THE
BROWN DAILY HERALD vol. cxlix, no. 61
since 1891
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2014
In face New hires expand sexual assault policy staff of Ebola, U. urges caution In response to recent Title IX scrutiny, policymakers aim for more inclusive, accountable dialogue By CAMILLA BRANDFIELD-HARVEY SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Alum is third confirmed American to contract virus in current West Africa outbreak By LINDSAY GANTZ SENIOR STAFF WRITER JUSTINA LEE / HERALD
Marc Peters, the newly hired men’s health coordinator, said he encourages male students to be “positive bystanders” against sexual assault.
School of Engineering to erect new building by 2018 Expansion program aims to accommodate rapidly developing technology and attract faculty to U. By ASHWINI NATARAJAN SENIOR STAFF WRITER
The Corporation’s Committee on Facilities and Campus Planning has chosen architectural firm KieranTimberlake to design the School of Engineering’s new building. Located along Manning Walk, west of current engineering building Barus and Holley, the new structure is part of the School of Engineering’s initiative to expand its faculty, programs and facilities. Executive Vice President for Planning and Policy Russell Carey said the new building will be roughly 80,000 square feet. Construction will begin December 2015 or January 2016 with
the intention of finishing the project by January 2018. In order to clear the land for the new engineering facility, the Department of Applied Mathematics will move to a new 13,000-square-foot building, construction of which is set to begin in November. The applied math building, which will take roughly a year to complete, will be in the parking lot next to Barus and Holley. Dean of Engineering Lawrence Larson, along with others from the School of Engineering, and the Committee on Facilities and Campus Planning considered many architectural firms to spearhead the project, but KieranTimberlake emerged as the
committee’s first choice, Carey said. Carey cited “the combination of their past experience” and “the preliminary sense of the site and program” as key factors in selecting the firm for the project. Stephen Maiorisi, vice president for facilities management, added that “aside from design excellence, we were looking for firms that were really, really good at collaboration.” The new engineering building will require intensive infrastructure and technology for science research, in addition to being flexible enough to accommodate changing research demands. KieranTimberlake seemed to fit these qualifications, Larson said. “The building we design has to be able to accommodate not only the science that we want to do today but also the science we might want to do
20 or 30 years from now,” Larson said. “We’re working really closely with KieranTimberlake to figure out how to design a building to foster that kind of evolution and interdisciplinary research over many, many decades.” The new building also has ambitious sustainability goals. “We really want this building to be a model of sustainability and frugal energy use,” Larson said. “We really want it to be a model for the nation.” He added that he hopes the project’s upgraded research facilities and design will attract prospective students and faculty members. “Frankly, it’s much more exciting to have students and faculty come into a brand-new, high-tech building that embodies some of the most advanced thinking about what it means » See ENGINEERING, page 2
National Geographic takes ‘Control’ at Brown New series delves into behavioral science with student volunteers and professor’s research By DREW WILLIAMS SENIOR STAFF WRITER
National Geographic Channel brought its particular blend of entertainment and science to Alumnae Hall Thursday afternoon, targeting students to serve as participants in a social experiment for its upcoming program, “Crowd Control.” The show aims to discover innovative fixes for social issues through human experiments — usually involving an unaware crowd — based
ARTS & CULTURE
in behavioral science research, said Zac Nealy, supervising production manager for the production company working with National Geographic on the program. The episode filmed at Brown explores the issue of foot traffic during emergency situations. Two hundred students at a time were gathered in Alumnae Hall and told to run as fast as they could for the front doors, said participant Maggie Hale ’18. They were subsequently reassembled in the room and given the same instructions to exit as quickly as possible — with the caveat that an obstacle had been placed near the entryway, forcing the pedestrians to go around it to exit the building, Hale said. The producers of “Crowd Control” approached William Warren, » See EXPERIMENT, page 2
Sports
ASHLEY SO / HERALD
Students flood Alumnae Hall to participate in an experiment that examines foot traffic in the face of emergencies.
Commentary
With eight returning starters, men’s soccer is setting its sights on an Ivy League championship
Women’s soccer opens its year with a tough test in tonight’s match against St. John’s
Feldman ’16: Modern-day Little League exploits young athletes
Isman ’15: Social media makes genuine activism harder to come by
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Amid the ongoing Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the University is encouraging community members to proceed carefully with travel to the region. Though there have not been any reported cases of current students or faculty members contracting the disease, Edward Wheeler, medical director of Health Services, emphatically urged those who have traveled or are planning to travel to the affected areas to take all necessary precautions. Thus far, Health Services is not aware of anyone who has been exposed to the virus, Wheeler said. Meanwhile, an alum became the third American confirmed to have contracted the disease this week. While Wheeler said the risk of Ebola “to the Brown community is very minimal,” he added that “there’s no way we can possibly know where someone went.” So any individual who has been exposed to the virus should “come forward,” he added. Anyone who recently visited the affected region — which includes Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea and Nigeria — should be aware of the incubation period, monitor symptoms and seek support from Health Services if needed, wrote Vice President for Campus Life and Student Services Margaret Klawunn in a campus-wide email Aug. 18. The first case of the disease in the most recent Ebola outbreak was reported in Guinea in February. “People who have traveled to those areas should monitor themselves for 21 days after they leave,” Wheeler said. “That would be taking your temperature once in the morning and once in the evening. If you develop a fever or significant other symptoms, let us know.” According to the Centers for Disease Control website, the incubation period for Ebola is estimated to last two to 21 days, though symptoms commonly appear between eight to 10 days after contraction, and include fever, severe headache, muscle pain, vomiting, diarrhea, stomach pain and unexplained bleeding or bruising. Ebola is transmitted by direct contact with » See EBOLA, page 2
Four months after President Christina Paxson’s May 2 letter to the campus community announced plans to hire a Title IX coordinator, the University has officially begun the search to fill the position, with a Title IX Program Officer vacancy posted to the University’s Human Resources website Aug. 29. Paxson pledged to increase resources for victims of sexual assault in response to campus-wide discourse over University policy last spring. The University has already hired Marc Peters as the men’s health coordinator
to engage men in conversations about sexual assault and to consider how men can participate in its prevention. Administrators spent the summer assessing Title IX roles at peer institutions and preparing a position description for the Title IX coordinator, said Liza Cariaga-Lo, associate provost for academic development and diversity. Cariaga-Lo said she and Russell Carey, executive vice president for planning and policy, spent time examining the Title IX program structures and investigative processes at roughly 12 peer institutions to determine the most effective practices. The University hired three undergraduates — Yvonne Yu ’14.5, Justice Gaines ’16 and Adam Kemerer ’15 — to help review the University’s health materials over the summer and to help conduct the research on peer institutions, said Frances Mantak, director of health » See ASSAULT, page 4
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2 university news » EBOLA, from page 1 blood and bodily fluids and cannot be spread by air, water or food, according to the CDC. “The concern would be if there is a non-medical faculty member who happened to travel to that place,” said Monica Kunkel, Health Services’ nursing and inpatient services coordinator. News outlets reported this week that Richard Sacra ’84 contracted the Ebola virus while in Liberia practicing medicine unrelated to the current outbreak. According to Brown Alumni Magazine, he is currently being treated in an isolation unit of a hospital in Monrovia and has no definite plans to return to the United States for treatment. He is the third American reported to be infected by the outbreak. “As people are returning to campus, we are really thinking about what might we need to know about our community, what precautions we should be taking,” Klawunn told The Herald. “People have to follow state department warnings.” In the interest of protecting “the
» ENGINEERING, from page 1 to do engineering education,” Larson said. “We see the new building as being really important for recruiting the best faculty in the world to come to Brown and teach and do research here.” Carey said the new building will enable faculty growth and collaboration. KieranTimberlake has not yet created a schematic for the new engineering building but is starting to discuss with University planning and policy committees how the space will
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2014
health and safety of our community members at home and abroad,” the email requested that all non-essential travel to the affected areas be canceled. “It is wise for people who want to travel to check the CDC advisories before they travel,” Kunkel said. “Students from those countries who need to return home should follow the guidance of their own Ministry of Health to protect themselves from contracting the virus,” wrote Adam Levine, assistant professor of emergency medicine, in an email to The Herald. Levine is currently in Liberia responding to the outbreak as a member of the Emergency Response Team for International Medical Corp. “Brown students should not travel to Liberia, Guinea or Sierra Leone at this time unless they are responding to the Ebola outbreak with a professional humanitarian organization,” he wrote. “We have the same kind of protocol for Ebola that we have when there have been other diseases that we think can come back into the community over break,” Klawunn said. be used, how architects will incorporate interdisciplinary collaboration into the design, and how the building will interact with the rest of campus. KieranTimberlake won the Technology in Architectural Practice Building Information Modeling Award and the Institute Honor Award for Architecture from the 2014 American Institute of Architects, in addition to receiving the 2010 National Design Award from the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum and over 160 design citations worldwide, according to the firm’s website.
ASHLEY SO / HERALD
Drawn by the network’s fame and the possibility of a free iPad, student volunteers flock to take part in an experiment for National Geographic. The episode of “Crowd Control” is expected to air by the end of this year.
» EXPERIMENT, from page 1 professor of cognitive, linguistic and psychological sciences, with the idea for the experiment after seeing his extensive work on crowd management published online. For 15 years, Warren has tested how individuals react in crowds, developing a lab on campus where a human subject wearing virtual reality goggles walks among virtual people created with stop-motion technology. “Crowd Control” host Daniel Pink interviewed Warren and tested the virtual lab Wednesday. He returned the next day to conduct the student experiments, which purported to test the “biological phenomena” of swarms, Warren said. The organizers hypothesized that an obstacle would force the crowd into two smaller lines to flow more smoothly out the door, Warren said. The event was well-attended throughout the afternoon, Nealy said,
which some students attributed to the name recognition of the famous science magazine. “National Geographic is a wellknown group,” said volunteer Sierra Clark ’17. “I was drawn to that and (the) idea of being around a camera crew.” “I love National Geographic and am really into film, so (I) wanted to be part of one of their documentaries,” Hale said. Others were enticed by the publicity methods employed by showrunners for “Crowd Control”: “I was on Lincoln Field, and one of the National Geographic employees stopped by and said, ‘Go to Alumnae Hall to win a free iPad,’” said Eric Handy ’15. “Crowd Control” is billed online as a hidden camera show, as experiments are often completed without the subjects’ prior knowledge — a method used to capture “authentic reactions” from participants, Nealy said. But participants at Alumnae
Hall volunteered for the experiment only unaware of its specifics before cameras started rolling, Nealy said, adding that he believed this was unlikely to affect the outcome of the experiment. “I think that the reactions we get from the folks on the program generally come from the surprise that happens when they come across whatever the element that we’re introducing from an experimental standpoint is,” he said. As predicted, the crowd exited much faster when the object was in place, Hale said. In general, the show’s innovations have had the expected outcomes, Nealy said. “A lot of the time, in introducing these new variables that account for social issues, we have seen some marked improvement in some of the issues we are trying to solve,” he said. The episode is likely to air near the end of 2014, Nealy said.
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Gourmet Heaven to close both New Haven locations Pre-trial meeting will determine trial date for Chung Cho, chain owner accused of wage theft By CAMILLA BRANDFIELD-HARVEY SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Gourmet Heaven will close both its New Haven, Connecticut, locations next summer after the chain’s owner was arrested in February for alleged wage theft, Yale announced last month. Despite the unrest in New Haven, as if March, no employees at either of the two Providence locations on Meeting Street and Weybosset Street had filed complaints, a Providence official told The Herald. The lease for Gourmet Heaven’s Broadway Avenue location in New Haven was set to expire in two years, but the grocery store and Yale’s University Properties agreed to an earlier termination, wrote Lauren Zucker, Yale’s associate vice president and director of New Haven affairs and University Properties, in an email to The Herald. Yale chose to announce the agreement early to give current employees time to adjust, Zucker wrote. The decision to terminate Gourmet Heaven’s lease comes on the heels of the Connecticut Department of Labor’s months-long investigation of owner Chung Cho for alleged widespread wage theft. After failing to comply with the DOL’s settlement agreements, Cho was arrested in February on 21 felony charges of violating wage payments greater than $2,000, 20 misdemeanor charges of defrauding alien workers of
HIGHER ED
wages and one felony charge of firstdegree larceny, according to case records updated Sunday. Cho pled not guilty to all charges in court Thursday morning. The DOL discovered that Cho paid his employees cash wages as low as $4.44 per hour with no overtime pay, the Yale Daily News reported in February. The Connecticut minimum wage is $8.70 per hour. Community action Unidad Latina en Accion, a grassroots social justice organization, and MEChA de Yale, a student group focused on issues affecting the local Latino community, have boycotted the grocery and picketed outside since August 2013, when the DOL investigation began. Though Evelyn Nunez, MEChA’s moderator and leader of the student protests, and other MEChA members had long known of Cho’s mistreatment of workers, she said it was important for an employee to come forward and provide insight into working conditions before they launched a campaign. That year, an employee named Adin quit his job at Gourmet Heaven after 11 months and sought action with ULA, said Megan Fountain, a ULA organizer and Yale alum. Fountain declined to provide Adin’s last name, though the New Haven Register quoted Adin Morales as a former employee in an article Thursday. When Cho failed to speak with ULA or respond to members’ letters,
Adin filed an official complaint with the DOL, Fountain said. The department issued a stop work order for 24 hours in early August 2013 and opened an investigation. But it was not until this summer, when Yale officials met with a group of former and current employees, that the workers and supporting organizations were able to press University Properties to end the lease, Nunez said. Retaliation and counter-protests Cho staged counter-protests throughout the investigation in conjunction with friends and workers from the Providence locations, Nunez said. Many of the employees protesting against ULA and outspoken workers said they joined for fear of losing their jobs or receiving reduced hours, Fountain said. Cho also retaliated against several workers collaborating with the investigation, Fountain said. During talks with ULA in fall 2013, employees who became loyal to Cho disclosed the names of four employees working with the DOL, she said. Those workers were then fired over Christmas break, she added. At the time, the fired workers were living in a one-room basement apartment rented by Cho, said James Bhandary-Alexander, the lawyer representing five of the workers who are victims of alleged wage theft in the criminal case. “Another worker, more recently in July, had his hours reduced after his manager made it known that he was unhappy with the workers’ cooperation,” Bhandary-Alexander added.
All quiet in Providence The employees from the two Providence Gourmet Heaven locations — including one just off campus — have not raised complaints about wages or working conditions. No Providence employee at either location has filed a complaint as of March, wrote Mike Healey, chief public affairs officer for the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training, in an email to The Herald. Healey added that he could not confirm whether any complaints have been received since then. On March 11, per the DLT’s request, a manager of a Gourmet Heaven Providence location delivered two boxes of wage document records, one for each of Providence’s stores, to the Labor Standards Unit, Healey wrote. The DLT then conducted an audit of the businesses from Jan. 1, 2013 to March 2, 2014, and in April sent the audit and supporting documents to the U.S. Department of Labor’s field office in Connecticut, Healey added. Asked about the protests and outcomes in New Haven, an employee at the College Hill location — who declined to provide her name — said she did not have any information about the situation. When asked how many hours she worked, the employee said, “We don’t have any problems here. That’s why we’re here. … There was already an inspection.” Moving forward Bhandary-Alexander wrote in an email to The Herald that the parties in the case will convene Sept. 22 for
a pre-trial meeting, when they will set a trial date. As the prosecutor and Cho work toward a plea agreement, BhandaryAlexander said he will ensure that the prosecutor and judge understand the workers’ opinions. “The workers don’t really have much of a voice in the criminal proceedings. Their role is they’re victims of the crime,” Fountain said. Bhandary-Alexander said the former employees also have the option to bring a civil lawsuit against Cho if not all the money is paid back in the criminal case. “In addition to the criminal case, in addition to the student activity moving forward, in addition to whatever the ULA does moving forward, I will shortly be filing a civil lawsuit in federal court,” Bhandary-Alexander said. ULA has also been meeting with the New Haven police department to make sure wage theft is treated as a high priority, Fountain said. As for Gourmet Heaven’s closing, Fountain said Yale made the right decision and that it sends a message to other tenants on properties owned by Yale. But Fountain said Yale could do more by entering into a partnership with the Connecticut DOL and inspecting all the businesses on campus to ensure no one is working under sweatshop conditions. Bhandary-Alexander characterized the community involvement as “wall-to-wall support” of the workers. “I would anticipate the reaction in Providence to be very similar.”
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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2014
» ASSAULT, from page 1
» MOVIES, from page 12
education. Many of the peer institutions that Cariaga-Lo and Carey reviewed “were all kind of in the same boat, trying to reimagine and rethink,” Cariaga-Lo said, adding that many of these institutions were also assembling task forces to understand the current landscape of sexual assault on their campuses. “We’ve had people who have been responsible for Title IX in different areas of the University,” said Margaret Klawunn, vice president for campus life and student services. “So our response to the actions on campus in the spring was to say, ‘No, we think we should be thinking about having somebody who is coordinating the efforts of each of us in our areas and making sure that we’re doing the best job we can with our obligations under the Title IX legislations.’” Cariaga-Lo said the University hopes to appoint the Title IX program officer as soon as possible but that the job will remain open until the best person is found. The new Title IX program officer will join Peters as part of the University’s expansion of its sexual assault education and prevention program. Peters joined Brown from MenEngage, an alliance of nongovernmental organizations working to promote gender equality among men and boys. He is also a co-founder of MasculinityU, a coalition to engage men and boys in rethinking masculinity and gender violence. The men’s health coordinator “is a prevention and education position, and hopefully someone who can help male students be more positive bystanders, create safer environments and also feel more comfortable seeking help,” Mantak said. “It’s definitely a best practice to start looking at men’s programming or how we can reach out to men.” Peters said he views men as important participants in the movement to address and resolve campus sexual assault. “If you approach men and say, ‘You’re the problem, you’re the ones committing sexual assault, you’re really this problem group on college campuses or in society,’ that’s a conversation stopper,” he said. “A lot of times, men have incredible societal privilege, so they can go through life up until college or past college never having thought about many of the issues that women think about,” he said. “Part of the joy of getting to do a job like this is getting to try and reach those men and increase their awareness of their own privilege and of issues of gender equality.” The Undergraduate Council of Students will also begin to recruit students for the Task Force on Sexual Assault, which is set to convene this fall. Carey and Michele Cyr, professor of medicine and associate dean for academic affairs at the Alpert Medical School, will chair the committee.
aspiring, earnest but ultimately talentless musician as he joins “the Soronprfbs” after stumbling upon a suicide attempt by the band’s keyboardist. But the true center of the film is Frank, the band’s leader, singer and spiritual guru, who permanently wears a large papier-mache head. Talented, enigmatic and full of philosophical authority, Frank is everything that the bumbling Jon is not — and much of the film focuses on the strange friendship of admiration and envy that forms between these two men. Michael Fassbender is revelatory as Frank. It’s a difficult role to perform, and he manages to give an emotive and poignant performance without facial expressions in his arsenal. Frank is equal parts cult leader and precious child, both revered and sheltered by his band of misfits. Cara, the band’s theremin player portrayed by Maggie Gyllenhaal, particularly embodies this double role. Ever wary and dismissive of Jon, the outsider, she serves simultaneously as a mother to Frank — trying to protect him from the dangers of the perceived interloper — and as a perpetually unnoticed admirer. Yet Cara is not a wholly tragic figure. Her undisguised disgust with Jon provides some of the movie’s funniest moments. This wariness, which initially seems excessive, ultimately is not wholly unwarranted. The bulk of the film takes place in isolated retreat, as the band members try to make an album and find themselves. But Jon has greater ambitions, recording the retreat’s events and sharing them with a rapidly growing online fanbase, which he turns into a gig at South by Southwest. As expected, this newfound exposure takes its psychological toll on the group, whose idyllic world begins to unravel. “Frank” portrays the mental illness of its characters with touching gravity, never trivializing neurosis into cheap comedy, or a dissonant plea for pathos. Quirky has become a derogatory term when talking about film. Critics now lazily employ the overused term to describe those independent films that employ a tired aesthetic of dysfunctional characters and offbeat dialogue. “Frank,” a darkly comic film, is, if anything, an examination of the “quirky,” of the devastating struggles that lie underneath the superficially offbeat. Quirky, in “Frank,” is not something to be taken lightly. “Magic in the Moonlight” is now playing at Providence Place Mall. “Frank,” which recently showed at the Avon, is now playing at Kendall Square in Cambridge, Massaschusetts.
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
SPORTS BULLETIN
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2014
Consistency, recovery inspire hope for another Ivy crown With eight returning starters, men’s soccer looks to recreate its 2011 championship season By ALEX WAINGER SENIOR STAFF WRITER
After finishing fourth in the Ivy League last season, the men’s soccer team will rely on its familiarity with the system, the return of co-captain Ben Maurey ’15.5 and a talented crop of first-years in hopes of propelling itself toward a conference championship. Bruno will trot out a very similar line-up to last season’s starting eleven. The team lost just four seniors to graduation, though three of them played roles central to the team’s success last year. Josh Weiner ’14 started all but one game in goal, while Voltaire Escalona ’14 and Jose Salama ’14 were the team’s second- and third-leading point scorers, respectively. The Bears have an able goalie who has been waiting for a chance to jump into the starting lineup. Mitch Kupstas ’14.5 will inherit the starting job, after a broken foot landed him a spot on the bench at the start of last season. Kupstas had the ability to be the starter last year, but the team was reluctant to swap goalies midway through the season, said Head Coach Patrick Laughlin. Kupstas “really established himself in goal over the summer,” Laughlin said. “He’ll get the starting nod this Friday night. He’s come back this year ready to go, has a great presence in goal and he’s done a great job so far.” The backline remains entirely intact, as not a single defender graduated in 2014. Mike Leone ’17 and Tim Whalen ’16 will anchor the defense from the center back position, while Jack Gorab ’16 will support the offense on the flanks. Bruno’s midfield will also be constructed primarily by returning starters. Tariq Akeel ’16, a First Team All-Ivy selection and the team’s leading goal scorer last season, will play his usual box-to-box role alongside Second Team All-Ivy co-captain Daniel Taylor ’15. The biggest changes come at the striker position. Escalona and Salama served as two pieces of a three-headed striker rotation, along with Nate Pomeroy ’17. While Pomeroy will return, the Bears will need to replace the seven goals and nine assists that the two senior strikers contributed last season. Again, the Bears have an answer, filling the void this time with a familiar face. In an early contest last season against Indiana University, Maurey was changing directions when he rolled his ankle and simultaneously hyperextended and twisted his knee. The rolled
COURTESY OF BEN MAUREY
Ben Maurey ’15.5 shushes the opponent’s bench following a crucial goal. After leading the Bears in scoring his sophomore year, Maurey suffered a knee injury early in the 2013 season, which forced him to miss the remainder of the year. He returns this season, aiming for a 2014 title run. ankle turned out to be a syndesmosis tear, while the knee injury was diagnosed as a torn popliteus muscle. The injury sidelined Maurey for the rest of the season. Maurey persevered and returned to the field, competing in a semi-professional league in California over the summer. “I’m fully healthy now,” Maurey said. “Last spring was filled with rehab and recovery. It was a slow process, but I’m probably in the best shape of my life right now.” In his sophomore season, Maurey led the team in scoring with five goals, added two assists and earned a First Team All-Ivy selection. He eluded defenders on countless occasions, ripping over 40 shots across 18 games. “He’s a very difficult matchup for
the opposition because of his combination of size and speed,” Laughlin said. “He makes the game easier for others. We’ll see a lot of guys benefiting from his presence on the field this season.” Maurey and Pomeroy will likely spearhead the 4-4-2 formation that the Bears like to play. The team looks to push the ball up the field quickly without sacrificing possession, and this formation allows Bruno to take advantage of its depth at striker and outside midfielder, Maurey said. The squad can also swap a striker for a midfielder and run either a 4-5-1 or a 4-3-3, depending on how high the outside midfielders push up. “Style-wise, we’re going to be a team that is able to attack quickly and get the ball forward while pressuring our opponents in their half,” Laughlin said.
The seven first-years on the team will have to learn to play in Bruno’s fast-paced offense, but if the preseason is any indication of their abilities, a number of first-years should make an impact from the outset of the season, Laughlin said. Gabe Welp ’18 has worked his way into contention for a starting role on the backline, despite all four starters from last year returning to the team. Louis Zingas ’18 battled some injuries during preseason but won the team’s three-mile fitness test, completing the race in under 17 minutes. Nico LozadaSmith ’18 has proven himself as a reliable central midfielder and could be “the first guy off the bench,” Maurey said. “All of our (first-years) have performed really well thus far,” Laughlin
said. “This weekend, I think you might see between three and six (first-years) either starting or playing a significant portion of both of the games.” The first-years will see action for the first time Friday night in Bruno’s season opener at home against Siena College (2-0-0). The Saints lost last season’s leading point-scorer James Beeston to graduation but have picked up backto-back wins over La Salle University (0-1-0) and No. 23 Boston University (2-1-0). “We’ve never played against Siena,” Maurey said. “We have to be prepared for anything and be ready to play for 90 minutes. They’re going to be good competition, but with the players that we have and the way we have been playing so far, this is a game that we should win.”
S2 m. golf
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2014
Young Bears aim to step up after three graduate Pedigreed first-years carry heavy load on team featuring only two upperclassmen By EMILE BAUTISTA CONTRIBUTING WRITER
After concluding last year on a high note with a fifth-place Ivy League Championship finish, the men’s golf team looks to build on its past success this fall season. The team will kick off this campaign having lost three players to graduation: Peter Callas ’14, Nelson Hargrove ’14 and Kyohei Itamura ’14. While the team will miss their presence, this year’s roster has an opportunity to rise to the occasion in keeping up the momentum. “It’ll definitely be tough for us losing the seniors. (They) were consistent scoring members of the team, and some of us are certainly going to have to step up to pick up the slack,” said Jack Wilson ’16, one of only two upperclassmen on the team. A couple of fresh faces will join the few established veterans for a total roster of six players. Kevin Li ’18 and Ben Warner ’18 join the squad already consisting of Wilson, Justin Miller ’15, Chad Carlson ’17 and Connor Lynch ’17. While they lack collegiate experience, the first-years come onboard with decorated high school careers. Warner, from Weston, Massachusetts, finished
his senior year off with the Division III North Sectional title, a seventh-place finish at states and boys’ golf athlete of the year honors from the Boston Globe. Li comes to Brown from St. George’s School in Vancouver, Canada. “Since our team is so small this year, they’ll definitely be playing and have an impact on the team,” Wilson added. Meanwhile, senior star Miller gives the young players a model for success, entering his final year as one of the top players in the league. “Justin is our only senior this year, and he has historically been one of our top players,” Wilson said. “I think he’s been playing pretty well going into the season.” As for Brown’s Ivy League competition, Wilson said it is difficult to provide an outlook before the season begins. Rosters fluctuate every year as players come and go, so evaluation will have to wait until a few tournaments play out, he added. “It’s sort of hard to tell where we are in terms of other teams,” Wilson said. “We finished middle of the pack at Ivies last year, so hopefully we can build off that and get better.” Bruno hopes to kick off its season on the right foot with a strong outing this weekend. The Bears’ campaign begins at the par-71 Naval Academy Golf Course in Annapolis, Maryland, where they compete against nine other teams in the Navy Invitational. This two-day tournament is slated to have 18 holes on each day.
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Justin Miller ’15, the team’s only senior, takes a swing. On a very young squad, Miller is the most accomplished player and will look to set an example for his teammates this year with his preparation and play.
SCHEDULE Home
Away
Stevenson Field - Friday 7 p.m.
Princeton - Saturday 2:15 p.m.
Boston - Sunday 7 p.m.
Men’s Soccer vs. Siena
M. Water Polo vs. Bucknell
Men’s Soccer vs. Boston U. (0-0, 0-0 Ivy) || (2-1, 0-0 Patriot)
(0-0, 0-0 Ivy) || (3-1, 0-0 Big East)
Season Opener
Princeton Invitational
Previous Matchup Brown 3, Boston U. 1
Season Opener
Goldberger Field - Saturday 12 p.m.
Princeton - Saturday 8 a.m.
Princeton - Sunday 9:15 a.m.
Princeton - Sunday 4:45 p.m.
Field Hockey vs. Bryant
M. Water Polo vs. Diablo Valley
M. Water Polo vs. Princeton
M. Water Polo vs. George Washington
Previous Matchup Brown 3, Bryant 4
Princeton Invitational
Princeton Invitational
Stevenson Field - Sunday 1 p.m.
San Diego - Friday 12 p.m.
(0-0, 0-0 Ivy) || (2-0, 0-0 Metro)
(0-0, 0-0 Ivy) || (0-2, 0-0 NEC)
(0-0, 0-0 Ivy) || (0-0, 0-0 Southern)
(0-0, 0-0 Ivy) || (0-0, 0-0 Big 8)
(0-0, 0-0 Ivy) || (0-0, 0-0 Ivy)
New York - Friday 7 p.m.
W. Soccer vs. St. John’s
(0-0, 0-0 Ivy) || (0-0, 0-0 Southern) Princeton Invitational
San Diego - Friday 10 p.m.
San Diego - Saturday 3 p.m.
Volleyball vs. San Diego
(0-0, 0-0 Ivy) || (2-1, 0-0 West Coast)
Volleyball vs. San Diego State
Volleyball vs. Northwestern
(0-0, 0-0 Ivy) || (2-1, 0-0 CAA) Home Opener
San Diego State Invitational
San Diego State Invitational
San Diego State Invitational
W. Soccer vs. Delaware
(0-0, 0-0 Ivy) || (0-3, 0-0 MWC)
(0-0, 0-0 Ivy) || (3-0, 0-0 Big 10)
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2014
Why watch?
sports S3 W. SOCCER
Ten teams prepare to launch their 2014 season, and there’s a reason to watch each one of them By CALEB MILLER AND DANTE O’CONNELL SPORTS EDITORS
Let’s face it: No Brown team will ever boast tens of thousands of screaming fans like athletes in Ann Arbor or Happy Valley see at their sporting events. But as we kick off the new semester, each of Bruno’s fall sports teams gets ready to take the field once again. Though they may not get the recognition of their state school counterparts, all the teams will be exciting to watch in their own way. Here are
the main reasons to pay attention. Men’s soccer No team has promoted its games in recent years more heavily than the men’s soccer team. This season is no different, as sidewalk chalk and Facebook events already alert students to the squad’s season opener Friday night against Siena College. Recent success has backed up the aggressive advertising, and the return of many star players makes this a year to tune in to the pitch. If history is any indication, Bruno should excel in two of fans’ favorite
parts of soccer: scoring and winning. Last year’s leading scorer Tariq Akeel ’16 returns for his junior season alongside Ben Maurey ’15.5, the Bears’ leading scorer from 2012, who missed 2013 with an injury. When you add the fact that five of the six players with the highest shooting percentages from 2013 will be in uniform Friday night, it figures to be an explosive offensive year for Bruno. As for the victories, Head Coach Patrick Laughlin ensures the squad is always playing its best in front of the home crowd, having lost just five games on College Hill in his first three seasons
at the helm. A 2011 Ivy League title and consecutive trips to the Sweet Sixteen of the National Soccer Tournament in 2011 and 2012 distinguish men’s soccer as one of Brown’s strongest sports. Another title or national tournament run could be on the horizon. Women’s rugby The women’s rugby team is accustomed to success. As a club team, it has won the Ivy League championship six years in a row. From 2008 to 2012, it reached the national semifinals four » See WHY WATCH, page S4
W. RUGBY
COURTESY OF BROWN WOMEN’S RUGBY
The women’s rugby squad was promoted to a varsity sport last year after a long campaign to be promoted from club sport status. The change made Brown’s team the 10th varsity women’s rugby program in the country.
Bruno embraces ups and downs of varsity status Making its debut at the highest level, the team has rededicated itself in the face of new challenges By LAINIE ROWLAND SPORTS STAFF WRITER
The women’s rugby team steps back onto the pitch this year as the 10th varsity women’s rugby squad in the nation. Armed with the same energy and intensity that propelled them to varsity status at the end of last year, the players now take on the challenge of competing at this new position. “There’s a whole new commitment level,” said Head Coach Kathy Flores. “It’s exciting to see.” Though the team is smaller than most comparable varsity squads — it has only 24 players while fellow varsity squad Harvard had a 39-woman roster last year — the players have been particularly determined, targeting fitness and toughness. “They’re intent and focused,” Flores said, adding that the squad is tight-knit and promotes a very strong family atmosphere that only strengthens
the intensity of training. Playing rugby “is kind of like going to war together, … which makes it hard not to be a family,” Flores said. “You have to be there or (your teammate) gets pummeled.” Rugby, which is very physical and often rough, makes the team’s newfound access to the athletic training facilities all the more valuable. “With this support, we will be in better playing position,” Flores said. Another adjustment comes in the attention given to injury. Players used to not pay much mind to small injuries, such as a jammed finger or a blister, and the ailments would exacerbate throughout the season, said co-captain Tiara Mack ’16. “The biggest (change) we recognize is the awareness (of) different injuries. … Our bodies are now ready to compete at that varsity level.” Co-captain Oksana Goretaya ’17 echoed this: “Attentiveness to our safety
and well-being as athletes has definitely improved.” The team will have to be flexible in the coming weeks as it adjusts to the time commitment of a heavier practice schedule than it had last year. Instead of practicing three times a week, with flexibility for missing practice due to class or other commitments, the squad now meets at least four or five times a week. Despite the extra adjustments, the team still has its eyes on an Ivy title. The Bears have always been competitive, reaching the national semifinals as recently as 2012. “We’ve got some of the best people in the country on our team. … There’s a lot of star players, and it’s a really young team, too,” said Mack, who noted that of all of the players on the roster, only one played before Brown. Standout back Saskia Morgan ’16 has trained at the Olympic training camp and been named an All-American in each of her two years playing collegiate rugby. The team expects less switching around of positions now that
commitment levels are higher, which means players can grow and develop within their specific roles. “We had our first scrimmage, and our coaches were really happy with our performance,” Mack said. The team practices with and scrimmages against alums and various experienced rugby players in the area. As captains, Mack and Goretaya have stressed the importance of living up to the varsity status. “People are watching us: They’re expecting us to win. They’re expecting us to be a good team, better than we’ve ever been,” Goretaya said. With higher stakes on the varsity level, the team is seeking higher levels of athleticism as well as the ability and desire to commit, though Flores said “anybody who wants to try this sport is welcome to come.” “Any sport translates onto the pitch,” Mack said. “As long as you have that competitive drive, you can play rugby.” The team kicks off its season with a game at Harvard, last year’s Ivy champion, on Sept. 13.
Cross ’15 aims to lead Bears into Storm
After losing eight starters, team opens season against St. John’s, 2013 NCAA tourney entrants By CALEB MILLER SPORTS EDITOR
Head Coach Phil Pincince, who has been at Brown longer than any other current coach, and the women’s soccer team will have their work cut out for them Friday as they start their 2014 campaign, traveling to Saint John’s University to battle a Red Storm team that qualified for the NCAA tournament last season. The Bears are coming off an impressive season of their own, which ended in the squad’s first winning Ivy season since 2006, finishing 10-6-1 overall. But the departure of eight seniors means a number of young players and rookies will see time on the pitch. “Every year we lose seniors and get new” first-years, said forward Kirsten Belinsky ’15, who downplayed the loss of starters and emphasized the team’s past resilience. “This year will be different just like last year was, and we’re looking forward to competing with the group we have.” Despite much of the starting lineup’s departure, the focal point of Bruno’s offense remains captain Chloe Cross ’15. The senior led the team in goals and assists last year and compiled 19 total points, more than twice as many as any other Bear. Thanks in part to the team’s low-scoring, defensive mindset, Cross was a massive producer and contributed in a staggering 60 percent of Bruno’s 2013 goals. If the gaudy scoring numbers weren’t enough, Pincince lauded Cross’s attitude and competitive mindset as her best qualities and said he hopes the captain’s example will provide a boost to the rookies. While Cross steers the offense, a fellow All-Ivy senior anchors the back line. Annie Gillen ’15, who is entering her third year as a starter, can influence both the defensive and offensive game. Led by Gillen, a stout defense helped the 2013 squad to 10 wins in spite of the team having the lowest-scoring offense in the league. Gillen does her part on offense, too, finishing first on the team in assists last year. Gillen and the defense will be given one of their most difficult tests of the season Friday in containing Red Storm junior forward Rachel Daly. The scoring machine broke a St. John’s record with 23 goals last season — the next-highest total on the team was four. Daly racked up a hat trick against Bruno last season to lead her team to a convincing 4-0 win. A core of Red Storm then-first-years, including goalie Diane Poulin, complemented Daly in the team’s NCAA tournament run last season and return to lead the St. John’s squad again. But the Bears aren’t worrying too much about the quality of their first opponent, Belinsky said. “We’re just excited to start playing games.”
S4 w. volleyball »WHY WATCH, from page S3 of five times. When Bruno travels to Harvard on Sept. 13 for the first varsity matchup in Ivy League history, it will hope to build on past success on a brand-new stage: Seniors Kathryn Graves ’15, A. Sydney Peak ’15, Elena Suglia ’15, Zoe Thompson ’15 and Jamelle Watson-Daniels ’15 will lead Brown’s most recently added varsity sport in its first official season. Though the varsity designation is just months old, this team may have the best chance of any of Bruno’s fall squads to become a national champion.
HERALD FILE PHOTO
Maryl Vanden Bos ’15, one of the team’s many upperclassmen, prepares to serve. She and her fellow veteran players are key to this season’s success.
Experienced squad shoots for Ivy’s top tier After last year’s thirdplace finish, Bears have leadership to make another jump By CHRISTINE RUSH SPORTS STAFF WRITER
The women’s volleyball team is heading west this weekend, taking its talents to the San Diego State University Aztec Invitational. California native Maryl Vanden Bos ’15 said this early tournament “really accelerated how quickly we started playing” during the preseason weeks. This year’s practices have been more targeted than those of last year’s preseason, focusing on helping the players develop specific skills, Vanden Bos said. For example, the team had a practice devoted to serving, a skill which the players can then incorporate into a
game setting, Vanden Bos said. Both Vanden Bos and Taylor Bantle ’15 commented on how the team is working to build on last year’s 8-6 conference record and third-place Ivy League finish. Bantle pinpointed the team’s chemistry as one of this season’s advantages for the squad. This connectedness translates into stronger gameplay because “you feel comfortable communicating with one another on the court,” Bantle said. Both senior leaders expressed upbeat outlooks for the team and this season’s prospects. The Bears have “a lot of high impact players,” Vanden Bos said. Brown has an “upperclassmanheavy team,” Bantle said, adding that this provides a wealth of experience. This weekend presents the Bears with an opportunity to showcase their chemistry and experience on the court — and maybe dig up some wins in the process.
Football Why watch a team that graduated 18 of its 22 starters and is picked to finish sixth in the Ivy League this season? Two words: Johnny Football. While it is unlikely the real Johnny Manziel will see the field for the Bears this season, Head Coach Phil Estes compared his new starting quarterback, Marcus Fuller ’15, to Texas A&M’s dual-threat Heisman Trophy winner. If Fuller can live up to his coach’s comparison and utilize weapons like All-Ivy speedster Alexander Jette ’17, he could give Brown Stadium some offensive fireworks in his first season as a starter. Speed and elusiveness on the offensive side of the ball complement what is sure to be an old-fashioned, hard-hitting Bruno defense. Two of the league’s best linebackers — Dan Giovacchini ’15 and Xavier Russo ’15 — will anchor the defensive unit. Estes has a knack for defying the preseason rankings, and the football team has stockpiled a lot of young stars. But Estes will need this young talent to mature quickly because defending Ivy champion Harvard comes to College Hill for a marquee night game Sept. 27. Women’s soccer Coming off a 10-win season and one of its best conference performances in recent history, Bruno will hope to fill the void left by eight graduating seniors, including two All-Ivy selections in Mika Siegelman ’14 and goalie Mary Catherine Barrett ’14. If anyone can take a new cast of characters to the next level, it is Head Coach Phil Pincince, who is entering his 38th year at the helm as the 13th-winningest coach in NCAA Division I history. Captain Chloe Cross ’15 will head the team’s charge, having led Bruno in scoring each of the past two seasons
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2014
and earning All-Ivy honors herself. Annie Gillen ’15, another All-Ivy selection, will aim to set up Cross from the backfield, and Charlotte Beach ’16 looks to play an integral role in this year’s campaign as a midfielder. Volleyball It was only two seasons ago that the volleyball team lost 11 Ivy games and ended in the conference cellar. But a transformation has the squad coming off its first winning Ivy season since 2008 and primed for more success. This season should be a particularly good one for hitters, as the Bears have the personnel and offensive scheme to launch some missiles over the net. Maddie Lord ’15, last season’s team leader in kills, returns to haunt back rows across the conference with her authoritative spike. Some new faces will also look to get in on the action, including Casey Tierney ’18, whom Head Coach Diane Short has described as “just terminating the ball” when she hits. Couple their talent with the 6-2 rotation Bruno employs — a strategy usually used by teams with powerful hitters — and fans can expect some high-velocity volleyballs in 2014. The return of the team leader in kills, assists and digs has the team poised to compete in the Ancient Eight. Four-time defending Ivy champion Yale will be tough to dethrone, so its showdown with Bruno in the Pizzitola Center Sept. 26 is worth the walk to the courts. Field hockey The field hockey team may not have had the most successful past few years; its last winning season came in 2006, and Bruno has won just two Ivy League games in the past three years. Despite the team’s struggles it is worth seeing a game just to watch Meghan O’Donnell ’15 — one of the best players in Brown history. She led the team in goals and points last season and will look to break the team’s all-time goals record this time around. She currently sits in third place with twenty-nine. Goalkeeper Shannon McSweeney ’15 also provided a bright spot for Bruno last season, leading the Ivy League with 172 saves and earning an All-Ivy honorable mention. Men’s water polo Few Brown teams would be disappointed with finishing 23-13 with an 8-5 conference record. But for the men’s water polo team, the goal is to return to its dominant ways of 2012, when it posted 29 wins and went undefeated in conference play. Five players remain from that team, including seniors Henry Fox ’15, Andrew Brown ’15 and Nick Deaver ’15. Fox led the team with 85 goals last season. He finished in the top five on the team in blocks, steals and assists and was named CWPA Northern Division First Team. An Oct. 11 home doubleheader against Harvard and the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology will be circled on Bruno’s calendar. With this weekend the second in a row that Brown will face its Cambridge counterparts, the matchups may go a long way in determining the conference champion. Tennis Unlike some of Bruno’s other fall teams, both tennis teams return to action having lost only a few of their most talented performers. The men’s team returns two of its top singles players in Justin To ’15 and Gregory Garcia ’17. The women’s team also returns its young top two — an allIvy doubles pairing — in Dayna Lord ’17 and Hannah Camhi ’16, a former Herald staff writer. Lord was named Ivy League Rookie of the Year for her performance last season. If both teams are able to stay healthy, some of the conference’s top talent might help them bounce back from recent Ivy League struggles. Both teams will host the Brown Invitational on College Hill — the men from September 13 to 15 and the women from September 19 to 21. Cross country Don’t be deterred by consecutive down years by the men’s cross country team. While the team will run competitively only once in the state of Rhode Island — an Oct. 17 run in Warwick — it is worth tracking a few of the squad’s rising stars. Mark McGurrin ’15, Ben Halpin ’15 and Martin Martinez ’17 consistently led Bruno last season, and all three return to try to push the Bears out of the bottom of the conference standings. Jordan Mann ’15 may be the team’s most exciting runner. After an impressive finish to his track season last spring, Mann spent the summer training at altitude in Boulder, Colorado, an endurance sport Mecca. He has looked impressive in his return to campus and will be a runner to follow as the season progresses. Men’s golf The class of 2014’s graduation put a dent in the men’s golf team, with senior leaders Nelson Hargrove ’14, Peter Callas ’14 and Kyohei Itamura ’14 ending their careers. Justin Miller ’15 will step into the captain role as the team’s lone senior and best returning performer. The 2014 season will be one of rebuilding, hinging largely on the performance of underclassmen. Jack Wilson ’16 is the team’s only junior, so two sophomores and two first-years will be counted on to fill out the lineup. Expect some growing pains from the young talent, but scouting the new prospects is an exciting part of college sports. If Chad Carlson ’17 and Connor Lynch ’17 can build on their rookie campaigns and newcomers Kevin Li ’18 and Ben Warner ’18 adapt to the collegiate game, the squad has the foundation for success in years to come.
today 5
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2014
menu SHARPE REFECTORY
t h ay e r r e va m p e d VERNEY-WOOLLEY
LUNCH Mediterranean Salmon Stir-Fry, Pulled Pork Sandwich, Tri-Colored Fingerlings with Fresh Herbs
Breaded Chicken Fingers, Vegan Nuggets, Sticky Rice, Summer Squash, Three Bean Casserole, Apple Squares
DINNER Tortellini Provencale, Tilapia with Provencale, Grilled Cheese, Baked Sweet Potatoes, Caribbean Rum Cake
Chicken Laredo, Cheese Ravioli with Pink Vodka Sauce, Stir Fried Tofu, Garlic and Butter Infused Rice
JOSIAH’S
THREE BURNERS Gourmet Tacos
QUESADILLA OR GRILLED CHEESE Make-Your-Own Quesadillas
sudoku
COURTESY OF THAYER STREET DISTRICT MANAGEMENT AUTHORITY
The renovation of Thayer Street is part of an urban renewal project that will symbolically open with a ribbon cutting ceremony Sept. 28. New green spaces and public seating will enhance the street’s familiar landscape.
comics Bacterial Culture | Dana Schwartz ’15
Bear With It | Dolan Bortner ’17
crossword
calendar TODAY
SEPTEMBER 5
4 P.M. WBRU OPEN HOUSE & BBQ
Brown student radio station WBRU will host an open house and barbecue for potential new DJs, bloggers, photographers and designers interested in working for the student-run station. 88 Benevolent St. 6 P.M. DANCE@BROWN: INTRODUCTION TO THE DANCE COMMUNITY
Members of the dance community will answer questions about different on-campus dance opportunities, perform routines and connect with prospective dancers. Leeds Theater, Lyman Hall
TOMORROW
SEPTEMBER 6
2 P.M. CUPCAKESPEARE
Outdoor student theater group Shakespeare on the Green will hold a mixer for potential participants to meet current group members, learn about ways to get involved and enjoy free cupcakes. Underground, Stephen Robert ’62 Campus Center 7 P.M. SEX@BROWN
Learn about the seven stages of sexual desire with Alexis Saccoman ’04, a researcher and lecturer who will return to campus present his University-renowned workshop. Salomon 101
SUNDAY
SEPTEMBER 7
8:15 A.M. SERVING THE HOMELESS COMMUNITY WITH BROWN RISD HILLEL
Brown Hillel has joined community soup kitchen Judy’s Kindness Kitchen to prepare meals at Temple Beth Sholom and serve them at Crossroads Rhode Island. Volunteers can sign up for one- to three-hour slots. Brown/RISD Hillel 2 P.M. BROWN REFUGEE YOUTH TUTORING AND ENRICHMENT (BRYTE) INFORMATION SESSION
BRYTE, a tutoring organization that matches Brown students with recently resettled refugee students, will hold an introductory meeting for new mentors. Wilson 102
6 commentary
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2014
DIAMONDS & COAL Coal to Provost Vicki Colvin, who said she told President Christina Paxson during her job interview, “I cherish controversy.” Yeah, like we need more of that. A diamond to the new contemplative studies concentration. We wish our finals consisted of just breathing. Coal to the new Mail Services system, because we’re not sure we’d trust it with handling anything more valuable. Cubic zirconia to James Morone, the new director of the Taubman Center for Public Policy and American Institutions, who said the center will “be much more ambitious” going forward. Sounds like our plans at the start of every semester. Call us in a month when all you can do is rewatch “Orange is the New Black.” Cubic zirconia to the Undergraduate Council of Students leader who said of Brown dining, “We’re always talking about being better in touch with the student voice.” He’s almost at all five senses. Coal to Dawn King, visiting assistant professor of environmental studies, who said she hopes the local food movement and sustainability “isn’t just a passing trend.” With so many babies named Kale, we sort of hope it passes. A N G E L IA WA N G
Coal to Jean Lehane, spokesperson for Stop Common Core in Rhode Island, who said, “Parents are upset that education is being usurped by corporations.” Don’t you know that corporations are people, too? A diamond to Paxson for saying that freedom of speech and diversity on campus were “linked somehow last year.” Brilliant observation. Coal to Donna Personeus, executive director for the Thayer Street District Management Authority, who said, “There was a lot of planning to make it as painless as possible.” Tell that to the sidewalk that was ripped up.
Q U O T E O F T H E D AY
“Men have incredible societal privilege.” — Mark Peters, men’s health coordinator
A diamond to Ravi Pendse, vice president for computing and information services and chief information officer, who said, “We are expecting this new Brown network to work perfectly.” Are you living in Keeney? Because your optimism is adorable.
See assault on page 1.
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commentary 7
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2014
Little League, big pressure ANDREW FELDMAN opinions columnist
As students get older, they often complain that their jobs or internships require long, arduous hours that take advantage of their need for experience and/or employment. These complaints usually don’t begin until high school at the very least, if not college. But for some 11to 13-year-olds, this exploitation begins before many of their parents even allow them to stay home alone. In 1939, Little League Baseball began in unassuming Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Carl Stotz started the league in his hometown to help teach local children about “sportsmanship, fair play and teamwork,” according to the Little League website. While the league still serves as a great opportunity for kids from all over the country and the world to come together to play a sport they love, it has spawned a tournament where prepubescent children are now burdened with the same pressures as professional athletes. The Philadelphia Taney Dragons’ Mo’ne Davis is at the epicenter of all of this pressure. Davis is the first girl to ever pitch a complete game shutout and only the sixth to record a hit in the Little League World Series.
Her athletic prowess has deservedly earned her fame, so much so that she became the youngest athlete to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated. But how much attention can we put on her until it becomes excessive? It’s not that she cannot handle the fame — she has done so, better than the vast majority of children or adults ever could — but how much attention should really be thrown at a 13-year-old child who is
teams that won their respective regional brackets. The players aren’t just a 12-person all-star team from a region — they are an actual local team of friends. Rules are also in place to ensure that everyone is given an equal chance to play, without anyone playing too much. Rules set a minimum number of times a player must bat while limiting the number of pitches and how often a pitcher can pitch in a game. How-
This is not to say that 11- to 13-year-old children should all of a sudden get a salary for their efforts. The LLWS should be reinvesting some of its profits in the players to ensure the growth and safety of not just kids involved in the tournament but children across the entire country. The simplest way to help LLWS participants is by allocating a portion of the proceeds into a college
Little League baseball must go beyond the rule book in order to truly aid these heavily scrutinized children. about to enter the eighth grade? It’s one thing for Little Leaguers to celebrate their best — especially Davis, who has served as a national role model — but another entirely for adults to put so much pressure on her. When asked about her expectations for her newfound popularity, she said, “People were like, ‘Oh, there’s going to be people running up to you taking pictures,’ and I thought it was going to be a bunch of little kids. But it’s grown-ups! And that’s, like, creepy.” Little League Baseball does attempt to alleviate some of those pressures by adhering to the initial ideals of sportsmanship. The teams that qualify for the LLWS are local
ever, Little League baseball must go beyond the rule book in order to truly aid these heavily scrutinized children. The Little League World Series compensates the Little League teams’ participation with equipment, transportation and room and board, as well as the chance to play on an international stage. But, in return, the LLWS has a $76 million TV contract with ESPN over the next eight years. That’s not even including all the additional endorsement deals or the memorabilia and tens of thousands of tickets sold. Recently, Davis’ autographed baseballs were selling for as much as $500 on eBay.
scholarship fund. If the well-being of the children participating is at the forefront, then the league should use some of this excess profit to help ensure its players’ continued success. Most of these players do not advance to professional baseball but instead will need to pursue other career options that often require a higher level of education. Reinvesting some of these profits in the playersby offering them college scholarships would make continued education a viable option. The larger and more influential way to allocate these funds is sponsoring baseball initiatives in inner cities and impoverished communities. Sponsoring the growth of Lit-
tle League baseball in communities that traditionally lack such activities could give kids a healthful, supervised extracurricular activity that could spur community development. Subsidizing such programs would also promote the initial ideals that Little League baseball stood for — children would be able to learn all about sportsmanship and teamwork. With the recent popularity of inner-city teams such as the Taney Dragons and the U.S. champion Chicago Jackie Robinson West, now is the perfect time to continue to aid these communities. Hopefully a player like Davis can go on to achieve her dream of playing basketball at the University of Connecticut before eventually playing in the WNBA. But if not, the LLWS should be working to aid her growth by supporting her education and using her notoriety to give other children in communities across the country the same opportunities she has been fortunate enough to receive.
Andrew Feldman ’16 exclusively taunts professional athletes and can be reached at andrew_feldman@brown.edu with complaints about how your favorite professional team is being outplayed by 13-yearolds.
Are we all just rebels without causes? SAMANTHA ISMAN opinions columnist
About two months ago, when tensions began to rise in the Middle East, my Facebook newsfeed was covered with people voicing their concern for the Palestinian people. Four months before that, when Boko Haram kidnaped more than 200 girls from their school, my friends were hashtagging “bring back our girls.” And now, my newsfeed mostly comprises videos of the ice bucket challenge. While Boko Haram hasn’t returned the girls to their homes, and Hamas and Israel are still firing at each other, we seem to have forgotten them for the sake of following a trend. Every movement is worthy of attention, but we can’t remember what it really means to care. Social media and the Internet have turned our generation into a group of rebel activists without a cause. We attach ourselves to whatever movement is trendy so that we can post about it on Facebook or tweet about it, but as soon as a new trend begins, we forget what it was we were fighting for in the first place. As Malcolm Gladwell wrote in a 2010 New Yorker essay, “Fifty years after one of the most extraordinary episodes of social upheaval in American history, we seem to have forgotten what activism is.” Social media has made it possible for everyone to share their opinions and beliefs. Chances are, most of us would have never thought about what amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is or what it does to the body had the ice bucket challenge not started. But how many people
who participated in the challenge actually also took the time to learn about ALS instead of simply turning it into another video of themselves? While watching the videos, my biggest question is: How many of these people actually care? A recent study published in the Journal of Consumer Research found that most people seem to join causes for the visibility and “that people who joined a cause publicly were, when asked, less willing to stuff envelopes for the
as they crop up in an attempt to find something we genuinely care about. I don’t think the alternative — not even bothering with trying to find a cause — is better. We should all care about ALS and Boko Haram and Palestine, but we need to start paying more attention to the reasons why we are posting about certain things. We follow and switch through causes as if they were fashion trends. These trends eventually fade as new ones crop up, and more often
We attach ourselves to whatever movement is trendy so that we can post about it on Facebook or tweet about it, but as soon as a new trend begins, we forget what it was we were fighting for in the first place. cause than those who joined in private,” Rosalie Tostevin wrote in a Guardian blog post this year. How many of us are actually taking the time to learn about the causes we are fighting for? How many of us would be willing to protest rather than post? A study in the Sociological Journal of Science has found that “the majority of people who ‘like’ a Facebook page for a cause don’t follow up that gesture with a donation,” Tostevin wrote. While many of us don’t necessarily have the money to spare, many others check out when we’re asked to donate, or we throw a bucket of ice water on our heads. Maybe I have it wrong. Maybe it’s not that we’re all rebel activists without a cause, but that we are actually testing causes and movements
than not the problems remain. I have a newfound respect for people who have a cause they feel strongly about — I have a handful of friends who are always posting about the same cause instead of jumping on the trendiest one. I have a friend whose grandmother passed away from ALS and whose family started a charity fund in her name. She and others like her have found their passion and are not letting their peers and the media dictate what they should care about. Gladwell makes a good point in saying that the Internet and social media are “effective at increasing participation — by lessening the level of motivation that participation requires.” Except that lack of motivation is what has turned activism into a trend — something you
do because your friends are doing it — rather than something worth your time and energy. It seems like our generation is trying to find something to post about rather than something they can make a difference in. One of my friends recently posted her video of the bucket challenge. In it, she’s sitting in her tub and sipping a beer while someone dumps a bucket of ice water on her and promises to donate a dollar for every like she gets on the video. She ends her post with directing her nominees to film themselves, saying nothing about ALS. Most likely, if I asked her the symptoms of ALS, she wouldn’t be able to answer me — her activism is just a quest for popularity. Not everyone who posts on Facebook and hashtags his or her activism is in search of approval. Some people truly care and stand behind their causes, like my friend whose family started a charity in her grandmother’s memory. But ultimately, the vast majority of people simply jump on the most recent trend and completely forget about it in a week. Something as simple as writing a letter to the heads of large corporations or teaching someone else about what you’re fighting for can make a difference. The biggest problem with our generation focusing on the visibility of our activist actions is that unless we find something to care about and do something about it, we are not going to solve or address any real problems. As a recent Vice column written by Arielle Pardes put it: “Because, yes, social problems continue even after you stop hashtagging them.”
Sami Isman ’15 still hasn’t found her cause, but she’s not losing hope.
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2014
THE
BROWN DAILY HERALD arts & culture REVIEW
Student band Off-White rocks Wriston Group enlivens Orientation with set of original songs and alternative covers
By MEGHAN FRIEDMANN STAFF WRITER
On Tuesday evening, Wriston Quadrangle rung with more than just the sounds of fraternity brothers playing cornhole and returning students picnicking over Sharpe Refectory takeout. Riffs drifted out from a makeshift stage as Off-White, a student rock band, played for the crowd attending the campus welcome celebration sponsored by the Orientation Welcoming Committee. The concert, only one part of an event that also included an inflatable obstacle course and photo booth, was intended to “hype up Convocation” and bring together students of all years in an environment where they could have fun before classes set in, said Andy Donahue, coordinator for student events and orientation. Pausing on their walks to or from the Ratty to sit and listen, students around the quad responded positively to Off-White, with Steven D’Ascanio ’17 referring to the band as “outrageously good.” The band, made up of four juniors, describes its style as “eclectic” — an accurate assessment, as during its performance, the band’s sound included various alternative, blues and jazz influences. The group played a mix of original
songs and covers, including the Eagles’ “Hotel California,” Death Cab for Cutie’s “I Will Follow You Into the Dark” and 30 Seconds to Mars’ “The Kill” — a high point of the set during which the band delivered a particularly well-balanced, dynamic performance with captivating crescendos and decrescendos. For the entirety of the concert, Morayo Akande’s ’16 smooth and mellow lead vocals captured her wide range. Though sometimes very dynamic, at other times her voice could have benefited from more frequent rises and falls in sound level. The band’s cover of My Chemical Romance’s “So Long and Good Night,” in which lead guitarist Patrick LaChance ’16 joined Akande for a duet, also stood out. LaChance’s voice, much earthier than Akande’s and not unlike a lower version of Bright Eyes’ Conor Oberst’s, provided contrast to Akande’s voice. While this made for some cool harmonies, LaChance’s voice sometimes overpowered Akande’s. LaChance was an accurate and creative guitarist who played some impressive solos and garnered audience participation by allowing a firstyear to perform a guest solo during “Hotel California.” LaChance’s guitar skills meshed nicely with those of drummer John Ericson ’16, who played on the djembe drum. But while the two had a great balance in sound, they occasionally fell out of sync with each other. Ericson’s performance was a crucial aspect of the band’s sound. The
mellowness of the drums pulled the rest of the voices together, allowing listeners to hear the individual layers produced by each musician. Bassist Adam Savat ’16 played impressively. Though amateur bands often perform with too much bass, which can make it difficult to enjoy the full performance, Savat played at a well-chosen decibel. His smooth bass lines did not drown out the sounds of other instruments and, like Ericson’s drumming, helped glue the various elements together. One of the band’s stand-out original numbers was “Interlude (Let’s Go to Hollywood).” The lyrics, written by Akande, were especially attentiongrabbing, with lines like: “Give me your soul, says the man on the corner / Pay me a dime, says the girl in the mud / Stay in your place or you’ll disrupt the order / of kings, cavaliers, jesters, jokers, your blood.” Students got a peek into the songwriting process behind the band’s lyrics and music during the song “Darkness,” which was almost entirely improvisation. Though the band had to push through some technical problems throughout the concert, Akande took them in stride, quipping that “the static in the guitar amp is an artistic choice.” Andres Chang ’17 appreciated these casual engagements with the audience, saying that Akande’s “banter game (was) on point.” Off-White has been an emerging presence in the student music scene since its inception last semester.
REVIEW
‘Frank’ out-enchants ‘Magic’ ‘Frank’ examines magic of the ordinary self, while ‘Magic in the Moonlight’ falls short By EBEN BLAKE CONTRIBUTING WRITER
“Magic in the Moonlight,” Woody Allen’s latest film, conjures up familiar illusions drawn from the rest of his work. Where it differs from most of his canon, however, is in its failure — despite its title — to suspend our disbelief, or cast any real enchantment. Allen’s inventiveness is absent here. The film uses so many of his well-worn conceits that it borders on self-parody: the older male cynic, educated and full of disdain; a young, uneducated but beautiful and innocent woman for the older man to scold and with whom he eventually falls in love. “Magic in the Moonlight” follows Stanley Crawford, played by Colin Firth, a magician who appears under the name Wei Ling Soo in a problematic relic of 1920s orientalism. At the behest of his friend Howard Burkan, played by Simon McBurney, Stanley tries to debunk a spiritualist, Sophie Baker, played by Emma Stone, who resides in the Cote D’Azur home of a wealthy American family.
Stanley arrives to the estate after Sophie has captivated the heir to the family’s fortune, Brice, played by Hamish Linklater. Stanley spends much of the first part of the film grimacing and eye-rolling at the true believers of her powers, sarcastically mocking the family’s intelligence — until, predictably, Sophie begins to amaze him, cause him to doubt his long-held skepticism and, of course, enchant him as well. Part of the film’s problem is Stanley himself. He’s a jerk to everyone around him, and treats the whole situation with such smug, resolute superiority that it’s hard not to want to hit him. Unlikable, yes, but he also seems unnecessarily cruel, as though he relishes every dream he has broken, every bit of wonder he has stamped out. The normally great Firth doesn’t bring the lightness of touch to the role that Allen, or some of his past stand-ins like Owen Wilson, could create. Even at his most neurotic and skeptical, Allen as an actor managed to make himself endearing. Here, though, it’s hard to believe how the character appeals to anyone, especially a beautiful and successful young woman like Sophie. Stanley’s fiancee, Olivia, while barely present throughout the film, serves as the obvious foil to Sophie. She also speaks some of the clunkiest
dialogue: In one of the most overt pieces of character exposition in the film, she demands whether Stanley fell in love with her for logic and rationalism. The landscape serves as one of the film’s points of redemption. The French Riviera is captured here in all its glamorous Old World beauty, perfectly evocative of the period. Perhaps the fun of that world can save “Magic in the Moonlight” a bit, at least as a piece of pure entertainment. It’s enjoyable and forgettable and innocuous enough to watch, but from Allen, we should expect a better show. “Frank,” a new film by Lenny Abrahamson, similarly deals with a world of deception and transcendent possibility. Where “Magic in the Moonlight” celebrates the unrepentant skeptic hoping to disprove the claim of communion with a divine world, “Frank” explores loneliness from the perspective of an envious admirer. In “Frank,” there’s something sublimely magical about the artifice. The film takes great pains to humanize and deepen its titular character, not to demonstrate his true hollowness. The truth behind the mask is enriched, not diminished, by its quotidian and troubled self. The film follows Jon, played excellently by Domhnall Gleeson, an » See MOVIES, page 4
The Lineup September
ANGELIA WANG
Boston Calling | City Hall Plaza | Sept. 5 to 7
Lorde, the 17-year-old singer-songwriter who made her groundbreaking debut last year with the single “Royals,” will headline, along with the National, Childish Gambino, Spoon and Twenty One Pilots.
Providence Folk Festival | Roger Williams National Memorial Park | Sept. 7
The first annual Providence Folk Festival will feature local folk, acoustic and singer-songwriter musicians including Allysen Callery, Bob Kendall and Lisa Martin. Admission will be free to the public.
Steely Dan | Providence Performing Arts Center | Sept. 7
In a flashback to its antihero heyday of the late 1970s, the now-legendary band — which was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001 — will reprise its tongue-in-cheek lyrics and complex jazz-R&B influences.
Wavves | The Met | Sept. 7
Wavves, specializing in surf rock and lo-fi grunge, will bring its California-based sound to the East Coast. After its performance at the University of Colorado, the band received praise from the CU Independent for “an energy-packed show that left the audience dancing and moshing with delight.”
Red Jumpsuit Apparatus | Simon’s 677 | Sept. 10
Best remembered for its 2006 LP “Don’t You Fake It,” the alternative rock band recently celebrated its 10th anniversary by releasing new material, including an EP entitled “Et Tu, Brute?” last year and an album, “4,” in July.
Immortal Technique | Fete Ballroom | Sept. 13
Rapper-turned-activist Felipe Andres Coronel, a.k.a. Immortal Technique, is known for incorporating political content into his music, which touches on themes of racism, poverty and corruption.
Pardon Me, Doug | Newport Grand Event Center | Sept. 27
An up-and-coming Phish tribute band from Portland, Maine, the group now boasts a growing repertoire of around 150 songs. Pardon Me, Doug has been lauded for its high-energy improvisational jams, which have garnered a following from new audiences and diehard Phish “phans” alike. by EmmaJean Holley and Grace Yoon