M O N D A Y JANUARY 31, 2005
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Volume CXL, No. 4 A THEATER FEAST Cannibalism, men in dresses, and really long words: Sock & Buskin, P.W. will “Measure” up this season A R T S & C U LT U R E 3
WINTER OF OUR BOREDOM Joshua Lerner ’07: Brown should give its students something to learn in January OPINIONS
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CAGERS IN SYNC In first full Ivy weekend, m. and w. basketball teams both beat back the Tigers but drop the Penn S P O R T S 12
TODAY
TOMORROW
mostly sunny 33/ 12
sunny 36 / 15
Rubida ’05 ‘Never Quit’
Ben Folds to play Spring Weekend, BCA confirms
BY BEN MILLER SPORTS EDITOR
Lawrence William Rubida ’05 passed away at 2:30 a.m. on Saturday after a nine-month battle with an aggressive form of bone cancer. He was 23 years old. “He had a lot of friends and loved life,” said football Head Coach Phil Estes. “He really was one of the guys that loved to stick up for the little guy. He really felt that if he believed in something, he would stand up for what his values were.” “On the field, if you could have 11 Lawrence Rubidas on either side of the ball you would win every game,” said former teammate Brent Grinna ’04. “He didn’t allow you to ever take a day off. He was no-nonsense all the time. He never lost that drive to win.” Rubida’s drive and determination helped him both on the football field, where he earned second team All-Ivy status in 2002, and in the classroom, where he concentrated in political science and psychology. He was also a loyal friend — always honest, upfront and willing to do anything for those to whom he was close. “One of the biggest things to me was the kind of friend he was,” said former teammate Dan Startsman ’02.5. “The spring break of his junior year … Lawrence just popped in his car and drove out to see me (in Ohio). That’s one of those things that just touch me. He gave up his spring break and came out here just because he hadn’t seen me in a while.” Startsman spent nearly two weeks in January with Rubida at his home in Arlington, Va. The two ate Chinese food and Egg McMuffins, both of which Rubida loved, and just hung out, playing video games, watching movies, but most importantly, playing cards. “We were just doing the things he liked to do,” Startsman said. “We played rummy for hours at a time.” Rubida was diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer, in May
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Lawrence Rubida ’05 was an All-Ivy football player as well as a double-concentrator in policitcal science and psychology. 2004. He began treatment at Stanford University’s Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital. Back in Providence, the team formed the Lawrence Rubida Trust to help offset the enormous cost of Rubida’s treatment and raise money for further research into Ewing’s sarcoma. The trust was formally unveiled in an emotional ceremony during halftime of the Harvard game Sept. 25. The
team also announced it had raised $25,000 as a starting contribution. Other Ivy League teams continued to chip in throughout the season. In December the team started selling brown bracelets engraved with the words “Never Quit,” similar to the popular “LiveStrong” bracelets. The proceeds from see RUBIDA, page 4
Piano rocker Ben Folds will play at Spring Weekend this year, Brown Concert Agency Chair Randi Siegel ’05 said Friday. Folds, who has toured without any accompanying musicians recently, will play with a backup band on the Main Green Saturday, April 23. Because BCA does not yet know its final budget, Folds is the only act booked so far, Siegel said. While Spring Weekend will consist of its usual Thursday and Saturday shows, BCA may only book four acts instead of six this year. “We don’t want to spread ourselves too thin and end up with acts nobody’s ever heard of,” Siegel said. Folds will cost $35,000 plus backline, which means BCA will need to supply instruments for Folds and his band. In total, Folds’ performance should cost about $40,000, Siegel said. BCA typically waits until the entire weekend’s lineup is booked before making an announcement, but Siegel confirmed Folds’ appearance to The Herald when the date appeared on Folds’ Web site. A similar situation occurred last year when Bela Fleck and the Flecktones put Spring Weekend on their tour dates page. The April 23 date comes three days before the release of “Songs for Silverman,” Folds’ first full-length studio album since 2001. Since then, Folds has released a live album and three five-song EPs. Folds had his first commercial success as part of Ben Folds Five. The band’s biggest success was 1997’s “Whatever and Ever Amen,” which featured the hit single “Brick.” The show will come at the end of a string of college dates for Folds, who last weekend had scheduled dates at Duke University, Dickinson College and Syracuse University. — Herald Staff Reports Spring weekends past, page 4
With university parking cuts, students turn to safeRIDE BY STEPHEN NARAIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
More Brown students are using safeRIDE and Rhode Island mass transit as alternatives to driving, according to recent ridership statistics from the Transportation Office. Decreased University parking combined with increased student familiarity with the safeRIDE program has led to increased student usage in the past year, according to Abigail Rider, director of real estate and administrative services. “SafeRIDE ridership has increased across the board,” Rider said. “Riders now understand how these services work (and) are more comfortable in using them.” Last semester, the week ending Nov. 14 saw a peak of over 6,000 rides for all safeRIDE services. SafeRIDE onCall, which arranges rides from Brown and Rhode Island School of Design campus buildings to a rider’s offcampus residence in the prescribed coverage area, peaked at 1,698 rides for the week ending Dec. 12 compared to 932 rides that same time last year. RISD students made
up 60 percent of those riders. RISD pays its share of onCall’s cost based on the proportion of RISD student use. The BrownMed/Downcity service has seen ridership increase five-fold since more shuttles became available between 1-3 a.m. In addition to serving Brown’s hospital affiliations, this route transports students to Kennedy Plaza, Ship Street and the Jewelry District. With increased use, the Transportation Office is working to ensure that wait times, especially in winter, are kept at a minimum. “We monitor where we are getting rides to and from,” Rider said. “There is a tremendous demand and we have to continuously re-evaluate our coverage area.” Beginning last semester, Brown’s subsidy of RIPTIK ticket packs for Rhode Island Public Transit Authority buses allowed half-price bus fares for Brown students, faculty and other staff. Subsidies increased ridership by 250 percent, according to an advertisement placed in
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see SAFERIDE, page 4
Juliana Wu / Herald
Increased safeRIDE ridership is a result of restricted on-campus parking and improved shuttle accessibility.
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