The Brown Daily Herald Wednesday, O ctober 29, 2008
Volume CXLIII, No. 101
Since 1866, Daily Since 1891
Linney ’86 talks about life, acting to packed Salomon By Alexandra Ulmer Staff Writer
Laura Linney ’86 spoke to a large Salomon Center crowd last night about the healing power of art, the importance of attention to detail in good acting and the unpredictability of life, all with a dash of quirky humor. “My life is bigger and more complicated and more flavorful than I ever thought it could be,” said Linney, a three-time Academy Awardnominated actress. Linney described her journey from memorizing lines on the Main Green to being directed by Clint Eastwood. In the event, hosted by Friends of the Library in the De Ciccio Family Auditorium, Linney lectured for just five minutes before taking questions for more than an hour. Linney was most recently nominated for an Oscar this year for her starring role in “The Savages” alongside Philip Seymour Hoffman, and won an Emmy Award for her role as Abigail Adams in the HBO television series “John Adams.” Her parts in “Love Actually” and “The Truman Show” have made her a household
name. “I’m well-known, but I’m not famous,” Linney said. “I really feel like I was here yesterday.” She used to be a “closeted actress,” she said, realizing her passion during late adolescence and deciding to go to Northwestern University to pursue it. But she realized she also wanted a strong liberal education, and transferred to Brown after a year. “It’s unconventional for actors to have such an academic background,” Linney said. “For me, it was essential.” At Brown, Linney said, she spent most of her time doing theater, and had never considered a career in film. Gradually, she transitioned to films, and has grown to love the field as much as she loves theater, she said. At first, she took small parts — often playing a schoolteacher or a lawyer, she said, adding that she has no favorite role of the many she has played. Acting, however, is not an “easy life,” she added. “The costs are not being able to go to marriages, to continued on page 4
Move to end Columbus Day at U. gets push By Nicole Friedman Contributing Writer
and on the other hand, the whites (do) not see him as one amongst them,” said Oscar Brookins, an associate professor of economics at Northeastern University. Obama’s racial identity is problematic as a political issue, said Pete Shungu, a community organizer in Boston, because his opponents characterize any mention he makes of his race as “playing the race card.” The problem for Obama is exacerbated, Shungu said, by the risk of alienating a particular demographic in identifying himself. “For him to identify as multiracial, people look at that immediately as identifying as not black,” Shungu said. Despite the dif ficulties of discussing his own race directly
Administrators, faculty and staff should address the recent student proposal that the University stop obser ving Columbus Day, the Brown University Community Council unanimously recommended yesterday. The resolution came in response to a presentation by Reiko Koyama ’11, Dana Eldridge ’10 and Jerr y Wolf Duff Sellers ’09, who said that in future years Brown should not observe Columbus Day by cancelling all University exercises, and instead choose a different day off. The students also proposed that the University designate a week in October as “Indigenous Week” for discussions, events and lectures about Native American history. Nearly 20 supporters showed up to the meeting and held up signs with slogans like “Historical Accuracy is Important to Me” and “Hear Indigenous Voices” during the council’s discussion of the proposal. Observing Columbus Day, Koyama said in her presentation, is “in effect condoning the atrocities that (Columbus) was responsible for” and “at odds with Brown’s reputation.” Brown and Harvard are the only Ivy League schools that currently recognize Columbus Day. But in discussion, council members raised concerns about where the line should be drawn between abolishing Columbus Day and doing away with other holidays that could be seen as honoring shameful points in history, such as Thanksgiving. Provost David Kertzer ’69 P’95 P’98 also addressed the “practical issues” of having a holiday calendar at odds with that of Providence’s school district, where many children of faculty and staff attend school. While the presenters recognized that the calendar change could be inconvenient for some community members, it would allow Brown to serve as a role model and set a precedent for local school districts, Koyama said. “This is not a departure point of Brown from Columbus Day,” Sellers said. “Increased dialogue is a cornerstone.” The council was hesitant to take action on the issue without first holding a broader community forum, but President Ruth Simmons urged members to make a statement of support in the face of what she warned could be “tremendous resentment” and “a lot of national attention directed at students for doing this.” “I think it would be important for us to have a sort of community statement about this,” Simmons said.
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Eunice Hong / Herald
Emmy-winning actress Laura Linney ‘86 spoke about her career in the Salomon Center yesterday. She also spent the afternoon coaching students in acting. See Q&A, Page 4
Best friends, roomies and loved ones: voting for the other guy By Lauren Pischel Staff Writer
When Caitlin Clark ’11 purchased an inflatable John McCain doll for her common room, seven eighths of her Chapin House suite approved. But Whitney Sparks ’11 was quick to remind her roommates that they lived in a “bipartisan suite.” For those who room with or date a person of opposite partisan
persuasion, political difference is a her relationship with conservative Graham Rogers ’11. part of everyday life. But with the presidential elec“Even if we don’t change each tion only days away, roommates other’s mind, we come out underand couples at political standing (the other’s odds with one another opinion) more,” Rogers FEATURE have had a lot more to said. talk about in the dorm room. At the beginning of their rela“In a lot of conversations, we tionship, “our conversations about are sure that one of us will change politics were really heated,” Mothe other person’s mind,” said Ju- hamed said. “It was hard to see lie Mohamed ’11, a liberal, about where the other person was com-
hel p y o ursel f — reall y
See Higher Ed, Page 3
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HIGHER ED
health benefits at risk Across the U.S., universities are cutting back on graduate student health insurance
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CAMPUS LIFE
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Panel says challenges remain for those of multiracial identity By Riley Blanton Contributing Writer
Meara Sharma / Herald Trying to get cars off campus, some colleges are giving out bicycles to students.
ing from. I guess we’ve learned to deal with it.” Though it almost cer tainly fosters debate, political disagreement does not necessarily mean incompatibility. For the Chapin suite of girls — Clark, Sparks, Abby Hinds ’11 and Shannon Stacey ’11 — their conversations take the form of roundtable discussions.
Barack Obama has been heralded as the first black man to reach the threshold of the presidency. But Obama is not black — or at least not only black, professors and community organizers said last night at a Multiracial Identity Week panel. “In France, he’s understood as a mixed-race candidate,” said Kimberly McClain DaCosta, a professor of social studies at Harvard. However, Obama’s identity is not as simple in the United States, said the panel’s moderator, Evelyn Hu-Dehart, a professor of history at Brown and director of the University’s Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America. Panel members agreed. “On the one hand, blacks (do) not see him as one amongst them,
roof-napping Crime Log: A student’s habit of sleeping on top of the Sciences Library is discovered
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OPINIONS
BEYOND ‘REAL AMERICA’ Sarah Rosenthal ’11 thinks politicians should acknowledge the rest of the country, too
195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island
12 SPORTS
nice fall finish The women’s golf team ends its season with a season-best second-place finish
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