T H U R S D A Y OCTOBER 30, 2003
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Volume CXXXVIII, No. 103
An independent newspaper serving the Brown community since 1891
www.browndailyherald.com
Shuttle system returns to old route plan BY CARLA BLUMENKRANZ
tion was tracking crime in this way and that he would look into making such a map available to students. Greene also told the Council about current efforts to develop two satellite fitness areas on campus by the summer at the latest. Greene is leading administrators concerned with athletics, housing and student life in a UCS-sponsored tour today of prospective residential spaces, including Keeney and Pembroke, that could house small fitness areas. In an update on the Ad Hoc Transportation Management Advisory Committee’s study of on-campus parking, Council member Jason Holman ’04 said parking rates at other schools start in the $400 range. Brown, whose lowest
Once touted as a more comprehensive service suffering from “minor glitches,” the twoloop shuttle system implemented in September will revert back to last year’s oneloop system after delays and confusion about routes dramatically decreased ridership. The two-loop system was a “great idea” that, in practice, didn’t work, said Vice President for Administration Walter Hunter at an Undergraduate Council of Students meeting Wednesday. Few students understood how the routes worked, he said, and those that did found the waits too long to be worthwhile. Since the shuttle reverted to the 12-stop, one-route system Monday, waits have returned to four to five minutes, and ridership has nearly doubled, Hunter said. The next steps in reforming the shuttle system are installing permanent lighting and signage, both expected within the next month, said Abigail Rider, director of real estate and administrative services, and also in attendance at the UCS meeting. Dispatch Coordinator Elisabeth Reinkordt ’05, who formerly coordinated the student-run shuttle service, said the failure of the two-loop system was in part due to the simultaneous transition to professional drivers. The student coordinators who developed the new routes estimated that student drivers could complete them in 10 to 12 minutes, Reinkordt said. But Road Island Red, the outside vendor that implemented the two-loop system, gave their drivers 20 minutes to complete them due to liability concerns. “They added a lot more stretch time than we expected,” Reinkordt said, and, as a result, students often waited at stops for 15 to 20 minutes. A second problem with the way the new system was implemented was the lack of publicity, Reinkordt said. This, too, could have been avoided if students had maintained control of the shuttle service, she said, since they know how to publicize on campus.
see UCS, page 7
see SAFERIDE, page 4
Stefania Frangista / Herald
Ballroom: Angie Chen '04, president of the Brown Ballroom Dance Team, directs team practice in Sayles Hall. The team is heading to the University of Connecticut competition this weekend and competed at Harvard last weekend.
UCS pushes for UCS recommends safeRIDE, int’l need-blind safety changes in weekly meeting admission BY KRISTA HACHEY
BY MERYL ROTHSTEIN
Brown is a need-blind institution — but only for Americans and permanent residents. International students, who make up roughly 10 percent of Brown’s student body, are not admitted under a needblind policy. The Undergraduate Council of Students wants to change that. UCS’ Admissions and Student Services committee could present a resolution to the Council as soon as next week asking the University to make need-blind admission for international students a concrete goal, said Ilena Frangista ’06, sophomore representative for UCS and member of the committee. Frangista said she realizes it will be difficult to achieve such an expensive endeavor in the very near future, given the University’s current budget constraints. Need-blind admission for international students would cost the University roughly $2 million to $2.5 million, said Director of Financial Aid Michael Bartini. This figure is only an estimate, and the cost could easily exceed that number, he said. But with the capital campaign underway, need-blind admission for international students “could become a reality,” said UCS Treasurer Thilakshani Dias ’05, who also serves on the Undergraduate Finance Board. Achieving need-blind admission could be on the agenda of the College Advisory Board, a faculty committee to be created in the spring that will advise the administration, said Director of Admission see FINANCIAL AID, page 6
Discussions of recent crimes on campus, ongoing student life projects and, briefly, the urgent need for “UCS quality fun-time bowling” marked the Undergraduate Council of Students’ Wednesday night meeting. Vice President for Administration Walter Hunter told the Council about recent improvements to the safeRIDE shuttle route, ones that have long been cited as a way to decrease crime on the campus periphery. “I went to the stop at the Third World Center to see how the new system is working,” Hunter said. “Every four to five minutes a bus stopped by, and the first one returned to the stop after 21 minutes. Since the changes were implemented, we have seen the number of riders double.” UCS acknowledged the progress made by the reversion to a one-route system but reinforced the need for further refinement by generating a short list of concerns, which included poor lighting, long waits and lack of student awareness, to stimulate discussion. Dialogue progressed to general community concerns, centering largely on on-campus crime and security. Ryan Roth ’04, a student who attended the meeting, proposed the creation of maps displaying campus crime patterns that would be available to the community. “I think students would benefit from a visual representation of where crime is happening on campus,” he said. “If a map of some sort were made available, I know I would probably change my walk route to decrease risks.” Interim Vice President for Campus Life and Student Services David Greene said at the meeting that the administra-
Two evening crimes extend wave Two more robberies occurred near campus Tuesday night, bringing the total number of serious incidents in October to five. A female student walking at 10:42 p.m. at the intersection of Brown and Charlesfield streets was approached from behind by a man who tried to take her bag. He pushed the student to the ground and ran off with her bag. The student had an abrasion on her right hand and forearm, but refused medical treatment. The student described her attacker as 5’4” with short, dark hair, a thin build and clean shaven, wearing a dark crewneck sweater and light pants. After
I N S I D E T H U R S D AY, O C T O B E R 3 0 , 2 0 0 3 RISD plans to build center to connect school’s Museum to students risd news, page 3
Students establish joke-to-real organization for lost internationals page 3
Southerners and others defend Confederate flag from views in column letters, page 9
stealing her bag, he got into a white van with Rhode Island plates containing at least two other people and fled east on George Street. The Department of Public Safety was then notified of an attempted robbery at 10:20 p.m. of a woman at Benefit and Jenks streets involving the same suspect and white van, which the woman described as having a red interior. Both DPS and the Providence Police have added extra patrols to the campus area. Anyone with information about either of these incidents should contact the Brown University Police Detective Unit. —Herald staff reports
TO D AY ’ S F O R E C A S T Rachel Marshall ’04 says partial-birth abortions don’t technically exist column, page 11
M. water polo loses three in Calif. tourney before Northern Championship sports, page 12
rain/wind high 62 low 40