Daily
the Brown
vol. cxlvi, no. 46
Slavery’s past
confronted
at Brown,
Harvard
By Leah Bromberg
Contributing Writer
Ignoring the convention of separat-
ing personal stories from academic
discourse, President Ruth Simmons
shared her connection to slavery as
the great-granddaughter of slaves
in an emotional keynote address
that kicked off this weekend’s “Slav-
ery’s Capitalism: A New History of
American Economic Development”
conference Thursday in Salomon
101.
The conference — which high-
lighted the North’s connections
with slavery and was hosted by
Brown and Harvard — drew stu-
dents, community members and
scholars from around the country.
“Ideas that have been flowing
back and forth are radical in their
potential to re-define history,” said
Seth Rockman, associate professor
of history.
Ronald Bailey, professor emeri-
tus at Northeastern University, ad-
dressed Simmons directly when
he said at the conference, “I’ve
been waiting for a college presi-
dent to do this for 30 years, and
you stepped forward.” Four years
ago, the Steering Committee on
Slavery and Justice, convened by
Simmons, published findings that
linked the University to its own
slavery-ridden history. This week-
end, she opened up about her own
history.
continued on page 2
Ira Glass ’82, host of NPR’s “This American Life,” was a crowd pleaser.
news...................2-3
inside
HOUSING.............6-8
editorial.............10
Opinions.............11
ARTS....................12
Monday, April 11, 2011
Two female students struck in hit-and-run
By Kyle McNamara
Contributing Writer
Amanda Chew ’14 and Juliana Un-
anue Banuchi ’14 were hit on the
corner of Hope and Charlesfield
streets by an unidentified driver
who immediately left the scene at
approximately 10:45 p.m. Saturday.
The students “sustained moderate
to serious but non-life-threatening
injuries,” wrote Marisa Quinn, vice
president for public affairs and Uni-
versity relations, in an email to The
Herald.
A suspect has been detained, and
the Providence Police Department
is currently investigating the case,
said Department of Public Safety
Sergeant John Heston shortly after
the accident.
Heston declined to comment fur-
ther but said the suspect was “prob-
ably” the driver of the vehicle.
The female students “were on the
Transfer apps rise by 25 percent Student
By Miriam Furst
Staff Writer
For the first time, Brown’s accep-
tance rate for transfer applications
may drop below its acceptance rate
for first-year applications, according
to Dean of Admission Jim Miller
’73. The University received around
1,950 transfer applications this year
— a 20 percent increase from last
year’s 1,621 applications.
The Admission Office has not
yet decided the exact number of
transfers it will accept, but it plans
to offer spots to around 200 stu-
dents and enroll between 125 and
Courtesy of Julieta Cardenas
Feeling the crunch
The Herald explores Brown’s long history of
overcrowding, its causes and its impact.
Herald
sidewalk, and a car accelerated onto
the sidewalk and hit both of them.
The driver was a woman, and once
she hit both Amanda and Juliana,
she reversed and left, leaving them
injured on the sidewalk,” wrote Sofia
Unanue ’11.5, the sister of one of the
victims, in an email to The Herald.
The car that struck the students was
a black Audi, wrote Juliana Unanue
in an email to The Herald.
Witnesses who arrived later at the
scene said they saw at least one of the
students being put onto a stretcher
and loaded into an ambulance. The
students were taken to Rhode Island
Hospital for treatment, Quinn wrote.
Sofia Unanue wrote that her sister
suffered a fractured right leg and will
undergo surgery in the next few days.
Chew suffered a mild concussion
and other injuries to her head and
is under observation, Sofia Unanue
continued on page 3
130. The Corporation approved an
increase of up to 50 for next year’s
transfer class to stabilize the stu-
dent body at around 6,000, but the
University determined a smaller in-
crease in transfer enrollment would
be sufficient.
About $400,000 in financial aid
will be offered to transfer students,
Miller said, the same amount that
was earmarked last year.
Transfer students are admitted
on a need-aware basis — by con-
trast, first-year student admission
is need-blind. By increasing the
number of admitted transfers, the
University can also increase the
In meta-conference,
MCM explores MCM
By Morgan Johnson
Staff Writer
Alums, professors and students
flocked to “MCM@50: Theory,
Practice, Passion” this weekend
— though the event did not in fact
celebrate the 50th anniversary of
feature
the Department of Modern Culture
and Media. The two-day sympo-
sium comes during the 15th an-
niversary of the MCM department,
but its predecessor, the semiotics
program, was founded 36 years
ago — the number 50 comes from
a combination of the two dates and
Endorsement
The Herald endorses David
Chanin ’12 for UFB chair
Housing, 6–8
Ambulances and police cruisers arrived at the intersection of Hope and
Charlesfield streets after a car struck two students Saturday night.
amount of money received from tu-
ition without a significant increase
in enrollment or additional strain
to first-year resources.
“As a transfer, I would really
like if more came, just because the
transfer community is really strong
and having more people would
make us an even bigger presence
on campus,” said Zoe Hoffman ’13,
who transferred this year from the
University of Virginia. Brown en-
rolled 110 transfer students last fall.
The application process for
transfer students is similar to
continued on page 2
celebrating the semiotics program
anniversary one year late.
“You might think that it is funny
math or extreme math,” said Mary
Ann Doane, chair of the MCM
department. “This event was very
MCM.”
The conference was charac-
terized by alums’ passion for the
department and its professors, as
well as self-aware humor from pre-
senters and faculty.
Anna Fisher GS, a fourth-year
doctoral student in MCM and
one of the main organizers for the
conference, said MCM@50 was
developed to honor the program’s
continued on page 5
weather
editorial, 10
Since 1891
Herald staff
found dead
in Alabama
By Amy Rasmussen
Senior Staff Writer
Matthew Strickland, who was en-
rolled as an undergraduate from
2005 to 2009, was found dead in
his Alabama apartment Tuesday.
Strickland was on leave from Brown
and was studying full-time at the
University of Montevallo during
the 2010-11 academic year.
The cause of death is unknown,
but no foul play is suspected, ac-
cording to a University of Monte-
vallo press release.
Strickland, originally from Ow-
ens Cross Roads, Ala., was a dual
concentrator in urban studies and
history of art and architecture,
wrote Marisa Quinn, vice president
for public affairs and University re-
lations, in an email to The Herald.
In an email to the community
Friday morning, President Ruth
Simmons noted that though Strick-
land pursued courses ranging from
African dance to Spanish during his
time at Brown, he had ultimately
hoped to become a physician.
“He was known to many as a
courageous, tenacious and unfail-
ingly generous student,” she wrote.
“We have extended our deepest
condolences to Matthew’s family
and join with them in mourning
the loss of a valued member of our
community.”
continued on page 3
t o d ay tomorrow
68/55 62 /44
2 Campus News The Brown Daily Herald
Monday, April 11, 2011

calendar Conference addresses U. upholds

slavery’s history, legacy marijuana
Today APRIL 11 ToMORROW APRIL 12

6 P.m. 2:30 p.m.

The Politics of Haiti Today,
Watson Institute, Joukowsky Forum
7 p.m.
ROTC: Should Brown bring it back?,
Brown-RISD Hillel, Winnick Chapel
Service and Community: Finding
Both at Brown, Granoff Center
8 p.m.
Directorz in the Downspace
Festival, T. F. Green Hall
prohibition
continued from page 1
“Slavery is not just about the
history of one region but really the
history of the nation as a whole,”
added Sven Beckert, a professor
— that it was the evil Southerners
versus the virtuous Northerners,”
said Bob Burke, creator of the In- By Louisa Chafee
dependence Trail in Boston. But Contributing Writer
“the wealth of Providence came
about from lower labor costs owing Though medical marijuana is now

menu of history at Harvard, who said

SHARPE REFECTORY
LUNCH
Gnocchi alla Sorrentina, Chicken
Fajitas, Vegan Moroccan Beans,
White Chocolate Chip Cookies
DINNER
Vegetable Strudel with Cream
Sauce, Chicken Fajitas, Vegan Rice
Pilaf, Cream Cheese Brownies
Sudoku
Crossword
VERNEy-WOOLLEY DINING HALL
French Bread Pizza, Green Beans
with Tomatoes, White Chocolate
Chip Cookies
Green Pepper Steak, Stir Fried
Vegetables with Tofu, Garlic Bread,
Cream Cheese Brownies
Simmons inspired him to teach a
course titled “Harvard and Slavery.”
The conference examined ways
in which northern textile industries
profited from the reduced cost of
cotton due to slave labor and also
emphasized that early donors who
contributed to Brown and Harvard
profited from slavery. Industries in
the North also provided the timber
and supplies used to fund slave
trading and plantation practices.
“These buildings we have around
us and the wealth that built New
England partly derived from slave
labor,” Peter Wirzbicki, a New York
University graduate student said
as he stood and looked around
Alumnae Hall.
The history is as tangible in
Harvard’s neighborhood as on
Brown’s campus.
“If you look down at Boston
Symphony Hall on Huntington
Avenue and universities, a lot of
funds they used to do that came
out of processes in which the labor
of African-American people were
exploited around the process of
cotton picking,” Bailey said.
Some professors also spoke of
slavery as a contemporary phe-
nomenon, tying it to modern-day
human trafficking, industrial labor
and health care reform.
“In school, we were taught a lie
to slavery.”
Harvard graduate student Jer-
emy Zallen said the conference was
important because “universities
like Brown and Harvard that are
geographically in New England
and have disassociated themselves
from slavery are taking that on and
investigating their own connec-
tions to slavery.”
“My parents toiled in the cotton
fields at the behest of plantation
owners,” Burke said. “I’m willing
to take the gloves off, I’m willing
to fight for this issue.”
“It’s interesting to hear about
slavery and its history and its
contemporary implications,” said
Barbara Andrews, director of edu-
cation at the National Civil Rights
Museum in Memphis, Tenn. “But
I wonder what they do with it.”
She said she will help spread the
conference’s message beyond New
England.
Rockman, who will teach HIST
1840: “Capitalism, Slavery and the
Economy of Early America” this
fall, said “the basic work of discus-
sion remains to be done. We’re at
the starting point of this. We need
more people to go to more archives
and find out more things. It is as
simple as digging to find out all
the ways slavery insinuated itself
in every aspect of the American
experience.”
legal in Rhode Island, administra-
tors maintain that under both state
and federal law, the University can-
not allow smoking of marijuana on
school grounds.
Medical marijuana was legal-
ized in Rhode Island June 16, 2009
after state legislators voted to over-
ride a veto by then-Gov. Donald
Carcieri ’65. Three new dispen-
saries for medical marijuana will
open in Rhode Island this summer.
Despite the state’s legalization
of medical marijuana and immi-
nent opening of dispensaries, the
University released a statement
saying it would not permit smok-
ing on campus because Rhode
Island and federal law “prohibit
smoking marijuana on any school
grounds, including college cam-
puses.”
According to the statement,
“Any breach of the federal law
would put Brown’s eligibility for
federal funding at risk. A student
with an illness serious enough to
warrant a doctor’s prescription for
continued on page 3
200 transfer
students to
be admitted
in May
continued from page 1
the first-year application process,
Miller said. “We do pay more at-
tention to college performance than
high school, but we do factor in, to
some degree, high school grades,”
he said. The Admission Office does
not track how many students apply
to transfer from four-year colleges
compared to two-year colleges.
The University plans to notify
transfer applicants in the middle of
May, though there is no fixed date.

Daily Herald
the Brown

www.browndailyherald.com
195 Angell St., Providence, R.I.
Ben Schreckinger, President Matthew Burrows, Treasurer
Sydney Ember, Vice President Isha Gulati, Secretary
The Brown Daily Herald (USPS 067.740) is an independent newspaper serving the
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The Brown Daily Herald
Monday, April 11, 2011
Medical marijuana Hit-and-run injures two students
prohibited on campus
continued from page 2
medical marijuana would need to
consult with Brown’s Health Ser-
vices to identify options to meet
their needs in compliance with
the law.”
Mark Porter, chief of police and
director of public safety, did not
respond to requests for comment.
The University’s policy is in
compliance with the Drug-Free
Schools and Communities Act
Amendments of 1989, which does
not allow students to “manufac-
ture, distribute, dispense or pos-
sess with the intent to manufac-
Strickland remembered
as being ‘full of love’
continued from page 1
According to an obituary in the
Huntsville Times, funeral services
for Strickland were held Saturday.
“Any plans for a campus service will
come later,” Quinn wrote.
In an email to The Herald, Gem
Got something to say? Leave a comment online!
Visit www.browndailyherald.com to comment on opinion and editorial content.
Campus News 3
continued from page 1
wrote.
dents, and one asked her in Spanish
to “please get me help.”
While Bonilla said she did not
Bonilla said.
“University officials have been in
touch with the students and family
ture, distribute or dispense” any Carmen Bonilla, a SafeRide driver see the accident take place, she said members to offer support,” Quinn
illicit drug, according to the Office who was on duty at the time, said she spoke to a coworker who wit- wrote. “As we learn more about the
of Student Life website. when she drove up to the corner nessed the accident. According to details of the accident, we will seek
If an officer catches a student where the accident occurred, she the coworker, the driver of the vehicle to determine if there are additional
violating the rules regarding drug “saw two students on the ground.” appeared to be drunk and immedi- steps to be taken to strengthen pedes-
use — even if the student is in pos- She said she approached the stu- ately left the scene after the impact, trian safety on and around campus.”
session of medical marijuana with
a valid license — the student may
be suspended, dismissed or ex-
pelled from the University in ac-
cordance with the non-academic
disciplinary code.
Students caught with marijuana
by off-campus law enforcement
officers may be subject to more
stringent legal sanctions like im-
prisonment and hefty fines.
Chema ’11, a friend of Strickland,
remembered his “lively and warm
personality.”
“Matt was full of love, and I’m
certain this love will live on in ev-
eryone who knew him,” she wrote.
“I feel very grateful to have had him
as a friend.”
4 Sports Monday
M. Lacrosse
Bears snap skid, maul pacifist Quakers over weekend
By ethan mccoy
Assistant Sports Editor
The men’s lacrosse team snapped
a three-game losing streak and
posted its first Ivy League win in
a back-and-forth thriller against
No. 12 Penn Saturday on the Bears’
home turf. Bruno (4-6, 1-2 Ivy)
outscored the Quakers (5-4, 2-2)
10-3 in the middle two quarters
and survived a four-goal Penn run
in the final 10 minutes to hang on
to a 13-12 victory.
“I’m really proud of this team,”
said Head Coach Lars Tiffany ’90.
“Having lost some really close
games — four overtimes to Princ-
eton, having lost to Bryant by one
— it would have been really easy
by human nature to start second-
guessing ourselves. … But I’m re-
ally proud of this team for sticking
together and fighting through the
adversity we’ve faced and continu-
ing to believe in each other. And
we saw that today — we played
some of our best lacrosse today.”
“I feel like it was finally the first
time we’ve put together a good,
complete game,” said attacker
Parker Brown ’12, who scored
four goals on the day. “It was a
little scary at the end — I think
we got a little complacent with the
score — but overall, it feels great
to finally get an Ivy League win,
especially on our home field.”
Rob Schlesinger ’12 helped
spearhead the Bear’s attack with
four goals of his own, as well as
two assists, in a breakout six-point
performance. The two attackers,
along with David Hawley ’11, who
scored his 12th goal in five games,
stepped up in the absence of tri-
captain and scoring leader Andrew
Feinberg ’11, who has missed the
last three games with a concussion.
“It’s the first time our of-
fense has really clicked all year,”
Rob Schlesinger ’12 scores one of his four goals against No. 12 Penn. Schlesinger also dished out two assists as men’s
lacrosse won a thrilling contest 13-12 to secure its first Ivy League victory.
Schlesinger said. “Defense has
been carrying us all season, and
it’s about time the offense finally
got it together and scored a few
goals, so that was huge for us.”
“I was really impressed with
Rob Schlesinger, who’s struggled
scoring, but had some huge goals
for us today,” Tiffany said. “And
Parker Brown. He’s getting the best
defensemen from the opposing
team. He’s getting beat on, yet he
continues to run through checks
and make plays and prove that he’s
one of the better attackmen in the
league.”
Schlesinger kicked off the scor-
ing with an early, unassisted goal.
After a Penn score tied the game,
the Bears regained the lead on
Parker Brown’s first goal. He was
left all alone on the doorstep for
the easy finish thanks to a Quaker
defensive miscommunication. But
Penn responded in a big way, scor-
ing four times to close out the first
quarter with a 5-2 lead. The last
goal came in the final seconds of
Penn’s man advantage following a
slashing call on tri-captain defen-
seman Peter Fallon ’11.
It looked like it might be a
long day for Bruno supporters at
Stevenson Field, but a huge sec-
ond quarter in which the Bears
outscored Penn 6-1 proved to be
a turning point. Parker Brown
scored twice in the quarter’s first
five minutes to bring the Bears
within a goal. On the second fin-
ish, Parker Brown had an easy
flick-in from point blank thanks to
a heads-up pass from Schlesinger.
The Bears tied the game less than
four minutes later on a great in-
dividual effort by Sam Ford ’13.
The defenseman broke up a pass
in his own half and scooped up the
ground ball before racing coast to
coast for the unassisted goal.
“We’ve been joking in practice
that our D’s finally going to get a
Jonathan Bateman / Herald
goal,” Schlesinger said. “Sam’s been
saying he’s going to get a goal, and
he finally stuck that, and that really
got our team going.”
But the Bears were not done
yet. In an isolation play, Schlesing-
er was alone alongside the net but
kicked it out to midfielder Jeffrey
Foote ’11, who buried the long-
range shot to give Bruno a 6-5
lead. Penn quickly tied the game,
but the Bears closed the quarter
with scores from Hawley and
Schlesinger to give the home side
an 8-6 advantage heading into in-
termission.
At the start of the second half
though, Penn caught the Bears
asleep and tied the game a mere
31 seconds after the faceoff. Penn’s
Alek Ferro scored from long range
when he saw goalie Matt Chriss
’11 out of position. Twenty-three
seconds later, Nick Richards took
advantage of a miscommunication
on the Bear’s end to put home an
The Brown Daily Herald
Monday, April 11, 2011
easy goal.
But again, the Bears regrouped
and answered. Teddy Daiber ’11
and Parker Brown scored in quick
succession, and the Bears regained
a two-goal lead. On a man advan-
tage after Penn was penalized for
too many players on the field,
Foote scored his second goal
with a clever finish as he slipped
in front of the net and bounced
his shot past Penn goalie Brian
Feeney. Schlesinger’s third of the
day stretched the Bear’s lead to
12-8 before the quarter’s close.
Schlesinger scored again early
in the fourth to give the Bears a
13-8 cushion, but a late Quaker
surge in the final 10 minutes al-
most pushed the game into over-
time.
Goals from Al Kohart, Morgan
Griff and Ryan Parietti cut the lead
to 13-11 with just over three min-
utes left in regulation. Griff again
scored in transition off a Bruno
turnover with 32 seconds left to
make it a one-goal game. The
Quakers won the ensuing faceoff,
but Chriss made a huge stop with
13 seconds left. But his clearing
pass was intercepted, and Penn
had another chance. Maxx Meyer’s
final shot attempt for the Quakers
flew wide, icing the 13-12 win and
prompting a collective exhale at
Stevenson Field.
“Little bit of a nail biter there
at the end, but we got it done,”
Schlesinger said.
Tiffany said he was proud of
the way his team performed but
was quick to point out the game’s
conclusion as evidence that the
team needs improvement in cer-
tain areas.
“We didn’t make plays at the
very end of the game,” Tiffany said.
“We had turnover after turnover.
We held on, and Matt Chriss made
a bunch of big saves, but there were
a lot of decisions at the end of the
game that were not smart plays —
that were not plays that you’d like
to have in the future in big games.”
The win moves the Bears to 1-2
in conference play and sends the
rest of the Ivy League a message
that despite the team’s disappoint-
ing start, it has no plans of packing
it in this season.
“Teams have been looking over
us — I think Penn looked over us
a little bit at the beginning of the
game,” Schlesinger said. At “0-2
in the Ivy League, this game is a
turning point for our season. … If
we lost this game, it’s pretty much
over — 0-3 in the Ivy League, it’s
tough to make the tournament
like that.”
Tiffany pointed to the impor-
tance of the game to the team’s
mindset rather than the stand-
ings. He said he wanted the team
to focus its energy on next week’s
opponent — No. 17 Yale — instead
of thinking about any postseason
play.
“This is just one win,” he said. “I
don’t want to worry about the Ivy
League playoffs or anything like
that. It gives us a big win, and we’re
going to appreciate it for what it
is. It’s a win over a very good Penn
team who’s No. 12 in the country.
And that’s it.”
The Brown Daily Herald
Monday, April 11, 2011
MCM celebrates anniversary with weekend symposium
continued from page 1
founders, as well as expose under-
graduate and graduate students to
“all of the amazing things” alums
of the program have accomplished.
In addition to three panels of
distinguished alums, conference
attendees participated in informal
“unconferences,” hour-and-a-half-
long group discussion sessions
with up to 20 participants.
“‘Unconferences’ are the oppo-
site of what you would think of as
a stodgy event,” Fisher said. The
“unconferences” were not designed
to be academic functions but rather
a dialogue between attendees, she
said.
Yasmeen Hoosenally ’92 attend-
ed an “unconference” on the role of
MCM in nonprofits and education.
“There was a lively discussion that
erupted around a set of people with
completely different backgrounds,”
she said.
Big in media
The weekend’s main attraction
was the “Big Media” panel in the
Martinos Auditorium in the Perry
and Marty Granoff Center for the
Creative Arts. The panel, moder-
ated by MCM Professor Emeritus
Michael Silverman, featured direc-
tor Todd Haynes ’85, “This Ameri-
can Life” radio host Ira Glass ’82,
NBC Universal Entertainment and
Digital Network and Integrated
Media chairwoman Lauren Zala-
znick ’84 and Michelle Higa ’04, a
member of the digital animation
group Mixtape Club.
Higa, whose group works pri-
marily on music videos and com-
mercials, showed off her group’s
2008 music video for Yeasayer’s
“Wait for the Summer,” as well as
a recent Batman-themed commer-
cial for Google, which narrated
Batman’s story through search
terms such as “flexible Kevlar” and
“Gotham City Crime Statistics.”
Zalaznick, who said she was
not aware that each panelist was
supposed to prepare a presenta-
tion, joked that she jotted down her
talking points on the spot with pen
and paper, despite spending much
of her professional career giving
PowerPoint presentations. “I work
for the Man,” Zalaznick said of her
duties at NBC Universal, to which
her friend and former work partner
Haynes retorted, “I thought you
were the Man.”
Zalaznick, who produced sev-
eral of Haynes’ films, including
1991’s “Poison,” said she did not
anticipate ending up in television.
In her talk, she traced her profes-
sional career from her early work
on movie sets to her current life as
a television executive.
“I literally work at 30 Rock,” she
said of her office. “And it’s literally
just like (the sitcom) ‘30 Rock.’”
Zalaznick joked that when speak-
ing about her days at work, her
kids ask her if she is talking about
her real life or the episode from
the night before.
“I’m obsessed with ‘Top Chef,’”
Haynes said as he began his presen-
tation, a reference to a reality show
on the television network Bravo,
which Zalaznick oversees. Haynes
said he came to Brown wanting to
create art and film and credited the
semiotics department for ground-
ing his ambitions in “a theoretical
framework.”
Haynes also spoke about his
struggles coming out of gradu-
ation. His short film “Superstar:
the Karen Carpenter Story,” which
depicts Carpenter’s career and
struggle with anorexia, used mixed
media including animated Barbie
dolls for the roles of Carpenter
and her family. “No one wanted
to show ‘Superstar’ when I finished
it,” Haynes said.
Though Haynes enjoyed success
with later feature films, he said he
found it difficult to keep his fans
happy when branching out into
unfamiliar genres. His first film,
“Poison,” was embraced by gay
audiences for its confrontation of
the issues surrounding HIV . When
Haynes switched gears in 1995 with
“Safe,” he said fans of his earlier
work were perplexed by the film,
which did not contain any explic-
itly gay themes. “When I showed
it at gay film festivals, everyone
said, ‘what the (expletive) is this?’”
Haynes also expressed concern
about today’s filmmaking. “The
way we view media has changed,
the alternative venues that existed
and the things that propelled me
have disappeared or vanished,” he
said. Haynes added he was sur-
prised that, given the accessibility
of filmmaking equipment today,
even on devices like cell phones,
more innovative work has not
flourished.
Glass proved the most crowd-
pleasing speaker at the panel, and
the audience erupted in laughter
multiple times during his pre-
sentation. Glass, who started his
relationship with National Public
Radio as a 19-year-old intern, said
he had never heard of the program
before he began working there.
Feature 5
“I still use what I learned at
Brown every day at my job,” Glass
said. He said his study of Roland
Barthes’ proairetic code, which
emphasizes sequences of actions
and suspense to draw in audiences,
influenced the structure of “This
American Life” — “Exactly the
opposite of what my professors
intended for me to do with that
information.”
“It’s hard making anything
good,” Glass said, recalling strug-
gles early in his career. “Most
things that you’re making are try-
ing to be crap. It wants to be bad.”
“We all probably need a drink
at this point,” said Silverman, the
moderator, after Glass’ eccentric
presentation.
The other(ed) alums reminisce
In addition to the Big Media
panel, other alums had the oppor-
tunity to present their work and
share humorous tributes to their
concentration in panels titled “Art-
ists and Producers” and “Academia
After Academia.”
At one panel, columnist and
writer Ed Ball ’82 joked that the
original semiotics building “resem-
bled a tenement of the East Village
in New York.” This was appropri-
ate he said, because it “prepared
graduates for the type of housing
they would occupy” after school.
“I felt like I was being adopt-
ed into a cult,” artist and scholar
Coco Fusco ’82 said. “We had a
language, a protected space. We
all wore black and smoked Export
A cigarettes. Everyone said some-
thing controversial in their other
classes to identify themselves as
semiotics students.”
“A lot of people worry about
turning into their parents,” said
Alex Galloway ’96, a computer pro-
grammer and associate professor
at New York University. “I worry
about turning into my old MCM
professors.” Galloway also joked
about the department’s tendency
to produce “hyper-emo subjects”
though it prides itself on “destroy-
ing the idea of interiority.”
Despite the humorous tone, the
speakers all shared an intense pride
in the department. “There’s some-
thing important about this lack of a
signifier that people could identify
us with,” psychoanalyst Ona Nie-
renberg ’80 said of the concentra-
tion. “It’s not a ‘pre’ to any already
known profession. There’s a call to
invention.”
Hoosenally mentioned MCM’s
difficulty as a seductive factor for
many alums, who recalled nearly
failing their first papers as the mo-
ment they “knew they wanted to
do MCM.”
“I would like if this happens
again,” conference attendee Mad-
eleine Fix-Hansen ’94 said. “It’s
nice to gather everyone together
and think through things.”
6 Housing
Students feel the squeeze of chronic housing woes
Dorm overcrowding a persistent problem
By Alex Bell
News Editor
Since the University became a res-
idential college in 1951 with the
completion of Wriston Quadrangle,
overcrowding has been a persistent
problem.
A four-part series run by The
Herald in the fall of 1968 pro-
claimed that all normal and emer-
gency on-campus rooms had been
filled, prompting the director of
housing to call the construction of
new dormitories “the greatest need
in the University.”
At a time when the University
had plans to significantly raise
enrollment from 5,200, the series
raised particular concerns about
how the rise in off-campus living
could turn Brown into more of a
commuter than a residential col-
lege.
By contrast, a front-page article
at the start of the 1980 spring se-
Day 1 overcrowding: the norm
On the first day of classes, dormitories are generally overfilled.
Academic priorities trumped housing concerns
By Alex Bell
News Editor
Recognizing a gradual and un-
planned rise in enrollment over
past years, administrators are now
turning serious attention to housing
expansion in an effort to improve
on-campus living standards affected
by the growth of the student of body,
according to Richard Spies, execu-
tive vice president for planning and
senior adviser to the president.
“The experience ought to be bet-
ter than it is,” he said. “I think that’s
the acknowledgement now.”
Spies said the Plan for Academic
Enrichment, the University’s long-
range growth plan, did not account
for this increase in the size of the
student body.
When the University set its prior-
ities, improving housing was a goal,
but the consensus was that academic
needs like growing the faculty and
improving academic facilities took
precedence.
“There was never a goal set in
(the plan) that said to increase
enrollment,” Spies said. “It’s one
of those things that you deal with
mester announced a vacancy of 75
beds for that semester, the result
of a new residence hall opening.
The new dorm provided necessary
relief ­— the previous semester, 42
sophomores had to live in lounges
due to an unexpectedly high first-
year matriculation rate.
According to a housing official
at the time, the 75 excess rooms did
not significantly affect the budget
and allowed for greater flexibility
in room changes.
“Dormitory overcrowding is
over at Brown — at least for this
semester,” the article proclaimed.
But just five years later, Mike
Trotter ’58, then a member of the
Corporation Committee on Student
Life, told The Herald a very differ-
ent story.
“All over campus, we don’t have
enough rooms — they have been
cannibalizing other space such as
dance practice rooms and loung-
es and turning them into dorm
Julien Ouellet / Herald
rather than try to get out in front of.”
At the time the plan was ap-
proved, total undergraduate enroll-
ment was 5,946, according to statis-
tics from the Office of Institutional
Research. Enrollment fluctuated
until peaking last academic year at
6,243.
Dean of the College Katherine
Bergeron attributed some of the
increase to the over-enrollment of
the class of 2012 in fall 2008, when
admission officials overestimated
the decrease in Brown’s yield after
Harvard and Princeton did away
with their early admission options.
Spies said there was a feeling
that the student-faculty ratio was
too high at the time the plan was
drafted. Administrators made a
conscious decision to increase the
size of the faculty and grow Brown’s
professional schools while keeping
the size of the undergraduate student
body constant, he said.
Despite this decision, there is
a tendency each year to overshoot
enrollment targets primarily because
of the increasing quality of the ap-
plicant pool, Spies said, particularly
for international applicants. At the
rooms,” he said.
The following semester, resi-
dents of Andrews Hall, Keeney
Quadrangle and South Wayland
House again saw lounges disappear
to accommodate an excess number
of students living on campus, The
Herald reported that fall.
In the fall of 1991, The Herald
reported that the Office of Resi-
dential Life overbooks on-campus
housing by about 30 or 40 students
each year to account for unplanned
vacancies during the semester and
thereby reduce the number of emp-
ty beds on campus. That semester,
the strategy resulted in 28 transfer
and visiting students being housed
in common spaces.
“It is a reality that there are going
to be transfers,” a transfer student
told The Herald at the time. “They
should plan ahead for us.”
Two decades later, the practice
of purposefully overbooking on-
campus housing to account for un-
planned vacancies is still in place,
according to Richard Bova, senior
associate dean of residential life and
dining services. Stories of the im-
pact of overcrowding have been in-
creasingly prevalent in recent years.
A Wooley Hall residential peer
leader told The Herald in fall 2005
that his unit was missing out on
birthday parties and get-togethers
because they lacked a common
space to hold such celebrations.
At the time, Bova said this over-
crowding was the result of a higher
number of current students seeking
on-campus rooms than expected­—
one cause of this year’s overcrowd-
ing as well.
A spring 2008 Herald article la-
mented the loss of Keeney loung-
es and its effects on living units’
communities, recounting low at-
tendance at unit events in uncon-
ventional locations, a pizza party in
margin, financial reasons also play
a role in increasing the number of
students on campus because costs for
faculty and other services are already
determined, and a larger class leads
to more tuition.
“You’d rather be a little over-en-
rolled than under-enrolled,” he said.
In an ideal world, undergraduate
enrollment would stay roughly the
same, “but for a variety of reasons
that were not part of the plan, it grew
slightly,” he added.
When enrollment does increase,
growing housing at ahead of enroll-
ment is preferable. “But at smaller
numbers, there’s the illusion that you
can get away with it,” he said.
Because formal plans did not call
for the increase, administrators are
only now beginning to recognize the
need to grow housing, he added. But
Spies said he believes the decision
to prioritize academic projects was
the right one.
“The fact that we’re eight years
into the plan and really starting to
think about housing in a significant
way is unfortunate, but I wouldn’t
say it’s surprising,” Spies said. “It’s
risen in the priority list by virtue of
Nick Sinnott-Armstrong / Herald
Despite overcrowding challenges, “We
don’t leave anybody on the doorstep,”
Bova told The Herald.
the hallway and study sessions in a
laundry room.
During the first week of Sep-
tember 2008, The Herald reported
that “almost all hallway lounges and
common spaces have been turned
into bedrooms” due to an unexpect-
edly high yield in matriculation for
that year’s first-year class.
“People want to use the kitchen,”
a sophomore living in a convert-
ed common space told The Her-
ald in fall 2009. “So people come
and knock on our door to use the
kitchen, but since we are here, they
cannot use it.”
In spring 2010, the Herald re-
ported that an inspection of 200
common spaces around campus
by the Undergraduate Council of
Students found that approximately
two-thirds of the rooms were no
longer used as lounges, and most
had become dorm rooms.
But despite recent signs from
administrators that an expansion
of housing is on its way, there has
been little indication that any insti-
tutional change will be made to pre-
vent history from repeating itself.
— With additional reporting by
Greg Jordan-Detamore
us getting some other things done.”
Discussions about the Univer-
sity’s next capital projects include
improvements in areas such as en-
gineering and the physical sciences,
though the need for academic invest-
ment does not exist across the board
as it once did, Spies said.
“It was a tough competition to
get into the capital backlog seven
or eight years ago,” he said.
Aside from renovations to 315
Thayer St., Spies said housing proj-
ects under consideration include
adding new dormitories and a “pro-
gram of renovations” for existing
dorms, though plans are largely con-
tingent on the generosity of donors.
An objective of the plan’s second
phase, released in 2008, is to increase
the percentage of undergraduates
living on campus from roughly 80
percent to 90 percent “as soon as
financing allows.”
A short term goal, Spies said, is
increasing this number to about 85
percent, which would require an in-
crease of about 300 students.
“Can we do that?” Spies said.
“Yes. That’s the kind of number we’re
trying to talk about now.”
The Brown Daily Herald
Monday, April 11, 2011
Model for
housing both
complex and
imprecise
By Alex Bell
News Editor
Each year, about 20 percent of under-
graduates — roughly 1,000 seniors
and 250 juniors — live off campus
as part of a system that enables the
Office of Residential Life to relieve
pressure on the limited supply of
on-campus housing, like a safety
valve that can be opened as needed.
But the variables that feed into
the model that determines how
much the valve needs to be opened
can be hard to predict from current
data, and historical trends at times
prove unreliable.
“The truth of the matter is that
it’s an imperfect science that is car-
ried out with as much data as we
have,” Dean of the College Katherine
Bergeron said.
Further complicating the equa-
tion, misaligned incentives hamper
ResLife’s ability to accurately hit the
target number of students living off-
campus. The system encourages stu-
dents to “have their feet in multiple
doors,” as Richard Bova, senior asso-
ciate dean of residential and dining
services, put it.
Calculating the target
At its most basic level, the model
predicts the difference between the
projected number of students en-
rolled at Brown and the projected
number of students separating from
the University. This difference rep-
resents the number of students
needing a place to live — on or
off campus. The target number of
students living off campus is this
number minus the number of beds
on campus.
The number of total separations
is made up of the number of stu-
dents graduating, going off campus
for study abroad or taking leaves
of any type — such as medical or
personal leaves.
The first category of separation —
the number of students graduating
— is never an exact figure, and can
fluctuate from projections by about
10 students, Bova said.
The number of students studying
abroad may fluctuate by as many as
20 students and can be more vola-
tile due to world events such as the
tsunami in Japan and conflicts in
the Middle East. Finalized numbers
from the Office of International
Programs do not arrive until late
spring, well after the first round of
off-campus approvals are sent out
in the fall.
As for the number of students
taking leaves, Bova said the best pre-
dictor he has is an average of the
past three years’ data. Each year,
the model factors in a projected fall
“melt” of about 30 students to ac-
count for students who drop out for
various reasons during that semester.
Bova noted that though trends
show overcrowding on the first day
continued on page 8
The Brown Daily Herald
Monday, April 11, 2011
Overcrowding swells
Wriston tensions
By Joseph Rosales
Senior Staff Writer
Though Wriston Quadrangle was
built with the idea of a residential
community in mind, overcrowd-
ing in recent years has heightened
tension between Greek living and
independents.
The construction of Wriston
Quad around 1950 was the Uni-
versity’s first major step toward
creating a residential campus. Ad-
ministrators had been talking as
early as President Francis Wayland’s
P’46 term in the mid-19th Century
about transitioning into a residen-
tial style of education. But it was
not until President Henry Wriston
that the University began seriously
considering developing a true hous-
ing system on campus, according
to a May 10, 1952, extended piece
in The Herald about the history of
Brown’s housing written by Thomas
Appleget ’17, then the vice president
of the University.
Wriston proposed his initial
plans to the Corporation in 1943,
basing his ideas and goals on Way-
land’s desire for a residential campus
expressed nearly 100 years prior,
Appleget wrote. Wriston hoped to
construct a large housing area that
would be home to the University’s
fraternities as well as independents
— students that are not affiliated
with Greek organizations — that
needed housing. In September of
1951, Wriston Quad was completed,
and fraternity members began liv-
Jabberwocks’ lounge
has storied history
Most on-campus residential
spaces are primarily used by the
students that live in the building,
but Room 004 in North Wayland
House serves as home to the
Jabberwocks, the University’s
oldest a cappella group. The
Jabberwocks is the only student
group on campus to have space
in a dormitory allotted solely for
its use.
When a few of the
Jabberwocks found an
abandoned bicycle room in
North Wayland in 1988, the group
decided to invest in making it
a unique space for themselves,
according to Joe Lerman ’11, a
senior member of the singing
group.
“At the time we got the room,
it was just having a place where
we could put all of that stuff —
the keyboard, the music,” Lerman
said.
The room is used for rehearsals,
and occasionally members’ own
projects and a few parties each
semester.
Reed McNab ’12, Wayland’s
women peer counselor, said
she feels it is unfair that the
Jabberwocks are the only group
on campus with their own room,
as if the University considered
them “the elite a cappella group
on campus.”
— Joseph Rosales
ing on campus. At that point, the
University was affiliated with 17
fraternities, with members making
up almost half the student body.
Wriston pushed for this con-
struction, Appleget wrote, because
of what he felt was a need for a
greater sense of community at the
University.
“Intimate friendship and col-
lege spirit and good breeding all
demand that men should sit at table
together, in unhurried intercourse,”
Wriston wrote in an accompanying
piece in that same issue.
He also wished for a university
where fraternity brothers would
have places not only to live on cam-
pus, but also to grow as intellectu-
als and to interact with their non-
Greek schoolmates. In exchange
for on-campus housing, the Uni-
versity assumed the deeds to their
off-campus houses.
“Freed from the burden of debt
and occupying attractive quarters,
they again may become an educa-
tional force, as well as an effective
bond between successive genera-
tions of alumni,” Wriston wrote.
‘No sense of community’
Despite the fact that there are no
Greek common areas converted this
semester — though Buxton Interna-
tional House’s library was converted
into dorm space last semester —
independents’ common areas have
not been as readily available for use.
The independent lounge and
kitchen in Goddard House has
housed students all year, accord-
ing to Michelle Ngo ’12, a com-
munity assistant in the building.
Independents in Diman House
have also had their common areas
converted, Angell Shi ’13, a com-
munity assistant, wrote in an email
to The Herald. Diman’s basement
lounge and library are currently
living spaces for students, while the
main independent lounge was set
to be converted but then reverted
back to a lounge, Shi wrote.
continued on page 8
Students avoid lottery through program housing
By Abby Kerson
Staff Writer
For many, applying to program
houses is not just about seeking out
a community of other students who
share interests­— program house
leaders and applicants alike con-
sider avoiding the housing lottery
an added bonus. And with more
students placed in temporary hous-
ing due to overcrowding, the promise
of superior rooms in program houses
can provide an enticing alternative
to facing the housing.
French House saw a slight in-
crease in the number of applicants
this year and a slight decrease in the
number of outgoing residents, said
Carolyn Crisp ’12, one of the house’s
co-presidents.
“I know there were some people
who either thought about applying
or did apply because they wanted
to avoid the housing lottery,” Crisp
To what extent has overcrowding — the accommodation of students in common
spaces such as lounges or kitchens — affected your residential experience?
Lack of common spaces irks students
By Greg Jordan-Detamore
Senior Staff Writer­
A majority of students indicated
that overcrowding in on-campus
housing — specifically the accom-
modation of students in kitchens
and lounges — has affected their resi-
dential experience, according to last
month’s Herald poll. Eleven percent
of respondents said overcrowding
has affected them very much, while
43 percent said it has affected them
somewhat. Forty-six percent said
they have not been affected by the
loss of common spaces.
the Herald Poll
Fifty-five percent of first-years, 59
percent of sophomores, 60 percent
of juniors and 42 percent of seniors
— many of whom live off-campus
— said they have been affected by
the overcrowding.
Seventeen percent of sophomores
said they have been affected “very
much” by overcrowding, compared
to 7 percent of seniors, 11 percent of
juniors and 8 percent of first-years.
This mirrors another trend:
When asked in the poll what the
University’s highest priority should
be, 14 percent of sophomores favored
building new on-campus dorms,
compared to 11 percent of juniors
and 8 percent of both first-years and
seniors.
Though students living in tem-
porary housing often have varying
said, noting that it was likely one
of many reasons. “They don’t want
to be stuck in a triple in Keeney or
something.”
As incoming Spanish House
member Ana Colon ’14 said, “The
lottery is kind of a black day at
Brown because nobody is happy
and everyone is stressed out.”
If students begin to live in the
French and Spanish components
of Machado House purely to avoid
the lottery, “over time, we would lose
the French and Spanish houses all
together,” Crisp said. Still, Crisp said
she has “every confidence” that the
new recruits are “all there for the
right reason.”
Molly Chambers ’11.5, vice
president of Buxton International
House, said that while the house did
not see a similar increase in interest
this year, the recruitment committee
“could recognize that a few people
were there because the lottery was
Housing 7
opinions of their living situations
— as The Herald has reported in
the past — students living near con-
verted kitchens and lounges also feel
the effects of lost common spaces.
‘No options’
“Last semester, our second-floor
kitchen was converted into a triple,”
said Ellen Shadburn ’12, a second-
floor resident of Vartan Gregorian
Quad A, which houses about 170
students. Some students chose to
live on the second floor because of
its kitchen, Shadburn said, but were
given no warning it would be taken
away.
“A lot of us wanted to reduce
our meal plans, but decided not
to because the only kitchen was
so far away.” She said the situation
was “extremely inconvenient” for
a suitemate who enjoys cooking.
This semester, the kitchen has been
reopened.
Some students living in Wriston
Quadrangle dormitories as indepen-
dents — residents not affiliated with
program or Greek houses — have
no access to kitchens or lounges in
their buildings.
“We are independents, and we
have no kitchen or lounge,” said
Jordan Place ’13, a Marcy House
resident who is not on a meal plan.
The Office of Residential Life gave
him card access to Sears House to
use its independent kitchen, he said.
“We rarely do anything with a stove,
because we just don’t want to walk,”
overwhelming.” Chambers said the
lottery was not a significant factor
in her decision to join the house.
Buxton gets anywhere from 100
to 120 applicants each year, while
only about 25 to 35 new spots open
up. Luka Ursic ’14, who was accepted
for this fall, said the lottery definitely
contributed to his decision to apply.
“I guess I am afraid that your
group can get split up or you can
get a bad number and get a really
bad location,” Ursic said. “I’m really
happy that I don’t have to go through
the lottery,” he said.
Technology House Manager
Dana Mirsalis ’11 said the house
looks for people who will be in-
volved in the community, but some-
one who was “only interested in the
room” would not be welcomed. The
house has only had to turn away two
members in their history for this
reason, she said.
King House, primarily occupied
Julien Ouellet / Herald
Place said. “We microwave a lot of
things in our room.”
Hope College has two lounges
— one in the basement and Apple-
get Lounge on the first floor. But
Appleget Lounge is currently being
used to house students, leaving Hope
residents with only the basement
lounge.
“I have never seen Appleget
Lounge,” Hope resident Margaret
Tennis ’14 said. The basement lounge
is cold and uncomfortable, she said.
“I know that everyone in Hope is
pretty peeved about the situation.”
She said that if she wants to talk
on the phone, but her roommate is
in the room, she has nowhere to go.
There are “no options if you want to
respect your roommate’s rights and
still have your privacy,” she said. Ten-
nis also said there is nowhere to go
for students who want to study in the
dorm. “We have people doing work
in the kitchens every night, which I
don’t think is ideal.”
Looking for a lounge
ResLife’s website currently con-
tains inaccurate information about
common spaces. For example, it
says North Wayland House 101 is a
lounge, but in reality, it is being used
to house students.
Excluding Arnold Lounge, Re-
sLife’s website lists five lounges in
Keeney Quadrangle, but a visit to one
of the locations ­­— Bronson House
continued on page 8
by the literary fraternity St. Anthony
Hall, has also seen increased interest
and currently has a waitlist for living
in the house, according to Courtney
Hall ’11, the fraternity’s president.
The house “is a selling point, but I
don’t think it makes or breaks any-
one’s decision,” Hall said. Like many
of the other program house officials,
Hall pointed to a sense of commu-
nity provided by the organization
as the primary motivation to join.
Nick Morley ’13, a new member
of St. Anthony Hall who will be liv-
ing in King house next fall, described
the advantage of avoiding the lottery
as a “push factor,” as opposed to the
initial draw. Morley said this year’s
use of temporary housing increased
his distrust of the lottery.
The thought of avoiding unfavor-
able housing conditions “definitely
came into my head” when deciding
to apply to King House, said William
Barnet ’12, who currently lives there.
8 Housing
Matching heads with beds an inexact process Common
continued from page 6
of each school year, the melt miti-
gates overcrowding as the semester
progresses and students living in
temporary housing are moved into
normal rooms. And in years that
begin with vacancies, the melt in-
tensifies the problem of being under
capacity for ResLife.
The total number of new and
continuing students is made up of
the number of students continuing
at Brown, returning from abroad or
returning from leaves, plus incoming
first-years and fall transfers.
Of this piece of the equation,
Bova said he faces similar uncer-
tainty. The number of incoming
first-years, Bova said, is generally
close to its target. Other variables,
like students returning from abroad,
are based on what students report,
and are more likely to change. Ad-
ministrators calculate the projec-
tions based on students’ indications
of their intentions combined with
historical trends, refreshing esti-
mates periodically.
But even trends change, Bergeron
noted.
“Another problem has to do with
the fact that one side of the house
deals in beds, and the other side
deals in FTE’s,” Bergeron said. An
FTE, or full-time equivalent, is an
undergraduate student who is tak-
ing at least three courses at Brown,
Bergeron said. Though many num-
bers at the University, such as the
enrollment target, are specified in
FTE’s, this number does not always
translate perfectly into the number of
students who will be living at Brown,
though it is usually quite close.
A large chunk of off-campus
approvals are sent out in the fall,
followed by another round shortly
before the housing lottery. Later into
the school year and over the summer,
Bova said he sends out new approv-
als weekly. The model is updated
at several points as its variables —
such as deadlines for declaring study
abroad choices — firm up.
Toward the end of the process,
Bova also needs to track down about
30 “ghosts,” or students who have not
done anything to arrange housing for
the next year. Later on, ResLife may
also need to accommodate a number
of students who are off campus and
do not like their living situations. In
such cases, Bova said he does his best
Independents lose out in search for Wriston common space
continued from page 7
“I think it’s very unfortunate for
the residents because some people
are off meal plan and need at least
a kitchen,” Ngo wrote in an email
to The Herald about the situation
in Goddard. “I’ve had some people
email me about their dissatisfaction,
but there’s nothing I can do about
it, and neither can they.”
According to Emma Patterson
Ware ’13, both her roommate Laken
Hottle ’13 and she are on meal plans
“because there’s no way to be off.”
“There’s no other space for you
to go in that building,” Patterson
Ware said.
“It makes you feel really un-
dervalued,” Hottle said. “There’s no
to find rooms for them on campus.
A leaky safety valve
Even if the model perfectly pre-
dicted the number of students who
ought to live off campus, achieving
that target number of off-campus
students is also messy work.
“There are many students who
sign up, get off-campus approval,
and they have no intention of even
going off campus,” Bova said.
Currently there is no penalty for
applying for off-campus permission
and then declining to live off campus
prior to Super Deadline Day, which
was March 8 this year.
Students declining permission
after the deadline are ineligible to
participate in the lottery and are
forced onto the summer waitlist.
“That creates such a ripple and a
flurry of phone calls from parents,”
Bova said, which at times involves a
large amount of “screaming, yelling,
insulting behavior.”
But assignments on the sum-
mer waitlist are made by semester
level, so upperclassmen who decline
permission usually end up living in
normal housing and not in con-
verted lounges. In fact, 90 percent
of students in temporary housing
this fall were sophomores, accord-
ing to Bova.
“Why do you apply for off-cam-
pus permission if you don’t really
want it? Many students want their
feet in both places of the yard. They
want to straddle the fence,” Bova
said.
“Is there an incentive for Brown
students to want to have their feet in
multiple doors? Yes,” he continued,
saying that the University’s housing
system has been based on senior-
ity for decades, which is inherently
vulnerable to misaligned incentives.
“But I really cannot foresee a
time when I just shut students out
completely and say, ‘You made a bad
choice,’” he said. “We don’t leave any-
body on the doorstep.”
Last semester, Richard Hilton,
ResLife’s assistant director for opera-
tions, sent emails to all sophomores
and juniors, directed at any students
“thinking of applying for off-campus
permission.” For many sophomores,
this was their first introduction to
the off-campus system.
“There are a limited number of
students approved to live off campus
each year. Therefore, if you have any
sense of community.”
Molly Chambers ’11.5 said the
two students who were placed in
Buxton’s library last semester felt
uncomfortable — they were the
only ones in the building who were
not a part of the program house.
“It’s not the ideal community to
have two people living who are not
involved at all,” she said.
‘It’s just not fair’
For fraternity and sorority
members, the independents’ lack
of common areas may be a problem,
though not one they were all aware
of. James Ardell ’13, a member of
the Delta Phi fraternity, thought
all lounge areas in Goddard were
reserved for members of DPhi and
The Housing Model
Total Students
Students continuing
+ students
Students returning from abroad
+ 109 ­— reveals otherwise, leaving
Students returning from leaves
+ roughly 600 residents. Three of these
Incoming first-years
+
Incoming fall transfers
-
Those not needing housing
Students going off-campus for study
abroad
+ guarantee that all dorms will have
Students taking leaves of all types
(medical, personal, etc.)
-
Beds available on campus
=
Number of beds short
= ing writer, lives next to a converted
Target number to live off campus
= space,” she said.
Initial number approved for
off-campus permission
interest in living off campus for the
2011-12 academic year, please com-
plete an application,” Hilton wrote.
Still, Bova said ResLife has put
stern warnings on its website to
students who would apply for off-
campus permission on a whim.
“I think we’re very clear,” Bova
said. “Enter in the process if this is
what you want. Why enter the pro-
cess if you don’t have the intention?”
Bova said 78 juniors declined
their permission late last spring.
Though ResLife maintains wait-
lists for students initially denied off-
Alpha Delta Phi, the fraternity and
literary society that share the build-
ing with independents.
“I guess it sucks to be an in-
dependent and not get your own
lounge, but I think most people
understand that when they’re liv-
ing in the frat,” Ardell wrote in an
email to The Herald.
Hottle noted the stark contrast
between the situation of indepen-
dents and that of Greek residents.
“It’s just not fair, and it’s not
comfortable to live in a place like
this,” she said. “If I just had access
to a kitchen and a common room,
that would make everything so
much better.”
Andrew Alvarez ’11, president
of the Greek Council, wrote in an
Julien Ouellet / Herald
campus permission, some students
say they have been notified too late
to find housing in Providence.
Bova dismissed the prospect of
approving more students for off-
campus permission than the current
model’s off-campus target, saying he
does not believe it is ResLife’s respon-
sibility to plan around students who
irresponsibly back out of off-campus
commitments.
“There is no housing program in
the country that will overshoot the
model because they think people are
going to decline,” he said.
email to The Herald that in situa-
tions where independents do not
have social spaces available to them,
they have other options to turn to.
“(The Office of Residential Life),
upon request, will give indepen-
dents card access to all houses on
Wriston for the use of available so-
cial spaces, a privilege the Greeks
are not entitled to,” he wrote.
Hottle said ResLife gave her ac-
cess to Harkness House, but she is
hesitant to start cooking. “It’s awk-
ward and weird to be using their
kitchen,” she said.
Though the Greek system may
seem to have a set of privileges,
there are also responsibilities
Greeks must adhere to, Alvarez
wrote.
The Brown Daily Herald
Monday, April 11, 2011
areas out
of reach for
continued from page 7
only four lounges for Keeney Quad’s
lounges are on the top floor. Keeney
Quad also has only three kitchens,
though one listed on ResLife’s web-
site, again Bronson 109, does not ex-
ist, while another kitchen — Bronson
421 — is not listed on the site.
The Residential Council’s website
information on dormitories — last
updated in 2008 — lists eight kitch-
ens in Keeney Quad.
ResLife does not update infor-
mation on its website each year to
reflect temporary changes, and the
kitchens should not be taken literally,
Richard Bova, senior associate dean
of residential and dining services,
said in an Oct. 28, 2010 Herald ar-
ticle. “Everybody does have access to
kitchens, but it’s all up for interpreta-
tion,” he said.
“I think there’s always an impact
on students when there’s not as much
communal space,” Bova said in the
article.
Leigh Carroll ’12, a Women’s Peer
Counselor and Herald contribut-
lounge and kitchen in Keeney Quad.
“There’s definitely a lack of common
Keeney Quad’s top-floor lounges
are “definitely too far for people to
go just to hang out,” Carroll said.
Her residents tend to hang out in
hallways and individual rooms, and
with no kitchen in her unit, cooking
can be difficult.
The Herald poll was conducted
March 14-16 and has a 2.9 percent
margin of error with 95 percent con-
fidence. The margin of error was 5.6
percent for the subset of first-years, 5.6
percent for sophomores, 5.9 percent
for juniors and 6.1 percent for seniors.
A total of 972 students completed the
poll, which The Herald distributed as
a written questionnaire in J. Walter
Wilson and the Stephen Robert ’62
Campus Center during the day and
in the Sciences Library at night.
“Any fraternity or sorority is
subject to losing their social spaces
when membership declines in order
to use those social spaces for more
independents,” he wrote. “Greek
houses are still under the guide-
lines of (Residential Council) and
ResLife. Not too many non-Greeks
are aware of that part because they
don’t have to interact with Res
Council.”
Until overcrowding on campus
is eased, independents will continue
to deal with what Ngo feels is an
unfortunate lack of common areas.
“We’re all helpless in this over-
crowding situation,” Ngo wrote.
— With additional reporting by
Greg Jordan-Detamore
The Brown Daily Herald
Monday, April 11, 2011
Jazz band Track squads led by first-year sprinters
jives and
tours in
Dublin
continued from page 12
the center and attended the senior
recital, which quickly became a jam
session for all, McGarrell said.
The band also gave a concert at a
church in South Dublin to support
the Dublin Housing Mental Health
Association.
“This concert had a very large
audience, and we were able to raise
almost 3,000 euro,” McGarrell said.
They played a wide selection of
repertory pieces, including works
by Duke Ellington. The band also
performed in the bar at the Conrad
Dublin Hotel preceding the Dublin
City Jazz Orchestra’s concert at the
National Concert Hall across the
street.
“Performing together night after
night was a really neat experience,”
said Brett Anders ’14, a trumpet
player in the band. “As an ensem-
ble, we started to sound better, our
sound got a lot tighter over a couple
nights.” Schonwald said the trip was
“a huge success” and believed this
to be “largely because Irish people
are very welcoming.”
Students also had time to wander
around Dublin and take in the city
and its surrounding areas, including
sightseeing and a hiking trip just
outside the city, Anders said.
McGarrel said the trip’s funding,
which totaled about $22,000, came
from a number of sources, including
the students themselves, money sent
in from Brown Jazz Band alums,
the wind symphony and jazz band
instructional account, the Sarah and
Robert A. Reichley endorsed fund
and the Office of the President.
At a rehearsal early on the eve-
ning of April 7, the Brown Jazz
Band were already hard at work on
their next major event, rehearsing
with celebrated jazz clarinetist and
trumpeter Anat Cohen for a concert
which took place in Salomon 101 on
Saturday night.
Musician
jams in many
languages
continued from page 12
in Pakistan. The musician’s wife told
the audience that the floods were
more disastrous than Hurricane
Katrina and the Haiti earthquake
combined. But the floods did not
receive as much attention as those
disasters, and international aid was
delayed. She also described the or-
ganization’s work in sponsoring a
girls’ school and building a village
in Pakistan.
She concluded by urging
the audience members to take
action.“Start from where you are
and do what you can,” she urged.
“You are the hope of the world.”
9
By James Blum
Sports Staff Writer
Craker ’13 added to the successes
of the throwing squad by coming
11 1/2.
The women’s distance squad also
second and third in the 3000-me-
ter run with times of 9:41.85 and
The men’s and women’s track teams
garnered three first-place finishes
in third place in the hammer throw
with a heave of 143-11. Gabriela
Baiter ’11 came in a close second
had some strong performances, as
Samantha Adelberg ’11 recorded a
second-place finish in the 1500-me-
9:46.00, respectively.
Bruno returns home Saturday
for the Brown Invitational, the
at the unscored University of Con-
necticut Alumni Invite Saturday.
The men’s 4x100-meter relay
place behind Biblo in the triple
jump with a combined leap of 40-
ter run in 4:27.05. Ari Garber ’12
and Kesley Ramsey ’11 finished
first of two home meets during the
teams’ outdoor seasons.
team, which was composed of John
Spooney ’14, Matt Bevil ’14, Ajani
Brown ’14 and Nathan Elder ’13,
comics
came in first place with a time of 3 Dr. Bear | Mat Becker
minutes, 17.94 seconds.
sports
“My best race was the 400 in
the four by four,” Spooney said. “I
was really relaxed, and there wasn’t
much pressure.”
Spooney also had impressive
performances in the 100-meter and
200-meter sprints. He finished third
in the 100 in 10.82 seconds and sec-
Dot Comic | Eshan Mitra and Brendan Hainline
ond in the 200 with a time of 21.42.
“I think I ran well. There were
some improvements that need to be
made,” Spooney said. “Improving
my starts in the 200 and just relax-
ing, both mentally and in my form.”
Daniel Smith ’13 had a strong
showing in the shot put with a heave
of 52 feet, four inches that earned
him third place. Jonathan Dieujuste
’14 triple jumped 45–2 1/2, which
propelled him to a second-place
finish. Erik Berg ’13 finished the Gelotology | Guillaume Riesen
800-meter run in third place, with
a time of 1:52.90.
There were a lot of injuries that
prevented many of the male athletes
from competing, Spooney said.
The two first-place finishes
on the women’s side belonged to
Victoria Buhr ’13, who threw the
discus 153-7, and Rachel Biblo ’11,
who triple jumped 41-8 1/2 . Buhr
also recorded a third-place throw
of 43-5 3/4 in the shot put. Lacey
10 Editorial The Brown Daily Herald
Monday, April 11, 2011

Editorial Editorial comic b y a l e x y u ly

Chanin ’12 for UFB chair
Beginning tomorrow at noon, students will have 48 hours to
vote for chair of the Undergraduate Finance Board. We strongly
encourage students to read up on the campaign and cast a ballot. As
the organization in charge of apportioning funds to student groups,
UFB plays a major role in our lives on campus. After speaking with
the candidates, we believe David Chanin ’12 is the right pick for
UFB chair.
Chanin’s opponent, Jason Lee ’12, currently serves as UFB vice
chair, giving him valuable experience making policy decisions. Lee’s
priorities include increasing transparency and strengthening col-
laborative bonds with the Undergraduate Council of Students and
individual student groups — both worthy goals. But his emphasis
on improving professionalism, while certainly important, was also
at the heart of his campaign for vice chair last year.
Chanin is campaigning on a forward-thinking agenda that is
ambitious but realistic. He has spent the last two years on UFB work-
ing with student groups and serving as liaison between UFB and
the Brown University Activities Committee. Chanin’s background
makes him well-qualified for UFB chair.
Central to Chanin’s campaign is his goal of implementing an on-
line budgeting process for student groups next year. Such a system is
long overdue — online budgeting will allow student groups to easily
access data from past years and submit their current proposals in a
more convenient form. Chanin has already done preliminary work
on this project and offered us a clear plan of action for implement-
ing the system in full.
We were also impressed with Chanin’s idea of directing a small
share of UFB funding to UCS for allocation to students with innova-
tive solutions to campus problems such as event publicity. Chanin
told us UFB must follow strict guidelines when doling out money,
making UCS a better appropriator of such a fund. The idea is a sound
one and underscores Chanin’s commitment to improving student
groups’ effectiveness, even when that means ceding some power.
Finally, we believe Chanin is the right person to push the stalled
Capital Closet project to fruition. This initiative would see UFB
quote of the day
purchase equipment student groups frequently use at events, saving
money currently used for renting such equipment. It is disconcerting “Many students want their feet in both places
”
that such a great idea, which has been on the table for over a year, has
gained little traction with the administration. Chanin is committed
to persuading President Ruth Simmons and other administrators to of the yard. They want to straddle the fence.
give the project the go-ahead.
Both candidates would look to strengthen alumni relations as a
means of finding alternative funding sources and push to enlarge
— Richard Bova, senior assoc. dean of residential and dining services
the student activities endowment, which would render the student
activities fee unnecessary if it grew large enough. We are glad both
See housing model on page 6.
candidates are committed to these important goals.
If you are not in a student group yourself, then surely you have been
to an event put on by one. UFB plays a very important role in the
operations of student groups, which in turn help to keep our campus
vibrant, engaging and entertaining. Chanin is the right person to
chair this vital institution and ensure that student groups continue
to flourish.
Students can vote for UFB chair through MyCourses. We will
offer our endorsement in the race for Undergraduate Council of
Students president tomorrow.

Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board. Send comments
to editorials@browndailyherald.com.

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The Brown Daily Herald
Monday, April 11, 2011
Hello, soft-bellied targets
By David Sheffield
Opinions Columnist
The public’s conception of domestic terror-
ism has changed drastically over the past de-
cade. As apparent from Rep. Peter King’s (R-
N.Y.) Congressional hearings, domestic ter-
rorism is now almost exclusively associated
with Muslim extremists. While Muslim ex-
tremism is certainly one of the main types of
threats from domestic terrorism, it is not the
only one. All too often non-Muslim terrorists
are forgotten or ignored. Do not forget that
until Sept. 11, the biggest terrorist act inside
the United States was carried out by Timothy
McVeigh, an anti-government extremist act-
ing out a white supremacist fantasy.
While attacks by Al Qaeda and related
groups have resulted in significant casualties,
none of them has posed an existential threat
to the country. Meanwhile, groups that have
posed real threats continue to mill around in
obscurity. The most successful group was the
Ku Klux Klan, which denied many Ameri-
cans basic rights, like the right to vote.
Luckily, the Klan’s influence has faded, but
there are other extremist groups in the coun-
try that just as fervently want to deny others
their rights. Currently, the anti-abortion ter-
rorists seem the most successful in under-
mining the law. In 2009, an extremist assas-
sinated George Tiller, a Wichita, Kan. doctor
who performed abortions, after years of ha-
rassment, bombings of his clinics and even
Ceding the moral high ground
By Oliver Rosenbloom
Opinions Columnist
The American Society for the Defense of
Tradition, Family and Property staged a
protest against gay marriage March 23.
Students responded with a spontaneous
rally for gay rights. On the whole, the
Brown community deserves praise for
mobilizing to support gay rights. But cer-
tain aspects of this counter-protest were
disgraceful, demeaning and counterpro-
ductive.
Unfortunately, Brown’s counter-ral-
ly was not only defined by support and
love for the gay community. It was also
defined by hateful and uncivil behavior.
Some protestors resorted to vandalism,
profanity, spitting and physical obstruc-
tion. These immature actions reflected
poorly on our student body and did not
further the cause of gay rights.
The community has been too self-con-
gratulatory in regards to this protest. We
have overlooked the uncivil behavior of
some protestors to elevate our sense of
accomplishment and moral superiority.
The behavior of some students at the ral-
ly demands intense self-examination, not
mindless self-righteousness.
Certainly, not every protestor acted in
a disrespectful manner. But it only takes
a few uncivil protestors to frame a narra-
tive of violent protest. Brown students of-
ten judge the Tea Party by the actions of a
assassination attempts. Anti-abortion ex-
tremists have begun to harass another doctor,
who is training to provide the first abortions
in Wichita since Tiller’s murder.
While Islamist, anti-abortion, white-
supremacist, anti-government and other
groups present serious threats, they are usu-
ally not the ones most relevant at universi-
ties. On campuses, animal rights terrorists
pose the biggest threat. Just like Muslims,
people who oppose abortion and those who
favor smaller government, not everyone who
At universities, animal rights terrorists
pose the biggest threat.
supports various amounts of rights is willing
to terrorize scientists. Most are quite happy
with scientists doing their research so long as
it is done humanely. In fact, the researchers
themselves care about the wellbeing of the
animals and are not, as the extremists claim,
sadists.
The one good thing I can say about ani-
mal rights terrorists is that they do not seem
to have graduated to outright murder. Sure,
they vandalize research facilities. They re-
lease animals into the wild to be cruelly
ripped apart by teeth and beaks — predators
are notoriously anti-animal rights. They dis-
tribute the names and home addresses of sci-
minority of its members. When a few at-
tendants of a Tea Party event wield racist
signs or make physical threats, we con-
demn all of middle America. When a few
members of our own community resort
to spitting, vandalism and obscenity, we
conveniently overlook their behavior —
or even glorify it.
Regardless of the actual number of
people who engaged in such behavior,
the community has failed to effective-
ly distance itself from those who did act
in such a hateful and counterproductive
Unfortunately, Brown’s counter-rally was not only
defined by support and love for the gay community. It
was also defined by hateful and uncivil behavior.
way. Instead, we have either dismissed
their behavior or taken pride in it.
Having a noble goal does not excuse
impure actions. While it is admirable to
advocate for gay rights, it is not admira-
ble to spit at opponents, flip them off or
attempt to vandalize their property. This
immature behavior becomes even less
worthy when it is counterproductive, as
it was in this case.
Opinions 11
entists — a tactic that the anti-abortion ex-
tremists use to intimidate doctors. They even
firebomb scientists’ homes and cars with the
scientists and their families inside. They have
at least a little humanity and so far avoid out-
right murder, but the message to the target is
clear: Next time, it could be you on fire.
These tactics have not stopped scien-
tists so far. The tactics of animal rights ter-
rorists have even caused protests to dem-
onstrate support of animal research in the
face of these attacks. One terrorist, writing
on the website Negotiation is Over, put for-
ward a new proposal to stop animal models
being used in research. The title sums it up
well: “Bringing the War to the Student Body
— The Soft-Bellied Target of the Vivisection
Complex.” The goal of the proposal is to in-
timidate students to avoid studying anything
that involves lab animals.
The author of the plan presents three steps
to achieve the movement’s goal of stopping
animal research. The second step captures
her malevolent desires well: “Students also
need to understand that making the wrong
choice will result in a lifetime of grief. Aspir-
ing scientists envision curing cancer at the
The society produced a provocative
video that captured Brown students flip-
ping off its members, trying to destroy
their property and spitting on their ma-
terials. By acting in such an immature
fashion, these protesters allowed the so-
ciety to change the narrative of the rally.
While students view the counter-protest
as a triumph for gay rights, those who see
the video may see it as a testament to our
campus’s climate of hate and inability to
civilly engage with those who hold differ-
ent beliefs.
A more civil protest would have been
a more effective protest. Students could
have made an equally strong case by gath-
ering in large numbers and vocally sup-
porting gay rights rather than resorting
to vandalism, obscenities and spitting. A
civil protest would have denied the soci-
ety the opportunity to alter the focus of
their rally. Although they stand for little
more than homophobia and hate, our be-
Mayo Clinic. We need to impart a new vi-
sion: car bombs, 24/7 security cameras, em-
barrassing home demonstrations, threats, in-
juries and fear. And, of course, these students
need to realize that any personal risk they are
willing to assume will also be visited upon
their parents, children and nearest and dear-
est loved ones. The time to reconsider is now.”
Is anyone reconsidering? No? Good.
I am not particularly relieved by her vi-
sion of the future of animal rights terrorism
either: “Every time a vivisector’s car or home
— and, eventually, the abuser him/herself —
blows up, flames of liberation light up the
sky.” While animal rights activists have been
less willing to kill people than other domestic
terrorist groups — humans are animals, too
— there is always the possibility that they will
become more desperate as society goes on
with medical and scientific advances while
they are ignored.
We should by no means live in fear of ani-
mal rights terrorists, anti-abortion terrorists
or any of the others. But neither should they
be ignored. The country not only needs good
laws to stop terrorists from completing their
attacks, but also effort by law enforcement to
investigate these groups. Law enforcement
has done well in many cases, but focus should
not be fixed on one type of terrorism alone.
David Sheffield ’11 is a mathematical
physics concentrator whose research
makes him an accomplice to the genocide
of trillions of protons. Hadron rights
extremists can intimidate him at
david_sheffield@brown.edu.
havior allowed them to play the victim
card and portray us as the hate group.
John Miller, a volunteer with the soci-
ety, said of Brown’s response, “The intel-
lectual level is below the Ivy League sta-
tus.” It is tempting to dismiss this com-
ment as the ranting of a bitter man. Un-
fortunately, his observation carries a sad
amount of truth. No college students
should resort to physical obstruction, ob-
scenities or spitting, no matter how ho-
mophobic or intolerant the opposition.
It is unlikely that the society would
have been open to an honest intellectual
debate, but their closed-mindedness does
not excuse our uncivil behavior. Protes-
tors should have either ignored the soci-
ety or focused on staging their own coun-
ter-protest, instead of sabotaging the so-
ciety’s.
Students are fond of citing Mahatma
Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. But
we fail to apply their teachings to our
own lives. At this rally, we had the chance
to counter hate with civil disagreement
and pure love for the gay community.
Instead, we stooped to the level of this
hate group by resorting to uncivil tactics.
If we had protested in a respectful way,
we would have been engaged in a noble,
morally certain battle. But by resorting to
such disrespectful tactics, we ceded the
moral high ground.
Oliver Rosenbloom ’13 is a history
concentrator from Mill Valley, Calif.
He can be contacted at
oliver_rosenbloom@brown.edu.
Daily Herald Arts & Culture
the Brown
Jazz band
charmed in
Ireland
By hannah abelow
Contributing Writer
When one thinks of Ireland, one
might imagine green fields, pots of
gold and a pub or two. But for the
Brown Jazz Band, the country is
more a miniature mecca of impro-
visational beats and bluesy rhythms.
Over spring break, the 20 members
of the ensemble and Matthew Mc-
Garrell, senior lecturer in music and
director of the jazz band, traveled to
Dublin for six days to soak up the
local jazz flavor and perform with
Irish musicians.
The band takes similar trips
every other year, recently visiting
Portugal, Iceland and Italy. “We like
to go to one city and stay there,”
McGarrell said. “We pick places with
active jazz scenes of some kind be-
cause we like to interact with local
musicians.”
“The jazz scene in Dublin is
small but it was good because we
could easily navigate it in a short
period of time,” said Rosalind
Schonwald ’12, the group’s singer
and a former Herald arts and cul-
ture editor.
The group was especially excited
about the opportunity to play with
Jim Doherty, a world-renowned jazz
pianist who has long been integral to
Dublin’s jazz scene, McGarrell said.
Dublin not only offered a local
professional jazz scene, but also the
Newpark Music Center — a music
school affiliated with the Berklee
College of Music.
“Interacting with the students at
the music school was a highlight,”
Schonwald said. The group prac-
ticed together with students from
continued on page 9
Twin laptop thefts shake English department
By Lucy Feldman
Contributing Writer
Two Apple laptops have been stolen
from the graduate student cluster
on the fourth floor of the English
department building since the start
of spring break, according to Mark
Porter, chief of police and director
of public safety.
Campus News
The first theft occurred between
March 27, when a female graduate
student locked her office and se-
cured her computer with a laptop
lock cable, and March 30, when she
returned to the building. Upon her
return, she found the office door had
been forced open and the laptop
cable cut, Porter said. DPS detec-
tives found pry marks on the metal
of the door and wood chips on the
ground, indicating someone had
forced the door open with a metal
object, likely a screwdriver, he said.
The second theft occurred April
5 in the graduate student office
David Jacobs ’14 and his fellow storytellers recounted experiences such as long-distance relationships, drunken
debauchery and slaughtering farm animals.
Storytelling event a ‘slam’ dunk
By Alexandra San Jorge
Arts & Culture Staff Writer
Inspired by the public radio pro-
gram “This American Life” and a
non-profit storytelling organization
“The Moth,” the Brown Storytellers
brought the art of storytelling to
campus for the first time this past
weekend with their “story slam.”
The slam took place in Kassar
House Fox Auditorium for a full
house of enthusiastic audience
members. The set up was simple
but elegant — a chalkboard dec-
orated with a smattering of key
words and an illustration of a beef
-cut diagram adorned the front of
the room.
At 8:10 p.m. on Friday, Eli Bo-
sworth ’12.5 kicked off the two-
day event with a story describing
a high school community service
trip to Costa Rica. Bosworth kept
the audience in stitches describing
his attempt to become the “alpha
across the hall from the site of the
first crime. Around 1:30 p.m., a stu-
dent left her laptop unsecured and
unattended for about five minutes
while she stepped into a neighbor-
ing office, Porter said. When she
realized she had left her laptop out
in the open, she returned to find it
missing.
Devon Anderson, a second-year
English graduate student, said at
the time of the second theft there
was another unsecured laptop and
a purse out in the open in the office.
Both went untouched.
“Typically in cases with such a
short time frame, there are very spe-
cific and limited motives and types
of suspects,” Porter said in regard to
the twin thefts. “We look into special
identifying circumstances such as
things on the computer itself and the
location of the theft. This being the
fourth floor, it’s probably somebody
who knows the area.”
Porter said the information the
detectives are gathering indicates
“some relation between the thefts.”
DPS has not identified any indi-
dog” of the trip despite competi-
tion from Rashad, “a guy with tat-
toos on his arms that wouldn’t even
fit on my torso,” Bosworth said.
“We want to blend the conver-
sational tone and the everyday-
ness of our stories and formalize
them into a performative, liter-
ary art,” said Jonathan Topaz ’12,
creator of the Brown Storytellers.
Bosworth’s humorous tale
proved an excellent opener to the
following night of laughter. The
storytellers — including David Ja-
cobs ’14, Lily Goodspeed ’13, Aar-
on Jacobs ’12 and Sophie Friedman
’12 — infused seemingly simple
stories with a graceful complexity
and good natured humor. What
made the stories worth listening
to — and remembering — was the
way each storyteller introduced
moments of meaningful reflection
to balance out the night’s humor-
ous tone.
Topaz, a member of The Her-
vidual as responsible, but “detectives
are focusing on a number of possible
leads,” he said.
Kevin McLaughlin, professor of
English and chair of the department,
said he thinks one person is respon-
sible for both crimes. “I think what’s
significant is that both occurred in
the same part of the building — a
quiet area that houses graduate stu-
dents,” he said.
In addition to the main staircase
in the building that leads to an exit
on Brown Street, there is a back
stairway near the graduate student
cluster that leads to a more isolated
exit on Angell Street. Porter said the
criminal may have slipped out the
back door.
The two thefts were the first in
the English department since 2008,
Porter said.
“It’s just no longer a safe space,”
Anderson said about the building.
“One can sort of hypothesize
that a good way to blend in if one
were a laptop thief would be to look
like a student and have a backpack,”
McLaughlin said. “That means, I
Avery Houser / Herald
ald’s editorial page board, said he
started the club with the goal of
helping students bring polish to
their casual storytelling — calling
it perhaps “the oldest art form in
the world.” Topaz himself most
deftly balanced humor and depth
in a story about the last weekend
he spent taking a cycling class with
his now-ex girlfriend
Steve Carmody ’12 entertained
with his lyrical style. In a story
about his experience as a butcher,
Cormody posed the question of
the exact moment an animal be-
comes meat.
“I’m glad that this exists,” said
Marguerite Preston ’11. “This way
of telling stories is a form of social-
izing that isn’t as common.”
“I wasn’t expecting how great
that was,” Russell Huang ’12 said
after the performance. “I can’t wait
to hear more from them.”
A second story slam is planned
for Senior Week in May.
think, we’re all just extra aware
of how people are moving in the
building, and that’s just really un-
fortunate.”
In addition to those taken from
the English department, two other
laptops have been stolen on cam-
pus recently. Two professors had
their computers taken from locked
offices in the Taubman Center for
Public Policy and American Institu-
tions between March 23 and April
3, Porter said. But he said there is
no evidence the thefts were related.
In response to the number of
laptop thefts on campus in the past
few years, DPS’s crime prevention
unit has been working on lowering
laptop theft rates.
“We’re getting more information
and awareness out, and people are
taking more precautions, but we
have to take a bigger step toward
protecting our personal property,”
Porter said. “Laptops and other
portable electronics are pretty easy
targets for theft, and theft continues
to be one of the most common prob-
lems on college campuses.”
Monday, April 11, 2011
Pakistani
artist rocks
Faunce
By Katherine Sola
Senior Staff Writer
“That whisper in your heart has
strength,” Salman Ahmad told the
audience in the Underground Fri-
day evening. The Pakistani star of
Sufi rock combined songs in Urdu
and Punjabi with conversation
about his experiences growing up
in America and Pakistan in a pre-
sentation entitled “Rock and Roll
Jihad.”
Ahmad played 17th century
Punjabi music, Pakistani nation-
alist songs, qawwali music and the
shahada, the Islamic declaration of
faith. He proved to be an engaging
performer, coaxing the audience of
Brown students and community
members to clap and sing along
to lyrics many did not understand.
He said when people sing together,
their “mystical energy” creates a
“circle of light,” breaking down
the walls between members of the
audience.
He told them the story of his
childhood and his struggles to
become a musician in the face
of opposition from his Pakistani
family, who wanted him to be-
come a doctor. But after seeing a
Led Zeppelin concert at age 13,
he decided, “That’s what I want to
do with my life.” Ahmad attended
medical school in Pakistan but be-
came frustrated by the strict Islamic
dictatorship’s prohibitions against
music and poetry. He organized a
covert talent show, which was bro-
ken up by militants who smashed
his guitar. “If you’re a rock musi-
cian, you’d better destroy your own
instrument,” he said ruefully. That
moment “changed everything,” and
he resolved to follow the whisper
in his heart.
Ahmad works toward fostering
peace between India and Pakistan
and emphasized the role of music
in cross-cultural communication.
He and his band, Junoon, were the
first Pakistani band to tour India.
He described how his friends and
relatives told him, “You’ll be tor-
tured, and then you’ll be deported.”
But he was surprised by the warm
welcome his band received, telling
the audience about a time when
three major Bollywood stars came
into his dressing room before a per-
formance to ask for his autograph
for their nieces. This experience,
he said, exemplified the “strange
cultural relationship between India
and Pakistan,” in spite of political
conflict. He asserted that personal
contact like this will be the “way
forward” for the two countries.
Ahmad played a popular Paki-
stani song to great enthusiasm from
the audience.
The evening took a more serious
turn when Ahmad’s wife, Samina
Ahmad, took the stage. Two years
ago, the couple started a non-profit
organization, the Salman and Sam-
ina Global Wellness Initiative in
response to the catastrophic floods
continued on page 9