By Meha VergheseStaff Writer

When you walk into a Brown stu-dent’s dorm room, you’re likely to find one of a few familiar images on the wall: John Belushi in “Ani-mal House,” the Beatles crossing Abbey Road or the iconic Che Guevara.

Buying posters outside Faunce House, at the Brown Bookstore or over the Internet is a beginning-of-year tradition — posters are a popular and inexpensive way to decorate a dorm room.

Chris Alexander works for the College Poster Sale Company. He sets up outside the campus post office each September, where he observes first-hand the annual poster purchasing habits of Brown students. He said that on Monday, the first day of the sale, students bought between 800 and 900 post-ers bearing images of art, bands, landscapes and movies.

He said art posters tend to be particularly popular. “Andy Warhol is really popular — anything pop art,” Alexander said.

Many students adorn their walls with modernist art, while others prefer the works of the impres-sionists such as Van Gogh, Monet and Matisse. But “romantic and classical-looking art” doesn’t sell well, according to Corey Philips, a cashier at the Brown Bookstore.

Also less-than-popular: educa-tional posters depicting female

aviators and Greek art.But, he added, “tropical pictures

always sell pretty well.”Giselle Torres ’08, who has

a poster of a beach scene in her room, thinks pictures of a warm-er climate enliven a room when Providence weather is at its worst. The poster also reminds Torres of Puerto Rico, where she grew up. “When it’s really dark and gloomy here, I look at it and it makes me feel good,” she said.

Nathanael Geman ’09 also se-lected his wall art to evoke memo-ries of his home: Paris. “I chose one

poster because it also hangs in a restaurant near my house,” Geman said. A poster of the Eiffel Tower also hangs in his room.

While art and landscapes are popular, motivational posters have seen lackluster sales. “We’ve sold not too many, but a few motivational posters,” Philips said. “There’s a nice penguin one on individual-ity.”

Robert Emlen, senior lecturer in American civilization and Univer-sity curator, said he thinks buyers

The Brown Daily heralDfriday, September 14, 2007Volume CXLII, No. 68 Since 1866, Daily Since 1891

www.browndailyherald.com 195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island News tips: herald@browndailyherald.com

INSIDE:

FeLDMaN reTIresProfessor Emeritus of Vi-sual Art Walter Feldman is retiring and gets a new show for his send-off.

arTs & CULTUre

3OPINIONs

7CharLes The saVIOrStore 24 clerk Charles White is the best Provi-dence rapper you’ve never heard of — until now.

sPOrTs

8OVerhearD aT BrOwNThis week, Overheard on College Hill asks what Brunonians think of the new Banner system.

M. sOCCer wINsThe No. 21-ranked men’s soccer team defeated the University of Maine 2-1 Thursday at home.

arTs & CULTUre

3

Chris Bennett / Herald File Photo

The Undergraduate Council of Students will host its first meeting of the academic year next week.

Brown fans rise up to join BrowNationBy PeTe CIPParONeSportS editor

Few would ever confuse a crowd at the Pizzitola Center with the student sports enthusiasts you might find at Duke University, home of the notorious Cameron Crazies. But this fall, a group of students is trying to change that.

The new school year marks the debut of a recently created a student fan group known as BrowNation. Founded and led by Moses Riner ’08, BrowNation will promote atten-dance at athletic events by offering incentives according to the number of games fans attend.

Riner, who transferred to Brown after attending Duke for his first two years of college, said the idea came from his former school.

“I initially got the idea from Duke who has a student group called ‘The Inferno,’ ” Riner said. “I knew one of the guys who helped start the group (at Duke), and I talked to him and said ‘Hey, I’ll do it here.’ He kind of coached me through the steps of starting up a group like this.”

Riner first started promoting the idea during his campaign for presi-dent of the Undergraduate Council

of Students in the spring, and said he “went all over campus so it was easy to get the word out.”

Riner knew that the group, then under the name of ‘The Blaze,’ would be popular among athletes. But what surprised him was the high level of support expressed by non-athletes.

“Everyone was like ‘If I knew I could get free stuff, I’d definitely go to the games,’ ” Riner said. “I guess all Brown students need is a little bit of incentive.”

After filling out a form and paying a $20 entrance fee to join BrowNation, members will receive one point for each game attended. The group will have a table set up at each game where members can check in to receive credit for at-tendance. There are currently 12 games listed on the September schedule, all of which can be found at the group’s Web site, hosted at brownbears.com.

At the end of the semester, each member will receive Brown

N e W S i N b r i e f

widmer gains new appointmentThe New America Foundation, a cen-trist think tank, has appointed Ted Widmer, director of the John Carter Brown Library, as a senior research fellow in its foreign policy division.

The appointment will not take Widmer away from Brown, and his role at the University will remain unchanged. “I’m basically a kind of virtual fellow,” he said. “I communi-cate with other fellows, but I don’t expect to be in Washington a great deal. After all, we all know Providence is the center of the universe.”

Though he grew up near campus, Widmer returned to Brown in 2006 after working as a speechwriter for President Bill Clinton and, later, directing Washington College’s C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience. He most recently pub-lished a compilation of American presidential speeches and is an affiliated scholar at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank.

“Everyone knows I’m a Democrat, but I like talking to people with different points of view — it makes life a lot more exciting,” Widmer said, adding that he thinks the New America Foundation is “unusually open-minded.”

“They are doing very original work, matching surprising speakers and researchers to each other. They’re always looking at issues with fresh eyes,” he said.

The New American Foundation seeks to bring “new ideas to the fore of our nation’s public discourse,” according to its mission statement.

Widmer’s work for the foundation will concentrate on the history of American foreign policy, which is also the focus of his forthcoming book, “Ark of the Liberties: America and the World.” The book, he said, is an intellectual history of Americans’ understanding of their place in the global political universe.

“It’s not every treaty and every military action, but much more a his-tory of how we have thought about how we fit in,” he said.

Widmer expects to present the book and his research both at Brown and the New America Foundation.

Steve Clemons, of the New American Foundation, said Widmer will be writing and speaking about U.S. foreign policy for the foundation’s American Strategy Program, which Clemons directs. “He is one of the nation’s leading historians on the legacy of early American political thought on U.S. foreign policy,” Clemons said.

— Marisa Calleja

New leadership, new year for UCSBy FraNkLIN kaNINSeNior Staff Writer

The Undergraduate Council of Students begins the new academ-ic year with a new president, vice president and committee chairs on the executive board. Fresh-man elections will run from Sun-day to Tuesday, and the body’s first meeting will be held next week when the eight at-large po-sitions will be elected internally.

Though official meetings will not start until five freshmen have been elected, the officers of the executive board have many goals for the coming year.

Incoming President Michael Glassman ’09 has served on UCS since his freshman year and was the communications chair last year. Glassman wants to involve more students in high-level University decision-making, such as the Cor-poration, new dorm plans, financial

aid initiatives and planned renova-tions in the Bear’s Lair.He also said he plans to work on getting the University to approve last year’s En-ergy and Environmental Advisory Committee’s recommendations on how the University can help to pre-serve the environment.

Vice President Lauren Kolodny ’08, last year’s Corporation liaison, shares many of Glassman’s goals,

In pink or Pink Floyd, posters unroll personality

continued on page 5

Rahul Keerthi / HeraldStudents shop for posters outside the Faunce post office.

Chris Bennett / Herald File PhotoTed Widmer, director of the John Carter Brown Library

continued on page 4continued on page 4

SPORTS

FEATURE

ToDayPAgE 2 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2007

The Brown Daily heralD

Editorial Phone: 401.351.3372Business Phone: 401.351.3260

Eric Beck, President

Mary-Catherine Lader, Vice President

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Dan DeNorch, Secretary

The Brown Daily Herald (USPS 067.740) is an independent newspaper serving the Brown

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ACROSS 1 Cursory6 Mindful of

10 River to theCaspian Sea

14 Its motto is“Esto perpetua”

15 Nib16 Star with

potential17 Problematic deli

syndrome?20 Oscar winner

Jannings21 Grate22 Boxing brothers23 Star witnesses?25 What a topog.

map shows27 Quarrel in

paradise?32 Asleep33 Prefix with gram34 Holdups36 Tony-winning

actor in themusical “Foxy”(1964)

38 Put on40 Nurses41 Temper44 Additional ones

not itemized47 Sportscaster

Berman48 Speech about

eagles?51 “__ put hair on

your chest”52 “Fish Magic”

painter53 Fragrant oil56 Miller __58 Sport62 Wired money?65 And addl. ones

not itemized66 One of the

British?67 Weed B Gon

maker68 Summon the

courage69 Canonized Mlles.70 They culminate

attackpreparations

DOWN 1 “Women and

Love” author

2 “__-12”: ’60s-’70spolice drama

3 “The SquareEgg” author

4 Louise’s partner5 “__-hoo!”6 Got7 Beatty and others8 Capital SSW of

Seoul9 Agreements

10 Comes apart11 Teased12 Say with

conviction13 Metallica

drummer Ulrich18 Didn’t just

suggest19 Chubby and

then some24 Prefix with culture26 Acid27 Beijing-born

violinist Frank28 History opening29 They may be

screened30 Catches, as a

perp31 Melville’s most

popular novel, inhis time

32 Pay stub?35 Govt. ID37 Trusted39 Businessman’s

closet array42 Media workers’

union43 Cholesterol

letters45 Foot parts46 Datebook

abbr.49 Least well

50 Bounty53 Made one on54 “Bye-bye”55 Lift on the

slope57 Monty Python

troupe member59 Place enjoyed

by Sundance60 Hurting61 Frat letters63 Dogtag wearers64 Veggie holder

By Kurt Mengel and Jan-Michele Gianette(c)2007 Tribune Media Services, Inc. 9/14/07

9/14/07

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

RELEASE DATE– Friday, September 14, 2007

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword PuzzleEdited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

xwordeditor@aol.com

C r o S S W o r d

S u d o k u

W e a t h e r

m e N u

Fill in the grid so that every row, every column and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 through 9.

© Puzzles by Pappocom

sunny70 / 56

sunny72 / 50

sharPe reFeCTOry

LUNCh — Chicken Jambalaya with Bacon, gyro Sandwich on Pita, Toma-to Basil Pie, Washington Apple Cake, Blondies

DINNer — grilled Salmon with Minted Pea Puree, Turkey Tetrazini, Manicotti Piedmontese, Chocolate Cinnamon Cake Roll

VerNey-wOOLLey DININg haLL

LUNCh — Chicken Fingers, Baked Vegan Nuggets, Vegan Rice Pilaf, Peas, Chocolate Chip Bars

DINNer — Tilapia with Provensal Sauce, grilled Chicken, Spinach Pie Casserole, Basmati Rice Pilaf, Choco-late Cinnamon Cake Roll

aibohphobia | Roxanne Palmer and Jonathan Cannon

But seriously | Charlie Custer and Stephen Barlow

Nightmarishly elastic | Adam Robbins

Disambiguation | Daniel Byers

100 years of solipsism | Adrienne Langlois

arTs & CulTureFRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2007 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD PAgE 3

The emcee of Store 24By LyDIa gIDwITzartS & Culture editor

Running into Store 24 for a bottle of water between classes or for cash from the ATM before hitting Thayer Street bars, you’ve probably met Charles White, the gregarious cashier whose other career — as a rapper — is start-ing to take off.

With a new CD in the works and an upcoming show at AS220 on Sept. 17, White, whose stage name is Charles Exsavior, is poised to become the lat-est breakout artist in the Providence rap scene.

“I just want to bring honest-to-good music back,” White said. “Everyone hates what’s on the radio, what the higher-ups are telling people to like.”

Though he cites such influences as Jay-Z, Nas and Common, White stresses rap’s ability to express a wide range of experiences and emotions. “(Rappers) all share the same view, but rapping doesn’t have to be a one-sided view. Everyone is talking about drugs and violence. It’s a bigger story,” he said.

With his current CD, “A Profes-sor Gone Mad EP,” White explains his world view in 14 tracks with his friend and fellow rapper, Dante Infer-no. White mixes other rappers’ beats and then rhymes over them, giving the CD a “mix tape feel,” he said.

But his upcoming album will con-sist of purely original music, showcas-ing White’s other passion, producing and musical engineering. White said his Big Brother in Providence’s Big

Brother Big Sister program taught him to use a Macintosh computer. “He got me into engineering,” White said.

White has been rhyming since he was young, but he spent the last two years focusing on his rap career. He has played shows at the Black Rep-ertory Company, Club Octane and Loom Studio Gallery, among others. His show at AS220 next week will showcase material from his current album.

“I want to influence people and let them know that I can rap and show them my soul,” White said.

Born in Ohio, White grew up in Providence, and his childhood in the city has clearly influenced his mu-sic. “Professor Gone Mad” continu-ally references Providence and offers shout-outs to sections of the city. The album cover features a photograph of downtown Providence and a highway sign.

“I try to take a worldly viewpoint. I get political. I try to mix up my style,” White said. “I try to think of the people, definitely. The chorus is still catchy, but it’s me.”

With a stack of fliers announcing White’s upcoming performance and his CD often playing in the back-ground, Store 24 has become the nexus of White’s burgeoning rap career. In the course of a 30-minute interview with The Herald, White sold three CDs to customers.

On one of his tracks entitled, “What You Can Have,” White raps: “You better learn how to flow in the mic / Exsavior is ‘bout to show you the light.”

‘Recent Work’ reflects retiring FeldmanBy CaTherINe gOLDBergStaff Writer

“Recent Works” by Professor Emeritus of Art Walter Feldman opened Saturday at the Rocke-feller Library as a month-long exhibition of paintings, sculptures and book art created within the last 20 years. Feldman is retiring this year after 54 years of teaching at Brown.

Feldman includes nine paint-ings in the show, each glowing with complex layers of color and script. He evokes historical and cultural themes in the pieces, looking back to the symbols and writings of both the ancient Mayan and Hebrew civilizations for inspiration.

Feldman credits his interest in pre-Columbian art to living in Mexico for over a year, where he encountered the Mayan symbols, known as glyphs.

“I used the idea of the glyphs but reinvented it so (the designs) become my language,” he told The Herald.

In addition to their historical content, the paintings themselves have an interesting history. In 1997, the fifth floor of the List Art Building flooded and destroyed the stored paintings “beyond re-suscitation,” Feldman said.

Ten years later, Feldman de-cided to revisit them. Believing himself to have changed during this time, the artist said that rather than reproducing the ru-

ined paintings, he chose to let his creation echo the original but also evolve into something different.

In doing so, Feldman allows each of the paintings to radiate with life, giving off an essence of past, present and future that breathes. “They are now more empathetic, more sensitive, and have another layer of meaning,” Feldman said of the nine recre-ated paintings, “and I hope I am too.”

Other works in the show in-clude three reliquaries, or shrines, entitled “Homage to Auschwitz.” Feldman came across the idea of making reliquaries while living in Italy. The three model-size build-ings, which evoke the darkness of early mid-century Poland, contain prayers and pieces of cloth that refer to the uniforms worn by concentration camp victims.

Feldman also showcases a number of book art pieces and broadsides by Ziggurat Press, which Feldman founded in 1990 to produce handmade books. The books’ subjects range from music to haiku to the Bible.

Feldman completed his under-graduate degree at Yale, study-ing with renowned artists like Willem de Kooning. After col-lege, he served in the Army for three years during World War II and was honored with a Purple Heart and the Combat Infantry-man Badge.

After his service, Feldman

returned to Yale to complete his BFA and earned his MFA in 1951 after receiving the Alice Kimball Fellowship. He then taught at Yale before joining Brown’s fac-ulty in 1953.

Feldman was awarded a Ful-bright fellowship to study mosa-ics and stained glass in Italy in 1956. A year later, his self-por-trait won the gold medal at the Mostra Internazionale in Milan. In 1958, he received the Tonner Prize from the American Color Print Society.

Feldman’s work has been included in both individual and group exhibitions at museums such as the Museum of Modern Art and the Brooklyn Museum in New York City, the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C., and the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston.

In 2005, Brown honored Feld-man with the dedication of the Feldman Book Arts Studio in the John Hay Library. More than 300 of his students’ books are in the permanent collection of the Hay Library.

“Since his arrival at Brown in 1953, Walter has had a profound and lasting influence on the Uni-versity, for which we are grate-ful,” President Ruth Simmons said in a Sept. 8 press release. “This exhibition is an opportunity to celebrate Walter’s extraordi-nary career at Brown, as well as his commitment to his students, his art and his community.”

sports apparel based on the number of points accumulated. Students re-ceive two points for each event they attend with their face or body painted, and another point for participating in a halftime show.

Riner said that, midway through the semester, the group will begin offering a point for anyone who can sign up a new fan to help increase membership. For the fall, 10 points will earn a member a pair of athletic shorts, 15 points will earn a hooded sweatshirt, and 20 points will earn a hat.

Students who earn 20 points in a semester will also be eligible for a grand prize drawing.

Over the course of the fall, staff and student representatives will publicize BrowNation at most home games. The group kicked off its sea-son at last Thursday’s women’s soc-cer game against Boston College and was also present at the men’s soccer team’s victory over No. 5 Santa Clara University last Friday. Hall manned a table outside the entrance to Steven-son Field promoting the group and signing up new members.

The current membership is somewhere around 100, Riner said, as there were 90 members at the last meeting and at least eight members joined at Thursday’s men’s soccer game.

The men’s soccer team’s Friday night victory over Santa Clara, cou-pled with the impressive turnout of fans and students chanting, “Let’s go, Bruno,” created “exactly the type of atmosphere BrowNation is trying to build,” Riner said.

While Riner has taken the lead in the effort from the outset, the group has already created a large

support system. BrowNation has a four-member executive commit-tee which includes Riner, executive vice president and men’s lacrosse player Jeff Hall ’08, women’s tennis player and vice president of special programs Alexa Baggio ’09 and Jack Walsh ’09, of the men’s lacrosse team and vice president of membership.

The committee meets to discuss group issues and promote events and is trying to build a network of stu-dent representatives to recruit across campus. Riner said he works closely with Rick Merriam, assistant athletic director of marketing, on sponsorship and finance issues.

In order to fund the project, Riner has relied on help from the Department of Athletics. The pro-gram’s posters and brochures were printed by the department, which has also funded the acquisition of the apparel.

In the future, however, Riner and Merriam hope to gain enough sponsors to support the program’s expenses. Riner said the group’s costs will depend on the quantity of clothes that need to be ordered at the end of the semester, but said the total will be “in the thousands.”

While the group does collect a $20 membership fee, Riner said the fee will only begin to cover the costs of the group.

“Many students balk at the $20, but that doesn’t cover anything,” Riner said. “You get a t-shirt for join-ing and you probably couldn’t get the t-shirt for $20, much less a wind-breaker or sweatshirt or some of the other things we’re offering.”

Merriam said that attracting spon-sorship is a goal of the group, but that crucial decisions as far as funding are up to the executive committee.

“Many sponsors are interested

to see what it’s going to turn into,” Merriam said, “but it’s difficult to get sponsors for such a young club. (The companies) are asking questions like ‘What is your membership?’ and over the spring and summer when we talk-ed to sponsors, we had no members. Eventually, Moses and the others will have to decide if they want Coca-Cola, Citizens Bank and Spike’s Hot Dogs all over the logo or if they want to preserve the purity of it.”

Based on last week’s turnout, Ri-ner is encouraged about the initial success of the program.

“I’m excited, the group started out very strong,” he said. “Hopefully, we can at least double the membership by the end of the year. And depend-ing on how many people we get and how much money we raise in the future, we’re going to try to expand the program and do things like go to away games and have barbecues. It’s gonna be a lot of work, but hopefully it’ll all pay off.”

PAgE 4 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2007

including increased involvement with the Corporation and better environmental policy — particu-larly the University’s carbon neu-trality status.

Kolodny also hopes to im-prove oversight of the appoint-ments process for University committees. “Big decisions are made in University committees,” Kolodny said.

“We don’t really know about what’s going on with them, and the student body doesn’t know. You have this one student rep-resentative that has a voting po-sition on those committees but doesn’t really report back to any-one about what’s happening.”

She said she also plans to work with the Swearer Center for Pub-lic Service to establish service learning courses, which she said can only be accomplished with help from faculty members.

Rakim Brooks ’09, this year’s academic and administrative af fairs chair and chair of the Africana Studies Department Undergraduate Group, plans to strengthen the relationship be-tween DUGs.

“Brown has this rich history of interdisciplinary action and networking,” Brooks said. “The idea would be to bring all these different groups together.”

Another area that could use improvement in Brooks’ mind is the fellowship program. Brooks said he would also like to encour-age more qualified students to apply for fellowships by providing

more information and advertis-ing.

Fellowships “have that mys-tique of you go into a room, and the door closes behind you, and no one knows what happens but you,” he said.

Jane Zhang ’10, admissions and student services chair, and Ellie Cutler ’10, campus life chair, plan to work together often this year to improve certain student services.

Current plans include placing Card Value Centers in more con-venient locations, expanding re-gional card access and increasing the number of CVCs and vending machines that accept declining balance.

Cutler said she will also play a role in campus renovations such as those proposed for the Bear’s Lair and Faunce House. She re-cently examined some of the spots in need of improvements with Class of 2010 Representative Erik Duhaime ’10 and members of the Student Activities Office.

Drew Madden ’10, the student activities chair, said he wants to “improve the presence and life of student activities on campus.”

Madden also plans to initiate a campus-wide discussion about potentially raising the students activities fee — which was raised two years ago to $146 — through student forums. “I personally believe in raising the fee, but I don’t want to do it, obviously, if the campus is totally against it,” Madden said.

“It’s probably going to be a promising year,” Brooks said.

continued from page 1

UCS begins new year with vacancies, elections

Move over Colbert, and make room for BrowNationcontinued from page 1

secondary will also return several starters from last season, including All-Ivy safety Jose Yearwood ’08.

Also returning in the secondary are cornerback Darrell Harrison ’09, who ranked fourth on the team with 56 tackles last season, and corner-back Matt Mullenax ’08, who led the Bears with three interceptions.

The defensive line will be led by tackle Kai Brown ’08, who earned All-Ivy honors in 2006. He recorded 30 tackles, including a team-high 2.5 sacks. Also returning from last season’s starting defensive line are defensive end Patrick Fisher ’08 and tackle Joseph McPhee ’09.

One of the Bears’ greatest strengths will be in the kicking game. They rely on the foot of Steve Morgan ’08, who has been named an All-Ivy punter and an All-New England kicker for three consecu-tive years. He ranks third in Ivy League history with 39 career field

goals, and fourth in kicking points with 212. He needs just seven field goals and 18 points to break both records — a likely feat this year.

While Brown will play its sea-son opener on Saturday, Duquesne already has game experience this fall. The Dukes opened their sea-son with a 28-19 loss to Bucknell on Sept. 1.

“Duquesne’s already been in in-season mode for two weeks now,” Brewer said. “Our biggest challenge right now is not having a game under our belt. Going from hitting each other to hitting an op-ponent will be an adjustment.”

The Bears hope to improve upon last year’s 3-7 overall record, in which five of the losses came by seven points or less, in some cases coming down to the final play of the game.

“This is a relentless team,” Brewer said. “We need to just play every down and every game relentlessly.”

members of Congress on your team for different days if you think they’re going to perform better. Not only that, you can pick up free-agent congressmen and trade members with other teams, though ironically it’s the only fantasy sport I know of that doesn’t have a trade veto system.

The key to the game is the same with any other fantasy sport: try to find undervalued players and make sure your team stays healthy (unimpeached).

In the game’s first season, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) was the biggest sleeper in the draft — he surpassed all other congressmen in maverick score while remaining solid in every other category. Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) on the other hand, is the biggest bust of the year after his airport sex sting.

After playing the game for a week or so, it’s almost scary how well the American political system works as a fantasy sport. You’ll find yourself checking the House of Congress Web site, looking at the voting agenda like some arcane box score. You may even end up watching C-SPAN at 2 a.m., yelling at the screen and rooting for the filibuster that will put you ahead in the standings.

But you can’t help but won-der if something’s wrong when our legislative branch, one of

the cornerstones of our nation’s persistence, contains the same gamesmanship and win-at-all costs mentality as a sport played for mass entertainment.

But maybe it’s not so much that our real government resembles our fake sports as much as it is that our fantasy games reflect reality better than we think.

As the motto on Fantasy Con-gress’ official Web site states, “No matter, win or lose, everyone gets the privilege of civic participation and a deeper understanding of Congress.” For real.

often regret purchasing motivational posters.

“Those would be a great poster to have for your first week at Brown and then you look at it, with its cheery maxim, at Thanksgiving and you’d much rather have a Marilyn Monroe poster,” Emlen quipped.

According to Alexander, the popu-larity of the iconic blonde bombshell has actually decreased at the poster sale this year.

“It’s interesting that Marilyn was more popular the last couple of years, but Audrey Hepburn is this year,” he said.

Kayla Skinner ’10 hung two posters of Hepburn on her walls. “I know it’s really corny, but I still like her,” she said. “It was probably after seeing ‘Roman Holiday’ that I fell in love with Audrey. It’s more about the type of person she is and what she represents — she has old school charm.”

A walk through the halls of Keeney Quadrangle shows that many students favor themes from past generations, often decorating with The Beatles’ “Abbey Road” post-er, Pink Floyd’s “Back Catalogue” or any number of Bob Marley im-ages. Philips said he has watched Bob Marley posters sell out quickly, and said “classic rock in general” is always popular.

The “college” category of All-posters.com, an online poster retail-er, corroborates Philips’ observation: the Web site displays classic rock posters, along with movie posters for “Scarface,” “Pulp Fiction” and “Na-tional Lampoon’s Animal House.”

Emlen said it’s a trend he doesn’t fully understand. “I wonder why that stuff survives and why people pre-fer the old stuff to contemporary things,” he said.

Alexander said the poster for the recent movie “300” was very popular, but he said, on the whole, vintage is

still the rage at Brown. Philips agreed, noting that the

bookstore’s reproductions of old Spring Weekend posters have been extremely well-received. “We had these vintage prints of posters with legendary names and people were just snapping them up,” Philips said.

Emlen said these prints harken back to the original purpose of post-ers as announcements for travel or sporting events. One of the most popular posters, according to Em-len, is a reproduction of a poster of Brown’s appearance in the Rose Bowl in 1916. “It reminds every-body of a different time at Brown,” he said.

As University curator, Emlen is responsible for furnishing all of Brown’s buildings with artwork and he has collected anecdotes about posters and popular art at Brown.

He said William Poland, a 19th century professor of classics and art, initiated a fund that allowed students to rent posters from the Office of Residential Life. “You could rent a framed print — a colored re-production of a work of art — from ResLife for a year for about a dol-lar,” Emlen said, adding that this wa a popular option at a time when high-quality posters were scarce and expensive.

Though posters remain the most popular dorm room decoration, many students have found other ways to decorate their rooms. Hannah Wohl ’10 covered the walls and ceiling of her room with tapestries and hung paper lanterns. She said she wanted to give her room a unique look, be-cause a dorm room “shows your personality.”

Wohl also has a “Wish You Were Here” poster hanging by her desk to signify her favorite song. Graham Rogers ’11 filled a wall with framed black and white pictures taken mostly on his travels to Tanzania and San Diego.

Rogers said many first-years are inventing original ways to spruce up their rooms. “A lot of people are stealing cool posters — like RISD posters,” Rogers said. He said he has noticed many people stealing poster advertisements for the upcoming Production Workshop performance of “Salvador Dali Makes Me Hot.”

Morgan Ritter-Armour ’11 is holding off before she decorates her room. “I don’t like having things really cluttered,” she said, adding that she wouldn’t put up any posters “unless there was something I feel passionate about.”

Jina Park ’11 has also adopted a minimalist approach. “I put up things I needed, like the class schedule and a poster of a Black Eyed Peas concert I went to,” she said.

Alexander said some students seem to be decorating based on the color, not theme, of their posters. “Pink seems more popular this year,” Alexander said.

Emlen said he strongly disap-proves of this trend. “It’s just plain wrong to have pink posters in your room,” Emlen said. “My thesis on this is that posters with pink in them will give you bad dreams, and this is based exclusively on my feelings about pink stuff.”

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New poster season marks start of new year

McCain, Obama stars of Fantasy Congress

Football kicks off 2007 season with Dukes

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2007 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD PAgE 5

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eDiTorial & leTTersPAgE 6 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2007

S t a f f e d i t o r i a l

P E T E F A L L O N

Diamonds and coalA diamond to fewer EMS calls so far this year. We’re not sure if that

means first-years can hold their liquor or if spending eight hours on Banner prevents you from drinking excessively.

A diamond to Rhode Island for being the sixth-least obese state in the country. Could we base our U.S. News & World Report ranking on that data, too?

Heaps of coal for Metcalf Auditorium, recently identified as the worst classroom at the University. Facilities Management will need it for the fur-nace come November.

A diamond to the Gate’s recent improvements. Now if only Metcalf could take a hint.

A cubic zirconium to admission officers poking around on Facebook. We’re not sure if that’s creepy or just “It’s Complicated.”

A diamond to the John Hay Library’s extended hours. We’re not sure if it’s a necessary change, but now we can gaze at an anthropodermic leather-bound book until 6 p.m. on weekdays. (That’s a book of human skin for you laymen.)

Five years of unanticipated but predictable cubic zirconia to Dean of the Graduate School Sheila Bonde. Sorry, we seem to have had a “predicted but unplanned shortfall” of diamonds.

A tentative diamond to MPCs returning to most first-year dorms. So you left, but you didn’t leave, but you’re back, but nothing has changed? We’re confused.

A cubic zirconium to Alicia Sacramone ’10, who has decided to leave the Brown’s gymnastics team to turn pro. We’d give you a diamond, but you won’t need it with all that gold.

A sack of diamonds for David Schmittlein ’77, who was recently appointed dean of MIT’s Sloan School of Management. We know you could have made that much in the real world.

Coal to mold. It makes us sad.

A diamond to the RISD-Brown partnership. Its students will need it for the extra year of tuition.

A diamond to Store 24’s very own emcee, Charles Exsavior. Forget Kanye and 50, “A Professor Gone Mad” will be the biggest album to drop this fall.

A diamond to Alex, the African grey parrot who told other birds to “talk better” and died at age 31 this week. Too bad he missed The Herald’s latest info session — our copy desk could always use another grammarian. His last words were “I love you.” We love you, too, Alex.

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l e t t e r S

U. should bring back CABTo the editor:

The most enlightening information I’ve recently read about Banner came in Ben Bernstein’s ’09 column, “State of the University” (Sept. 12). Since last semester, students have lamented Banner’s poor course-search capabilities. The administration broadly responded by claiming that for simplicity, the system had been implemented in its most basic state and requested patience; the system would be improved as we went along (“Nancy Dunbar: Approaching Banner,” Apr. 3 and “Banner Catalog and Schedule Ill-Received by Students” April 3).

In his column, Bernstein asked the question that everyone has been wondering: For $23 million, why can’t we get a viable search mechanism? The answer, accord-ing to the University registrar, is that due to Banner’s design, making modifications would be so expensive as to render them effectively impossible. There is no way that Banner project leader Nancy Dunbar was not aware of this. As Zachary Townsend ’09 bluntly stated in his recent column (“Banner Implementation Prizes Convenience Over Usability,” Sept. 13), Dunbar lied when promising that she would improve Banner after the first run.

Students have a right to be angry — and should be angry. They also have the right to complain, but complaining about Banner is useless. We are stuck with what we have. Instead, we need to expect less of Banner

and approach it differently. Think of it as nothing more than a replacement for the old pre-registration cards and add/drop slips. Let’s face it — registering online beats standing in line at University Hall.

Meanwhile, the administration must own up to the fact that it implemented a poor system and made an unacceptably awful decision to force it as a substitute for the Course Announcement Bulletin. Sure, there is Mocha, but this is student-run. Why should students shoulder what is the University’s responsibility? Is it not absurd that we have to provide our own course research system? What other institution requires this of students? The University must reinstate the CAB and add Banner course registration numbers to it. In this way, students can search for courses in the same way they always have: a combination of CAB and BOCA (effectively now Mocha). Both are necessary, as the CAB offers portability that Mocha does not. One can read it on an airplane, a bus, the Green (sans laptop), in between classes or any number of campus places inexplicably still without Wi-Fi.

If paper waste is the University’s main opposition to the CAB, then I suggest re-examining the practice of spamming students’ mailboxes with countless fliers and brochures that are immediately tossed. I would gladly substitute this paper for a CAB with CRNs.

Nathan Brower ‘08Sept. 13

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Between reading the article earlier this week in The Herald about Brown admission officers trolling Facebook to scope out applicants (“Admission officers poke around Facebook,” Sept. 10) and Facebook’s announcement that it will allow non-users to search for users’ profiles on Google, I’ve arrived at an unfor-tunate conclusion.

Facebook must be destroyed.Well, okay, that might be excessive. But

Facebook is quickly becoming much more of a detriment to the academic lives of young students than a utility. As proof, let’s weigh the pros and cons.

Con: Facebook is an electromagnet for public stupidity.

This article was partly inspired by an experience I had this summer as an RA for the Summer@Brown program. In case you didn’t know, thousands of high school stu-dents descend on campus every June like a buzzing swarm of locusts, all of them itching to Facebook-friend everyone they meet, all of them blissfully ignorant of the fact that all the information they post on Facebook is public.

So you can imagine my surprise when one of my high school residents, who had recently friended me on Facebook, posted the event details of an upcoming party. The party’s announcement promptly appeared in my Facebook news-feed, so I knew within min-utes that my residents were planning to drink straight Karkov and grind on the stripper pole in Sigma Chi’s lounge that Friday night.

Con: Facebook embarrasses your loved ones.

Of course, my experience is nothing com-pared to the countless stories of Facebook idiocy reported by the popular Ivy League gossip blog, IvyGate. In July IvyGate that Anthony Villaraigosa Jr., son of the mayor of Los Angeles and member of Princeton’s class of 2011, made some embarrassing (and incriminating) admissions over the summer on a Facebook group wall. The underage Ivy-Leaguer-to-be bragged about drinking Bailey’s Irish Cream and “several” Coronas with other pre-frosh at a party on a SoCal

beach, before being broken up by the “po.” The police officer was “pretty chill,” Antonio remarked. Imagine, the mayor’s son being treated with kid’s gloves by the police!

Villaraigosa isn’t alone. Wonkette and Gawker have posted Facebook pictures of politicians’ college-aged children enjoying em-barrassing and sometimes-illicit activities. A picture of former Sen. Bill Frist’s son wearing a makeshift beer belt? Check. The daughter of Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., making out with another girl? Got it. President Bush’s nephew drinking Bud Light while being pawed by a vagrant middle-aged cross-dresser? Believe

it or not, the picture’s online. Even fairly innocent information, such as

political affiliation, can backfire when posted on Facebook — especially if your dad is run-ning for president. Slate reported that Rudy Giuliani’s daughter was a member of a Face-book group supporting Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., a story that caught fire and prompted a response from Rudy himself.

Con: Facebook will get you arrested and passed over for jobs.

Of course, the damage caused by the pub-

lic disclosure of embarrassing or incriminat-ing information on Facebook is exacerbated when your family is famous, but the principle still applies to the plebeian masses. Employers and administrators (and apparently admission officers, according to The Herald) all know about and use Facebook. At other colleges and high schools, Facebook has been used to investigate alcohol policy violations. A Mi-ami University student was even arrested last year for “inducing panic” by changing his Facebook profile picture to a composite sketch of a suspected rapist.

Con: You’re ensnared in Facebook’s ten-

tacles for life. “So what?” you might scoff. You’re smart

with your profile. You take advantage of Fa-cebook’s privacy settings. You’re judicious with any content you make public. You don’t present yourself as a rapist.

Even if you don’t post pictures of yourself taking bong rips on the roof of Faunce, there are lots to reasons to retire your Facebook profile. Most revolve around Facebook’s less-than-comforting privacy policy. I think that everyone should read Facebook’s privacy policy — a lot of people would start thinking about deleting their profiles.

That is, if they can. Facebook does not allow you to delete your

account — only “deactivate.” Facebook retains all your information — your pictures, your notes, your wall posts, etc. — in case you de-cide at a later date to reactivate your account. Facebook does allow you to manually delete each piece of information you’ve posted, but it’s a tedious and inexact process.

Once upon a time, Facebook was a beautiful walled garden. No mini-feed. No applications. It was available only to the Ivy League and a few select schools. There weren’t any photo albums, even. (Though I believe “poking” was there from the beginning, and it was just as creepy then as it is now.) Most importantly, your information was kept relatively private. To see how fast Facebook has deteriorated makes me want to delete (er, deactivate) my account and forces me to wonder why I joined the service in the first place.

In fact, I can think of only one remaining pro to Facebook.

Pro: Facebook — at least it’s not MySpace.

Nicholas Swisher ’08 wants you to post this article on Facebook. And then friend him.

I haven’t used it too much — I’ve mostly relied on Mocha, the student-run service — but from Banner, I’ve been disappointed.

I think that the amount of money the school put into it wasn’t worth the end product. It’s really an eyesore to look at, and just the whole set up of it is very not user friendly and not functional in a manner that most students are used to in a technological age.

I haven’t any trouble with caps or anything, most of my classes have been capped. There has been some trouble with courses that re-quire (what used to be) a teacher’s signature, the difficulty being getting the course code from them and logging in and signing up, which you can’t do beforehand.

Well, pretty much every professor has expressed that Banner is seriously lacking. I think it’s been the experience of pretty much everyone using Banner that it has some pretty serious flaws.

On the one hand, it’s sort of absurd to think at this moment in time that we’d still be registering using paper, but it does seem that the interface necessary to register for classes is a really, really crucial one, and that it has managed to have so many flaws is pretty surprising to me, because a lot of money and energy has been put into it.

Yeah, Banner’s irritating. I’m sure I would have been able to lie and cheat and wiggle my way into things that I don’t quite have the prerequisites more easily if I could just write down on paper and bamboozle my professors into signing the sheet.

Still, as it is I think it’ll be ok—I don’t think it’s really going to damage my preregistration experience that much. For looking up stuff and figuring things out, I only use Mocha.

Luckily, it’s turned out that shopping period hasn’t been as much trouble on Banner as I thought it would be and as a lot of other people though it would be. It’s been pretty easy to add and drop classes.

The user interface, however, is still embar-rassing — it’s just really an awful system. I can’t really use it unless I use Mocha. I can’t use the interface on Banner. I haven’t had trouble getting into any courses with Banner. I have had trouble with one large class that I’m in with arranging labs because the profes-sor did away with preference cards for which sections the students want.

I never thought that BOCA was very well orchestrated because you couldn’t see every-thing at once.

I think the good thing about Banner is that all of your information is there, like your financial information and your Banner ID is up at the top, so it’s easy to get.

Still, I’ve had trouble seeing everything that I’m registered for on Banner and on my MyCourses account, but I think that can be worked out.

I tried to pre-register for a class called Film Architecture and they said it was one of those classes with essentially no cap. It turns out that there are only 40 spots, or maybe it was 30 and they were making it 40 because of the mistake. So I ended up only preregistering for three classes, which was a little bit of trouble because it would have been good for my major if I could have taken that class.

opinionsFRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2007 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD PAgE 7

What has your experience been using Banner?

Facebook ruins lives, destroys families

Facebook must be destroyed.

Overheard on College HillBy Jake Izenberg

Jeffrey Sanford ‘10

Emily Segal ’10

Doug Benedicto ’08

Adria Katz ’10

BY NICHOLAS SWISHERopiNioNS ColumNiSt

By JasON harrIsaSSiStaNt SportS editor

On a day when the men’s soccer team was not on its A-game, scrap-piness led the No. 21 Bears past the University of Maine Thursday after-noon at Stevenson Field. The 2-1 vic-tory improved Brown’s unblemished record to 3-0, and droped the Black Bears to 1-4 on the season.

Coming off two victories last weekend that gave Bruno the Adi-das-Brown Soccer Classic champi-onship, the team hoped to continue its hot start.

The opening minutes proved something of a paradox because, though Brown dictated the pace of the game, it was very careless with the ball. On multiple occasions with-in the first 20 minutes of the match Brown turned the ball over in the midfield or the backfield, leading to a Maine counterattack.

Fortunately the Black Bears’ shots sailed wide on each occasion, and the game remained scoreless.

Players and coaches alike were disappointed with the lethargic start. “It was a good result, but a bad performance,” said Head Coach Mike Noonan.

Midfielder Jon Okafor ’11 echoed Noonan. “In the first half we came out slow,” he said.

Okafor was one of the bright spots, however, as he was continu-ously able to use his tremendous speed to beat his defender down the right wing, resulting in many dangerous crosses in front of the net.

“I got ahead of the guy marking me,” Okafor said. “The guys played me into space and I was able to run onto the ball.”

Despite Bruno’s opening pres-sure, Maine scored first on an un-usual play. With 23:48 to play in the first half, the Black Bears scored when Maine goalkeeper Nemanja Kostic sent a low, line-drive punt into the Brown half of the field. The ball skipped over Bears midfielder David

Walls ’11 and onto the foot of Maine striker Dimitri Anastasiou.

He was able to turn to the middle on his defender and fire a shot on the ground from 22 feet that dribbled past Brown goalie Paul Grandstrand ’11 and just inside the left post.

The goal gave Maine a little mo-mentum, and the rest of the half was fairly even. The Black Bears threatened again with 11:24 to play in the half when a free kick from just outside the 18-yard box curved around the Bears’ five-man wall and hit off the near post.

As the half wound down, it ap-peared that Bruno would have to regroup in the locker room, but with 30 seconds remaining, a Maine clear was headed back into the box by co-captain defender Steven Sawyer ’09.

The ensuing rebound landed at the feet of forward Dylan Sheehan ’10, who controlled the ball and then quickly lofted a shot over the goalie and into the top left corner. The goal, Sheehan’s third of the

season, left him with the team lead in scoring.

Considering the team’s sloppy play in the first half, Okafor said the Bears felt fortunate to go into the break tied at 1-1. “We went into the locker room and knew we had to pick it up,” he said. “Coach did a good job motivating us too.”

Noonan felt that halftime helped the team pick up its play a little bit. “The goal was helpful,” Noonan said. “It got us back on level foot-ing. The guys also deserve credit. They came out of the locker room and the bench was much livelier. (Midfielder) Jon Behrendt (’08) was exceptional off the bench.”

Brown pressured Maine at the start of the second half. Okafor created a number of opportunities by repeatedly beating his defender down the sideline. Brown drew a number of corner kicks, but was unable to put anything in the back of the net in the first 20 minutes.

Then, with 26:59 to play, Okafor headed midfielder Darren Hower-

ton’s ’09 long flip throw-in inside the near post to give Brown a 2-1 lead that it would not relinquish.

“It was a great throw by Howie,” Okafor said. “I made a run near-post and got a head on it.”

The last 20 minutes were con-trolled by Brown. Walls and Chris Roland ’10 patrolled the middle and distributed to the wings. The backs and midfielders finally began to find the forwards’ feet, particularly those of Kyle Davies ’08.

To seal the deal, Rhett Bern-stein ’09 consistently extinguished Maine’s scoring chances by winning almost every header and tackle. The Bears’ solid defense, in conjunction with an overwhelming advantage in possession, stifled any attack from Maine and solidified Brown’s third victory.

Though the play was a little lackluster throughout, the team was happy with the win and hopes to continue undefeated. It will take on rival University of Rhode Island at home on Sunday at 1 p.m.

sporTs weekenDPAgE 8 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2007

M. soccer bears down, beats Maine

Bears duel with Duquesne on SaturdayBy BeNJy asheraSSiStaNt SportS editor

After the loss of several valuable seniors to graduation, the football team will kick off its season Saturday against Duquense University. This season the Bears will look to their returning veterans to anchor the team, but they will also need many relatively untested players to rise to the challenge.

The Bears are optimistic that a positive spring and fall of practice will allow them to improve upon last year’s 3-7 record.

Unfortunately the team’s biggest question mark coming into the season is at one of the most crucial positions — quarterback. Michael Dougherty ’09 will lead the offense after backing up All-Ivy League quarterback Joe Di-Giacomo ’07 last season. Dougherty threw only 10 passes last season and is virtually untested in the regular sea-son at the collegiate level. Dougherty has shown great promise in preseason camp, and he will also have a talented set of receivers to work with led by Paul Raymond ’08.

Last season, Raymond established himself as one of the premiere re-ceivers in the Ivy League, making 45 receptions for 654 yards and four touchdowns. He provides speed on the outside — he is the two-time Ivy League champion in the 60-meter dash. Raymond will be complemented by receivers Bobby Sewall ’10 and Buddy Farnham ’10, and both have shown flashes of excellence in their time with the Bears.

In the 2006 season, Farnham amassed 191 receiving yards, includ-ing a 64-yard performance against the University of Rhode Island, and Sewall made four catches for 47 yards in the Bears’ overtime win against the University of Pennsylvania. The receiving core is completed by tight end Colin Cloherty ’09, who caught 18 passes for 244 yards and four touch-downs in 2006, including a 94-yard, two-touchdown effort in Brown’s win over Cornell.

Co-captain Derrick Knight ’08 is expected to be the Bears’ leading rusher after ranking second on the team with 213 rushing yards last season. Knight split time at halfback

in 2006, carrying the ball only 49 times, but he has shown huge po-tential, particularly in his breakout performance for 96 rushing yards against Cornell.

Bruno’s running game should be boosted by an experienced offen-sive line. In addition to co-captain A.J. Tracey ’08, the line will feature All-Ivy guard Jimmy Tull ’08, as well as Mat-thew Adkins ’09 and Shane Kelley ’09 — all returning starters.

“Our young offense has been do-ing really well,” tri-captain linebacker Eric Brewer ’08 said. The defense “knows that we won’t have to win games by ourselves.”

The Bears will feature an experi-enced defense, led by Brewer, who earned All-Ivy honors at the line-backer position in 2006. Brewer is the team’s top returning tackler, having made 82 tackles last season, including 5.5 for losses. He will be joined by fellow linebacker Frank Nuzzo ’09 who returns after missing last season. Nuzzo was a starter on Brown’s 2005 Ivy League Championship team. The

Reality check“With the first overall pick of the 2007 Draft, the Oakland Raiders select Barack Obama.”

Hold on. Something’s wrong there. I know what you’re thinking.

They should have taken Hillary Clin-ton. She’s coming off an unprecedent-ed year of legisla-tive production, a LaDainian Tom-linson if you will. Barack? Sure, he’s projected to have a big year in terms

of speeches and voting attendance, but rookies are too risky for a first overall pick.

Sound familiar? Absolutely not … unless you’ve played Fantasy Con-gress before. Developed in 2006 by Andrew Lee, a student at Claremont McKenna College in California, the game transports the fantasy format from sports such as football and base-ball into the real political world.

Those familiar with other fantasy sports will be impressed by how smoothly Fantasy Congress makes the transition. There’s still a draft day, but instead of runningbacks, quarterbacks, and wideouts, play-ers compete over senators and state representatives. In place of trying to earn stolen bases, runs and RBI, your team has six categories where your members of congress do battle: leg-islative success, voting attendance, speeches, noteworthy local news, noteworthy national news and maver-ick score (a.k.a.: points earned when your guy breaks rank with his party in a vote).

But just like fantasy baseball, you need a well-rounded team in order to do well in all categories. Adam Dunn gets you home runs and RBI, but he kills your batting average and does nothing for your stolen bases. Similarly, Tom DeLay may make plenty of local and national news, but he’s murder for your legislative success.

Like any fantasy sport, you have a primary roster and a bench, and you can substitute different

Ashley Hess / HeraldThe men’s soccer team beat Maine with a late score by rookie Jon Okafor ’11.

Ashley Hess / Herald File PhotoAfter spending last season as a backup, Dereck Knight ’08 will carry the load at run-ninng back.

Ben singerHigh Notes

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