THE BROWN DAILY HERALD T HURSDAY M ARCH 1, 1 , 2007 200 7
Volume CXLII, No. 25
Since 1866, Daily Since 1891
Changes to Faunce could come as soon as summer T Task force will
review College
BY STEPHANIE BERNHARD FEATURES EDITOR
Renovations that will transform Faunce House into the Stephen Robert Campus Center may begin as early as this summer, by which time student services offices currently in Faunce may have moved into the J. Walter Wilson building. “It’s going to be pretty fast,” said Elizabeth Huidekoper, executive vice president for finance and administration, of the timeframe for using the $15 million in donations formally accepted by the Corporation last weekend for the purpose of renovating Faunce. Outgoing Chancellor Stephen Robert ’62 P’91 provided the lead gift for the center. Students have long expressed a desire for a campus center in polls and at forums, but the administration has not taken action before now. The Table of Needs of the Campaign for Academic Enrichment identified a campus center as a second-tier priority, meaning it would not be implemented unless a donor specifically wanted to support it. “But now, it’s a real project that’s going to happen,” said Richard Spies, executive vice president for planning and senior adviser to the president. “Everything is important, but this is a high, high priority,” Huidekoper said. The University has not yet hired an architect, made specific plans or set a firm timetable for the project. But administrators have been considering using the space in Faunce differently for several years. University officials have some ideas about what features the building — originally built in 1904 — may soon host. “We’re really excited about it,” said Russell Carey ’91 MA’06, interim vice president for campus life and student services. “We want to create a center with enough and the right type of space for students.” Carey said the center would continued on page 4
BY EVAN BOGGS STAFF WRITER
Chris Bennett / Herald The Stephen Robert Campus Center will be the third incarnation of the 1904 building, which was first Rockefeller Hall and then Faunce House.
Search for new CIO down to shortlist BY ISABEL GOTTLIEB CONTRIBUTING WRITER
The committee looking for a new chief information officer for the University has narrowed its search to a shortlist of candidates and expects to make a final decision by the end of the semester. The committee is now looking at a list of three or four candidates, said Daniel Leventhal ’07, a computer science major and member of the search committee. Brown’s CIO is responsible for managing the University’s academic and administrative technology services and working with the University Librarian on systems such as the Josiah catalog. The search committee is looking for a candidate who will
help modernize the University’s aging technology, said Elizabeth Huidekoper, executive vice president for finance and administration. Huidekoper said the ideal candidate for the position would be a “good manager, good planner, has good tech credentials and understands technology in the higher education community.” Though some services, such as MyCourses and wireless expansion, are already undergoing expansion and improvement, “a lot” of work is still needed on administrative systems, Huidekoper said. She noted that the most costly upgrades are for administrative systems, such as those for finance and human resources. The new vice president will “work within Brown to develop
a strategic plan for IT and ensure that plan will be effectively managed so it is accomplished,” said Huidekoper, who co-chairs the search committee with Associate Professor of Computer Science David Laidlaw. Leventhal said the need for improvement to campus IT is significant. “Brown has been technically stagnant for a long time and needs to pull out,” Leventhal said. “Improvements are needed to the network, the human resources system, the system for professors’ grants and a payroll system update — systems inherent to any business.” “The amount of paper that gets passed around here is astounding,” he said. “Other schools are all digital.” continued on page 4
A new committee to review four major aspects of the Brown undergraduate curriculum will be officially announced today in campus-wide e-mails to students and faculty. The Task Force on Undergraduate Education, which is charged with reviewing general education, teaching and assessment, concentrations and advising programs will make recommendations that will be presented to University officials in the spring of 2008. “This looked like a very good opportunity … to actually ask the questions that would help us be able to discern for ourselves whether education at Brown was as excellent as it should be,” said Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron, who will chair the task force. The committee’s report is a key component of the University’s reaccreditation process with the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, which takes place every 10 years. Bergeron said she believes the reaccreditation process will be “quite useful in a way for galvanizing the energy on campus” for the task force. “I think it’s a chance for Brown to continue to establish its leadership in an academic realm, and I hope for even more innovations,” said John Gillis ’07, president of the Undergraduate Council of Students. “The purpose is to take a broad and serious look at undergraduate education at Brown — what it is that we can do well, what can we do better,” Bergeron said Wednesday night at a UCS meeting, where she briefed council members on the task force. Bergeron said she believes that the task force also allows the University to address a key component of the Plan for Academic continued on page 4
Survey could change IR program requirements BY JOY CHUA CONTRIBUTING WRITER
The International Relations Department Undergraduate Group completed a survey Monday night that will be presented to Melani Cammett ’91, assistant professor of political science and the program’s director, next week and could lead to changes in the concentration. The IR DUG enlisted help with the survey from Cammett and IR concentration adviser and adjunct lecturer in International Relations Claudia Elliott, though the survey’s content came from DUG members. The survey asked its 115 respondents to evaluate concentration advising, the research
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methods requirement, alternatives to requiring a foreign language and the effectiveness of the regional focus component. DUG member Andrew Schwartz ’07 said concentrators have some complaints about the program. “Though students liked the freedom and flexibility of the concentration, some of the requirements were unclear to them,” he said. “This is a collaborative relationship and we take the input of the DUG very, very seriously,” Cammett wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. “I haven’t seen the results yet but I have seen the questions. We all went over them together before the survey went out.” Schwartz said he expects the
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biggest changes will be in advising. “The survey was designed to illustrate and explain … the need for more resources for advising,” he said. “We’re going to present the data to higher-ups to free up some funding for that.” Students intending to concentrate in international relations currently need to take 11 courses, including four core courses, three courses out of one of the program’s four tracks — global security, political economy and development, global environment and politics, culture and identity — one regional focus course, two 100-level electives and one research methods continued on page 4
WICKENDEN GETS SEXY Local sex shop Miko opens today at its new location on Wickenden Street, a move designed to draw more customers to the store
5 CAMPUS NEWS
195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island
Chris Bennett / Herald Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron described the planned Task Force on Undergraduate Education at a UCS meeting Wednesday night.
A MASKED MARAUDER This week’s crime log includes paintballers at boathouse, loud music and a student wearing a mask harassing students at the Gate
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MARRIAGE ISN’T EVERYTHING Jesse Adams ’07 argues that civil unions are an acceptable move toward gay rights that progressives should embrace, even if it isn’t marriage
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