THE BROWN DAILY HERALD T HURSDAY, F EBR UAR Y 1, 2007
Volume CXLII, No. 7
Since 1866, Daily Since 1891
DPS surveys campus opinion
Late-night chaos may close Jo’s, Gate earlier BY MICHAEL BECHEK SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Problematic late-night student behavior at campus eateries is putting pressure on University officials to close Josiah’s and the Gate earlier on certain nights, a group of Dining Services officials told the Undergraduate Council of Students at its general body meeting last night. Increasingly poor conduct by intoxicated students, especially on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday nights and particularly at Jo’s, has become a cause for concern, the group said, urging UCS not to ignore the growing problem. Employees at Jo’s — mostly culinary students at Johnson and Wales University — are getting fed up with the late-night shift, usually the busiest at the eatery, said Gretchen Willis, director of Dining Services. About 40 employees have been “hired and lost” at Jo’s this year, Willis said. “We’ve seen a lot of behavior around alcohol, theft and disrespect to employees,” said Russell Carey ’91 MA’06, interim vice president for campus
life and student services. “(It) causes great concern about safety and well-being of student customers in those areas and staff who are working to serve those customers.” Leaving trash on the ground, stomping on ketchup packets and even violence are all commonplace, Willis said. “We’re at the point where we feel we can’t close our operations without the assistance of the police,” she said. Broken glass, vomit and blood create an impossible mess for the staff, said William Bell, retail supervisor at Jo’s. “We are not equipped to handle situations like that,” he said, adding that Emergency Medical Services was called three times to Jo’s this past weekend. “There are students who don’t feel safe going to get food at Jo’s,” said Angela Sherwin ’07, a student general manager for Dining Services. Bell said “eighty to ninety percent” of customers late on certain nights are intoxicated “at a pretty severe level.” The nine guests at the UCS continued on page 9
Eunice Hong / Herald
Employees at Josiah’s suggested a higher number of security guards might offset late-night rambunctious behavior.
BY DEBBIE LEHMANN SENIOR STAFF WRITER
UChicago officials said the change is designed to streamline the application process. “I think that an issue with the Uncommon Application is that it’s asking you for routine information — where you went to high school, for example — that isn’t anything new, and so there is no reason that you can’t ask for common information in a common way,” Zimmer said at a student forum, according to the Chicago Maroon, the student newspaper. Behnke agreed with Zimmer’s
The Department of Public Safety is conducting a survey to gauge community opinion and collect feedback about the most effective way to provide services, but if past years are any guide, not many people will take the survey. The 23-question survey, which was supposed to be available last semester, launched Friday and will be available until March 16. University spokeswoman Molly de Ramel wrote in an e-mail to The Herald that DPS delayed the survey in an effort to maximize the number of respondents. Anyone can take the survey, which is intended to determine opinions about the department’s overall performance, competence, attitudes and behaviors toward the community, according to the DPS Web site. The survey also asks about community concerns regarding safety and security on campus. DPS conducts the survey every three years as part of the accreditation process from the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, according to de Ramel. She wrote that the survey “is always considered important” because it helps show DPS how it can best serve the community. The survey is available to the public through the DPS Web site, though it is hosted by SurveyMonkey.com. De Ramel wrote that DPS has distributed table slips about the survey and has put an announcement in Morning Mail. DPS will also e-mail a link to the survey directly to all students, de Ramel wrote. Participation in the survey has traditionally been low. Only 4.25 percent of students and 3.09 percent of faculty and staff responded to the survey conducted three years ago, DPS Lt. Bruce Holt told The Herald in November.
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Eunice Hong / Herald Russell Carey ’91 MA’06, interim vice president for campus life and student services (left), and Ann Hoffman, director of administration for Dining Services, were among administrators who met with UCS yesterday to raise concerns about student behavior at Brown’s late-night eateries.
UChicago, seeking prestige, drops Uncommon Application BY BRIANNA BARZOLA CONTRIBUTING WRITER
In an effort to increase the number of applicants and simplify its admission process, the University of Chicago has decided to adopt the Common Application starting with the class of 2012, applying next year. Despite its long-standing, unique rejection of the Common Application and its marketing of an “Uncommon Application,” UChicago followed the lead of its new president, ex-Brown Provost Robert Zimmer, who encouraged the change. Discussions on changing the application began early last summer and continued through the fall, according to Vice President and Dean of College Enrollment Michael Behnke. “We took note of the fact that two of our major competitors, Northwestern and (the University of Pennsylvania), had decided to accept the Common Application. That led us to do a little digging, and we discovered the impressive recent growth of the use of the online Common Application,” wrote Behnke in an e-mail to The Herald.
UChicago was well-known among high school seniors for its Uncommon Application, which some students value especially because of its variation from the norm. The school’s Uncommon Application has unique essay questions that allow “more opportunities to express yourself,” according to UChicago’s admission Web site. Behnke said a supplement to the Common Application will include the school’s quirky essay questions.
CAMPUS WATCH
Annenberg report calls for “Marshall Plan”-scale reforms for NYC middle schools BY MARIELLE SEGARRA CONTRIBUTING WRITER
New York City’s middle schools need significant reform to better serve poor and minority students, who are being put on “pathways to failure” by an unequal distribution of educational resources, according to a report released last month by Brown’s Annenberg Institute for School Reform. Low-performing schools in New York — which the report said have mostly poor and minority students — tend to lack many of the resources and opportunities that the city’s generally wealthier, mostly white students receive, including science labs, math and science Regents courses and qualified teachers, according to the Jan. 16 report. The report was based on research by the New York City Coalition for Educational Justice and written by the Community Involvement Program at the Annenberg Institute.
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Just 22 percent of students at schools with high poverty rates meet the state’s standard for English language arts, compared to 58 percent of students at low-poverty schools, the report said. Only 18 percent of eighth grade students at high-poverty schools achieved proficiency in math in 2004-2005, compared to 75 percent at low-poverty schools. Almost 80 percent of eighth graders at the high-income schools achieved proficiency in science in 2004-2005, while less than 20 percent at the low-income schools were up to par. The report, citing a “very sizable race and class achievement gap” in “course offerings and instructional resources,” calls for a “Marshall Plan” to reform middle-grade school education — which includes sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade students at both middle schools and other schools. Its recommendations include expanding schools’ curriculums, hiring highly qualified teach-
POST- GOES TO WALL ST. Post- presents its thoughts on n the new year year, the latest music and whether or not Brown students can succeed in investment banking
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ers and principals, shrinking class sizes and encouraging strong academic, social and emotional support networks. But Norman Fruchter, director of the Community Involvement Program, said he doubts the city will implement the report’s recommendations. “They’re headed in another direction, and I don’t think middle schools are a priority for them,” he added. Eric Zachary, a CIP senior project director, called implementing the recommendations a “political struggle.” In a written statement from spokeswoman Lindsey Harr ’04, the city’s Department of Education acknowledged that middleschool education is a “critical challenge” but defended its progress in recent years, including adding $40 million a year “to fund academic interventions and improve instruction,” closing failing schools and creating “small learning communities in large middle schools.”
SAY NO TO TRANS FATS A proposed bill in the R.I. General Assembly could force the Ratty and area restaurants to cut trans fats out of their recipes
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The coalition and the Annenberg Institute chose to examine middle schools as the “weakest link” in the pathway to college because researchers have noticed that many students entering high school are not prepared to cope with the level of work required there, Fruchter said. “Four out of every five students leave low-performing middle-grade schools without attaining the minimal levels of math and science capacity necessary to meet the demands of high school,” according to the report. That lack of preparation has led to the “ninth-grade bulge,” the inability of middleschool graduates to advance past the first year of high school, the report said. The Community Involvement Program, the education policy program that wrote the report, was previously located at the Steinhardt School of Education at New York University and in September 2006 merged with the Annenberg Institute.
DPS: DEMANDING MORE Ben Bernstein ’09 explores the Department of Public Safety’s relationship with Brown’s student body — and what a student can do to improve it
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M. BASKETBALL BLUES The men’s basketball team has had a rocky season — losing three players, including star Keenan Jeppesen ’08, who tried to transfer to Penn
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