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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2016

VOLUME CLI, ISSUE 5

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Students campaign for Fall Weekend renamed Indigenous People’s Day members ethnic studies in Providence Faculty approve NAB’s resolution PSU organizes rally, petition to protest lack of representation in local high school curricula By JESSICA MURPHY STAFF WRITER

Jan. 20, high school students protested outside of the Providence School Department headquarters for the inclusion of ethnic studies in Providence public school curricula. Several other student and community activism organizations — including Youth In Action and Direct Action for Rights and Equality — also participated in the rally. Members of the Providence Student Union led a campaign titled “#OurHistoryMatters” in an effort to bring awareness to the gaps in their education. “Over the past few months and years, a lot of students felt like they weren’t represented in their education,” said Marcel Mensah, a student at Classical High School and a member of the PSU. What began as a discussion among students progressed into a press conference providing students with a platform to raise awareness and

garner support from the community, he said. “We hope to have ethnic studies courses in all of the high schools,” Mensah added. The press conference resulted in a lot of conversation, both online and offline, in support of the campaign, he said. Furthermore, though the adult-led PSU helped organize the protest, the event was entirely student-initiated and student-run. The PSU created a petition on Change.org titled “Ethnic Studies for Providence Now!” that currently has more than 500 signatures — over halfway to its goal of 1,000. According to the site, the 1,192-page American History textbook used in Providence schools includes only 55 pages about people of color. The PSU was founded in 2010 and has been growing ever since. “Our primary goal is to empower students in Providence high schools” and help them achieve things they may not believe they can do, Mensah said. He added that the organization is working to set up meetings with the Providence School Board to develop a plan going forward. “The school board hasn’t taken any sort of official position on it yet, » See ETHNIC, page 2

to rename holiday at monthly meeting By JULIANNE CENTER SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Faculty members voted Tuesday at the monthly faculty meeting to officially change the name of Fall Weekend to Indigenous People’s Day on the academic calendar in response to a student movement led by Native Americans at Brown and other student groups. The name change will be effective next fall. NAB and other students rallied outside Salomon Center before the meeting took place, holding signs reading “250+ years of occupying indigenous land,” “Native Americans discovered Columbus,” “We don’t celebrate genocide” and “#Changethename.” The vote was in response to a petition signed by over 1,100 faculty members, staff, alums and students urging the University to recognize indigenous peoples on the day formally celebrating the oppression instigated by Christopher Columbus, said Thomas Roberts, chair of the Faculty Executive Committee and professor of ecology and evolutionary biology. NAB spearheaded the campaign and

KATE TALERICO / HERALD

Native Americans at Brown and other student groups hold posters outside Salomon Center as faculty members walk into Tuesday’s meeting to vote. brought a resolution before the Brown University Community Council, Roberts said. BUCC endorsed the resolution, sending the decision to the Faculty Executive Committee, an organization which is the “gatekeeper” to bringing a resolution to a faculty vote, Roberts said. “The change from the neutral name of Fall Weekend recognizes both the role and the plight of Native Americans currently and historically,” Roberts said, adding it will hopefully “go some way towards addressing the hurt students feel when they see a holiday named after Columbus.”

A 2009 “student-led movement” by NAB previously requested that the name Columbus Day be changed to Indigenous People’s Day because the “holiday was insulting and potentially misleading in many ways,” said Linford Fisher, associate professor of history. But instead of changing the name to Indigenous People’s Day, faculty members voted to change the name of the holiday to a “neutral term,” Fall Weekend, in order to avoid offending the Italian-American population for whom the holiday was originally dedicated, Fisher said. » See INDIGENOUS, page 3

Torey Malatia, CEO of RIPR, explains split with WBEZ Radio notable discusses founding This American Life with Ira Glass ’82, move to Rhode Island By ROLAND HIGH STAFF WRITER

Rhode Island Public Radio finds its home within a manila-folder, commonplace office that does not at all reflect the personality of the station’s newest CEO. In a studio off the hall to the left, a couple of guys — whose voices were familiar, though not their faces — stood over the controls, preparing to interrupt the scheduled program with the announcement of former Mayor Buddy Cianci’s death. Not more than 10 footsteps away from this broadcasting booth sat Torey Malatia, who became CEO of RIPR in September. Malatia left his position as CEO of WBEZ Chicago in 2013 for reasons he previously could not explain due to a non-disclosure agreement. Typically with a face-wide smile and a handshake that could break bones, “for somebody who is described as a rock star in

INSIDE

the public media industry, he’s just a nice guy,” said Ted Long, board chair of RIPR. That’s not to say he hasn’t had his fair share of controversy; his close friend and co-founder of This American Life, Ira Glass, once said that “people hated his guts” in a WBEZ interview. That was when Malatia first joined WBEZ — now

Chicago Public Media — and started making changes. Many audience members considered him a corporate

butcher, and he admits that what he did was “stupid” and a “classic mistake.”

sterile — except for the Wild Room, which I hadn’t touched,” he said. “It was the only thing I liked!” Glass had just finished a broadcast Chicago when he came downstairs to MalaAs he told the story — and it really tia’s office, and found him looking was a story — his face shifted from the despondent. intense happiness it had shown before. Glass offered Malatia advice from While Malatia was running the his years in public radio — “it was his station, Ira Glass ’82 and Gary Covino whole life,” Malatia said. “He really were working on a passion project: was my source of understanding.” a once-a-week program called the Their friendship benefited the staWild Room. tion, Malatia said. “It began to change “There are principles of how com- things, and then we became much mercial stations felt things should more successful.” be done … the kind of pace and enIn 1994, Malatia spoke with Glass ergy that should be in a broadcast,” about quitting National Public Radio he began. “I didn’t mess with (the to join WBEZ Chicago to produce a Wild Room),” he added, citing that it new show: This American Life. The was not a “big deal.” He tried making program has since gone on to produce changes to other parts of the radio over 550 episodes and reach an audistation, but they weren’t working. ence of 2.1 million listeners each week. “Everything soundMalatia spoke (and gestured) ed pretty dull, enthusiastically about the narrative p r e t t y style that became famous when This American Life went national. “Storytelling opens doors; it opens the mind,” he said as he touched his fists to his forehead and violently mimed, wrenching it open. He said that many people seem to go through life thinking that others » See MALATIA, page 2 ROLAND HIGH / HERALD

WEATHER

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2016

NEWS Humanity-Centered Robotics Initiative receives new support to expand robotic research

NEWS Bill Reynolds ’68 discusses novel about Hope High School basketball team, players’ struggles

COMMENTARY Savello ’18: Seemingly useless classes provide practical skills like research, critical thinking

COMMENTARY Steinman ’19: To change the world, millenials should unite, regain focus

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NEWS

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» MALATIA, from page 1 are two-dimensional, but “a story makes people three-dimensional.” Bringing together a community, he said, is one of the most important services public radio can provide. Malatia was particularly passionate about making media accessible to everyone. “In Chicago, there’s a onethird African-American, one-third Latino and one-third white population,” Malatia said, pointing out demographics that are not reflected by WBEZ’s audience. In 2006, the station explored new techniques in digital media that could be used to attract a more diverse audience — “young people of color, especially,” Malatia said. “While nobody expects everybody on earth to be in a public radio audience, … you can’t only be serving a portion of that and really call yourself ‘public.’” With the backing of the original board of Chicago Public Media, Malatia created Vocalo — a social site in which audience members could upload their own stories, videos and text. A radio station, created in conjunction, handpicks the best of the submitted material to air. But the board members’ terms expired, and the new members had “more of a financial background,” Malatia said. They ran the nonprofit in a way “parallel to what they were doing in their business.” “And so they kept raising a question: … Why were we trying to bring an audience of people into our universe (when) there’s no proof that those people would even be willing to support us financially, to be members?” Malatia recalls.

“What’s the whole point of what we’re doing?” Malatia demanded. Because the main service of public radio should be inclusivity, it doesn’t matter if they made a profit or not — it just mattered if it worked, Malatia said. “All the different staff members (at RIPR) have said in one way or another, ‘We need to be out in the community more,’” said Susan Greenhalgh, chief operating officer of RIPR. Greenhalgh and Long explained that the same goals that rubbed Chicago Public Media the wrong way made RIPR an excellent fit. There was no misunderstanding between him and Chicago Public Media, Malatia said, contrary to other portrayals of his resignation. Their disagreement was philosophical. “Do we want to reach more of a community, or do we want to ‘superserve’ the people we have?” Because Vocalo wasn’t performing financially, but Malatia advocated for its usefulness nonetheless, it became a sticking point between him and the board. “At the end of the day, we just didn’t agree, and the new chair and I especially didn’t see eye-to-eye on this direction,” Malatia said. “This was just a very firm difference in what the forward movement of the institution should be.” Malatia resigned July 26, 2013, with the agreement that he would not disclose the reason behind the decision for two years. As a matter of fact, this was the first opportunity he had to explain his resignation to a reporter. Chicago Public Media could not be reached for comment by press time. Rhode Island

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD In September, Malatia was hired by RIPR. Rhode Island’s small size offers a particular advantage for Malatia’s work. The state “is a community that is close, that understands and cares about what happens.” Yet the radio station has a long way to go if it hopes to accomplish Malatia’s ultimate aspirations. “We still don’t enfranchise all parts of the community in that discussion,” he said. “The guy had the perfect pitch,” summarized Greenhalgh. “It matched up with what we wanted.” Long echoed Greenhalgh’s sentiment. Malatia “was quite clear that he was interested in trying to figure out how a nonprofit media model would engage its community in a meaningful and dynamic way.” “The community has to have a real sense of place and purpose, and Rhode Island does,” Long added. Because RIPR only began functioning without the support of Boston University in 2007, Greenhalgh explained that the organization feels like a start-up. “We grew out of them, really, and so as a start-up organization, there’s a lot of foundational things that need to be done,” she said. Yet the station strives to cover a diverse range of topics with a staff of only 18 people and a budget of $2.7 million per year. “Whatever plans we have to extend these services in the way that I’ve discussed, we’re going to need to be thoughtful and incremental about it, one initiative at a time,” Malatia said. “Let’s see if we give them information and provide settings for discussion,” he said, “if we can make journalism work the way it should work.”

Spotlight on the Statehouse BY AGNES CHAN, NEWS EDITOR

Wage Increases Gov. Gina Raimondo will push for an increase in Rhode Island’s minimum wage from $9.60 to $10.10 per hour, she said at the State House last week. Last year, state lawmakers did not agree to her proposal, but Raimondo pledged to make the push again this year. Business owners have argued that they are forced to lay off employees when the minimum wage is increased. They contend that the legislation would most likely increase the unemployment rate among young people. But Raimondo stated that there is no concrete evidence to support that claim. On the contrary, she said, a growth in minimum wage corresponds to a wealthier economy for the state, the Providence Journal reported. “You shouldn’t be working full time and living in poverty,” Raimondo said at the event at the State House Friday. Higher wages will help those “who are working full-time and barely making ends meet,” she added.

Expungement of criminal records After a 70-to-1 vote, the House passed legislation that allows judges to erase records of criminals who deferred their prison sentences. Given how specific the terms are for the crime, only around 100 people will be affected by the legislation. The legislative effort has sparked debate on the effects of sealing crimes. Some argue that if crimes such as child abuse or child prostitution are hidden from public records, past criminals might be allowed to work in jobs from which they would otherwise be disqualified. The only person who voted against the legislation is Rep. Karen MacBeth, D-Cumberland, who told the Journal she did not vote in favor “because if (the record) is expunged, and the person does something again, it wouldn’t be a second offense but a first offense again. This bill included felonies.”

Making standardized testing affordable Raimondo intends to make the SAT and the PSAT free for all public school students, she announced at Smithfield High School Monday. “If you want a good job in the economy, you need to receive an education beyond high school,” she said in a calculus class, the Journal reported Feb. 1. The SAT and PSAT, which cost $54 and $15 respectively, present a significant financial barrier to students from low-income families who want to attend colleges that require those tests for admission. Raimondo will set aside $500,000 in her 2016-2017 budget to provide free testing for around 20,000 students. The free tests will be available for students this fall.

»ETHNIC, from page 1 but I’m a big supporter of what the PSU is trying to do,” said Mark Santow, professor of history at University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and a member of the Providence School Board. “This semester there won’t be changes, but it’s quite possible that we’ll see some ethnic studies programs in high schools and middle schools” in the future, he added. Santow said he is hopeful that improved curricula and a more diverse

teaching staff will better serve the student body. Currently, the Providence public school student body consists of over 90 percent students of color, while the teachers are over 80 percent white. “Research shows that ethnic studies courses have a larger impact when they are taught by teachers of color,” Santow said. The campaign represents more than just a change in history classes, he added. “If you can see yourself in your country’s past, you can better see yourself in your country’s future.”

NEWS

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2016 • PAGE 3

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

»INDIGENOUS, from page 1

COURTESY OF HUMANITY-CENTERED ROBOTICS INITIATIVE

The Humanity-Centered Robotics Initiative hopes to continue interdisciplinary research and apply robotics technology to help society.

HCRI advances technology to solve human problems

University grant enables group to expand team, build lab, foster collaboration in research By HATTIE XU STAFF WRITER

A world where robots and humans coexist is becoming a reality, thanks in part to a team of researchers at Brown. The Humanity-Centered Robotics Initiative — a group of students and faculty members aiming to investigate and meet societal needs through human-robot interaction — recently received new funding and support from the University. HCRI plans to use the new funding to hire an associate director and a postdoctoral fellow, continue hosting conferences and grant seed funds to involve more people and encourage more collaboration in robotics research, said Michael Littman, professor of computer science. Support from the University extends to a new base for the group. The eighth floor of the Sciences Library is currently undergoing renovation to make space for HCRI research, Littman said. Once finished, the space will feature a lab that is set up like a living room to study how robots can interact in a home environment, he added. The initiative is led by Littman and Bertram Malle, associate chair of cognitive, linguistic and psychological sciences. Though Littman and Malle have already been working together on human-robot interaction research for approximately three years, they secured continued support for the project from Provost Richard Locke P’17 in the summer of 2015 and officially launched HCRI in December, Malle said. “I was very taken by what seemed to be a distinctively Brown approach to robotics, which was to make it humancentric,” Locke said. “There are other major universities … that are investing heavily in robotics in a technical way, but the Brown program focuses on human problems.” Historically, because the advancement of computer technology has been largely experimental, effects on society have been both positive and negative, Littman said. As robotics becomes more popular, HCRI aims to apply the

technology to society in a beneficial way, he added. “There are many societal needs that are currently not met, and that will only get worse. For example, we have an aging population and high healthcare expenditures,” Malle said. “Is there a way to build robotics into the system of care — not to replace people, but to extend their reach?” Though robotics is commonly associated with fields like computer science and engineering, HCRI also involves experts from fields like philosophy and sociology. The initiative also focuses on research in ethics, policy and security, according to a University press release. “As a society, how do we feel about the possibility that if self-driving cars come about in the next decade or so, huge numbers of people would be out of work? How do we want these beings to enter our world and interact with us?” Littman said. The researchers are also attempting to deal with the challenge of building a moral robot, Malle said. “If you have robots that interact with humans — that increasingly become autonomous and make decisions — those robots need to know about social and moral norms,” Malle said. “Our goal is to study how the human moral system works and how this knowledge can be transferred to robots.” Danny Ullman GS joined Malle’s team in September and studies human-robot interaction from the angle of cognitive science. “My work focuses on how people perceive robots as agents, and how these perceptions affect human interactions with robots in social settings,” Ullman said. Since spring 2015, Tushar Bhargava ’17 has worked with Littman’s user -programming-of-devices group to increase accessibility to and research applications of the Internet of Things, a technology infrastructure that can connect devices such as lights to the Internet, which can then be controlled using a smartphone, he said. “Our group wants to find out how we can use the Internet of Things to make ‘smart homes,’ and what sort of good smart homes can do.” “This is something tangible that could possibly make a huge difference,” Bhargava said. “It’s a preview of the future of technology.”

Indigenous and Native American students felt that the neutral name of Fall Weekend swept the “terrible acts of genocide that (Columbus) directly took part in” under the rug, said Elizabeth Hoover, associate professor of American studies who identifies as Native American and worked with NAB during the campaign. “It doesn’t pay homage to the people that were here, and it just ignores that history,” she added. “It’s important to recognize the people on whose homeland your office is built,” Hoover said. The discussion to rename the holiday and to better recognize indigenous peoples was reopened after the Fall Weekend demonstrations planned by NAB last semester as well as the publication of two racist opinions columns by The Herald, Hoover said. The movement garnered support from Provost Richard Locke P’17, who has since worked towards creating a Native American and Indigenous Studies program, The Herald previously reported. The program will hopefully expand to become its own concentration, but currently boasts a new official website which lists courses regarding indigenous peoples taught by 19 different professors, Hoover said. During the open discussion period before the vote, some faculty members

proposed substituting Indigenous People’s Day for Victory in Japan Day— a day on the academic calendar which acknowledges the World War II atomic bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima — and keep Fall Weekend neutral. David Josephson, professor of music, said that the University fails to recognize contributions of other groups of people, such as Asian Americans, Jews and Christians with a calendar day. “I’m not sure that narrowing (the name) from a season to a specific group of people who make contributions to this University is reasonable,” he added. “The ramifications of renaming Fall Weekend to Indigenous People’s Day is immeasurable because it serves as an enduring expression and acknowledgement of the years of student activism and indigenous resistance since the founding of Brown University in 1764,” wrote Sierra Edd ’18, the Native American Heritage Series planner, and Kara Roanhorse ’18, NAB co-coordinator, in a statement to The Herald. Columbus Day was “historically seen as an ethnic holiday of inclusion” for Italian-Americans, said Mark Suchman, professor of sociology. “All the Indigenous People’s Days in the world aren’t going to make indigenous peoples feel welcomed and included (at) Brown,” he added. Instead of changing the name, Suchman advocated for “meaningful and substantive ways of dealing with diversity and inclusion on campus.”

But Locke offered a different perspective. “It’s not a zero-sum situation — we can recognize indigenous peoples without taking away from other ethnicities,” he said, noting his Italian-American heritage. J. Timmons Roberts, professor of environmental studies and sociology, told the story of a Navajo student in one of his classes who told him, “I don’t know if I belong at Brown,” following the Herald opinions columns controversy. He implored the faculty to see the “reasonable request” being made by students who feel unwelcome on campus. Hoover referenced the many members of the Brown community who would benefit from the name change. “Having an Indigenous People’s Day is not only a recognition of all those students who you walked past who have worked really hard and who want a place here, but also the alums who struggled through here, the people we are recruiting to come and teach here and the indigenous people who surround this University,” Hoover said. She received applause from the faculty upon adding that anyone who felt left out by the name change should start a campaign, as the NAB students did, to bring the motion to vote. “Though we have seen a victory today, Indigenous People’s Day on the campus calendar is not the end of indigenous students’ demands to the University,” Edd and Roanhorse wrote.

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NEWS

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

TODAY

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2016 • PAGE 5

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

t h e g r a s s i s a lway s g r e e n e r

SATELLITE DINING ANDREWS COMMONS

Pizzas: Honey Boo Boo, Mushroom’s Revenge, Sausage and Spicy Garlic JOSIAH’S

BLUE ROOM

Gourmet Grilled Cheese

Beef Chili, Vegetable Soup, Naked Burritos

DINING HALLS SHARPE REFECTORY LUNCH

DINNER

Shaved Steak Sandwich, Grilled Bok Choy, Mediterranean Potato Salad, Cream Cheese Brownies

Vegetarian Sweet-and-Sour Tofu, Roast Beef Au Jus, Baked Acorn Squash, Chocolate Cake

VERNEY-WOOLLEY LUNCH

DINNER

Italian Sausage and Pepper Sandwich, Sauteed Spinach with Garlic, Cream Cheese Brownies

Roast Pork Loin Jour Ouve, Honey Sesame Veggie Saute, Brazilian Chocolate Cake

sudoku MATTEO MOBILIO / HERALD

A student lounges on the Main Green, enjoying the unseasonably warm weather. The cloudless day offers plenty of sunlight shining through the iron fence onto green grass at the center of campus.

crossword

calendar TODAY

FEBRUARY

BRYTE Information Session 9:00 P.M. Smith-Buonanno, Room 201

Spring Semester KickOff 12:00 P.M. J. Walter Wilson, Third Floor

JCB Talk by Alcira Dueñas 12:00 P.M. Faculty Club

Student Office Hours with President Paxson 3:30 P.M. University Hall

TOMORROW

Biomedical Engineering Seminar 9:00 A.M. Barus and Holley, Room 190

Free Screening of Citizenfour 6:00 P.M. Smith-Buonanno, Room 106

10th Annual Alpert Medical School Concert 7:00 P.M. Granoff Center, Martinos Auditorium

Stuff Not to Microwave at Tech House 8:00 P.M. Harkness House

COMMENTARY PAGE 6 • WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2016

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

EDITORIAL

Politics off campus The relationship between campus politics and those on the national stage is often opaque and murky. Student protests and public policy may not be as integrated as activists hope, but neither are they as separate as those in Washington may believe. Student activism, shifts in administrative and educational policy and the rise of Donald Trump and grassroots conservatism are all inextricably linked in a complex — if not causal — network of power, identity and discourse. Two days after the Iowa caucuses officially began the presidential primary season, it remains critical for students to continue to look both beyond and within the borders of Brown, balancing the campus community with the national stage. The problem facing Brown students is two-fold: to remain involved in the election cycle in spite of the time required for classes, schoolwork and campus activities, and — with greater difficulty — to be able to look at and examine the election past the general lens of the campus. That is, students have to determine how much they want Brown’s campus climate to influence their knowledge and understanding of the current presidential race — whether to see the election from the perspective of a student at the University versus the more general perspective of a citizen or resident of the United States. It is a difficult balance to strike: Focusing too much on national politics can lead students to ignore any tension and injustice on campus, while caring solely about events at Brown can often skew the perception of national trends and can lead to forgetting the very real effect that broader policies can have on campus. It gestures, in many ways, to the conflicted link between the politics of the everyday and the politics of the state and the necessity of recognizing the power of both planes. There is an inclination toward solipsism at most colleges — toward forgetting the existence of actions and opinions beyond the classroom. For the most part, this self-involvement poses no problem to either students or the general political discourse and can often lead to ideas and insights that could not be made by those accustomed to the noise of national conversation. But, as the presidential election begins and the nation is presented with radically different futures and leaders, we urge students to also try to approach the news cycle beyond Brown’s frame of reference. Not only will doing so help students better understand current events at Brown by putting them in the context of outside life, but it will also remind us that “student” is just one of the many identities each of us has.

I VA N A L C A N TA R A

CORRECTION An op-ed in Tuesday’s Herald (“Faculty support for the Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan,” Feb. 2) cited the author as Matthew Guterl, professor of Africana studies and chair of American studies. In fact, the op-ed was written collaboratively among the faculty members who signed the letter. The Herald regrets the error.

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

“If you can see yourself in your country’s past, you can better see yourself in your country’s future.”

Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board: its editors, Emma Axelrod ’18 and Emma Jerzyk ’17, and its members, Eben Blake ’17, Aranshi Kumar ’17 and Leeron Lempel ’19. Send comments to editorials@ browndailyherald.com.

— Mark Santow, member of the Providence School Board

See ethnic studies on page 2.

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COMMENTARY WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2016 • PAGE 7

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Redefining the ‘usefulness’ of courses at Brown SAMANTHA SAVELLO staff columnist

You’re only a few days into shopping period, and you’re already tired. Your bag is overflowing with crumpled syllabi, your Banner course scheduler is an unnerving shade of red for almost every day of the week, and you can’t keep track of how many override codes you’ve requested. Clearly, you need to start making decisions about your schedule — but how? In order to make the most of our Ivy League educations, as Brown students we tend to take courses that are pertinent to our majors or interests, striving to learn material that is intellectually stimulating and practical for the future. In short, we want classes that are useful. But what happens when the courses don’t seem as stereotypically “useful” as we want them to be? No one wants to get stuck in a

class that they view as useless in the long run. Considering what a privilege it is to attend Brown, it seems silly to waste time taking a class that won’t benefit your future goals. As a result, students often feel stressed and pressured to choose classes that are directly applicable to their futures, whether that means taking a concentration requirement that brings them one step closer to graduation or en-

ful is: “able to be used for a practical purpose or in several ways,” which doesn’t necessarily speak to a specific application. From this more general perspective, a useful class is any course that helps you build and acquire skills. While the commonly defined “hard skills” (math, economics, finance, etc.) that often come to mind when thinking of practicality are rel-

Nonetheless, some students tend to shy away from courses in the humanities and often overlook them — even if they seem interesting — because the content of the courses seems less relevant. Truthfully, some of the course titles in the English department have scared me away at times. (What tangible skills do I get out of a class entitled “How poems see?”) But looking at the bigger pic-

Every course can be useful in its own way, whether it offers a direct application to your career or enhances your analysis and problem-solving skills. rolling in an economics class that teaches finance skills. In this sense, a class is useful because it leads to subsequent advancements in life. But this logic also brings to light an important question: What exactly does it mean for a course to be “useful?” According to the Oxford Dictionary, the standard definition of use-

evant, they are certainly not the only useful skills out there. Humanities courses that focus on critical thinking and analytical inquiry help students develop versatile skills that are applicable to a variety of occupations and areas of interest, rather than providing a straightforward skill bank directed at a specific field.

ture, you actually gain useful skills regardless of course content because of the rigorous research, writing and critical thought that goes into the class. That’s not to say you should ditch classes that focus on so-called “hard skills” or courses that fulfill your concentration requirements in order to

focus on the liberal arts. (You definitely need to fulfill your major requirements in order to graduate…) Those classes are extremely necessary and “useful” in regard to your future plans. But if you avoid taking anything that doesn’t fit under the typical definition of “usefulness,” it’s important to reconsider what that word really means to you. After all, every course can be useful in its own way, whether it offers a direct application to your career or enhances your analysis and problem-solving skills. Brown’s open curriculum offers academic freedom and mobility, giving us the opportunity to explore new areas of interest whenever we please rather than forcing dreaded “gen ed” requirements down our throats. It’s important that we don’t let a rigid concept of “usefulness” impede upon this chance to explore and gain adaptable, multifaceted skills.

Samantha Savello ’18 can be reached at samanatha_savello@ brown.edu.

iChange the world CLARE STEINMAN staff columnist

While working for a political campaign over winter break, I was asked to research the young innovators that make up this year’s Forbes 30 Under 30 winners. The selection lists 600 of “the brightest young entrepreneurs, breakout talents and change agents” in 20 fields, from finance to Hollywood. A few of the names were familiar, like Selena Gomez and Fetty Wap. The rest blended into an anonymous pool of excellence brimming with Goldman Sachs vice presidents and tech-startup dropouts with energetic Twitter bios. Everything about each of them — from the dorm room origin story to the polished, confident headshot — exuded grit, hustle and a sense of purpose that we associate with success in a tumultuous economy. It’s a fascinating cross-section of talented young people and their accomplishments. But what caught my attention most was the graphic at the bottom of the page that examined the honorees’ values. When asked “Why did you decide to be an entrepreneur?” 64 percent of the honorees replied that they wanted to change the world. Only 1 percent — or roughly six people — said that they wanted to get rich, and only 2 percent defined success as achieving wealth and power. These answers surprised me. On one hand, they paint a hopeful and flattering portrait of the so-called millennials as young idealists who devote their lives to making the world a

better place. It’s encouraging and comes with the promise of a future in which leaders and policymakers put aside self-interest and work towards the common good. Right? I’m not sure. The threshold for “changing the world” has been lowered; the formerly disruptive is becoming downright traditional. Millennials are noted for their desire to shift paradigms and create disruption, but an underlying paradox arises when the idea of fundamental change becomes mainstream. Young people increasingly aspire to follow a generationally defined revolutionary path: graduate

and we disrupt, but to what end? The designer Dan Saffer once criticized so-called “innovation for innovation’s sake” as leading to “purple ketchup and Crystal Pepsi — products that no one needs and few actually desire.” Similarly, we don’t need another barrage of apps aspiring to be the Uber for gas stations or shopping. The entrepreneurial spirit may be alive, but it has lost its direction. If we, as millennials, want to change the world, we’re doing it wrong. If change were as formulaic as the national conversation would have us believe, we’d all be college dropouts

The threshold for “changing the world” has been lowered; the formerly disruptive is becoming downright traditional.

college (or drop out), start a business, change the world. The unconventional becomes inevitably, irrevocably conventional. According to one survey conducted by the Kauffman Foundation in 2011, over half of millennials want to start their own businesses. A separate survey by Buzz Marketing Group found that 33 percent of 18-29-year-olds had actually launched side businesses. Our generation notoriously values independence and distrusts systems; as a result, the phenomenon of going it alone rather than working for a bank or corporation right out of college makes sense. We hustle, we hack

working out of garages and solving the world’s issues one by one. But I have a feeling that the manifestation of our fierce independence might actually be working against us. If coming together brings change, then the scattering of institutions and the desire to disrupt systems might well lead to stagnation. There is good reason for our distrust: Institutions can oppress, exclude and be slow to change. There is no doubt that the urgent complaints of marginalized populations need to be heard and amplified. But a generation that eschews coming together to contribute to systems that support

and enhance the world will get very little done without a unified purpose. There is hope: Hundreds of young people on the 30 Under 30 list and millions more around the world are making real change, improving lives through activism, art and grassroots organizations. Thanks to social media and the associated increase in connectivity, it is easier now than ever before to effect social change or launch a political movement. But apps and hashtags will never be enough, and paradigm shifts don’t happen on a screen. Mass-produced movements only serve to water down ideals. When grassroots movements manage to translate their momentum onto the streets, they impact the national conversation; when they don’t, they disappear into the noise.(remember Kony 2012?) The face of activism may be evolving, but real change is still an offline, physical phenomenon that brings together wide swaths of the population for a common purpose. Right now, according to the Washington Post, there are only two institutions that a majority of millennials trust: the military and scientists. That’s a clear sign of a society in crisis. But to create positive change, the solution is not to disperse and disrupt, but to unite and rebuild. With unprecedented tools of connection, our generation is uniquely empowered to regroup, organize and take advantage of the power of numbers to create inclusive social change.

Clare Steinman ’19 hopes to someday make the Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list and can be reached at clare_steinman@brown.edu.

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NEWS THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2016

No Country for Women breaks rape culture barriers Organization founded by alums focuses on ending gender-based violence, discrimination in India By KASTURI PANANJADY SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Sixteen months ago, Shreena Thakore ’17.5 was about to embark on what she thought would be a semester-long project conducting gender discrimination workshops in India. Since then, she has traveled to over 70 schools and colleges across the country, creating dialogue with students about gender policing, sex and sexuality. Co-founded by Thakore and Ria Vaidya ’16, No Country for Women was born out of a desire to help people understand how they subconsciously contribute to rape culture, Thakore said. She identified the misinformed and patriarchal public debate that surrounded the 2012 Delhi gang rape as a catalyst for their campaign. The muted academic discourse conducted in leading Indian universities still did not address the problems adequately, Thakore said. “Students (in India) understood the world around them through Anglocentric theory,” Thakore said, describing the practice as a “disservice.” For example, some aspects of Western critical theory — such as intersectionality — did not translate well into a societally rigid and often stratified Indian context, Thakore said. “We wanted to produce gender and sexuality theory in India, for India,” she said. Strong beginnings In 2014, the pair received a Projects for Peace fellowship administered by the Davis Foundation to help further develop their ideas. Thakore and Vaidya founded No Country for Women in the summer of 2014 and began working with schools in Vaidya’s hometown of Bangalore, India. Within a few months, a video of one of the sessions they conducted went viral, Thakore said, and they received offers to work with more schools and colleges in Bangalore with

both students and teachers. In the winter of 2014, Vaidya received the Social Innovation Fellowship from Brown and the J.W. Saxe Memorial Fund. Vaidya also raised money through Indiegogo, a crowdfunding website. No Country for Women raised $30,000 in total, and most colleges offered to pay for transportation costs as well. “$30,000 goes a long way in India,” Thakore said, who made the decision to take time off from Brown to further develop No Country for Women. No Country for Women is staffed mostly by college volunteers who are offered paid stipends amounting to 20,000 rupees, or just under $300, per month. “Hiring full-time professionals on this type of salary isn’t going to give you very good professionals,” Thakore said. “But hiring college students on this kind of salary gets you very good college students.” Thakore estimated that No Country for Women works with three volunteers per college and around five colleges per month.

Making connections Thakore and Vaidya began developing their workshop material based on their own childhood conditioning and teenage feminist awakenings, Thakore said. They drew heavily on their own experiences growing up in Indian households and on Indian popular culture, she added. For example, Indian audiences were able to relate well to the examination of the the male gaze and sexual liberation as presented in certain Bollywood videos. Thakore consciously tried to avoid presenting herself as a U.S.-educated, self-styled savior who was out of touch with the realities of living as a woman in India, she said. In an effort to break down potential barriers, she lost all traces of the American accent she had acquired while studying at Brown. Despite making that compromise, Thakore did not shy away from making a “political statement” with her appearance and behavior, she said. She described dressing in short skirts, crop tops, swearing and being physically affectionate with her co-presenters. “If we did nothing else, we left them

with that image,” she said.

‘Undoing Gender’ A particular challenge with conducting workshops that raised the issue of gender-discrimination was trying to develop solutions for difficult situations with audience members, Thakore said. One way Thakore attempted to get past this pressure to come up with solutions was by partnering with the Poetry Club in Mumbai in a day-long, workshop-based poetry event called “Undoing Gender.” “Poetry allows you to talk about issues without being accusatory or prescriptive because it’s so personal,” said Thrupthi Shetty, a coordinator of the event. While the workshop had been interesting, the nature of the event meant that it self-selected an audience already sensitive and receptive to their ideas of gender non-conformity, Thakore said. Thakore said she believes there is a greater need to have this conversation with high school students in India. “Many never talk about sex beyond a seventh (grade) biology chapter or a talk of menstruation,” she added. Educational institutions command a great deal of respect in Indian culture, she added, saying that she felt work done in schools would percolate through to the rest of society. ‘More than getting degrees’ Sai Prakash Venkata Pilla, an engineering student from the Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management-Jabalpur, agreed with the perceived stigma surrounding sex. “Initiatives like this are necessary in colleges,” he said. “Education should be more than getting degrees. (It) should help you develop your identity.” Venkata Pilla invited No Country for Women to conduct what would be Thakore’s final workshop before she began her spring semester, Thakore said. A statistic that resonates strongly with students is that most reported rape data in India is inaccurate and mostly deals with statutory rape or “promise to marry” cases, Thakore said. Rape within a marriage, male sexual assault, “corrective rape” of LGBTQ+ individuals and

COURTESY OF SHREENA THAKORE

Shreena Thakore ’17.5 (left) and Ria Vaidya ’16 (right) conduct one of their workshops on gender equality, aiming to engage students across India. rape in “disturbed areas,” or conflict zones, are often not recognized as rape by law, she added. Having brought such issues to the spotlight, Thakore never considered turning her focus to pressing for legislative change. “Nothing is going to change if suddenly tomorrow marital rape in India becomes illegal,” Thakore said. Her objective was to change attitudes toward gender equality at a grassroots level in the hope that legislative change would be a natural, if indirect, progression of her work, she added. Thakore’s work has already started making waves. Venkata Pilla said that since the No Country for Women campaign, there has been a greater student push to abolish a 10:30 p.m. curfew in the women’s hostels on the Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management-Jabalpur campus. A matter of class No Country for Women is unique in its refusal to make rape and gender discrimination into a class issue, Thakore said. “A lot of groups working with any kind of social injustice in India start with the lower class — these autorickshaw drivers or those villagers are the problem,” Thakore said. She pointed to a video made by the actress Alia Bhatt as part of a recent Vogue Empower campaign in India as further evidence of this class bias. In the

video, an upper class girl’s car breaks down in the middle of the street just outside Delhi as a truck pulls up with a large group of men speaking a dialect associated with the impoverished state of Haryana. “Would you have thought of rape immediately if a Delhi boy with an Audi had pulled up next to her instead?” Thakore asked. Thakore was invited by the creators of the Vogue Empower campaign to watch a special screening of their videos in the National Center for Performing Arts in Mumbai. The event featured numerous policemen as guests, all of whom were seated separately from the crew of wealthy Mumbai socialites who were discussing the perpetuators of gender inequality in terms of “they” and “them,” she said. “We need to see that we all contribute to the problem,” Thakore said. No Country for Women plans to conduct similar workshops with volunteers at Teach for India, Thakore said. The workshops will be managed by her co-presenter and Managing Director Anushka Jadhav. Thakore’s role this semester will be more hands-off. While she retains her post as executive director of No Country for Women, she plans to focus on completing her courses at Brown and beginning an internship in the summer at Google. Thakore will also be giving a TED talk at Harvard later this semester on No Country for Women.

Reynolds ’68 discusses ‘Hope: a School, a Team, a Dream’ Providence Journal columnist offers glimpse into lives of Hope High School basketball players By HANA PARK STAFF WRITER

Providence Journal sports columnist Bill Reynolds ’68 was featured at the Brown Bookstore Tuesday to showcase his novel “Hope: a School, a Team, a Dream,” based on the troubled basketball team at Hope High School, just two minutes away from Brown’s campus. Reynolds said he was inspired by the “the kids the country does not have the answer for.” Compelled by the high school’s distance from Brown, he added that he understood that there was a story and hoped to learn more about the team as a “fly on the wall.” Following the athletes from basketball practices to games, Reynolds became a constant presence, observing team dynamics

and learning about the players’ backgrounds. While recalling the turbulent lives of the players — for whom lunch was inaccessible and parental support absent — Reynolds was asked what he thought society should do for these kids. The author said that acknowledgment is critical, naming the simple deed of acting on his curiosity about the inner walls of Hope High School as important. “Recognize these kids and recognize the pressures they have every single day,” he said. “It’s about asking: Who are these kids? What are their futures? What are their lives like? These are the questions society does not want to answer.” A key feature of the event was the arrival of Johnson Leah, a former Hope High School player. He spoke about his experiences settling in the U.S. from Liberia and having the team as an “extra family.” Leah also said he was among the members of the team that went to college.

LILLY NGUYEN/ HERALD

Bill Reynolds ’68 speaks on his novel, “Hope: a School, a Team, a Dream” at the Brown Bookstore. He urged audience members to acknowledge the struggles of “the kids the country does not have the answer for.” The event attracted a mixture of longtime fans and Brown studentathletes. On what she expects from “Hope,” Vera Wayne ’65 P’88 P’92 said, “I expect to hear more of his typical wisdom about the world that transcends his

reporting on athletes.” Travis Fuller ’19, a member of the men’s basketball team, said, “He’s a great writer, and I’m really looking forward to reading this book.” Despite the book’s serious nature, there were a few moments of levity

during the event. Asked why Hope High School was chosen as the focus out of the schools in close proximity to Brown, he said, “Well, the name makes for a great title. You can’t imagine it being named Mount Pleasant.”