Daily Herald the Brown
vol. cxlv, no. 111 | Friday, November 12, 2010 | Serving the community daily since 1891
12 percent of undergrads identify as gay or bisexual By Suzannah Weiss Arts & Culture Editor
Most undergraduates — about 85 percent — describe themselves as heterosexual, according to The Herald’s fall poll. About 6 percent each identified as homosexual and bisexual, and about 2 percent each answered “other” and “don’t know / no answer.”
THE HERALD POLL There are few statistics on the demographics of sexual orientation, according to Visiting Assistant Professor of Sociology Carrie Spearin. Surveys about sexuality rarely receive government funding unless the research is “under the guise of health,” she said. Still, the sexual orientation break-
Satellite gyms lack funding By Shefali Luthra Staff Writer
Despite this year’s addition of a $64 athletic fee for all students, satellite gyms are underfunded, according to Director of Athletics Michael Goldberger and Assistant Athletic Director of Physical Education, Intramurals and Club Sports Matthew Tsimikas. The new fee did not add to the athletic budget, although it did “reduce the amount of dollars that we were asked to cut,” Goldberger wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. He wrote that the fee went to paying for athletic competitions, operating athletic facilities and running intramurals, among other costs. The satellite gyms — Bigelow Gym, Emery Gym and the Bears Lair — have a budget of about $35,000, of which $10,000 has already been spent this year on repairs to fitness equipment, Tsimikas said. To replace all satellite gym equipment would cost about $300,000, while 10 new treadmills would be about $75,000. Most of the satellite gym equipment is seven years old, although some pieces in the Bears Lair are up to 10 years old. Typical cardiovascular equipment lasts three years, Tsimikas said. “On any given day, a piece of
down of the student body looks comparable to national averages, she said. Spearin added, though, that she found the gender breakdown in the Brown data unusual: About 11 percent of men but only 2 percent of women identified as homosexual, whereas about 5 percent of men and 7 percent of women indicated that they consider themselves bisexual. “It must be something about the nature of the student body,” she said, speculating that Brown’s culture may attract gay men or make them feel comfortable identifying as such. “It does seem like there is a slightly larger number of homosexual men on campus than there are homosexual women,” said Mike Rose ’13, facilitator of QUEST, a discussion group for students questioning continued on page 4
d ut y, h onor, c ountry
By Margaret Yi Staff Writer
inside
News.......1–6 Arts.........6–7 Spor ts.....8 Editorial....10 Opinion.....11 Today........12
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Freddy Lu / Herald
Chaney Harrison ’11, staff sergeant in the U.S. Air Force Reserves, was one of the speakers at Thursday’s Veterans Day ceremony. See story, page 3.
Is Brown really green? Most Brown students are familiar with the phrase “Brown is Green,” which is often used to describe the University’s efforts to make Brown more environmentally conscious. The initiative has encompassed ever ything from reducing consumption of bottled water to making campus buildings more energy-efficient. Though this trend toward “greening” the University seems
nearly ubiquitous today, it was not fully official as a policy by the University until 2007. That year, Facilities Management recognized the “Brown is Green”
SPOTLIGHT slogan through a website detailing the University’s campus-wide environmental initiatives. “We decided to start a Brownsponsored ‘Brown is Green’ site to take all the great work that ever yone around campus was doing and have a repositor y for
‘Pippin’ a ‘neo-Vaudevillian steampunk extravaganza’ By Anita Badejo Staff Writer
Color-changing, LED light fingertipped gloves. Sequins. Feather eyelashes. Oversized plumes. Giant puppets. Patent leather platform heels.
ARTS & CULTURE
photo / Herald
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people to share information,” said Chris Powell, director of sustainable energy and environmental initiatives. “It was a way to go to one place and connect with many different organizations,” he added. An energy and environment advisory committee began developing an environmental mission statement in 2006 that came to fruition in 2007, Powell said. The committee’s work led President Ruth Simmons to sign the Sustainable Campus Charter
The School of Engineering is implementing a major hiring initiative to find four faculty members and a founding dean. The initiative is the first step in expanding and strengthening the engineering school, which was elevated from “division” status over the summer, said Rodney Clifton, dean of engineering. The positions became available when three engineering faculty members retired and one resigned, Clifton said, but the four openings are not restricted to the areas of engineering that those faculty members belonged to. Instead, the school is expanding the search process to all areas of engineering, such as biomedical, computer, materials science and entrepreneurship. “It gives you the chance to get truly outstanding candidates,” Clifton said. For Iris Bahar, associate professor of engineering and head of the computer engineering search committee, the “important thing is to find a candidate who can expand our existing strengths.” There is a general search committee for the faculty positions as well as separate search committees for seven different areas of engineering, Clifton said. Another board is tasked with
U. moves toward greener campus By Mark Raymond Senior Staff Writer
Engineering school starts hiring search
Steampunk style flavors Director Kym Moore’s take on “Pippin.”
“Pippin,” Sock and Buskin’s second show of the 2010–11 season, is certainly nothing if not a spectacle. “It’s really a neo-vaudevillian, steampunk extravaganza,” said Kym Moore, the show’s director and a visiting assistant professor of theater arts and performance studies. The over-the-top production chronicles the part-fictional, partreal life and times of its title char-
acter (Ari Rodriguez ’13), who is thrust into the limelight when he is invited on stage to become a part of the performance of a motley crew of actors led by their Leading Player (Ned Riseley ’12), called the LP by the other performers. “Pippin,” written by Stephen Schwar tz, is a show about “the breakdown of fakeness, about the breakdown of performance, and about finding reality and finding what’s really meaningful,” said Alex Keegan ’12, the show’s assistant director. The plot centers around a play-within-a-play, in which the actors and the characters they portray sometimes share the same names and the line between illusion and authenticity is often blurred. continued on page 7
New changes
Bears battle
Brown Inc.
English department to restructure its curriculum
Men’s football team to play against Big Green this weekend
Simon Liebling ‘12 discusses Kertzer’s influence on the U.
news, 3
SPORTS, 8
Opinions, 11
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