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Spiked!The volleyball Bears suffer two decisive losses over the weekend

Sports, 5Spaced outThe Hay launches an exhibit celebrating 400 years of astronomy

up in SmokeSean Quigley ’10 laments a ban on sweet and spicy cigarettes

Opinions, 7

insi

deDaily Heraldthe Brown

vol. cxliv, no. 84 | Wednesday, October 14, 2009 | Serving the community daily since 1891

U. spent thousands on lobbyingBy Sydney emBer

Senior Staff Writer

The University spent nearly $160,000 on various lobbying activities, in-cluding direct contact with govern-ment officials to influence national, state and local legislation, in the 12 months ending in June 2008, ac-cording to its most recent publicly available tax filings.

The total includes $65,755 spent on total compensation for Brown of-ficials who work to influence efforts at the federal and state levels and nearly $93,698 to organizations that specialize in lobbying the federal government on behalf of research universities.

The tax filings for 2008 show a large jump in spending on lobbying. In the previous fiscal year, spanning parts of 2006 and 2007, the Univer-sity coughed up only $52,329 for lobbying activities. But the Univer-sity may be cutting back on the fees doled out to lobbyists and related organizations, said Marisa Quinn, vice president for public affairs and University relations.

“Every year, we review the value for the University of belonging to these organizations,” Quinn said, adding that since 2008 the Univer-sity has reduced some of its contri-butions to lobbying organizations and is planning to reduce more.

For example, Quinn said, the

researchers get big award to investigate oCD treatmentBy Jamie Brew

Contributing Writer

Brown professors are among a team of researchers that recently received a $10.5 million grant from the Na-tional Institute of Mental Health to study a new treatment for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Brown faculty will lead two of the study’s six sub-projects.

OCD, an anxiety disorder, affects more than 2 percent of the world’s population and can be debilitating. Treatment regularly includes medi-

cation and cognitive therapy. But deep brain stimulation may

soon be more common in treating the disorder. The therapy, which is the focus of the study, involves surgically inserting an electrode in the patient’s brain. The electrode connects to a pacemaker-like device in the chest that sends the brain electrical im-pulses.

DBS therapy has proven effective as a treatment for other conditions, such as Parkinson’s disease.

Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior Ben Green-

berg of the Alpert Medical School is leading a project to investigate the efficacy of DBS as OCD treatment. Greenberg recruited Professor of Medical Science Barry Connors — who is heading his own sub-proj-ect to study the cellular effects of DBS — to the project.

If Greenberg’s team finds that DBS consistently helps treat the disorder, doctors will have a strong case for expanding its use, which Greenberg said is currently restrict-ed to only the most extreme cases of OCD.

Greenberg’s project is one of sev-eral in the larger study.

Suzanne Haber, a pharmacology and physiology professor at the Uni-versity of Rochester, is the principal investigator of the study. There are several sub-projects based at various institutions, she said, including the two at Brown.

“The components of the group address the same question but from different angles,” Haber said.

The study grew out of an existing

Art group exploding traditional art formsBy talia kagan

Staff Writer

A solitary, sneakered flautist plays slow and mournful tones on the side of an informal stage. Nearby, nine barefoot students contort their bodies and weave through each other.

Though their movements are improvised, at times the students are eerily in sync. Two floodlights provide a warm glow in the nearly empty black-box theater in Produc-tion Workshop’s Upspace.

Twenty-three hours later, nine students writhe and bend on the same stage. But this isn’t a repeat performance — it is the same show, finally coming to an end.

These performances were part of a continuous 24-hour show pro-duced by the Brown University Movement Experiments. Founded last year, the experimental student

performance group coordinates events involving music, visual art and dance — sometimes all three simultaneously. Last week, BUME combined the three in a series of events — a collaborative trash sculp-ture, a “playground happening” and a day-long show — attracting ques-tions, wonder and, sometimes, no notice at all.

BUME (its members pronounce the name “boom”) started off the week’s events last Tuesday by producing a collaborative trash sculpture on the Main Green, said Sam Tarakajian ’10, the event’s co-ordinator.

BUME members began by build-ing a wooden scaffold in the morn-ing, he said. They asked bewildered onlookers to trade their trash for cookies and added the collected

items onto the wooden skeleton throughout the day.

Cables, Ratty containers and a high-voltage switch were among the items that people traded in, Tarakajian said, adding that he kept the switch. Some donors simply emptied pockets full of loose candy wrappers and papers, and others went to their rooms or offices to bring back garbage, he said — a box of micropipettes, for instance.

The initial construction and eventual dismantling of the sculp-ture took just under 12 hours, ac-cording to Tarakajian.

The sculpture, he said, was com-monly mistaken for some sort of protest.

“I just like sculpture,” he said.

a creative connection The next night, a more ambi-

tious creative undertaking began at 9 p.m. — and ended on Thursday,

after 24 hours of performances.The concept for the event, titled

“and” by its coordinator Alina Kung ’12, was inspired by a 24-hour piano performance by experimental mu-sician John Cage. Kung wanted to plan a similar performance for

BUME, she said, and for practical-ity, divided the event into hour-long time slots.

The hour-long acts included cooking, break-dancing, even im-

Feature

BDS workers authorize strikeBy alexandra ulmer

Senior Staff Writer

In a nearly unanimous vote Tuesday night, Brown Dining Services em-ployees authorized their bargaining committee to call a strike if today’s negotiations on a new contract do not yield a satisfactory agreement.

Officials on both sides will meet at 11 a.m. today to attempt to reach a consensus on the contentious issues of health care payments, retirement ben-efits for new hires and wage changes ahead of the looming expiration of the workers’ contract at midnight to-night. The contract was extended by 48 hours, and a federal mediator was summoned to today’s bargaining ses-sion, after negotiations failed to secure an agreement on Monday.

More than 120 of the approxi-mately 200 employees congregated for a membership meeting Tuesday and expressed disapproval of the Uni-versity’s most recent proposal, said

Roxana Rivera, the chief negotiator for the Service Employees International Union, Local 615, which represents the workers.

“It was loud and clear that workers don’t believe that what the Univer-sity is putting forward is just,” Rivera said.

The University is confident that the two sides will reach a consensus today, Vice President for Public Affairs and University Relations Marisa Quinn wrote in an e-mail to The Herald Tues-day afternoon.

“If for some reason we are unable to accomplish this,” she added, “we can agree to a further extension, or the University can present its final offer to the union membership for a vote to ratify or reject the same.”

It is too early to predict whether another contract extension could be in the cards, or when a potential strike might begin, Rivera said. “We have to see tomorrow to see how we’ll go forth in the next couple of days.”

E y E S O N T H E S k I E S

Max Monn / HeraldA new exhibit, “Beyond the Moon: 400 years of Astronomical Ob-servation,” opened recently at the John Hay Library.

kim Perley / HeraldBUME members worked on a “trash sculpture” last week.

continued on page 4

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News, 2

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Stephen DeLucia, PresidentMichael Bechek, Vice President

Jonathan Spector, TreasurerAlexander Hughes, Secretary

The Brown Daily Herald (USPS 067.740) is an independent newspaper serv-ing the Brown University community daily since 1891. It is published Monday through Friday during the academic year, excluding vacations, once during Commencement, once during Orientation and once in July by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. Single copy free for each members of the community. POSTMASTER please send corrections to P.O. Box 2538, Providence, RI 02906. Periodicals postage paid at Providence, R.I. Offices are located at 195 Angell St., Providence, R.I. E-mail herald@browndailyherald.com. World Wide Web: http://www.browndailyherald.com. Subscription prices: $319 one year daily, $139 one semester daily. Copyright 2009 by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.

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

WEdNESdAy, OcTOBER 14, 2009THE BROWN dAILy HERALdPAgE 2

CAmpUS newS “you take out a little piece of brain, and it’s gone.”— Professor of Neuroscience Barry connors, on experimental lesion surgery

essay contest honors Great emancipatorBy caSey Bleho

Contributing Writer

Brown is co-sponsoring an essay competition for local middle school-ers to write about Abraham Lincoln this year, part of its ongoing celebra-tion of the 200th anniversary of the 16th president’s birth.

The Hildene-Brown Lincoln Es-say competition — open to all eighth-grade students in Providence — aims to promote critical learning skills in reading, writing and research.

Hildene, which is the house of Robert Todd Lincoln — the presi-dent’s oldest son — and is currently run by the non-profit Lincoln his-torical organization Friends of the Hildene, also hopes to promote civ-ics among younger students, said Seth Bongartz, Hildene’s executive director.

“This is our way of at least back-

filling a piece of what we wish was there,” Bongartz said. “If you’re learning about Lincoln, you’re learn-ing about civics.”

Each competitor must read an 1862 letter written by abolitionist Horace Greeley to Lincoln, press-ing Lincoln to abolish slavery, and the president’s response to Greeley. Contestants will write a 500-word as-sessment of Lincoln’s response.

“Lincoln has to toe a line that is very difficult to walk,” said Holly Snyder, scholarly resources librar-ian at the John Hay Library, and the letter “has become such a focal point concerning Lincoln’s views of slavery.”

“The hope is that understanding the letters will help kids understand the underpinnings of the political and sociological process that Lin-coln went through building up to the emancipation of the slaves,”

Bongartz said. The top three winners of the

competition will be awarded $1,000, $750 and $500 respectively, and will be invited to attend a luncheon in Providence in January.

“The competition looks to rein-force University commitment to do outreach with Providence,” Snyder said. Together, Hildene and Brown will “push to digitize collections to make them more available to the general public,” she said.

By opening up the University’s expansive Lincoln collection to local students, Brown and Hildene hope to promote research skills and initi-ate “one step of many state-wide to promote education about Lincoln,” Snyder said.

Next year, Brown and Hildene hope to open the essay competition to all Rhode Island students, she added.

Astronomy exhibit now open at hayBy claire peracchio

Contributing Writer

With Fall Weekend behind them, Brown students can now turn to the exploration of a decidedly less contro-versial new world: outer space.

“Beyond the Moon: 400 Years of Astronomical Observation,” a new exhibit at the John Hay Library, offers a panoramic view of four centuries of astronomical inquiry at Brown and in the wider scientific community. The display, which includes a gallery room and an array of glass cases in the library’s lobby, is the result of a joint effort by the University’s librar-ies, the Ladd Observatory and the Department of Physics.

Running through the month of Oc-tober, “Beyond the Moon” celebrates the timely intersection of a number of historical milestones. This year is the International Year of Astronomy and the 400-year anniversary of seminal works by astronomer Galileo Galilei and Tycho Brahe. It is also 240 years after the University began telescopi-cally exploring the universe.

The 1769 Transit of Venus — a phenomenon in which Venus pass-es between the Sun and the Earth — marked the auspicious start of astronomical study at Brown. In

preparation for the event, astronomer Benjamin West and Joseph Brown, a natural philosophy professor and one of the founding Brown broth-ers, collaborated to construct the first University observation center on a street that was later aptly renamed Transit Street.

Holly Snyder, a librarian at the Hay and one of the organizers of “Beyond the Moon,” said the interface between history and contemporary research played a central role in the planning of the exhibit.

“We were trying to figure out what we could do to celebrate this momen-tous year,” she said. “We decided that the exhibit should be a conjunction between what has been done histori-cally and what is happening now.”

In keeping with this vision, the display juxtaposes objects and me-dia related to giants such as Galileo, Brahe and Johannes Kepler with the scholarship of distinguished Brown professors. One highlight is the Lownes Collection’s first-edition copy of Galileo’s 1609 book, “The Starry Messenger,” which contains the notes of the astronomer himself.

Also on display are digital pho-tographs of outer space taken by Associate Professor of Physics Ian Dell’antonio, a co-organizer of the

exhibit, and a film on solar eclipse studies conducted by Charles Smiley, the former head of the Department of Astronomy, which merged with the Department of Physics after his retirement in 1970.

The exhibit features other texts from the Lownes Science Collection, historical records from the Ladd Ob-servatory and a variety of astronomi-cal instruments from the 18th century to today.

West’s telescope and journal of observations, which launched the University’s endeavors in astronomy, are also on display.

Barbara Findley, a recent visitor to the exhibit, found out about it through her membership in the Brown Com-munity for Learning in Retirement.

“It’s a fascinating subject that I otherwise wouldn’t have seen,” she said. “It’s amazing how much our view of the universe has changed as scientists continuously add to previ-ous research.”

But student interest in the exhibit has been underwhelming, said Andy Moul, a member of the Hay’s reader services staff.

“I would call this under-utilized,” he said. “Unless someone really makes an effort, they won’t come into the Hay.”

OCD research program that includ-ed Greenberg, Haber and Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior Steven Rasmussen, all of whom focus their research on OCD. Now, with the help of the NIMH grant, the program has expanded to include researchers who are only beginning to apply their expertise to the disorder.

One such newcomer is Connors, who chairs the Department of Neu-roscience. While Greenberg tests humans to find out if DBS works, Connors will test animals to learn how DBS functions on brain cells.

Very little research exists on the effects high-frequency currents — like those involved in DBS — have on brain cells, Connors said. His re-search aims to determine whether DBS merely disrupts activity in an area of the brain or whether it actu-ally enhances brain function.

To examine the currents’ effects on the brain, Connors’ team will study the areas of mouse brains that cor-respond to OCD-related areas in the human brain, such as the basal gan-glia. This collection of nuclei contain the neural pathways responsible for balancing risk and reward — mak-ing them a key area in OCD and the target of DBS therapy.

One advantage of DBS is its re-versability. It alters brain function without killing cells, making it dif-ferent from traditional, lesion-based surgery, which always causes perma-nent changes.

Lesion surgery is “a one-way street,” Connors said. “You take out a little piece of brain, and it’s gone.”

Though DBS is in its early stages and presents a hopeful avenue for the future of OCD treatment, Haber said this research already has tangible benefits.

“The science is benefitting from the patients, and the patients are benefitting from the science,” Haber said. “It’s really a two-way street.”

Brain electrode may help treat oCDcontinued from page 1

new research director hopes to push U.’s techBy thomaS JaruS

Contributing Writer

The University has hired Katherine Gordon to oversee the development and marketing of products based on faculty research.

Gordon, a former director of busi-ness development at Harvard, is the managing director of the Technol-ogy Ventures Office, a subsection of the Office of the Vice President for Research that facilitates contact between Brown faculty and industry partners.

At Harvard, Gordon worked in a similar position, supervising the de-velopment and commercialization of new technologies, attaining product licenses and establishing start-up companies. Before her five years at Harvard, Gordon was a consultant for early-stage biomedical compa-nies and launched her own company, Apollo BioPharmaceutics.

“Dr. Gordon brings experience both from having started her own company, from her experience in the technology transfer office at Harvard, and her own background in the life sciences,” Vice President for Research Clyde Briant wrote in an e-mail to The Herald.

Bringing Gordon to Brown rep-resents a continuation of recent attempts by the University to in-crease the resources available to faculty researchers as they enter the market.

To improve the prospects for new products, Gordon and her office will work with the Rhode Island Center for Innovation and Entrepreneur-ship, which opened this past spring

and works with the faculty of state colleges and universities, research-ers and entrepreneurs who seek to start businesses in Rhode Island.

“On a micro scale, what we’re trying to do is reinvigorate things, get to know the faculty, the research directions, make sure that people know we’re here,” Gordon said.

As the year progresses, Gordon said she hopes to obtain patents, strike deals and start businesses.

“We hope to see Brown commer-cialize the appropriate intellectual property that is created at Brown, to license that technology and to have that intellectual property lead to start-up companies where appro-priate,” Briant wrote.

Gordon described her first month as “great.”

“I found everybody to be really receptive,” she said. People have been “interested in gathering infor-mation on our new directions” and “meeting and talking about our new ideas,” she added.

courtesy of John Abromowski katherine gordon.

By kate monkS

Contributing Writer

Student speakers joined Ralina Landwehr Joseph ’96, a professor at the University of Washington, in MacMillan Hall Tuesday night to discusswhat it means to have a multiracial background, marking the opening convocation of a stu-dent-organized Multiracial Identity Week.

The week of events, which seeks to explore different types of racial identities, was organized by two stu-dents, Christopher Belcher ’11 and Alexis Moreis ’11. Belcher, who has been working on the event since his freshman year, said Brown benefits from having a unique program to promote discussion on the topic.

“It’s the only one of its kind in the entire U.S. college circuit,” he said. He added that Brown was seven percent multiracial and growing, and that multiracial identity is thus “a topic that’s increasingly impor-tant.”

In addition to Joseph, two student speakers, Alexander Brownridge ’12 and Natasha Go ’10, discussed their personal experiences as multiracial individuals. Brownridge said that, when he was three years old, he asked his mother, “Mommy, why am I not white like you?” Until he was a teenager, Brownridge identified as black, he said. But he became confused about his true identity after realizing he could not define himself with just one clear-cut word.

Coming to Brown made him even more attuned to the multira-cial world, he said, adding, “Brown has given me the opportunity to re-ally immerse myself in my different cultures and background.”

“I’ve been multiracial all my life,” Go said. But, like Brownridge, she

said she had not always been so cer-tain of her multiracial identity. When she completed her first census, Go said she identified only as Asian. But now the census no longer limits racial identity to one choice, and Go can give a more accurate depiction of herself, she said.

As a student, Joseph, the keynote speaker, was a co-programmer of the first Multiracial Heritage Week.

When she first started at Brown, Joseph said that she, like Go, was not sure she had “ever uttered the word ‘multiracial’ before.”

“I could not imagine that it would enter my daily, hourly vocabulary during my time at Brown,” she said. “I breathed, ate and slept mixed-race for those four years.”

Before coming to Brown, Jo-seph said she was always plagued by the question, “What are you?” The “protective cocoon” she found at the Third World Center helped her identify herself as multiracial, she said.

At Brown, Joseph also became involved in the Brown Organization of Multiracial and Biracial Students, which was founded in 1990 by Mi-chael Hurt ’94 and Sachi Cunning-ham ’94. Joseph said she was first drawn to the group because she was excited to be “doing something new and different in the very old world of race.”

In the course of her lecture, Jo-seph focused on the various words assigned to people of mixed races, though she acknowledged that many are tinged with a discrimina-tory past. “Mulatto,” a term used to describe people who are partly black, derives its name from the word “mule.” Joseph said it is often considered “derisive, troublesome, antiquated.” Joseph uses the terms “mixed-race” or “multiracial.”

Though the age of de jure dis-crimination in the U.S. is long past, and the country has elected its first black president, Joseph urged people not to view the world as a post-racial society.

“How do we talk about race, how do we talk about racism in a world where we’re told that it doesn’t ex-ist?” she asked.

People like Obama are held up as paradigms of excellence, she said, proof that society is past racial dis-tinctions. But as much as people may think the time of racial equality is upon us, statistics say otherwise, she said.

“What about high school gradua-tion rates? What about incarceration rates?” she asked.

Though she said she recognized that multiracial history in America is far from “simply celebratory,” she said she hoped students would take advantage of the opportunities at Brown and that her lecture would spark discussion about mixed-race issues.

She closed by encouraging the audience members to exam-ine the many facets of their own identities.

CAmpUS newSWEdNESdAy, OcTOBER 14, 2009 THE BROWN dAILy HERALd PAgE 3

“How do we talk about racism … when we’re told it doesn’t exist?” — Ralina Landwehr Joseph ’96

A student at the University of california, Los Angeles was critically injured last Thursday after a fellow student stabbed her five times and slashed her neck in an organic chemistry lab between classes.

Twenty-year old damon Thompson, a senior at UcLA, was arrested shortly after the incident and charged yes-terday with premeditated attempted murder, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Members of the UcLA community had reported to the university’s administration that Thompson was exhibiting erratic behavior in the months leading up to the incident, but at press time, the Los Angeles Police department had not found an obvious motive for the slashing, and the two students did not appear to know each other, according to the Times.

The victim — whom officials have not publicly identi-fied for privacy reasons — is recovering, her family told the Times.

higher ednews round-up

by ellen cushing and sarah husk

senior staff writers

ucla student charged with attempted murder after chem lab slashing

Alum kicks off multiracial Identity week

colleges still reporting widespread flu-like illness

As the annual flu season begins, colleges and universities nationwide are continuing to see thousands of students whose symptoms are consistent with swine flu, according to data from the American college Health Association.

In the week ending Oct. 2, there were 6,326 new cas-es of flu-like illness at the 273 colleges surveyed by the AcHA, resulting in nine hospitalizations.

Only 8 percent of the schools surveyed had seen no new cases of swine flu during the week.The Mid-Atlantic region reported the most new cases.

Rhode Island schools surveyed reported 111 new cases, for an “attack rate” of 37.4 new cases per ten thousand students. (Brown is not participating in the survey.)

The AcHA, which releases new data weekly, has been tracking the incidence of influenza-like illness at the 273 colleges and universities in the sample, which collectively serve 3.3 million students — roughly 20 percent of the U.S. college population.

Legislation to impose restrictions on executive com-pensation in california’s public higher education sys-tem was vetoed Sunday by california governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The proposed bill would have given the state the op-tion to bar University of california regents and california State University trustees from increasing the salaries of high-level administrators within their systems and doling out bonuses during budget crunches, Insider Higher Ed reported Monday.

In his veto message, Schwarzenegger objected to the bill’s sanction of broad state intervention within the Uc and cSU systems.

It is “unnecessary” for the state to “micromanage” the regents and the trustees, Inside Higher Ed quoted Schwarzenegger as saying, and such a “blanket prohibi-tion” would hinder the ability of california’s public insti-tutions to provide a high quality of education.

The governor’s veto incited vocal dissent from many of california’s state legislators, in particular the bill’s spon-sor, State Senator Leland yee.

yee criticized the governor for protecting the interests of executive officers, particularly amid system-wide bud-get cuts and tuition hikes, calling the veto a “slap in the face” to students and low wage workers in both systems, according to Inside Higher Ed.

Schwarzenegger nixes pay caps for public university executives

Quinn Savit / Herald

WEdNESdAy, OcTOBER 14, 2009THE BROWN dAILy HERALdPAgE 4

CAmpUS newS “I was alone in the room, but I was definitely still performing.”— Brown University Movement Experiments member Josh kopin ’11

University does not intend to pay $26,600 in membership dues this year to the National Association of College and University Business Officers, an advocacy organiza-tion.

The lobbying cutbacks have come amid a larger effort to re-duce budget shortfalls — the Uni-versity is seeking to trim more than $30 million this fall from next year’s budget.

On the University’s most recent Form 990, a publicly available tax document that the Internal Rev-enue Service requires nonprofit organizations to submit, officials reported that Brown “engages con-sultants to promote its mission by working with state and federal government entities to advocate for legislation and policy initia-tives that support higher educa-tion and the University’s research agenda.”

The form also specifies that “certain members of the Univer-sity’s staff or management devoted a small portion of their time on similar activities,” explaining why the University reports a portion of these officials’ salaries as lobbying expenditures.

Tim Leshan, the University’s di-rector of government relations and community affairs, said “almost all research universities hire some-one to do government relations and to lobby on their behalf.”

“I’m hard-pressed to name a research university that doesn’t hire a lobbyist,” he said.

In addition to individuals on Brown’s payroll, the University also paid a general counsel $6,700

in consulting fees in 2008 as part of its lobbying effort, Quinn said.

The University allocates a sig-nificant portion of these lobbying fees to various organizations that do lobbying work at the federal level who attempt to affect poli-cies and legislation relevant to higher education, according to Leshan. For fiscal year 2008, these included national organizations such as NACUBO, the Association of American Universities, the Na-tional Association of Independent Colleges and Universities and The Science Coalition, he said, adding that much of the recorded expen-ditures went towards membership dues to these organizations.

Leshan said the University belongs to these organizations because the organizations them-selves employ lobbyists who can serve the interests of universities more efficiently than individuals working on Capitol Hill.

“They worked across the whole Congress,” he said of lobbyists’ ef-forts paid for in 2008. “They’re in the halls of Congress every day.”

Some of these organizations — including the AAU — played a significant role in lobbying for stimulus funding, ensuring there would be provisions that would support university-based science research, Leshan said.

Other organizations were in-volved with tax policy, research funding and financial aid issues, he said, including the reauthori-zation of the Higher Education Act, which President George W. Bush signed into law in August 2008. That legislation is respon-sible for authorizing the primary federal student aid programs to provide assistance to many college students.

Leshan said he is personally involved in direct lobbying at the federal level as the University’s primary government liaison, add-ing that a portion of the reported fees include funds allocated to his personal salary and benefits.

In addition to the payments the University reported for fiscal year 2008, the University recently hired a Washington-based political con-sulting firm, Lewis-Burke Associ-ates, to inform the University of available research opportunities.

“Lewis-Burke was hired primar-ily when stimulus funding became available because we wanted to have a better connection with agencies that provided funding,” Leshan said. “They are not really lobbying as much as facilitating our relationship with the funding agencies.”

But he said it was important to understand that the University was not hiring its own individual lobby-ists to promote Brown’s agenda. The organizations that Brown pays to represent it in government, he said, should be considered a nec-essary and valuable asset.

“They are lobbying on our be-half,” he said. “That is the primary reason for their existence.”

Amid budget cuts, U. spends less on lobbyists

continued from page 1provised jazz. Sock and Buskin, a student theater group, even held their board meeting in the space.

About a quarter of the perform-ers were BUME members, while the others were simply students who heard about the show through word of mouth and the Internet. One act featured RISD students that Kung approached on the street be-cause they were carrying guitars, she said.

At each hour’s end, performers sculpted a lump of clay and recorded one-minute reactions to represent their on-stage experience.

The clay and the audio record-ings were meant to provide continu-ity and communication between the different acts, said BUME founder Annie Rose London ’11.

London chose to divide her time slot equally between cooking and sculpture, two activities that she said “affected (her) humors dif-ferently.” She shared her sauteed zucchini, beans and eggs with the only two people then in attendance, she said.

Audience size at the performanc-es varied. Sometimes, performers found themselves alone in the room, while other events, like spoken word, drew larger audiences.

In his recorded reflection, one performer said that he slept dur-ing the show, but joked that no one could know because he had been the only one there.

When BUME member Josh Ko-pin ’11 began his hour, no one was in the audience until some of his friends showed up partway through, he said.

His performance involved im-provising “electro-acoustic” music, recording himself while he read “esoteric” philosophy and ripping

and scattering construction paper, he said.

The size of the audience affected performances, Kopin said, but a small, or even non-existent, audi-ence didn’t hurt the artists’ proj-ects. “I was alone in the room, but I was definitely still performing,” he said.

Kung, who spent a total of 19 non-consecutive hours at the space, recalled that she had been the sole audience member at Paulina Pagan ’11’s “beautiful” 5 a.m. dance per-formance. “I felt so selfish having her all to myself,” she said.

But Stephen Higa GS, a self-de-scribed “BUME accomplice,” placed little importance on the number of people he performed for, calling the event an example of “performance for performance’s sake rather than anybody else’s.”

playground jammingOn Monday, a small group of

BUME members wrapped up their week of events by bringing their whimsical exuberance to India Point Park Playground.

In contrast to the strict sched-ule of “and,” there was no official beginning to the event. The four students who had been chatting in a clump minutes earlier slowly drifted apart.

One student began tapping out a rhythm on a plastic trash bin. An-other experimented with the squeak of the swing set. A third student, perched atop a slide, read slowly from a small, leather-bound book.

One by one, they each casually moved on to something new. A few left, and others arrived. One girl, sit-ting in a sandbox, began to paint.

The event was conceived as a curious, individual exploration of space and other individuals, said Rosalie Elkinton ’11.5, the event’s

coordinator. She chose the play-ground because its structures are perfect for “exploring gravity” and “the limitations of dance,” she said.

BUME has had “jams” in the past, including one that took place across the street from the Sciences Library last spring, Kopin said.

“We just played and danced for at least two hours,” drawing a curious crowd, he said.

Just artsy enoughThough BUME is often highly

experimental, Kopin and London stressed that the group works to make its type of art accessible.

“We’re open to doing really esoteric crazy stuff, but we always try to temper it with accessibility,” Kopin said.

In experimental ar t, people worry, “Am I artsy enough to un-derstand?” London said. But BUME is meant to provide a comfortable community of performers, she em-phasized.

London said she wants to see more BUME events. “We want to be doing stuff all the time,” she said.

For one day last week, BUME did fill a stage non-stop.

By the 23rd hour of “and,” several half-eaten snacks littered the room — evidence of the performance’s marathon nature. At 8:59 p.m., sev-eral students gathered around a cell phone’s clock display, waiting for the 24-hour mark to arrive.

“This is the longest minute of my life,” Kung said.

The seconds ticked by. When the clock struck 9 p.m., Kung went back to cleaning the room.

It was time to take down the clock that had stood propped on a music stand throughout the entire 24 hours, a quiet reminder of the project’s ambitious scope.

continued from page 1

24-hour art headlines eclectic week for BUme

SportswednesdayWEdNESdAy, OcTOBER 14, 2009 | Page 5

The Brown daily Herald

Volleyball falls to penn and princetonBy eliSaBeth avallone

SportS Staff Writer

The women’s volleyball team, suffer-ing from a tough start to their Ivy League season, fell to Ivy co-leader Penn (3-0, 11-4) on Friday night and Princeton (1-2, 3-11) the following afternoon. The Quakers were quick to sweep Brown, 3-0, despite Brown’s best efforts to hold onto the score. Saturday afternoon the Bears were again unable to keep up, as they fell in four sets to the Tigers, 3-1. The losses dropped Brown to 4-10 overall and 0-3 in the Ivy League.

Despite Brown’s early lead in the first set, 5-1, Penn wasted no time after a short timeout to tie the game at five and capture the win at 25-17. Brown put up a fight again in the sec-ond set but fell late in the set, 25-20. The Quakers dominated the third set for a decisive 25-9 victory.

Although all efforts fell shy of leading the Bears to victory, the game was not without notable per-formances. As Head Coach Diane Short pointed out, Brianna William-son ’11 had a strong match, lead-ing the Bears with nine kills and 10 digs. Carly Cotton ’13 held down the defense with 16 digs. Christina Berry ’13 also added to the Brown cause with seven kills and six digs. Spencer McAndrews ’12 notched a team-high 18 assists.

“With such a large and young team, I am really confident in our ability to make big improvements with ever y match,” said Kim Bundick ’10.

The Bears were shortly back in action against Princeton, as both teams vied for their first Ivy League win. The Tigers took what seemed to be an overwhelming 24-14 lead in the first set, but were caught off guard as Alexandra Ilstad’s ’13 serving pushed the Bears back into the game, down 24-22. Princeton, however, got its much needed final point for a 1-0 lead. The second set seemed very evenly matched, as the teams fought point for point until the very end. Tied at 23, Princeton gained the final two points for the win.

Following two very tight sets, the Bears finally had some luck with a third-set victory. Brown stormed out to a 13-9 lead, holding Princeton to a .085 hitting percentage, their lowest of the day. The Tigers, despite fight-ing back for a tight finish, came up short as Brown walked away with a 25-22 victory. The Bears were less successful in the fourth, as Princ-eton took a 25-23 win for their first Ivy League victory this year.

“We played very well at times and not great at others, but I think that we’re definitely improving,” said Short. “We are ranked 20th of 331

in the country in aces and digs, so we just have to have the rest of our game catch up.”

As praised by Short, co-captain Danielle Vaughan ’11 played a great match, recording a game-high seven blocks and eight kills for a .400 hit-ting percentage. Williamson again held strong with 11 kills and 11 digs, as did Megan Toman ’11, who notched an additional 11 kills and seven digs. On defense, Berry held down the fort with 12 digs.

“Although we may be off to a rocky start, we are definitely tak-ing steps in the right direction,” said co-captain Moira Gallagher ’10, who tallied six kills and four digs. “We’re ironing out the problems, and I feel like we’ll soon be able to get it right and get some wins. It’s discourag-ing to start off Ivies like this, but I don’t see us giving up any time soon. We’re fighters.”

The Bears face a long road trip next weekend as they take on Co-lumbia on Friday followed by a drive to Cornell for Saturday’s match.

in roaring wind, tigers silence w. soccer

sports in brief

The women’s soccer team suffered a tough 1-0 defeat Saturday afternoon, falling to Ivy League rival Princeton on an overtime goal.

Tigers midfielder Lauren Whatley scored the decisive goal just two minutes into overtime play. She ran onto a pass from teammate Sara chehrehsa on the left side and blasted a shot past a diving Brenna Hogue ’10. The Tiger bench exploded in celebration, leaving the Bears to wonder what could have been.

On a windy day at Stevenson Field, Bruno once again struggled on the offensive side. While the Bears have gone 2-2 in their last four matches, they have only netted three goals in those games.

despite outshooting the Tigers 11-9 overall, the Bears only challenged Princeton goalie Alyssa Pont with three shots on goal. Their best chance came in the 72nd minute, as midfielder Sylvia Stone ’11 forced Pont to make a leaping stop on a ball headed for the top corner.

With the loss, the Bears (3-6-0 overall, 1-2-0 Ivy League) fell to a tie for fifth in the league standings, joining Penn and Princeton near the bottom of the conference table. They travel to the neighboring University of Rhode Island for an afternoon match Wednesday and will continue their road trip with three additional away games at Harvard, Holy cross and cornell in the next two weeks.

— Tony Bakshi

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editorial & LettersPage 6 | WEdNESdAy, OcTOBER 14, 2009

The Brown daily Herald

A L E x Y U L Y

Book smarts

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letter to the editor

editorial

Cooler weather and midterms signal that the fall semester is now well underway. As stu-dents’ memories of a hectic shopping period and expensive textbook purchases start to fade, we would like to remind faculty members of an important matter of principle: No Brown profes-sor should profit from the book royalties they earn by assigning their own book to a class of Brown students.

The possibility that professors might be able to profit based on the books they assign makes for a textbook (sorry) case of a conflict of interest. Most book contracts stipulate that the author receive a percentage of the profits from sales. Even if a professor genuinely judges his or her own book to be the best in the field or the most relevant to the topic of the class, students could reasonably question the ob-jectivity of that judgment. For larger classes and more expensive books, the opportunity for a windfall profit increases, fueling students’ skepticism about the real reasons behind the course’s reading list.

Some professors have sought to alleviate this concern by promising students they will donate royalties earned from their classes to charity. Professor James Morone has histori-cally given away the royalties he earns from students purchasing his book for “POLS0220: City Politics.” Since “City Politics” usually en-rolls several hundred students whenever it has been taught, we applaud Morone for valuing the integrity of the course over what would probably be a tidy profit.

Of course, professors shouldn’t have to do-nate the proceeds from self-assigned books to

charity. They should also consider returning that money directly to their students. The Uni-versity’s 2009-10 cost of attendance projections expect each student to spend $633 per semester on books — that’s $1,266 for the school year, a significant financial burden.

The high cost of college textbooks is a prob-lem that has received attention on the national level. In 2005, the Government Accountabil-ity Office reported that the price of textbooks tripled between 1986 and 2004. And in 2008 congress passed legislation that requires text-book publishers to disclose more information about pricing and to sell supplemental materials like CDs separately from textbooks. But these new requirements do not take effect until next year.

While the sort of rebate we’re calling for is by no means a panacea, it would help reduce some students’ book costs. And if a book truly is an essential text in its field, then sales at other schools should be sufficient to earn the author significant returns. A fraction of book royalties seems like a small price to pay for the Univer-sity’s improved transparency and integrity.

Students already pay tens of thousands of dollars for access to Brown’s faculty and course offerings. The mere idea that a professor might assign a book to make a little extra money on the side strikes us as crass. We call on all professors who assign their own books to avoid the appear-ance of impropriety and do what’s right.

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

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Criticism of Fall weekend stokes racial antagonismto the editor:

I was struck by the social and academic irresponsibility displayed by your published selections of Keith Dellagrotta’s ’10 speech at Monday’s rally against “Fall Weekend” (“Rally against ‘Fall Weekend’ takes on U.’s name change”).

I am aware that his intention was to belittle rather than engage the community he belongs to — how else to explain his choice to describe our faculty as “naive, arrogant (and) haughty?” However, this accounts neither for the extraordinary lack of research behind his statements nor their terrifyingly racist undertones. In stating that Brown faculty “sid(ed) with American Indians, less than 1

percent of Brown’s student body,” Dellagrotta casts this decision as one made against 99 percent of Brown, and in doing so pits community members against one another in an unapologetically racialized way.

The fact that such a distasteful position is built upon a clearly un-researched understanding of pre-American history only adds to the embarrassing quality of Dellagrotta’s words. I hope that the conservative community at Brown can forgive Del-lagrotta for further caricaturing their campus presence through his unseri-ous and antagonistically trite analysis of our history and community.

geoffrey mino ’12Oct. 13

don’t just read.

get angry!

letters@browndailyherald.com

WEdNESdAy, OcTOBER 14, 2009 | PAgE 7

opinionsThe Brown daily Herald

Indonesian spices and tobacco make for an excellent smoking experience. Indeed, even those who look askance at regular cigarettes typically enjoy the unique aroma created by the product that incorporates those two ele-ments: the clove cigarette. Crunchy types es-pecially are known to travel about with a cloud of South-Pacific spice over their heads.

However, as of Sept. 22, at least in the U.S., cloves have been banned at the behest of busybody progressives and legislators who, without a source of honest work, perpetually seek to manufacture problems — which they then omnisciently solve by coercive fiat.

The most avaricious of those busybodies, our venerable president, leapt at the opportu-nity to dismantle more of his people’s liberties when he signed the legislation that serves as the legal foundation for this ban, the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act. And in so doing this past June, he caused a dramatic shift in U.S. policy by empowering the secular priests — excuse me, federal FDA regulators — to seek the very ban which came into effect on Sept. 22.

In their press release, the swine at the FDA wrote, “The U.S. Food and Drug Administra-tion announced today a ban on cigarettes with flavors characterizing fruit, candy, or clove. The ban, authorized by the new Family Smok-ing Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, is part of a national effort by the FDA to reduce smoking in America.”

In a stinging bit of irony, menthol cigarettes

remain untouched (for the time being). Word has it that the Congressional Black Caucus was largely responsible for this inconsistent exemption.

Besides allowing for the banning of a whole class of cigarettes, the legislation dramatically shifted the FDA’s regulatory purview by allow-ing it to police tobacco for the first time. Since FDA stands for Food and Drug Administration, it is curious why this obese bureaucratic blob would now regulate a plant that has nothing to do with the agency’s original mission.

Maybe the progressives can explain that anomaly to me. Conservatives, with their longstanding claim that bureaucracies only seek to expand in order to feel legitimate and important, must be wrong. Right?

But until that time, I shall simply note that cloves are only the most recent victim of an au-tocratic tendency in modern, “social-contract” governments to compel others to cease behav-iors that some find annoying. Common is the claim that a schoolmarm concern for smokers’ health is the real reason behind the ban; but those who recognize Puritanism across the ages are not convinced.

In the past — and presently, for the rem-

nant faithful — churches and ministers, families and spouses, friends and neighbors would address these matters if they actually were worrisome. Now we have a government agency, with a team of Jacobin-esque experts and horny bureaucrats, all subsisting on the public dollar, to replace the traditional institu-tions of marriage, family and church.

But I suppose that is what Marxists, and their progressive cousins, want.

Yes, I am making the claim that the decline in the traditional European family is causally

linked to the federal ban on clove cigarettes. Now, I cannot explain why some people sim-ply hate liberty, and thus think they have the authority to coerce people to stop smoking clove cigarettes.

Yet I am very confident that, were “archaic” religious rearing and conservative familial attitudes more prevalent, those who hate liberty would have less success in foisting their pet peeves into public law. They would instead raise their families according to such preferences.

Which brings me to two fundamental points: those who love liberty should love the traditional family; and those who do not

admire the conspirators that thieve after the liberty to smoke should not admire the cur-rent president. I would wager that this column alone will not convince cultural levelers to concede my first point, but they should at least concede the second.

Our president is the enemy of liberty, quite honestly, in most things. Yet he is especially the enemy of tobacco connoisseurs, and even those whose drags fall well below the thresh-old needed to be called a dreaded “smoker.” I suppose that, as with the philosopher in Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, that enlightened former smoker has returned to bring illumination, in the form of prohibition.

Whatever. Most fellow undergraduates were cheering when he made the donkey move of going all-in with outdated Keynesian theory this past February, so I really cannot expect that they will be moved by an appeal to their aromatic pleasures. As long as he means well, what could really go wrong?

Two last ironies, if I may. The ban has caused a slight rift in relations with Indonesia, the major producer of clove cigarettes. It looks like the president is not always the solver of all international disputes.

Also, lest we forget, American Indians gave us the horrible leaf. In an age when Colum-bus Day is deemed unacceptable as a holiday because of the explorer’s actions in the New World, one would think that the preservation of Indian culture would be a priority.

Oh, well. Federal experts know best.

Sean Quigley ’10 smoked his first tobacco with his high school chaplain.

He can be reached at sean.b.quigley@gmail.com.

r.I.p. Cloves

clove cigarettes are only the most recent victim of an autocratic tendency in modern, “social-

contract” governments to compel others to cease behaviors that some find annoying.

SEAN QUIgLEyopinions coluMnist

Upon winning the Nobel Peace Prize, Presi-dent Obama declared, “We cannot accept the growing threat posed by climate change, which could forever damage the world that we pass on to our children.”

The president understands the importance of his leadership in addressing problems that, if left unsolved, will harm our generation. Yet the first months of his term paint a troubling image for the future of young people — the “children” that politicians often implore Ameri-cans to think about.

Even if you have followed the health care debate closely, you probably have not heard a lot about what the ramifications of reform would be for young people. This is surpris-ing, considering that as of 2007, 29 percent of people 19 to 29 years old were uninsured. One would think that in a debate over health insurance, we would get more attention.

In the past few months, however, Repub-licans successfully framed the discourse on health care around issues that affect seniors. By warning about “death panels” and railing against proposed Medicare reforms, the GOP has fomented opposition to health care partly by appealing to senior citizens.

Consider Michael Steele, chairman of the Republican National Committee. Late this summer he took to the airwaves and op-ed

pages promoting a “Seniors’ Health Care Bill of Rights” and vowing to fight any proposed cuts in Medicare. This is the same person who, when asked if he would consider cutting Social Security or Medicare during a run for Senate in 2006, told Tim Russert that “everything has to be on the table.”

Abandoning principle matters little, how-ever, since political ends are what Republicans seek. The GOP strategy is aimed at winning back seats in Congress in the 2010 midterms, and Republicans know that seniors matter

far more than we do in determining election results.

According to the Census Bureau, 48.5 per-cent of Americans 18 to 24 years old voted in last year’s presidential election. Americans 65 and older turned out at a rate of over 70 percent.

The disparity in turnout between young and old is even more pronounced during midterm elections. In 2002 and 2006, roughly 63 percent of citizens 65 or older voted. Under 50 percent of 18 to 24 year olds were even registered to vote in those elections, and in 2006 a meager 22.1 percent actually cast a ballot.

These statistics, and the fact that the 65 and

over age group has almost ten million more people than the 18 to 24 year old bracket, make figuring out who to appeal to in 2010 a simple task. We lack the electoral clout to refocus the debate in Washington on issues that affect our future.

Many Democrats — including Obama — are complicit in allowing the concerns of older Americans to dominate current debate at our expense. They are trying to prevent short-term electoral losses, even if the price could be high down the road.

Last week, Obama reiterated his campaign pledge to end the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. He provided no timetable for this goal, however, allowing Congress to defer ac-tion. I doubt legislators gearing up for battles next year are eager to wade into this contro-versial issue.

Never mind that the president might send more troops to Afghanistan, and the military could probably use some of the 13,000 per-sonnel discharged under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” since its implementation. (LGBT issues generate less support with older Americans than with young adults, and seniors are more likely to vote next year. The safe bet is to wait

on ending “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Harry

Reid seems unconcerned about putting off climate change legislation until next year. A climate change bill barely passed in the House of Representatives this summer; it’s hard to believe the Senate will get anything done on this divisive issue during an election year.

Even Obama, not up for reelection until 2012, appears unwilling to put himself on the line for what he knows is a critical cause. Many diplomats are concerned that if the United States fails to act domestically, this year’s U.N. Conference on Climate Change will not pro-duce a meaningful international agreement essential to stemming global warming.

It will be our generation that suffers for failing to act on climate change, not leaders in Washington or older Americans. It is sad that our elected officials are unwilling to take politi-cal risks when confronted with an issue that requires powerful leadership to be solved.

Politicians are in the business of getting reelected, however, something that young people must recognize before assigning them all the blame. As long as we continue to exert little political power, voting in low numbers and lacking organization, politicians will gladly avoid the tough choices critical for our future in favor of the easy ones that assure them reelection.

dan davidson ’11 is a political science and music concentrator from

Atlanta, georgia. He can be reached at daniel_davidson@brown.edu

A bad year for the millennial Generation

We lack the electoral clout to refocus the debate in Washington on issues that affect our future.

dAN dAVIdSONopinions coluMnist

wedneSday, octoBer 14, 2009 page 8

Today 35

chem lab stabbing at UcLA

No lions, but Tigers shut out Bears

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51/ 33

today, octoBer 14

11 am — Seasonal Flu clinics, Jo’s

6:30 pm — “The Environmental crisis

in Haiti: A growing Threat,” Joukowsky

Forum

tomorrow, octoBer 15

2:30 pm — A Reading by Novelist

daniel Alarcón, Mccormack Family

Theater

4 pm — “The constitution(s) of In-

digenous Identity in Latin America,”

Wilson 102

ACROSS1 Made a

disapprovingsound

6 Witticism10 Highlander14 Cop __: bargain

in court15 Healing plant16 Oregon Treaty

president17 Trembling18 Having all one’s

marbles19 Word processing

reversal20 Big Southwestern

trombones?23 Ending for “ranch”24 Neither Rep. nor

Dem.25 Thing27 Madame, in

Madrid30 Wide shoe size31 Geese flight

pattern32 Actress Greer

who received fiveconsecutiveOscarnominations

35 At the ready37 Refined

trombones?40 Made on a loom41 Imitation42 Med or law

lead-in43 Command ctrs.45 Musical beat49 Wells’s “The

Island of Dr. __”51 Fill with wonder53 Jr.’s son54 Continuously-

playingtrombones?

58 Clenchedweapon

59 Mechanicalmemorization

60 Remark to theaudience

61 To __: perfectly62 Sporty sunroof63 Baseball card

brand64 Wall St.’s “Big

Board”

65 Clownish66 Shore birds

DOWN1 Samples a bit of2 Ball3 Loud auto honker

of yore4 “__ mouse!”5 Weekly septet6 Argonauts’ leader7 Large antelope8 Tune9 Dainty laugh

10 Sudden gushing11 Conspires (with)12 Octogenarians,

e.g.13 Boxing ref’s

decision21 Whopper

creators22 Lord’s Prayer

words following“Thy will bedone”

26 Thus far28 Eye unsubtly29 Drizzly day

chapeau30 Some pass

catchers33 Women

34 Above, in poems36 Slow-moving, as

a river37 Penetrable

quality of skin38 Makes a cliché

of, say39 Exposed40 Typist’s stat.44 Crystalline

mineral46 More petite

47 Like eggs in anEaster hunt

48 Skinflints50 Big name in

perfumery51 Dramatist

Chekhov52 Tearful55 Letter after theta56 Drift, as an aroma57 Shipwreck site58 Air mover

By Charles Barasch(c)2009 Tribune Media Services, Inc. 10/14/09

10/14/09

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

RELEASE DATE– Wednesday, October 14, 2009

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

xwordeditor@aol.com

cabernet voltaire | Abe Pressman

dot comic | Eshan Mitra and Brendan Hainline

hippomaniac | Mat Becker

Sharpe reFectory

lunch — Buffalo chicken Wings with

Bleu cheese dressing, Falafel in Pita,

Vegetarian Reuben Sandwich

dinner — garden Style Baked Scrod,

couscous croquettes with cider Pepper

Sauce, Vegan Rice Pilaf

verney-woolley dining hall

lunch — chicken Fajitas, Vegan Black

Bean Tacos, Mexican Succotash

dinner — cilantro chicken, Mexican

cornbread casserole, Herb Rice

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