M O N D A Y SEPTEMBER 29, 2003
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Volume CXXXVIII, No. 81
An independent newspaper serving the Brown community since 1891
Some students cite problems with safeRIDE
ARTS & CULTURE
Art and activism meet in ‘Artstorm’
BY MONIQUE MENESES AND JULIETTE WALLACK
Though administrators say the professionally run safeRIDE system has been up and running smoothly for several weeks, some students aren’t so sure. Students complained of escort and shuttle drivers who are unfamiliar with the campus and surrounding College Hill area and additional confusion over when and where the shuttle stops. According to Abigail Rider, director of real estate and administrative services, there were “minor glitches” during the first few weeks of professional shuttle service. But she said integrating the shuttle drivers fully into the Brown community will take time. The confusion is partly a result of a change in dispatch procedure that has limited communication between dispatchers and shuttle drivers, according to dispatch operations coordinator Cisco Dilg ’04. In previous years, student dispatchers were in constant contact with both shuttle and escort drivers. Now, he said, “we actually don’t dispatch the shuttles. We used to check on the shuttles,” but the University’s switch to professional drivers from Road Island Red was accompanied by some other changes, including the change in dispatch procedure. That means that students who call the dispatch center trying to figure out when the next shuttle will arrive at a stop can’t get answers from the dispatchers easily. Dilg said he’s currently working to resolve the communication problem with Bob McAllister, coordinator and supervisor of safeRIDE for Road Island Red, the company that contracts drivers to Brown. In addition to uncertainty about each shuttle’s location, some students have doubts as to the drivers’ familiarity with the campus. The shuttle drivers’ “lack of knowledge” prevented Brookes Brown ’04 from taking the shuttle home to Minden Hall from the Rock a few weeks ago, she said. She said the shuttle driver she approached didn’t know where Minden or the SciLi was. When she asked to see a copy of the route he was taking, she noticed it didn’t cover the Minden/SciLi area at all. “He said there was another shuttle that could take me there, but he couldn’t even tell me where it was,” Brown said. Brown said she hasn’t taken safeRIDE since that night. “It seems silly to me to take it and it seems faster to walk,” she said. Nathan Lovejoy ’06 said the new professional drivers who replaced student drivers at the beginning of this year don’t know the Brown campus well. “They should just make the drivers know Brown better,” Lovejoy said. Dilg said he couldn’t comment on the shuttle drivers’ campus knowledge since he doesn’t have radio communication with them on a regular basis, but he said escort drivers are steadily improving at navigating the campus. see SAFERIDE, page 8
BY DANIELLE CERNY
Sara Perkins / Herald
Summer laboratory renovations are near completion for the Metcalf Chemistry Lab building on Thayer St.
Herald poll finds about half of students feel safe Just over half of students feel safe on campus, a poll conducted at The Herald last week has revealed. Of 277 undergraduates asked Sept. 23 to Sept. 25 their response to the statement “I feel safe on campus,” 44.7 percent said they “strongly disagreed,” “disagreed” or “somewhat agreed.” The rest either “agreed” or “strongly agreed” with the statement. The Herald-Undergraduate Council of Students poll was conducted in the wake of several assaults on or near campus, including a Sept. 6 attack on a female Brown student that is being investigated as a homophobic incident. Women reported that they feel less safe than men, with 58.1 percent of female students responding with “somewhat agreed” or a less favorable answer. Only 30.9 percent of male students gave similar answers. The Herald also polled student opinion of President Ruth Simmons. More than two years into her time at Brown, 68.2 percent of students approve or strongly approve of how Simmons has handled her job as president. Of the remaining students polled, 22.7 percent said they somewhat approved, disapproved or strongly disapproved of the president, and 9 percent had no opinion or were undecided. Simmons’ approval rating was almost identical among male and female students,
“I feel safe on campus.”
The poll had a margin of error of six percent, with 277 respondents during the period of Sept. 23-25. with 68.1 percent of female students and 69.2 percent of male students approving or strongly approving. Opinion was mixed as to whether Simmons takes student opinion into account when making decisions. Of students polled, 41.5 percent agreed or strongly agreed, while 45.1 percent somewhat agreed or disagreed when asked the question. The remainder — 13.4 percent of students polled — were undecided or had no opinion on the issue. The margin of error for the poll was six percent. —Herald staff reports
I N S I D E M O N D AY, S E P T E M B E R 2 9 , 2 0 0 3 Students form Artstorm, a group promoting creative solidarity for social change arts and culture,page 3
www.browndailyherald.com
Arjun Iyengar ’05 addresses the pros and cons of genetically modified foods column,page 11
Events to encourage school spirit may not be in line with Brown, says YoungSmith ’06 column, page 11
The Brown campus has a new forum for social activism, thanks to the collision of public art and public awareness. The appropriately named Artstorm is a collaboration of activists and artists in creative solidarity for social change that launched with the start of the school year. Artstorm organized a reaction to the World Trade Organization’s meetings in Cancun, Mexico, only two weeks after school began. The group arranged an interactive installation with chalk for students to respond to the negotiations and the suicide of Lee Kyang Hae, the former head of South Korea’s federation of farmers, who killed himself as a demonstration of disgust toward the WTO’s policies, Vanessa Huang ’06 told The Herald. “It was a beautiful space,” she said, “that was washed away the next day by rain.” Scott Linford ’07 said the merging of art and activism “was something that always occurred to people in the back of their minds, so the formation of the group just naturally happened.” The members of the group include poets, dancers, visual artists, musicians, freestylers, actors and puppeteers, but no artistic background is needed to get involved, Linford said. The only requirement is a desire to learn and evoke change. “It’s for anyone interested in activism or art, or who just wants to learn about the social issues of today,” Linford said. Members of Artstorm said they hope to continue the group’s initiatives for global justice and against racism and intolerance. The group plans to organize a teach-in party in late October or early November concerning the Free Trade Area for the Americas, which will be meeting Nov. 20 in Miami to discuss the expansion of NAFTA in the Western hemisphere. The teach-in will include music and freestyle hip-hop, so “people can come and have a good time while learning how to get involved,” Linford said. Currently, about 50 members of the Brown community make up Artstorm, Huang said. Though the group is focusing much of its energy on future events, Linford said, Artstorm expects its on-campus visibility will grow and attract additional members. Herald senior staff writer Danielle Cerny ’06 can be reached at dcerny@browndailyherald.com.
TO D AY ’ S F O R E C A S T M. soccer loses to URI with four minutes left but defeats Sacred Heart for 4-2 record sports, page 12
Harvard defeats field hockey in biggest game to date, bringing the team’s record to 5-2 sports, page 12
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