SINCE 1891
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD FRIDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2017
VOLUME CLII, ISSUE 95
WWW.BROWNDAILYHERALD.COM
Two candidates make bids for mayoral race Algorithms can help in
redistricting, scientists say
Mayor Jorge Elorza, community activist Kobi Dennis confirm candidacies
Mathematic diagrams can divide states into equally populated districts, says U. researcher in paper
By BELLA ROBERTS SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Only two candidates, Mayor Jorge Elorza and community activist Kobi Dennis, have confirmed their candidacies for the 2018 Providence mayoral race. Meg Clurman, finance director for Elorza’s first campaign, confirmed to The Herald Oct. 18 that Elorza plans to run for reelection, but said the campaign has no further comments at this time. Elorza has not assembled a campaign team yet. But as the incumbent mayor, Elorza has an advantage in the mayoral race. The last time an incumbent mayor lost to a challenger was 1974 when Vincent “Buddy” Cianci Jr., a Republican, beat Democrat Joseph Doorley Jr.. Dennis, Elorza’s opponent, is a Providence native and community activist who lives with his family in the city. He wants to disprove that candidates need to be a part of “political
By JEFF DEMANCHE CONTRIBUTING WRITER
COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Kobi Dennis, who confirmed his candidacy for mayor, is a community activist who says he hopes to show that wealth is not needed for succcess. machines.” “I think running for mayor involves family values, a rich personality and honesty,” Dennis said. Elorza certainly outpaces Dennis on campaign fundraising. At the time of his interview with The Herald, Dennis reported that his campaign filed their first financial disclosure report with no funds. Elorza, on the other hand, has a head-start on fundraising with $484,502 collected thus far, according to campaign finance documents. Dennis compared beginning his mayoral race to starting his own community organizations, such as
Princes 2 Kings, Project Night Vision XL and Unified Solutions RI, which connect disadvantaged youth with after-school programming and unemployed adults with job opportunities, among other missions. Aspects of Dennis’s voter outreach method had been untraditional so far. As part of his strategy, Dennis goes to nightclubs and social events to connect with young voters as his target demographic is people ages 16-24, he said. Dennis said he hopes to reach young voters to educate them on the voting and campaign donation » See MAYOR, page 3
Gerrymandering — the redrawing of voting districts for political gain — has been a problem in the United States for over two centuries. However, with the Supreme Court’s hearing on Gill v. Whitford concerning a controversial redistricting plan in Wisconsin, the issue has once again emerged as a pertinent topic for national debate. One University professor believes that solutions to the problem can be found using computer algorithms. “I’ve been thinking for years, really, about the problem of redistricting,” said Philip Klein, professor of computer science. Klein recently co-authored a paper describing a method for dividing states into equally-populated districts
SCIENCE & RESEARCH
using so-called “balanced centroidal power diagrams.” Klein co-authored the paper along with Neal Young, professor of computer science at the University of California at Riverside, and Vincent CohenAddad, a post-doc in computer science at the University of Copenhagen. Klein and Cohen-Addad worked together on many of the principles that they later implemented in the paper. Cohen-Addad said he and Klein saw the potential for adapting their work for the purpose of dividing states into equal partitions, which led them to devise their redistricting algorithm. The algorithm Klein and his team offered first finds a center point for each proposed district, then tries to minimize the distance of people in the state to each of these centers, all while maintaining balance between the populations assigned to each center point, Klein said. By completing this process, the algorithm can give relatively simple district shapes, each containing a similar number of people. “One of the advantages of this method is it provides very little scope » See ALGORITHMS, page 3
Chipkin talks Kirchberg ’18 nets 13 goals in water polo’s 4-0 weekend turmoil, Team veteran reflects democracy in on his time at Brown, victories in Santa Clara South Africa tournament ATHLETE OF THE WEEK
been named The Herald’s Athlete of the Week.
By TESS DEMEYER SENIOR STAFF WRITER
The men’s water polo team traveled to Santa Clara, California to compete in the Julian Fraser Memorial Tournament last weekend. Led by Tyler Kirchberg ’18, the Bears defeated California Baptist University, Loyola Marymount University, Santa Clara University and Fresno Pacific University. Kirchberg accounted for 13 of Brown’s 43 total goals, eight of which came in the fourth quarter of overtime, and totaled six assists and 14 steals in the process. In the victory over Fresno Pacific, he recorded a game-high five goals, netting one for the win in the final 50 seconds to keep Bruno undefeated in California. In addition to receiving Brown Student-Athlete of the Week honors, Kirchberg was also recognized as the Northeast Water Polo Conference CoPlayer of the Week. For his leadership in the pool and clutch performances over the weekend, Kirchberg has
INSIDE
Herald: How did you first get into water polo? Kirchberg: I got into water polo when I was about 12. I actually started swimming when I was a lot younger than that and swam on a recreational summer team. I wanted to get faster at swimming, and all the water polo players I knew who were on that rec team were really, really fast. So I was like, “Alright, I’ll give it a try.” I had been playing baseball, so it kind of integrated swimming and baseball. I always stuck with swimming, though more on a recreational level. I swam on my high school team over the summer, but I played water polo year round starting my freshman year of high school. That’s when I really committed to the sport.
Congratulations on going 4-0 this weekend. How did that feel? It was great! Looking back, I think it was a little unexpected because the games were all really close, and they all could have gone either way. The last game we played — Fresno Pacific — we weren’t winning until the last » See AOTW, page 2
South African political activist details country’s political derailing, hopes for its future By CHRIS SCHUTTE CONTRIBUTING WRITER
ANITA SHEIH / HERALD
Tyler Kirchberg ’18 recorded 13 goals at the Julian Fraser Memorial Tournament last weekend. He is also the NWPC Co-Player of the Week.
Ivor Chipkin, founding director of the Public Affairs Research Institute, based at both the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and the University of Cape Town, delivered a lecture titled “Does Democracy Have a Future in South Africa” Thursday. He spoke about the current political turmoil in South Africa, in addition to his hopes for the formation of a stable democracy in the years to come. Chipkin began by naming a few political events that began the country’s political erosion. The 2007 election was “a massive revolt within the African Congress” and was a starting point for the downgrade of political stability in current-day South Africa. » See CHIPKIN, page 4
WEATHER
FRIDAY, OC TOBER 27, 2017
SPORTS Men’s hockey to open season with home-and-home series against Yale this weekend
NEWS Ivy League Research Symposium to promote undergraduate research, foster networks
COMMENTARY Campenelli ’18: Republicans, Democrats should unite, take action against Trump
SPORTS COMMENTARY Klein ’20: With multiple star players currently injured, the NFL lacks a clear frontrunner
PAGE 2
PAGE 4
PAGE 7
BACK
TODAY
TOMORROW
60/42
66 / 44