Friday, April 22, 2011

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vol. cxlvi, no. 54

Friday, April 22, 2011

Since 1891

Athletics committee recommends axing four varsity teams

Plan also increases budget by 10 percent

Students, coaches vow to fight By Dan Alexander Senior Editor

The reduction from 37 to 34 intercollegiate teams is only one part of the committee’s larger set of recommendations. Another element of the plan would increase the annual athletics budget by roughly 10 percent, according to committee Chair Richard Spies, executive vice president for planning and senior adviser to the president. “If these recommendations are accepted in total, the budget of

Seventy students across four teams— wrestling, men’s and women’s fencing and women’s skiing — learned yesterday that their teams will not exist next year if President Ruth Simmons and the Corporation accept the Athletics Review Committee’s recommendations to cut their programs. Students’ and coaches’ reactions ranged from outrage to disappointment, but all shared a common message — their team must stay. “I almost didn’t believe (Head Coach Atilio Tass) at first, actually,” said fencing captain Alex DePaoli ’11. “It has been in different kinds of phases over the past year. It always seemed like they were pushing it off to another committee, and it would never end up being anything bad.” But the Athletics Review Committee — the most recent in a string of four committees that have analyzed the role of athletics at Brown — made its recommendations for implementation yesterday, beginning weeks of debate about how the University should solve concerns about the athletics budget. The

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By Tony Bakshi Sports Editor

The men’s and women’s fencing teams, men’s wrestling team and women’s ski team will be cut if President Ruth Simmons and the Corporation accept the plan recommended yesterday by the Athletics Review Committee. If the Corporation approves the committee’s proposals at its meeting next month, the cuts will be implemented immediately, effective at the beginning of the 2011-12 academic year. In the report released yesterday at 5 p.m., the committee provided separate reasons for discontinuing each of the three sports. The report cited the need for “a large investment in facilities, infrastructure and coaching to bring the fencing program to the necessary level” as a reason for cutting the men’s and women’s fencing teams. It also cited the “small number of fencing programs nationally.” Six of the other seven Ivy League institutions currently have varsity women’s fencing programs, and five

Courtesy of David Silverman

The men’s wrestling team will be one of four teams eliminated before next season if the Athletics Review Committee’s plan is approved by President Ruth Simmons and the Corporation in May.

of the seven have men’s programs. The University “cannot offer facilities to support competitive skiing in any reasonable way,” according to the report. The committee also cited concerns about the safety of ski team members traveling to New Hampshire and western Massachusetts for practices and competitions. Two other Ivy schools — Harvard and Dartmouth — currently field varsity ski teams. The wrestling program is one of the most expensive University athletic programs and also “requires a large number of admissions slots,”

according to the report. The program creates Title IX issues relating to equitable gender participation — there are 28 males and no females on the wrestling team. Five of the seven other Ivies have varsity wrestling programs. Head Coach Dave Amato, who has headed the wrestling program since 1983, said he believes gender equity was the factor that led to the recommendation to eliminate his sport. “I think the gender killed us because there is obviously no comparable women’s sport,” he said.

Budget increase and athletic improvements

Updated ‘Othello’ Hay Reading Room to get facelift tells lesbian love story By Claire Schlessinger Staff Writer

inside

Move over James Earl Jones — there’s a new Othello in town, and she is feisty. This weekend on the steps of Faunce House, Shakespeare on the Green presents an unusual interpretation of the bard’s classic drama “Othello.” In the original script, “Othello” is about a marriage between a black man and a white woman torn apart by the whispers of infidelity, but director Sisa Mateo ’13 swaps out the black man for a lesbian woman. Surprisingly, the language of the play supports this change, albeit with a few script alterations. The gender pronouns have, of course, been changed, and references to Othello’s complexion cut out. But Mateo chose to keep the well-known expression “the moor” because it is

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simply “a term that implies difference,” she said. The female Othello works so effectively because of Shana Tinkle’s ’11 outstanding performance. She clearly has a mastery of the language and packs a major punch. Her booming voice controls the room, often intimidating the other characters in the scene. Tinkle captures the most critical components of Othello’s character: the strength and poise that demand respect from his — or her — fellow Venetians. Nicholas Morley ’13 as Iago is convincing and precise as he manipulates the characters and causes mayhem. But during his soliloquies, his facial contortions meant to portray his sinister nature read more as an inability to control his passionate desires. Many of the play’s scenes are continued on page 6

Farm fresh

In an effort to make library space more amenable to student needs, the John Hay Library Reading Room and University Archives will undergo a renovation, slated to begin in summer 2012, according to University Librarian Harriette Hemmasi. The planned changes, which are expected to take about a year, will restore the space to its original size and layout. The room currently occupies less than one-third the space it did when it was first built in 1910. Though the space was originally 4,400 square feet, bookshelves installed in the 1930s divided the room. While the shelves were intended to create smaller study spaces within the room, the spaces were gradually taken over for storage and administrative use by the staff, Hemmasi said. The Hay is the only University library open to the general public,

Courtesy of Harriette Hemmasi

Planned changes will restore the Hay Reading Room to its 1910 dimensions (above).

but Alison Bundy, senior library associate specialist of special collections at the Hay, said the Reading Room currently only fits about 21 patrons. According to a brochure distributed by the library, the reno-

D&C

New spring farmer’s market comes to Wriston

The Athletics Review Committee gets coal — find out why

Campus News, 4

Diamonds & Coal, 10

weather

By brette ragland Arts & Culture Staff Writer

vation will allow for more than 80. With the renovations, the room will feel “traditional but up to date,” said Barbara Schulz, head of library continued on page 2

t o d ay

tomorrow

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2 Campus News calendar Today

April 22

2 P.m.

ToMORROW

April 23

8 p.m. Ivy Film Festival: Talk by

Mezcla Presents: Lucid Dreams,

James Franco, Salomon 101

Salomon 101

6:30 p.m.

12 p.m.

Floorgasm, Stephen Robert ’62

Brown University Folk Festival,

Multipurpose Room

Lincoln Field

menu SHARPE REFECTORY

VERNEy-WOOLLEY DINING HALL LUNCH Chicken Fingers, Baked Vegan Nuggets, Enchilada Bar, Butterscotch Cookies

BLT Sandwich, Mediterranean Shrimp Stir-Fry, Butterscotch Cookies DINNER Chicken Tikka, Vegan Chana Masala, Grilled Cheese, Jelly Cake Roll

Texas BBQ Brisket, Mexican Cornbread Casserole, Baked Potato Bar, Jelly Cake Roll

Sudoku

The Brown Daily Herald Friday, April 22, 2011

Klingon is out of this world, linguistically By Lindor Qunaj Senior Staff Writer

According to Marc Okrand, there are two reasons to make up a fake language. The first is a belief that natural, existing languages are “inefficient, clumsy and full of exceptions that lead to miscommunication” and that an artificial, planned one could allow for linguistic perfection. The second is the desire to create a language that is no one’s first language — like the politically neutral Esperanto — so that no single person has an advantage in settings where multiple languages are being used, like the United Nations. But Okrand, the creator of Klingon, said he invented the fictional language spoken by the villainous race of warriors in Star Trek almost by accident. Introduced as “the only linguist who wrote a book that could be sold in airports,” Okrand spoke to a packed Barus and Holley 166 last night about the history of Klingon and his involvement with the Star Trek franchise, along with the difficulties that came with constructing a language from the ground up. Though the audience was enthusiastic throughout, Okrand admitted at the start of his lecture that “generally speaking, when I’m

giving a talk like this, it’s at a Star Trek convention.” Having been commissioned to work on the subtitles for an Oscars ceremony in the 1980s, Okrand was in Los Angeles when he was called to meet with the producer of the Star Trek films to write a few lines of dialogue in the fictional Vulcan language. Since filming for the movie was already complete, the words Okrand made up had to match the lip movements of the actors. In most science fiction movies, Okrand said the fake speech is “more fiction than science,” meaning it is not part of a fully constructed language and consists merely of isolated words and very short sentences. By the third Star Trek movie though, the production team and director decided there would be no more dubbing, according to Okrand. “For it to feel like a complete language, it had to be a complete language,” he said. And that was when the hard work began. Okrand, who has a doctorate in linguistics, was able to use his extensive knowledge to make the language as foreign as possible. He looked at the components and rules that human languages have in common — like vowels,

consonants, words and syntax — and “violated those tendencies” to make Klingon a non-human language For instance, he avoided the “s” sound because it is incredibly common in English, and omitted the “k” and “z” sounds because they were overused in sci-fi — think Freddie Krueger, kryptonite and King Kong. But Okrand explained the irony in that choice — “After I made this decision, I realized that Klingon started with a ‘k’.” Since its creation, Klingon has become widely popular among a small but devoted group of followers — an opera performed entirely in the fake language went on tour in the Netherlands, a Klingon language institute was founded and cultural appearances in television series and movies abound. Okrand even mentioned marriage ceremonies conducted in Klingon, and a mental health institution that temporarily added Klingon to the list of languages it needed translators for in the event that a patient could not speak any other language. The lecture, organized by the linguistics departmental undergraduate group, was followed by a screening of the 1991 film “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.”

Renovations planned for Hay Reading Room continued from page 1

Cr ossword

facilities. The changes include the removal of the bookcases, the addition of ceiling lighting and an update to the electric infrastructure. Hemmasi said many peer schools have “grand reading rooms” with a traditional feel to match the history of the institution. She said the Hay Reading Room has the potential to be a similar space, but over the years people have “junked it up.” The main goal of the project is to “return (the room) to life and living students, not posterity and historical memory,” Hemmasi said. Hemmasi said the Hay has a different feeling than the larger buildings that house the Sciences and the Rockefeller libraries. She compared the Hay to Grand Central Terminal in its atmosphere, which triggers a “lofty feeling, like your thoughts can be bigger or something,” she said. Daniel Gonon ’12 said he comes to the Hay about once a semes-

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ter to access books only available there. He said he probably would not come to the Hay if he did not require books housed there. If the room were opened up to allow in more outside light and make it more inviting, he said he might use it as a general study space. As it is now, the room is not like the other campus libraries, where he feels comfortable “dwelling on other things,” he said. Following the renovation, the library’s hours will be extended, though Hemmasi said she does not envision it operating on the same schedule as the Rock or the SciLi. The Hay is currently open until 6 p.m. on weeknights and closed on weekends. A number of exhibition cases will also be added in the center of the room to display the Hay’s many special collections. There are more than three million items in the collection — including the famous anatomy textbook “De humani corporis fabrica” by Andreas Vesalius and the first three

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pages of the original manuscript of George Orwell’s “1984” — but they are rarely seen by students. The University also plans to use the renovated space for events, according to Richard Spies, executive vice president for planning and senior adviser to the president. With the University Archives holding yearbooks and other nostalgic documents, it could be a great place for alumni gatherings, Hammasi said. Money for the project, which is still in the planning stages, will come from an anonymous gift of approximately six million dollars. Renovating an older space like the Reading Room can be expensive, especially considering infrastructure costs such as rewiring the room, Hemmasi said. The project has been Hemmasi’s brainchild since she came to interview at the University six years ago, she said. Spies said the renovation is part of a larger initiative in the Campaign for Academic Enrichment to revitalize “underutilized” spaces on campus.

Campus News 3

The Brown Daily Herald Friday, April 22, 2011

Five coaches to lose jobs if teams are cut continued from page 1 the athletics department would be higher, notwithstanding the fact that there will be fewer sports,” Spies said. “We are sufficiently under-resourced that we must work on both sides of the equation.” Spies also said the overall budget increase reinforces the University’s commitment to athletics. “At a time when resources are a constraint, that’s a huge statement by the University,” he said. While some funds from eliminated teams will be reallocated to support the hiring of additional administrative and medical staff, the general increase in the athletics budget will primarily fund larger coaching salaries. Spies said the University lags behind the rest of the Ivy League in terms of coaching salaries. “We’re pretty far off, on the order of a million dollars.” According to Spies and the committee report, the athletics department will work with the Office of Human Resources to develop a plan to improve salaries across the department. The report stated that “salary adjustments should be made as early as January 2012.” In addition to the 10 percent budget increase, the report calls for facilities upgrades that would amount to about $10 million, said Margaret Klawunn, a member of the committee and vice president for campus life and student services. The report recommends improving field hockey facilities and increasing overall locker room space, though these changes may take three to five years to complete. In the committee’s plan, the $10 million necessary for facility improvements will be raised from outside donors by the Brown University Sports Foundation and the Office of Advancement. The Office of Advancement and the sports foundation would also jointly undertake the task of raising $5 million for financial aid, an area in which the committee found Brown “less generous than those of most of our competitors within the Ivy League,” especially “for students whose family income is above $100,000.” Ivy League rules dictate that financial aid be distributed without regard to whether or not an applicant is an athlete. Klawunn said the committee’s plan better positions the athletics department for the future. “We took very seriously the charge that this should strengthen athletics,” she said, “and we hope that the ways this is a real investment in athletics will lead to a lot of gains in the department in areas they’ve identified as important — facilities and financial aid and compensation.” “There’s a unique opportunity with this plan to make some very positive change,” she added. “It comes with some painful decisions, but it will get us to a longerterm place of sustainability and strength.” Spies said the combination of fewer teams and increased funds can lead to a more successful athletics program. “The strengthen-

ing comes from the funds we do have and expect to add — to focus these more effectively on a smaller number of teams and therefore be better.” But Amato doubted the cuts would improve other programs. “This is not going to help the department one bit,” he said. “Coaches know what’s going to make a team better — not some committee.” Cuts beyond the cuts

The implications of these painful decisions go beyond the elimination of the four teams. While some student-athletes have been forced to contemplate having the hyphenated “athlete” lopped off, their coaches must face the prospect of joblessness. The fencing and skiing programs each employ a single coach, and wrestling employs a head coach and two paid assistant coaches. Since eliminated programs “would be discontinued immediately” under the committee’s plan, Spies said the University would help these teams’ coaches “through a transition, which will almost certainly mean moving elsewhere.” Such promises do not diminish the reality of unemployment, Amato said. “What am I going to do, right? I think if I saw it coming I would have been applying for jobs.” The report also includes a recommendation to decrease the number of recruited athlete admission spots from 225 to 195. Half this decrease will occur through the elimination of admission spots for the four cut teams, but the remainder “can be realized through some selective tightening” by the athletics and admission offices, according to the report. The other 15 spots will be taken from the remaining varsity teams. Several teams will then “go forward without any dedicated admissions slots,” the report states. A decision on which remaining teams will lose recruiting positions has not yet been made, Spies said. Klawunn said this particular decision was “really important in the context of the institution’s priorities and plan for athletics that fits in our other educational goals.” “As our admissions processes become even more selective, there’s a sense that every spot is important, and they need to be available to as many different kinds of student talent as possible,” Klawunn said. Klawunn also said this suggestion had become “one of the most contentious” aspects of the recommendation after its release. This contention was evident in Amato’s response to this suggested change. “Skiing — they don’t even get admissions spots,” he said. “The report is crazy. I only got seven admissions spots this year, and I got eight last year, and I think fencing gets four, so how do they get 15?” Amato also said the reduction in admissions slots directly counters the stated goal of fielding a more competitive athletic program. “The athletic department is giving back 30 slots in admissions. That’s how you win, right?” he said. “I mean, come on. … There are

not too many teams that can get walk-ons and win.” Gender equity

As part of the decision to eliminate two men’s and two women’s programs, a women’s club team will be raised to varsity status “to ensure equitable participation by gender as required by Title IX.” The report stated the chosen program would be recognized as an official varsity program by fall 2012. Title IX is a federal law banning gender discrimination in athletic departments receiving federal funds. The University lost a Title IX lawsuit in 1995 after eliminating four programs — including the women’s gymnastics and volleyball teams — because of budget constraints. Title IX “both reinforces a University goal of equitable participation and sets some very specific constraints legally for us, which are kind of more up front at Brown than anywhere else because of our history,” Spies said. He also noted that gender equity did not play a more prominent role in the committee’s decision than other considered factors. “You can’t say at any point (Title IX) made this decision X rather than Y,” he said. Amato said he thought it was an odd decision to eliminate a women’s sport only to ensure the introduction of a new one within a year. “Why would they drop women’s fencing, and then … a year from now, they’re going to add another varsity women’s sport,” he said. “Why wouldn’t they just keep women’s fencing?” The step before implementation

The release of the athletics committee’s recommendations does not finalize any implementation plans. The public release of the committee report opens a period of time for feedback from community members before recommendations are brought before Simmons and the Corporation. Amato said this time span between the report release and the Corporation’s meeting may have negative effects on student-athletes whose teams have been eliminated. “Now the kids have to wait another five weeks to see if they have a sport or they don’t,” Amato said. “So what do these kids do in the next five weeks — do they try to transfer?” But both Klawunn and Spies noted the importance of this discussion period, which kicks off with an 8 a.m. meeting this morning between student-athletes and Director of Athletics Michael Goldberger to discuss the committee findings. The Herald was unable to reach Goldberger for comment Thursday. “Our recommendations are just that — recommendations to the president,” Spies said. “The president has not signed off, and she’s quite deliberately waited to hear not just what the recommendations are, but what the feedback is before she makes her own judgments about what to do.”

Courtesy of David Silverman

The fencing program plans to appeal the committee’s recommendation Wednesday.

Coach: ‘We’re not going down easy’ continued from page 1 University currently fields the thirdmost teams in the Ivy League on the league’s lowest athletics budget. “As soon as I heard the news, I have only been thinking one thing the whole time. And that is how do we save these sports programs?” said wrestler Hudson Collins ’11.5. All four teams will send representatives to meet next week with committee Chair Richard Spies, executive vice president for planning and senior adviser to the president. Spies said the timing of the decision was intentionally spaced weeks before the Corporation’s May meeting so Simmons could receive feedback from student-athletes, coaches and alums before a final decision is made. “The process is real,” added Margaret Klawunn, a member of the committee and vice president for campus life and student services. “There’s nothing about the process that isn’t a genuine effort to gauge community reaction.” The four teams are all constructing arguments for their programs to remain on campus. “We’re hoping to put together a case for why we shouldn’t be cut, trying to show the case for skiing instead of other sports, trying to show how it supports diversity because it’s such an unconventional sport,” said skier Emily Simmons ’12. “It’s not just like an after-school sport like field sports. It’s actually been a lifestyle since we were maybe five or six years old.” Though the report said the committee is concerned about skiers’ safety while traveling to mountains in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, skiing Head Coach Michael LeBlanc said the worries are unfounded. The team has never had any accidents on the road, and all seven skiers taken to the season’s final competition were academic AllAmericans, according to LeBlanc. Each team will present its case differently. “What they’re doing doesn’t make much sense to me,” DePaoli said. Fencing is “one of Brown’s top-performing teams — we’re 12th in the country. We also rank at the highest or almost the highest grade point average of any of the teams.” Wrestling Head Coach Dave Amato said he believes his sport

is set to be cut because of Title IX, the federal law requiring federally funded athletic programs to offer similar opportunities to men and women. The University lost a Title IX lawsuit in 1995 after it cut four teams, including two women’s teams, due to budget constraints. “All of the criteria that they listed for dropping sports, we don’t meet any of them. We do meet one — gender equity,” he said. “That’s basically why I think they’re dropping wrestling.” According to the Athletics Review Committee’s report, wrestling is expensive, takes up admissions slots designated for recruits and does not exist at all Ivy League schools. But Amato said wrestling is entirely self-funded, except for coaching salaries, only takes up seven to nine recruiting slots and is one of the Ivy League’s best and most historic sports. Even though the committee’s recommendation is not final, the news hit athletes hard yesterday. “I think it’s hard to reconcile that I have been here for three years and won’t be getting a senior season after putting so much into the sport,” Skinner said. Recruits from the class of 2015 who have yet to arrive on campus also voiced disapproval of the recommendations. Barrett Weiss ’15, a fencing recruit who was deciding between Harvard and Brown, said he decided to apply early to Brown after he got the impression that fencing was safe from cuts when it was not cut at the fall Corporation meeting. “I kind of wish I didn’t apply early,” he said. “I would have probably taken another visit to both schools and, I mean, I’m not sure where I would go, but I probably would have looked at Brown less seriously.” Amato said he was outraged by the decision to cut his wrestling team. “I didn’t see it coming,” he said. “I’ve been here 27 years. I’m going to be out on the street without a job. What am I going to do?” Fight, apparently. Until the recommendations are either accepted or rejected by the Corporation next month, athletes, coaches and alums will almost certainly be fighting to keep their programs standing. “I’m a wrestler — we’re all optimistic, right?” Amato said. “We’re not going to go down easy.”

4 Campus News

The Brown Daily Herald Friday, April 22, 2011

Spring farmer’s market comes to Wriston By Leigh Carroll Contributing Writer

Students craving fresh local produce in the spring are now in luck. Though the farmer’s market on Wriston Quadrangle has been a fall event since 2005, the University decided to establish a spring farmer’s market for the first time this semester. The spring market began April 7 and will run through May 5. The spring market reflects a collaboration between Brown Dining Services, the Sustainable Food Initiative and Farm Fresh Rhode Island, a non-profit organization founded by students in 2004. These same groups initially brought the fall market to campus in 2005. “The original goal (of Farm Fresh Rhode Island) was to create more retail opportunities for local growers, more business-tobusiness opportunities, more opportunities for the general public to find out how to find farm stands and farmer’s markets and also to provide access for lower income families to local food,” said Sheri Griffin, program director at Farm Fresh Rhode Island. The organization now manages eight of the 44 farmer’s markets in Rhode Island, including the markets at the University, Griffin added. The spring farmer’s market — which began three weeks ago — has not yet experienced as much business as the fall market, but has still been successful, said Lucy Sedgwick ’11.5, real food initiative progress coordinator for dining services. “The fall market is more popular than the one going on right now because it has been going on

for a long time,” she said. “Also, there is more of a supply in the fall because of the seasons here.” Though more goods are produced in the summer for the fall sale, “there are also things that grow in Rhode Island year round or things that can be stored,” Griffin said. “It is good for farmers to have a year-round income.” Ten vendors are currently participating in the new market, compared to 12 in the fall. Mark Phillips, a vendor who owns Absalona Greenhouse in Chepachet said he grows produce all year round and has trouble finding venues in the spring. He said he appreciates the business this new market brings. Griffin said it is still too early to judge the success of the spring market. “It’s not like a grocery store — it’s not always there, so you have to form a habit of going,” she said. “We need to give it some time.” The Sustainable Food Initiative — a student group now under the purview of the environmental group emPower — also teams up with local producers to provide a weekly supply of food to shareholders as part of the group’s Market Shares Program, said Mary Alice Reilly ’13, a sustainability intern with Dining Services and a member of Sustainable Food Initiative. The program “gives people a chance to eat seasonally and to experiment with different kinds of food they might otherwise not,” she said. This spring season, there are 91 participating shareholders. The program is “dope,” said Dash Spiegelman ’13, who volunteers with Market Shares. The initiative is now looking into establishing a year-round

Herald File Photo

The new spring market held every Thursday on Wriston Quadrangle connects local farmers with Brunonians.

shareholder program in addition to a winter farmer’s market. The initiative currently provides produce to the Brown community during the winter through Market Mobile, a website that distributes produce throughout the city. While the Undergraduate Council of Students supported the creation of a winter farmer’s market last semester, the produce supply is more limited during that time of year, Sedgwick said. The initiative to bring yearround farmer’s markets to campus is a student-led idea, Griffin said. “We haven’t had enough time

to plan a whole winter program, so we compromised with Brown Dining and student groups and said we’ll start small and see how it goes,” she said. “We will keep reviewing indoor spaces at Brown that we could possibly use next winter if demand and interest are there.” A possible location for a winter’s farmer’s market would be the Multipurpose Room in the Stephen Robert ’62 Campus Center. Though produce at the farmer’s market is generally more expensive than in the supermarket, there are countless benefits, Sedgwick said. “You’re paying for the experience.

Food you get locally can be healthier. You’re also supporting your neighbors, you’re putting money into the local economy where you can see it coming back to you. You’re supporting local business,” she said. “The spring market is quieter than the fall, but it is great that it’s here on campus,” said Anna Matejcek ’12. Matejcek, who is also a shareholder, is off meal plan and enjoys the benefits of the program. “Although you can’t get everything you want,” she said, “it’s cool because you don’t know what will be in your bag every week.”

Check out The Herald sports online thebdh.org/ sports

Arts & Culture 5

The Brown Daily Herald Friday, April 22, 2011

C r u s tac e a n S e n s at i o n

Higher ed ne ws r oundup Vanderbilt students protest school in Abu Dhabi Students at Vanderbilt University are protesting a proposal to construct a school of education in Abu Dhabi. Two Vanderbilt seniors, David Pasch and Theodore Samets, started the group Students Against Vanderbilt in the Emirates out of concern that possible discrimination, lack of human rights and limits on academic freedom could damage the reputation of their university, according an article on Inside Higher Ed. In an editorial in the Vanderbilt Hustler, Pasch and Samets wrote that creating a campus in Abu Dhabi would “hurt the perception that our university is a welcoming place for Jews, the LGBT community and anyone who cares about human rights and the dignity of all peoples.” Vanderbilt has not formally announced its plans to build the new school. Provost Richard McCarty will be having a meeting with the two students today to discuss the future, according to the article. — Kat Thornton

Harvard and Stanford connect through video communication

Hilary Rosenthal / Herald

Visiting chef Jody Adams served up a tasty meal that included seared scallops with sunchokes, peas and herbs (above).

Museum concocts a fashionable cocktail

— Ashley Aydin

By dulma Altan Arts & Culture Staff Writer

The culture of night-time merriment — of artful alcoholic drinks and swanky social events combined with elegant fashion — is what the Cocktail Culture exhibition at the Rhode Island School of Design Museum showcases with delightful cohesion. Comprised of works of art in various mediums, like dresses, photographs and drawings, as well as a number of cocktail-related objects from daily life, the display is an eye-opener for fashionistas and the culturally curious alike. Organized by the Costume and Textiles Department of the museum and curated by Joanne Ingersoll, the gallery is not limited to garments and photographs of cocktail parties by any means. Upon entrance, a clip of the iconic film “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” can be seen projected onto the left wall, providing a taste of the playful glamour that pervades the collection in the main room. In the large exhibition space, viewers can find an assortment of nightwear dating from the authentic fringed flapper dresses of the 1920s to a pink silk Halston dress from the 1980s, alongside items like Hawaiian shirts, cocktail shakers and exquisite cocktailthemed patterned fabric. Ingersoll calls these pieces “conversationals,” adding that “they were just incredible and captured my imagination in a big way.” Yet the diversity of such items and the numerous disciplines involved are incorporated into the continued on page 7

This semester, students at Harvard and Stanford University created a six-week course called “Ideas for A Better Internet.” The course connects students at the two universities through video communication, according to a March 29 article in the Crimson. The course — part of a joint project between Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society and the Stanford Center for Internet and Society — focuses on the future of the internet in addition to cyberspace privacy issues and government intervention policies. For the last two of their winter vacations, Harvard students have visited Stanford to participate in a demanding short course on problems with the internet, the Crimson reported. The current spring course is part of an effort to make the class into a year-long program.

Courtesy of the RISD Museum

Cocktail fashion is on display in a new exhibit at the RISD museum, running through July 31.

6 Arts & Culture

The Brown Daily Herald Friday, April 22, 2011

Shakespeare troupe feminizes Othello The rap on country:

narcissism and antagonism

continued from page 1 emotionally intense, but each of the actors gives all they have with little regard for self-preservation. The actors throw themselves into their characters completely — fighting, crying and having seizures without worrying about their appearances. Though some moments read false, the actors’ mutual trust carries them through even the most dramatic scenes. “This play would be impossible if we didn’t feel really comfortable with each other,” Tinkle said. Significant cuts were made to the script to get it to its current run time of one hour and 40 minutes, but the play retains all the necessary plot points for a coherent production. The show never drags or seems redundant. Rather, each scene works to build the dramatic tension to the emotional climax. This lesbian rendition of Othello comes at a particularly poignant time. As the marriage equality bill struggles to get enough votes in the Rhode Island legislature and marriage traditionalists with bagpipes protest on campus, a lesbian Othello is a powerful statement. But Mateo denies using the play as a political soap box. “If this play makes people think about something that is relevant to

By Suzannah Weiss Arts & Culture Columnist

Courtesy of Stephanie London

Shana Tinkle ’11 as Othello and Nicholas Morley ’13 as Iago perform in Shakespeare’s drama.

those current debates, I’m happy that we’ve made them think,” she said. “But I was very clear when we started this process that, for me, this is not a political statement. It’s a play.” Instead Mateo said she sees the story of Othello as “incredibly universal.” “The idea of being successful … but of having some apparently minor doubt — about being lovable, about being worthy, a doubt that … your enemies can play upon — I think is

not specific to black men or lesbian women. I think it is actually universal,” she said. “Regardless of a specific message,” said Ben Jones ’13, who plays Roderigo, “it really is a play about being human and all that that entails.”

A female Othello and the fiercely dramatic climax make this production unforgettable.

Brown students enjoy many privileges, one of which is distance from the music typically played on mainstream radio stations. This is not true for everyone, but I have managed to slide by for three years with almost no exposure to two of the most popular musical genres in the U.S. — rap and country. I’ll admit that I’m not a fan of either — the highest country threshold I can tolerate is Jenny Lewis — and I recognize the racial and socioeconomic factors that contribute to their status as common musical pet peeves. I also realize there is far, far more to them than meets the ear of someone listening to contentvoid Top 40 singles. That said, after doing some surface research — that is, listening to Rhode Island public radio stations for a few months — I noticed some curious repeated tropes. And by curious, I mean easy to make fun of. Rap and country predominantly depict two extremes of the American landscape — the

inner city and the countryside. But these genres are strikingly similar in their narcissistic glorification of their own demographics. After hearing Snoop Dogg use his own name in just about every number during last year’s Spring Weekend performance, I was expecting this trend in rap, but not in country. These parallel modes of selfreferential adulation are evident in the catchy, but excessively played, “Black and Yellow” by Wiz Khalifa and “This is Country Music” by Brad Paisley. Both address listeners directly to inform — or convince — those in hearing range that the song is about a way of life they can relate to. “Yeah, uh huh, you know what it is / Black and yellow,” Wiz Khalifa repeats. No, Wiz, I don’t. Is that some kind of insect pattern? And if we all “know what it is,” why are you telling us about it? Wiz Khalifa is actually paying homage to his hometown. The obscure reference, which he nevertheless presents as universal knowledge, stems from the colors of Pittsburg professional sports teams. Paisley similarly announces that “this is your life in a song,” “a road that takes you home” and “right where you belong.” If everyone who has heard that song belongs in the country, why doesn’t it have a higher population density? Of course, the song is meaningful to many people, but the way he expresses this is like a popular kid in high school granting someone — and by no means everyone — access to his clique. These two examples are particularly revealing in dialogue with each other. Rap paints a picture of a fairly new hedonistic gangster lifestyle, whereas country takes nostalgic listeners back to more innocent times and idyllic places. “This is Country Music” sounds like a defensive response to rap and other genres considered cooler: “It ain’t hip to sing about tractors, trucks, little towns and mama / Yeah, that might be true. / But this is country music and we do.” Another hit country song, “Kiss My Country Ass” by Blake Shelton, is more direct: “If you’re a down home, backwoods redneck, hey, come on, stand up and raise your glass. / But if you ain’t down with my outlaw crowd, you can kiss my country ass.” “Black and Yellow” also demonstrates paranoid awareness of its opponents, contrasting the non-inclusive “you” with “them haters.” It betrays a belief that where there’s a proud “us,” there’s an equally in-your-face “them.” Don’t get me wrong — mainstream country and rap music can be inspirational and fun to sing along to. The only thing that offends me is that, if these genres represent the urban and the rural, what is out there to glorify the day-to-day humdrum of suburbia?

Arts & Culture 7

The Brown Daily Herald Friday, April 22, 2011

Beauty and pain converge in ‘Steel Magnolias’ Culture of the cocktail explored

By Alexandra macfarlane Staff Writer

With a performance that delivered both laughter and tears, the cast of “Steel Magnolias” — running at the Trinity Repertory Company through May 15 — roused the audience to a standing ovation following its production Wednesday. From the superficial confines of a garage-turned-beauty parlor comes this sassy and serious play by Robert Harling. Written to cope with a traumatic loss from his family, Harling’s play explores how community and humor can help an individual deal with tragedy. With such a small and talented cast, the audience cannot help but be engaged and absolutely fall in love with each character. The play centers around six women who work at and frequent a beauty parlor in their small town of Chinquapin, La. Each actress captivated the audience in her own special way, portraying distinct and engaging characters exceptionally. To highlight this inclusive nature and bring the audience fully into the production, each character was treated to her own spotlight and theme song during her first entrance of the show. Before she even began speaking or interacting with their fellow characters, each woman introduced herself and connected with the audience through song and a little bit of dance. The play opens very simply. The audience, seated on three sides of the stage, looks into the main room of the beauty parlor. Eclectic and brightly colored lights adorn the ceiling of the stage and a sliding garage door — leftover from the parlor’s earlier days as a mechanic’s garage — serves as the backdrop. As the lights rise, Truvy (Rachael Warren), the flashy red-headed parlor store proprietor, is seated while her nervous new hire, Annelle (Alexandra Lawrence), fusses with her new employers’ hair. With little introduction to her new job, Annelle is thrown into the world of Truvy’s beauty parlor as the other women arrive. Clairee (Barbara Meek), the former first lady of the town, walks slowly into the room. Shelby (Madeleine Lambert), the soon-to-be married daughter of a regular customer arrives with her wedding hair-do in mind. Her mother, M’Lynn (Janice Duclos), soon follows, questioning every decision Shelby makes. Later, Ousier (Anne Scurria) storms in, yelling and moaning about the terror-filled and gun-shot-ridden relationship between her dog and M’Lynn’s husband. The parlor’s regulars seem to be involved in every part of each other’s lives. Truvy discusses the upcoming marriage. M’Lynn bemoans the similarity of the wedding colors — “pink and pink” — wondering, “How precious is the wedding going to get?” Shelby complains about her husband’s poor dancing skills and his family’s southern values — “shoot it, stuff it or marinate it.” All seems well and quaint until Shelby has a seizure. Truvy reveals to Annelle that the bride-to-be is diabetic and this kind of episode

continued from page 5

Courtesy of Trinity Repertory Company

The engaging ladies of ‘Steel Magnolias’ talk hair and hysterics in Trinity Rep’s current production.

is normal. They all discover from M’Lynn that Shelby has been advised against having children. The audience realizes that through all the laughs and smiles, the play has drama and sadness. This time, the gravity and seriousness of the characters’ lives pulls the viewer into the play even further. Shelby, though, seems determined to keep her life and the lives of her friends and family without worry or sorrow. She acts as if nothing has happened, a theme that she and eventually her mother champion throughout the entire play. With help from the others, Shelby shines the spotlight on Annelle instead of herself. The next time the audience meets with our six heroines is at Christmastime when Shelby announces she is pregnant. M’Lynn cannot help but be worried and tries

to explain the difference between “shouldn’t” and “couldn’t” when deciding to have a baby. As the scenes progress, the laughter and hilarity heightens, but Shelby’s condition worsens. The act finishes with a tone of seriousness, but the women keep it light, leaving the audience with a dance led by Shelby. The next act begins in June with Shelby announcing to the audience the birth of her son by stapling his picture to the garage door. She also drastically cuts her hair, reminding the audience that beauty is still the first priority. The mood seems lifted. M’Lynn is excited by her upcoming 30th wedding anniversary and Clairee discusses her nephew’s newly discovered sexual orientation amid laughter from characters and audience members alike. “In my day

you could tell by their carriage and demeanor what side their bread was buttered on,” she says. But despite the jokes and laughter, Shelby is not okay. She needs a kidney from her mother and they need good-looking hair to “stay sassy” in the hospital the next day. They leave with kisses and wishes of good luck — the promise of a new life fresh in the minds of the audience as the scene continues. Even as the play ends with tears in the eyes of the characters, the audience cannot help but smile and remember the words of the quotable Clairee — “The only thing that separates us from the animals is our ability to accessorize.”

A small and engaging cast makes for a captivating performance.

exhibition with clarity, thanks to the accompanied texts that can be found by each of the nine themes of the exhibit. These brief texts elaborate on the history and significance of the culture of the cocktail, from its emergence during Prohibition to its iconic status as a symbol of youthful American exuberance and festivity. The exhibit thereby provides an expansive and profound experience of a unique genre of modern American culture. As for specific items, the stylesavvy will rejoice in the fashion pieces on display, including pieces by designers Balenciaga, Schiaparelli and Dior. The collection has gems like shoes from the Roaring Twenties and casually glamorous dresses from the 1980s. The emphasis on the role of fashion in cocktail culture throughout its history is both beautiful and informative. “The pieces had to be exceptionally designed and illustrate a significant aspect of that period,” Ingersoll said. The exhibit is a must-see for anyone interested in getting a visually enthralling glimpse into this truly American phenomenon of the cocktail and its enduring culture and style. Cocktail Culture will be on display at the RISD Museum through July 31. Entrance is free to Brown students.

An exquisite collection of dresses and a rich knowledge of the cocktail combine in this boozy affair.

8 Sports Friday

The Brown Daily Herald Friday, April 22, 2011

Sheehan ’12 honors successes, failures continued from page 12 championship-favorite team and turn them into long shots. His moves at the trade deadline turned Nate Robinson, Kendrick Perkins, Marquis Daniels, Semih Erden and Luke Harangody into Jeff Green, Nenad Krstic, Troy Murphy, Carlos Arroyo and Sasha Pavlovic. Oh, and Jermaine O’Neal is our starter. The situation is as cheery as the ending of “The Departed.” The Rebecca Black Award award for Unintentional Hilarity

Courtesy of Michelle VanderPloeg

The women’s rugby team celebrated its Ivy League Championship at Princeton two weeks ago.

Rugby teams take Ivy League championships continued from page 12 for the Ivy tournament. “That was integral to our success in the Ivies,” he said. “That’s where we started playing as a team and coming together.” The win at the inaugural Ivy League 7s Championship gave the men’s squad a big confidence boost.“Our team has always had heart … but they’ve never really

thought a lot of themselves until now,” Travers said. “But now it is fair to say, ‘We have some swag.’” The joint championships were cause for festivity. “It was definitely a celebration for both programs,” VanderPloeg said. Travers expressed similar sentiment. “There’s quite a lot of camaraderie between the two teams,” he said. “It’s great that, finally, we are both Ivy champions.”

This award will be given out on the day after Thursday. The gods of sport have a sense of humor. Just look at Yi Jianlian. If there were a stat for missed slam dunks, Yi would be the league leader every one of his years in the league. Let’s not forget Buster Posey reminding everyone in the world that just because you haven’t gone through puberty, doesn’t mean you can’t attain your dreams. Now, Posey has hired a live-in mom to make him all the ice cream sundaes he can eat. “I’m the boss, so I eat ice cream every meal,” Posey said in between episodes of “SpongeBob SquarePants.” “Oh, I want that,” he said, gesturing to an ad for a Power Wheels Land Rover. “Mom, get me that!”

Also, that interview was made up. Our winner is, of course, Tiger Woods, for making every joke involving cocktail waitresses and “the back nine” relevant again. When Ivy Film Festival guest Aaron Sorkin eventually writes this screenplay, I want to see Jamie Foxx as Tiger, Blake Lively as Elin Nordegren and Megan Fox as Hoochie No. 47. The tagline could be, “He may be Tiger, but he’s also lyin’! ” This moves right into our next award. The Elin’s $750 million Check Award for Blatant Cheating

NBA dunk contest organizers earn themselves a large portion of the Check award for unabashedly handing the slam dunk contest to Blake Griffin. As Serge Ibaka’s jawdropping foul line dunk was shortchanged to a contest-worst score of 45, Griffin couldn’t even pull off his less impressive dunk and settled for just throwing it down really hard. Oh, and then Kia gave him a car to jump over — which actually wasn’t that cool — and a chorus. Shame on you, Griffin. Also when you are watching the NBA playoffs, don’t forget that Joey Crawford is refereeing the games. He certainly won’t. You could let a full-grown anaconda out on a basketball court and he would

ruin a game less than Crawford’s game-calling. It helps if you make a game out of it — guess when he gets nailed for betting on games. The Magic Johnson Award for Hilarious Nicknames

As this would be the only thing Andrei Kirilenko ever wins in his life, I’m giving him part of the award for the nickname AK-47. Not since The Croatian Sensation, Toni Kukoc, have we seen an Eastern European nickname that good. Kevin Durant’s “Durantula” moniker also grabs a piece of the award, but the big winner is one of his own Thunder teammates. Serge Ibaka’s nickname of “Iblocka” comes from his ability to block basketball shots and not from interrupting teammates who are talking to ladies while out at the club. No comment on Kobe Bryant’s “Black Mamba” nickname. I think given his legal history, he should have known to stay away from snake nicknames. Sam Sheehan ’12 is reasonably sure that his editors will make him cut that last line. Talk sports with him at Sam_Sheehan@brown.edu or follow him on Twitter @SamSheehan

Letters 9

The Brown Daily Herald Friday, April 22, 2011

Grad student ‘support’ Fuel efficiency would help save at the pump needs clarification To the Editor:

To the Editor: In the article on the Graduate School’s announcement of sixthyear funding (“Sixth-year PhD funding announced today,” April 20), the meaning of “support” needs clarification. According to the Dean of the Grad School’s website, rising sixth-years in the humanities and social sciences who applied for funding next year could apply for summer funding, health insurance, enrollment fee, health fee or stipend for one or two semesters. Because stipend support is a specific category, the 58 percent of students who will receive stipend support implies that 42 percent of graduate students will go without stipend support — the money they need to live on — next year. Furthermore, the 58 percent figure in the article is murky because it includes students who only received one-semester stipends. The article also claims that “80 percent of those requesting funding will receive the full amount they asked for, and the remain-

Your article on Rhode Islands’s ing 20 percent will receive partial skyrocketing gas prices (“R.I. still funding.” However, this does not plugged in to renewable energy,” mean that all students are receiv- April 19) underscores the need to ing the funding they need to live, build cars and trucks that guzzle as applicants in this process could less gas. In the coming months, apply for a variety of funding op- President Obama has an opportutions short of a full stipend. They nity to break our oil dependence, were also led to believe by state- save Rhode Islanders money at ments from the Grad School that the gas pump and cut dangerous their applications would be more emissions by setting strong new competitive if they asked for less. fuel efficiency and global warmThis means that students who were ing pollution standards for cars concerned about their applications getting denied asked for less than the amount they needed just so that they could get something. The Grad School claims that 99 percent Cloud Buddies! | David Emanuel of sixth-years in the humanities and social sciences are supported with some form of funding, but as shown on the dean’s website, the amount of funding provided ranged from $23,855 to as little as $330.

and trucks. Transportation accounts for more than half of the oil Americans use, so making more efficient cars and trucks is the easiest way to save Rhode Islanders money on gas while reducing our oil dependence. Requiring new cars and light trucks to meet a 60 mileper-gallon standard by 2025 would save Rhode Islanders $335 million at the pump while cutting Rhode Island’s oil use by 140 million gallons in 2030. The Obama Administration

comics

Lindsay Goss GS Wen Jin GS Arturo Marquez GS John Rosenberg GS Anne-Caroline Sieffert GS Dr. Bear | Mat Becker

Dot Comic | Eshan Mitra and Brendan Hainline

confirms scientific analysis that we can cost-effectively make cars that meet a 60 mile-per-gallon standard the norm and not the exception. Obama should seize this opportunity to put American ingenuity to work by calling for cars and light trucks to meet a 60 mile-per-gallon standard by 2025. Rhode Islanders cannot afford for him not to. Sylvia Bartell Environment Rhode Island volunteer

10 Editorial & Letter Diamonds & Coal

The Brown Daily Herald Friday, April 22, 2011

Editorial comic

Coal to Diddy, who showed up to perform at Spring Weekend 15 years too late.

b y e r i k s tay to n a n d e va n d o n a h u e

Diamonds to the Pawtucket and Woonsocket school committees, which, after learning their districts would receive more money under Rhode Island’s new school funding formula, sued the state because it’s not enough new money. Actually, our lawyers are advising us to think twice before giving you those diamonds. A cubic zirconium to Mark Baumer GS, who teaches a section of LITR 0110A: “Fiction I” and also said, “When I’m ready to wither and die, that’s when I’ll be a teacher.” We told ourselves the same thing about making a newspaper. A diamond to the North Kingston caregiver who said of medical marijuana, “If it’s one dollar, it’s too expensive.” We want to buy from the same guy you do. 107 diamonds to Beatrice Coleman ’25, who celebrated her 107th birthday Wednesday with students and faculty at Fox Point. Not to show you up, but there are several Brown students who were feeling at least 110 by the end of Spring Weekend. Coal to the Athletics Review Committee, which recommended cutting the varsity wrestling, fencing and ski teams yesterday. Remember, the fencers have swords. If you cut them, they might cut you back. A cubic zirconium to the Providence College Reserve Officers’ Training Corps instructor who said, “We’re trying to build leaders, not killing machines.” To be fair, that’s only because Lockheed Martin builds the killing machines for you. A diamond to Providence Police Chief Col. Dean Esserman, who will keep his job despite reports of unpopularity within his department. The only unpopular deans should be the ones who lock fraternities out of their own common rooms.

quote of the day

“It really is a play about being

”

human and all that that entails.

— Ben Jones ‘13 See othello on page 1.

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letter to the editor U. values underrepresented voices To the Editor: Although the writer’s intentions might have been respectable, an article in Thursday’s Herald (“Support for Hispanics scrutinized,” April 21) poorly navigated the very sensitive and political nature of the Latino experience at Brown. I was originally told the piece was meant to address the statistic that, out of all the Ivies, Brown has the highest dropout rates among the Latino student population, particularly among Latino men. I’m not sure if this is indeed factual and am even more skeptical now. Yet the writer never mentioned the statistic in his piece, even though it was precisely what I was asked to respond to in the interview. Thus, I would like to clarify what seems to me to be a symptom of poor journalistic practice. Yes, we do need more Latino faculty members at Brown, but this can also be said for a myriad of other underrepresented groups in academia. As for fostering dialogue around problems Latino students feel should be addressed, I am sure no one would object to talking these things out. I do not feel, though, that Brown does a poor job of reaching out or of providing outlets for these grievances to be voiced. If anything, I think it is an institution that values underrepresented voices

and is very much proactive in sharing the microphone. Moreover, I am a little weary about the problem alluded to in the piece about Latino students not performing as well academically as our counterparts. I am not too familiar with this phenomenon and am not even sure if it’s a real one. Firstly, I fear this ungrounded assertion only adds fuel to the flame, promoting stereotypes that represent the minority student as less intellectually apt because he or she was admitted only as a result of affirmative action. This robs us of our individual achievements, equating us to sheer numbers for a quota. In any case, if I had to conjecture a response to Latino students “struggling academically”, I would say it might be related to a pattern where some minority students somehow feed into this fallacious idea and begin questioning their own abilities as scholars and their own right to be in academia. I want to say that that is total nonsense. The quicker we leave that idea behind and realize we were given this academic opportunity because of who we are not what box we check off on the Census form, the more we can focus on our academic growth and scholarly progress. Ana-Irma Patete ’13

Corrections An article in Wednesday’s Herald (“Sixth-year PhD funding announced today,” April 20) incorrectly stated 58 percent of fifth-year doctoral candidates will continue work on their dissertation for a sixth year. In fact, the figure refers to the fraction of humanities and social science sixth-year students who will be receiving funding next year. The Herald regrets the error. An article in yesterday’s Herald (“Student sues public high school over prayer,” April 21) incorrectly attributed the following quote to Lynette Labinger: “I’m certainly optimistic about this. Our case is too strong — we have more evidence than the other side could possibly even lie about having. There are so many other cases like mine.” In fact, the words were spoken by Jessica Ahlquist. The Herald regrets the error.

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 11

The Brown Daily Herald Friday, April 22, 2011

Knowing and kneeing By Stephen Wicken Opinions Columnist Human knowledge, dear reader, is a funny thing, and our pursuit of it is even funnier, especially when we are wearing flip-flops. We spend a large proportion of our waking hours trying to come to know things. And yet we never seem to know that we know something until we realize that, without knowing how or when, we have come to know it. Let me offer an example, since I know that you are already starting to know that you always knew that guy was an idiot, you know? You are studying for an exam. If it is one of those irritating blue book exams with the identification questions — and it is, because I am in charge of this hypothesis, and I say it is — there is a good chance that you are going to have to learn something specific and sort-of-quantified: the basic chronology of the French Revolution, for example, or the subdivisions of the three parts of the first component of Wright’s concept of an “emancipatory social science.” For the uninitiated, these are: tidy, sandwich, probably not, superglam, spiffy and loaded with Monterey Jack and our famous Chipotle Ranch dressing. These vectors can, of course, be delineated institutionally and psychosexually, but not epistemologically, rendering them meth-

odologically autonomous, but unable to get wireless signal in Continental Europe. Anyway, you are up the night before the exam, fully loaded with coffee and sugar — and some other little helpers — and you’re trying to memorize all this essential information. You try the age-old favorites: closing your eyes and reciting, covering up part of the page — or whatever its iPad equivalent is — perhaps some kind of faintly creepy mnemonic device. You do it, and then you look to find that you are miss-

tive England, and I am annoyed equally by the fact that the visit will coincide with the royal wedding and the fact that I shall miss the NFL draft. In one sentence, I have seriously damaged not one, but two perfectly good cultural stereotypes, and it stings. This situation has just crept up on me like an aggressive same-sex kiss creeps up on the end of a Saturday Night Live sketch in lieu of a punch line. One minute, I was sniggering because someone said they liked my pants. The next, I was genuinely

Career-getting manuals, in particular, seem to state that without being able neatly to summarize oneself — or, even more bizarrely, to identify oneself perfectly with one of the personality types on page 68 — we are doomed to a life of professional misery. ing two. You try again, and you get those two, but you’ve forgotten another one. And so on and so forth, until finally you get the whole list and can get back to Angry Birds. There is not an identifiable point at which the information sticks to your brain — one minute you do not know something, and the next minute you find you know it. So far, so loaded with Monterey Jack. At this point, you do not know my point. Well, get ready to know it, for here it comes — I am about to leave for a short visit to my na-

concerned about the prospect of the Redskins trying to stretch for a quarterback as the tenth pick in the draft. Once, I would have seen the occasion of a balding, inbred man marrying a tremendously uninteresting woman on television as the perfect setting for a drinking game : Drink every time Prince Philip leans over and visibly says something racist to the Queen. Now, all I can think is that it is going to be impossible to get a packet of crisps in a single pub in the land, which feels me with a deep fore-

boding. What has this to do with you, dear and by-now-surely-completely-baffled-and-angrily-gassy reader? Well, since I have been contemplating the possibility finally of stepping outside the comfy confines of the college campus, I have noticed more and more the pressure upon us all to know and to define ourselves. Career-getting manuals in particular seem to state that without being able neatly to summarize oneself — or, even more bizarrely, to identify oneself perfectly with one of the personality types on page 68 — we are doomed to a life of professional misery. One is either an extrovert or an introvert, a thinker or a feeler — despite the fact that the healthy way through life usually requires moving between these poles as the situation requires. And the one person I’ve ever met who could be described only as a “feeler” made himself very unpopular, especially with the ladies. My point, then, is that in the search for careers and concentrations, internships, relationships and cruise ships, we cannot know what we are and therefore what we need to do. The best one can do is to make an educated guess and be sure that anyone nearby who instead makes a guesstimate receives a swift knee to the groin.

Stephen Wicken is a doctoral candidate in the History department and a woeful amateur philosopher.

In the drug war, keep your eyes on the real killer By hunter fast Opinions Editor Sofia Ortiz-Hinojosa ’11 recently opined in The Herald that the breakdown of the rule of law in Mexico at the hands of vicious drug cartels can be blamed unequivocally on common cannabis users like the ones who appeared Wednesday on the Main Green (“4/20 and the drug war,” April 18). While a subsequent letter to The Herald by Pablo Rojas ’11 points out that Ortiz-Hinojosa’s indictment of marijuana on College Hill as the financial grounding for “murderous smugglers” is factually baseless (“Letter: Pot on campus not from Mexico,” April 19), her assertion that users — not prohibitionist governments — are the ones with blood on their hands remains unchallenged. It is readily apparent that Ortiz-Hinojosa does not understand that governments that ban drugs hand a monopoly on their sale to people who are already willing to break the law. In addition, prohibition takes away the courts as a means for drug vendors to settle disputes peacefully. In lieu of a legal framework in which to operate, they terrorize the Mexican citizenry in their needlessly bloody quest for market dominance. Furthermore, it is naive to assume that one can compel all drug users in the U.S. to quit simply through emotional appeal. As Rojas points out, Ortiz-Hinojosa’s argu-

ment is more relevant to crack and heroin use, and many people who use crack and heroin do so not out of some sociopathic disregard for the plight of the Mexican people, but because they are physically addicted and unable to stop. Indeed, this is how cartels make money — they get set up in an economic sector with high entry barriers due to prohibition, sell into a market pop-

rather than the avarice of drug lords or the grandstanding of American politicians. Ortiz-Hinojosa is therefore effectively arguing that all Americans should obey bad laws — ones that infringe on fundamental rights to privacy, free enterprise and selfdetermination — so that the violence and the deaths ultimately arising from those laws just might end. Let me be unequivocal

Many people who use crack and heroin do so not out of some sociopathic disregard for the plight of the Mexican people, but because they are physically addicted and unable to stop.

ulated by addicts who will reliably come back for more, then use the resulting profits to buy enough guns that the Mexican security apparatus can no longer stop them. While a free-market implementation of the heroin trade — or that of any other drug — would still take advantage of people’s addictions, it would do so without threatening the integrity of any state and without jeopardizing the lives of those who choose not to use drugs. Thus, it becomes a system governed by personal responsibility in which the outcomes individuals face are connected with the choices they make,

myself — our freedoms are too important to be held hostage this way. In a free society like ours, individuals should have the liberty to use whatever substances they see fit in their own homes, pursuant of their rights to privacy and property. After all, in 2003, the Supreme Court established in the case Lawrence v. Texas that the government has no right to ban private sexual conduct between consenting adults. Given that sex and drug use both have associated risks, why should drug use be treated differently? While Ortiz-Hinojosa feels entitled to

a sense of outrage at the sight of someone publicly using marijuana, it instills in me a gratitude to live in a place where someone can commit an act of public civil disobedience against the unjust prohibition of drugs without facing legal repercussions. If more people expressed disdain for the modern prohibition — either in the public discourse or through civil disobedience — the result would not be the bloodbath that Ortiz-Hinojosa describes, but a greater impetus for the end of the drug war, a goal to which she pays mere lip service. Ortiz-Hinojosa brushes off the idea of holding our government culpable for the Mexican drug war, but until the people stop vilifying drug users and demand that the government stop wasting taxpayer money on a failed scheme, the situation in Mexico will continue to deteriorate. Prohibitionists often attempt to blame the negative ramifications of the drug war — a redundancy in terms — on the users, rather than on the fundamental paradox of handing an entire sector of the economy to organized crime. Indeed, support for the drug war is frequently based on the popular portrayal of drug users as being somehow threatening to society at large. Ortiz-Hinojosa, by denouncing drug users and those who advocate for their personal freedom as being part of some sort of “counterculture,” serves to perpetuate this issue rather than alleviate it. Hunter Fast ’12 firmly believes the government can be — but is not always — good.

Daily Herald Sports Friday the Brown

Friday, April 22, 2011

EndBears twice champions in Ivy League 7s of-Year Awards Rugby

By Madeleine Wenstrup Sports Staff Writer

Texts were flying two Sundays ago between the men’s and women’s rugby teams. Both teams — the women in Princeton and the men in New York City — had just played in the final match of their respective Ivy League Championships. “We were all texting them saying, ‘We won Ivies.’ And they were saying, ‘We’re Ivy champs,’” said Michelle VanderPloeg ’12. Last fall, on the 50th anniversary of Brown rugby, the men’s and women’s teams were combined into a single program. “It was a culminating experience,” VanderPloeg said. “Creating one rugby program, and the manifestation of that — having both of us winning in one weekend — it was really fun,” VanderPloeg said. The women’s team (16-4) is no stranger to the Ivy championship title. They arrived in Princeton as the reigning league champions and lived up to their title, scoring 236 points and allowing zero. Co-captain Chelsea Garber ’12 recalled some spectator comments during the matches. “The tournament director called it ‘champagne rugby,’” she said. “It seemed like every ball was perfect, every pass that could have been dropped was caught and every ball bounced the way it needed to.” The Sunday final saw the Bears facing Princeton, the host team, who was also celebrating the 30th anniversary of its women’s rugby team. But the Bears did not falter for a moment and started off hot with a steal in the first ruck. They did not back down until the whistle blew, ending the final with a 56-0 Bruno victory and a tournament most valuable player title for co-captain Izzy McKinnon ’11. From here, the women’s team heads out to Bowling Green,

By Sam Sheehan Sports Columnist

Courtesy of Robert Powell

The men’s rugby team beat Columbia for the Ivy League Championships in New York City April 10.

Ohio, for the national championship sweet 16. Head Coach Kerri Heffernan said she is confident her team will perform well. “I am excited to be going to the first round of nationals relatively healthy and with confidence,” she wrote in an email to The Herald. “I think we have a good shot at returning to the final four this year — we are really good.” The national championships will bring some heavy competition from new opposition. “I am really excited, especially to play high-level competition, because in the spring it is a little sparse,” Garber said. If the Bears make it through the first round, as they have done for the past three years, they will then travel to Stanford two weeks later for the national final four. “That’s where you really go up

against the big guns,” Garber said. For the men’s team, the Ivy League Championship weekend was a more novel experience. This spring marked the first annual men’s Ivy League 7s Tournament. Though the Bears took on host Columbia for the final, the highlight of the tournament was the narrow win against the pretournament favorite, Dartmouth, in the first round. “It’s been 15 years, I think, since any Brown rugby team has beaten Dartmouth,” said co-captain Dow Travers ’12. Head Coach Jay Fluck said he felt similarly. “(The players) played their pattern, moved the ball well,” he said. “Beating Dartmouth was a big win, and the championship against Columbia was the icing on the cake.” In the final against Columbia,

Brown fell behind at the start 5-0 but recovered quickly with a try by co-captain and tournament most valuable player Daniel Levine-Spound ’12 and a conversion by Sam Rabb ’11 to give the Bears a 7-5 lead at the half. Levine-Spound’s second try and Rabb’s second conversion put Bruno comfortably ahead, 19-5. The Lions put in another try before the whistle to make the final score 19-10, but the Ivy champs had already been determined. Before the Ivy Championship, the squad made a last-minute decision to put together a team for the Collegiate 7s Collegiate Rugby Championships qualifier in Las Vegas. The team finished in the top 10 out of 32 schools, and Travers said the competition there helped the Bears prepare continued on page 8

w. lacrosse

Bruno breezes by Gaels to snap losing streak By Sam Wickham Sports Staff Writer

The women’s lacrosse team (6-7, 1-4 Ivy) snapped a five-game losing streak Tuesday at Stevenson Field, dismantling the St. Mary’s College of California Gaels, 26-6. Nine different Bears contributed to a potent offensive effort that overwhelmed the Gael defense. Kaela McGilloway ’12 set the pace for the Bears’ attacking unit, finding the net five times and dishing out four assists. Bruno scooped up 19 ground balls in the victory, which allowed for long possessions and constant pressure on the Gael goal. The Bears established a lead early and never looked back, scoring seven straight goals to open the game. The Gaels struggled to

establish any sort of tempo, as the stringent Brown midfield forced multiple turnovers. St. Mary’s finally got on the board in the 16th minute in unconvincing fashion, as a batted loose ball trickled into the net. But the Bears would not be stopped, adding eight more goals before the half and cruising to a dominant 15-2 halftime scoreline. “A lot of people contributed all over the field,” said Head Coach Keely McDonald ’00. “And gritty play is important for us, so the ground ball and draw controls were great to see.” “We have about seven more days of lacrosse left,” said tricaptain Alexa Caldwell ’11. “We want to finish out the week the way we know we can, and we owe

it to ourselves as a team to have fun with it.” McGilloway and Bre Hudgins ’14 added to the lead in the opening minutes of the second half, each netting unassisted goals. Though the Gaels responded with a strike of their own two minutes later, it was clear Bruno’s offense was too much to handle. The Bears set off on another scoring streak, finding the net six times in the next 10 minutes. Erin Roos ’14 and Marissa Dale ’14 each netted their first goal of the game during this spree. The Gaels attacked too little too late, adding three goals in the final 10 minutes of play. Brown added two from Hudgins and one more from Tara Rooke ’13 to cruise to the comfortable 26-6 victory.

Bruno totaled a whopping 46 shots in the game and capitalized on seven of 10 free position shots. Winning 26 draws allowed the Bears to keep the ball for most of the game and apply offensive pressure. “We really owned the midfield today and that has become a staple for us,” Caldwell said. “We’re looking to continue that for the last two games and practices.” Next up for Bruno is Ivy opponent No. 8 Penn Saturday at Stevenson Field. Though the team is not in contention for postseason play, the game is an important one for the seniors as they head into their final week with the team. “We’re trying to have fun and to hold it together to finish the way we know we can,” Caldwell said.

I have been so transfixed these last few weeks with the drama on the court, ice and field on which Boston’s teams tread, that I didn’t see the end of the year coming. Indeed, the final weeks of the semester were so stealthy, they snuck into my house, strangled my work ethic and tiptoed out again before I even realized what happened. Now, this being my last column of the semester, I figured it was time to hand out the first annual Badly Dressed Irish Sports Fan Awards — BDISFAs — for the year. But I believe award shows should be about recognition for your successes or woeful failures versus actual winners and losers. So I’ll be giving awards to multiple recipients who will split their BDISFAs among themselves. So, ladies and gentlemen, put your hands together for this year’s BDISFA winners. The Robert Downey Jr. Award for Instilling Man Crushes

Honorable mention goes to Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire for arriving in a time when Derek Jeter is about as popular as the Unabomber, giving Gotham City stars to love who aren’t incredible tools. No one likes you, A-Rod. For reasons of my own bias, Chris Paul’s evisceration of the Lakers on the road in Game 1 cemented his share of the award. Aaron Rodgers’ banishment of the Brett Favre demons from Lambeau was also a winning effort. Armando Galarraga’s loss of a perfect game on a blown call of what would have been the final out, though, earns him the majority of the Downey Jr. He kept his cool, shrugged it off and kept competing like a real professional athlete. Hats off to you, Armando. The Bill Buckner Award for Finest Efforts to Ruin Boston Sports

It’s often said by the teammates of a Red Sox pitcher: “When he’s on the mound, he gives us a chance to win.” In the case of John Lackey, this is said by opposing batting coaches and hitters. With an ERA of almost 10, he gets part of a Buckner. Patriots safety Patrick Chung’s mind-boggling strategy of “steal ball from own punter, try to run” grabs him a portion as well. But our big winner is Celtics General Manager Danny Ainge. It takes a special man to take a continued on page 8