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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2015

VOLUME CL, ISSUE 74

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U. to launch children’s Doctoral health institute next year student Former Hasbro executive with cancer and University trustee Hassenfeld provides initial dies $12.5 million gift

By KATE TALERICO SENIOR STAFF WRITER

COURTESY OF PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY / FLICKR

Bill Cosby had his 1985 honorary degree rescinded by the Corporation’s Board of Fellows Monday.

University revokes Bill Cosby’s honorary degree

Revocation comes after sexual assault allegations against Cosby made by 35 women By EMMA HARRIS UNIVERSITY NEWS EDITOR

The University has revoked Bill Cosby’s honorary degree, President Christina Paxson P’19 wrote in a community-wide email Monday night. He was awarded the degree in 1985. The Corporation’s Board of Fellows decided to revoke the degree following sexual assault allegations against Cosby by 35 women. “To the best that we can determine from available records and documents,

this is the first honorary degree to be revoked by Brown,” wrote Vice President for Communications Cass Cliatt in an email to The Herald. Fordham University and Marquette University rescinded Cosby’s honorary degrees Thursday, which he received in 2001 and 2013, respectively. New York University removed Cosby’s name from its Future Filmmakers Workshop Sept. 1. “It has become clear, by his own admission in legal depositions that became public this summer, that Mr. Cosby has engaged in conduct with women that is contrary to the values of Brown and the qualities for which he was honored by the University in 1985,” Paxson wrote in the email. “The conduct that Mr. Cosby has » See COSBY, page 2

In a partnership with the Hasbro Children’s Hospital and the Women and Infants Hospital of Rhode Island, the University will establish a new institute to advance children’s health, President Christina Paxson P’19 announced Monday at a joint press conference with Gov. Gina Raimondo. The new Hassenfeld Child Health Innovation Institute, which will launch in early 2016, is funded by a $12.5 million gift to the University from the family of Alan Hassenfeld, former Hasbro Toys chairman and CEO and a former Brown trustee. The University will fundraise an additional $12.5 million over the next year in order to support a new location and faculty for the institute, Paxson told The Herald. Examining child health from pregnancy through young adulthood, the institute will focus on three initiatives at the outset: autism; childhood asthma research; and children’s weight, nutrition and fitness. In addition to University faculty members, other researchers, including those at Bradley and Butler hospitals,

will contribute to the institute’s work. Graduate students and undergraduates will also have opportunities to get involved in the institute’s research initiatives, Paxson told The Herald. “This is an unprecedented opportunity for cross-institutional collaboration to address critical health needs of a vulnerable population,” Paxson said, according to a University press release. Raimondo said the new partnership “will help spark our state’s comeback, providing opportunities for everyone to make it in Rhode Island.” While the University has not yet decided upon a specific location for the institute and is considering multiple options, it will likely be housed in the Jewelry District, Paxson told The Herald. Phyllis Dennery, professor and chair of the Department of Pediatrics and pediatrician-in-chief at Hasbro Children’s Hospital; Maureen Phipps, chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology; and Patrick Vivier, director of general pediatrics and community health at Hasbro Children’s Hospital, will sit on the institute’s executive committee. “We cannot make progress in education … or in building our economy or fostering the strongest society possibl without healthy children,” Hassenfeld said. “This work has the potential to move the dial on these growing epidemics, which do not discriminate,” he added. » See HEALTH, page 2

St. Laurent III GS dedicated life to cofounding chronic disease research institute By BAYLOR KNOBLOCH SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Georges St. Laurent III GS died Friday in Miami, Florida, announced Jack Elias, dean of medicine and biological sciences, and Peter Weber, dean of the Graduate School, in a campus-wide email Monday. A Ph.D. candidate in the molecular and cellular biology and biochemistry program, St. Laurent was preparing to defend his thesis when he was diagnosed with lymphoma in July, Elias and Weber wrote. Prior to coming to Brown, St. Laurent graduated from Yale in 1982 and co-founded the St. Laurent Institute — a medical research institute dedicated to studying the molecular mechanisms of chronic disease — in 2005. St. Laurent “put aside an already successful career to pursue his passion for science, and it’s tragic that his life was cut short before he was able to take the final step of defending his thesis,” » See STUDENT, page 2

R.I. Commission meets to address campus sexual assault Rep. Ackerman elected chairwoman, University not represented on 13-member commission By AGNES CHAN SENIOR STAFF WRITER

A special House commission held its first meeting to discuss the issue of sexual assault on college campuses in Rhode Island Sept. 28. The 13-member commission elected Rep. Mia Ackerman, D-Cumberland and Lincoln, as its chairwoman and Rep. Christopher Blazejewski, DProvidence, as its vice chairman. Ackerman stated two main goals for the commission: to reduce the number of incidents of sexual assault on campuses across the state and to reduce or eliminate the barriers to reporting incidents of assault. Aside from the chairwoman and

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vice chairman, the commission also includes Rep. Doreen Marie Costa, RNorth Kingstown and Exeter; Rhode Island State Police Superintendent Col. Steven O’Donnell; Attorney General Peter Kilmartin; Cumberland Police Chief Col. John Desmarais, Rhode Island College Interim Vice President of Student Affairs and Dean of Students Scott Kane; Johnson and Wales University Director of Student Conduct Claire Hall; Day One Sexual Assault Treatment Provider Peg Langhammer; R.I. Coalition Against Domestic Violence Executive Director Deb DeBare; sexual assault survivor Jane Johnson; University of Rhode Island police officer Maj. Michael Jagoda and Title IX Coordinator at Providence College James Campbell. The University is not represented on the commission. “The commission has only 13 members. You can’t have everybody. But I definitely want to hear from Brown,” Ackerman told The Herald. The commission will hold its next

KEIICHIRO KINOSHITA / HERALD

During their first meeting, the 13 members of the commission stated their goals to reduce the number of incidents of sexual assault on college campuses and eliminate barriers to reporting such incidents. meeting on Oct. 26. During the meeting, members will hear from various survivors of campus sexual assaults. Ackerman said she hopes University administrators will attend future meetings

and present on the issue. The commission’s first meeting was held just a week after the University released results of one of the largestever sexual assault surveys. The report

revealed that 25 percent of undergraduate women at Brown indicated having experienced sexual assault, which includes attempted or completed » See ASSAULT, page 2

WEATHER

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2015

UNIVERSITY NEWS University Snapchat account launches first Snap Story, garnering hundreds of views

SCIENCE & RESEARCH Solar house Techstyle Haus selected as finalist in “Innovation by Design” contest

COMMENTARY Simon ’16: Students must learn to be less long-winded and pretentious in the classroom

COMMENTARY Al-Salem ’17: University of Edinburgh’s policies pale in comparison to Brown’s

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U. Snapchat account tells community stories » ASSAULT, from page 1 Office of Communications launches University Snapchat account for students, alums, visitors By KATHERINE DAJANI CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Brown students can now add a new friend on Snapchat: the University. The Office of Communications introduced its own Snapchat account last month, giving current students, prospective students and alums a firsthand glimpse of life at Brown in micro-video form. “Historically, user-generated video has been extremely difficult to acquire,” said John Murphy, social media specialist. “Snapchat is revolutionizing the way that users generate content and the ways that users consume content — especially video content,” he said. “We need to engage audiences locally, nationally and globally using video.” The University’s first Snapchat story was posted Thursday with the help of Julia Elia ’17, a social media intern for the Office of Communications. Approximately 800 people viewed the story, with 93 percent of viewers watching the entire two minutes. “I was really surprised by how many people viewed it, which was awesome,” Elia said, adding that many of the viewers may have been prospective

students and alums visiting campus, rather than current students. While the account has only launched one Snapchat story so far, others will be posted soon, Elia said. Student group leaders can reach out to the Office of Communications’ web communications team about their events being featured on the account and “seen by not only people on campus, but also people who are beyond campus,” she said. “We’re going to try and capture a lot of different kinds of aspects of what’s going on around campus,” she added. In addition to watching stories filmed on campus, friends of the University’s account can also send in their own user-generated content from around the world, Murphy said. Many of these submissions are screenshots that the University shares on other social media accounts, such as its Instagram and Facebook accounts, as well, he said. Several Brown community members have sent photos and videos from Brazil, Murphy said, adding that other snaps last week came from downtown Providence, New Hampshire, California and Poland. “In order to grow the account, our call to action is for students and Brown community members — both local and abroad — to submit videos,” he said. To increase awareness about the account, Murphy has advertised on

many of the University’s existing social media channels, including Instagram, Linkedin, Google Plus, Facebook and Twitter. He also tweeted the account’s QR code. “We’re starting to integrate ‘add us on Snapchat’ into all our existing communication channels to up our audience,” Murphy said. Seven months ago, the University became one of the first schools to enable the Our Campus Story feature on Snapchat, which allowed those in the vicinity of campus to send and view video content. But Snapchat has since deactivated Brown’s Our Campus Story. “I’m still reaching out to Brown alumni at Snapchat to get it back,” Murphy said. “I’ve also heard from other institutions that it’s been turned off there as well. One of the differences between (Our Campus Story) and owning an account was that the campus stories were so hyper-local that you could really only be on College Hill to submit.” While awareness of the University’s Snapchat account is still spreading, students expressed positive reactions to the initiative. Blair Langford ’17 said though she had not heard of the University’s account, she approved of the University’s effort to engage with new social media platforms. “It’s a quick and easy way to promote school spirit,” Langford said. “I would definitely add Brown.”

non-consensual penetration or nonconsensual sexual touching by force or incapacitation. Approximately 84 percent of those who were sexually touched by force did not report the incident. “Those numbers are alarmingly high,” Ackerman said in a Sept. 28 press release. “We’ll look at the causes, the frequency and the conditions under which these incidents happen. We’ll decide what can be done about it. But this has to stop.” In January, Ackerman introduced a bill requiring institutions of higher education to report allegations of sexual assault to law enforcement. But victims of sexual assault raised concerns that such a law would instead deter victims from reporting their experiences to

» STUDENT, from page 1 wrote Elias in an email to The Herald. At Brown, St. Laurent conducted his research with Robert Reenan, professor of biology. “He thought pretty far out of the box,” Reenan said. “All of these other life experiences” gave St. Laurent

» HEALTH, from page 1 Rhode Island’s small size and stable population present a unique research opportunity. “We have one children’s hospital, where we admit the majority of children requiring hospitalization,” Dennery said. “We have one maternity hospital for women and infants where threequarters of all the births from the state of Rhode Island take place, and we have one health department.” With such localized health care, researchers are able to “assess the impact of the environment, implement new interventions, disseminate new information broadly and deliver consistent care to avoid disparities,” she said. “In the first year of the Hassenfeld, we will begin to gather healthcare data from all over the state, employing hightech methods to detect hotspots where children disproportionately suffer from

» COSBY, from page 1

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acknowledged is wholly inconsistent with the behavior we expect of any individual associated with Brown,” she wrote. “It is particularly troubling as our university community continues to confront the very real challenges of sexual violence on our campus and in society at large, and had it been known to the Fellows in 1985, an honorary degree … would not have been conferred.” David Ray ’84 P’15 P’18 launched an online petition Sept. 20 to rescind Cosby’s degree. As of press time, the petition had garnered 71 signatures. “Given multiple charges of sexual misconduct by Bill Cosby and Brown’s renewed attention on sexual harassment and sexual assault policy, we urge Brown University to rescind its 1985 Honorary Degree to Bill Cosby. This follows similar actions by Fordham and Marquette,” the petition reads. The petition was meant “to send a message to the Corporation that sexual assault will not be tolerated at Brown University by anyone in the community,” Ray said. It also sent a “strong public signal to the university that has supported the Sexual Assault Task Force,” he said. “The Board of Fellows was unaware of any petition when making its decision,” Cliatt wrote.

their universities, the Associated Press reported Sunday. “The initial thought behind this was that assault was a crime and should be handled by those with plenty of experiences … but what I didn’t realize is how truly complex the issue is,” Ackerman said. A long process of research and discussion followed the introduction of the bill in January, Ackerman said. This included not only meeting with stakeholders from law enforcement and victim advocate groups, but also hosting a round-table discussion with higher education institutions. “It’s been a long road that’s brought me here today,” Ackerman said. “I could have just taken the easy way, put the bill in and let the chips fall where they may, but that wouldn’t have served anybody.” a unique way of approaching scientific questions, he added. The Chaplain’s Office invites students to an informal memorial gathering Sept. 29 from 1 to 3 p.m. in room 411 of J. Walter Wilson. Plans for a formal memorial service are underway, Elias and Weber wrote. health issues,” Dennery added. In researching childhood obesity, the institute will study the impact of genetics, maternal health, environmental factors and neighborhood conditions. The institute will build on the work of the Rhode Island Consortium for Autism Research and Treatment in examining autism spectrum disorders. The initiative will use data from a registry of over 700 families to develop test protocols for “integrating genomic and other biomarker information into autism diagnoses,” according to the press release. In regards to asthma, researchers will examine genetics, stress and environmental factors in order to trace asthma’s causes and explore treatment options. By engaging the Rhode Island population in studies with the Hassenfeld Institute, the University can make an impact not only at the state level, but also nationally and globally, Phipps said. The Board of Fellows only meets three times every semester, Cliatt wrote. “This month’s meeting was the first meeting since information became public over the summer — beginning in July — relating to the depositions that were a factor in the Board of Fellows’ decision.” Though rumors of sexual assault had circulated for years, media coverage of the issue intensified in November 2014, as Cosby refused to answer questions about the sexual assault allegations during an NPR interview and canceled an appearance on the Late Show With David Letterman later that week, the New York Times reported. On Dec. 2, 2014, Cosby resigned his post as a trustee at Temple University — a position he had held since 1982. Seven months later, court documents were released in which Cosby stated he obtained quaaludes in the 1970s to give to women he wanted to have sex with. The records released July 7 were from a 2005 case in which Andrea Constand accused Cosby of drugging and sexually assaulting her. Cosby was one of 10 degree recipients in 1985, according to the University’s honorary degree index. — Additional reporting by Gabriella Reyes

UNIVERSITY NEWS THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2015 • PAGE 3

FLIP lending library enables low-income students to save on textbooks Organizers estimate program already saved participants $800 in its first two weeks By ISABELA KARIBJANIAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

The First Generation Low Income Partnership library, which launched at the beginning of the semester, aims to make textbooks accessible to those who are unable afford the cost of books, said coordinators Jonathan Jaramillo ’18 and Kevin Melendez ’16. The library, located in the Sorensen Family Reading Room on the first floor of the Rockefeller Library, currently offers over 500 donated textbooks, covering a range of disciplines. Students can access a list of textbooks and check their availability via an online spreadsheet on the program’s Facebook page. Most books can be checked out on a semester-long basis. Melendez said his own experiences motivated him to help launch the program. He once asked a question during a lecture, to which the professor responded: “If you had done the reading, you would’ve known the answer to this question.” “It was used as a joke for the class,” Melendez said, adding that he approached the professor after the class and told him that he could not read the chapter because the book available in the library was not the latest version. Melendez’s experience of relying on Brown libraries or resorting to alternative methods to avoid the high cost of textbooks is not unique, both organizers said. “I came in freshman year and realized that my shopping period was being influenced a lot by which classes had more affordable books, (and) which classes didn’t require books. It got to the point where I chose two of my classes because they didn’t require books at all,” Jaramillo said. “When I realized that it was more common than you would suspect, I immediately realized that we needed

to do something about it,” Jaramillo added. Jaramillo and Melendez, partially inspired by a similar program at Columbia, started a subcommittee of First-Gens@Brown in May to organize a completely independent, studentrun program housed at the Rock. Melendez and Jaramillo said their success in launching the program could be attributed in part to the responsiveness of administrators. The organizers were able to meet with the appropriate administrators within a week of initial contact. “The administration was really on this with us,” Jaramillo said. Kimberly Silva, Rockefeller circulation manager, said though the Rock has been an active participant in launching the program, the student coordinators have taken a major role in getting it off the ground. After obtaining initial approval from the Rock, Melendez and Jaramillo began a campus-wide collection drive in the basement of the Stephen Robert ’62 Campus Center. When boxes at the textbook drive began to overflow with donated books, the organizers knew that the Brown community was ready for the program, Jaramillo added. Despite this response from the community, Melendez and Jaramillo did face some initial opposition to the program. “The (Brown Bookstore) really pushed back because they make their revenue off of textbooks,” Melendez said, adding that professors who assign their own works for classes may also be frustrated by the program. But “so long as these books were donated and not sold for a profit,” Jaramillo said, “they couldn’t touch us.” A representative from the Bookstore could not be reached for comment by press time.

JULIANNA LEE MARINO / HERALD

Coordinated by Jonathan Jaramillo ‘18 and Kevin Melendex ‘16, the FLIP library allows low-income students to access free textbooks in the Sorensen Family Reading Room on the first floor of the Rockefeller Library. Once Melendez, Jaramillo and “People will stop me in the middle following, we’ll have a lot more stutheir team were able to get the pro- of going to class (saying), ‘Dude, you dents use the library.” gram up and running, interest began just saved me $200,’ and that’s a great In addition to the FLIP library, growing. feeling,” Jaramillo said. First-Gens@Brown is starting a book “Even before it was well-known to Alex Nibley ’19 said he saved more fund and various other programs to the Brown community, it was already than $60 by using the FLIP library. address the resource gap that exists at getting a lot of use and interest,” Silva Melendez said he estimates that in the University, Melendez said. Though said. the lending library’s first two weeks, it many first-generation college students The library’s exact role in this pro- has saved students over $800. receive full tuition assistance from gram is more facilitative than manaThe system “was extremely easy Brown, other costs — such as books gerial, Silva said. Though library staff to figure out,” Nibley said.“They’re — tend to add up, he said. members will assist students with very responsive to making it as good Students who are not paying for navigating the collection and con- as it can be.” college are having to take out loans to necting with the program’s student “It’s all a work in progress … but pay for other expenses, “which doesn’t coordinators, they are not responsible the foundation is there and I think that make sense,” Jaramillo added. for the collection’s upkeep. we have a good turnover of students Jaramillo, Melendez and other Jaramillo and Melendez said they in the first-gen community that will members of First-Gens@Brown are have received positive feedback from keep this up and running,” Melendez committed to closing the resource gap students who have used the FLIP li- said. “I think when we get the next so that “everyone can be on a level brary, adding that over 70 books have roundup of textbooks, our collection playing field, at least economically,” been checked out this semester so far. will double or triple, and in semesters Melendez said.

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PAGE 4 • TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2015

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Drone regulations expected Mobile market benefits food stamp recipients Formerly Fresh to You, in next legislative session Food on the Move receives Representatives have diverging opinions on how to regulate drone use near airports By HANA PARK CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Rep. Raymond Gallison, Jr., D-Bristol and Portsmouth, plans to reintroduce legislation to regulate drones in November, according to a Sept. 18 General Assembly press release. The bill would protect the privacy and safety of the general public by requiring aircraft to be registered with the Department of Public Safety. Behaviors made illegal by the bill — such as capturing or transmitting images from an occupied building — would result in a penalty of up to three years in prison in addition to or instead of a fine of up to $5,000. Drones pose a significant threat to the public’s right to privacy, Gallison said. As such, they must be prohibited from flying close to airports, public places, schools, hospitals and government buildings, he said. Gallison cited a recent test he witnessed, in which a drone was able to see

through the window of a private home, prompting him to recognize the importance of regulating the use of drones. “To me, that’s very scary. It’s getting out of control,” he said. The bill comes on the heels of a letter from Rep. Joe Shekarchi, D-Warwick, to the U.S. Department of Transportation at the prompting of his constituents, local business owners and aviation authorities, according to a Sept. 16 General Assembly press release. Drone use near airports is of particular concern, especially given the recent opening of Cloud City Drones, the state’s first drone store, near T.F. Green Airport, Shekarchi said. The penalities written in Gallison’s bill are “too light,” Shekarchi said, adding that tampering with flights using an unmanned vehicle “is an act of terrorism and must be dealt with as such.” Christopher Williams, the owner of Cloud City Drones, said he would welcome regulations but would not support any bill until he knew the law would be “reasonable and enforceable.” Regulations are par for the course in the drone business, he said. “Until we actually see (the regulations), we don’t think they’ll change our business plans at all,” he added.

$63,000 grant from USDA

By RACHEL SACHS CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program’s benefits will have their food stamps matched one-for-one by a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, allowing them to buy more fresh fruits and vegetables at “Food on the Move” mobile produce markets, said Gemma Gorham, director of the program. Gorham and her associates attained this grant by submitting their research findings from their previous market program, Fresh To You, which was funded by different grants over several years. The $100,000 grant falls under the Food Insecurity Nutrition Incentive program, an initiative of the USDA aimed at encouraging recipients of SNAP dollars — commonly referred to as food stamps — to purchase more fruits and vegetables. At the onset, the objective of the Fresh to You program and Gorham’s preceding research was to overcome the barriers preventing people from eating fresh produce, Gorham said. She cited high cost, lack of access, lack of time to shop and the poor quality of available produce in local stores as the main barriers. “We created a program that brought fresh fruits and vegetables to places where people work and live, at reduced cost prices,” said Kim Gans, director of community health promotion in the School of Public Health and lead researcher for the Food on the Move program. Gans and her team conducted a fivemonth study — funded by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation — that brought markets to six community organizations serving low-income families in Rhode Island. After analyzing the data, her team found that Fresh to You markets had increased childrens’ fruit and vegetable consumption by just under a half cup per day. “We can say now that this is an evidence-based program,” Gorham

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A $63,000 grant from the Department of Agriculture allows SNAP recipients to buy more groceries at mobile produce markets. said. “We’ve proven that bringing these markets results in increased fruit and vegetable consumption among people who shop there.” Original research for the program occurred at the Institute for Community Health Promotion, which is part of the School of Public Health. But Food on the Move now exists as a part of the Rhode Island Public Health Institute, a 501(c) (3) nonprofit housed in the School of Public Health. Brown researchers remain involved with the dissemination of the program, and this partnership is essential, Gorham said. “Having Brownquality researchers is part of the reason we’re getting funded.” Gorham cited another way in which the Brown community is crucial to the success of the program. In order to create a self-sustaining social enterprise, she said, it is necessary to conduct sales in higher-income neighborhoods, worksites or colleges. In these areas, customers are not using dollar-for-dollar SNAP benefits, which in turn supports the program’s ability to sell in low-income neighborhoods. The Food on the Move truck parked

Friday at the intersection of College Street and Memorial Boulevard, hoping to target Brown and Rhode Island School of Design students as customers. “On a day like today we make $1,500,” said Hilda Castillo, the field coordinator for the institute. “That has paid for what we purchased for today. At the low-income sites, even after we do the matching, we don’t profit from it at all.” Going forward, the program aims to double the number of mobile markets. The program’s leaders also hope to partner with small, local and urban growers, who may be growing food at community gardens to bring to markets. Many of these growers are immigrants or refugees who could supply the demand among low-income residents for produce more common in other cultures, such as yucca and jicama, Gorham said. This program would address unemployment as well as food access, she added. “As a researcher, it’s really gratifying for me to see the program live on,” Gans said. “That’s really the goal of any good researcher, that their research … is actually being utilized in a community and doing good for people.”

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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2015 • PAGE 5

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

fa c e s at b r o w n

SATELLITE DINING ANDREWS COMMONS

Pizza: Bacon Chicken Ranch, Spicy Five Cheese and Garlic, Pepperoni and Meatball JOSIAH’S

BLUE ROOM

Made-to-Order Quesadillas

Chicken Mushroom Xacuti, Vegetable Tikka Masala

DINING HALLS SHARPE REFECTORY LUNCH

DINNER

Tomato Quiche, Baked Potato Bar, Blondie Cranberry Chocolate Bar

Mushroom Macaroni and Cheese, Eggplant Parmesan, Panettone Bread Pudding

VERNEY-WOOLLEY LUNCH

DINNER

Sweet and Sour Tofu, Chinese Chicken Wings, Cranberry Chocolate Bars

Steak and Pepper Fajitas, Spanish Rice, Vegan Lentil Soup, Bread Pudding

sudoku SADIE HOPE-GUND / HERALD

Gwendolene Mugodi ’18, Oluwakemi Odusanya ’18 and Hisyam Takiudin ’18 pose during the filming of a “Faces at Brown” video on the Main Green. The video is part of a University campaign coming out next month.

comic A Campus Fairytale | Kimberly Saltz ‘17

crossword

calendar TODAY

SEPTEMBER

20 27

21 28

22 29

23 30

24 31

25 1

26 2

TECH CAREER FAIR 12:00 PM Sayles Hall

U.S. MILITARY IN A DANGEROUS WORLD 5:30 PM Metcalf Research Building, Friedman Auditorium

NEW DIRECTIONS IN THE HISTORY OF U.S. SLAVERY 12:00 PM John Carter Brown Library, Reading Room

GLOBALIZING SOLIDARITY STEP BY STEP 4:00 PM Watson Institute, Joukowsky Forum

TOMORROW FALL GENERAL CAREER FAIR 12:00 PM Sayles Hall

BROWN IN U.K. AND IRELAND INFO SESSION 12:00 PM J. Walter Wilson, Room 440

PROFESSIONAL SCHOOL FAIR 12:00 PM Faunce, Multipurpose Room

UNCOVERING ANCIENT EGYPT 10:00 AM Haffenreffer Museum

COMMENTARY PAGE 6 • TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2015

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

EDITORIAL

A ranking we should be proud of According to the new online federal tool College Scorecard, Brown students who receive federal financial aid earn the lowest mean salaries 10 years after starting college out of their counterparts at all Ivy League institutions. Concerns about the limited sample size — given that a significant number of students in the Ivies are not on any financial aid — aside, these numbers appear troubling. To a casual observer, this ranking might seem to be a failure of sorts: Are Brown graduates simply unable to earn as much as our Ivy League counterparts because our credentials are not as appealing to potential employers? Does this somehow indicate that a Brown education is the lowest-quality in the Ivy League or that our graduates are less able than graduates of peer institutions to secure high-paying careers? Yet upon further reflection on some of the factors responsible for Brown students’ lower mean salaries, we find it to be not as distressing as initially believed. A clear reason the average Brown alum earns less than other Ivy graduates is that the University sends significantly fewer students into finance and consulting — which are among the highest-paying fields — than other Ivy League schools. While in 2014, 41 percent of Penn’s graduating class, 37 percent of Cornell’s and 31 percent of Harvard’s went to work in finance and consulting, only 21 percent of Brown’s graduating class entered those fields. Tracy Barnes, director of institutional research, told The Herald that more Brown students also enter the nonprofit sector — which tends to pay less — than other Ivy League graduates. This information perhaps indicates that Brown students are less likely to pursue financially lucrative career options and instead find meaningful work in different fields. Ivy League schools have come under increasing scrutiny for breeding stress and pressure and promoting the idea that success can be equated with earnings after graduation. Amy Binder, a professor of sociology at the University of California, San Diego, told the Washington Monthly that many students at elite universities “are flocking to Wall Street and consulting firms less by choice than because of a rigged recruiting game that the schools themselves have helped to create.” Even if it is not surprising that many students at the wealthiest schools in the country are fixated on maximizing their financial outcomes, it is sad that many students may choose to forgo their passions and intellectual growth for maximum profit. Brown students are absolutely susceptible to this trend, despite the school’s emphasis on liberal education and personal growth. In 2013, The Herald reported on an increase in the number of students who had declared an economics concentration. Many students interviewed expressed the sentiment that their concentration choice was “motivated by a desire for post-collegiate job security and a growing interest in quantitative analysis.” But it is clear that in comparison with peer institutions, Brown has fewer students making these choices. Of course, we celebrate all students who pursue careers they are passionate about, including those in finance and consulting. It is a sad state of affairs, however, when students turn to these fields because they feel it is their only option, or when they abandon other passions in order to pursue a job that feels safe. If the fact that Brown alums have the lowest mean salary is reflective of the varied careers that Brown graduates pursue due to their interests and passions, we view it as a good thing rather than a failing.

I VA N A L C A N TA R A

Q U O T E O F T H E D AY

“We cannot make progress in education … or in building our economy or fostering the strongest society possible without healthy children.” — Alan Hassenfeld, former Hasbro Toys chairman and CEO

See health on page 1

Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board: its editors, Manuel Contreras ’16 and Meghan Holloway ’16, and its members, Emma Axelrod ’18, Noah Fitzgerel ’17 and Aranshi Kumar ’17. Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.

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COMMENTARY TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2015 • PAGE 7

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

On classroom etiquette

CHAD SIMON OPINIONS editor

It is my sole conviction that the intended benefit of class discussion has taken two steps back and then an additional five in the same direction. I am also exhaustively convinced that chivalry is dead. But for the sake of clarity and my sanity, let us now and forever cleanly wipe Saturday’s failed nocturnal pursuits off the slate and zero in on the former issue: common courtesy in the classroom. Or lack thereof. As I’ve come to realize, nothing moves me further from sadness than the united efforts of the ill-mannered and the long-winded. Of places where these temperaments fester wantonly, I can think of only four: the jury room, Scrabble night at any senior center, Dallas and an alarming number of Ivy League classrooms. If anyone has ever had the immeasurable misfortune of suffering through one of these classroom settings, one would have needed to do nothing but sit idly on one’s own thumbs in order to detect a suffocating, pretentious and noticeably passive-aggressive air of latent academic one-upsmanship wafting through space. It’s irritating, contrived, stymying and grossly intolerable. Until three days ago, I was but outwardly resolved to call for a moratorium on classroom etiquette as we know it. But what good would that do? So by dint of some very hard work and meticulous research, I did my level best to create 10 prescriptions that, if strictly adhered to,

will improve one’s class persona and general likability in spades. I present “The New Ten Commandments,” a title which already engenders all kinds of delicious biblical controversy and self-assumed importance. Let us learn. Commandment One: Beginning your comment with “for me,” “in my opinion” or “I believe” discourages your classmates from partaking in the groundbreaking self-discovery that’s surely unfolding before them. Commandment Two: Your lengthy selfapologetic preamble undermines whatever point that follows, provided there is one. For instance, prefacing the meat of your comment

sometimes silence is the soul of appropriateness. Commandment Six: Nothing shows one’s hand of ignorance like the excessive use of one’s hands. You’re not Sicilian. And if you are, I apologize profusely and concede to whatever demands you will invariably make. Commandment Seven: Referring to “something interesting” you just came across on your laptop is nerdy and does not delight me. It also fails to deceive the class into thinking the last 30 minutes were spent doing anything but scrolling through Reddit. Commandment Eight: When you “add onto” or “jump off from” a classmate’s point,

Nothing moves me further from sadness than the united efforts of the ill-mannered and the long-winded. with “this is probably going to sound really stupid” indicates to me that what you’re about to say is not the only thing deserving of the label “stupid.” Commandment Three: If you end your comment employing uptalk or vocal fry, consider yourself hopeless beyond redress. Or a Kardashian. Commandment Four: If you are of the persuasion that the adverb “honestly” adds validity to whatever it is you’re saying, please refer back to Commandment Three. Commandment Five: Any answer longer than 15 seconds is not an answer; it is a testimony. Though brevity may be the soul of wit,

be sure your addendum does not bulldoze the prior comment for the sake of paving a fresh foundation on which to build your irrelevant case and equally unwarranted jabbering. Commandment Nine: If you choose to disregard Commandment Eight, then for the love of all that is good and holy, do not under any circumstances attempt to contribute to the discussion by posing a tangential question. It should go without saying that not every unanswered curiosity merits exploration. Commandment Ten: If you somehow have the chutzpah to disregard the two aforementioned commandments, you would do well to put down this paper at once and resume re-

blogging Politico articles on topics in which you developed a tenacious interest no more than four hours ago. Let there be realness. At this point, I’m reminded of a lunch I had exactly one week ago with a very dear friend of mine. Per usual, we sat down under an elm tree and I made my displeasure known about everything in existence. In return, he listened. But as I broached the topic of classroom etiquette and how, for reasons unbeknownst to me, nobody at present seemed capable of managing a single declarative sentence, he did something, well, typical: He quoted Plato. “Chad, wise men speak because they have something to say; fools speak because they have to say something.” I nodded approvingly, though somewhat miffed that my rambling diatribe had been interrupted. I responded with all the grace and candor one could expect from a petulant rabble-rouser. I told my friend to pardon the blunt observation, but Plato is dead, and I am not. So until Plato’s self-exhumed corpse pays a visit to a Brown philosophy section, his words have lost all their gravitas and universality. (If there existed a lunch bell, then would have been prime time for my friend to be saved). Thus and thus, in the spirit of Brown patois, I’d like to “add onto” Plato’s crumbling platitude with a question: for me, I feel, at least like for me, and I’m not even remotely qualified to say this, but honestly, for me, why does the fool have to speak at all?

Chad Simon ’16 is beyond flattered by all the positive feedback he’s received from friends and Republicans.

The grass isn’t always greener on other Main Greens SARA AL-SALEM OPINIONS columnist

If you ever see me waiting for the shuttle on a weekday evening in the dead of winter, you will most likely hear me whine about the godforsaken 10-minute. In fact, more often than not, whenever and wherever you see me, you will find that I am probably complaining about something or another related to the University. In general, I’m the kind of pessimist who tends to look at the bad before I really appreciate the good. It’s an aspect of my life that I am actively trying to change, and while I have improved tenfold on my general negativity, I’ve always been sour toward Brown. My little sister, who is an avid fan of Brown, always dismisses my complaints as stemming from my inability to appreciate what is really good in front of me. But now here I am studying abroad in another city at a massive university, and I realize that she might have been completely right: I didn’t realize how good I had it at Brown. Now, before I get into it, I just

want to preface this by noting that I have always been eternally grateful that Brown accepted me into its arms at all. I could have never left my country and been at a totally different school if it weren’t for Brown’s acceptance — and I have always acknowledged this. That said, the combination of Providence’s gloomy atmosphere and the student body’s homogenous style of thinking put

during orientation week thinking I’d be guided along the way to help me settle in, but everyone from the residential assistants to the professors who were assigned to “help” me took on a “figure it out yourself ” attitude I had never encountered at Brown. Firstly, I arrived on campus with absolutely no guide to where everything was. At one point when I asked one of the students wearing a colored

When I emailed the course secretary regarding this (because the course had no schedule at all), I wasn’t guided to a solution. I just received an email restating my question. The course secretary, by the way, is one of the five people including graduate students and professors who may teach a course to you. No one week features the same person, and this makes it even harder to try

I appreciate how much the University cares for each individual student, and I will remember that the grass is the greenest on the Main Green. my feelings toward the University on high-shift negative gear. I always stepped onto the campus with an “if only” mentality about little things Brown could be better at. Then I arrived at the University of Edinburgh campus, and I realized how important the little things I take for granted at Brown are in a student experience. While its surrounding city, campus facilities and dormitories are better than Brown’s, everything internal about the University of Edinburgh severely pales in comparison to Brown. I arrived on campus

shirt that read “ask me,” I was told to look at the signs because she wasn’t entirely sure. By the time I figured out how to connect to the internet (which you must manually connect to every time you step off campus), I had found that there was no specific location on the academic portal to find your schedule. I thought that was weird until I was told course schedules are not finalized until the very first day of class — which meant one of my classes, which had previously worked well with my other classes, had a conflicting schedule.

to connect to the course on any level. It feels more like people are reciting something off paper until the next people arrive and less like professors are completely engaging with what they are teaching you. These little things are how I have learned to appreciate all that Brown does for us. Things as simple as paper syllabi at the start of classes and the accessibility of professors create a positive, helpful atmosphere. Every which way you look, there is help readily available. It has honestly been simply bi-

zarre chasing after faculty members and administrators to get something as simple as a class schedule. It’s literally a game of having to do exactly what they ask of you without being told how to do that. Steven Velazquez ’17, another Brown student on this study abroad program, put it best when he said, “Brown holds your hand but tells you to design your own academic plan. Here, there’s a very strict academic plan to follow, but they close the doors on your face if you need any help figuring it out.” All this said, I do not expect the rest of my life to be as organized and guided as I had learned to appreciate at Brown, but this experience of seeing how other universities are structured taught me how valuable Brown is. I still don’t like the city of Providence, but I’m going to be coming back to Brown kissing the feet of all the administrators who do so much for students. I’ll appreciate how much the University cares for each individual student, and I will remember that the grass is the greenest on the Main Green.

Sara Al-Salem ’17 can be reached at sara_al-salem@brown.edu.

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SCIENCE & RESEARCH THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2015

Year after debut, student-designed solar house receives new honor Techstyle Haus, which uses 90 percent less energy than other houses, selected as “Innovation by Design” finalist By ANYA HONG CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Fast Company magazine selected Techstyle Haus — a solar house created by students from Brown, the Rhode Island School of Design and the University of Applied Sciences in Erfurt, Germany — as one of nine finalists in the student category of its 2015 “Innovation by Design” competition. Techstyle Haus was originally built for the 12th Solar Decathlon in 2014. Jonathan Knowles, associate professor of architecture at RISD, submitted the house as one of 1,500 entries to the competition this year. To the majority of the team, news of the most recent award came as a surprise. Derek Stein, associate professor of engineering and physics and the faculty adviser for the project, said he had “forgotten completely” that Knowles had entered Techstyle Haus into the competition until friends mentioned that the team had placed as a finalist. The honor is “fantastic,” Stein said. Techstyle Haus “keeps paying dividends,” he said. The house also continues to be in use, Stein added. Today, the house accommodates students in Domaine de Boisbuchet, France, where it remains a combination of innovative engineering and design. Techstyle Haus “will continue to be used and inspire people in years to come,” he said. Isabelle Lubin ’16 said she and other members of the team were unaware that the house had even been entered into the competition until they received news that it was one of the finalists. It was a “really awesome surprise,” she said. The house’s fabric exterior and flexible solar panels have never before been used for small-scale housing, said Gareth Rose ’16, a member of the team. Techstyle Haus is also a passive house — it uses 90 percent less energy than a standard house. The most recent acknowledgement follows prior success for Techtyle Haus. The house also placed well in its debut

at the Solar Decathlon competition, which was held in Versailles, France. A team composed of 35 students from the three universities, traveled to Versailles for the competition. During the competition, judges toured the Techstyle Haus and compared it to 19 other student-built houses. The house placed 14th overall and third in the “comfort conditions” category. The students began designing Techstyle Haus in September 2012 and planned to build the house using “emerging and interesting technology,” said Allison Chen, who graduated from

RISD last spring. “A lot of us had the same goals,” Rose said. But the engineering concentrators from Brown and the architectural students from RISD and Germany approached these goals differently, he said. “The engineers were focused on making something high-performance, and the architects were focused on making something beautiful,” he said. The students worked to make the house aesthetic but efficient, he added. The team decided to use a flexible fiberglass material called Sheerfill for the exterior. Sheerfill had been used before for stadiums, airports and other industrial-sized buildings,but

never for a residential house, Rose said. Sheerfill gave the house a curved look, but this created problems for the rigid solar panels. “We wanted to find a way to get solar panels that were high-efficiency, but also that were light, flexible and could fit on our curved roof,” Rose said. The team eventually found a company that made solar panels they could use. Construction began in January 2014. The students built the house themselves in a University-owned parking lot in Cranston. “In the spring of (2014), we were honestly in Cranston most of the day,” Lubin said. The team would sometimes start at 6 or 7 a.m. and build until 8 or 9

p.m., Lubin said. Students did everything from installing insulation and plumbing to interior designing. The team finished 80 percent of the house in Cranston, took it apart and shipped it to Versailles for the Decathlon. Students then had 10 days to rebuild the house before the competition began. “Our team was working around the clock,” Stein said. “Things got hectic very fast.” The students gave tours of the house in English, French and German, both to judges and to the general public, over the course of three weeks. Techstyle Haus scored well in objective categories, Stein said. The house finished 14th out of 20 houses.

COURTESY OF BROWN UNIVERSITY

Techstyle Haus — a solar house designed by students from Brown, the Rhode Island School of Design and the University of Applied Sciences in Germany, is made from a flexible fiberglass material called Sheerfill. Construction of the house began in January 2014 in a parking lot in Cranston, R.I.

With grant, U. to collaborate on mindfulness research Researchers at Brown, Harvard, UMass study whether yoga, meditation can improve patient adherence By JULIA CHOI CONTRIBUTING WRITER

A new $4.7 million grant from the National Institutes of Health will fund University researchers’ investigation of whether mindfulness can help patients to better heal and adhere to set medical regimens. The five-year grant encompasses two phases of research, according to a University press release. The first phase will review the data from mindfulness interventions conducted on around 2,000 participants to determine if these interventions influenced patients’ adherence to their medical regimens. The second phase will explore various intervention methods to further evaluate their effects. Studies will be conducted at the University, Harvard and at the University of Massachusetts,

according to the release. The new study will observe whether mindfulness interventions can improve patients’ self awareness and attention control, and whether these improvements lead to greater adherence to treatments and healthier patients, said Eric Loucks, assistant professor of epidemiology and coprincipal investigator along with Willoughby Britton, assistant professor of psychiatry and human behavior. The treatments that the team will study include dietary changes, increased exercise and the taking of blood pressure medications. Research taking place at the University will focus on sitting meditation, yoga and body scans — the meditational practice of shifting awareness throughout the whole body, Loucks said. Studies at Harvard will also

center on yoga, using methods from the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Stockbridge, Mass. Research at the University of Massachusetts will focus on stress reduction interventions, a technique developed at UMass 35 years ago. “In order to influence health we need to know how to customize it so it’s really effective and efficient,” Loucks said. “We want to maximize the things that work and get rid of the things that don’t. This study is going to help us really start to learn about what works with the mindfulness interventions and what doesn’t.” These mindfulness interventions are designed with the intention of being integrated with Western medicine, Loucks said. “There are lots of paths to health,” he said, adding that scientists should look at all possible solutions to determine what each individual needs. Loucks began practicing “mindfulness meditation” nearly 20 years

ago and has taught mindfulness in his community for almost 15 years. This research project combines his longstanding interest in mindfulness with his professional work as an epidemiologist studying social determinants of heart disease risk, he said, adding that the project “matches who (he) is.” Loucks said the grant was written at the contemplative studies department, where he and Britton collaborated with Catherine Kerr, assistant professor of family medicine, and Jared Lindahl, visiting assistant professor of religious studies. An official concentration since May 2014, contemplative studies “investigates the underlying philosophical, psychological and scientific bases of human contemplative experience,” according to the concentration website. The contemplative studies department “brings together an interdisciplinary group of people that would very rarely interact with each other,”

Loucks said, adding that the department is “not only a really interesting opportunity for students, but also a research platform unlike any other in North America.” “It’s a very solid research grant,” said Susan Smalley, founder of the Mindful Awareness Research Center and professor emeritus of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences at the University of California at Los Angeles, who is not involved with the research. “There’s still a small body of research, and it’s so important that more of these studies happen.” Smalley added that mindfulness would benefit both patients and scientists. “Mindfulness really helps you be more open to observation” and “openminded with the results,” she said, adding that mindfulness “really changed (her) relationship with science” and will continue to change science “by virtue of how it impacts the scientist doing the research.”