Daily Herald the Brown
vol. cxlv, no. 21 | Monday, March 1, 2010 | Serving the community daily since 1891
Corporation balances budget, raises tuition Building projects approved
By Sydney Ember and Nicole Friedman News Editors
The Corporation approved a $786.6 million budget for the next fiscal year, authorized construction for capital projects and voted to reappoint two of its top members for second terms at its meeting Saturday. The University will also lay off employees at the end of this fiscal year. In order to eliminate a projected $30 million deficit, the University’s highest governing body approved a number of administrative changes recommended by the Organizational Review Committee — including reducing outside purchases and consolidating administrative resources — and raised undergraduate tuition and fees by 4.5 percent to $51,360, which includes a new, mandatory $64 student fee for access to recreational facilities. Tuition for the Graduate School will increase by 4.9 percent and medical student tuition by 5 percent. President Ruth Simmons an-
Nick Sinnott-Armstrong / Herald
The University’s trustees descended on campus this weekend for the Corporation meeting, at which the University’s budget was decided.
nounced in an e-mail to the campus community that she will remain at Brown “beyond the 2010–11 academic year,” which will be her 10th year as president. Next year’s budget expands undergraduate financial aid by 6.5
percent, according to Simmons’ email. The Grad School’s financial aid budget will rise 14.4 percent while the Alpert Medical School’s financial aid budget will increase 16.3 percent. The University will also increase
faculty and staff salaries by 4 percent and 3 percent, respectively, and add staff members in key areas such as its new supercomputer center. The University will also increase undergraduate enrollment to 5,895, adding 30 students to the current enrollment allotment by accepting more transfer students. The Corporation, which meets in Februar y, May and October, approves the University’s annual budget, makes other key strategic decisions and oversees the University’s administration, including Simmons. “There was quite a bit of reflection at the meeting,” said Chancellor Thomas Tisch ’76 P’07, who was elected to his second three-year term as the University’s highest officer. “Brown has been able to build on the foundations that were laid at the early years of the Plan (for Academic Enrichment) and make forward progress on many of the initiatives.” He said the capital projects are on a “faster track forward” than
“young alumni trustee,” a role she assumed in the fall. She was in town this weekend for the second time as a member of the Corporation, rubbing shoulders with some of Brown’s most powerful and well-connected alums as the University’s highest governing body reviewed budgets, set tuition increases and heard
The Corporation authorized construction of two capital projects to begin this spring and summer at its meeting Feb. 27. Funding and construction of both projects — the combined Katherine Moran Coleman Aquatics Center and Nelson Fitness Center and renovations to the medical education building in the Jewelry District — were scaled back to cut costs and improve efficiency after the University’s endowment fell $740 million in fall 2008, said Richard Spies, executive vice president for planning and senior adviser to the president. But “more than sufficient” donor funds have been secured to move forward with the revised building plans, he said. Under Corporation guidelines for approving building projects, “at least 90 percent of the cost of construction must be identified, with at least 50 percent of the funds at hand,” Spies said. Both building projects “easily meet those requirements through secured gifts and pledges.” This weekend, the Corporation’s Budget and Finance Committee authorized renovations to the existing medical education building, according to President Ruth Simmons’ email to the Brown community. The renovations, with an estimated total cost of $45 million, will begin as early as late March, Spies said. The original plans to construct
continued on page 4
continued on page 2
continued on page 3
Skiing from A fresh face in the Corporation the Hill to Whistler By Michael Skocpol Staf f Writer
By Fred Milgrim Sports Staff Writer
No, Bob Costas, his name does not rhyme with snow. But it does rhyme with another word that has been equally relevant for those who know him and his story: “Wow.”
SPORTS Dow Travers ’12 walked into the Olympic stadium, bearing his nation’s flag, seeming a little unsure of how to make it wave quite right — but he soon had it flying true. The realization that he was carrying the flag at the opening ceremony didn’t quite sink in until he turned the corner and came out of the tunnel. He said it was a great honor for him to represent the Cayman Islands, and his father, Anthony Travers, called it a “moment of fierce national pride,” adding with a laugh, “well, national — in parenthesis — pride.” Dow has extended the run of Brunonians at the Olympic Games. He qualified for these Olympics over the summer, gaining enough points in a final giant slalom race
inside
continued on page 9
News......1–4 Arts.........5–7 Sports......8–9 Editorial.....10 Opinion......11 Today........12
www.browndailyherald.com
Sitting at a table in the College Hill Cafe Thursday evening, catching up with an old friend, Lauren Kolodny’s ’08 businesslike attire was the only thing that made her seem the least bit out of place. Anyone who saw Kolodny around campus last week might be forgiven for assuming she was
a current student, maybe on her way to inter view for a job or an internship. In fact, that’s kind of the idea.
FEATURE Less than a year after she attended her last class on College Hill, Kolodny was tapped to become Brown’s first official
By Heeyoung Min Senior Staff Writer
Student coalition rallies for budget transparency By Max Godnick Senior Staf f Writer
The Open the Books Coalition held a teach-in and a rally this weekend in protest of the University’s confidential investment policy. The coalition, a joint effort between Students for a Democratic Society, the Student Labor Alliance and Brown Students for Justice in Palestine, was created to fight for a transparent endowment that the community would play a role in crafting, said Susan Beaty ’10, who moderated the teach-in. Open the Books was created after last year’s May Corporation meeting, Beaty said. “A bunch of groups came together realizing that the work they were doing really intercepted,” she said at Friday’s teach-in.
“We were all working against the same enemies and injustices. We were really concerned with the secrecy, the lack of transparency and the decisions that were made about where our money was spent,” she said. “We want an endowment with a list of all the companies it’s invested in available to the public.” The coalition organized its first teach-in last semester and has “continued to work together for an open endowment on this campus,” Beaty said. Students for a Democratic Society was the first organization to speak at the teach-in. “We’re talking about an endowment that students have control over ... an endowment where socially responsible recommendations Max Monn / Herald
continued on page 3
The Open the Books Coalition protested for transparent investment policies in front of University Hall.
Arts, 5
Sports, 9
Opinions, 11
island paradise? Janine Heath’s ’10 play ex p l o re s Ja m a i c a ’s turbulent history
shot out W. basketball loses to two Ivy League rivals in last home games
r.i.p. democracy M i ke J o h n s o n ’ 1 1 chronicles the death of democracy
195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island
herald@browndailyherald.com