Daily
the Brown
vol. cxlvi, no. 36
Herald
Friday, March 18, 2011
Since 1891
U. creates fund for Japan relief
Former mayor Cianci owns up to corruption Sporting a tie of festive green, former Mayor Vincent “Buddy” Cianci strode down the aisle of Macmillan 117 to the enthusiastic applause of a smattering of students and community members. Following a brief introduction by a Brown Bookstore official, the man who transformed the cultural and financial landscape of Providence during more than two decades in City Hall took the stage with a practiced ease.
News in brief Times pay wall should not affect students Unlimited, free online access to New York Times articles — a resource as vital for students as food, coffee and spicies with — came under threat yesterday morning. But it appears the University Library will come to distressed students’ rescue. The Times will launch a digital subscriptions service March 28 and place added restrictions to its online content, the paper’s publisher, Arthur Sulzberger Jr., wrote in a letter to readers yesterday. The new restrictions limit nonsubscribers to 20 articles or other media features per month before they are cut off and prompted to buy a digital subscription, according to the letter. Home delivery subscribers will continue to benefit from all online services. Readers who click through links found on blogs, search engines, Facebook and Twitter will not be denied access even if the monthly limit has been reached, the letter stated. “The Library is working with Newsbank, a vendor, to provide same-day access to the entire contents of the New York Times online. We will be providing more details very soon. The service should be available before the Times puts up its subscription wall on March 28,” David Banush, associate University librarian for access services and collection management, wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. Either way, students can always go old school — print versions of the Times will still be available in the Sharpe Refectory each morning.
inside
— Talia Kagan
news...................2-3 Sports...............4-5 editorial..............6 Opinions...............7 ArTS.........................8
“I can’t understand why you’re all here on St. Patrick’s day,” Cianci quipped, “But I can tell you, you left an awful lot out of that introduction.” Though audience members clutched copies of his newly released work, “Pasta and Politics,” the renowned former mayor went to the microphone empty-handed. It did not matter. Cianci, much like the book itself, was full of stories. Trained as a lawyer, Cianci continued on page 3
By Nicole Boucher News Editor
actually provisional,” he said, and people must not be blind to other views and perspectives. Universities can overcome this trend of specialization by striving to “promote a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approach,” he said, adding that the “major challenge” is being able to make connections between different fields and disciplines. Though he acknowledged the negative effects of technology, he also discussed how it can help promote a wide-ranging education if we know how to use it correctly. Libraries can be an essential tool in correctly harnessing the power
The University will establish a fund for relief efforts in Japan following Friday’s earthquake and tsunami, President Ruth Simmons announced in an e-mail to the Brown community yesterday afternoon. A committee also met yesterday to discuss contingency plans for students studying abroad or planning to study abroad in Japan this semester and will continue to watch the situation as it develops, according to Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron. The University’s response to the disaster will include leading fundraising efforts, lending support to universities in Japan and soliciting student suggestions for innovative ways to provide assistance, Simmons wrote. “This is consistent with the approach we took after Katrina,” Simmons wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. “The community is invited to help devise approaches that are uniquely representative of Brown.” She added that the fund will come from University resources as a way to generate donations. The Japanese Cultural Association will also throw a relief
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Hilary Rosenthal / Herald
Former Providence Mayor Buddy Cianci spoke last night about his new book.
Gregorian celebrates libraries at Hay fete By Nicole Grabel Contributing Writer
There is a “difference between information and knowledge,” Vartan Gregorian, former president of the University, told an enthralled audience of 200 celebrating the centennial of the John Hay Library in a lecture yesterday afternoon. The lecture, titled “Information and Knowledge in an Age of Technology,” addressed the way technology constantly bombards society with facts, theories and data. He emphasized the importance of “analysis as well as synthesis” of information, and the ability to distinguish between “what we know,”
what the “screen” is telling us and “what we don’t know” in order to truly understand something. The premium placed on specialization is one way knowledge is stifled in the modern technological age, he said. We focus on “marketable skills” and confuse the educated person with the specialist. Today’s new technology makes it all too easy to continue on this specialized path, ignorant to the knowledge and views of others. Technology also allows the formation of “isolationist” groups which keep people “safe from having to relay” their ideas with those who may not agree with them, Gregorian said. But “all knowledge is
Protestors hold flash rally for gay marriage By SOPHIA SEAWELL Contributing Writer
Several dozen students and community members gathered outside J. Walter Wilson yesterday afternoon to encourage Rhode Island’s politicians to support the legalization of gay marriage. The sunny weather bolstered the already energetic atmosphere of the flash rally, which lasted only 30 minutes. Many protestors held signs and responded enthusiastically to speakers and honking cars driving by. Two bills that would legalize gay marriage are currently under consideration in the Rhode Island House and Senate judiciary committees, whose votes will decide if the bills will be debated on the floors of those chambers. Similar bills have been introduced several times in past years, but have never made it
Close to Home Janus Forum debates collective bargaining Campus news, 3
to the floor. The bill’s co-sponsors, state representatives Art Handy, D-Cranston, and Frank Ferri, D-Warwick, spoke at the rally. “This bill is moving forward because of people like you,” Handy told the crowd. Student support “helps people like me be more enthusiastic and energetic,” he told The Herald. “I’ve been with my husband for 30 years, and I am a second-class citizen,” Ferri told the crowd. He encouraged students to stay active in the fight for gay marriage. Jeremy Feigenbaum ’11, the president of the Brown Democrats, had a similar message. “Keep continuing the fight, going to the State House and fighting for the bill,” he told the gathered crowd. “It’s so important that we hold our elected officials responsible for the issues we care about.” The crowd was optimistic about
Sophia Seawell / Herald
Students rallied to legalize gay marriage outside J. Walter Wilson yesterday.
the bill’s passage. “Your generation will be the generation that makes a difference with same-sex marriage,” said Kelly Garrett, coordinator of the LGBTQ Resource Center. “These are hopeful and exciting times.” The rally was organized by the Queer Political Action Committee,
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weather
By Amy Rasmussen Senior Staff Writer
along with the Brown Democrats and Marriage Equality Rhode Island, which held a phone bank for protestors to call their senators during the rally. Gabe Schwartz ’13, co-director continued on page 2
t o d ay
tomorrow
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