The Brown Daily Herald F riday, S eptember 26, 2008
Volume CXLIII, No. 79
Consulting, law pulling in applicants
Since 1866, Daily Since 1891
Endowment gains slow amid turmoil
SPOTLIGHT
U. outperforms peers in a rough year
By Chris Duffy Contributing Writer
The competition for law schools and consulting firms could get even stiffer. With finance jobs swiftly dropping away, law schools, grad schools and consulting firms will likely see an increase in applications, deans and employers say. Kimberly DelGizzo, director of the Career Development Center, said that the effects of increased applications in other areas will probably be spread out, but added that there’s been significantly more interest this year in programs geared toward consulting. DelGizzo noted a case-interview workshop with author Marc Cosentino, which had much higher attendance than similar events in years past. “We’ve seen a number of students who have decided, if not finance, perhaps consulting,” she said. Jon Nam ’09 worked at Greenock Capital, a hedge fund in New York this summer, but decided not to apply for jobs in finance because of the situation on Wall Street. “I just don’t think I’d get a job, honestly,” he said. “It’s a bad time since the economy is really weak, and the job market is flooded with all these people who had jobs and a lot of experience, so why would they hire people who aren’t trained?” Nam said that he’s now applying for consulting jobs and “pretty much anything else.” Increased interest in consulting jobs is likely to make this year more competitive than ever. “We’ve seen record numbers of people at our career fair (booth) and case workshops, and we’re expecting to receive a record number of resumes,” said Daniel Hong ’02, a consultant with Bain and Company who is in charge of recruiting at Brown. Hong declined to comment on how many students Bain was looking to hire this year but said, “We’ve always had a really strong recruiting presence at Brown,” which he hopes continued on page 4
by Michael Bechek and Michael Skocpol News Editors
Courtesy of the John Hay Library
In years past, live bears were brought to athletic events. But one of the bears died due to indigestion.
Bruno’s evolution from donkey to man By Lauren Pischel Staff Writer
It’s half an hour before the weekend’s big football game, and it’s time to suit up. Proud Brunonian Michael Spina ’10 has done all the mental preparation he’ll need — he’s fastened a pad to his chest, wrapped another around his waist and slipped on his full-body suit of Brown fur. Flanked by his sidekick, Cubby, Spina — a.k.a.
Bruno — strides onto the field as Brown’s fiercest fan. Brown’s two mascots spend most of the game running around, giving high-paws to guys and hugs to girls, posing for pictures and revving up the crowd with all their might. On this Saturday, the football team pulls out the victory, 17-7, over Stony Brook University’s Seawolves and their mascot, Wolfie. It took a hiring scramble to
ensure Brown could field a full mascot duo at all. The University usually employs between six and eight students to fill Bruno’s large, furry shoes, said Athletic Marketing and Promotions Intern Patrick Walker, but Spina was the only mascot to return from last year. Searching for the new mascots, Walker might have felt a bit continued on page 4
Thida: imprisonment a temporary death By Christopher Baker Contributing Writer
Thursday night, visiting writer Ma Thida called her imprisonment under the oppressive regime in her homeland of Burma, now known as Myanmar, a process of death and rebirth. The talk, entitled “Banned Books: an Insider’s Perspective on Writing and Resistance in Burma,” was co-sponsored by Amnesty International and the Brown Campaign for Burma.
Thirty-five students, faculty members and local residents came to hear the physician and human rights activist, nearly filling the Joukowsky Forum at the Watson Institute for International Studies. Thida, this year’s International Writers Project fellow, was imprisoned by the Burmese government in 1993 for actively supporting Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel laureate and founder of the main opposition party in Burma. Thida was charged with continued on page 6
Quinn Savit / Herald Ma Thida spoke about her experience in Burma Thursday in the Joukowsky Forum.
Talks between CIS and Mocha for Banner merge on hold By Franklin Kanin News Editor
A link to Amazon.com and a new, independent domain name are among recent changes to Mocha, the popular student-created online course-shopping service. But one change announced last year has not come about: integrating Mocha with the Banner online registration system. The Mocha team has been trying to determine its next step for the site — which might include expanding the ser vice to other
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ARTS & CULTURE
schools and institutions — and has put discussions about integrating the site into Banner on the back burner. “If there are any plans to integrate Mocha more formally with Banner, they are not in the discussion stage, and given all of the other projects with which (Computing and Information Ser vices) is involved, I doubt that anything of that nature will happen in the near future,” Registrar Michael Pesta wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. Mocha has been used by students since 2006 as an alternative
glass-tastic? maybe not A glass art exhibit by RISD alum Dale Chihuly opens the new Chace Center
www.browndailyherald.com
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CAMPUS NEWS
course catalog, first to the Brown Online Course Announcement and now to Banner. Students still have to officially register on Banner. Adam Cath ’07, one of Mocha’s founders, said interest in the merge remains, but busy schedules have prevented the two sides from moving for ward with any concrete plans. Mocha’s creators have graduated, and are all currently employed full-time, reducing the time they have to devote to the site, Cath said. Both Cath and John Styer, di-
club ed New BioMed Dean Edward Wing introduces himself at a town hall meeting
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OPINION
rector of enterprise application services for CIS, said the Mocha team has maintained a close working relationship with CIS, which has provided informal guidance for some of the recent changes to Mocha. While Mocha was previously hosted by the Department of Computer Science, over the summer the Web site moved to another server and its own URL, http:// brown.mochacourses.com. Users who type in the former URL are continued on page 6 we still exist — for now The Wiz Kids explain the Large Hadron Collider and other issues of speedy particles
195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island
12 SPORTS
Outperforming the market and many peer institutions, the University earned a 6.3 percent return on its endowment in the fiscal year ending in June, Brown’s top financial officer said Wednesday. While the gain represents a definite step back from the greater returns seen in recent years, it reflects a relatively strong performance in a difficult economic year. Over a period in which major market indicators posted double-digit losses, the University’s endowment posted modest gains, surpassing $2.8 billion, said Elizabeth Huidekoper, executive vice president for finance and administration. Brown realized a better return in the recently concluded fiscal year 2008 than several of its competitors, including Stanford University (6.2 percent), Yale (4.5 percent) and the University of Pennsylvania (negative 3.9 percent). It also outpaced the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (3.2 percent) and Cornell (2.7 percent). Among Brown’s closest competitors, Harvard (8.6 percent) has so far reported a better proportional return. The numbers for fiscal 2008 include almost a full year of deteriorating market conditions, reflecting the credit crisis touched off by defaulting subprime mortgages in the third quarter of 2007. But they leave unanswered the effect of the dramatic events of recent weeks — which included the abrupt sale of Merrill Lynch, the collapse of the investment bank Lehman Brothers and an emergency government loan to rescue American International Group, the insurance giant. With Congress nearing a deal on an unprecedented $700 billion bailout of Wall Street firms, the possibility of a prolonged period of small gains for institutional investors in coming years remains real. “This is not going to be a fun time, across the board,” Huidekoper said. She added, though, that the University’s endowment had “hardly any” exposure to Lehman and said she could not point to any significant investment that had yet resulted in dire losses. However it may compare to the performance of its peers or the market as a whole, the endowment’s return is disappointing compared with that seen in the recent past. In the preceding fiscal year, which ended in June 2007, the University earned a robust 21.7 percent on its endowment. The decline in the rate of endowment growth has already had serious implications for the University’s stracontinued on page 4 Athlete of the week Mike Gartner ‘09 earns an award for his performance at the Princeton Invitational
News tips: herald@browndailyherald.com
T oday Page 2
Friday, September 26, 2008
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
We a t h e r
Vagina Dentata | Soojean Kim
TODAY
TOMORROW
rain 64 / 59
rain 67 / 58
Menu Sharpe Refectory
Verney-Woolley Dining Hall
Lunch — Shepard’s Pie, Vegan Vegetable Couscous, Apple Dessert Pizza, Whole Wheat Brownies
Lunch — Chicken Fingers, Baked Vegan Nuggets, Rice Pilaf with Zucchini, Mediterranean Bar
Dinner — Portuguese Vegetable Casserole, Filet of Fish Florentine, Rice Pilaf
Dinner — Orange Teriyaki Salmon, Grilled Chicken, Tortellini Angelica, Stir Fry Station
Free Variation | Jeremy Kuhn
Sudoku Fill in the grid so that every row, every column and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 through 9.
Epimetheos | Samuel Holzman
Enigma Twist | Dustin Foley
© Puzzles14, by Pappocom RELEASE DATE– Thursday, February 2008
Los Angeles Times Daily oCrossword Puzzle C r o ssw rd Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
ACROSS 1 Shop orders 6 “You should be kissed, and often, and by someone who knows how” speaker 11 NYC destination 14 Call off 15 Staff addition 16 Manning of the NFL 17 Hearst Castle architect 19 Clue seeker: Abbr. 20 Not running 21 Outcast 23 Got off one’s desk 24 Yankee Clipper airline 25 Arrange home financing 32 Bewail 33 Chooses 34 Early riser? 35 “Just you wait, ’__ ’iggins”: song lyric 36 Old __: Crockett’s rifle 38 Alone 39 Henry Fonda’s birthplace: Abbr. 40 Center 41 Motrin competitor 42 Aesopian output 46 Belarus city 47 Yo counterpart 48 Rutabaga, for one 50 Festive decoration 55 Calendario span 56 Custard recipe option 58 Strong current 59 1980s teammate of Bird and McHale 60 Successful, in slang 61 Mil. stores 62 Three-star officer: Abbr. 63 Long lock DOWN 1 “M*A*S*H” ranks 2 Neighbor
3 Whom Tony and Rico fought over, in “Copacabana” 4 Precalc course 5 Substitute 6 Girl in a #1 Beach Boys hit 7 “Cotton Candy” trumpeter 8 One of a joule’s 10,000,000 9 “Mad” event in an 1865 novel 10 Lessees 11 Qui-Gon Jinn, for one 12 Bug with bounce 13 Friends and neighbors 18 Central 22 Sleazy paper 24 Infield flies 25 Broken mirrors, to some 26 Lisa of “The Cosby Show” 27 Rolls Royce Dart engines, e.g. 28 Suffix for honor 29 Liturgical piece 30 Tropical jam fruit 31 Actress Georgia 36 Nautical spar 37 Composer Satie
38 Warning to drivers 40 Bitter 41 Hampshire College town 43 __ Tin Tin 44 Hired guns 45 Start to bat? 48 Diamond protector 49 Computer operating system since the ’60s
50 Prudent 51 Apt subject for today that’s hidden in this puzzle’s four longest answers 52 They rest on pads 53 Some buglers 54 Old theaters 57 Derby’s home: Abbr.
Alien Weather Forecast | Stephen Lichenstein and Adam Wagner
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
Brown Meets RISD | Miguel Llorente
xwordeditor@aol.com
2/14/08
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A rts & C ulture Friday, September 26, 2008
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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
Student documentary depicts Olneyville life By Caroline Sedano Senior Staff Writer
Paring 40 hours of video footage into a 90-minute documentar y seems a daunting task. But that is what Matt Hassett ’09 and Abe Halpert ’09 plan to accomplish over the coming months to create a documentary about Olneyville — a low-income area on the west side of Providence with a large immigrant population. The two compiled footage over the summer with a $4,000 Starr Fellowship from the Swearer Center for Public Ser vice. They hope to show the film at Brown and on Rhode Island’s PBS affiliate, WSBE. “It was really cool to be able to direct my own project and focus on what I wanted to focus on,” said Hassett, who conceived the project after working in Olneyville as a tutor for English for Action, a nonprofit teaching group. Hassett explained that the area, one of the poorest in Providence, is an interesting case study in how neighborhoods can change, and how residents deal with the change. Olneyville, with significant open space and many run-down mills, is of high interest to large real estate development companies such as Rising Sun Mills and Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse, Hassett said. Merely acquaintances before early June, when Halpert decided to join the project, the two spent the summer interviewing community organizers, police officers, nonprofits, artists, business owners, developers and people on the streets of Olneyville. “Our inter views were ver y broad and we tried to address as many subjects as possible,” Hassett said. “But the thing that unites ever yone in Olneyville is housing. From the point of view of developers and the point of view of the residents, housing affects ever yone and there are a lot of misconceptions about its effects.” “We wanted to talk to anyone who had any stake in the neighborhood,” Halpert said. “A lot of people in Olneyville are skeptical that the influx of money to these developments will not help them, or worse, displace them,” Hassett said. “It’s easy to criticize certain organizations that are tr ying to gentrify the neighborhood or dislocate low-income citizens,” Halpert explained. “But our documentar y is not tr ying to create a dichotomy between the poor and the wealthy developers,” Hassett continued, adding that the developers are in fact doing a lot of important and beneficial work in Olneyville, like creating parks and bike paths, restoring buildings and generally helping neighborhoods. However, the large developers interested in the area were resistant to talking to Hassett and Halpert. “We don’t want to make them look bad, but they won’t talk to us to show all the really good things they have done,” Hassett said. “But them not talking makes them seem far more worse than they really are in the situation.”
Big developers like Rising Sun were not the only organizations to refuse to be videotaped. The Olneyville Neighborhood Association, which has been ver y vocal in opposing most of the proposed developments, also refused to let its inter views be recorded. Beyond this resistance by the larger players in Olneyville, which Halpert attributes to the muckraking image Michael Moore has given documentar y filmmakers, the two found others ver y cooperative. “People were generally really happy to talk because we were asking them about issues that they are most passionate about,” Hassett said, an angle that allowed them to discover surprising things about the area. “Contrar y to what people might think, immigrants are generally the victims (and not the perpetrators) of crime,” Hassett said, explaining that criminals commonly wait outside banks frequented by immigrants, force them into vans and steal their wallets. “Illegal immigrants feel they have no recourse with the law because they are in fear of being deported,” Halpert added. This leaves many immigrants unable to combat these attacks, he said. However, crime and violence were not the only aspects of Olneyvile that Halpert and Hassett encountered. A flourishing art and music scene permeates the lives of many of the poorest Olneyville residents. Halpert remembers finding 200 people living in one of the historic mills of Olneyville. They had turned the mill into a kind of “artistic wonderland playground.” It was at moments like these that Halpert, who joined the project on a whim, felt the value of the summer’s work. “One day when we were driving back from an inter view I was just thinking, ‘How cool is this?’ People in their regular lives don’t just call up other people to tr y and talk to them for no good reason — unless they are crazy. But we got to do it for a whole summer, which is just so great.” Halper t and Hassett were also grateful that the Starr Fellowship allowed them to truly explore and understand an area that they have lived so close to, and that many Brown students never even hear of. “A lot of people never leave the East Side, but Olneyville is really interesting and really different, which is wonderful to see,” Halpert said. “Brown students are so busy and worr ying about ver y abstract classes. Here’s a neighborhood that’s dealing with such fundamental issues. It was really invigorating to work with issues so present and crucial.” The 40 hours of footage are currently sitting in a drawer in Hassett’s bedroom where the two will watch it, pick out the best bits, decide if they need to reshoot anything and eventually piece it together into a film. “We are basically fitting two years’ work into a couple months,” Hassett said.
Donald Kendall / Herald
Dale Chihuly led a tour of his new show at the Rhode Island School of Design’s new Chace Center.
‘Chihuly at RISD’: Ultimately unexciting By Ben Hyman Arts & Culture Editor
“Chihuly at RISD,” the first show in the Rhode Island School of Design Museum’s Special Exhibitions Gallery at the new Chace Center, makes loud visual statements but fails to say anything new. On Wednesday, glass artist Dale Chihuly, a 1968 RISD graduate, led some 50 museum officials and members of the press on a preview tour
REVIEW of the show, which officially opens Saturday. This superficially entertaining but ultimately unexciting exhibition features both older and more recent pieces in dramatic installations tailored to the characteristic flamboyance of Chihuly’s work. Chihuly’s immediately identifiable style emphasizes the visual pleasure of fluid, color-saturated forms. The exhibition begins with a showy “Persian Ceiling” installation, as Chihuly calls it — a short passageway whose clear roof supports a chaotic assemblage of vibrant glass pieces. Light shines through the ceiling from above, filling the space with color. The show is mostly organized into small groups of work sampling the many series that Chihuly has developed throughout his 40-year career, including his aptly-named “Cylinders,” the undulating “Baskets,” and the fanciful “Venetians.” Unfortunately, this classifying format only highlights the fact that Chihuly’s “series” might just as well be called “product lines.” His style has had decades to saturate the market, and even the newest works in the show feel tired and familiar, an effect that is exacerbated by the space’s darkly painted walls and intensely focused floor-show lighting. The pieces might as well have their price tags on them. This sort of blatant commercialism, though acceptable for an auction house, leaves a sour taste when the space belongs to an academic institution. The show also features a handful of larger installation works and some
70 of Chihuly’s paintings, mostly in acrylics scarred with a blowtorch. The paintings, aside from their purely expressive function, often serve as blueprints for the team of artisans in Chihuly’s studio who actually produce his work. In a way, they give the viewer a certain insight into Chihuly’s creative process, though they are not inherently of much visual interest. After earning a master’s degree in sculpture at the University of Wisconsin in 1967, Chihuly enrolled in RISD’s graduate program in ceramics. At that time, a small furnace at a professor’s farm was the extent of RISD’s glass program, according to Chihuly. After earning his second master’s, he joined the RISD faculty and taught there for 11 years, helping to build the school’s glass department. During that period, he also founded the Pilchuck Glass School near Seattle, which he said helped make that city “the place where glass really took off.” He estimates that Seattle now hosts over 100 glass-
making studios. Chihuly’s pervasive influence on the art glassmaking climate is illustrated by a companion exhibition, “Studio Glass in Rhode Island: The Chihuly Years,” also on view in the Chace Center. Works by Chihuly’s students and colleagues, including Howard Ben Tré, James Watkins and Toots Zynsky, show that Chihuly’s preoccupations — the appropriation of natural forms, the exploration of volumetric space and the creative use of color — were a source of inspiration. RISD Museum Director Hope Alswang, in her introduction to Chihuly’s tour, said that the artist had the appropriate “gravitas” to inaugurate the new Chace Center space. But by deciding to play it safe and presenting an unimaginative crowd-pleaser, the RISD Museum missed a valuable opportunity to open the Chace Center’s doors with something truly innovative.
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Downturn affects endowment growth
like his forebear, Theodore Francis Green 1887, the Corporation member who once sought to revamp the school’s representation on the athletic field.
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Steve DeLucia / Herald
weeks has not significantly driven up interest payments on the University’s roughly $500 million in outstanding debt, Huidekoper said. The University continues to expect taking on more debt to finance upcoming construction but will not need to do so until late winter or early spring, Huidekoper said, allowing time for spiked interest rates to — hopefully — settle in the meantime. Huidekoper said Brown had benefited in the last year from its asset allocation strategy, which included relatively weighty investments in hedge funds, a sector that has performed well throughout the national economic downturn that began more than a year ago. Such funds made up 32 percent of Brown’s investments in
fiscal 2008. Kenneth Redd, director of research for the National Association of College and University Business Officers, said a survey conducted by his organization found that schools with endowments over $1 billion invested, on average, 20 percent of their assets in hedge funds in fiscal 2007, the most recent year for which the association has such data. Universities with large endowments, such as Brown, are often best positioned to weather economic downturns and continue to post gains in a volatile market, Redd said. Wealthier schools have the luxuries of more actively managing their assets and diversifying over a broader range investment classes than do those with fewer resources, he said.
Finance applicants headed for grad school continued from page 1 will continue. While it’s still too early in the application process to know for sure, administrators anecdotally report that there’s also been an increased interest in graduate and professional schools. “I sense that (the financial crisis) is on the minds of a lot of juniors and seniors,” said Andrew Simmons, associate dean of the College for law and health careers. “We’re all waiting for how it’ll pan out. We’re all just holding our breath.” “For admissions generally, what’s
happening in the economy has affected the volume of applications,” said Asha Rangappa, dean of admission at Yale Law School. “For example, during the dot-com boom, the volume of applications we received went down, but during the dot-com bust, our application volume went up.” Rangappa said that in today’s climate, there’s more work for corporate lawyers and litigators. “Stuff like this gives lawyers more work,” she said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw an increase in the volume of applications.” DelGizzo echoed Rangappa’s view. “Typically, when unemploy-
First, Bruno was a donkey continued from page 1
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tegic plans, and could continue to affect them adversely. Recent strong returns have fueled aggressive growth, as the University upped spending and took on debt to finance a spate of academic and capital projects. The University’s agenda still includes pushing ahead with the physical expansion of the campus, including new buildings along the Walk, and expansion of the faculty and Graduate School, although the pace of any of these initiatives could slow if revenue growth proves sluggish in the down economy. The Plan for Academic Enrichment, President Ruth Simmons’ blueprint for bolstering Brown’s academic profile, for example, had called for expanding the size of the faculty to 700 for this semester. But the University was able to add just 9 of the 20 new positions that would have been required to meet that goal, Huidekoper said. The Corporation voted in February to temporarily increase the payout to nearly 6 percent of the endowment’s three-year rolling average. That payout, the highest in decades, helped support a broad expansion of financial aid, which University officials deemed necessary to remain competitive with a wave of peer schools, led by Harvard, that announced dramatic financial aid boosts last year. Rising expenses and tightening revenues in the difficult economic landscape may force payouts to remain high in the near future. While the uncertain market could ultimately force the University to temper its ambitions, Huidekoper said that there are no plans to cancel any of the building projects slated for the next several years. Target completion dates could be pushed back if necessary, she added. “Everything on the capital list, we absolutely intend to do,” she said. In a volatile credit market, the University is also forced to hold more cash reserves, she said. The tight credit market of the past few
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Friday, September 26, 2008
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
ment is high, more students choose graduate schools,” she said. DelGizzo warns students, though, that “it’s not a good idea to go to grad school as a reaction to a poor job market.” Students should “decide if this is the right time” for an advanced degree, she added. Simmons said that there is no reason for students to panic. “These things tend to go with economic cycles, but if you’re a qualified applicant, you’re going to get admitted somewhere. No one should feel discouraged because some law schools are saying, ‘It’s gonna be difficult here,’” he said.
Before Bruno, burro Over a century ago, Brown was without a symbol. In 1902, a burro — a close relative of the donkey — was introduced as a mascot at a Brown-Harvard football game. The attempt was deemed a failure because the burro visibly quaked in fear at the sound of the crowd.Two years after the quaking burro incident, Green decided to act. He nailed the head of a brown bear over the arch of the trophy room in the newly completed Rockefeller Hall — now Faunce House — for which he was a member of the building committee. The symbol stuck, both to the arch and in the minds of Brunonians who fell in love with their new mascot. According to the Encyclopedia Brunoniana, Green explained his choice of the Brown Bear by calling the bear “intelligent and capable of being educated … a good swimmer and a good digger, like an athlete who makes Phi Beta Kappa.” But the Brown bear soon became much more than a figure around which to rally. In 1905, the symbol of the Brown bear was to be realized in the flesh by Dinks, who was set to make to his debut at that year’s Brown-Dartmouth football game. To mark the occasion, The Herald published a fight song to cheer on Dinks. “Oh, the Bear is for Brunonia, / But, boys, I have to smile, /For Dartmouth’s mascot ought to be/ A green-backed crocodile.” But when the whistle blew, Dinks cowered in his cage and refused to leave. For tunately, Helen, Dinks’ mate, rose to the occasion and put on a crowdpleasing performance by glaring at the Dartmouth team, earning her the title of the University’s first mascot. From 1905 to 1949, Helen and her successors made appearances on the sidelines of many games, but the mascot wasn’t a consistent figure. Brown’s first “Bruno” lived in the biology department from 1920 to 1921 until he “sampled some chemicals and expired,” according to the official program for Bruno’s 100th birthday game on Oct. 23, 2004. Bruno V died during a football game in 1939 because of indigestion. The campus went into mourning and Bruno V was given an unmarked grave under Aldrich field, now the Olney-Margolies Athletic Center, according to Encyclopedia Brunoniana. To foster more school spirit, the Brown Key Society began in 1949 to purchase a new cub annually, making Bruno a consistent figure at games throughout the 1950s. But the cubs grew unmanagably large quickly, causing turnover so rapid that Roger Williams Park — the bears’ de facto retirement home — eventually turned away Bruno XXII in 1960. The bears lived in a cage under the football stadium when they weren’t cheering on the athletic Bears on the field. For away games, they would stay in local jails. Though the tradition of bringing the bear to games stayed
strong for many years, live bears began to be replaced by human mascots by the 1960s. Several attempts were made to reinstate the live mascot tradition, but in 1967, President Keeney declared that there would be no more live bears at football games. ‘A pretty prestigious position’ More than 40 years later, Walker said he is well aware of the tradition his team of mascots represents. Bruno “brings tradition. He’s been around for years and years,” Walker said. “Alums, students and opponents all recognize who he is.” Modern day mascots, just as the old live bears, are responsible for engaging the crowd, though they now give high-fives and hugs, something the live bears could not offer. When interacting with the crowd, “you just work with whatever they give you,” Spina said. “Usually they want to take pictures and kids actually pull your tail.” “The kids love (Bruno), he fires people up,” he added. “So many chants have to do with Bruno.” “Both (Bruno and Cubby) have the potential to really excite the crowd. A lot of responsibility falls on their shoulders,” said the student who will be Cubby this weekend. Though Spina gave his name, the names of the students who serve as mascots are traditionally kept secret, Walker said, often preferring to be called “guardians.” “I feel more free if people don’t know who Cubby is,” the younger mascot’s guardian continued. “It’s really fun to pick on people who you know and have them not know that it’s you that’s inside of the costume.” Cubby’s guardian added that being a mascot has given her a unique insight into Brown fans. “There is this strange relationship that people have with mascots. It’s safe to hug a mascot,” she said. “You can actually make people’s day.” But being Bruno or Cubby does come with a few difficulties. Besides not being able to talk, the mascots must deal with the extreme heat of a fur suit for several hours in the sun. Also, vision is severely restricted, as the students look out of the mascots’ mouths. “I didn’t fully realize how constricting the costume was,” Cubby’s guardian said. “Visibility is very, very slim. You’re squinting through this small slit that has netting over it.” With Spina as the only returning mascot, Walker sent out a school-wide e-mail early this semester to inform the school about the open spots. “Now it’s open for tryouts for anyone,” he said. “If they want to try out, give it a shot.” The try-out process is self-selecting, Walker said. Those who are interested try on the suit and act in it. If they feel comfortable, the new mascots are assigned a game to work. Either they like it, “or we never hear from them again,” Walker said. Character, according to Walker, is paramount for those students who play Bruno and Cubby. “These students hold a pretty prestigious position,” he said. “They act with people from the ages of three to 103. They should be fun but still show respect.”
C ampus n ews Friday, September 26, 2008
Wing speaks to med students’ concerns By Sara Sunshine Senior Staff Writer
Despite drawing laughs with his jokes, new Dean of Medicine and Biological Science Edward Wing was there for more than a standup routine. About 50 chattering students, some still in their scrubs, came to MacMillan 117 Thursday to hear Wing introduce himself in a town hall-style meeting, where he heard many of their concerns. Upon taking the stage, Wing said that the 10 weeks he has been dean have been ver y busy, as “it takes a lot of work to figure out the politics of Brown.” But, he added, he is looking for ward to guiding the Alpert Medical School during its expansion, made possible in part by the $100 million Alpert gift, announced in 2007. “I have two priorities. One is to build the Med School. The other is to have closer relationships with the (teaching) hospitals,” Wing said. The former goal is more urgent, Wing said. “We don’t have a home, and (the gift) will allow us” to fund the construction of a new medical school building in the Jewelr y District, he added. Overall, Wing said he was ver y happy with the direction of the medical program. “This school is terrific and it’s on its way up,” Wing said, adding that the Med School is doing everything it must to improve itself. Wing emphasized the need for Brown to remain competitive with other medical schools, particularly its northern neighbors. “You know Boston: they’re a bunch of arrogant Puritans,” he said, prompting laughs. After speaking, Wing opened the floor for questions. Some students voiced their concerns about insufficient funds for traveling to conferences, the plan for green space at the new medical building and criteria for induction to Alpha Omega Alpha, a national medical honor society. Other students expressed unease at the recent dramatic changes in the Med School, such
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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
Kim Perley / Herald
Dean Edward Wing spoke to about 50 Med School students Thursday. as the sudden resignation of his predecessor, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology Eli Adashi and the reduction in the proportion of PLME students. Ben Brown ’08 MD’12 said he wanted Wing to know how valuable PLME was and hoped that it would remain a vital part of the Med School. A concern shared by many students was the lack of library space for studying. “I need to understand better that issue of what’s lacking,” Wing said, but he added that he is committed to improving the situation. The librar y situation has been problematic for a while, said Jasmine Bauknight ’06 MD’12. Because Brown is ver y “cognizant of its undergraduates” and “tends to forget about its Med School population,” the librar y hours are based entirely around an undergraduate
schedule, Bauknight said. This is a problem because medical students are studying for board examinations during spring break but cannot gain access to the libraries during that time, she added. Almaz Dessie ’07 MD’11 said she was not satisfied with some of Wing’s responses to student inquiries, particularly in regards to the librar y issue. “It seemed like he wasn’t too aware of what was going on,” she said, despite the fact that student groups have been corresponding about study space with Associate Dean of Medicine Philip Gruppuso for the last year. Dessie also said she was concerned about the direction of the Med School. “I feel that the medical school that I applied for in 2002 is nothing like the one I go to now.”
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Trial finds colon-screening tool is accurate A recent trial involving Brown and other institutions has shown that computed tomography, better known as CT scanning technology, is very accurate when used to help screen colorectal cancer. The trial, which had the goal of assessing the accuracy of CT colonography, was conducted by the American College of Radiology Imaging Network. Funded by the National Cancer Institute, the trial enrolled more than 2,600 patients across 15 sites nationwide. Data from the trial were sent for analysis to the research group’s Biostatistics Center, which is part of Brown’s Center for Statistical Sciences. Since the study was initiated in 2005, the center’s faculty and staff have played a major role in providing methodological leadership to the American College, designing studies and monitoring and analyzing the data. Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer in the United States, according to the study. Also known as virtual colonoscopy, CT colonography employs virtual reality technology that allows doctors to better see the colorectum without using invasive procedures. Using conventional colonoscopy as the gold standard, virtual colonoscopy “has several potential advantages over other screening tests, including rapid imaging of the entire colorectum; a relatively noninvasive technique, with no need for sedation; and a low risk of procedure-related complications,” the study found. The new screening process helps look for and detect abnormalities in abdominal areas other than the colon, said Mei-Hsiu Chen PhD’05, assistant professor in the Center for Statistical Sciences. “This is going to be a definitive study which shows that CT colonography is one of the modalities that should be used for screening for colorectal cancer,” said Professor of Medical Science Constantine Gatsonis, who specializes in biostatistics and is director of the Center for Statistical Sciences. “It will also influence health policies,” in a positive way, he said. Currently, Chen and other members are working on subsequent papers that will address questions arising from their primary paper on this project. Chen said the researchers are focusing on how to generalize virtual colonoscopy in screening programs across the country. The questions concern the cost-effectiveness of the screening process and whether radiologists have preferences for certain software and preparation procedures. — Alicia Dang
Class of 2008 sets Annual Fund record by Jyotsna Mullur Contributing Writer
The class of 2008 gave $67,732 to the University over the past year and set a record for participation in a class gift, according to the Annual Fund. The gift included President Ruth Simmons’ $20,008 donation, an anonymous donor’s $25,000 challenge gift and nearly $23,000 from 72 percent of the 1,542 seniors — the “Best Class Ever,” according to its campaign slogan. The all-student Senior Class Gift Committee took a different approach to promoting the senior gift, kicking off the campaign for donations in the fall semester instead of in the spring, as had been done traditionally, said Johanna Corcoran, assistant director for student programs. “While most of the gifts came in the spring, the seniors continuously heard about it and considered giving from early on in the year,” gift committee Co-Chair Brittany Locke ’08 wrote in an e-mail. “We started off faster than any other class in history,” Gordy Pels ’08, the other co-chair, wrote in an
e-mail. Simmons’ donation also “galvanized” the campaign, Corcoran said. The president had traditionally given amounts corresponding to the year of graduation — $2,005 for the class of 2005, for example. In 2007, she added a digit, to increase her gift to $20,007, and this time, she again adhered to that pattern. Additionally, an anonymous donor from the class of 1972 submitted a challenge to the seniors: if 72 percent of the class contributed to the class gift, this donor would contribute $25,000. According to Corcoran, the challenge succeeded in motivating the students. Breaking the class of 2005’s record of 68 percent, the class of 2008 exactly met the participation goal. An increase of “four percentage points (over the previous class) is quite a feat,” Corcoran said. Locke wrote that the success of the gift “reflects how much the class of 2008 loved Brown and how much we appreciated everything that the school has done for us over the previous four years.”
The class gift was a boost to the Annual Fund, which in total brought in a record $35.1 million from over 33,000 donors. The Parents’ Annual Fund led the Ivy League, according to its Web site, with $4.2 million. Alumni with reunion years in 2008 also contributed heavily, with the classes of 3’s and 8’s raising $11.3 million for the Annual Fund. The 1764 Society, which is composed of regular donors to the Annual Fund, grew to 11,137 members in 2008, an increase of 13 percent. Seeing their donations used immediately to support the University’s operational budget for the next year is an incentive for donors, Corcoran said. The money from the Annual Fund “addresses the highest needs of the university,” she said, going toward, Undergraduate and Teaching Research Assistantships, seminars and academic journal subscriptions for libraries, among other expenses. The class of 2009’s Senior Class Gift Committee will meet in early October to start formulating plans to raise money, Corcoran said.
The Herald. More fun than a colonoscopy.
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Thida plans to write fiction at Brown continued from page 1 endangering public serenity, contacting illegal organizations and printing and distributing illegal publications. Her prison sentence was for 20 years, but she was released in 1999 due to declining health, increasing political pressure and the efforts of human rights organizations like Amnesty International and PEN. “I temporarily died,” said Thida of her imprisonment. “I was attending the funeral of me.” She employed this funeral imagery to relate her life to the events of Sept. 11. Her release from prison, she said, was the beginning of her “reincarnation” — a process that she said continues to this day. Prior to the lecture, Amy Tan ’09, president of the Brown chapter of Amnesty International, told The Herald she was excited for the talk. “I think that (this event) is a really important part of our project this year, which is to more effectively utilize resources at Brown University and to build bridges between groups that didn’t previously work together,” she said. The Brown Campaign for Burma,
a chapter of the national U.S. Campaign for Burma, has been working with Amnesty International since its creation last year. The groups sold “a cho chin,” or Burmese after-dinner snacks, outside of Joukowsky Forum. They also gathered signatures to petition against the imprisonment of Nilar Thein, an activist leader and member of the prodemocracy 88 Generation Students group in Myanmar. “This is part of our plan for the year, to have an event that commemorates the Saffron Revolution,” said Eric Gastfriend ’10, president of the Brown Campaign for Burma. The Saffron Revolution was a massive but peaceful political protest led by Buddhist monks in Myanmar at this time last year. The military regime responded violently. “I want people to learn and be more aware of what’s going in Burma, especially the freshmen,” Gastfriend said. Emily Gogolak ’12, who attended the talk, said “it was really moving to hear someone who has been such a force in trying to bring peace and democracy to Burma.” Radhika Kumar ’12 agreed. “It sort of gives you insight into Burmese life,”
she said. “It must be so suffocating in Burma.” The talk was delayed for about 10 minutes due to technical difficulties with the projector, and Thida was unable to show the PowerPoint she had prepared. “I really wanted to show some pictures,” Thida said with some frustration. She had arrived nearly an hour early to prepare for the talk. In the question-and-answer session following the talk, Thida discussed the teen magazine she publishes in Myanmar. “Mostly I write the thoughtprovoking articles,” Thida said. “I just want to tell (teens) we do value independence, but we should value interdependence.” When asked about her plans in Providence, Thida said she wants to spend her time at Brown writing fiction that portrays the suffering in her homeland. She added that she had little time to write fiction there between her two jobs. Of human rights struggle, Tan said, “Oftentimes, it seems far away.” “But Brown and people at Brown — we are close to it. You can reach out and touch someone, basically, that has been through it.”
Mocha partnership with U. now unlikely continued from page 1 redirected to the current one. The Web site’s new feature allowing students to compare book prices at the Brown Bookstore to those on Amazon forced the move, Cath said. Mocha now gets a com-
Friday, September 26, 2008
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
mission when students buy books from Amazon having gone through Mocha first, and Brown cannot use its resources to support a for-profit endeavor, according to Cath. The agreement with Amazon might preclude any integration with Banner for the same reason,
Cath said. The Mocha team has been discussing expanding the service to other schools, but the creators have not yet mapped out specific plans, Cath said. According to Styer, no big changes are on the horizon for Banner.
Debate, economy still in precarious limbo By Michael Shear and Jonathan Weisman Washington Post
WASHINGTON — The first debate between John McCain and Barack Obama, scheduled for Friday night, remained in limbo Thursday night after the presidential candidates left a White House meeting without a deal on a $700 billion economic rescue plan. Democrats immediately blamed McCain for disrupting the effort at compromise, saying his decision to suspend his campaign and return to Washington shifted the klieg lights of the White House contest to the tense and delicate congressional negotiations. Those discussions, which had appeared promising early in the day, culminated in the late-afternoon meeting held by President Bush. But instead of producing a joint statement of success, McCain and Obama slipped out of a gathering that those present described as a contentious and unproductive session. “What this looked like to me was a rescue plan for John McCain for two hours,” said an angry Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn., who had all but declared the deal done earlier in the day. “To be distracted for two to three hours for political theater doesn’t help.” In interviews after the meeting, Obama pointed a finger at his rival for the faltering talks, saying on CNN that “when you start injecting presidential politics into delicate negotiations, you can actually inject more problems, rather than less.” His spokesman Bill Burton was more blunt, accusing McCain of turning “a national crisis into an occasion to promote his campaign. It’s become just another political stunt, aimed more at shoring up the senator’s political fortunes than the nation’s economy.” In response, senior McCain adviser Steve Schmidt accused Obama of playing politics, saying the negotiations had been far from resolved and challenging the Democratic nominee to “publish the list of members of Congress who were going to vote for this. Because in reality, there is not a list of a majority of Democrats and Republicans who are willing to vote for it.” McCain said he is “hopeful” that a deal can be reached soon, despite opposition from many House Republicans who have consistently balked at the bailout cost and produced a far different proposal in the 11th hour Thursday. “There are a variety of concerns, I think a lot of them have been satisfied,” McCain said on ABC’s “World News Tonight” after the meeting. “And I believe and I’m hopeful that we can satisfy all of them and move forward very quickly. They are aware of the urgency.” Obama and McCain both held out hope that they could still meet Friday night in Oxford, Miss., for their long-scheduled first debate as they settled in to overnight in Washington. “I think he knows that I’m going to be there,” Obama said in his own appearance on ABC. But McCain’s campaign said that no travel decisions had been made as of Thursday night. “I understand how important this debate is and I am hopeful,” McCain said on ABC News. The independent Commission on Presidential Debates said Thurs-
day that it is “moving forward” with its plans for the face-off. The White House meeting was the result of McCain’s startling announcement Wednesday that he would cease campaigning and return to Washington, urging Bush to convene a summit to address the financial crisis. Bush did so, informing the nation in an address Wednesday night, and inviting Obama and McCain to attend. Thursday’s photo opportunity amounted to Bush’s first public appearance with McCain since May, when the two briefly shook hands on a tarmac at the Phoenix airport. The Republican nominee has sought to distance himself from the president, whose approval rating has touched new lows in recent polling, and campaign aides have said they have no plans to ask Bush to appear on the campaign trail. McCain, Obama, administration officials and congressional leaders had hoped to emerge together from the West Wing to deliver a forceful joint statement that would at least show a display of unity behind the principle of a massive federal intervention in the financial markets. McCain’s “Straight Talk Air” landed at Reagan National Airport just after noon, and his motorcade headed toward the Senate. But even before his charter plane took off from Newark, senior Democrats and Republicans at the Capitol were already announcing that a deal in principle had been reached. That declaration turned out to be premature, as McCain’s colleagues in the House objected to the ideas presented and arrived at the meeting adamant that they had never signed on to a deal. At the White House, the gathering turned contentious when House Minority Leader John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, brought up a new set of principles that conservative House Republicans had laid out earlier in the day. Boehner’s move was received poorly by Obama and the other Democrats, who quickly pressed McCain to say whether he supported Boehner’s position, according to a detailed account of the meeting. McCain declined to commit, one source said. For much of the day, McCain shuttled between meetings and his Senate office, but rarely came close to the Capitol suites and committee rooms where the negotiations were taking place. He had returned to his Crystal City, Va., condominium by 6 p.m., where aides said he continued to work the phones in support of the deal. Earlier, McCain had emerged from his office in the Russell Senate Office Building around noon to a crush of reporters, saying nothing as he made his way to Boehner’s office. In tow were a trio of his closest allies, Sens. Lindsey O. Graham, RS.C., Joseph I. Lieberman, I-Conn., and Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., as well as top campaign aides Rick Davis and Mark Salter. Boehner and McCain discussed the bailout plan, but Republican leadership aides described the conversation as somewhat surreal. Neither man was familiar with the details of the proposal being pressed by House conservatives, and up to the moment they departed for the White House Thursday afternoon, neither had seen any description continued on page 9
w orld & n ation Page 7
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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
Carbon dioxide emissions outpace dire predictions
New president of South Africa sworn in
By Juliet Eilperin Washington Post
WASHINGTON — The rise in global carbon dioxide emissions last year outpaced international researchers’ most dire projections, according to figures being released Friday, as human-generated greenhouse gases continued to build up in the atmosphere despite international agreements and national policies aimed at curbing climate change. Carbon released from burning fossil fuels and cement production increased 2.9 percent in 2007 over 2006 to a total of 8.47 gigatons, or billions of tons, according to the Australia-based Global Carbon Project, an international consortium of scientists that tracks emissions. This output is at the very high end of scenarios outlined by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and could translate into a global temperature rise of more than 11 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century, according to the panel’s estimates. “In a sense, it’s a reality check,” said Corinne Le Quere, a professor at the School of Environmental Scientists at the University of East Anglia and a researcher with the British Antarctic Survey. “This is an extremely large number. The emissions are increasing at a rate that’s faster than what the IPCC has used.” The new statistics also under-
score the growing contribution to the world’s “carbon budget” from rapidly-industrializing countries such as China, India and Brazil. Developing nations have roughly doubled their carbon output in less than two decades and now account for 53 percent of total emissions, according to the new figures, up from 35.6 percent in 1990. By contrast, total carbon emissions from industrialized nations are only slightly higher than in 1990. “What’s happening is the major developed countries’ plans are converging for emissions growth that will stop and be able to come down significantly,” said James Connaughton, who chairs the White House Council on Environmental Quality. “But that’s being completely overtaken now by the increasing greenhouse gas emissions in developing counties. It underscores the need for a broader and more aggressive effort by the major economies to come together.” It remains unclear how much industrialized countries will be able to reduce their carbon output in the years to come, regardless of whether developing nations seek to restrain their greenhouse gas emissions. The federal government predicts U.S. fossil fuel consumption will increase, not decrease. Japan, Canada and several other countries that committed to reducing their carbon emissions under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol have fallen far behind in meeting their targets.
China completes launch of third manned spaceflight By Maureen Fan Washington Post
BEIJING — China carried out a textbook-perfect launch Thursday night with the liftoff of three astronauts into space for the country’s third manned spaceflight and first spacewalk. Underscoring the political implications of the mission, a beaming President Hu Jintao congratulated the astronauts on live television. He called the voyage “another milestone in the Chinese people’s march towards aerospace science.” The mission was a sign of China’s growing strategic power and an indication of the importance it gives to space exploration for commercial and military purposes. While NASA officials complain that diminishing budgets threaten U.S. dominance in space, China has joined Europe, India and other nations in announcing ambitious new developments in aerospace. “After the Olympics, it’s the most exciting thing that enhances our national pride and dignity this year,” said He Haihong, 25, a sales manager at an electronics company who founded a Web site for Chinese aerospace fans. “Not only is the rocket launched but also our hopes for a better life.” Astronaut Zhai Zhigang is scheduled to attempt the spacewalk over the weekend, according to the staterun New China News Agency and CCTV. The spacewalk is aimed at helping China learn how to dock two orbiters to create an orbiting space station over the next few years. Hours before the launch, the astronauts -- three 42-year-old fighter pilots -- sat inside the spacecraft, ap-
pearing relaxed as they read from a checklist and waved to a TV camera. At the launching station, rows of ground control staff in brown caps led the countdown while the country’s top leaders watched. There was a burst of flame, then liftoff and applause. Officials were so excited that the New China News Agency posted a story online describing the successful launch hours before the astronauts were in orbit. The smooth takeoff allowed the country to focus on something other than the food scandals and economic troubles that have dominated news this month. “Although Chinese society has a lot of problems ... the launch of Shenzhou VII can improve the confidence of ordinary people because it shows China is getting stronger and stronger,” said library worker Song Liangchun, 43. “I watched the launch on TV, and my heart almost jumped out of my throat when they ejected the rocket. I’m so glad that China is closer to the U.S. and Russia. Our astronaut’s steps in space might be small, but it is a big step for us Chinese.” At the China Aerospace Museum in South Beijing, 500 sixth-graders from the city of Tianjin lined up orderly and quietly, until they saw the three-story models of rockets. Then they scattered in excitement. “On TV, the rockets don’t look so big!” said Chen Lu, a 12-year-old girl. “I worship the astronauts because they can see the whole earth from space.” — News researcher Zhang Jie contributed to this report.
By Robyn Dixon Los Angeles T imes
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — Kgalema Motlanthe was sworn in Thursday as president of South Africa, with the former union official widely seen as a low-key figure who will keep the seat warm until the ruling party’s leader runs for the post after a new parliament is elected in 2009. Motlanthe’s election by secret parliamentary ballot earlier in the day was largely a formality, with the ruling African National Congress holding about 70 percent of the seats in the parliament. He is viewed as a peacemaker able to straddle the two main camps in the bitterly divided ANC: supporters of party leader Jacob Zuma and loyalists to former President Thabo Mbeki, who was ousted last weekend. Dressed in a gray suit and tie, Motlanthe pledged not to make any sharp changes in South Africa’s economic policies, after the shocks in the market two days earlier when the Finance Minister Trevor Manuel resigned along with 10 other ministers.
Scrambling to neutralize the damage, the ANC announced that Manuel would stay on -- a move Motlanthe confirmed Thursday. He also announced a Cabinet that included many of the members who served under Mbeki. But he moved controversial Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang to a different Cabinet job: minister in the presidency. She had been criticized by the international AIDS community for her ardent promotion of beets, garlic and lemon to treat AIDS and her lukewarm approach to antiretroviral medication. “In a turbulent global economy, we will remain true to the policies that have kept South Africa steady and that have ensured sustained growth,” Motlanthe said. He said the ANC’s policies were the product of a collective and that he had no intention of changing them. “Mine is not a desire to deviate from what has worked,” he said, reading his speech. Motlanthe is an elder figure in the ANC who served 10 years in prison in the apartheid era alongside former President Nelson
Mandela. He was an official with the mining workers union and was elected ANC secretar y-general in 1997. In December 2007, he became party deputy president on the Zuma ticket at the ANC national conference. Zuma won the party presidency over Mbeki at the same conference, spelling the beginning of the end for the former president. Mbeki was forced out after a judge threw out graft, fraud and racketeering charges against Zuma, saying the former president might have interfered in the case against his rival. Mbeki has denied the accusation and appealed to the Constitutional Court to overturn the judge’s findings on him. Motlanthe has won praise from opposition parties and was described by Patricia de Lille, leader of the small Independent Democrats party, as “one of the few voices of reason in the ANC.” Helen Zille, leader of the main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, called on Motlanthe on Thursday to set up a judicial inquiry into a corruption scandal over a multibillion-dollar arms deal in which Zuma has been accused.
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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
Trudeau ’09: can’t fuhgeddaboud time at House That Ruth Built
Veteran CB Harrison ’09 out for Saturday
continued from page 12 the Yankees to the World Series over the Red Sox in 2003. I watched Mo Rivera collect his 400th save in 2006, Alex Rodriguez launch his 500th “ABomb” in 2007 and Derek Jeter notch his 2,500th hit in 2008. I didn’t cry when I watched Bambi when I was a kid. I mostly laughed when I watched “The Notebook” as an adult. Yet there are dozens of memories of Yankee Stadium where I find myself fighting back tears every time I recall them. Yet the Stadium was the setting for some of my saddest memories as well. My first trip to Brown as a junior in high school to visit my brother, Brown legend Ross Trudeau ’06, ended in tears as Josh Beckett tagged out Jorge Posada to hand the Yanks their second World Series defeat in three years. I watched as the 2004 Red Sox celebrated one of the most unlikely comebacks in sports history on the mound of Yankee Stadium. I once ran into an ex-girlfriend with her new boyfriend a couple weeks after getting dumped. That sucked, but not as much as seeing the Red Sox suck the life out of the Yankee faithful everywhere that night.
But it was also the setting for one of the best summers of my life, when I worked as an editorial assistant for Yankees Magazine. I’ll never forget talking to Derek Jeter for the first time inside the Yankee clubhouse. I asked if I could talk to him for a minute, to which he replied, “Well that depends. Do I get to talk too?” Who knew Cap’n Jetes had a sense of humor? I got to launch a baseball into the right field bleachers. Granted, it was a foul ball because we were playing in right field, but not many people can say that. I even had the rare opportunity to discover first hand that A-Rod is, in fact, kind of a jerk and that Johnny Damon may not have mastered public speaking, or speaking in general, but he’s the most thoughtful person on the team. The Stadium may have seen its last ball game, but I’ll never forget all that it gave me. As Yogi Berra put it, “I’m not gonna miss it. I’m not gonna dream about perfect games and championships… I’m gonna remember them.”
Tom Trudeau ’09 loves that Yankee fans are also the most sentimental fans in the world.
Gartner ’09 leads ‘amazing seniors’ in water polo continued from page 12 be California, when we get to play in the sun, where water polo belongs. What were your individual goals this season? I have already achieved most of my individual goals the past couple of years. I have reached individual levels with All-American honors the past two years, and being asked to national camps and tryouts, playing with some of the big time water polo players. Now the focus is more on taking the team to the next level. We want to move up in the rankings from No. 19 into the top 10. Leading the team and bettering ourselves as a group is the main focus for me. What are the team goals this season and what games are you looking forward to the most? Going to California and playing five top 10 teams in the nation. Getting a few wins out of that trip and
making a name for Brown is one goal. We have four amazing seniors, Nico Fort ’09, Grant LeBeau ’09, Hank Weintraub ’09 and myself, and our team has the opportunity to make a move this year. Winning in California and winning the East Coast Championships are the goals of the team. What does the team need to do to get back to .500? We had a few rough games this weekend only because we are trying to see if people work well together. We have a great team. Each individual on our team could be a candidate for the All-East team. We just need to see who plays well together. It is going to take more team chemistry, but we are going to be fine. Gartner and the Bears will have their next chance to improve their record when they take on St. Francis this Saturday at Connecticut College.
Vball looking to garner first Ivy title since 2000 continued from page 12 Seawolves scored three consecutive points. At that moment, Meyers remembered looking to Yess as they said to each other, “OK, we’re gonna win this.” Meyers set up Yess in her last seven balls, which Yess buried on the opponents’ court to help the Bears come from behind to take the game 16-14. “I know if I set Lyndse, she will put down the kill,” Meyers said. As the veterans on the team, both Meyers and Yess want to impart a “sense of what being on the Brown volleyball team means” to their younger teammates.
“We want to show them what a winning season can be like,” Yess said. And as for their futures after volleyball, both captains are very open to considering a variety of options. Meyers might return to Ghana, where she enjoyed a study-abroad experience her sophomore year, while Yess plans to take a year off to work before returning to graduate school in either interior design or sports marketing. But before they take off on those new adventures in life, they both have unfinished business on the court that they need to take care of.
continued from page 12 Chris Pizzotti, who threw for 370 yards in the Crimson’s season-opening 25-24 win over Holy Cross. “You still have to take away the run, because every team will try to establish the run,” Ziogas said. “But we didn’t even get a chance to show off some our more skilled players in the secondary…. I’m confident in our defense and I think we should do a pretty good job.” The task will be even more daunting for the defense with the sidelining of cornerback and cocaptain Darrell Harrison ’09, who will likely miss the game with a
knee injury. Despite the loss of the most experienced player in Brown’s secondary, the team remains confident. “You can never replace a player like Darrell. He’s a great player, he’s a lock-down corner, probably the best corner in the league,” Ziogas said. “But this is an opportunity for another kid who’s just been dying to go out there and start in Division I football to go out and show what he’s got.” This weekend’s game will not only be a barometer of the team’s skill level, but a win may also be necessar y if the Bears hope to win an Ivy League championship
this season, as Harvard finished last season with a perfect 7-0 Ivy League record. Brown came close in last year’s match-up with Harvard, grabbing a 17-14 lead in the second quarter, but the Crimson eventually came away with a 24-17 win. In spite of the recent history between the two teams, the Bears are optimistic. “The first two or three years I was here, there was a real palpable sense of anxiousness and pressure, but I genuinely think that I don’t feel that this year,” Dougherty said. “I can’t put my finger on why… but there’s definitely something different about this year.”
McCain, Obama, Treasury, Congress tango continued from page 6 beyond news reports. At 1:25 p.m., McCain left Boehner’s office through a back door, walking across the Capitol’s rotunda to the applause of tourists. Graham conceded the group knew little about the plan the nominee had come to Washington to try to shape. McCain ducked into the ornate Mansfield Room on the Senate side of the Capitol for lunch with colleagues. Douglas Holtz-Eakin, his chief economic adviser, met separately with the House Republicans’ top four leaders. But aides said Holtz-Eakin did little of the talking. Instead, he was told in no uncertain terms that the deal touted in the morning had next to no support among the House Republican rank-and-file. Despite the GOP nominee’s pledge to suspend electioneering,
the presidential campaign continued Thursday. Democrats attacked the McCain campaign for declaring what they called a false truce, pointing to the television appearances of McCain campaign domestic policy adviser Nancy Pfotenhauer, who has been attacking Obama as taking undue credit for crisis management and legislative deal-making. “This is maybe perhaps part of the pattern that we’ve seen before where Senator Obama would claim that the housing bill came out of his committee — and he didn’t even sit on the committee,” she told Fox News. As promised, aides said McCain’s campaign ads were ordered off the air Thursday, though many remained on the air as stations struggled to comply with the lastminute decision. “It is not a flip-the-switch kind of
proposition,” said Evan Tracey of the Campaign Media Analysis Group, which tracks ad spending. “McCain is doing everything they can in their power to take these spots down. It’s not like canceling a pizza.” Schmidt accused Obama of “swooping in” to buy up the advertising time that McCain had relinquished. Without offering proof, he said the Democrat was acting in a “predatory fashion” at a time when McCain sought to take a step back from politics. “It is an example, once again, of Sen. McCain putting his country first, whereas Sen. Obama puts Sen. Obama first, which is an essential contrast,” he said. Obama spokesman Hari Sevugan said of the McCain campaign: “They haven’t suspended the rest of their campaign, so it’s not surprising they haven’t suspended their lies, either.”
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S t a ff E d i t o r i a l
Diamonds and coal A good ol’ U.S. of A. diamond to Ray Hugh, co-owner of Shark Sushi Bar and Grill for preserving the spirit of patriotism when explaining his right to a liquor license. “This is America, you know? Come on.” We like your spirit(s). But coal to College Hill Neighborhood Association President William Touret for decrying drunk driving “through the streets of an academic and residential neighborhood.” Does that mean it’s OK downtown? A diamond to Stanley Falkow PhD’61, a Stanford professor recently named the greatest microbe hunter of all time. We’ll look for your new reality show, “Falkow: Microbe Hunter,” on Fox this fall. A welcome diamond to the sweet new rabbi who compared his arrival in Providence to being “dropped in Times Square.” We hate to break it to you, but those neon lights are coming from Liquid Lounge. Coal and a crack rock to Jeffrey Miron, Harvard economist, who said if cocaine were legal he would try it to “see what the fuss has been about for the last 85 or 90 years.” Just say no! A nonnormative, inclusive and counter-binar y diamond to UCS for being sensitive to the needs of Brown’s diverse population in refusing to vote for an amendment that included gender-specific pronouns. Way to grow a pair! Coal to the new University mailroom for falling so far behind on package deliveries. Post-, our weekly magazine, arrives faster.
chris jesu lee
A diamond to the neutral “elf” who keeps things fair when inebriated a cappella groups divvy up their new recruits. If things get rough, take it to the drunkapellate court. Coal to the projector in the Joukowsky Forum for stopping Burmese writer Ma Thida from showing pictures to go with her talk. After six years in prison, this? Coal to Facilities Management for not cleaning up the body of the “child of Argentinian leftist” at any point since his or her untimely death on the steps of Sayles Hall in 1978.
T he B rown D aily H erald Editors-in-Chief Simmi Aujla Ross Frazier
Executive Editors Taylor Barnes Chris Gang
Senior Editors Irene Chen Lindsey Meyers
editorial Ben Hyman Hannah Levintova Matthew Varley Alex Roehrkasse Chaz Firestone Nandini Jayakrishna Scott Lowenstein Michael Bechek Isabel Gottlieb Franklin Kanin Michael Skocpol Ben Bernstein James Shapiro Benjy Asher Amy Ehrhart Megan McCahill Andrew Braca Han Cui Katie Wood
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Letters Stewart column is misguided To the Editor: At the risk of sounding like one of those annoyingly devoted fanboys that will defend a show to their deaths, I’m wondering if Anish Mitra ‘10 has watched The Daily Show more than once or twice. His column (“Jon Stewart sucks,” Sept. 25) hinges on the notion that Stewart’s show exists only to make fun of our president and the GOP. But if you’ve watched the show as much as I have (far too much), you’ll know that his favorite target to skewer is the cable news media. Stewart advertises his
program as “fake news” because he doesn’t want people to take him seriously as a source of news. I’ll put aside Mitra’s kooky reasoning (arcane poll result from 2004 plus snarky, likeable, liberal TV host equals doom for our country?) to say this: If you can’t abide the Daily Show’s political leanings, then don’t watch it. Let people watch what they want to watch and think what they want to think. Eric Johnson ‘11 Sept. 25
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Jeehyun Choi, Andrea McWilliams, Heeyoung Min, Chaz Kelsh, Designers Seth Motel, Rachel Isaacs, Geoffrey Kyi, Copy Editors Joanna Wohlmuth, Nandini Jayakrishna, George Miller, Ben Hyman, Night Editors Senior Staff Writers Mitra Anoushiravani, Colin Chazen, Chaz Kelsh, Emmy Liss, Brian Mastroianni, George Miller, Melissa Shube, Anne Simons, Sara Sunshine, Gaurie Tilak, Caroline Sedano, Jenna Stark, Joanna Wohlmuth, Simon van Zuylen-Wood Staff Writers Zunaira Choudhary, Leslie Primack, Connie Zheng, Christian Martell, Alexandra Ulmer, Lauren Pischel, Samuel Byker, Anne Deggelman, Nicole Dungca, Olivia Hoffman, Cameron Lee, Debbie Lehmann, Sophia Li, Seth Motel, Marielle Segarra, Kyla Wilkes, Juliana Friend Sports Staff Writers Peter Cipparone, Nicole Stock Business Staff Maximilian Barrows, Thanases Plestis, Agathe Roncey, Allen McGonagill, Ben Xiong, Bonnie Kim, Cathy Li, Christiana Stephenson, Corey Schwartz, Evan Sumortin, Galen Cho, Han Lee, Haydar Taygun, Jackie Goldman, Jilyn Chao, Kathy Bui, Kelly Wess, Kenneth So, Lee Chau, Lyndse Yess, Margaret Watson, Matthew Burrows, Maura Lynch, Misha Desai, Stassia Chyzhykova, Webber Xu, William Schweitzer Design Staff Jessica Calihan, Amy Kendall, Joanna Lee, Rachel Isaacs, Angela Santin Ceballos, Marlee Bruning, Rachel Wexler, Maxwell Rosero, Katie Silverstein, Shara Azad, Jessica Kirschner, Jee Hyun Choi, Heeyoung Min, Andrea McWilliams, Anna Samel Photo Staff Alex DePaoli, Eunice Hong, Kim Perley, Quinn Savit, Justin Coleman Copy Editors Rafael Chaiken, Ellen Cushing, Younhun Kim, Frederic Lu, Lauren Fedor, Madeleine Rosenberg, Kelly Mallahan, Jennifer Kim, Tarah Knaresboro, Jordan Mainzer, Janine Lopez, Luis Solis, Ayelet Brinn, Rachel Starr, Riva Shah, Jason Yum, Simon Leibling, Rachel Isaacs
Corrections In an article in yesterday’s Herald (“UCS decides to table three UFB amendments,” Sept. 25), a quote was incorrectly attributed to Jonah Fay ’12. The quote, which referred to the use of gender-neutral pronouns in an amendment, was said by Clay Wertheimer ’10. Due to an editing error, a subheading and caption accompanying an article in yesterday’s Herald (“Economist speaks against ‘just say no,’” Sept. 25) said economist Jeffrey Miron favors decriminalization of drugs. Miron favors legalization.
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O pinions Friday, September 26, 2008
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
Page 11
Life and death matter Jake Matlick and Conrad Stern-Ascher The W iz Kids “End of the world postponed,” one headline proclaimed following news that the Large Hadron Collider would temporarily cease operation. On Sept. 10, the Large Hadron Collider, the gigantic particle accelerator built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), became operational. Less than two weeks later, a faulty electrical connection and the resulting helium leak has caused a shut down of the collider until next spring. While you all hold your breath waiting for the LHC to turn on again, we will answer the pertinent question: Can the LHC destroy humanity as we know it? Short answer: No. Long answer: Read on. Some people are so concerned about the perceived doomsday scenario that they have brought lawsuits against CERN in an attempt to halt operation of the LHC. The Web site HasTheLargeHadronColliderDestroyedTheWorldYet.com seems to mock these efforts with their simple but effective main page, which simply reads, “Nope.” A similar logic of, “Well it hasn’t happened yet, so it’s probably not going to,” has been a central theoretical footing for much of the defense of the LHC’s harmlessness. This footing seems rather firm, however,
when one considers the ample opportunity the universe has had to destroy itself as a result of the far more frequent and energetic collisions than those the LHC emulates, and has consistently and graciously failed to do so. These natural collisions occur somewhere in the universe around 10 trillion times per second. The particles created in the aftermath of this class of collisions, are the primary focus of study in the LHC. Caused by high-energy cosmic rays (read: wicked-fast moving protons) colliding with particles in our atmosphere, and
friendly compact fluorescent light bulb for about 170 nanoseconds. However, the LHC will produce about 600 million of these collisions in a single second. This is potentially enough energy to allow particles to transcend the standard three dimensions of experience (up-down, left-right, back-forward), into or out of the extra dimensions predicted by modern string theory. Though not a terrifying prospect in and of themselves, extra dimensions may provide the theoretical and physical space where gravity is strong enough to create incredibly dense
By then, the sun will have already engulfed the Earth. by electromagnetically propelled protons in the LHC tunnels, these collisions are microscale replications of the energy conditions and particle melange that were present just after the Big Bang, an obvious area of interest for physicists. Just what are these energy conditions, you ask? The energy created by a single collision is only enough to power your environmentally
matter, which make up the microscopic black holes that are causing all the fuss. The LHC Safety Assessment Group entertained the possibility posed by these alternative “theoretical speculations,” ignoring the conventional theory that forbids formation of black holes by a particle accelerator. Their conclusion: even if a microscopic black hole were to be created, it would be
unstable and disintegrate before having a chance to accumulate matter uncontrollably. To be completely rigorous, the group also considered the consequences of a stable black hole. Fortunately for the future of mankind, they found that stable microscopic black holes would absorb matter so slowly that billions of years would pass before any harm came to Earth. By then, the sun will have already engulfed the Earth. Similar to the way they debunked the microscopic black hole doomsday scenarios, the LHC Safety Assessment Group defends several other dangerous conditions. Vacuum bubbles and heavy magnetic monopoles, known respectively to alter the configuration of the universe (thereby destroying its wonderful inhabitants), and to induce proton decay (thereby destroying its wonderful matter), have never been observed in our universe replete with cosmic collisions, and therefore will not be created by the humble collisions of the LHC. Additionally, magnetic monopoles light enough to be produced at the LHC would be ejected from our atmosphere faster than they could grab a microgram of matter. In other words, they couldn’t destroy the earth. So rest assured humanity, you’ve got a much better shot at killing yourselves with carbon production or nuclear warfare than... oh, you get the idea. Myth busted!
Want something explained? Ask the Wiz Kids at AskTheWizKids@browndailyherald.com.
The crash will affect everyone BY JAKE HEIMARK Opinions Columnist Last week, the stock market dropped the most in a single day since directly after Sept. 11. Lehman Brothers closed its doors. And if AIG had not received the largest government bailout of a private company in U.S. history, it too would have collapsed. We are in the middle of the biggest financial crisis of our times. The crisis is very real, and it is very scary. Some Brown students may feel like they are insulated from the crash because they will not enter the job market for at least another 3 years. But they aren’t. This crisis will directly affect our financial condition in the next decade. And although Washington seems to be taking some steps to mitigate the impact of the collapse, a sound financial future begins with habits we develop on College Hill. What happened? Although there is not complete consensus among experts, it seems the major source of the downturn is a slump in housing prices that began in 2006. Many financial institutions, fueled by a dangerous mix of wildly overconfident expectations, an extraordinary amount of greed and poor risk-management metrics, made a series of loans that should not have been made. The loans were made to people with poor credit ratings. Because these credit ratings are below the ideal or “prime” levels of lending they are referred to as “subprime loans.” Sometimes, the borrower did not fully understand the terms of the agreement or failed to predict the effect that rising rates would have on his ability to pay. Credit rating agencies failed to predict the risk of these loans, and last summer, more borrowers than expected defaulted on their payments. House prices dropped, loan rates spiked, people were unable to pay and the loans went bad. Huge defi-
cits in Washington did not help the problem, but it seems the subprime lending crisis is most at fault for the current crisis. How severe is the crisis? Catastrophic. It is impossible to emphasize enough how unsteady the economy is at the moment. The stock market went haywire: the Dow Jones Industrial Average, a pretty good indicator of the health of the economy, plunged on Monday, Sept. 15, rose slightly on Tuesday, plunged again Wednesday and finally came back up Thursday and Friday, buoyed by a Fed commitment to solve the problem, only to slightly dip again on Monday. It was erratic and unpredictable. But the crisis was not limited to the stock market. There are two places to store money in
file bankruptcy, any account over $100,000 will likely be lost. So T-Bills, though they offer a worse interest rate, are a safer bet than banks. Even T-bills do not perfectly protect value. Because of inflation, $1,000 today will be worth less than $1,000 in three months. So, even though they are guaranteed amounts of money in the future, T-bills trade for less money than they will receive at maturity. If a T-bill is worth $1,000 in three months, it will often trade for $990 today. But on Wednesday, for a brief period of time, three-month T-bill rates went negative. That means people were buying them for more than $1,000, when they know with absolute certainty that they will only receive
How severe is the crisis? Catastrophic. an economic crisis: in the bank and under a mattress. The federal government only insures bank accounts up to $100,000, which is more than good enough for individuals, but companies and funds often need to store much more. Treasury bills, T-bills, are the alternative. They guarantee an amount at appreciation, backed by the U.S. government, and can be bought in bulk. Buying T-bills is effectively a way for a company or fund to store money under a mattress. With that in mind, while the markets were scary, the scariest event, one that spells severe and lasting economic troubles, occurred Wednesday morning when T-bill rates went negative for a brief period of time. If banks are unlikely to go into bankruptcy, they are the preferable place to store this money, as they will often offer a better interest rate than T-bills. But if banks default and
$1,000 at maturity. That’s like lending a guy on the street 10 dollars and asking him to pay you back eight bucks tomorrow. A negative T-bill rate means that a lot of people with a lot of money, mutual fund managers, companies, hedge fund managers and the like, would rather take small, guaranteed losses on their money than let it sit in a bank or the stock market. Essentially, the market flipped. Rather than trying to make as much money as possible, people were so sure the economy was going to tank that they wanted to lose as little money as possible. They were simply hoping to avoid a depression. This crisis will be a landmark in economic history. It felled Lehman Brothers, a company that survived the Depression. The last time T-bill rates went negative was in the early stages of World War II.
In response, the government is tr ying to organize a trust that will buy assets and slowly sell them off to prevent a meltdown, but it is unclear what will be included, how long it will take and what it will cost. Then again, the alternative could be a decade-long worldwide depression. What can Brown students do to protect themselves? Nothing can protect any of us from a turbulent job market, but learning good spending and saving habits is the key to financial security. If you receive a monthly paycheck, get in the habit of taking a small amount, maybe even only 5 percent, off the top of every paycheck and deposit it into a separate savings or retirement account. By clearly drawing a line between saving and spending money and letting the money accumulate interest, you will be used to setting aside money that will help in the event of a financial downturn. Carefully read all loan, mortgage or credit card agreements you sign. If you don’t understand them, or don’t want to deal with them, find someone you trust and bring them with you. Companies can be predatory, often hiding charges and rate increases in the fine print. Put your money where you are most comfortable with it. If that means playing the stock market or putting it in a mutual fund, that’s fine. If that means buying T-bills and storing them in a safe in your room, that’s fine too. Because the worst thing you can do is panic, put your money in a dangerous asset, and lose value. That is what got us into this situation in the first place. Finally, if you find yourself flummoxed by the current crisis or this column — take ECON 0110: “Principles of Economics.” It’s worth it.
Jake Heimark ’10 hides T-bills under his mattress.
S ports W eekend Page 12
Friday, September 26, 2008
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
My home away from homes I never slept there. I usually had to pay just to be let in, and the food was badly overpriced. But from the time I first went as a seven-yearold, Yankee Stadium, which played host to its last game this past weekend and Tom Trudeau will be torn Tru Story down in the spring, was my home away from homes. I’ll leave the emotions that people felt when they walked into the stadium to better writers. I’ll leave the description of the grass that always seemed greener for them, too. But I can describe how much “The House That Ruth Built” means to me. Yankee Stadium was the setting for my happiest memories growing up. Not just a few happy moments, but literally the first moments that come to mind whenever I’m asked about my best memories. I was 30 yards from Charlie Hayes when he recorded the final out of the 1996 World Series to clinch the Yankees’ first championship since 1978. Twice, in 2001, the “Ghosts” of the Stadium helped propel the Bombers to back-to-back two-out ninth inning comebacks that made fans everywhere ask, “Can you believe that just happened?” I’ve never experienced a greater rush of pure joy as when Aaron “Bleeping” Boone launched Tim Wakefield’s first pitch of the 11th inning into the left field seats to send continued on page 9
Athlete of the Week: Mike Gartner ’09 Bruno looking
for Crimson to blush Saturday
By Nicole Stock Sports Staff Writer
Mike Gartner ’09 of the men’s water polo team was named the Collegiate Water Polo Association’s (CWPA) Northern Division Player of the
By BeNjy Asher Sports Editor
ATHLETE OF THE WEEK
niors in Meyers and Yess, and like Martin and Gibbs, the two seniors make a setter-hitter combination captaining the Bears’ squad. With the way the team has been playing so far, the two seniors have high hopes for this season. “As long as we’re competitive and play every team at our best, anything is obtainable,” Meyers said. Both captains feel that there is something different about this year’s team. “We’re very focused this year,” Yess said. “We have great chemistry. We come to practice ready to work.” The Bears’ team chemistr y is exemplified by the connection the two seniors share with each other on the court and off it. After playing together for four years and living together as roommates this year, the two captains know exactly what the other person’s next move will be. “We are very comfortable playing with each other,” Yess said. “We talk to each other and we know how the other person will react in certain situations.” The level of trust and confidence the two players have in each other helped the Bears take their first match at the tournament last weekend. In the final game of the match against Stony Brook, the Bears were trailing 13-10 after the
When the football team takes the field against Harvard this Saturday, the Bears will be up against the defending Ivy League chamBrown pions, a team at Harvard they have not Sat. 12:30pm beaten since 1999. After cruising to a 17-7 win over nonconference opponent Stony Brook in the season opener last Saturday, the Bears know they will have to execute to perfection to open their Ivy League season with a victory in the Brown Homecoming game. Against Stony Brook, Brown jumped out to a 17-0 lead early in the second quarter, but the offense quickly fell apart. Quarterback and co-captain Michael Dougherty ’09 threw two interceptions, while the team also fumbled four times. “We got complacent there, and kind of rested on scoring 17 points (early),” Dougherty said. “The fundamentals are what are really important, especially taking care of the ball and not turning it over. But I think we got that out of our system now, and we’re ready to roll.” Brown’s offense relied primarily on the run and the short pass against Stony Brook’s zone coverage, with Dougherty averaging only seven yards per completion, the longest of which was a 22-yard pass to receiver Buddy Farnham ’10. Against Harvard, though, the Bears may look to go deep to Farnham and fellow receiver Bobby Sewall ’10. “Stony Brook is a team that’s really going to keep everything in front of them… and their main goal is to not give up the big play,” Dougherty said. “Harvard does a good job of mixing up their defenses, but there are going to be some shots to make big plays, and we have to make sure we take advantage of those.” Dougherty did just that in last season’s game at Harvard, when he and receiver Paul Raymond ’08 connected for a 63-yard touchdown pass in the first quarter. The Bears will also look for continued production from their two running backs, Jonathan Edwards ’09 and Dereck Knight ’08.5. In the season opener Edwards rushed for 49 yards, on 14 carries, including a 19-yard touchdown, while Knight carried the ball 12 times for 49 yards. The game will perhaps be an even bigger test for Brown’s defense, which started off the season with a spectacular performance against Stony Brook. Defensive end James Develin ’10 terrorized the offensive line all day, finishing with 3.5 tackles for loss, including two sacks, and linebacker Steve Ziogas ’09 made eight tackles and put pressure on the quarterback throughout the game. The Bears held Stony Brook to a mere 36 yards on 29 rush attempts, effectively shutting down an offense that had previously averaged 169.3 rushing yards per game. But this week, the defense will take on an offensive opponent that thrives on its passing game, led by 2007 First Team All-Ivy quarterback
continued on page 9
continued on page 9
Week last Tuesday for his outstanding play in the Princeton Invitational. Gartner led the team with 12 goals and 33 ejections drawn in the Bears’ opening week of play. Although the team ended the week with a record of 2-3, Gartner helped his team to a couple of wins over No. 15 Santa Clara and Division III No. 2 Johns Hopkins University. For his exceptional play, the Herald has named Mike Gartner Athlete of the Week. We tried to learn more about this scoring machine. Herald: When and why did you start playing water polo? Gartner: I started playing in the seventh grade. I signed up for a camp and it was fun. I enjoyed being with all the guys, so I continued to play. In high school my coach was a real tough guy and he told me that I was good and should continue playing, but I was iffy at first. What made you come to the East Coast, and Brown in particular, to play water polo? Brown was the best academic school that I had gotten into and I really enjoyed my visit. This place is like a little California community on the East Coast. The people are all laid back and so chill. Do you have any pre-game superstitions? I don’t have any now. In high
Herald File Photo
Mike Gartner ’09 has been playing water polo since the seventh grade. school my friend and I used to do special warm-up. It looked really funny, two kids sprinting around. We made sure we did it before each game to make sure we didn’t lose. Water polo is a very physical, rough game. What is the worst injury you have sustained or seen anyone else sustain? We have been pretty lucky at Brown not getting too many injuries. In high school I saw a guy get punched in the eye and he was blind for a week. Also in high
school, I witnessed a few fights. Physicality is definitely part of the game, but if you are focused on the physical aspect you are probably not playing good defense. The sport has a lot of contact and what goes on underneath the water that the ref can’t see is just part of the game. Where is your favorite place to play? It is always great to play at home but my favorite place would have to continued on page 9
Volleyball captains reflect on team’s dominant start By Han Cui Assistant Sports Editor
Justin Coleman / Herald
Natalie Meyers ‘09 will lead the volleyball team as it goes for its first Ivy League title since 2000.
In the last match of the 2005 season, the Bears upset Yale in a fierce, fivegame battle that broke countless statistic records and shattered the Bulldogs’ hope of repeating their Ivy League title. The two senior captains, setter Leigh Martin ’06 and right-side hitter Lauren Gibbs ’06, led the Bears with 68 assists and 22 kills, respectively, ending their Brown volleyball career in an unforgettable fashion. At that time, this year’s captains, Natalie Meyers ’09 and Lyndse Yess ’09, were just freshmen. But they still vividly remember every moment of that game three years ago, as well as the incredible plays of Martin and Gibbs. “They were great leaders,” Meyers said, “by far the best players on the team.” As for the win, “there was no other feeling like that,” Meyers added. Meyers may have the chance to top that feeling this year, as the team goes for its first Ivy League title since 2000. The Bears have started the season with a bang, posting a 7-1 record, which already matches their win total from last year. Last weekend, Bruno won its own invitational after sweeping two of the three teams it faced and beating the other one 3-2. Similar to the squad from three years ago, this year’s team has only two se-