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76
Daily
Students rally against foreclosures
By eLizaBeth caRR Senior Staff Writer
the Brown
Herald
Since 1891
Over 60 protesters gathered to challenge Bank of America and rising home foreclosures in front of the banks building in downtown Providence yesterday afternoon.
Homeowners, janitors and students joined forces yesterday to protest Bank of Americas rising foreclosures and layoffs.
Were being screwed by the banking system, Christopher Currie, council coordinator for the Rhode Island branch of MoveOn. org, told The Herald. And Im not okay with that. The bank led by CEO Brian Moynihan 81 P14, a trustee of
Browns Corporation became embroiled in a scandal last year when documents came to light revealing that Bank of America and its competitors engaged in robo-signing, a process in which bank employees improperly approved mortgage and foreclosure
documents without reviewing them. The scandal has significantly decreased the rate of foreclosure across the industry, but the bank resumed more active foreclosure activity last month. continued on page 5
NE wS IN BRIEf
RIPTA cuts service hours for 13 routes
The Rhode Island Public Transit Authority authorized a reduction Tuesday in the frequency of bus service on 13 routes, according to an article in yesterdays Providence Journal. The changes, effective Nov. 1, will save $548,000 annually. The most recent cuts are the latest in a slew of reductions that have reduced the original RIPTA budget deficit of $4.6 million to $1.9 million. To close the entire budget gap, you would have to eliminate over 50 jobs, RIPTA Board Chairman Thomas Deller told the Journal. A large portion of RIPTAs funding comes from the gas tax, which has generated less revenue in recent years. This decrease, along with spending beyond RIPTAs appropriated funds, have fueled the current deficit. If RIPTA fails to close the gap within the next few months, further service reductions are likely to take place this winter. Next year, the problems going to be worse, Michael Lewis, director of the Rhode Island Department of Transportation, told the Journal. Legislation before Congress could result in significant reductions in federal funding for public transit in the state.
Off the main entrance looms the work of famous Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang. A students hiking journey is memorialized on the walls upstairs. And in the basement, a virtual chef can make you a pizza modeled after the globe. Every once in a while, he is shot dead. It has been seven months since the $38 million Perry and Marty Granoff Center for the Creative
Arts opened its shining glass doors and began filling its halls with art. Since its opening, it has housed classes, lectures, exhibits and events. This semester, the building which has four flexible-use studios, two media labs and an auditorium hosts 14 classes across seven departments. The building also features a recording studio, a traditional classroom and small sitting areas called living rooms off each stairwell landing.
ENGN 0120D: Strategies for Creative Process: Design Topics takes advantage of the most unique aspect of the buildings design its staggered floors. In the class, students work through many iterations of a project, moving between the physical and multimedia labs that are connected by a glass wall. By looking into other spaces, you get ideas, said Ian Gonsher, professor of engineering and forcontinued on page 2
They do not know his name, but some students have had disturbingly close encounters with him. He often comes up in conversation and has become the subject of jokes and songs. The man, an infamous naked masturbator, has been spotted in the yards of at least three off-campus student houses since this summer. We had called him the peeping tom, said Avery Houser 12.5, who said some of his friends call him the jerking tom. A female senior living in a John Street house said she has seen the man who usually stands outside her kitchen window at least five times this month. She last saw him Friday night around 9 p.m., she said. The man was first spotted by residents of her house over the July 4 weekend. The residents requested their address not be printed and their names be witheld due to concerns that the man would be able to identify them. I was doing dishes in the kitchen, and I saw a naked man. And then I realized hes masturbating completely naked and masturbating, said a female junior who lives in the house. She said he was within a foot and a half of the kitchen window at the time. continued on page 2
About 250 Brown and RISD students have signed up for MunchCard a student-created restaurant discount program a month into its launch. The MunchCard, billed by its creators as an offcampus alternative to University meal plans, is now being accepted at 20 College Hill eateries, with more to come. While the Blue Room now offers Asian food, Josiahs added Polish sausage and the Gate has been sophia seawell outfitted with miniature tables, the
MunchCard is driving changes of its own on Thayer Street, affecting where students decide to eat and how much they spend. I dont think it makes sense for anyone not to have a MunchCard, said Jacob Price 13, who is not on a campus meal plan and frequently uses the card. Andrew Silverman 14, who is not yet a MunchCard user, said while he would consider using the card as a supplement to his meal plan, he would not completely abandon a campus meal plan becontinued on page 4
MunchCard, an alternative to campus meal plans, allows students to eat at many of the restaurants on Thayer Street at a discount.
weather
inside
Post-
simmons says
U.s focus has shifted from undergrads to research
Post-, InsIDe oPInIons, 7
t o d ay
tomorrow
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2 Campus news
C ALENDAR
TODAY 12 P.m. Dynamic Landscapes, Joukowsky Institute 7 P.m. Paper and Pixel Release Party, Petteruti Lounge 9 P.m. Starla and Sons Show, Salomon 001 SEPTEmbER 29 TOmORROW 7:30 P.m. Better world by Design Mixer, 42 Rice St. SEPTEmbER 30
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The Granoff Center has provided the community with space to enjoy art.
SuDoku
CR oSSwoRD
just really wants a concert hall, he said. A concert hall was in the original plan for the building, but limits on the land and available funds made it impossible to build, Fishman said. In the early stages of planning, faculty members of the arts departments had to make a choice between improving their own facilities and creating the new center. They agreed to give up something, to be a part of something bigger, he said. As an a cappella singer, Rim was disappointed with the acoustics of the Martinos Auditorium. It tends to eat sound from your own perspective. That feedback is essential to hear yourself and correct for mistakes and changes in pitch, he said. The acousticians who worked on the auditorium will adjust the sound in the near future, possibly over winter break, Fishman said. He said the lights, which are motionactivated and sometimes turn on while students are watching presentations in the dark, will also be
adjusted. Chira DelSesto, assistant director of the Creative Arts Council, attributed difficulties with the buildings features to growing pains, she said. When we opened, we were pretty much a construction zone. Were in a little better shape, and things seem to be working more consistently. Many students said the center is less accessible than they had hoped. Dominic Wu 12 lamented the difficulty of reserving rooms. He said when he tries to reserve the auditorium for his a cappella group, the Higher Keys, the room is always booked. Students can reserve any space in the building, but the center is entirely booked for fall, said DelSesto. None of the groups who do have access to the spaces this semester should get too comfortable. The core concept of the building is that it isnt anybodys home space, DelSesto said. In order for the program to stay fresh, we cant have the same things here all the time.
Daily
the Brown
Herald
Matthew Burrows, Treasurer Isha Gulati, Secretary
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Campus news 3
By DaviD chung Senior Staff Writer
Biologists, economists New TWC director presents to UCS unite over fisheries
By KatheRine cusumano Contributing Writer
Since her first visit to Mexicos Gulf of California in 1996, Heather Leslie, assistant professor of environmental studies, has seen the fish stock decline first-hand. The gulf, which supplies more than half of Mexicos seafood and three-fourths of its shrimp, is changing rapidly. Leslie and Sriniketh Nagavarapu, assistant professor of economics and environmental studies, received over $240,000 Sept. 15 to study the relationship between the Mexican people and their environment. They will work with researchers from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California at San Diego and the Nature Conservancy. Leslie has been involved in projects along the Gulf of California, which she called the seafood basket of Mexico, for seven years. The grant will allow her and other researchers to conduct nearly 18 months of interdisciplinary studies about coupled human and natural systems. Natural resources are especially important in developing areas, Nagavarapu said. Small communities are dependent on these natural resources for income. The project will encompass several areas of research. One study involves how environmental factors affect resource management by private corporations. Several surveys will also extend the scope of the research in particular, plans to survey corporate leaders in the gulf will shed light on the relationship between private
and government monitoring of fishing stocks. The project is a truly interdisciplinary one. Leslie specializes in translating knowledge from environmental studies into policy and management. Nagavarapus background is environmental and developmental economics. These areas all inform how were thinking about people, Leslie said. This interdisciplinary approach is something that is only possible in Browns unique atmosphere, Leslie said. The research has not yet affected any policy in the area, but Leslie said they are not pressing for policy changes. They aim instead to provide the information necessary for the Mexican people, corporations and government to work together to find a solution. Problems in the area are receiving increasing attention. The Marine Stewardship Council, a major sustainable seafood agency, recently gave its approval to the Pacific sardine fishery, the largest fishery in the area. The agency brought together the conservation group Comunidad y Biodiversidad and fishery stakeholders to forge a policy that satisfied everyones needs, according to a press release by the council July 21. Leslie and Nagavarapu were among the 20 recipients of the National Science Foundations Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Human Systems grants. The research team, which includes postdoctoral research associates Leila Sievanen and Sheila Walsh, will head for the west coast in January.
At the general body meeting of the Undergraduate Council of Students last night, Mary Grace Almandrez, newly appointed director of the Third World Center and assistant dean of the College, laid out her vision for the center. Almandrez, who established multicultural centers at three other institutions before coming to Brown, said she is taking a threepronged approach to furthering the centers mission recruiting allies for the center, promoting its activities beyond the physical confines of the center and appointing two professionals.
She said she hopes to recruit allies to combat racism, sexism and homophobia against traditionally marginalized communities. Almandrez added that she wanted to raise awareness of social justice issues in the community by engaging with various student organizations and increasing the centers presence on campus. Almandrez said she is also planning to hire two staffers for the spring semester to strengthen the centers commitment to its mission one to focus on program development and one to focus on first- and second-year programs, such as the Third World Transition Program.
Though the recent focus of the center has been cultural expression, Almandrez said she aims to further promote deep discussion. Council committee leaders also provided updates at the meeting. Todd Harris 14, chair of the academic and administrative affairs committee, has been reviewing the Universitys online student resources, such as Advising Sidekick, with Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron. Campus Life Chair Michael Schneider 13 is continuing work on initiatives that have been on the table since last year, including improving SafeRide and increasing lighting on the Main Green.
4 Campus news
continued from page 1 fore senior year. The card is accepted at most Thayer Street restaurants, from Andreas to Mama Kims which, along with FroyoWorld and East Side Pockets is one of the most popular destinations for card users, according to MunchCard cofounder Ben Vishny 14. As originally formulated, MunchCard mimicked University meal plans combination of meal credits and points, but Vishny and co-founder Steven Tran 13 ultimately opted for a more straightforward discount model. Students can put money on the card, which then works like a debit card. Cardholders receive a 10 percent discount at most of the destinations that accept MunchCard. Meeting Street Cafe, which already offers a 10 percent student discount, offers 20 percent off the menu price to card users. Some restaurants, such as Kartabar, offer prix fixe meals that cost $6.99 with a MunchCard. Students who would never really come here are coming in now for lunch and for dinner, said Susan Mardo, Kartabars general manager. Its good for us and good for students. Tran and Vishny piloted the program this summer, but when it began in earnest this fall, a few restaurants encountered technical difficulties. After trying to pay with her
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An article in Wednesdays Herald, (Employees put off retirement to retain health care, Sept. 28) incorrectly stated that the University still offers an additional early retirement incentive for non-faculty members. In fact, this incentive was only offered from Nov. 9, 2009 to Dec. 23, 2009. The Herald regrets the error. An article in Tuesdays Herald (Keeping kosher, but not with meal plans, Sept. 27) incorrectly stated that dining services created the Flex 20 kosher meal plan three years ago. In fact, this is only the second year the plan has been offered. The Herald regrets the error. An article in Mondays Herald (Miscues bury Bears against Harvard, Sept. 26) incorrectly identified punter Nathan Lovett 12 as a Providence native. In fact, he is from East Providence. The Herald regrets the error.
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opinions 7
The Simmons legacy
And since Building Brown was the darling brainchild of her administration, when the recession came, the budget cuts had to made somewhere else. Simmons, calling for shared sacrifice over construction noise, fired nearly 100 employees while trying to strong-arm Brown Dining Services and University Library workers into giving up their health care. Reminding us that spending less in a recession was the prudent thing for anyHer resignation from Goldman, though, came only after she had tied Brown to the billions in bailout-backed executive bonuses she approved as a member of Goldmans compensation committee, drawing the ire of the national media and dragging the University into the recessions starkest example of tone-deaf corporate greed. Back on campus, undergraduate education never the biggest money maker was shunted to the sidelines in favor of university consolidates power in the hands of management and pushes its professors to do more research and less teaching, Simmons administration rammed through tenure reforms that gave tenure-granting authority to administrators instead of to faculty and doubled the number of required letters from outside experts in a faculty members field references that are earned not through quality teaching, which those experts never see, but rather through published (and profitable) research. All these reforms the defining accomplishments of Simmons presidential term come at the cost of quality undergraduate education in the liberal arts, a singular emphasis that has always distinguished Brown from its Ivy League counterparts. By turning Brown into just another research university, Simmons has abandoned the particular identity that attracted generations of students who were looking for more than a safety school for Harvard, Princeton or Yale. And to free up resources for her assimilationist vision, Brown under Simmons leadership has shamelessly embraced union-busting and price-gouging, ensuring that the true legacy of her tenure will not be progress and growth but homogeneity and corporatization. Simon Liebling 12 is from New Jersey. He can be reached at simon.liebling@gmail.com.
By SIMoN LIEBLING
opinions Columnist
No prospective student priced out of Brown has ever been the talk of campus. There have been no Associated Press obituaries lamenting the loss of tenure, teaching or the university-college. But as we bemoan the departure of Browns most beloved president, let us interrupt the admiration for a moment to remember the losses no one ever bothered to commemorate. From the beginning, it seemed that President Ruth Simmons and her administration took little pride in what makes Brown Brown. Obsessed with competitors, peer institutions and the battle for rankings and prestige, Simmons set out to make Brown into something it had never wanted or tried to be: Harvard South a profithunting international research university that scoffs at the quaint naivete of the beloved university-college. Recognizing the campus was not nearly glitzy enough for her aspirations, Simmons undertook a construction and renovation campaign on the order of hundreds of millions of dollars, ranging from the $100 million Sidney Frank Hall for Life Sciences to the rococo chandeliers that adorn J. Walter Wilson to a $10 million sidewalk.
undergraduate education was shunted to the sidelines in favor of revenue and profit-maximization as the administration chased its vision of a corporatized research university.
one to do, she raised tuition 16 percent over the last four years, trusting that our families were somehow more able than Brown to shoulder the burden. For her part, Simmons took a voluntary pay cut from Brown of about $100,000, but that turned out to be a symbolic gesture when she stepped down from her $323,000-a-year gig on the board of directors of Goldman Sachs with $5.7 million in company stock.
revenue and profit-maximization as the administration chased its vision of a corporatized research university. Abandoning Browns centuries-long and identity-defining commitment to resist pre-professional instruction, Simmons poured scarce resources into the medical school while establishing a school of engineering and a joint M.B.A. program. Online professional degree programs will begin next fall. And because a corporatized, profitable
Its a common dilemma for any skill-based student group on campus: Do we take in students who already show talent or inexperienced ones who will enable us to expand student opportunities at Brown? Ideally, students would be able to step through the Van Wickle Gates and try their hand at any activity that strikes their fancy. I wish this could be true for every class of student groups, but sadly, practical considerations demand otherwise. As an active member of a student dance group, I share this view in reaction to Fridays column by Lucia Seda 12 (Are we humans, dancers or both? Sept. 23). The recent column accused dance groups on campus of trying to emulate professional groups, thereby leaving out the inexperienced dancers who bravely show up to auditions. Dance groups are in no way duping students into thinking they will make the cut regardless of skill level. There are videos on YouTube, and current members of the company are available to talk or demonstrate. Both give an accurate depiction of what might be expected. Moreover, whatever the end result, auditions are fun. They are a way to meet new people, get exercise and potentially introduce someone to a new art form. Companies do not hold open auditions to wrangle in the highest number of interested students. Audition
I would love for student dance groups to have the ability to take on any student who shows interest. But they cant. Its a matter of space.
As for the audition itself, the seemingly intimidating assigned numbers and stints of choreography are not meant to scare people away or give a false impression of professionalism. Numbers are necessary to keep track of a room full of nameless faces. Choreography gives the auditionee an opportunity to show both technique and expression. Ive never been to an audition or heard of any friends who have that does not use this format, regardless of how casual or formal the group is. Dance groups do not mean to intimidate or give an air of
every student group on campus makes Tshirts. Why should dance groups be held to a different standard? Despite my frustration with the previous negative portrayal of dance companies, there is a bigger problem at hand here I would like to address. I would love for student dance groups to have the ability to take on any student who shows interest. But they cant. Its a matter of space. Browns campus lacks adequate performance spaces for student dance groups numbering more than 20. And dont even get me start-
When the Rhode Island Nurses Institute Middle College Charter School officially opened its doors Sept. 19, it became the first charter school in the country to give aspiring nurses the chance to earn both a high school diploma and college credit. The school, which is publicly funded and has already enrolled 133 students in its inaugural 10th and 11th grade classes, strives to bridge the academic gap between high school and college so students are prepared after graduation, said Robert Pilkington, the schools superintendant. The school employs professors from the Community College of Rhode Island on a part-time basis and allows the charter schools students to enroll in classes at the college. Pilkington explained that in his nearly three decades of work in the public school system, he has seen many qualified students drop out of college in their first year because they are not able to make the transition to the academic and social rigors of college. There is not much difference between a 17-year-old in June and an 18-year-old in September, he said. But their respective schools have very different levels of expectations. With that concern in mind, Pilkington began developing ideas for charter schools that could make the jump to college life less daunting. Despite receiving spon-
sorships from university professors and established organizations like the Urban League of Rhode Island, his first five applications to open schools under this new model were rejected by the states Board of Regents for Elementary and Secondary Education. The board looks at many things when assessing the merit of a charter school application, including financing details, level of community support and specifics of the instructional plan, said Elliot Krieger, executive assistant for communications at the Office of Education Commissioner Deborah Gist. The commissioner then meets with her staff and makes recommendations to the board. Due to the extensive detail required in charter school applications, Krieger said only two to three applications are submitted each year. Drafting an application is not something you would do on a lark, he added. There are currently 16 charter schools operating in the state. Roughly a year and a half after submitting the proposal, the nursing charter school received final approval July 7. In the subsequent seven weeks, Pilkington and his team had to coordinate the logistics of a September opening from buying furniture for the building in downtown Providence to organizing a public lottery to choose students from more than 200 eligible applicants. Following the random lottery, 40 students remained on the wait list. School administrators want to expand to
272 students next year, according to Pilkington. Kenneth Wong, chair of Browns Education Department and director of the urban education policy program, called the new school a welcome development that will provide a more direct connection from the public school system to employment. Wong explained that charter schools often fill gaps in the existing education system and give students and their families a wider range of options. But the schools critics contend that, since the state currently has a shortage of nursing jobs, training new nurses is not a sound investment. Pilkington said employees in the human resources departments at Care New England and Lifespan have explained to him that the current lack of vacancies is caused by an artificial stalling of retirements due to economic uncertainty, adding that wholesale retirements within the next two or three years will likely cause a nursing shortage that reaches into the thousands. A special legislative commission organized in 2009 agreed with that estimate, projecting a state shortage of up to 6,500 nurses by 2020. According to a July 7 Providence Journal article, the average age of a nurse in Rhode Island is 48. Apart from career considerations, Wong said the school must continued on page 5
State lawmakers learned Wednesday that, despite hours of discussion and deliberation by a 12-member pension advisory group, there is no clear-cut path to solving Rhode Islands failing pension system. House and Senate finance committees convened for the third and final joint hearing on the states troubled pension system. General Assembly Fiscal Advisers Sharon Ferland and Peter Marino spent most of the meeting presenting the findings of the group established this year by Gov. Lincoln Chafee 75 P14 and General Treasurer Gina Raimondo. The advisory group composed of representatives for labor, business, government administrators and others was never intended to produce official recommendations for lawmakers, Marino said. Rather, it will release a summary of its findings from four separate meetings. Marino said advisory group members considered questions submitted online by state residents when formulating their ideas, but they did not hear public testimony at any of the four hearings. The goal for the advisory group and state lawmakers implementing pension changes is to
reach an 80 percent funded ratio, the baseline figure for a healthy pension system, according to Ferland. The funding ratio for fiscal year 2013 is currently 48.4 percent. The most important principles when implementing these changes are setting the pension system on a sustainable course and ensuring that the system is affordable to taxpayers and provides for pensioners, Ferland said. Striking that balance is going to be difficult, she said. The advisory group considered changing the state system to a hybrid pension plan, which combines elements of defined benefit and defined contribution plans, along with Social Security, which can replace more than 30 percent of a retirees income. But the hybrid plan would not satisfy the retirement needs of half the state teachers and many public safety employees who do not participate in Social Security, Ferland said. The proposed hybrid plan would raise the eligibility age for a full pension by up to two additional years, currently 62 for 29 years of service and 65 for 10 years of service. It would also introduce a defined contribution payment of 5.75 percent and reduce the cost-of-living adjustment. Ferland said senior employees will be best positioned under the procontinued on page 5
When journalists interview Professor of Anthropology and International Relations Catherine Lutz about the Costs of War study she directed, she notices a difference in the conclusions U.S. and foreign reporters draw. While U.S. journalists have tried to contextualize the studys findings on the U.S. conflict in the Middle East in terms of the growing U.S. deficit, international reporters have asked what the numbers mean for the countrys future status as a superpower. The study, conducted by the Eisenhower Study Group at the Watson Institute for International Studies, revealed the financial and human costs of the Middle Eastern conflicts at the end of June. The data show the wars of the 21st century in Iraq and Afghanistan will cost the United States between $3.2 trillion and $4 trillion, not including the death of 225,000 soldiers and civilians and the socio-political upheaval in the region. Media coverage of the data has since exploded, which was part of the studys goal, Lutz said. Major media outlets including Reuters and Al Jazeera have reported extensively on the studys economic projections. A June 29 Reuters article noted the stark difference between the studys findings and White House projections that operations in the
Middle East will cost upwards of $1 trillion. The team behind the study included less immediate costs in their calculations, said Neta Crawford 85, a Boston University professor of political science and the studys co-director. In addition to the Pentagons war budget and emergency spending, researchers factored in future obligations due to the wars, such as the care veterans will require, Crawford said. More veterans are returning home with long-term injuries and are drawing on more government services than in the past, she said. Much of the coverage, particularly by domestic journalists, has focused more on the economic costs and less on the human and sociopolitical ramifications, Lutz said. Reporters in the U.S. have an audience interested in the countrys economic status, especially in light of high unemployment rates and the debates over the debt ceiling. The effects of the monetary costs of the conflicts in the Middle East therefore have broad appeal to taxpayers, she said. International reporters, especially those from Iraq and Afghanistan, have asked more questions about the human lives lost. Paul Kawika Martin, the political and communications director for the Peace Action organization, said he circulated the studys findings when it debuted to foster further discussion
on the wars expenses. Though the numbers came as no surprise to him, he was pleased to see a study focus on the long-term costs of war instead of just the immediate ones, he said. Peace Action is currently pushing for more circulation of the studys findings to other organizations, with the hope that the super-committee formed in Congress to reduce the deficit will take the findings into consideration, Martin said. There needs to be more pressure on ending Middle Eastern conflicts than on cutting entitlement programs, he said. The ticker doesnt stop ticking when the war stops, said Christo-
pher Preble, vice president for defense and foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute in Washington, D.C., though he added that projected expenses are always a source of controversy. There was a moment in time a few years at the end of the 1990s, end of early 2000 period when people believed or tried to believe wars could be quite antiseptic things, he said. And I think Iraq shattered those expectations. Some conflicts in recent memory, such as the United States involvement in Bosnia, might have given the public the impression that wars
could be quick. But those conflicts are the exception rather than the rule, Preble said. This study is part of that learning process that war is always violent, he said. Further updates to the study are ongoing as casualties mount, but researchers are also trying to fill in the gaps they could not initially cover. More raw numbers for refugee flows are necessary for further evaluation of the human costs of war, Crawford said. Data on the wars indirect effects such as cancer and infant mortality rates are also areas targeted for future research, Lutz said.