SINCE 1891
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2015
VOLUME CL, ISSUE 62
WWW.BROWNDAILYHERALD.COM
Lack of textbook info violates federal law U. identifies steps to Administrators to remind faculty regularly to update course material going forward By AGNES CHAN SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Courses without textbook information As of Sept. 10, 740 courses of the 1,458 examined by The Herald on Banner did not have any books listed.
More than half of courses this semester have no textbook information listed on Banner, violating a federal law that requires colleges receiving federal support for financial aid to make such information available to students during registration. The Higher Education Opportunity Act states that “an institution of higher education receiving federal financial assistance” must publish the ISBN and retail price information of textbooks and other course materials online during both preregistration and registration. This law — which applies to all textbooks, course packs and material that students are responsible for buying — went into effect in July 2010 with the goal of » See TEXTBOOKS, page 3
By LAUREN ARATANI SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Mobile-app developers, fashion designers, engineers and Ph.D. candidates alike came together to participate in the University’s inaugural Summer B-Lab — known in full as the Breakthrough Lab — held at the Perry and Marty Granoff Center for the Creative Arts June 8–July 31. The program gave 17 teams, a total of 39 students, the opportunity to develop their startup ideas into tangible business models. Over 100 students from about 50 venture teams applied to participate in BLab, but space considerations restricted the opportunity to 17 ventures, said William Foulkes, B-Lab program organizer. Teams were chosen based on their previous work on the proposed venture, potential for success and commitment to the program, he added. “We were delighted by the real, energetic demand that there is among the Brown population for a program like this,” he said. B-Lab allocated each team resources for determining the venture’s feasibility, building participants confidence in entrepreneurship through a “learn-bydoing approach,” Foulkes said.
INSIDE
Plan targets IT services, vendor contracts while preserving employee benefits By BAYLOR KNOBLOCH SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Courses with textbook info: 49%
Courses without textbook info: 51%
Source: Banner JILLIAN LANNEY / HERALD
Summer B-Lab nurtures student business ventures Summer program helps develop student venture ideas into established companies, organizations
reduce budget deficit
“We pushed the participants to reach a very informed conclusion about the viability of their venture by the end of the eight weeks,” he said, adding that they encouraged “an evidence-based explanation about their opportunities with a clear decision of whether they should pursue them” once the program came to a close. One of the main goals of the program was to provide mentorship to the student entrepreneurs, Foulkes said. Mentors included business leaders from around Rhode Island, along with Brown faculty and alums. Brown faculty members also gave weekly lectures on topics such as failure, what a venture capitalist looks for in a start-up and how to finance a venture. The program aimed to encapsulate ventures in a diverse range of fields, Foulkes said. Selected start-ups included a high-end fashion brand that encourages collaboration between amateur and professional designers and a company that produces toy dolls with a range of skin colors and hairstyles, as well as an app to detect Vitamin D levels and deficiencies in a person’s body. Matt Cooper ’18 used his time at B-Lab to develop Chorus, an app that allows users to produce music in collaboration with people in surrounding areas. Users can create a beat or melody and post it to Chorus, allowing others to listen and add to the track, Cooper said. “How (B-Lab) differed from most » See B-LAB, page 3
A set of actions has been finalized to reduce the University’s $10 million structural deficit in three years, wrote Provost Richard Locke and Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration Barbara Chernow ’79 in a campus-wide email Thursday. The action plan outlined in the email came after Locke and Chernow spent the summer reviewing the Deficit Reduction Working Group’s April recommendations in conjunction with the 650 community comments submitted in response to the
recommendations. Before becoming provost this July, Locke co-chaired the working group. “The greatest concern was a fear that we would erode the (faculty and staff) benefits,” Locke said, adding that he and Chernow did “exactly the opposite” by protecting benefits. Many community members submitted comments expressing concern about the possibility of rising health insurance deductibles, particularly for “people on the lower end of the salary scale, because our benefits aren’t just for faculty — it’s faculty and staff,” Locke said. The original set of recommendations proposed increasing employee contributions for health insurance and temporarily freezing the Tuition Aid Program, both of which were struck from the final action plan due » See DEFICIT, page 2
WOMEN’S SOCCER
COURTESY OF CHRISTINE MARIE
The tight-knit women’s soccer team poses for a picture with Indomitable in the athletic complex. With the departure of five key players, the Bears will rely on solid team chemistry to secure wins this season.
Rookies instill Bears with talent, energy Without star player Cross ’15, Bruno needs consistent contributions from Waldman ’18, rest of offense By ALEX WAINGER SPORTS EDITOR
Despite losing five key starters to graduation, the women’s soccer team is confi-
dent it can rebound from 2014’s last-place conference record of 1-4-2. The team (1-1) will fill the holes in its roster with a talented first-year class and revitalized team chemistry. And when a coach like
Phil Pincince is holding the reigns, a surge to the top is never out of reach. Pincince is the longest-tenured active women’s soccer coach in the NCAA, having completed his 38th season as the Bears’ head coach last year. But 2015 will be his last ride with the team, as » See W. SOCCER, page 8
WEATHER
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2015
ARTS & CULTURE Portrait photographer Dana Gluckstein discusses her exhibit, now up in Watson Institute
SPORTS Men’s soccer looks for upperclassmen to generate offense and success this season
COMMENTARY Sundlee ’16: Pushing gay rights globally could weaken the movement and breed hostility
COMMENTARY Hillestad ’15: There is an appropriate time and place for disruptive protests to be effective
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UNIVERSITY NEWS PAGE 2 • FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2015
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
Waitlist admissions see huge jump for class of 2019 Overall yield rate of 56 percent dips slightly from previous years, is lower than those of three other Ivies By AGNES CHAN SENIOR STAFF WRITER
The University extended offers of admission to 196 students on the class of 2019 waitlist, a drastic increase from previous admission cycles, said Dean of Admission Jim Miller ’73. A slightly lower overall yield rate and a record-high number of students deferring admission may have contributed to this jump. Forty-two students were admitted off the waitlist last year, while two were admitted off the waitlist for the class of 2017 and zero for the class of 2016. “It is really great to be able to take people from the waitlist because we have so many great students on there. So we’re happy about that,” Miller said. Fifty-six percent of students admitted to the class of 2019 committed to the University, Miller said. This year’s yield marks a 3 percent decline from the previous year, though it remains close to the average of previous years, which has hovered around 57 percent, he said. Fifty-five students accepted to the class of 2019 deferred admission to take a gap year. “This is a bigger number than we’ve ever had, which is — from my perspective — a promising trend. … I’m a big fan personally of gap years,” Miller said. This could
be part of an increasing trend, as 43 students deferred admission last year and 36 deferred the year before. The class of 2019 totals 1,618 students, including the Brown/RISD Dual Degree Program cohort of 14 students, Miller said. This marks an increase from the 1,563 students who initially made up the class of 2018. The class size has grown consistently since President Christina Paxson P’19 named growing the student and faculty populations a priority in her strategic plan, “Building on Distinction.” Of the other Ivy League schools that have released their yield rates, Harvard, Princeton and Penn all boasted higher rates than Brown at 81, 69 and 66, respectively. Meanwhile, Dartmouth’s yield fell below Brown’s at around 50. The yield rate for admits who attended A Day on College Hill — a three-day, two-night hosting program designed for admitted students — was 69 percent this year. Though this represents a drop from last year’s ADOCH yield rate of 73 percent, it remains significantly higher than the overall class yield rate. Fewer participants in this year’s ADOCH — thus a smaller proportion of the overall admitted student pool — may partially explain the slight drop in yield rate. “This was due to a lot of factors that we just didn’t have
Students admitted off the waitlist, by class year Nearly 200 students were admitted off the waitlist for the class of 2019, the highest number in recent years.
196 150 students 100 50 0
62 32 2014 2015
0 2016
2 2017
42 2018
2019 JILLIAN LANNEY / HERALD
Source: Jim Miller ’73, dean of admission
control over,” said ADOCH coordinator Alissa Rhee ’16. “We had a lot of issues with overlap with our peer institutions, and this year our budget wasn’t able to extend more offers to students who maybe are coming from farther away.” But a steadily high ADOCH yield rate is a confirmation of ADOCH’s success as a program to get students excited about Brown, Rhee said, adding that producing a high yield rate
is a consistent goal for the ADOCH coordinators. “I would say this year that ADOCH was definitely a success. We had so many parents coming up to us saying that ADOCH was wellrun,” she said. “The students were very happy here.” “From a recruiting perspective, if we have the opportunity to get people to attend ADOCH, it makes a significant difference in their decision to attend,” Miller said.
Geographic location remains a major factor shaping a student’s decision to commit to a university. “There’s sort of a general rule in college admissions that the further away from home people are, the lower the yield,” Miller said. “We tend to have lower yields further away in the West Coast and the South, but that’s a general rule in higher education,” he said. This year’s class hails from 61 countries and speaks 59 languages, he added.
» DEFICIT, from page 1
and services like office supplies and transportation, and increasing energy efficiency on campus. The plan explicitly states that the University will consolidate positions in IT through attrition rather than layoffs. “We want Brown to be a model employer, to treat everyone in the community really well,” Locke said. Locke and Chernow also identified streamlining procurement as another potential way to reduce spending waste. For example, the University currently holds contracts with 70 different transportation services, so “maybe if we have fewer vendors and better terms, we can still have all the transportation we need, but we can have it at a higher quality service and a cheaper rate,” Locke said. To conduct this auditing process, the University will hire a person for a newly created position to oversee strategic sourcing in Insurance and Purchasing Services, Chernow said. “Not only are we going to save some money, but also improve services. That’s what we were interested in doing,” she added. All of the initiatives listed in the email are already underway, Chernow said. “We don’t want (the changes) to be a visible hit to either academics or community,” Locke said. “We just want to be doing the things that we’ve been doing smarter.”
to community concerns voiced in online comments. Modifications to employee benefits that will go into effect during the 20152016 academic year include a switch in pharmacy benefit management and an increase in office visit co-pays. “We were able to figure out creative ways of getting our deficit reduced without actually modifying people’s benefits in a fundamental way, which is important,” Locke said. Locke presented the final action plan at Tuesday evening’s faculty meeting and said he received a positive response. “People really appreciate that, one, we’re addressing the deficit, which is really important for our long-term financial health, and two, I think they appreciated that we were transparent about what we were going to do and that we actually listened to the community,” Locke said. “It’s very important that we involve the community, and with Rick’s leadership, that’s what we did,” Chernow said. The action plan also outlines costcutting initiatives in reducing the Dean of the Faculty budget by granting temporary teaching funds more judiciously, consolidating information and technology services, streamlining the procurement of University goods
UNIVERSITY NEWS
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2015 • PAGE 3
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
Med School goes tobacco-free Unveiled over the summer, new regulation receives widespread support from students, administrators By ANDREW JONES STAFF WRITER
Students at the Alpert Medical School are breathing easy after the school’s administration approved a ban on tobacco products on the school’s premises this summer. The ban — which covers all tobacco products, including e-cigarettes — was a “no-brainer,” said Kris Cambra, director of biomedical communications. The Med School’s purpose is to train health professionals, so “it just kind of makes sense when you break it down,” she added. Medical students began advocating for a tobacco-free campus in the fall of 2013, when Jack Elias began his tenure as dean of medicine and biological sciences. A pulmonary doctor, Elias has a strong conviction that tobacco use should be prevented, he said. “I’ve spent a good deal of my life treating people suffering from consequences of tobacco,” Elias said. Brittany Katz MD’16, who initiated the tobacco-free initiative with Zachary Marcus MD’16, became passionate
» TEXTBOOKS, from page 1 decreasing “the cost of college textbooks and supplemental materials for students while supporting the academic freedom of faculty members to select high quality course materials for students.” But a large percentage of Brown courses are not in compliance with the law. No textbook information was available on Banner during preregistration, and only 49 percent of courses currently list at least one book, according to a Herald analysis of textbook data on Banner. This means that of the 1,458 courses offered at Brown, 740 do not list any textbook information, which may cause problems for students selecting courses — especially those facing a tight budget. The Herald’s analysis does not include independent studies, conference sections, thesis courses or courses numbered 3000 or above. “To the maximum extent practicable, Brown is well aware of the law,” said Dean of the College Maud Mandel. Prior to July 2010, the University “created a space on Banner where faculty could put textbook information … which lists all the prices and all the books,” Mandel said. But few measures have been taken to ensure that all faculty members adhere to this requirement, with no deadline for posting the information and no penalties for failing to do so. “We definitely try to get the message out when we talk to faculty,” Mandel said. “But since the law itself does not actually require individuals to do it, but for the institution to do it … faculty are not actually technically required to” provide the information. For some departments, the percentage of courses with no textbook information available far exceeds the overall average: 80 percent for earth, environmental and planetary sciences, 77 percent for archeology and 75 percent for modern culture and media. Though there is no formal deadline for faculty members to post this information on Banner, administrators intend to impose one in the future. “We don’t give them a deadline, but we did send out a
about the issue through years of volunteering with the American Cancer Society, she said. The duo heard about an initiative from the Rhode Island Department of Health to make all Rhode Island schools tobacco-free, and they decided to try to get Brown involved. The Med School administration was immediately receptive to the idea, Katz added. Before implementing the ban, representatives from the Med School met with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Rhode Island Department of Health to discuss the feasibility and implications of a tobacco ban, Cambra said. The government officials recommended that the Med School seek the opinions of students, faculty members and staff members about tobacco use on campus. The school released a fivequestion survey, which revealed that medical students were overwhelmingly favored a tobacco-free campus, Cambra added. In the spring of 2014, the Med School hosted a statewide symposium memo this year, and we intend to do that in the future,” said Dean of the Faculty Kevin McLaughlin P’11. McLaughlin said when he and Mandel learned of the low compliance rate when contacted by The Herald last week, they realized they should “start sending out something every semester before the preregistration period.” “The truth is that we need to put in place some regular reminders to the faculty to post this information, and I’m sure we’ll be doing that going forward,” McLaughlin said. “We assumed that our system was taking care of it, but it hasn’t been.” Of the 51 percent of courses that do not list any textbooks on Banner,
on tobacco-free college campuses, which brought several representatives from those campuses to Providence to discuss the benefits of a ban and the difficulties of putting such a measure into effect, Cambra said. Finally, after officially making the tobacco ban a part of the Med School’s regulations, facilities workers placed signs across campus notifying people of the restriction on tobacco, Cambra said. School officials have received little to no negative feedback on the ban, Elias said. While the school does not plan to issue fines to violators, they will be asked to stop using tobacco while on the premises, Cambra added. In addition to the campus ban, several online resources — including QuitWithBrown.org and RIquitz.org — are aimed at helping people stop using tobacco, Katz said. A phone line also exists for smokers struggling to quit, she added. While there was additional discussion about implementing a tobacco ban on Brown’s undergraduate campus, it would involve a “more extensive process” and could face strong push back from a larger contingent of smokers on the campus, Katz said. a fraction may not require students to spend money on books at all. Due to rising textbook costs, some faculty members have opted to upload shorter texts — including articles from newspapers and academic journals — to Canvas, where students can access them for free. But for courses that assign full books — a majority — “knowing what books are listed always helps in knowing the content of the class and what kinds of knowledge is pre-assumed,” said Nicholas Chuan ’18. “The school should mandate that the professors release such information before preregistration.” -With additional reporting by Emma Jerzyk
» B-LAB, from page 1 startup accelerators is most professional accelerators are really focused on taking ventures and getting them to the point where they can get outside funding,” Cooper said. “B-Lab was much more about the learning experience. The end goal was to do a bunch of research and decide if the venture was worth going for afterwards.” B-Lab’s resources allowed the team to develop Chorus in a more professional setting, Cooper said, adding that he and his partners “felt like (they) were an actual business” with the office space and materials that were provided. Also integral to the program were the mentors that held office hours to offer start-up advice, Cooper said. Though each team was focused on their own venture, collaboration among groups was common, Cooper said. The Chorus team shared codes and ideas with another music app, Opus, he added. ForwardGen, a start-up that aims to provide resources to first-generation students at universities across the United States, used B-Lab to conduct further outreach, said Merone Tadesse ’16. Tadesse had no previous experience in entrepreneurship or social innovation before participating in the program, she added. “(B-Lab) was about learning a lot ... about how to talk about (your idea), how to think about it, and how to make it grow into sustainable and real, not just something your friends thought of in your dorm room,” she said. Tadesse also emphasized the ability to connect with other teams despite have ventures in different fields. The teams’ physical workspaces were in close proximity with each other, allowing students
to “bounce ideas” off each other easily, she said. The ventures “could be totally different, but at the same time, there was just so much similarity in the way we’re thinking and worrying about the same things that it was just really nice to have that as an environment,” she said. At the end of the program, each team was asked to give a three-minute presentation detailing its progress throughout B-Lab and any future plans for the group. While most teams said they were able to move forward with their start-ups, others concluded that their venture would not be feasible because of a lack of available technology or consumer market. Eva Junquera ’17, who was part of the Leading Edge venture team, worked on developing a portable hydropower machine. The team’s goal was to create and market a smaller version of a machine that uses the flow of water to create electricity — a machine originally developed by Brown professors. At the end of B-Lab, Leading Edge discovered that the market for a compact hydropower machine was nearly nonexistent, and the product would not be successful if sold in stores. “Going into B-Lab we had an idea that there would definitely be a market,” Junquera said. “We started different workshops with mentors, and one was a customer research workshop. After going to that, we started going to different shops to see if we could talk to customers and managers to see if it had a market.” After listening to consumer feedback, the team concluded that the portable hydropower machine would not be marketable, but its full-size counterpart would, Junquera said. The original Leading Edge device was designed to create a large-scale impact that a compact device would not be able to produce, she added.
ARTS & CULTURE PAGE 4 • FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2015
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
Brown Language Festival gets students talking First annual festival aims to encourage students to learn foreign languages, cultures while on campus By GABY REYES STAFF WRITER
Tables offering brochures and snacks to passersby lined one of the Main Green’s paths Wednesday afternoon, and students clumped around them between shopping classes to chat with attendants, marking the first annual Brown Language Festival. Language and cultural groups, such as the Vietnamese Students Association, as well as Departmental Undergraduate Groups, such as Slavic Studies and Italian Studies, were represented at the event. In addition, tables promoted less commonly-taught languages like Turkish, and trivia contests and performances from student groups highlighted the afternoon. The festival was hosted by the Center for Language Studies, the umbrella organization for all language offerings and language-related student groups at Brown. The festival’s organizers sought to promote one of CLS’s major goals: encouraging students to study a
language during their time at Brown. “Before my tenure here, the Center didn’t have the resources to reach out to the campus community,” said Ercan Balci, CLS director. He noted that there has been more emphasis on promoting language study among graduate students than undergraduates, and that he drew inspiration from language festivals at other colleges. “I thought it would be a good way to celebrate languages, bring people together in a kind of fun and informal setting and let departments promote their languages and concentrations,” he said. In addition to making the Brown Language Festival an annual event, Balci wants to create “language weeks.” Each week would focus on a language offered at Brown and feature talks, movies and panels, Balci said. He added that CLS would provide financial and staff support for these initiatives. Balci said the festival seeks to combat the national decline in language
study. Due to the lack of language requirements at Brown, students might not see the value of adding a language to their schedules, he said. “Students think learning another language doesn’t add to their career, that English will be the only language used in business within 50 years. … This is a misconception,” he said. “Devoting five or six credits to languages is a very wise investment.” Brown Student Language Exchange, a chapter of the national SLE organization and part of the Brown Language Society, also participated in the festival. The group offers informal classes for less commonly-taught languages. This semester, BSLE is teaching Indonesian, Macedonian, Ukrainian and Hong Kong Cantonese. The classes serve primarily to expose students to languages and cultures not included in Brown’s curriculum. “I consider BSLE’s mission to be changing attitudes toward languages and culture at Brown,” said Katherine Hsu ’17, the BSLE campus coordinator. “People might ask, ‘Why are you learning X language? No one speaks it.’”
But the informal classes that BSLE offers are difficult to pursue past the introductory level, Hsu said. After taking a Dutch class through BSLE, she wanted to continue studying the language through an independent study, but she was unable to secure University support. “One of the things I definitely want to see in the future is getting more support from Brown, so we can help our students in their pursuit of studying a language further, whatever it is,” she said. Chien Teng Chia ’15 elected to teach Malay for BSLE in spring 2014 because she wanted to share her language and culture with others. “I had really good students,” Chia said. “They were genuinely interested in (Malay), and they would ask things beyond what I was teaching. It made me feel glad that there are actually people out there who want to learn the language and put effort into trying to master it, even at a beginner’s level.” Chia said she doubts her students will continue studying Malay, because there are few opportunities for Malay language-learning. But Chia said she
believes she gave them a solid grounding in grammar and taught them a lot of vocabulary, potentially allowing them to engage in small talk with Malaysians. She added that she would be interested in teaching Malay at a higher level. Harrison Pincket ’17 took Tagalog in fall 2014. He was inspired to learn the language because a lot of his friends and their families spoke it. “It was a lot more fun than I thought it would be,” Pincket said, adding that it was more informal than a Brown course, and there were snacks and movies. “I looked forward to it more than I thought I would.” Pincket said the class taught him not only words and phrases but also the basics of Tagalog grammar — “how to build the words,” something he said he would not have been able to master on his own. “It was an important part of what I learned,” he said, adding that he would like to take another BSLE class in the future. “Learning a language goes so far beyond the linguistic nature of it,” Hsu said. “It increases your ability to empathize with other people and cultures.”
Dana Gluckstein photographs the soul with international impact Artist photographs indigenous people, curates exhibition of work spanning nearly three decades ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR
an attempt to make change for indigenous peoples.
Dana Gluckstein is a photographer, author, Stanford graduate and mother. She has photographed a handful of notable world leaders including Muhammad Ali, Mikhail Gorbachev and Nelson Mandela. She has also worked with Apple and Toyota on advertising campaigns. In November 2010, she published “DIGNITY: In Honor of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples,” a book containing over 90 black-and-white portraits compiled from three decades of work. In 2011, the portraits in her book became an international exhibition. Beginning Sept. 10, this exhibition, “DIGNITY: Tribes in Translation,” is on display at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs. Gluckstein sat down with The Herald to discuss her passion for photography and the campaigns she leads in association with her exhibitions in
You mention in a short documentary film on your exhibit that through photography, you hope to find someone’s soul. Can you talk a little more about what you mean? That’s a good question. My background at Stanford, and also high school, was in psychology. In fact, I thought I was going to be a psychologist and go on to grad school. But the fine arts in me kind of went out, and I decided my senior year at Stanford to become a photographer. But my instinctual character is to go deeply with people. I’ve always wanted to work with people. It was very clear, as I transitioned to a photographer, that I wanted to portrait people rather than the environment or products, and I wanted to really connect with people. So the Hasselblad camera that I still use with real film is a deep way to connect because it’s a large camera, it’s
By EMILY PASSARELLI
heavy, you can’t hide it in the distance, you have to really be there with your subject, and the interaction can be rich. The photography is a gateway into the soul because we connect with the eyes, and the eyes are always in expression of the heart and our humanity. The exchange in a beautiful portrait session, it is like a circle, almost like a circle of love. There is a sense of unity with the camera, and in fact I work with the same camera that I acquired when I was 21, and I love her. She’s a part of me. The title of your exhibit is “DIGNITY: Tribes in Transition.” Can you unpack this title for me? Let me start with the transition part first. The “Dignity” book, which came first, is a collection of over 100 portraits that were created over 25 years of my life. The exhibition that has been touring Europe and now the United States is 60 portraits that come from that book. Some are actually new and showing at the Brown exhibition. What I found after decades of travel is that places all over the planet were going through major transitions. I
would arrive in some places early on expecting only the traditional, or what was in my imagination. And I would find instead, for example, in Bhutan, a little boy wearing the traditional little outfit called “gho” holding a toy rifle, wearing old Adidas shoes, crouched in a monastery. There would be that strange juxtaposition of the sacred with the modern and the influence of Western culture, and I would see that over and over again. And so the content of “Tribes in Transition” became a predominant theme in the work, and I always knew that the book and then the exhibition would be called “Dignity.” It just was very clear that my point of view as an artist was in showing the dignity of serenity, not necessarily the poverty or the tragedy, but to really show our sense of unity, our interconnectedness. There are no boundaries in the world. And indigenous people have understood this for millennia. They walk very closely to the land, to the resources, to the air we breathe. They understand a sense of interconnectedness, not only to each other, but with nature. And so that weaves back to understanding the “dignity” of our world. Not only of humanity, but of how precious our world is. How did you decide where to travel to find the indigenous people you photographed? In the early days, I would be sent on advertising photoshoots. In my early 20s, I was working in advertising as a photographer and I was very fortunate to have some companies send me to different parts of the world to photograph campaigns for them. There I would see, for example, a Silicon Valley computer company, and I would be sent to Puerto Rico to work in a factory and photograph people and what they were doing and I would say, “Wow, here I am, and I have all of my equipment. Maybe I can take a few days off and go to Haiti.” And that’s what I did. And then months later, I was sent to England to photograph members of
the British army for another computer ad campaign. The flights were inexpensive, and I went to Nairobi and stayed in Kenya for a few weeks. I was really on fire during this time — driven by my heart. And over time, a body of work started to grow, and I had to stop and think about why I was so drawn to photographing indigenous people. That was toward my mid-to-late 20s, and I felt that my life mission was to be somebody who could steward the messages and voices of the elders, or what I call the “ancient ones.” It was then that I really started selecting the places I wanted to go, the ones that I felt still had people living in their traditional ways, but places that you could also see were in transition. Why black-and-white portraits? That goes back to your very first question on soul. As a student at Stanford, I fell in love with black and white. That was in the era when we didn’t have digital. I felt that it was very soulful, that it took me and the viewer to a place that color didn’t, largely because I worked in advertising and in our world, we are so bombarded by images in color. Color is everywhere. And black and white is transformative because we have to use our imagination. For me, it is the color of choice. Did you begin this project with intent three decades ago, or did you work on other projects in the interim? Never could I have imagined that this work would become decades later an internationally known book and exhibition, that I would go to the United Nations and the World Economic Forum. I think that is my message to Brown students. You must set off on your course because you feel passionate about it. And you cannot always anticipate where it is going to take you because if you do, you would never set off on that course because it would feel too daunting. — This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
SPORTS
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2015 • PAGE 5
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
MEN’S SOCCER
Bears poised to rebound from down year with defense, depth Bruno looks to jump-start offensive production with healthy Pomeroy ’17, first-year playmakers By EMILE BAUTISTA SPORTS STAFF WRITER
Last season did not go exactly as planned for the Brown men’s soccer team. After suffering a loss in the final game of the season, Bruno was left in a tie for fifth place in the Ivy League and a losing record, 5-6-6, for the first time since 2002. But with the return to health of some key players and a new crop of first-years, the team is rejuvenated and ready to bounce back. Perhaps the most important aspect that needs to be addressed in the upcoming season is goal scoring. The Bears (1-0) only managed to net 14 goals last season — the second fewest in the Ivy League and their lowest total in the last decade. “One of the key things (this year) is getting goals,” said Head Coach Patrick Laughlin. “Last year, we were unable to get them when we needed them in critical moments, and we just did not score enough.” With the departure of the team’s leading goal scorer Ben Maurey ’15.5, key figures like co-captain Jack Gorab ’16, box-to-box midfielder Tariq Akeel ’16 and the formerly injured Nate Pomeroy ’17 will need to step up in order for the team to be successful
offensively. Akeel and Gorab played part of the second half of last season injured, so they will look to show what they are capable of. While Pomeroy was hurt for much of last year, he has been tapped by Coach Laughlin as a key cog in the team’s goal scoring machine. “We are looking to attack and score a lot,” Gorab said. On the other side of the pitch, the program will look to maintain its stalwart defense that allowed the third-fewest goals in the Ivy League. Anchored by co-captain Tim Whalen ’16, the defense hopes to continue its stingy play in order to grind out results for the team. “We always pride ourselves on our defense, and that certainly won’t change this year either,” Gorab said. Already, in the team’s season-opening 2-0 victory against Quinnipiac (02-1), the Bears demonstrated this drive to achieve their goals. Akeel had one goal and one assist, which helped him earn Ivy League Co-Player of the Week honors. Beyond basic offensive and defensive strengths and weaknesses, the Bears also have an unprecedented amount of depth to look forward to this season, giving them options around the pitch.
“This is probably the most competitive group in four or five years. We probably have someone that could step in at six different starting positions,” Laughlin said. This offers the opportunity to be flexible with the starting lineups and subsequent in-game substitutions. It will also require time to discover which lineups are most effective for different styles of play, something that can be addressed as the season progresses. This could prove to be particularly useful if
the team must manage with recurring injuries as it did last season. Amongst those many options is a new crop of first-years players. If last year’s freshman group indicated anything, it is that there are minutes to be had. In the win over Quinnipiac, three first-years cracked the starting lineup: Matthew Chow ’19, Jack Hagstrom ’19 and Carl Johan Mix ’19. As with any player, they are looking to have a significant impact on the team. Laughlin stressed the importance of
being “present” every day. “This year, the focus is on enjoying the moment, whether it is an off day, training day or game day,” he said. “We want to focus on one game at a time and continue to improve our play everyday,” Whalen said. The team continues play this weekend, first with an away game at crosstown rival No. 18 Providence (3-0-1) Friday, followed by its home opener Sunday against Holy Cross (0-1-2) on Stevenson Field.
ARJUN NARAYEN / HERALD
Nate Pomeroy ’17 evades his defenders and heads the ball to a teammate. The Bears will look to Pomeroy and several other players to lead Bruno’s offense with the graduation of the last season’s leading scorer.
» F. HOCKEY, from page 12 Kabelac ’19 round out a class that looks to be hugely important in the upcoming season. “The talent level in the freshman class is exceptional,” Reeve said. “They also possess a natural love for the game and a team-first mentality, which makes our team that much stronger. They have already outperformed my expectations.” “The freshman class has an intense spark and a hardworking, dogged work ethic,” Miller said. “They can be our secret weapons because they don’t really have reputations around the league yet and can help us surprise people.” A rotating crew of sophomores and juniors featured in at least one of the two opening games, with Katherine Kallergis ’18 — who scored arguably the Bears’ most exciting goal of last season, the game-winner against crosstown rival Providence — getting on the scoresheet against Appalachian State. Even with O’Donnell in the fray last year, goal scoring was an issue for the Bears in the Ivy League, as the team only mustered eight goals in conference play. The good news for Brown is that four of its five leading scorers, excluding O’Donnell, return this year with hope for continued improvement from its sophomore and first-year contributors. “We need to be able to finish,” said Masini. “Last year we struggled with scoring a little bit, but we have freshmen that have come in and fit in with the team seamlessly. They are good executors and goal scorers and should help us out a lot this year.” The challenge in conference play — as it has been for the past decade — will be unseating defending champion Princeton (0-2), which graduated six seniors, including its two leading scorers. The Bears play their home opener Saturday against Bryant (1-4) before taking on UMass Lowell (4-0) Sunday.
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SPORTS
PAGE 6 • FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2015
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
CROSS COUNTRY
In search of top results, women rely on depth, men on dynamic duo Brimming with young talent, men’s and women’s teams open seasons with unsettled rosters By CALEB MILLER STAFF WRITER
On the eve the first meets of the season for the men’s and women’s cross country teams, both squads will ask senior leaders to carry young rosters. They will send runners to New York meets and the Bryant Nassaney Invitational over the weekend in hopes of unlocking their rosters’ potential. The 2014 season closed on an optimistic note for the youthful women’s team. Two underclassmen finishing in the top 15 punctuated the squad’s seventh-place finish at the Ivy Heptagonal Championship. Lucy Van Kleunen ’17 paced the pack with an 11th-place finish, while Natalie Schudrowitz ’18 took 15th as a rookie. “We’re excited to have them back on the squad this year,” said co-captain Victoria O’Neil ’16. The young studs will be just two on a long roster of potential contributors. The leadership comes from a talented senior class. Lily Harrington ’16 and co-captains O’Neil and Lydia Davenport ’16 will look to cap their accomplished Brown careers with strong campaigns. “Our depth is definitely a strength. We have a lot of girls that could challenge any of our top spots,” O’Neil said.
The sophomore and junior classes had “amazing summer training” and will make it interesting to see who is leading the pack throughout the season, O’Neil said. The rookie class includes nine runners with stellar high school careers. The first-years have looked strong enough that they could contribute despite the depth of the roster, she said. The young talent, senior leadership and depth could make Bruno a team to watch this season in the Ivy League. After a last-place finish at the Ivy Heptagonal Championship in 2014, the men’s team will call upon captains Will Sheeran ’16 and Ned Willig ’16 to lead a group of young runners. Inexperience is the team’s toughest hurdle as it opens the 2015 campaign, said Tim Springfield, director of cross country. “We are young and even the upperclassmen don’t have a lot of experience,” Springfield said. To make matters worse, the team graduated its pacesetter and captain Jordan Mann ’15, the squad’s only top-20 finisher at Ivies last season. But Springfield expressed optimism that Sheeran can fill the position. “The leader we have had in practice is Sheeran, and he has the most experience,” Springfield said. Sheeran was Bruno’s second-place runner at the 2014 Ivy meet and frequently notched times just behind Mann’s. Willig is also an impact runner and a secondteam All-Ivy performer on the track. If he can translate his track success to
COURTESY OF BROWN ATHLETICS
With the graduation of the team’s pacesetter, captain Will Sheeran ’16 will be called upon to lead the inexperienced but improved team during both practices and meets. the cross-country course, Willig can group run. They can really step up this Given the youth and struggles in 2014, complement Sheeran to form a one-two year,” he said. this season will be crucial for the maturapunch leading the Bears. Springfield said that the steep learning tion of large first-year and sophomore Though Springfield said it’s “too early curve of men’s college cross-country classes. Springfield said the key to this to tell” who will complement the se- makes it difficult for first-years to con- maturation lies in consistency during nior captains, he identified the large tribute at the varsity level. But he added practice. sophomore class as a pool of potential that he would not be shocked if some “It comes down to training,” he said. “The breakouts. rookies climbed the roster by the end way to overcome the lack of experience “I’m looking forward to seeing that of the season. is to be very thorough in practice.”
SPORTS
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2015 • PAGE 7
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
VOLLEYBALL
After uneven start, Bruno heads west Bears top Hartford, Sacred Heart in Fairfield, fall to Bucknell before loss to rival Friars By TANEIL RUFFIN SENIOR STAFF WRITER
While many students made their return trips to College Hill, the volleyball team was en route to Fairfield, Connecticut to participate in the Sacred Heart University Hampton Inn Invitational. With the return of many of the squad’s key players and the addition of five impressive first-years, the Bears (2-2) hope to continue their trend of improvement. Last season, Bruno garnered a 12-14 overall record after facing several tough opponents throughout the year. In Ivy League play, Bruno broke even and finished with a 7-7 record, putting the team in fourth place in the conference. Bruno will hope to remain in the top half of the Ancient Eight this season, but before it commences conference play, it will participate in three invitationals across the country. The Bears found success at their first tournament of the season. On the first day of play, Bruno split its matches. While the Bears swept Hartford (0-7), they ultimately fell to Bucknell (4-1) despite an impressive rally in the third and
fourth sets after dropping the first two. The following day, the team faced off against the hosting Pioneers (2-3). While the home team took an early 13-8 lead, the Bears were eventually able to rally and claim the first set en route to a 3-0 match win. The recovery was supported largely in part by the efforts of Sabrina Stillwell ’19. The rookie recorded four kills in the first set alone and added another eight in the remaining sets for a match-high 12 kills. Stillwell was one of Bruno’s two All-Tournament Team selections. Solid performances from Payton Smith ’17 earned the middle blocker an AllTournament team selection as well. After returning to the Ocean State, the Bears squeezed in another game before the start of the semester against Providence (4-4) Tuesday night. Bruno put up a fight against its crosstown rival, forcing two sets to be decided by extra points. But the Bears were unable to claim a single set and dropped the contest against the host. This weekend, the Bears will head to Las Cruces, New Mexico to attend the NMSU-UTEP Borderland Classic. Games against hosting University of Texas El Paso (2-3) and New Mexico State (5-2) are scheduled for Friday, while matches against Robert Morris (5-2) and the University of Denver (61) will take place Saturday.
ARJUN NARAYEN / HERALD
Emma Thygesen ’17 prepares to block an opponent’s hit. The six-foot junior recorded five block assists in the games last weekend.
SPORTS
PAGE 8 • FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2015
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
WOMEN’S RUGBY
Following undefeated conference run, Bruno gears up for encore
Morgan ’16, along with co-captains Goretaya ’17 and Mack ’16, headlines talented core of returning players By ANDREW FLAX SPORTS EDITOR
Last season, the women’s rugby team burst onto the scene in its first varsity campaign, tearing through the Ivy League with an undefeated record en route to an appearance in the national championship tournament. With another year of varsity practice and experience under their belts, the Bears hope 2015 will bring even more success. “We just worked a lot harder because we had a lot to prove being the new varsity team on campus,” said cocaptain Tiara Mack ’16. “We had to show that we did deserve the status.” Being elevated to varsity status was a huge boon for the team in a number of ways. The team’s number of practices per week jumped from two to four or five, players were able to use the University’s athletic trainer and the team could schedule time in the varsity weight room — all of which paid significant dividends last season. With more practice time, “the amount of knowledge that can be retained is a lot better,” said Head Coach Kathy Flores. “When you’re in a varsity sport, you have to commit to that sport.
» W. SOCCER, from page 1 he announced last week that he will be retiring at the end of the season. “He is the type of coach that really cares about the well-being of his players,” said captain Sarah Moody ’16. “That’s hard to find in a Division I coach. We’re all really sad to see him go, but I’m so glad we have him for this last season.” “It’s inspiring playing for Phil,” said Mikela Waldman ’18. “He’s contributed so much, not just to Brown soccer, but to all of NCAA women’s soccer. It’s so helpful to have his perspective from so
… The commitment level was much higher for our players.” Another benefit that being a varsity team confers is assistance from the school with costs and fundraising, which co-captain Oksana Goretaya ’17 described as “a game changer” for recruiting. “The resources that we have as a varsity team have helped the team tremendously,” Goretaya said. The effect of those resources showed last season. The Bears went undefeated in the regular season and Ivy League tournament, outscoring opponents by a staggering 419-71 over eight games. They beat Navy, their opponents in Saturday’s season opener, before falling to Quinnipiac in the second round of the American Collegiate Rugby Association tournament. Though they faced little opposition in the regular season last year, the Bears will face a tougher road this season after Dartmouth’s team was also elevated to varsity status. With a more difficult schedule than last year, Bruno is less likely to end the year undefeated, and one downside of 2014’s success is that the Bears have not had the experience of coping with a loss. Goretaya said that she addressed many years of coaching.” Pincince has experience bouncing back from rocky patches. Over his 38-year career, the Bears have finished seventh or worse in the Ivy League just eight times, including last year. In the seasons following a bottom-two finish, Pincince’s teams have fought back to earn third place four times. Only once has the team’s record fallen further the next season. This season, Pincince will be tasked with replacing five starters, including Chloe Cross ’15, who led Bruno in goals and points in each of the last three
COURTESY OF BROWN BEARS
The women’s rugby team is all smiles as players walk off the pitch. The Bears have had a lot to celebrate in the last year as the team was undefeated last season in both regular season and Ivy League tournament play. the team about “learning how to deal with a loss” and “learning from our mistakes and moving forward.” Of course, the Bears have the talent to make losing far from their worries. Headlined by three-time All-American Kiki Morgan ’16, the returning Bears promise to be as formidable a force as last year’s team. Flores and Goretaya both highlighted Beth Clifton ’18 as
another impact returnee. Flores described Clifton as a tough two-way player who “runs hard with the ball and hits hard on defense.” Most of all, the Bears stand to improve simply from playing more — the majority of the team’s players had never played rugby before coming to college. Flores said even the best players “don’t get it right away” and take two to three
years to “really get what’s going on.” Drawing on the experience that an additional varsity season brings, Bruno is ready to make an even deeper postseason run. “My expectations are to win Ivies again and make it to the final four for ACRA,” Goretaya said. “We can improve on what we did last year by not dwelling on last year.”
seasons. In the past, the team often relied on Cross to manufacture goals when the offense was sputtering, Waldman said. “That worked for us last season,” Waldman said. “But this year, we have to get production from all parts of the offense, which I think we’ve already seen has helped us find more creative and diverse ways of attacking, instead of just getting the ball to Chloe.” After finishing second in points and goals behind Cross and leading the team in assists last season, Waldman will likely assume an even larger role in the offense. In the Bears’ season opener against St. John’s (5-1) last weekend, the sophomore broke the Red Storm’s four-game shutout streak by capitalizing on a mishit clearance by goalkeeper Diana Poulin. She then assisted on an Amanda Lane ’19 goal that sealed a 2-1 win for the Bears. Lane is not the only first-year who has been contributing to the team. Megan Grant ’19 started on the backline against St John’s, and Christine Etzel ’19 played the entire game in net, saving five shots and giving up just one goal.
“The freshmen have done a really good job of coming in and bringing a really high intensity and good mentality to the team,” Waldman said. “It’s hard to know what the lineup will be before it’s fully fleshed out, but I could see a lot of freshmen contributing a lot this season.” The first-years’ impact on the team was felt in the squad’s second game of the season against Delaware (3-3). Bruno was forced to play without its rookies, who could not travel to the game because of orientation. The Blue Hens routed the depleted Bears, 6-1. Goalkeeper Rylee Shumway ’18, in her second-career start, made a careerhigh nine saves in the losing effort. Shumway and Etzel are both competing to lock down the starting spot in net, and the battle has been tight, Moody said. “They are both very athletic,” Moody said. “They are extremely reliable and both have a lot to offer. It’s really up to Phil and the rest of the coaching staff whether one starts over the other or if they split time. We love having both of them back there.”
The inexperience of the team’s goalie will be offset by other members of the backline. Moody has started 37 games in her career at Brown and will anchor the team whether playing midfield or defense, while returning starters Jaclyn Alois ’17, Maclaine Lehan ’18 and Hogan Vivier ’16 will provide additional experience and stability to the defense. Like every team in the conference, the Bears’ goal is to win the Ivy League. But after a rough finish last year, the players will work on remaining positive, even in the face of defeat, Moody said. “What’s important to us is to keep believing that we can be successful and win,” Moody said. “Sometimes it’s easy to get into a rut after a tough game or a tough loss. This year, we just want to keep a positive attitude and keep believing that we can do well throughout the whole season.” “It’s going to really come down to our mentality this season,” Waldman said. “Everyone is invested in the program. … We’re all on board, so I think it’s going to be a really good season.”
TODAY
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2015 • PAGE 9
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
menu
slick streets
SATELLITE DINING ANDREWS COMMONS
Pizza: Bacon Cheeseburger, Buffalo Chicken, Harvest JOSIAH’S
BLUE ROOM
Make-Your-Own Quesadillas
Clam Chowder, Chicken Tortilla, Minestrone
DINING HALLS SHARPE REFECTORY LUNCH
DINNER
Roast Pork on a Bulkie Roll, Baked Sweet Potatoes, Fried Fish Sandwich with Tartar Sauce
Italian Chicken Parmesan, Gnocchi with Bolognese Sauce, Vegetable Herb Medley
VERNEY-WOOLLEY LUNCH
DINNER
Breaded Chicken Fingers, Vegan Nuggets, Sticky Rice, Summer Squash, Vegetarian Baked Beans
Chicken Laredo, Cheese Ravioli with Pink Vodka Sauce, Stir Fried Tofu, Braised Fennel
sudoku
ARJUN NARAYEN / HERALD
Wind and rainy weather could not stop students from making their way to classes Thursday afternoon during the second day of shopping period.
comics Cat Ears | Najatee’ McNeil ‘17
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Health Leads Info Session 4:00 PM Wilson Hall 101
WBRU Welcome BRU-BQ 5:00 PM 88 Benevolent St.
SATURDAY Back-to-School Social Dance 6:00 PM Sayles Hall Auditorium
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COMMENTARY PAGE 10 • FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2015
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Brown Bites: Sept. 5-11 BY MARCY HUANG
Hitting the bank, then the bookstore Students handed over their last paychecks at the Brown Bookstore this week to shop for textbooks. The cost for all new books for a student taking four classes adds up to more than $500. While science courses have always had the reputation for expensive textbooks, humanities courses can be incredibly costly as well — chem concentrators can expect to pay $163 per class on average, while Italian concentrators will pay a cool $149. Though high textbook costs can dissuade some from taking a class, students often look online for a cheaper option. “I don’t need this $200 book for 13 weeks that I might not even use,” said Marques Love ’17. We think our wallets would have to agree. Summer well-spent Summer@Brown, a program in which 5,000 high schoolers eagerly pretend to be college students for a few weeks, generated $6 million in revenue this summer. Participants came from far and wide to spend time in Providence and could choose from more than 300 courses. Though many participants go on to apply to Brown, unfortunately for helicopter parents with big dreams of Ivy League children, Summer@Brown does not give an advantage in the admission process. Stepping down, stepping up Both Provost Vicki Colvin and Vice President for Campus Life and Student Services Margaret Klawunn left their posts this summer. Colvin stepped down as provost after only a year on the job, and Richard Locke, director of the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, filled the vacancy. Colvin, who’s teaching CHEM 0100 this semester, made an impact at Brown by helping launch the Summer B-Lab, working to resolve the University’s budget deficit, and advancing art programs. But her successor, Locke, is pretty impressive himself, with a resume including overseeing the integration of the Taubman Center for Public Policy and fundraising over $35 million, just to name a few accomplishments. Klawunn left Brown after 19 years to head to California and become the vice chancellor of student affairs at the University of California at Santa Barbara. She oversaw a great deal of changes to student life, and our inboxes will forever miss her emails. Cracking down on drinking Some changes to Brown’s party scene might be underway, as the University has accepted all of the Alcohol and Social Event Review Committee’s recommendations. Last semester’s interim policy barring alcohol service in residential spaces remains in effect for this fall, while the rule of having University-trained bartenders prepare and serve drinks at all parties has been made permanent. The committee also recommended adding grad student staff who will foster more alcohol-free events on campus and adding a staff member whose job it is to meet with Greek life leaders. Students found violating alcohol policies will now face harsher punishments — the first strike for underage students found drinking will be writing a reflective essay, the second strike will be a semester probation and a “health education meeting” and the third will be a dean’s hearing. Uncapping CAPS The Mental Health Community Council made several proposals to expand the impact of Counseling and Psychological Services, including eliminating the current seven-session limit of CAPS therapy, increasing the number and diversity of CAPS staff members, and revising the medical leave-taking system. In addition to moving CAPS under the umbrella of Health Services, the University also hired its first student care coordinator to help students in the transition between CAPS providers and other Providence providers. Existing CAPS staff members have also extended their hours to create more appointment slots for students. The council also recommended more training for students, faculty members and staff members on how to direct individuals to mental health resources.
A N G E L IA WA N G
Q U O T E O F T H E D AY
“You must set off on your course because you feel passionate about it.” — Dana Gluckstein
See photographs on page 4.
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COMMENTARY FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2015 • PAGE 11
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
The borders of gay marriage ROBYN SUNDLEE opinions columnist
Who can forget the iconic image of the White House on June 26? Bathed in polychrome splendor, the building sent an unmistakable message to the rest of the country and the global community: “America is now officially gay-friendly, and you should be too.” The Supreme Court victory was a milestone for civil rights, and many activists have underscored the importance of maintaining the momentum. For some, this means taking the recognition mission abroad. After all, gay individuals are still viciously persecuted worldwide. With weekly horror stories from far corners of the world and President Obama’s new agenda to pressure Nigeria to reverse its anti-gay laws, going global seems to be the next logical step. But, as with most global activism, there are issues with this vision. The gay rights movement runs the heavy risk of being exploited by nationalist interests and misinterpreted by publics grown wary of Western moral crusades. It is very difficult to present a social cause born in America to other cultures and have it be disassociated with Western cultural encroachment.
Marriage equality is not a cause that can, or necessarily should, be taken global. It has the same risks as second-wave feminism, and its Western-centric ideology has long served as justification for foreign meddling. The movement will have great difficulty gaining traction in nations leery of outside influences, because they hold different notions of what should comprise an identity. In the U.S. and many European countries, your sexual orientation becomes embedded with the image
ner that informs identity, but rather their masculinity or femininity. Sexual orientation is somewhat beside the point. Ironically, for men interested in same-sex relations in many countries, accepting the Western form of homosexuality means losing freedoms, as same-sex engagement entails taking on a whole new identity: the gay Western identity. For these countries, the choice is between accepting an alien social norm being forced upon them and maintaining
eign countries has not only imperialist implications, but also classist ones. There is also considerable evidence that the increased volume of anti-gay sentiment from countries like Russia and Uganda has to do with resentment at being pressured to accept the American idea of what they perceive as a non-masculine lifestyle. These nations are economically stagnant. As many gender scholars have noted, this means nationalist masculinity is threat-
The concept of gay rights is not met with hostility in these countries simply because of some backwards fear of a person’s sexuality. you present to the public, but this is not universal. Social activists must recognize that forcing our concept of how gay individuals should be able to live on other nations could be seen as tantamount to cultural imperialism. The reality is that many of the countries that currently hold antigay laws, such as Iran, have rich histories of culturally sanctioned homoeroticism. Iran’s beloved poet, Rumi, wrote some of the world’s most celebrated love poems about same-sex desire. The difference is that in many of these cultures, it isn’t the gender of someone’s part-
their own traditions of identity. The concept of gay rights is not met with hostility in these countries simply because of some backwards fear of a person’s sexuality. As Dennis Altman, a pioneering academic and gay activist, commented, “The rhetorics of liberation and modernity rarely allow for the fact that each change contains a restrictive as well as a liberatory component.” Indeed, in many Arab countries, the only gay men who can afford the restrictive Western label of ‘gay’ are those with immense wealth. Attempting to impose restrictions on sexual identity in for-
ened, as countries are unable to adequately provide for their population. Leaders need a way to save face, so they target what they see as the embodiment of Western excess that poses a challenge to their culture’s masculine ideal. Nicola Pratt of University of Warwick explores a prime example of this in her work “Queen Boat.” Pratt examines a case in Egypt in which gay men on a party boat on the Nile were arrested by Egyptian officials and subjected to terrible abuse. She deconstructs what appears to be a case of monstrous bigotry to reveal that the arrests were
largely a result of Egypt’s insecure geopolitical position and were a stunt to defy Western culture and distract from government failings. The Egyptian leadership ordered the public arrests of the partygoers in the hopes of reasserting national masculinity and bolstering unity. The Queen Boat case shows that inadequate deference to local custom can actually hurt the cause of gay rights. International activists must constantly strive to strike a happy medium between pushing for progress and succumbing to cultural relativism. Of course persecution should never be accepted or tolerated by the global community. But it must be recognized that these stances are not products of an ahistorical, demonic, unenlightened hatred. Rather, they are the result of social, political and economic insecurities. Attempting to insert American conceptions of sexuality into other parts of the globe is a task with dubious moral underpinnings and innumerable pitfalls. Activists heady with the success of the marriage equality campaign should celebrate their success but recognize that the vision of rainbow-gilded capitals across the globe is not realistic, and may not even be desirable.
Robyn Sundlee ’16 is an international relations concentrator.
Bernie Sanders, Ray Kelly and the virtue of disruption SAM HILLESTAD guest columnist
When Black Lives Matter protesters shut down a Bernie Sanders event in Arizona on July 18, I was annoyed. When it happened again three weeks later in Seattle, I was downright mad. Whatever you may think about Sanders, there’s no denying he has important things to say. He’s the only presidential candidate fighting for tuition-free public university, arguing for sweeping campaign finance reform and addressing the major economic divide in America with a concrete plan. It’s not surprising that he’s already attracting crowds of 25,000 or more. But since he’s the only candidate who’s shown a modicum of racial sympathy, it was surprising when Black Lives Matter protesters shouted him down from the podium and seized control of the microphone not once, but twice. The similarities between these incidents and the infamous Ray Kelly protests at Brown are striking. For those who don’t know, in 2013 former New York Police Department Commissioner Kelly visited campus to give a lecture on “Proactive Policing in America’s Biggest City,” a speech that was likely going to justify his controversial stop-and-frisk policy. We never got to hear his speech. When Kelly started speaking, a few members of the audience stood up and started chanting. Every time Kelly opened his mouth, the protesters drowned him out. The rest of us waited patiently for the lecture to start. It never did. The protesters won, and we never got to hear what
Ray Kelly had to say. I was there and I’ve never been more ashamed of Brown. We’re supposed to be a liberal arts university, and a darn good one at that. It was supposed to be a place where free speech and the exchange of ideas were prized above all else. So when Black Lives Matter activists refused to let Bernie Sanders speak, it brought back bad memories. Their complete disregard for Sanders, the event organizers and the crowd of 5,000 that had been waiting all day in the hot sun to hear what Sanders had to say didn’t sit well with me. I found their actions
ers addressed the death of Sandra Bland at a speech in Houston. And the very same day of the Seattle protest, Sanders released a draft platform for racial justice that addressed mass incarceration, racial profiling and the racial wealth gap. Then the Sanders campaign added a “Racial Justice” tab to his website. Just like that, race became a cornerstone of his campaign. He still has a long way to go before becoming a bona fide racial crusader — after all, he’s still a 74-year-old white man from Vermont. But he’s well on his way to backing up his racial pedigree that includes marching with
That’s the whole point. Black voices aren’t heard in American politics. They’re forced to resort to aggressive tactics like protests and disruptions. and the way they carried themselves to be rude and insulting. And most importantly, they took away from the intended message about protecting Social Security and Medicare. The trouble is, I agreed with the Kelly protesters’ sentiment, just as I stand firmly in the Black Lives Matter camp. But my gut reaction was that the activists in both cases were tactless and far too aggressive. I sympathized with the crowd of people who went to hear a Sanders speech, only to have it hijacked by protesters. I’ve been there and it’s frustrating beyond words. But then something happened that changed my mind. Bernie Sanders started talking about race. The day after the first disruption, Sand-
Martin Luther King Jr. and endorsing Jesse Jackson for president. The Black Lives Matter protest reminded me, Bernie Sanders and the entire nation that change is rarely polite. The protesters had to resort to ugly means just to be heard. They knew they’d be condemned. But they did it anyway, and it worked. That’s the difference between the Ray Kelly protests and the Bernie Sanders interruptions. They were both about racial justice and they both used basically the same approach. But the Black Lives Matter interruptions sought constructive political action, whereas the Kelly protest was self-destructive. So why the radical difference? Simply put,
the settings and circumstances could not have been more different. Ray Kelly was coming to a college campus to give a talk in a lecture series that emphasized dialogue and diverse viewpoints. Bernie Sanders was going to Seattle to convince people to vote for him. Interrupting Bernie Sanders may not have been particularly nice, but it was entirely acceptable behavior for the campaign trail. Politics is a public forum. It’s not supposed to be cookie-cutter candidates and pretty news anchors spouting pre-packaged speeches at the electorate. It’s supposed to go both ways. Campaigns and elections are made so the people can be heard. That’s the whole point. Black voices aren’t heard in American politics. They’re forced to resort to aggressive tactics like protests and disruptions. The Ray Kelly protesters were just trying to be heard. Unfortunately, their voice, while loud, was ineffective. Kelly couldn’t be swayed, and even if he could, he was retired. But Sanders was open to change. And therein lies the virtue of disruption. Bernie Sanders might change his mind if somebody has the courage to speak up. So might Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush and every other candidate. Too often those voices come from lobbyists and big donors whispering in their ears. But every now and then, a small group of ordinary citizens in extraordinary circumstances stands up and demands to be heard. And that’s how things start to change.
A day may come when Sam Hillestad ’15 — and maybe even Brown at large — will stop talking about Ray Kelly. But it is not this day.
SPORTS THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2015
FIELD HOCKEY
Angus ’17 scores last-minute goal to secure first win
COURTESY OF BROWN UNIVERSITY FIELD HOCKEY
Members of the field hockey team embrace after Katarina Angus ’17 successfully slaps in a penalty shot with no time remaining on the game clock. The goal lifted the Bears over the Appalachian State Mountaineers.
Without McSweeney ’15, O’Donnell ’15, Bears rely on promising first-year class to fill big shoes By MATTHEW BROWNSWORD SENIOR STAFF WRITER
After a disappointing, season-opening 4-1 loss to American, the women’s field hockey team bounced back with a thrilling 2-1 win over Appalachian State for the first victory of what looks to be a promising season.
Even in the loss, Head Coach Jill Reeve saw a lot of promise in what took place during the opening weekend, she said. “I was impressed with our team’s poise and performance in our first match versus American,” Reeve said. “We were able to execute the gameplan and play at a very high level for the bulk
of the game. They created numerous scoring opportunities and defended well. If we continue to play like that, we will have an outstanding season.” Bruno (1-1) secured its first winning season since 2006 only 13 games into last season but were unable to make any noise in the Ivy League. The Bears’ lone conference win was an overtime thriller against Harvard — which finished fourth in the conference standings — but early losses to Columbia and
Dartmouth quickly doomed any Ivy dreams. This year, hopes are high that the Bears will improve on a bittersweet 2014 campaign. “It’s time for us to make our mark,” Reeve said. “I’m not sure how that will be defined in wins and losses, but we have been developing and improving over several years, and I can sense that we are on the brink of good things for this Brown Bear team.” “We’ve been building over the last few years and this is a culmination of all of that,” said Anna Masini ’16. “This is the first year that all of our players were recruited by (Reeve), so we have high expectations. We want to prove that we can be at the top of the Ivy League and surprise some people.” This year, with a solid core of returning players that includes stalwart back Katarina Angus ’17 and co-captains Masini and Alexis Miller ’16, Brown hopes to improve upon last season’s conference woes. Miller and Angus have scored two of Bruno’s three goals this season, while Masini registered an assist on Angus’ game-winner against Appalachian State. “Our current seniors are an amazing group of characters,” Reeve said. “Their leadership is outstanding. I am impressed with the way they have gotten the team connected and engaged with what we’re focused on accomplishing this season. They are all highly influential because of how hard they work and how much they care about the team.”
A key loss for the Bears is all-time leading goalscorer Meghan O’Donnell ’15, who scored several important goals last year during a season in which five of Bruno’s wins were decided by a single goal. Another record-holder, goaltender Shannon McSweeney ’15 — who holds the mark for most career saves — graduated last year, leaving a gaping hole in the back of a Brown defense that only allowed 2.17 goals per game last year. “It’s always interesting trying to figure out how you are going reshape the team when you’re faced with losing impact players like Shannon and Meghan,” Reeve said. “They’re not replaceable. Therefore we must reinvent ourselves each year. That’s a fun challenge.” “We’re trying to change our forward movement as a whole,” Miller said. “Meghan was phenomenal, but a lot of her goals came on fast breaks where she used her speed to her advantage. We’re trying to switch the gameplan and make it more of a team effort to score goals, using different passing patterns and a more developed attack.” The leading candidates to replace the members of the 2015 class, which also featured back Haley Alvarez ’15, forward Liza Green ’15 and consistent starter Clayton Christus ’15, are firstyears. Maddie Ayles ’19, Rachel Lanouette ’19 and Ellie Seid ’19 all started in the first two games for the Bears, while classmate Katie Hammaker ’19 started in goal. Emma Caviness ’19 and Carly » See F. HOCKEY, page 5