Daily Herald the Brown
vol. cxlv, no. 21 | Friday, February 26, 2010 | Serving the community daily since 1891
Corp. to consider budget priorities
By Sydney Ember and Nicole
Friedman
News Editors
Faced with the task of further re-
ducing the University’s projected
budget deficit by $30 million, the
Corporation will convene this week-
end to finalize plans to balance next
fiscal year’s operating budget and
discuss the University’s academic
priorities.
Brown’s highest governing body
will receive the University Resourc-
es Committee’s recommendations
— which include the Organizational
French film festival starts at Cable Car
By Corina Chase
Contributing Writer
The 13th annual Providence French
Film Festival opened Thursday with
a screening of “Flandres (Flan-
ders)”, directed by Bruno Dumont,
followed by Andre Techine’s “La
fille du RER (The girl on the train).”
The festival this year will consist of
18 different films, which are all “a
little bit on the edge,” said Senior
Lecturer in French Studies Shoggy
Waryn.
ARTS & CULTURE
The Department of French
Studies, along with numerous fac-
ulty, graduate and undergraduate
news in brief
Student robbed
at gunpoint on
Transit Street
A Brown student was
robbed at gunpoint at
approximately 7:41 p.m.
on Tuesday, according to
an e-mail sent to members
of the Brown community
Thursday.
The victim had gotten
out of his car behind his
Transit Street residence
when the suspect pulled
out a handgun and told
the victim to hand over his
money, according to the
police report. The suspect,
a black or Hispanic male
in his early 20s, escaped
on foot with the victim’s
BlackBerry and cash after
attempting to steal the
victim’s car, the police
report said.
The victim was
unharmed.
— Claire Peracchio
inside
News......1-3
Arts........4-5
Editorial.....6
Opinion.....7
Today.........8
www.browndailyherald.com
Review Committee’s proposed solu-
tions accounting for $14 million of
the total reduction goal — and Presi-
dent Ruth Simmons’ recommenda-
tions for next fiscal year’s budget,
tuition and other fees, including
increased investment in financial
aid, said Russell Carey ’91 MA’06,
senior vice president for Corpora-
tion affairs and governance.
Discussion of significant capital
projects is also on the Corporation’s
weekend agenda, he said.
The goal of this weekend’s sum-
mit is to “balance the budgets and
deal with the deficits,” Carey said,
volunteers, organized the festival,
which is co-sponsored by the De-
partment of Modern Culture and
Media. The festival runs through
March 7 at the Cable Car Cinema.
Though several films focus on
“changing states” and “changing
status,” Waryn said, this year’s fes-
tival aims to showcase the great va-
riety of films produced in the Fran-
cophone world. Youenn Kervennic,
a lecturer in French studies, said
the organizers wanted to present
an “eclectic” mix of films.
The Department of French
Studies incorporates the films,
which are screened in French with
English subtitles, into many of its
courses, encouraging or requiring
French students to attend some of
With iTunes apps, students join the gold rush
By Sara Luxenberg
Staff Writer
iPhone users have hundreds of thou-
sands of choices at their fingertips,
and now some Brown developers are
getting in on the game. Through the
App Store, iPhone and iPod touch
owners can download apps — extra
features that users can download to
their Apple phones — that pertain
to every aspect of their lives. The
possibilities, however, don’t stop at
the users.
FEATURE
Through the app market, Apple
has opened up opportunities for
independent software developers:
a chance to make a profit, a new
medium for development and the
opportunity to compete with huge
companies to make the next hit app.
Several games, an automatic volume
adjuster and a pregnancy test all got
their genesis from Brown students
who have already experienced the
rewards and challenges of entering
this growing market.
News, 2
The regulator
A RISD senior designed a
device to end all devices
(on standby)
195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island
adding that the University expects
to come away from the weekend
with a more solidified plan to fur-
ther reduce the budget deficit.
Part of the Corporation’s deci-
sion will involve analysis of the 14
ORC subcommittees’ recommenda-
tions for reducing the budget and in-
creasing the University’s efficiency,
Carey said. The ORC recommen-
dations were outlined in a report
released Feb. 2 and include stream-
lining University administration and
cutting operating costs from various
continued on page 3
the screenings. Waryn explained
that the festival was designed to
complement the activities of the de-
partment. Both Waryn and Kerven-
nic said they hope the festival will
help to dispel some myths about
French cinema — for example, that
French films are always serious and
usually confusing.
The organizers of this year’s
festival began working almost im-
mediately after last year’s finished,
Waryn said. They looked at films
that did well in 2009, returned to
films they previously could not
show and got ideas from several
other film festivals, eventually
accumulating a wish list of titles.
continued on page 4
Applying themselves
Creating an app is not a simple
process, as new developers must
familiarize themselves with both
Apple’s programming language and
the compilers that contain the numer-
ous files of code.
Developers must work exclusive-
ly in Objective-C, a programming
language developed by Apple that
is “different from what’s taught” in
computer science classes at Brown,
said developer Eshan Mitra ’12, a
Herald cartoonist.
Eric Stix ’12, who created his first
app just over a year ago, described
the language as a “Java-C hybrid.”
He added that knowing both Java
and C before writing his first app
“was a big help” in learning to code
in Objective-C.
“When I started making apps,
the iPhone had only been out for
maybe a year or two,” said Ethan
Richman ’13. “There were not that
many resources online” for using
Objective-C and handling error mes-
sages and other problems, he said.
While today there are many tutorials
online, “there’s still a lot of trial and
Occidental College professor Ron Buckmire participated in a panel on
California’s Proposition 8 in Salomon 101 Thursday night.
Prop. 8 panel discusses
race and sexuality
By Kristina Klara
Contributing Writer
Civil unions give same-sex couples
“only half a loaf” because they are
still denied many federal rights and
the title of marriage, Occidental Col-
lege professor and LGBT advocate
Ron Buckmire told a nearly empty
Salomon 101 Thursday night.
About 20 people gathered to
hear a panel of advocates for the
lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans-
gender community discuss race,
error” in the coding process, Rich-
man said.
Developers are responsible for
coding everything that users will see.
“You have to program your app and
create all the content for it, whether
it be images, sounds or textual con-
tent,” said Paul Kernfeld ’12.
“With the iPhone, it is specifically
a challenge to make sure you can fit
everything you want in the pretty
small amount of screen space,” Kern-
feld added.
New developers must also reg-
ister with Apple. This registration
has a $100 price tag and gives the
developer all of the software needed
to create an app, including a way to
test applications, Kernfeld said.
Critical review
Once a developer has created
an app, it can’t hit the marketplace
just yet. The program must also be
approved by the App Store Review
Team — a process that can be a seri-
ous hurdle.
“The approval process is pretty
notorious for being opaque,” Kern-
feld said. “They often don’t provide
Arts, 4
Alum’s play opening
Curtains up on “Dead
Man’s Cellphone” by Sarah
Ruhl ’97 MFA’01
Nick Sinnott-Armstrong / Herald
sexuality, religion and same-sex
marriage. Roger Williams School
of Law Professor Courtney Cahill,
Washington Consulting Group
advocate Reverend Jamie Wash-
ington and Buckmire comprised
the panel.
The panel discussion centered
around California’s Proposition 8,
which declared, “Only a marriage
between a man and a woman is valid
or recognized in California.” Sup-
continued on page 2
much information about what goes
on behind the scenes.”
Stix attempted to make an app
that recreated the iPod shuffle on
the iPhone, but he said it was de-
nied by Apple early in the develop-
ment process for copying an Apple
product, even though it was going
to be produced “exclusively for their
devices,” he said.
“When you sign up to be an apps
developer,” the company’s agreement
“basically says Apple’s allowed to ac-
cept or reject whatever they want,”
Stix added.
Richman also ran into problems
with the review team. After creating
an information-based app that includ-
ed a questionnaire to help determine
if the user might be pregnant, Rich-
man also created a humorous, vulgar
version of the same questionnaire.
“I got a call from Apple when they
were reviewing,” he said. “This guy
was giving me a hard time for having
little stick figures” reflecting varying
levels of sexual promiscuity, he said.
Richman added that he was forced
continued on page 3
Opinions, 7
Got absolutism?
Emily Breslin ’10 takes
on the moral relativists at
universities
herald@browndailyherald.com
Page 2 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Friday, February 26, 2010

C ampus N EWS “Our lives are being converted into electronic appliances.”
— RISD student Conor Klein, inventor of the Outlet Regulator

RISD senior creates energy-conserving gadget Panelists discuss how religion

By Jonathan Chou
Contributing Writer
Bloodsucking leeches have always
had a bad reputation, but now there’s
a new leech that doesn’t suck.
Conor Klein, a senior majoring
in furniture design at the Rhode
Island School of Design, built the
Outlet Regulator, a leech-inspired
gadget that disconnects appliances
when fully charged.
Klein said the purpose of the
Regulator, which he constructed
last semester, was two-fold: to bring
attention to energy overconsump-
tion and to revive the physicality of
electronic appliances. According
to the U.S. Department of Energy,
standby devices — appliances that
passively remain plugged into a
power source — account for 5 to
10 percent of household electricity
consumption. By creating an outlet
that can disconnect appliances soon
after they have reached their full
battery capacity, these numbers
would drop significantly, Klein
said.
“Our lives are being converted
into electronic appliances,” Klein
said. Because the number of appli-
ances that have a standby button is
increasing, the need for a device like
this is also growing, he added.
Klein built the contraption in
his class on biomimicry, a design
discipline that focuses on using
behaviors and structures from na-
ture to inspire practical appliances.
Because he is a functional designer,
Klein focused on the behavioral
characteristics of a leech, instead
of on its structural or physical char-
acteristics.
The entire idea stemmed from
research that Klein read on para-
sitic leeches and how they draw
sudoku
Courtesy of Conor Klein
RISD student Conor Klein created the Outlet Regulator, a contraption
that automatically ejects appliances when fully charged.
nutrients from hosts, he said. In this a countdown timer runs its course,
case, electronic appliances such as Klein said, adding that the fact that
coffee makers with standby buttons the cord physically disconnects is
are like leeches because they draw just as important as the invention’s
electricity from their parent outlets, function. “Physicality is disappear-
which are like leeches’ hosts. But ing,” he said. By having the device’s
unlike leeches, electronic appli- parts separate, the user can be cer-
ances do not know when to “stop tain that the appliance is working.
sucking energy,” Klein said, which Andrew Mau, a 2009 RISD grad-
is where the Regulator comes in. uate who was Klein’s sophomore
The gadget saves energy by simply studio teaching assistant, noted
disconnecting the device when it is Klein’s strong work ethic and dili-
left on standby, he said. gence.
Charging appliances connect “Conor generally knows what
to an outlet via the Regulator. A he wants to accomplish and accom-
cord physically detaches from the plishes it,” Mau said.
Regulator’s main component when Mau, who was present at the
final critique for the Regulator, said
the most important aspect of the
Regulator was not that it was con-
serving energy, but instead that it
served as a “physical reminder” of
energy overconsumption.
So far, the Regulator has ap-
peared on over 50 blogs. Klein said
he has received corporate inquiries
about the Regulator but declined
to say which companies have con-
tacted him.
“I didn’t realize it’d get this much
attention,” Klein said.
shades definition of ‘marriage’
continued from page 1
porters of the proposition spent
about $40 million on their campaign
to galvanize support for the amend-
ment, Buckmire said, and LGBT
rights activists spent $43 million
to discourage the proposition. It
passed with a 57 percent majority
in November 2008.
About 70 percent of African-
American voters voted to pass
Proposition 8, Buckmire said. “This
oppositional framework leaves out
people who happen to be members
of both groups,” said Buckmire,
who called himself a “black gay.”
“Black LGBT people were mar-
ginalized by both aspects of their
identity,” he said.
Cahill discussed the media’s pre-
sentation of Proposition 8, saying it
portrayed the proposition’s success
as “some combination of Mormon
money and racial homophobia.”
From her “YouTube research,”
Cahill did not find rhetoric criti-
cizing homosexuals in the media,
she said. Instead, the proposition
was portrayed as preserving “the
right of the people to define mar-
riage as they see fit,” she said. But
Cahill said she also questioned
whether or not this excuse was
just masking “disgust for gays” and
presenting a more “constitutionally
permissible” excuse for passing the
amendment.
Washington provided some
background on the interplay of
racial and religious identity in the
gay marriage issue. “We have his-
torically had gays and lesbians be
white” and not affiliated with any
religion, he said. “That dynamic is
still alive and well today.”
The moderator’s first question
for the panel was, “What do you
see as the best way to go forward
now?” Buckmire answered, saying
that the same-sex marriage issue is
not “winnable unless there is major-
ity support for marriage equality.”
He said that most states allow for
civil unions, which provide many of
the rights that a marriage license
carries.
But still, one class can get mar-
ried and one can only get a civil
union, he said. “We’ve done that
before,” he said, “and it’s called
separate but not equal.”
Cahill added that even though
civil unions provide many of the
same opportunities as marriage
for homosexual couples, several
federal rights are missing.
“I can’t get to the word ‘mar-
riage,’ ” Washington said of his
discussions with people opposing
same-sex marriage. “I’m finding
that what’s under marriage is God’s
approval,” he said, summarizing
the sentiments of those against
same-sex marriage as, “If I say
that I approve your marriage, I’m
saying that God is approving your
relationship the way he approves
my relationship.”
“See me as human,” Washing-
ton said in response. “See my re-
lationship as human and as valid
as yours.”
Cahill suggested that the issue
of same-sex marriage should be
resolved legislatively, not by the
courts. Lending a legal perspec-
tive, she said, “We have to keep this
conversation going ... and it has to
be multitextural.”
Advocates have “put too much
reliance on the courts to solve the
issue,” she said, adding that “we’ve
given it over to the courts and don’t
really have it ourselves.”
A student from the audience
asked about how to educate chil-
dren about homosexuality without
parents thinking their children will
become gay.
“Every social change issue has
had to have its fires,” Washington
said. “If we think we’ll move this
along without that, we are sorely
mistaken.”
Buck said that intolerance — in-
cluding the assumption that learn-
ing about homosexuality will make
people gay — is due to a lack of
education. “What if everyone was
gay? Well, we’d all dress better,”
he said. “But it’s not going to hap-
pen,” he added, emphasizing that
homosexuality is not learned.
The panel ended by reminding
the audience that the issue will
only be solved if it is talked about.
People need to get “under the is-
sue” and tr y to understand each
other, Washington said.

Daily Herald
the Brown

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Friday, February 26, 2010 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Page 3

C ampus N EWS “Me, a college kid, I can make an app and sell it
to 50 million people.” — Eric Stix ’12

Corporation Student-made iPhone apps compete with big names in gaming

will discuss continued from page 1 ness apps list, but “when it was first
released, it climbed pretty quickly”
Mitra, Kernfeld and Stix all
choose to charge a fee on the app it-
not the sole reason for entering the
market.

budget issues to change the rating on his app from

all-ages to 17-or-older.
to the top spot on the category list.
Richman created the quiz to turn a
self as opposed to placing ads within
it. Apple takes a 30 percent cut of all
“Essentially it’s a gold rush
right now,” Kernfeld said. “Some
The review team does not only pregnancy information Web site — pay-per-app revenues. apps make a whole lot of money,
continued from page 1
reject apps it deems inappropriate. askdramy.com — into an app. Mitra’s app, ConqWord, is a 99- but there’s a lot of competition, so
areas of the University. It also makes sure that submitted The competition is stiffest for cent, two-player word game that in- we were mostly doing it for fun and
This weekend’s meeting is apps work properly. game creators, as games comprise volves trying to take over different just to get something out there with
the second meeting specifically “If a button’s not working, they’ll the greatest portion of the market. parts of a board of letters by forming our name on it.”
dedicated to determining the fol- call you up and tell you,” Stix said. “If you get on the top 100 games, words. “They star ted this amazing
lowing fiscal year’s budget since “When I’ve needed to change some- you’re fairly golden,” Stix said. “As Kernfeld’s app, which he cre- trend,” Stix said. “Me, a college kid,
Simmons announced a $740 mil- thing, they’ve been very helpful.” soon as you get to that point, there’s ated with Evan Wallace ’12, is also a I can make an app and sell it to 50
lion decline in the University’s a snowball effect.” word game. For 99 cents, users can million people.”
endowment in Januar y 2009. Topping the charts Stix, Kernfeld and Mitra have all download the fast-paced Wordtastic, This “app culture” also brings up
During last February’s meeting, Once the review team accepts a created games in the app market, which combines elements of Tetris questions about “to what extent the
the Corporation set a goal to re- program, they put it in the App Store and Richman said he hopes to make and Boggle. relationship between producer and
duce the University’s projected on iTunes. Which apps users choose, a game in the future. Stix created a successful game consumer is changing,” said Wendy
operating budget by $95 million though, depends on advertising, the Richman said his Dr. Amy’s called Kitty Kannon — which Chun, associate professor of modern
over the next four years. The Uni- quality of the app, the prestige of the program, in its peak at the top of reached the top five on the games culture and media studies.
versity set a goal of reducing the developer — and pure luck. the healthcare and fitness list, was chart — and an app that automati- Apple has moved the spotlight to
projected budget by $35 million There are currently more than downloaded more than 1,000 times cally adjusts song volume to elimi- the developers, and while the com-
during the fiscal year beginning 130,000 apps in the store. As a re- per day. nate volume discrepancies between puting Goliath still calls the shots,
last July. sult, “a lot of the content immedi- Even without the benefit of adver- songs. He now seeks to perfect an Stix said, “it opened up a whole new
Due to the scope of the pro- ately sinks to the bottom, which tising, an app can be successful just old classic — Snake. opportunity for so many people.”
posed reductions for the next fis- also makes it pretty tough to get a because it creates a buzz. “There are about 30 copies of “If you’re an independent devel-
cal year, the Corporation — which foothold in the market without luck “You need to have a significant vi- Snake already for the iPhone,” he oper, you can take big risks,” Stix
also meets annually in May and or an advertising budget,” Kernfeld ral component in your app,” Richman said, but users find the apple-eating said, which brings the possibility of
October — will spend more time said. said. “There needs to be something snakes in these versions too easy or big profits. “It’s an added element
this weekend meeting as a group “I’ve seen some great games that that makes people talk about it.” difficult to control. His app will utilize of creativity that maybe didn’t exist
rather than in individual commit- have never seen the light of day,” a better control method, Stix said. before.”
tees, Carey said. Stix said. Dollars and cents The fact that “The Moron Test,”
This weekend’s meeting will Large companies such as EA Developers can reap huge profits App culture “I Am T-Pain” and “Knife Dancing”
be a “modified retreat,” Carey Games are major players in the from successful apps, choosing to While profit may be a main mo- are all on the 100 Top Grossing Apps
said, adding that the February apps market, and often buy up brand charge a fee for downloading the tivator for many developers, it is list speaks for itself.
meeting is more focused because name games such as Scrabble and program initially or to rake in rev-
it includes only current members Tetris to sell in app form, Stix said. enue from advertisements contained
of the Corporation. “Solo developers are inherently at a within a free app.
Members of the Corporation disadvantage because they can’t pay Richman uses the latter tech-
will convene collectively on Fri- for advertising,” he added. nique, creating free apps and then
day morning and split into com- Apple will sometimes use the relying on advertising revenue to
mittees — including those on apps of independent developers in profit from app creation. His next
advancement, academic affairs their ads, which can greatly boost project involves another information-
and budget and finance — in the the app’s popularity, Stix said. based app for a different company
afternoon before reconvening at Richman’s original pregnancy regarding clinical trials.
a dinner at night. (Committees test app was featured in the iPhone “There are millions and millions
charged with discussing facili- App Directory, which profiles “the of iPhone users, a whole range of
ties and design, Alpert Medical 270 most interesting apps,” Rich- demographics,” he said. “It’s a great
School, investment and auditing man said. idea for a lot of companies” to get
met on Thursday.) The commit- His app, “Dr. Amy’s Am I Preg- their information out through the
tees will then come together on nant Quiz,” is currently 55th on the apps market, so there is a large de-
Saturday to finalize next year’s store’s top 100 Healthcare and Fit- mand for developers, he added.
budget, Carey said.
The dinner on Friday evening
will include student leaders, fac-
ulty and staff, as well as members
of the Brown community who
served on the ORC committees
and the URC, he said. Though
these dinners sometimes are de-
voted to feting specific projects
or donations, Carey said Friday’s
dinner will be “more of a social
event” to allow members of the
Corporation to “interact with
members of the community.”
Provost David Kertzer ’69 P’95
P’98 will also make a presentation
on behalf of the Academic Priori-
ties Committee, Carey said.
The Corporation committees
may also discuss the proposal
for a new school of engineering
and possible plans for campus
improvements, he said.
Though the general points
of discussion for this weekend’s
meeting are set, the governing
body’s final decisions relating to
the budget and other areas are
difficult to anticipate, said Marisa
Quinn, vice president for public
affairs and University relations.
“People think the Corpora-
tion is more predictable than it
is,” she said. “But they’re a re-
ally lively, engaged group, and
things change.”
Arts & Culture
The Brown Daily Herald
Alum’s ‘Dead Man’s Cell Phone’ opens at Trinity Rep
By Suzannah Weiss
Arts & Culture Editor
In a world that sometimes seems
connected only by airwaves between
speakers on their cell phones, what
would happen if all other communi-
cation between family, friends and
acquaintances was lost?
The opening scene of “Dead
Man’s Cell Phone” by Sarah Ruhl
’97 MFA’01, running at Trinity Rep-
ertory Theatre through March 28,
addresses this question when a mys-
terious diner in a surreally vacant
cafe spontaneously keels over in
front of his lentil soup.
Annoyed with the stranger’s per-
sistently ringing cell phone, Jean,
the protagonist and the scene’s only
witness, answers it on his behalf.
Before she knows it, Jean is a
surrogate for the man she comes
to know as Gordon, filling in the
gaps that his sudden death has left
in the lives of his callers.
Through Jean’s investigations,
embellished with neon lights and
paper figures hanging by a clothes-
line in the background, the Trinity
Repertory Company explores the
impact of an individual’s physical
death alongside a culture’s psycho-
logical one.
The plot thickens as love affairs,
family secrets and illegal trade enter
the stage, and Jean buries herself
deeper and deeper in the lies she
tells to comfort Gordon’s family.
“I only knew him for a short
time, but I think that I loved him
in a way,” she reflects in church
shortly after the incident.
Typical of Ruhl’s writing, the
script is economical and evocative,
incorporating a mixture of humor-
ous, philosophical, sentimental and
outright absurd moments. Though
A woman in a cafe becomes entangled in lies about a stranger’s life in “Dead Man’s Cell Phone,” which is run-
ning at Trinity Repertory Theatre through March 28.
the commentary on modern tech-
nology’s damage to human relations
is occasionally a little heavy-handed,
the play’s otherworldly logic breaks
up a somewhat pedantic tone.
In the second act, for example,
Gordon reveals to the living that
the dead gather naked to wash their
laundry every week and kiss with
their hair instead of their mouths.
He also informs the audience that
death is like the soup he had for his
last meal — “not as bad as you think
it’s going to be, but not as good,
either.”
Beth Milles, director of “Dead
Man’s Cell Phone” and head of the
Brown/Trinity MFA Program in
Directing, called the piece “fantasti-
cal” yet “very human.” The play, she
said, deals with themes of “intimacy
and reaching.”
“It’s such a wide journey,” she
said. “When you start to work on
it, many, many layers reveal them-
selves.”
This project has been a challenge
for the cast and crew, Milles said,
because “it makes us vulnerable ...
to dig into our own personal experi-
ence to communicate.”
Working at Trinity Rep has been
“sort of like being part of someone’s
family, and because Sarah Ruhl came
Friday, February 26, 2010 | Page 4
Courtesy of Marilyn Busch
of age here as well, (the company
members) feel kind of a protective
love for her,” Milles added.
Milles said she communicated
with Ruhl via e-mail to develop a
collective vision of specific moments
and characters in the show.
Ruhl, she said, was “very sup-
portive” of Trinity Rep’s process.
Though it can be hard for play-
wrights to see their works take on
“different resonances” in different
productions, “she’s open to it,”
Milles said.
“The goal was to live up to the
play,” she added. “I think Sarah Ruhl
is a fantastic playwright.”
Award-winning
French films
featured at fest
continued from page 1
This year, the process of booking the
films, which began in November and
finished in December, went quickly,
Waryn said.
Waryn said he hopes the lineup
will be “exciting, both in terms of
filmmaking and script.”
Both Waryn and Kervennic said
student attendance in past years has
been very good. Most of the spec-
tators are students from Brown or
the Rhode Island School of Design,
Kervennic said.
One of this year’s films is “Poly-
technique,” directed by Denis Vil-
leneuve, a film that follows six fic-
tional characters through the story
of the massacre at Montreal’s Ecole
Polytechnique 20 years ago, when
Marc Lepine shot 28 people, killing
14 women. Another, “36 vues du pic
de saint-loup (Around a small moun-
tain),” directed by Jacques Rivette,
focuses on a small, struggling circus.
After the owner of the circus dies,
his daughter returns to the show,
leaving the rest of the troupe to won-
der why she originally left and why
she later came back.
Several of the films have already
won or been nominated for notable
awards. “Flandres (Flanders),” the
first film to be shown at the festival,
received the Grand Prix at the 2006
Cannes Film Festival. “Un Prophete
(A prophet),” directed by Jacques
Audiard, won the same prize in 2009
and is nominated for an Oscar in
the Best Foreign Language Film
category.
The festival also includes some
lighter fare — “Panique au village
(A town called Panic),” an animated
family film directed by Stephane Au-
bier and Vincent Patar, and “C’est
pas moi, je le jure (It’s not me, I
swear),” a humorous film directed
by Philippe Falardeau that tells the
story of the troublesome and overly
imaginative Leon Dore.
Waryn said he recommended
seeing at least two or three films
to get a better feeling for the festi-
val and for French filmmaking as a
whole. He said he hopes viewers will
be “astounded by the variety” of the
films in this year’s festival.
Today is Friday.
Hip hip hooray,
for today.
Oh. Check out
our blog.
a haiku for
www.blogdailyherald.com
Friday, February 26, 2010 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Page 5

A rts &C ulture “‘I refuse to give up this other part of myself as I
enter medicine.’ ” — Christine Montross MD’06

Three alums receive prestigious fellowships for literature

By Sara Chimene-Weiss
Contributing Writer
On Feb. 11, three Brown alums were
awarded the prestigious MacColl
Johnson Fellowship grant — which
is one of the largest “no strings at-
tached” grants for artists in the Unit-
ed States, according to the Rhode
Island Foundation’s Web site.
House Staff Officer in Psychiatry
Christine Montross MD’06, Visit-
ing Lecturer in Race and Ethnicity
Marie Myung-Ok Lee ’86, and Mat-
thew Derby MFA’99 each received
the $25,000 grant, which is awarded
annually by the Rhode Island Foun-
dation, a philanthropic community
organization based in Providence.
The fellowship is named after Rob-
ert and Margaret MacColl Johnson,
who worked with the foundation to
design extensive artist fellowships
in the fields of music composition,
visual art and literature. Fellows
are chosen from one of these fields,
which rotate yearly.
This year, the three fellows were
chosen from 41 applicants based on
“artistic excellence, literary develop-
ment, and creative contribution to
the literary field,” with a focus on
choosing “emerging to mid-career
artists,” according to the founda-
tion’s Web site.
Lee, an economics concentrator
who wrote for The Herald while she
was at Brown, went on to work on
Wall Street for five years after gradu-
ation. She said she woke up at 4 a.m.
many mornings and wrote for a few
hours, before eventually deciding to
focus on writing.
In New York, Lee helped to
found an Asian-American writers’
workshop. After living there for
12 years, Lee accepted a Fulbright
Scholarship in Korea, where she
researched her first novel, “Some-
body’s Daughter.”
Lee is currently in residence
at Brown’s Center for the Study of
Race and Ethnicity in America, and
is teaching a creative writing class
in the Department of Ethnic Stud-
ies, which “looks at how ethnicity is
expressed through creative writing,”
she said. The chance to teach it is
“very Brown,” she added.
She credits many of the classes
she took at Brown with shaping her
writing and the way she looks at
the world.
With her fellowship, she said,
she plans to continue working on
her second novel, which she’s been
writing for seven years. To do more
research for her book, Lee hopes to
return to her hometown of Hibbing,
Minn., and travel to North Korea as
she did last year, an experience she
wrote about for the New York Times
Magazine.
With the fellowship, Derby plans
Christine Montross MD’06, Matthew Derby MFA’99 and Marie Myung-Ok Lee ’86, recipients of this year’s Mac-
Coll Johnson Fellowship grant.
to take time off from his work as a
Web developer and designer to go
on a reading tour, according to a
press release from the Rhode Island
Foundation. A collection of his sto-
ries, called “Super Flat Times,” was
published in 2003.
Derby is the only writer of the
three award recipients who is not
in the local writing group “Writers
Who Drink.”
The group “would more accu-
rately be called ‘Writers Who Drink
One or Two Beers at the Most Be-
cause We All Have Little Kids and So
Have to Be in Bed By 10:00 p.m.,’ ”
Montross wrote in an e-mail to The
Herald.
Montross wrote that when she
heard that she had won the award, “I
was sitting in a little hospital cubicle,
and I let out a real shriek!”
In addition to earning her MD at
Brown, Montross earned an MFA
in poetr y from the University of
Michigan. Her first book is a non-
fiction work called “Body of Work:
Meditations on Mortality from the
Human Anatomy Lab.” She contin-
ues to work as a doctor while writing
poetry and prose.
While she was a medical student
at Brown, Montross took an indepen-
dent study with Professor of Literary
Arts Carole Maso. “It was wonderful
to have an official connection -— a
reconnection -— to creative writers
within the university community. I
felt that making a commitment to
creative coursework in the midst
Courtesy of Rhode Island Foundation
of my medical studies was akin to
saying, ‘I refuse to give up this other
part of myself as I enter medicine,’ ”
Montross wrote.
“Signing up for that independent
study was a way of anchoring my
writing self as a permanent fixture
alongside my doctoring self,” Mon-
tross wrote. She added that she
still gives a talk to medical students
called “Becoming a Doctor without
Losing Yourself.”
With her fellowship, Montross
wrote, she plans “to write a series of
poems engaging the questions about
madness and sanity that I encounter
as a psychiatrist. Madness fragments
the mind. ... Poetry offers a flexibility
of form and voice that can mirror
that kind of a rupture.”
Editorial & Letters
The Brown Daily Herald

blog
Page 6 | Friday, February 26, 2010

Scientifically proven to be THE

best for:

-procrastination
(The Timewaster of the Day)

daily
-information
(Corporation weekend)

-style
(Brown Is the New Black)

herald
-food
(Ratty vs. V-Dub)
julia streuli

-clubbing
(What to do tonight)
e d i to r i a l

.com
and...
Restoring the balance
-lulz =)
Brown’s student body is known for being politically one-third of its total pension liabilities.
active and engaged. A quick glance at the list of A new student group could do a lot of good by
student organizations classified as “Service, Politi- getting involved on the local level. And by showing a
cal and Social Action Groups” shows that students willingness to work toward the state’s long-term fiscal

(Can we haz 1000 visitors by are involved in a wide variety of causes, including
everything from the Brown Animal Rights Club to a
health, the group can bolster the already extremely
strong case against last year’s proposed taxes on
March 1st plz? KTHXBAI) chapter of Students for Sensible Drug Policy.
While the level of activism on campus is laudable,
out-of-state students and large non-profits.
If created, this new group should be sure to es-
one important cause seems to have gone overlooked: chew any hint of partisanship. Recently, neither major
fiscal responsibility in government. Currently, no political party has been able to establish credibility
t h e b r o w n d a i ly h e r a l d student organization at Brown is dedicated exclusively on fiscal issues. President Barack Obama’s plans to
to this ideal. As such, we’re calling on a few motivated freeze some domestic spending for three years and
Editor-in-Chief Managing Editor Deputy Managing Editors Senior Editors
Ellen Cushing students to found Brown Students for Fiscal Respon- establish a new deficit panel are reasonable first steps,
George Miller Chaz Kelsh Sophia Li
Emmy Liss Seth Motel sibility in Government, a non-partisan group that will especially with some economists saying that it is still
Joanna Wohlmuth
promote awareness of major public fiscal challenges too early in the recovery to halt stimulus efforts.
Business
editorial General Managers Office Manager
and advocate concrete solutions. However, he has yet to develop a comprehensive plan
Anne Speyer Arts & Culture Editor Claire Kiely Shawn Reilly Several considerations favor the creation of a new to reverse the damage done to the federal accounts
Suzannah Weiss Arts & Culture Editor Katie Koh
Brian Mastroianni Features Editor
non-partisan group. The federal and state govern- by the economic recessions of 2001 and 2009 and
Directors ments face fiscal predicaments that are too perilous to the Bush presidency, which inherited an $800 billion
Hannah Moser Features Editor
Kelly Wess Sales
Brigitta Greene Metro Editor
Matthew Burrows Finance be considered through a partisan lens. A 2008 report projected annual surplus.
Ben Schreckinger Metro Editor
Margaret Watson Client Relations
Sydney Ember News Editor by the Government Accountability Office projects In trying to establish itself on campus, Brown
Christiana Stephenson Alumni Relations
Nicole Friedman News Editor that the federal government’s debt is on its way to Students for Fiscal Responsibility in Government
Dan Alexander Sports Editor Managers
Andrew Braca Asst. Sports Editor reaching 170 percent of GDP by 2040, far exceeding will come up against an interesting challenge: how
Arjun Vaidya Local Sales
Han Cui Asst. Sports Editor Marco deLeon National Sales the previous high of 109 percent set during World to make an issue traditionally associated with con-
Graphics & Photos Aditi Bhatia University Sales War II. By 2080, debt could surpass 600 percent of servatives and libertarians appeal to a liberal-leaning
Stephen Lichenstein Graphics Editor Jared Davis University Sales
Alex Yuly Graphics Editor Trenten Nelson-Rivers Recruiter Sales GDP. Clearly, the present path is unsustainable, and student body. This challenge is perhaps what excites
Nick Sinnott-Armstrong Photo Editor Alexander Carrere Special Projects unless our country can change course, the future us most about the possibility of a new group of this
Max Monn Asst. Photo Editor Kathy Bui Staff
Jonathan Bateman Sports Photo Editor
seems to hold huge tax increases, major cuts in sort. The current level of partisanship and gridlock
Opinions services, or both. in our government is unacceptable if America is
production Michael Fitzpatrick Opinions Editor
Kelly Mallahan Copy Desk Chief Alyssa Ratledge Opinions Editor Rhode Island’s state government is also struggling going to continue to prosper in the 21st century. By
Jordan Mainzer Asst. Copy Desk Chief — it projects a $427 million deficit in the coming fiscal starting a pragmatic, non-partisan conversation on a
Marlee Bruning Design Editor Editorial Page Board
Anna Migliaccio Asst. Design Editor year. The real long-term issue, though, is the state contentious issue now, our generation can prepare to
Matt Aks Editorial Page Editor
Julien Ouellet Asst. Design Editor Debbie Lehmann Board member employee pension plan, which has roughly $4.3 billion do a better job when our turn to lead comes.
Neal Poole Web Editor Board member
William Martin in unfunded liabilities, according to a report released
Melissa Shube Board member
Post- magazine Gaurie Tilak Board member last week by the Pew Charitable Trust’s Center on
Marshall Katheder Editor-in-Chief Jonathan Topaz Board member the States. The report also noted that Rhode Island Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board.
Julien Ouellet, Designer is one of eight states without funding to cover over Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.
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Opinions
The Brown Daily Herald
In which I bite the hand that feeds
ANDREA
MATTHEWS
Opinions Columnist
A few weeks ago, I attended a standard gath-
ering of Herald opinions writers and editors
to lay down rules and explain the ways of
the Herald world. Given that I seldom keep
track of my fellow columnists, I was excited
to see who else was writing. As I scanned
the room, I couldn’t help but notice a trend.
Looking around the circle of columnists, I
saw a boy, a boy, another boy, another boy, a
girl … boy … boy … boy … girl ...
I counted 13 male columnists and five fe-
male columnists. All in all, there are only six
female columnists out of 22.
A couple of questions sprang to my mind
upon observing this fact. One is, how did
this happen?
Columnists apply for positions, and I am
not about to make any accusations that the
opinions editors deliberately chose more
males than females. In fact, the editors de-
liberately attempted to solicit female appli-
cants, but few chose to apply.
What could be the cause of this massive
gender imbalance in The Herald’s opinions
section? It could be that females willing to
state and defend their opinions publicly are
harder to find.
For any readers rolling their eyes (“This
issue is so 1970!”), I ask you to consider the
second question that came to my mind in
contemplating this imbalance: Why does it
matter?
Maybe it doesn’t. Maybe female students
can go to school in an environment where
The hypocrisy of moral relativism
BY EMILY BRESLIN
Opinions Columnist
Conservative activist James O’Keefe la-
ments that college students are “drowned in
relativism.” This is a fairly common criticism
of academia, but it is not exactly precise. It
is fair to say that American universities are
generally socially liberal and that many stu-
dents and professors value tolerance and re-
spect. This does not entail that these people
are moral relativists, or that they believe that
any behavior is acceptable.
As is apparently rarely discussed, it is
impossible to be a moral relativist. Consid-
er what this would mean in practice. In the
words of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Phi-
losophy, a moral relativist would believe that
“the truth or falsity of moral judgments, or
their justification, is not absolute or univer-
sal, but is relative to the traditions, convic-
tions, or practices of a group of persons.”
However, a moral relativist would also pre-
sumably have her own beliefs regarding the
truth of some moral judgments. She must
try to combine her own beliefs with the idea
that their truth or falsity is not absolute. As
philosopher Thomas Nagel notes, she then
arrives at a statement like, “It is true that I
believe that p; but that is just a psychological
fact about me; about the truth of p itself I re-
main uncommitted.” Presumably if someone
makes this statement, we say that she has to
make a choice. Either she believes p and is
they are taught mostly by men, where they
study books written mostly by men, and
where they read opinions mostly voiced by
their male peers, and not allow any of it to
impact how they see their roles in public and
intellectual discourse. Most colleges in this
country have student populations dominated
by women (see: “On College Campus, Short-
age of Men” in Feb. 5th’s New York Times),
after all. Brown has a female president and
dean of the College — how can I argue that
Is there something about the environment at
Brown University, or in higher education in
general, that keeps women from joining public
discourse with the confidence and candor of their
male peers?
this environment skews against female stu-
dents?
In light of this argument, I retreat to per-
sonal experience. I can only rely on what I’ve
seen.
I’ve seen discussions in seminar after
seminar dominated by male students de-
spite equal or larger numbers of females in
the class (though I acknowledge that the ex-
perience varies depending on the academ-
ic field). I’ve seen female students who do
speak up adopt a “tough” — or dare I say
“ballsy” — persona in order to make them-
selves heard. Conversely, I’ve heard com-
committed to the truth of p, or she does not
believe p.
People try to have it both ways out of a
concern for political correctness or respect,
as I discovered in a gender studies class-
room at Brandeis University. We had just
discussed how it was very important to be
respectful of the views of our fellow class-
mates, and we extended this idea and talked
about how we ought to attempt to develop
an understanding of cultural practices within
We all have beliefs, and we do ourselves and
others a disservice when we try to deny this.
their own contexts. No one mentioned that it
is impossible to be a completely objective ob-
server because it is impossible to get outside
of one’s own culture and beliefs.
We started having problems in the class
when I referred to the removal of all or part
of the female genitals for reasons unrelat-
ed to health as “female genital mutilation.”
Another student commented that since the
practice was acceptable to some people in
some areas of the world, I ought to instead
refer to it as “female circumcision” to be re-
spectful of those people who practice it. The
rest of the class and the professor agreed
ment after comment from female students
unnecessarily employ minimizing prefaces
like
“I’m sorry if someone else already cov-
ered this, but … ”
“Maybe I didn’t quite understand what
you were saying, but … ”
“I’m sorry if this is off topic … ”
Compare the above with what I haven’t
seen. I have yet to see a female professor
fall into any category aside from “incompe-
tent” for those whose curricula are deemed
too easy and “cold” for those who challenge
their students. (In contrast, male professors
who lead less challenging courses are “chill”
and those who don’t treat students well are
“brilliant, but mean.”) I have yet to see a fe-
male president of the Brown Democrats or
College Republicans in my time at Brown. I
haven’t seen a female speaker at the Janus
Political Union in two years, and I’ve been
informed that the Brown Debating Union is
mostly composed of males as well.
My observations lead me to believe that
women at Brown have a hard time joining
with her.
Regardless of which side of the circumci-
sion/genital mutilation debate you are on, I
hope you can see my predicament. I had a
belief. I was being told that it was disrespect-
ful for me to have an opinion and that I ought
to subordinate it. Now, I am fairly certain
that most of the class disapproved of female
genital mutilation when not engaged in a dis-
cussion in the classroom. Even in the class-
room, they expressed outrage after watch-
ing a video containing first-person accounts
of female genital mutilation. Their misguid-
ed attempt at respect left them in a conflict
that they failed to identify as they stated that
they were completely open-minded and ac-
cepting of “female circumcision” yet disap-
proved of the practice.
I would like to say that I stood up and de-
livered an “I Have a Belief” speech: I have
the belief that female genital mutilation is
wrong, so I am not going to use the neutral
term “cutting” or the tacitly approving term
“circumcision.” I hope that I can balance my
belief with compassion for people who prac-
Friday, February 26, 2010 | Page 7
public discourse.
Now, to pose a final question: Is there
something about the environment at Brown
University, or in higher education in gen-
eral, that keeps women from joining public
discourse with the confidence and candor of
their male peers?
I would beat a dead horse to argue that
this condition exists in the “real world” at
large; in politics, in business and in the home,
women still face challenges in being heard
with the respect and credit given to men, if
they’re heard at all. But my concern focuses
more on our generation of young adults. Per-
haps we aren’t as free from issues of gender
difference as we want to believe.
When we hear fewer women speak up
in class, when we see fewer women leading
prominent campus organizations and when
we read fewer female-authored columns in
the paper, we inadvertently promote the idea
that women and men are not on equal foot-
ing in public discourse. Not only does this
highlight that we are not beyond issues of
gender inequality, it implies that the remedy
rests with female students themselves.
I implore female students at Brown to
speak up. I ask you to apply for positions of
leadership, to raise your hands to contribute
in class and to treat each other in the same
way you treat your male peers. Please, be-
fore you begin your comments with an excu-
satory preface, remember “Man Law” num-
ber 76: “No excuses. Play like a champion.”
Andrea Matthews ’11 initially began
her final paragraph with the exact
kind of preface she never wants to
hear again.
tice female genital mutilation and refrain
from violent paternalistic proselytizing, but
the fact is, I have a moral belief and I would
lack integrity if I tried to pretend otherwise.
Instead of delivering this speech, I blushed
and mumbled what amounted to an apology
for my belief.
That was regrettable. My class eschewed
intelligible statements about the value of tol-
erance and respect for a nonsensical objec-
tive relativist perspective. Although they at-
tempted ideological self-immolation because
of a misunderstanding about how it is possi-
ble to go about respecting other people, they
could not succeed at drowning themselves
in relativism. We all have beliefs, and we do
ourselves and others a disservice when we
try to deny this. My gender studies profes-
sor can present the strengths of different
views and let the class weigh the merits of
each of them, but she cannot even implicitly
claim that she does not subscribe to one par-
ticular view. “Tolerance” and “respect” are
wonderful words when we interpret them as
involving finding common ground where it
exists and identifying and understanding the
places where it does not. They are useless
when we interpret them as requiring an at-
tempt at denying our own beliefs.
Emily Breslin ’10 is a philosophy
concentrator from Harvard, Mass.
She can be contacted at
emily_breslin@brown.edu.
 Today 2 Hasta la vista to energy waste to day to m o r r o w

The Brown Daily Herald

Alums get grants in the arts

5
Friday, February 26, 2010
39 / 32 39 / 31
Page 8

s p o rt s a ro u n d t h e b e n d d i a m o n d s a n d c oa l

Women’s basketball hosts Har-
vard at 7 p.m. Friday and Dartmouth
at 7 p.m. Saturday. The Bears lost to
the teams earlier in the season, 66-51
and 67-63, respectively.
Gymnastics hosts the Ivy Clas-
sic at 1 p.m. on Sunday, facing off
against Yale, Penn and Cornell.
Men’s basketball travels to
Harvard for a 7 p.m. game Friday
and to Dartmouth for a 7 p.m. game
Saturday. Harvard has won four out
of its last five games, while the Big
c a l e n da r
Today, February 26
3:30 p.m. — Being a Woman Scientist
and Faculty Member: The Rewards and
Challenges, CDC Library
7:00 p.m. — Date-A-Doctor, List 120
Green has gone 1-2 since its loss to
the Bears two weeks ago.
Men’s hockey closes out its
season with a pair of away games
— Quinnipiac at 7 p.m. Friday and
at Princeton at 4 p.m. Saturday. The
Bears beat both teams earlier this
season at home.
Both the men’s and women’s
track and field teams travel to Dart-
mouth to compete in the Ivy League
Heptagonal Championship all day
Saturday and Sunday.
tomorrow, February 27
6:00 P.M. — Applause for a Cause:
Haiti Relief Showcase for Carrib-
bean Heritage Week, Salomon Up-
per Lobby
7:00 p.m. — Our Hands Are Sore From
Praying, Rites and Reason Theatre
Diamond to the two-sport athletes who are
having twice the play, twice the fun. After all, it
is a Brown tradition to play on both teams. So
mount those wins and play the field!
Coal to the University for forming advisory
councils on China, Asia and East Asia. While we
do value internationalization, the different zoom
levels might be excessive.
Coal to Professor of Africana Studies and
Sociology Paget Henry for reminding us that
“we need you to forget about Harvard, to forget
about Yale.” We DID — we go to Brown.
A diamond to the deputy director and re-
search scholar of the Hastings Center, who said,
“It’s not anyone’s fault if no one gets hurt.” Well,
if no one has gotten hurt yet, at least it’s still
funny.
A diamond to Students for a Democratic
Society. We are impressed with the ingenuity of
your cellophane-clad transparency party, though.
Just make sure we aren’t seeing anything from
50 years ago.
Coal to whoever is sending threats to the
moderator of BrownFML. Why are you trying
to eff her life?
A back-handed congratulatory coal to the
Undergraduate Council of Students, who held a
vote on how to vote. The votes are in: We don’t
get it.
Cubic zirconium to whoever developed the
pregnancy test iPhone app. We’re happy for your
success, but we’re pretty sure it voids the war-
ranty when you piss on your iPhone. Also, The
Herald took the test and there’s a “moderate”
chance we’re pregnant. Better put a diamond
ring on it.
Want more D&C? Check out a retro-diamond from
2000 at blogdailyherald.com, and write your own
at diamondsandcoal.com.

menu comics
Sharpe Refectory Verney-Woolley Dining Hall
Cabernet Voltaire | Abe Pressman
Lunch — Rosemary Portobello Sub Lunch — Chicken Fingers, Baked
Sandwich, Chicken with Raisins and Vegan Nuggets, Enchilada Bar,
Olives, BLT Sandwich S’mores Bars

Dinner — Vegetable Stuffed Peppers, Dinner — Fisherman’s Pie in Puff

Steamed Vegetable Pilaf, Onion Rings, Pastry, Grilled Chicken, Cheese Ravi-
Teriyaki Salmon olis with Vodka Sauce

crossword

Dot Comic | Eshan Mitra and Brendan Hainline

Fruitopia | Andy Kim

Island Republic | Kevin Grubb