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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2016
VOLUME CLI, ISSUE 17
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Lecture Board names Viola Davis speaker
Emmy-winning Rhode Island native outspoken on issues facing women, people of color in media By ISABEL GENSLER CONTRIBUTING WRITER
ALEXIA DELHOUME / HERALD
Students for Justice in Palestine protested the Jewish Journeys event featuring Michael Douglas and Natan Sharansky earlier this month. Many involved with campus activism encounter mental, emotional and physical stress while trying to balance their academic and activist responsibilities.
Schoolwork, advocacy place strain on student activists Students struggle with mental health, academic pressures as they act on social justice responsibilities By MEI NOVAK SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Two weeks ago, the University released the final version of its diversity and inclusion action plan, which could not have been compiled without the exhaustive efforts of students throughout last semester.
“There are people breaking down, dropping out of classes and failing classes because of the activism work they are taking on,” said David, an undergraduate whose name has been changed to preserve anonymity. Throughout the year, he has worked to confront issues of racism and diversity on campus.
His role as a student activist has taken a toll on his mental, physical and emotional health. “My grades dropped dramatically. My health completely changed. I lost weight. I’m on antidepressants and anti-anxiety pills right now. (Counseling and Psychological Services) counselors called me. I had deans calling me to make sure I was okay,” he said. As students rallied to protest two racist columns published by The Herald
and the alleged assault of a Latinx student from Dartmouth by a Department of Public Safety officer, David spent numerous hours organizing demonstrations with fellow activists. Meanwhile, he struggled to balance his classes, job and social life with the activism to which he feels so dedicated. Stressors and triggers flooded his life constantly, he said. David turned to CAPS and reached » See ACTIVISTS, page 2
Emmy Award-winning actress Viola Davis will speak at the University Feb. 29, representatives of the Brown Lecture Board told The Herald. “She did very well in the speaker poll,” said Allie Schaefer ’17, vice president of campus relations for Lecture Board, adding that “we knew there was a lot of student interest in bringing her to campus.” Davis was the first black woman to win the Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her role as Annalise Keating in “How to Get Away with Murder.” She is also well known for her Oscar-nominated performance as Aibileen Clark in “The Help.” Davis attended the Julliard School for four years after graduating from Rhode Island College in 1988 with a major in theatre. Her 19-year acting career started with her role as an extra on the set of “The Substance of Fire” and took off after she » See DAVIS, page 3
Granoff Center celebrates fifth anniversary Panelists discuss Programs foster normalization of racism interdisciplinary Speakers discuss “common sense” racism normalized in society by ideology, policies, stereotypes By ROSE SHEEHAN STAFF WRITER
As part of the “How Structural Racism Works” lecture series, faculty members participated in a round-table discussion about the normalization of structural racism and the ways in which it manifests itself Wednesday night. Organized by Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America and Professor of Africana Studies Tricia Rose, the event attracted an audience of over 200 students, staff and Providence community members. “Our goal is to present different perspectives on what structural racism is,” said Margaret Weir, professor of political science and international and public affairs. Structural racism is reinforced both by ideological beliefs and by policy,
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she added. The series was launched in fall 2015 with a lecture by Rose that served as an introduction to her research on the concept of structural racism. The series invites student engagement and is intended to facilitate campus-wide conversation, said Provost Richard Locke P’17. The round-table discussion featured four speakers: Weir, Director of the Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice Anthony Bogues, Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow Yalidy Matos and Postdoctoral Fellow Jordan Camp. Weir, who is currently writing a book on metropolitan racial barriers, argued that coded language disguises inequality in everything from public transportation to access to libraries and clean water. Bogues expressed similar sentiments. “The structures of racist society still operate even if they do not use the same language of Jim Crow racism,” he said. “Common sense” racism is more subtle and has become normalized and unnoticeable, he added. » See DISCUSSION, page 2
collaboration, attract students of many interests By JACLYN TORRES ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR
The Granoff Center for the Creative Arts will celebrate its fifth anniversary Friday with a party that fits its age — a toddler’s birthday party, full of candy and youthful decorations. While the building is young, the vision and achievements of the center are concrete. The Granoff Center’s glass walls facilitate collaboration and transparency both literally and metaphorically. Those involved with the center emphasized the interdisciplinary work and strong sense of community. “Studio(s) 1 and 2 have a glass wall in between them. Students in each room can look in and see what the others are doing. It’s a really collaborative concept,” said Isabela Muci
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COURTESY OF BROWN UNIVERSITY
The Granoff Center for the Creative Arts will celebrate its fifth anniversary Friday with a party featuring candy and colorful decorations. ’16, co-chair of the Student Creative Arts Council. “The faculty are pleased with what they’ve been able to do here,” said
Chira DelSesto, assistant director of the Granoff Center. “Students have found a home of kindred spirits.” » See GRANOFF, page 2
WEATHER
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2016
NEWS Identity centers reps discuss Diversity, Inclusion Action Plan, resources for students with UCS
NEWS Student suffers fractures in RIPTA bus crash after driver becomes incapacitated during trip
ARTS & CULTURE Stamp collection exhibit at John Hay Library to serve as educational resource
COMMENTARY Rowland ’17: College bubble makes time feel slow, but outside world keeps turning
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» ACTIVISTS, from page 1 out to deans for notes that extended his deadlines for assignments. These were helpful, he said, but acted only as “bandages” for the underlying causes of stress. Justice Gaines ’16, who uses the pronouns xe, xem and xyr, said student activism efforts on campus are necessary. “I don’t feel okay with seeing students go through hardships without helping and organizing to make things better.” In the wake of The Herald’s opinion pieces, Gaines felt overwhelmed by emotions flooding across campus. Students were called out of class into organizing meetings, and xe felt pressure to help xyr peers cope with what was going on, xe said. Gaines “had a panic attack and couldn’t go to class for several days.” Deans’ notes helped Gaines to complete academic work while staying
» GRANOFF, from page 1 “There has been successful collaboration between faculty and students from diverse departments,” said Richard Fishman, professor of visual art and former director of the Creative Arts Council. “New ideas are constantly generated.” More than creating this shared vision of collaboration, the Granoff Center has achieved its original plans and purpose. The center has accomplished its three initial goals — to imagine a new direction for teaching, to conduct research related to teaching and to bring in visiting artists, Fishman said. In the five years of the Center’s existence, university professors have had the autonomy to teach interdisciplinary courses with a multimedia or artistic component. DelSesto explained that Associate Professor of Biology Casey Dunn taught two courses last semester in the Granoff Center. In one course, he asked his students to create creature casts: short animations for diverse biological concepts. She added that the building itself is more “presentation-based,” equipped with a recording studio, a multimedia lab, an interface media lab, a sound
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involved in student activism. In writing such notes, deans acknowledge the difficulties faced by a student on campus and demonstrate their support for the student’s requests, said Ashley Ferranti, assistant dean of student support services. Though it is ultimately up to a faculty member to accept a dean’s note, Ferranti estimated that notes are accepted over 90 percent of the time. Students who take issue with the rejection of a note can discuss the incident with a dean, Ferranti added. While notes are helpful, they should be “more accessible” and “more serious, so that professors will be more inclined to follow them,” Gaines said. Some students very active in organizing and protesting end up in academic trouble, Ferranti said. When faced with the decision of completing activist work or studying for an exam, students sometimes feel
obligated to choose the former, said Liliana Sampedro ’18. This choice, often made by students advocating for increased diversity on campus, “has systemic effects on students of color,” she added. Sampedro worked alongside the group that presented the demands for the diversity and inclusion action plan’s revision. It was a Thursday, she recalled, and she had a research presentation that needed to be completed that week. “I remember emailing the professor and begging her to put things off another week,” she said. The professor denied her request. “I hadn’t eaten. I hadn’t slept. I was exhausted, physically and emotionally,” she said. After hours of work to compile and present the demands, she forced herself to stay up to complete the project anyway. Other students have also seen their academic work impacted by
their efforts to advance social justice causes. This past semester, David spent class time on his activist work in order to address a time-sensitive issue. As a result, one of David’s professors lowered his grade because he was distracted in class, he said. Sampedro was also on the committee that planned workshops for the Latinx Ivy League Conference, including Paxson’s presentation to students following the assault by a DPS officer on a student earlier that weekend. “I remember seeing all the tears in the room — that was traumatizing — and then not being able to focus on my homework,” she said. “Homework was the least of my worries.” Despite the hardships that students take on in their activism, the University does not want to discourage them from contributing to change on campus. This work is an “important part of the academic learning experience,”
Ferranti said. She was present at the Brown/RISD Hillel-sponsored lecture that was protested by Students for Justice in Palestine earlier this semester, offering academic and emotional support for the protestors. The University sends deans to activism events not only to monitor students but also to offer support for those involved. “For example, if a student is at a sexual assault event, and the student is a victim him or herself, that student might talk to me about it,” Ferranti said. Students “might be impacted, something might be triggered or they might suddenly remember more at that event they were protesting,” she added. Ferranti said she is “proud to work in a place where students come together over important social issues.” As administrators, “we are not just looking at protocols, we’re also thinking about what this means to the students who are there,” she added.
booth, 3D printers and workplaces. “The building has strong technology and will gain more historical importance with time,” Muci said. “The technology is impressive and draws a science public. I just learned the building has an Oculus Rift.” The party Friday celebrates the success of the Granoff “grand experiment,” DelSesto said. Student-curated art, contributed by the SCAC, will also be present at the party. “We are curating a small show of Granoff ’s permanent work,” said Jake Brodsky ’16, co-chair of the SCAC. The small show will include photographs, canvas, woodwork and prints. “We are also hoping to include some video work,” Muci said. The fifth anniversary of the Granoff Center also celebrates its potential growth and hopes for the future. “The program is always meant to evolve and change,” Fishman said. DelSesto, Muci and Brodsky all stressed a need for the larger student body to understand the purpose of the Granoff Center. “What is important now is to reintroduce Granoff to all students, creative artists and creative thinkers. Everybody should know Granoff is a place for them,” DelSesto said.
“The hope is to have more people know about it. All it takes is for people to get into the building,” Brodsky said. While there is still potential for increased intellectual diversity and growth, the Granoff Center has already embedded multiplicity into its mission. Fishman explained that when the SCAC was formed 12 years ago, it was composed of faculty in the arts departments as well as alums, parents, students and members of the community. The council wanted to grant importance to all art — music, band, theater and creative writing. Since its formation, the interdisciplinary interest has increased. The SCAC has members of “a lot of different majors — history, (economics), art and (modern culture and media),” Brodsky said. Beyond its academic range, the center is a place of innovation and connection. “We regularly do an event called ‘Triangles,’ which is a series of three lectures by students” after which they try to connect the topics, Muci said. “It’s remarkable.” All those involved agree the future looks bright for the Granoff Center. “The spirit of collaboration will continue and renew itself,” Fishman said.
» DISCUSSION, from page 1
intellectual lens,” said attendee Sienna Giraldi ’18, adding that she recognized the importance of educating diverse communities. The upcoming lectures in the series will feature scholars from outside of the University. They will focus on five areas in which structural racism is evident: education, wealth and employment, housing, criminal justice and mass media, Rose said. “We will try to make sure that each event addresses various intersections … we won’t just talk about housing — we’ll connect housing to families, to inheritance, to education and we’ll connect wealth to education and other issues,” Rose said. “Our goal here is to look at how these areas work in relation to each other.” Locke also emphasized the role that student engagement will likely play in the remainder of the series, referencing research and video projects as opportunities for students to get involved in the initiative. Rose said the series dovetails with the recently released Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan. The plan and the series share “the same goals: to have a diverse group of excellent researchers talk about critical issues that might be impediments related to diversity and inclusion,” she said.
This point resonated with an audience member, Jack Saltzman ’18, who said he has noticed that many of his peers believe themselves to be “above the problem” of racism. “‘Common sense’ racism has become so ingrained in the way we interact” that it can go undetected,” he said. The discussion members also touched on the role of cultural stereotypes in reinforcing structural racism. Matos emphasized the association of Mexican immigrants and black Americans living in urban areas with disorder and crime in the American consciousness. “Race plays a role in where we see border patrol agents, where we see control of bodies,” she said. “The racial order is articulated as law and order,” Camp said. The conversation turned to the sensitive nature of discussions about structural racism in a multi-racial community during the question-and-answer component of the event. To “separate (structural racism) from personal intent and malice … is going to be really crucial,” Rose said. “We’re all responsible for creating the world we want to create.” “As a white student, my touchstone to American racism is through an
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UCS, center directors discuss diversity action efforts BCSC, Sarah Doyle Women’s Center, LGBTQ Center leaders detail broad goals, specific plans By MATTHEW JARRELL STAFF WRITER
The directors of three University resource centers emphasized the importance of creating safe spaces for a diverse student body in a meeting of the Undergraduate Council of Students Wednesday. Brown Center for Students of Color Interim Director Joshua Segui, Sarah Doyle Women’s Center Director Gail Cohee and LGBTQ Center Director Kelly Garrett briefed general body members on the respective roles of their spaces, introducing their missions and updating the members on current projects. “How does an institution include people who have been historically excluded?” Segui asked the group. The BCSC, he added, is a place where minority students can exist within the “complicated space” of the University. All three directors spoke of a need for increased manpower and resources
in serving their students. Segui highlighted the new Social Justice Peer Educators program that is designed to take some of the burden from Minority Peer Counselors, who have historically acted as the driving force behind diversity education programming across the board. The educators were “a response to the need (for more resources) and to the fact that so much was being asked of the MPCs,” Segui said. “Out of the three centers, the need is greatest at the LGBTQ Center,” Cohee said, noting that Garrett is the only full-time professional there. “All of us could use more programming help,” she added. Collaboration among the three centers is widespread and important, Cohee said. “We are a united front, and we do everything together.” The Women’s Center also focuses on more than simply gender identity, she added. “We try to make it clear to people that they don’t need to leave any of their identities at the door,” she said. Garrett noted the push to increase the number of gender-inclusive bathrooms on campus as a primary focus of the LGBTQ Center. A current special
ASHLEY SO / HERALD
Leaders of three major identity-focused centers identified the importance of investing resources in more programming to support students of various marginalized identities. project of the center is a survey to as- use a different name than the one given said. “Just because you’re a person of sess the opinions of the community on to them at birth, is also in the works, color doesn’t mean you’re not racist. a redesigned sign for gender-inclusive Garrett added. Just because you’re a woman doesn’t bathrooms, she said. Increasing consciousness of one’s mean you’re not sexist,” he said. “We’re A new identity management system, position in the University is a key part all socialized in the same ways, and we with an eye towards trans* students who of the work of all three centers, Segui all need to be self-reflective.”
Student injured in RIPTA bus crash Bus driver’s incapacitation results in crash as student onboard sustains injury from attempt to hit brake By JULIA CHOI STAFF WRITER
COURTESY OF BROWN LECTURE BOARD
Emmy-winning actress Viola Davis will speak at the Lecture Board event later this month. She is an outspoken advocate for minorities in media.
»DAVIS, from page 1 won a Tony Award and a Drama Desk Award in 2001 for her role as Tonya in “King Hedley II.” The Rhode Island native is also known for bringing to light issues facing women and people of color in the entertainment industry. “You cannot win an Emmy for roles that are simply not there,” Davis said in
her September 2015 Emmy acceptance speech, pointing out the lack of opportunity for actresses of color. “We thought she could provide a really important perspective to campus,” Schaefer said, noting that Davis would address “issues of intersectionality in the media.” Davis will speak in Salomon 101 Feb. 29 at 7 p.m. Tickets will be available via online lottery held at 12 p.m. Feb. 24-26.
A Rhode Island Public Transit Authority bus crashed into a building on Post Road in Warwick Jan. 25. Will Adams ’16, who was aboard the bus, suffered serious injuries and has been recovering at an in-patient rehabilitation clinic in Providence. According to RIPTA’s accident summary — provided to The Herald by Barbara Polichetti, director of public affairs for RIPTA — the bus struck a telephone pole and traveled 1,000 feet north before ramming into a commercial building at 7:08 p.m. According to the summary, Warwick police said the bus driver may have suffered a medical problem prior to the crash, but due to health privacy laws, no further details
could be provided. Adams, who had been traveling back to Brown after winter break, suspected that the driver was unwell. He “made some loud noises, like grunts,” Adams said. Adams saw the windshield had been broken and walked to the front of the bus to “see what was going on.” He saw that though the driver’s eyes were open, he was unconscious. “He couldn’t move the steering wheel,” Adams said. Adams was looking for the brake at the moment the bus crashed. After the impact, he remained trapped in the bus for an hour and 15 minutes and was injured along with the driver and a fellow passenger. He suffered multiple fractures, underwent surgery and has been completing three hours of physical therapy daily since the accident, he said. Due to his injuries, Adams has missed the past three weeks of classes, but he said the University has been extremely accommodating.
“Professors have been really nice,” he said. Adams has Skyped into one of his classes twice and has been able to submit a few writing assignments through email. Though the experience was disruptive for Adams, he said it “hasn’t been completely negative.” Now, he has newfound respect for firefighters and nurses. When his “legs were stuck under … metal and materials from the bus and the dashboard,” Adams “got to see (firefighters) being heroes” as they dug him out of the wreckage. He added that he has had “passionate, kind and caring nurses” at the rehabilitation clinic and is “overwhelmed and inspired” by their work. “I got to see people being heroes — what that takes and what that looks like,” he said. He added that this experience has empowered him, as he “was able to make it through” the hazardous accident. “I’ve seen a lot of things that I never thought I’d experience,” Adams said. “It was surreal.”
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Paul LaFarge presents upcoming book Historical novel examines lives, friendship of H.P. Lovecraft, R. H. Barlow over 80-year span By HATTIE XU STAFF WRITER
Facing an intimate audience of about 30 students, alums and fellow novelists, author Paul LaFarge gave a talk on H. P. Lovecraft and R. H. Barlow’s lives Wednesday at the McCormack Family Theatre. LaFarge, who has earned critical acclaim for his novels “The Artist of the Missing,” “Haussmann, or the Distinction” and “The Facts of Winter,” introduced his work in progress, a novel titled “The Night Ocean” that centers on the lives and friendship of Barlow and Lovecraft. As LaFarge read a passage from “The Night Ocean,” his voice became heavier. Some members of the audience leaned forward in their seats, eyes fixated on the author, while others sat back in their chairs and closed their eyes, as if letting the language flow through them. The audience occasionally chuckled at the humor-studded passage as they absorbed the descriptive writing. “It’s so hard to love the world,” Barlow muses in “The Night Ocean.” Another character replies that “After all, there’s nothing especially lovable about the billowing collection of atoms, spiraling around in compliance with
laws that have nothing to do with us.” “The Night Ocean” focuses on themes of love and hoaxes. It employs an intricate structure — though the central figure is Barlow, the timeline of the novel spans 80 years, from 1934 to 2014. The novel is inspired by both Lovecraft and Barlow themselves and their relationship. LaFarge noted that there is a “notorious blank spot in the history record” because little is certain about the depth of the relationship between the two writers. Though “I won’t excuse Lovecraft’s racism, his beliefs — for all their wild hatefulness — seemed very much like the beliefs of a person who felt himself unable to live and who resented and feared all the people he saw around him,” LaFarge said. “But even though (Barlow’s) life was infinitely more full than Lovecraft’s, Barlow suffered from … the fear that even though you inhabit a warm body, even though … the world’s rich variety of experiences are presenting themselves to you, you aren’t living.” Utilizing a form of “hoax” in his novel “Haussman, or the Distinction,” LaFarge called himself the translator of a French novel by the fictional author Paul Poissel. In “The Night Ocean,” LaFarge further explores the premise of the hoax by creating a narrative that depicts Lovecraft and Barlow’s friendship, from Barlow’s life as a teenager writing letters to Lovecraft to his time in Mexico as a teacher and anthropologist after
Lovecraft’s death. The hoaxes continue — multiple characters in the novel invent stories, sometimes about Lovecraft and Barlow, which a character set in present time investigates, LaFarge said. “Writing about hoaxes and deception … is actually a fairly straightforward mode of realism,” he added, comparing hoaxes to modern habits of creating a persona behind a keyboard or the popularity of staged “reality” television shows. In creating this hoax, LaFarge has conducted extensive research. He spent a year at the New York Public Library and the John Hay Library reviewing Lovecraft and Barlow’s letters and other writings, he said. “The Night Ocean” was structurally modeled after one of Lovecraft’s novels, “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward,” LaFarge said. “I tried to represent (the characters) in a way that doesn’t feel novelistic, but instead, in a way that feels natural,” he added. “I did this to give the reader a feeling of possession and show the way one person’s story can pass onto another person who can take it over.” William Hicks GS and Carolyn Bergonzo GS, both studying literary arts, found the way LaFarge conducted his research fascinating. “I’m a fan of how research is used in creative writing, how the writer gets intrigued by stories and how the stories are transported into their own,” Bergonzo said. LaFarge is in the process of revising his draft of “The Night Ocean,” and the novel is expected to hit shelves in 2017.
Students curate stamp collection exhibit American studies class uses John Hay Library’s stamp collection to form historical exhibition By MADISON RIVLIN SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Students from the fall 2015 American Studies course “AMST 1510: Museum Collecting and Collections” demonstrated their philatelic expertise in collectively curating the exhibition “Thousands of Little Colored Windows: Brown University’s Stamp Collections” that opened Feb. 10 and will run until May 13 in the John Hay Library. By showcasing stamps that chronicle U.S. and world political and artistic history, the exhibit serves as an educational resource for the Brown community. The course, open to both undergraduate and graduate students, emphasized the intricacies of curating an exhibit and encouraged students to contemplate how to utilize art collections as a resource, said Steven Lubar, professor of American studies, history and history of art and architecture, who taught the course. “Brown has wonderful collections that aren’t as well-known as they ought to be. It just seems a perfect opportunity
to get a group of students to work on the collections and show how they can be useful,” Lubar said. “Thousands of Colored Windows” displays a mere fraction of the University’s antique stamps. Since 1995, the entire collection has been managed and curated by Tom Greene, a designated representative of the Rhode Island Philatelic Society, which has managed the University’s stamp collections since the mid-1930s. The stamp collection is mainly composed of three large donations from George Champlin, Webster Knight 1876 and Robert Galkin ’49. From these and other donations, students compiled stamps into seven separate sections of the exhibition: “Art,” “Charity,” “Collection,” “Communication,” “Definition,” “Motivation” and “Politics.” Anna Meyer ’18 explored and curated “Art.” “We started talking about stamps as art and using stamps as an art exhibit,” Meyer said. “What we found is that artists use stamps to play with national identity.” Meyer’s group chose to include a series of miniature Bhutanese records that serve as stamps. When the stamps were played on a record player, the record played folk songs, the Bhutanese national anthem and stories from Bhutanese history in both English and Bhutanese.
“Stamps are a direct image of a nation,” said Sarah Dylla GS, curatorial fellow at the John Hay Library and masters student in public humanities, who served as a teaching assistant for the course. “What a nation decides to show itself as in a stamp is reflective of government.” The student stamp selection for the “Politics” compilation reflects this sentiment of national identity. The section captures the history and the development of communist China by chronicling the production of stamps from 1945 into the 1950s. During this time, the regime changed from rule by nationalists Chiang Kai-shek and Sun Yat-sen to the communist party system of Mao Zedong. “Politics” also explores how stamps reflect political upheaval in the People’s Republic of Congo. Within a month of gaining independence, Congolese stamps reflected the change in governmental leadership, replacing their previous name, Belgian Congo, with its current name. Kara Noto GS, a masters student in public humanities, touted the universal relevance of the stamp exhibit “No matter your background or academic intent, there is something in the collection that could inform your research and academic pursuits,” she said.
Science & Research Roundup BY LAUREN ARATANI, NEWS EDITOR
Researchers awarded project grant from the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Nancy Barnett, professor of behavioral and social science research, and a team of fellow investigators have received an R01 research project grant, an award for health-related work offered by the National Institute of Health, of which the Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism is a subsidiary. The grant is titled “Reducing Hazardous Alcohol Use in Social Networks Using Target Intervention.” The research will focus on drinking in a college residential setting and will look at whether hazardous drinking transfers from one social network to another.
Gender differences in medical career outcomes A study produced by the Women and Infants Hospital, a major teaching affiliate of the Warren Alpert School of Medicine, found that female gynecologic oncologists lag behind their male counterparts in a number of ways. For example, women at the assistant professor level were found to have published fewer papers and to have been cited less often than men. Further on in their careers, women’s academic production pulls about equal with that of men, but they hold fewer department chairs. Ashley Stuckey, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology as well as medical science, told EurekaAlert that this lack in productivity is “true for women in all surgical disciplines.” These gaps exist due to a lack of female role models for younger physicians, lack of mentoring, sexism in medicine and publishing and the issue of work-life balance,” she said.
State’s first ‘Brain Week’ to be held in March The Brown Institute for Brain Sciences recently announced that it will hold its first “Brain Week” March 12 to 19. The institute will be working with the Providence-based national mental illness advocacy organization, Cure Alliance for Mental Illness, and the Norman Prince Neurosciences Institute. Brain Week events will take place all around Providence. The Brown Brain Fair, which will feature Brown’s Virtual Reality Lab, will take place in Sayles Hall. Labs participating in the Brain Fair have been instructed to create and organize games, exhibits, displays and demonstrations. The event will play out in conjunction with Brain Awareness Week, held every March, in which thousands of organizations and institutions plan activities in their communities to get people excited about the brain and brain research.
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magnanimit y on the main (green)
menu SATELLITE DINING ANDREWS COMMONS
Pizza: Na’cho Pizza, Spicy Five Cheese and Garlic, BBQ Bam Bam Make Your Own Pasta JOSIAH’S
BLUE ROOM
Quesadillas
Turkey Chili, Fire Roasted Veggie Chicken Tikka Masala
DINING HALLS SHARPE REFECTORY LUNCH
DINNER
BBQ Chicken Sandwich, Mushroom Quiche, Southwest Turkey Chili, Ranger Joe Cookies
Toasted Ravioli with Italian Salsa, Garden Style Baked Scrod, Angel Food Cake with Tangerine Glaze
VERNEY-WOOLLEY LUNCH
DINNER
Country Wedding Soup, Sloppy Joe Sandwich, Vegetarian Pot Pie with Biscuits, Frosted Cupcakes
Roast Turkey, Mashed Potatoes, Butternut Squash with Shallots and Sage, Cajun Apple Cake
sudoku
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The Main Green, just recently a snowy tundra, became a grassy field again earlier this week. Some enjoyed the changing weather on the way to donate blood at Brown/RISD Hillel’s first blood drive of the semester.
comic A Horse of Any Other Name | Zach Silberberg RELEASE DATE– Thursday, February 18, 2016
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle c rNorris o s sandwJoyce o rNichols d Lewis Edited by Rich ACROSS 1 “Pay attention!” (Ford) 6 Time for new growth: Abbr. 9 Minute Maid Park player (Chevy) 14 Select group 15 Eastern ideal 16 Absolute 17 Summer Olympics competitor 18 Symmetrically placed Monopoly sqs. 19 Bambino’s parent 20 Musical narrated by Che 21 Squeeze (out) 22 Cosmetician Adrien 23 Info-gathering mission 24 Entanglement 25 Guffaw evokers 26 Way up the mountain 29 Slowpokes 33 1945 battle setting, familiarly 34 “Macbeth” witches, e.g. 38 Car mishaps that occur at this puzzle’s four circles 41 Jabbers 42 Lip-reading alternative: Abbr. 43 Subtlety 44 Writer who used his actual middle name as a pen name 46 Venomous snake (Dodge) 50 Place for a key: Abbr. 51 Atlas, for one (Nissan) 56 Pianist known for his Beethoven interpretations 57 Most preferred, in texts 58 RollerCoaster Tycoon World publisher 59 Pope after John X 60 Seine sight 61 Can’t be beaten
62 Not yet up 63 Yalie 64 Calf-roping loop 65 Monopoly stack 66 67-Acr. has one 67 Show contempt
32 Connections 34 Familia member 35 Harry’s Hogwarts cohort 36 Firm ending? 37 Verb ending 39 Hardens into bone 40 Keeps up 44 Ancient Celtic priests 45 Present to the public
46 Well-founded 47 Adler of Sherlock Holmes lore 48 Space explorer (Ford) 49 Like many roofs 52 “Challenge accepted!” 53 Western skiing mecca (Chevy) 54 Got up 55 Gunpowder ingredient
DOWN 1 Sound mixing control 2 Bar staple 3 Type of pride (Honda) 4 Be of __: help 5 Suppress ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE: 6 Scattered 7 Subject to ticketing 8 NCAA’s “Granddaddy of them all” 9 Capital of Eritrea 10 Lewis with Lamb Chop 11 Beat (Ford) 12 Convened again 13 Educational hurdles 27 Prize for a picture 28 Beef cuts 29 Rooting place 30 Larry O’Brien Trophy org. 31 “Fine with me!” 02/18/16 xwordeditor@aol.com
By Bruce Haight ©2016 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
02/18/16
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Chas Freeman: Recovering Diplomatic Agility 4:00 P.M. Watson Institute
Coffeehouse Open Mic 7:00 P.M. King House (St. Anthony Hall)
ExHOTic Girls Wanted 6:30 P.M. BERT 130
Is God Body-Positive? 7:30 P.M. The Underground
TOMORROW
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Hot Chocolate with the Social Action House 12:00 P.M. Main Green
Challah in the Blue Room 11:00 A.M. Blue Room
Depression and Bipolar Support Group 12:00 P.M. J. Walter Wilson 516
BURP Feel-Good Friday 12:00 P.M. Stephen Robert ‘62 Campus Center, Room 229
COMMENTARY PAGE 6 • THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2016
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
EDITORIAL
Changing the world, one applicant at a time The Harvard Graduate School of Education recently released a report proposing a change to the college admissions process. While we agree that a change to this process is certainly necessary, we’re not sure that the direction this report hopes to take in revising it is the right one. The report calls for a focus on “concern for others and the common good” rather than “personal success.” But within the largely self-interested college admissions process, these two concepts often become interchangeable. There’s no doubt that the college application process has long been in need of improvement, as too many high school students place a disproportionate and irrational focus on putting together an impressive application, often at the expense of their mental and emotional well-being. There are several elements of the process that come into play here, and — to its credit — the report does address those elements. It suggests decreasing academic pressure by lowering the emphasis on the number of AP/IB courses a student takes as well as making standardized testing optional or recommending that students take these exams only once and therefore do not worry unnecessarily about improving their scores. Likewise, it suggests decreasing societal pressure by asking students to reevaluate what they perceive as a “good” college. The report also exhorts students to stay as true to themselves as possible on the application, refusing an excess of coaching from external sources. These are all good ideas. But the final suggestion — that students focus on a few activities that are meaningful to them, as opposed to several activities that fill out a longer list on an application — contradicts the plan’s call on universities to place more of an emphasis on community service-related activities. It seems that if a student sees community engagement as a way to get into the college of her choice, she will be more likely to participate in several charitable activities in hopes of making a good impression than to spend her free time engaging in her genuine passions, such as playing an instrument or a sport. We also fear that students participating in charitable activities in order to get into college would defeat the main purpose of the proposal — getting high schoolers to choose activities based on the greater good instead of on self-interest. The very nature of doing something in order to put it on an application is, of course, self-interested. 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 and Leeron Lempel ’19. Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.
R O L A N D H IG H
CORRECTION An article in Wednesday’s Herald (“Professorship name stirs polarizing views,” Feb. 17) stated that gift agreements are not usually public because donors prefer to maintain anonymity. In fact, gift agreements are not usually made public in the case that donors are anonymous. Also, the article stated that the American Historical Association found that the professorship was listed without its namesake. In fact, John Harvey, professor of history at St. Cloud State University, found this. The Herald regrets the errors.
Q U O T E O F T H E D AY
“The racial order is articulated as law and order.” — Jordan Camp, postdoctoral fellow
See discussion on page 1.
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COMMENTARY THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2016 • PAGE 7
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
Time in and outside of the college bubble LAINIE ROWLAND opinions editor
bitions. But it’s possible that I was so internally focused that I failed to notice that the world around me isn’t so static either. As a result, I feel like I’m riding a weird cosmic merry-goround that, at times, makes me feel pretty nauseous. This seems like a pretty dumb “aha moment.” Did I go to Brown just to realize that the world is
pretends that her biggest choice is what kind of cereal to eat. Being on campus all the time, we generally only interact with a very specific subset of the adult world, namely professors, potential employers and family members (for some, those groups aren’t mutually exclusive). Many often gripe that the collegiate bubble prevents us from
The college bubble enabled me to forget that the time I spent gaining a world-class education flew by just as quickly in the real world.
privilege of a time and place to solidify my values, explore my political beliefs and challenge my perspectives through new experiences and encounters. As the semesters whip by me, I’ve edged closer and closer to finally becoming a real adult with steadfast values, well-formed political views and lofty professional am-
changing at a constant rate, whether or not I’m in Providence or New Jersey? Maybe. But the implications of this revelation have a meaningful impact. It means that I’ve misjudged my current standing on the path out of adolescence. That kind of miscalculation can have traumatic effects on an individual, especially one who
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My hometown is a college town — it houses three small liberal arts schools whose students are a fixture of our demographic. Growing up, I would cut through a college campus to get to elementary school, go to haunted houses hosted by fundraising student activists and attend training sessions offered by college athletes. But, despite my repeated exposure to these students, I always viewed the category of “college kid” as an alien species, light years of maturity and experience away. I understand how ridiculous this is, but I only finally realized and internalized the reality that these students are now my peers when they started popping up on my Tinder feed this past winter break. I recognize that this is probably a metaphor for my larger encoun-
ter with the world of adulthood. It’s a new rite of passage fueled by technology and hormones. But, as my worldview has changed in the past few years (read: I went to Brown), I have forgotten that my relationship to my surroundings, especially those that are also human, has changed. I’ve been very cognizant of the fact that college has given me the
coming to terms with the world’s harsh realities. Given my extraordinary levels of cynicism, that’s not my complaint. My gripe is that the college bubble enabled me to forget that the time I spent gaining a worldclass education flew by just as quickly in the real world. But it’s not crazy to say that we
perceive time differently based on where we are and what we’re doing. The body of time perception research within psychology and neuroscience is growing. For example, some studies show that our “internal sense of time” ticks slower when we’re learning something new. As a result, I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to say that being fully consumed by the demands of college has distorted how I view the passage of time. But seeing local college kids on my Tinder feed didn’t just prove to me that Brown earned its title as the hottest school in America. It also made me realize that, despite my efforts to warp the passage of time, the label of “young adult” has crept up on me. It still seems alien to me, just like the college students in my hometown, but I’ve decided to try and embrace it as much as possible.
Lainie Rowland ’17 can be reached at lainie_rowland@brown.edu.
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