Daily Herald the Brown
vol. cxlv, no. 87 | Friday, October 8, 2010 | Serving the community daily since 1891
In talk, Rose dissects a ‘new racism’ By David Chung Contributing Writer
Professor and Chair of Africana Studies Tricia Rose MA’87 PhD’93 urged students and colleagues to question the idea of a colorblind society in a lecture Thursday night. Speaking to a full Pembroke Hall 305, she said there is a need to recognize black culture as legitimate. In her talk, titled “Black Culture Matters: Black Cultural Debates in a Color Blind Nation,” Rose argued that the ideology of color blindness has resulted in a “new racism” that suppresses the study and research of race-specific topics. Though many believe that discrimination is no longer a major issue in society and think of racism as “the all-out type” of prejudice seen in the past, Rose said, statistics she cited — on issues such as social ser vices, life expectancy and housing — revealed the persistence of racial disparity in today’s society. Cultural racism — which Rose defined as the idea that “blacks have a distinct and dysfunctional culture” — is another issue that has become widespread, she said. People use cultural explanations to “rationalize inequality,” she said. “Keeping track of that process” — how aesthetic, cultural practices have become examcontinued on page 4
Number of A’s awarded grows for another year Physical sciences are exception to the trend By Ben Kutner Contributing Writer
Grades at Brown have never been higher. For the 2009-10 school year, 54.4 percent of grades were A’s, 21.9 percent B’s, 4.1 percent C’s and 16.5 percent were S’s, according to statistics published by the Office of Institutional Research. Only 2.5 percent of grades were recorded as no credit. Since the 2008-09 school year,
Grades over the last decade
the percentage of A’s has risen by 1 point. The number of A’s has seen a general increase over the past 10 years. Professor Emeritus of Engineering Barrett Hazeltine said this trend may be driven by “more small classes and more independent studies. Students can work more at their own pace.” Grading policies at Brown have also changed since Hazeltine joined the faculty in 1959. He said that when he first arrived, the department chairs would examine the grades given by each professor. “If you had more than a third A’s, you had to explain why,” he said. Julien Ouellet / Herald
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Football looks to rebound at Holy Cross weekend, as the team seeks to avenge last year’s loss to the Bears — a thrilling 34-31 upset win for Brown over the then-No. 19 Crusaders. In addition to a new quarterback, the Bears are expecting new wrinkles from the Holy Cross squad.
By Chan Hee Chu Staff Writer
Coming off a tough overtime loss at the University of Rhode Island last weekend, the football team will seek to rebound on the road against Holy Cross. While the Crusaders lost Dominic Randolph, the 2009 Patriot League Offensive Player of the Year, to graduation, they still boast an offense capable of scoring in bunches. Employing a spread offense featuring a zoneread option, the Crusaders will rely heavily on quarterback Blake Wayne to provide yards through both the air and the ground. Holy Cross will also have extra motivation coming into this
SPORTS “In the past, we have had ver y high-scoring games,” said Head Coach Phil Estes. “I expect them to change up coverages from previous years.” The Bears will also look to mix up their defensive schemes from past seasons by employing different looks in their secondar y. Es-
tes said these tweaks on defense from both teams are likely to lead to a lower scoring game. Having suf fered their first loss, the Bears also hope to come out against Holy Cross with more intensity than they showed against URI. “We came out flat,” said starting quarterback Kyle NewhallCaballero ’11. “It was ver y disappointing to lose a game that we felt we should have won.” The Bears will also seek to improve their special teams. After allowing a kickof f return for a touchdown against Har vard and a punt return for a touchdown
“Not All Rubber Ducks Look Alike,” an exhibit of artist Lucy Sander Sceer y’s work currently on display at the Sarah Doyle Center Gallery, explores the vast and varied world of rubber ducks through a display of both two- and three-dimensional visual art.
ARTS & CULTURE
Glenn Lutzky / Herald
inside
By placing ducks in unexpected situations in “Not All Rubber Ducks Look Alike,” Lucy Sander Sceery invites viewers to examine their prejudices.
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The exhibit features vibrant photographs of rubber ducks as well as an eclectic collection of the ducks themselves. “Sitting Ducks,” one piece in the series, features rubber ducks dressed as vampires, police officers, Elvis
By Elizabeth Carr Contributing Writer
and cowboys. Sceery’s exhibit made its way to the Brown campus through a selective process, said Jo-Ann Conklin, director of the Bell Gallery and member of the selection committee. “We do a call for proposals advertised through Art New England. The student organizer for the galler y posts these all together and then a committee of people look at these and select exhibitions,” she said. Sceer y said that showing her work on campus had special personal significance for her. “I’m thrilled my work is on display at Brown, especially because my father graduated from Brown,”
This Wednesday, the Women Peer Counselors held the fourth annual Strong Sexy Words, a semi-open mic and the kick-off event to the semester-long “W Wednesday” program. Strong Sexy Words featured spoken word performances, as well as dance acts, addressing the themes the WPC program extols, such as strong body image and female empowerment. The W Wednesday program aims to continue exploring these themes throughout the semester. W Wednesdays are what WPC Representative Reed McNab ’12 described as the “activism component” of the WPC program. Each event in the series of programs, which will run through October and November, will be planned by a different group of WPCs. Two of the Strong Sexy Words organizers, Katie Grayson ’13 and Leigh Carroll ’12, a Herald contributing writer, shared the consensus that they felt “really good” about how the night went. Grayson added that she “felt so inspired by everyone,” especially after seeing a freshman from her Perkins Hall unit, Cia Mathew ’14, perform. The event also featured a bake sale to raise money for the Women’s Center of Rhode Island, a nonprof-
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Rubber duckies: they’re not just for bath time anymore By Alexys Esparza Contributing Writer
WPCs plan Wednesday programs
‘Real’ ratings
Moss to Minn.
Web worries
‘Real Foods’ at Ratty, V-Dub really popular, says survey
Sam Sheehan ’12 in shock over Randy Moss trade
Sissi Sun ’12 browses Brown.edu, questions redesign
News, 3
SPORTS, 5
Opinions, 7
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Higher grades last year for students continued from page 1 Grading “used to be more formal. There was a very clear formula.” Hazeltine also said that students’ work ethic has definitely improved since he began teaching at Brown. “We are seeing a student body now that are more interested in the courses on their own. They want to learn the material,” he said. Fewer classes are being taken satisfactory/no credit now than in the past, Hazeltine said. Grades have been increasing in every discipline except for the physical sciences, where they have been relatively stagnant in recent years, according to Office of Institutional Research data. “I had a class last semester: 50 A’s, 50 B’s and 1 C. That was unusually low,” said Professor of Education Cynthia Garcia Coll, who chairs the Faculty Executive Committee. “I expected a lot of A’s.” “I hate when (students) only work for the grade,” she said. “I
don’t like regurgitation, so that’s not the kind of papers or exams I give.” Brown regulates grades far less than some other institutions, such as Princeton, where a more rigid grading framework is in place. According to Princeton’s “Grading at Princeton” booklet, Princeton has “a common grading standard for every academic department and program, under which A’s shall account for less than 35 percent of the grades given in undergraduate courses and less than 55 percent of the grades given in junior and senior independent work.” But the booklet notes that “it is important to underscore that these are expectations, not hard-and-fast rules, not a grading quota, not a cap, not a curve.” Garcia Coll questioned whether Brown’s increasing trend is a problem. “I have no idea,” she said. “I think we would need to think about what do we want grades to mean.”
Friday, October 8, 2010
“I just thought a rubber duck was a rubber duck.” — Lucy Sander Sceery, creator of“Not All Rubber Ducks Look Alike” exhibit
WPCs bring a semester of programs continued from page 1 it organization that helps female and children victims of domestic abuse, according to WPC Sherylvi Rico ’13, who planned the event with Grayson, Carroll and Sotonye Bobojama ’12. By the end of the night, Rico estimated that sales of the baked goods and donations had raised about $70 for the charity. The 90 or so audience members also seemed to enjoy the event. Steph Yin ’12 said events like Strong Sexy Words “reminded you of how talented and graceful your fellow classmates are.” Grace Dunham ’14 said she was happy that the issues “seemed important to everyone” at the event. But, she said, “I think they could do more to make men feel welcome.” While the WPCs advocate female empowerment, Carroll said events like Wednesday’s are “open to anyone and everyone.” McNab agreed, explaining that WPCs try to plan events that will interest a lot of people. WPC Representative Natalie Serrino ’12 said the counselors are resources for a wide variety of issues — gender, sexism, sexuality, safer sex, body image, LBGTQ and
assertiveness — but there has been confusion in the past about the roles of the WPCs. Serrino and McNab see W Wednesdays as an opportunity to raise awareness for the WPC program and the issues it covers. The W Wednesday program is a variation on the traditional fall program, W Week. “W Week is good because everyone gets revved up for one week,” but spreading the events across the semester will allow for continued awareness, Serrino said. Spacing out the events will hopefully increase attendance, and will allow the WPCs to support each other at the events, she said. Future events include Body Talk, a body image workshop Oct. 13; Bold, Colorful Women of Brown, an Oct. 20 dinner with faculty women of color geared toward first-year students; a Religion and Sexuality workshop Oct. 27 and a self-defense workshop with Department of Public Safety Manager of Special Services Michelle Nuey on Nov. 11. A Nov. 3 Sex Power God panel featuring a health education representative, the Sex Power God planner and two students who have attended — one who enjoyed the experience and one who did not — will explore the curiosity associated
with the controversial event and help students decide if attending is the right decision for them. The last event, Going Home Again, is scheduled for Nov. 17. McNab explained, “A lot of people have found that they come out at Brown” and with the Thanksgiving holiday impending, need to figure out how to come out to their family. In addition to revamping their fall program, Serrino said that WPCs came a day early to Residential Peer Leader training in August. As a result, this year’s WPCs “seem really in sync in terms of their view of the community and the role of a WPC,” she said. This year, the WPCs are grouped together by region, and each group of three or four counselors has a WPC Friend — similar to the Minority Peer Counselor Friend program — which helps to build community support. By combining into larger groups, the WPCs can tackle bigger issues and create more innovative programs. Having participated in the program last year as WPCs, the two representatives “wanted to make sure that it continued to stand for something ,” McNab said. “I loved then, and I love now, being a WPC and what it stands for.”
Sceery attacks prejudice with ducks continued from page 1 Sceer y said. Sceer y said she chose to use a combination of photographs and physical ducks because “some concepts just work better as a 2-D piece and others as 3-D. It has to make sense to me.” A number of her two-dimensional pieces begin as digital photographs, Sceer y said. She then edits them using Photoshop, adding her unique point of view to each
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picture. The photos depict rubber ducks in a myriad of ways, sometimes in subdued shades of gray, sometimes in a vibrantly colorful fashion. Sceer y’s two-dimensional pieces also include hand-colored Polaroid transfers and photo montages that depict rubber ducks in unexpected scenarios, encouraging the reader to rethink their former conceptions of the classic bath-time toy. “I’ve always loved photo montage, cutting things out
and having to put them together somehow,” she said. Sceer y said her interest in rubber ducks began about a decade ago. “I collected a few r ubber ducks for my grandson to play with in the bathtub and was surprised at the different kinds of ducks available,” Sceer y said. “I just thought a rubber duck was a rubber duck, and it amazed me.” Some pieces in “Not All Rubber Ducks Look Alike” present the rubber ducks in a humorous context: “A Bunch of Quacks” and “Duck Bills,” featuring photos of ducks dressed as doctors and ducks as the faces on dollar bills and both translating word play to a visual gag. “Humor draws the viewer in and then they get a chance to think about the deeper issues,” Sceer y said. In her artist statement, Sceer y asks the question she explores through the pieces in her exhibit: “Aren’t the subjects, rubber ducks looking and acting differently, a metaphor for mankind?” “People who are prejudiced and think all people of one ethnicity look alike can see here that not even rubber ducks look alike,” Sceer y said. “I want them to think of the fact that people do have prejudices, and sometimes it’s a really silly thing.”
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C ampus N EWS news in brief
‘Real food’ popular, according to group’s surveys Mouth-watering smells filled the Sharpe Refectory as diners lined up Sept. 22 to get a taste of the food that 71 percent called “the best meal at the Ratty.” The local food night at both the Ratty and the VerneyWoolley Dining Hall was a hit, according to a survey conducted by the Real Food Initiative, a group advocating for more sustainable food on campus. Students almost unanimously praised the local food, and 17 percent responded to the survey saying it was the “best meal ever.” The meal was also a hit for the Real Food Initiative. Jonathan Leibovic ’12, one of four sustainability interns for the Initiative, said that this local food night, or “Real Meal,” was one of a handful of events planned by the Brown Dining Services Sustainability Program in which dining halls work together with local farmers and businesses. This Real Food Initiative at Brown is part of a larger “Real Food Challenge” in which 341 institutions across the country find food “which truly nourishes producers, consumers, communities and the earth” and is local, fair, ecological and humane. Leibovic said that on a regular day, about 15 percent of the food in dining halls fulfills one of these requirements. He said he hopes that by 2014, that number will rise to 40 percent. The Initiative has been sponsoring an event like this about every semester for the past two years. Surveys have been given out at each event, and results have always been similarly positive, Leibovic said. 324 students responded to the Sept. 22 survey, which was handed out at the doors of the Ratty. Ninety percent said that they would like to see similar events in the future. Leibovic said the planning and resources required for the event limit them to one per semester, but he is hopeful that in the next few years more events and sustainable food will come to the dining halls. — Matthew Leonard
Bears hoping for win against Holy Cross continued from page 1 against URI, the coaching staff has stressed the need for better coverage on returns. Two players with noteworthy injuries heading into Saturday’s game are Robert Gillett ’11 and
Newhall-Caballero. Gillett, a starting outside linebacker, suffered a season-ending injur y against URI. Newhall-Caballero suffered an injur y late in regulation in the same game. His status for Saturday’s game was not determined as of Thursday.
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“I can’t operate two different operations with the staff we have.” — Fred Yattaw, Manager of University Mail Services, on delivery pickup
UPS pickup returns to J. Walter Wilson By Shefali Luthra Contributing Writer
UPS package pickup of ficially opened Monday in the post office in J. Walter Wilson. Since the start of the school year, UPS pickup had been at Graduate Center on Power Street. The switch is based on an arrangement that dates back to 2001, when the University began handling student UPS deliveries, said Manager of University Mail Services Fred Yattaw. “We don’t have enough space in here to accept the kinds of volumes of packages that we get in September, when students move back to campus,” Yattaw said. For about the first month of the school year, the University keeps UPS pickup at a location separate from other mail. UPS pickup has been located at Grad Center for the last five or six years, with previous locations on Thayer and Olive streets, Yattaw said. UPS pickup returns to J. Walter Wilson when delivery volume decreases, usually after students finish sending in “personal belongings and all the textbooks,” Yattaw said. Mail Ser vices handled about 30,000 total packages from Aug. 20 to Oct. 1, with about 9,000 from UPS. Yattaw said moving back to J. Walter Wilson would ultimately be more efficient. “I can’t operate two different operations with the staff that we have,” he said. Yattaw also said that J. Walter Wilson is more of a central location, making it a more suitable pickup station than Grad Center. Adela Wu ’13, who lives in New Pembroke Hall, said she thought J. Walter Wilson was a better location for package pickup. Last year, when Wu received packages at Grad Center, she remembered having to ask for directions, as the location was “hard to find” and “kind of sketchy.” Mail Services started delivering UPS packages to J. Walter Wilson on Sept. 29 — half a week before the Grad Center location closed down.
Evan Thomas / Herald
UPS package pickup moved to J. Walter Wilson from the Grad Center Monday, indicating the end of the back-to-school delivery rush
Packages from Grad Center that had not been picked up were sent to J. Walter Wilson. Yattaw said packages normally get returned to sender after about a month, when students have received at least two e-mails and a mailbox notice. Perishable items may be sent back earlier. To maintain both mail stations, Yattaw sent part of the Mail Services staff to Grad Center and hired a few “miscellaneous people” for the month, he said. Mail Services also rented a van for the month to deliver packages to dorms if they were “really large or heavy,” or if a student received multiple packages. This year, Mail Services hired four extra employees: one to work at the Grad Center UPS pickup, and the other three at J. Walter Wilson. Though UPS delivery picks up in February, a spike Yattaw attributed to students returning from winter break, combined with Valentine’s Day, Mail Services will not return to the Grad Center for the rest of
the school year. “The spike period isn’t as long, and it doesn’t involve the same high volumes as it does in September,” Yattaw said. “We work as usual — January and February we do get a little busier — but we don’t do anything special except we have to work a little harder. I do bring on a couple of extra people just to get us through that spike, but it’s for a shorter period of time.” Yattaw said Grad Center is probably the best place for the UPS pickup at the beginning of the year. “We want street level access to unload the UPS trucks and whatever, and also for students to take packages out,” Yattaw said. “We also loan out hand trucks to students who want to use those to bring packages back to their dorm, so street level is very important. … It looks like Power Street is going to be the place, as far as I can tell.” The space at Grad Center will now be used by Facilities Management for storage.
Pembroke Center appoints Kay Warren as its new director By Jeffrey Handler Contributing Writer
Kay Warren, professor of international studies and anthropology, has been appointed the new director of the Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women. “I’m delighted,” Warren said. “I like the idea of people from different disciplines focusing on common issues, but from different perspectives, and starting to exchange ideas.” Warren, who came to Brown from Har vard in 2003, is on leave this year working on a book about human trafficking. She will begin acting as director on July 1. While War ren is on leave,
Suzanne Stewar t-Steinberg, associate professor of comparative literature and Italian studies and director of gender and sexuality studies, is the acting director of the center. Stewart-Steinberg said of Warren, “She’s a wonderful collaborator and extremely capable of bringing people from all kinds of dif ferent disciplines together for dialogue.” The Pembroke Center, founded in 1981 by Joan Wallach Scott as a research center on gender, supports interdisciplinar y research and teaching in the humanities and social studies, according to the center’s website. Despite the name of the center, it does not limit itself exclusively to the study of
women or gender, but rather to many broader issues around difference in historical, political and social terms, Stewar t-Steinberg said. The center has faculty “with a lot of interests, so the issue is how you focus your interest in those fields on the benefits and risks of change,” Warren said. “That has a gender dimension but it also has lots of other social dimensions.” Fundamental to the center, Stewar t-Steinberg said, is the yearlong Pembroke seminar — typically composed of three faculty members and three post-doctoral fellows from outside Brown, as well as graduate students and undergraduates selected through an
application process. Warren became involved with the center when she led last year’s seminar, which focused on two themes: international circulation of health technology and international circulation of labor. “I learned an incredible amount about dif ferent fields,” Warren said. “This was a dynamic seminar. There were debates. There were disagreements. There were moments of insight where ever yone went ‘oh my gosh, look at that!’ We kept learning. It never stopped.” The center has many projects going on right now, including a collaboration with Nanjing University in China on gender studies, Stewart-Steinberg said. The
schools are currently exchanging faculty and will later trade students as well, she said. Another key project is an effort to collect papers of all the great feminist theorists. “This promises to be a really exciting project. Some of the top feminist theorists in this countr y and Canada have promised their papers already,” Stewart-Steinberg said. Warren said she is also thrilled about this archival project, adding that she dreams of being able to invite historians to do research in these archives. “I think the range of what people can do at the Pembroke Center is only limited by people’s imaginations,” Warren said.
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Friday, October 8, 2010
“This is all about field work.” — Patrick Heller, Professor of Sociology, on Graduate Development Fellowships
Rose: colorblindness is new racism $3 million grant funds development program continued from page 1
ples of what many today perceive as “pathological” behavior — is important, Rose said. As an example, Rose discussed the “cool pose,” which she said was developed by African Americans as an ar tistic style of disengagement and as a “shield of protection” against oppression. She critiqued pundits and scholars who blame the “cool pose” as the “key origin of the black male achievement gap.” Rose went on to talk about the idea of “keeping it real,” which is often associated with an imagined “black ghetto set of behavior.” Yet the phrase was developed, she argued, to retain black authenticity and to articulate truth in the face of power. Anthropologists and sociologists have tried to identify and define black culture for a long
time, Rose said, especially following abolition and the Civil Rights Movement. They debated the topic of assimilation, bringing into questions the value and existence of African American culture. Over the years, the debate has continued, Rose said. The discussion has shifted from one pitting the importance of cultural heritage against assimilation to one dealing with ideas of color blindness and racial identification. Color blindness is “worse than the ‘You got no culture’ option,” Rose said. People of Latino, Caribbean and African descent in particular have been “folded into a narrative,” she said. She expressed her hope that people will approach the issue of stereotypes by first understanding the manner in which they developed. The Invitational Lecture in the Humanities is an annual event
sponsored by the Cogut Center for the Humanities that aims to give the Brown community a chance to listen to distinguished faculty members — who are usually busy with teaching, administrative work or off-campus events — address a critical issue in the humanities related to their work. Rose was chosen for her knowledge in Africana studies and her ability to relate the humanities to other disciplines and issues of our time, said Michael Steinberg, director of the Cogut Center. “She is a wonderful scholar,” Steinberg said. “She works on topics that are ver y important.” Steinberg said he hopes Rose will set an example for the campus by creating bridges between the humanities and other areas of study such as public policy and the sciences. Rose’s work “touches all those ner ves,” he added. “She engages ever yone. She explains to you what she wants you to know,” Maura L ynch ’11 said after Thursday’s lecture. “I think she was extremely charismatic and extremely persuasive. I wish there was more time,” said David Hollingshead GS. “It lived up to expectations.”
Thanks for reading!
By Jeffrey Handler Contributing Writer
The Graduate Program in Development, based at the Watson Institute for International Studies, was recently awarded a $3.1 million grant from the National Science Foundation. Over the next five years, this grant will fund graduate students in the social sciences for two-year periods with fellowships for interdisciplinar y training. NSF awards about 20 such grants each year, which fund fiveyear programs designed to promote cutting-edge interdisciplinary training and research, said Patrick Heller, professor of sociology, who started the Graduate Program in Development six years ago with colleagues. Last year, the program was one of two social science programs to get a graduate education grant from the NSF — these grants are most frequently awarded to programs in the physical and life sciences. Heller now co-directs the program — which is open to all graduate students in anthropology, economics, political science and sociology — with Barbara Stallings, professor of international studies. “We’re thrilled,” he said, adding that Brown has never won this type of grant in the social sciences. “What we’re trying to do is give graduate students access to the type of training they wouldn’t normally have access to if they’re just taking courses within their own discipline,” Heller said. “Within the
traditional discipline-based Ph.D. programs, the incentives are all structured to take courses only within your discipline, to work only with faculty within your discipline, to only ask questions within your discipline, to only use methodologies within your discipline.” The program in development used to include three fellowships funded by the Watson Institute and the Graduate School, Heller said. This grant is now replacing that funding, creating five fellowships this year and 12 next year. Doctoral programs generally last five or six years, and students receiving the fellowship awarded by NSF are funded for two years, Heller said. Fellowship students are required to spend at least two summers in the field. Heller said he thinks that this is the most important part of the program. “This is all about doing field work. Getting out there, getting your feet wet, doing original data collection.” The research core of the program involves recognizing the pervasive problem of inequality in the developing world and realizing that researchers know very little about this problem, Heller said. The lack of understanding is due in part to a lack of good data, as well as a lack of understanding of the specific nature of inequality in different countries in the global south. Heller said he hopes that this grant will strengthen the program. “We’re hoping that the program will survive beyond this initial five year period,” he said.
SportsWeekend The Brown Daily Herald
M. WATER POLO
Friday, October 8, 2010 | Page 5
VOLLEYBALL
Strong goalkeeping leads Bruno opens Ivy schedule vs. Yale Bears to weekend sweep By Garret Johnson Contributing Writer
The hours spent on the road were well worth it for the men’s water polo team. The No. 19 Bears (13-4) went undefeated last weekend, winning 5-4 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (5-5), 11-6 at Iona College (3-9) and 16-8 at Fordham University (9-9). These wins were critical, according to Head Coach Felix Mercado, because they all came against league opponents. In particular, he noted the determination of his team in holding on to a narrow win over MIT. “Against MIT, we were in control of the game, but that is too good of a team to let hang around,” Mercado said. “Fortunately, we were able to get some key defensive stops.” Max Lubin ’12 led Brown’s defense in net against MIT. Mercado praised Lubin’s work, saying the junior goalkeeper “did a fabulous job.” Lubin pointed out that “there were goals that I definitely could have blocked,” but said that overall he was “satisfied” with his performance. In the games against Iona and Fordham, Mercado gave the net to Walker Shockley ’14. The freshman goalie broke his personal record with 17 saves against Iona and added 11 stops versus Fordham. “Walker was absolutely amazing in those two games,” Mercado said. Lubin also gave his freshman counterpart rave reviews, saying that Shockley “did absolutely phenomenally.” “He has great fundamentals and strength,” Lubin said. “He’s doing
really well.” The Bears’ next test is at Harvard (4-8) on Thursday, Oct. 14. Though Harvard has lost two out of its last three games, the team isn’t taking anything for granted, said Mercado and Lubin. “Harvard is Brown’s rival, so we know that they are going to come out and put up a tough fight,” Lubin said. The junior also noted Harvard’s new head coach, Ted Minnis, “has taken steps towards improving that program,” he said. Mercado said he hopes that his team will not overlook the Crimson, but says that Bruno “should be well prepared for that game.” It may be difficult not to look past the Harvard game, since Brown’s biggest test of the season starts just eight days later. On Friday, Oct. 22, the Bears will head across the country for a set of five tough games against West Coast teams in Santa Clara, Calif. “We are playing five nationally ranked opponents,” Mercado said, though future opponent Air Force has dropped out of the rankings in the latest poll. The Bears will face No. 15 California Baptist University (13-3), No. 11 University of California at Davis (114), Air Force (3-8), No. 14 Santa Clara University (9-8) and No. 7 University of the Pacific (8-4). “There’s really no pressure on us because we are supposed to lose those games,” Mercado said. “But our expectation is to win them all.” Lubin admitted that the West Coast trip will be difficult, but said, “We know we can compete with those guys.”
By Sam Rubinroit Contributing Writer
The volleyball team opened league play with a home-and-home series against Yale last weekend — after a tough loss to the Bulldogs at the Pizzitola, Bruno traveled to New Haven, where they delivered a valiant performance but ultimately fell. Yale (8-5) visited Providence for the first game of the series on Friday night, but despite the impressive crowd, Bruno (6-8) lost 3-0 (25-20, 26-24, 25-18). The first two sets were highly contested, and the hometown fans let their presence be known. In the first set, the score was tied at 16 before Yale pulled ahead. In the second frame, the Bears battled back from an early deficit to tie it at 24 before coming up short. “Really, the first two games could have gone either way,” said Head Coach Diane Short. “If we had won those first two games, it would have been a whole different match. Because those two games were so close, the fan support was almost like having another player on the court.” A pregame injur y weighed heavily on the team’s mind, as Carly Cotton ’13 suffered a concussion before the game. Cotton will be out for a couple of weeks, Short said. “Sometimes, psychologically, just having a change like that or being worried about a teammate can make you lose a little energy, so because of that I think we came out a little bit flat,” Short said. In the second game of the
Jesse Morgan / Herald
Alexandra Rieckhoff ’14 goes for a set. Volleyball suffered two losses to Yale over the weekend.
weekend, Bruno traveled to New Haven where they took Yale to a fifth set in a 3-2 loss (25-19, 20-25, 25-19, 25-27, 15-8). One major difference between the two games was Bruno’s level of defense on Saturday. The players succeeded in making digs that they missed on Friday and put together a better team performance. “Defensively, we just played a lot better and we were tracking the ball,” Short said. “We were kind of sitting back on Friday night.” Bruno also learned from its loss
the night before and made adaptations that allowed the team to be more successful. “Yale has a lot of tendencies with where they hit on the court, what their blockers do and where their setters are going to set,” said Jessica Gandy ’12. On Friday, “we just kind of went out there and played, but on Saturday, we paid more attention to detail.” After coming off a tough loss, the team felt the need to prove itself on the court. “On Saturday, we had that fire, sort of like redemption,” said Bailey Wendzel ’13. “We had that hunger and fire, so I think that really helped us close out a lot of games that we couldn’t close out on Friday.” The team also had a more personal motivation during Saturday’s match. “We just hate Yale, so we wanted to beat them in their own gym because their fans are pretty rowdy,” Gandy said. Despite the losses, Short said she believes the team learned a valuable lesson last weekend that the players will take with them as they travel to Princeton on Friday and Penn on Saturday. “It was a heartbreaking loss, but we also got confidence out of it because we could see how we could play,” she said. Gandy said she has little doubt about how the team will perform in its upcoming matches. “Total domination,” she said. “We’re going to Princeton and Penn, and we’re not coming back with anything less than two W’s.”
The loss of Moss: Patriots trade wide receiver to Vikings Wednesday morning, after my eyes fluttered open, I immediately knew that something was wrong. A sense of dread had wrapped itself around me and was trying to force itself down my throat. I kicked my blankets off and did a quick lap around the Sam Sheehan house. The cofBadly dressed Irish sports fan fee pot hadn’t combusted in the night. I ran back upstairs to make sure that an airplane engine hadn’t crashed through my room a la “Donnie Darko.” That wasn’t it, either. Hmmm, what was this feeling? I shrugged it off, booted up my computer and opened Firefox. When my ESPNBoston.com homepage loaded itself into view, my coffee cup slipped out of my hand and fell to the ground with a crash. There it was — the headline lit up the shady green background of the website as though it had been dunked in kerosene and set ablaze. “Out Route: Patriots agree to trade Randy Moss to Vikings for
3rd round draft pick.” No. No. NO! This had to be a joke. I knew there were rumors circulating about a possible trade to the Vikings, but I thought that the deal was for Sidney Rice or Toby Gerhart. You know, something that at least made a little bit of sense. This couldn’t be happening. One of my friends, a fellow fan, texted me, “I feel like I just got dumped. I just wanna lie in bed all day and eat Ben & Jerry’s.” This may seem like a total overreaction to most. Sure, it’s a bad trade, but the guy was probably unhappy and they just kept it under wraps. Now he’s out and the team can refocus, right? Here is where I give you a glimpse of the festering underbelly of the Patriots that has been undermining and ruining them for the past half-decade. It begins (and ends) with Head Coach Bill Belichick and owner Bob Kraft. After the Patriots established themselves as a dynasty in the early 2000s, anyone in New England would have followed Belichick into the heart of Mordor. The Patriots were the Fellowship of the (Super Bowl) Rings and a return to Mount Doom
seemed to be in our future. What no one realized was that Belichick had succumbed to the power of the ring. He decided to see just how far he could push his luck and began to get rid of important pieces of the Patriots fellowship. The miserly Bob Kraft was delighted with this, only too happy to phase out talented but expensive players with the cover of “We still have Belichick” to keep fans loyal while pushing costs down. For five years, the Patriots Fellowship of the Ring has marched across Middleearth. We lose valuable members every time we undertake this journey, and each time we get there, it turns out Belichick left the ring in his trunk back in Hobbiton. Randy’s value to the Patriots is not only in his abilities to go deep and make plays, but also in the way he makes opposing defenses account for him. When Moss receives double coverage, he frees up a man somewhere, giving Tom Brady an open receiver. He makes the offense better just by being on the field. I don’t blame Randy Moss one bit for wanting a little respect or credit for his importance to the team. But Bob Kraft is such a cheap, awful owner that he actually tried to
get in a contract standoff with Tom Brady, the heart and soul of the Patriots. There was no way he was going to pay Moss the money that he deserved, especially with Belichick whispering in his ear that the Patriots can win with anyone. Now, with Kraft and Belichick splitting general manager duties, the unhappy Randy was labeled as a greedy locker room distraction and was suddenly dealt to the Vikings. The trade talks must have been the quickest ever. Belichick: We need to get rid of Randy Moss. He wants money we are too cheap to provide. He really wants out. Vikings GM Rick Spielman: Ummm, you don’t even want to pretend that this is for a different reason and try to get Toby Gerhart for him? Belichick: No, we’ll take a fifthround pick for him. That or one of Adrian Peterson’s used athletic cups. Spielman: You must be joking. Belichick: I don’t joke. I only laugh when I’m devouring souls. Spielman: How about I give you a third-round pick so I don’t feel guilty about how badly I ripped you off? Belichick: Fine. But we also want Peterson’s cup.
Unless Moss was running a human trafficking operation out of the locker room, whatever “distractions” he was causing weren’t big enough to merit this. More likely, Belichick was looking for whatever reason he could to ship him, whether it was using Wes Welker’s hand sanitizer without asking, towel-whipping a naked Vince Wilfork or telling Brady to get a haircut. Whatever it was, Randy Moss is gone, along with my sunshiny feelings on how this team is run, and I want to cry for where my franchise is heading. In a lot of ways, Randy Moss was like Gandalf. He guided us in our time of need. He was with us through great tragedy. He was a rock for us when no one else was capable of it. Now, it’s like he has slain the Balrog for us, but we tell him to go back to Rivendell because we think we can handle Saruman and Sauron’s army all by ourselves. I have bad news for this fellowship, though. The Ringwraiths are coming. And we just banished our wizard to Minnesota. Sam Sheehan ’12 really thinks Tom Brady needs a haircut. Talk sports with him by e-mailing sam_sheehan@ brown.edu.
Editorial & Letters The Brown Daily Herald
Page 6 | Friday, October 8, 2010
Letters, please! letters@browndailyherald.com
E R I K S T AY T O N A N D E VA N D O N A H U E
d i a m o n d s a n d c oa l A very Brown diamond to “Leaves of Grass” producer, writer and director Tim Blake Nelson ’86 — 25 years out and he’s still fixated on the grass. Coal to the large glass structure on the Main Green this week. People in glass houses shouldn’t throw parties.
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Coal to the kids found sleeping in the Stephen Robert ’62 Campus Center. You know that bed bugs follow you, even if you sleep on the floor, right? A diamond to the Corporation members for their overdue revelation that Grad Center could use “more natural light.” Forty years of cinderblock not doing it for you anymore? Coal to Brown-Secure and those at the help desk who ask us to determine if other people in the area were able to connect. No, nobody has been able to connect in years. It is so dire that we cannot even send this coal by e-mail. Diamond to Danah Boyd ’00 for recognizing that there is an “entire server dedicated to the Bieber problem.” Is that where Brown-Secure’s resources have been diverted?
Coal to the deadlocked faculty, and to the withdrawal of the tenure motion, which President Ruth Simmons found “most unexpected.” According to the meeting notes, that is indeed what she said. Coal to Rhode Island Hall for only going after the silver. With that attitude, we’re never going to rise in the U.S. News rankings. Diamond to the flu vaccine — usually we have to do our shots before we get to Jo’s. But the real question is, does this protect us from all that we might pick up at Fish Co.? Diamond to Brown for hiring Wyclef Jean as a visiting fellow. We can’t quite discern what that means, so we may as well applaud you now for the sneaky, early nabbing of a headline Spring Weekend act. Coal to the Rhode Island Republicans, who “can’t hit a six-run home run,” according to former Red Sox player Mike Stenhouse. We’re not a sports expert like you, but last we checked … nobody can. “Diamonds and Coal” is written by Herald staff. Submit your own at diamondsandcoal.com.
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Opinions The Brown Daily Herald
Friday, October 8, 2010 | Page 7
If I was president… ANTHONY BADAMI Opinions Columnist Brown University’s recent appointment of recording artist and activist Wyclef Jean to a visiting fellowship in the Department of Africana Studies was severely ill-guided. It represents an aspect of this University’s character that I ardently believe we should push against: the tendency to be a stature escalator for political and cultural figures. While I will not address these other instances in this column, allow me to make my case for why Wyclef Jean should have never been appointed to this position and why he should be ousted now. My first concern is the strain his fellowship creates. The brunt of this financial commitment is resting on the shoulders of the Department of Africana Studies, an already under-funded branch of this school, which has defied expectations in recent years and gained a position of prominence in the world of elite academia. Could not the University forgo this spectacle of celebrity and instead offer more research funding to Africana professors? I know that the Alumni of Color Initiative would benefit seriously from increased support. Keep in mind as well that Jean will not be lecturing or instructing solely (if at all). He is here to observe, to learn and to reflect. In his own words, his year at Brown will be “a gift to prepare for leadership more thoroughly.” Does this not ring of euphemism for professional advancement? Is Brown really just a political stepping-stone? Is that the shallow
role this University would like to serve? There is a distinction to make here. This institution provides space and funding to certain political heads in which the ultimate goal may be just reputation enhancement, but the key difference in the case of visiting political fellows, such as those housed at the Watson Institute for International Studies, is that they have already been in positions of political prominence. They are the former heads of state, chairs of international lawmaking bodies, formulators of international economic order. In other words, they have
site the Smoking Gun revealed, contributed “$410,000 for rent, production services, and Jean’s appearance at a benefit concert,” and only after repeated failures to file tax returns on time. It was also uncovered that the foundation paid $31,200 to Jean’s Manhattan recording studio in 2007. Just a year before, the group had given nearly $100,000 to the same studio for the “musical performance services of Wyclef Jean at a benefit concert,” not to mention the $300,000 shelled out to consulting companies between 2005-2007. Explana-
Jean seems to have some questionable moral conduct in the past, and his academic credentials are nil.
actual knowledge and experience to share with undergraduates and faculty. Academics can teach the theoretical underpinnings for world issues; former political leaders provide vivid insights into policy-making and diplomacy. Jean failed in his bid for leadership. Why is it Brown’s responsibility to revamp his humanitarian image? Why give him a political leapfrog to the Haitian presidency? Keep in mind also the fact the Jean’s past financial dealings have been of a very dubious nature. Wyclef’s foundation was able to raise over one million dollars for Haiti relief. Indeed, that is laudable and admirable. But this foundation, as the investigative web-
tion for these various expenses has not been spelled out clearly, though Jean has tried weakly and vaguely to respond to these allegations several times. If another Brown fellow, say Romano Prodi, had engaged in such shady financial dealings, I would be equally incredulous and critical. It is my deep belief that those in distinguished positions at this University should be held to the same standards morally and academically. Unfortunately, Jean seems to have some questionable moral conduct in the past, and his academic credentials are nil. Perhaps the question boils down to this: What is the proper role of the University? I would think the answer is rather obvious —
to enhance the academic environment for its students, faculty and fellows. What contribution does Jean’s appointment make? It seems to me that it is strictly a public relations one. If fame is the only prerequisite for receiving a visiting fellowship at Brown, then why not recruit names like Bono or Angelina Jolie? They too have zero academic credentials but a record of humanitarian publicity. It is demoralizing to think that the Department of Africana Studies went from a successful recruitment of Chinua Achebe, author of the most widely read novel in modern African literature, to the selection of such a vacuous and uninspiring persona. This is not, of course, to disparage him as a musician. Nor is this a rebuke of the cultural and political messages his music has transmitted. Rather, it is a fervent plea to the administration to avoid hypocrisy and embrace fairness. Hold everyone to the same standard. Is that really so radical a notion? To gain some perspective on this issue, I approached some faculty in the Department of Africana Studies. They, I thought, will show me what I had been missing. As it turned out, no one was willing to speak on the subject. I hope the reader understands like I do what such passivity indicates. I do not desire for the administration of this school to be passive on this issue any longer. Fine, perhaps we are stuck with Jean for now. But, I implore you, eschew such emptiness in the future. The long-term reputation of this University, and its attending students, depends on it.
Anthony Badami ’11 is a political theory concentrator from Kansas City, Mo. He can be reached at anthony_badami@ brown.edu.
Brown.com? SISSI SUN Opinions Columnist
The new Brown.edu home page, up for just a few weeks, greets us with a new layout and features. While it is hard for anyone to miss the huge video frame on the new page, it is now nearly impossible for a new user to locate any popular resources right away. Since the launch of the new Web portal, new users might find, after a few minutes of fumbling, that it now requires more clicks to get to where they are going. Compared to earlier, when students could jump from the home page to Brown’s Gmail account signin, now they must locate a nearly-unnoticeable “Current Students” tab at the very top of the page, click into it and eventually arrive at the link. If you wonder why the former one-click convenience disappeared altogether, just look at the new layout. The new page has a multimedia theme frame that occupies most of the window. The rest of the page was given to “best-selling content” like athletics, news and events, plus hot, must-have links like YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn and Flickr. At the same time, “Providence, RI 02912” is the only indication of where on earth the University is located. The page is all about image. For a better example of this “Sell, sell, sell” layout, go to Harvard.edu and see if you find their layout familiar. On Harvard’s website, even something equivalent to “Cur-
rent Students” has disappeared. Besides the huge media image and sections like “Harvard and the World,” what remains is a link to give money, a link to Harvard’s trademark notice, a link to report copyright infringements and how to “Find Harvard on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and iTunes.” I was impressed at the versatility of Harvard’s layout. It seems to work not only like a national university’s home page, but also like a billboard in a shopping mall parking lot. So is there no merit behind Brown’s new Web design that gets into students’ way and
would disseminate the findings of the institute’s faculty in ways that “can be well understood by people outside academic life.” From his words, we assume that the video must be quite a draw for those outside the Brown community and academia in general. But because of that draw, those common links for Brown students were packed up all together into one tiny tab. I’ll always remember the moment when I first clicked on Brown’s home page — the old version. My eyes widened at the elegant layout that assembled most of the useful re-
Brown is not Apple.com. Our page ends with .edu, and as an educational institution, we should aim at making the site more user-friendly for the people in our community. looks like a TV commercial? One concept might be that the school wants to put on only those contents that are “fetch.” Since there is limited browser space, instead of stuffing it with a little bit of everything, why not just give whatever space to those that are the catchiest? But what is catchy? A recent Brown.edu theme video featured an introduction on austerity by Mark Blyth, a professor of political science. Geoffrey Kirkman ’91, deputy director of Watson Institute of International Studies, said this video, as part of a media series,
sources and none of the “Hey babe, my name is Brown University and this is how cool I am” advertisement. The sections, such as “Administration,” “Admission,” “Campus Life,” etc., collapsed into a brown-colored column. When clicked upon, each section would expand with images and introduction, like a library book being extracted from the shelf. The window was used to its maximum capacity, assembling most of the popular links and tools including Gmail, Search Brown and People Directory. But I imagine that if I now had to relive
my application process, a quick first glance at our new page might have given me a different impression. If Brown would devote even its home page to marketing itself as flashy, I might have doubted if the school was as student-centered as it was known for. It is true that with the new version, students can still find most of the useful resources once they click into the tab: Gmail, academic resources, computing, course selection, dining, student organizations and events, etc. But first-time users might find it difficult to navigate to what they are looking for if they can’t find that tab quickly and easily. Maybe the Web designers can find a better example to justify what they did to our home page. Look at Apple.com! Besides the small tabs, there is just one big image of the new iPod Touch with its cool new features. After all, Apple invented this hot item and this is all that matters. Now that they all know how awesome Apple is, customers will just fall into buying the MacBook, the iPhone and everything else. But Brown is not Apple.com. Our page ends with .edu, and as an educational institution, we should aim at making the site more user-friendly for the people in our community. Fortunately, we are not as much of a billboard as Harvard, but we can hope that its future functionality will be geared more toward students’ needs.
Sissi Sun ’12 is a theater and mathematical economics concentrator from Chicago. She can be reached at siqi_sun@ brown.edu.
Today The Brown Daily Herald
3
UPS deliveries leave Grad Center
5
5 SeptemBER 21
3
11 A.M.
comics
ToMORROW
SeptemBER 22
Bat & Gaz | Sofia Ortiz
9 A.M.
“Be Safe Brown!” Campus Safety
Women in Business: Wall Street
Resource Fair, Wriston Quad
Training II, Macmillan 115
6 P.M
All Day
“Sci-Fi from R.I.” Reading, Brown
“Not All Rubber Ducks Look Alike,”
Bookstore
Sarah Doyle Gallery
menu SHARPE REFECTORY
VERNEy-WOOLLEY DINING HALL LUNCH
Zucchini Frittata, Hot Pastrami Sandwich, Curried Tofu and Coconut Ginger Rice
Chicken Fingers with Dipping Sauces, Baked Vegan Nuggets, Raspberry Swirl Cookies
Cabernet Voltaire| Abe Pressman
DINNER Manicotti Piedmontese, Sustainable Salmon Provencale, Pound Cake with Strawberries
70 / 50
65 / 42
Friday, October 8, 2010
c a l e n da r Today
to m o r r o w
Bulldogs best Bears in volleyball opener
t h e n e w s i n i m ag e s
1
to day
Seafood Jambalaya, Grilled Chicken, Spinach Pie Casserole, Pound Cake with Strawberries
crossword
Dot Comic | Eshan Mitra & Brendan Hainline
Fruitopia| Andy Kim
The Adventures of Team Vag |Wendy Kwartin
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