THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Volume CXLII, No. 36
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1 6 , 2007 16 20 07
Since 1866, Daily Since 1891
Comptroller General calls for tough U.S. fiscal reform the leadership on fiscal issues has not been up to the challenge in recent years. The national debt is nearly $9 trillion, he said, and during fiscal year 2006 the government ran a deficit of between $250 billion and $450 billion, depending on how the number is measured. “Those are big numbers,” he said. “If you look at GAO’s long term budget simulations, you’ll find that if we don’t make some tough choices soon,” tax burdens in 2040 may be double, he said. “That’s the prime of your earning careers,” Walker said. The GAO is an independent agency in the legislative branch that investigates whether taxpayer dollars are spent efficiently and reports its findings to Congress. According to the GAO’s Web site,
BY OLIVER BOWERS SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Courtesy of Matthew Silva Brown students helped occupy the Welcome Arnold shelter in Cranston Thursday, protesting its closure by the state.
U. officials prepare for Starf*ck, St. Patrick’s Day BY SCOTT LOWENSTEIN SENIOR STAFF WRITER
The combination of Queer Alliance’s Starf*ck party and St. Patrick’s Day on Saturday has prompted University officials to prepare for the potential of a large number of students requiring emergency medical care. Margaret Klawunn, associate vice president for campus life and dean of student life, called Starf*ck and St. Patrick’s Day “two events in which students are likely to drink irresponsibly.” Much of the preparation by student life officials has involved dealing with alcohol overconsumption. In 2005, the last year Starf*ck was held, eight students at the party needed ambulance transportation, Klawunn said, adding that the number of students needing medical attention is expected to be about the same this year. Klawunn said Starf*ck has “never been as much of a problem as Sex Power God,” the QA party traditionally held during the fall semester. In November 2005, Sex Power God resulted in 24 students requiring emergency medical care and attracted national attention when it was featured on Fox News’ “The O’Reilly Factor.” QA was placed on probation after the party, and Starf*ck was not held the following semester. QA held Sex Power God last fall, and 14 students at that event required medical care. The University is renting a second ambulance to be dedicated to students needing medical attention at Starf*ck, Klawunn said. The University’s regular ambulance will be available to serve the rest of campus. continued on page 4
INSIDE:
3 ARTS & CULTURE
Students, homeless occupy Welcome Arnold to prevent closure BY JESSICA ROTONDI STAFF WRITER
continued on page 8
METRO
CRANSTON — In a vigil that began early Thursday morning, Brown students, homeless individuals and their advocates occupied the Welcome Arnold shelter in Cranston to protest its closure by the state. The shelter was due to close at 7 a.m. Thursday in preparation for its demolition, making way for new state police barracks. The sit-in — which involved 10 Brown students and several advocates for the home-
less — was organized by People to End Homelessness and had not ended as of Thursday evening. The first students arrived at the shelter at 5:15 a.m., 15 minutes before the daily wake-up call at Welcome Arnold, said Geoff Gusoff ’07.5, a member of Housing Opportunities for People Everywhere. At about 6:30 a.m. a full bus of Welcome Arcontinued on page 4
Rahul Keerthi / Herald
David Walker, comptroller general of the United States, spoke Thursday on the need for federal fiscal discipline.
Tunnels, passages lure urban explorers underground BY CHAZ FIRESTONE SENIOR STAFF WRITER
In a Keeney Quadrangle hallway, Whit Schroder ’09 lifts a carpeted hatch and stares down into the dark hole at his feet. He covers his hair with a faded green bandana and turns to friend Ben Struhl ’09. “See you in a minute,” Schroder
says. Struhl watches as his friend carefully descends a fixed ladder into the gap in the floor, vanishing from sight. He closes the hatch, concealing the entrance from public view. Inside, Schroder’s feet hit a soft, muddy surface. He stares down a long, narrow corridor lined with thick pipes that radiate heat
throughout the earthen passage. Wiping a few drops of sweat from his temple, he gains his bearings and strides down the stuffy hallway.
FEATURE This is not Schroder’s first time in the famed Keeney caves. Schroder and Struhl are two
of a small but passionate group of students who engage in urban exploration on campus. Along with a few close friends, the pair attempts — and frequently succeeds — at gaining access to tunnels, attics and roofs on campus and around Providence. “Every day we go by all these continued on page 4
Inside Rhode Island’s crisis pregnancy centers BY ALLISSA WICKHAM STAFF WRITER
Allissa Wickham / Herald
The Mother of Life building on Atwells Avenue hosts Problem Pregnancy, the city’s only crisis pregnancy center.
“MERRILY” ROLLS BACK The Mainstage production “Merrily We Roll Along,” a story of three friends that travels backward through time, closes this weekend
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The nation’s top accountant warned a half-full Salomon 001 Thursday against fiscal irresponsibility by the government or its citizens and called on the next president to make sober fiscal policy a top issue. “If the next president does not make fiscal responsibility one of the top three priorities, we have a serious problem … and we can’t afford to have them as our president,” said David Walker, the comptroller general of the United States. Walker, who is the head of the General Accountability Office, spent much of his speech outlining the dire state of the national deficit and called for dramatic bipartisan efforts to control government spending and increase the savings rate among citizens, noting that
5 CAMPUS NEWS
The phones at Problem Pregnancy rarely fall silent for more than a few minutes at a time. The director of Providence’s only crisis pregnancy center, David O’Connell, sat in the facility’s lending library while he discussed its work, surrounded by pamphlets with titles such as “The Decision of Life” and “Contraception and Abortion: The Deadly Connection.” If no one had answered the phone by its third ring, O’Connell jumped up, briefly excusing himself to take the call. Operating inside the Mother of ADDRESSING EMS University officials sought to alleviate concerns about the departure of Brown EMS’s manager and a supervisor by speaking to student EMTs
Life building on Atwells Avenue, Problem Pregnancy is an independent Catholic organization that seeks to provide alternatives to abortion for women with unplanned pregnancies.
METRO FEATURE “Last year we saw 572 women by appointment,” O’Connell said. “So there’s a great need for what we do.” Crisis pregnancy centers, or CPCs, now outnumber abortion clinics in the United States, according to an article published in Time magazine last month. The centers support women during pregnancy,
11 OPINIONS
195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island
POINT-COUNTERPOINT Michael Ramos-Lynch ’09 and Jesse Adams ’07 face off on a controversial topic in college admission: affirmative action
often providing pre- and post-abortion counseling. But critics say they use emotional pressure and misinformation to steer women away from abortion. Care Net, one of country’s largest CPC organizations, is a Christian group with a facility in Cranston. In a May 2006 report, Care Net’s headquarters estimated there were a total of 2,300 crisis pregnancy centers nationwide, and the Time article reported that Florida, Texas, California and Ohio had well over 100 centers each. “Some states have multiple Care Net centers,” said Janet Evanco, dicontinued on page 6
12 SPORTS
WATER POLO TAKES HARVARD The women’s water polo team took down Harvard this weekend, wearing them down throughout the game to come out with a 8-3 victory
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