Monday, February 28th, 2022

SINCE 1891

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD MONDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2022

VOLUME CLVII, ISSUE 14

BROWNDAILYHERALD.COM

SPORTS

METRO

Club sports discuss informal recruiting Neo-Nazis disrupt book Some club sport coaches describe relationship with admissions office BY MIZUKI KAI & EMMA MADGIC SENIOR STAFF WRITERS After volunteering with the team since 1997, David Laflamme became the Uni-

versity’s first paid, full-time men’s rugby coach in 2015. When he started full-time coaching and began contemplating ways to grow the program, Laflamme said he knew that “the biggest thing” he had to do “was get rugby players to Brown,” so he began a global recruitment push. Club sports at Brown are divided into three main tiers “based on level of competition and aspiration,” according to Jake Silverman, deputy athletics director for administration. Tier C teams are an “extension of fitness” for

reading at local library

recreational purposes, Silverman said. Tier B teams are more competitive and travel to play against other colleges. Tier A teams, like men’s rugby, are nationally competitive programs with full-time coaches such as Laflamme, according to Silverman. Unlike varsity athletics, club sports do not receive formal recruiting slots or funding from the University. But

Community rallies to support Red Ink Community Library in aftermath BY BRENDAN GARDNER METRO EDITOR

SEE RECRUITMENT PAGE 7 Members of the neo-Nazi group NSC-131 disrupted a reading of “The Communist Manifesto” at the Red Ink Community Library in the Mount Hope neighborhood of Providence Feb. 21, banging on windows and screaming at attendees inside the building. In videos posted to social media, the neo-Nazis can be seen carrying a swastika flag and wearing masks with skull and black sun insignia, which the Southern Poverty Law Center identifies as symbols used by fascist groups. The library-goers had gathered to hear and discuss selections from “The Communist Manifesto” by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels for Red Books Day, held annually on the anniversary

of the pamphlet’s publication in 1848. The Red Ink Community Library functions as a reading room, lending library and organizing space that was “always intended to be a joyous celebration of socialist values, of community building, education, knowledge and respect,” according to the library’s director David Raileanu. After an initial library member stepped out to confront them and realized the disparity in numbers between the neo-Nazis and people inside the building, the library-goers decided to stay inside for safety. “It was a shouting match at that point until police showed up” 10 or 15 minutes later, he said. Police who responded to the incident identified 15 to 20 members of the neo-Nazi group, WPRI reported. Raileanu said that the police were called by neighborhood residents. Those in the library had refrained from calling out of concern that introducing the police to a situation where “we did not immediately rec-

SEE LIBRARY PAGE 2

JACK WALKER / HERALD | DATA FROM MEN’S RUGBY COACH DAVID LAFLAMME | CREATED WITH DATAWRAPPER

UNIVERSITY NEWS

UCS, UFB, CCB leadership form Student Government Association SGA plans to standardize elections timeline, student gov’t Code of Conduct BY KATHY WANG SENIOR STAFF WRITER Leadership of the Undergraduate Council of Students, the Undergraduate Finance Board and the Class Coordinating Board formed the Student Government Association, a group meant to foster better communication between the dif-

ferent branches of student government, at the end of last semester, following the advice of their advisor Joie Steele, director of student activities. The leadership council includes current UCS President Summer Dai ’22 , UCS Vice President Sam Caplan ’22, UFB Chair Akilesh Raman ’22, UFB Vice Chair Mukul Khanna ’23 — a photographer for The Herald — and CCB senior co-presidents Bree Zhang ’22 and Mel Cui ’22. According to Cui, SGA seeks to standardize the elections process for all three branches. Going forward, the three groups will have the same

elections timeline, code, penalties and handbook. SGA will also standardize student government’s Code of Conduct and the impeachment and removal processes, she said. SGA has already finished drafting the new elections timeline and submitted it to Steele for review, Cui said. “Our main goal is to lower the barriers of entry for student government elections. That includes changing … the number of signatures required for a petition (and) shortening the overall period of time that it would require a

SEE SGA PAGE 7

JACK WALKER / HERALD

CCB senior co-president Mel Cui ’22 said that SGA is also “an avenue for us to work on events or policies as an entire student government.”

UNIVERSITY NEWS

Black Star Journal gala celebrates publication’s launch Event features reflections, performances by Journal members BY NEIL MEHTA SENIOR STAFF WRITER The Black Star Journal hosted a gala in the Hazeltine Commons Sunday af-

U. News Russia expert Fiona Hill discusses Ukraine, new book at Watson Institute Page 2

ternoon to celebrate the launch of its inaugural issue last Friday. The event featured reflections from the journal’s editors-in-chief, Amiri Nash ’24 and Keiley Thompson ’24, followed by performances of select works from the journal’s first issue. The Black Star Journal is the first Black student newspaper on campus, according to Nash. The publication’s creation was announced Nov. 10, The Herald previously reported.

Arts & Culture John Mulaney hosts SNL for the fifth time, balancing humor, emotion Page 3

The event began with remarks from Nash, who called on the gala audience to “enjoy learning about our history, beauty, triumph, pain and joy through the power of words, art and visuals.” Gala attendees watched Black Star Journal Columnist Caziah Mayers ’24 perform “Eyes Wide Shut,” a reflection on the coexistence of Black generational trauma and joy. “For my piece, I wanted to talk about

Sports Men’s basketball defeats Columbia 81-74 on senior night Page 5

how the past follows us into the future … knowing that generational trauma must imply generational joy,” Mayers said. “If our ancestors can pass their pain to us and our bodies, then we must have their … positive experiences (and) their traditions.” Following Mayers, Nicholas Amuh ’24 delivered a reading of “Black Visuality in the Arts: Agency in the Unseen,” an article he wrote for the inaugural issue. Amuh’s work reflected on “Defying

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the Shadow,” an art exhibition at the RISD Museum that explores “the notions of how we perceive Blackness and Black bodies,” Amuh said. The focus of his piece was “Untitled,” a photograph by artist Roy DeCarava included in the RISD exhibition. Amuh explained that while “everything that’s being said and portrayed in this journal is so important and so

SEE BSJ PAGE 3

DESIGNED BY LENA HE ’24 DESIGN EDITOR

ANNA RYU ’25 DESIGN EDITOR

ANGELA BAEK ’24 DESIGNER

MADDY CHERR DESIGNER