W E D N E S D A Y FEBRUARY 16, 2005
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Volume CXL, No. 16
www.browndailyherald.com
An independent newspaper serving the Brown community since 1891
SPLITSVILLE Command performance by injured grappler Mike Pedro ’06 pins a win in a tough weekend S P O R T S 12
Admission office, athletics cooperate to find student-althetes who balance work and gameplay FOCUS 3
TODAY
TOMORROW
showers 52 / 27
sunny 38 / 17
Professors embrace ‘smart’ classrooms BY ELIZA LANE CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Technologically advanced “smart” classrooms are cropping up on university campuses all over the nation, and Brown is no exception. While a handful of students, faculty and administrators at the University remain doubtful about the potential upside of the costly technology, the majority considers the developments to be a welcome tool that aids the learning process. “These classroom improvements are invaluable,” said Ronald Dunleavy, manager of Media Services at the University. Media Services is responsible for purchasing the new equipment and for installing it in selected classrooms. There are currently 150 smart classrooms sponsored by Media Services, although some argue that the real number is much smaller, around 75. “Smart” is a flexible term that can be used to describe a wide range of classrooms, Dunleavy said. At the low end of the spectrum, smart classrooms feature basic audio-visual equipment: a DVD/VHS combination unit and a data projector. The standard equipment in larger smart classrooms, such as lecture halls and auditoriums, also includes an integrated microphone and sound system. The most impressive smart classrooms on campus — such as those in Sayles Hall and Smith-Buananno — have all the standard equipment, as well as touch-screen panels to control lighting and window shades. Technology found in individual classrooms may also include a video see SMART, page 6
BY BEN LEUBSDORF SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Gabriella Doob / Herald
Professors compete for room assignments in “smart” classrooms such as SmithBuannano 106 that enable them to take advantage of advanced audio-visual technology in their lectures.
Cartoon Network? Fox News? Poll solicits channel replacements BY SONIA SARAIYA CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Answering general complaints about unpopular “educational” channels, the Undergraduate Council of Students is conducting a poll to see what channels students would like to see instead, said Brian Bidadi ’06, chair of the UCS Admission and Student Services committee. “UCS wants to substitute two other channels available for more desirable programming,” he said. “Two of the channels are really inadequate for the students. Also, they’re highly replacable,” Bidadi said, referring specifically to the NASA channel and Russian Television Network. He cited the availability of NASA content online, which he said renders the present channel unnecessary. Bidadi said he thinks students are more interested in channels such as Cartoon Network, the Discovery or History channels, Fox News and the New England Sports Network, which according to Bidadi would be popular on campus because it carries Boston Red Sox games. Many students agree with Bidadi. Morgan Brewster ’06 and Amanda Parker ’07 both said they would eliminate RTN, and Parker added she would
UCS aims to bring kegs back on campus
also get rid of the NASA channel. “I think we should have a Discovery Channel or a History or (The) Learning Channel … and Cartoon Network. That’s all I watch,” said Nanette Milner ’06. But some professors disagree. RTN is used as part of class assignments for Russian language students, said Svetlana Evdokimova, professor and department chair of Slavic studies. Upon hearing that the replacement would be determined by the students, she said, “The problem is (RTN) is important for students, especially important for concentrators. … We would rather leave it in place.” The NASA channel is important to the Department of Geological Sciences, said Deborah Glavin, coordinator for the Planetary Data Center. The loss would be “catastrophic for us,” she said, because of the University’s standing with NASA as one of nine institutions in the country that shares significant data with NASA for current missions, has a library dedicated to planetary information and offers a Ph.D. in planetary geology. Glavin said the University is the
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C A B L E B OX
Channels already paid for by the University but not currently broadcast to dorms: Bloomberg Television C-SPAN 2 Cartoon Network CNN Headline News ESPNEWS ESPN Classic Fox News Channel Game Show Network Lifetime MTV 2 Nickelodeon TBS USA Network The Weather Channel Source: Computing and Information Services
see CABLE, page 4 195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island
Some students are seeking to restore what many consider an icon of college life after its absence from campus for over a decade. The Undergraduate Council of Students will introduce a resolution today calling for the University to lift the ban on kegs and instead regulate their use on campus. Kegs were banned from campus during the 1990-91 academic year, according to Robin Rose, current director of leadership programs and former dean of campus life. Brian Bidadi ’06, chair of the UCS Admission and Student Services committee, said a draft resolution calling for an end to the ban will be introduced at the UCS meeting tonight and will be debated and voted on Feb. 23. A question about the ban on kegs has been included in the WebCT poll accompanying the instant runoff voting referendum this week. The resolution cites several arguments for allowing kegs on campus, including their lower cost versus canned beer and the environmental benefits of drinkers using one cup versus many cans of beer. The resolution calls for “the University to investigate methods of facilitating safe social events … while giving students the freedom and responsibility of making wise, individual life decisions.” It specifically mentions measures such as marking students’ hands each time they receive a drink from a keg and using a standard 12ounce cup size to help students keep track of the number of drinks they consume. Frances Mantak, director of health education, said there are legitimate health concerns about the use of kegs “because of the way the beer is provided.” She cited the practice of “topping off” a cup as a way students could lose track of the number of drinks they had consumed, and named “keg stands” as a risky behavior that could lead to alcohol poisoning. Mantak said her main concern was that students would feel the need to finish off a keg at the end of a party, leading to greater and perhaps unsafe alcohol consumption. Rose said concern about students losing track of their alcohol consumption when drinking from kegs was the main force behind the ban. Kegs are “unsafe,” Mantak said, and are “banned or closely regulated at most college campuses.” Bidadi argued that even though kegs have remained available at off-campus parties not regulated by the University, no Brown student has ever died of alcoholrelated causes, which he attributed in part to the work of Brown Emergency Medical Services. He also said concerns about kegs representing a source of cheap bulk alcohol, which experts say is linked to binge drinking and alcohol poisoning, are moot in the face of University regulations allowing registered parties to serve punch up to 80 proof, equivalent to many hard liquors. “It’s almost hypocritical of the administration to allow one and not the other,” Bidadi said. The resolution text notes that see KEGS, page 4 News tips: herald@browndailyherald.com
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
THIS MORNING WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2005 · PAGE 2 Coreacracy Eddie Ahn
O N T H I S D AT E 1878 — Brown’s “New Library,” now known as the economics department’s Robinson Hall, was dedicated. The next day, Bagster’s Polyglot Bible was introduced as the first book in this library.
1974 — Led by Sara Diedrick ’76, the Brown women’s basketball team participated in one of the first women’s athletic events at the Providence Civic Center when they faced Providence College. The Bruins would finish 13-1 that year. Source: Encyclopedia Brunoniana
TO D AY ’ S E V E N TS THE LOGIC OF VIOLENCE IN CIVIL WAR 4 p.m. (McKinney Conference Room, Watson Institute) — With Stathis Kalyvas, professor of political science and director of the Program on Order, Conflict, and Violence at Yale University. Presented by the Colloquium on Comparative Research. ANCIENT STUDIES LECTURE 7:30-9 p.m. (Smith-Buonanno 106) — Frederick Smith of the University of Iowa will give a talk on "The Permeable Self and the Impermeable Household in Classical India" with collaboration of Peter Scharf, senior lecturer in classics.
DATE RAPE DRUGS AND HOW TO HELP A FRIEND WHO’S BEEN SEXUALLY ASSAULTED 7-8p.m. (Arnold Lounge) — Frances Mantak, director of health education, will lead a discussion on recognizing the symptoms of date rape drugs, understanding the impact of sexual assault and sexual abuse and the best ways to help a friend who's been hurt by sexual violence.
Jero Matt Vascellaro
Penguiener Haan Lee
MENU SHARPE REFECTORY LUNCH — Hot Corned Beef on Rye Barley Pilaf, Cauliflower, Green Beans and Peppers, Frosted Cookie Squares, Hot Roast Beef Sandwich.
VERNEY-WOOLLEY DINING HALL LUNCH — Vegetarian Cheese Soup, Ham and Bean Soup, Pizza Supper Pie, Vegan Roasted Vegetable Burritos, Mexican Corn, Frosted Cookie Squares.
DINNER — Baked Stuffed Pollock, Red Rice, Savory Spinach, Zucchini, Carrot and Garlic Medley, Hearth Bread, Strawberry Jello, Black and White Pudding Cake, Chicken Cacciatore.
DINNER — Vegetarian Cheese Soup, Ham and Bean Soup, Pork Loin with Green Apple Dressing, Vegetable Frittata, Risotto Primavera, Whole Green Beans, Stewed Tomatoes, Hearth Bread, Black and White Pudding Cake.
Chocolate Covered Cotton Mark Brinker
CROSSWORD ACROSS 1 Aiming aid 6 Rural storage 10 Whirl around 14 Reacts to bad news, maybe 15 Bassinet alternative 16 Golden Fleece craft 17 Illicit memory aid 19 Whispers sweet nothings to 20 Home of the Mighty Ducks 21 Hamper filler 23 Author Bombeck 24 Cottonseed product 25 Gun introduced in 1941 28 Spy’s concern 34 “I appreciate that,” in e-mail 35 TV cartoon therapist Dr. __ 36 Officially withdraw 37 Witherspoon of “Sweet Home Alabama” 39 Avoid the ads 41 South African coins 42 Finally succeed 44 “Friends” friend 46 Seven-member Mideast fed. 47 Killjoy 49 Slug ending 50 “Exodus” hero 51 Traveler to Oz 53 Old West action, to Clint Eastwood 57 Neat as a pin 61 Handed-down knowledge 62 Hodgepodge 64 Look closely 65 Crosby partner 66 Like a modest ’ome 67 Close with force 68 Fulda tributary 69 Country road features DOWN 1 Humane org.
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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2005 · PAGE 3
Studentathletes face stereotypes in and out of classroom BY LOIS SALDANA CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Brown may not always be at the forefront of college sports fans’ minds, but with a student population comprised of 14 to 16 percent recruited players in addition to dozens of walk-ons, the Brown community certainly boasts its share of studentathletes. Playing on a sports team poses unique challenges to students. In addition to facing the normal challenges of college life, they also confront jock stereotypes and time management issues. Combating the Jock Stereotype Elvina Kung ’05, who is the co-president of the Student Athlete Advisory Committee and just finished her volleyball career at Brown, believes preconceived notions about athletes sometimes affect their experiences. “I think there are mainly two groups on campus (concerning) the way athletes are perceived,” she said. “There is a group that perceives us as jocks and that we don’t belong here … and that we don’t do anything other than sports.” Kung said she has met people who would “talk crap about athletes” and then reassure her by saying “you’re not one of them.” She said there is another group that “really understands student athletes and that they are not here just because of sports.” According to Kung, most Brown athletes are as concerned with their academics as non-athletes. “If you think about it, this is just the Ivy League and not the Big East,” she said. “Most people who play here are not going to go profes-
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sional.” Kung emphasized that Ivy League students do not receive athletic scholarships. She said athletes are not here to finance their way through college, but to receive a good education while playing a game they have a passion for. Sandra Idehen ’05 also believes there is a stigma surrounding athletes. Idehen was on the women’s basketball team for three years, after walking on as a firstyear. Even though she enjoyed the experience, she said she sometimes felt tension between her teammates and her friends outside of basketball. “They felt some hostility coming to hang out with (me and my teammates),” she said. She said her friends might have felt intimidated by the close relationships her teammates had developed. For some in the sports community, concerns about how others perceive them affect life inside the classroom as well. Kung said some athletes never admit to a professor that they play a sport because they think it will be frowned upon. Not all student athletes believe that jock stereotypes are a problem at the University. Softball player Courtney Jenkins ’07 said she doesn’t think they are an issue at an academically rigorous school such as Brown. “We all have a common bond,” she said. “We are ultimately all
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here to learn.” Jenkins’ story illustrates the importance many athletes at Brown place on a stimulating intellectual environment. Drawn to the academic opportunities here, she took the initiative in “recruiting” herself. As a high school junior, Jenkins made the initial contact by sending out letters that detailed her stats and the awards she won, even going so far as to send in a video of one of her softball games. She was ecstatic about being accepted by her first choice, Brown. Chazz Woodson ’05, a member of the lacrosse team, also said the general stereotype of jocks, while sometimes applicable at other schools, doesn’t hold true for Brown. According to Woodson, although athletes at other schools might not have to work as hard, at Brown everyone must meet the same standards, athlete or not. Like Jenkins, he was attracted to Brown’s academic prestige. As a prospective student, he believed that “playing for an Ivy League school was significantly better than playing at (a school like) Delaware.” Striving for Balance Another challenge facing student athletes is the ability to juggle their team, class and social obligations. For Nick Hartigan ’06, a running back for the football team, “It was tough balancing at first … but it got better” after his first year.
Coaches and Admission Office work together to select athletes BY STEPHANIE CLARK FOCUS EDITOR
Before student-athletes begin their careers at Brown, most are introduced to the University through the long and involved recruiting process. While prospective athletes consider their options about where to matriculate, a complicated process is set in motion that involves coaches, admission officers and the students themselves. Coaches begin the recruiting process by identifying noteworthy players as early as the student’s sophomore or junior year of high school. Although Ivy League regulations prohibit phone calls to prospective recruits until their senior year of high school, coaches sometimes send letters to the athletes they’re considering, encouraging them to consider Brown long before that, according to men’s crew Head Coach Paul Cooke. Coaches use many methods to identify these target recruits including establishing relationships with high school coaches, paying attention to certain national events in the sport and continuing to track the progress of each target athlete, both academically as well as athletically. The recruiting process can begin with as many as 200 targeted athletes, a number which is naturally narrowed down as the process continues. Men’s basketball
Head Coach Glen Miller said he usually focuses on around 20 “finalists” to convince to come to Brown, whereas Cooke said recruits usually account for anywhere from eight to 12 members of the first-year team. Recruits are then brought to Brown, where they spend time touring the school and city. This year, the men’s basketball team boasts players from all over the United States and the world. “I can’t pinpoint one area where we continually attract kids from. We’re just trying to find the best student-athletes we can — best student-basketball players we can — no matter where they’re from,” Miller said. Once coaches have identified the players they would like to have on their teams the following year, they bring a list of names to the Admission Office. The coach and an administrator meet to discuss the player’s credentials and likelihood of getting into Brown. Usually, the coaches and the Admission Office seem
to agree on the viability of candidates. “I think our coaches do a nice job,” said Director of Admission Michael Goldberger. “We really don’t deal with them pushing for candidates who shouldn’t be here.” Similarly, Cooke said the coaches tend to trust the decisions made by the Admission Office. “Admissions does a really good job of telling us who will do well and who won’t. If Brown doesn’t think they’ll fit in, we don’t want them here,” he said. While athletic prowess can enhance a candidate’s application, like other skills it does not solely determine acceptance, Goldberger said. “We love people who are good at things,” he said, but he added that if players presented to the Admission Office by coaches are not good candidates, they won’t be accepted. With Ivy League regulations requiring all accepted student-athletes to be “generally representative of the student body,”
Woodson agrees that the transition between high school and college sports is not easy. “Between the running, the workouts and practice … it is a much larger time commitment,” he said. Jenkins credits her experience playing softball in helping her learn how to organize her schedule. “When you have a more rigorous schedule,” she said, “you know when you need to work. You learn to balance through basic time management.” Some athletes choose to end their sports careers in order to re-balance their time commitments. After deciding to stop playing basketball this year, Idehen was initially concerned about how she would spend the extra time. But Idehen said the change was easier than she thought it would be. She now has enough time to have a job as well as participate in campus activities in which she could not take part in the past because of practice. Also, she has been able to maintain her friendships with her former teammates. “My relationships are the same,” she said. “The people I was closest to (on the team), I am still very close with.” Ashley Bernius ’06 made a similar decision. She had been playing forward for the women’s basketball team for two years before deciding that it was best to pursue other activities. “I had lost passion for the sport,” she said. “I have found out that I am generally much happier (since leaving the team). … I have more time to do other things.” It was not an easy choice for Bernius, who had been playing basketball regularly since the age of 5. “It was the toughest decision of my life. … The talk with my coach was tough. I knew I was disappointing her but she supported me … and that was consoling,” she said. “You have to set your priorities,” Kung said. She said for many athletes, social life takes up much less time when they’re in season. But she said she thinks it is important that athletes make the most of their time when they can. “There is so much you can learn through life experiences in general,” she said.
there are usually other reasons for athletes to be here besides sports. The Ivy League is the o n l y D i v i s i o n I c o n f e re n c e t h a t d o e s n’t o f f e r a t h l e t i c scholarships, which deters some student-athletes with offers from other schools from matriculating. On the other hand, that also proves the dedication of the student-athletes who do matriculate to Brown. “Despite the value or power of an Ivy League education, they still have to be able to afford it,” Miller said, which can be “pretty daunting when you can go to another school for free.” The lack of athletic scholarships also has an effect on the retention rate of recruited athletes, according to Miller. Whereas recruited athletes at other schools might not leave their sport for fear of losing a scholarship, this doesn’t apply at Brown — sometimes resulting in a higher attrition rate, Miller said. He said many athletes who don’t plan on playing professionally choose to pursue other interests as opposed to athletics during their time at Brown. Cooke agreed. “It’s up to the athletes. We want a commitment from the guys … but in the end it’s a decision they have to make,” he said. Once the team is formed and has begun practicing, there is sometimes a divide between recruited players and walk-ons, Cooke said. While it can be hard for walk-ons even when the coaches try to encourage an inclusive environment, “it’s not a place where you’re trying to cater to everybody, it’s a place where we’re trying to promote excellence,” Cooke said.
PAGE 4 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2005
Cable continued from page 1 “premier place in New England for space information,” and department faculty and students “rely pretty heavily” on the channel. The possible loss of the channel would be “devastating (and) detrimental,” she said. The department will soon have “people here overnight to watch” the Deep Impact mission and often invites school groups that don’t have their own satellite dish to watch the channel at the University. “It’s a big deal for us to lose that,” Glavin said. NASA provided funding for some of the original Brown satellite dishes, she said, and there is an implied deal to continue showing the NASA channel in support of that contribution. “It would be terrible,” said Nancy Christy, coordinator of geological sciences. The department keeps track of Brown alums and faculty involved in NASA missions, she said. Christy said she watches the missions with the department. “Everybody watches,” she added. The University pays for 22 cable channels because cable programming is sold in categorical packages, such as a news package of various news channels, rather than by individual channel. However, the University has the infrastructure to display only eight of those along with broadcast and educational channels. The eight
Kegs continued from page 1 “students have been responsible enough to function even in the face of” easily available highproof punch. Chris Guhin ’05, chair of the Greek Council, agreed that kegs should be allowed on campus, though he said the University would be justified in regulating kegs, perhaps by only allowing them at registered social events. “The Greek Council would like the freedom to use kegs during our parties,” he said, calling it “mostly a value (and) convenience issue,” as kegs are cheaper
presently on air were determined in a UCS referendum in March of 2000, said Kara Kelley, director of personal technology services at Computing and Information Services. The 14 channels the University receives but does not broadcast include Cartoon Network, ESPN Classic and Fox News as well as more obscure choices like Game Show Network and Bloomberg Television. The easiest way to change the channels available, according to both Kelley and Bidadi, would be to switch a current channel with one already paid for. While this change would still require the purchase of new equipment, any long-term upgrades to the network that could add either more channels or more expensive channels, such as HBO, would cost the University much more money. Bidadi estimated a nominal fee, but Kelley said any overhaul of the infrastructure to increase channel capacity would cost “half a million dollars,” a cost that is “way too intensive” for a relatively small change. Bidadi said the cost of funding could also be offset by canvassing alums and former students such as CNN founder Ted Turner. The poll is being held on WebCT through Friday along with the UCS referendum for instant runoff voting. Bidadi said CIS made a commitment to change the cable lineup if UCS conducts a student poll. “Change is very possible,” he said.
and easier to transport than many cans of beer. But one administrator appeared skeptical of the efforts to lift the ban on kegs. “It’s hard for me to imagine compelling arguments for reintroducing kegs to campus,” said David Greene, vice president for campus life and student services. Greene said he had not yet seen the UCS resolution, but that the issue will probably be handled by a new subcommittee currently being formed from the Campus Life Advisory Board “to look at our alcohol policies” in general. But “the overriding priority (in any discussion) would be the safety of students on campus,” Greene said.
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
WORLD & NATION WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2005 · PAGE 5
Senate unanimously confirms Homeland’s Chertoff Stewart, Comedy BY MARY CURTIUS LOS ANGELES TIMES
WASHINGTON — The Senate on Tuesday unanimously confirmed Michael Chertoff as head of the Department of Homeland Security, with lawmakers expressing hope he would forge the troubled agency into a more effective tool in the war on terror. The bipartisan support for President Bush’s second choice for the post reflected a widespread belief that Chertoff — a former prosecutor with a record of taking on mobsters and corporate wrongdoers —will bring a strong hand to the helm of the government’s newest Cabinet-level department. “I think he is well-qualified to be secre-
tary,” said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich. It was Levin, however, who held up the confirmation for a week while demanding that the administration hand over a secret FBI memo on interrogations of detainees at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, written while Chertoff was head of the Justice Department’s criminal division. Republicans said the memo was irrelevant. Levin’s move — and the Republican anger at it — underscored the partisan tensions on Capitol Hill between the Republican majority and the Democratic minority since the start of the new session on several issues, including the nominations of key members of Bush’s
second-term Cabinet. Republicans have accused Democrats of unfairly dragging out the confirmations of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, whom many Democrats faulted for his role in the fashioning the administration’s policy on interrogations, and of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, whom Democrats took to task for the administration’s failure to plan for post-war Iraq. In Chertoff’s case, Democrats did not question his qualifications for the job of transforming the sprawling Homeland Security Department — composed of 22 see CHERTOFF, page 8
Mush puppies: Dog sleds south of the Mason-Dixon BY DARRAGH JOHNSON THE WASHINGTON POST
DEEP CREEK LAKE, Md. — At dawn Kim Trickett is in a desperate race against the winter sun, hustling 19 dogs into a trailer and rushing to meet her clients before the snow begins to melt. It’s 20 degrees ... 24 ... 28 ... and heading quickly toward the dreaded meltline, with the high near 50. “I don’t think we’re gonna have much snow,’’ she will murmur by midafternoon, comparing this Saturday with the previous one, when the snow lay lush and quick, and her company gave 31 rides. “If we get two in, we’ll be lucky.’’ She and her partner, Patti Glotfelty, climb into their blue Dodge Dakota Sport pickup. The dogs — Acadia, Apache, Bambi, Beaudi, Cherokee, Chester, Drifter, Eilu, Gonzo, JT, Jena, Newto, Nikita, Phantom, Reese, Rocky, Skippy, Takotna and Wee Willy — follow behind in their custom-built trailer with the personalized license plate. The plate says it all. When Glotfelty went to order it last fall, the bureaucrat at the Motor Vehicle Administration office got interested and asked, “You want a personalized plate for a trailer?’’ “It’s a business,’’ Glotfelty remembers explaining. “What’s the business?’’ “Dog sledding.’’ The woman chortled. “In Maryland?’’ It’s a reaction Glotfelty and Trickett are used to. (Notes the equally mystified Greg Sellentin, publisher of the New Jerseybased Sled Dog Sports magazine: “I don’t know of any sled-dog tour companies as far south as Maryland.’’ He continues, “I didn’t even know myself that there was snow in Maryland.’’) But Trickett — who got hooked on dog sledding in Minnesota but returned to Garrett County in mountainous far western Maryland after her father got sick — has always laughed back, undeterred. And when the MVA employee asked, “What do you want the plate to say,’’ Glotfelty was ready. “Yellow snow,’’ she answered, and basked, she says, as the MVA employee roared anew. Stranger still than the debut of one dogsledding company south of the MasonDixon line this winter was the appearance of two. Both brand-new. Both in Garrett County. Both offering adventures in mushing. “Isn’t that odd?’’ says cheerful Linda Herdering, co-founder of Husky Power see DOGS, page 7
Ricky Carioti / Washington Post
Yellow Snow Dog Sled Adventures owner Kim Trickett mushes her team of huskies in the Garrett County, Md., mountains with passenger Tad Nelson, of Richmond,Va. Lack of snow has limited business in the first year of the dog-sledding business in western Maryland.
Central sign deal BY GEOFF BOUCHER LOS ANGELES TIMES
HOLLYWOOD — Jon Stewart, the most trusted fake in American news, may be taking his humor campaign to network television, beyond the confines of Comedy Central, the cable channel that airs “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart.” Comedy Central has agreed to finance Stewart’s Busboy Productions and its development of television projects, but part of the deal lets Stewart flirt with outsiders when looking for a home for those projects. The deal does give Comedy Central the right of first refusal on all Busboy creations, however. Stewart, who last month celebrated his sixth anniversary with “The Daily Show,” may be at the height of his powers, but comedy on network TV is struggling, which makes the Comedy Central star an attractive name. “Without question, there will be plenty of interest,” said Robert Morton, the former producer of “Late Night With David Letterman.” “Jon has created a tremendous imprint, and everybody in the business will want some piece of that.” Morton said the show’s stable of writers was phenomenal and the production deal set up a way to use “that farm system,” tapping the talent for shows. The first-look deal for Comedy Central solidifies the channel’s relationship with Stewart, who is under contract there until 2008. On Tuesday, Doug Herzog, president of the channel, called Stewart “the pre-eminent voice in comedy today.” It’s been a good week for Stewart: He won a Grammy on Sunday for best comedy recording for the audio companion to the “Daily Show” book, “America (The Book): A Citizen’s Guide to Democracy Inaction.” The irreverent text from Warner Books was a sensation as a holiday gift; it has sold almost 1.5 million copies and was named book of see STEWART, page 8
Kyoto environmental pact goes into effect BY MIGUEL BUSTILLO LOS ANGELES TIMES
Nearly eight years after it was negotiated, the Kyoto Protocol to curtail greenhouse gases in order to combat global warming goes into effect Wednesday without the participation of the country that produces roughly a fourth of the world’s heat-trapping exhaust: the United States. A total of 140 countries have ratified the pact, the first major international effort to reduce the industrial greenhouse gas emissions that many scientists believe to be responsible for increased global temperatures over the past century. But under the terms of the Kyoto treaty, only developed nations will have to cut greenhouse gases. Thirty-five have agreed to lower them to 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. Critics of the treaty, including U.S. officials, have argued that it places the developed world at a competitive disadvantage. Emerging economic giants such as China are expanding energy use but are not required under the pact to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. United Nations officials and numerous heads of state praised the treaty’s formal launch as a long-overdue starting point.
“We have been waiting so long for the start of the Kyoto Protocol, there is a sense this is historic,” Joke WallerHunter, the executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Conference on Climate Change, said in an interview from Kyoto, where diplomats were gathering to commemorate the treaty. “We all know it is only a first step. But you don’t start walking without a first step.” For the treaty to take effect, nations responsible for at least 55 percent of global greenhouse gas production had to ratify it. That requirement was finally met last year when Russia agreed to cut its emissions. However, the consensus of even the strongest Kyoto supporters is that the pact alone will barely make a dent in the global warming problem — especially without the United States, which along with Australia is the only large developed nation not taking part. Worldwide emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, mainly released during the burning of fossil fuels such as coal and oil, are still expected to increase despite Kyoto due to the growing output of developing nations such as China and India. It is far from certain that the 35 countries agreeing to reduce greenhouse gases will actually do so. Japan and
Canada have actually increased their emissions since the treaty was negotiated in Kyoto in 1997 and will have to make major reductions to comply. Acknowledging it will need stricter policies to comply with Kyoto, Canada is considering forcing auto makers to reduce tailpipe emissions of greenhouse gases in new cars and trucks sold in the country — modeling its proposal on a regulation pioneered by California. Canadian officials said they expected a major news announcement Wedensday at a Kyoto celebration in Toronto, but declined to elaborate on whether it would be the automobile rule. Meanwhile, European leaders are already pressing to move beyond Kyoto — and for the United States to resume a role in the discussions. On Tuesday, French President Jacques Chirac called for wealthy nations to go far beyond the treaty’s relatively modest reductions and slash greenhouse gas emissions to a fourth of current levels by 2050. His remarks followed a similar speech by British Prime Minister Tony Blair last month that also called for stronger measures. “Our first objective this year must be to re-engage the United States in the see KYOTO, page 8
PAGE 6 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2005
Smart continued from page 1 monitor, an overhead projector, a slide projector or dual slide projector, a boombox for playing CDs and a sound system. Such equipment is costly. Metcalf Auditorium is one of the rooms most recently made “smart.” Its upgrade cost well over $20,000, Dunleavy said. It received an overhead projector, a data projector and a DVD/VHS player, as well as a microphone and integrated speaker system. Classroom technology improvements like these were part of President Ruth Simmons’s Plan for Academic Enrichment. A key component of the related initiatives emphasizes the need for new — and more technologically savvy — faculty who can take advantage of the available technology, abandoning the less efficient “chalk and talk” teaching style of the past, Dunleavy said. The equipment in the smart classrooms makes the educational environment interactive, and therefore, far more interesting, Dunleavy said. Learning is not just theoretical when a professor supplements lectures with actual footage of the topic at focus, he added. Today, many of the University’s professors find the smart classrooms to be highly desirable teaching spaces. Professor of Sociology Phil Brown teaches SO125: “Perspectives on Mental Illness” in Smith-Buananno 106. The new environment is a refreshing change from last year’s classroom in Wilson Hall, Brown said. “The acoustics in my classroom now are great. I play music with the boombox before every class as the students come in. I did that last year, too, but now the music plays a greater role than ever before,” Brown said. The music Brown plays for students is selected to reinforce the concepts being taught in the course. Last year, Brown used trans-
parent slides and an overhead projector to guide his lectures, a process he found somewhat frustrating: He had to sift through literally hundreds of slides before each class meeting in order to find those he needed. When he was assigned to his new classroom this year, he took the old transparencies to Media Services, where they were scanned and converted to be used in future PowerPoint presentations. Brown also appreciates the microphone and sound system available to him this year. “A microphone is a small thing, but it’s really helpful,” he said. With a large class like SO125, he needs the microphone and sound system, Brown said. Thomas Biersteker, director of the Watson Institute and Henry R. Luce professor of political science, who also teaches a course in Smith-Buananno 106, uses the classroom’s equipment to incorporate PowerPoint presentations into his lectures. He utilizes the other technology available, too — albeit for a unique purpose. “I have been recording my lectures because I’m writing a book based on them. Obviously, my notes aren’t as complete as the actual lectures, because I elaborate far more and give the students more information during class. So, having the recordings is helpful,” Biersteker said. Biersteker taught the course PS148: “Theories of International Relations in the Twentieth Century” in Smith-Buananno 106 in prior years, too. This year, however, he had to struggle for this room assignment. “I requested to be placed in Smith-Buannano 106 again this year, but was originally assigned room 110 in the List Art building — a room which isn’t very ‘smart’ at all. To teach there, I would have needed to supply some of my own equipment just to deliver my lectures, so I went to Lora Rossi at the Registrar’s office and requested a change. I eventually got my assignment switched back to Smith-Buannano, but I’m still not sure if it was my protest-
ing or the fact that the enrollment went up that did this,” Biersteker said. Many students enrolled in courses held in smart classrooms find the technology helpful to the learning process. The PowerPoint format that guides many professors’ lectures is especially helpful to students, helping them determine which concepts are crucial and what information is merely supplementary. “The technology was a welcome surprise,” said Joey Borson ’07 of the course he attends in a smart classroom. “Initially, the technology had the ‘gee whiz’ effect on me. Now, I’m used to it, though I still think PowerPoint presentations are helpful — especially when they’re posted on WebCT so I can print them out.” Several of Borson’s courses in the past have been held in smart classrooms. His professors have used a range of equipment to bolster learning, he said. Only a handful of professors hesitate to use the new technology, fearing that technological glitches might slow down the pace of the lecture — an embarrassing mishap for anyone trying to present material in front of an audience. Chalkboards are foolproof and reliable, and a few professors even believe that the same amount of information can be conveyed through well-designed lectures and older teaching techniques as through PowerPoint and technologically innovative equipment. As the number of smart classrooms at the University continues to increase and improvements are made in some of the more basic pre-existing smart classrooms, increasing pressure is being put on teachers loyally adhering to tradition, Dunleavy said. Nevertheless, with every classroom that is made “smart” — or, in some cases, made “smarter” — even the professors most wary of technology could be inclined to start using the available equipment.
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2005 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD PAGE 7
Dogs continued from page 5 Dogsledding, which is the competition to Yellow Snow Dog Sled Adventures. Thing is, points out publisher Sellentin — who’s also on the board of the International Sled Dog Racing Association (ISDRA) — “sled-dog tourism is a huge, a very big, growing part of the adventure vacation thing ... which is a huge part of the vacation industry. “Everyone,’’ he adds, “wants to pretend they’re in the X Games.’’ It doesn’t get much more extreme than the Iditarod, billed as “The Last Great Race on Earth,’’ where mushers and teams of 12 to 18 dogs cross nearly 1,200 miles of raw Alaskan wilderness, enduring sub-zero temperatures, blinding sun, blinding snow, even moose attacks. Yellow Snow’s longest tour runs only eight miles — a quick stroll compared with races like the 1,000-mile Yukon Quest or Montana’s 350-mile Race to the Sky. It cruises tranquilly through a wildlife refuge behind a Christmas tree farm, but the adventure tour does give novices a shot at driving six dogs and feeling the sled’s sibilant swish, the dogs’ spirited pant and the way the huskies work as a team. It’s an experience that seizes even spectators. Trickett, who grew up in Garrett County and spent 10 years as a Maryland Department of Natural Resources police officer, “got addicted’’ in the late 1990s while attending graduate school in northern Minnesota, when she volunteered at the John Beargrease dog-sledding marathon, a race of 300 to 400 miles (depending on snow conditions). “I’d never been exposed to the sport,’’ she says. It was 2 a.m. on a mid-February day and she worked for three hours, mesmerized by the dogs and sleds as they appeared. “Just seeing the team work together in the dark — and knowing they had brought the musher that far,’’ she says. “The next day, I was so enthusiastic about it, I went and volunteered at the checkpoint. I said, ‘I’m hooked. I need more.’” Standing in crunchy snow at the base of Mountaintop Tree Farms, the clients are learning to drive. “Gee is right,’’ Trickett tells these soon-to-be-mushers, “which you can remember because there’s a G in ‘right.’” The novices, a father and son from Richmond, Va., who have shelled out $125 each for this four-hour experience, nod slowly and try not to appear petrified that soon they will be guiding these sleds. Trickett’s Yellow Snow dogs give Friday night rides at Herrington Manor State Park, and Saturday afternoon rides near the water at Deep Creek Lake State Park. She books private tours around her day job as the inventory administrator at High Mountain Sports. Glotfelty works full time as a Department of Natural Resources supervisor. “Haw is left,’’ Trickett continues. “On by’’ keeps the dogs moving, “hike’’ means get going, “mush’’ is something no
one actually says. “Whoa’’ is stop. If anyone loses his balance and falls, adds Trickett’s partner, Glotfelty, “don’t let go!’’ Keep hold of the sled. Keep hold of the dogs. “Because they will run. And they will not stop.’’ Tad and Larry Nelson nod cautiously. “Who wants to go first?’’ Trickett asks. “He will,’’ says 35-year-old Tad, at the same time his father, who is 61, points urgently back at him. The son loses. He takes a practice run around the tree flats, followed by his dad. Watching, the other dogs strain at their leashes, anxious to start hauling, too: They caw and bleat a deep, primitive sound — “screaming,’’ the sledders call it. It sounds joyous and deafening. Quieting only after they are hooked into the ganglines of each sled, they shoot up the hills, cross into the Mount Nebo Wildlife Refuge and sluice through the woods. They race past a pond tracked with fox prints and mounded with a beaver’s home. They squish in the fast-melting snow and must veer wide of a culvert, where Glotfelty waits on her ATV to make sure the dogs don’t cut the turn sharp and slide into the ditch. As they curl around a field down below, Glotfelty waits —and waits — for their return. Suddenly, her radio vibrates. She reaches into her pocket, presses the button and hears a voice, deep, serious and scared. “We lost a sled.’’ Garrett County’s average winter temperature is 29.1 degrees, and the thermometer dips below freezing 237 days a year. In the past, the winter snowfall has averaged 100 inches, and lately it’s been 85.7 inches, the chamber of commerce says. Except this year. “We’ve only had about 19 runnable inches this year,’’ Glotfelty says, sighing. That’s been a problem nationwide. Last week, the 20th annual Race to the Sky was canceled due to lack of snow, and races in New Hampshire and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan have been postponed, rescheduled, rescheduled again and abandoned. Postings on the home page of the ISDRA contain such laments as: “poor weather conditions,’’ “recent meltdown’’ and “dismal snow.’’ “We don’t expect to make any money at it,’’ Herdering, of Husky Power Dogsledding, says with a shrug. “It’s almost impossible to make a living, the season’s so short.’’ For 15 years, she and her husband, Mike, a colonel in the Marines, pinballed around the world. When he retired two years ago, they decided to turn a longtime love of dog sledding into a business and apprenticed at two large kennels in Michigan and Colorado, where they fed, helped train and scooped the poop of as many as 120 dogs. Husky Power runs on the 750 public and private acres across Bumblebee Road from their home in Accident, Md., and they developed a sled with wheels, which “extends our season,’’ Herdering says, though mushers won’t run their dogs once the temperature gets above 50. It’s too hot for their double-thick fur. Herdering notes that “we
could have settled anywhere.’’ But their “passion,’’ she says, “is to give back to our sport, and you can’t do that where dog sledding is already really popular.’’ Minnesota doesn’t need another dog-sled business. Neither does Michigan. Nor Alaska. Nor New Hampshire. But Maryland? Of course, she says. “It’s a great place to do it.’’ Glotfelty is struggling with her radio — and the news. “We lost a sled,’’ the voice repeats. “I’ll watch out for them,’’ Glotfelty radios back, but she doesn’t sound confident. Moments later, she squints at a blur in the trees, then sees the dogs hurtling her way. “I may have to tackle them,’’ she says worriedly, uncertain how she’s going to roadblock six sprinting, 100-pound huskies. Then she notices the red canvas of the sled. It has tipped sideways. It’s dragging, slowing the dogs. “C’mon,’’ Glotfelty says with a grin, relieved, reaching out as the team approaches and easily pulling the dogs off the trail. “Get up here, you lug nuts!’’ “I have the dogs,’’ she radios down the hill. After Glotfelty ties them to the ATV, Drifter, a gentle but regal Alaskan husky, climbs up and balances on the driver’s seat like it’s a throne. Soon, Larry Nelson is surging up the trail, telling his team, “Hike! Hike!’’ Behind him trudge Trickett and Tad Nelson. “You OK?’’ Glotfelty asks. He winces. “Other than your pride?’’ she says. “Oh, yeah. I’m fine.’’ He confesses, “First thing I thought of when I let go was — that’s what they said: ‘Don’t let go.’” “Well. It’s an adventure tour,’’ Glotfelty reassures him. “Everybody underestimates the power of the dogs,’’ Trickett says. “Oh, yeah!’’ Larry crows. “It’s like a rocket!’’ After hooking up the dogs again, Trickett climbs into the passenger basket, and Tad Nelson grabs the sled’s handle. Though he wanted to squirm out of driving back, Trickett has insisted. “Whenever you’re ready,’’ Trickett tells him. “All right,’’ Nelson says, slowly. “All right. Let ’em go. You know the word.’’ With a deep breath, Nelson pulls the quick release tether. “Hike!’’ he shouts and holds tight. Off they rocket. Behind them, Glotfelty starts the ATV and follows the sleds out of the wildlife refuge. All the way back, long edges of the trail have melted bare. And though Yellow Snow will give 17 rides that afternoon at Deep Creek Lake State Park, it will also cancel the two adventure tours, three intro tours and the 9-year-old’s birthday party it had planned for Valentine’s Day weekend. Not enough snow.
PAGE 8 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2005
U.S. recalls ambassador to Syria as U.N. voices concern for Lebanon BY ROBIN WRIGHT THE WASHINGTON POST
WASHINGTON — After months of brewing tensions, the United States Tuesday ratcheted up the pressure on Syria, joining forces with France and pressing for action at the United Nations to get Damascus to curtail its military intervention in Lebanon. In a diplomatic slap, the Bush administration Tuesday announced the recall of its ambassador to Syria, Margaret Scobey, for what it called “urgent consultations” following Monday’s assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri. Scobey also delivered a strongly worded rebuke to the regime of President Bashar Assad for failing to comply with a U.N. resolution that calls for the withdrawal of all Syrian military forces from Lebanon. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Tuesday that the United States has a “growing list of differences” with Damascus. “The Syrian government is unfortunately on a path right now where relations are not improving, but are worsening,” she said after talks with Egyptian Foreign Minister
Ahmed Aboul Gheit. At the United Nations, the Security Council expressed grave concern about the killing of Hariri, who had played a central role in rebuilding war-ravaged Lebanon, and called for a report by Secretary General Kofi Annan on the “circumstances, causes and consequences” of the assassination. The Security Council’s presidential statement, approved by all 15 members, expressed alarm about the potential for “further destabilization” of Lebanon and called on all parties to “cooperate fully and urgently” on full implementation of resolutions calling for Lebanon’s “territorial integrity, full sovereignty and political independence.” Syria deployed thousands of troops in Lebanon shortly after the outbreak of war in 1976 and refused to leave after the war ended in 1990, despite international pressure and U.N. resolution 1559. In part because of its military presence, Damascus has also had virtual veto power over many aspects of Lebanon’s political system. The United States has avoided linking Syria directly with the
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assassination, but is now clearly holding Syria responsible indirectly for one of the worst acts of terrorism since Lebanon’s civil war ended 15 years ago. “When something happens in Lebanon, Syria needs to help to find accountability for what has happened there. There is a part of the destabilization that takes place when you have the kind of conditions that you do now in Lebanon thanks to Syrian interference,” Rice said. “So we are united with the rest of the world in wanting a full investigation into what happened here.” Scobey delivered a message to the Syrian government Tuesday expressing “profound outrage” over the “heinous act of terrorism” against Hariri, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said. Even before Hariri’s assassination, tensions had been growing for months between the United States and Syria over its failure to clamp down on insurgents and foreign fighters using Syria as a refuge and crossing the border into Iraq. Washington is also frustrated by Syria’s failure to join the Arab-Israeli peace process, and U.S. officials say the country provides havens for Palestinian and other Arab extremist groups. Since last fall, the administration has given Damacus a list of 34 individuals linked to extremism and terrorist attacks to arrest, but Syria has detained only one, according to the State Department. “The assassination is a sign of how badly messed up Lebanon is and for that Syria is responsible,” said a senior State
Kyoto continued from page 5
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international effort to fight climate change,” Chirac said during a conference at the French presidential palace, adding that he planned to raise the issue with President Bush in Belgium next week. Global temperatures have clearly risen over the past 100 years — last year was the fourth hottest ever recorded, according to a recent report by the National Aeronautics
Chertoff continued from page 5 disparate agencies — into a single, well-functioning unit. Since its creation in 2003, the department has been plagued by morale problems and has seen its turf eaten away by more powerful, entrenched bureaucracies, such as the Pentagon and the FBI. Privately, lawmakers of both parties have criticized the department’s first head, Tom Ridge, for losing too many internal battles for money and power and for failing to resolve personnel problems. “Judge Chertoff assured me he would fight within the administration for resources that have been missing from homeland security,” said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. Bush turned to the 51-yearold Chertoff — appointed two
Department official anonymously because of department rules. “On a host of issues, Syria has been largely unresponsive, and it’s coming to a head with movement on mideast peace, the continuation of (Iraq’s) insurgency after the elections, and now the assassination.” The United States is now exploring imposing new sanctions on Syria under a variety of options laid out in the Syrian Accountability Act that Congress passed last year, U.S. officials said. Under terms of the Syria Accountability Act, the withdrawal of the U.S. ambassador may be indefinite as long as Damascus does not take action on issues of dispute, a U.S. official said Tuesday. In an interview, Syrian Ambassador Imad Moustapha
Stewart continued from page 5 the year by Publisher’s Weekly. The book was co-written with “Daily Show” executive producer Ben Karlin, Busboy development chief David Javerbaum and the writers from “The Daily Show.” Stewart declined to comment Tuesday, which is in keeping with his post-election mode of trying to tamp down his huge pop-culture presence. Stewart became a star who outshined his own show in the political season: He famously jousted with Tucker Carlson on CNN, and was profiled on “60
countered that Syria had implemented five redeployments, so that Syrian forces are out of major Lebanese cities, and reduced its forces in Lebanon from 42,000 to 15,000. “We will continue to redeploy. This is something that both Syria and Lebanon are working on. Let us do this between ourselves,” he said. On the list of 34 names, Moustapha said some are Iraqis that Syria does not know. “The United States comes to us with lists (of people) they think may be in Syria or (with whom) Syria can help,” he said. “The U.S. can’t catch people in Iraq. We are more than willing to engage with the U.S. on this, but sometimes we don’t even know those people. You can’t ask us to do things that the U.S. can’t do itself.”
Minutes.” The “Daily Show” presidential debate special in late September got 2.4 million viewers, a record for the franchise and a potent showing in cable. In one poll, the show was cited as the preferred election news source by one-fifth of surveyed Americans ages 18 to 29. The funny guy was even name-checked by non-funny guy Bill Moyers: “You simply can’t understand American politics in the new millennium without ‘The Daily Show.’” The show has put five Emmys on the mantel during Stewart’s tenure, and its coverage of the 2000 presidential race won a Peabody Award.
and Space Administration — and most scientists now believe that human activities are at least playing a role in the shift. However, there is still significant debate over whether greenhouse gas emissions are the primary cause, with skeptics noting that the planet also began emerging from a natural cooling period dubbed the “Little Ice Age” about 150 years ago. The United States signed the Kyoto treaty in 1997, and Vice President Al Gore was one of its chief negotiators. But the U.S.
Senate refused to ratify it, arguing that it would harm the American economy. President Bush, who campaigned in 1999 on the promise that he would regulate carbon dioxide emissions from power plants, changed his mind after taking office and withdrew from the Kyoto process in 2001, advocating voluntary steps to reduce greenhouse gases instead. Environmental groups accuse the United States of burying its head in the sand on global warming by refusing to take part in Kyoto.
years ago as a federal appellate court judge — after questions arose about the business practices and personal life of his first choice for the homeland security job, former New York City police chief Bernard Kerik. Chertoff was considered a safe choice. A lawyer who served as an assistant U.S. attorney in New York in the mid-1980s, Chertoff headed the Justice Department’s criminal division in the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks. He played a key role in developing the administration’s legal strategy in response to the terrorist threat. “This is one of the most challenging and critical jobs in the entire federal government,” Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said. “Judge Chertoff is clearly the right person to take the helm.” Collins took issue with Democrats for holding up the confirmation, saying it was “past time to put him in that post.” Levin unsuccessfully had
sought an unedited copy of a secret FBI e-mail summarizing a meeting held while Chertoff was head of the Justice Department’s criminal division on the interrogations at the Guantanamo detention center. Chertoff testified to the Governmental Affairs Committee that he knew nothing of the interrogation practices. But Levin said he believed the memo was necessary to back up that statement. Without the memo, Levin argued, the Senate could not perform its oversight role. In his committee testimony earlier this month, Chertoff also denied any involvement in a Justice Department memo that narrowly defined torture. “I was not involved in the process of how the memo was generated. … I had no involvement in that,” Chertoff said of the memo that was sent to Gonzales, then the White House counsel, in August 2002.
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
SPORTS EXTRA FEBRUARY 16, 2005 · PAGE 9
W. track shows tenacity at Fast Track BY KATIE LARKIN SPORTS STAFF WRITER
The women’s indoor track team competed this weekend against some of the best athletes they will see all year. The Bears traveled to Boston, Mass. to compete in Boston University’s twoday Fast Track Invitational. The annual meet gave athletes at the collegiate level from across the country a chance to see a higher level of competition than they normally would in a regular season meet. The meet was not limited to the NCAA, as participants from all over sought to assert their dominance. “It helps them run faster, to be on a faster track and to have other competition to help pull them along, but that’s speaking from a runner’s standpoint. I know that our jumps coach isn’t too happy with the facility for the jumping events, it’s not the greatest situation for jumpers,” said Distance Coach Rick Wemple. The Bears performed well and took advantage of their chance to better prepare for upcoming meets. “I think that overall it was a good meet. It showed us what we have to work on. It showed us our strong points and our weak points. I think we really needed that because we have these next weeks to practice on the things we need to do, and hopefully it will all come together before Heps,” said Ashley Wall ’05. The women posted their best
M. swim continued from page 12 he said. “I was .5 seconds from first (in the 200 back), and in the 200 IM we were under a second away getting a 1-2 (finish) instead of a 2-3.” Volosin also lost a close one, as Cornell sophomore Mike Smit came back in the final length to win the 500yard free. “I think I should have won the race, but I didn’t swim it correctly,” Volosin said. “I left the door open and Smit swam right through it. I have to mark it down in my mind and hopefully avenge the loss at Easterns.” “Peter could have won the event,” Brown said. “(Smit) is very strong and always finishes in a blitz, so Peter needed to make his move 50 (yards) or so sooner. … I’m sure he will learn from the race and it will make him better down
performances on the field and in sprints, with Brittany Grovey ’06 once again distancing herself from the rest of her competitors in the Ivy League by winning the triple jump at 12.21 meters. Wall placed sixth in the high jump, making it to 1.63 meters. Tiffany Chang ’08 took seventh in the pole vault at 3.36 meters, Jennifer Donahue ’05 placed sixth in the weight throw with 15.83 meters, and co-captain Jill Lynch ’05 took fourth place in the shot put with a throw of 13.43 meters. On the track, the Bears’ 4x400-meter relay team, comprised of Natasha Barrett ’07, Fara Kitton ’05, co-captain Kelly Powell ’06 and Naja Ferjan ’07, placed third in 3:50.31, their best time of the season. In the shorter distances, Jaylon White ’05 placed sixth in the 55meter dash with a time of 7.38. In the 400-meters, Barrett took eighth with a time of 57.53. Kitton qualified for the finals in the 55-meter hurdles and finished seventh overall with a time of 8.43. The women performed well in the longer distances as well. In the 800-meters, Powell set a personal record with a time of 2:12.46, which was good for eighth place overall. Michol Monaghan ’07 had a personal best in the 3000-meters with a time of 10:02.40. Nine women competed in the mile, with Alex Brown ’08 coming in first for Brown with a time of 5:06.88. “We always see some pretty big PR’s when we get to this
meet,” Wemple said. For the meet, the Bears competed very well overall among such high caliber athletes. “It puts more pressure for us for us to perform well in the big meets. We need to show that we can hang with the bigger teams or we can hang with people who are a challenge. Most of our meets this season have been against teams that are at our level or lower. It’s good to see tough competition especially before going into bigger meets,” Wall said. The women, however, will not take their performance in this meet as an indication of what is to come for them at the Heptagonal Championships. They took it as a learning experience, a chance to improve before facing close rivals. “The meets are very different. This meet was a lot bigger than Heps will be, a lot more people in each event. Heps is always more personal. We usually have a lot of PR’s — people set personal records at Heps just because the adrenaline is rushing and everything,” Wall said. “I think we’ve just started to turn the corner in terms of performances. When we finally get to Heps and put the two groups together, the runners and field event athletes, we’re going to do pretty well as team,” Wemple said. The team will compete next at the New England Championships on Feb. 20 in Cambridge, Mass.
the road.” Sharkey, Zimmerman, Brumberg and Wang won the 400-yard free relay to end the day. But it was not enough to overtake the Big Red. “All of the events in the second half of the meet … were extremely close,” Goracy said. “Ultimately, it came down to a couple tenths of a second, and we were on the short end of that.” Still, the Bears are confident going into the Ivy League Championship, which will be held at Harvard March 3-5. “Our captains and our coaches have kept us extremely focused … and we had a very successful year despite the dual-meet losses,” Goracy said. “We always have marked improvements at Championships, and I don’t think this year is going to be any different. We are definitely planning on shocking a couple of teams at Easterns.”
Wrestling
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continued from page 12 own. After Beane’s dominating 6-2 win over Bart Seeman, Brown had seized the momentum. But Jeff Sato squeezed past Jeff Schell ’08 by denying Schell his escape in the second period, costing Schell the point for the escape and a huge advantage in riding time. The riding time would prove to be the difference as Sato won 3-2. “Jeff had an off weekend, the first one he’s really had,” Amato said. The loss seemed to cost the Bears their momentum as the match entered the middleweights, and Columbia won the rest of the matches, often earning points and wins in the waning seconds of periods. “That’s the difference between winning and losing,” Pedro said about the late points. “Getting down (when you were just winning) really hurts you mentally. … It gives the other person a mental advantage” in addition to the score. Amato pointed out that such points usually go to the team in better condition, and was frustrated that the Bears gave them up despite being in better shape. “We got careless, and that cost us the match,” Amato said.
Despite injuries, skiers capture first in giant slalom at Boston College Carnival BY JUSTIN AMOAH CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Despite the absence of two top skiers out due to injuries, the women’s skiing team kept ahead of its competition, finishing in first place in the giant slalom last weekend at the Boston College Carnival. The Bears currently occupy the number one overall standing in the Eastern Collegiate Ski Conference, and they are not in jeopardy of losing that spot with a 14-point lead over the University of MassachusettsAmherst, which stands second overall. With Nina DiBona ’07 out for the season with an ACL injury and co-captain Stephanie Breakstone ’06 out with a back injury, Brown was down two top skiers but still managed to win the Giant Slalom by more than 3.5 seconds, with four skiers in the top 15 places. “Everyone was feeling a little bit more pressure, because we didn’t have Nina and Stephanie there. On Saturday, it showed that we were feeling the extra pressure, and we let it get to us in a negative way, but on Sunday we came together as a team,” said co-captain Hilary Swaffield ’06. Despite suffering a leg contusion at the Brown Carnival that kept her out of practice last week, Kelly O’Hear ’07 pulled out a
The Bears came out with a win against Sacred Heart, led by Schell and Pedro. Schell came on after Beane had lost his balance and suffered an unlucky pin, putting Brown in a 12-6 hole. Schell struck back with a pin of his own, pinning his opponent less that two minutes into the match to bring the score back to a tie. After a major decision by Dan Apello ’06 and a win by Mark Savino ’08, the Bears’ injuries again came back to hurt them, as Tim Smith ’06, filling in for Cully, was pinned with 24 seconds left in the second period. After splitting the next two matches, the Bears took a one-point lead into the final match at 174 pounds, Pedro’s weight class. Amato had ruled out Pedro for the weekend because Pedro wasbothered by a nagging knee injury. But with the match on the line, Amato sent his injured captain out. “I promised (Pedro) that I wouldn’t send him out, but I had to break that promise,” Amato said. Not only did Pedro wrestle but he also used leg-wrestling techniques. Leg wrestling is very effective, but can put strain on a wrestler’s knees. “I felt being captain, it was the right thing to do,” Pedro said. “You have to lead by example, and put everything else in the back of your mind, and do everything you can to win the dual
53.31 in the slalom, the fastest time of the event by more than a second. O’Hear finished second overall in the Slalom with her two-run total and third overall in the giant slalom. “It is a little intimidating once you get hurt to go back out and race again,” said O’Hear. “She probably would have finished in the top ten for guys,” said Head Coach Michael Leblanc when commenting on O’Hear’s performance in the Slalom. Swaffield put up another impressive performance, finishing second in the giant slalom and ninth in the slalom. “She didn’t have the best day of her life in the Slalom, but she was able to come through when it really counted,” Leblanc said. Janet Marley-Mauzy ’07 finished ninth while Sophie Elgort ’08 finished 14th in the Giant Slalom. “The past two weeks, Janet’s GS has just exploded,” Leblanc said. “Janet is going to be a huge contributor to our team for the rest of the season,” O’Hear said about the rapidly improving Marley-Mauzy. This Saturday and Sunday, Brown will head to their last two regular season events at the Colby-Sawyer Carnival and St. Anselm Carnival, both held in New Hampshire.
meet.” Pedro responded brilliantly, dominating his opponent 7-2 to give Brown the win. The Bears wrap up their Ivy League season this weekend at Harvard and will travel to Annapolis next month to participate in the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association Championships.
W. tennis continued from page 12 athletics.” Wardlaw also said the match articulated aspects of the game that Brown must continue to do well in order to achieve results. Pointing to the victories by Ames and Kirkpatrick, Wardlaw said the “players that are working hard in practice are playing well in matches.” Wardlaw also looks forward to having a full roster again in the upcoming matches, as Michelle Pautler ’07, who did not play Sunday, will be back in action. The Bears will try to bounce back from this weekend’s performance as they head to Washington, D.C. to face American University Feb. 20.
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
EDITORIAL/LETTERS WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2005 · PAGE 10 S T A F F
E D I T O R I A L
Opiate of the classes Professors across the campus are incorporating slides and video clips into their lectures with increasing regularity and something approaching comfort. We applaud the innovative and garden-variety uses of technology employed by tech-savvy instructors in every department. They almost abolish our lingering memories of the suspicious co-incidence of films in class and substitute teachers. But with all due respect to the Slavic studies faculty who have been making similarly productive use of the Russian Television Network to immerse language students in the culture, the space on Brown’s ancient cable network currently reserved for RTN should be repurposed as soon as possible. A channel devoted to a language spoken by a tiny minority of the student body provides little utility to the rest of us. At least on Telemundo, the Spanish soap operas occasionally utilize cognates. The Department of Geological Sciences wants to gather to watch launches and events on the NASA channel. Students want to watch “Aqua Teen Hunger Force” on Cartoon Network and Red Sox games on NESN. It is sad to see quibbling over something as petty as cable channels, but undergraduate students are the primary consumers of campus television. Ideally, the campus network would be revamped to allow for the broadcast of enough channels to sate the appetites of all but the most devout television aficionados. With a host of more pressing budget demands, that isn’t likely to happen soon, unless Rupert Murdoch decides to donate a system upgrade in exchange for a 24-hour Fox News broadcast on the side of the Sciences Library. For the time being, we point departments to the example set by East Asian studies. On the second floor of the East Asian studies offices, a television with a satellite feed brings interested students and faculty news and programming from Japan, China and South Korea. Professors can excerpt programs in class and undergraduates can visit the department to immerse themselves in Asian media. Departments can also make use of WebCT, smart classroom AV equipment or the Media Lab. Non-educational television should by no means be a large part of the college experience. We hate to say it, but in 20 years, students may come to regret the amount of time they spent watching reality TV during the best years of their lives. Nevertheless, given Brown’s abhorrently paltry channel selection relative to its peers, students deserve at least three additional channels they actually watch.
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD EDITORIAL Jonathan Ellis, Editor-in-Chief Sara Perkins, Executive Editor Christopher Hatfield, Senior Editor Lisa Mandle, Senior Editor Meryl Rothstein, Arts & Culture Editor Melanie Wolfgang, Arts & Culture Editor Justin Elliott, Campus Watch Editor Robbie Corey-Boulet, Metro Editor Stephanie Clark, Focus Editor Kira Lesley, Focus Editor Te-Ping Chen, Opinions Editor Ari Savitzky, Opinions Editor Chris Mahr, Sports Editor Ben Miller, Sports Editor
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JOSEPH NAGLE
LETTERS Schmalzbach mistakes the ‘liberal’ position To the Editor: I am disappointed by Brian Schmalzbach’s attempt to put liberals between a rock and a hard place on the textbook sticker issue (“Liberals in Cobb County,” Feb. 15). Alas, the rock and the hard place turn out to be figments of Schmalzbach’s “logic.” That evolution occurs is a fact, not a theory or a secular dogma. It can be demonstrated in a lab, followed in nature and clearly shown in present-day human populations. That evolution explains all that has happened since the first compounds capable of self-replication appeared is a theory. It is not an ideology or a secular religious belief, but a carefully constructed and well-tested hypothesis. A scientific theory must be capable of being falsified. The theory of evolution can be, and Darwin himself suggested how one might do so. Scientific theories should be “approached with an open mind, studied carefully, and critically considered” in science textbooks. We do not need a sticker on a science textbook to point that out. You can find it in the introductory chapter of any decent science textbook.
However, that was not the object of the sticker. It was to attempt to open biology courses to the discussion of a particular religious belief. The “liberals” whom Schmalzbach wants to place in a compromising position are not denying the legitimacy of exploring the interaction between science and religious beliefs. They are simply saying that a religious belief, be it creationism or intelligent design, has no place as an equivalent biological theory in a textbook or classroom where the basics of biology are being taught. Simply put, the belief is not a scientific theory — it cannot be falsified or tested independent of the belief system it is created from. The liberal agenda Schmalzbach creates does not exist. The religious agenda of getting its beliefs into a biology classroom does. Jonathan Waage Professor of Biology Associate Dean of the College Feb. 15
Beyond the evolution sticker scandal To the editor: I would like to commend Brian Schmaltzbach (“Liberals in Cobb County,” Feb. 15) for his wellreasoned argument concerning liberal reactions to the Georgia science textbook controversy. As an aspiring teacher, however, I feel compelled to expand on his discussion. Textbooks really aren’t as influential as publishers and school boards would like us to believe. Rather, a preponderance of what students learn in school arises from their daily interactions with teachers and peers. Whom we learn with really does matter. Thus, teachers often have a more significant influence than texts, if only because teachers decide
how texts are to be used and interpreted. A teacher who seeks to inculcate ideology — whether from the perspective of secular humanism, Biblicallyinerrant Christianity or even radical feminism — is doing a disservice to students. The teacher’s job is not to profess his or her own beliefs, values and conclusions, but to help students develop the tools to evaluate evidence and find their own way. What we should really be worrying about as a society is who’s teaching and how they’re teaching, not the semantics of a sticker on a textbook. Sean R. Lanigan,‘05 Feb. 15
Annie Koo, Night Editor Taryn Martinez, Sonia Saraiya, Copy Editor Senior Staff Writers Camden Avery, Alexandra Barsk, Eric Beck, Mary-Catherine Lader, Ben Leubsdorf, Jane Porter, Stu Woo Staff Writers Marshall Agnew, Zachary Barter, Danielle Cerny, Christopher Chon, Stewart Dearing, Gabriella Doob, Kate Gorman, Jonathan Herman, Leslie Kaufmann, Aidan Levy, Allison Lombardo, Meryl Rothstein, Joel Rozen, Jen Sopchockchai, Jonathan Sidhu, Lela Spielberg, Robin Steele, Stefan Talman, Jane Tanimura, Melanie Wolfgang, Anne Wootton Sports Staff Writers Kathy Babcock, Zaneta Balantac, Stephen Colelli, Lexi Costello, Ian Cropp, Justin Goldman, Bernard Gordon, Katie Larkin, Matt Lieber, Shaun MacNamara, Chris Mahr, Ben Miller, Eric Perlmutter, Jilane Rodgers, Marco Santini, Charlie Vallely, Brooke Wolfe Accounts Managers Steven Butschi, Rob McCartney, John Nagler, David Ranken, Joel Rozen, Rukesh Samarasekera, Ryan Shewcraft Project Managers In Young Park, Libbie Fritz Design Staff Deepa Galaiya, Annie Koo, Allison Kwong, Jason Lee Photo Staff Marissa Hauptman, Judy He, Matthew Lent, Nick Neely, Bill Pijewski, Kori Schulman, Sorleen Trevino Copy Editors Chessy Brady, Jonathan Corcoran, Eric Demafeliz, Leora Fridman, Allison Kwong, Katie Lamm, Suchi Mathur, Cristina Salvato, Sonia Saraiya, Lela Spielberg, Zachary Townsend, Jenna Young
CORRECTIONS POLICY The Brown Daily Herald is committed to providing the Brown University community with the most accurate information possible. Corrections may be submitted up to seven calendar days after publication. CO M M E N TA RY P O L I C Y The staff editorial is the majority opinion of the editorial board of The Brown Daily Herald. The editorial viewpoint does not necessarily reflect the views of The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. Columns, letters and comics reflect the opinions of their authors only. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR POLICY Send letters to letters@browndailyherald.com. Include a telephone number with all letters. The Herald reserves the right to edit all letters for length and cannot assure the publication of any letter. Please limit letters to 250 words. Under special circumstances writers may request anonymity, but no letter will be printed if the author’s identity is unknown to the editors. Announcements of events will not be printed. ADVERTISING POLICY The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. reserves the right to accept or decline any advertisement at its discretion.
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
OPINIONS WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2005 · PAGE 11
The instant runoff voting referendum GUEST COLUMN BY MICHAEL THOMPSON The Undergraduate Council of Students is holding a referendum on instant runoff voting online via WebCT for 72 hours until noon Friday. The referendum and an accompanying poll are open to all Brown undergraduates. If the amendment receives more than a twothirds vote of affirmative, the amendment will pass and IRV will take effect. IRV would then serve as the voting mechanism for candidates for Executive Board positions on UCS, starting with the upcoming April 2005 UCS elections. IRV is a system in which voters are asked to rank the candidates instead of voting for only a single candidate. If no candidate has a majority of the first-choice votes of voters, the votes for the last-place candidates are reassigned among the remaining candidates based on the voters' second choices. This process continues until one candidate receives a majority of the vote. Under an IRV system, the winner is assured to be the preference of the majority of voters, albeit perhaps not their first preference. UCS and the ERC decided that the only proper way to pass an overhaul as sweeping as instant runoff voting for UCS elections was
UCS has not endorsed IRV. We want to leave it up to the Brown community to decide . by undergraduate student body referendum. UCS has decided not to endorse the IRV amendment being proposed in referendum to the student body. We instead want to leave it up to the Brown community to decide whether or not they want to implement instant runoff voting. IRV has the advantage of preventing a situation that faced the elections board last April from occurring in the future. Under the current system, if no candidate receives 50 percent of the vote for an Executive Board position on UCS, a run-off election is held between the two candidates that received the most votes for the position. This is what occurred last April, to the astonishment and aggravation of many members of the Brown community. Scandalmongers and gossip columnists across campus called it UCSgate, the run-off-gate, the big-RO and all sorts of names not fit to print in a polite Ivy League campus newspaper. But despite vicious rumors floating around last April, UCS does not stand for Undergraduate Cynical Scandalmongers. Given what occurred last April in the UCS elections, IRV is an important change to consider. Instant runoff voting would only affect UCS and only the open Executive Board positions on UCS. These are president, vice president, treasurer, coordinator of campus life, coordinator of academic and administrative affairs, coordinator of admissions and student services, and coordinator of student activities. IRV would also only take place if more than two candidates were running for an Executive Board spot. Again, UCS has taken no official stance on IRV. We want to hear from you. Please use WebCT to vote by Friday at noon on the referendum. Michael Thompson ’06 is a UCS representative.
JACK SWEENEY-TAYLOR
Military goes to school Twice a year, military recruiters set up a table at the back of the Hope High School cafeteria to drum up interest among students to enlist in the Army, Navy, Airforce, Marines and National Guard. The recruitment is informal and officers solicit students with nothing more than colorful posters and giveaway pens. Students ask questions, get information and give their names, but only if they feel so inclined. The recruiters aren’t pushy about it because they don’t have to be: federal law already ensures that they have every student’s name, address and phone number in their books. A provision of 2002’s No Child Left Behind Act requires that local education agencies that receive federal aid — agencies with jurisdiction over every public high school in the country — hand over student information to military recruiters who ask for it. Under this provision, the one-third of public high schools that previously denied recruitment officers access to their student databases now must submit to the growing needs of the army. Educational authority is losing ground to the influence of military might. And as the mission to recruit zeroes in on our nation’s youth, we can only expect a shift in student priorities. The call to serve asks students to consider their future in the most idealistic of terms. A National Public Radio story on the issue of recruitment interviewed a student from Mesa, Ariz. who described his drive to enlist: “It’s service. It’s service
to higher ideals than myself. The things you’re going out to fight for if you go to war is freedom, democracy, our country, protection of your family. That’s more important than anything that could happen to me.” Post-Sept. 11 patriotism accounts for only part of the willingness of some students to join the army. The rest is taken care of by the persistent presence of recruiters on the phone, in the mail, and at the door. Schools that try to encourage their students to pursue more self-directed, opportunity-driven options like college have a tougher time when persuasive and muscle-bound recruitment officers come around with their pens and paperwork. It’s hard to convince students of the promise of education when schools continue to be in such a deplorable state. According to the American Diploma Project, 73 percent of employers rate high school writing, grammar, and spelling skills as “fair” or “poor.” Meanwhile, the nationwide high school retention rate is an abysmal 68 percent. President Bush’s recent education budget cuts only make matters worse. Last week’s budget proposal for 2006 included an elimination of Even Start, a $257 million education program serving low-income children of illiterate parents. Bush justified the cut as a response to the repeated lack of success of the program, but all that translates to is another chomp at the flimsy education burger. Instead of seeing more education
spending this year, we’ll watch 30,000 more troops and $5 billion per month go to the war in Iraq. We’ll see the National Guard adding 1,400 recruiters to its payroll and the Army Reserve adding 800. We’ll see more and more of our high school students heading off to basic training. Hope High School will be among the schools affected by this trend. With a 52 percent dropout rate, Hope High is a school that needs more resources, not more recruiters. Peter Nichols, director of Hope’s School of Leadership, notes growing numbers of students gravitating toward ROTC and military enlistment. He attributes the swell to Sept. 11 and to the patriotism that some of Hope’s students bring from their immigrant backgrounds. But perhaps more on target is the argument that Hope’s suffering academic resources and the increased presence of recruiters pulls more students away from education. The drive of a few diehard patriots who want to answer the call to serve should be enough to give the military what it wants. We should cut the recruitment payroll down to zero and put the saved money back into education. Only by reinforcing programs like Early Start — and not eliminating them — can we begin to see more of our students becoming businessmen and teachers rather than ammunition-strapped soldiers. Jack Sweeney-Taylor ’06 takes the military to school whenever he wants.
JOEL SILBERMAN
Michael Moore: not my ‘strong liberal’ Two weeks ago I wrote a column about how Democrats need to act more like conservatives, not ideologically but in terms of aggressive communication and methodology — think Karl Rove or Sean Hannity. I referred to the issue as “the rhetoric gap,” but a friend later added it might also be called “the badass gap.” We, democrats and liberals, lose because we’re not tough enough. And whenever I say something like that, people from both sides of the aisle inevitably bring up Michael Moore, the supposed poster boy of ‘tough’ liberalism. Personally, I can’t stand the guy. Democrats and liberals need to abandon our support for Moore and we need to do it fast, especially on university campuses where he is especially popular. Now, I’m not a total spoil-sport. I will admit to gasping at “Fahrenheit 9/11” and I did get a kick out of “Bowling for Columbine.” But while I recognize that Moore is a technically excellent filmmaker who directs with savvy wit and brazen self-assurance, I strongly believe that he is doing more harm than good for the causes about which he and I care so deeply. My biggest problem with Michael Moore is that for all his rabble-rousing bluster, he’s just too easy to deflate. Take the moment in “Bowling For Columbine” when Charlton Heston is allegedly in Denver the week after the Littleton shootings, lifting a rifle above his head before an National Rifle Association crowd while shouting, “From my cold dead hands!” The scene is a fake. Heston delivered the “cold dead hands” line half a year
after the Columbine shootings, when asked what it would take for him to give up that specific, hand-made rifle — which he had just received as a gift. Moore then spliced “cold hands” together with bits from other speeches, climaxing with Heston’s now-infamous “Don’t come here? We’re already here!” Moore fabricated several quotes for Heston, but I’ve heard lots of smart kids defend the auteur by saying a) all art has a point of view, b) Moore’s “juxtaposition” of quotes is art. Both points may be true, but they’re ethically sterile and
Liberals who refuse to denounce Michael Moore end up having to defend a liar who stinks at lying. unbecoming of an educated person, using intellectualism to defend a practice that we know deep down is wrong. It’s also just bad strategy to lie in Moore’s particular way. It is much more effective to stake a bold-faced lie (à la the Swift Boat vets) or take someone out of context (like Ann Coulter does) because those forms of lying end in he said/she said battles — and the truth is assumed to be somewhere in the middle. A false, scattershot quote can easily and dramatically be disproved. But even when Moore isn’t outright lying, he’s still making us liberals look bad. It astonishes me how few progres-
sives realize that we all look insensitive and naive when a left-wing filmmaker portrays a joyous Iraq under Saddam’s rule. Would we embrace such a portrayal of Darfur? Would we gravitate towards the people who did embrace that ridiculous portrayal of Sudan? I’d like to think not. Liberals who refuse to denounce Michael Moore end up having to defend a liar who stinks at lying, losing time when we could be making our own, strong points. Instead, we try to defend an idiot who is all too big a target for the right-wing attack machine to gun down. And frankly, I don’t think liberals can lie as much as conservatives because the right excels in rapid response. If you want an example of a strong liberal who doesn’t make a mockery of us all, skip Moore and stick with newlyelected Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean instead. He knows how to fight without pulling punches, how to toss out bold, red-meat attack rhetoric without excessive deceit, how to be in the spotlight without making the spotlight about him, how to construct a cogent argument that can appeal to the unconverted, not just to the choir. That’s the kind of leadership we need. If we as a generation of liberals are to stand strong, we must be smart about how we do it. Worshipping at the altar of an oaf like Michael Moore — allowing him to speak for us — is a dangerous mistake. Distancing ourselves from him is the best first step in the left direction. Joel Silberman ’05 begrudgingly accepts the “flawed politics of masculinity.”
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
SPORTS WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 16, 2005 · PAGE 12
Wrestling salvages win over SHU after two tough defeats BY BERNIE GORDON SPORTS STAFF WRITER
The wrestling team suffered a setback this weekend, with losses to No. 17 Cornell and Columbia before earning a victory over Sacred Heart University. Missing several wrestlers, the Bears were unable to beat either Ivy opponent. The loss to the Big Red was not unexpected, as they wrapped up their third-straight undefeated Ivy
season against Harvard the next day. “Except for Cornell, I thought we wrestled really hard,” said Head Coach Dave Amato. Beating Columbia, on the other hand, was a key goal for the Bears, who were aiming to finish in the top three in the Ivy League. But the Bears went into the weekend missing starters Shawn Cully ’06, Heath Lohrman ’05 and co-captain Mike Pedro
Ashley Hess / Herald
Mike Savino ’06 earned a 9-5 win in the Bears’ 22-18 victory over Sacred Heart.
’06. “It was obviously (not ideal), we all have to battle to the best of our ability,” Pedro said. “We felt pretty confident with the team we went in with.” The injuries forced the team to push other starters into higher weight classes. Co-captain David Saadeh ’06 and Shawn Kitchner ’07, both listed at 157 pounds, had to wrestle at 165 and 174 pounds, respectively. Amato praised his wrestlers for wrestling up weight classes, where they drew tougher matches and risked their own won-loss records for the benefit of the team. Cornell came into the match featuring two national No. 1ranked wrestlers, Travis Lee and Joe Mazzurcko, and riding a three-season Ivy winning streak. Though the Bears were not daunted, they knew that their chances were not good. Cornell made good on the hype, winning all 10 matches and scoring bonus points in five, including two technical falls. The Bears looked to bounce back against Columbia. The match started out strong for the Bears when they took a 6-2 lead on wins by Leo Saniuk ’08 and Lee Beane ’06. Saniuk entered the final period with a slim 1-0 lead and Columbia’s Jed Wade ready to tie with an escape from bottom. But with the pressure on, Saniuk got a key finalminute takedown to give him a 5-4 lead after an escape of his see WRESTLING, page 9
W. tennis drops to .500 on season after sloppy 5-2 loss to Syracuse BY MATT NICHOLSON CONTRIBUTING WRITER
The women’s tennis team, now 1-1 in the spring season, lost its match this weekend against Syracuse University, 5-2. Syracuse (5-1) closed the doors early and never gave Brown a chance at the win. They began by taking all three doubles matches, winning each 8-5. With the doubles point secure, Syracuse went to work in the singles match-ups, winning the first three spots and thereby locking up the win. Syracuse first-year Victoria Vaynberg handed Alex Arlak ’05 a lopsided defeat in two sets, 62, 6-0, in the one spot. Anita Ivancevic ’08 took one set in the two spot from ’Cuse first-year Catharine Zawadzki before losing, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2. Amanda Saiontz ’07 fell to sophomore Ashley Lipton 7-5, 6-4. The only Brown players to get on the board were Daisy Ames ’07 and Kelley Kirkpatrick ’08. Ames dominated Syracuse’s Carolina Huignard 6-0, 6-3 in the fourth spot, while Kirkpatrick managed a scrappy 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 win in the sixth spot against junior Wei-Ming Leong. Head Coach Paul Wardlaw said that a lack of focus took Brown out of the match early. Bruno went in fresh off of a 7-0 rout of Colgate University, but Wardlaw said “Colgate was not a very helpful match” in terms of building a winning mentality.
M. swim downed by Big Red in finale BY CHARLIE VALLELY SPORTS STAFF WRITER
The men’s swimming and diving team lost its final dual-meet of the season Saturday at the Smith Swim Center, dropping a close contest to Cornell, 129-112. The loss brought Brown’s record to 3-7, 2-5 in the Ivy League. Cornell (8-2, 6-2) was a heavy favorite heading into the meet, trailing only Harvard and Princeton in the Ivy League standings after winning its last six meets. But the Bears were not intimidated, giving one of their best performances of the season and keeping the score close all afternoon. “Cornell thought they had the meet in the bag,” said co-captain Tim Wang ’05. “For us to make the meet so close shows that we competed well and came to race.” The 200-yard medley relay was an indication of how tight each race would be. Wang, co-captain Matt Del Mastro ’05, Matt Zimmerman ’05 and Brian Sharkey ’06 combined to finish in 1:32.03, two-tenths of a second behind Cornell. Yet the close finish still resulted in a seven-point difference on the scoreboard. “That was a key win for (Cornell),” said Head Coach Peter Brown. “We posted a very good time, but it wasn’t good enough.” In the 1,000-yard freestyle, Peter Volosin ’08 continued his winning
ways, finishing with a time of 9:51.31 and capturing first for the fifth time this year. Eric Brumberg ’06 placed second in the 200-yard free, which was followed by a gutsy win from Sharkey in the 50-yard freestyle. “I was pretty sick the day of the meet and the days leading up to it,” Sharkey said. “I felt like crap that morning. … I just tried to get focused and swim my race and luckily it turned out good.” It was the third meet in a row in which Sharkey won the event. “Sharkey is a darn good sprinter and competitor,” Brown said. “(He) is coming into his own, simple as that. He rises to the occasion.” Another solid swim came from Matt Goracy ’06, who won the 200-yard butterfly, just edging out Cornell first-year Zach AbuRahma. “My (race) was tough,” Goracy said. “It was extremely close until the end, and I knew that if I had even a small lead in the second half … it was going to take an amazing race by their swimmers to beat me.” Both Brown fans and Cornell swimmers cheered loudly during the race, especially in the final stretch. For Goracy, this made the victory all the more satisfying. “Once we dove in the water, it seemed like all of the Cornell guys were pouring around the lanes and the pool and cheering for their swimmers. I was
Ashley Hess / Herald
Saturday’s loss to Cornell gave Brown a 3-7 record for the season,2-5 in the Ivy League. just glad to shut them up in our house for a little while,” he said. Diver Matt Freitas ’07 also helped keep things close, winning the 1-meter dive and placing second in the 3-meter dive. Wang, in his final regular season meet at Brown, won the 100-yard free, swimming a season-best time of 46.38. But, as Brown said, “Cornell won more of the close races, and that was the difference in the meet.” Brumberg, who recorded his fastest in-season times in two of his individual events, pointed to his races as examples of just coming up short. “Obviously my swims were critical,” see M. SWIM, page 9
Instead, Brown approached the doubles play “nervous, tight and scared,” Wardlaw said, “playing out youth and inexperience.” Against Syracuse, a team already much deeper into its season, Wardlaw said this lack of mental preparation kept Brown from “putting (themselves) in position to win the match.” Youth and inexperience abound on the team, which is comprised largely of first-years and sophomores. Arlak is the only upperclassman on the squad. While this collective youth provides an excellent foundation for the team’s growth, it also negatively impacts the team’s mental toughness. However, the victories by Brown’s younger players demonstrate that inexperience is not Brown’s biggest obstacle. Sunday, the Orange’s oldest player, Leong, lost from the sixth singles spot. The rest of the Syracuse lineup, like that of Brown, consists largely of firstyears and sophomores. In addition to the problem of inexperience and leadership, Wardlaw said that Brown needs to continue to work on doubles play and that the squad’s “overall teamwork needs to improve” in order to have success as the season progresses. Wardlaw said the team is “not getting 100 percent out of everyone … but that’s the problem with college see W. TENNIS, page 9
IVY LEAGUE “BASKETBALL U.” POWERPOLL
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PENN QUAKERS (28) 14-7, 7-0 IVY 224 POINTS / PREVIOUSLY #1 CORNELL BIG RED 10-11, 5-3 IVY 188 POINTS / PREVIOUSLY #2 YALE BULLDOGS 7-12 / 3-3 IVY 161 POINTS / PREVIOUSLY #7 HARVARD CRIMSON 9-12, 4-4 IVY 146 POINTS / PREVIOUSLY #4 COLUMBIA LIONS 12-9 / 3-5 IVY 80 POINTS / PREVIOUSLY #5 DARTMOUTH BIG GREEN 6-15 / 3-5 IVY 71 POINTS / PREVIOUSLY #8 PRINCETON TIGERS 11-10 / 2-5 IVY 71 POINTS / PREVIOUSLY #6 BROWN BEARS 9-11, 2-4 IVY 67 POINTS / PREVIOUSLY #3
Voting for the PowerPoll is conducted by a panel of 28 voters, consisting of the four senior Basketball U. staff members and three members of the media from each school. http://www.basketball-u.com/ S P O R T S W E E K LY AWA R D S Men’s ICE HOCKEY: Brian McNary ’08, ECACHL Rookie of the Week