THE BROWN DAILY HERALD S UNDAY,
Volume CXLII, No. 41
RIL
1 , 2007 1, 20 07
Since 1866, Daily Since 1891
Banner a boon for CLIT, SOCO
Klawunn enjoys Facebook pokes
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A drunken Facebook ‘poke’ made Saturday by Tricia Henry ’07 to Associate Vice President for Campus Life and Dean of Student Life Margaret Klawunn has set off a frenzied poking war between the two. Henry made the poke after “perhaps one too many appletinis” in celebration of a completed rough draft of her thesis on the metaphysics of Jorge Luis Borges. “It was a big moment for me, and I just got a little overexcited,” Henry said. She discovered the administrator’s Facebook profile months earlier after reading a Herald ar-
Michell Hutchins / Herald Former mathlete Kevin Suggs ‘10 outside Store 24 on Thayer.
BY RATI HAYTER CONTRIBUTING WRITER
THAYER — Kevin Suggs ’10, who spends 10 hours each day outside Store 24 on Thayer Street asking passersby for spare change, announced Saturday that he is not homeless, but merely low on Flex points. “Those Blue Room focaccias put a guy out of business pretty quick,” said Suggs, slumped against the store’s graffiti-cov-
13 PUPPIES!!
BY HABIBI YEHUDI CORRESPONDENT ABROAD
R.I. HALL — Students looking to study off the beaten path will have new options from the Office of International Programs next year, including an exchange program with Almaty State University in Kazakhstan and a research program in Pyongyang, North Korea. “We want to enable students to go anywhere in the world to continue their studies. That should mean the steppes of Central Asia should be no less an option than a tapas bar in Madrid,” said Kendall Brostuen, associate dean of
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the College and director of international programs. “I hear the fermented urine of Kazakhstan packs quite a punch, as well.” Kazakhstan, a post-Soviet republic in the heart of Asia, which came to prominence in the United States last year with the documentary “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America to Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan,” is the home of the world’s oldest spaceport, the Baikonur Cosmodome. The exchange program is expected to draw students studying planetary geology and other fields relating to the space program, Brostuen said. “Plus, the excellent potassi-
um there should attract chemistry concentrators to the program,” he added, furthering the OIP’s goal of encouraging more science concentrators to study abroad. The research program in Pyongyang should be a treat for sociology concentrators and those who enjoy brutal hard-line Stalinism alike, Brostuen said. “Who doesn’t love a good personality cult?” he asked. “Plus, the opportunity to conduct research on such a closed society is a once-in-a-lifetime event, and one that only could have been arranged through Brown.” Brostuen said he could not
say how the University got permission for the program from the reclusive North Korean premier, Kim Jong Il, but he responded to the question with a wink and a nudge, sketching a picture of several Trident sea-launched nuclear ballistic missiles before hurriedly erasing it. Students seem excited about the new offerings. “I think spending time in Almaty could really add to my study of Central Asian security issues and culture, especially since there are so few course offerings at Brown in that field,” said continued on page 4
3 percent of student body approve of football team, poll finds BY SHANE FALCO
SPORTS WRITER
Three percent of undergraduates approve of the football team’s performance this season, while 95 percent of the student body has no opinion of the team, a recent Herald poll found. Asked for their opinion on the performance of Brown’s football team — which followed up its 2005 Ivy League championship with a disappointing 3-7 record this season — 3 percent of undergraduates indicated they ap-
Disapprove 2%
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ered wall. “I thought about just going to the (Sharpe Refectory), but I think this is better.” Suggs said he began the semester with 500 Flex points — “an embarrassment of riches,” he thought — but found himself on the street after just three weeks. He said breakfast and lunch at the Blue Room were already taking a heavy toll on his balance when the computer glitch that
OIP to students looking to study abroad: “Jagshamesh!”
Don’t know/ no answer 95%
INSIDE:
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Thayer panhandler actually just low on Flex points
Do you approve of the performance of Brown’s football team? Approve 3%
ticle about college administrators and security officials reading student Facebook profiles. “Anyone with a brown.edu email can be on the Brown Facebook network, so I decided to look up administrators in a particularly pathetic attempt at procrastination,” Henry said. She found Klawunn’s page and immediately felt the urge to poke the administrator — a temptation that she had not acted upon until Saturday. “The next morning, I thought I was going to receive an angry e-mail from (Klawunn) … but instead, she poked me back and added me as a friend,” Henry said. “Of course, I poked back
BY PRODON JABBER CHIEF FACEBOOK CORRESPONDENT
BY POLI COLT CONTRIBUTING WRITER
As Banner introduces a number of significant and controversial changes to this spring’s pre-registration process, one of the lowerprofile adjustments — the addition of two more letters to department codes — has everyone talking. An unintended consequence of the change has been the creation of a number of provocative fourletter codes, such as comparative literature’s CLIT and sociology’s SOCO. “This is very embarrassing for us,” said Associate Provost Nancy Dunbar, who leads the Banner project. “We hope this change won’t skew student interest toward certain departments.” But as pre-registration and the concentration deadline for sophomores approach, it appears that the new course codes have done more than affect student interest — they seem to be the only factor in many sophomores’ concentration decisions. “I had never really considered comparative literature as a concentration,” said Ross Samuels ’09. “But to say ‘I majored in CLIT’ will be priceless.’” “Southern Comfort and lime has always been my favorite drink,” said Jay Adams ’09. “Why not major in it?” Professors of departments benefiting from the change say they couldn’t be happier and are thrilled with the influx of students to their departments. “We expect at least three times more students in our introductory Swedish courses,” said Mats Sundin, professor of Swedish, whose department will be abbreviated as SESH. “Now we just have to find space for all of them.” But one effect that may have been overlooked is the lack of departmental diversity that could result from the course code changes. Statistics obtained from the University’s internal records show that 94
5 Cents
14 DEBAUCHERY
IT’S LIKE EAST COMPTON In this week’s crime log, DPS’ department of Paw Prints identity theft cracks down on fraudulent copying at printers near you
proved, while 2 percent said they disapproved. The remaining 95 percent of respondents selected “don’t know/ no opinion.”
THE HERALD POLL The numbers represent a drop in support for the football team from the same time last year, when a Herald poll found that 6 percent of undergraduates approved of the team, one percent disapproved and 93 percent had no opinion. The poll, which was adminis-
15 DEPORTES
195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island
BEARS WIN SOMETHING That’s right! The Brown Bears totally won some sort of contest of athletic skill this weekend. Aren’t you excited?!
tered between Jan. 29 and Feb. 2, has a margin of error of 4.7 percent with 95 percent confidence. “After the high expectations we established winning the Ivy championship last year, our fans were understandably disappointed with the team’s performance,” said Head Coach Phil Estes. “I should know — I talked personally to all seven of them.” But Estes said despite the losing record, his team gave its fans much to be proud of, noting that
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continued on page 4 NOBODY CARES ABOUT ART BREAKING — Brown students don’t care about art and have stopped producing it. Egads! Can we live without student-run theater?
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