Daily
Herald
THE BROWN
vol. cxlviii, no. 56
INSIDE
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Dance for you Festival offered a mix of electronic, rock and rap
This article, the first in a four-part series, delves into the history and culture of sexual assault at Brown, as well as stories of those who have experienced it
FEATURES EDITOR AND UNIVERSITY NEWS EDITOR
Public health Former Surgeon General spoke on health disparities Page 11
Defining giving Gianotti ’13 questions the meaning of philanthropy today
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tomorrow
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SILENT VIOLENCE
Under the surface: Sexual assault at Brown By ELIZABETH KOH AND ALEXANDRA MACFARLANE
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since 1891
MONDAY, APRIL 22, 2013
Warning: This article contains graphic material regarding sexual assault. On a campus that openly celebrates consensual sex, many students do not regularly confront SILENT VIOLENCE what happens when Part one of four lines of consent are violated or blurred. “Brown students love talking about sex,” said Devon Reynolds ’14, a coordinator for the Coalition Against Sexual Assault and Relationship Abuse. Sex-positive events see high attendance, she said, “but when I put
‘sexual assault’ in the name, it becomes a struggle to get people to show up.” Those who have been sexually assaulted often face a culture unwilling to address the complicated realities of sexual violence at Brown. “You know what happens to rape victims — they get accused of being liars and crazy people, and they have that stigma of being damaged,” said Emily, an undergraduate victim of rape whose name has been changed to maintain confidentiality. “I still can’t go up and be like, ‘This is what happened to me — I’m going to advocate for this,’” she said. “Because I’m still at school.” Emily’s experience did not fit her preconceptions about rape, so “it was very hard for me to define what happened to me,” she said. “Because it wasn’t like a dark alley. It wasn’t / / Assault page 4
HERALD FILE PHOTO
Students at Brown have often brought the topic of sexual assault to the forefront of campus dialogue, but students said discussion remains limited.
Planning committees Harris ’14.5, Kwakwa ’14 Social media solicit campus feedback to compete in UCS run-off falsely link Committees will present their proposals to the Corporation in the fall after considering costs By MOLLY SCHULSON SENIOR STAFF WRITER
The strategic planning committees are working on condensing their individual recommendations into a “single, integrated, strategic plan for Brown,” said Provost Mark Schlissel P’15 at a community forum on the strategic planning process Friday. Schlissel and nine chairs of the six planning committees held the forum — which drew around 100 attendees, most of whom were faculty and staff members — to solicit feedback on the progress.
The planning process is coming to a close in the coming months, Schlissel said, adding that the committee chairs wanted to solicit ideas, advice and criticism from the audience. Schlissel listed excellence, access and impact as the “overriding goals” of the committees, which include the Committees on Faculty Recruitment, Career Development and Retention, Doctoral Education, Educational Innovation, Online Teaching and Learning, Financial Aid and Reimagining the Brown Campus and Community. Non-committee processes, including the proposed signature academic initiatives, will also be incorporated in the finalized plan, Schlissel said. All six committees considered the importance of diversity and internationalization / / Plans page 8
Neither presidential candidate got a majority of the votes, prompting a revote to begin Tuesday By MAXINE JOSELOW SENIOR STAFF WRITER
The race for president of the Undergraduate Council of Students will be determined by a run-off between Todd Harris ’14.5 and Afia Kwakwa ’14, the UCS Elections Board announced at 12:01 a.m. Friday on the steps of the Stephen Robert ’62 Campus Center. A run-off is employed when no candidate receives greater than 50 percent of votes in a race among more than two candidates, said Caleb Miller ’16, UCS elections board chair and a Herald senior staff writer.
In an instant run-off conducted before the announcement, Harris received 1,179 votes, 48.9 percent of the total. Kwakwa garnered 1,166 votes, 48.4 percent of the total. About 42.5 percent of the student body voted, said current UCS President Anthony White ’13. Though an instant run-off was used to determine the position of UCS president last year, this is the first time it has failed to produce an immediate winner. The instant run-off mechanism uses a candidate ranking system to reallocate votes that were originally cast for the third candidate to the top two. It has existed since 2011, White said. The next voting period will open Tuesday at noon and close Thursday at noon, Miller said. “I’m really / / Run-off page 3
Weekend welcomes spring traditions, headliners Despite ticketing issues, BCA members and students said the festival ran relatively smoothly By MATHIAS HELLER UNIVERSITY NEWS EDITOR
EMILY GILBERT / HERALD
Rapper Kendrick Lamar headlined Saturday’s Spring Weekend concert with a performance many attendees said they enjoyed.
Spring Weekend festivities elicited praise from concert attendees this year, as many students indicated satisfaction with the Main Green performances of headliners A-Trak and Kendrick Lamar Friday and Saturday. “The concerts ran really smoothly,” said BCA Publicity Chair Raillan Brooks ’13, adding that BCA “did not encounter any serious issues” that complicated the concerts. “The lineup made a lot of people happy.” TouchNet, a third-party ticketing service, experienced technical issues
April 15, the first day of ticket sales, preventing thousands of students from purchasing tickets, The Herald previously reported. But Brown Concert Agency successfully resumed the sale of tickets later that day. Though some students expressed frustration with the difficulty of securing tickets for the concerts, others said the musical acts complemented each other smoothly to make for an entertaining respite before reading period. Buying tickets to the concerts has always been a frustrating experience, but BCA did a good job releasing more tickets later in the day when problems with TouchNet emerged, said Josh Sung ’13. What Cheer? Brigade — a Rhode Island-based brass band — and hiphop artist Big Freedia warmed up the crowd Friday / / Concert page 3
student to bombing
University officials and family members confirmed the rumors were unfounded By ELIZABETH KOH FEATURES EDITOR
Claims on social media platforms that Sunil Tripathi, a former member of the class of 2012, was a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings were dispelled Friday morning when Boston Police Department officers named Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev as the two suspects. Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was killed during a confrontation with police early Friday morning following a shooting at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a shooting and bomb scare in Watertown, Mass. His brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, was caught Friday after an extensive manhunt that effectively shut down the city of Boston. He remains in serious condition. Family members and University officials confirmed that Tripathi was not a suspect Friday morning. Widespread Internet discussion and multiple media outlets claimed Thursday evening and early Friday morning that Tripathi’s name was heard on police scanners as one of two suspects in Monday’s bombings. Multiple news outlets, including the Atlantic, later confirmed Tripathi’s name had not been mentioned on police scanners. “The last 18 hours have generated tremendous and painful attention — on social media platforms Facebook, Twitter and Reddit, as well as from television media inquiries — linking Sunil to the video stills released by the FBI yesterday afternoon,” Tripathi’s family wrote in a statement / / Tripathi page 5
2 arts & culture
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD MONDAY, APRIL 22, 2013
C ALENDAR TODAY
APRIL 22
5 P.M.
TOMORROW
APRIL 23
12 P.M.
Rebels, Freaks and Viruses Panel
Make Your Own Stress Balls!
Alumnae Hall
Main Green
7 P.M.
4:30 P.M. Sex Jeopardy
“Is It Time to Legalize Marijuana?”
Smith Buonannon Hall Room G12
List Art 120
MENU SHARPE REFECTORY
VERNEY-WOOLLEY
LUNCH Pesto Pasta, Meatball Grinder, Broccoli Rabe, Garlic Bread, Fresh Whole Green Beans, Chocolate Cake
Cavatini, Vegan Stuffed Red Peppers Brown Rice, Sauteed Spinach and Garlic, Chocolate Sheet Cake
DINNER Mussels in Herb Sauce, Black-backed Flounder with Bananas, Grilled Boneless Pork Chop, Worms in Mud
Beef and Broccoli Szechuan, Sweet and Sour Tofu, Chinese Fried Rice, Asian Veggies, Cappuccino Brownies
SUDOKU
TOM SULLIVAN / HERALD
The crowd danced the night away as DJ A-Trak skillfully manipulated mixes ranging from Missy Elliott to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, all while taking shots of the crowd with his iPhone.
Spring Weekend delivers engaging lineup
Kendrick Lamar and Dirty Projectors stole the show in the weekend’s series of well-balanced concerts By ANDREW SMYTH SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Alas, the weekend of revelry comes to a close. The Main Green lies worn and muddied from the foot stomping of thousands of Brunonians. The stage is dismantled and the Ratty un-Fratty’d. As students wander wearily back to the libraries, the time has come to reflect on a Spring Weekend lineup that thrived in a live setting, addressed a variety of tastes and delivered on its promise to provide the campus with an engaging, communal experience. Well done, Brown Concert Agency. Providence brass band What Cheer? Brigade, bounce starlet Big Freedia and DJ A-Trak kept the crowd moving for a Friday night full of raucous energy and close-proximity dancing. Saturday proved more relaxed, but also more musically interesting — atmospheric contributions of 4/20 celebrants adding to the good vibes. The experimental delights of Dirty Projectors, freaky sound waves from Deerhunter and killer lines by Kendrick Lamar capped off a weekend replete with fun music, warm bodies and cold (drank). What Cheer? announced the start of the festivities by marching around the Green in a seething mass of flailing limbs and beating drums. The band’s sound was loud, full-bodied and aggressive, a brassy opening set for a wild night. The crowd eagerly jostled to take part in the fanfare, bodies bouncing like pinballs around trombones, trumpets and flugelhorns.
REVIEW
CROSSWORD
Eventually, the group finished a solid half-hour of its signature punk marching band sound. As attention shifted to the main stage, the audience bore witness to “azz everywhere” courtesy of Big Freedia, the “Queen Diva” of New Orleans’ bounce scene. Like a six-foot tall lioness prowling the stage, she led call-and-response chants with a booming voice while her dancers performed the wildest buttshaking acrobatics this bounce-virgin had ever witnessed. The booty-bumping extravaganza lasted a few songs too long, but for those willing to let loose and twerk it out, Big Freedia provided an open invitation to join the party and celebrate the body. Our exhausted glutes had little time to rest, with A-Trak demanding otherwise. With a smoothness befitting his fedora, the DJ executed a riotous set, mixing everything from Missy Elliott’s “Work It” to Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ “Heads Will Roll” with aplomb. Even house-music skeptics couldn’t deny that A-Trak was putting on a genuine performance, manipulating tracks with spontaneity in response to the energy from the crowd. While unleashing sonic booms with a flick of the wrist, he snapped pictures of the crowd with his iPhone. He deftly encapsulated the mood of the night — people had come to dance, and A-Trak was prepared to facilitate. Dirty Projectors opened Saturday with an outstanding set, in many ways the perfect soundtrack for a crisp spring afternoon. The band is as clean and precise live as it is in the studio. Navigating dense vocal harmonies and intricate arrangements, it executed songs from its albums “Bitte Orca” and “Swing Lo Magellan” in peak form. Lead vocalist David Longstreth proved himself an able leader, but backup singer Amber Coffman’s sweet, elastic soprano stole the show. Her solo during “Stillness is the
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Move” deservedly aroused hysteria from the audience. The band even executed an intricate vocal effect called hocketing — a technique cultivated in medieval France consisting of rapid-fire vocal ping-pong. In terms of sheer musicality, the group was unquestionably the best act in the lineup. Indie rock darling Deerhunter could not deliver on those terms, but its set easily won the distinction of being the most bizarre of the bunch. “I don’t even understand earth culture,” declared frontman Bradford Cox at one point, his arms poking out from a flowing cheetah-print muumuu. Indeed, listening to the music was something of an alien experience. Deerhunter’s set consisted mainly of massive guitar elements saturated in reverb and occasionally punctuated by Cox’s extraterrestrial screams. There was an occasional semblance of melody, but clearly their intention was to leave the Green awash in trippy, ethereal soundscapes. At long last, Kendrick took the stage and cleaned up. Bringing the audience along on a tour from his earliest mixtapes to his acclaimed debut record “good kid m.A.A.d city,” he approached the subject of a failing, violent Compton in a way few rappers have done before. He owned the stage, interacting comfortably with the audience and free-styling without accompaniment, vulnerable but in control. A solid contingency in the audience seemed to know every word. In some ways, Kendrick’s performance was an odd choice from BCA, as much of his work criticizes some of the rituals central to the Spring Weekend experience. As he joked, “Y’all got an amazing amount of energy even though y’all been smoking,” we were reminded that he, a non-smoker, would not be partaking. It was a bit unsettling to be part of a semi-inebriated crowd singing along to “Swimming Pools (Drank),” a harrowing song about the perils of alcohol abuse. And I might need someone to fetch me a modern culture and media concentrator to understand the implications of the Brown student body chanting, “(Expletive) and patron make you feel all right.” Nevertheless, Kendrick was a consummate headliner, a rare combination of genre innovation and genuine star power who deserved his top billing. As his set — and the concert — drew to a close, he slid into a Brown jersey, announcing, “No matter how big this (expletive) gets, no matter if it gets smaller, I will always come back to you. ... I love y’all.” The crowd seemed eager to absorb him into our camp and claim him as our own.
university news 3
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD MONDAY, APRIL 22, 2013
/ / Concert page 1 Former U.S. Surgeon General talks public health
The 14th annual Barnes Lecture speaker discussed the relationship between science and politics By JILLIAN LANNEY STAFF WRITER
Former U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher discussed current issues in public health at the 14th annual Barnes Lecture, part of Public Health Research day Thursday. The talk, “Health Disparities: Can we overcome?,” focused on the social determinants of health, the relationship between science and politics and problems facing the medical community. The Andrews Dining Hall audience mainly consisted of public health professionals and individuals affiliated with the University’s public health program. The lecture followed a two-hour student poster session, displaying a variety of public health research projects. President Christina Paxson introduced Satcher, praising him for “breaking new ground” on numerous public health issues as Surgeon General. She spoke enthusiastically about the University’s recent decision to establish a School of Public Health, which will officially exist as of July 1, she said. Satcher said he was “delighted to hear” about the new school because of the importance of preparing future leaders to tackle pressing national health issues. Satcher is currently the director of the Satcher Health Leadership Institute at his alma mater, the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Ga. “We can’t just leave the emergence of public health leaders to chance alone,” Satcher said. Satcher also spoke of community outreach projects undertaken by his Morehouse students. His favorite program, he said, is focused on training parents from a predominantly black,
SCIENCE & RESEARCH
/ / Run-off page 1 surprised,” Harris said. “I’m excited about the closeness. It really goes to show how important it is to vote.” “I knew it was going to be a close race, so I wasn’t that surprised,” Kwakwa said. “I look forward to continuing (campaigning) because it gives me an opportunity to talk to more students.” Leila Veerasamy ’15 was elected chair of the Undergraduate Finance Board, beating Alex Sherry ’15 by claiming 65 percent of votes. Sherry said he would run for vice chair of the board if he lost the race for chair at the candidates’ debate April 11. “I’d be happy as chair with Leila as vice chair. I’d be happy as vice chair with Leila as chair,” Sherry said at the time. “Leila will be a very strong chair,” said current UFB Chair Zak Fischer
low-income neighborhood in parenting skills and providing for good early childhood development. Community outreach is crucial, he said, because nothing substantive can be accomplished solely within academia. In addressing disparities in health, Satcher said social determinants “are more important for health outcome than is health care.” This is why policymakers must consider people themselves when making health policy recommendations. For example, many individuals in poor urban communities do not have access to the fresh fruits and vegetables recommended by doctors, Satcher said. They may be unable to exercise outside due to a lack of safety in their neighborhoods. Good physicians are also often unwilling to settle in these types of communities, restricting access to care. Satcher talked about the relationship between science and politics and public health. He said that policies are formed through the give and take of research and lobbying. “In order to be successful in health policy, you have to be determined and patient — you’re going to have a lot of setbacks,” he said. Satcher added that he often felt his ideas were restricted by political forces and funding constraints, both during his tenure as Surgeon General and as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Throughout the talk, Satcher mentioned specific reports produced and policies recommended by his office while he was Surgeon General. He spoke of a need for further strong research in health, saying that this research is worth substantial investment. Satcher also talked extensively about the obesity “epidemic” in the United States. To combat obesity and other health issues, programs need to target children to help them get started on the path to establishing healthy lifestyles before health problems arise, Satcher said. Quality preventative measures are crucial for public health, necessitating universal access to primary care, he added.
night before A-Trak took the stage, while rock band Dirty Projectors opened Saturday afternoon’s concert. The indie rock group Deerhunter also performed Saturday prior to Lamar’s arrival on stage. “A lot of student interest was well-represented” by the different musicians, said BCA member Emily Maenner ’16. BCA received complaints in past years about the lack of a “classic rock act” during Spring Weekend, Maenner said, adding that the inclusion of Deerhunter was an effort to appeal to rock fans. Dirty Projectors appealed mostly to the “indie Pitchfork crowd,” Maenner said, referring to the independent music review site Pitchfork, while Big Freedia was “definitely a spectacle” focused primarily on visuals. “It all meshed well together,” said Henry Knight ’16, who attended both concerts. Knight said he did not have high expectations for any single performer because he had not listened extensively to the artists’ music but was “pleasantly surprised” by how well the performances fit “cohesively as a whole.” Both headliners received favorable reviews from concert attendees. “Everybody was very amped up” during A-Trak’s performance, Angelica
Nguyen ’14 said, citing the electronic artist as her favorite. Nguyen said she was not as pleased with Lamar’s performance, adding that the rapper seemed “not so enthusiastic.” Vice President for Campus Life and Student Services Margaret Klawunn said administrators were generally pleased with how Spring Weekend ran this year, adding that the University encountered few problems over the weekend. Emergency Medical Services transported a total of 17 students to hospitals downtown from campus, with six students transported Friday and 11 Saturday, Klawunn said. “Even one is always more than we want, but I think those numbers are pretty average,” she said. Sixteen students were transported to hospitals by EMS last year, The Herald reported at the time. The University continues to develop alternative activities for students not interested in partying or attending the concerts during Spring Weekend, Klawunn said, citing the Class Coordinating Board’s late-night breakfast Friday and the silent rave hosted by the Student Activities Office and the Late Night Fund Saturday. “We want to continue to think about making Spring Weekend something that everyone can be a part of,” Klawunn said. Deerhunter was “a little strange”
’13. “Her strength is that she’s very personable.” No one was elected UFB vice chair, since no candidates ran for the position. The position will be filled through an internal election in the fall. Sam Gilman ’15, who ran unopposed, was elected UCS vice president. Maahika Srinivasan ’15, who ran unopposed, was elected chair of the Academic and Administrative Affairs Committee, and Sazzy Gourley ’16 was elected chair of the Admissions and Student Services Committee, defeating Andrea Wistuba Behrens ’16. Malikah Williams ’16 defeated two other candidates to be elected chair of the Campus Life Committee, and Alex Dreschler ’15, a Herald opinions columnist, was elected chair of the Student Activities Committee after running unopposed. Alana Bhatla ’16, who also ran unopposed, was elected treasurer of the Council.
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but students seemed to like them, Sung said, adding that he particularly enjoyed Lamar. “Big Freedia was good but a little bit provocative for me,” and her performance lasted too long, said Elizabeth Jean-Marie ’15. Lamar “was awesome and somehow managed to keep the crowd pumped,” she added. Friday’s concert “was basically a giant dance party,” said Nate Thomas ’14, adding that he was pleased with the music of student DJ Abe Arambolo ’14 between acts and that Big Freedia was his favorite performer. While A-Trak and Lamar were touted as this year’s big-name stars, some students said their favorite part of the weekend was the atmosphere. “I basically like how everyone drops everything for the weekend and hangs out,” said James Giarraputo ’15. Sunday’s performance on Wriston Quadrangle by folk musician Dave Binder — who has come to campus every Spring Weekend since 1987 — drew praise from students who noted his ability to rally the student body on the final day of the festivities. “It just shows we don’t need a really flashy and expensive performer to come together and have fun,” Michelle Miller ’15 said, adding that Binder, who entertained the crowd with classic songs like Bruce Springsteen’s “Glory Days,” was her favorite performer of the weekend.
4 silent violence / / Assault page 1 like somebody jumped me and had sex with me and finished and left me there.” This four-part series will examine sexual assault at Brown, including its role in campus culture, the reporting and disciplinary processes and the long-term effects for those who have experienced or been accused of sexual assault. Though not all people who have experienced sexual assault use the term “victim” to describe themselves, this series will use the word in accordance with standard journalistic practice. Reaching consent Despite Brown’s reputation as a liberal campus with an open dialogue about sexual issues, there is little consensus about the definition and role of consent. “Explicitly asking for consent is super rare,” said Gabriel Schwartz ’13, a member of the Sexual Assault Peer Education program. Going home with another student can lead to assumptions about what is acceptable. “If you consent going with someone somewhere across campus, you are letting in an expectation that there is going to be some kind of sexual activity,” said Elena Saltzman ’16. Melissa Kuriloff ’16 disagreed. “There’s an expectation that you are willing to be alone with this person for a set amount of time” but nothing more, she said. Many students said explicit consent is essential to healthy sexual encounters. “You have to have consent not only to
Have you ever had sex (genital touching, oral, anal, vaginal) under these conditions? (Circle all that apply)
A four-part series
8%
I wanted to say no but didn’t object
14%
I did not explicitly say yes or no I felt obligated to do the same with my partner as before
9% 41%
My partner was intoxicated I hoped my partner wouldn’t say anything
3%
My partner gave mixed signals about consent
2% 11%
I assumed we would do the same as we did before
41%
I have not been in any of these situations 0
10
20
30
40
Percentage of students
50
60
JILLIAN LANNEY / HERALD
tal touching, oral, anal, vaginal — when they wanted to say no but didn’t object. Less than 3 percent reported having had sex with the hope that a partner wouldn’t say anything. Just under 9 percent of students reported having had sex because they felt obligated to do the same with a partner as they had previously. Only 2 percent reported having had sex after a partner gave mixed signals about consent.
Rachel Karen ’14 Co-coordinator of the Sexual Health Awareness Group
SILENT VIOLENCE
53%
I was intoxicated
“Consent can be given or taken away at any moment.”
actually have sex, but … what kind of act are you performing,” said Alejandro Perez ’15. If a person initiates a hook-up, it often indicates that person’s consent moving forward, said Hersho Barazi ’15, adding that “it’s up to (the other) person to be like, ‘Look, you do not have the green light.’” But if one partner stops a sexual interaction, Barazi said, the other should understand, even if they are in a relationship. Behavior does not indicate consent — rather, consent indicates consent, said Daniel Rowe Jacobson ’14. Students “start to assume certain ways of acting are cues for consent” and are then less likely to communicate with their partners, he said. “Every individual scenario in which you are with someone — doesn’t matter if you’ve had sex with them before, or if you’re in a relationship — has to have consent,” said Angel Gutierrez ’15. Consent is “black and white,” he said. But other students said consent can be ambiguous, especially when people rely on nonverbal signals. In a Herald poll conducted in March, about 8 percent of undergraduate students indicated they have had sex — geni-
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD MONDAY, APRIL 22, 2013
But students suggested their peers may not have answered honestly. Schwartz said he doubted the poll’s finding that only 14 percent of students have had sex after not explicitly saying yes or no. Brown’s reputed “hook-up culture” presents problems, said Rachel Karen ’14, a co-coordinator of the Sexual Health Awareness Group, a student group run through Health Services. It “skews with people’s emotions” and makes students think they need to act certain ways. Healthy sexual encounters require preemptive planning, especially when alcohol is involved, said Caroline Doherty ’15, co-chair of the Sexual Health Education and Empowerment Council. Particularly with new partners, “definitely get the yes,” she said. But even if consent is given, it may not hold for an entire encounter. “Consent can be given or taken away at any moment,” Karen said. One night during her senior year, Sarah, a recent alum whose name has been changed to maintain confidentiality, returned home from a party with a close friend. They began hooking up, but after a while she told him explicitly she did not
want to have sex, and they went to sleep. She woke up in the middle of the night to him raping her. “I kind of freaked out, and I pushed him off of me,” she said. But the next morning, they had consensual sex, she said. “I just remember not really being able to process it at all.” Past and present Most national statistics — including those from the National Institute of Justice and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — indicate around 20 percent of women and 1.5 percent of men experience sexual assault at some point in their lifetimes. But according to a 2000 NIJ study, under 5 percent of attempted or completed sexual assaults are reported to law enforcement officers, a statistic in line with the findings of several other studies. Though sexual assault statistics can be complicated by false reports, a 2010 study, which drew from a 10-year period at an unnamed major university, estimated that the rate of false allegations fell between 2 and 10 percent. Researchers at the Alpert Medical School conducted a study in the 19992000 academic year examining incidents of sexual assault at Brown, which revealed statistics largely in line with national numbers, said Bita Shooshani, the University’s coordinator of sexual assault prevention and advocacy. But the methodology of the study, which was released in 2005, did not use “the best sampling method,” Shooshani said, and the University is considering conducting another study in the near future. In the past few decades, the University has appeared in the national spotlight several times due to controversies related to sexual assault and attitudes on campus surrounding rape. In 1990, female students posted lists on the walls of several stalls in the Rockefeller Library bathrooms with the
names of up to 30 male students who they claimed had committed sexual assault. Even as janitors scrubbed the walls, students rewrote the lists in other bathrooms around campus, the New York Times reported at the time. Eventually, the University changed how it handled cases of sexual violence, as well as how it educated students about resources and safety on campus. Sheila Blumstein, then-dean of the College, told the Times the University would begin mandatory first-year workshops on date rape the following fall. In 1996, the nation turned its attention to a case of alleged rape at Brown. Adam Lack, originally a member of the class of 1997 who graduated years later, claimed he met and engaged in consensual sex with a fellow student, who said she could not remember the night’s events and accused Lack of rape five weeks after their encounter. She said her level of intoxication invalidated her consent, The Herald reported at the time. The incident sparked campus protests and debate about the existence of a spectrum of consent, as well as if and when drugs or alcohol change its boundaries.
Shooshani said the University has made strides in recent years. “Brown has really been at the forefront of addressing sexual assault, compared to campuses nationally,” Shooshani said. Campus organizations that address sexual assault include CASARA, which advocates against sexual assault and domestic violence, and SAPE, which works within Health Services to train students in sexual assault prevention. Greek Council launched an in-house initiative two years ago to encourage bystanders to speak up if they see potentially problematic situations, said Tommy Fink ’13, Greek Council chair. “We’re creating this program to make sure that sexual assault doesn’t happen,” he said. But Shooshani said not everyone is ready to intervene in potentially unsafe situations. “We’re in a culture where people are not feeling so comfortable doing that,” she said. Under the influence Consent is further complicated by the party scene, where alcohol plays a dominant role. “Whenever I go to a party situation, there’s a lot of alcohol, there’s a lot of aggression, there’s a lot of energy. I make sure I’m never alone. I make sure I know where I am,” said Kathryn Graves ’15. Just over half of students have had sex while intoxicated and about 41 percent have had sex with an intoxicated partner, according to Herald poll results. The Health Services consent education webpage lists several signs a person is too intoxicated to give consent, including impaired motor skills or speech. Among class years, senior poll respondents reported the highest rates of having had sex while intoxicated, at 65 percent, or when a partner was intoxicated, at 50 percent. About 37 percent of first-years reported having had sex while under the influence. Of those polled, athletes reported having sex while intoxicated at a higher rate than the general population, at roughly 63 percent compared to roughly 51 percent. Men were also likelier to have had sex while intoxicated than women, at around 58 and around 50 percent, respectively. Some students said it is difficult to
“Whenever I go to a party situation, there’s a lot of alcohol, there’s a lot of aggression, there’s a lot of energy. I make sure I’m never alone.” Kathryn Graves ’15 In 2006, William McCormick III, a former member of the class of 2010, was accused of rape by a fellow student, forced to leave school and never given an official University hearing. Over the next six years, McCormick, who was never informed of the specific allegations against him, engaged in several legal battles with the University over the handling of his case. Despite this checkered history,
This four-part series will investigate sexual assault at Brown, examining campus culture, the reporting and disciplinary processes for both victims and alleged perpetrators and the psychological, social and academic effects on those who have experienced or been accused of sexual misconduct. Read the entire series online at thebdh.org/assault. Monday: Despite a sex-positive culture on campus, dialogues about sexual assault and rape are often limited. This story examines the culture surrounding sex, consent and assault on campus, detailing its prevalence nationally and at Brown. Tuesday: Victims of sexual assault have the opportunity to report allegations to the University or the Department of Public Safety, as well as to seek counsel through Psychological Services. This story examines victims’ experiences and the statistical underreporting of sexual assault on campus. Wednesday: Accused perpetrators of sexual assault must also navigate a complex University judicial process and social fallout. This story examines the proceedings of a sexual misconduct hearing and explores the stories of accused students. Thursday: Sexual assault has long-term psychological and social ramifications. This story examines how victims cope with their experiences beyond their immediate aftermaths.
determine how drunk is too drunk. “There is a barrier where you can’t really trust the person if they’re in a certain state,” said Jessica Liang ’16. Ability to give consent depends on how much someone has had to drink, said Aida Palma ’16. “If you can’t walk by yourself, you shouldn’t be giving consent to anybody for anything,” she said. “That would be a clear line.” But other situations are less clear, particularly when a student may not be visibly drunk. In the case of intoxication, students said both partners must properly convey their expectations. “If you’re too intoxicated too, they could ask the question, and you could very easily just be like, ‘Ah, whatever,’” said Nicole Lee ’15.5, adding that a person could later recognize he or she had not wanted the interaction. “I still think the fault lays with the person who did it, but also the person who didn’t give explicit consent.” / / Assault page 5
silent violence 5
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD MONDAY, APRIL 22, 2013
/ / Assault page 4 Addressing gender Though most reported cases involve male perpetrators and female victims, sexual assault does not discriminate by gender. The numbers surrounding incidents of sexual assault are inconsistent, both because of its varying definitions and because of the methodologies used in leading studies. The common assumption that sexual assault is only perpetrated by men against women conditions how people assign blame, students said. Men “get less of a pass,” said Chris Latham ’14. “A male is held responsible for his actions when he’s drunk, no matter what he does, whereas a female — if she gives consent when she’s drunk — can retroactively say, ‘It wasn’t consent because I was drunk.’” Jacobson said making sexual assault solely a gender issue puts males on the defensive, disenfranchising a population that could work to prevent sexual assault. “Sexual assault is perpetrated by everyone,” he said. “Everyone involved — the perpetrators, the victims — they’re people,”
/ / Tripathi page 1 Friday. “Reports that (Tripathi) was a possible suspect in the Boston Marathon investigation were untrue, and there is no connection between him and the events in Boston,” wrote Russell Carey ’91 MA’06, executive vice president for planning and policy, and Margaret Klawunn, vice president for campus life and student services, in a community-wide email Friday. “Our thoughts are with the Tripathi family who have had to endure additional pain due to unfounded and irresponsible Internet rumors,” they wrote. Rumors that Tripathi was associated with the bombings circulated Thursday after a high school classmate of Tripathi’s posted FBI stills and pictures of Tripathi on Twitter, suggesting resemblance. Comments alluding to the rumors surfaced on the Facebook page the family
Reynolds said, “and it’s coming from somewhere in our culture that can be changed if we all stand up together.” In some cases, a victim’s gender can influence how others respond to allegations of assault. Jacob, an undergraduate whose name has been changed to maintain confidentiality, was assaulted at the beginning of his first year by a sophomore male he did not know in a Keeney Quadrangle bathroom. Jacob said he believes his gender has affected how others perceive his assault. “I feel like if I were a woman talking about being sexually assaulted by a male, I might be met with more skepticism,” he said. “But I think my maleness sort of unfortunately has added to my credibility as a source.” Natella Johnston ’13.5 said current culture places insufficient blame on male rapists. Johnston, who works with sexual assault victims in the Center for Sexual Pleasure and Health in Pawtucket, added, “Challenging that mentality would do a lot more than telling people, ‘Be careful, take a self-defense class, don’t look slutty.’” Stranger danger? Emily had repeatedly told the man has devoted to searching for Tripathi, and family members disabled the page until early Friday morning. Family members reached out to law enforcement officers when traffic started “picking up” on the Facebook page, said Tripathi’s brother Ravi Tripathi ’09. “Various levels of law enforcement” stayed in touch with the family throughout the night, he added. “At no point did it appear to anyone that Sunil was involved in any way,” he said. University officials, including Klawunn and University Chaplain Janet Cooper Nelson, also contacted the family Thursday night, Ravi Tripathi said. Family members continue searching for Tripathi, who went missing March 16, mother Judy Tripathi said. They hope to “use as much of this energy and buzz that has been created to help us in our search for Sunil,” she said. “We’re still as actively as ever looking.”
she was casually hooking up with that she did not want to have sex, but one night, he became aggressive and raped her. When Emily told her psychiatrist she had been date-raped, he told her, “‘You know, date rape is hard, but things like this happen all the time. You’ll get over it,’” she recalled. Stranger rape is often stereotyped as the most dangerous kind of sexual assault, but Shooshani said date and acquaintance rape are more common on college campuses. National studies have estimated about 90 percent of female victims in college are assaulted by people they know, according to a 2007 NIJ study. When asked, students guessed that acquaintance rape is the most common type of sexual assault at Brown. Prior acquaintance probably “helps facilitate the rapist’s actions,” said Anisa Khanmohamed ’15. “They have some background with this person and ... they kind of know what social scene they enjoy or partake in.” A forcible drunk hook-up counts as “a form of sexual assault,” said Zak Enzminger ’15. “But that’s different from somebody who actively would go and
try to rape another person.” The range of interpretations of what qualifies as sexual assault can allow others to cast doubt on the validity of a victim’s account. During her entire time at Brown, Sarah shared classes, a student group and a close circle of friends with the man who raped her during her senior year. Many of her friends had difficulty reconciling the assault with their own relationships with her attacker, she said, and the incident drove a wedge between her group of friends. “You think at Brown it’s very progressive. ... (You) think people would understand when that happens,” Sarah said. But “I think people would rather believe anything than believe one of their friends would be capable of raping a girl.” Community and culture Some students said the community is not fully able to engage with the lived reality of sexual assault. “You think we’re all intellectually engaged, and therefore we should be able to rationally know what’s ethical and what’s not, but unfortunately that’s not the way it works,” Barazi said. Because student groups and individ-
uals at Brown generally promote healthy, sex-positive lifestyles, students might have skewed perceptions of what actually happens, said Lizbeth Maldonado ’15. “We’re supposed to be sexually empowered because we have this known hook-up culture,” she said. “If you do get sexually assaulted somewhere in Brown, it’s kind of less acceptable.” There are still large populations of students at Brown who have no exposure to issues surrounding sexual assault and act like the problems don’t exist, Schwartz said. Brown has a reputation of being open and welcoming, and as students, he said, we are “really good at pretending we are really good” at responding to sexual assault. Tomorrow’s story will examine the victim’s perspective, the options available following assault and the underreported nature of sexual assault on campus. The rest of this series will continue to follow the stories of Emily, Sarah, Jacob and other victims, as well as alleged perpetrators, as they navigate judicial processes and emotional fallout of sexual assault. -Additional reporting by Katherine Cusumano, Maggie Livingstone, Eli Okun and Alison Silver
6 spring weekend
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD MONDAY, APRIL 22, 2013
PHOTOS BY EMILY GILBERT AND TOM SULLIVAN / HERALD
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD MONDAY, APRIL 22, 2013
spring weekend 7
8 university news / / Lax page 12 Red (11-2, 5-0) claimed possession of the Ivy League regular season championship Saturday with a victory over the Bears on Senior Day. With two goals in 27 seconds to end the third quarter, Cornell attacker Rob Pannell became the Ivy League’s all-time leading scorer. “We ran into a great program,” Tiffany said. “We ran into a team that just does not make mistakes.” Before the game, Brown honored its seniors: Jones, Obafemi Alese ’13, Clay Del Prince ’13, Johnny DePeters ’13, Roger Ferguson ’13, Sam Ford ’13, Shane McHugh ’13 and George Sherman ’13.
“I really love them for how much heart they have poured into this program for four years,” Tiffany said. “Here we are on Spring Weekend. Much of the campus is relaxing and celebrating the closer we get to graduation, but our guys are still battling hard.” The celebratory mood quickly faded for the Bears when Cornell jumped out to an early 3-0 lead. Jones and Hurster each had a goal before halftime, but Cornell added three more, making the score 6-2 in favor of the Big Red. Before the final buzzer, Jones scored twice more. Ford and Bailey Tills ’16 also put points on the board, but the late offense was not enough
to overcome Cornell’s strong play. Despite the high score, Round played well once again for the Bears — stopping 16 Cornell shots on goal. Overall, the Big Red outshot Bruno 47-32. The Bears also lost the faceoff battle 19-5 in what has become a major problem for the team this year. Bruno will try to capture the Ocean State Cup with a win over Bryant (5-9) Tuesday evening. The Bears will finish their season Saturday on the road against Dartmouth (3-9, 1-4). “It’s important how we play this week, even though the playoff goals are gone,” Tiffany said. “It’s important for our seniors, and it’s important for how we move forward next year.”
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD MONDAY, APRIL 22, 2013
/ / Plans page 1 in the strategic planning process, Schlissel said. “We all recognize that you can’t achieve excellence without … diversity,” he added. Participants in the strategic planning process will evaluate the affordability of the committees’ recommendations this summer, and the final, integrated plan that “sketches out ambitions for the decade ahead” will be presented to the Corporation this fall, Schlissel said. Committee chairs were given five minutes to report on the progress of their committees and share their recommendations with forum attendees. Recommendations from the Committee on Faculty Recruitment, Career Development and Retention include achieving greater faculty diversity, increasing support for faculty research and “continuing academic excellence of senior faculty,” said Dean of Medicine and Biological Sciences Edward Wing, co-chair of the committee. One faculty member in attendance responded by saying he believed faculty recruitment was the key to improving academic departments, adding that the University should focus more on recruiting graduate students instead of being “hugely skewed” in favor of attracting undergraduates. Increasing support and physical space for doctoral students are priority items for the Committee on Doctoral Education’s plan, said Dean of the Graduate School Peter Weber and Professor of Philosophy Bernard Reginster, who co-chair the committee. “The Brown curriculum in the future can only be better than the Brown curriculum in the present tense,” said Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron, chair of the Committee on Educational Innovation. The committee wants to develop new teaching methods and build on the creation of TRI-Lab to expand community-based research, she said. The committee’s recommendations include new ways to approach international education, including the creation of new courses that “have embedded opportunities for international study,” such as foreign trips during spring break or at the end of the semester, Bergeron said. The Committee on Online Teaching and Learning wants to “help prepare students for the future that they face in the digital age,” said University Librarian Harriette Hemmasi, who chairs the committee. Recommendations include expanding the role of the Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning, sharing courses with other universities and planning “mini courses” spanning less than a full semester and possibly focusing on current events, she added. Hemmasi said her committee supports the creation of a long-term standing committee that would “review ongoing needs” of the University in online learning. Ninety million dollars of the University budget, with the endowment covering about one-third of this total, goes toward financial aid, said Director of Financial Aid Jim Tilton, chair of the Committee on Financial Aid. Tilton said this percentage puts the
University behind some of its peer institutions — like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University — that can use their endowments to cover as much as 80 percent of financial aid costs. Tilton said the strategic planning process needs to balance long- and short-term goals, citing universal need-blind admission as unreachable in the near future. “In the list of priorities, we realized going needblind is significant … but there are some immediate needs that we need to pay attention to,” he said. Reducing the student summer earnings expectation, currently set at $3,000 per summer, could be a short-term goal that is easier to attain than a universal need-blind policy, Tilton said. Executive Vice President for Planning and Policy Russell Carey ’91 MA’06, who chairs the Committee on Reimagining the Brown Campus and Community, said “the campus is working quite well,” leading committee members to only consider “modest and minor improvements overtime.” But Carey said his committee discussed a lack of performance space for music groups on campus. Director of Orchestras and Chamber Music Paul Phillips said the “musical situation ... has gotten significantly worse” in terms of securing physical space for orchestra practices. Schlissel indicated members of the strategic planning process are aware of Phillips’ concern. “I’d be very surprised if the ultimate plan doesn’t involve performance space … the message is made, and it’s toward the top,” he said. Carey’s committee received negative feedback in response to its initial recommendation to move different departments into the same building. Opponents expressed concerns about maintaining the “identity, character and quality of spaces,” Carey said. “There may be some programs that benefit from shared spaces … but by no means is this something that fits all departments,” Carey said, adding the committee scaled back this recommendation in response to feedback. Forum attendees requested committee chairs provide more information on physical spaces for facilitating social interaction among faculty members. It is difficult for faculty members to find places to meet and build social networks with colleagues, said Professor of Cognitive, Linguistic and Psychological Sciences Bertram Malle. An on-campus wine bar could be one potential solution for this problem, he said. “Whether to have a wine bar or not, I’m not sure, but having a space … that’s a start,” said Professor of Engineering Iris Bahar, who co-chairs the Committee on Reimagining the Brown Campus and Community. Schlissel concluded the forum by emphasizing the University’s devotion to the strategic planning process. “The aggregate number of hours that have been spent on (strategic planning) this year by faculty, students, staff, the president, me, the deans … it’s the biggest thing we’ve been spending time on this year,” he said.
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sports monday 9
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD MONDAY, APRIL 22, 2013
W. LACROSSE
Bears falter in final minutes after matching the Quakers’ score Bruno was able to take the No. 1 Ivy League team into overtime but failed to clinch a win By HALEY ALVAREZ CONTRIBUTING WRITER
The women’s lacrosse team fell to Penn 10-7 in overtime Saturday at home. The Quakers — No. 1 in the Ivy League — out-hustled the Bears despite a strong effort from Bruno to keep the match tied 7-7 in the final minutes of regulation. “It was another big step for our program, taking the No. 1 Ivy into overtime, but it’s disappointing that we haven’t closed one of those tight
games yet,” said Abbey Van Horne ’14. “We have done so much to change the program this year and have made history, but it’s hard for us to see in the moment when we didn’t clinch those wins.” The Bears (9-5, 2-4 Ivy) held a 7-6 lead with seven minutes remaining in the match, but Penn (9-4, 7-0) forced the game into overtime with less than a minute left on the clock. With Penn on the attack in the final seconds, Kellie Roddy ’15 made a critical save to keep the game tied.
Penn started off the scoring with a goal 33 seconds into the game, which the Bears answered with a four-goal streak. Co-captain Tara Rooke ’13 and co-captain Bre Hudgins ’14 each scored a goal, and Abby Bunting ’15 added two of her own. The Quakers scored another goal in the half, giving Bruno a 4-2 lead before halftime. The second period began with an offensive campaign from both teams, with two goals by each. Bunting and Hudgins each contributed one goal.
With fewer than 10 minutes to go, a Quaker goal tied the match 6-6, but Grace Healy ’14 gave the Bears a onegoal lead with 7:15 left in the period. Bunting and Hudgins each contributed three points to the Bears’ efforts, with three goals from Bunting and with two goals and an assist by Hudgins. “We played so well ... because we were so supportive of each other, and coach kept reminding us what our program is about and where it’s headed,” Rooke said.
Join the Club| Simon Henriques
COMICS
Lonely Zoo | Daniel Moraff and Rachel Himes
Defensively, Kasey Wagner ’13 led the team in caused turnovers, while Richael Walsh ’16 and Sidney Jacobs ’13 each added two ground balls to the Bears’ efforts. Roddy ended the game with seven saves in goal. The squad will return home Saturday in a matchup against Yale (7-6, 1-5). “We still have so much to be proud of and we’ve come really far ... and know we can take the hard work we put into changing the program,” Van Horne said.
10 editorial EDITORIAL The dangers of new vigilantism
At the height of the Boston Police Department and FBI’s pursuit of the two suspects of last Monday’s Boston Marathon bombing, something unprecedented occurred: Hundreds of people, across social networks like Reddit and Twitter, tuned into police scanners and claimed law enforcement officers had identified one of the suspects as Sunil Tripathi, the former member of the class of 2012 who has been missing since mid-March. News agencies quickly picked up the accusation, and many celebrated the flow of information as a “victory” of new media over old — despite shady evidence supporting their claims. Then, a couple of hours later, NBC’s Pete Williams released the actual identities of the bombers, the brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, discrediting and embarrassing the so-called citizen detectives and their erroneous witch hunt. This active attempt by social media users to prove the worth of new media over traditional media left everybody for the worse, including members of Tripathi’s family, who were made the subjects of written attacks by self-justified internet vigilantes. This all speaks to the grave consequences of citizens attempting to play detective and to the need for law enforcement officials and news agencies to speak up early to minimize the damage that misguided attempts at justice can wreak. What exactly occurred that allowed people to make this damaging logical jump is unclear. It all started with a thread on Reddit, titled as a question: “Is missing student Sunil Tripathi a marathon bomber?” Though since deleted, the thread slowly built up from a conspiracy theory discussion into a jubilant, congratulatory stream of comments for the Reddit user who “broke” the story — but the necessary evidence was never there. Many commenters claimed Tripathi’s name was mentioned as a “person of interest” on the police scanners and that this was the damning evidence they needed. But a “person of interest” is not an official suspect, and, perhaps more embarrassingly, Tripathi’s name never appeared in subsequent transcriptions of the police scanner logs from that night. Instead, Internet sleuths pounced on the narrative the Reddit thread set up, so much so that they decided to hear what they wanted to hear over the scanners. This kind of wish-fulfillment is unacceptable — and the reason why we rely on trained professionals to validate and publicize news items instead of trusting unverified strangers touting their theories online. But some blame also rests on law enforcement and news agencies for not recognizing and fighting against the mob mentality these social media sites fostered in the aftermath of the bombing. The Internet is both a wonderful tool and a terrible curse — it can give immediate information, but it can also lead to immediate misinformation. Knowing this, law enforcement agencies must release the names of suspects in cases with as large a profile as the Boston Marathon bombing as soon as possible to avoid misidentifications as damaging as this one. Our society’s systems of information validation must keep pace with the systems of information sharing — otherwise, as we saw last Thursday and Friday, innocent people can get hurt in the gap. This is an unprecedented event in the history of journalism, and it is unacceptable that Tripathi and his family got caught up in it. While there is little we, as Brown students, could have done to stop it, we can still demand a greater degree of scrutiny directed at online forums and a quicker response from those we rely on to share validated information. We may not be able to act as detectives of crimes, but we can at least engage critically in reviewing information — because if we don’t, we can contribute to collateral damage far beyond what we imagine.
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD MONDAY, APRIL 22, 2013
EDITORIAL CARTOON b y a n g e l i a wa n g
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“I don’t even understand earth culture.”
— Bradford Cox, lead singer of Deerhunter See spring weekend on page 2.
Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board: its editor, Dan Jeon, and its members, Mintaka Angell, Samuel Choi, Nicholas Morley and Rachel Occhiogrosso. Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.
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opinions 11
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD MONDAY, APRIL 22, 2013
Giving to Brown CLAIRE GIANOTTI Opinions Columnist As the time for graduation draws near, the class of 2013 is asked to give a senior gift — and this is only the beginning of those relentless mailings and emails. As alums and possibly parents of Brown students, we will annually receive the same request. The assumption is that we want to sustain and improve this institution we have become a part of over the past four years, that though we may move to other cities and begin new lives, we will always be a part of the Brown community. A recent article in the Atlantic by Ken Stern titled “Why the Rich Don’t Give to Charity” makes two observations. The first is that the wealthiest Americans give a lower percentage of their incomes to charity than the poorest Americans. The second is that when the rich do give, they tend to support educational institutions and arts organizations, whereas the poor generally give to religious and social-service organizations. Stern claims that our charity system is a fraud. He insists that our tax code, which allows the wealthy complete freedom in charitable donations, favors the elite. On the surface, this is a mundane observation. We are likely to be generous and open-handed to those organizations most connected to our own life experiences. The wealthy, who probably benefited from in-
stitutions of higher education, are more inclined to feel the urge to reciprocate in that same vein. The poor, who are nearer to the hardships of life, are more likely to be compassionate to those reliant on charity for the basic necessities of life. Compassion requires shared experience. In this senses Stern’s study is very much in line with what we would expect from human nature, that we give to our “own.” But his observation is also harrowing for us, because it implies educational institutions and arts organizations are inherently elitist. Perhaps this is obvious. Museums, op-
give a dollar to a withered man on Thayer Street every time he asks or to write a check to Brown at the end of the year? Where we donate is a reflection of our worldviews and notions of community. As Brown students, we probably value an education centered around the intellectual pursuit. We want the professors we love to continue to teach and research. We would like to see the student groups we were part of continue to be active and have the facilities to do so. Brown is an institution that is important to us. An opera house provides a very differ-
What does it mean to be philanthropic? era houses and universities do not really lift people out of poverty and are largely inaccessible to the impoverished. By giving our charitable donations to Brown, alums fall into this pattern of elite exclusivism outlined by Stern. “Good” alums are the reason why our tax code doesn’t support well those institutions that provide basic services to the people who need them. What does it mean to be philanthropic? Etymologically speaking, it means to be a lover of man. Is the “man” implied our fellow man, the one who is hungry or homeless or sick? Or is it the idea of man, the study of him and the admiration of all that he has accomplished along with the understanding of his shortcomings? Is it better to
ent service from a soup kitchen, but both rely on charitable donations for survival, and both are essential to the health of our society. Stern’s conclusion relies on the false premise that social service organizations do more important work than universities or arts organizations. We are certainly beneficiaries of generosity, but I don’t think any of us would consider ourselves a “charitable cause.” But it is fundamentally wrong to consider one function as lesser than another and dangerous to the future of higher learning and arts in this country. Brown is certainly a place that fosters goodwill. In the class of 2012, 39 percent of graduates took jobs in the nonprofit or public sectors. Universities are essential or-
gans of introspection for society — both promoting and preserving knowledge and fostering intellectual debate and conversation. I say this understanding that my perspective is limited: I understand better the trials of sleeping in a bad dorm room than the travails of sleeping on the street. I’ve spent more time in museums and libraries than I have in soup kitchens. I have never known the desperation of economic deprivation or had to rely on a social service for my livelihood. Criticizing certain demographics for the focus of their charitable donations is unproductive. But we must be aware of these patterns and the role we play in them. Climbing this ivory tower ensures one thing for certain: entry into the intellectual elite. There are ways we can break down the dichotomy — by using our charitable donations to make sure arts and educational institutions are widely accessible. The class of 2013 could start a scholarship fund in our memory, to which we can donate every year as alums to pay the way of an applicant who otherwise couldn’t afford to study here. Before giving your money to Brown, the Red Cross or an individual, it is important to be aware of why you are giving and for whom you are providing. Claire Gianotti ’13 doesn’t know yet how she will give back to Brown, but she would like to someday. She can be reached at claire_gianotti@brown.edu.
The function of academia DAVID ROMERO Opinions Columnist I knew I wanted to be an English major before I arrived at Brown because I loved to read. I thought literature would provide a personal and vocational pathway for my life after high school. But I didn’t know exactly how my vague goal of being a lifelong reader would work within the professional academic system at a school like Brown. Academia trains students to be scholars on narrow sub-topics, avoiding the “generalist” label that many professors fear. Newly minted PhDs write books and articles for academic presses and subsequently teach others to become scholars of very specific academic subjects. Whatever happened to just liking books? I experienced a personal disconnect with academia sometime around my sophomore year, wondering if there was any compromise to the systematic function of the University’s goals to better accommodate those not seeking a doctoral degree. I see the same disillusionment in my peers during some of my literature classes. Many students walk into English classrooms expecting a broad vision of literary texts with big themes, just like in high school, only to be bombarded by theory and idiosyncratic interpretations of obscure books. Though I am picking on English because I have the most experience with that particular subject, I’m sure stu-
dents in every discipline discover their supposed passion must be narrowed down in order to be examined at the university level. Thought you were interested in making and talking about films? Here’s an Introduction to Media Theory class that may completely shatter your interest in the topic. The key to concentrating in many disciplines usually relies on one’s endurance in an esoteric introductory course. Mark C. Taylor, chair of the Department of Religion at Columbia, wrote compellingly and convincingly in 2009 about the disconnect between the American college and our contemporary lives, arguing that
to “real-world” problems, but there must be a better way for that change to take place. Though I understand the call for a more generalized educational model and an end to ridiculously specific dissertation topics, I don’t think mobilizing professorial minds to solve all of society’s ills is a viable solution. Before I meditate on any steps universities should take to make their academic studies more appealing to an increasingly diverse populace, we must first analyze the functions of a professor. What is the ultimate goal of being a professional academic anyway? Professors specialize in a subset
An academic must question and analyze and reflect closely on a topic. The only problem is that this specialization often leads to the production of scholarship only an elite few can appreciate.
the system needed an overhaul. He lamented the facts that PhD graduates outnumber available jobs, professors and students don’t produce relevant scholarship and different departments and universities don’t communicate with each other. Though I agree with Taylor’s description of the downfalls of professional scholarship, I disagree with his odd solution of centering universities on specific issues to force them to solve the world’s problems. True, academia should be more applicable
of a discipline that is by definition esoteric and exclusive. They read and study a variety of sources, but their research focuses on topics that do not interest the majority of the population. The specialization and narrowing of research is the problem that causes the divide between novice students and veteran professors. What good is it to be specific when only a few peer scholars care about the work a given professor is producing? It is easy to see why this model of professional
academic work is troubling and frustrating for those who do not wish to earn a PhD in anything? This brings us to the task of devising a solution. Though I feel strongly that professors should work to make their teaching more relatable to student interests, I am a firm believer in specialization in the humanities, sciences, arts and any other discipline. We wouldn’t even have broad and generalized concerns without highly trained specialists producing knowledge. It is simply not enough to say one loves Chaucer or ethnographies or chemistry. An academic must question and analyze and reflect closely on a topic. The only problem is that this specialization often leads to the production of scholarship only an elite few can appreciate. This mastery in a specialized topic is the lifeblood of any university. But introducing undergraduate students to any new field runs counter to the push for more specialization. To resolve this problem, Brown should offer more introductory courses, and professors should emphasize the immediate relevance of seemingly inapplicable theories and sub-topics. Not every academic subject is applicable to real life concerns, but most subjects are. All students need is appropriate framing from a good professor to show them the many uses of a liberal arts education. David Romero ’14 is totally into reading the classics just for pleasure but recognizes there are important lessons in them, too. He can be reached at david_romero@brown.edu.
daily herald sports monday THE BROWN
MONDAY, APRIL 22, 2013
BASEBALL
SOFTBALL
SCOREBOARD
W. LACROSSE
Harvard 4 Brown 0
Harvard 6 Brown 2
Harvard 12 Brown 10
Harvard 4 Brown 2
Harvard 3 Brown 1
Brown 5 Harvard 4
Brown 14 Harvard 2
Brown 4 Harvard 2
Penn 10 Brown 7
M. LACROSSE Cornell 13 Brown 7
M. LACROSSE
Bears beat Friars, fall to Big Red Nick Piroli ’15 scored a winning shot Tuesday and Alex Jones ‘13 tallied a hat trick Saturday By DANTE O’CONNELL SPORTS STAFF WRITER
The men’s lacrosse team defeated Providence College in an Ocean State Cup game Tuesday but fell to No. 7 Cornell Saturday afternoon in an important conference matchup. Saturday’s loss removes Brown (66, 1-4 Ivy) from Ivy League Tournament contention — though Alex Jones ’13 brightened the mood on Senior Day with a hat trick in his final game at Stevenson Field. Nick Piroli’s ’15 game-winning goal and goalie Will Round’s ’14 strong play down the stretch ensured the lone Bruno victory. Brown 7, Providence 6 After Henry Blynn ’16 put Bruno
up 6-4 at the end of the third quarter, Greg Fitzmaurice tallied two of his own to tie the game at six. Just eight seconds later, Piroli fired a goal past Providence keeper Jack Connelly at 8:07 for the game-winner. “It was really exciting,” said Head Coach Lars Tiffany ’90. “We haven’t scored a lot of goals directly off the face-off, so it was great to do that to win the game.” Round did the rest for the Bears. Stepping into the starting role just a week ago, the goalie faced a barrage of 14 shots in the fourth quarter from the Friars (8-7), stopping all six shots on goal. “We leaned on ... Round to make a lot of saves, and he did,” Tiffany said. “He had an outstanding performance. He’s had to split time this year, but he’s really looking great, making saves in the games he’s played in.” Tiffany said he counted eight saves made by Round on game film — two more than the official record.
Though Bruno never trailed in the contest, it never led by more than two. Blynn and Tim Jacob ’15 added two goals each in Bruno’s winning effort. “It was one of those games where we walked away happy that we won, but not happy with how we performed, especially late in the game,” Tiffany said. “We had five turnovers in the fourth quarter, and we didn’t show a lot of poise with a one-goal lead.” The Bears and the Friars exchanged goals in the first quarter. Jacob and Brendan Caputo ’16 each scored, and the period ended in a 2-2 tie. Blynn and Sam Hurster ’14 each scored goals in the second frame, giving Brown a 4-2 lead heading into the break. Jacob and Blynn both found the back of the net for the second time in the third quarter, increasing the Brown lead to 6-4. Cornell 13, Brown 7 The Big / / M. Lax page 8
KATIE LIEBOWITZ / HERALD
Roger Ferguson ‘13 was honored along with the other seven seniors on the team before the Bears took on the Big Red Saturday.