Daily Herald the Brown
vol. cxlv, no. 8 | Friday, February 5, 2010 | Serving the community daily since 1891
Science center debuts today
Starting Friday, the Gate will be closed “indefinitely,” Retail Supervisor Tony Antetomaso confirmed late Thursday evening. “We’re not sure when it’s going to open,” Antetomaso
By Goda Thangada Senior Staff Writer
After months of construction at the Sciences Library, the third-floor science center will open Friday at 9 a.m. While finishing touches like the installation of smartboards remain, students can begin holding group study sessions and taking advantage of advising in the space. The 4,000 square-foot facility, which will have a grand opening in March, features study space conference rooms and a laboratory dedicated to developing outreach projects. “The science center is unique in that it treats science education as one entity,” said David Targan ’78, associate dean of the College for science education. The center will equally serve faculty and students, whether they are science concentrators or not, Targan said. “We’re trying to encourage all students to take advantage,” Targan said. Non-science students can consult with faculty about appropriate science courses or can learn about outreach opportunities, he said. The outreach program did not have a home before the science center was proposed. Outreach programs managed by Adjunct Assistant Professor of Neuroscience Jennifer Aizenman and Assistant Professor of Engineering Karen Haberstroh will now be housed
Matt Dunne ’92 is in the midst of a five-person race for the Democratic nomination for governor of Vermont. Dunne concentrated in public policy and American institutions at Brown, has served in the Vermont state senate and currently works for Google. He lives in Vermont with his wife and children. The Herald had the chance to ask him about his memories from Brown, his campaign and his plans for the future.
inside
The Herald: You graduated from Brown in 1992 with a degree in public policy. Did this influence your decision to go into politics? Dunne: I already was interested in politics when I arrived at Brown and, in fact, one of the reasons I chose Brown was that I visited the Taubman Center
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said. A leaking steam pipe is the cause of the closing, said Gate Unit Manager Kara Segal ’10. — Alicia Chen
Music star Kulash ’98 is more than ‘OK’ BY Suzannah Weiss Arts & Culture Editor
Nick Sinnott-Armstrong / Herald
The new Science Center on the third floor of the SciLi will welcome both concentrators and non-concentrators.
at the center, Aizenman told The Herald. Outreach is relevant to the majority of faculty members at Brown, Targan said. “Many faculty are interested in or required to do outreach,” Targan said. Though an outreach component is required by a grant from the National Science Foundation, Targan said that Brown outreach would have happened without the mandate. “Most were going to do it anyway,” he said.
Taubman Center shaped alum’s road to state office By Sarah Julian Staff Writer
Gate closed indefinitely
(for Public Policy) when I visited campus. It was clearly a place that was focused on innovation in policy and the real world. That was exciting and I ended up spending much of my time at Brown when I wasn’t in the theater at the Taubman Center. What I tell people about my experience at Brown is that it’s a place that teaches you to have no fear, so when I graduated, a couple people encouraged me to run for office the same year that I graduated and, with the inspiration that Brown gives students, I jumped into the race and it wasn’t a surprise to anyone that I won. How were you involved in theater? I spent most of my class time in the public policy program and the rest of my time doing theater. I was actively involved with thecontinued on page 2
Aizenman works with Project ARISE, a program for local high school biology teachers. She also runs a mobile lab program that takes lab-based lesson plans to nearby schools. Haberstroh works with Physical Processes in Environment, a program for teachers at all grade levels. Information about alternative outreach programs will also be available at the center. “The science continued on page 2
Damian Kulash ’98, lead singer, guitarist and lyricist of the rock band OK Go, is “a little manic” right now, he told The Herald on Wednesday — and justifiably so. After releasing its third album, “Of the Blue Colour of the Sky,” the band was touring Europe until last week, and is now filming four music videos — one in “a giant wareARTS & house space” in Los Angeles — while preparing for an upcoming tour through Australia, China and Japan, Kulash said. Highlights from the European tour included being approached by Iranian filmmakers on the street in Amsterdam with “very particular nerdy film questions” about OK Go’s videos and witnessing bassist Tim Nordwind creating a song and music video entirely on his iPhone, Kulash said.
OK Go also was featured on the soundtrack to “New Moon,” the second movie of the Twilight saga. “Any musician in the world would have given an arm to get on that soundtrack,” he said. Despite his band’s success, which includes a 2006 Grammy for the video for “Here It Goes Again,” Kulash said his years at Brown were “probably the best four years of my life.” Kulash said the people he met at college are still some of his closCULTURE est friends, even though they are “spread across the globe now.” He even met his wife at Brown, where they took a course together in the Department of Modern Culture and Media. “I didn’t go (to Brown) to get a job,” he said. “I went there to meet amazing people and generally enrich myself and grow up.” Brown students are fortunate “to continued on page 5
Smiley: MLK ‘died for more than just this’ By Anne Simons Staff Writer
In the 13th Martin Luther King Jr. lecture, television and radio personality Tavis Smiley urged a mostly full Salomon 101 to push harder for the civil rights changes that King advocated. Smiley, who hosts a talk show on PBS, opened his lecture by calling King “the greatest American we have ever produced.” King’s legacy is important, he said, because “the only weapon that Martin ever used was love.” King worked hard during his life to promote the values of love and speak honestly about problems, which cost him his popularity and his life, Smiley added. He acknowledged that his own position as a talk show host and the presence of an African-American as president of an Ivy League university — a reference to President Ruth Simmons — represent progress for civil rights. But, he added, “Martin died for more than just this.” Though Smiley agreed that Presi-
Nick Sinnott-Armstrong / Herald In Salomon 101, talk show host Tavis Smiley chided President Barack Obama for justifying the troop surge in Afghanistan with a reference to Martin Luther King Jr.
dent Barack Obama’s election was a testament to racial progress since King’s era, Smiley criticized Obama for ignoring the problems of everyday people. While the election of Obama signals that the country is less racist than it was, the idea that
it is now post-racial is “nonsense,” he said. He said he thought Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, which began with a reference to continued on page 3
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