Daily Herald the Brown
vol. cxliv, no. 67 | Friday, September 18, 2009 | Serving the community daily since 1891
Public health school closer to realization
S h o far , so g oo d
By Caitlin Trujillo Staff Writer
By Anish Gonchigar Staf f Writer
Plans are moving for ward to establish a self-sufficient school of public health within the University, according to Fox Wetle, associate dean of medicine for public health and public policy. The University is working to gain accreditation from the Council on Education for Public Health to expand the current master’s in public health program into a Brown School of Public Health. Brown has only offered a master’s in public health since 2002, but plans for the school of public health have been in the works for at least eight years, Wetle said. The school would be based on a three-part mission: to conduct research that will be translated into improved policy, to train and educate future generations of researchers and public health officials and to assist organizations in public health practice and policontinued on page 3
Frederic Lu / Herald Orthodox Jews from Chabad House trumpeted traditional “shofars” yesterday in celebration of the Jewish new year.
Homeless camp tenants battle for a no-man’s-land erty is not zoned for recreational camping, and a hearing into the tent community’s fate began The lot of land Mark Falugo’s fam- Thursday. ily owns is nearly deserted during But Falugo, who gave the the day, but the signs of human group permission to use his famhabitation are obvious. The down- ily’s property, has become their town property holds about a dozen advocate, and he refuses to give tents, the dwellings of 18 homeless in. Since the controversy arose over the tents, the men and women. SPOTLIGHT During the dayBarrington resident light hours, the has been spending inhabitants of Provitents — as long hours at the encampment in the encampment is known — go solidarity. Why? about their business. Some work, “Compassion,” Falugo said. and others look for jobs. They go “They’ve been conditioned to to Crossroads, the state’s largest lose every fight they come up service provider for the homeless, against.” to take showers. One 19-year-old goes to local concerts to sell his Providence versus Provitents artwork, dreamscapes created The series of events that brought the lot’s current residents in entirely with spray paint. But after only two weeks of ex- contact with Falugo — who had istence, the tent city has already started volunteering at the Rhode met with resistance from local Island Coalition for the Homeless residents and business owners just a few days before — began concerned about the Westminster with an eviction, similar to the Street property. Charles J. Falugo, one they are facing again. Inc. — the family-run corporation Provitents is, in fact, a settlethat owns the land — has been continued on page 4 cited by the city because the prop-
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Lawyers debate 2008 D.C. handgun case Two lawyers who litigated a landmark 2008 Supreme Court case debated the merits of firearm regulation and the role of the Second Amendment before a packed crowd in Salomon 101 Thursday afternoon. The event, held by the Janus Forum in honor of Constitution Day, featured Joseph Blocher, a Duke University law professor who worked on the merits briefing for the District of Columbia, whose regulations were struck down by the court’s decision in D.C. v. Heller, and Alan Gura, the lead counsel for the defendant in the case. Each gave a 25-minute lecture on the case and the ramifications of its decision. The case, decided 5-4 by the Supreme Cour t in June 2008, declared D.C.’s ordinances prohibiting civilian ownership of handguns and other firearms unconstitutional and in violation of the Second Amendment. Gura argued that the Constitution’s framers intended the right to bear arms to apply directly to in-
dividual citizens and that the D.C. statute effectively abolished that constitutionally protected individual right. Blocher said that limitations on the First Amendment and other constitutional rights currently exist, and are not considered unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. The D.C. regulation, he argued, did not contradict Second Amendment principles, it merely constrained them. Gura placed emphasis on the exact wording of the Constitution, saying that if a matter is “spelled out” in the text of the document, the amendment should receive particular protection, as he said the First Amendment does. Gura rejected the idea that the Heller decision represented “judicial activism” in the negative sense. He said the justices engaged in a thorough judicial review to enforce a vital part of the Constitution. The Second Amendment is spelled out, Gura argued, whereas the right to privacy relied on in Roe v. Wade, the 1973 case that established a right to abortion, does not continued on page 2
78 report ‘flu-like symptoms’ this month By Suzannah Weiss Senior Staff Writer
Flu-like illness is spreading around campus, with 78 students diagnosed since Sept. 2, according to Health Services Director Ed Wheeler. Though the University does not have permission from the state of Rhode Island to test students for H1N1, also known as “swine flu,” ten students have been tested in a hospital for the virus. Of those tests, three turned up positive, according to a campus-wide e-mail sent by Vice President for Campus Life and Student Services Margaret Klawunn Thursday night. The diagnostic criteria for an influenza-like illness, which may or may not be the H1N1 virus but demands the same treatment, are a fever of 100 degrees or higher and a cough or sore throat, Wheeler said. “We treat them the same way if they have the symptoms, whether they’ve been tested or not,” said Russell Carey ’91 MA’06, the senior vice president for Corporation affairs and University governance who also serves as chief risk officer on the Emergency Preparedness and Crisis Committee. Dean of the College Katherine
Kim Perley / Herald
The University has installed hand sanitizer dispensers in high-traffic areas on campus in an effort to prevent the spread of germs.
Bergeron said the University’s fight against swine flu has been a collaborative effort involving the Rhode Island Department of Health, Computer and Information Ser vices, Dining Services, heads of academic departments and professors, among others. The health department emphasized that the best advice to give someone with flu-like symptoms is to “just stay put and take care of yourself,” Bergeron said. The 78 students diagnosed were advised to remain in their rooms or to go home until they were symptomfree for 24 hours, Wheeler said.
Different groups within the University are involved in caring for the students while they are isolated. Bergeron and Klawunn sent out a campus-wide e-mail last week detailing an online reporting system that allows students with flu-like symptoms to notify Health Services so they can be excused from classes and get follow-up care. “We’re making sure people have what they need to stay isolated,” Klawunn said. Measures taken to ensure that sick students recover and that the disease does continued on page 2
News, 3
Arts, 5
Opinions, 7
job quest Students debut Web site to help combat unemployment
Life is a cabaret Trinity Rep. takes on a golden oldie in their performance of Cabaret
Fading magic Mike Johnson ’11 calls on youth to support President Obama once more
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