Daily Herald the Brown
vol. cxliv, no. 31 | Friday, March 6, 2009 | Serving the community daily since 1891 SPOTLIGHT
Lincoln’s birthday card makes the rounds By Dan Alexander Staf f Writer
Hallmark doesn’t sell birthday cards for 200-year-olds, so one intrepid artist had to come up with her own medium to wish Abraham Lincoln a happy bicentennial. A “birthday card” for Lincoln making its way on a nationwide tour is at the Warwick Mall — one of nine stops before it reaches its tenth and final destination at the rededication ceremony at the Lincoln Memorial on May 30. The card will remain in Warwick until March 7. Created by artist Wendy Allen, the birthday card is composed of four six-by-four-feet fabric panels Dan Alexander / Herald for people to sign, wishing Lin- Artist Wendy Allen, who designed Abraham Lincoln’s 200th birthcoln a happy 200th. A banner run- day card, has painted 250 portraits of the 16th president. Lincoln, it’s not work.” ning across the top of the panels traits in the last 28 years. Allen’s eyes light up and she says, “Happy Birthday, President She paints almost nothing else. Lincoln” and is signed, “from the She has tried a few landscapes, gesticulates excitedly when she People,” followed by the year. animals and family portraits but talks about Lincoln. “It’s not really Portraits Allen painted of the doesn’t seem to enjoy them as any part of him or his face” that president rest on easels next to much. make her want to paint the former the panels. Though there are only “They are horrible,” she president over and over. It’s “what four on display at the mall, Allen said. “It’s just not nearly as fun. has painted over 250 Lincoln por- It seems like work. When I paint continued on page 3
Novelist reads to intimate crowd By Ben Hyman Ar ts & Culture Editor
Yesterday afternoon, the small crowd that showed up for a reading by Australian novelist Peter Carey in Salomon 101 was treated to a look inside two of the writer’s books with intersecting themes, published fourteen years apart. Carey, one of only two writers to win the Booker Prize twice, read first from 1994’s “The Un-
usual Life of Tristan Smith” and from his most recent novel, 2008’s “His Illegal Self.” Even in brief passages from the two works, some of Carey’s prevailing concerns — performance and fakery, mother-son relationships and his native Australia — proved their continuing importance to his work. Before launching into a wellpaced and strikingly rhythmic reading of the opening pages of “Tristan Smith,” Carey offered
the hope that the combination of the two novels wouldn’t be “too chaotic.” The books dovetailed well. “Tristan Smith” begins with a powerfully realized description of the title character’s birth and his mother’s confrontation with his physical deformities. Set in Efica, an imagined country dominated by the hegemonic nation of Voorstand, continued on page 4
Attrition, layoffs to cut 60 positions More job cuts in future can’t be ruled out, administrators say
By Nicole Friedman Senior Staf f Writer
The University will eliminate about 60 staff positions by July, as many as half of which may require layoffs. “At least 30 to 35” of the cuts will eliminate currently vacant positions, but the rest will be made through layoffs, said Beppie Huidekoper, executive vice president for finance and administration. The positions, which will be cut by the end of June, were identified by senior administrators and then reviewed and approved by President Ruth Simmons, Provost David Kertzer ’69 P’95 P’98 and the Corporation. Though all the employees who will be laid off this year have been identified, University officials inter viewed by The Herald said they did not know when affected staffers would be told. Administrators are “taking the time” to make sure they “have enough information” about severance pay and benefits before telling employees they will be laid off, Simmons said Tuesday. But with the University needing to cut up to $90 million from projected spending over the next five years, this year’s job cuts may not be the last. The administrators inter viewed this week said they could not rule out the possibility of more layoffs in coming years. Brown is “not targeting certain areas or departments” for the current round of layoffs, Director of Labor Relations Joe Sarno ’91 said. Administrators offered few specifics on which jobs or departments will be affected. But Vice President
for Facilities Management Stephen Maiorisi said he was “pretty sure” facilities jobs would be among those cut. Facilities is looking at “what the appropriate staffing level would need to be” in its Planning, Design and Construction Office, now that the University is cutting back on capital projects, Maiorisi said. There are about 30 employees on that staff, he added. None of the layoffs are of union personnel, according to Sarno. “If and when layoffs become necessary of union staff,” he said, they would be made in accordance with the University’s collective bargaining agreements. The University has union contracts with some employees of Dining Ser vices, Facilities, the Department of Public Safety and the libraries. Simmons first said job cuts were on the way in an e-mail to the Brown community after the Corporation’s meeting last month. Since then, Sarno said, “We have received questions about particular positions that may or may not be cut.” “People are anxious, understandably so,” he said. Support after layoffs All laid-off employees will be given severance packages, Sarno said, and administrators said they hope to find other positions within the University for as many terminated employees as possible. The University has not decided what severance packages will incontinued on page 2
Future unclear for closed Roba Dolce District Court, was negligence of four months of rental payments. “What happened is not intentionally done,” DeMartino said. “It happened because of circumstances.” A representative from the property’s landlord, New York-based real estate company Stonehenge Partners, Inc., declined to comment on the eviction or the current status of the property. Starting last November, DeMartino said he saw a dramatic decline in the cafe’s profit. “The money wouldn’t come in
anymore,” he said. “The drop in revenues was about 23 percent.” Still, DeMartino said he hoped the business would recuperate. He tried to introduce new items to the menu and hoped that the limited liquor license, which he attained three weeks prior to the eviction, would help attract different crowds. But these efforts came too late, he said. DeMar tino and his par tner, Massimo Battista, had signed a
Arts, 5
Sports, 7
Opinions, 11
ch-ch-changes PW puts a contemporary twist on Ovid’s classic “Metamorphoses”
SCore! Brown athletes take home Ivy and ECAC honors across the board
tame house Anthony Staehelin ’10 defends Greek life at Brown
By Amy Chen Contributing Writer
Kim Perley / Herald File Photo
inside
The building that once housed the Italian gelateria is now “For Rent.”
News.....1-4 Arts........5-6 Spor ts...7-9 Editorial..10 Opinion...11 Today........12
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A “For Rent” sign hangs on the locked door of Thayer Street’s nowdefunct Italian cafe Roba Dolce, which closed last month after the eviction of owner Nino DeMartino. Two weeks after the closure, the cafe’s future remains uncertain. In a telephone inter view, DeMartino said the possibility of resuming business in the 900-squarefoot space is “ver y, ver y small.” The cause of the eviction, filed on Feb. 16 in Rhode Island’s Sixth
195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island
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