W E D N E S D A Y OCTOBER 30, 2002
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Volume CXXXVII, No. 102
An independent newspaper serving the Brown community since 1891
www.browndailyherald.com
U.postpones decision on pluses and minuses until 2003 BY AKSHAY KRISHNAN
A decision on incorporating pluses and minuses into the University’s grading scheme will not be made until next semester, the College Curriculum Council announced at its Tuesday meeting. Dean of the College Paul Armstrong said the CCC’s first two meetings of next semester, on Jan. 28 and Feb. 11, will examine the question of pluses and minuses. “At our first meeting, we will have with us Professor Bernard Reginster, who with the support of the Sheridan Center conducted a survey on faculty attitude toward grading,” Armstrong said. “He will discuss his findings with the council.” Armstrong said one of the meetings would include the participation of various faculty members. “We will also have with us Rebecca More, the director of the Sheridan Center, see GRADES, page 4
Watson lecturer calls for pacifist response to terrorism BY MONIQUE MENESES
University of Rochester Professor Robert Holmes compared President George Bush to Osama bin Laden and argued that pacifism, not aggression, will stop terrorism at his lecture Tuesday afternoon at the Watson Institute for International Studies. The “war on terrorism,” he said, is a metaphorical war. “It’s just like a ‘war on poverty,’” Holmes said. Holmes asked why the United States attacked Afghanistan on Oct. 7, 2001. Fifteen out of the 19 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia, most of the planning for the attacks took place in Europe and there was not a single Afghan mentioned in the attack or in the planning phase, he said. “But yet we chose to attack Afghanistan,” he said. “Once you strip away the patriotism and the nationalism, you are left with George Bush on one hand and Osama bin Laden on the other hand,” Holmes said. He said he found similarities in Bush’s and bin Laden’s beliefs.
Oliver Bowers / Herald
An audience member listens to a panel discussion on preserving Native American cultures Tuesday night. A handful of panelists from across the United States came together to stress the importance of taking action to protect existing reservation lands.
Preserving native cultures Native Americans from across the United States stressed the importance of preserving native cultures at a Tuesday discussion BY OLIVER BOWERS
A handful of Native Americans from across the United States converged Tuesday for a panel discussion aimed at nurturing solidarity among individuals of mixed heritage who hail from diverse backgrounds and Indian nations. The panelists encouraged action to preserve native cultures and the remaining reservation lands. “This is not our government — this is our homeland, and these are our nations” said William Yellowrobe, a noted Blackrobe tribe playwright. Yellowrobe spoke to an encircling audience that confirmed his every point with nods and hollers. “We must take the ownership (of our lands) back to the people,” he said. Unity and solidarity were the buzzwords on the floor as men and women, many clad in brilliant cultural garb, swapped stories about their
individual battles in the ongoing struggle to clutch their ebbing cultures and fend off government assaults on Native American lands. “It is important that you in the East let us in the West know that you are alive and well,” Yellowrobe said, addressing the need for combined efforts among Native American peoples and tribes alike. Yellowrobe spoke passionately against what he considered to be the efforts of the government to fracture Native American peoples. “Don’t turn to someone to validate your heart who doesn’t believe in your heart,” Yellowrobe said, condemning national classification and registration of American Indians. “One quarter blood, one eighth blood — it’s like we’re pedigrees … like we’re less than human.” He discussed the “environmental genocide” on his own reservation where streams once used for drinking were polluted by oil from nearby drillers. Yellowrobe also spoke of the government’s recent plan for the superfluous slaughter of approximately 1,000 bison in the Yellowstone area, resources vital to his reservation. Ron Welburn, an African
American, Native American poet and writer at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and one of the circle’s panelists echoed the need for unification. “Go out and meet the (Native American) community,” Welburn urged the younger audience in an effort to foster weakening ties. The audience agreed that deterioration in the flow of information from the elder to the newer generation on methods to protect native lands and culture has endangered Native American communities. The discussion also included accounts of the hardships permeating native sagas of maturing in the United States with Native American blood. “I had grown up with a sense of shame,” Welburn said. “My mother said that when she was growing up, no one wanted to be called an Indian.” But he added, even though “some people think that when you make certain turns in your life, you have to give things up … you don’t.” In proof of his claims, Welburn affirmed that his penchant for jazz has not diminished his Native American pride. The discussion was sponsored by the Brown multi-racial organization.
see HOLMES, page 7
I N S I D E W E D N E S D AY, O C T O B E R 3 0 , 2 0 0 2 Adaptation of Prof. David Kertzer’s ‘Edgardo Mortara’ hits the stage in Hartford page 3
GIS mapping opens up new doors to creative geographical analysis, researches report page 3
British author Jim Crace tells young writers they need not conform to norms page 5
TO D AY ’ S F O R E C A S T Brett Cohen ’03 says libertarianism serves to benefit the rich only, and no one else column, page 15
Volleyball comes up winless in tough matches against Cornell, Columbia sports, page 16
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