Daily Herald the Brown
vol. cxliv, no. 45 | Monday, April 6, 2009 | Serving the community daily since 1891
Across campus, puzzlers get down with Shortz By Emmy Liss Features Editor
The room was silent except for the squeak of markers against whiteboards. Messy letters filled the boxes, building corners with words intertwined. As white space disappeared, the crowd held its breath until, suddenly, Aaron Mazel-Gee ’09 took a step back and threw up his hands. He had finished.
By Lauren Fedor and Ben Schreckinger Senior Staff Writers
FEATURE On Saturday, the Puzzling Association of Brown sponsored its first annual Brown Crossword Puzzle Competition. Hosted by New York Times crossword puzzle editor Will Shortz, the contest could barely be contained in MacMillan 117 as students and members of the larger community flooded in to hear Shortz speak and try their luck at the student-created puzzles. The event’s organizers — Dustin Foley ’09, Joey Weissbrot ’11 and Natan Last ’12 — all came to Brown with a passion for puzzles. Foley, who designs the daily puzzle comic “Enigma Twist” for The Herald, has been making mazes since elementary school and began delving into crossword puzzles in sixth grade. He constructed the
Hang Nguyen / Herald
The Puzzling Association of Brown held its first Crossword Puzzle Competition, hosted by Will Shortz.
crossword for his monthly school paper during junior and senior years of high school. Weissbrot defines himself as more of a doer than a creator — he tackled the Times crossword every day in high school. Then, after finding out through a friend that Shortz takes a summer intern,
Weissbrot spent last summer editing and fact checking puzzles at Shortz’s home. “Will’s house is sort of the Mecca of puzzle making,” Weissbrot said. “Constructors come to his house, hang out and do puzzles.” Weissbrot met — and competed against — some of the Times’ top
puzzle makers. Last has also spent time puzzling at Shortz’s house. Until recently, Last held the record as the youngest creator of a Sunday Times crossword puzzle. To date, he has published nine puzzles in continued on page 2
Strikes at European schools sidetrack students abroad By Anne Simons Senior Staff Writer
inside
Protests and strikes taking place at universities across France have disrupted classes for most Brown students studying abroad there this semester. Three schools that are hosting Brown students have held almost no classes this semester, while others have seen some just a few classes affected, wrote Annie Wiart, director of the Brown in France program, in an e-mail to The Herald. The professor-led strikes oppose government reforms related to ongoing efforts to standardize higher education policies across the European Union. At Universite de Paris III, for example, where Brown students have been the most affected, strikes have been ongoing for about nine weeks during which virtually no classes have been taught, Wiart wrote. Among the 24 Brown students currently studying in Paris, seven have not been affected at all, while “most” have had one or two of their
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Students never in danger in Trinidad
five classes “partially or completely cancelled,” she wrote. Even some professors not on strike have been unable to teach because of locked classrooms and picketing students, Wiart wrote. A few students study in Lyon, where two of the three universities that host Brown students have been affected and one remains on strike, Wiart wrote. At least one school, Institut d’Etudes Politiques in Lyon, has resumed and made plans to provide a full semester’s worth of teaching by holding class during spring break and later into June, and there is hope that strikes at two Paris universities, IV and VIII, will end soon, Wiart wrote. But the three hardest-hit schools, Lyon II, Paris I and Paris III, may face “completely forfeiting the semester,” she wrote. Despite the disruptions, students should have no concerns about receiving full credit for the semester upon their return to Brown, said Director of the Office of International Programs Kendall
Shristi Pandey / Herald
The Native Americans at Brown hosted the eighth annual Spring Thaw Pow Pow in the Pizzitola Sports Center.
Drums, dancing at annual Spring Thaw Pow Wow By Hannah Moser Senior Staff Writer
The rumbling of drums and jingling of bells filled Pizzitola Sports Center this Saturday and Sunday as the Native Americans at Brown hosted their eighth annual Spring Thaw Pow Wow. Hundreds gathered to take part in the celebration that included food, booths and dancing and
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drumming competitions. The event, which was planned to take place on the Main Green as it was in 2008, was moved inside due to overcast weather. Peter Hatch ’11, a member of NAB and the Siletz tribe of Oregon, said the pow wow attracted 80 to 100 dancers, about a dozen vendors and seven drum groups. continued on page 3
No foul play was involved in the disappearance of two students who had been missing after failing to return home from a spring break trip to Trinidad, according to a local law enforcement official there. “They were unharmed,” the official — a representative of the anti-kidnapping unit of the Trinidad and Tobago police — told The Herald. “They were not abducted. They were not kidnapped,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “They were in fact secured and with a friend, staying at a guest house.” The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. State Department, along with local police in Trinidad, had been investigating the whereabouts of Kimberly Hays ’11 and Sophia Roy ’10 after they did not return to campus by March 30, as friends said they had planned. The girls arrived in Trinidad on March 22, according to a friend of the students. According to the local official, Hays and Roy left Trinidad for the neighboring island of Tobago and “spent some time with a friend.” During that time, they “did not communicate” with their parents, he said. The students returned to Trinidad “around the first of April,” he said, and were staying at another friend’s home on the island when they were located. The official said Friday the students were “safe” and “doing well” in the custody of U.S. State Department officials. Vice President for Campus Life and Student Services Margaret Klawunn confirmed in an e-mail to The Herald that the students were not the victims of foul play. Kimberly Hays’ father, Steven Hays, told The Herald late Thursday that the girls were safe at a hotel in Trinidad, but did not elaborate except to say that “one of them may have been drugged.” On Friday, he said the information about a possible drugging did not come directly from his daughter, Roy or the FBI, and he referred further questions about the investigation to the FBI’s Boston Field Office. Both Steven Hays and a friend of both students said the duo were returning to Providence Sunday. Kimberly Hays, reached Sunday on her cell phone, declined to comment and directed questions to the FBI. Gail Marcinkiewicz, a representative for public affairs at the FBI’s Boston office, said she could neither confirm nor deny the local police official’s account, citing privacy concerns. A U.S. State Department official in Trinidad declined to comment Friday, citing “the Privacy Act.”
Arts, 4
Sports, 5
Opinions, 7
Humanity’s shores “The Other Shore,” a Buddhist play, explores the human condition
yale fails Men’s lacrosse comes from behind late in the game to overtake Yale
voucher left behind Alyssa Ratledge ’11 decries D.C’s decision to do away with school vouchers
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