SINCE 1891
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2018
VOLUME CLII, ISSUE 67
WWW.BROWNDAILYHERALD.COM
Football to open home slate against Crimson Lawsuit against University
retirement plan proceeds Class action suit alleging retirement fund misuse mirrors legal conflicts at other universities By ALLIE REED SENIOR STAFF WRITER
COURTESY OF BROWN ATHLETICS
The football team has not won a game against another Ivy League team in 677 days, but Head Coach Phil Estes is optimistic that Bruno will break this losing streak in the coming season.
Bears hope for strong 2018 campaign, beginning with nationally televised game tonight By ALEX SMOLAR SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Tonight, as the football team hosts Harvard under the lights for its home opener at Brown Stadium, the Bears strive to both look to the future and commemorate the past. Bruno has not won an Ivy League game in 677 long days, but Head Coach Phil Estes is optimistic about the
SPORTS
upcoming season, which features nine more contests after the team played California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California, last weekend. Estes, whose football teams won Ivy League Championships in 1999, 2005 and 2008, put much of the blame for Bruno’s losses on himself, saying that he “did a really poor job of coaching and motivating this team last year.” Through the long off-season, Estes says that he “had to make improvements with himself first, and then with the team.” The Bears dropped the first game of their 140th season to Cal Poly last weekend, but Estes had many positive takeaways from the loss. “There
are some really good things that we saw,” he said. “Michael McGovern ’21 threw the ball very well, and we made a lot of good plays out there. But we didn’t finish in the red zone, so that’s something that we’re going to work on for this game.” Estes stressed that his squad needs to finish off scoring chances but showed confidence in his kicker if the game comes down to field goals. “Dylan Brady ’22 was three-for-three kicking field goals,” he said. “So we know that we have a weapon there.” The game against the Crimson will be broadcast on national television. This will not be Bruno’s first time » See FOOTBALL, page 3
Three former and current University employees can move forward with some of the claims in a class action lawsuit alleging that the University mishandled their retirement funds, according to Chief Judge William Smith in a July order from the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island. “Our clients (stepped) forward to file suit because they thought it would advance the interests of their fellow employees who participate in the retirement plan,” said Todd Collins, one of the lawyers from Berger & Montague P.C. representing the plaintiffs. “It is with that goal in mind that on their behalf we are proceeding with the litigation,” Collins added. “At Brown, we are deeply committed to the well-being of our employees and approach our fiduciary responsibilities
in sponsoring retirement plans with the utmost attentiveness,” wrote Brian Clark, director of news and editorial development, in an email to The Herald. “We have a strong case to make and will continue to respond as appropriate through the legal process.” The judge’s order stated that the case is “one of many look-alike lawsuits filed nationwide.” Yale, Northwestern University, Columbia and Duke University have gone through similar legal conflicts, The Herald previously reported. The plaintiffs’ complaint refers to two 403(b) plans the University offers faculty and staff: the Legacy Retirement Plan for those hired before March 1, 2001, and the Deferred Vesting Retirement Plan, for those hired after that date. “Faculty and staff who are regularly scheduled to work 1,000 or more hours per year … are generally considered eligible to participate in the plan,” the University’s website states. The plaintiffs initially filed a complaint July 6, 2017 alleging that the University had mishandling their retirement funds on four counts. Two of the plaintiffs’ allegations satisfied » See LAWSUIT, page 2
U. professor studies child Penner ’22 powers water polo to four wins carries men’s development in Jordan First-year water polo team to Dima Amso works with nonprofit to analyze effects of reading on cognitive development By GLORIA NASHED STAFF WRITER
Three weeks ago, Dima Amso, associate professor of cognitive, linguistic and psychological sciences and principle investigator in the Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Lab took her second trip to Jordan to discuss the data her lab analyzed from the nonprofit organization We Love Reading. Her work focused on analyzing the effect of reading on the mental health of Jordanian children. Amso’s goal was to use the data to test the impact of this program on the cognitive development of children living in the country. “We Love Reading is an intervention for children in (middle- and low-income) countries,” Amso said. Children in these regions tend to be
SCIENCE & RESEARCH
INSIDE
exposed to reading for educational or religious purposes, according to the WLR website. But WLR provides “an opportunity to bring to kids the joy of reading for pleasure,” Amso said. The relationship between Amso’s lab and WLR began about a year and a half ago after Amso took a trip to Jordan with other University faculty members to see how she could help those affected by the Syrian civil war. On her trip, Amso met Rana Dajani, director and founder of the non-profit. After the trip, the two stayed in contact and developed Amso’s research proposal. While WLR is based on humancentered design, it supports its mission with rigorous research, an aim it hoped to expand by partnering with Amso, Dajani said. Preliminary data for Amso’s work was collected in Jordan, both before and three months after children went through the WLR program. Amso’s lab analyzed the data and found that WLR seemed to be improving the mental health of Jordanian children, which the team found encouraging, Amso said. The data suggested that activities like reading for pleasure, hearing stories » See AMSO, page 2
winning streak, nets six goals in three games By PATRICK NUGENT STAFF WRITER
Andrew Penner ’22 is a first-year on the men’s water polo team, and he just wrapped up Brown’s last stretch before conference play with six goals in three games. Scoring four against Connecticut College before adding one apiece in two games at Austin College, Penner, a graduate of Massachusetts’ Deerfield Academy, has had no trouble finding the net recently. Penner’s performances helped carry the Bears into conference play on a four-game winning streak and made him The Herald’s Athlete of the Week.
SPORTS
Herald: How did it feel to score four in one game against Connecticut College the other day? Penner: It felt really good. Our coach took that game as a good opportunity to get some of the younger guys playing time and see how they handled it in a competitive game. It was really good to
NICOLE KIM / HERALD
The men’s water polo team defeated Connecticut College and Austin College during their undefeated road trip before conference play. get in there and get some experience. You scored again when you guys went to Texas — do you feel like you’re hitting your stride? Yeah. Texas has a really young program and water polo is just developing there, so it was another chance for a lot of our freshmen to get some playing time. I felt good in the water, and I feel like I’m learning a lot. We have our offensive and defensive systems, and I have a lot to learn with those, have to get a little bit bigger and stronger. Then it’s just getting in a rhythm with the guys and learning
how they play and how I fit into the team, (which) is really important. What’s it like to be able to contribute right away like that as a freshman? Our coach trusts our freshmen a lot. We’re all getting in and playing a lot. Some of the other guys have been getting in and putting up as many (as I), or even more goals as well. So, I think we’re all getting that good experience, which is really nice. Did you ever feel like the Connecticut College game was in doubt after » See AOTW, page 3
WEATHER
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2018
SPORTS Klein ’19: NFL season starts with surprising results, though trends may not continue through playoffs
SPORTS Brown football kicks off Touchdowns for Cancer to benefit Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
METRO Student group tackles issue of housing stability through new legislative proposals
COMMENTARY Steinman ’19: Conversion of Bear’s Lair into study space limits students’ physical activity
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NEWS
PAGE 2 • FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2018
» LAWSUIT, from page 1 their “burden to overcome (the University’s) motion to dismiss” the case, according to Smith’s order. The other two counts were dismissed, according to Smith’s order. The plaintiffs claimed that the University breached its duties of “loyalty and prudence” under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act by charging excessive administrative fees and using two recordkeepers that “failed to employ a competitive bidding process,” according to the complaint. In the complaint, the plantiffs argue that participants in these retirement plans pay roughly $300 annually in administrative fees. Benchmarking data suggests $35 to $45 annually would be far more reasonable, the complaint said. The plaintiffs also alleged that the University breached its duties of “loyalty and prudence” by investing their money in “more expensive funds with inferior historical performance,” according to the complaint. This allegation references the University’s involvement with the CREF Stock Account and the TIAA Real Estate Account which “drastically underperformed (compared to) comparable lower-cost alternatives over the preceding … periods,” the complaint said. If the University had removed the CREF Stock Account and the TIAA Real Estate Account “and the amounts (had) been invested in any of the actively managed lower-cost alternatives … participants in the Plans would not have lost millions of dollars’ worth of their retirement savings,” the complaint said. The plaintiffs argued that “one could reasonably infer from these circumstances alone that the Defendant’s fiduciary decision-making process was either flawed or badly executed,” the complaint said. The plaintiffs seek to “enforce the Defendant’s personal liability … to restore to the Plans all losses resulting from each breach of fiduciary duty,” the complaint added. “The litigation is now at an active stage as we obtain evidence to support our claims as we head toward trial,” Collins said.
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
Hot and cold: are these NFL starts for real? GEORGE KLEIN SPORTS COLUMNIST We’ve seen some surprising results so far in the NFL season. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers were widely expected to finish last in the NFC South as one of the worst teams in the entire league, yet they knocked off the New Orleans Saints and Philadelphia Eagles in backto-back weeks for a 2-0 start. The Kansas City Chiefs can seemingly score whenever they want to with Patrick Mahomes at the helm. On the other side of the coin, however, the Pittsburgh Steelers limped to a 0-1-1 record with lots of team chemistry issues. But which of these early season trends will continue? The Buccaneers can’t keep their current pace for long. Ryan Fitzpatrick threw for 400-plus yards in his first two outings, along with eight touchdowns. Everyone loves to talk about the “Fitzmagic” phenomenon — when Fitzpatrick gets absurdly hot and cannot be stopped. The problem with Fitzpatrick is that Fitzmagic eventually ends, and when Fitzmagic ends, things get ugly. Fitzpatrick is interception-prone, with a 19:20 touchdown to interception ratio over the 2016 and 2017 seasons combined. Those turnovers are coming Tampa Bay’s way soon. Quarterback Jameis Winston will return from his suspension after Week 3 but has shown
nothing in his career that indicates he will help this team. Wide receiver DeSean Jackson has 275 receiving yards and three touchdowns in two games thanks to Fitzpatrick. But he’s 31 and hasn’t been a force in the league since 2014. The Bucs feel like a 7-9 or 8-8 team to me, though to give them credit, that’s far more than most anyone expected entering the season. The Kansas City Chiefs raced past the Los Angeles Chargers and Pittsburgh Steelers in the first two weeks, scoring a blistering 80 points total. Mahomes threw for 10 touchdowns and no interceptions, and while that ratio won’t continue, he looks legit. Mahomes can launch the football deep with more ease than almost anyone else in the league, and he looks poised beyond his years. Still, it’s hard to trust a rookie quarterback for an entire season, and the Chiefs have a history of cooling off after hot starts under Coach Andy Reid. In Week 1 last season, they dominated then defending champion New England, scoring 42 points behind Alex Smith and Kareem Hunt. Those 2017 Chiefs went 5-0 before stumbling and making an early exit from the playoffs. In 2016, Kansas City went 9-3 to open the year but still lost their first playoff game, this one in the divisional round. I’m taking a wait-and-see approach with the Chiefs. They look absolutely loaded, but they’ve looked dominant in other seasons that ended in disappointing and underwhelming fashions. Until Kansas City wins a game in the divisional round of the playoffs, I can
only consider them a 10-6, wild card kind of team. They have much to prove to the football world in January 2019. The Pittsburgh Steelers, meanwhile, played far worse than anticipated. Star running back Le’Veon Bell’s continued holdout doesn’t help matters, of course. It seems more and more likely that Bell will wait until Week 8 or Week 9 to return to the team — when he can still retain his free agent status next off-season but not risk the Steelers running him into the ground throughout an entire year. Bell is basically punting on 2018 in the hopes of a healthy and wealthy 2019. Wide receiver Antonio Brown’s discontent grows stronger by the week. He responded with anger to a former employee of the Pittsburgh Steelers on Twitter the day after Pittsburgh’s Week 2 loss, sarcastically (maybe) tweeting “trade me.” Brown missed Monday’s practice for unexplained reasons, to add to the situation. As much as Coach Mike Tomlin tries to downplay the Brown issue, the wide receiver has made it clear that something negative is happening behind the scenes. Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was rocky to start off as well, throwing three interceptions in Week 1 against the Browns. Big Ben rebounded in Week 2, but the 36-year-old has grown more and more inconsistent in recent seasons, and 2018 looks no different. It could be his bumpiest campaign yet. Considering his advanced age, it would be no great surprise if Roethlisberger declined precipitously this year. It’s looking like the end of an era for
the Steelers. Offensive linemen spoke out against Le’Veon Bell before the season, Antonio Brown continues to express displeasure and Roethlisberger made a number of curious comments in the offseason. On Pittsburgh’s drafting of Mason Rudolph, the veteran said, “I was surprised when they took a quarterback because I thought that maybe in the third round, you know you can get some really good football players that can help this team now … But that’s not my decision to make. That’s on the coaches and the GM and the owner and those kind of things.” These are not the words of a happy quarterback. Roethlisberger later said these comments were taken out of context and that he meant them “in jest.” Nevertheless, whether you believe the quarterback or not, the Steelers’ locker room is a toxic environment. Luckily for Pittsburgh, the AFC North is not exactly a powerhouse division. Between the Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals and Cleveland Browns, the Steelers only need to be above-average to make the playoffs. But do they have that kind of season left in the tank? I remain unconvinced.
George Klein ’20 can be reached at george_klein@brown.edu. Please send responses to this opinion to letters@browndailyherald.com and op-eds to opinions@browndailyherald.com.
» AMSO, from page 1 read aloud and taking books home to read with parents are having a positive impact on kids, she added. While the nonprofit was created to have an impact on children of all communities and not only refugees, Amso said that future projects with WLR will involve assessing the efficacy of reading for pleasure as a resilience factor for children who are exposed to stressors very early in life, a common experience for children who are refugees. “You have a group of children who are a unique population in that they are experiencing early life adversity in the form of chronic toxic stress,” said Alya Al-Sagar, visiting research associate in Amso’s lab. Moving forward, the lab aims to discern “what can predispose resilience to these stressors,” she added. Community engagement, interaction with primary caregivers and reading are factors that can work together to create resilience in refugee kids, she continued. To achieve these aims, researchers hope to collect data on children’s daily experiences, measuring stressors, risk factors for stress and positive resilience factors, Amso said. The group aims to understand how those experiences
COURTESY OF DIMA AMSO
Dima Amso, associate professor of cognitive, linguistic and psychological sciences, studies the effects of reading on mental health in children living in middle- and low-income countries. interact to either mitigate or exacerbate the effects of the stressors on the children. The data on these experiences can help Amso’s lab understand which variables help the children benefit from an intervention like those conducted by WLR. “We can’t change
(the children’s) political climate but what we can do is say, ‘here are the resilience and risk factors that are going to make them most likely to benefit,’” Amso said. Amso stressed that her work with WLR is not so much for the sake of research but rather for assessing the
usefulness of the program as an intervention and considering ways to improve the intervention’s efficacy. Amso hopes to expand her work with the organization and is in the process of writing a grant for a project that would assess WLR’s impact on resilience in children.
SPORTS
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2018 • PAGE 3
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
Bruno kicks off Touchdowns for Cancer » AOTW,
from page 1
going up 7-0 after a quarter and 11-2 at halftime? We had a couple tough games last weekend at the Princeton Invitational, and then also at our tournament, the Bruno Classic. So I think we took that (Connecticut) College game as an opportunity to practice, no matter who the opponent is. … To play the best regardless of who we’re in the pool against, whether it’s the number one team — UCLA — or anyone else.
COURTESY OF BROWN ATHLETICS
The fundraising initiative, proposed by Alex Hughes ’20, builds on the model of the football team’s annual Bench Press for Cancer event. Touchdowns for Cancer aims to raise $15,000 to $20,000 over the course of the season.
Fundraiser asks donors to match touchdowns with donations to Dana-Farber Cancer Institute By TESS DEMEYER SENIOR REPORTER
Long before the 2018 season officially kicked off, Alex Hughes ’20 approached Head Coach Phil Estes with an idea for a fundraising event that would give the Bears an opportunity to contribute to the fight against cancer each time they took the field. Touchdowns for Cancer will turn every Bruno touchdown into a donation toward cancer treatment and research at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. Donors can give a one-time contribution at any point or pledge a certain amount per touchdown and donate the sum at the end of the season. The initiative builds on the work of the football team’s annual Bench Press for Cancer event, a one-day fundraiser for Miriam Hospital’s Cancer Survivorship Program for Young Adults held each October since 2004, and it mimics a shorter campaign Hughes orchestrated as a senior in high school for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Over the course of four games during his high school career, Hughes and his
SPORTS
teammates raised “a few thousand dollars.” As Touchdowns for Cancer spans Bruno’s entire schedule, he anticipates the fundraiser will be a larger-scale philanthropic effort with a goal of $15,000 to $20,000. “I saw huge potential for money being raised for an organization,” Hughes said. “I saw the potential of everything that we can do with the football team, the football community and Brown at large.” “This is something a lot of the guys on the team want to get behind because it’s directly affected our Brown football family,” added Co-Captain Michael Hoecht ’20. Hughes is no stranger to the Brown football community; his family has Bruno ties that date back to the 1950s. His grandfather, an alum from the class of 1955, was heavily involved in the Brown Sports Foundation and Brown Football Association, while Peter Hughes ’10 and Robert Hughes ’17 preceded their younger brother on the Bears’ defense. Hughes also has a personal connection with the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, where his uncle, Bill Perry ’88, received cancer treatment before passing away in December 2017. “He was a real Brown Bear,” Hughes said. “He pushed through everything.” In his time on College Hill, Perry was a standout defensive lineman for the Bears and earned All-Ivy and AllAmerican honors. He received the Alfred H. Joslin Award, was inducted
into the Brown Athletic Hall of Fame in 1997 and was chosen for the 125th Anniversary Team in 2003 as one of the 50 greatest Brown football players. “Billy Perry was a special person,” Estes said. “(He) was a big fixture here in Brown football, not just as a player but also as an alum.” With high-profile rivalry games against Harvard and the University of Rhode Island approaching, Hughes hopes to advertise how much each touchdown is worth as a way to keep fans intrigued and boost on-field motivation among his teammates. “It’s … inspirational for the team and for a lot of people in the community,” he said. “It’ll bring a lot of people closer to the program and definitely give a lot of money to a good cause.” So when Brown football players cross the plane into the end zone this season, they’ll be earning more than six points. The Bears hope to gain the support of members of the Brown community to help the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute make strides in battling cancer. If supporters would like to make a single donation, they can do so through the team’s Giving Page. Those who would like to make a season-long pledge or have any questions about the event should email brownbearstd4c@gmail.com. The team will keep track of the total touchdowns scored in 2018 and inform the pledgers of the amount at the end of the season.
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Both goalies managed nine saves — do you feel confident having them behind you? Absolutely. Both of our goalies, I think, are the two best goalies on the East Coast for sure. They’re definitely better than a lot of the goalies on the West Coast as well. Ugo (Piovan ’22) is a freshman … Riad (Hallal ’21) is a sophomore, but they’re both really experienced and really committed guys. Yeah, we definitely trust them in the cage. You guys were the visiting team for the first men’s water polo game in Texas in four decades, how was that? It was nice. Texas obviously isn’t a big water polo state, so it was really interesting to go there. We ended up going to Austin College for our first game, and it was just cool to see. I forget exactly how many fans they had there, but it was one of most packed crowds I’ve ever seen for water polo. The stands were totally full,
» FOOTBALL, from page 1 in the media spotlight — the Bears battled Dartmouth under the shadow of the Green Monster at Fenway Park last season. Entering tonight’s contest, Estes believes that the prospect of facing Harvard will motivate the team to play hard. “It doesn’t matter if you’re playing under the lights or playing in the backyard,” he said. “It’s just a game that you’re going to get up for. … This is the time for the team to step up.” Tonight’s game will also feature a half-time ceremony for Professor Emeritus of Engineering Barrett Hazeltine, who has been a member of Brown’s faculty since 1959. The ceremony will include a commemorative video on the Jumbotron and an announcement that the football locker room will be named in his honor. Hazeltine “has taught and mentored generations of students,” said Athletic Director Jack Hayes. “His impact on Brown is immeasurable.” Hayes went on to say that Hazeltine has been a partner in providing “an
the atmosphere was amazing. Obviously they were supporting the other team, but it was just cool to play in that atmosphere where it was just so loud and so passionate. And I think a lot of people in Texas haven’t seen a water polo game in a long time, so I think they were really interested in it. The Bears played an exhibition in Dallas against a team with a couple of former Brown water polo players. What was that like? One of the alumni was Rico (Burke ’18) who graduated last year, and the other, Warren (Smith ’17) graduated — I think — two years ago. So it was cool to play against them. Obviously as a freshman I don’t know those two that well, but all the older guys on the team now hung out and talked with them before the game and afterwards. It was nice to play against some older guys. How are you guys feeling about the rest of the season as the No. 18 team in the country? We’re feeling good. I think we have a lot of ground to cover in terms of developing as a team. The skill is definitely there, and we know what we can do, it’s just putting it into practice in the next couple of weeks going into conference games. Then eventually, by the conference championship in November, hopefully we’ll be where we want to be. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
outstanding academic and athletic experience to students” and that “his longevity at Brown is a symbol of academic excellence, stability and a willingness to work with and teach so many students over so many years.” Hazeltine said that he was “overwhelmed” when he learned that he would be recognized. “It’s a tremendous honor,” he said. “Surprised is not strong enough of a word for how I feel about it. I think it’s a very kind and thoughtful gesture.” Over his long teaching career, Hazeltine has held athletes at Brown in high regard. “People who play sports at Brown tend to be remarkably decent and thoughtful and effective students,” Hazeltine said. “Something has happened on this campus that has made our athletes really good, solid citizens and good people in the classroom and people that we can look up to.” The Bears and the Crimson will kick off tonight at Brown Stadium at 7 p.m., and Brown and Rhode Island School of Design students will receive free admission to the stadium. The game will be broadcast on ESPN-Universities.
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Issue
In This
Cooking in Dorms
Abbie Hui 3
The False Dichotomy
Caroline Ribet 2
Listen to the Coyote Danielle Emerson 5
Notes from the Noodle Nook Naomi Kim 4 Julian Towers 5
a Future
Thank God I Have
postCover by Katya Labowe Stoll
SEPT 21
VOL 22 —
ISSUE 2
FEATURES
The False Dichotomy
An American Precedent for the Radical Outsider By Caroline Ribet Illustrated by Rémy Poisson
O
Letter from the Editor
n October 31, 2017, a person drove a pickup truck onto a bike path in downtown New York City, killing eight people and injuring 11. The driver had come from Uzbekistan in 2010 and was a legal permanent resident of the United States. Segments of the media immediately connected this tragic event with “radical Islam.” Fox News’s Ned Ryun asked the members of American society to “use common sense to protect ourselves from radical Islamic terrorists.” Ryun explained, “Radical Islam is evil; it is full of hatred and seeks to destroy our way of life. Our way of life and our system of government, [sic] is anathema to radical Islam—like oil and water, they will never mix.” The narrative that links “radicals” and Islam is familiar to us—it has been intermittently present in mainstream media and political discourse since the attacks of 9/11. But the idea that radical Islam is responsible for many troubles in America is less a reality than an idea, a myth that serves to unify Americans against a perceived common enemy. In 2018 so far, 10,391 people in the United States have died from gunshot wounds. Zero have died from terrorist attacks. In a narrow sense, Americans’ fear of “radical Islam” may seem recent, but it is an example of a broader phenomenon that has been around for a long time: the "radical" outsider. Fear of radical
anarchists was widespread in the early 1900s, as Americans worried that immigrants were stealing jobs, degrading society, and bringing less civilized ways of life to the United States. Although the late 19th century saw several violent events that the media connected (in some cases fairly, in others wrongly) to radical anarchist immigrants as well, it was not until the assassination of President William McKinley in 1901 by a Polish American with anarchist leanings that widespread xenophobia became a real political project. In an address to the nation in 1901, Theodore Roosevelt described anarchy as “a crime against the whole human race.” Social and political fear of anarchists reached a zenith during the Red Scare, a pervasive American paranoia about immigrants and rebels who embraced socialist, communist, and anarchist ideologies. Realizing that American politics has evoked similar rhetoric and legislation regarding different groups of outsiders in the past can help us to take the broad view on our own political moment. A 1901 Washington Post article argued that the United States could protect itself from radical outsiders in its “barring of gates of this country against the sort of human vermin who bring into it from other lands the lawless ideas.” Indeed, the idea of using legislation to keep borders closed to “lawless” radical immigrants was as
I stop reading the news whenever I come
to reflect and empathize. This is necessary
back to campus. It’s a horrible habit—when you
every once in a while. Reading the articles
hear about events via word of mouth, they have
in this issue have helped me to reset and
no impact and slip easily in and out of your
reconnect, and as we come to the end of this
mind. Just this week, I heard and forgot about Hurricane Florence at least three consecutive times. Each time, I felt a pang of guilt; I had
remember everyday injustices, tune in to the
been stranded in Houston during Hurricane Harvey just last year, and it was hard to believe
The season
week, I hope our writers can remind you of
2.
Niagara
the need to cherish legacies, listen to stories,
3.
Of Man
people around you as well as your body’s needs,
4.
Of Rome
metabolic or otherwise.
5.
Of the House of Usher
6.
Free
7.
In love
8.
First snow
9.
Jennifer Lawrence’s at the 2013 Oscars
10.
Of my GPA
seems from my present reality. Sincerely, As I learned last year, a hurricane forces
2!post–
Top Ten Falls 1.
how distant and disconnected that memory
you to slow down, giving you nothing but time
popular in the early 20th century as it is today. Congress passed the Anarchist Exclusion Act in 1903 and the Immigration Act in 1918. Both laws were designed to keep the U.S. safe from “dangerous” immigrants. The first prevented the entry of anarchists. The second allowed the government to deport them. In 1919, 249 alien radicals were deported. The vast majority of these deportees had no history of terrorist activities or criminal records. It was their belief in theoretical anarchism that made them subject to deportation. President Donald Trump’s own travel ban (which was recently—and in my view, wrongly— upheld by the Supreme Court) is entitled “Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States.” Even its name is propaganda that employs myths about safety to perpetuate dangerous and unfounded racist paranoia. After signing his first travel ban into law, Trump boasted, "I am establishing new vetting measures to keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the United States of America.” Contrasting traditional Western values against the values of radical others in a false dichotomy of good and evil is a political tactic that unites politicians across time. It has been applied to Muslims at least since the attacks of 9/11. President George Bush said in a speech in 2002 about Islam,
Jennifer EDITOR - IN - CHIEF OF POST -
NARRATIVE “Our war is a war against evil. This is clearly a case of good versus evil, and make no mistake about it— good will prevail.” On his first international trip as president, Trump also described his mission as a “battle between good and evil,” claiming that Muslims who are perceived to be radical are “barbaric criminals who seek to obliterate human life and decent people, all in the name of religion." The First Red Scare helps us evaluate this rhetoric more objectively, because it helps us see that ideas connecting radical outsiders with danger are bolstered by politicians and the media, rather than evidence. It is not difficult to see the link between the articles published in the early 1900s and the rhetoric that now populates our own political discourse. If one were to take articles from the early 20th century and replace words like “anarchist” and “red” with words like “Muslim” or “immigrant,” these articles would not seem out of place in some mainstream news sources today. While targeted legal actions like the travel ban and early 20th-century immigration laws make some people feel safer, they do not make anyone safer. After the ban was announced, The Atlantic ran an article entitled “Trump’s Immigration Order Is a Propaganda Victory for ISIS.” It was authored by Charlie Winter, a researcher at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalism. In it, he explains that the ban “will go far to symbolically aid and abet the very terrorists that the president says he wants to keep out, popularizing and reinforcing their binary worldview.” Rhetoric that employs false dichotomies of good and evil to juxtapose American values with those mythical and inherently violent ideologies that are often attributed to radical Islam bolsters the terrorist groups that perpetuate violence around the world. The travel ban is also damaging in the most personal ways, seriously affecting people with connections to Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen—the countries that are targeted by the travel ban. I spoke to a family friend, an Iranian immigrant and an American citizen who requested to remain anonymous for this story. Though he commented that “there are more unfortunate cases,” and that “the travel ban has affected me almost indirectly, and luckily not so badly,” he has to fly across the world when he wants to see his parents, who are residents of Tehran. “Before the travel ban issue,” he explained, “I had applied for my parents to get a green card. Because in the U.S. there is no long-term visa for some nationalities including Iranians. The only way that people from Iran can visit relatives in the U.S. is a green card.” Even though his parents are green card holders, making them lawful residents of the United States, an immigration lawyer warned that “because of Trump’s new travel ban, they will not be allowed to enter the country.” His parents would be turned around at the airport. Though my friend is able to see his own good fortune relative to others', he faces what some would consider extreme obstacles to see his family. Because he did not complete his military service in Tehran, he cannot go see his parents either. Instead, they have to meet in places like Istanbul.
When we see terrifying stories in the news like the 2017 New York City pickup truck incident, we can ask ourselves what might motivate a person to commit such an attack. In fact, our country’s tendency to portray the ideologies of outsiders as fundamentally at odds with American ideals might serve as confirmation for those groups of outsiders who believe the same: that we are poisonous to them. By having inclusive attitudes and policies for individuals of all belief systems, backgrounds, and cultures, the United States can limit the appeal of these terrorist organizations. One 2016 NPR story explained, “Organizations like ISIS take advantage of people who, because of racism or religious or political discrimination, have been pushed to the margins of society.” Instead of pushing people to the margins, the United States has the opportunity to welcome individuals of all backgrounds. The travel ban legislation—which is barely veiled racism—and the Supreme Court decision that upheld it legitimize racism and justify fears of an imaginary radical “other.” We do not have to give into the fear of the radical outsider that was so pervasive a century ago. The relationship between the government and the people is not always easy to parse. It is not clear if it is culture that informs politics or if laws and legislation inform culture. In this case, I believe that the official position of the federal government and President Trump’s executive order legitimize those strains of American culture that give into fear of the radical outsider. As individuals and as a community, we can use our culture to fight back. There is no recipe for doing this, but in my liberal hometown, signs depicting a woman wearing a hijab captioned,“Everyone is Welcome Here,” are ubiquitous. This seems like a pretty good start.
Cooking in Dorms
How to Feed Yourself
T
By Abbie Hui illustrated by Rémy Poisson
he thought of college food brings absolute excitement to some, but a dull headache to others. I remember fretting over the regular vs. Flex meal plans the summer before my freshman year and finally choosing the latter. I chose to embrace the freedom of Flex, as I assumed I would eat out on Thayer Street. I also kept an open mind about the possibility of working on my undeveloped culinary skills in a dorm kitchen. With this mindset, I arrived on campus as a brighteyed, eager freshman, ready to tackle my studies and nutritional goals. After I had begun several loving relationships with Ratty oatmeal and omelettes, Andrews poké bowls, and Blue Room muffins, the appeal of university food choices eventually diminished. Meanwhile, I explored Thayer’s eateries with my new friends, who would describe me as a voracious eater. by CHLOE.’s Pesto Pasta and La Creperie’s
Catherine crepe satiated my cravings. However, the expense of eating out for many meals was not sustainable on my student budget. Ultimately, I turned to the Keeney kitchen. Oven, check. Stove, check. Sink, check. I was ready to start cooking. Thankfully, I had purchased some basic cooking utensils when I first moved in, so all I needed to cook were some ingredients. Organizing a Whole Foods trip with my friends, I happily went grocery shopping and purchased eggs, stir-fry beef, prepackaged frozen tuna, and vegetables. I managed to make two edible, albeit slightly overcooked, dishes the next morning. After these initial attempts at adulting, I established a schedule where I would cook every other weekend. One of my favorite dishes is the egg muffin, which is inspired by the Blue Room’s breakfast egg sandwiches. This is a foolproof recipe: simply preheat the oven to 375° F, coat the muffin tray with oil, add your choice of protein and vegetables into each of the muffin tins, fill them with a beaten egg and milk mixture, and then bake
them for 15-20 minutes. Over the course of my first year, I grew and adapted my culinary knowledge from a few basic recipes and ingredients to some truly delectable dishes. This school year, I’m employing the skills I gained from last year’s experience to cook in my sophomore dorm’s kitchen. As with many other skills, one’s cooking ability will improve with time, but these useful tips helped me to cook better in dorm kitchens: have basic cooking utensils, be creative with kitchen gadgets, use a few basic spices and recipes, and cook in bulk. Dorm kitchens are not always well-stocked, so check that yours has the essential tools or get your own. Cooking will be easier when you have access to a knife, cutting board, can opener, stainless steel omelette pan, saucepan with a lid, sheet pan, and spatula. Designate a box to carry your cookware as well as other important kitchen supplies like oven mitts, food storage containers, aluminum foil, towels, heavy sponges, and dish soap. Secondly, look beyond your basic cooking utensils and be creative with your kitchen gadgets. Having the right tools and knowing many ways to use them make cooking much easier and so much more fun. Let’s take muffin tins as an example. Other than making those delicious egg muffins, muffin tins can be used for brownie baking, mini sweet or savory pie making, and more. Another versatile tool is the mug. When you crave something more substantial than a beverage, try following an easy recipe for mug cakes, cookies, quiches, or even spaghetti. Adhere to the saying “quality over
“That’s my favorite joke about friction.” “If at first you don’t succeed… dig a hole and cry… because you’ll never be good enough.” “I think I like Trident gum, but I’ll always be a Hubba Bubba Boi.” SEPTEMBER 21, 2018!3
NARRATIVE quantity,” and purchase high-quality multipurpose items so that you have cookware that will last you throughout your college career. The 20% off coupons at Bed Bath & Beyond are one way to make purchasing such kitchen utensils a good deal and investment. After your Bed Bath & Beyond shopping trip, make a trip to the grocery store. Don’t forget to grab a few spices that can be added to virtually any recipe. Some of my favorites are teriyaki sauce and garlic powder—they make for a perfect marinade sauce and seasoning. Soak your choice of greens, chicken, pork, shrimp, or beef in teriyaki sauce for at least an hour before cooking to add a subtle, sweet flavor to the dish. With some garlic powder, you can garnish your pasta, seafood, or garlic bread for a wholesome, low-sodium meal. Ground dehydrated garlic is also a great addition to popcorn and nuts. Keeping a few easy recipes on hand to practice will also make cooking simpler. Clear instructions and easy-to-source ingredients will make your cooking effortless. When you stick to recipes, you will also have an easy-to-follow routine that you can always count on. With your simple recipes, you might overestimate the amount of ingredients you need and make a larger portion than intended when you’re first learning how to cook, but this is beneficial because you will have leftover food. When you have these cooked meals stored for the next day or two, you gain the security of not having to worry about what to eat, which is especially helpful during busy times. College is an exciting phase of life, but be mindful of what your body needs. Everybody’s metabolism is different, so practice your dorm cooking and tailor it to feed your body healthy and nutritious meals. I am ready to tackle my second round of dorm cooking, so let’s embark together on this fun journey of food for both the body and the mind.
Notes from the Noodle Nook
Four Types of Pho Customers
I
by Naomi Kim Illustrated By Cricket McNally
’m sweaty. It’s only been 20 minutes since my shift started, but I’ve already somehow managed to pour steaming hot broth onto my gloved hand instead of into the bowl. But now there’s no one to serve, and time seems to slow down in here, inching along at an unbearable pace. I sigh and gather stray bits of carrot and scallion into my hand, and I toss them into the trash can along with my too-big glove in one practiced motion. And then: a customer! A girl in a Brown hoodie and tattered, wide-legged trousers stands waiting on the other side of the glass. This is Andrews on a Thursday afternoon, and I am somewhere between melting to death and going mad with boredom. I toss a bundle of noodles into the water, crank up the heat to boiling, and throw in a handful of bean sprouts. Through all my shifts at Andrews on the pho side of the eatery, I’ve had the chance to observe the students who come to get pho. In between random spikes of busyness and interminable dull stretches, in between requests for extra mushrooms and the occasional, apologetic “Could I get one with no bean sprouts?”, I’ve had ample time to sort these
4!post–
customers into four broad categories. The first category of customer is the distracted or disengaged one. Distraction mainly results from phones and sometimes friends. Occasionally there are students who, even at the front of the line, have their heads bent over their screens as they scroll through Facebook events or Instagram or Canvas. I have to get their attention with a loud, “Hi! How can I help you?” While many students generally put their phones away while requesting their toppings, there are always those who say, “Scallions,” and go right back to scrolling. Then they glance up to say, “Uh, is that parsley?” about the cilantro. Other customers aren’t necessarily looking at their phones; they’ve got an earbud in and are talking to someone, which invariably leads to moments like, “Hang on, Mom— could I get beef?—Yeah, so, anyway…” The second category is made up of people who aren’t distracted, aren’t disengaged, but talk so quietly I can barely hear them through the glass. The mumblers. Some of them hardly seem to be moving their lips at all. I wonder, though, if I’ve ever been guilty of the same. Before I began working at Andrews, I didn’t understand why workers were always straining to hear when I, as a customer, could hear them perfectly well. But the world on the other side of the glass is entirely different. The unexpectedly loud sound of boiling water, some pan clanging in the kitchen, chefs joking around, music blasting overhead—the constant roaring noise leaves me trying to read mumblers’ lips. I shout, “Extra jalapeños?” and am met with frantic head shaking. No jalapeños. That’s a big difference. Mumblers, however, don’t seem to realize that they are virtually indecipherable to anyone but themselves. Sometimes they supplement their inaudible requests with vague gestures, and pho becomes a guessing game. The third category of customer is the standard sort. The kind I have no complaints about. These are the people who speak loudly enough or use obvious, more effective gestures. Sometimes they’re chatting with other people, but they are paying enough attention that the line moves quickly
enough. No one is exceptionally memorable in this category. The fourth and final type of Andrews pho customer is the friendly, personable sort. These people are friendlier and kinder than mere politeness or courtesy calls for. They greet me like an old friend even though I don’t know a single one of them. They are the ones most likely to ask, “How are you?” and to make small talk about the terrors of exam season, the long weekend, the eternal rain. Sometimes they mention what they’re concentrating in or where they’re from.
Pho can be very dull, very repetitive, and very hot. It’s the friendly small-talkers who break up the monotony and cheer me up. Although these exchanges are essentially basic conversations between strangers, they have come to mean something to me. Pho can be very dull, very repetitive, and very hot. It’s the friendly smalltalkers who break up the monotony and cheer me up. As I watch them walk away to the register, I realize they probably have no idea what kind of effect they’ve just had. Next week when they’re back, they probably won’t even recognize me, but often, I recall their faces, their personal tidbits. Small talk it may be, but it turns out that it can have bigger impacts than expected. When my shift is over at last, I rip off my gloves and toss them into the trash can without a backwards glance. Good riddance! My hands can at last breathe a little. On my way to swipe out, I say goodbye to co-workers and try not to slip on the wet floor by the dishwasher. I walk back to my dorm to tackle all the readings awaiting me—but hours later, I’m suddenly yanked back into the world of Andrews when I catch a whiff of curry broth still lingering on my hands. I vow to never be a mumbler in the pho line.
ARTS&CULTURE LIFESTYLE
Listen to the Coyote
Audiobooks and the Navajo Tradition by Danielle Emerson Illustrated By Ella Rosenblatt
M
y grandmother loved to reminisce on her days herding sheep. She’d share old farm tales, when animals roamed and angry geese poked at their backsides. We’d all gather around her cast-iron stove, breathing in the heavenly scent of burning cedar, intrigued by these stories of her past and of our history. These were the nights I looked forward to. During the day, I scrambled around in the dirt, collected rocks, and ran through the cornfield with my band of cousins and siblings on the Navajo reservation. But as soon as the sun set, we all clambered inside and bundled up in our favorite worn blankets, hanging on my grandmother’s every word. These stories—each reflecting on various aspects of the Navajo (Diné) culture—stick with me to this day. When I mention storytelling, many of us might imagine our beloved grandmothers pulling out a book full of beautiful illustrations with script along the margins. This was not the case in my grandmother’s home, a hogan—the customary dwelling of the Navajo people. My grandparents relied on traditional Navajo storytelling, which was passed down orally. In fact, the Navajo language didn’t have a formal written component until missionaries and settlers arrived in the Southwest. In the early 20th century, the first Navajo alphabet set was finally published, but it was rarely used by native speakers. Despite the contemporary obstacles, our culture of oral storytelling remains intact to this day. We listen. We reflect. We respond. Our practice is a social activity. In those moments, we’re all present. During the winter season, my grandmother told stories of Coyote and the animals. I remember how she looked each of my siblings in the eye and said, “You can’t tell these stories after the first thunder.” She explained how these tales were only for winter because that’s when the animals are hibernating and can’t hear us recount their history. Though most of these stories can now be found in books, growing up, I experienced them by ear. Each of my grandmother’s words took on a lyrical sound, rhythm drawing me in and out with each recollection. “Coyote was a trickster.” I nudged my brother’s side, snickering. He nudged me back, indignant. “The Holy People came together to organize the stars.” I leaned forward; this was my favorite story. “They created the constellations, placing Náhookos Bika’ii (The Big Dipper) and Náhookos Biko’ (Polaris) in the north.” I watched my grandmother’s hands, enchanted. “Once the constellations were finished, they had stars left over. One wanted to arrange them into a circle. Another wanted a diamond.” I bit my lips, listening. “But Coyote was nearby, spying from the bushes. He was angry the Holy People didn’t invite him to the meeting.” I smiled, waiting. “The Holy People had the stars laid out on a buckskin blanket. While they consulted and argued, Coyote jumped out of the bushes, took the blanket in his hands, and tossed the stars into the night sky.” I felt her words rush over me, like I too was on that blanket, hurled into the sky. My brother sat up, “And then what? Did he get in trouble?” I remember my grandmother smiling, “Hush, shiyazh (a term of endearment). Listen.” This was storytelling in its finest form. Entering preschool, I learned the public school
system favored a different medium. To soften the transition, my father curled up with me on our frayed couch and read aloud, my stubby index finger tracing the text. With no other printed texts readily available, we’d often read tattered car manuals. On my own, I attempted to recreate those moments of revelation with my grandmother. But the text always fell flat. Reading with my father became a daily activity—at least he did voices. As a young Native girl entering elementary school, I assimilated myself into print culture. I read school library books and forced myself to take notes. The common argument for print books among my teachers was the ability to interact directly with the text via Post-it notes, highlighters, etc. Naively, I took their words as gospel and forced silent reading. But storytelling was never silent at home. Near the start of middle school, I began reading books aloud to myself. I played with the language. I acted out the voices, felt the rhythm. Sure, I might’ve looked a little crazy, sitting alone in a corner reading the dialogue aloud, but it felt familiar. Visits to my grandmother’s hogan became less and less frequent as the years went by. This separation intensified my relationship with print books. I threw all caution to the wind and read viciously, trying to reclaim that same rhythm. It wasn’t until my final year of middle school that I managed to complete an entire series. I always lost interest around the second book, if I could get through the first. I felt extremely out of place, watching my peers judge me for being below grade level. Suddenly a solution hit me: audiobooks. Though I couldn’t access them outside of YouTube and the occasional library rental, they became my preferred source of literature. After school, I could plug in my headphones and walk home in reflective peace. I felt connected with the text. Memories of my grandmother and her stories returned. Tales of Changing Women and the Holy People, of Father Sky and Mother Earth, and of the Four Worlds. Audiobooks brought me back to my roots. But I soon learned audiobooks were also the bane of public schools. Almost by default, I was deemed academically inadequate by teachers and peers alike. Audiobooks are not branded with the prestigious reputation of print. Many discredit their undeniable value: “Oh that’s not real reading,” or, “You’re not really learning anything.” Dozens of studies, such as “Using Audiobooks to Meet the Needs of Adolescent Readers” by Gene Wolfson, prove audiobooks are just as intellectually enriching as printed books. The belief that audiobooks carry no real significance enforces another dangerous idea—that specific forms of knowledge are inherently superior to others. To say audiobooks are not as challenging as print books is to imply that the oral history of other cultures is not as enriching as the
dominating medium. The Diné culture carries tradition proudly. My grandparents are respected elders within my family. Whenever they share their stories—full of lived experiences, childish mistakes, and learned wisdom— the room goes quiet. But outside of this circle, their words are ignored. It’s ironic that Native American cultures are generally known for their oral storytelling, and yet our voices remain unheard. Welcoming diverse experiences, rather than labeling them insignificant, opens various pockets of understanding. Audiobooks, just like the traditions of my grandparents and those before them, should be respected as a valued source of knowledge. All knowledge, no matter its origin or form, can enrich your perspective of the world. It’s been eight years, and whenever I look up at the night sky, I still remember the story of Coyote and the Holy People. During these soft moments of reflection, no matter where they occur, my grandmother’s words come back to me: “Hush, shiyazh. Listen.”
Thank God I Have a Future Reflecting on Reflecting on Rapper Mac Miller’s death By Julian Towers illustrated by Monika Hedman
T
he first thing you’re supposed to do is place yourself relative to the death. And since you asked, I remember exactly where I was. Exactly. The collapse of Mac Miller’s body from toxic chemical overdose occurred in precise symmetry with a downward step, as I dropped through the doors of CVS into the sunny afternoon blue. I know this to be true because, sometime before landing, I felt the text in my pocket. With the vibration, my eyes fluttered downward. Returning to center, they refocused on a scowling jogger, heaving his weight closer each instant. Middle-aged, nearing burnout, the man had signaled his approach a beat earlier, but had clearly made substantial progress since then. How absurd that I, a 20-year-old—so young, virile, and valuable—should be in his way. Pulling graciously out of the jogger’s path but feeling hateful for having had my movement interrupted, I leaned forward and blew a sarcastic little “whoa!” into his passing ear. It was good to be alive, to move my body however I cared, and to assert these as facts. Smirking, I pulled out my cell phone and let it lead SEPTEMBER 21, 2018!5
ARTS&CULTURE me in a stiff idiot’s shuffle down Thayer Street. When the runner looked back, I wanted him to see me sacrificing my strength and health to instant gratification. I wanted him to associate my incivility, my shallowness, and my cruelty with my age. In absolute truth, I wanted his anger. I wanted him to feel me wasting my youth while he fought to slow his own decline. But this was all over in an instant. The lessons of his dying body disappeared in my phone’s short, electronic light. Squinting down, the text I read was simple, “Mac Miller died of overdose.” It came from the same friend who, in June, had alerted me with the equally spare “XXXtentacion is dead.” As then, the news wasn’t anything less than horrible. Yet today, my first instinct was to smile. Here was my friend—among life’s many small duties, he clearly considered it key to update Julian Towers on dead rappers. I wondered why he felt the need. Had the shock of the news rendered its truth dreamlike and vulnerable to doubt, demanding he confirm it through another? My reply of “Holy shit!” proving, yes, this was real—a 26-year-old lay dead in California? Honestly, probably not. It had been years since I’d cared much about Miller, and the same was probably true of my friend. Sharing his death had been reflexive, an act of pure lizard-brain function. It contained no more inherent significance than had he linked to the day’s other big news story: “I Love It (ft Lil Pump).” The text even read bland, like a terse internet headline. It signified nothing, except that together, we occupied the same generational pocket, and that our continued and diligent attention to culture was very important. I almost asked why, but quickly stopped myself.
This was too much thinking at 10 a.m. Googling to verify, I bookmarked a couple sad-faced social media reactions to read over lunch, and pocketed my phone. At a friend’s dorm that evening, in the glassyeyed haze before a night out, order dictated it was my turn for Spotify privileges. Nobody looks forward to this; I have zero room-read, and tend to forward hipster esoterica in place of music people actually care about. Still, this wasn’t my worst showing: Astroworld left to play undisturbed several tracks at a time, plus plenty of Lil Uzi. Nevertheless, I grew restless and, after some tossing back and forth, snuck Mac Miller into the queue. Fingers tapping anxiously, I played at being casual while speaking with my friends, all the while knowing that right after this, the very next song, I’d be letting a ghost in. But “Matches” came and went without incident, and I realized I had been melodramatic. Miller’s flow, always a laconic drawl, was no match for the gathered revelry. Everyone probably thought “Sicko Mode” was still playing. Kicking off a bad, pompous line of thought, I began to wonder if their ignorance was somehow symbolic, the party a closed-room, miniature recreation of the cultural conditions that preceded Miller’s death. His tenure as a party-rocking, 19-year-old YouTube superstar—Easy Mac with the cheesy raps—left a scrim of humor and levity on his name, a distance that hung around, even as the music grew explicitly desperate (“To everyone who sell me drugs / Don’t mix it with that bullshit / I’m hoping not to join the 27 club,” he rapped in 2015). That night, that screaming-but-silent dichotomy was damn near physicalized. Especially when
“There is crime and there are grumpy people because the city is not a utopia where everyone holds hands and sings folk songs around a glowing campfire.” —Chantal Maruta, From Brandenburg to Currywurst, 9.21.17
“But somehow, it leaves you feeling a little bit dirty.” —Yidi Wu, Editor’s Note, 9.22.16
viewed alongside the death of XXXtentacion, the criminally aggressive, attention-seeking “Look at Me” rapper whose violent death had been greeted as a sort of form-meets-content, the ultimate and final art of his short life. By contrast, there was little about Mac that suggested overdose would be his destiny, even though, frankly, near everything did. It would be as though, tomorrow, Stephen King came out as a serial killer; all the signs are there, but, like, c’mon dude. Not caring to contain it longer, the truth tumbled out, something like, “Yo, my friends, my fools. Mac Miller.” This, finally, provoked the protests of concern and discomfort I had anticipated, something like, “Dude…why?” Beyond sheer ghoulishness, playing Miller’s music at such a debauched moment seemed almost spiritually unwise, a heedless act of provocation. The song would likely have been shut off if I hadn’t reminded my friends that this was probably an important generational moment. The queue grew longer. Old favorites like “Party on Fifth Avenue” and “Frick Park Market” were requested, bracketed by curious discovery of his “new material”— for most people, a designation that stretched back to 2013. People tried to sing along, but the words were misshapen. In an instant, I saw what had made Miller’s death such a strange, affecting moment. Ensnared and finally drowned in the bubbles of their own zeitgeist, the recent deaths of Lil Peep and XXXtentacion were certainly tragic, but didn’t seem to stand outside the narratives we’d been eagerly following. By contrast, Miller had already had his moment, and his distance from mass relevance was made possible by how intense the glow of his early career was. I’m happy Miller met my generation when he did, somewhere between the first Bar Mitzvah Party and freshman dance. I know many precocious, former teen-wonders emboldened by his DIY spirit to reach further, to be better in their own fields. You’ll find few people our age that don’t recall playing video games to the beat of “Kool-Aid & Frozen Pizza,” finding solace in lines like, “Yeah, I live a life pretty similar to yours / Used to go to school, hang with friends, and play sports.” You’ll find even less who still listen to Mac. His evolution, from youngest frat boy in New York to West Coast abstract searcher, garnered critical acclaim as well as respect from music nerds like me, but cost him the zeitgeist. That this was how he died, outside our collective Spotify playlists, made for an uncomfortable sort of guilt; how long can we remain attentive to the culture that once cradled us? With age, will we shut out everything that doesn't hold our interest, only tuning in when it is too late for Mac Miller, for culture, for us? I didn’t sleep that night, equally anxious about dying young and growing old. If nothing else, I’d apologize to the jogger. EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
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COMMENTARY PAGE 4 • FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2018
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
CORRECTION An earlier version of the Sept. 20 Herald article, “Center for Reconciliation addresses legacy of slavery in R.I.,” misspelled Elon Cook-Lee’s MA’14 name as Elon Cook. The Herald regrets the error.
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COMMENTARY FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2018 • PAGE 5
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
Requiem for the Bear’s Lair CLARE STEINMAN OPINIONS EDITOR I should probably start by admitting that I was never much of a fan. Like the Sharpe Refectory and the Sciences Library, the Bear’s Lair fell into a category of places on campus that I frequented not because I liked being there, but because they were steady and reliable — they got the job done. Though I spent my freshman and junior years living in luxurious proximity to the Nelson Fitness Center, I learned during my sophomore days on Patriot’s Court that convenience always trumps quality when it comes to fitting in a workout, especially during the colder months. Now that I’m living on the southern end of campus again, and now that the Bear’s Lair has been desecrated into a baffling lounge with a pair of forgotten treadmills in a corner, I can already sense the brutalist-shaped hole it has left in my heart and my physical regimen. True, the Bear’s Lair always smelled like the Grad Center Bar. (Or was it the GCB that smelled like the Bear’s Lair? Maybe now I’ll finally be able to find out.) The treadmills, if they were working, made
terrifying rattling noises, and the array of options was far more limited than can be found at the Nelson. Still, for the students who live south of Waterman St., the Bear’s Lair made it vastly easier to make time in the day for exercise, which has been proven time and again to be one of the best ways to maintain physical
taking large-scale renovations that make these resources less accessible than they were to begin with. While the deliberations that led to this decision have not been made public, this appears to be a case of the University fixing what isn’t broken (well, except for the treadmills.) In my own experience and that of
is carved out of the day, even small delays add up. The satellite fitness center in Emery-Woolley has also ceased to exist, leaving only the Keeney fitness center, which is only accessible to residents of that quad. I wonder how much student input, or even simple observation of these
In my own experience and that of many of my peers, the Bear’s Lair was popular and well-used, more welcoming than the Nelson and easier to fit into an already packed schedule.
and mental health during times of stress. A 2010 study even found that vigorous exercise can lead to a “sizable difference” in GPAs for college students. My complaints over a 15-minute walk to a gym where the intention is to work out anyway may seem overblown. But in the interest of promoting student health and wellness, the University should not be under-
many of my peers, the Bear’s Lair was popular and well-used, more welcoming than the Nelson and easier to fit into an already packed schedule. Reacting to the University’s upgrades of the Bear’s Lair in early 2011, Christian Talavera ’12 pointed out that most students are “on a tight schedule and typically allow and allot a certain time for the gym.” When time for exercising
two former fitness centers during peak hours, was incorporated into the choice to eliminate them. I’ve found that communal spaces like the one recently installed in place of the Bear’s Lair are almost always underutilized, failing to reflect the way that students actually interact with each other in their living spaces. Meanwhile, the fact that the Bear’s Lair was popular even in its
decrepit state underscores the demand for satellite fitness centers ,no matter their quality. To eliminate the Bear’s Lair and the fitness center in Emery-Woolley without providing any kind of replacement will only concentrate that demand in the remaining two campus gyms, with the Nelson bearing the brunt because of Keeney’s limited access. This will either translate into bigger crowds and longer wait times or a less physically active student body — and the former could easily result in the latter. Later today, our beloved Brown Bears will take to the football field to play (and realistically, lose to) the Harvard Crimson in what is traditionally the most popular sporting event of the year. I’m not saying that the preservation of the Bear’s Lair will transform Brown into an athletic powerhouse, but it certainly couldn’t hurt.
Clare Steinman ’19 is probably still walking to the Nelson, and can be reached at clare_steinman@brown.edu. Please send responses to this opinion to letters@browndailyherald.com and op-eds to opinions@browndailyherald.com.
DA P H N E Z HAO / H E R A L D
NEWS THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2018
HOPE creates legislative guide for housing issues Student group, community partners address homelessness through policy initiatives By KATHERINE BENNETT SENIOR STAFF WRITER
As Rhode Island continues rebuilding from the Great Recession of 2008, the key issues of homelessness and housing affordability remain a problem for many in the state, according to a study published by HousingWorks RI in 2017. In order to address and raise awareness around this issue at the legislative level, the University student group Housing Opportunities for People Everywhere created the Model Housing and Homelessness Policy Platform to share with elected officials and community homelessness activists. According to the HousingWorks RI study, some of the issues driving current housing instability include a lack of diverse, quality housing, an aging housing stock, high housing cost burdens and few affordable quality houses for low-income households. In 2016, “more than 4,200 Rhode Islanders spent at least one night in a shelter bed or transitional program” and 8,500 eviction cases were filed. In 2015, “half of all Rhode Island renter households, more than one in three homeowner households with a mortgage and one in five homeowner households without a mortgage (were) cost burdened,” meaning they spent over 30 percent of their annual income on housing, the study found. In order to address these issues,
HOPE’s policy platform lays out a series of short- and long-term priorities centered on supporting community members facing housing instability. In the short-term, the document recommends passing various pieces of legislation, from prohibiting landlords from discriminating against renters with government rental assistance to waiving fees for obtaining identification and records for those in danger of homelessness. In the long-term, the platform focuses on large-scale reforms to address the affordable housing dilemma. The recommendations, supported by a list of concrete steps to help achieve them, include increasing low-income housing development and creating greater housing stability. According to Nathaniel Pettit ’20, a co-director of HOPE, the platform not only provides an actionable list for elected officials, but also functions as HOPE’s own set of priorities. “We’d be really happy to see this be used as a starting point for conversation … amongst the bigger housing advocacy community,” he said. The document, which HOPE started writing in July, went through a series of discussions and revisions with homelessness advocacy groups throughout Rhode Island, Pettit said. Because students are temporary residents of Rhode Island, it’s important for community advocacy groups to be involved in HOPE’s work, said Dhruv Singh ’20, communications director of HOPE. These groups include Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless, Direct Action for Rights and Equality, Housing Network of Rhode Island, House of Hope CDC, HousingWorks RI and
TINA YANG / HERALD
Signs of Providence. Throughout the platform’s development, HousingWorks RI collaborated with the students of HOPE to help raise awareness around the policy issues and to shift toward solution-oriented conversations, said Brenda Clement, director of HousingWorks RI. For Signs of Providence, collaborating with HOPE provided an opportunity to work with the students around policy initiatives to address
eviction in the state, said Oscar Dupuy d’Angeac ’17, co-founder of Signs of Providence. “Rhode Island has three times the evictions … of Massachusetts,” he said. Currently, there are few protections for renters regarding sudden rent rises and abrupt housing changes that result in eviction, he added. After drafting the platform, HOPE presented the final platform to the housing and homelessness policy group at United Way, Pettit said. The next
step of the process, sending out the final platform to elected officials, will take place in the next few days, he said. Ultimately, Pettit hopes that this platform will help create a sustained advocacy effort around housing issues. “Many of us will be here for four years,” Pettit said. “We want to make sure that whoever takes over for us can continue a long-term vision. … That’s why it’s so important for us to embed our efforts amongst our community partners.”