salomon 101

7:30 P.M.

Screening of “Blood Brother”

Metcalf 101

SHARPE REFECTORY VERNEY-WOOLLEY

LUNCH

DINNER

Cajun Fettucini, Szechuan Spicy Tofu Stir-Fry, Cajun Baked Fish, Okra and Tomato, Saffron Rice Pilaf

BBQ Chicken Quarters, Jamaican Pork and Apricot Stir-Fry, Pumpkin Cheesecake Roll

Linguini with Tomato Basil, Sauteed Sliced Mushrooms, Meatball Grinder, Grilled Tuna Sandwich with Cheese

Autumn Bisque, Pulled Pork Sandwich, Vegan Quinoa Stuffed Portobello, Vegan Brownies

TODAY SEPTEMBER 24 TOMORROW SEPTEMBER 25

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

By JILLIAN LANNEYSENIOR STAFF WRITER

The following is an account of crime events that took place this weekend, reported to The Herald by Deputy Chief of Police for the Department of Public

Safety Paul Shanley:

Friday eveningDPS officers responded to two thefts

from unlocked dorm rooms in God-dard House, one occurring sometime between 4:30 p.m. and midnight and

the other between 9 p.m. and midnight. In both cases, MacBook laptops were stolen. This type of theft “seems to be definitely on the rise,” Shanley said. Last weekend, there were two reported incidences of theft from unlocked dorm rooms, The Herald previously reported.

Saturday eveningThree MacBook Pro laptops were

stolen from three unlocked rooms in Buxton House between 11 p.m. and 2 a.m. Other personal belongings were also stolen from two of the rooms. Some students reported suspicious-looking individuals in the area around the time of the thefts. DPS detectives are in contact with these students as they continue their investigations.

Weekend crime update: Sept. 20-22

city & state 3THE BROWN DAILY HERALDTUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2013

By GADI COHENSTAFF WRITER

During the ninth annual Business Inno-vation Factory Summit held last Wednes-day and Thursday at the Trinity Reper-tory Company, innovators gathered from around the country to meet, network and learn from each other — in the words of the group’s founder and conference organizer, Saul Kaplan, to “collide.”

“How many rooms do we hang out in where the people in the room have 8,000 reasons for why we can’t do things?” Kaplan said in his opening speech.

“We think of the 8,000 reasons why it can happen — and, more importantly, we don’t stop ’til it does,” he said of the conference’s participants.

Kaplan founded BIF in 2005 as a “laboratory” for innovators to collabo-rate on solutions to problems in unique, often business-based ways. Similar to the popular model employed by the Technol-ogy, Entertainment, Design conferences, BIF’s organizers invite speakers to pres-ent their stories in short installments, with each presentation lasting around 20 minutes.

Kaplan and the conference organizers chose this style to inspire the audience more powerfully, he said in his speech. In fact, everything about the conference

— from the choice of speakers to the long breaks before and after presenta-tions — was designed to encourage the attendees to find system-level solutions to the world’s challenges.

“Listen, in the 21st century, we’re not going to fix the big problems with tweaks,” Kaplan said. “We need to learn how to transform stuff. We need to learn together how to do more transforma-tional things.”

Speakers ranged from the Coca-Cola Company’s vice president of innovation to a 17-year-old who has developed a prosthetic arm that is lighter and cheaper than many of the models currently on the market.

Doug Ulman ’99, president and CEO of the Livestrong Foundation, jump-started the conference’s first day, praising the value of community and speaking fondly of his childhood and undergradu-ate years. When he was diagnosed with cancer during his time at Brown, Ulman said, he wanted to find a stronger com-munity and joined Livestrong in 2001.

With the spread of the organization’s famous yellow wristband, Ulman said he found his community.

“It’s created connections that we never dreamt possible,” Ulman said of the wristband. “The other thing that this did is it democratized philanthropy.”

Another speaker, with a multimedia piece playing behind her, recounted how she also had found a purpose in serving a community she belongs to — the veteran community.

“The minute I could serve something

bigger than myself, I found that I had purpose again,” said Stacy Pearsall, a former combat photographer.

After being wounded twice while serving in Iraq, Pearsall retired from the Air Force at the age of 27. But away from the front lines, Pearsall said, she found other battles to fight at home. She was struggling to heal from her injuries, which included post-traumatic stress disorder and a traumatic brain injury, as well as trying to fit back into daily life as a female veteran.

Pearsall now runs a photography stu-dio with her husband, works as a spokes-woman for the Real Warriors Campaign and heads the Veterans Portrait Project, photographing veterans and composing photo essays about their struggles.

Other speakers discussed their work helping various communities in need. Rosanne Haggerty spoke about Com-mon Ground, the organization she founded to provide housing to home-less people around the country.

After she worked to restore an old, dilapidated hotel into affordable housing for homeless people who had been living on the streets around Times Square in New York City, Haggerty said, she real-ized she could affect large-scale change with bold goals and the right tools.

“We have this whole energized work-force who never had the right insights, the right tools, the right collaboration to get anywhere,” Haggerty said. “I wonder if the lesson is that pride in our most recent innovation is the obstacle to see what our next could be.”

Viveka Hulyalkar ’15, who attended the conference for the third year in a row, said BIF has taught her how to connect with people in a way other experiences have not.

“You just meet people who are in-volved in so many different things, and they teach you how to make an impact,” Hulyalkar said. “It’s a great experience just being in a room full of really ac-complished people. It’s totally expected to just go up to people and just kind of accost them.”

Hulyalkar said she was most affected by a speech given by James Doty, a clini-cal professor of neurosurgery at Stanford University, who discussed his research on the neuroscience of compassion and the effects societal restrictions have on

health.“Over the last three decades, neuro-

scientists learned ... that when somebody is authentic, when somebody is who they really are, that is when they are their best, when they thrive, when they get every benefit,” Doty said in his speech.

Doty’s speech drew from his research findings and childhood experiences, as well as from his brother’s death from AIDS. Compassion toward others, es-pecially in widespread forms like gender equality, will help make humanity hap-pier and more successful, he said.

“When one steps out of what society (and) culture (have) defined as the nor-mal paradigm, what it does is it unleashes us to be who we are, and therefore flour-ish and thrive,” he said.

Minds ‘collide’ at Business Innovation FactoryModeled after the TED format, the conference included short talks by leaders and innovators

GADI COHEN / HERALD

Speakers ranging from the vice president of Coca-Cola to war veterans sought to inspire attendees to collaborate in solving everyday problems.

student loan debt4 THE BROWN DAILY HERALDTUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2013

BY ABIGAIL SAVITCH-LEWSTAFF WRITER

University administrators said they are awaiting further details on President Obama’s plan for a new college ranking system that would be based on a wide range of affordability and performance metrics.

The rankings — to be released by the U.S. Department of Education before the 2015-2016 school year — would com-pare colleges to their peer institutions according to measurements of students’ outcomes, though the exact formula is yet to be determined, the White House announced Aug. 22. Potential criteria include graduation rates, graduate earn-ings, the percentage of students receiving Pell grants, average net tuition costs and other information about students’ costs, according to a White House press release.

Provost Mark Schlissel P’15 said he commends Obama for his efforts to help families access more information about college affordability but added that the University and other schools still need to learn more about the system.

“The devil’s in the details,” he said.The ranking proposal follows the

launch last February of the White House College Scorecard, a website that provides basic information about U.S. colleges, including graduates’ loan default rates and median borrowing amounts.

Administrators have not yet heard

from the U.S. Department of Education about how Brown can participate in cre-ating the rating system, Schlissel said, adding that the University may choose to lobby the federal government if it has concerns over the ranking system’s mea-surements. One potential concern could arise if the system subtracted students who transfer out of Brown but gradu-ate at another school within four years from the University’s graduation rate, Schlissel said.

The University would also be con-cerned if the rating system measured affordability solely based on how many students receive Pell grants, said Direc-tor of Financial Aid Jim Tilton, because Brown has about 1,700 students who receive University scholarships but not Pell grants.

Administrators also expressed skepti-cism about using graduate earnings as a metric for the University’s performance. Measurements of graduates’ earnings are limited by reliance on data pulled from voluntary surveys with recent graduates, said Director of Government Relations and Community Affairs Amy Carroll.

Obama’s ranking plan does not yet have enough details to determine which schools are considered the University’s peer institutions, Schlissel said, adding that he believes Brown will be considered a high-performing school whether it is classified as a liberal arts school or a re-search university. “We stack up very well by all those different definitions, so that’s not one of my biggest anxieties,” he said.

Obama has urged Congress to pass legislation that would tie federal aid for students to their ranking performances by 2018, according to the press release. The federal government currently dis-tributes $150 billion in annual financial aid to higher education institutions based on the size of their student bodies, rather than on performance metrics like gradu-ation rates, according to the press release.

While Schlissel said he recognizes the importance of funneling federal dollars to the most effective schools, he expressed

concern that such a set-up would disad-vantage struggling colleges that are work-ing to make progress on delivering positive outcomes for students.

“I think it’s very challenging to rely on rankings because it may lock in schools that aren’t as good that might be otherwise able to improve,” he said.

Peer to peerBrown for Financial Aid President

Alex Mechanick ’15 said he hopes the rating system will not reward Ivy League institutions for their generous aid policies while defunding poorer schools that are doing their best with limited resources.

Mechanick said the University provides substantial aid compared to many schools nationwide but should be compared in the rankings to other elite universities. The University has the second-highest net tuition cost in the Ivy League, according to a “college scorecard” the Department of Education released in March.

The University requires students with annual family incomes over $100,000 to take out loans capped at $5,000 a year, Schlissel said, noting that some of the University’s peer institutions with larger endowments are able to provide loan-free aid packages to their students.

But Mechanick said the University’s comparatively smaller endowment does not excuse placing financial burdens on students. “It’s not the size of the endow-ment — it’s how you use it,” he said.

Incentivizing innovationObama’s plan also proposes awarding

bonuses to colleges based on the num-ber of Pell grant recipients who graduate and requiring federal grant recipients to complete a portion of their coursework before they qualify for continued federal aid, according to the White House press release. These policy changes require Congressional approval before they can be enacted.

Tying scholarships to student per-formance would be advantageous to the University because Brown students with large financial needs graduate at high rates, Schlissel said.

Obama has also proposed capping student loan repayments at 10 percent of borrowers’ monthly incomes, as well as dispersing Pell grant money over the course of semesters rather than at the start of each semester to prevent wasting federal aid on students who drop out. The plan touts Obama’s intentions to provide financial incentives for innovative prac-tices in higher education such as online course offerings and awarding credit to students with previous educational ex-perience, according to the press release.

Schlissel expressed concern about the plan’s innovation incentives. “Once you start defining the kinds of things that the government will consider as innovative, and attaching money incentives to it, than you can expect what’s going to happen,” he said, adding that schools would overly standardize their practices to conform to government expectations.

Students’ takeMany students said they do not know

the details of Obama’s proposed ranking system and expressed mixed views on its potential benefits.

Obama has “already done some great work to make colleges affordable for people,” said Akshaya Avril-Tucker ’15, adding that she thinks a ranking system might be useful to high school seniors and their families. But she said she is wor-ried a rating system based on graduates’ earnings would fail to accurately measure a school’s performance.

A ranking system would only work if families understood its methodology, said John Brewer ’17. “I think it would be good as long as the criteria on which it was ranked was transparent,” he said.

Jeff Compton ’15, who learned of the proposal this summer, said he is con-cerned a college rating system would en-courage schools to focus their resources on developing their science, technology, engineering and mathematics programs. “It could cause colleges to let in certain types of students or make it hard to switch majors,” Compton said.

He said he is also worried Obama’s proposal to link federal aid to the ranking system by 2018 would not give struggling colleges enough time to make reforms.

Admins react hesitantly to federal college ranking systemThe University may lobby the government if the rankings’ measurement criteria elicit concern

adding that Salve Regina “(does not) provide enough financial aid.”

Cabral said she is already “around $30,000 to $40,000 in debt” and antici-pates staying at Salve Regina for another year. She said she predicts she will be around $80,000 to $100,000 in debt when she graduates.

“Student debt is a concern to all in-stitutions,” said Dan Egan, president of the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Rhode Island.

“(Students) are very concerned” about financing their education, said Matthew Brady, a sophomore at Salve Regina who took out loans last year to help pay for his education. “If it was sta-ble, I think kids would be okay,” he said, but tuition has continued to increase.

Practical pursuitsSome students have also decided

what to study in part due to their finan-cial situations.

Cabral said she inititally wanted to study chemistry but ultimately de-cided to major in social work because she believes she will have more job

opportunities after graduation. She has also had to think twice about studying abroad in the summer because it would create more debt, she said.

After graduating, Cabral said she wants a job that will provide her with a comfortable salary and allow her to pay off her loans in a timely fashion, she said.

“I don’t want to be 30 years old and still paying off my debt,” she added.

Alexis Jelenik, a first-year at Salve Regina who is on financial aid and has also taken out loans, said she is majoring in nursing and wants to pursue a career as a nurse anesthetist.

“I chose that because they make a pretty decent salary,” she said.

Some students pursue additional majors to make the most of their col-lege tuition, they said.

Brady said he knows a number of other students double-majoring in edu-cation and a subject they want to teach.

Students believe “their education has to be worth it,” Brady said, adding that he plans on double majoring in admin-istration and justice — Salve Regina’s pre-law track — as well as religious and theological studies.

“I’d rather major in both and then

figure out what I want to do after, know-ing that I have plenty of opportunities,” he said.

Finding a fieldBut other students are gambling that

studying subjects they are passionate about will be more fulfilling.

Balancing the desire to pursue one’s passion with the difficulty of obtaining a job in today’s economy is a “Catch-22,” said Bennet Koffa, a senior at URI.

Koffa, who receives financial aid from URI through the university’s Tal-ent Development Program — an ini-tiative geared toward in-state students who demonstrate academic merit and financial need — also takes out around $14,000 in student loans annually, he said. He expects to be about $40,000 to $50,000 in debt by the time he graduates, Koffa added.

Koffa said he chose his majors — communications and journalism — based on his interests rather than po-tential job prospects.

“We don’t look at price of educa-tion, but we look at what we want to do because that’s going to matter — that’s what’s going to pay off after,” he said.

Landry also said she chose a major that aligned with her interests, adding that she would not want to study an unappealing subject that promised to lead to a lucrative career. Landry said her parents support her decision to ma-jor in nutrition and have encouraged her to follow her passion rather than a paycheck.

But Landry acknowledged that oth-er students might not make the same choice. “I’m guessing there are people majoring in engineering because they want a higher-paying job,” she said.

“Theater is not a very practical thing to study,” said Lafond, a junior at RIC. “It’s a little bit of a struggle, but for me, I decided I would do what I love rather than do something more practical,” she added. “Not everyone has the luxury of choosing.”

When it comes to money, mum’s the word

Though many students rely on loans and financial aid to pay for college, few discuss their financial situations publicly.

Talking about loans “doesn’t translate over to day-to-day conversation,” Brady said. “It’s more something that we worry

about with our families.”But the topic does sometimes come

up around dining hall tables, Jelenik said.

“I know that sometimes at dinner, we have a group of friends, and we talk about how much financial aid we got or what our scholarships were,” she said.

“I don’t know anyone who doesn’t have a loan taken out,” added Salve Re-gina first-year Brooke Hobson.

While he said he believes student debt does not directly impact students’ undergraduate experiences, he added that loan debt is still an important issue.

“There are many efforts underway to focus on costs and make college as affordable as possible for as many as possible,” Egan said.

Both Jelenik and Hobson said they plan on going to graduate school but are wary of the additional debt they would have to assume.

“I think if I want to go to grad school, I would want to find a job that would pay for me to go to grad school,” Hob-son said. “It would make it a lot easier, especially with the end of college and having to pay my student loans — I don’t want to add more to it.”

Avg. net cost after financial aid

Graduation rate (within 6 years) Enrollment Federal loan default rate Median borrowing/month

Brown University $22,743 95.2 % 6,380 1.5 % $181.01

Rhode Island College $8,274 44.2 % 7,762 7.9 % $149.60

Salve Regina College $28,852 72.6 % 2,028 4.2 % $284.95

University of Rhode Island $14,667 63.1 % 13,219 5.5 % $228.72

Student loan debt across Rhode IslandThe federal government launched a system meant to help students and their families better understand the financial decisions involved with higher eduction. The system evaluates schools based on variables including cost, student debt and loan repayment.

JILLIAN LANNEY / HERALDSource: White House College Scoreboard

» DEBT, from page 1

“The devil’s in the details.”

Mark Schlissel P’15PROVOST

student loan debt 5THE BROWN DAILY HERALDTUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2013

By KATHERINE LAMBSENIOR STAFF WRITER

After interest rates on federal student loans temporarily doubled from 3.4 to 6.8 percent in July, the U.S. House and Senate voted to pass a bipartisan bill tying student loan interest rates to market rates, rejecting a plan proposed by Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., that would have frozen the rate at 3.4 percent for another year.

Though undergraduate loan interest rates are currently at 3.86 percent, they are projected to rise with the market environment, potentially reaching the law’s prescribed caps — set at 8.25 per-cent for undergraduates, 9.5 percent for graduate students and 10.5 percent for parents.

Reed said he worries that if the rates on federal student loans approach the caps established by current legisla-tion, the effects for students and their families in the short-term, as well as for society in the long-term, could be devastating.

Looking for legislation Interest rates were set to double to

6.8 percent from 3.4 percent last year as well, but Reed led a coalition that suc-cessfully passed legislation to freeze the interest rate at 3.4 percent for the year.

“The fix was worthwhile in exactly that degree — a year’s worth,” said Alex Mechanick ’15, president of Brown for Financial Aid.

When that temporary fix expired July 1, the interest rate for federally subsidized Stafford loans, designed for students with demonstrated financial need, doubled to 6.8 percent, affecting seven million students nationally and more than 47,000 Rhode Islanders, ac-cording to a July 10 press release from Reed’s office.

Following the rate increase, Reed joined with Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C., to fight for reauthorization of his Keep Student Loans Affordable Act.

Reed and Warren called their piece of legislation a “two-pronged approach” in a Politico opinion piece they co-authored. The first part of the bill was meant to combat the impending doubling of the interest rate by using a “one-year patch” to freeze rates at 3.4 percent. The legislation also laid out principles to guide long-term reform in the student loan system, including

“eliminating profits from student loans, stemming the rising cost of college and alleviating the burden of student debt on existing borrowers through refinanc-ing and better consumer protection,” they wrote.

“We were proposing to freeze the rate at 3.4 percent so we could make some structural improvements to the program, but we were not successful,” Reed told The Herald.

The Senate re-jected the Keep Stu-dent Loans Afford-able Act 51-49 July 10 — failing to reach the 60-vote threshold needed to overcome a filibuster.

Though it wasn’t successful, Reed’s proposal was impor-tant in a time when the prevailing atti-tude in Congress is “that the govern-ment is always bad, and you have to rely on the private sector,” said Leonard Lardaro, professor of economics at Uni-versity of Rhode Island.

Hitting the capIn place of Reed’s proposal, the Sen-

ate passed the Bipartisan Student Loan Certainty Act of 2013, a variable rate system that tied student loan interest rates to market rates and allowed them to increase or decrease based on eco-nomic indicators. Though the bill low-ered interest rates to about 3.86 percent and retroactively lowered the rates on loans that had temporarily doubled to 6.8 percent, the rates are expected to rise in this market environment, Reed’s staff said.

When President Obama signed the legislation, he called it a “common-sense approach to keeping student interest rates at a reasonable level,” the Providence Journal reported.

Though the market-based loan rate system in place from 1992 to 2006 kept rates reasonably low, market-based sys-tems rely heavily on a reasonable cap to protect borrowers in high interest rate environments, and the caps in the legislation passed this summer are too high, according to Reed’s staff.

“As a result, the financial pain for students and middle-class families is essentially back-loaded to kick in later, with some rates projected to be above the current rate of 6.8 percent as soon as 2015, and rates for undergrads to rise above seven percent as soon as 2017,” according to a July 24 press release from Reed’s office.

An amendment from Reed, War-ren and 17 Senate colleagues proposed

locking in lower caps — 6.8 percent for undergraduate and graduate loans and 7.9 percent for Parent Loan for Under-graduate Students — but it was defeated.

“Every indication shows that rates will go up,” Reed said. “I think (reaching the cap) would be the worst situation right now.”

“It’s exceedingly unlikely” the rates will reach the caps near 10 percent, be-

cause “it would take roaring economic growth,” Lardaro said. “My impres-sion is that although it’s unfortunate our Senator’s motion went down, I don’t think interest rates are ready to spike anytime soon,” he said.

But even if the rates reaching the

cap is a “mute issue,” it is still a “ques-tion of fairness,” Lardaro said. Though a market-based system might be more efficient, a fixed-rate system like the one proposed by Senator Reed reduces the risk that interest rates will make it difficult for low-income students to pay back their loans, he said.

The efficiency-equity tradeoff“The legislation raises questions not

just about our economic future but the kind of people that we are,” Lardaro said. “I think that the market-based system will certainly be more efficient but the problem is that it won’t neces-sarily be equitable or fair.”

“There’s a much more fundamen-tal issue (than efficiency) and that is the value of education, not just to the individual, but to society,” Reed said. “Markets don’t quantify social benefits very well. That’s why the government steps in and provides subsidies or incen-tives,” he added.

“Education is not like typical gov-ernment spending. It’s investment-ori-ented spending that can actually allow the government to generate more tax revenue in the future,” Lardaro said. For example, the big boom after World War II can be attributed to the GI Bill that subsidized higher education for millions of veterans, he added.

According to projections, the cur-rent legislation will enable the federal government to “turn a profit on the student loan,” Mechanick said.

“What we have to do is make a judg-ment about whether or not the federal government should be making money off of student loans,” Reed said. One argument is that the government should be “lending at the lowest possible rate

based on the cost,” Reed said. Another argument is that “in order to encourage higher education, we should actually think about subsidizing it.”

“The important question is not about the structure of the program, but how much we should be investing in students,” Mechanick said. “If we did more, would we be benefiting everyone in a way that would make it worth it?”

Roughly half of the jobs in the United States currently require a col-lege degree, and predictions show that within a decade that proportion will increase significantly, Reed said. But while the demand for college degree has increased, so has the cost of tuition, he said.

“We have to get under control the cost of college education. The increase has been staggering,” Reed said. “Col-leges have to step up, and we have to look at ways to encourage them to,” he added.

“The reason that we’re a productive economy today, and a more civil society, is because we’ve for hundreds of years supported education,” Reed said.

The most recent rankings of country performance in education, published by the Economist Intelligence Unit in November 2012, show that the United States has been surpassed in education performance by 16 other nations and currently ranks 17th in the Global Index of Cognitive Skills and Educational Attain-ment.

“Other countries have recognized investment in edu-cation as the path to prosperity and progress,” Reed said. “In this complicated global age, we’re go-ing to have to have more college gradu-ates.”

Borrower burdens As student loan rates increase, “it

increases the burden on a part of the population that’s already bearing an incredible burden,” Mechanick said.

For now though, it’s manageable, Lardaro said. “It’s certainly workable. We can live with it.”

A market-tied system also has ben-efits for students and parents because student loan rates “are more predictable and understandable,” said Megan Mc-Clean, director of policy and federal relations at the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.

“If you have a broader sense of what’s going on, you can take the

temperature of the economy and pre-dict what the rates will be,” McClean said. “Before, it wasn’t connected to the outside world.”

NASFAA views the current legisla-tion as a “strong piece of legislation that is good for all borrowers,” McClean said.

While past legislation, including the one-year freeze of interest rates at 3.4 percent last year, protected only Staf-ford loans, the new legislation “made the rates more affordable for everyone, not just the subsidized loan borrowers,” she said. Data shows that 80 percent of NASFAA’s subsidized borrowers also borrow unsubsidized loans, McClean added.

Though student loans go to indi-viduals regardless of where they attend school, the burdens for different educa-tional institutions will vary greatly, ac-cording to Reed’s staff. Universities with more students who are reliant on loans could start to see less tuition revenue and lower enrollment as rates increase, whereas independently wealthy institu-tions won’t face the same problems.

“I would assume that Brown is in a considerably better position than most,” Mechanick said. “That said, I think it’s a useless comparison. I think we should always be comparing ourselves to what we could be doing,” he added.

Where do we loan from here?

The caps are in place as a “safety net,” McClean said, but if rates reached them, “Congress might again look at interest rates and see if there is something else we could do.”

Changes might be made even by the end of the year in the pro-

cess of reauthorization for the Higher Education Act of 1965, which will ex-pire at the end of 2013, McClean said.

“That’s a process where lots of dif-ferent aspects of higher education and student aid are considered,” she said.

Part of the current legislation has also required the U.S. Government Ac-countability Office to produce a report analyzing the costs and market instru-ments for student loans. The report has the potential to spark more ideas for long-term reform, according to Reed’s staff.

Though Reed’s and Warren’s amend-ment proposing to cap the rate at 6.8 percent was defeated, “once it gets past 6.8 percent we’re going to be down there reminding people,” Reed said.

R.I. senator works to manage interest rates on student loansThe bill comes after a 2012 plan by Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., to freeze interest rates for a year

academic success, particularly for low-income and underrepresented students.

The college rating system is an important step toward making col-lege more affordable because it gives consumers easy access to facts about college costs, but it is only one stage in a series of steps the government is taking to make college more acces-sible and should be considered in that framework, he added.

A successful ranking system “should look at the college’s success with respect to access by low income and histori-cally underrepresented demograph-ics, affordability to those students and

others overall and its success with those students and all students,” Dannen-berg said. He added that it is too soon to evaluate the specifics of Obama’s proposal because it does not include enough information about the new ranking system.

Tying federal aid to college value can be appropriate if instituted prop-erly, said Daniel Egan, president of the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Rhode Island. “The question is how do you establish the rankings to accurately gauge and com-pare apples to oranges and bananas?” he added.

But there is some concern that the three tenets of Obama’s plan — access,

affordability and outcomes — would not receive equal emphasis in the new ratings system, Egan said. Focusing on outcomes like graduate earnings could disadvantage schools that concentrate on fields that offer lower average sala-ries like public service or the humani-ties, he added.

Colleges that are accessible to high-risk students may also have lower grad-uation rates, decreasing the schools’ rankings, Egan said.

A representative from Sen. Jack Reed’s, D-R.I., office said he shares the concern that students who can only af-ford to go to schools with lower gradu-ation rates may be disadvantaged by the rankings.

AICU Rhode Island aims to work with Obama to make sure the rank-ings are fair and take into account all three of the president’s proposed goals and is already expressing concerns to congressional delegations, Egan said.

The Rhode Island Office of Higher Education supports Obama’s efforts to promote college affordability, though crafting an appropriate college rank-ing system that captures college value accurately will likely be difficult, wrote Michael Trainor, special assistant to the commissioner of the R.I. Board of Governors of Higher Education, in an email to The Herald. University of Rhode Island, Rhode Island College and Rhode Island Community College

have instituted a tuition freeze this year in an effort to keep college affordable, he added.

Johnson and Wales University is evaluating how Obama’s proposal will affect financial aid for the school, wrote Lisa Pelosi, director of the office of communications and media relations for JWU, in an email to The Herald.

Representatives from Roger Wil-liams University, Providence Col-lege, Bryant University, Rhode Island College and Salve Regina University could not be reached for comment on Obama’s proposal.

— With reporting by Katherine Lamb and Abigail Savitch-Lew

» AID, from page 1

“We were proposing to freeze

the interest rate at 3.4 percent ... but we were not

successful.”

Jack ReedU.S. SENATOR

“The legislation raises questions

not just about our economic future but the kind of

people that we are.”

Leonard LardaroUNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND

PROFESSOR OF ECONOMICS

commentary6 THE BROWN DAILY HERALDTUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2013

Though Rhode Island decriminalized marijuana in April of last year, more drastic state action could be the on the horizon. The Marijuana Policy Project, an organization set on working state by state to progressively change marijuana laws, is leading the cause, and Karen O’Keefe, the organization’s director of state policies, recently identified Rhode Island as one of the 10 new states where it will attempt to have marijuana legalized. We wholeheartedly support this endeavor, as legalization would certainly help ameliorate Rhode Island’s flagging economy.

Rhode Island is already projected to be one of the next states to legalize marijuana, and it is clear the policy has support in the state. The question of legalization has arisen in the past three sessions of the state General Assembly, championed in particular by House Rep. Edith Ajello D-Providence, chair of the judiciary committee. In addition, a poll from last January found that 52 percent of respondents support legalization. Though such a measure has not yet passed, we believe the history and context surrounding this policy render the state ripe for a renewed effort to legalize marijuana.

At the state level, advocates understand legalizing marijuana would go a long way toward reviving Rhode Island’s struggling economy. While the state currently spends resources attempting to prevent illegal marijuana traffic and use, it earns no income from taxation. The proposed legalization bill calls for a “$50 per ounce excise tax at the wholesale level, as well as a sales tax that would increase the state’s revenue.” Rhode Island’s economy is consistently ranked among the worst in the nation.

Simultaneously, consumer demand for marijuana is high: The state has the nation’s highest rate of illicit drug and marijuana use. Rather than continue to fruitlessly fight marijuana use, the state should tax the sale of the drug so that it may use the revenue to bolster important but underfunded programs, such as public education.

Legalizing marijuana would boost Rhode Island’s suffering economy, both freeing and creating valuable resources the state could devote to worthwhile endeavors. As residents of the state, Brown students should understand the value of legalizing marijuana and add their voices to the chorus calling for such reform. We strongly hope the Rhode Island state legislature examines the benefits of legalization, and we urge lawmakers to implement this pro-gressive policy.

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 editorials@browndailyherald.com.

Legalizing marijuana would benefit Rhode Island

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AANCHAL SAR AF

E D I T O R I A L

Q U O T E O F T H E D A Y

“I don’t know anyone who doesn’t have a loan taken out.” — Brooke Hudson, Salve Regina first-year

See debt, page 1.

An article in Monday’s Herald (“Student comedians stage fake centennial anniversary,” Sept. 23) reported that Adam Abeshouse ’14 asked in his stand-up routine, “Oh, what would Grandma say if I took Africana Studies?” In fact, Abes-house said, “This one looks great, but Grandma would have something to say if I took Africana Studies.” Additionally, the article reported Abeshouse was joking about “shopping period and the search for the elusive fourth course.” Abeshouse’s joke about shopping period was in the context of a comparison between looking for courses and choosing a spouse. The Herald regrets the errors.

C O R R E C T I O N

Music is the soundtrack to life, and it makes life more vibrant, more creative and more enjoy-able. If music is perceived to be a part of our personalities, and if it can affect our moods, our ac-tions and our interests, can it ac-tually affect our perspectives? I believe that lyrics — and the val-ues they communicate to the lis-tener — have effects larger than perceived on how we think and act.

Many — maybe most — pop-ular songs one can think of con-tain, in some context, some ref-erence to materialism, violence, racial, sexual and other slurs or engagement in immoral actions. Honestly, many songs I listen to on a regular basis contain sever-al of these problematic features. When I think about it, I rec-ognize how the messages in mu-sic can — and do — affect myself and others, with-out our aware-ness.

A 2008 report from the Archives of Pediat-rics and Adolescent Medicine found that “one in three popu-lar songs contains explicit refer-ences to drug or alcohol use.” A 2005 study from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medi-cine found that “the average ad-olescent is exposed to approxi-mately 84 references to explicit substance use per day and 591 references per week, or 30,732 references per year.” The same study found that “9 percent of pop songs had lyrics relating to drugs or alcohol … 14 percent for rock songs, 20 percent for R&B and hip-hop songs, 36 per-cent for country songs and 77 percent for rap songs.”

This is based off the 279 most popular songs from 2005, which were determined by Billboard magazine, a measure of popu-lar music. It also found that only around “4 percent of the songs contained ‘anti’-drug and alco-hol messages.”

Even today, one need not search long to find lyrics that promote sexism or racism, liken women to gold-diggers or pro-mote the chase for quick, easy money. As Brown students, we may think ourselves above this. We may think that listening to music with negative messages on our headphones or dancing to such music at parties doesn’t affect us.

For one thing, we’re not even really listening to the lyr-ics, right? And if so, we’re not thinking about them. But rep-

etition ingrains not just words but also ideas and messages in your mind. That verse you love to recite when that song comes on — like the verse about how much money Jay-Z has or how many “hot (witches)” Kanye West owns or how a woman is likened to “an animal” by Rob-in Thicke — is not just a verse that sits there in your mind un-til you’re ready to pull it out at a party and sing along. It is play-ing a part in how you perceive things.

Music is a form of media, and any message, through repeti-tion, takes root in its consum-er’s mind. The line that divides things we hear but don’t buy into, and those that we hear and believe, becomes increasingly blurred with repetition and con-stant exposure.

Youth are especially suscep-tible to being affected by the messages of music with negative lyrics and portrayals, especial-

ly because they have not grown to realize that these claims may be wildly inac-curate. Rick Ross is probably leas-ing that Bugatti that he’s using in his video, Drake

probably hasn’t actually “made $2 million since last Wednes-day” and illegal activities such as selling drugs or gang violence are more likely to get you in jail or in a grave than in a mansion. Many of these artists who pro-mote certain acts have not ac-tually engaged in the activities they glorify. Equally likely is the possibility that these musicians do lead the dangerous lives they claim, and their lives may ac-tually serve as cautionary tales once one looks beyond their fabricated, glossy celebrity im-ages. We may not be “youth” any longer, but we still are not im-mune to some of these subtle in-fluences.

It is important for us all to think about what that song that we’re dancing to is really say-ing. Could you dance to a song that contains offensive mate-rial or perpetuates ignorance? If it’s catchy, maybe that doesn’t matter to you. But while you’re dancing, just think about what forms of ignorance that song’s lyrics may be perpetuating or what immoral ideas and actions the song may encourage, and render those words powerless in your mind. Do not let your mind be imprisoned by negativ-ity and ignorance.

Armani Madison ’16 is primar-ily a fan of rap music, especially when the music has a positive message. He can be reached at armani_madison@brown.edu.

Today, the people of Rhode Is-land find themselves in a sim-mering education debate, and this is nothing new. Through-out history, the Ocean State has had a rocky relationship with public education. But rarely is the long history of public edu-cation in Rhode Island taken into account when discussing the future.

Unlike Massachusetts and Connecticut, Rhode Island was not quick to embrace public ed-ucation. Boston Latin School is the oldest public school in America and was founded April 23, 1635. Seven years later, Mas-sachusetts passed a law mandat-ing that parents and guardians must educate their children. By 1647, the Massachusetts Gen-eral Court passed laws compel-ling towns of at least 50 people to set up schools. Ninety years later, Horace Mann 1819 be-came secretary of education for Massachusetts. By 1852, thanks to Mann’s reforms, Massachu-setts established the first state-wide compulsory education system in the United States.

In Rhode Island, things happened much differently. Though state founder Rog-er Williams was a teacher to many, the colony of Rhode Is-land never established a system of common schools. Newport was the first town to try hav-ing a public school. But schools there came in fits and starts. As early as 1640, there was some mention of schooling. And as early as 1685, there was talk of a school building. But this building had fallen down by 1700, and it took until 1739 to finish erecting a new school — which was then destroyed by fire in 1774. For 50 years after the fire, no physical school ex-isted in Newport.

Providence was even slow-er to take to the idea of public education. In 1663, the State

General Assembly authorized a grant of land for a school. But as of 1725, there was sim-ply a classroom held at the State House, while no free school-ing throughout Providence ex-isted. In 1768, the city held a vote on instituting free public schools, but the proposal was defeated. Over 120 years after Massachusetts had compelled towns to provide free taxpayer-funded public schooling, such a school system was voted down in Providence. Meanwhile, in Barrington — which was then part of Swansea, Mass. — a free school was established in 1673. Barrington pub-lic schools re-main among the best in the state today.

In the end, it was not until 1828 that a free system of public education came to Providence. And it took until 1883 for Rhode Island to insti-tute statewide free and compulsory educa-tion, 31 years after Massachu-setts had done it. In short, Little Rhody has a long history of be-ing New England’s public edu-cation laggard.

Why might this matter? What does this have to do with today? Communities grew over the time in which Rhode Is-land debated public education. Municipalities formed. Town and city borders ossified. In Massachusetts and Connecti-cut, communities grew around schools. In Rhode Island, com-munities formed without them. The town and city borders of this state were drawn without schools in mind. And educa-tion is now the single largest expenditure for municipalities in the state.

Given the historical evo-lution of public education in Rhode Island, it is doubtful that the short-term fixes we so often focus on will be suffi-cient to help us to catch up to

our neighbors. Charter schools, standardized testing, perfor-mance metrics and Race to the Top grants do not take into ac-count land use and settlement patterns. They certainly don’t take into account the histor-ical-political development of education systems. Even the best-intentioned education re-form efforts will not be success-ful if they cannot correctly di-agnose the problem they are at-tempting to fix.

Education reforms have largely ignored long-term state-wide planning, land use and municipal development. This is

a mistake, par-ticularly given Rhode Island’s history. The bor-ders of Rhode Is-land municipali-ties were drawn without a mind to education, the demographics of students or a tax base to support them.

With a long-term plan, con-

sistent long-term investment and constructive input from the community, we could atone for some of the sins of the past. A more rational and less hap-hazard system could be built for future generations. This is a worthwhile discussion to start having within our communi-ties. We could spend some ef-fort now studying the compar-ative land use, demographic and tax revenue issues between school districts in Rhode Island and our neighboring states. At the very least, it would be use-ful to know to what extent the political development of public education in Rhode Island puts this state in a unique position. That way, we might just find so-lutions specifically tailored for the Ocean State.

Daniel Carrigg GS loves this little state he has made his

home. He can be reached at daniel_carrigg@brown.edu.

commentary 7THE BROWN DAILY HERALDTUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2013

History matters for Rhode Island educationDrop the beat ... and the ignorance

“Even the best-intentioned

education reform efforts will not be successful if they cannot correctly

diagnose the problem they are attempting to fix.”

“Could you dance to a song

that contains offensive material

or perpetuates ignorance?”

DANIELCARRIGG

opinions columnistARMANI

MADISONopinions columnist

browndailyherald.com/opinions

daily heraldTHE BROWNsports tuesday

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2013

By CORMAC CUMMISKEYCONTRIBUTING WRITER

The field hockey team won the second of two games this weekend due to renewed emphasis on team-focused play. After falling to Columbia (3-3, Ivy 1-0) Friday, Bruno (3-3, 0-1) bounced back Sunday to fend off Colgate University (1-7).

Columbia 4, Brown 1 Despite not having beaten the Lions

since 2006, the Bears entered Friday’s game with high hopes.

“We went into the game really think-ing that it was a good match-up,” said Torie Stearns ’14. “I think individually the teams did stack up pretty well.”

But Columbia established an offen-sive advantage from the first whistle. The Lions bombarded the Bears with a barrage of shots before halftime, net-ting three goals. In response, Bruno recorded only one goal, scored by for-ward Meghan O’Donnell ’15 in the 29th minute of play off an assist from Clayton Christus ’15.

The second half did not unfold any better for the Bears. A strong effort by goalkeeper Shannon McSweeney ’15 — who logged 10 saves for the game — was not enough to break the tide of scoring by the Lions. Columbia added a fourth goal in the 44th minute to complete its lopsided victory.

Stearns said a breakdown in team-based mentality was to blame for the outcome.

“We usually play as a team, but it was a little more of an individual effort (in the game),” Stearns said.

Brown 4, Colgate 3 The mood of the team was some-

what “defeated” following Friday’s loss,

Stearns said. But the Bears redeemed themselves two days later against Col-gate.

Stearns scored the first goal of the game — her first of the season — 30 seconds into the first half.

Following this blow, the Raiders swiftly retaliated. Colgate senior Halle Biggar notched two goals before the half, stealing Brown’s lead. Seven minutes into the second half, Colgate first-year Whitney Jones contributed another point to the Raiders’ tally.

Captain Maggie Brady ’14 said com-posure was key to staying engaged in the game. “We stayed very calm. … It was almost like a switch flipped,” she said. At that time, “we realized that we had the potential to come back.”

And the Bears roared back from their brief hibernation. The team struck in the closing minutes of the second half, scoring three goals in roughly 10 minutes.

The three points came from three different players, as Christus pushed in the game-winning goal with less than two minutes left on the clock.

Brady said the match reflected the Bears’ ability to excel as a unit.

“The Colgate game was the culmi-nation of our individual efforts into a cohesive team effort,” Brady said.

Up next The team will host its next match at

home against Dartmouth Sept. 28. Last year, the Bears lost to their conference rivals 3-2 on the road, but the players said they remain optimistic as the re-match approaches.

“They’re definitely going to come back and try to beat us,” said Alexis Miller ’16, who scored one goal in the Colgate game. “Playing with small passes, causing corners and doing the things that we’re good at will help us come out on top.”

Bears mauled by Lions, defeat RaidersAfter a tough conference loss, Bruno returned to unselfish play to seal win over Colgate

By ALEX WAINGERCONTRIBUTING WRITER

The men’s tennis team traveled to New Haven, Conn. last weekend to compete in the Ivy Plus Tournament and came away with strong wins and valuable experience, said co-captain David Neff ’14.

Bruno competed against all other Ivy League teams — with the excep-tion of Princeton — as well as against several non-league opponents.

The Bears also had an impressive showing the weekend before at the Brown Invitational, where the squad won one doubles title as well as three singles titles.

The Bears were led by Eli Whittle ’17 and Lucas DaSilveira ’16, who both reached the semifinals of their flights before being knocked off by players from Penn and Harvard, re-spectively. Whittle is one of two first-years on the team, the other being Greg Garcia ’17.

DaSilveira and Whittle also paired up for doubles play, as DaSilveira’s usual partner, Justin To ’15, did not travel to the tournament.

The duo knocked off a pair from Dartmouth 8-5 in the quarterfinals and then beat a Crimson team 8-7 before falling to a freshman-senior team from Penn in the finals.

“I didn’t feel like that I was that sharp this weekend,” DaSilveria said.

“I’ve been playing much better (in practice) than I did this weekend, which is frustrating, but it was good to see what our competition will be like in the Ivy League this year.”

Neff also made a strong show-ing at the tournament, reaching the semifinals of his singles flight as well as the consolation final for one of the doubles flights. In the latter, he was accompanied by partner Ivan Kravtchenko ’16.

“We played together a little bit last year, so it was nice to continue to build a level of comfort with each other,” Neff said. “Obviously, playing with someone you’re familiar with is a huge advantage.”

Garcia competed in both singles and doubles play, picking up a win in the first round of the singles draw against a Dartmouth player.

Gsrcia then battled a player from Cornell in the quarterfinal and took an early lead, winning the first set 6-2, but he ultimately fell in a three-set match.

The past two tournaments indi-cate the impact Garcia and Whittle could have on the team this year.

“That’s what makes these fall tour-naments so critical and so important is that (Garcia and Whittle) start to see not only the new level of play but also how teams interact in college,” Neff said. “It’s very different from the junior level where you’re so focused on yourself. They’re both great play-ers, and over time, they’ll become accustomed to playing for the team.”

The Bears will next compete at the Penn Invitational this upcoming weekend in Philadelphia.

Bruno builds experience in Ivy playThe squad hopes to continue with strong wins against Ivy teams at the Penn Invitational

JESSE SCHWIMMER / HERALD

Avery Burns ’14 helped lock down a surging, second-half Colgate offense en route to the Bears’ lone victory of the weekend.

M. TENNIS

FIELD HOCKEY

COURTESY OF BROWN ATHLETICS

Sam Fife ’14 and the men’s tennis team gauged what the upcoming season will bring as they faced most of their Ivy foes in the Ivy Plus Tournament.

(5-1-1), conceding the first goal 19 min-utes in. Butler’s offense pressured Bruno’s back four the whole half, ripping five shots and forcing three saves from Weiner.

“It was definitely difficult going into that game playing a fresh team,” Weiner said. “But we were able to keep ourselves in the game, so that was promising through-out the first half.”

The Bulldogs picked up where they left off in the second half and struck again in the 52nd minute. A pass across the 6-yard box was finished to increase their lead to 2-0. The final goal came just 12 minutes later off a header to seal the 3-0 victory for the home team.

“Even when we were down, we had some players step up and play well,” Mau-rey said. “That was promising stuff, and some good individual play, but as a team we can do better.”

Bruno returns home to Stevenson Field Friday to take on Marist College (1-6) under the lights.

“We take pride in playing at Steven-son,” Maurey said. “We always seem to play some of our best soccer there. … Hopefully, we get a good crowd and can feed off their energy so we can turn things around.”

JESSE SCHWIMMER / HERALD

Pepe Salama ’14 led the Bears with four shots against Indiana University, but ultimately the team fell short in both games this weekend.

» SOCCER, from page 1