THE BROWN DAILY HERALD MONDAY, APRIL 17, 2006
Volume CXLI, No. 51
www.browndailyherald.com
An independent newspaper serving the Brown community since 1891 FROM SYMBOL TO SUBSTANCE Ward 1 City Councilman David Segal argues symbolic action can push forward progressive change OPINIONS 11
EGG-ING ON INDEPENDENCE At a reading, several McSweeney’s authors, including Dave Eggers, denounced the proposal to outsource the bookstore ARTS & CULTURE 3
TRACK ATTACK After a 15-month recovery, thrower Hugh Murphy ’06 hurled a javelin 224 feet, 6 inches for a personal best SPORTS 12
TODAY
TOMORROW
partly cloudy 56 / 42
sunny 57 / 45
The outcome of outsourcing
MAZEL TOV
Save the Bookstore Coalition, U. administrators disagree on how Barnes and Noble might affect the Brown Bookstore’s pricing and selection BY ALISSA CERNY STAFF WRITER
Min Wu / Herald
Members of Out of Bounds dressed up to entertain those in attendance during its “Bar Mitzvah” show Saturday night in MacMillan 117.
History hiding in plain sight Nearing recommendations, slavery and justice committee explores wide-ranging issues BY ANNE WOOTTON METRO EDITOR
Though the University Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice was expected to submit its report to BROWN President Ruth SimCONFRONTS mons this spring, it is unclear when the reSLAVERY port will be submitFirst in a series ted or whether it will be released publicly before summer. In this, the first of a series on the committee and its work, The Herald examines the committee’s reception, its charge and the Brown family’s involvement in slavery. When the University Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice releases its recommendations, it will address the University’s involvement in slavery and the slave trade along with a much bigger question: if slavery is such an integral part of our country’s history, why is it so hard to talk about the issue? The committee was created by Simmons in 2003 and has received substantial national press coverage in its three years of existence, including a New Yorker article in the fall of 2005. The Providence Journal recently printed a sevenpart series exploring Rhode Island’s role in the slave trade, two parts of which were about the Brown family and its ven-
tures in slave trading. When the New York Times reported on the committee’s original charge in the spring of 2004, Simmons was singled out for her unique position as the first descendant of slaves to be president of a university whose founding players owned and traded slaves. Simmons sparked speculation that Brown would pay monetary reparations for slavery when she requested that the committee produce a set of recommendations as part of the report. (Simmons quickly dismissed the possibility in an April 2004 Boston Globe editorial.) But the committee’s work has encompassed a far wider range of topics than one university’s reconciliation with its past or the debate over reparations as it has been conducted in recent years through litigation against major American corporations. Its charge has provided an opportunity for committee members to step back and examine the ways in which Americans address their historical ties to an institution that most people today are still uncomfortable discussing. In the 2004 Times article, Simmons said she was motivated to create the committee by a sense that discussions about reparations are often reduced to one-dimensional, surface-level arguments. see S & J, page 9
Last Wednesday, members of the Save the Bookstore Coalition gathered on the Main Green to oppose outsourcing the Brown Bookstore to an external vendor like Barnes and Noble College Booksellers. During the course of the protest, coalition members delivered a petition including the signatures of 1,201 community members in support of their cause. Since the mid-1990s, Barnes and Noble has won several contracts to operate bookstores at other Ivy League schools. The Harvard Cooperative Society announced in 1995 that Barnes and Noble would manage the Coop’s store operations. Administrators at Yale University selected Barnes and Noble to take over the Yale Co-op in 1997. Barnes and Noble also won a contract to operate a new bookstore at Columbia University in 1997. As coalition members continue to advocate maintaining the Brown Bookstore’s current independent model, they
argue that outsourcing the bookstore to Barnes and Noble could lead to higher prices and a depleted selection. But University administrators, including Brendan McNally, special assistant to the executive vice president for planning, maintain they would be able to ensure comparable prices and selection when drafting the University’s initial contract with Barnes and Noble. Pricing concerns Peter Sprake ’07, an employee of the Brown Bookstore and member of the Save the Bookstore Coalition, said he believes the Brown Bookstore offers more competitive prices than bookstores operated by Barnes and Noble. “No matter what, we never price books above the recommended list price, because it’s part of Brown’s mission to save students’ money on textbooks,” said Sprake, who originally enrolled in 1966, left Brown before graduating and re-ensee BOOKSTORE, page 7
From ‘The OC’ to the PVD BY SARAH GELLER CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Film crews from the hit Fox show “The OC,” which has featured Brown throughout its current season, were on campus in the past two weeks to shoot footage for an episode airing this Thursday. Production crews from the show came to Providence to shoot background footage for the show, according to Michael Chapman, vice president for public affairs and University relations. Chapman said officials from Fox contacted him and asked for permission to film on campus. The episode features Summer Roberts and Seth Cohen, played by Rachel Bilson and Adam Brody, respectively, as they make their first visit to Brown. Summer is deciding whether to attend the University, while Seth makes a final plea to gain admission, according to Lora Ducat, director of clearance and integration at Warner Brothers. The actors and crew had planned to shoot scenes for the episode at Brown but ended up running out of time, Ducat said. Instead, the show “sent a photographer to take exteriors” while the actors were filmed
on the campus of the University of Southern California, according to Ducat. David Appelbaum, script coordinator for “The OC,” said shooting on Brown’s campus would have been preferable. But given that shooting on location “takes a lot of time and money and the actors have busy schedules, it made more sense to keep it (in California),” Appelbaum said. Chapman said his office gave the show permission to shoot footage on campus. “We’re fine with it. I think the University is being portrayed in a favorable light,” he said. Brown is not being compensated for the footage that was taken, Chapman said. “The University has not charged us a license fee, which is great,” Ducat said, adding that no school had charged such a fee in her experience. Ducat said the University has been extremely helpful both in granting permission and giving Brown sweatshirts and other props to Fox. Chapman’s office even gave the show authentic admission letters to use, Ducat said. see THE OC, page 5
History dept. attempts to cope with high turnover BY STEPHANIE BERNHARD SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Jacob Melrose / Herald
The Department of History has seen a high rate of faculty turnover. Editorial: 401.351.3372 Business: 401.351.3260
Continuing a recent string of faculty departures, the Department of History will lose two more long-time professors over the next year. Professor Emeritus of History Abbott Gleason, who specializes in modern European history, will leave at the end of the semester, and Pulitzer Prize-winning Professor of History Gordon Wood will retire next spring after 36 years of teaching at Brown. According to several pro-
fessors in the department, the abnormally high level of turnover is due mainly to faculty retiring. “I admit there has been quite a lot of turnover in recent years,” said Professor of History Timothy Harris, who has recently served as chair of the department. James McClain, professor of history and the department’s current chair, said he believes the high turnover does not reflect poorly on the quality of Brown’s history department but is instead the result of a coinci-
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dence: many of Brown’s history professors have reached retirement age in the past few years or will reach it in the next few years. “Of the last 10 people who left, eight were in that category,” McClain said. The other two professors who left Brown chose to take positions at other universities. Volker Berghahn, a professor of modern German history, accepted a position at Columbia University. Sumit Guha, who specializes in South see HISTORY, page 5
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