The Brown Daily Herald Wednesday, A pril 9, 2008
Volume CXLIII, No. 48
Spike Lee: Blame rap
Unique no more? U. may require Common App
Director says hip-hop culture distracts from education
By Joanna Wohlmuth Senior Staf f Writer
By Simon Van Zuylen-Wood Senior Staff Writer
He wore a New York Yankees cap and warmed up the audience with a jab at the New England Patriots. But, turning serious, award-winning film director Spike Lee expressed concern about the misguided values some blacks live by today in a speech last night. Lee focused on film, hip-hop and the importance of education and hard work in the black community in his lecture to an enthusiastic crowd in a packed Salomon 101. “No matter what you want to do, if you want to achieve that dream, you have to bust your ass,” Lee said. “I’m very fortunate (to be successful) because my first two years I wasn’t doing anything in school.” Lee, who attended historically black Morehouse College in Atlanta, said a major problem with the education of blacks was the notion that being smart was equivalent to being white. “If you speak correct English, get good grades, you get ostracized Quinn Savit / Herald
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Spike Lee spoke to a packed Salomon 101 about problems facing blacks today.
The Common Application may be required by Brown for hopefuls applying to the class of 2013. “We are strongly considering the possibility of adopting the Common App,” said Dean of Admission Jim Miller ’73. The final decision will be made by the admissions staff within the next month after working out some “bureaucratic, administrative issues,” he said. If the Common Application is adopted, it will be the sole means of applying, but Brown will still require additional essays and supplemental forms, including those for the Program in Liberal Medical Education and the Brown-Rhode Island School of Design dual degree program, Miller said. Though Brown’s application used to be distinct because it required students to write personal essays by hand, 95 percent of students now complete the application electronically and submit it online. By accepting the Common Application, which has “enormous overlaps” with Brown’s current application, the University will make applying easier because the Common Application is used by more than 300 other schools and
Former health secretary calls for Americans to shape up By George Miller Senior Staff Writer
Former Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson, also former governor of Wisconsin and recent Republican presidential candidate, quit the campaign trail last August — but he seemed to have forgotten that Tuesday afternoon, speaking on health care in Andrews
Dining Hall with the vigor of a White House hopeful. “You probably don’t even know I ran for president,” Thompson acknowledged to laughter. He laid out his plan for fixing America’s health care system — including his personal dieting tips — and even addressed international relations, saying he would have made “medical diplomacy” the basis of his foreign policy.
Growing costs, a shortage of people in the industry and a lack of funding for Medicare all contribute to the problems in the U.S. health care system, Thompson said. He added that Congress was not capable of fixing Medicare and that a bipartisan commission formed by the next president would best solve the problem. But he also stressed the impor-
tance of changing Americans’ behavior to improve health. “The truth of the matter is we’re a sickly lot,” he said. He cited his banning smoking on HHS property and even snatching cigarettes from smokers’ mouths as behavior-changing actions that could save money. About 20 percent of Americans account for
Allie and Morgan stood nervously outside their friend Rachel’s door. The three freshmen had rehearsed the conversation they were about to have enough times to make it appear natural, but it was still a touchy subject.
FEATURE They walked in and sat down, attempting to stage a casual conversation with Rachel’s roommate, Chelsea. (Students’ names have been changed in this article to protect their relationships with those they are describing, at their request.) When the topic of the impending
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HIGHER ED
housing lottery came up, Allie, Morgan and Rachel began talking about their plans to enter as a triple. After dropping subtle hints, they looked to Chelsea, but she did not seem to be picking up the signals. Finally Allie turned to her and nonchalantly asked, “So aren’t singles really hard to get?” The conversation was too indirect and too late — Chelsea had simply assumed she and Rachel would live together again. “She acted like a kindergartner,” Allie said. “She knew we didn’t want her to live with us, but it was difficult to tell her she couldn’t live with us. It was weird that she put herself in that position.” Every year, housing drama plays out around campus in a careful ballet
JUICE KEEPS FLOWING Solutions are hard to come by when it comes to the controversial gossip site
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CAMPUS NEWS
A sticky situation Crime Log: A student finds her motor scooter covered in maple syrup
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OPINIONS
By Nandini Jayakrishna Senior Staff Writer
being mean to people, I don’t like excluding people, so I kept trying to give hints. But getting that across is hard. When you imply you don’t want continued on page 4
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Kim Perley / Herald
Tempers run high as students make housing, and friendship, decisions. that requires equal parts diplomacy and self-interest. For Rachel, that meant her roommate had to go. “We’re fine roommates, but I subtly had to tell her my priority was the other girls,” Rachel said. “I don’t like
Hillel staffer moving on after attack A month after unidentified attackers threw two Molotov cocktails at his off-campus apartment, Yossi Knafo said he feels safe but finds it “weird” to be the “center of the mess that happened.” Knafo, a Brown/RISD Hillel employee and an emissary from the Jewish Agency of Israel, was in his kitchen with a friend in the early morning of March 15 when one firebomb — a glass bottle filled with gasoline and stuffed with rags — burned the outside of the building and another entered his bedroom through an open window but did not explode. The Providence Police Department and the FBI are currently investigating the incident. But both Detective Larry Reall of the PPD and FBI agent Joan Buckley, Reall’s supervisor, refused to comment on the ongoing investigation. Knafo, who is no longer living at his old apartment, said the University has provided him with housing, which Hillel is paying for. The University and Hillel “helped me go back to normal life,” he said
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It’s not you, it’s my room: Lottery strains friendships By Emmy Liss Senior Staff Writer
students using it will no longer need to separately submit similar portions of their application on a Brown-specific form, Miller said. Using the Common Application could also benefit the University in the future by allowing it to accept transcripts and teacher recommendations online, Miller said. Angelika Garcia ’10 said she does not think changing the application will impact the admissions process. “In the end, it wouldn’t really matter because the admissions people choose people who would love to be at Brown,” she said. Since supplemental materials would cover the parts of the current Brown application that are not included on the Common Application, students would probably spend the same amount of time applying, said Jane Zhang ’10, chair of the Admissions and Student Services Committee for the Undergraduate Council of Students. “I don’t think (using the Common Application would be) a bad thing, but I don’t think it’s a good thing,” because the majority of time spent writing an application is on the school-specific materials, she said.
margin of error Max Chaiken ’09 says people should pay less attention to poll numbers
195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island
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tomorrow’s weather One final warm, sunny day will make it feel that much worse when it rains on Spring Weekend
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