wednesday, february 20, 2008

12
BY FRANKLIN KANIN NEWS EDITOR Spring Weekend will be headlined by rapper Lupe Fiasco and Sri Lankan music sensation M.I.A., the Brown Concert Agency announced today. Mashup artist Girl Talk, cardigan- wearing indie rock darlings Vampire Weekend and the progressive rock jam band Umphrey’s McGee will also perform. David Horn, BCA’s booking chair, said the performers were chosen based on a variety of factors including availability, cost and student prefer- ence. “We also tried to come up with acts that were really amazing live shows,” he said. Horn added that the headliners were ranked at the top of the poll BCA conducted on WebCT last fall. M.I.A., whose real name is Maya Arulpragasam, was chosen in part to help satisfy another goal of BCA — “to bring more diversity to the Spring Weekend line-up,” Horn said. “We think it’s a huge deal that M.I.A. is not only a woman that can command the stage but also comes from Sri Lanka and London and can bring diversity and represent all these cultures that haven’t been represented at Spring Weekend in the past.” The concerts will be held over a two day period, with Lupe Fiasco and Vampire Weekend performing on Friday, April 11 and the others on Saturday, April 12. Tickets will go on sale starting March 10, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Students can buy tickets for both shows for $20 during the first week of sales. After that, Brown and Rhode Island School of Design stu- dents will be able to purchase tickets for $12 for Friday’s show and $15 for Saturday’s. Non-students can pay $15 and $20, respectively. BCA has been in discussions with Director of Student Activities Ricky Gresh, Associate Vice President of Campus Life and Dean for Student Life Margaret Klawunn and other campus administrators in an effort to hold all concerts outside on the Main Green, said Cash McCracken ‘08, BCA’s administrative chair. Horn said he is very excited for the lineup this year, especially be- cause of the pressure to match last year’s performers, The Roots and The Flaming Lips. “One of the posi- tive challenges that we faced coming into this was having such a successful year last year — how do you follow up the Flaming Lips?” he said. “I can’t imagine being the producers of the Mighty Ducks having to come up with a sequel to that — but D2 was awesome.” T HE B ROWN D AILY H ERALD WEDNESDAY, F EBRUARY 20, 2008 Volume CXLIII, No. 19 Since 1866, Daily Since 1891 www.browndailyherald.com 195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island News tips: [email protected] CAMPUS NEWS OPINIONS HIGHER ED ¡BIENVENIDOS! After a dramatic decline following Sept. 11, international students are returning to U.S. schools 5 11 STUDY SENSATION Friedman wins yet another award for its design, but some students aren’t so taken with the center SHUTTLE TO AL FORNO Adam Cambier ‘09 thinks Brown’s parking solution is so great it should serve as a model in other areas 3 TOMORROW’S WEATHER Better than today’s ...unless tonight’s lunar eclipse heralds the Apocalypse. Find out at 8:43 p.m. sunny, 32 / 19 Brown campus second-safest among Ivies BY MAX MANKIN SENIOR STAFF WRITER Following the spree of recent violent incidents on college campuses around the country, campus safety has re- turned to the forefront of the nation’s attention. The March issue of Reader’s Digest features a ranking of campus crime around the country, in which Brown ranked 144th safest out of 291 colleges surveyed. In the crime survey, which looked at publicly available statistics on cam- pus crime from college police depart- ments of all 291 colleges surveyed, Brown earned a “moderate” rating in terms of crime, making it the sec- ond-safest Ivy — behind only Cornell, which was ranked 71st. The report also consisted of a cam- pus safety survey, in which only 135 of the 291 invited schools participated. It compared 19 attributes of each school, including ID checking, emergency response and preparedness, closed circuit camera monitoring, campus police and education on rape, drugs and alcohol. The University declined to par- ticipate in the safety survey, though Brown would probably have placed in the top ten, said Vice President of Medical funding flatlines, pressuring University coffers BY GEORGE MILLER SENIOR STAFF WRITER Brown researchers apply for grants all the time. But this year limited federal funding is increasing competition for medical research grants and poten- tially having effects outside the lab. Though federal funding for physi- cal science researchers continues to increase steadily, funding for the bio- medical sciences is stagnating — and putting pressure on administrators paying for costs associated with re- search. Limited funding could also affect how the University attracts re- searchers, administrators said. When faculty members apply for grants from federal agencies, such as the National Institutes of Health, they also ask for a certain amount of money to cover costs associated with research. Brown pays up front for these costs — everything from lighting and heating to building main- tenance and administrative support — and is later reimbursed by the fed- eral government in a process called indirect cost recovery. Since research awards total in the hundreds of millions of dollars every year at Brown, indirect costs form a significant portion of the University’s budget — about 5 percent, accord- ing to Elizabeth Huidekoper, execu- tive vice president for finance and administration. The federal govern- ment negotiates an indirect cost rate with schools every few years, and a complicated process determines how the government actually applies that rate to reimburse the University for research costs. Brown administrators should complete negotiations of the rate, which are currently underway, by this summer, Huidekoper said. Research funding for the Univer- sity could get smaller in the coming years, as federal funding from some institutes has not increased as much as researchers would like. Funding for researchers from the NIH, for ex- ample, has stagnated recently. “It’s getting more difficult for re- searchers in general to get federal funding,” said Tim Leshan, Brown’s director of government relations and community affairs. In the short term, Leshan said, that affects faculty morale. A sustained drought of grants, however, wouldn’t just pose dangers to the University’s Brazilian diplomat analyzes U.S. relations at Watson BY CHRISTIAN MARTELL STAFF WRITER Brazilian Ambassador to the United States Antonio Patriota spoke to a full Joukowsky Forum Friday, Feb. 15. Patriota emphasized the com- mon policy efforts shared by Brazil and the U.S., especially on regional matters and the environment. At the same time, he underscored that Brazil expects to be a leader on the world stage, perhaps by taking a permanent seat at the United Nations Security Council, and that it does not support the Iraq war. Patriota’s visit joins this year’s lineup of highly noted Latin Ameri- can public officials, as seen by the recent visits of ambassadors from Bolivia, Ecuador and Venezuela, as well as an upcoming visit by Boliv- ian President Evo Morales on Feb. 26. This University focus on Latin America comes as the Center for Latin American Studies celebrates its 25th year as a department and 35th year as a concentration. After an introduction by James Green, associate professor of his- tory and the center’s director, Pa- triota began his speech, entitled “Brazil-U.S. Relations: The Bilateral, Regional and Global Agendas,” by noting three “myths” that he said he usually heard when others spoke of Latin America — that the U.S. fails to pay Latin America proper attention, that the U.S. may be “los- ing Latin America” because of that M.I.A., Lupe Fiasco to headline Spring Weekend Courtesy of Janette Beckman / William Morris Agency Inc. Maya Arulpragasam, better known as critically acclaimed hip hop and grime artist M.I.A., will headline this year’s second Spring Weekend concert. Min Wu / Herald Antonio Patriota spoke to a packed Joukowsky Forum at the Watson In- stitute for International Studies Friday. U. courts big donors BY MICHAEL BECHEK NEWS EDITOR With less than three years to go in the Campaign for Academic En- richment, at least nine projects still to be completed and an economy inhospitable to fundraising, the de- velopment office — the University’s fund-raising arm — has its work cut out. But it is hoping that a select handful of individuals could make paying for all that a lot easier. The development office is in talks with a number of prospective benefactors, hoping to find “single- donor solutions” to a number of the University’s biggest planned endeavors, said Ronald Vanden- Dorpel MA’72, senior vice presi- dent for University advancement. Those projects include the Walk, the already-underway greensward that will connect Lincoln Field to the Pembroke campus; the renova- tion of J. Walter Wilson Laboratory; and an 80,000-square-foot building to consolidate the cognitive and lin- guistic sciences, psychology and brain science programs, he said. For each of the projects still on the agenda, the University’s plan- ners have set a fundraising goal — a fraction of the project’s total cost that they hope gifts will supply. (Most of the remainder is financed continued on page 4 continued on page 4 continued on page 6 continued on page 4 Limited federal dollars could drive away researchers

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The February 20, 2008 issue of the Brown Daily Herald

TRANSCRIPT

By Franklin kaninNews editor

Spring Weekend will be headlined by rapper Lupe Fiasco and Sri Lankan music sensation M.I.A., the Brown Concert Agency announced today. Mashup artist Girl Talk, cardigan-wearing indie rock darlings Vampire Weekend and the progressive rock jam band Umphrey’s McGee will also perform.

David Horn, BCA’s booking chair, said the performers were chosen based on a variety of factors including availability, cost and student prefer-ence. “We also tried to come up with acts that were really amazing live shows,” he said.

Horn added that the headliners were ranked at the top of the poll BCA conducted on WebCT last fall.

M.I.A., whose real name is Maya Arulpragasam, was chosen in part to help satisfy another goal of BCA — “to bring more diversity to the Spring Weekend line-up,” Horn said. “We think it’s a huge deal that M.I.A. is not only a woman that can command the stage but also comes from Sri Lanka and London and can bring diversity and represent all these cultures that haven’t been represented at Spring Weekend in the past.”

The concerts will be held over

a two day period, with Lupe Fiasco and Vampire Weekend performing on Friday, April 11 and the others on Saturday, April 12. Tickets will go on sale starting March 10, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Students can buy tickets for both shows for $20 during the first week of sales. After that, Brown and Rhode Island School of Design stu-dents will be able to purchase tickets for $12 for Friday’s show and $15 for Saturday’s. Non-students can pay $15 and $20, respectively.

BCA has been in discussions with Director of Student Activities Ricky Gresh, Associate Vice President of Campus Life and Dean for Student Life Margaret Klawunn and other campus administrators in an effort to hold all concerts outside on the Main Green, said Cash McCracken ‘08, BCA’s administrative chair.

Horn said he is very excited for the lineup this year, especially be-cause of the pressure to match last year’s performers, The Roots and The Flaming Lips. “One of the posi-tive challenges that we faced coming into this was having such a successful year last year — how do you follow up the Flaming Lips?” he said. “I can’t imagine being the producers of the Mighty Ducks having to come up with a sequel to that — but D2 was awesome.”

The Brown Daily heralDwedNesday, Febr uar y 20, 2008Volume CXLIII, No. 19 Since 1866, Daily Since 1891

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

CaMPUS nEWS OPiniOnSHiGHEr ED

¡BiEnVEniDOS!After a dramatic decline following Sept. 11, international students are returning to U.S. schools

5 11STUDy SEnSaTiOnFriedman wins yet another award for its design, but some students aren’t so taken with the center

SHUTTlE TO al FOrnOAdam Cambier ‘09 thinks Brown’s parking solution is so great it should serve as a model in other areas

3TOMOrrOW’S WEaTHErBetter than today’s ...unless tonight’s lunar eclipse heralds the Apocalypse. Find out at 8:43 p.m.sunny, 32 / 19

Brown campus second-safest among IviesBy Max MankinseNior staFF writer

Following the spree of recent violent incidents on college campuses around the country, campus safety has re-turned to the forefront of the nation’s attention. The March issue of Reader’s Digest features a ranking of campus crime around the country, in which Brown ranked 144th safest out of 291 colleges surveyed.

In the crime survey, which looked at publicly available statistics on cam-pus crime from college police depart-ments of all 291 colleges surveyed, Brown earned a “moderate” rating in terms of crime, making it the sec-ond-safest Ivy — behind only Cornell, which was ranked 71st.

The report also consisted of a cam-pus safety survey, in which only 135 of the 291 invited schools participated. It compared 19 attributes of each school, including ID checking, emergency response and preparedness, closed circuit camera monitoring, campus police and education on rape, drugs and alcohol.

The University declined to par-ticipate in the safety survey, though Brown would probably have placed in the top ten, said Vice President of

Medical funding flatlines, pressuring University coffers

By GEOrGE MillErseNior staFF writer

Brown researchers apply for grants all the time. But this year limited federal funding is increasing competition for medical research grants and poten-tially having effects outside the lab.

Though federal funding for physi-cal science researchers continues to increase steadily, funding for the bio-medical sciences is stagnating — and putting pressure on administrators

paying for costs associated with re-search. Limited funding could also affect how the University attracts re-searchers, administrators said.

When faculty members apply for grants from federal agencies, such as the National Institutes of Health, they also ask for a certain amount of money to cover costs associated with research. Brown pays up front for these costs — everything from lighting and heating to building main-tenance and administrative support — and is later reimbursed by the fed-eral government in a process called indirect cost recovery.

Since research awards total in the

hundreds of millions of dollars every year at Brown, indirect costs form a significant portion of the University’s budget — about 5 percent, accord-ing to Elizabeth Huidekoper, execu-tive vice president for finance and administration. The federal govern-ment negotiates an indirect cost rate with schools every few years, and a complicated process determines how the government actually applies that rate to reimburse the University for research costs. Brown administrators should complete negotiations of the rate, which are currently underway, by this summer, Huidekoper said.

Research funding for the Univer-

sity could get smaller in the coming years, as federal funding from some institutes has not increased as much as researchers would like. Funding for researchers from the NIH, for ex-ample, has stagnated recently.

“It’s getting more difficult for re-searchers in general to get federal funding,” said Tim Leshan, Brown’s director of government relations and community affairs.

In the short term, Leshan said, that affects faculty morale. A sustained drought of grants, however, wouldn’t just pose dangers to the University’s

Brazilian diplomat analyzes U.S. relations at WatsonBy CHriSTian MarTEllstaFF writer

Brazilian Ambassador to the United States Antonio Patriota spoke to a full Joukowsky Forum Friday, Feb. 15. Patriota emphasized the com-mon policy efforts shared by Brazil and the U.S., especially on regional matters and the environment. At the same time, he underscored that Brazil expects to be a leader on the world stage, perhaps by taking a permanent seat at the United Nations Security Council, and that it does not support the Iraq war.

Patriota’s visit joins this year’s lineup of highly noted Latin Ameri-can public officials, as seen by the recent visits of ambassadors from Bolivia, Ecuador and Venezuela, as

well as an upcoming visit by Boliv-ian President Evo Morales on Feb. 26. This University focus on Latin America comes as the Center for Latin American Studies celebrates its 25th year as a department and 35th year as a concentration.

After an introduction by James Green, associate professor of his-tory and the center’s director, Pa-triota began his speech, entitled “Brazil-U.S. Relations: The Bilateral, Regional and Global Agendas,” by noting three “myths” that he said he usually heard when others spoke of Latin America — that the U.S. fails to pay Latin America proper attention, that the U.S. may be “los-ing Latin America” because of that

M.I.A., Lupe Fiasco to headline Spring Weekend

Courtesy of Janette Beckman / William Morris Agency Inc.

Maya Arulpragasam, better known as critically acclaimed hip hop and grime artist M.I.A., will headline this year’s second Spring Weekend concert.

Min Wu / Herald

Antonio Patriota spoke to a packed Joukowsky Forum at the Watson In-stitute for International Studies Friday.

U. courts big donorsBy MiCHaEl BECHEkNews editor

With less than three years to go in the Campaign for Academic En-richment, at least nine projects still to be completed and an economy inhospitable to fundraising, the de-velopment office — the University’s fund-raising arm — has its work cut out. But it is hoping that a select handful of individuals could make paying for all that a lot easier.

The development office is in talks with a number of prospective benefactors, hoping to find “single-donor solutions” to a number of the University’s biggest planned endeavors, said Ronald Vanden- Dorpel MA’72, senior vice presi-dent for University advancement. Those projects include the Walk, the already-underway greensward that will connect Lincoln Field to the Pembroke campus; the renova-tion of J. Walter Wilson Laboratory; and an 80,000-square-foot building to consolidate the cognitive and lin-guistic sciences, psychology and brain science programs, he said.

For each of the projects still on the agenda, the University’s plan-ners have set a fundraising goal — a fraction of the project’s total cost that they hope gifts will supply. (Most of the remainder is financed

continued on page 4continued on page 4

continued on page 6

continued on page 4

Limited federal dollars could drive away researchers

ToDay

The Brown Daily heralD

Editorial Phone: 401.351.3372Business Phone: 401.351.3260

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Darren Ball, Secretary

The Brown Daily Herald (USPS 067.740) is an independent newspaper serving the Brown

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semester daily. Copyright 2007 by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.

ACROSS1 “Green Eggs and

Ham” pusher4 Popular pop-up

fare9 Cut off

14 “Movies formovie lovers”network

15 Naturalist Johnet al.

16 Crème de lacrème

17 H+, for one18 Republic east of

Vanuatu20 Nourish22 Leeds lav23 The Panthers of

the Big East24 Info for some

agents29 Fusillade30 “Now I’ve __

everything!”31 Farmer’s place?32 Card often

swiped34 Belt out36 Narrow inlet37 Under-the-gun

spot41 Deodorant option43 François’s friend44 Took from the

deck46 Purged47 Band

improvisations49 Windy City

paper, familiarly51 Botanical

swelling55 Resistance

followingSaddam’sdownfall

58 Selene’scounterpart

59 L.A.-to-Tucsondir.

60 Burn in a big way61 Two-time U.S.

Women’s Openwinner

65 Victoria’s Secretoffering

66 At a standstill67 A nurse might

take it68 Put down69 Inclinations70 Go over the limit71 Bighorn female

DOWN1 Doesn’t tip2 Biology 101

protozoan3 __ Laboratories,

company thatintroducedTylenol

4 Voltage letters5 Jury’s

determination6 Classic action

toys7 Colorful birds8 FICA stipend9 Baseball

commissionersince the ’90s

10 On cloud nine11 Napa bigwigs12 LAX update13 Hi-__ graphics19 Dreidel, for one21 High-note

hitters25 Famous26 Luke’s sister27 Award named for

a Muse28 Ben-Gurion

lander33 “The War of the

Worlds” foe35 “Lyric Pieces”

composer37 Muslim pilgrim

38 “A Jug of Wine...” poet

39 “HomeImprovement”star

40 Shore flier42 More of a

character45 Gets the

message48 Pipsqueak50 Move about

excitedly52 Empower

53 Country singerTim

54 Sailor’s OK, anda phonetic hint tothis puzzle’stheme

56 Some OKs57 She played June

in “Walk the Line”61 Triangular sail62 French article63 Mil. mess

workers64 Rare color?

By Dan Naddor(c)2008 Tribune Media Services, Inc. 2/20/08

2/20/08

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

RELEASE DATE– Wednesday, February 20, 2008

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

[email protected]

C r o s s w o r d

s u d o k u

M e N u

Fill in the grid so that every row, every column and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 through 9.

© Puzzles by Pappocom

SHarPE rEFECTOry

lUnCH — Beef Stew, Barley Pilaf, Break-fast for Lunch, Falafel in Pita with Cuke Dressing and Tahini

DinnEr — Baked Stuffed Pollock, Red Rice, Savory Spinach, Chicken Caccia-tore, Hearth Bread, Chocolate Carrot Cake

VErnEy-WOOllEy DininG Hall

lUnCH — Beef Pot Pie, Vegan Roast-ed Vegetable Burritos, Mexican Corn, Pasta Bar

DinnEr — Spicy Herb Baked Chicken, Smashed Sweet Potatoes, Sizzling Cuban Stir Fry, Pasta Bar, Hearth Bread, Chocolate Carrot Cake

PAge 2 THe BROWN DAILY HeRALD WeDNeSDAY, FeBRUARY 20, 2008

Trust Ben | Ben Leubsdorf

Dunkel | Joe Larios

War and Peas | eli Jaffa and Linda Zhang

Gus vs. Them | Zachary McCune and evan Penn

Dreaming in Focus | Max Abrahams

Welcome back.

Spidey | Miguel Llorente

higher eDWeDNeSDAY, FeBRUARY 20, 2008 THe BROWN DAILY HeRALD PAge 3

Dartmouth to require writing classes for all undergradsBy Eli PiETTECoNtributiNg writer

As Brown and other colleges across the country review their writing pro-grams, Dartmouth has recently an-nounced that it will launch a new Institute for Writing and Rhetoric to foster students’ written and oral communication skills. Among other changes, the College will no longer exempt students with high SAT ver-bal scores from the required first-year writing class, according to Thomas Cormen, professor and chair of the writing program at Dartmouth.

The institute will expand Dart-mouth’s current writing program, which is in its fourth year of opera-tion, Cormen said.

“The changes are mostly struc-tural changes — particularly, how it’s governed,” Cormen said.

The new institute will be a “stu-dent center for research, writing and information technology,” Cormen said. He added that the expanded writing program will aim to help students not only with writing, but “with all phases of the composition process.” Often, “a student will come in and say that they have a problem elsewhere, but it will actually be a research problem,” he said.

Dartmouth is working toward eliminating all exemptions from the writing requirement, Cormen said. Just over 300 students, composing approximately 20 percent of the student population, were previously exempted each year based on their SAT scores.

Currently, Dartmouth has not eliminated exemptions for the incom-ing class of 2012, “as it would require creating new sections of our Writing 5 course (Dartmouth’s first-year writ-ing course), as well as solving several logistical issues that go along with it,” Cormen said. Logistical issues include hiring new instructors to make more sections of the required course available.

Writing 5 “introduces Dartmouth students to the writing process that characterizes intellectual work in the academy and in educated public dis-course,” according to the Web site of Dartmouth’s registrar.

Dartmouth considers strong writ-ing ability an important skill for all

students, as “it really cuts across all disciplines,” Cormen said.

“I think there’s just increasing recognition that the ability to commu-nicate clearly and concisely is really important,” Cormen said. “And that’s one of the things that we can offer in liberal arts.”

Adverse student reactions are not expected, Cormen said, as students “will see very little change in what happens in the classroom and our student support services.”

Darren Cheng, a freshman at Dartmouth, said he supported the decision to eliminate exemptions from the writing requirement.

“I actually don’t mind the writing requirement,” Cheng said. “I think it’s really good that Dartmouth is striving to have all its students master the skill of writing.”

Yale, University of Pennsylvania, Cornell and Princeton all require stu-dents to choose from several courses to fulfill their writing requirements, while Harvard and Columbia require all students to take the same required writing course, according to their respective Web sites.

Unlike the other Ivies, Brown does not have a rigid writing require-ment. Students are expected to “dem-onstrate competence in writing” as a degree requirement, according to the University’s Web site. Students are encouraged to take a writing course or work in the Writing Center only if an instructor recommends it or if the student’s application demonstrates weak writing ability.

Brown students expressed their support for the University’s lenient writing requirement and said a pro-gram like the one at Dartmouth would contradict Brown’s academic philosophy.

“It’s important to know how to write, but (Dartmouth) shouldn’t force anybody to do anything,” David Jenkins ’11 said.

However, some students said they saw room for improvement in Brown’s writing program.

“If I were to reform (the writ-ing program), I would offer writing courses within certain disciplines,” said Alexandra Dreyzin ’09. “For ex-ample, if you are a science concentra-tor, you should be able to choose to take a science writing class.”

Foreign students again flock to U.S. By JOanna WOHlMUTHseNior staFF writer

If you were worried that you weren’t going to have as many foreign friends as you used to, you can breath a sigh of relief and say “bonjour,” “hallo” or “salam” to classmates from overseas — there should be a few more of them in the coming years.

International student enroll-ment at colleges and universities in the United States has almost returned to the peak level seen in 2002, according to figures from the Institute of International Edu-cation’s annual report. New inter-national student enrollment rose 10 percent last fall, up from an 8 percent increase the year before. The number of foreign students studying in the United States had been rising until it hit a three-year slump following the Sept. 11 at-tacks.

The decrease in international enrollment can be largely attrib-uted to tightened visa policies, fewer international applicants seeking enrollment in American universities and increased inter-national recruitment by European and Australian universities, said Barmak Nassirian, associate ex-ecutive director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admission Officers.

“The visa process was always highly selective; there are always vastly more applicants (than visas issued),” Nassirian said. The global reaction to Sept. 11 created a “per-fect storm” of factors that contrib-uted to the decrease in enrollment, including the belief that the United States would not be as hospitable to foreign students, he added.

Nassirian said the changes could be compared to those in airport security, which became “ultra-cautious” and then loosened as people were able to more realis-tically assess the risks involved.

The House Committee on Sci-ence and Technology Subcom-mittee on Research and Science Education held a hearing on Feb. 7 to discuss improvements to the policies that govern the visa process for foreign students and scholars. A proposal was made to allow students to renew visas do-

mestically — rather than having to return to their native country — which would affect students whose visas are issued for less than the full duration of their studies.

This would be a welcome change, said Nungari Mwangi ’10, a native of Kenya, because traveling is expensive and having to remain abroad for the reissuing process makes it difficult to have a summer internship.

It was suggested at the hearing that the requirement to prove non-immigrant intent be reworked or eliminated because of the subjectiv-ity of determining if an applicant meets the standards. The commit-tee also discussed restrictions on professors and researchers.

There are many “counterin-tuitive, fragmented policies” that affect international students and scholars, Nassirian said, so solu-tions must be comprehensive.

Students at Brown and other universities with strong reputations abroad often have less difficulty attaining visas, said Ila Tyagi ’09, a coordinator for the International Mentoring Program at Brown.

“I don’t think we have had a stu-dent visa denied in many, many years,” said Mary Idzior, director of the Office of Visa Services at Princeton. She added that most problems arise when students do not accurately demonstrate non-im-migrant intent, a visa requirement that tries to ensure that students

will not try to stay in the United States illegally after they complete their studies.

The difficulty of getting a visa varies between countries, said Loy Xingkai ’09, who had to wait over two months to get his visa in Sin-gapore because of administrative mistakes. Tyagi applied for her visa at the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait, waited about an hour for a short interview and received her visa within a matter of days. Mwangi said that though she did not have trouble getting a visa in Kenya, the process can be time-consuming and the interviews, rigorous.

“The U.S. Embassy (in Kenya) just became a lot more inacces-sible (after Sept. 11),” Mwangi said. “The staff can be pretty mean and unforgiving.” She said that most problems can be avoided if ap-plicants are adequately prepared for their interviews — which cov-ers general information about the school they wish to attend and their planned course of study — and have the proper documents ready. Similarly, the more actively the university communicates with the embassy, the smoother the pro-cess, she said.

Regardless of the difficulties met by international students, “the U.S. is still very much perceived as the premier destination and is universally viewed as the large majority of students’ first choice,” Nassirian said.

Brown’s annual change in international enrollment

vs. national trend

national

Brown

www.browndailyherald.com

Chaz Kelsh / Herald

PAge 4 THe BROWN DAILY HeRALD WeDNeSDAY, FeBRUARY 20, 2008

negligence and that there are two separate Latin Americas.

“I often hear that there is neg-ligence of Brazil by the U.S., but my response to that is, ‘It’s not the quantity but the quality of attention that matters to us,’” Patriota said. “I also don’t think Latin America was ever something to win or lose in the first place.”

As for the case of there being “two Latin Americas,” based in what some see as the opposing views of leaders in the region, Patriota said he disagrees.

“We are one region and should be seen as such. Let’s not highlight the differences,” he said.

Patriota then shed some light on two particular presidential meet-ings he was a part of in 2007. He said that in both instances, the leaders of the two countries found “new areas of convergence were appearing.”

At these summits, Brazilian and U.S. executives discussed new envi-ronmental sustainability initiatives in Africa and Cuba and through the World Trade Organization, bi-lateral research and development, trilateral peace efforts in the region and immigration issues.

“It was surprising for me to see President Lula and Bush develop a good relationship despite their dif ferent socioeconomic back-grounds,” Patriota said.

But he said despite overlapping agendas and increased communica-tions between both countries, there

is “no doubt areas of divergence and resentment” between the two, citing U.S. involvement in Iraq as an example.

“There is no sympathy” on the Iraq front, he said. “We don’t nec-essarily see the U.S. in a positive light” in this respect.

He did say that Brazil is “willing to be a partner” with the U.S. “It’s no longer a world of the Monroe Doctrine. The U.S. will no longer be able to do things on their own,” he said.

After making it clear that Brazil had no plans of joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which he said was suggested to him by the American ambassador to Bra-zil at an earlier date, Patriota said Brazil was interested in becoming a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council.

“Among the non-permanent members of the Security Council, Brazil and China have been the only two to be sitting there two-thirds of its 63-year existence,” he said. “And, if a Latin American country was chosen, Brazil would be the most obvious choice.”

When Patriota focused on Bra-zil holistically, instead of on a re-gional level as he had been doing for much of his remarks, he listed off some of the country’s best at-tributes: strong exports, growth in imports, diminishing inequal-ity trends, partnerships with new countries and “a new generation of politicians that have very strong democratic notions.”

For Brazil, “there hasn’t been

such a positive outlook in a long time. This is perhaps without prec-edent,” Patriota said.

The second and final hour of the lecture was given to ques-tions from the audience. Several attendees asked about a range of topics, ranging from deforestation in the Amazon and the transatlantic spread of evangelical Christianity to differences in the two countries’ philosophies toward immigration and foreign policy.

Of those who asked questions, many were Brazilian themselves.

The lectures say “a lot about the great benefits of being a Bra-zilian at Brown,” said Jorge Alves GS, a Brazilian who studies in the political science department. “We should not undermine the access that we have here at Brown to meet people such as Patriota, especially when we can be in such a close setting.”

Another Brazilian student, Ger-aldo Guanaes ’11, added to Alves’ statement. “This is something we wouldn’t have as Brazilian students in Brazil,” he said.

Benjamin Brown ’08, a con-centrator in the Department of Portuguese and Brazilian Studies who helped organize the lecture, said Patriota spent time before the lecture meeting Brazilian students and Portuguese and Brazilian Stud-ies concentrators. Brown also said that Patriota shared his views on how to expand the department’s concentration to encompass more issues within the social sciences, humanities and diplomacy.

Brazil needs security council seat, diplomat says

Administration and Chief Risk Officer Walter Hunter. He added that he felt statistics alone cannot sum up how safe a campus is because the “issues are complex.”

“We have quite a good story to tell,” he said. “I don’t think looking at one sheet of statistics comes even close to telling the story — it’s a snap-shot.”

The “story” that the University has to tell is one of an armed, accredited, well-trained and extensive police force; improved education; orientation crime-awareness program; and emergency preparedness, Hunter said.

“We do our best to be prepared for everything we can imagine,” he added.

The Reader’s Digest report focused on making parents aware of the issues surrounding college safety. Campus safety is “certainly something parents care about,” Hunter said. “You have to look at each school individually — I

don’t think parents or students should rely on surveys ... that have limited information.”

Despite the University’s moder-ate crime rating, most students inter-viewed still said they think Brown is a safe place. “I feel very safe on cam-pus,” said Chris Lee ’09.

“I feel pretty safe,” agreed Kend-rick Au ’11.

Some students are more con-cerned about their safety.

“I feel moderately unsafe only be-cause people have told me I should feel that way,” Devon Cupery ’11 said. “I think I felt less safe after those re-ports came out last fall about people being fondled near Perkins.”

Hunter said it is important that information regarding campus safety is shared with the community.

“We’re proud of how transparent we are and the amount of information available on the web,” he said.

The Reader’s Digest article, sur-vey results and methodology can be viewed at www.rd.com/college.

Brown in middle of pack on crime safety survey

pocketbook, but also to its ability to attract and keep faculty, Huidekoper said.

“One year, a little blip, we could handle,” she said. But if the grant droughts are maintained for three to five years, Brown’s faculty will leave, Huidekoper said. “They’ll go to China,” she added. Insufficient funding could also affect graduate students, Leshan said.

In preparing the University’s bud-get, some things are more certain than others, Huidekoper said. Indirect cost recovery is one of the more uncertain factors.

“We hope to count on it,” she said. “We don’t know, entirely, what we’ll get in indirect cost recovery.”

Huidekoper said awards are down compared to the same point last year, both in numbers and money.

“But that could change tomorrow,” Leshan said.

Stagnating funding Though funds for physical science

research are increasing as part of the government’s efforts to keep America internationally competitive, funding for medical research in particular is becoming harder to get. Almost half of all research grant income in fiscal year 2006 — $59 million — came from the Department of Health and Human Services, which includes the NIH — nearly three times more money than from the next agency, the National Sci-ence Foundation, at $21 million. Funds from government agencies accounted for nearly 90 percent of research funds that year, according to a report from the Office of the Vice President for Research.

But though NIH research funding doubled in a period from the end of the 1990s to 2003, it has since leveled out. The total number of research project grants has held steady since 2003. Funding in the physical sciences, on the other hand, has increased as legis-lators in Washington, D.C., have called for making America more competitive with other countries in those studies.

Researchers and advocacy organi-zations say that flat funding at the NIH amounts to a cut in funding because of inflation and lab costs that increase ev-ery year. According to NIH and Bureau of Economic Analysis data, the biomed-ical research price index is projected to increase at a rate of approximately 3.5 percent for the next several years,

while inflation is projected at 2 percent the same years.

“It’s not indefinite. You have to have a plateau of some sort,” Briant said. His office helps faculty with applying for grants, among its other respon-sibilities.

The Association of American Uni-versities favors proposed increases in the budgets of NSF, the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy — all top sources of research awards at Brown — said Ann Speich-er, AAU’s associate vice president for public affairs. But the group is “very concerned” about flat funding at NIH, which, she said, lessens the institutes’ purchasing power.

“You really have to get in the top tier to get funded these days,” said Mary Norton, director of research administration for Brown’s division of biology and medicine.

Research awards are “competi-tive,” but not drying up, said Susan Menditto, director of accounting policy for the National Association of College and University Business Officers. The money is available, but there are over 100 research institutions fighting for it, she said.

Competition is “absolutely” getting tougher, Professor of Medical Science Agnes Kane said. It’s especially dif-ficult for young faculty to get grants, she said, and there are few alternatives to the NIH.

“Mothballing” lab space?Insufficient funding also affects

the University’s ability to build new labs, since Brown can’t build space for researchers if it won’t be used.

“If we don’t get (awards) ... we might have to start mothballing” unused research space, Huidekoper said.

Some universities have built lab space only to find it empty later, which means that potential indirect cost re-covery from that space — funds that the school could have used to cover the costs of the building — is lost, Huidekoper said.

“We are always at risk ... when you build a research facility like Sidney Frank Hall,” she said. “If our faculty aren’t successful in getting grants, we don’t fill the space.”

But so far, Brown is performing well, she said, thanks in part to the efforts of Briant’s office and young faculty, who sometimes bring grants with them from the schools where they previously worked.

Low grants may deter faculty

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Campus newsWeDNeSDAY, FeBRUARY 20, 2008 THe BROWN DAILY HeRALD PAge 5

N e w s i N b r i e F

Professor of english Michael Harper is receiving the Poetry So-ciety of America’s Frost Medal for a lifetime of distinguished contribu-tion to American poetry.

Harper, 69, has published 15 books of poetry. His most recent was a tribute to his father, titled, “I Do Believe in People: Remem-brances of W. Warren Harper (1915-2004).” Harper has received numerous awards for his work and served as Rhode Island’s first poet laureate from 1988 to 1993.

Now, the Poetry Society of America is honoring Harper with its Frost Medal for lifetime achieve-ment — the organization’s highest award, said PSA executive director Alice Quinn. Receiving the honor places Harper in eminent company: Allen ginsberg, Wallace Stevens, gwendolyn Brooks and the award’s namesake, Robert Frost, are all past recipients.

Speaking of PSA’s selection criteria for Frost Medal recipients, Quinn said, “What we’re looking for is somebody who is undeniably distin-guished and who has been an inspiring presence in the world of poetry.” Quinn said that, in addition to being recognized for his or her writing, a nominee must also be distinguished by service to American poetry. Harper’s work as an editor and teacher, she added, makes him highly qualified in that regard. Harper has edited a collection of poetry and an anthology of black literature, among other works.

Harper has taught for more than three decades at Brown. Rosemary Cullen, senior scholarly resources librarian at the John Hay Library, said that Harper has repeatedly taken advantage of the Hay’s collections in his teaching and research.

The PSA may already be honoring Harper for lifetime achievement, but the poet himself said he is still discovering himself.

“We are all in the process of discovering who we are,” Harper said.While he said he cannot foresee the direction that his writing will

take in the future, Harper already has at least one new project in the works. His next collection, “Use Trouble,” whose title poem is a tribute to 20th-century artist Jacob Armstead Lawrence, will be available this fall, he said.

Students may even run into Harper on their next visit to the John Hay Library. Harper said that his immediate plans include spending time at the Hay to read the poems of Robert Frost in preparation for his address at the PSA’s 98th Annual Awards Ceremony on April 21 in New York City.

— Alessandra Suuberg

English prof. wins poetry award

Contract magazine, a national interior design publication, has award-ed the Friedman Study Center a top design award in the education category. The study center, which opened in January 2007, has already received gold medals for “Commercial Interior Design” and “Commercial Construction/Renovation” in the November 2007 issue of Rhode Island Monthly Magazine.

The New York City-based Architecture Research Office, which con-ducted the renovation, submitted papers detailing the new study center to a jury at Contract, said Brent Lang ’04, the library’s communication and marketing specialist. In Contract’s article about the award, panelists commented on the architect’s innovative use of materials, their effective use of a small budget, the “bright, energized, environment” and how the “integration of graphics and ideas brought a fresh new perspective.” The magazine praised the center’s combination of spaces for socializing and studying, calling it the “vibrant heart of the campus.”

According to a Feb. 13 press release, University Librarian Harriette Hemmasi said that while she is grateful to the panelists at Contract for recognizing the center, she is “most pleased that it is such a tremendous hit with the toughest jury of all — our students.” The award shows that “the Friedman plays an important role in the experience of all Brown students,” she said.

“It’s wonderful to get this kind of attention,” said Barbara Schulz, the library’s head of business and facilities services.

The magazine discussed the project with architects Stephen Cassell and Kim Yao in its article about the award. The architects told Contract that the idea behind the furnishings and use of space was to create a setting “for all of the activities that make up college life — flirting, hid-ing, creating and gossiping in addition to memorizing, cramming and discussing.” The architects named the flat, upholstered seats “flirtstones,” and the light-filled seating area the “tanning lounge.”

Lang remembers the Sciences Library basement as dank and dingy when he was a student as dank and dingy. “There was never anybody in there. The only plus side was that you could find a place to sit.” In the past, the Rockefeller Library typically got twice as many visits as the SciLi, he said. Last semester, the Friedman received 250,000 visits, whereas the Rock received about 200,000.

Not all students agree with the magazine’s evaluation of the study center. Jeff Sanford ’10 said he found it “impossible to concentrate because there are so many people. It seems like a lot of people just come to pass out on the couch in their sweatpants.”

“It’s like a chicken coop,” said erik Font ’10.Kemisha Williams ’08 said she studied in the basement before the

renovation. “But now it’s too crowded,” she said.

—Claire Cushman

Friedman Center receives design award

U. scientists present at general body meetingBy laUrEn PiSCHElCoNtributiNg writer

Three professors presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Boston last weekend.

Heather Leslie, assistant profes-sor of environmental studies and biology, spoke on better protect-ing oceans by collectively studying all the factors than can change an ecosystem.

Ken Miller ’70 P’02, professor of biology, spoke about reframing the evolution debate to recognize the design inherent in nature.

Rena Wing, professor of psy-chiatry and human behavior, dis-cussed how major lifestyle changes most effectively maintain weight loss.

The AAAS is the largest general scientific body in the world. Scien-tists from all disciplines attended and presented their findings to roughly 10,000 other scientists and journalists. Scientists did not present new findings but used the meeting to spread the word about their research.

Leslie spoke at two symposiums. She organized and moderated the analytical seminar, “Valuing Ocean Services in the Gulf of Maine: New Approaches for Conflict Resolu-tion.” At the symposium, a diverse group of people discussed how to form “more comprehensive pro-grams to sustain ourselves and enable marine systems to persist into the future,” Leslie said.

Leslie then spoke on environ-mental resilience at “Embracing Change: A New Vision for Man-agement in Coastal Marine Eco-systems.” Leslie explained how, through the study of why certain ecosystems are more predisposed to change, policymakers can pass laws that would be more beneficial for both the marine ecosystems and the people who depend on them.

Miller, a renowned defender of

evolution, spoke at a symposium on Sunday entitled, “Communicating Science in a Religious America.” He argued that science must take the word “design” away from those opposed to evolution. By allowing the theory of intelligent design to control this word, those who argue for evolution seem to be “arguing for accident,” Miller told The Her-ald.

“We are extremely designed,” Miller said, but design does not imply a designer. The tubes in humans’ lungs are an example of intricate human design, he said.

But the two aren’t mutually exclusive, he added. “Faith is not antithetical to reason,” he said. Faith and science “can thrive to-gether.”

Wing argued that large changes in lifestyle are the most effective way to lose weight, speaking at “Fighting the Global Obesity Epi-

demic: Small Steps or Big Chang-es?” As opposed to making small changes in daily life, a “conscious and vigilant effort” to lose weight and purposeful monitoring of one’s weight are the most effective way to lose weight and keep it off, Wing said.

Elam ’98 dances his way to successBy DEVin GOUlDCoNtributiNg writer

Chris Elam ’98 has been called a computer scientist, an innovator and a contortionist. Above all, he may be called a typically extraor-dinary Brown alum.

While still a student, he founded Misnomer Dance Theater, a dance company which has been attracting attention for both its unique dance performances and its innovative use of technology. This December, Misnomer won $10,000 from Ide-ablob.com, a Web site created to encourage small business innova-tors to use the Internet as a plat-form to get more people involved in Misnomer specifically and the arts in general.

“First and foremost Misnomer is a dance company,” Elam said. “But we’re looking for greater con-nectivity with people.” Elam began putting up videos of their perfor-mances, streaming their rehearsals live over the internet and solicit-

S H A R K A T T A C K !

Michael Skocpol / HeraldProvidence resident Ryan Tarmenter, 26, sports a shark costume on Thayer Street. He received two glasses of water after holding the sign for 20 minutes. continued on page 8

Chris Bennett / Herald File PhotoProfessor of Biology Ken Miller ’70 P’02

Courtesy of Brown.eduProfessor of english Michael Harper

PAge 6 THe BROWN DAILY HeRALD WeDNeSDAY, FeBRUARY 20, 2008

by taking out loans, to be paid back over many years.) But with the right strategy and a little bit of luck, the University could find one donor to provide most or even all of that fundraising goal.

“The best strategy, if you can do it,” Vanden Dorpel said, “is to find one donor to do it.”

“Plan B is usually to get a bunch of large gifts,” he added.

To provide an incentive for pro-spective donors, he said, the Univer-sity offers a “naming opportunity” for the building in exchange for a gift of at least one half the cost of the project.

The University has been “talk-ing very seriously” with a donor who was considering making a $10 million gift for the Walk, Vanden Dorpel said at a briefing for Herald reporters in November. That donor, he said Thursday, “has deferred a decision” because of the state of the economy.

The University is also “going to try a single-donor solution” for the conversion of the J. Walter Wilson Laboratory into office space for stu-dent services. That would require a gift of $10 to $15 million, Vanden Dorpel said.

He cautioned, however, that “there are a lot of issues that are going to be discussed” at the Corpo-ration’s meeting this weekend.

The University is also expected to look for a single donor to fund the new sciences building, which it has temporarily named the “Mind Brain Behavior Building.” That project, to be built on the south side of Angell Street along the Walk, will cost $69 million, with a fundraising goal of $35 million.

“If we’re successful, we’ll get it all from one donor,” Vanden Dorpel said in November.

Finding a single donor, aside from being easier than luring many small donors, “allows us to plan … execute and expedite projects,” said Neil Steinberg ’75, vice president

of development and the capital campaign’s director. He added, however, that the University was “reaching out to donors of all sizes” and that it was “very important for Brown that this campaign be very inclusive.”

Inclusive or not, beyond those three projects, the University will need to pull in millions more for the other projects on its agenda.

In addition to the three projects for which it hopes to find single-donor solutions, there are still the matters of a new pool to replace the doomed Smith Swim Center, new construction for the Nelson Fitness Center and Creative Arts Center and the renovations of Faunce House, Pembroke Hall, Pembroke Field, Rhode Island Hall and some residence halls.

a major operationBringing in the cash to fuel this

growth is a large, complex develop-ment outfit unknown to most Brown students.

Located in an alluring, historic stone building that was once a ma-chine shop in the city’s bustling Jewelry District, the development office has about 200 employees in this 160-year-old converted mill — though the staff is still the smallest in the Ivy League, Vanden Dorpel pointed out.

“We do so many different fund-raising techniques,” said Director of Prospect Development Elizabeth Crabtree, who leads a staff of about 10 people that works full-time to keep tabs on Brown alums world-wide. “It’s a sophisticated fundrais-ing operation over here.”

Crabtree said she and her staff spend much of their time reading and trolling the Internet and news media around the world to find out what Brown alums are up to.

“A big part of the work of my department is to identify and pri-oritize people to the gift officers,” she said.

These gift officers then work to cultivate relationships with prospec-

tive donors — sending materials about the campaign, making phone calls and, in the case of donors with large “capacity,” even making per-sonal visits.

According to Vanden Dorpel, the office takes its cues from a fundrais-ing strategy he said he admires, one laid out by a Harvard endowment manager named Harold Seymour almost 50 years ago.

Seymour outlined four key steps to successfully courting donors, described by Vanden Dorpel as the four I’s — identification, interest, in-volvement and investment — steps he believed were key to bringing in money to a nonprofit organiza-tion from donors who, he argued, sought a personal connection.

“He put forth the concepts of this business that are pretty much still in use today,” Vanden Dorpel said. “We know a lot about our do-nors.”

The notion of the single-donor solution is nothing new to Brown. From the very old — Hope College and Manning Hall, made possible by the Brown family — to the very new — the Friedman Study Center, made possible by Susan Pilch Fried-man ’77 P’08 and Richard Friedman ’79 P’08, buildings have often been the result of individuals carrying the bulk of the financial load.

The Salomon Center, Sayles Hall and Faunce House were all single-donor solutions as well.

To convince donors that their gift is in line with their philanthrop-ic interests, the University must assure them that the gift will be transformative, Steinberg said. “The Academic Enrichment blueprint is the first thing that we talk to them about,” he said. They then work to show a donor how their gift would concretely benefit the University and fit in with that plan.

“In some cases, it’s the presi-dent’s vision for what we’re do-ing and where we’re going,” he added.

But, Crabtree said, “philanthropy is a very personal decision.”

U. thinking large to fund campus projects

Min Wu / Herald

The Friedman Study Center is an example of a single-donor contribution.

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Serbian gangs defy Kosovo’s independenceBy TraCy WilkinSOnLos aNgeLes tiMes

PRISTINA, Kosovo — Well-orga-nized Serb gangs torched build-ings Tuesday along the border between Serbia and Kosovo, in a defiant rejection of the breakaway province’s declaration of indepen-dence.

Huge flames and walls of black smoke engulfed border posts, U.N. police and customs offices in the most serious violence to date over Kosovo’s unilateral split from Serbia, declared by the eth-nic Albanian government Sunday.

United Nations police, who have helped administer Koso-vo for the past nine years, were forced to flee, and NATO troops rushed to the scene to restore or-der.

The Serbian militants ap-peared to be enforcing their own partition of Northern Kosovo, where many Serbs live, from the rest of the Albanian-dominated province by erasing the more of-ficial borders.

Although Serbian Prime Minis-ter Vojislav Kostunica on Monday called for restraint from Serbs, his government Tuesday seemed to encourage the groups wreak-ing havoc along the frontier.

Slobodan Samardzic, Serbia’s minister for Kosovo, said the cen-tral government was not behind the gangs’ vandalism. But, he

said, Serbia fully intends to take over customs functions in North-ern Kosovo.

“Today’s action is in accor-dance with general policy of the government to take over customs policy wherever it can in Kosovo, as well as all other policies, all oth-er responsibilities. That is simply a process that is not going to be stopped,” he told Belgrade’s B92 television.

“We saved the face. We saved a part of Kosovo,” Samardzic said. “Serbia will never recognize the independence of Kosovo.”

He denied Serbia was attempt-ing to slice off Northern Kosovo. But, he said, “We preserved a part of Kosovo.”

Recognition of an independent Kosovo, he said, was “total mad-ness.”

The U.S. and many European countries have recognized the new country, but Russia, Serbia and others say Kosovo’s revolt is illegal.

Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, asked about Tues-day’s violence, said Kosovo Alba-nians would not be provoked.

“Everything is under the con-trol of the NATO authorities, Ko-sovo police and the United Na-tions, and no isolated incident will undermine Kosovo’s inde-pendence celebrations,” he told a news conference with EU foreign affairs chief Javier Solana.

Castro to relinquish Cuban presidencyBy ManUEl rOiG-FranziawashiNgtoN Post

MEXICO CITY — Fidel Castro an-nounced early Tuesday morning that he is stepping down as Cuba’s president, ending his half-century rule of the island nation.

“I am saying that I will neither aspire to nor accept, I repeat, I will neither aspire to nor accept the positions of President of the State Council and Commander in Chief,” Castro, 81, said in a letter posted on the Web site of the state-run news-paper, Granma.

The announcement ends the for-mal reign of a man who, after seiz-ing power in a 1959 revolution, not only outlasted nine U.S. presidents but his communist patrons in the former Soviet Union as well. Prior to the Soviet Union’s collapse, support from the Kremlin sustained Cuba as a socialist outpost on the doorstep of the United States, and placed Cas-tro and his country in the middle of events central to the Cold War, including the Bay of Pigs invasion and the Cuban missile crisis.

Those long-standing animosities colored Tuesday’s announcement and U.S. reaction to it.

Castro said leaving office was a hard step for him given all that his “adversary” — the United States — had done over the years to try

to get rid of him, including assas-sination plots.

President Bush, asked about the news in a public appearance during his trip to Africa, said: “The ques-tion really should be what does this mean for the people in Cuba. They are the ones who suffered under Fidel Castro.”

Bush said he hoped this would be “the beginning of a democratic tran-sition for the people of Cuba ... An interesting debate will arise. Some will say let’s promote stability. In the meantime, political prisoners will rot ... This should be a transition to free and fair elections. And I mean free and fair. Not these elections that the Castro brothers rig.”

Castro had temporarily handed over power to his younger brother, Raul Castro, in July 2006, after un-dergoing stomach surgery. He has not appeared in public since, but still officially holds the title of president and was widely believed to retain control over Cuba’s government.

The ailing leader, who has a pen-chant for cryptic messages, men-tioned in the letter posted Tuesday that he had hoped “to discharge my duties to my last breath. That’s all I can offer.”

Cuba’s Council of State, a panel comprised of handpicked Castro al-lies, is scheduled to name the coun-

try’s next president when it meets Sunday. In previous years, the selec-tion was always a foregone conclu-sion, with the council picking Fidel Castro. The council is now widely expected to select Raul Castro, 76.

Fidel Castro made no mention of Cuba’s future leadership in the letter. He had previously said that he hoped his brother would replace him. Vice President Carlos Lage and Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque are also considered top contenders to lead the nation.

Since taking power on an interim basis, Raul Castro, who is the head of Cuba’s military, has repeatedly re-ferred to his older brother as Cuba’s “commander in chief.”

“Raul, who is also minister of the Armed Forces on account of his own personal merits, and the other comrades of the Party and State leadership were unwilling to consider me out of public life despite my unstable health condition,” Fidel Castro wrote. “It was an uncomfort-able situation for me (vis-a-vis) an adversary which had done every-thing possible to get rid of me, and I felt reluctant to comply.”

Cuban exiles and their support-ers in the United States said they were skeptical that change will come soon with the Castro family still in charge.

Obama and McCain win Wisconsin primaryBy CaTHlEEn DECkEr anD P.J. HUFFSTUTTErLos aNgeLes tiMes

MILWAUKEE — Sen. Barack Obama swept to victory in the Wisconsin pri-mary Tuesday night, 58 percent to 41 percent, turning aside a fierce effort by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and propelling his campaign as the Demo-crats careen toward titanic March contests in Ohio and Texas.

Less than half an hour after the polls closed at 8 p.m. local time, tele-vision networks and the Associated Press declared Obama the winner, based on exit polls of voters. Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the presumptive Republican nominee, was declared the winner of his party’s contest in Wisconsin.

Also taking place Tuesday were caucuses in Hawaii, Obama’s home state, and a Republican primary in Washington.

Obama, of Illinois, ahead slightly among delegates, was seeking to extend his streak of victories to 10, every contest since the Feb. 5 Super Tuesday primaries. Clinton, of New York, was working to blunt his mo-mentum before the race turned to Ohio and Texas on March 4.

Among the Republicans, the re-sults moved McCain closer to for-mally cinching the nomination, even if challenger Mike Huckabee resisted pressure from the party to withdraw in the cause of unity.

In Wisconsin, Clinton and Obama were vying for 74 delegates, while Huckabee, a former Arkansas gover-nor, and McCain were competing for 37. Most were to be allocated based on results in the state’s eight congres-sional districts.

Voting officials there said turnout was high, with lines snaking outside polling places despite frigid temper-atures. State elections officials had projected a turnout of 35 percent of voting-age residents. Independents were allowed to vote in either pri-mary.

In Hawaii, meanwhile, 20 delegates were at stake in caucuses that were open only to Democrats. And in Wash-ington, 19 Republican delegates were to be determined; the Democratic delegates were apportioned according to the results of a Feb. 9 caucus.

Voters in Wisconsin bundled up against the single-digit chill — many in green and gold, the colors of their beloved Green Bay Packers — as a rush of voting opened the day.

At Nathan Hale High School in West Allis, a suburb of Milwaukee, younger voters held open the doors for retirees, who walked gingerly through a side entrance of the high school and tried to scrape the snow and ice off their shoes.

Of two dozen voters interviewed by the Los Angeles Times, all said that the most important issue was

the economy. Mirriam Tarrisa, 67, a retired secretary who moved to West Allis about eight years ago from Chicago, described herself as a longtime Republican who came to the polls to vote for Obama. She said she had been torn between McCain and Obama, but she sided with the Democrat because she believed he would cap taxes and seek universal health coverage.

“Wisconsin has been losing a lot of jobs and a lot of benefits,” Tarrisa said. “The factories are pretty much gone. Our economy needs help, and I don’t think raising taxes is the way to go. I’ve seen Obama speak and I really am impressed by him. I’m too old to not believe that the Democrats won’t boost taxes. But I’m also too old to believe that the Republicans won’t raise taxes, too.”

PAge 8 THe BROWN DAILY HeRALD WeDNeSDAY, FeBRUARY 20, 2008

ing comments via text message. At the end of each rehearsal, the performers then respond to the commentary and try to improve their performances by building on those tips.

“Most of the time the perform-ing arts (community) uses the Web to generate ticket sales,” Elam said. Misnomer is using the Internet for more than that, he said, by em-ploying it as a tool for improving its performances and getting the audience involved beyond fund-raising.

Elam started Misnomer while a senior at Brown. Now based in New York City, Misnomer has toured throughout the world. It has col-laborated with the singer Bjork and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” creator Joss Whedon, and the group is cur-rently working with a Danish dance company on a piece that will be performed on four stages in an enormous labyrinth. In 2006, its work was named one of the top ten dance performances in New York City by the New York Times.

“I bring an interdiscplinary per-spective to what I do in dance,” said Elam, who was a public policy con-centrator. He also studied computer science extensively and excelled in the Department of Theater, Speech and Dance. After graduating, he went to Bali, Indonesia to study dance and performance and then to New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, where he fur-ther studied dance.

Ten years on, Misnomer’s rep-ertoire and its following are still growing. Misnomer’s cutting-edge use of both the human body and the Internet have won Elam plau-

dits from a wide field of publica-tions, including Dance magazine, BusinessWeek magazine and the Times.

The online rehearsal videos have been receiving between 300 and 500 messages a month, most of which come from people who have never seen the performances live. Misnomer has also begun us-ing multiple cameras to give dif-ferent perspectives on the same performance.

Ideablob, which gave the entre-preneurship award to Misnomer, was created by Advanta, a company that issues credit cards to small businesses. Ami Kassar, Advanta’s chief innovation officer, pushed for the creation of Ideablob less than a year ago as a platform for small businesses to spread their ideas. Hundreds of small businesses apply and eight nominees are se-lected. At the end of each month the winner of the most online votes wins $10,000.

“It’s for people who want to do good and also pay the rent,” Kas-sar said. The winners are primar-ily involved in the arts or social entrepreneurship, a group of in-novators whose main concern is social improvement and commu-nity organizing. Elam’s work falls into both categories, as his use of the Web is free for others in the art community to imitate.

Michelle Bach-Coulibaly, a se-nior lecturer in theater, speech and dance who taught Elam while he was at Brown, said she was unsur-prised by his win. “He’s incredibly facile and gifted in science,” she said. “He’s a marketing genius.” Bach-Coulibaly fondly recalled both his imagination in dance and his practical understanding of how to get things done.

“It was great to work with him,” Bach-Coulibaly said. “He knew he had a facility for invention. His body just did strange things.”

Since graduating, Elam has re-turned several times to teach. As an adjunct professor in the theater, speech and dance department, Elam taught TA 128: “Improbable Partnering: Movement for Dancers and Actors” in spring 2005.

The Creative Ar ts Council granted Elam money to teach “Animal Interplay” in fall 2005, a class that brought in professors from the biology and psychology departments to help explore not only the physical aspects of animal interaction, but the ways of com-municating that animals employ to cooperate and avoid conflict.

Rachel Caris ’08 was one of Elam’s students in TA 128. “I was blown away by his completely in-novative view of using the human body,” Caris said. She added that Elam’s course taught her to do things she had previously thought impossible — such as dancing while carrying someone signifi-cantly heavier than she was.

“He’s a true teacher,” Bach-Coulibaly said. “He believes there’s an infinite supply of knowledge for all, and thus, he can be generous with his.”

Alum takes dance company to diverse venues

continued from page 5

Hi.

WeDNeSDAY, FeBRUARY 20, 2008 THe BROWN DAILY HeRALD PAge 9

season the team put out a balanced scoring ef fort, with nearly four players reaching double figures.

“The offense worked. Every-body took their turn and got in-volved,” said Assistant Coach Katie Toole. “There was a scoring threat on the floor at all times tonight. The bench stepped up for us.”

The team had a lot of momen-tum going into the next matchup on Saturday night after winning its first conference game, but thanks to two stellar performances from Meagan Cowher and Whitney Downs, Princeton knocked the Bears back down from their win-ning high.

The Tigers gained a quick lead, 24-11, in the first seven minutes of play, led by Cowher’s nine points during that span. Princeton shot a strong 53.6 percent from the field in the first half. Johnson scored six consecutive points in a stretch late in the first half to cut the Bears’ deficit to 35-19. Brown went into halftime with the score at 37-23.

Princeton returned from the locker room and extended its lead to 47-31 with 15 minutes left to play. Johnson livened up the game when she hit a three-pointer from the left wing, then stole the ball and took a pull-up jumper that fell short, but provided a nice lob to Natalie Bonds ’10, who finished the play. The Tigers called a time out to stop the bleeding and prevent the Bears from coming any closer than nine

points.“I just wanted to bring a lot of

energy — intensity on offense and defense (coming off the bench),” said Johnson. She led the way for the Bears with 11 points.

Princeton came out of the time-out in control for the remainder of the game, finishing it off at 70-56. Cowher, the leading scorer in the Ivy League at 17.2 points per game, finished with 24 points and nine boards. Her teammate Downs scored 19 points, a one-two punch the Bears could not stop, to pick up the win. Princeton finished 48.1 percent from the floor while Brown was close behind at 44.4 percent. Bruno’s shooting percentage was much better than the 37.9 percent it racked up the night before, but not enough to outlast the Tigers.

Williams was second on the team in scoring with 10 points and five rebounds, while captain Ann O’Neal ’08 finished with seven points, three assists and four re-bounds.

The Bears have seen each league opponent once, so the team is ready to begin the second half of conference play.

“We’re doing a lot better. We have some confidence after the first win,” said Head Coach Jean Marie Burr. “We’re taking it one game at a time.”

The Bears continue league play next weekend when they face Co-lumbia and Cornell at the Pizzitola Center on Friday and Saturday nights at 7 p.m., respectively.

W. hoops can’t complete their weekend sweep

continued from page 12

it was. We thought if we wrestled well, we could win, and we really killed it.”

Amato was also pleased with the team. He said the victory wasn’t due to any particular wres-tler but to the team as a whole.

“We took care of business and won the matches we needed to win,” Amato said.

The Bears will head to New York for their final two duals against Cornell and Columbia this weekend. Amato said it would be an important weekend for the wrestlers’ seeding at the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Associa-tion tournament.

“We will focus on the weekend for now,” Amato said. “We will then have a week off to focus on the EIWA.”

continued from page 12

Wrestling drops Harvard

force the extra period.Brown could not find the net

in overtime, though, and with just 47.7 seconds remaining, Clarkson’s David Cayer received a pass off a faceoff and sent the puck into the top left corner of the net to give the Golden Knights the victory.

“It was nice that we hung in there the whole game. It showed everybody that if we play like we’re capable of playing, we can play with anybody,” Prough said. “The most important thing was that we rebounded to win on Saturday night, which can be hard to do after an emotional loss like the one we had on Friday.”

The Bears jumped out to an-other early lead on Saturday, but this time they stayed in control for the duration of the game. In the fourth minute of the opening frame, Prough received the puck in the left faceoff circle and quickly found Timberlake, who beat the goalie to give Bruno a 1-0 lead. With the as-sist, Prough became the first Brown player in three years to reach the 100-point mark for his career.

“It was great to do it at home and hear it announced over the loud-speakers,” Prough said. “It would have been nice to get it on a goal, but I had the first assist on the goal, so I made the play; it wasn’t a cheapie.”

“I think a lot of pressure is off him now, and the biggest issue for Jeff this season has been the pres-sure he’s put on himself, to make things happen for himself and for the team,” Grillo said.

The Bears clung to the 1-0 lead for the remainder of the period, as

Rosen saved all 15 of St. Lawrence’s shots. Rosen turned in another stel-lar performance, with 38 saves in 39 chances.

In the middle of the second pe-riod, Brown increased its lead to 2-0 on Fratkin’s first career goal. Muncy took a shot that was deflect-ed by the St. Lawrence goaltender, but Fratkin was in the right place to pick up the rebound at the top of the right faceoff circle, and he connected on a one-timer.

In the fifth minute of the final frame, Volpatti capped off his out-standing weekend with his third goal on a hard shot from the top of the right faceoff circle, to increase Brown’s cushion to three goals. The Saints got one back with 3:51 remaining and the game out of reach, but never came any closer, as the Bears held on for the 3-1 win.

Brown is now in a tie with Dart-mouth and Rensselaer for tenth place in the ECAC, with a 4-11-3 league record. This weekend the Bears have two games against foes they have already proven they can beat. They will travel to New Hamp-shire to take on Dartmouth, whom they beat 4-3 in their last meeting, on Friday, followed by a game at Harvard, a team the Bears beat 4-2 earlier this season. Every team in the league makes the playoffs, so Brown will look to continue to gain momentum heading into the post-season.

“We’ve got to maintain what we’re doing and play with consis-tency,” Grillo said. “Most impor-tantly, we have to build off what we’ve been doing the last six games, when we’ve been playing pretty solid hockey.”

Prough ’08 reaches milestone in m. icers’ loss

continued from page 12urday night.

“We’re all really excited that we’re finally making something out of all this work, so it certainly means a lot,” said guard and tri-cap-tain Mark McAndrew ’08. “We’ve been through a lot of bumps in the past.”

Brown, winner of five straight games, started quickly Friday night. Facing former Brown Head Coach Glen Miller, who left for Penn two years ago, the Bears got off to a 12-2 lead after the Quak-ers (9-15, 4-3 Ivy) missed their first seven shots.

With 8:18 left to play in the half, swingman Chris Skrelja ’09 hit a layup, making the score 27-13 and giving Brown its largest lead of the game. But the Bears then lost their shooting touch, and the Quakers ended the half on a 16-3 run. Brown went into the locker room clinging to a 30-29 lead.

“For spurts, we played as well as we could have, and for spurts, we played as bad as we could have,” McAndrew said.

Coming out of the locker room, the Bears started the second half as efficiently as they did the first, going on a 15-4 run. For the rest of the half, the Bears held onto about a 10-point lead. For one long stretch, from the 6:45 mark to 2:08 mark, Brown held onto a 58-50 lead as neither team could score.

Things got interesting after Penn’s Brian Grandieri made a layup to break the drought and cut the deficit to six. The Quakers then started fouling. A Williams free throw extended Brown’s lead to nine with 1:16 to play, but Bruno then missed six out of its last nine free throws.

Despite a pair of three-pointers, the Quakers could only pull within four points with 21 seconds left, and one free throw each by McAndrew and forward Scott Friske ’09 sealed the game.

McAndrew, who leads the league with 16.8 points per game, and Grandieri led all scorers with 20 points each. Guard Damon Huff-man ’08 added 19 and Skrelja filled up the stat sheet with nine points, eight assists and seven rebounds. The Bears shot 53.7 percent from the field, compared to the Quakers’ 47.2 percent. Brown also shot 20 more free throws than Penn.

The Bears’ 66-61 victory broke Penn’s 24-game Ivy League home winning streak, which dated back to 2004, before any current Brown player was on the squad.

“That was just one of the added elements of motivation,” Huffman said of the streak. “We hadn’t beat-en Penn yet in my career.”

Not even Head Coach Craig Robinson had won on Penn’s home-court.

“I told these guys after they won that I had never won at the Palestra,” Robinson said. “We had beat them silly but that was at the

Spectrum the last time we played them, when I was at Princeton.”

Facing Miller, whom some Brown players disliked because of his hot temper, and former Brown Assistant Coach Mike Martin gave the Bears extra motivation to win.

“When (Miller) goes to a rival school, in a way, you feel like it’s betrayal,” said Huffman, who was recruited by Miller.

On Saturday night, the Bears visited New Jersey to face Princeton (5-17, 2-5 Ivy), where Robinson was a two-time Ivy League Player of the Year during the early 1980s.

But Robinson quickly had to put aside whatever affections he may have for his alma mater, as the Bears struggled from the open-ing tip.

Both teams played a sluggish first half, but Brown was slightly more torpid, shooting just 36.8 per-cent from the field in the first half to trail 25-21 at the break.

Brown’s starters may have also been drained by the Penn game, in which only seven players — the starting five, plus Friske and Wil-liams — appeared. But Huffman and McAndrew said fatigue wasn’t a factor.

“Princeton started out playing well against us,” Huffman said. “They had their game plan and we weren’t executing. They were play-ing a tough (2-3) match-up zone (defense).”

The Bears’ languidness carried over to the second half, as they trailed by about five or six points for the first 10 minutes. Brown de-fenders had a difficult time stop-ping Tiger forward Noah Savage, who scored 25 of his game-high 35 points in the second half. He was 7-for-11 from three-point range.

After Savage hit one of his three-pointers at the 8:42 mark to give Princeton a 10-point lead — its biggest of the night — Brown slowly started to chip away at the deficit. Brown fed the ball inside to center Matt Mullery ’10, who scored a career-high 12 points. Peter Sullivan ’11 also provided a spark, scoring 13 of his 15 points in the second half.

Sullivan completed the come-back, tying the game with a three-pointer with 44 seconds left, and Princeton then made one of two free throws on the ensuing posses-sion. With 20 seconds left, Huffman hit a layup off a Mullery assist to put the Bears up by one.

Then, with 10 seconds left, Sav-age answered with another three-pointer. On the next possession, Huffman said he took the ball the length of the court and drove in-side for a layup that he thought was good — until it rattled out.

But Huffman was fouled on the shot, and with 4.7 seconds remain-ing, he drained both free throws to send the game into overtime.

“I (have) all the confidence in the world in Damon taking free throws in any situation,” McAn-drew said.

Robinson was thankful that Huffman was able to refocus after almost converting the three-point play.

“I was hoping that wouldn’t deter him from the ability to concentrate on the foul shot,” Robinson said. “You think you are going to knock down a three-point play and that could have won the game, and now you gotta hit two foul shots.”

In overtime, the teams traded scores for the first four minutes to make the score 63-63. But with 39.6 seconds left, Williams was fouled on a drive to the basket.

Then, with his mother in the crowd watching, he hit the first game-winning free throws of his life.

“That was the first time I ever experienced that,” Williams said. “It was pretty cool.”

But Brown still had to survive two late scares by the Tigers. Sav-age missed a three-pointer with 20 seconds left, but Princeton recov-ered the rebound. Then, with one second left and the Bears in a man-to-man defense, Marcus Schroeder had a clean look at a three-pointer from the left wing.

McAndrew said he and another teammate rushed at Schroeder, but the Tiger guard got the shot off. As McAndrew turned around, he was worried, as the shot was “dead cen-ter.” But the ball was slightly short, and Sullivan grabbed the rebound as time expired.

“We got lucky on that one,” McAndrew said.

But what wasn’t dependent on luck, the Bears insist, were the clutch free throws. Huffman and Williams said they weren’t worried at all before taking their clutch free throws; Williams said Robinson has each player take at least 20 free throws per practice.

With one road sweep behind them, the Bears will board a bus again this weekend. They’ll head to New York to face Columbia on Friday and Cornell on Saturday.

The weekend could make or break Brown’s title aspirations, and the Bears will have a challenge. Columbia (12-11, 5-3 Ivy) has a four-game winning streak since Bruno defeated the Lions three weeks ago, and Cornell can all but wrap up the league title and automatic NCAA Tournament berth if it beats Brown on Saturday.

“Realistically speaking, in order for us to have any opportunity (of winning the league) we are going to have to win every game,” Robinson said. “Those guys (at Cornell) just keep winning and winning and we have to take care of what we can take care of.”

Though each game down the stretch is a must-win, Huffman and McAndrew said the Bears will focus on the Columbia game first and worry about Cornell on Saturday morning.

“If we don’t win on Friday night, then we don’t really have a Saturday night,” Huffman said.

Williams ’11 leads m. hoops comebackcontinued from page 12

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An article in last Wednesday’s Herald (“Busy OMAC frustrates students,” Feb. 13) implied that the construc-tion of the Nelson Fitness Center was first announced in 2007. In fact, it was first announced in 2004, but the architecture firm that will design it was selected in 2007.

Die-hard worshipers of the New Curriculum, beware: This editorial may contain heresy.

Dartmouth just announced a revamp of its writing requirement. Its students used to be able to place out of the two mandated writing courses with credits earned in high school or by SAT scores. But with a new policy announced at the end of January, all students will be required to take two courses specifically geared toward improving students’ writing abilities.

The mere mention of course requirements may make Brunonians wrinkle their noses in disgust. But our New Curriculum is approaching its 40th birthday and is due for changes to meet our contemporary academic and professional needs.

Writing clearly and concisely is critical to any class or job. Make that writing interesting and stylish, and you’re more likely to snag extra credit or a grant. Aspiring authors and journalists aren’t the only ones who need to rigorously develop these skills. Even future astronomers and investment bankers need strong English abilities to convey their brilliance.

Brown’s current writing requirement is weak and easily allows students to slip through the cracks and graduate without sufficient communication skills. Students are required to prove “competence in writing” to graduate. But the University, at most, merely “urge[s]” a student with sub-par writing skills to take a writing course, according to the Web site for the dean of the College. Is this a writing requirement or a writing suggestion?

Students should be required to take a writing course within the English department when their ability is deemed insufficient. Students who in the past would have been urged to take a writing course should now be required to do so in order to earn a Brown degree. Further, all students should have to take a class in any department that requires extensive writing assignments.

Currently, professors are encouraged to contact a dean if they are unsure that a student can write competently. But they can do so after a semester has ended, meaning that a student will leave their course and possibly take no other writing-intensive ones. The current system asks instructors to be on the lookout for the least capable writers. They should utilize this system and refer students to the Associate Dean of the Writing Requirement when they come across inarticulate papers.

But faculty members should also consider it part of their job to communi-cate their assesment of a student’s writing to the writer. Professors and TAs should comment on every student’s writing abilities in their feedback on any paper, so that all writers, no matter how skilled or struggling, will be offered advice for improvement and encouraged to continue their good techniques. This practice would be as simple as adding that the writer’s thesis could be more clearly stated or that the use of interesting examples in the text makes it more readable.

Students’ diverse interests and talents draw them to a variety of fields of study, which we applaud and appreciate. But writing skills are key for all students, academics and professionals, and all Brown students should be required – yes, required – to write clearly and effectively.

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As of late, my social life has been predicated on my friends having a car. Without a car we would have been unable to go bowling, see a movie in Seekonk or find the one eatery in Rhode Island that’s actually open 24 hours (for reference, it’s an IHOP on Young Valley Road just north of downtown). I’m not one for house parties or drinking at frats until I can’t see straight, so without a set of wheels my weekends pretty much boil down to 10:30 p.m. visits to the gym and watching the entire first season of “Damages” on DVD.

Imagine, then, the considerable dismay among my group of friends when a Univer-sity official recently let slip that on-campus undergraduate parking would be discontinued at the beginning of next school year. One friend wondered how she was supposed to get to her biweekly yoga class; another was baffled as to how he was going to be able to canvass for the Democrats across the state as the November election nears. My housing lottery group for next year is considering go-ing off meal plan — how are we supposed to shop at Sam’s Club without a car?

The University’s alternatives to on-campus parking are, to put it bluntly, unbelievably stupid. Sure, RIPTA is generally convenient and has been useful ever since the University struck a deal for members of the Brown com-munity to ride for free, but its uses are limited.

It only passes through high-traffic areas, so my friend who plans on canvassing is out of luck, and it’s awfully difficult to go grocery shopping when you have to carry a week’s worth of food for four people with you on the bus. For times when RIPTA doesn’t suffice, the University suggests that we use Zipcar. The problem with this service is that, on top of the lofty price, there are precisely three company vehicles on campus at the moment. I can’t speak for everyone, but I love the idea

of sharing a $25-a-pop car with 2,000 of my closest friends.

Fortunately, the University has decided to provide students with parking in a garage off campus with a regular shuttle service linking students with their cars a few miles away, subsidizing the whole shebang so students would only have to pay the $500 per year fee that they currently pay for on-campus digs for

their vehicles. I’ll admit, I was skeptical at first. This solution to the congestion on College Hill merely moved the congestion elsewhere in Providence, showing that the University takes the phrase “not in my backyard” very literally. Even worse, because the student demand for cars will likely stay constant, the addition of a round-the-clock shuttle service seems like it would only worsen environmental concerns.

After some thought, however, I’ve decided

that the University’s off-campus parking solu-tion sets a great precedent that ought to be expanded to other facets of campus life. Ask any student what the biggest source of conges-tion on campus is and they’ll be bound to tell you that Dining Services bears most of the blame. I can personally attest that the lines outside the Ratty every weekday at noon are akin to a seven-car pileup. And what about the

Ratty’s environmental impact? I’d be shocked if it (along with the other eateries on campus) wasn’t among the top contributors to Brown’s carbon footprint.

Fortunately, I believe that the University’s off-campus parking solution can be extended to Dining Services as well. Instead of providing high-quality parking off-campus for the same price as regular old on-campus parking, the University should subsidize students eating at off-campus establishments for the same price as the regular meal plan. Picture this: you walk into Al Forno and ask for a table for two. You order the nicest bottle of wine they have. Salad. Soup. Appetizer. The most expensive entree on the menu. Coffee. Dessert for two. The waiter brings the bill, and your tab closes in on a couple hundred big ones. You whip out your Brown ID card and toss it nonchalantly onto the check. “Credit or points?” the waiter asks. You leave with your belly full and your Brown account a scant two meal credits lighter, the difference covered by our friendly neighbor-hood school administrators.

Is my proposal expensive? Sure. In the end, though, it’s the best solution for the Brown community. It eases traffic on College Hill and lessens the University’s impact on the environment. Plus, it would do wonders for student morale. In the meantime, ultimately, we’re just left to enjoy hot ham on bulky roll and our on-campus parking spaces before they are taken away for good.

Adam Cambier ’09 wonders what the Opinions page has had against periods in

taglines over the past couple of weeks

It’s a general rule in American politics that — while voters may be averse to notions of defeat or surrender — they by and large do not respond well to promises to send their children to die in far-off conflicts.

Which is why John McCain’s already im-probable candidacy deserves recognition for yet another feat of improbability. On Jan. 27, McCain assured a group of supporters, “It’s a tough war we’re in. It’s not going to be over right away. There’s going to be other wars.” With those words, McCain entered the record books. He may be the first viable presidential candidate in American history — nay, perhaps even world history — who has run a campaign based on a pledge to launch more wars.

Indeed, in most presidential elections of the modern era, it’s the “peace candidate” who’s won the day. Though their policies may have changed after inauguration, Woodrow Wilson, Dwight Eisenhower, Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon all ran, regarding the major conflicts of their time, as candidates who would most quickly and effectively ensure peace and avoid war. Even the great war-monger of the 20th century, Adolf Hitler, couched his venomous rhetoric, condemnations of the Treaty of Versailles and demands for German expansion in the — obviously false — context of desiring peace.

Of course, McCain would likely respond that, while other candidates merely pander to the peace-loving whims of the electorate, he offers honest “straight-talk.” This may be true. While Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama pledge to ensure American security through diplomacy and multilateralism, it’s possible that, as president, either one would find the unrivaled might of the American mili-tary too tempting a hammer for the various nails challenging our national interests around the globe. Meanwhile, John McCain, riding his famous “Straight Talk Express,” retrofit-ted with cluster-bombs and tactical nukes,

offers the hard truth. Soothed only by the sunny sounds of California beaches, he sang his foreign policy perspective in Beach Boys parody at a rally last April, “Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran.”

Although America’s enemies in past strug-gles — Imperial Germany and Austria-Hungry, the Nazis and the Empire of Japan, the Soviet Union — were indisputably more intractable and far more deadly that our current oppo-nents (however one chooses to define them), our viable presidential candidates nevertheless proffered promises of peace. Whether or not

their words reflected honest intentions is ir-relevant — in an American political campaign, peace is a historically winning strategy. Is it possible that John McCain is just so candid, so committed to the “straight talk” of pledg-ing more wars, so unique in his dedication to an honest exposition of his perspective, that he stands as a beacon of truthfulness in the otherwise mendacious darkness of American presidential politics?

The answer, of course, lies partly in which wing of contemporary American political dis-course one inhabits. To those who see the rise of radical Islamism as a direct and violent challenge to America’s existential and physi-cal survival, McCain simply reports the cold facts of how this threat must be countered. This is why even the most arch-conservative McCain-haters can’t help but feel stimulated

when the candidate titillates them with war-talk. On the other hand, Americans who see terrorism in the context of poverty, dictator-ship and American intervention believe that McCain’s belligerence is misguided and fa-natical — and that it might actually produce more enemies.

Yet I’m inclined to see McCain’s historic break with the successful precedent of presi-dential peace-promises as less an honest state-ment of the facts, or a foolish manifestation of extremist war-mongering, than an example of old-fashioned, practical campaign strategy.

McCain’s candidacy is built on the premise that voters will support him — despite any disagreements over policy — because he is perceived to say what he really believes. On issues like immigration, torture and the war, McCain has actually emphasized his contro-versial positions in order to foster his image as a “straight talker.”

Of course, the flip-side of this approach is that the candidate must nurture this repre-sentation by continuously affecting a rhetoric which seems to uncompromisingly offer un-popular truths. This is no more honest than our previous presidents’ broken promises of peace.

Executing a classic maneuver of political strategy, McCain has attempted to triangulate his threats from both the conservative base of his party and the more liberal moderates

he needs to win the national election. On the right, McCain stokes the frenzy of the remain-ing neo-conservatives and security-voters who want unilateral action from the American mili-tary to neutralize our perceived terrorist and state enemies. On the left, moderate voters more skeptical of the wisdom of war never-theless find themselves drawn to McCain’s perceived frankness and sincerity.

Thus, the reason for McCain’s first-in-history promise of more wars can be found in the contours of the contemporary political landscape, not in any unique honesty on the part of the senator. After years of plastic, dishonest and opinion-poll driven candidates, voters crave a president who will unapologeti-cally offer what they don’t want to hear (wit-ness the humiliating, though hilarious, defeat of the practically manufactured Republican Mitt Romney). Peace continues to be what most American voters most desire, which is why, for the first time, we have paradoxically selected a candidate who pledges war.

The multitude of issues on which John McCain has failed to deliver or stand by his supposed “straight talk” — comprehensive immigration reform, the Bush tax-cuts, the intolerance of Christian evangelicals — should provide enough evidence that the candidate does not have some exclusive preserve of candor, nor is he immune from the practi-cal strategies of political pandering. He has marketed himself as an uncompromising teller of uncomfortable truths, and now he must maintain that image by taking positions, and adopting rhetoric, which seem to offer voters a reality which they don’t want but, somehow, must accept.

This is brilliant political maneuvering, not integrity. If elected, John McCain may or may not become the war-president that his cam-paign promises portend. But the American people should not feel obligated to select a candidate who affects an image of “straight talk” by resisting our historical, and contem-porary, yearning for peace.

Jacob Schuman ’08 has a competition in him

BY JACOB SCHUMANoPiNioNs CoLuMNist

Subsidize this: bringing Brown’s parking plan to new realms

There will be war

The reason for McCain’s first-in-history

promise of more wars can be found in

the contours of the political landscape,

not in any unique honesty on the part

of the senator.

Instead of providing high-quality parking off-campus for the same price

as regular old on-campus parking, the University should subsidize students

eating at off-campus establishments for the same price as the regular meal plan.

ADAM CAMBIeRoPiNioNs CoLuMNist

opinionsWeDNeSDAY, FeBRUARY 20, 2008 THe BROWN DAILY HeRALD PAge 11

By STU WOOseNior editor

Though Adrian Williams ’11 played 22 minutes at Princeton Saturday night, his name does not stick out on the final stat sheet: no rebounds,

no assists and just two points.

But the rookie said he wasn’t having an off-game. The guard

said he played tough defense and helped run the offense smoothly. Plus, those were two very impor-tant points he scored.

With 40 seconds left in overtime, Williams ignored a throng of small kids screaming at him from behind the basket and calmly hit two free throws to give the men’s basketball team a historic 65-63 win.

“If I didn’t hit them, I knew I would be letting my team down,” Williams said.

The win was momentous be-cause of what the Bears did the night before, when they beat the University of Pennsylvania in Phila-delphia, 66-61. This was the first time the Bears had ever swept the two traditional conference power-houses on the road in 53 years of Ivy League play.

More importantly, the sweep keeps Brown (14-8 overall, 6-2 Ivy League) within striking distance of league-leader Cornell (16-5, 8-0 Ivy), whom the Bears visit on Sat-

By Han CUisPorts staFF writer

The wrestling team hosted its last home meet of the season against Harvard on Saturday at

the Pizzitola Center, beat-ing Harvard 33-7. Before

the meet, Head Coach Dave Am-ato honored the four graduating seniors, Nathan Myers ’08, Jeff Schell ’08, Mark Savino ’08 and Levon Mock ’08, who wrestled the last home matches of their college careers. The Bears’ overall win was supplemented by the four seniors’ victories. Myers and Savino won by forfeit at the 125- and 141-pound weight classes, respectively. At 133, Schell won by decision, 2-0. Finally, Mock took the last victory of the meet at the heavyweight class with a 6-2 decision.

The team had a 15-point lead after the first three matches, with the three seniors winning with two forfeits and one win by decision. At the 149-pound weight class, Mark Bloom ’09.5 wrestled the toughest match of the day when he faced off against the No. 2-ranked J.P. O’Connor, who took the first victory for Harvard with a major decision, 12-3. Despite the loss, Bloom did well to keep the score close against a tough opponent, allowing Harvard only four team points.

At 157 pounds, Tom Fazio ’09 took down Bobby Latassa early in the first period. Latessa injured his knee in the process and had to forfeit the match. By this point, the Bears had a solid 21-4 lead in

team points. Chris Musser ’09 wrestled at

165 pounds against Harvard’s Matt Button. Musser headed into the last period 1-1, but his oppo-nent scored a takedown in the last few seconds of the match, which sealed a 3-1 win for Harvard.

But those would be the last points for the Crimson as the Bears dominated the remaining four matches. At 174 pounds,

Kasey McCurdy ’11 won his first college match against Michael Sadler. It was a “big confidence boost for (McCurdy),” according to Mock.

“We knew a lot of Harvard’s starters had injuries this year,” said Mock, who won the final match of the day. “But we didn’t know it was going to be as weak as

sporTs weDnesDayPAge 12 THe BROWN DAILY HeRALD WeDNeSDAY, FeBRUARY 20, 2008

W. hoops capture first Ivy win against PennBy kaTiE WOODCoNtributiNg writer

The women’s basketball team came out of this weekend’s home-stand with its second victory of

the season, its first such win in the Ivy League. The Bears, 2-20 overall and 1-7 in the league, showed a bal-

anced scoring effort in their win Friday over the University of Penn-sylvania (4-18, 1-6 Ivy), 72-59, be-fore being out-muscled Saturday by Princeton (5-18, 2-5 Ivy), 70-56.

Brown started off the game hot on Friday night against Penn and never looked back. The team at-tacked the basket and mixed in some outside shooting while tak-ing a 29-8 lead with 4:26 left in the first half. Shae Fitzpatrick ’10 led the way for the Bears in the first half with 11 points and five boards. The team headed into the locker room with a lot of momentum for the second half of play and a 36-21 advantage.

“We made the extra passes and moved the ball around,” said Sa-diea Williams ’11. “It felt good to win our first conference game.”

The Quakers played a much better second half, putting more defensive pressure on Brown. Penn pulled to within eight with 14 min-utes left in the game, but that did

not stop the Bears. Brown kept the lead from shrinking further with the help of buckets by Fitzpatrick, Williams, and Ashley Alexander ’10. With six minutes remaining, the Bears had a 52-44 advantage.

Both teams began a fouling frenzy in the second half, account-ing for a majority of the 51 fouls called. Brown made its last field goal with 4:13 left and stayed on the charity stripe for the rest of the game. Bruno attempted a season-high 42 free throws, going 59.5 per-cent for the game. The Bears were also helped by a season-low seven turnovers, which was a sharp turn-around from their previous effort. In the Bears’ last game, against Harvard, they had 25 turnovers, leading to 28 Crimson points.

Fitzpatrick was the high scorer for the Bears on the night with 15 points, all but four coming in the first half. Williams remained score-less in the first half but finished the game with 10 points and seven rebounds. Alexander led the way in the post with nine points and five boards.

The team put together its best offensive game of the season, scor-ing 72 points, which exceeded its previous best of 65 points, achieved in its lone win over Howard. The Bears outscored the Quakers’ bench, 28-19, with Christina John-son ’10 contributing eight points. This was one of the first times all

Historic wins for m. hoops this weekend

M. icers fall short in upset attempt, splitting weekendBy BEnJy aSHErassistaNt sPorts editor

Midway through the first period of Friday night’s men’s hockey game, Devin Timberlake ’10 scored to put

the Bears up 2-0, and Brown looked poised for a shocking upset over No. 11 Clarkson (17-10-3 over-all, 12-4-2 East-

ern College Athletic Conference). It was not to be, however, as the

Golden Knights rallied for a 4-3 overtime win. The Bears rebounded the following night, when Assistant Captain Jeff Prough ’08 notched his 100th career point and Jesse Fratkin ’11 scored his first career goal on the way to a 3-1 victory over St. Lawrence (10-16-4 overall, 5-11-2 ECAC). The weekend leaves the team at 4-17-4 and 4-11-3 in the ECAC.

Bruno jumped on top of favored Clarkson in the first period, when Sean McMonagle ’10 hit Aaron Vol-patti ’10 with a pass near the net, and Volpatti beat the goaltender to give Brown a 1-0 lead at 9:05.

Though Volpatti entered this weekend’s games with only one goal this season, he displayed a burst of scoring this weekend, scoring two goals on Friday and connecting for another against St. Lawrence on Saturday.

Volpatti “has played well from the start of the season, and been one (of) our most consistent play-

ers,” said Head Coach Roger Grillo. “For him to step up like he did this weekend was great to see.”

At 10:36, Prough took a shot that was deflected, but Timberlake was there to crash the net and put home the rebound to give the Bears a two-goal cushion over the top-ranked team in the ECAC. But Clarkson cut Bruno’s lead to one goal at 13:25, when Shea Guthrie picked up a loose puck near the crease off a deflected shot and put it past goalie Dan Rosen ’10.

With just under five minutes remaining in the second period, Clarkson tied the game on another goal scored off a rebound. Rosen made a save on the initial shot by Chris D’Alvise but was unable to cover the puck in the crease, and D’Alvise finished the opportunity he created to even the score, 2-2.

In the seventh minute of the third period, the Golden Knights scored their third goal in a row, capitalizing on a power play oppor-tunity to take the lead. Rosen once again deflected a Clarkson shot, but the rebound slid into the slot, where Steve Zalewski got to it first and fired a shot into the back of the net to give Clarkson a 3-2 lead.

The Bears attacked hard to erase the deficit, out-shooting the Knights 13-5 in the third period. With just under five minutes left in the game, it paid off when Sean Muncy ’09 found Volpatti, who got around his defender and beat the goalie to tie the game at 3-3 and

Wrestling downs Harvard in final home meet

Courtesy of dspics.com

Levon Mock was victorious in his final home regular season match. He led three other seniors and the rest of the Bears over Harvard.

Ashley Hess / HeraldMark McAndrew ’08 scored 20 in both of Brown’s wins over Ivy League power-houses Penn and Princeton. McAndrew also pulled down 10 boards Saturday.

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