Daily
the Brown
vol. cxlvi, no. 42
One-third plan further education after graduation Voters give
By Aparna Bansal
Senior Staff Writer
Just over 35 percent of undergradu-
ates plan to attend medical, law, busi-
ness or graduate school immediately
following graduation, according to
last month’s Herald poll. About one-
fourth of current students — 23.9
percent — indicated they plan to
the herald poll
take up jobs after graduation, and
7.6 percent indicated they will be
participating in service programs
such as Teach for America and the
Peace Corps. More than one-fourth
of undergraduates are still unsure
about their plans.
According to data collected by
the Career Development Center,
56 percent of the class of 2009 were
employed as of April 2010, while 27
percent of that class told the CDC
they were enrolled in full-time edu-
cation programs.
The Herald poll results for this
question showed no statistically
significant differences across grade
Amidst changes, Med School to conduct self-study
By Caroline Flanagan
Staff Writer
While settling into its new home
at the Medical Education Build-
ing downtown, the Alpert Medical
School will also conduct a self-study
over the next year to prepare for the
upcoming Liaison Committee on
Medical Education accreditation
investigation in fall 2012. The com-
mittee, which requires participating
medical schools to undergo a year-
long self-study before evaluation,
oversees accreditation processes for
medical schools and determines
eligibility for grants.
The self-study coincides with the
Under pressure
The conversion of the University’s boilers is scheduled for completion in May.
news...................2-3
inside
CITY & State............4
editorial..............6
Opinions...............7
SPORTS...................8
level.
Because students usually join ser-
vice programs for a limited time,
many plan to continue on to further
education or employment after their
one- or two-year commitments end.
Service programs provide “struc-
tured opportunities that are attrac-
tive to a lot of students,” said Andrew
Simmons, director of the CDC, add-
ing that these programs do not re-
quire the same “amount of legwork”
as looking for other employment
opportunities and do not shoulder
students with the burden of graduate
school tuition.
Participating in service programs
also helps students applying to medi-
cal and law schools, he said.
“Law schools don’t take people
straight out of college. They want to
see more experienced people … so
it’s a win-win situation,” said Har-
rison Stark ’11, a BlogDailyHerald
contributor who will be working for
Teach for America this year.
According to data collected by the
CDC, 306 Brown students applied to
enter law school in fall 2009 and 264
were accepted. But of those accepted,
Med School’s ongoing curricular
overhaul and relocation to its new
building in the Jewelry District.
“We’ve had (the committee’s) ac-
creditation standards in mind for
every change we’ve made,” said
Philip Gruppuso, associate dean
for medical education.
The move to the Medical Edu-
cation Building will be key to (the
committee’s) approval, Guppuso
said. “There are huge problems
with medical students trying to find
study space,” he said.
Class size will increase from 75
students in each graduating class
to about 120 after the new building
opens. As a result, the Med School is
Freddy Lu / Herald
See full coverage on page 3.
Just say no
Proposed recovery schools
would fight youth addiction
City & State, 4
Herald
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
What are your plans immediately following graduation?
85.3 percent took one or more years
off between college and law school.
Evelyn Limon ’11 will teach at
the MATCH Charter Public School
in Boston next year before attend-
ing law school. She wanted to do
something she was passionate about
before beginning law school and
introducing a new “academy model”
for career and personal advising.
Each class will be divided into three
academies of 40 students.
“The new curriculum will focus
on traditional clinical training in
the core areas and expand to public
health and medical ethics. There
will also be a more robust program
on advising students on what they
should do in their fourth year, which
is largely elective,” Gruppuso said.
The new building will also pro-
vide more space for teaching, said
Jeffrey Borkan, professor of family
medicine, as well as group meeting
rooms and simulation rooms, where
students can work with simulated
City schools hit with two more blows
By Claire Peracchio
City & State Editor
Calling for sweeping cuts to close
a two-year $180 million budget
gap, Providence Mayor Angel
Taveras called the city’s finances
a “category five” hurricane. But
last Tuesday, that would have
more aptly described the city’s
embattled school system.
Still reeling from the mayor’s
decision to fire all of Providence’s
teachers and close four of the
city’s schools to rein in the city’s
deficit, the district suffered two
additional blows as its top educa-
tion official resigned, and four of
its schools were singled out for
Bad deal Track stars
Debt obligations Teams post competitive
outweigh U.S. aid results
Opinions, 7
Rafael Chaiken / Herald
starting a career, she said.
“I don’t know if, law school-wise,
it will be a benefit to my application,”
she said. “It’s more an internal de-
sire, feeling like I’m doing something
worthwhile — especially because law
continued on page 2
patients.
These changes have galvanized
interest in the Med School. Ap-
plications increased more than 15
percent this year, Gruppuso said.
He attributed the dramatic increase
to the move to the new building
and said he expects applications to
continue to rise.
The Med School was “always
known as an intimate medical
school, so there was a concern that
that familiarity and closeness might
be lost” as the Med School expands,
Borkan said.
The committee’s accreditation
continued on page 3
state intervention.
The Rhode Island Department
of Education named five low-per-
forming schools that will require
city & state
comprehensive reform under fed-
eral guidelines. Providence Public
School District Superintendent
Tom Brady also announced he
would be leaving his position this
July, three years after taking the
reins as the city’s leading school
administrator. Brady’s resigna-
tion begins a search for a replace-
ment, adding a new uncertainty
to ongoing negotiations with the
Providence Teachers Union over
weather
Sports, 8
Since 1891
thumbs down
to alums
By Ben Kutner
Staff Writer
Brown’s political alums are facing
flagging support among Rhode Is-
land voters, according to a new poll
released by the Taubman Center for
Public Policy.
city & state
Less than a third of voters approve
of the way Gov. Lincoln Chafee ’75
P’14 and U.S. Rep. David Cicilline ’83
are doing their jobs, according to the
poll, which found Chafee’s approval
rating at 32 percent and Cicilline’s
at 17 percent. Mayor Angel Taveras
received a 52 percent approval rating.
The survey of 425 registered
Rhode Island voters, which was
released March 24, also measured
public opinion on the firing of Provi-
dence teachers and support for col-
lective bargaining rights.
It showed voters split on Chafee’s
proposed sales tax changes, which
include lowering the tax from 7 to
6 percent and imposing a 1 percent
sales tax on currently tax-exempt
items like taxi fares, dry cleaning and
heating fuel.
The poll also found 54 percent of
the state’s registered voters oppose
reducing the collective bargaining
rights of public sector unions. The
narrowing opinion on union bar-
gaining rights among Rhode Island
voters “reflects the more general
trend across the country of declin-
ing support for unions,” wrote Wendy
Schiller, associate professor of politi-
cal science and public policy, in an
email to The Herald.
“Public figures have generally
continued on page 2
the fates of the 1,926 teachers the
mayor fired this February.
The back-to-back announce-
ments come as the district —
which serves many of the most
impoverished communities in
the state — confronts the twin
realities of failing schools and di-
minishing resources available to
fix them. Since education officials
began naming the state’s worst
schools last year, eight of the 10
schools announced have been in
the Providence school district.
And with education spending
making up over half of the city’s
budget, schools have come under
continued on page 4
t o d ay tomorrow
55 / 34 55 / 37
2 Campus News
calendar Plans after graduation vary, poll shows
Today April 5 ToMORROW April 6
continued from page 1
4 P.m. 12 p.m.
“Contemporary India: A Gender “Whiteness, Female Bodies and has a lot of negative connotations.”
Perspective,” Watson Institute Colonialism,” List 110 Participation in such service pro-
grams has increased nationwide. Ac-
7:30 p.m. 7 p.m.
cording to the New York Times, in
“An Alternative Strategy in “After the Revolutions Across North light of the recent economic down-
Afghanistan,” Barus and Holley 168 Africa,” Watson Institute turn, the number of applicants for
Teach for America has increased
menu by 32 percent over the last year and
AmeriCorps applications nearly
tripled in 2009.
SHARPE REFECTORY VERNEy-WOOLLEY DINING HALL
Half of last year’s graduating
LUNCH class who took up jobs went into
Linguini with Tomato and Basil, Shaved Steak Sandwich, Bruschetta the non-profit or government sec-
Italian Meatball Grinder, Curried Mozzarella, Sunny Sprouts, Swiss tor, Simmons said, adding that the
Chicken Saute, Swiss Fudge Cookies Fudge Cookies percentage was significantly higher
at Brown than at most other institu-
DINNER
tions. Education was the most popu-
Artichoke and Red Pepper Frittata, Tuscan Pork Roast, Linguini with lar field that students entered and
Carne Gizado, White and Wild Rice Tomato and Basil, Oven Browned was the second most popular field
Pilaf, Magic Bars Potatoes, Magic Bars for graduate study, after engineering.
The number of students who re-
Sudoku ported they will be working after
graduation increased this year, and
employment numbers for the classes
of 2008 and 2009, who graduated
during the recession period, were
also “pretty consistent,” Simmons
said.
Roger Nozaki MAT’89, direc-
tor of the Swearer Center for Public
Service and associate dean of the
College, credited the interest in ser-
vice programs to the philanthropic
culture at Brown. Last academic year,
55 percent of students were engaged
in some form of community service,
he said.
“National service was a big part
of (President Barack Obama’s) cam-
paign. He talked about making it
cool again,” Nozaki said.
Service programs are valuable,
Crossword because students are “thrown into
work” and have to “get on their feet
and learn a lot in a short period of
time,” he added. The Swearer Center
has been working with the CDC and
the Curricular Resource Center to
promote “careers in the common
good,” he said.
The U.S. House of Representatives
recently passed a continuing resolu-
tion that includes cuts in all funding
for the Corporation for National and
Community Service, which includes
Voters divided on teacher firings
continued from page 1
been getting dismal ratings all across
the country,” said Victor Profughi,
Rhode Island College professor
emeritus of political science and
director of the polling firm Quest
Research. Profughi has been con-
Daily
the Brown
www.browndailyherald.com
195 Angell St., Providence, R.I.
Ben Schreckinger, President
Sydney Ember, Vice President
The Brown Daily Herald (USPS 067.740) is an independent newspaper serving the
Brown University community daily since 1891. It is published Monday through Fri-
day during the academic year, excluding vacations, once during Commencement, once
during Orientation and once in July by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. Single copy free
for each member of the community.
POSTMASTER please send corrections to P.O. Box 2538, Providence, RI 02906.
Periodicals postage paid at Providence, R.I.
Subscription prices: $280 one year daily, $140 one semester daily.
Copyright 2011 by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.
editorial
(401) 351-3372
herald@browndailyherald.com
AmeriCorps. If passed by the Senate,
these cuts would have a “tremendous
impact” on students’ decisions to
join such programs, Nozaki said. But
Simmons said such reductions are
unlikely to be made.
According to the Herald poll, 4.5
percent of males stated they plan to
join service programs compared to
10 percent of females. The Herald
poll also showed gender divides
among students who plan to work
after graduation — 26.3 percent of
males compared to 21.8 percent of
females — and students who are un-
sure — 25.1 percent of males and
29.9 percent of females.
Staying in school
Arune Gulati ’11 will be attending
Penn’s School of Medicine this fall.
“I personally felt I would lose my
track, my drive” by not continuing
directly to medical school, he said. “I
need to keep myself motivated and
interested and a university setting
would do that for me.”
Of the class of 2009, 167 under-
graduates applied to medical school
and 132 were accepted, according to
data collected by the CDC. Thirty
percent of students from the classes
of 2005 to 2009 who matriculated
to medical school went straight to
medical school, while 37 percent
took one year off and 33 percent
took two or more years off.
Jeremy Feigenbaum ’11, who will
be attending Harvard Law School
upon graduation, said it was not
worth the time and effort to enter
the job application process.
“The benefit to taking a year in
between is additional work experi-
ence. … But Brown prepared me well
for law school,” he said.
“From what I’ve seen of the law
school process, they definitely favor
people who have taken time off and
done real world experience — the
Harvard dean that interviewed me
even said that to me,” said Sara Lux-
enberg ’11, a former Herald features
editor who will also be attending
Harvard Law School next year. “But
there are definitely some people who
go straight.”
ducting polls in Rhode Island for
approximately 35 years.
He pointed out that the poll is
not as useful for measuring Cicil-
line’s electoral prospects because it
measures his popularity statewide
and not just in the district that will
decide whether to re-elect him in
Herald
Matthew Burrows, Treasurer
Isha Gulati, Secretary
Business
(401) 351-3360
gm@browndailyherald.com
The Brown Daily Herald
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
“It’s a privilege to be able to study
something — I couldn’t turn that
opportunity down,” said Miriam Jo-
elson ’11, who plans to earn a mas-
ter’s degree in education at Oxford
University. She said while she recog-
nizes the importance of getting out of
the “academic bubble” and gaining
work experience, she would rather
do so after earning her degree, as the
available job opportunities would be
more interesting.
But Simmons said it is not sur-
prising most students are still unsure
about their post-graduation plans, as
seniors are “still working it out until
graduation.”
Methodology
Written questionnaires were ad-
ministered to 972 undergraduates
March 14–16 in the lobby of J. Walter
Wilson and the Stephen Robert ’62
Campus Center during the day and
the Sciences Library at night. The
poll has a 2.9 percent margin of er-
ror with 95 percent confidence. The
margin of error is 4.4 percent for
the subset of males, 3.8 percent for
females, 12.9 percent for transfer stu-
dents, 3.0 percent for non-transfers,
6.1 percent for seniors, 3.4 percent
for non-seniors, 5.6 percent for
first-year students and 3.4 percent
for non-first-years.
The sample polled was demo-
graphically similar to the Brown un-
dergraduate population as a whole.
The sample was 44.3 percent male
and 55.7 percent female. First-years
made up 26.6 percent of the sample,
26.2 percent were sophomores, 24.1
percent were juniors and 23.1 per-
cent were seniors. Of those polled,
5.2 percent of respondents identi-
fied themselves as being transfer
students. Statistical significance was
established at the 0.05 level.
Senior Editor Julien Ouellet ’12,
News Editors Alex Bell ’13 and Ni-
cole Boucher ’13 and Senior Staff
Writers Greg Jordan-Detamore ’14
and Lindor Qunaj ’13 coordinated
the poll. Herald section editors,
senior staff writers and other staff
members conducted the poll.
2012. In recent weeks, Cicilline has
fended off accusations that he failed
to fully disclose the state of the city’s
finances while he was mayor.
Both Cicilline and Chafee have no
immediate reason to panic, Schiller
wrote. But because Cicilline faces an
earlier re-election contest, “he should
work to focus any federal aid he can
to the city of Providence to help dis-
pel some of the residual unhappiness
about his record as mayor,” she wrote.
Voters were most closely divided
on the tax increases and the Provi-
dence teacher firings. Fifty-one per-
cent of surveyed voters supported
Taveras’ decision to fire all Provi-
dence teachers, while 45 percent op-
posed it. The difference in opinion on
the issue was nearly within the poll’s
margin of error.
Those surveyed also gave Presi-
dent Barack Obama a 44 percent ap-
proval rating in the Taubman survey,
slightly below the 48 percent rating
he received in the latest Rasmussen
Reports poll.
The Brown Daily Herald
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Foundation awards grant to Alpert Medical School
By AMY RASMUSSEN
Senior Staff Writer
The Rhode Island Foundation re-
cently awarded a grant of $87,631 to
the Alpert Medical School to promote
primary health care careers in Rhode
Island.
The nation currently faces a severe
shortage of primary care physicians.
According to Neil Steinberg ’75, pres-
ident and CEO of the Rhode Island
Foundation, 66,000 Rhode Islanders
are currently without stable primary
health care.
Stable mentoring is one of the
best ways to encourage students to
become primary care physicians, said
Philip Gruppuso, associate dean for
medical education, who is respon-
sible for orchestrating the medical
education portion of the grant.
Though about 50 percent — close
to the national average — of the Uni-
versity’s Med School students choose
a residency defined as primary care,
many of them will go on to specialize
within their fields, Gruppuso said.
The reasons are often fiscal — on
average, primary care physicians are
Heating plant upgrade in final phase
By Kyle Mcnamara
Contributing Writer
A nearly $30 million upgrade to
Brown’s central heating plant is well
underway, part of a three-phase series
of renovations totaling approximately
$100 million. The upgrades began
in 2005 with a phase that involved
replacing seven miles of underground
piping below the University and cost
about $40 million, according to Ste-
phen Maiorisi, vice president for
Facilities Management. The second
phase included an additional $35
million in upgrades and was com-
pleted in 2009.
The third phase is a long-term
project that will span the next 10 to
15 years, Maiorisi said.
The current work in the third
phase, which costs about $3.5 mil-
lion, involves converting the two high
pressure boilers at the plant into low
pressure boilers and changing the
Med School
to undergo
accreditation
investigation
continued from page 1
standards are broad but ultimately
determine the Med School’s license,
Borkan said. “As a first step, Brown
tries to create innovation and ad-
vance medical education into an
area of excitement and utilize the
resources Rhode Island has to of-
fer,” he said.
Gruppuso said he is confident
about the evaluation. “One of our
responsibilities to our students and
the institution is that we retain our
accreditation, and I think we’re in
a good position to maintain (the
committee’s) accreditation for the
next two years,” he said.
paid significantly less than their spe-
cialist colleagues.
The Med School has enough
primary care mentors to fill current
needs, but the mentors are often
“slammed by work,” Gruppuso said.
The University already has partner-
ships with around 75 community
practices whose doctors volunteer
to mentor Med School students. The
grant will provide the Med School
with a way to compensate communi-
ty doctors, as well as allow it to show
appreciation for the mentors’ time.
For the moment, community doc-
tors will be paid “a modest amount”
for their mentoring efforts, Grup-
puso said. In coming years, the Med
School hopes to dramatically increase
the sum through its own funding.
In 2010, the Rhode Island Foun-
dation upgraded both primary care
and public educational reform to the
level of a signature initiative. For the
next five years, the foundation will
work to devote increased resources
and attention to these movements.
The Med School and the founda-
tion have already taken a number of
steps to promote the primary career
switch gear in the Prince Engineering
Laboratory. One boiler has already
been converted, and the conver-
sion of the second boiler is slated
to be completed in May. The work
in Prince Lab is also on schedule.
Conversion of the boilers will save
the University between $50,000 and
$75,000 per year once complete.
The long-term portion of the
third phase, which will cost approxi-
mately $25 million, involves replac-
ing the remaining underground pip-
ing throughout campus. Many of the
University’s pipes are still functional
and do not yet need to be replaced,
which prolongs the project, Maiorisi
said.
Originally, the Department of Fa-
Campus News 3
path. First- and second-years are en- it gains stable footing in the primary to meet the needs of the people,”
rolled in a course called “Doctor- care arena, Steinberg said. “We’re Steinberg added. The group does not
ing,” which exposes students to the an early supporter,” he added. “We award money to the University as a
world of primary care from their first get programs and projects off the whole, but rather more specifically
semester of school onwards, Grup- ground.” to “programs where we can draw on
puso said. The foundation has supported the expertise of Brown.”
other University efforts in recent The foundation has also previ-
city & state years. During the first few years of ously awarded grants to the Educa-
the Campaign for Academic En- tion Alliance, the Swearer Center for
In 2009, the foundation teamed richment, the foundation granted Public Service and the Annenberg
with Blue Cross and Blue Shield various awards to the school totaling Institute for School Reform, among
of Rhode Island and the Rhode Is- approximately $3.8 million, Steinberg others.
land Medical Society to create the said. About $600,000 of that money “There’s a good partnership,” he
RI Primary Care Loan Forgiveness was directed toward the Med School. said. “This was an opportunity for
Program. This initiative encourages “The Rhode Island Foundation is mutual benefit for the foundation
medical residents to continue their a community foundation, designed and for the University.”
practice in Rhode Island, awarding
up to $20,000 of loan forgiveness
annually for four years. Steinberg
said he feels the two programs will
complement each other “quite nicely.”
Both Steinberg and Gruppuso
said the initial response from the
primary care community has been
extremely positive, but it is still too
early to draw any definitive conclu-
sions about the success of the pro-
gram.
In the future, the foundation will
work closely with the Med School as
cilities Management had planned
for the third phase to involve the
installation of black start capabili-
ties for power outages, which would
have enabled generators to kick on
automatically. But the University
discovered that converting the boil-
ers would accomplish the same goal
in a faster and more cost-effective
manner, saving about $1.6 million,
Maiorisi said.
The high pressure boilers required
two employees at the plant at all
times, while the low pressure boilers
only require one employee, Maiorisi
said, allowing for more employees
to go out in the field and improving
efficiency for Facilities Management
workers.
4 City & State
Bill proposes recovery schools to tackle youth substance abuse
By Elizabeth carr
Staff Writer
Of the almost 135,000 residents
aged 12 to 20 in Rhode Island, it
is estimated that over 12 percent
have serious problems with alco-
hol consumption, according to a
survey conducted by the Center
for Integrated Behavioral Health
Policy, part of the Department
of Health Policy at the George
Washington University Medical
Center. Less than 3,000 seek treat-
ment annually, it found.
Statistics such as these have
pushed state Sen. John Tassoni
Jr., D-Smithfield and North Smith-
field, to introduce legislation that
would create recovery schools to
provide students treatment for
substance abuse while they work
toward a high school diploma.
“We want to help these children
right now before they end up on a
bad road where they’re dependent
on social services,” Tassoni said.
Five Providence schools targeted for comprehensive reform
continued from page 1
fire for cuts that have left parents,
students and teachers unsure of
where they will end up once the
storm of school closings and
teacher firings subsides.
Feeling the strain
The four Providence schools
that the Rhode Island Depart-
ment of Education designated as
“persistently low-achieving” are
Dr. Jorge Alvarez High School,
Hope Information Technology
School, Mount Pleasant High
School and Mary E. Fogarty El-
ementary School. Hope Informa-
tion Technology School is part of
the Hope High School complex,
which has comprised three sub-
schools since 2003.
The fifth school named by the
department — the Rhode Island
School for the Deaf — is operated
by the state.
The announcement places “a
tremendous strain on a district
with already low morale,” particu-
larly for teachers still wondering
whether they will lose their jobs,
said Steve Smith, president of the
Providence Teachers Union.
The department must target
the worst 5 percent of its schools
for state intervention to receive
Title I federal grant funds allo-
cated for schools serving low-
income students, according to
Elliot Krieger, the department’s
spokesman. The schools were
selected based on a formula that
factors in standardized test per-
formance, graduation rates and
other criteria laid out by the No
Child Left Behind act.
Given the district’s demo-
graphics, it could be expected that
the vast majority of the schools
named as the state’s lowest-per-
forming in the past two years are
in the Providence school district,
according to Krieger. “Most of the
high-poverty schools would be
in Providence, so it isn’t surpris-
ing that eight of the 10 would be
The startup costs of the bill are Administration.
estimated between half a million For the past few years, Tassoni
and $1 million. Tassoni called the has been working with the Provi-
funds “money well-spent upfront,” dence Center, a local nonprofit
as opposed to spending more later focused on providing health care
on under-educated people with to people with behavioral issues,
long-term substance dependen- including psychiatric illnesses and
cies. He said the cost to the state substance addictions, to launch
of schooling, classes pertaining Rhode Island’s first recovery high
to drug and alcohol dependen- school.
cies and counseling for people According to Ian Lang, chief
with substance abuse problems strategy officer at the Providence
is $60,000 to $90,000 per person Center, the school will open in
annually. September and will accept its first
“I don’t think there’s going to students in January 2012, with an
be any opposition,” Tassoni said. initial capacity of 10 to 15, regard-
“I think there’s going to be denial less of whether the bill passes.
that we don’t have a problem.” “Our goal is to get something
Rhode Island has some of the open in Rhode Island to dem-
nation’s highest rates of illicit onstrate the effectiveness of this
substance use — particularly for model,” Lang said.
marijuana and cocaine — and The recovery high school will
binge drinking, especially in the be established within the Provi-
12 to 17 age group, according to dence Center School, which
the U.S. Department of Health currently helps students with
and Human Services Substance behavioral issues not related to ad-
Abuse and Mental Health Services dictions. “If we can do it this way,
Providence schools,” he said. the school’s teachers when their
Under the department’s proto- union refused to agree to conces-
col, the leadership of the schools sions like working longer hours
designated for intervention have and undergoing tougher evalu-
45 days from the date of the an- ations.
nouncement to solicit feedback The state Department of Edu-
from their communities and select cation also announced March 29
from among four reform options. that it had approved the reform
If the schools fail to make suffi- plans of four of the Providence
Budget woes rock school district
Jan. 11, 2010 The Rhode Island Department of Education announces the original six
low-achieving schools
Aug. 24, 2010 Rhode Island wins $75 million in Race to the Top funds
Jan. 10 Mayor Angel Taveras convenes the Municipal Finances Review Panel to
audit the city’s finances
Feb. 22 Taveras fires all 1,926 of the district’s teachers, citing the city’s fiscal woes
Feb. 24 Providence School Board votes 4-3 to approve the firings
March 3 Taveras announces panel findings, $180 million two-year budget deficit
March 14 Taveras and Providence Public School District Superintendent Tom Brady
announce four school closings
March 29 Brady resigns and the Rhode Island Department of Education announces
five more schools targeted for intervention
cient improvement, they can be schools named last year. By
taken over by the state Depart- green-lighting the plans, Educa-
ment of Education and Board of tion Commissioner Deborah Gist
Regents for Elementary and Sec- also gave the schools $600,000 in
ondary Education. federal funds to implement them
between April and September of
A tough road ahead this year.
The experiences of the six The biggest challenge these
schools singled out last January troubled schools face is finding
show that the road to reform for the resources to make necessary
this year’s schools will not be improvements, according to War-
easy. Of those named last year, ren Simmons, director of Brown’s
five schools were run by the Provi- Annenberg Institute for School
dence school district. One, Fein- Reform. Schools also confront
stein High School, was already the difficult tasks of securing
slated for closure due to declining stable leadership and generating
enrollment when it was named. community support to succeed
The sixth, Central Falls High in their reform efforts, Simmons
School, garnered national atten- said.
tion after Central Falls Superin- Once failing schools are
tendent Frances Gallo fired all of named, they face four options
we can lower our cost to make
this feasible in the short-term,”
Lang said, adding that any state
funding will initially be minimally
available.
Currently, after young people
seek treatment they are sent back
to their original high schools,
Lang said. Ninety percent of
students are offered substances
on their first day back to school
following treatment, and within
months 50 percent are using at
or above pre-treatment levels, he
added.
“You’re trying to change the
peer environment from peer pres-
sure to use to peer pressure not to
use,” Lang said. He added that to
ensure a controlled environment,
recovery schools should not enroll
more than 40 students.
The Northshore Recovery High
School in Beverly, Mass. enrolls
50 students in “all phases of their
recovery,” said Director Michelle
Lipinski. In larger schools, indi-
— turnaround, restart, transfor-
mation and closure. Under the
turnaround model, the school
must replace its leadership, re-
hire at most 50 percent of its staff,
restructure its governance and
improve professional develop-
ment. Restart requires the school
to reopen as a charter school, a
regional collaborative or a joint
management-labor compact.
Of the schools announced last
year, all chose transformation —
an intensive process in which
schools must replace principals
hired before the transformation
process began, subject staff to
evaluation, use data to improve
outcomes and implement new
incentives to recruit and retain
effective teachers.
Mission not accomplished
The Providence Public School
District faces a $40 million budget
deficit — only part of the litany of
projected structural deficits and
retiree pension and health care
liabilities contributing to the city’s
fiscal woes. In the span of little
The Brown Daily Herald
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
cators of substance dependencies
— such as truancy and declining
grades — are harder to address,
she said. At the recovery school,
students sign a contract that they
will be “honest and communica-
tive,” she said. Over 80 percent
of the school’s graduates enroll
in college.
“Even if we can only provide
the service to 10 or 15 kids, it
makes a difference for those kids,”
Lang said. “It’s a life-changer at a
low cost.”
“For too long, the education
community has said this isn’t an
education issue, this is a medical
issue, and the medical community
has said this isn’t a medical issue,
it’s an educational issue,” he said.
“If you don’t provide these
things for these kids, their future
is basically over,” Lang said. “We
need to look at this investment not
as another program, another pot
of money, but a much smarter uti-
lization of resources in this state.”
over a month, Taveras’ efforts to
target the school system for aus-
terity have roiled the city’s teach-
ers union and kept community
members guessing about where
students will be enrolled next year.
Now, the man in charge of
Providence public schools since
July 2008 is stepping down.
Given that the average tenure
for superintendents in urban dis-
tricts is 2.8 years, Brady narrowly
beats the average, Simmons said.
Superintendents’ short terms in
office stem from the challenges
of satisfying competing political
and community interests, he said.
Brady’s departure is “absolutely
a setback,” Smith said, adding that
no less than the collaborative re-
lationship praised by Education
Secretary Arne Duncan is at stake.
“We’ve embarked on a labor-
management partnership that was
receiving national recognition
and now, within really a couple
of months, what was being rec-
ognized by Secretary Duncan has
now been eliminated,” Smith said.
Under Brady, the district ad-
opted for the first time a stan-
dard curriculum in accordance
with state requirements and
worked with the city’s teachers
union to develop teacher evalu-
ation standards and a model for
turning around failing schools.
At a March 20 forum on the an-
nounced school closings, Brady
told audience members that his
two grandchildren in Providence
public schools represent a person-
al stake in the district’s success.
At a press conference last Tues-
day, Brady said his resignation was
completely his own choice. He
said he wants to “take a different
approach,” perhaps as a teacher
or consultant.
Previous Providence school su-
perintendents had departed to ac-
cept higher-profile offers in larger
cities. This would not have been
the case with Brady, Smith said.
“You had a guy who wanted to
complete the mission,” he said.
The Brown Daily Herald
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Golf teams look ahead to tournaments near home
continued from page 8
to improve and be better prepared
for the challenges to come.
“All this is building to a cre-
scendo with the Ivy League Cham-
pionship,” he said. “We played
better the second day (in Santa
Barbara) than we did the first,
and when we played in Arizona,
we played better than we did in
Santa Barbara. If you’re not going
forwards, you’re going backwards.”
For both the men’s and women’s
squads, playing in sunny Califor-
nia and Arizona weather was a
nice change of pace after a long
winter.
“We got to play in great weath-
er, which was our primary goal,”
Men’s tennis loses
first two Ivy matches
continued from page 8
2 and No. 4 singles, respectively.
“All of us had to grind out a
match,” Aboubakare said. “They
were the underdog, but they were
fighting hard.”
Unlike the women, the men’s
team started out its season with
a five-match winning streak. The
men’s squad lost once at the ECAC
Indoor Championship, then went
on a six-match win streak before
its Ivy opener.
Facing Princeton Friday, the
Bears were in the lead after the
doubles matches, where co-captain
Kendrick Au ’11 and Tom Deigh-
ton ’13 pulled out a close victory
9-7 at the No. 2 doubles match.
The Tigers quickly caught up after
the first singles match and set the
Sports Tuesday 5
Hughes said. “It’s meant to reward takes a while for the greens to Division 1 Championship at the pared.”
the kids for putting in a long, ardu- come back after the winter. Now Newport National Golf Course “We feel like we have a little bit
ous winter here, but at the same we just need to focus on getting April 9-10. of an advantage because it’s more
time, it’s a means to an end to get the ball in the hole.” “It’s going to be nice to be just like a home game for us,” Hughes
better for the Ivy League Cham- Both teams return home for 20 minutes from the golf course,” said. “We played the Adams Cup
pionship.” their next tournament, as the Griffiths said. “We’re going to get there in the fall, so all of the guys
Over the winter break, the women host the first-ever Brown to play it Wednesday, Thursday, have seen the course before. If we
teams’ indoor practice facility was Invitational at the Rhode Island Friday and Saturday before the can continue to improve like we
damaged in harsh weather con- Country Club April 10-11 and the tournament, so those four rounds did in the last tournament and at
ditions, leaving the squads with men compete in the New England will be very helpful in getting pre- Arizona, I think we’ll be okay.”
limited practice time.
“The amount of time that we’ve
actually been able to play golf and
chip and putt is pretty minimal
comics
coming off of the winter,” said Cloud Buddies! | David Emanuel
Women’s Head Coach Danielle
Griffiths. “We’ve hit golf balls day
after day, but that’s all we’ve been
able to do. That’s probably the one
thing here in the Northeast — it
Dot Comic | Eshan Mitra and Brendan Hainline
determining match at the No. 4
spot, where Princeton took a 3-2
lead. Despite a win by Soufiane
Azargui ’14, the Tigers prevailed
4-3.
The Bears were up again after
the doubles section of the day
Saturday with wins against the
Quakers at the No. 1 and No. 3
spots. After three hard-fought
sets in the No. 2 singles match,
the Bears ceded to the Quakers
and walked away with their second
Ivy League loss.
Both the men’s and women’s
teams face two more Ivy oppo-
nents this weekend. While the
men hit the road to challenge
Cornell and Columbia, the women
are set to host the Big Red and
the Lions at home at the Pizzitola
April 9-10.
6 Editorial & Letter The Brown Daily Herald
Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Editorial Editorial comic by sam rosenfeld

Academics trump politics
Over the last several months, you may have heard unsettling stories
of the ongoing political skirmishes in far-off states like Wisconsin
and Ohio. Particularly in Wisconsin, whose capital is home to a large
university, students have played large roles on both sides of the ongo-
ing protests.
There are many similarities between these states’ situations and that
in Rhode Island — including the firing of Providence teachers and the
ubiquitous budget battles that form the undercurrent of political debate
in most places. But the petty partisan wrangling in those states differs
significantly from the relatively calm, civil and adult discussions going
on here. Naturally, then, we wrote the dispute off as a national issue
that had little direct relevance to students and professors at Brown.
So we were shocked and disappointed to read a report by the Milwau-
kee Journal Sentinel last week that the Republican Party in Wisconsin
was trying to access emails sent by William Cronon, a professor at the
University of Wisconsin at Madison. Apparently, the party suspected
the professor had violated university policy by using his official email
to conduct political activities, though the key terms they were looking
for — “Scott Walker,” “recall” and “union,” for example — highlight the
contemporary, political nature of their curiosity. Invoking Wisconsin’s
robust freedom of information act, Wisconsin Republicans sought
permission to root through every email Cronon had sent thus far in
2011. When asked why the party was making such inquiries, Mark
Jefferson, its executive director, said simply “I don’t have to give a
reason,” according to a March 26 New York Times article.
We were even more disturbed to discover this was not an isolated
incident. According to a March 29 New York Times article, a partisan
research group made similarly broad inquiries of numerous professors
at several universities in Michigan. The group also refused to discuss
its motives for filing the requests.
Because the groups seeking access to professors’ emails have not

le tter to the editor

explained in detail their reasoning for filing such requests, we cannot be
sure of their exact rationale. Nevertheless, it does not seem far-fetched
that this is “an attempt to intimidate or embarrass professors who

Reaction to yesterday’s advertisement

are sympathetic to organized labor,” a concern the New York Times
reported hearing from several of the targeted professors.
We do not condone the inappropriate use of university resources by
professors. If an individual thinks university policy is being broken, he To the Editor: ing her not to participate. The letter noted, “Whether
or she should bring it up with the university, which can resolve the issue you like it or not, your performance will be used to
according to its usual, internal procedures. Seeking to exploit public I was frankly appalled by yesterday’s advertisement help Israel whitewash its atrocities in the Gaza Strip.”
record laws to trawl through a professor’s emails is a gross violation sponsored by the David Horowitz Freedom Center, In cases such as this, in fact, it could be argued
of personal privacy and academic integrity. Happily, the University which attempted to question the rhetoric of Israeli that the success of a small cadre of oppressed peoples
of Wisconsin refused to release many of Cronon’s emails, citing these apartheid by displaying pictures of four Arabs and who are willing to express their support for the actions
concerns. But it did read through the rest of his correspondence to one Druze who have attained some prominence in of the Israeli government is actually an important
determine that he had not violated any university policies, striking a Israel. Just as the election of President Barack Obama component of the entire colonial project, for it allows
balance between the public’s right to know and the weighty, counter- has led some to deny the continued reality of systemic Israel to claim the mantle of “democratic state,” while
vailing concerns. racism in America, Horowitz’s advertisement attempts continuing its exploitative business as usual. Any ex-
We hope other universities confronted with a situation like this act to argue that on the basis of the success of these few amination of concrete facts, rather than celebrity photo
in a similarly professional manner. We condemn any attempts to bully, faces, Israel cannot possibly be engaged in a brutal shoots, reveals a sobering picture of the situation of
harass or embarrass professors for partisan purposes. As a private insti- military occupation, appropriation of Palestinian land the Palestinians and Druze in Israel and the occupied
tution, Brown should be exempt from most public requests for records. and resources and systematic denial of basic rights — territories. Consider, for example, that Palestinians in
Still, we call on the University to remain vigilant. Academic freedom most notably the right of self-determination — to the the Occupied Territories live under Israeli military
and personal privacy should yield only in the direst of circumstances. Palestinian people. Contrary to what Horowitz would law, while Israeli settlers live under civil law. Over
have us believe, the success of these individuals does half of Palestinians live in poverty, 45.7 percent in
Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board. Send com- not mean that the system is working, but rather that the West Bank and 79.4 percent in Gaza, compared to
ments to editorials@browndailyherald.com. these individuals have managed to effectively navigate just 23.6 percent of Israelis. This discrimination also
an extremely discriminatory system. continues inside the 1967 borders of Israel, where, for
In their attempts to succeed, many of them have example, Palestinian citizens of Israel are educated in
made concessions to the racist system that they navi- a completely separate and underfunded school system
t h e b r ow n da i ly h e r a l d gate, choosing to endorse or at least refuse to contest,
policies of systematic discrimination. Consider, for
from Jewish Israeli citizens. However, this advertise-
ment conveniently omits such facts, as they would
Editors-in-Chief Deputy Managing Editors Senior Editors example, Mira Awad’s decision to compete to represent only serve to reinforce the reality of Israel’s egregious
Sydney Ember Brigitta Greene Dan Alexander Israel in the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest, which violations of international law.
Ben Schreckinger Anne Speyer Nicole Friedman
Julien Ouellet was met with a letter signed by a large and prominent
editorial Business
contingent of Palestinian artists and intellectuals, urg- Michael Becker ’13
Kristina Fazzalaro Arts & Culture Editor General Managers Office Manager
Luisa Robledo Arts & Culture Editor Matthew Burrows Shawn Reilly

Correction
Rebecca Ballhaus City & State Editor Isha Gulati
Claire Peracchio City & State Editor
Directors
Talia Kagan Features Editor
Aditi Bhatia Sales
Hannah Moser Features Editor
Danielle Marshak Finance
Alex Bell News Editor
Nicole Boucher News Editor
Margot Grinberg Alumni Relations An article in Monday’s Herald (“Columbia votes to reinstate ROTC,” April 4) incorrectly referred to Columbia
Lisa Berlin Special Projects
Tony Bakshi Sports Editor student Sean Udell as a member of the Columbia University Senate. In fact, Udell is the senior class president
Managers
Ashley McDonnell Sports Editor
Hao Tran National Sales
and president of the Columbia Queer Alliance but is not a Senate member. The Herald regrets the error.
Ethan McCoy Asst. Sports Editor
Tyler Rosenbaum Editorial Page Editor Alec Kacew University Department Sales
Hunter Fast Opinions Editor Siena deLisser University Student Group Sales
Michael Fitzpatrick Opinions Editor Valery Scholem Recruiter Sales
C O R R E C T I O N S P olicy
Jared Davis Sales and Communications
Graphics & Photos Lauren Bosso Business Operations The Brown Daily Herald is committed to providing the Brown University community with the most accurate information possible. Corrections may be
Abe Pressman Graphics Editor Emily Zheng Business Analytics submitted up to seven calendar days after publication.
Alex Yuly Graphics Editor Nikita Khadloya Alumni Engagement C ommentary P O L I C Y
Stephanie London Photo Editor James Eng Special Projects
Hilary Rosenthal Photo Editor The editorial is the majority opinion of the editorial page board of The Brown Daily Herald. The editorial viewpoint does not necessarily reflect the views of
Arjun Vaidya Special Projects
Nick Sinnott-Armstrong Photo Editor The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. Columns, letters and comics reflect the opinions of their authors only.
Webber Xu Special Projects
Jonathan Bateman Sports Photo Editor L etters to the E ditor P olicy
Post- magazine Send letters to letters@browndailyherald.com. Include a telephone number with all letters. The Herald reserves the right to edit all letters for length and clarity
Production
Kate Doyle Editor-in-Chief
Dan Towne Copy Desk Chief and cannot assure the publication of any letter. Please limit letters to 250 words. Under special circumstances writers may request anonymity, but no letter will
Gili Kliger Design Editor BLOG DAILY HERALD be printed if the author’s identity is unknown to the editors. Announcements of events will not be printed.
Anna Migliaccio Design Editor David Winer Editor-in-Chief
advertising P olicy
Katie Wilson Design Editor Matt Klimerman Managing Editor
The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. reserves the right to accept or decline any advertisement at its discretion.
The Brown Daily Herald
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
By Michelle Uhrick
Opinions Columnist
The American education system is in trou-
ble. International assessments reporting
that the U.S. is falling behind other devel-
oped countries have become so common
that we have become almost indifferent.
At a time when, in absolute terms, Ameri-
cans with only a high school education are
earning less than their counterparts did
thirty years ago, high school graduation
rates have actually fallen. The high school
graduation rate reached its peak in 1969 at
77 percent — since then, it has declined to
68.8 percent today. If, as many have argued,
the U.S. really is moving towards a high-
tech service economy, and a bachelor’s de-
gree is the new baseline for middle-class
living, then we are leaving a growing pro-
portion of the population behind.
Our schools are failing our nation’s chil-
dren. As President Barack Obama said in
his State of the Union address, we need to
fix our education system so that we may
“out-innovate, out-educate and out-build
the rest of the world.” And like most peo-
ple, I always assumed that the American
education system was failing because no-
body cared.
Actually, as it turns out, people do care.
Since the 1970s, per pupil spending on
education has more than doubled, from
By Ian trupin
Opinions Columnist
As global economic recovery remains a
subject of uncertainty and scrutiny in the
wake of the financial crisis, it is high time
to remember some actors whose perennial
crises are now all the more severe. Despite
predictions that the economies of the poor-
est nations would be insulated from the
global recession by their lack of integra-
tion, in reality, these economies have been
profoundly shaken.
Even as foreign aid levels have declined,
there are growing fears that poor countries
with unsustainable debts will find them-
selves under increasing pressure to pay, re-
gardless of the consequences. For countries
like the United States, which have the re-
sources to counteract this debt crisis, the
time to act is now.
But why should the U.S. do so? Does
America not pay billions to these countries
already?
The image of the U.S. as a generous do-
nor of global aid is deeply ingrained for
many Americans. In a WorldPublicO-
pinion.org survey last year, a majority of
Americans estimated that median U.S. aid
contributions made up 25 percent of the
national budget and felt that this number
should ideally be 10 percent.
In reality, U.S. aid commitments make
up less than 1 percent of annual govern-
ment expenditure. Promises of aid made
by U.S. politicians, such as Bush’s extrava-
gant President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS
Relief, often go far beyond actual commit-
Education spending
$4,328 in 1970 to $9,276 in 2005. The re-
sults have been just as dismal as reported
above. Not only has the graduation rate
fallen, but, by all the assessments available
to us — domestic test scores, internation-
al scores and reports on incoming college
freshmen — American educational attain-
ment flat-lined even as spending doubled.
Maybe the expenditures are just mis-
placed? In 2001, California began a $1.3
billion per year initiative — 6 percent of the
state’s direct education budget — to reduce
class sizes to below 20 students across the
As austerity measures kick in across the states, maybe it’s
time to start looking to improve
education by spending outside of the classroom.
state. Years later, assessments revealed that
changing class size did not have a statisti-
cally significant effect on test scores at all,
and perverse incentives created by the pro-
gram actually caused test scores across the
state to drop.
What about other factors? Neither
teachers with master’s degrees nor those
from competitive colleges had statistically
significant impacts on test scores. Reduc-
ing class size has also been a dud, even out-
side of California. As might be expected,
all of these factors have greatly increased
An abusive relationship
ments.
But situated amongst media dialogues
that cast the U.S. as the “leader of the free
world,” and other exceptionalist notions,
this discrepancy is not surprising. Through-
out the American media and the rhetoric of
American politicians, the assumption that
the U.S. is and should be a generous source
of positive input is ubiquitous.
Unfortunately, these assumptions glaze
over the extent to which loans from the
U.S. and institutions over which the U.S.
holds power now entangle many low-in-
The roughly $13 billion in debt servicing paid on a yearly
basis by African countries alone is greater than the value
of aid coming in to those countries.
come countries. The burden of these loans
— loans that are, in the words of former
World Bank chief economist Joseph Sti-
glitz, undemocratically imposed on gov-
ernments — is truly astonishing.
The roughly $13 billion in debt servicing
paid on a yearly basis by African countries
alone is greater than the value of aid com-
ing in to those countries. This high price of
debt comes at the expense of government
services, including health care and educa-
tion, thus only exacerbating problems that
aid supposedly addresses.
To be sure, much has been said about
this and little has been done. In 1999 under
the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries pro-
Opinions 7
since the aforementioned 1970s. The pupil-
teacher ratio has fallen from 25.8 to 16.0.
The percentage of teachers with a master’s
degree has risen from 23.5 to 56.2 percent
and the median number of years of teach-
ing experience has risen from 11 to 15
years.
Even more significantly, in the mod-
ern day, per-pupil spending in inner-city
schools is often higher than per-pupil
spending in suburban schools. The U.S.
General Accounting Office has a break-
down of the statistics. Around Chicago, av-
erage per-pupil expenditures in the inner
city are $4,482, but in the suburbs, schools
receive $3,216 per student. In the Boston
area, the lowest-spending urban school
still spent more per pupil than the highest
spending suburban school. And the gap is
just as large as ever.
Maybe it is time to accept that more
money is not what makes better schools.
So much for my juvenile dreams of mak-
ing people care. People do care about edu-
cation — and maybe they care too much, to
the extent where they are flushing money
gram, and again in 2005 under the Multi-
lateral Debt Relief Initiative program, the
G-8 countries, the International Monetary
Fund and the World Bank wrote up a list of
40 countries with what it deemed to be un-
sustainable debts, or national debts greater
than 150 percent of gross domestic prod-
uct. Yet even this debt forgiveness came
with strings attached, including require-
ments that heavily indebted countries can-
cel or privatize social services and further
liberalize markets to qualify for debt for-
giveness.
Unsurprisingly, even of the most heav-
ily indebted countries that qualified for the
Heavily Indebted Poor Countries and Mul-
tilateral Debt Relief Initiative programs,
many refused to do so. For these countries,
it is not clear that the costs associated with
IMF-mandated structural adjustment — a
strategy that has already failed them — are
worth the benefits of freedom from debt.
While it may seem that this issue is far
beyond our power as students, administra-
tors, staff or faculty, the collective political
will of informed people is not insignificant.
Since the early 2000s, the Jubilee Move-
ment, an international coalition of mostly
faith-based organizations, has been advo-
down the drain.
Education is such an easy political topic.
It is the foundation of our meritocracy, the
engine that can propel anyone out of pov-
erty and into the upper class. Indirectly, it is
the justification for countless policies that
benefit the upper class on the assumption
that anyone can become upper class. Ev-
eryone, on both sides of the aisle, wants to
chip in for education. President George W.
Bush created “No Child Left Behind,” and
in 2007 funded it to the tune of $24.4 bil-
lion. Obama rolled out “Race to the Top,”
offering an additional $5 billion in grants
to schools across the country.
In comparison with welfare, Planned
Parenthood and taxes on the rich, educa-
tion is politically benign, which is probably
why spending just builds and builds while
evidence shows little to no impact.
As austerity measures kick in across the
states, maybe it’s time to start looking to
improve education by spending outside of
the classroom. Parents’ age, education lev-
el and income may have a larger influence
on a child’s academic performance than we
can ever hope to achieve through direct
education spending. The political reflex to
slash benefits and family planning to pro-
tect education may, ironically, not be what
is best for America’s children.
Michelle Uhrick ‘11 is an international
relations and economics concentrator
from Connecticut. She can be contacted
at michelle_uhrick@brown.edu.
cating debt cancellation without regressive
demands for structural adjustment. The
U.S. wing of this movement has been sup-
porting legislation in Congress that would
effectively engage the U.S. in ending abu-
sive debt relationships.
Specifically, the Jubilee Act — which
became mired in the Senate when it last
came up for a vote in 2008 — calls upon
the Treasury to facilitate debt cancellation
of heavily indebted countries. In contrast
with past debt-forgiveness regimes, the Ju-
bilee Act requires only that funds diverted
from debt servicing go to poverty-allevia-
tion programs.
Witnessing the cuts now being pushed
by Republicans in Congress and by state
and local governments across the county, it
may seem untimely to call on the U.S. to
cancel debt or divert limited financial re-
sources towards developing countries. But
researchers from the global Jubilee Move-
ment have demonstrated that debt relief
does not need to come out of the reserves
of the wealthiest countries. Rather, the
IMF, which bears responsibility for push-
ing many of the problem loans in the first
place, could sell portions of its gold reserves
to cover much of the cost of debt relief.
While the Jubilee Act enjoys biparti-
san support from 26 Senate and 53 House
co-sponsors, Rhode Island’s legislators are
conspicuously absent. In the midst of a
Congressional session that may wreak hav-
oc on U.S. government programs and com-
mitments at home and abroad, it would be
a great relief to see this bill back on its feet.
Ian Trupin ’13 is a COE concentrator who
just learned how to ride a
tandem bicycle.
Daily Herald Sports Tuesday
the Brown
Tennis
Squads post mixed results in Ivy opening
By madeleine wenstrup
Sports Staff Writer
A week and a half before the sea-
son began in January, the men’s
and women’s tennis teams hit a
setback. A monstrous winter storm
took down a part of the Paul Bailey
Pizzitola Memorial Sports Center’s
membrane roof, and a large patch
of snow landed in the middle of the
tennis courts. But the teams took
it in stride and moved practices
and home games to the Centre
Court Tennis Club in Riverside for
a month while their home court
was repaired.
“We had to play late at night,
and we were already tired from
classes,” Bianca Aboubakare ’11
said. “It was pretty bad for team
morale.”
Despite this difficulty, the
women’s team (13-6, 2-0 Ivy
League) rocketed into its Ivy sea-
son over the weekend, picking up
a win against Princeton (9-8, 2-1
Ivy) in the conference opener Fri-
day and then defeating Penn (6-11,
0-3 Ivy) Saturday afternoon.
The men’s team (13-4, 0-2 Ivy)
did not have the same success
against its first Ivy challengers. The
Tigers (10-6, 3-0 Ivy) and Quakers
(11-3, 1-2 Ivy) both edged out the
Bears 4-3 in close matches over
the opening weekend.
The women’s team took a while
to get on its feet. After four losses,
the team picked up its first win
track & field
In early test, Bruno runs,
jumps, throws to victory
By James blum
Sports Staff Writer
The men’s and women’s track and
field teams turned in strong per-
formances this past weekend at the
Bryant University Invitational in
Smithfield. The meet was a test in
the early stages of Brown’s outdoor
track season.
“I think that it was a very solid
competition for us,” said Michelle
Eisenreich, director of men’s and
women’s track and field. “Every-
body did what they were supposed
to do, and that is exactly what we
wanted to have happen.”
John Spooney ’14 claimed
first place in the 100-meter dash
in 10.93 seconds. In addition, the
men’s 4x100-meter relay team
sprinted to a first place finish in
42.21.
“The men’s four-by-one showed
some promise,” Eisenreich said.
“Their big goal is to break the
school record” of 40.90.
In field events, Jonathan Dieu-
juste ’14 leaped 21-09 1/2 to finish
first in the long jump, and Nick
Keeling ’14 threw the javelin 222-
00, which also earned him a first-
place finish. According to Eisen-
reich, Keeling is now ranked 24th
nationally in the javelin.
The women also had a strong
showing at Bryant. Niina Al-
Emily Gilbert / Herald
Brandon Burke ’14 won two matches
and lost two as men’s tennis suffered
two successive Ivy defeats to
Princeton and Penn, 4-3.
against Boston College Feb. 10,
followed by a big victory and re-
cord-breaking day against David-
son College. The Bears swept the
doubles points, giving away only
five games, and took five out of six
singles matches in straight sets.
Aboubakare broke the record
for career wins in both singles and
doubles, with 85 and 72 wins, re-
spectively.
The game against Davidson
propelled the Bears into what
has so far been a succesful sea-
son. Bruno has gone 11-2 since
then, losing only to Princeton and
William and Mary.
Hassan ’14 led the squad, winning
the javelin throw and earning the
school record with a toss of 145-
10.
“We did really well in the
throwing events,” Eisenreich said.
“Overall, a really solid meet for
this time of year.”
Victoria Buhr ’13 threw the dis-
cus 159-09 to capture first place.
Brynn Smith ’11 earned two sec-
ond-place finishes in the shot put
and hammer throw with heaves of
47-06 1/2 and 187-04, respectively.
On the track, Susan Scavone
’12 placed second in the 100-me-
ter hurdles in 14.80, and Colby
Lubman ’14 finished third in the
100-meter dash with a time of
12.51.
Though neither the men’s nor
the women’s distance squads com-
peted at Bryant, the team sent
Matt Duffy ’12, Dan Lowry ’12
and Christian Escareno ’11 to the
Sam Howell Invitational at Princ-
eton to race in the 5000-meter run
and Brendan Boyle ’14 to compete
in the 3000-meter steeplechase.
Bruno will compete April 9 at
the UConn Alumni Invite hosted
by the University of Connecticut.
“Starting next week at UConn
and at Brown, we’ll have the ma-
jority of people competing,” Eisen-
reich said. “For the most part, now
we’re going to be at full strength.”
But the Bears sought to avenge
their loss to Princeton, last year’s
Ivy champions. When Bruno
took on the Tigers in February,
the team lost 5-2. But this Friday
at Princeton, the Bears gave up
only the No. 2 singles and the No.
1 doubles matches.
“This was our greatest achieve-
ment this season,” Women’s Head
Coach Paul Wardlaw said. “We
were relaxed, very comfortable,
and the freshmen dealt with the
pressure well. (Princeton) may
have underestimated us from our
loss earlier this season.”
The Bears won four of five
singles matches in straight sets.
The exception, Misia Krasowski
’13, came back from losing her
first set of the No. 1 singles match
to take the next two sets for the
win. Krasowski also paired with
Julie Flanzer ’12 for an 8-2 win at
No. 3 doubles.
“It was exciting — it was the
first win against Princeton in my
career, and in my coach’s as well,”
Aboubakare said.
Bruno continued its Ivy tour in
Philadelphia Saturday. The Bears
gave up the No. 1 match in both
singles and doubles but powered
through to sweep the rest of the
matches and take the win 6-1.
Aboubakare and rookie Jessica
Harrow ’14 both overcame early
deficits to win their matches at No.
continued on page 5
Baseball
Bears swept on West Coast trip
By Lewis pollis
Contributing Writer
It was a disappointing week for the
baseball team, as the Bears lost all six
games of their West Coast road trip
before dropping three of their first
four conference games of the season
against Princeton and Cornell.
“We didn’t pitch it great, and
we didn’t hit very well at all,” said
Head Coach Marek Drabinski. “If
you don’t pitch and you’re not hit-
ting, you’re not going to win many
games.”
“I don’t know how much worse
we can play, so for us to go 1-3, we’re
pretty fortunate,” he added. “We’ve
got some work to do. There’s no
question.”
The Santa Clara University
Broncos (12-13) swept the Bears
(3-15, 1-3 Ivy League) in the first
four-game series of their West Coast
stretch March 26-28. Brown was
outscored 48-10 in the series.
Catcher Matt Colantonio ’11
doubled and scored on an RBI single
by first baseman Pete Greskoff ’11
in the fourth inning of game one.
Greskoff, in turn, scored on a double
by third baseman Ryan Zrenda ’11,
making the score 2-0.
In the fifth inning, shortstop
Graham Tyler ’12 doubled then
scored after a sacrifice bunt by sec-
ond baseman J.J. Franco ’14 and an
RBI single by center fielder Matt
DeRenzi ’14, giving Bruno a 3-0
GOLF
Women shine, men
drop to last place
By sam rubinroit
Sports Staff Writer
The men’s and women’s golf teams
enjoyed some much needed sun-
shine as they spent their spring
breaks competing in tournaments
out West.
The women’s team played in the
second tournament of its spring
season as it competed in the Lady
Otter Spring Invitational hosted
by California State University at
Monterey Bay March 28-29. The
team clinched eighth place in the
22-team field with a two-day score
of 636. Megan Tuohy ’12 led the
Bears with rounds of 79 and 73
to earn 11th place individually.
Sarah Guarascio ’11 also turned
in a strong performance with a
two-day score of 156 to earn 18th
place individually.
Meanwhile, the men’s squad
opened its spring schedule in the
OGIO-Santa Barbara Invitational
hosted by the University of Cali-
fornia at Santa Barbara March 28-
29. Despite the team’s last place
finish in a field of 16, J.D. Ardell
’13 said he was glad to be back on
the course after the five-month
layoff following the conclusion of
the fall season.
“I think we could have played
better, but at the same time, it was
nice to shake off the rust and get
lead. It was the only time the Bears
had a lead in the series.
The Broncos rallied for five runs
in the sixth inning and went on to
win 8-3.
Game two was closer, as the
Broncos led by just one run until a
three-run rally in the bottom of the
eighth inning put them on top 5-1.
But Santa Clara took all the Bears’
hopes of winning away in the last
two games. The Broncos scored 11
and 12 times before Brown got on
the board en route to 18-3 and 17-3
blowouts, respectively.
The Bears continued on to play a
two-game set against San Jose State
University March 29-30. Bruno
started off well in the first game, as
center fielder John Sheridan ’13 hit
a leadoff double and scored on Col-
antonio’s RBI double to give Brown
a 1-0 lead in the first inning. The
Spartans tied the game in the bot-
tom of the inning, but Greskoff ’s
bases-loaded walk in the fourth gave
the Bears a 2-1 lead.
But things fell apart for Brown af-
ter that, and the Bears lost 9-4. They
then lost 11-4 in the second game.
After being swept in California,
the Bears headed to Princeton for
the beginning of the Ivy League
conference season.
The team got off to a poor start
in game one of the two-game series
April 2, as the Tigers scored six runs
on nine hits in the first two innings
to jump out to an early 6-0 lead.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
everything going,” he said. “Once
you get the winter rust off, ev-
eryone can start working on the
things they were lacking in the
fall.”
The team carded a three-round
937, highlighted by a score of
227 by Michael Amato ’11 and
Ardell’s 231, which earned indi-
vidual finishes of 29th and 47th,
respectively.
Men’s Head Coach Michael
Hughes said because the field
was strong and it was Bruno’s
first tournament, the finish was
not disheartening.
“It’s not an event where we
are going to go out and compete,
simply because we haven’t played
since the end of October,” he said.
“It’s hard to get out and compete
against teams like the University
of Oregon, which is a top-10 team.
For most of these teams, this was
their sixth or seventh event, so in
that regard it was not surprising
that we had the results we did.”
After the finish in Santa Bar-
bara, the men’s squad traveled to
Tucson, Ariz., for a face-off against
the University of Arizona, a team
to which Hughes said the Bears
“paled in comparison.” He said by
facing more talented teams early in
the season, the Bears will continue
continued on page 5
Clutch hits from designated hitter
Mike DiBiase ’12, Zrenda, Tyler and
third baseman Cody Slaughter ’13
fueled a three-run Bruno rally in
the seventh inning, but it was not
enough and the Bears fell 7-4.
The Tigers gained an 8-0 lead in
the second inning of game two and
had stretched their lead to 11-1 by
the fourth. Bruno managed only two
runs the entire game, losing 12-2.
The Bears picked up their first
Ivy League victory of the season
against Cornell in the first game
of a doubleheader April 3. A pair
of Cornell throwing errors helped
Bruno produce two runs in the
third inning, and right fielder Josh
Feit ’11 hit a clutch three-run home
run in the seventh inning. Starting
pitcher Heath Mayo ’13 secured the
win after allowing just one earned
run on five hits in six innings, while
Feit notched his second save of the
season after shutting down the Big
Red in the bottom of the seventh to
secure the 5-2 victory.
“It was a relief,” Drabinski said.
“It was nice to get that first (win).”
Bruno took a commanding 6-2
lead in the fifth inning of game two
after Greskoff ’s three-run homer,
but Cornell gained the lead after an
eight-run rally in the sixth. The Big
Red went on to win 13-8.
Bruno is next in action when it
hosts Quinnipiac University at 3:30
p.m. today in its home opener at
Murray Stadium.