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SINCE 1891

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD VOLUME CLVIII, ISSUE 8

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2023

BROWNDAILYHERALD.COM

UNIVERSITY NEWS

U. did not consult Narragansett Indian Tribe on human remains, Tribe says Haffenreffer Museum promises to return remains, funerary artifacts to Tribe BY NEIL MEHTA UNIVERSITY NEWS EDITOR The University’s Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology failed to adequately consult the Narragansett Indian Tribe about the museum’s possession of 10 human remains and 24 funerary objects associated with the Narragansett, according to John Brown, historic preservation officer for the Narragansett Indian Tribe. Under the 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, museums that hold the human remains and funerary objects of Native Americans must inventory and attempt to identify the cultural affiliation of the remains in consultation with the associated Native American tribes. Afterward, they must release a public notice about the inventory before repatriating the remains and objects to their associated tribes. Appropriate consultations did not take place between the Narragansett

and the Haffenreffer before the museum released a 2018 notice identifying the remains of 10 Narragansett individuals — which stated that they consulted the Tribe — John Brown said. And following that notice, the museum offered limited communication about the identification of the remains to the Narragansett, John Brown added. The Haffenreffer previously believed that two meetings between the museum and the tribe — one in 1995 and the other in 1997 — served as consultations, wrote Robert Preucel, director of the Haffenreffer, in an email to The Herald. But the museum has learned that the Tribe “believes that the consultation was inadequate,” Preucel wrote. Preucel declined to publicly comment regarding the Haffenreffer’s present understanding of the meetings. Earlier this week, the Haffenreffer Museum apologized to John Brown and the Historic Preservation Office and requested a formal consultation with the Tribe regarding the remains and objects, John Brown said. Preucel confirmed this apology in an email to The Herald. The museum hopes to move forward with the repatriation process “as expeditiously as possible,”

DANA RICHIE / HERALD

The Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology still holds the remains of at least 99 unidentified Native Americans, according to a ProPublica report released in December. Preucel wrote. A flawed ‘standard process of review’ The NAGPRA states that Native American tribes can request that mu-

seums and federal agencies holding “Native American human remains and associated funerary objects” return the remains and objects to the Tribe if the remains have an established tribal affiliation.

That affiliation is established by museums and federal agencies in a legally mandated inventory of the remains and objects they hold, along

SEE HAFFENREFFER PAGE 8

UNIVERSITY NEWS

Weekend cold spell causes campus facilities issues

Dual degree students discuss scheduling

Facilities, students discuss problems in residence halls, campus buildings BY SAM LEVINE AND HALEY SANDLOW UNIVERSITY NEWS EDITORS Over the weekend, Vivian Li ’25 moved into her neighbor’s room in Caswell Hall to quarantine after testing positive for COVID-19. But the heating in the room had broken during the week, Li said, making it extremely cold as temperatures dropped across the Northeast last Friday. Li and her neighbor called Facilities Management three times on Saturday to have the heating fixed. Each time, Facilities told Li and her neighbor that they could not find the work order they had previously placed and that they were “really busy” handling “a long queue” of work orders. “Because the Caswell windows are kind of leaky… our room got

really cold and we both had to layer up really dramatically,” Li said. According to Michael Guglielmo Jr., vice president for Facilities Management, “Facilities Management prioritizes response based on risk to buildings, structures, research and personal comfort.” Throughout the weekend, Facilities received 64 service requests to check temperatures in student rooms and placed work orders into a queue for service — although he said that facilities did not receive any “repetitive calls.” At around 2 a.m. Sunday morning, Facilities delivered two space heaters to Li’s room — but five minutes after plugging them in, a power surge caused the electricity in the room to go out, Li said. Li and her neighbor bundled up for the night, and by midday Sunday, Facilities returned to fix the electricity and the heating. Caswell was not the only building impacted by the cold weather. Residential, academic and athletic buildings at the University en-

SEE FACILITIES PAGE 3

Students navigate two academic calendars, commend dual degree advising services BY INDIGO MUDBHARY SENIOR STAFF WRITER Vicky Yang ’25, a third-year BrownRISD Dual Degree student majoring in psychology at the University and illustration at the Rhode Island School of Design, described her shopping period experience as similar to working as an airport air traffic controller. “In airports, there’s that person that is giving direction to all the airplanes, so they can land in sequence and not bump into each other and not crash,” Yang said. “That’s what I feel like (planning) my classes because there are so many conflicts.” Established in 2007, the dual degree program is a five-year academic experience that allows students to “develop and integrate diverse spheres of academic and artistic interests” simultaneously at Brown and RISD, according to the program’s website. But fitting courses of interest at both schools into one schedule while also meeting degree requirements

EMILY SUONG / HERALD

comes with its own set of difficulties for students. The Herald spoke to three BRDD students about their experiences in course selection and scheduling. Balancing courses, academic calendars at two schools Yang, who typically takes five classes per semester, prefers to have a balanced mix of courses from both institutions in her schedule, though dual degree students are “allowed to do one full RISD or one full Brown semester.” Since her RISD major has “a lot of requirements,” taking less than five courses per semester would make it difficult to graduate on time, Yang added. But this is “not true for every

Metro

U. News

Editorial

Hope Street hosts community of small local businesses Page 2

Eddie Glaude calls for a retelling of American history. Page 3

Students with COVID-19 struggle to navigate shopping period Page 6

UCS must become a serious advocate for students Page 7

TODAY

major,” she said. Adam Meller ’25, a third-year dual degree student majoring in English and philosophy at the University and glass at RISD, said he tries to “balance between three (courses) at one (school) and two at the other,” though he plans to “do four Brown classes and one RISD class” for the spring semester. Having access to both schools and being conscious about his course selection makes Meller feel “a sense of agency” in the registration process, he said. “It really feels like I am shaping my education constantly.” Yang described her process of regis-

TOMORROW

SEE RISD PAGE 4

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ANNA WANG ’26 DESIGNER NEIL MEHTA ’25 DESIGN CHIEF