The Brown Daily Herald M onday, D ecember 3, 2007
Volume CXLII, No. 119
Since 1866, Daily Since 1891
With little pomp, ’07.5ers celebrate mid-year graduation By Joanna Wohlmuth Staff Writer
While more than a thousand Brown students graduate in May among great pomp and circumstance, about 100 students celebrated the end of their time at Brown in a small ceremony in Salomon 101 Saturday evening. The 18th annual Mid-Year Completion Celebration honored
students who expect to complete their degrees at the end of the fall semester and was followed by a reception in Sayles Hall. The ceremony’s program listed 112 graduating students, but not all attended. The Brown Ceremonial Brass Ensemble played as the students — sans cap and gown — filed into the hall. Students can only receive diplomas in May and are allowed to walk at the Commencement ceremony
preceding or following their final semester. The midyear ceremony is more intimate and relaxed than its official counterpart. “We are here today to put a slightly different punctuation mark on your time at Brown,” Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron told the graduating students. “Not a period, not an exclamation point, but my favorite: a semicolon.” Though 120 students are on
Psychology, CogSci depts. to merge
schedule for completing their degree requirements at the end of this semester, not all may finish because they may not complete current classes or because of complications with transfer credits, said Associate Dean of the College for Upperclass Studies Karen Krahulik, who organized the event. The celebration is optional but becomes increasingly
By Emmy Liss Staff Writer
The Department of Psychology and the Department of Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences plan to come together in more ways than just sharing the proposed Mind Brain Behavior Building. By July 2010, the two departments will become one. The idea has been discussed for quite some time, given the overlap that exists between the two departments. “We’ve had psychologists on campus in more than one department,” said Rajiv Vohra P’07, dean of the faculty. “We count on related departments being able to interact,” Vohra said, but he noted that students aren’t always aware that there are courses “very close to their interests” listed in other departments. The current organization isn’t as effective as it could be — having one administration supervising all of these courses would prove a “structural advantage,” he said. When the new cognitive sciences building was proposed, administrators decided this would be the “opportunity for aligning intellectual interests with physical space,” Vohra said. “It highlighted for (the) administration the benefits of integrated faculty, curriculum, physical space.” “It happened all at the same time,” said William Heindel, associate pro-
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drum l i n e
Hillel director will leave at year’s end By Erika Jung Staf f Writer
Though Rabbi Serena Eisenberg ’87, executive director of Brown/ RISD Hillel, has traveled to Israel many times before, her next trip will be different. On New Year’s Day, Eisenberg and her family will move to Ra’anana, a suburb of Tel Aviv. Eisenberg, an associate University chaplain, has been considering the move since she came to Brown in fall 2005, the same year her husband took a job running the U.S. branch of an Israeli company. Last year, he was promoted to chief executive and has been commuting between the United States and Israel ever since. “Beginning last winter, I began to have ver y quiet conversations with people that (the commute) would not be sustainable for our family life,” Eisenberg said. Last April, she formally announced to the Hillel board that she would be stepping down at the end of the fall semester. “She walked into my office and closed the door and said, ‘We’re about to have the conversation that neither of us wanted to have,’ ” said Janet Cooper Nelson, chaplain of the University. “She told us fair and square right up front. It’s probably fair to say I’ve been dreading it since before I hired her.” Eisenberg held her position for only two years, and her predecessor Rich Kirschen left after only three years on the job. But Cooper Nelson said such high turnover is unusual. “By and large, chaplains come and stay,” she said. For example, Alan Flam P’05, who preceded Kirschen as Hillel’s director, ser ved in the role for 18 years. Flam is still at Brown as a senior associate University chaplain and senior fellow at the Swearer Center for Public Ser vice. In her short time at Hillel, Eisenberg has broken barriers. She is the first female and the first alum to hold the position of executive director, Cooper Nelson said. Birthright trips, in which young continued on page 6
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Students perform Taiko, a form of traditional Japanese percussion, for a combined drum and dance piece last Friday at Alumnae Hall as a part of the closing celebration for Asian/Asian-American History Month.
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Brown students have as much sex as nationwide peers By Chaz Kelsh Staf f Writer
Despite what Bill O’Reilly viewers might think, Brown undergraduates actually have about as much sex as their peers nationwide, a recent Herald poll shows. 43.3 percent of students polled by The Herald from Nov. 5-7 reported having no sexual partners since the beginning of the semester, compared to 44.8 percent of students who reported having one to two partners. 3.7 percent of students reported 3-4 partners, 0.5 percent reported 5-6 partners and 0.8 percent reported 7 or more partners. 6.9 percent of students polled by The Herald marked “don’t know/ no answer.” Those numbers are not far off from national statistics. The fall 2006 American College Health Association’s National College Health Assessment reported that 33 percent of college students nationwide had no sexual partners in the last year, while 51 percent had 1-2 partners, 9 percent had 3-4 partners, 3 percent had 5-6 partners and 4 percent had 7 or more partners. The poll has a 3.9 percent margin of error with 95 percent confidence. A total of 621 Brown undergraduates completed the
caroling Two Brown musicals open this weekend, giving theater-goers several options in Providence.
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poll, which was administered as a written questionnaire to students in the University Post Office at Faunce House and in the Sciences Library. “The numbers didn’t stand out as being that surprising,” said Naomi Ninneman, a health educator at Health Services. “I think (the poll) says Brown students are a lot like other people their age,” she said, though she noted that the poll does not say much about students’ sexual health practices.
THE HERALD POLL Students generally agreed that the poll results matched their expectations. “It’s basically saying that people are monogamous or not having sex at Brown,” said Katie Evans ’10. “I would say about half the people I know are having sex, and that’s what it shows.” “I wasn’t really surprised by the results,” said Rob Reinhardt ’08. “When (the results) first came out, I was expecting more of my friends to be surprised. They might (have thought) people were having more sex with more partners, but I wasn’t surprised at all,” he added. The poll results sounded “about right,” said Tito Jankowski ’08. “There’s half of ever yone who’s
heads roll A RI Hospital neurosurgeon mistakenly began a procedure on the wrong side of a patient’s head.
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OPINIONS
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not doing anything — the pre-meds or whatever.” Rizwan Huq ’11 said he also believes that only some students are sexually active. “I kind of got the impression that Brown students slept around a lot more,” he said. “But I guess you really only hear about the extreme cases. The kids who just sit in the library wouldn’t really get around that much.” “It’s my mom’s impression that Brown students have a lot of sex,” said Stephanie Laing ’10. “To me, this seems about right. To the outno answer
7%
3+ partners
6%
1-2 partners
30%
side world, it might seem like we’re a little over-sexed.” Upperclassmen reported having had more sexual partners than underclassmen in the Herald poll. According to the poll, 57.2 percent of first-years have had no sexual partners, compared with 43.4 percent of sophomores, 40.1 percent of juniors and 32.2 percent of seniors. 30.2 percent of first-years have had 1-2 partners, while 45.1 percent of sophomores, 47.6 percent of jucontinued on page 4
8% 4% 4%
45%
no partners
7% 5% 5%
6% 5% 5%
48%
57%
57% 43%
freshmen
Youtube universe The YouTube presidential debates fail to engage the regular voter, Maha Atal ‘08 argues.
sophomores
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40%
juniors
32%
seniors
DAVIS DUNKED The men’s basketball team overwhelmed the University of California at Davis at the Pizzitola Center.
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