Daily Herald the Brown
vol. cxlv, no. 25 | Thursday, March 4, 2010 | Serving the community daily since 1891
New Banner scheduler apes Mocha features By Mark Raymond Staf f Writer
Computing and Information Services plans to launch a course scheduler that functions similarly to Mocha on or around March 15, according to Michael Pickett, the department’s vice president, and Senior Associate Registrar Robert Fitzgerald. The new program, called the Brown Course Scheduler, will allow students to search for courses and add them to a cart, but also register for these courses directly through the scheduler, a feature Mocha does not offer. “We know that students need this functionality,” Pickett said. “It’s essential that Brown has this capability, whether it’s Mocha or not.” A group of Brown students created Mocha during their 2005–06 winter break. Many students use it to find classes and organize course schedules before officially register-
Frosh will need to show writing skills
insi d e
ing on Banner. “We made Mocha because we thought it was necessary and useful for students,” said David Leventhal ’07, one of the original creators of the popular site. “If people switch over to the Banner feature, then we may eventually stop maintaining Mocha. But as long as it’s still useful, we will keep it going.” Paul Kernfeld ’12, one of the students CIS chose to test the new feature, said he had mixed thoughts after using it during the test phase. “The interface isn’t as nice as Mocha, but it has a lot of potential,” Kernfeld said. “There are still minor technical glitches, but it is still in beta and hopefully these problems will be resolved.” Pickett and Fitzgerald said that the program has gone through rigorous testing and is technically sound at this point.
By Anne Simons Staf f Writer
education and awareness efforts regarding pedestrian safety and coordinating enforcement with Providence Police will be among the issues under the committee’s pur view, Carey said. The committee will build on recommendations made by a transportation study conducted as a part of the 2006 Brown Uni-
Seniors will have to “show evidence of their writing” in order to graduate, beginning with the class of 2013, Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron will announce Thursday. “All students are expected to work on their writing both in general courses and in their concentration,” Bergeron wrote in an e-mail to be sent to students Thursday. Sophomores will have to reflect on their writing in their concentration forms, according to the letter. The changes come out of recommendations from the Task Force on Undergraduate Education, Bergeron told The Herald. Based on the findings of an external review and discussions with faculty and academic committees, the College Writing Advisor y Board and the College Curriculum Council collaborated on a new, clearer delineation of the expectations of writing at Brown, she said. Bergeron’s letter ends with a statement on writing, explaining why it is an important skill for all graduates. “Writing is not only a medium through which we communicate and persuade; it is also a means for expanding our capacities to think clearly,” she wrote.
continued on page 4
continued on page 2
Jonathan Bateman / Herald
continued on page 2
The men’s lacrosse team is facing high expectations this season. See the spring sports preview section, pages 5–8.
Committee to review campus pedestrian safety By Claire Peracchio Senior Staf f Writer
Cars still zoom through the intersection of Hope and Thayer streets, where Avi Schaefer ’13 was killed less than two weeks ago — a reminder of the challenges that remain in ensuring pedestrian safety on College Hill. Two recent incidents have “raised sensitivity and awareness
about pedestrian safety on campus,” said Russell Carey, senior vice president for Corporation af fairs and governance, at the faculty meeting on Tuesday. The first, a Feb. 12 drunken driving accident, left Schaefer dead and Marika Baltschef fsky ’13 injured. A hit-and-run involving Erinn Phelan ’09 and Alma Guerrero ’09 MD’13 on Feb. 21 in New York City was the second
accident involving members of the Brown community. In light of these events, Carey announced the creation of a pedestrian safety review committee, to be chaired by Carey and Vice President for Campus Life and Student Ser vices Margaret Klawunn, at Tuesday’s faculty meeting. The effectiveness of existing signs and signals at pedestrian crossings, ways to improve
Orgasms come to Brown By Alicia Chen Senior Staff Writer
Marshall Miller ’96 and Dorian Solot ’95 delved into the mysteries of the female orgasm before a full Salomon 101.
continued on page 9
inside
Sofia Castello / Herald
Despite the chill and snow last night, Salomon 101 was packed with both women and men who came to hear Marshall Miller ’96 and Dorian Solot ’95 discuss the female orgasm. As “full-time professional sex educators,” the couple travels around the country to speak to different groups. With humor, straightforward language and the famous deli orgasm scene from “When Harry Met Sally,” the two demystified and celebrated sexuality and the female orgasm during their presentation and in smaller
News...1–3, 9 Metro........4 Sports.....5–8 Editorial....10 Opinion.....11 Today........12
www.browndailyherald.com
Hundreds crowd State House for marriage rally By Rebecca Ballhaus Contributing Writer
“Hi, my name is Frank Ferri. I’m the state rep and I’m gay,” said State Rep. Frank Ferri, D-Dist. 22, to begin his speech at Marriage Equality Rhode Island’s rally at the State House Wednesday afternoon, before calling up his husband from the crowd.
Metro Ferri was surrounded by hundreds of fervent supporters, toting signs that read anything from “Homophobia — Now That’s A Choice!” to “My Church Will Marry Me, Why Won’t Rhode Island?” With not a single counter-protester to be seen, members of the
crowd began to search for a method to vent their pent-up energy as they waited for the speeches to begin. A few excited supporters began a slow clap, which died down fairly quickly; others began to sing the Beach Boys song “Chapel of Love,” but this, too, lasted only momentarily. The rally was “less a protest than a gathering of supporters,” said John Qua ’13. He smiled. “I was hoping there wouldn’t be yelling,” he said. When the speeches began, the crowd exploded in applause each time a speaker paused. Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts ’78, who gave one of the first speeches, happily noted the steady increase in elected officials attending MERI rallies each year. continued on page 4
Metro, 4
Sports, 5–8
Opinions, 11
Big Plans for Prov New commercial building approved at site of former downtown nightclub
Spring preview A glimpse at what’s ahead for crew, softball, baseball, golf and more
Bridging the divide Roberta Goldman ’13 remembers Avi Schaefer ’13 and advocates peace
195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island
herald@browndailyherald.com
Page 2
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
C ampus N EWS Students can register and shop with new scheduler continued from page 1
“March 15 is a moving target. We’re in our final testing environment for it now and it will be ready for summer 2010 and fall 2010 registration periods,” Fitzgerald said. Mocha, which is operated by a group of Brown graduates, has been known to go down when many users are flooding the system. CIS is hoping that the new Banner scheduler won’t face similar problems. “We had to make sure it can handle a large number of users and that test passed with flying colors,” said Fitzgerald. Some of the major features of the Banner scheduler that aren’t present in Mocha are direct registrations through the scheduler and and smart course searches which take into account whether a student has met certain course requirements.
Pickett said that although this CIS project may seem dismissive of student efforts such as Mocha, the staff always welcomes new and creative ideas from Brown students. “I’m pleased with what the original creators of Mocha did for the students at Brown, and I want to continue encouraging Brown students to contribute to the student experience,” said Pickett. Students will have the chance to voice their concerns about the new feature when it goes live, Fitzgerald said. “There will be a suggestions link when we first go live with the feature, so students can feel free to provide any feedback in terms of functionality and usability.” Fitzgerald added that in addition to a Morning Mail announcement, students and staff can expect to receive an e-mail in the near future describing these changes being made to Banner.
sudoku
Daily Herald the Brown
Editorial Phone: 401.351.3372 | Business Phone: 401.351.3260 George Miller, President Claire Kiely, Vice President
Katie Koh, Treasurer Chaz Kelsh, Secretary
The Brown Daily Herald (USPS 067.740) is an independent newspaper serving the Brown University community daily since 1891. It is published Monday through Friday during the academic year, excluding vacations, once during Commencement, once during Orientation and once in July by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. Single copy free for each member of the community. POSTMASTER please send corrections to P.O. Box 2538, Providence, RI 02906. Periodicals postage paid at Providence, R.I. Offices are located at 195 Angell St., Providence, R.I. E-mail herald@browndailyherald.com. World Wide Web: http://www.browndailyherald.com. Subscription prices: $319 one year daily, $139 one semester daily. Copyright 2010 by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
“I’m pleased with what the original creators of Mocha did for the students at Brown.” — Michael Pickett, vice president of CIS
U. to enforce writing requirement continued from page 1
More resources for students Starting in the fall, a new designation will be added to some Banner course descriptions. The designation, WRIT, signifies that the course helps students work on their writing process. There are about 200 courses that qualify for the designation for the fall semester across most of the disciplines, Bergeron said. The University wished to make writing courses more “visible,” she added. In the letter, Bergeron asked members of the class of 2013 to take advantage of the Advising SideKick, an advising tool with a portfolio function, to upload examples of their best work throughout their four years at Brown. This semester, concentration declaration forms were changed to include a new question asking students to talk about the writing they have done at Brown and how they intend to continue working on it in the upcoming semesters, Bergeron said. Students can still be flagged for poor performance. The University is bringing back the “writing check,” a tool professors used at the end of the term to signal that a student needed to work on his writing. Before the Banner system was implemented, the check would be added to paper grade reports, said Kathleen McSharry, associate dean of the College for writing. In the intervening time, professors could still report students, but that would have to be done with an e-mail to a dean, she said. Now, Computing and Information Ser vices has worked to implement the check on Banner, she said. McSharry said she received between 30 and 90 checks per year, though she said she believes that number decreased during the period following the implementation of Banner. Incoming problems First-years can also be flagged based on the letters they write to their advisers prior to arriving on campus, or more rarely, based on their application materials or official communications with the University, McSharr y said. In the class of 2013, 35 students were flagged based on their letters to advisers, McSharr y said. In general, the majority of flagged students are either speakers of English as a second language or graduates of “under-resourced” high schools, said Douglas Brown, director of writing support programs and adjunct lecturer in English. Those students are encouraged to work on their writing by their advisers and are monitored by McSharr y’s office for evidence of progress, she said. In courses, students can work on their writing by taking one of the nonfiction writing classes offered by the English department or one of the WRIT-designated courses, McSharr y said. Students also have the option
to be paired with a Writing Fellow who will work with them throughout the year on papers for any of their classes. Brown, who heads the Writing Fellows program, said he thought the ongoing relationship with a graduate student at the Writing Center would be particularly helpful to struggling writers. The portfolio of a student’s progress throughout the year should be “encouraging” evidence of improvement, he added. Excellence at Brown, a pre-orientation program focusing on writing skills, is growing in demand, Brown said. Last year, 150 people requested places for the program, which can only hold 50, he said. He added that he hopes the program will be able to increase its size this year. These resources are important in setting up students for success, Brown said. The importance of writing “Good writing is essential to learning,” according to the statement on writing from the College Curriculum Council included at the end of Bergeron’s letter. “Across the disciplines, scholars, teachers, and students write to explore ideas, uncover nuances of thought, and advance knowledge,” the statement continues. Writing is a “means of expanding the capacity to think” that can “bring great cognitive gains,” Bergeron said. With the implementation of the writing requirement, “good writers are going to become better, and weak writers are going to become better,” she added. “Writing really is important to liberal learning,” Brown said. If a student is not writing well, it is probably an indication that he is not learning well either, he said. McSharr y said the University wants writing to be a “holistic experience” at Brown, done in a wide range of undergraduate courses. Administrators wanted to create “a campus-wide discourse” and ensure that writing is on faculty and students’ minds, she added. The new structures will primarily look at first- and second-year students, which is necessar y because the University lacks any general education requirements, she said. Professors outside the disciplines typically perceived as writing-intensive agreed about the importance of writing. “We want people to be able to write competently,” said Professor of Computer Science Andy Van Dam. It is “almost an unchallenged belief” that an ability to communicate effectively orally and in writing is necessar y for success, he said. Jan Tullis, professor of geological sciences, super vised a Group Independent Study Project last year for science concentrators interested in writing. She said she enjoys “coaching students to get practice” writing, both generally and in their fields. Being clearer writers also means being clearer thinkers, she said. Writing not only communicates ideas to others, but
helps the writer understand one’s own thoughts, she said. Students were less enthusiastic. Celina Pedrosa ’11 said she was not clear on exactly what the writing requirement meant. As an international relations concentrator, she said she has taken writingintensive classes anyway, but was never pointed in that direction by a faculty adviser. James Witkin ’10 said he differentiates between the writing requirement in theor y and in practice. In practice, it is difficult to enforce, he said, adding that he does not believe people who take no writing courses would ever get “caught.” Brown students are also likely to be good writers because they were accepted to the school, he said. A historical requirement Brown’s writing requirement dates back to the late 1800s, McSharr y said. It was the only distribution requirement to live through the shift to the New Curriculum in 1969. In the past, the requirement has been enforced only if a student was flagged for lacking writing competence either in application materials or by a professor based on course performance. Students were “innocent until proven guilty,” Bergeron said. McSharr y said even after the implementation of the New Curriculum, students who were flagged were required to take a remedial writing course. But that model was not in line with the spirit of the requirement, Bergeron said. The new statement on writing reflects a shift from a deficit model to a “plenitude model,” Bergeron said. The writing requirement should not be thought of in “policing or punitive terms,” Brown said. It should be a “value-added experience,” McSharr y said. The inherent difficulty in enforcing the writing requirement would, at many colleges, result in a required course in writing. But requiring a course would violate the principles of Brown’s open curriculum, administrators said. In discussions with faculty about writing at Brown, “no one was interested in adding a course requirement,” McSharr y said. It would bother her, she added, to have a requirement on the books that would “mean nothing” to students, who would take the course simply to get it done. Advising can help to encourage students to explore other areas and to take risks, but in the end, “students make their own final choices,” she said. Witkin said there were a few other kinds of subjects he thinks students should explore, but added he would be leer y of adding them as requirements because they would require specific courses, leading to the destruction of the core principles of the New Curriculum. The writing requirement is much less obtrusive given that there are so many courses that involve writing, he said.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
C ampus N EWS
“You can all feel at home here.” — David Targan ’78, associate dean of the College, on the new Science Center
Reception formally launches Science Center By Ana Alvarez Senior Staf f Writer
At a grand opening for the Science Center held Wednesday night, faculty, students and administration flocked to the third floor of the Sciences Library to observe the new space’s available resources. The center has been open since Feb. 5, but Wednesday evening marked its formal introduction to the Brown community. The opening included exhibits by various undergraduate science departments in the center’s study rooms. Student groups focused on science outreach, such as Advancing Rhode Island Science Education and Brown Science Prep, also had displays around the center. David Targan ’78, associate dean of the College for science education, spoke briefly during the opening. Targan, who was a leader in the concept’s development, said he hoped the center would serve as a meeting point for all of the University’s science resources. “We now have an open space that is located centrally where you can all feel at home here,” he said at the event. “With students’ participation, this will indeed become a learning center, and we hope to have more of the same throughout this building,” University Librarian Harriette Hemmasi said to the crowd. “This building needs to come to life.” After Hemmasi spoke, Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron addressed the crowd. “This is a wonderful moment for undergraduate science education at Brown,” she said. Bergeron listed the various uses of the center — a place where, she said, students, faculty, and members of the Providence community can have a common ground in science education. “This center speaks to several important missions of this university,” she said. “I am very grateful and ver y proud that in this time of fiscal constraint the University had the vision to see this project through.” In her speech, Bergeron also mentioned that Hemmasi has mentioned plans to possibly expand the center to the fourth floor, adding that her office would support this expansion. Provost David Kertzer ’69 P’95 P’98 spoke next, discussing the
Nick Sinnott-Armstrong / Herald
David Targan ’78 spoke at the Science Center dedication.
center’s history and even reading e-mails he and Bergeron sent to each other in 2006 and 2007 about the creation of the Undergraduate Science Education Committee and its recommendation to create the center. “This has been the dream of many people and has been in the works for many years,” he said. Margaret Lamb, senior instructional technologist for Computer and Informational Services, demonstrated the study rooms’ new Smar tBoards, highlighting different ways students could use the technology to enhance their studying. The SmartBoard software is “really designed with student use in
Page 3
mind,” she said. The event was especially intended to raise awareness among faculty members, who received personal invitations to the opening, said Jackie Giovanniello ’12, who works at the center’s front desk. “As soon as it opened, students knew it was a really great place to study,” she said. Kai Morrell ’11, an environmental studies concentrator, first visited the center during the opening and said she was excited with the potential she saw. “All of those different types of sciences that people have at Brown don’t interact that much, and hopefully this will provide a space for that,” she said.
Metro The Brown Daily Herald
“We can just walk down the hill with a few homemade signs and hopefully make a difference.” — Brendan DeWolf ’13 Thursday, March 4, 2010 | Page 4
Neighborhood clashes on waterfront property By Caitlin Trujillo Senior Staf f Writer
Rebecca Ballhaus / Herald
Independent Lincoln Chafee ’75 was one of several gubernatorial candidates who pledged support for gay marriage rights at Wednesday’s rally.
At rally, promises to ratify marriage rights continued from page 1 “I would especially like to point out how many candidates for governor are here today,” she said to the crowd. As the speeches continued, there was a distinct atmosphere of hope at the State House. “It is rare that we have so much love and affection here in this building. We have a great amount of hope. The work that you’re doing is working,” said State Sen. Charles Levesque, D-Dist. 11. The gubernatorial candidates offered statements of their support of a same-sex marriage bill, their speeches alternating between touting the cause and promoting their campaigns. “In marriage equality, there is no backseat,” said independent candidate Todd Giroux. “I will not hesitate to sign a samesex marriage bill,” said Attorney General Patrick Lynch ’87, one of two Democratic candidates for governor. “This is about basic human rights,
basic civil rights. It’s about love and respect.” Kathy Kushnir, executive director for MERI, received a boisterous round of applause as she announced that “now is the time to treat all families equally.” She acknowledged the cause’s many supporters. “We do not do anything by ourselves,” she said. “You are all a part of marriage equality.” MERI is “very excited” by the turnout, said Kim Bright, field director for the organization. “This is an issue that people care a lot about in Rhode Island,” she said. A major goal of the rally was to gather the many gubernatorial candidates to voice “out loud” their support of same-sex marriage, she said. Brown students had a sizeable presence at the rally. About 30 members of both Queer Alliance and the Queer Political Action Committee marched down to the State House through the chilly temperatures and
snow, according to Gabe Schwartz ’13. Schwartz, who is the co-director of the political action committee and financial director of Queer Alliance, said that the groups are working hard to get people involved. “This is a crucial year because of the gubernatorial candidates,” he said. “We want to have a same-sex marriage law on the desk of the governor the day he walks in.” QPAC worked to advertise the protest through Facebook, class announcements and notices in the Queer Alliance newsletter, Schwartz said. Jessica Mitter ’13, co-director of QPAC and secretary of Queer Alliance, added that the groups have reached out to the Brown Democrats to publicize events. Wednesday’s marriage equality rally was Brendan DeWolf’s ’13 first. “We can just walk down the hill with a few homemade signs and hopefully make a difference,” he said.
Ever since the former nightclub closed its doors over 10 years ago, the future of the Shooters property has been subject to contentious debate. But last week — in what John Rousseau of the Fox Point Neighborhood Association described as a “hard-fought victory” — the City Plan Commission voted to remove residential zoning recommendations from the site, striking down the possibility of a large-scale residential development. The decision nullified an October ruling allowing residential development on that particular portion of the waterfront, according to a press release issued by the Fox Point Neighborhood Association. The Feb. 23 decision will align the College Hill, Wayland and Fox Point Neighborhood Plan with the Waterfront Neighborhood Plan in their common restriction of residential uses like building condominiums and hotels, according to Rousseau. The association wants the Shooters site to become a public marina in the future. “It’s a big win for FPNA and Head of the Bay Gateway, the advocacy group,” Rousseau said, referring to the committee that has allied itself with the Fox Point Neighborhood Association under the goal of turning the Shooters site into an area for public use. City Solicitor Adrienne Southgate objected to holding the vote at the meeting, said Robert Azar,
director of current planning for the Department of Planning and Development. Southgate was concerned about the legality of changing the zoning regulations, according to the Fox Point Neighborhood Association’s press release, but the Commission decided to continue with the vote. Last month, the Rhode Island Coastal Resource Management Council denied the Providence Department of Planning and Development’s request to change the zoning of the waters in front of the Shooters site. That change would have turned the site from a Type 6, which indicates use for industrial waterfronts, to a Type 4 that would allow for multipurpose use. Because the waters are zoned as industrial, they cannot legally be used for a public marina, Azar said last month. But Rousseau has pointed to the fact that the site has been previously used for exactly that purpose, and that there is a historic precedent. The issue might be addressed further at the next City Plan Commission meeting on March 16, Azar said. The agenda for that meeting will be made public next week. The City Council needs to approve the revisions when the comprehensive plan is finished, Rousseau said. The plan, which defines the zoning for neighborhoods for the next 10 years, will then need state approval. Mayor David Cicilline ’83 will attend a Fox Point Neighborhood Association meeting on Monday, Rousseau said.
Library begins initiative Danger spots identified on streets to support technology use continued from page 1
By Corina Chase Contributing Writer
In an effort to support the use of new technologies in teaching, learning and research, the University Library launched the Center for Digital Scholarship in 2009. The center will serve as “a focal point … at Brown for digital humanities and digital library methods and tools,” according to the CDS Web site. The CDS is the result of a merger of three existing programs — the Center for Digital Initiatives, the Scholarly Technology Group and the Women Writers Project. The three programs were already collaborating, and “the convergence (was) natural,” said Massimo Riva, a professor of Italian studies who has worked closely with the CDS. In addition to other activities, the CDS provides scholarly grants for faculty members working on a number of different types of projects. This includes endeavors involving digitizing primary source material, making data easily Web-accessible
or bringing together research in a digital publication. CDS grants often serve as a “stepping-off point” for further work or further research, said Elli Mylonas, the center’s associate director for projects and research. Faculty given a scholarly grant from the CDS will receive consulting time and work time from the staff and students at the center. These grants are a way of “carving out time for collaboration,” Mylonas said. They are designed to be yearlong collaborations, beginning in the summer, said Patrick Yott, the center’s director. The application process for this year’s CDS grants is underway. In the future, Yott said, the CDS is excited to set up more formal relationships with other centers on campus, such as the Cogut Center for the Humanities. He said he hopes to be able to set up “a sustainable architecture at Brown for digital humanities” so that the Center will have “a suite of tools” ready to help faculty with new projects.
versity Institutional Master Plan. The study addressed parking as well as vehicle, bicycle and pedestrian traffic. A direct result of the study was the Walk, which connects Pembroke campus and Lincoln Field. Additional ef for ts have been made to synchronize traffic lights on Angell and Waterman streets along the Walk, Carey said. But pedestrian deaths on College Hill are extremely rare. A recent review of traf fic safety records over the past three years found that most accidents repor ted to the Depar tment of Public Safety were low-speed and none resulted in serious injuries, Carey said. Another component of pedestrian safety — drunken driving — continues to be addressed by the Providence Police, said Lt. John Ryan, PPD commander for Dist. 9. A key part of this effort is Operation Blue RIPTIDE, a feder-
ally funded initiative that deploys additional of ficers with special cer tification to spot dr unken drivers. Individuals arrested for drunk driving have been a mix of students and Providence locals, Ryan said. “This is the only fatality I’ve had in a couple of years,” Ryan said of Schaefer’s death, adding that drunken driving is still a serious problem in Providence. The General Assembly has also made strides to address drunken driving. “The Assembly’s passed some important legislation — like mandator y license suspensions for people who refuse breathalyzers,” Rep. David Segal, D-Dist. 2, wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. Segal also mentioned efforts to mitigate the rush that happens when bars and clubs close, and wrote that the Providence City Council continues to work on “traffic calming.” The College Hill Neighborhood Association also “supports precautions against drunk driv-
ing,” including caps on liquor licenses granted to Thayer St. businesses, said Allison Spooner, president of the association. While serious accidents on College Hill are uncommon, problem areas like the intersection of Olney Street and North Main Street have been cited as dangerous for pedestrians, Spooner said. The intersection of Hope and Thayer streets, where Schaefer died, is also a problem spot, according to former and current residents. The intersection, which provides scant signage and limited visibility for drivers, is “extraordinarily dif ficult,” said Adjunct Lecturer in Theatre Arts and Performance Studies Andy Hertz ’04, whose friends witnessed numerous accidents while living at the intersection. “It’s a weird intersection,” said Otis Warren, who has lived in the neighborhood for six months. “For some reason, nobody stops — it’s just the way it’s set up.”
Bruno Bonus herald sports
baseball
M. Lacrosse
Handful of new players step into batter’s box
With national hype, national championship hopes
By Jesse Frank Spor ts Staf f Writer
inside
Brown’s baseball team has aspirations for an Ivy League title going into the 2010 season. The team, led by Head Coach Marek Drabinski, is centered around strong pitching and defense. This season, the Bears will return all nine pitchers from a ver y strong pitching staff last season. And with five freshman pitchers, this year’s team will have greater depth. The top of the Brown’s rotation is especially strong. Co-captain Will Weidig ’10 and Mark Gormley ’11 will anchor the pitching staff. If these two can stay healthy, Drabinksi said they will give the Bears a distinct advantage in most series. The pitching staf f will be backed up by a strong defense. Third baseman Ryan Zrenda ’11 and shortstop Graham Tyler ’12 bolster the defense on the left side of the infield and Nick Punal
M. Crew.....6 W. Track.......6 Softball......6 M. Golf........7 W. Water Polo..7 W. Golf..........8
’10 brings a reliable glove to the outfield. The jur y is still out on Brown’s of fense. Many untested players are going to have a lot of responsibility in the lineup this season. The losses of last year’s graduating seniors Matt Nuzzo ’09, Steve Daniels ’09 and Robert Papenhause ’09 leaves large cleats to fill for the Bears offensively. Co-captain Matt Colantonio ’11, Pete Greskoff ’11 and Mike DiBiase ’12 are expected to lead the offense. “Our offense is largely untested. However, we have a solid core with players like Matt Colantonio, and I think that the others are more than ready to step in and contribute ever y day,” Drabinski said. The Bears are coming off of a season in which they went 24-19-1 overall and 15-5 in the Ivy League — one game behind Dartmouth, the Ivy League champions. Dartmouth is the slight favorite continued on page 8
By Zack Bahr Spor ts Staf f Writer
The chatter around the Brown men’s lacrosse team in anticipation of this season goes far beyond College Hill. An ESPN commentator recently said that Brown is “one of the most overlooked teams.” Bruno is ranked 15th in the Nike/Inside Media poll. But Head Coach Lars Tiffany ’90 isn’t letting the nationwide hype get to his team. “I hate the word ‘expectations.’ We will not be expectant. We will work for anything we achieve. Our motto: Expect nothing, earn ever ything,” Tiffany said. The man at the helm of the Bears has coached his alma mater for four years now. In 2008, Tiffany led his squad to an Ivy Championship, and in 2009, Brown made a run in the NCAA Playoffs. But the road back to the NCAAs won’t be smoothly paved for the Bears. They’ll have to
battle with No. 9 Duke, No. 10 Hofstra and three Ivy foes ranked in the top 20. The first stop on the trip back to the playoffs will be this Saturday at Hofstra. “We are the last team in Division I to play a game so we are really fired up to travel to Long Island this weekend to play against a team who has become one of our rivals,” quad-captain Reade Seligmann ’10 wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. Along the way, the Bears will have to take on No. 6 Princeton, No. 8 Cornell and No. 11 Harvard. The last stop of the season before the NCAAs will be the Ivy League Playoffs — a new postseason tournament that will pit four national powerhouses against each other. “That gives us a chance to get some more top-20 games,” said attacker Rob Schlesinger ’12. “We’re all real excited to have a tough schedule this year.” With the loss of two-time All-
American and two-time Ivy League player of the year Jordan Burke ’09, the Bears will turn to a largely untested goalie, Matt Chriss ’11. “We couldn’t be more confident in our goalie,” defenseman Peter Fallon ’11 wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. “He has had the opportunity to learn the system and gain some confidence for the past two years, so we are excited to have him get the chance to prove himself.” The Bears are hoping not only to take the Ivy League Championship but also to win a national championship for the first time in the program’s 84-year history. Behind the strong leadership of captains Seligmann, Charlie Kenney ’10, Thomas Muldoon ’10 and Jake Westerman ’10, Brown may make a deep run into the playoffs. “I think it’s pretty realistic,” Schlesinger said about the chance of a national championship. “You continued on page 7
Softball, 6
W. Lax, 8
W. Golf, 8
ON Cloud Nine With nine freshmen, young squad brings new energy to team
Look ahead 1-1 team looks to make a run to the first-ever Ivy League Playoffs
Hopes for rebound All of last year’s team is back, aiming to improve on its fall record.
Spring Sports Season Preview The Brown Daily Herald
thursday, March 4, 2010 | Page 6
softball
m. crew
Young softball team improves prospects M. crew team looks to build international reputation
By Ashley McDonnell Contributing Writer
With nine freshmen on the roster, the softball team has a lot of new faces this season. But the players and coaches believe that with the new faces also comes a new attitude, and with that new attitude come higher expectations. “I think the freshmen are definitely pushing the upperclassmen and underclassmen alike,” said second baseman Erika Mueller ’13, also a Herald sports staff writer. “If you’re not working hard, there’s definitely someone behind you that wants to play.” Many of the freshmen will get a chance to play, and a handful of them will start, said quad-captain Andrea Browne ’10. The freshman starters are Stephanie Thompson ’13 at third base, Mueller at second base, Avery Silverstein ’13 in the outfield and Liz DiMascio ’13 on the mound. But the freshmen aren’t the only ones raising the standard of play for this season. The upperclassmen are stepping up to the plate as well and are showing “the younger kids how we play,” said quad-captain Amanda Asay ’10. Head Coach DeeDee EnabenterOmidiji said this is the first season in her four years of coaching Brown softball that the team has had more than two seniors. “There are three seniors. I’m banking on them to offer some great leadership.” On offense, the team is counting on the hitting power of Kate Strobel ’12, who led every offensive statistical category last season, according to Enabenter-Omidiji. “Emily Chaddock (’11) and Kristie Chen (’11) are the key role
By Sahar Shahamatdar Sports Staff Writer
The men’s crew had one of its most impressive seasons last spring, and with the return of many veteran members, this season may be destined for greatness. Brown captured gold in all events at the Eastern Sprints Championship last spring and continued its dominance at the Henley Royal Regatta in England. Head Coach Paul Cooke ’89 described the trip across the pond as one of the highlights of last season, as the varsity eight won the Ladies Plate Challenge Cup and the freshmen eight were runners-up in the Temple Challenge Cup. “It was an exhilarating way to
cap off the season and gave us intense racing experience that we can bring to this upcoming slate of racing,” said captain Scott Morgan ’10. And despite graduating 10 seniors after last season, Morgan said that if the team continues its rigorous training, it has a shot at winning the National Championship this spring. But both Morgan and Cooke noted the presence of very strong competition. “We would like to build on the success from last year, but we recognize it’s a very competitive league,” Cooke said. “And any victories we get, we will feel very fortunate about.” The men’s season starts March 27 at the San Diego Crew Classic.
w. track
Jonathan Bateman / Herald
Members of the softball team, including four freshman starters, compete to get the plum positions on the field during games.
players in the pitching staff,” Asay said. The Bears lost two dominant defensive players at the end of last season — Kelsey Wilson ’09 and Michelle Moses ’09. Wilson was a utility player who “played at least four different positions during her four years,” while Moses contributed the most to the pitching staff, Enabenter-Omidiji said. Asay said losing Moses is “not as much of a hit as it would seem because there’s a lot more depth to
the pitching staff. We’re going to use more pitchers” who all have different pitching styles, she said. With strong individual players in every position, Asay added that “as a whole team, the chemistry is looking good.” Enabenter-Omidiji hopes that this year the Bears can work their way up the Ivy League standings, and Mueller said that she “wants to win the Ivies.” The softball team’s season begins Saturday at the University of Maryland at Baltimore County for the UMBC Retriever Classic. “We’ve been in the gym for the past month” due to poor weather conditions, Browne said. “We’re excited to play, finally, outdoors.”
Out of doors, w. track team dreams of redemption By Chan hee chu Contributing Writer
Despite a disappointing finish to the indoor season, the men’s and women’s track and field teams are entering the outdoor season with enthusiasm and high expectations. With key members returning from injury and the return of all three national and nine regional qualifiers from last year, it is easy to see cause for such optimism. “We are very excited for the outdoor season, and we are looking forward to training hard for the next few months,” said Interim Head Coach Michelle Eisenreich. “We want to improve and build on the success of last year,” said Assistant Coach Jill Miller. “We definitely want to be top three in
the Ivies.” In order for the Bears to reach their goals, they will be relying heavily on upperclassmen. The throwers — the unquestioned strength of the team — return three national qualifiers. Of the men, All-American Craig Kinsley ’11 will seek to improve on his third-place finish in last year’s NCAA Nationals in the javelin, while fellow All-American Bryan Powlen ’10 will also aspire to return to Nationals, competing in the shot put and discus. The women throwers boast an equally impressive array of athletes, including national qualifier Brynn Smith ’11 in the hammer. Coaches also expect Danielle Grunloh ’10 to make a run at Nationals this season in the shot put and discus. Among the men’s distance runners, captain Duriel Hardy ’10 — the recent winner of the Men’s Heptagonal Championship at 5000 meters — will seek to lead a talented group of runners including Christian Escareno ’11, an NCAA Cross Country individual qualifier this fall. The women distance runners will be lead by co-captains Michaeline Nelson ’11 and Ariel Wright ’10. Nelson qualified for regionals last year, and Wright has been a consistent threat to score in the 3k. For jumps, the men will be counting heavily on Andrew Chapin ’10 and Reggie Cole ’10 in the triple jump. On the women’s side for jumps, Anja Hergrueter ’10 will be looking to qualify again for regionals. In sprints, the men will rely once again on Mike Mazerik ’10 and Marc Howland ’11. The women, on the other hand, will look to Thelma Breezeatl ’10 in the shorter sprints. Lucy Higgins ’11 and Jasmine Chukwueke ’11 should lead the Bears in the 400 meter. Susan Scavone ’12 is also expected to be a factor in hurdles.
Page 7
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
equestrian
m. golf
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Spring Sports Season Preview
Riders expect to sit Team aims to finish under par among nation’s elite By Erika Mueller Spor ts Staf f Writer
By Tony Bakshi S por ts Staf f Writer
The equestrian team will look to maintain its position atop the season standings during the spring campaign. In November, Brown finished the fall season with a 20-point advantage over the University of Rhode Island, 177-157. The Bears opened the second half of the season with a show at Wesleyan on Feb. 13, after a winter of training and preparation. “The team par ticipates in a team trip down to Florida to keep in shape over winter break,” wrote Karolina Woroniecka ’13 in an email to The Herald. “This year, we
flew down to West Palm Beach for about a week and rode ever y day at a stable and were able to learn from professional coaches.” At Wesleyan, the team finished in second place with 30 points, falling to its chief rival, URI, which finished with 38 points. Brown excelled in open fences, with Rachel Griffith ’10 and Liz Giliberti ’10 taking first in the second and third classes, respectively. Woroniecka said Brown’s main competitors for the title throughout the spring shows will be the University of Rhode Island and the University of Connecticut, which is currently third in the standings.
w. crew
After winter rest, back to the races for rowers By Sahar Shahamatdar Spor ts Staf f Writer
The Bears head into the spring season determined to continue their historical dominance — with six NCAA titles under their belt — even though several members noted that the competition is getting tougher. The women’s crew finished the previous spring season fifth overall in the nation after an outstanding performance at NCAAs. In August, the team won the ECAC Turfer award, which is based on overall performance. And the team proved its dominance over and over during
the fall season. Bruno started its fall schedule at the Head of Charles, taking eighth in a ver y packed meet. The team went on to finish with two boats in the top seven at the Princeton Chase and wrapped up the fall season by winning the Foot of Charles, beating Ivy rivals Har vard and Dartmouth. With seven returning seniors and a productive indoor training session, Bruno rows against its first competitor, URI, on March 20. The official season starts at Princeton on March 27, with the EAWRC Sprints coming up on May 16 and the NCAA Championships on May 28.
Relying heavily on a young group still getting used to the challenges of college golf, the men’s golf team is looking to finish in the top half of the Ivy League this spring, according to Head Coach Mike Hughes. “We finished last last year,” Hughes said. “I would like to think we are upper-echelon. Four th or higher would be a good, realistic goal.” Captain John Giannuzzi ’10 said it’s just a matter of playing well at the right time. “If we play our best, there’s no reason we shouldn’t finish toward the top of the Ivy League,” he added. Giannuzzi and Michael Amato ’11 are the only two golfers in Brown’s projected top five who have competed in an Ivy Championship. The team will need consistent performances from three newcomers in order to challenge the other Ivies this season. J. D. Ardell ’13, Jack Mylott ’13 and Chris Williams ’13 are each expected to make an immediate impact during the shor t, five-week spring competition. “We are a ver y young team,”
continued from page 5 look at a team like Cornell last year — who we beat — and they made it to the national championship, so I definitely think it’s a realistic goal.” The Bears will have a chance to play in a high-profile game against Princeton on April 3. Bruno will play the Tigers at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass., for the New England Lacrosse Classic. The series will also feature a matchup
Strength in players, not in numbers The women’s water polo team is aiming high this season, and a strong star t has given the Bears cause for optimism. Br uno has started 8-1 and is now ranked No. 17 in the countr y after avenging its only loss by beating then-No. 17 Princeton, 10-9, to win the ECAC Championship in the Tigers’ own pool on Sunday. “It is really exciting to see us come together as a cohesive unit with our five new freshmen that we have,” said tri-captain Lauren Presant ’10. Yet the Bears are succeeding with a small team. Tri-captain Sarah Glick ’10 said the size was a double-edged sword that required
the players to do “a lot more endurance training” to prepare for the grind of playing multiple games in one day but of fered benefits as well. “It allows us to be a really tightknit team,” she said. Presant said Br uno benefits from being a cerebral team. “For people to be curious and ask questions and tr y and understand the conceptual nature of the game, it really gives us a leg up on the competition, in the sense that we’re thinking through things and really adapting,” she said. The team is led by Presant and Glick — both First Team All-East selections last year — on of fense and 2009 Honorable Mention AllAmerican goalie Stephanie Laing ’10.
After a fast-paced four weeks of play, both the men’s and women’s teams will travel to Springfield, N.J., for the Ivy League Championship. This year, the tournament will be held at the worldrenowned Baltusrol Golf Club. Baltusrol is one of the countr y’s premiere private golf clubs and has hosted a record number of 15 USGA Championships. “It’s probably the largest course we’ve played on,” Amato said. “It’s really gonna show. You’re not gonna be able to win it unless you’re the best.” Williams said he has used video games to gain an extra edge on the competition. “By playing Baltustrol on the Wii and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2010, we’re going to be able to see how our swings and our ball play before we even go onto the course,” he said. With a young team that lacks much collegiate golf experience, the Bears will be looking for any extra advantage they can get. And despite a difficult fall, they remain optimistic for the spring season. “I think we’re in a great position this year,” Amato said. “With all five of us, we’ll definitely have a chance.”
M. lacrosse to play at Gillette Stadium
w. water polo
By Andrew Braca A ssistant S por ts E ditor
Hughes said. “We are star ting three freshmen, and they are playing on bigger courses against better competition.” “We had a great group of kids last year and lost our three seniors who were a big part of the team,” Amato said. “The dynamic has changed a lot because now we have three freshmen.” The fall proved to be an adjustment period for the underclassmen. “I think the toughest thing was going from the talent level where you are at the top of your level, then you go to the bottom of your pool,” Williams said. “I think it’s having to deal with other people. Instead of being just like an individual sport, it’s now a team one,” Ardell said. “Not only dealing with this, but you are learning to play with as much time as you have.” “The weather has added some dimension of difficulty,” Mylott said. “You are playing in a higher stage than you have ever been acclimated to.” The Bears have been practicing indoors lately and probably won’t be able to get outside until spring break — the same week they open their season at Arizona State on March 31.
The Bears will have to endure a tough March. This weekend, Brown travels to Indiana for the Elite Eight Championship against top East Coast schools, facing No. 18 Indiana first. Over spring break, Brown will travel to California to play 12 games in nine days, including showdowns with No. 1 Southern California and five other teams ranked or drawing votes in the national poll. Presant said the team’s ultimate goal is to compete in the NCAA Championship. “It hasn’t been done for quite some time,” she said. “The Brown program really has a lot of hear t, and ever yone is really determined to work hard and see what we can make out of it.”
between fellow Ivy Leaguers Cornell and Dartmouth. “Gillette Stadium provides our program the opportunity to play in a championship venue, in front of the New England lacrosse community against one of our biggest
rivals,” Tiffany said in an interview with the New England Lacrosse Classic directors. But before they take the big stage, Brown plays its home opener on Wednesday against Hartford at 3 p.m.
Page 8
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Spring Sports Season Preview
w. lacrosse
W. golf
By Tory Elmore Spor ts Staf f Writer
golf aims for a rebound
For w. lax, old grudges over From an erratic fall, w. Playing sports in high school, most athletes probably remember having an arch-nemesis, that player on their rival school’s team that they just couldn’t stand. Maybe they played nasty on the field. Maybe they refused to shake hands postgame. Maybe they were the only other player on the field that could keep up. Lily Ricci ’13 and Nancy Baker ’12 — both state champions in Ohio and high school All-American women’s lacrosse players — thought they’d seen the last of each other when Baker’s team beat Ricci’s in the 2008 state championship game. Baker graduated later that year, thinking she’d had the last laugh. But the two would meet again. This time, as teammates. Maybe it’s fate. Maybe it’s just a small world. Either way, the former rivals have put their differences behind them. They both contributed to an impressive season-opening win when Brown hosted Sacred Heart last Saturday. The Bears put on an exhibition, defeating the Pioneers, 14-6. Their success can no doubt be attributed to the countless hours training, lifting and scrimmaging in the past six months. “We wanted to make practices as challenging as possible,” said Head Coach Keely McDonald ’00. She’s not kidding. Team practices have averaged three hours in length, recently upwards of six times a week. But the girls are confident that all their hard work is about to pay off. “Every team faces challenges
By Erika Mueller Spor ts Staf f Writer
Jonathan Bateman / Herald Practices run nearly 20 hours per week for the women’s lacrosse team.
… it’s how you overcome them that makes a great team,” McDonald said. “They know how to respond in that they’re always together and always optimistic.” Anyone eating in the V-Dub post-lacrosse practice can see how close the team has become: Even Baker and Ricci can be spotted together, chatting and laughing like old friends. They’ll need to present a strong,
united front if they want to finish in the top four of the Ivy League and qualify for the first-ever Ivy League Women’s Lacrosse Tournament. The outcome of Saturday’s game suggests that the team has what it takes. Paris Waterman ’11 and captain Bethany Buzzell ’10 proved themselves players to watch, scoring three goals apiece, while newcomer Lindsay Minges ’13 also made a statement on the field, scoring a goal and assisting another in her career debut. Minges and Ricci are two of eight talented freshmen. The firstyears represent a third of the entire team. “This year has a lot of young kids, so we had to rework how we were going to work as a team to get to where we are,” McDonald said. For the athletes, “reworking” meant back to the basics. “When we started this year, as coaches we made a dedication to the fundamentals because we have such a young team,” McDonald said. “And it’s worked. Their stick skills are better than last year.” Seven of the newcomers saw field time on Saturday, with Minges, Ricci and Sidney Jacobs ’13 making it into the starting lineup. Veterans Kara Kelly ’10 and Kiki Manners ’10, tri-captains along with Buzzell, anchored the defense and can be expected to do so all season. The Bears host Quinnipiac this Sunday and look to improve their record to 2-1 after a 9-5 loss at Boston University late Wednesday afternoon.
The women’s golf team returns to the course this month after an inconsistent fall, and captain Susan Restrepo ’11 said she hopes to lead the team to a top-three finish among the Ivies this year. “We are a young team, and I think that we are starting to achieve goals,” Restrepo said. “As a team, we really started rebuilding my freshman year, and we’re finally to the point where we feel good about our ability to come in first at a tournament.” Last year, the Bears earned a sixth-place finish at the Ivy League Championship and were the youngest team at the tournament. The Bears return their entire roster this year and add one more, Claire Straty ’13. “Claire is a great teammate,” Restrepo said. “She’s fun to be around, and she has added energy and optimism to our team dynamic.” “There are different strengths on the team,” Straty said. “It provides a healthy amount of competition among us because you can only take five.” In the fall, Brown finished in third place at the first tournament of the year, and then placed fifth, 12th, third and second in their re-
maining tournaments. “Well, we kicked Dartmouth’s ass in the fall,” Restrepo said. “So traditionally, they are our biggest rivals.” The Bears are aiming for more consistency this spring and are remaining positive each day of competition. “We had an OK fall,” said Heather Arison ’12. “I definitely think we had some good rounds and notso-good rounds. We are definitely tr ying to improve on our scores and tournament standings.” “We really focused on the short game (in the fall) because in college golf, that is where the tournaments are won,” Straty said. “Right now, we are really working on our mental game. We are doing a lot of fitness as well. Core and strength training will hopefully give us an edge.” “We are definitely better,” said Carly Arison ’12. “Ever y year is different. The competition always gets better.” The young team opens the spring schedule March 14 at the Texas State Invitational. “I think that we have come a long way in two and a half years,” Restrepo said. “I think that it’s exciting. We look for ward to our first tournament in Texas in two weeks.”
LSU to give baseball early challenge continued from page 5 to win the Ivy League title again this year, according to CollegeBaseball360.com. But the Bears are confident that they can dethrone the champs. “This year we expect to win the Ivy League, and anything less would be a huge disappointment,” Greskof f said. “We fell one win short last year and we know what it feels like to be in position to win it.” Last year’s close call ser ves as motivation for the Bears to improve this year. “Our team is still bitter from what happened last year,” Colantonio said. “We know that if we play to our full potential, we have the pieces to win the league. This season is in our own hands.” The Bears’ season gets off to a tough star t when they go on the road to play last year’s NCAA champion Louisiana State and perennial powerhouses Pepperdine and South Carolina. But the Bears are confident going into the challenging games, Greskoff said. The Bears don’t have their first home game until April 7, when they host Siena. The team’s first Ivy League game is April 3 at Penn.
Olivia Means / Herald
The Bears wind up for another season, seeking the title of Ivy League champions in baseball.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
C ampus N EWS
Page 9
“Each orgasm is unique, like a snowflake.” — Dorian Solot ’95, orgasm expert
Expert says orgasms are a ‘renewable resource’ continued from page 1 discussion groups. “Students are sometimes surprised that we really do cover it all: the G-spot, multiple orgasms, how to have your first orgasm, how to help your girlfriend. And it’s really funny, too,” Solot wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. Both Miller, a former executive editor of The Herald, and Solot focused their studies at Brown on issues about sexuality. Miller concentrated in sexuality and society — now known as gender and sexuality studies. Solot first learned about the female orgasm and masturbation as a sophomore when she attended a dean’s annual lecture on the topic, she said. She purchased a book from the recommended reading list and credits her first orgasm later that semester to its instruction. “That was the best $5.99 I ever spent,” she told the audience. She was also part of a group of students who brought sex education to Providence public high schools, she wrote to The Herald. “I got an incredibly smart, thorough initial training as a sex educator through that project.” “I spent a trillion hours in the Rock reading every journal article
I could find about orgasm. I never imagined that later my career in female orgasm would pay my mortgage,” Solot wrote. Her knowledge and comfort with her body also may have saved her life, she told the audience. She was able to locate a strange lump in her breast when she was 26 — not an age when women typically get mammograms — which turned out to be cancerous, she said. Through early detection and successful treatment, she has now been in remission for over 10 years. At the workshop, which was sponsored by a number of student and campus life groups, the pair also spent time clearing up lingering orgasm myths. Miller blamed an incomplete high school sex education curriculum for the ignorance surrounding female orgasms. “We learned about fallopian tubes,” Miller said — while physically demonstrating what they looked like — but he noted that “the clitoris is often left out” of illustrations. Solot also discussed the negative messages that women may receive throughout their lives about sexuality. Women are taught how to say no so many times that they “forget about how to say yes,” Solot said. In response to audience worries
that orgasms may “run out,” Solot assured the crowd that orgasms are a “renewable resource.” Unlike what we may be told to believe through television shows and other media, “each orgasm is unique, like a snowflake,” Solot said. Solot and Miller also offered practical advice about how to achieve or help a partner achieve a female orgasm. “The males scamper around, the females are harder to locate,” Solot said about what one audience member described as the “elusive” female orgasm. During part of the two-hour presentation, the audience was split into three self-identifying groups — females, males and those who identify as transgender or preferred not to choose a group — in order to have more personal, frank conversations. “I was really glad that they were inclusive with the language that they used,” said Zoe Stephenson ’12, who attended the event. Solot and Miller ended the presentation on a humorous note, showing the audience a vibrating electronic Harr y Potter-inspired “Nimbus 2000” Mattel toy, which may have given customers more pleasure than intended. They also gave exercise recommendations for improving the
strength of orgasms. Lizette Chaparro ’12 credited the duo with engaging the audience. “It’s really hard to get a group of 500 to pay attention,” she said. Safiyah Hosein ’11, one of the primary organizers of this event, hoped that this talk would help audience members “get to know your body and the way it works.” “I still talk to people who are like, ‘I’ve never orgasmed,’ and that’s really sad to me,” she said. “I hope students feel more com-
fortable talking about it, which I guess is the purpose of most sexuality-related events here at Brown,” said Aida Manduley ’11, another of the event’s organizers. Miller and Solot, who both identify as bisexual, will be presenting “Bi Popular Demand,” which will focus on the gray area between gay and straight, on Thursday at 7 p.m. in List 110. Resource sheets left over from Wednesday’s event will be available at the Sarah Doyle Women’s Center.
Editorial & Letters The Brown Daily Herald
Page 10 | Thursday, March 4, 2010
R ichard S tein and P aul T ran
e d i to r i a l
Keeping the peace
t h e b r o w n d a i ly h e r a l d Editor-in-Chief
Managing Editor Chaz Kelsh
George Miller
editorial Anne Speyer Suzannah Weiss Brian Mastroianni Hannah Moser Brigitta Greene Ben Schreckinger Sydney Ember Nicole Friedman Dan Alexander Andrew Braca Han Cui
Senior Editors Ellen Cushing Seth Motel Joanna Wohlmuth Business General Managers Office Manager Shawn Reilly Claire Kiely Katie Koh
Deputy Managing Editors Sophia Li Emmy Liss
Arts & Culture Editor Arts & Culture Editor Features Editor Features Editor Metro Editor Metro Editor News Editor News Editor Sports Editor Asst. Sports Editor Asst. Sports Editor
Graphics & Photos Graphics Editor Stephen Lichenstein Graphics Editor Alex Yuly Photo Editor Nick Sinnott-Armstrong Asst. Photo Editor Max Monn Sports Photo Editor Jonathan Bateman Production Copy Desk Chief Kelly Mallahan Asst. Copy Desk Chief Jordan Mainzer Design Editor Marlee Bruning Asst. Design Editor Anna Migliaccio Asst. Design Editor Julien Ouellet Web Editor Neal Poole Post- magazine Editor-in-Chief Marshall Katheder
Directors Sales Kelly Wess Finance Matthew Burrows Client Relations Margaret Watson Alumni Relations Christiana Stephenson Managers Local Sales Arjun Vaidya National Sales Marco deLeon University Sales Aditi Bhatia University Sales Jared Davis Recruiter Sales Trenten Nelson-Rivers Maximillian Barrows Business Operations Sales Analytics Jilyn Chao Special Projects Alexander Carrere Staff Kathy Bui Opinions Opinions Editor Michael Fitzpatrick Opinions Editor Alyssa Ratledge Editorial Page Board Matt Aks Editorial Page Editor Debbie Lehmann Board member William Martin Board member Melissa Shube Board member Gaurie Tilak Board member Jonathan Topaz Board member
Rhode Island School of Design wants its public safety officers to be able to make arrests, and a bill in the state’s General Assembly would give these officers the authorization to do just that. We encourage the General Assembly to pass the bill. Currently, RISD public safety officers can only make citizen’s arrests, which are permitted if an officer witnesses a felony or is explicitly asked by state-sanctioned police to assist in an arrest. The bill would designate members of RISD’s department of public safety as peace officers, which would give them the authority to search, detain and arrest suspects if there is probable cause that suspect has committed a crime. Campus police at Brown, the University of Rhode Island and Rhode Island College are all recognized as peace officers. RISD is not currently seeking to arm its officers, which would require additional authorization from the state. RISD has been pushing for the peace officer designation since last year, and we see no reason for it to be denied. There are over 2,000 students at RISD and the school is not quite crime-free. According to Tuesday’s Providence Journal, the school reported five burglaries and two sexual assaults in 2008. Campus police should have the power to better protect the RISD community and deal with manageable incidents themselves. Forcing RISD public safety officers to wait for backup from the Providence Police can create confusion and allow a situation to deteriorate. Additionally, the RISD department of public safety has a familiarity with the school that will allow it to better respond to campus incidents and matters involving students. While we support RISD’s request, we don’t expect that this new power will be used with increasing
frequency. Arrests are almost never the best way to respond to student conduct issues. A change in the department’s status should aim to make students safer without increasing the number of students who find themselves in handcuffs. This bill is especially appropriate in light of recent events. On Oct. 20, RISD public safety officers caught Luis Mendonca, 20, of Pawtucket, attempting to break into a RISD dorm. The officers called for backup from Providence Police, but ultimately decided to let the man go. Instead of leaving peacefully, however, Mendonca assaulted the RISD officers and fled the scene. Eventually, several Providence Police officers caught up with Mendonca in a parking lot, leading to a violent encounter that briefly left him in a coma. The Providence Police officer responsible for Mendonca’s injuries has since been charged with assault, and Mendonca himself was convicted of assaulting the RISD officers. A spokesperson for RISD told the Providence Journal that the request is not the result of any particular event. But when we consider the circumstances of the October incident, we think that the power to arrest certainly would not have made things worse. The status of the RISD officers and their actions that night certainly didn’t cause the lamentable outcome that left Mendonca seriously injured. But had the RISD officers’ powers been slightly broader, their initial confrontation with Mendonca perhaps could have gone differently. Nonetheless, even irrespective of this counterfactual, the General Assembly still has reason to pass the bill as soon as possible. Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board. Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.
Gili Kliger, Katie Wilson, Designers Nicole Boucher, Sara Luxenberg, Lindor Qunaj, Copy Editors Brigitta Greene, Hannah Moser, Goda Thangada, Night Editors Senior Staff Writers Ana Alvarez, Alexander Bell, Alicia Chen, Max Godnick, Talia Kagan, Sarah Mancone, Heeyoung Min, Kate Monks, Claire Peracchio, Goda Thangada, Caitlin Trujillo Staff Writers Ashley Aydin, Shara Azad, Nicole Boucher, Fei Cai, Kristina Fazzalaro, Miriam Furst, Anish Gonchigar, Sarah Julian, Matthew Klebanoff, Sara Luxenberg, Anita Mathews, Luisa Robledo, Emily Rosen, Bradley Silverman, Anne Simons, Sara Sunshine Senior Sales Staff Katie Galvin, Liana Nisimova, Isha Gulati, Alex Neff, Michael Ejike, Samantha Wong Design Staff Caleigh Forbes, Jessica Kirschner, Gili Kliger, Leor Shtull-Leber, Katie Wilson Web Staff Andrew Chen, Warren Jin, Claire Kwong, Michael Marttila, Ethan Richman Photo Staff Qidong Chen, Janine Cheng, Alex DePaoli, Frederic Lu, Quinn Savit Copy Editors Nicole Boucher, Zoe Chaves, Greg Conyers, Sarah Forman, Claire Gianotti, Aida Haile-Mariam, Tiffany Hsu, Christine Joyce, Mrinal Kapoor, Abby Kerson, Matthew Lim, Sara Luxenberg, Alexandra McFarlane, Joe Milner, Lindor Qunaj, Kate-Lyn Scott, Carmen Shulman, Rebecca Specking, Dan Towne, Carolina Veltri
C O R R E C T I O N S P olicy The Brown Daily Herald is committed to providing the Brown University community with the most accurate information possible. Corrections may be submitted up to seven calendar days after publication. C ommentary P O L I C Y The editorial is the majority opinion of the editorial page board of The Brown Daily Herald. The editorial viewpoint does not necessarily reflect the views of The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. Columns, letters and comics reflect the opinions of their authors only. L etters to the E ditor P olicy Send letters to letters@browndailyherald.com. Include a telephone number with all letters. The Herald reserves the right to edit all letters for length and clarity and cannot assure the publication of any letter. Please limit letters to 250 words. Under special circumstances writers may request anonymity, but no letter will be printed if the author’s identity is unknown to the editors. Announcements of events will not be printed. advertising P olicy The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. reserves the right to accept or decline any advertisement at its discretion.
Opinions The Brown Daily Herald
Thursday, March 4, 2010 | Page 11
Safer sex on a Saturday night ANDREA MATTHEWS Opinions Columnist
A disturbing opinions column ran in the Daily Princetonian on Feb. 22 (“The real ‘Sex on a Saturday Night’ ” by Iulia Neagu). The thesis was that a girl becoming significantly intoxicated is “equivalent to agreeing to anything that might happen to her while in this state,” and that a serious injustice is done to men by women who — Neagu alleges — falsely cry rape when both parties had sex while intoxicated. What is most troubling is the idea that men or women who choose to drink implicitly accept whatever may happen to them while they are under the influence. Does an intoxicated individual implicitly consent to being robbed? Punched? Stabbed? Of course not. But there lurks in Neagu’s opinion a more interesting, and less clean-cut, question. But before we get there, let’s just be crystal clear. Men and women can consume alcohol, meet each other at parties, engage in sexual activity that does not include intercourse … and still not intend to have sex. For that matter, no series of interaction is capable of obtaining implicit consent for any “next step” in physical intimacy. The only way to truly and completely ascertain consent is verbally, and even then, only without coercion. There is no such thing as “asking for it,” without literally and honestly asking for it.
It seems that a good number of the respondents to the column on the Daily Princetonian online and IvyGate have some friend or friend-of-a-friend who was falsely accused of rape and narrowly escaped libelous scandal. But research on campus sexual assault tells a different story. A Department of Justice report issued in 2000, titled “The Sexual Victimization of College Women” and available from the National Institute of Justice at www. ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/182369.pdf, found that 95.2 percent of women sampled who had been
ous consequences of false accusations should move us toward ensuring that the system for investigating and prosecuting rape on college campuses is fair, rather than discrediting all allegations of sexual assault. One of the most contentious issues is what constitutes consent in the first place. If two (or, I suppose, more) students are both intoxicated — significantly intoxicated — can either of them legitimately consent to having intercourse? Legally speaking, no. But is this legal definition workable in an
Is it too hard to ask that both men and women on this campus simply refrain from having sex with partners who are significantly intoxicated? raped in college did not report their assaults. Of those, 46.9 percent did not report because they did not want other people to know. Anecdotes about friends-of-friends falsely accused of rape are powerful, and when blown out of proportion, they can have the pronounced and detrimental effect of disempowering men and women who have been sexually assaulted, who may fear judgment and disbelief encouraged by these very stories. False rape accusations have the power to ruin the reputations and college careers of the accused (even more, if prosecution continues off campus), and cast doubt on the legitimacy of true accusations. But the seri-
environment in which alcohol and sexual activity often go hand in hand? We cannot walk around with breathalyzers and monitor the BACs of all potential sexual partners. Here are some things that we can do: 1. Be more aware and considerate of the level of intoxication of our sexual partners. Is it too hard to ask that both men and women on this campus simply refrain from having sex with partners who are significantly intoxicated? I cannot make some bright line distinction as to what state is “too intoxicated” to have sex. But we should be able to respect ourselves and each other enough to choose partners who can lucidly consent — not only
in order to respect their bodily autonomy, but to respect our own value as sexual partners. 2. Speak with our partners before, during and after intercourse. Not only should verbal consent be necessary (but not necessarily sufficient) before sex, but partners should communicate their boundaries clearly at all times during the process. 3. Refrain from consuming significant amounts of alcohol if we ourselves plan on being sexually active. Though I earnestly hope it does not happen often, I must acknowledge that both men and women on this campus at times consume alcohol with the intention of garnering the courage they feel they need to find a sexual partner. A good rule of thumb: If you need to be drunk to do it, you shouldn’t be doing it at all. The above suggestions are not designed to be a silver bullet against instances of sexual assault. They are merely a plea for all parties involved in sexual intercourse to be more responsible for themselves and more respectful of each other. Too often in considering these situations, we gravitate toward hypotheticals that lend themselves to relatively simple ethical judgments. The truth is, sexual assault on college campuses is not a black-and-white issue. The more responsibly all of us act, the better we can protect ourselves from any involvement in sexual assault.
Andrea Matthews ’11 realizes she is about to become significantly less popular at parties.
Brown students for Palestine (and Israel) ROBERTA GOLDMAN Guest Columnist
As students, university life bombards us each day with words. We listen to professors lecture, talk with our friends and read words of great scholars. Words represent concepts through which we understand the world. They are the content of the way we think, the tenets in which we believe and the activities in which we engage. Language is our most powerful tool of knowledge, and it should not be distorted. “The cheapening of words is a great moral danger,” a fellow student told me yesterday. For this reason, we carry a deep and heavy burden: The burden of intellectual honesty and ethical responsibility for the words we choose. There is an event happening on campus now which makes me question whether we value the urgency of our responsibility to use language properly. One goal of Israel Apartheid Week is clear just from its title: to associate Israel with a hateful regime of oppression, segregation and discrimination. The charged language used by its organizers conveys a message that we, as human beings committed to morality, couldn’t possibly disagree with. Having a huge sign on the Main Green that asks, “Do You Want Your School Profiting from Apartheid?” leaves no room for objection. This presentation makes opinions on the IsraeliPalestinian conflict mutually exclusive: If you are pro-Israel, you support apartheid. If you are pro-Palestine, or perhaps anti-Israel, you
support human rights and equality. During this week, I anticipate you will hear no mention of life happening within Israel that is the opposite of apartheid. There are places in Israel, like the cities of Lod, Jaffa and Acre, where Christians, Jews, Muslims, blacks, whites, Arabs and Asians work together toward common goals like eradicating inner-city violence, educating at-risk children or providing food for the hungry. In this melting pot, citizens live together and possess the same rights. Obviously, inequality exists in Israel as in any nation, including ours, but
port the goal of the campaign, which is divestment of Brown University funds from Israeli companies. Nevertheless, I am a practiced critic of the Israeli government and army. I am grieved by Palestinian suffering caused by their decisions. I want to fight for a Palestinian state that has self-governance, equality, stability and prosperity. I believe in the right to self-determination for both Israelis and Palestinians. I dream of the day when the Palestinian state will be established alongside the existing Israeli state. I acknowledge this will require a reduction of Israeli lands and a
Instead of acknowledging both this positive reality and the unbearable reality experienced by Palestinians in the territories, this week compacts the many things that Israel is into the simple title of apartheid. within its borders Israel is not racially divided. Instead of acknowledging both this positive reality and the unbearable reality experienced by Palestinians in the territories, this week compacts the many things that Israel is into the simple title of apartheid. It substitutes a bold and ugly concept for the challenge of understanding an exceptionally nuanced and politically complex circumstance. Imposing this historical paradigm rife with associations will take us nowhere except backward. I am a Brown student for Palestine in the most literal sense of the phrase. I don’t sup-
relocation of Israeli settlers in the Palestinian territories of the West Bank. I only wish that those supporting the creation of the Palestinian state would express with the same fervor the enduring importance of the existence of the state of Israel instead of vilifying Israel and calling for divestment from its economy. All students are entitled to advocate their personal beliefs, but not to the extent that they trample upon fellow students’ beliefs. I feel trampled by the terminology of this campaign and think others fighting for peace may as well. To those voices that support the
existence of Israel to my left and my right, I say, don’t feel delegitimized. Please don’t let what feels like an omnipresent voice of condemnation against Israel alienate you or your views. Contrary to the campaign’s frame, you can support Palestine AND Israel. Ask around, and you will soon realize you are far from alone. This campaign pains me because it blames one group and exonerates the other. It criminalizes one group and victimizes the other. It offers only a simplified and single-sided view of a very complex situation. My suspicion is that most students believe in both states. Don’t let this week divide the Brown campus. End the polarization that Israel Apartheid Week creates. The world, the Middle East and this campus are divided by enough issues. Let’s make this an issue about which Brown can unite. We as the Brown community can support both the creation of a Palestinian state and the defense of the existing Israeli country. I lost a close friend, an Israeli veteran and the most adamant pursuer of peace and justice I have ever met, about two weeks ago. If he were here, I strongly believe he would have been writing this article instead of me. A few months ago, Avi Schaefer ’13 wrote, “Only through recognition of the other side will there be peace.” Let’s recognize each other and use our words toward a constructive end. Brown should move forward together, not backwards apart.
Roberta Goldman ’13 wrote this column in memory of Avi Schaefer ’13. She can be contacted at roberta@brown.edu.
Today The Brown Daily Herald
4
City to revitalize site of former club
A sprawling spring sports preview
5
to day
to m o r r o w
38 / 28
41 / 26
Thursday, March 4, 2010
t h e n e w s i n i m ag e s
Page 12
inside
Inside today’s PostSecrets of safewalk, boozing it up in brew-nonia, Lorrie Moore and the post-9/11 novel, the philosophy of Ratty Gourmet, spring film preview, and celebrating Presidents’ Day the Irish Way Plus!: a new satire column, Brown band Dorado gets naked, and Post’s got some ideas for balancing the budget!
4 c a l e n da r Today, March 4
tomorrow, March 5
6 p.M. — “The Palestinian Refugee Issue in Israel-American Relations since 1967,” Joukowsky Forum
12 P.M. — Peace Corps Info Session, Career Development Center
8 P.M. — Lulu, Stuart Theatre
all day — 2010 French Film Festival, Cable Car Cinema
comics Cabernet Voltaire | Abe Pressman
menu Sharpe Refectory
Verney-Woolley Dining Hall
Lunch — Vegan Nuggets, Zucchini Yianchi, Canadian Bacon, Cheddar Mashed Potatoes
Lunch — Honey Mustard Chicken Sandwich, Vegetarian Pot Pie, Chocolate Flake Cookies
Dinner — Vegetarian Tamale Pie, Creole Eggplant, Salt and Pepper Jerk Chicken, Sugar Snap Peas
Dinner — Vegan Paella, Pork Medallions in Portobello Sauce, Rainbow Sprinkle Cake
Dot Comic | Eshan Mitra and Brendan Hainline
crossword Fruitopia | Andy Kim
Hippomaniac | Mat Becker
Island Republic | Kevin Grubb