Daily Herald the Brown
vol. cxliv, no. 65 | Wednesday, September 16, 2009 | Serving the community daily since 1891
Violations found in LiSci labs
honk for health
by Nicole Friedman Senior Staf f Writer
By Sydney Ember Senior Staf f Writer
Hazardous waste management inspections conducted in Sidney Frank Hall this summer uncovered violations in 10 biology and neuroscience laboratories, according to an Office of Environmental Health and Safety report, a copy of which was obtained by The Herald. The labs were found to be in breach of container-management issues including improperly labeling waste depositories, displaying open hazardous waste containers, using inappropriate storage vessels, blocking laborator y egress and storing incompatible materials together. The Office of Environmental Health and Safety conducts twiceyearly inspections of all research facilities, allowing labs to correct violations within a one-week time frame. But Henr y Huppert, the University’s environmental comcontinued on page 2
Kim Perley / Herald
Protestors drummed up support for health care reform Tuesday.
inside
No one in the Department of Political Science knows what a year at Brown is like without Alan Zuckerman. “Anybody who is here — he had a hand in hiring,” said James Morone, professor of political science and department chair. “When we had a faculty meeting about who we were going to hire, he would be the loudest voice in it. ... So we’re all, in some sense, his legacy.” Zuckerman, who specialized in comparative politics, died Aug. 20 after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in March, about a month after his 64th birthday. He leaves behind his wife Roberta, three children and a department he was part of since 1970 and chaired from 2002 to 2005. According to Morone, he hardly missed a day in his 39 years at Brown. “He was fearless. If he thought you were doing something that he disagreed with, in your classes, in your writing, in your teaching — anywhere, he would come up to you and say, ‘You know, I don’t agree with you,’” Morone said. “He lives on — not just as a memory, but in
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Internationally renowned Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe has joined the University faculty as the David and Marianna Fisher University Professor and a professor of Africana Studies. Though his appointment is already effective, he will take over his full responsibilities in the spring semester, said Professor of Africana Studies Tricia Rose PhD’93, who chairs the department. Achebe, who joins Brown after 19 years on the Bard College faculty, “won’t be offering independent new courses of his own,” Rose said. The main “vehicle by which he’ll be making an intellectual contribution” will be through the Chinua Achebe Colloquium on Africa, a new initiative focused on Achebe’s “intellectual, pedagogical and artistic works,” Rose said. Achebe may also teach or co-teach courses already offered by the Africana department and give presentations in
Justin Ide / Harvard News Office
Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe.
Africana classes, she said. Achebe is the fourth “distinguished writer of world significance” to join the Africana Studies faculty and the only one of the four from Africa, Rose said. Because the department’s work is a “wonderful combination of thought and practice,” Achebe’s appointment will be a “profound consolidation of existing strengths,” she added. continued on page 2
Cover up with alums’ quirky book jackets
‘Fearless’ Zuckerman still in minds of PoliSci colleagues By Dan Alexander Senior Staff Writer
Famed Nigerian writer joins faculty
By Talia Kagan Contributing Writer
what we do.” Zuckerman began his studies focusing on Italy and Israel and later researched the influence of culture — people’s professions, family and community — on political preferences, according to Wendy Schiller, associate professor of political science. “He thought a good researcher made a really good teacher,” Schiller said. “He was demanding and challenging.” He authored or co-authored seven books. His latest, “Partisan Families: The Social Logic of Bounded Partisanship in Germany and Britain,” was awarded best book published in 2007 by the International Society for Political Psychology. “It wasn’t work for him. It was a passion,” said the late professor’s son, Gregory. “He was a guy who would have kept writing and researching until they took his computer away.” Jackie Codair ’11, a student in one of Zuckerman’s classes last spring, said Zuckerman expected a lot of his students. Codair said Zuckerman stopped her one day after class last spring and tapped her on the shoulder. continued on page 3
Don’t judge a book by its cover — and don’t judge a Brown grad by his day job. Last summer, corporate lawyer Jeremy Schwartz ’02 co-founded Book City Jackets, for him an unexpected foray into the world of
FEATURE literature and the arts. The company’s book jackets, designed by co-founder Emma Gaines-Ross ’04, save readers from embarrassment by cloaking their favorite guilty pleasures in brown paper adorned by little more than simple designs. While Schwartz handles the nuts and bolts of running the small business, Gaines-Ross is the creative partner who helps translate Schwartz’s artistic vision into tangible paper covers, relying on her experience in graphic design to function as Book City Jackets’ “art department,” Schwartz said. The most common reaction Schwar tz hears is relief: “Oh, thank God. I’m so embarrassed when I read ‘Twilight’ on the subway.” Indeed, it was commuting that gave Schwartz his inspira-
Frederic Lu / Herald
Designer book covers — the brainchild of two Brown grads — on sale in the Brown Bookstore promise to conceal readers’ reading choices.
tion, which came almost two years ago. During his daily rides on New York City’s subways, Schwartz always noticed the books people were reading, which led him to think about the public nature of reading. “Part of being on the subway in New York is being with other people,” Schwartz said, and that includes “seeing the books they’re reading.” Gaines-Ross agreed that people often make assumptions about others based on the books they’re
reading. Not so with a book jacket “divorcing the surface from the content of the book,” said GainesRoss, who concentrated in artsemiotics at Brown. “Book covers were a good idea in junior high school and they’re a good idea now,” advertises the Brooklyn-based company’s Web site. The covers are made with “recycled kraft paper,” according to continued on page 3
News, 4
Sports, 5
Opinions, 11
Eureka! Neuroscience professor Gilad Barnea hauls in a $1.3 million NIH grant
Stick it to ’em Undefeated men’s soccer dominates the competition over the weekend.
lion’s roar Susannah Kroeber ’11 remembers the late Sen. Ted Kennedy
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