THE BROWN DAILY HERALD F RIDAY, F EBR UAR Y 2, 2007
Volume CXLII, No. 8
Since 1866, Daily Since 1891
ProJo pulls support for public affairs conference
U. gets B on sustainability report card BY TARYN MARTINEZ STAFF WRITER
Instead of handing out grades, the University received a grade for a change when the Sustainable Endowments Institute published its first annual College Sustainability Report Card Jan. 24, analyzing the 100 U.S. and Canadian universities with the highest endowments and grading them on the overall environmental sustainability of each institution. Environmental sustainability measures how efficiently an individual or institution uses ecological resources, taking into account future generations. The universities were graded in seven areas — administration, climate change and energy, food and recycling, green building, endowment transparency, investment priorities and shareholder engagement.
BY JESSICA ROTONDI STAFF WRITER
pilot program, the University had a chance to distribute 16 entertainment channels to residence halls and get feedback about the service, said Alan Usas, assistant vice president for academic and network systems and services for CIS. The success of the pilot program led the University to consider IPTV as a solution to the increasingly obsolete cable system now in place. The system is so outdated that its replacement parts are no longer manufactured. “[The cable system] basically died
The Providence Journal has pulled its financial support from the annual Providence Journal/Brown University Conference on Public Affairs, halting a two-decade partnership between two of Providence’s most important institutions. The University was notified that the conference would not be continued in late October, when the chairman, publisher and president of the Journal, Howard Sutton, contacted President Ruth Simmons, according to Michael Chapman, vice president for public affairs and University relations. “Mr. Sutton notified President Simmons that the Providence Journal would no longer be able to provide funding for the conference,” Chapman said. Barbara Nauman, director of promotions for the Journal, did not respond to a phone message for comment, but she e-mailed The Herald a press release regarding the cancellation. In the statement, she said, “Although the Journal has stepped down as a financial sponsor, the newspaper remains steadfast in its commitment to cover such important topics and events as the public affairs conference.” The press release also quoted a letter to Simmons from Sutton: “The Journal is proud of its participation in these events, which have enlightened and entertained a generation of citizens. However, changes in the media business necessitate moving some resources to meet new needs in our core services.” The Journal has also stopped sponsoring the Rhode Island Statewide Spelling Bee, according to a Jan. 17 article in the Providence Phoenix.
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Min Wu / Herald Members of emPOWER joined their counterparts from the seven other Ivy League universities Thursday to push for the adoption of climate neutrality on campus.
Brown received B’s in nearly every area, except for an A in shareholder engagement and C’s in both investment priorities and climate change and energy. With an overall grade of B, the University was in the company of Duke
and Columbia universities and Vassar College as well as the 18 other schools receiving grades between a B- and a B-plus. “The B grade puts Brown really high up compared to many other institutions,” said Mark
Orlowski, founder and executive director of the Institute. “There’s only seven schools that got better grades overall,” he noted, calling the B “a reflection of Brown’s vicontinued on page 4
CIS expands IPTV by increasing channel selection BY SUSANA AHO STAFF WRITER
Internet protocol television, which allows students to watch TV on their computers, is more than an alternative to cable television — it’s a replacement. At the beginning of the semester, Computing and Information Services expanded IPTV, doubling the number of channels, and plans to extend IPTV to television sets and into the classroom. Brown’s IPTV, a product of the company Video Furnace, was introduced to students as a pilot program in Fall 2005. During the
Phillip Gara / Herald
Members of Students for a Democratic Society encouraged students to recycle the Disorientation Guide they distributed in January.
SDS launches Disorientation Guide BY PHILLIP GARA CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Students for a Democratic Society, the 1960’s left-wing student group that returned to the Brown campus last spring, launched a “Disorientation Guide” in January as part of its effort to encourage student involvement with social justice issues. The Brown chapter, which formed again last year after the SDS regional New England conference held at the University in April, is part of a nationwide movement that began in January 2006 to restart SDS on college campuses. Brown’s SDS chapter created the Disorientation Guide to inform incoming first-years about social justice groups on campus and how they could get involved. SDS member Yesenia Barragan ’08 said the guide contains “basic information about how to be an
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organizer at Brown.” It includes brief descriptions that SDS members collected from every social justice organization on campus. “This would be an amazing thing to find in your mailbox if you’re looking for activism,” said SDS member Vale Cofer-Shabica ’09. “I would have loved to have gotten it as a freshman,” he said, adding that SDS placed the 1,600 copies of the guide in the mailboxes of all first-year students. SDS members also placed cardboard boxes in the P.O. in which students who do not want to keep their Disorientation Guides can recycle them. SDS member Michael Da Cruz ’08.5 said the group is “trying to be a catalyst towards approaching the University in a more democratic way.” In addition to the publishing the guide, SDS has finished designing its Web site, Brownsjn. org. He added that SDS at Brown
BY IRENE CHEN STAFF WRITER
When television pundit Bill O’Reilly aired a segment on Queer Alliance’s Sex Power God party on his Fox News show in November 2005, Brown was suddenly in the national news, and many voices weighed in on the subject. One publication — produced by the institution it covers — was among those voices. Officially, the Brown Alumni Magazine’s “fundamental mission is to continue Brown’s educational work by reporting about the workings of the University and the ideas and accomplishments of its alumni, faculty and staff,” according to the Web site of the Public Affairs and University Relations, the office that oversees BAM. So exactly how much say does
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FREEDOM AND FOUCAULT Literary theorist Judith Butler lectured on the threat to academic freedom posed by the war on terror through discussion of Foucault and Kant
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BAM balances U. affiliation with unbiased reporting
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RATTY RULES REVISED TTakeout at the Ratty gets more complicated with the advent of a new filing system for student identification cards
the University have in a publication that is sent out to its alums — especially on a sensitive subject like Sex Power God? “With that article, on the party and the publicity on Fox News, I wasn’t really thinking about the is-
FEATURE sues. I was thinking about how to report it fairly and accurately so alumni could understand what happened,” said Emily Boutilier, who covered Sex Power God for BAM and is now the editor of the Amherst alumni magazine. “I think of the magazine as providing a full picture to alumni that they wouldn’t get on Fox News — something no other publication could provide.” When asked if she received pressure from the University to present
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195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island
POINT/COUNTERPOINT Natalie Smolenski ‘07 and Sean Quigley ‘10 face off on the Bush administration’s approach to civil liberties in the war on terror
stories in a certain way, Boutilier said, “As a writer I was pretty much given freedom to write, and I was encouraged to report fully.” Norman Boucher, the editor in chief of BAM, said the magazine has a long history of independence. BAM was first started in 1900 as the Brown Alumni Monthly and was sent out to alums on a subscription basis. “In 1945, the University said they’d like to use the magazine for all our alumni. There was some concern at the time. There were those who were working on it that wanted it to remain editorially independent, so they set up this alumni board of editors,” Boucher said. “This board would serve as the people who would ensure the editorial quality continued on page 6
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IT’S MILLER TIME Former men’s basketball coach Glen Miller Miller, now at Penn, brings his team to face the Bears in a highly anticipated game tonight
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