Daily Herald the Brown
vol. cxliv, no. 101 | Friday, November 6, 2009 | Serving the community daily since 1891
Poll: Students more satisfied with advising For Bears, By Hannah Moser and Seth Motel Senior Staff Writer and News Editor
Student satisfaction with academic advising is on the rise — 10 percent higher this fall than a year and a half ago, a recent Herald poll found. Nearly 60 percent of students reported they were either very satisfied or somewhat satisfied with advising, compared to just under 50 percent
Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with academic advising at Brown? Don’t know/ No answer Strongly dissatisfied
Very satisfied
THE HERALD POLL in spring 2008. A plurality of students, 40.6 percent, responded that they were somewhat satisfied and 19.1 percent said they were very satisfied. First years were much more likely than upperclassmen to approve of the advising system, with 75.1 percent reporting satisfaction, while this number dropped to 53.9 percent among the rest of the student body. Both numbers were significantly higher than they were in 2008, though that poll was conducted later in the academic year. Administrators have changed many aspects of the advising system recently, including a revamped Faculty Fellows program and the addition of Advising Central, which makes faculty members available throughout the week in J. Walter Wilson.
Somewhat dissatisfied Somewhat satisfied
The Herald poll was conducted from Nov. 2 through Nov. 4 and has a 3.6 percent margin of error with 95 percent confidence. A total of 687 Brown undergraduates completed the poll, which The Herald administered as a written questionnaire to students in the University Mail Room at J. Walter Wilson during the day and in the Sciences Library at night. A year after being elected president, Barack Obama remains popu-
lar among Brown students — though he enjoys less popularity than last year. The poll found that 77.2 percent of respondents approved of the way he is handling his job, while most national polls rank his job approval at about 50 percent. Of the poll’s respondents, 57.4 percent said they somewhat approved of Obama’s job and 19.8 percent said they strongly approved. In last fall’s Herald poll, conducted just before the election, 86.1 percent of students reported
Diplomat remembers the wall’s fall By Nicole Boucher Contributing Writer
inside
When the Berlin Wall, which served as a “symbol of difference and division” between the east and the west sides of Germany, fell, it represented the culmination of changes in Soviet Union policies in the 1970s and ’80s, Consul General Reiner Mockelmann told a small gathering at the Watson Institute for International Relations Thursday night. Mockelmann, a retired West German diplomat and director of the Summer School Wust, spent most of the lecture outlining historical transitions from the Berlin Wall’s implementation to modern concerns in a “unified Germany.” “The concept of openness” which emerged under Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev’s perestroika and glasnost — economic and political transparency — in 1986 and 1988 “led to major changes in Soviet society as well as profoundly changing East and West relations,” he said. Increased demonstrations, including a million people gathering
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that they would vote for him. Seven months after the last poll, many students are still about as concerned about their families’ ability to finance their education. While 59.4 percent were confident of their ability to finance their Brown education, 38.1 percent reported being worried, including 10.3 percent reporting that they were very worried. Student opinion of President Ruth Simmons remains high, with 77.5 percent of respondents reporting approval and 3.6 percent disapproval. The distribution between those who strongly approved and those who somewhat approved was nearly even. 18.8 percent said they did not know or had no answer. Approval of the Undergraduate Council of Students is relatively unchanged since last semester’s poll. Of those polled, 48.7 percent strongly or somewhat approved of UCS, with 10 percent reporting disapproval. 41.2 percent said they did not know or had no answer as opposed to 35.5 percent last year. The poll found that a plurality of students support reinstating the Reserve Officer Training Corps at the University, which was disbanded here in 1971. Though more than one-third of respondents said they did not know or had no answer, 41.3 percent of students said they would
one last shot at Yale By Dan Alexander Senior Staff Writer
Coming into this season, the football team’s seniors had — at some point in their college careers — beaten every team they have faced except three: the University of Rhode Island, Holy Cross and Yale. But the Bears beat URI, 2820, in a home game on Oct. 3. The next week, they took down Holy Cross, 34-31. Now, only Yale remains.
SPORTS The Bears will kick off against the Bulldogs at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday in the Yale Bowl in New Haven. Brown (4-3, 2-2 Ivy) is coming off a 14-7 overtime loss to Penn. The Quakers, now 4-0 in Ivy League play, stand at the top of the league standings, tied with Harvard. “We had a tough one last week,” said cornerback David Clement ’10. “Definitely the fact that we haven’t beaten Yale is helping bring us back. And we’re definitely as motivated as any game we have had this year.” Penn shut out the Bears’ offense last week, which had led the Ivy League in scoring before the game.
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Remembering when GISPs were groovy By Alicia Chen Staf f Writer
As students scrambled to pre-register for courses this week, certain people were looking outside Brown’s course catalog to pick their classes for next semester. By 3 p.m. Thursday, those students had to submit their proposals for group independent study projects and independent study projects — curricular options created in 1969 as part of the New Curriculum. “One of the classic Brown experiences is to do a GISP,” said Alison Cohen ’09, who did multiple independent studies during her time at Brown and is studying environmental policy on a Fulbright Scholarship in Belgium. Students who have participated are so enthusiastic
they “spread the gospel” to other students, Cohen said. GISPs allow faculty to experiment with new courses and give groups of students a way to pursue what really interests them, said Professor Emeritus of Engineering Barrett Hazeltine. Hazeltine, who teaches ENGN0090: “Management of Industrial and Non-profit Organizations,” said the course — long one of Brown’s most popular classes — originated as a GISP. In the inaugural year of the New Curriculum, more than 500 students par ticipated in GISPs. But after flourishing for the first few years after their creation — reaching a high of 50 projects in the 1974-75 academic year — GISPs have faded from
SPOTLIGHT
Freddy Lu / Herald
Reiner Mockelmann spoke at the anniversary the fall of the Berlin Wall Thursday.
in protest on Nov. 4, 1989, led to the final push before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Between 1990 and 1994, the Reunification Treaty was passed and the Soviet military left Germany, he said.
But, Mockelmann said, major problems arose even with the Berlin Wall’s collapse. After the wall came down, many residents continued on page 3
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News, 3
Arts, 5
Opinions, 7
is it hot in here? Pembroke Hall hosts experts in a lecture on climate change
black, gay at the hay A Rhode Island College professor opens a new exhibit at the John Hay
Working hard, or — Tyler Rosenbaum ’11: Thank goodness lawmakers faced up to urgent matters
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