Monday, February 11, 2008 by The Brown Daily Herald

The Brown Daily Herald M onday, F ebr uar y 11, 2008

Volume CXLIII, No. 14

Faunce House renovation to begin in summer 2009 Plans underway for an expanded campus center By Sam Byker Senior Staff Writer

With the announcement last week that Boston-based architectural firm Schwartz/Silver has been selected to design the Stephen Robert ’62 Campus Center in Faunce House, planning for the $15-million renovation is quickly taking shape. The campus center’s construction could result in Faunce being closed for all of the 2009-10 academic year, and, with a host of other projects set to be completed in coming years, will change the daily lives of most Brown students. The renovations to the J. Walter Wilson Laboratory, located across Waterman Street from Faunce Arch, will accommodate the permanent relocation of many student services as soon as this summer. The Office of Chaplains and Religious Life, University Mailroom and Student Activities Office will move from Faunce to Wilson, along with several other departments coming from other buildings. The move will free up space for Faunce’s renovation, scheduled to begin in the summer of 2009. Originally, the Plan for Academic Enrichment, President Ruth Simmons’ blueprint for improving academics at Brown, called for a campus center on a much grander scale, said Interim Vice President for Campus Life and Student Services Russell Carey ’91 MA’06. But as other projects, such as the $45-million Nelson Fitness Center, got underway, the construction of a major new building to house the center became less feasible. At the same time, Carey added, “it was becoming increasingly clear that Faunce was lacking in a number of ways.”

Since 1866, Daily Since 1891

W h a t d o y o u thi n k , t y r a ?

Faunce then and now Faunce opened in 1904 as a center for “the social and religious uses of students of the University,” according to Encyclopedia Brunoniana. It has gone through a number of piecemeal renovations since the 1950s, and might well have faced another this year. The University originally allocated $4 to $5 million for improvements, Carey said, but that funding wouldn’t have allowed for all the University wanted from the building. Then, last February, outgoing Chancellor Stephen Robert ’62 P’91 and several anonymous donors provided $15 million for the project, which quickly moved toward the top of the University’s priority list. The building has “an amazing history (and) an amazing location,” Carey said, but “a less-than-amazing interior space that has gotten a little bit dreary and drab and run-down and is really in need of some upgrades.” Some administrators say Leung Gallery exemplifies the best and the worst of Faunce. The spacious room is empty for much of the day. When the gallery is in use, often in the evenings by dance and martial arts groups, it cuts off access between the two wings of the building’s second floor. And, though the groups like it as a practice space, it was never designed for this use, and thus lacks mirrors necessary for dance and a proper floor for martial arts. In contrast, the Blue Room is so popular during peak hours that many students purchase food and eat it elsewhere, unable to find a table amid the lunchtime rush. Once the cafe closes at 5 p.m., however, the room is practically empty. Faunce also faces a number of interior problems. “A great deal of what’s going to have to be done as

Professors strap on their dancing shoes Wessel the ‘star’ in Friday’s competition By Debbie Lehmann Higher Ed Editor

Meara Sharma / Herald

The Vietnamese Students’ Association held a fashion show Saturday night in Sayles Hall.

Julia Beamesderfer ’09 couldn’t quite see Professor of Biology Gary Wessel as the dancing type. But on Friday night, after Wessel performed a fastpaced, feet-stomping jive with Hilary Johnson ’09 in a packed Alumnae Hall, she took that back. “His moves were smokin’,” said Beamesderfer, a teaching assistant in one of Wessel’s classes. “Who knew he had it in him?” Wessel and Anderson won Brown’s first ever “Dancing with the Profs,” a competition and dance show based on ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars.” The event featured 90-second routines by seven professors paired with students from the Brown Ballroom Dance Club and showed a short video of the training process for each dance. Though continued on page 6

Slavery and Justice chair heads to Stanford By Scott Lowenstein Metro Editor

James Campbell, professor of Africana studies and chair of the University’s Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice, is leaving Brown for Stanford University at the end of this academic year, citing family reasons for the move. Campbell will hold an appointment in the department of history and will also work for Stanford’s Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity.

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“I am going with great regret and reluctance, but the totality of my personal and family circumstances leads me to believe this is the right decision for me right now,” Campbell said. Campbell, who received his doctorate from Stanford in 1989, said that his decision to move was largely impacted by affection for his alma mater. “If it were any other institution inviting me, I wouldn’t even consider (leaving) but I took my degree continued on page 4

Kori Schulman / Herald File Photo

Professor of Africana Studies James Campbell

U. considering flat housing rate Concerns first raised in meeting with UCS By FRANKLIN KANIN News Editor

Min Wu / Herald

Students must pay an additional $1,108 to live in a suite with a common room, such as those in Young Orchard.

ARTS & CULTURE

greed and gore Trinity Rep puts on Shakespeare’s “Richard III,” commando-style

CAMPUS NEWS

Gabriel Heymann ’10 lives in his Barbour apartment with two suitemates, and just like many other residents on campus, he has a personal area with a bed, shelves and a desk. But unlike some other rooms, his apartment comes with a bathroom and kitchen, and for those additions he pays $1,108 more for his room than students who live in rooms without those features. A flat housing fee for all students would resolve this discrepancy. Margaret Klawunn, associate vice president of campus life and dean forstudent life, and Richard Bova, senior associate

grab your mallets Brown’s club polo team takes the field for its debut practice

OPINIONS

dean for residential life, have been discussing how to create such a policy, according to Klawunn. Concer ns about dif ferent housing rates first came to Klawunn’s attention at a meeting between the Undergraduate Council of Students and the Committee on the Residential Experience last December, she said. Currently, the fee for an apar tment-style dorm with a kitchen and bathroom is $7,066 as opposed to $5,958 for other types of rooms. There is no “firm timeline” for coming up with a solution to housing rate concerns, Klawunn said, because the matter first came up in the last UCS meeting of the fall semester in December, and Bova and Klawunn have not had suf ficient time to devise a new housing plan.

truth or politics? Saul Lustgarten ‘09 makes a case for keeping Hugo Chavez off campus

Though he said he would prefer that all rooms cost the same, Heymann said he thinks students should have to pay an additional price for a kitchen or bathroom. “I think the benefits kind of make up for the extra price. I don’t know if it would change people’s decisions,” Heymann said. Ryan Sims ’11 said having a flat housing rate would not affect his room choice, since he would want the suite-style dorm in any case, but he said a universal rate would allow all students to choose the room they want the most. “I’d probably make the same (housing) decision, but I think that’s a good idea because then anybody has the option of getting a better room,” Sims said Kathrin Sorokko ’10 said the difference in fees does not affect continued on page 4 tomorrow’s weather Expect afternoon flurries, like grants for which you didn’t even apply

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