Daily Herald the Brown

vol. cxliv, no. 40 | Monday, March 30, 2009 | Serving the community daily since 1891

Students support ‘Fall Weekend’

By Hannah Moser and Seth Motel The University currently recognizes the second
Senior Staf f Writer and Staf f Writer Monday in October as the Columbus Day holiday.
There has been some discussion about changing
the name or its status as a day off. How should the
More than two-thirds of Brown under- University respond?
graduates favor changing the name of
“Columbus Day” on the University calen- Remove name
Don’t know / No answer
and no day off
dar, according to a Herald poll conducted 1.8%
earlier this month. Change date and name 5.6%
“Tomato Day” 6.1%
Keep date
HERALD POLL 5.3% and name
27.2%
“Indigenous
Though 27.2 percent of students polled Peoples’ Day” 8.4%

indicated that they would like the holiday

Keep date and “Fall
to remain “Columbus Day,” 67.2 percent Weekend”
said they would prefer changing the name. 45.6%
Courtesy of Dan Bailey Among the options on the poll — taken
Brown hosted the 34th National Collegiate Championship March 21 from the alternative names considered
and 22.
by students in the months before the poll
— “Fall Weekend,” which was the name How confident or worried are you about getting the

Brown hosts taekwondo proposed to the Faculty Executive Com-

mittee, garnered the most support.
job you want to have after graduation?
Don’t know / No answer

Nat’ls for the first time 45.6 percent of respondents supported

keeping the holiday on the second Mon-
day in October while changing its name
5.3%

Don’t plan to get

By Kevin Pratt
Contributing Writer
As most Brown students packed
their bags and headed home for
spring break, more than 400 tae-
kwondo competitors from colleges
across the nation converged on
campus last weekend for the 34th
National Collegiate Championship,
Very
confident
10.5%
job immediately
Planning for the tournament be- to “Fall Weekend,” 8.4 percent were in 15.1% Somewhat
gan last April after Brown was told favor of calling the holiday “Indigenous confident
at the 2008 nationals at Stanford Peoples’ Day” and 5.3 percent suggested Very worried 23.5%
14.3%
University that it would host this renaming it “Tomato Day.”
year’s championship, said Michelle An additional 6.1 percent wanted to Somewhat
worried
Ramadan ’10, the club’s current change both the name and the date of the 31.2%
president.
The Brown-hosted competition continued on page 2
Jessie Calihan / Herald
was distinguished from past years’
contests by the extensive use of a

U. sees BIAP and AIP applicant increase

the first-ever taekwondo tourna-
ment hosted at Brown.
The Massachusetts Institute
of Technology took first place in
overall points at the champion-
ship, which included two-person
sparring and single-person com-
petitions in choreographed form
sequences called poomsae. Brown
won the division for novices or
color belts (as distinct from black
belts) and placed second overall.
Sixty-five athletes from Brown
competed this year, the most any
school has sent to a national
championship, said Angela Yang
’09, a former president of Brown
taekwondo.
tournament Web site in the weeks
leading up the event. The site was
updated continuously by Web mas-
ter Paul Jeng ’10 with competitor
and volunteer registration infor-
mation, the event schedule and
items competitors should bring,
Ramadan said.
Rex Hatfield, President of the
National Collegiate Taekwondo
Association, called the tournament
the “first fully online champion-
ship.”
“I think the online aspect of it
helped take away a lot of the face-
to-face problem-solving we’ve had
continued on page 9
By Caitlin Trujillo
Contributing Writer
The Career Development Center saw
a 30 percent increase in the number
of applicants for the Brown Internship
Award Program and the Aided Intern-
ship Award Program this year.
William Bordac, communications
and public relations officer for the
CDC, said the center received 235
total applications this year. While the
CDC had anticipated an increase as
a result of the troubled economic cli-
mate, the total count was surprising,
Bordac said.
According to Bordac, the CDC ex-
pects to award 50 students through
BIAP this year in order to meet the
increased demand. Last year only 41
BIAP awards, which are sponsored by
third-party donors, were given out.
The number of AIP awards, how-
ever, will remain steady at 25 because
Brown funds them directly. Due to
the budget crisis, the University was
unable to provide for an increase
this year.
Bordac said one of the reasons for
the jump in applications this year was
the increase in unpaid — as opposed
to paid — internships, resulting in
more students looking for funding
assistance.
Finding and securing internships
this year while working with the BIAP
timeline presented a challenge for
some applicants. Anna Newby ’10
chose not to apply for BIAP primarily
because of the mid-March deadline,
which she thought was too early for
many competitive and prestigious
internship response deadlines. Be-
continued on page 4

New research examines acro-bat-ics

By Kevin Pratt
Contributing Writer
Brown researchers have shed light
for the first time on how bats perform
the acrobatics necessary to land with
their feet above their heads.
The research, published in the
Journal of Experimental Biology
earlier this month, shows that land-
ing styles varied among species:
Two species studied cart-wheeled
into a softer landing, while a third
back-flipped into a harder impact and
landed on all fours. Daniel Riskin, a
postdoctoral researcher in the De-
partment of Ecology and Evolution-
ary Biology who was the study’s lead
inside
author, said the differences in land-
ing styles may be due to evolutionary
differences between the bats.
A broad aim of his research was
to shed light on the function of bats’
unique body shape — the mammals
have skinny, long legs that are well-
suited to flying and roosting, but
could be at risk of injury during
forceful landings, Riskin told The
Herald.
Associate Professor of Biology
Sharon Swartz and Professor of En-
gineering Kenneth Breuer assisted
Riskin’s study, providing funding,
personnel and access to the animals
for the research. The research team
used bats housed in the basement
of the BioMedical Center and at the
University of Maryland.
High-speed digital cameras
captured the bats’ landings, and a
scale attached to the lab’s ceiling
measured the force of their impacts.
The research took advantage of bats’
natural tendency to choose a favorite
roosting spot in a given enclosed
space and keep returning to it, Riskin
said.
The slow-motion videos of the
bats’ landings, which Riskin has
posted on his personal Web site,
show bats swooping toward their
perches, then — depending on their
Courtesy of Brown
continued on page 4 Brown researchers studied bats’ ability to acrobatically land upside down.

News.....1-4
Arts........5-6
Arts, 5 Sports, 7 Opinions, 11
Spor ts...7-9 ‘Pulled up’ M. Crew sweeps yale Let it bleed
Editorial..10 Eclectic new exhibit at Rowing season starts of Tor y Har tmann ’11
Opinion...11 the RISD museum keeps strong with three wins encourages students to
Today........12 things “light” over Yale give blood, life.

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Page 2 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Monday, March 30, 2009

C ampus N EWS 44.5 percent of students are somewhat or very worried

about getting the job they want after graduation

Herald Poll
Results
1. Do you approve or disapprove of
the way Ruth Simmons is handling
her job as president of Brown Uni-
versity?
Strongly approve: 41.3%
Somewhat approve: 38.8%
Somewhat disapprove: 3.6%
Strongly disapprove: 1.2%
Don’t know/No answer: 15.2%
2. Do you approve or disapprove of
the way the Undergraduate Council
of Students (UCS) is handling its
job?
Strongly approve: 10.1%
Somewhat approve: 41.4%
Somewhat disapprove: 10.9%
Strongly disapprove: 2.1%
Don’t know/No answer: 35.5%
3. Do you approve or disapprove of
the way the Corporation is handlings
its job as Brown’s highest governing
body?
Strongly approve: 7.0%
Somewhat approve: 31.7%
Somewhat disapprove: 19.7%
Strongly disapprove: 5.0%
Don’t know/No answer: expected: 75.9%
36.7%
4. The University currently recognizes
the second Monday in October as the
Columbus Day holiday. There has
been some discussion about chang-
ing the name or its status as a day
off. How should the University re-
spond?
Keep date & name: 27.2%
Keep date & “Fall
Weekend”: 45.6%
Keep date & “Indigenous
Peoples’ Day”: 8.4%
Keep date & “Tomato Day”: 7. How often this academic year have
5.3%
Change date & name: 6.1%
Remove name & no day off: alin — that were not prescribed to
1.8%
Don’t know/No answer: 5.6%
5. Compared to what you expected
when Barack Obama was elected
President, do you think that he has
done better than you expected, about
the same as you expected or worse
than you expected?
Better than expected: 8.6%
About the same as
Worse than expected: 7.0%
Don’t know/No answer: 8.6%
6. How confident or worried are you
about getting the job you want to have
after graduation?
Very confident: 10.5%
Somewhat confident: 23.5%
Somewhat worried: 31.2%
Very worried: 14.3%
Don’t plan to get job
immediately: 15.1%
Don’t know/No answer: 5.3%
you used prescription stimulants —
such as Adderall, Dexedrine or Rit-
you?
Not at all: 89.8%
Once: 3.1%
A few times: 3.7%
A few times a month: 0.4%
Once a week: 0.3%
More than once a week: 0.3%
Every day: 0.1%
Don’t know/No answer: 2.2%
8. How confident or worried are you
about your — or your family’s —
ability to finance your Brown edu-
cation?
Very confident: 30.9%
Somewhat confident: 29.3%
Somewhat worried: 27.5%
Very worried: 10.5%
Don’t know/No answer: 1.8%
9. Do you approve or disapprove of the
way David Cicilline ’83 is handling
his job as mayor of Providence?
Strongly approve: 4.7%
Somewhat approve: 15.1%
Somewhat disapprove: 6.4%
Strongly disapprove: 2.8%
Don’t know/No answer: or Alaska Native, 0.3 percent Na-
71.0%
Methodology
Written questionnaires were
administered to 676 undergradu-
ates March 16-18 at the University
Mail Room in J. Walter Wilson and
outside the Blue Room in Faunce
House in the three mornings and
afternoons and at the Sciences Li-
brary on the first two nights. To
ensure random sampling, pollsters
approached every third person and
asked each one to complete a poll.
The poll has a 3.6 percent margin of
error with 95 percent confidence.
The sample polled was demo-
graphically similar to the Brown un-
dergraduate population as a whole.
The sample was 48.5 percent male
and 51.5 percent female. First-years
made up 29.0 percent of the sample,
30.5 percent were sophomores, 18.5
percent were juniors and 22.0 per-
cent were seniors. 66.6 percent of
respondents identified themselves
as white, 8.1 percent identified as
black or African-American, 10.4
percent Hispanic, 21.6 percent
Asian, 1.0 percent American Indian
tive Hawaiian and Pacific Islander,
1.5 percent identified with a racial
group or ethnicity not listed and
0.9 percent chose not to answer.
The sum of the percentages adds
up to more than 100 percent due
to respondents who identified with
multiple ethnic or racial groups.
Senior Staff Writer Hannah
Moser ’12 and Copy Desk Chief
Seth Motel ’11 coordinated the poll.
Herald section editors, senior staff
writers and other staff members
conducted the poll.

Majority of students confident in job search, finance education

continued from page 1
holiday, and 1.8 percent supported
removing the name “Columbus Day”
and not observing a holiday.
The FEC has yet to officially vote
on the Fall Weekend proposal, as
it did not have enough votes for a
quorum at its last meeting.
The Herald poll was conducted
from March 16 through March 18
and has a 3.6 percent margin of
error with 95 percent confidence.
sudoku
A total of 676 Brown undergradu-
ates completed the poll, which The
Herald administered as a written
questionnaire to students in the
University Mail Room at J. Walter
Wilson, outside the Blue Room in
Faunce House and in the Sciences
Library.
In light of the current financial
crisis, 10.5 percent of students polled
said they were very worried about
their ability to continue financing
their education. 27.5 percent were
somewhat worried, 29.3 percent
were somewhat confident and 30.9
percent were very confident.
Similarly, 10.5 percent of stu-
dents felt very confident that they
would be able to get the job they
wanted after graduation. 23.5 per-
cent reported being somewhat con-
fident, 31.2 percent were somewhat
worried and 14.3 percent were very
worried. 15.1 percent of respondents
indicated that they did not plan to
get a job immediately after gradu-
ation.
The Undergraduate Council of
Students enjoyed an improvement
in favorability ratings since October.
51.5 percent of students strongly
or somewhat approved of UCS, as
compared to 38.1 percent of stu-
dents who said the same thing last
semester. Students who strongly
or somewhat disapproved made up
13.0 percent, a statistically insignifi-
cant increase from last semester’s
poll. The percentage of students
who responded “Don’t know/No
answer” in regard to UCS’s job per-
formance declined from 49.3 percent
in October’s poll to 35.5 percent in
the new poll.
President Ruth Simmons re-
mained consistently popular, with
80.1 percent of those polled report-
ing approval.
Following heavy attention — due
in part to protests from Students for
a Democratic Society — the Cor-
poration’s approval ratings were at
38.7 percent. Last semester 33.7 per-
cent indicated that they strongly or
somewhat approved of the way the
Corporation had been handling its
job, though this difference is within
the two polls’ combined margin of
error.
75.9 percent of students polled
reported that President Barack
Obama has so far met their expec-
tations as president. The 8.6 per-
cent of respondents who said he has
exceeded expectations was similar
in size to the 7.0 percent who said
he has not met expectations. Last
October, 86.1 percent of students
said they would support Obama’s
candidacy if the election were to
take place then.
Providence Mayor David Cicil-
line ’83 received 19.8 percent ap-
proval from undergraduates, com-
pared to 9.2 percent disapproval.
However, 71.0 percent of students
polled responded “Don’t know/No
answer” in response to how he was
handling his job.
Though 89.8 percent of students
said they have not used prescription
stimulants that were not prescribed
to them during this academic year,
7.9 have used them at least once
this year. Since the start of last se-
mester, 3.1 percent of respondents
have used prescription stimulants
exactly once, 3.7 reported using
them a few times and an additional
1.1 percent reported using them
more regularly.

Daily Herald
the Brown

Editorial Phone: 401.351.3372 | Business Phone: 401.351.3260

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Michael Bechek, Vice President Alexander Hughes, Secretary

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Monday, March 30, 2009 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Page 3

C ampus N EWS “It’s just a little more waggish that way.”

— Will Litton ’09

SUBU’s popularity Online journal ‘wags’ finger at print

By Natalie Uduwela

fades with time Contributing Writer

The “death of print” may be loom-

By Ellen Cushing
Senior Staff Writer
In the spring of 2007, a group of stu-
dents formed the Student Union of
Brown University, intended as a demo-
cratic forum for members to air their
concerns about University policy. The
group grew quickly, attracting 400
members in its first semester and 150
more the next fall. codes and rules, which is a complaint
But just two years later SUBU has
effectively disappeared, with former
members citing an overly ambitious
agenda and the inevitably fleeting na-
ture of student involvement.
“Basically, SUBU’s not really doing
too much these days,” said Will Em-
mons ’09, one of the non-hierarchical
group’s original organizers. The orga-
nization has not held a meeting this
year, he said. Last spring’s meeting
was canceled because it did not attract
enough students for a self-imposed
quorum of 1 percent of the student
body, or 59 students.
The group was originally founded
as a large-scale forum for student
voices and interests, Emmons said.
“I think the original impetus be-
hind trying to organize SUBU was
(that) we wanted to find a way to build
a mechanism that would harness stu-
dent voices,” Emmons said. “SUBU
was kind of envisioned as a collective
democratic voice for students to im-
pact the university.”
Alex Tye ’10, another organizer,
explained that the student union was
founded largely as a response to the
Undergraduate Council of Students.
“A lot of us had been kind of disap-
pointed by the job that UCS was doing
in representing students, and up to that
point, UCS had kind of a monopoly
on being the way students had repre-
sented themselves,” he said.
But Michael Glassman ’09, who
was UCS president last year when the
student union was still active, said the
group’s position as an alternative to the
bureaucracy of UCS may have contrib-
uted to its own eventual dissolution.
“I went to a (SUBU) meeting, and
they spent so much time going over
people have with UCS,” Glassman said.
“So when people saw that, I think they
lost interest.”
“People seemed really excited
about the idea, but it’s hard to keep
up that momentum.” Glassman said.
Tye and Emmons also said that
after such a visible beginning, it was
simply difficult for the group to main-
tain its momentum.
“Organizing SUBU was a bold
task,” Emmons said.
Tye said the student union’s ambi-
tious goals required a level of attention
that may simply have been unsustain-
able.
“For the entire time it was around,
SUBU was in the phase where it re-
quired a lot of attention from people,”
he said. “It was trying to be a really
large group, which meant that it re-
quired a lot of participation from a lot
of people.”
When a core of active members
graduated or left to study abroad, many
of the group’s remaining members
began directing their activism energy
to other radical groups on campus,
especially Students for a Democratic
Society, he said.
“After so many people graduated,
the original organizing crew folded
continued on page 8
ing, but three seniors don’t plan to
mourn for very long.
Reacting to what they see as a
“powerful stigma” facing online-only
literary publications, Will Litton ’09,
Will Guzzardi ’09 and Sandra Al-
len ’09, all members of the improv
comedy troupe “Starla and Sons,”
have launched an exclusively on-
line literary journal with a distinctly
print flavor.
The literary quarterly, Wag’s
Revue, features the work of promi-
nent literary figures of today’s Web-
minded generation and published
its first issue earlier this month.
Released March 21, the debut
issue contains work by the Director
of the Literary Arts Program and
Professor of Literary Arts Brian
Evenson and an essay on the “‘hip-
ster/douchebag’ dialectic” in con-
temporary culture. It also features
exclusive interviews with Pulitzer
Prize-nominated author Dave Eg-
gers and with founding editor of
the literary quarterly n+1 Mark
Greif and writer Wells Tower, who
recently released a book.
The journal, whose URL is wag-
srevue.com, opens with what Litton
calls a “hyperbolized scathing mani-
festo declaring the death of print,”
in which the three co-founders
emphasize their belief that online
literature doesn’t have to exist in
its current state.
With strict editorial controls,
Wag’s Revue’s founders hope to
combat the mediocrity they said
results from the ability to publish
such large amounts of lackluster
material on the Web.
“When there’s unlimited space
to print whatever, you can blog ev-
Wag’s Revue, a new literary publication founded by three Brown
students, exists online only to bring print-quality writing to the Web.
eryday and end up with a crockpot
of really mediocre writing,” Litton
said. “So much is getting published,
there’s no journal with stringent
editorial controls.”
The word “wag” in the journal’s
title means a mischievous joker,
and the use of the word “revue”
— a collection of theatrical perfor-
mances — was chosen over “re-
view” because “it’s just a little more
waggish that way,” Litton said in a
press release.
Their goal is to selectively estab-
lish a body of work that maintains a
level of quality equal to print while
changing its form of output.
“For literature, it’s interesting
because there’s this incredibly pow-
erful stigma if you’re only published
on the Web — there’s something
bastardized about that,” Litton
said. “A lot of that has to do with
the certain aesthetic to holding a
book in your hand and smelling it
and turning its pages, and also the
way that literature is put up on the
Internet right now looks very plain
and boring.”
To fight that stigma, Wag’s Re-
vue’s online material looks like that
of a print journal, complete with an
Courtesy of WagsRevue.com
issue cover, table of contents and
page numbers.
“We wanted to create a space
online that resembles a physical
page — that has the same sort of
safety and certainty that you can
get with print,” Allen said.
The founders said they hope
for the journal, which is free, to be
economically sustainable through
its upcoming contest, in which par-
ticipants pay a small entry fee to
submit a piece and have the chance
to win $500 dollars in three different
literary fields — fiction, nonfiction
and poetry — which are the respec-
tive interests of Litton, Allen and
Guzzardi.
Rather than profit, the trio’s goal
is to create a reputable literary out-
let for upcoming writers of today’s
online generation, which they hope
to maintain for years to come.
They plan to publish Wag’s Re-
vue quarterly, with release dates
timed to equinoxes and solstices.
“Starla is a model for what
happens when we fully commit to
something,” Allen said. “In a per-
fect universe, this will take off and
be something we do for several
years.”

Library debuts revamped Josiah

By Amy Chen
Contributing Writer
In an age where library resources
are increasingly making use of new
technologies, Josiah, the library’s
online catalog, has been retooled with
a series of new features that have been
available since earlier this month. The
new features include text messag-
ing of book call numbers and access
through Josiah to searchable, digital
volumes on Google Books, along with
other small upgrades.
The codes for both applications
were adapted by Goran Tkalec GS, a
graduate student of religious studies
who also studies computer science.
He collaborated with Bonnie Buzzell
’72, senior knowledge systems librar-
ian, to implement the technology.
For texting, the user enters his
or her cell phone number and car-
rier into Josiah. The resulting text
message will include information on
the title of the source, its call num-
ber and which of Brown’s libraries
houses it.
The information on Google Books,
in the form of images and text, “can
help (a user) determine if the item is
likely to be of interest before going to
the stacks or placing a request,” ac-
cording to Josiah’s Web site. Though
more than a million volumes are avail-
able on Google Books, not all texts or
images are complete, and its scans
may be imperfect. Moreover, texts
on Google Books cannot be saved or
exported, according its Web site.
Brown’s librarians are always
aware of new developments at other
university libraries, said Jean Rain-
water, co-leader of Integrated Tech-
nological Services. The text message
feature adapted similar technology
that was originally created by Adam
Brin ’00 for Bryn Mawr College,
where he worked as a librarian, Rain-
water said. The original code for the
Google Books function was developed
at Virginia Tech.
The new services have garnered
positive reviews from frequent library
users and librarians.
“I appreciate that Brown Library
Services now links Josiah entries to
Google Books,” said Heather Lee, a
second-year Ph.D. student in Ameri-
can Civilization who said she uses Jo-
siah for research at least once a day.
“Previously, if a book was checked
out of the Brown libraries, I would
have checked Google Books for a
digital copy in the case that I needed
to read it immediately,” Lee said.
“This new feature saves me trouble
of searching another database.”
Rainwater said that, as a librarian,
she particularly likes having direct
links to Google Books. She said it
allows her to consider which books
to replace in the library.
The other, smaller enhancements
to Josiah include an automatic e-mail
notification from Josiah to the user
when a newly catalogued item match-
es a saved search from the user’s ac-
count, Buzzell wrote in an e-mail to
The Herald.
Christine Baumgarthuber GS,
a graduate student in English who
uses Josiah to do her research and to
study for her exams, said the Josiah
layout and navigation was already
fairly straightforward. Having recent-
ly led students through the catalog
and database in a section of ENGL
0110: “Critical Reading and Writing I:
The Academic Essay” class that she
teaches, she found that her students’
feedback was generally positive.
Rainwater also said another new
feature would soon be added to the
catalog. Users will be able to find call
numbers in Josiah and take them
to a floor map of the library, which
will show the user where to find the
books, she said.
Page 4
C ampus N EWS
Riskin follows bat species CDC helps students find internships
continued from page 1
species — either turning or flipping
upside-down before clasping onto a
plastic grate.
Data from the videos were used
to generate graphs of the bats’ move-
ment during landing — with specific
measurements of the animals’ pitch,
yaw and roll — Riskin said.
The species that landed signifi-
cantly harder than the other two,
and with four points of contact rather
than two, was Cynopterus brachyo-
tis, which typically roosts in trees.
The softer landers were closer evo-
lutionary cousins, Riskin said, that
usually roost in rocky caves.
“A species seems to have a way
of landing,” he said. “You can ask
why some species have that char-
acter, and others have a different
character. ... I think the answer to
that is that bats that roost in foliage
can land as hard as they want — it
won’t hurt.”
If they landed as forcefully as
their tree-dwelling relatives, cave-
roosters would risk a hazardous col-
lision of their fragile hind legs with
the rock ceiling.
Riskin said he wants to repeat the
landing experiments with more bat
species from South America, which
is home to a wide variety of bats with
different feeding and roosting habits.
This further study could lead to a
better understanding of how differ-
ences in bat species have evolved
over time, he said, and would test
the idea, suggested by his initial re-
search, that bats roosting in caves
land more softly.
“I certainly have not proven any-
thing yet,” Riskin said.
But Riskin’s interest in bats ex-
tends beyond their acrobatic capa-
bilities.
“In museums, you might have
one species of bat in the mammals
section,” said Riskin, who has trav-
elled around the world to study the
animals. “In truth, one-fifth of mam-
mals are bats.”
“If you’re interested in diversity,
if you’re interested in the variation of
animal body plans ... bats are a great
system (to study) because there are
so many different kinds,” he said.
Riskin enjoys seeking out and
studying species of bats he hasn’t en-
countered before, he added, because
they always present “variations on
the theme” of typical bat behaviors.
His next research project may lead
him to Madagascar, where a species
of bat only recently found in signifi-
cant numbers uses adhesive pads
to affix itself to smooth surfaces,
even glass.
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
“I feel like this is an annual struggle for students.”
continued from page 1
cause the BIAP and AIP awards are
non-transferable, applicants must
commit to one internship without
the flexibility of having funding for
others.
“I feel like this is an annual strug-
gle for students,” Newby said.
Newby applied for a variety of
Middle Eastern policy internships
— including positions with think
tanks, non-profits and policy study
institutes — most of which are un-
paid. She said it is unlikely she will be
able to accept an unpaid job without
supplemental financial support from
the organization or a reduced-hours
schedule that would allow her to take
a part-time job as well.
She said her goal is to attain a
paid internship, though she added
that this might be an unrealistic ex-
pectation.
Ann Crawford-Roberts ’12 se-
cured her internship over winter
break and found the application
process straightforward, though she
said she knew others who could not
solidify their plans in time and were
deterred from applying.
“I knew people who weren’t se-
cure enough and would find out too
late,” Crawford-Roberts said.
Some students also think the
CDC needs to advertise earlier in
order to alert potential applicants
and give them time to pull their plans
together. Paula Kaufman ’10, who got
an internship with a West Virginia
health clinic, said she was frustrated
with the late publicity.
“Putting out notice one or two
months in advance is insufficient,”
Kaufman said. “I would presume
there were a lot of people who
would’ve applied had they known
earlier.”
Bordac said he hoped the rush to
secure internships by the application
deadline did not prevent people from
applying, since applicants are allowed
to submit a letter from their potential
employers stating that they are be-
ing considered for a position, but do
not yet have the internship secured.
About one-third of applicants usually
do not have their internships yet, he
said, and this does not factor into the
decision process.
“We give leeway,” Bordac said.
“We’re very flexible and like to work
with people.”
He said the CDC was looking into
a variety of ways to help students
in the future, including offering a
workshop for the application process
to aid future applicants. The CDC
may also encourage students who
complete internships to return to the
Monday, March 30, 2009
— Anna Newby ’10
Kim Perley / Herald
The CDC saw increased applica-
tions for internships funded this
year.
office and share their experiences,
Borac said.
While the BIAP and AIP dead-
lines have lapsed, the CDC is still
working to find students internships
and alternate funding sources. Bor-
dac said the CDC is in the process
of gathering information on intern-
ship opportunities from the Swearer
Center and the Watson Institute for
International Studies. Further, he
said the CDC hopes the University
will be able to increase funding for
future AIP awards, thereby increas-
ing the programs’ accessibility.
“The University is trying to raise
the profile of internships and raise
the profile of their importance, not
just in career pursuits but academic
as well,” Bordac said.
Arts & Culture
The Brown Daily Herald
RISD exhibit mixes styles
By Ben Hyman
Arts & Culture Editor
There is a joyful, kid-in-a-candy-store
quality to “Pulled Up,” an exhibit at
the Rhode Island School of Design
Museum of Art. The feeling starts
with the first glimpse of the Farago
Gallery’s makeover. Its fleshy pink
walls, lined on the bottom by an un-
dulating swath of brick-red paint,
signal that the cheerful show is as
much about the space itself as the
works within it.
“Pulled Up” is the fruitful result
of a partnership between the Ameri-
can artist Carl Ostendarp and Judith
Tannenbaum, the Museum’s curator
of contemporary art. Consciously
responding to “Raid the Icebox I”
— a 1969-70 exhibit that featured
a crazed assortment of works from
RISD’s collection curated by Andy
Warhol — Ostendarp explored the
Museum’s holdings and “pulled
up” 16 20th-century works by an
odd assortment of artists. Here, the
high modernism of Adolph Gottlieb
and Barnett Newman mingles with
Jean Arp’s Dadaist gags and the
postmodern exuberance of Warhol,
Ed Ruscha and John Wesley. It’s a
refresher course in the history of
continued on page 6
Monday, March 30, 2009 | Page 5
Documentary follows
refugees from Eritrea to R.I.
By Anita Mathews
A&C Staf f Writer
“Home Across Lands,” a documen-
tar y that follows the journey of
Eritrean refugees from Ethiopia
to Rhode Island, will screen this
Thursday, followed by a talk with
the film’s director, John Lavall. The
event is sponsored by the Brown
Refugee Youth Tutoring and En-
richment program.
With the aid of the International
Institute of Rhode Island, the refu-
gees, part of a distinct Eritrean
community known as the Kunama,
become acclimated to life in the
United States. The Kunama are
considered to be some of Eritrea’s
original inhabitants. Though they
are demographically one of the
smallest groups in the region,
they have sustained a language
and culture distinct from the rest
of the surrounding countr y’s. The
Kunama inhabit some of Eritrea’s
most fertile land and have there-
fore long been persecuted by the
Eritrean government, leading them
to flee across the border to live in
Kim Perley / Herald Ethiopian refugees camps.
“Pulled Up,” an exhibit at the RISD Museum of Art, features the work According to the press release,
of 16 20th-century artists, including Andy Warhol and Joan Miro. the documentar y “illustrates the
ways the International Institute
bridges the vast divide from life
in a refugee camp to life in Rhode
Island as they help the Kunama in
making sense of apartment living,
public transportation, employment
and health care, while nurturing
their own community as they adapt
to a larger and ver y foreign one.”
The International Insititute’s
mission to assist in refugees’ ac-
climation process aligns with that
of the BRYTE program. BRYTE
matches Brown students with
refugee families throughout
Providence, allowing the students
to ser ve as tutors and mentors.
Through its tutoring program,
BRYTE, like the IIRI, aims to allevi-
ate the difficulties of assimilation
experienced by refugees.
Lavall, who also produced the
film, has won Emmy Awards for his
previous work. He and a produc-
tion team spent a year filming the
Kunaman refugees as they bridged
the nearly 7,000-mile gap between
the Shimelba refugee camp in
Northern Ethiopia and their new
homes in Providence. Lavall and
his production team filmed in both
continued on page 6
Page 6
A rts & C ulture
Documentary depicts Eclectic exhibit mixes eras, artists
refugee struggle
continued from page 5
Ethiopia and Providence — a risky
venture given that the camp lies
within the 50 kilometer zone be-
tween Ethiopia and Eritrea deemed
unsafe for travelers by the U.S.
State Department.
Filming in Ethiopia presented
other challenges to Lavall and his
crew, he wrote in an email to the
Herald. His production team had
to avoid potential land mines on the
roads, and to grapple with very lim-
ited time during which to conduct
inter views with families.
Back in Providence, the produc-
tion team also encountered several
obstacles. Lavall wrote that the
crew wanted to ensure the most
accurate retelling of the refugees
stor y as possible. Such in-depth
study, however, presented the crew
with additional challenges.
“To tell this stor y effectively
we needed to immerse ourselves
into the day-to-day workings of the
resettlement office and into the
lives of these newly (resettled)
families,” Lavall wrote. “Our goal
was capture as much as we could
on film; their arrival at the airport,
in the doctors office, the first day
of school, a job inter view.”
But Lavall explained that IIRI’s
suppor t was critical in allowing
the crew to overcome these chal-
lenges.
“We were very fortunate to gain
access and permission at ever y
turn,” he wrote, “it’s a testament
to the strength of IIRI within the
community. Whenever we ex-
plained what we were doing and
who’s stor y we were telling the
mere mention of IIRI was enough
for most people to agree whole-
heartedly.”
Despite the challenges involved,
the final product is an inspiring and
informative documentary that high-
lights the success of refugee out-
reach programs in Providence.
“For many refugees, this is it,”
says one IIRI staff worker in the
film. “We are the only hope they
have.”
“Home Across Lands” will screen
at 7 p.m. on April 2 in the Hunter
Carmichael Auditorium in the
Hunter Laboratory on Waterman
Street.
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
— A staff worker at the International Institute of Rhode Island
continued from page 5
modern art, with Roy Lichtenstein,
Jackson Pollock, Joan Miro, Odilon
Redon and Richard Artschwager all
making appearances. Topping it off
are two new paintings by Ostendarp
himself.
The seasonal group exhibi-
tion has become a Chelsea cliche,
which makes this mishmash even
funnier. Imagine if these guys —
and they are, all of them, guys, but
let’s get back to that later — had
been working together, exhibiting
together, Ostendarp seems to say.
How would they have interacted
with each other? Would they have
gotten along?
As Ostendarp explores these
questions, the two-tone walls
serve as much more than a back-
drop. They actively contribute to
the exhibit, bringing out themes
and underlining juxtapositions. The
use of organic forms links Miro and
Arp to 1960s and 1970s pieces by
Myron Stout and Nicholas Krush-
enick. Also, many of the works
are connected in their response to
color. They play off the predominant
warm tones of the walls, a dialogue
by turns harmonious and dissonant.
A Jules Olitski print blends in so
“We are the only hope (many refugees) have.”­
perfectly with the color scheme
that it almost goes unnoticed,
while, directly next to it, a typical
Josef Albers painting of dark green
squares loses its hallucinatory calm
as it tussles with the vibrant pink
behind it.
For all its sunny buoyancy,
“Pulled Up” also suggests darker
undertones. Ostendarp acknowl-
edges Warhol by including one of
his unsettling electric chair prints.
Similarly, Redon’s famous print “The
Eye Like a Strange Balloon Mounts
Toward Infinity” only becomes more
disquieting, situated in this cheery
context. Ostendarp’s paintings, too,
capture the sense of dread beneath
the exhibition’s cartoon mayhem.
Each of his works takes a cry of
rage and frustration — “Yaaah” and
“Aaarrgh” — and renders it humor-
ously in blown-up, blocky letters,
using the two incongruously upbeat
colors from the gallery walls. The
paintings are both fun and desper-
ate, and they recall the similarly
laconic, text-based canvases of Rus-
cha, who is represented here by a
wordless print of soap bubbles.
The fact that ever y artist in
“Pulled Up” is male and, for the
most part, well known is, at first,
exasperating. For all of the strange-
Monday, March 30, 2009
ness of the exhibit’s combinations,
each selection on its own holds no
surprises. But instead of being an-
noyed, it’s probably best to treat
this homogeneity as another kind
of joke, even if it’s not entirely clear
what the punchline is. Could Osten-
darp have chosen his colors in order
to highlight the hot-and-heavy, tes-
tosterone-fueled competition among
the works? Is it that men are always
the immature class clowns? Perhaps
the joke is actually about high-mind-
ed art world rhetoric that conceals a
persistent boy’s club and curatorial
favoritism for established artists.
Ostendarp leaves these questions
unanswered.
All in all, the exhibit is a nimble
and exciting demonstration of the
power of context to affect our read-
ings of an individual work of art.
“Pulled Up” is so captivating that it
takes a while to notice the show’s
slyest trick — its soundtrack. Art
rock and punk songs — including,
of course, “Pulled Up” by the Talk-
ing Heads, a band that met at RISD
— burbles quietly at all times, giving
the viewer permission to let loose
and take things a little bit less seri-
ously. It feels like a painting studio
where the radio is on, the work is
fresh and anything is possible.
SportsMonday
The Brown Daily Herald
The men’s crew team started off the season strong, winning three races against Yale on the Seekonk River.
M. rowers dominate Bulldogs
By Andrew Braca
Sports Editor
The men’s crew began the spring
season by sweeping three races
from Yale on Saturday on the
Seekonk River. The Bears looked
strong as they began their defense
of last season’s Ivy League title.
“Yale’s got a really strong pro-
gram, and our guys did a great job
of racing them down the course,”
said Head Coach Paul Cooke ’89.
On an unusually calm day on
the Seekonk, Brown won all three
races by comfortable margins. The
varsity and the freshman boats each
won by more than nine seconds,
while the second varsity boat posted
a five-second edge.
Matt Wheeler ’09 said the strong
performances across the board
were a “testament to the attitude we
have in the boathouse right now. All
three boats have been racing each
other for months now, as hard as we
can. We just went out there and did
what we knew how to do.”
The varsity eight began the
morning by trouncing Yale, clock-
ing in at 5:43.0 while the Bulldogs
trailed 9.9 seconds behind. The
Bears jumped out to a quick lead
that continued to grow to open
water midway through the two-
kilometer race.
Christian Crynes ’10 was in the
bow seat, followed by Gavin Crynes
’10 in the two seat, Wheeler in the
three, Cole Bonner ’10 in four, Ben
Duggan ’10 in five, Scott Morgan ’10
in six, Nick Ritter ’10 in the seven
seat, Sean Medcalf ’09 at stroke and
coxswain Rob O’Leary ’09.
O’Leary said it was important to
begin the spring on the right foot.
“Coming into it we’re always a
little unsure about where we stand,
so it was good to come out of the
first race with a win,” he said.
The second varsity eight dis-
patched two Yale boats almost as
easily. The Bears finished in 5:46.45,
while the Bulldog boats lagged be-
hind at 5:51.86 and 5:54.11.
The freshmen wrapped up the
morning with a dominant perfor-
mance in their first race on Brown’s
home course. Brown’s first nov-
ice boat finished first with a time
of 5:42.77, followed by Yale at
5:51.90 and Bruno’s second boat
at 6:00.16.
The freshmen’s strong showing
pleased Cooke.
“It was a bit of a surprise,” Cooke
Courtesy of Mike Braca
said. “The freshmen have been do-
ing a nice job lately, but as much
as the varsity is an unknown, the
freshman (eight) is even more so,
so for them to have such a success-
ful race was a real thrill. It’s great
for the future of the program.”
The freshmen also impressed
the varsity rowers.
“We’ve been watching them
train all year,” Medcalf said. “They
came in as sort of a rag-tag bunch.
To see them just handle that race
and really take control, that was
really good.”
The Bears will need the mo-
mentum they earned this week-
end when they travel to California
to face stiff competition at the San
Diego Crew Classic next weekend.
Brown will face top crews from
across the country, including Ivy
League foes Harvard, Princeton
and Yale.
“San Diego is going to be really
tough,” Wheeler said. “Almost ev-
ery powerhouse in the country is
going to be there.”
But O’Leary said the Bears will
be ready.
“We’re going to keep training
and definitely get ready for a big
race next weekend,” he said.
Monday, March 30, 2009 | Page 7
Lax team scores
weekend hat trick
By Elisabeth Avallone
Sports Staff Writer
The No. 11 men’s lacrosse team proved
resilient against Dartmouth, Vermont
and Delaware this past week, earning
decisive victo-
Brown 5 ries against
Princeton 18 all three. The
Bears advanced
to an overall record of 7-1, and 1-0 in
the Ivy League.
In their Ivy League opener on
March 21, the Bears toppled Dart-
mouth 14-8. Andrew Feinberg ’11
led Brown with four goals, and quad-
captain Kyle Hollingsworth ’09 totaled
seven points on two goals and five
assists. In a non-conference game
against Vermont three days later,
Hollingsworth tallied a career-high
five goals and Feinberg added three
in a 16-8 victory. Thomas Muldoon ’10
led Brown with four goals in Satur-
day’s 13-5 win over Delaware, running
Bruno’s winning streak to six.
“We have been playing very strong
as a team,” Feinberg said. “In the past
few games we have been well pre-
pared to take on our opponents. Both
the offense and defense have been
executing our coaches’ game strate-
gies very well.”
Brown 14, Dartmouth 8
On Saturday, March 21 the Bears
took on Dartmouth in the first Ivy
game of the season in Hanover, N.H.
The Big Green struck first with 7:41
to go in the first quarter. But Feinberg
responded eight seconds later, the
first of four straight goals for Brown.
Feinberg notched his second goal,
and Nic Bell ’09 and Hollingsworth
each added one to conclude the first
quarter with a 4-1 lead.
The Bears built a 6-2 lead midway
through the second quarter, with goals
by Muldoon and Feinberg. After Dart-
mouth notched a pair of goals, Mul-
doon fired his second. Dartmouth an-
swered with a goal, trailing Brown 7-5,
but goals by Bell and Reade Seligmann
’09 thwarted Dartmouth’s comeback
for a 9-5 lead to close the half.
The Bears added to their lead in
the third quarter, with Feinberg’s
fourth and Seligmann’s second giv-
ing them a six-goal lead going into
the final quarter.
Hollingsworth finished the game
with two goals and five assists. Mul-
doon (two goals, three assists) and
Feinberg (4g, 1a) each finished with
five points. Bell and Seligmann fin-
ished the game with two goals each.
Brady Williams ’09 and quad-captain
Jack Walsh ’09 added a goal each.
Quad-captain Jordan Burke ’09
anchored the defense with 10 saves
and seven goals against.
Brown 16, Vermont 8
Brown next traveled to Burling-
ton on Tuesday to face off against the
University of Vermont. Hollingsworth
scored a career-high five goals, cou-
pled with Feinberg’s three to lead the
Bears to a 16-8 victory over the Cata-
mounts — their fifth straight win.
Williams, Feinberg and Muldoon
launched an exciting three-goal lead
five minutes into the game. But Ver-
mont cut the deficit to 5-4 at the end
of the first quarter.
Brown’s defense shut out Vermont
in the second quarter and the offense
tallied five goals for a 10-4 lead at the
half. Hollingsworth scored two goals.
Feinberg, Williams and Walsh each
had one.
Brown dominated the second half,
outscoring Vermont 6-4, to cushion
their already substantial first-half
lead. Goals by Hollingsworth and
Bell gave the Bears a 12-6 lead after
third quarter. In the fourth quarter,
Hollingsworth, Feinberg and Jason
continued on page 8
Page 8 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
S ports m onday
M. lacrosse blows out Delaware
continued from page 7
Pohanka ’10 each added a goal to the
board. Charlie Kenney ’10 finished
Brown’s scoring with a goal at 3:40
on the clock, in addition to his assist
earlier in the game.
In goal, Burke had 12 saves and six
goals against. Matt Chriss ’11 stepped
into the net with five saves and two
goals against.
Brown 13, Delaware 5
The Bears came home after a week
on the road to face the University of
Delaware on Saturday. Brown earned
its sixth straight win by easily out-
scoring the Blue Hens, 13-5. Muldoon
led Bruno with four goals, extending
his scoring streak to 28 consecutive
games.
“I think the greatest thing we have
going for us is our chemistry,” Mul-
doon said. “Everyone on the team
Once-popular SUBU now defunct
continued from page 3
ourselves into SDS and other groups,”
Emmons said. He added that the fun-
damental values and goals of the two
groups were similar.
“The vision that inspired people to
join SUBU — making student voices
heard — has gone on to be really cen-
tral to all the work that SDS does on
campus,” he said.
works well together and really cares
about each other. We have a lot of
talent but we don’t have to deal with
egos. Everyone wants everyone else
to succeed and our team plays really
well together because of it.”
The Bears were untouchable
early into the first quarter when un-
answered goals by defenseman Jake
Hardy ’10, Feinberg and Seligmann
gave the Bears a 3-0 lead.
In the second quarter, Muldoon
had his first of four off a feed from Wil-
liams. After a scoreless first quarter for
Delaware, the Blue Hens posted their
first goal of the game with 9:12 left in
the half. Bell responded with a goal,
but Delaware posted their second for
a 5-2 score. Feinberg, Muldoon and
Hollingsworth had three consecutive
goals before Delaware scored to cut
Brown’s lead to 8-3.
Brown dominated the third quar-
ter as Muldoon scored his third and
Tye said he himself was less loyal
to the student union as an organization
than he was to groups he had been
involved in earlier.
“For me personally, as someone
who was involved less and less with
the organizing aspects of it over time, it
just wasn’t in the same category to me
as something like SDS,” he said.
Despite the group’s dissolution,
Emmons and Tye are proud of what
Monday, March 30, 2009
fourth of the game, and Williams add-
ed another goal. After three quarters,
the Bears led 11-3. Burke secured a
scoreless third quarter with seven
saves in goal.
Walsh and Jeff Foote ’11 opened up
the fourth quarter with the two final
goals for the Bears, who coasted to a
13-5 victory.
Seligmann and Hollingsworth
finished with three assists and a goal
each, and Feinberg added two goals
and an assist. On defense, Peter Fallon
’11 limited Delaware’s Curtis Dickson
to one goal.
“We are starting to play really well
as a team, with each piece coming
along and improving as the season
progresses,” said defenseman Jake
Westermann ’10.
The Bears will face off against Divi-
sion I newcomer Bryant for the first
time ever on Tuesday night in North
Smithfield, R.I.
it accomplished in its brief time on
campus.
“We did facilitate a good amount of
dialogue on campus,” Emmons said.
Glassman also credited the group
for inspiring conversation and ap-
plauded its members for trying to
influence university life. “Here’s this
group of people excited about working
on campus issues,” he said. “It was
exciting to see.”
Monday, March 30, 2009
C ampus N EWS
Martial artists host first championship
continued from page 1
to do in the past,” he said.
The tournament — which was
also a qualifier for the Pan American
Collegiate Taekwondo Champion-
ships Sparring Team — took place
on Saturday and Sunday, March 21
and 22. Competitors clad in white
uniforms crowded the floor of Piz-
zitola to practice the staccato tran-
sitions between stances before the
first day’s poomsae contests.
The tournament was divided
between poomsae competition on
the first day and sparring on the
second.
Spectators, including teammates
and parents of the athletes, watched
the competition from the stands,
which were roped off from the six
mats in the arena.
David Huie, a senior at Princ-
eton University who attended with
thirteen of his teammates, said the
tournament was running efficiently
and on-schedule. Limited seating at
Pizzitola meant that athletes had to
wait outside the arena, in the Olney-
Margolies Athletic Center’s holding
area, to be called to their matches,
and some competitors said the view-
ing area was often crowded.
Ramadan said spectators were
not allowed closer to the rings so
stretchers could get to injured par-
ticipants faster, if necessary. The ex-
tra space also allowed for smoother
transitions between matches, she
added.
“We worked with what we had,”
Yang said of the space limitations
at Pizzitola.
Preparing to host
Around eighty-five volunteers,
mostly members of Brown taekwon-
do, staffed the event. Many only
competed in poomsae, then helped
with logistics during the sparring
portion of the tournament.
Volunteers also served as ring-
runners, responsible for ferrying
athletes between matches. Vol-
unteer ringside scorers watched
spars, recording points and keep-
ing time with specialized software
that displayed match information
on computer monitors adjacent to
each ring.
The tournament cost more
than $30,000, according to Rama-
dan, with much of the cost going
toward overnight accommodations
for tournament referees, use of the
Erickson Athletic Complex, catering
and equipment.
Yang, who was club president
last year when Brown received
its bid to host nationals, said that
Brown’s status as one of the con-
sistently high-ranking taekwondo
colleges in the country made it a
natural candidate to host the tour-
nament.
“We felt it was time, and that our
club had the energy and manpower
to do it,” she said.
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Page 9
Undertaking nationals as its first
tournament to host was neverthe-
less unusual, Ramadan said. Stan-
ford and MIT both had experience
hosting other tournaments before
they received bids to plan nationals,
she added.
Much of the preparation for the
tournament involved negotiating
with campus offices and private
businesses for lower prices on tour-
nament supplies, Ramadan said.
Competitors were charged an
entrance fee for the event, which
helped to recoup costs, Ramadan
said. The club received monetary
support from campus offices, in-
cluding the Office of the Dean of
the College and the Division of
Campus Life and Student Services.
Two Brown students competed at
the tournament free of charge with
funding from the Third World Cen-
ter and the Sarah Doyle Women’s
Center.
Yang said the tournament plan-
ners relied heavily on the guidance
of the Brown Taekwondo Instructor
Board — Brown black-belts who
coach other club members — and
the club Master, Sung Park ’96.
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Editorial & Letters
The Brown Daily Herald

Page 10 | Monday, March 30, 2009

e d i to r i a l

Brown’s Chinese expansion

The University just completed another couple of “memorandums of
understanding,” this time with the Chinese University of Hong Kong. We
hope Brown will capitalize on this opportunity to expand its presence and
increase its offerings in China.
In the current economic climate, the internationalization initiative
faces serious financial constraints. One recent article (“U. aims to spur
‘knowledge economy’ in R.I.,” March 18) reported that some graduate
departments lacking funds have warned international students against
applying, and need-blind financial aid for international students — a goal
under the Plan for Academic Enrichment — is unlikely to happen in the
near future. In light of these limitations, it’s encouraging to see that the
University’s priorities are in the right place, at least geographically. China
should be at the forefront of the University’s internationalization efforts.
We feel that Brown would benefit from forming ties with other Chinese
schools in addition to CUHK. Almost two years ago, Brown established a
medical exchange program with Zhejiang University. At the time, Zhejiang’s
president Wei Yang PhD’85 said there would be “more collaboration” in
the future, and last year, the Corporation approved a $1 million donation
to promote exchange between the two schools. The University should
consider increasing its involvement with Zhejiang as its next venture into
China.
For now, CUHK has plenty to offer. Under the memoranda of under-
standing, the University hopes to facilitate exchanges of graduate students
and faculty and to create a summer study abroad program that would send
students from Brown and CUHK to each campus for up to four weeks.
In the long-term, Brown should build on the summer program and franny choi
develop full-fledged immersion courses at the CUHK campus similar to
existing immersion programs in China offered by Middlebury College
and Duke, Harvard and Princeton Universities.
Currently, Brown students studying Mandarin are encouraged to take
l e t t e r to t h e e d i to r s
summer immersion courses abroad, often under programs run by other
schools. By hosting an immersion program of its own, Brown could incor-
porate courses abroad into its Mandarin curriculum and ensure uniform
academic standards. The University would also make immersion programs
Liberal racism is still racism
more attractive to Brown students who would be able to study abroad To the Editor: to his current occupation, involves growing up in a
with a group of their classmates. The University stands to benefit from working-class family before attending such prestigious
engagement with Chinese universities, and we hope Brown’s relationship As liberal Brown students are normally very much schools as John Hopkins University and Georgetown
with CUHK is the first step in a much broader project. in tune with the feelings, values and needs of minor- University, and then eventually becoming Maryland’s
ity groups in America, I was surprised and shocked first African-American lieutenant governor.
Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board. Send comments by Jonathan Topaz’s words (“Washington’s cultural If the United States wishes to progress beyond its
to editorials@browndailyherald.com. exchange,” March 13). In a shameful attempt to criti- racist past, Americans must learn to look beyond skin
cize the Grand Old Party by claiming unfoundedly pigmentation. There was a rightful outcr y against
that Republicans elected Michael Steele Republican Geraldine Ferraro when she claimed Obama’s suc-
t h e b r o w n d a i ly h e r a l d National Committee Chairman due solely to the color cess as a presidential candidate was due to preferen-
Editor-in-Chief Managing Editors Associate Editors Senior Editors of his skin, Topaz instead revealed his own ignorance tial treatment toward a black man. Topaz has made
Steve DeLucia Michael Bechek Nandini Jayakrishna Rachel Arndt and bigotr y. the same insensitive and inaccurate claim and such
Chaz Firestone Franklin Kanin Catherine Cullen
Michael Skocpol Scott Lowenstein To suggest that Steele reached his esteemed po- segregating comments are not needed when, at this
editorial Business sition based on his race alone is a grand insult to important moment in U.S. histor y, the countr y is
Ben Hyman Arts & Culture Editor General Managers Office Manager the African-American community. Topaz writes that making giant steps toward racial equality.
Hannah Levintova Arts & Culture Editor Alexander Hughes Shawn Reilly
Sophia Li Features Editor Jonathan Spector “Republicans made it clear that any black man would
Emmy Liss Features Editor Directors do” in choosing their committee chairman. On the
Gaurie Tilak Higher Ed Editor Ellen DaSilva Sales Director
Matthew Varley Higher Ed Editor Claire Kiely Sales Director
contrar y — Steele is not any black man, nor any man Keith DellaGrotta ’10
George Miller Metro Editor Phil Maynard Sales Director at all for that matter. His impressive histor y, prior March 18
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Opinions
The Brown Daily Herald
TORY
HARTMANN
Opinions Columnist
On countless hospital shows, viewers enjoy
intense sexual tension between physicians
played out during high-pressure medical
procedures. These shows often begin with
a frantic doctor calling for “four units, stat!”
Many viewers won’t give this phrase a second
thought, but the doctor is calling for four
units of blood, and he or she will generally
get it.
From media to reality, there is a funda-
mental assumption that blood is available
for our use. Even if people don’t consciously
acknowledge it, they expect that if they get
sick or get into a car accident, their local
hospital will be able to treat them using
donated blood.
This is not the reality. Blood cannot be
manufactured; it must come from another
person. Therefore, it is our responsibility to
donate blood if we are eligible. Currently,
according to the Mayo Clinic, “only 5 percent
of eligible donors across the nation donate
blood, but the number of transfusions na-
tionwide increases by 9 percent every year.”
Moreover, over 25 percent of Americans
will need a blood transfusion at some point
in their lives.
PBS Correspondent Jeff Yastine reports,
“Baby boomers and those older, make
DAN DAVIDSON
Opinions Columnist
You wouldn’t know it from reading the sports
headlines, but there are actually two college
basketball tournaments going on right now.
After years of decline, and despite a recent
effort to revitalize it, the National Invitational
Tournament, or NIT, can’t seem to gain a
foothold in sports culture.
As March Madness sweeps the nation, the
NIT remains shrouded in obscurity. Many
of its games are not televised or paid even
a fraction of the attention sports journalists
dedicate to the NCAA tournament.
In perhaps the most telling example of the
NIT’s insignificance, perennial powerhouse
Kentucky, having fallen on hard times and
facing the prospect of missing March Madness
for the first time since 1992, considered reject-
ing an invite to the NIT. “We certainly don’t
want to be perceived as arrogant, but we also
don’t want to lower the standards of what is
expected at Kentucky,” athletic director Mitch
Barnhart said in an interview with ESPN.
Sports fans and the NCAA can only benefit
from a stronger NIT. The tournament has the
potential to increase the excitement surround-
ing college basketball this time of year.
Rebuilding the tournament will require an
increased and sustained effort by the NCAA,
which has failed to market the NIT with any-
thing approaching the same vigor it reserves
for March Madness. But many of the pieces
So you want to save a life?
more of a habit of donating blood, while
younger generations donate blood a lot less
frequently.” In fact, Dr. Richard Benjamin,
Chief Medical Officer of the American Red
Cross, reports that “more hospitals (are)
complaining of (blood supply) shortages
and there are more times when we’re having
to cut our deliveries to hospitals, because
we simply don’t have enough of a reser ve
in the blood centers.”
In casual conversations about blood do-
nations, many people have told me they
Blood cannot be manufactured; it must come
from another person. It is our responsibility to
donate blood if we are eligible.
are afraid to donate because it hurts or be-
cause they are afraid of blood. If you are
honestly terrified of the procedure, then
I do not advise you to do it. But if you are
just somewhat ner vous, I encourage you to
tr y to donate. I promise, as a person who
has had bruises on both arms because the
attendant missed my veins, if they mess up
you will get over it.
The staff I have encountered at each blood
center I’ve donated at has been courteous,
gentle and ver y willing to talk me through
In defense of the NIT
necessary for an exciting sports event are
already in place.
It is true that many of the game’s top play-
ers make it to March Madness, like Okla-
homa’s Blake Griffin. But many others find
themselves in the NIT in any given year.
Georgetown’s DaJuan Summers is one of a
few probable first-round picks in the next
NBA draft whose team accepted an NIT invite.
Fan-favorite and the sensation of last year’s
March Madness, Davidson’s Stephen Curry,
is also playing in the NIT.
The NIT showcases many top programs
with storied histories and large fan bases in-
Sports fans and the NCAA can only benefit from
a stronger NIT. The tournament has the potential
to increase the excitement surrounding college
basketball this time of year.
cluding Penn State, Virginia Tech, Kentucky
and Florida, to name a few. And by virtue of
the selection process for March Madness,
most notably the automatic bids that con-
ference winners receive, it is all but certain
that there will consistently be teams in the
NIT better than some playing for the national
championship.
This year, for example, Cornell got a seed
in the NCAA tournament because they were
the Ivy League champions. According to the
the process. Moreover, the phlebotomists
at every center have worked hard to ensure
that the process is simple for me. Each drive,
including the ones hosted here at Brown,
allows me to schedule an appointment in
advance at a time convenient for me.
One statistic is thrown around all the time
when people talk about donating blood: ev-
ery pint of blood can save three lives. Three
lives. Look around you. Consider exactly
what that phrase means. Remember that, as
a generally healthy demographic, college-
age students are, for the most part, unlikely
to need blood transfusions. But one, day you
might. One in four of the people reading this
will likely need a blood transfusion at some
point in his or her life. If people don’t donate
blood, if our society does not emphasize
the practice of blood donation, then we, the
future recipients of blood donations, will be
out of luck.
Even if you’re lucky enough never to re-
quire a blood transfusion, I hazard to guess
that a vast number of you have had direct
Ratings Percentage Index (RPI), a statistical
tool used by the NCAA to seed teams in the
tournament, Cornell was only the 115th best
college basketball team this year. San Diego
State, Creighton, UAB, St. Mary’s (Calif.), Il-
linois State, and Niagara all finished the season
with top 50 RPIs and trips to the NIT.
The talent in the NIT is not as deep as in the
NCAA tournament, but the NIT isn’t lacking
in excitement. Virginia Tech and Duquesne
had a thrilling double-overtime game in the
first round, and the Baylor-Auburn quarter-
final match-up was one of many games in
this year’s NIT that came right down to the
final seconds.
Buzzer-beaters, which have provided many
of the NCAA tournament’s most storied memo-
ries, are no stranger to the NIT either. Penn
State star Talor Battle drained an incredible
three-pointer as time expired to send his first-
round game to overtime, and the highlight
could easily compare with the most exciting
moments from this year’s NCAA tourney.
Why then, with all the makings of a fun
tournament, does the NIT continue to gener-
Monday, March 30, 2009 | Page 11
contact with a person who has been saved by
a blood transfusion. Both of my grandmoth-
ers received numerous donations during
their chemotherapy. They were lucky to
have access to blood stores in this countr y,
because it is not the case for ever yone
Ultimately, donating blood satisfies the
donor in numerous ways. There’s the cycli-
cal aspect — if I donate now, maybe I will
be able to receive the blood I need in the
future. There’s the selfless approach ­— if I
donate I will save a fellow human, which is
something I would like to do. And there’s
even the body image approach — according
to the Mayo Clinic, you burn around 650
Calories by donating a pint of blood.
Not ever yone can donate. Some cannot
donate for unjust reasons: The American
Red Cross’ policy that men who have had
sexual relations with other men since 1977
cannot donate blood is discriminatory, coun-
terintuitive and imprudent. Yet, for those of
you who can donate, I implore you to do so.
That only five percent of eligible Americans
donate blood is an unacceptable reality —
one I believe our generation must change.
Tory Hartmann ’11 is a political sci-
ence concentrator from Hillsborough,
N.J. She can be reached at
victoria_hartmann@brown.edu.
ate little or no excitement? When the NCAA
settled an anti-trust lawsuit several years ago
by taking over the NIT, it promised a new ap-
proach that would elevate the tournament’s
status. But it doesn’t seem like the NCAA is
actually taking this project very seriously.
The NIT’s stigma won’t be overcome when
nearly half the tournament’s first- and second-
round games aren’t televised. Many others are
relegated to ESPNU. In fact, despite having a
huge contract with the NCAA to provide NIT
television coverage, ESPN’s online NCAA
basketball page features barely any informa-
tion about the tournament.
Unless the NCAA makes a concerted effort
to market the NIT, broadcast more games, and
get NIT covered on major sports outlets, the
tournament, the tournament will continue to
suffer because fans won’t have the opportunity
to get into it. For many, March Madness is
an exciting time because there is such high
potential for thrilling plays and tight games.
These fans won’t reject exciting NIT action
simply because it is the NIT.
I am confident I am not alone in preferring
to watch the close first-round NIT game be-
tween Creighton and Bowling Green over the
39-point thumping Louisville recently gave Ari-
zona. But the NIT game wasn’t even televised.
Hopefully the NCAA will soon recognize that
a consolation tournament still has something
to offer sports fans.
Dan Davidson ’11, a WNBA fanatic,
can be reached at
Daniel_Davidson@brown.edu.
 Today 5
to day to m o r r o w
From Eritrea to Rhode Island
The Brown Daily Herald

M. lacrosse wins three in a row

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the news in images

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Today, March 30 tomorrow, March 31 The One About Zombies | Kevin Grubb

4 PM — Romano Prodi — “Is there a 6:30 PM — 9th Annual Casey Shearer

New Role for Europe in Today’s World?” Memorial Lecture, “Equal Play: Title
Salomon Center 101 IX and Public Policy,” Salomon 101

7 PM — Semana Chicana Presents: Joe 7 pm — “The Ends of Slavery” Lec-

Hernandez-Kolski, Salomon 001 ture, Smith-Buonanno Hall 201

menu
Sharpe Refectory
Lunch — Savory Chicken Stew, Vegan
Brown Rice Pilaf with Mushrooms, Sea-
food Gumbo, Dal Cali with Yogurt
Verney-Woolley Dining Hall
Alien Weather Forecast | Stephen Lichenstein and Adam Wagner
Lunch — Bacon Ranch Chicken
Sandwich, Baked Macaroni and
Cheese, Butterscotch Chip Bars

Dinner — Roast Beef Au Jus, Creamy Dinner — Spinach Pie Casserole,

Rosemary Polenta, Spice Crusted Italian Meatballs with Pasta, Saigon
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RELEASE DATE– Monday, March 30, 2009

Los Angeles Times

c r o sDaily
swo Crossword
rd Puzzle
Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
ACROSS 2 Civil uprising 36 Pork cut 52 Second-string
1 Olfactory 3 Nebraska tribe 38 Fish catchers squad
enticement 4 Cooing sound 40 Dream state 53 Emmy or Oscar
Enigma Twist | Dustin Foley
6 Fashion show 5 Mo. when 1040s acronym 57 Tahoe, for one
strutter are due 41 Pekoe packet 58 Astronomical
11 Chugalug’s 6 “__ Ado About 44 “The Raven” distance meas.
opposite Nothing” poet 60 Annapolis inst.
14 65-Down- 7 Labor Dept. arm 46 Desert Storm 61 Footnote abbr.
strengthening 8 Sweetheart chow, initially 62 Daly of “Cagney
exercise 9 Grocery trip, say 49 Rubbish & Lacey”
15 Online surfers, 10 Leary’s turn-on 50 Oration 64 Wildebeest
e.g. 11 Church garb 51 Arched foot part 65 Tummy muscles
16 Cyberaddress, 12 Flawed, as sale
briefly mdse. ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
17 Franklin’s 13 Hangar
almanac-writing occupant
alter ego 18 Hawkeyes,
19 “Right to bear statewise
arms” gp. 22 Clamorous
20 Flower holder 24 Sushi tuna
21 Scarlett of Tara 26 “Dancing with the
22 Port in Yemen Stars” network PAID ADVERTISEMENT
23 Detroit labor org. 27 Broadway
25 Furious disaster
27 Young, promising 28 On __ with: equal
fellow to
32 Hosp. staffer 29 Blends together
33 1/12 of a foot into a whole
34 Conspiring band 30 “Bleah!”
37 Solemn vow 31 Valerie Harper
39 Woman’s golf sitcom
garment 35 “Puppy Love”
42 Nevada city singer Paul xwordeditor@aol.com 03/30/09
43 Before surg.
45 Consider
47 Enjoy Aspen
48 Beneficent
biblical traveler
52 Cocktail maker
54 Actor Affleck
55 “__ brillig, and the
slithy ...”: Carroll
56 Beautiful, in
Bologna
59 Business garb
63 Dine
64 F. Scott
Fitzgerald title
character, with
“the”
66 “You __ here”
67 Paris Hilton’s
sister
68 Nigeria neighbor
69 Hosp. VIPs
70 Theater employee
71 Garden shovel

DOWN
1 Nile snakes By Donna S. Levin
(c)2009 Tribune Media Services, Inc.
03/30/09