Wednesday, April 9, 2008

The Brown Daily heralDWednesday, april 9, 2008Volume CXLIII, No. 48 Since 1866, Daily Since 1891

www.browndailyherald.com 195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island News tips: [email protected]

CAMPUS NEWS OPINIONSHIGHER ED

JUICE KEEPS FLOWINGSolutions are hard to come by when it comes to the controversial gossip site

5 11A StICKy SItUAtIONCrime Log: A student finds her motor scooter covered in maple syrup

MARGIN OF ERRORMax Chaiken ’09 says people should pay less attention to poll numbers

3tOMORROW’S WEAtHEROne final warm, sunny day will make it feel that much worse when it rains on Spring Weekend partly, 67 / 38

Former health secretary calls for Americans to shape upBy GEORGE MILLERsenior staff Writer

Former Secretary of Health and Hu-man Services Tommy Thompson, also former governor of Wisconsin and recent Republican presidential candidate, quit the campaign trail last August — but he seemed to have forgotten that Tuesday afternoon, speaking on health care in Andrews

Dining Hall with the vigor of a White House hopeful.

“You probably don’t even know I ran for president,” Thompson ac-knowledged to laughter. He laid out his plan for fixing America’s health care system — including his personal dieting tips — and even addressed in-ternational relations, saying he would have made “medical diplomacy” the basis of his foreign policy.

Growing costs, a shortage of people in the industry and a lack of funding for Medicare all contribute to the problems in the U.S. health care system, Thompson said. He added that Congress was not ca-pable of fixing Medicare and that a bipartisan commission formed by the next president would best solve the problem.

But he also stressed the impor-

tance of changing Americans’ behav-ior to improve health.

“The truth of the matter is we’re a sickly lot,” he said. He cited his ban-ning smoking on HHS property and even snatching cigarettes from smok-ers’ mouths as behavior-changing actions that could save money. About 20 percent of Americans account for

Spike Lee:Blame rap

By SIMON VAN ZUyLEN-WOODsenior staff Writer

He wore a New York Yankees cap and warmed up the audience with a jab at the New England Patriots. But, turning serious, award-winning film director Spike Lee expressed concern about the misguided values some blacks live by today in a speech last night.

Lee focused on film, hip-hop and the importance of education and hard work in the black community in his lecture to an enthusiastic crowd in a packed Salomon 101.

“No matter what you want to do, if you want to achieve that dream, you have to bust your ass,” Lee said. “I’m very fortunate (to be successful) because my first two years I wasn’t doing anything in school.”

Lee, who attended historically black Morehouse College in Atlanta, said a major problem with the edu-cation of blacks was the notion that being smart was equivalent to being white.

“If you speak correct English, get good grades, you get ostracized

Hillel staffer moving on after attack By NANDINI JAyAKRISHNAsenior staff Writer

A month after unidentified attackers threw two Molotov cocktails at his off-campus apartment, Yossi Knafo said he feels safe but finds it “weird” to be the “center of the mess that happened.”

Knafo, a Brown/RISD Hillel em-ployee and an emissary from the Jew-ish Agency of Israel, was in his kitch-en with a friend in the early morning of March 15 when one firebomb — a glass bottle filled with gasoline and stuffed with rags — burned the out-side of the building and another en-tered his bedroom through an open window but did not explode.

The Providence Police Depart-ment and the FBI are currently in-vestigating the incident. But both Detective Larry Reall of the PPD and FBI agent Joan Buckley, Reall’s supervisor, refused to comment on the ongoing investigation.

Knafo, who is no longer living at his old apartment, said the Univer-sity has provided him with housing, which Hillel is paying for.

The University and Hillel “helped me go back to normal life,” he said

It’s not you, it’s my room: Lottery strains friendshipsBy EMMy LISS senior staff Writer

Allie and Morgan stood nervously outside their friend Rachel’s door. The three freshmen had rehearsed the conversation they were about to have enough times to make it ap-pear natural, but it was still a touchy subject.

They walked in and sat down, attempting to stage a casual con-versation with Rachel’s roommate, Chelsea. (Students’ names have been changed in this article to pro-tect their relationships with those they are describing, at their request.) When the topic of the impending

housing lottery came up, Allie, Mor-gan and Rachel began talking about their plans to enter as a triple. After dropping subtle hints, they looked to Chelsea, but she did not seem to be picking up the signals.

Finally Allie turned to her and nonchalantly asked, “So aren’t sin-gles really hard to get?”

The conversation was too indirect and too late — Chelsea had simply assumed she and Rachel would live together again.

“She acted like a kindergartner,” Allie said. “She knew we didn’t want her to live with us, but it was difficult to tell her she couldn’t live with us. It was weird that she put herself in that position.”

Every year, housing drama plays out around campus in a careful ballet

that requires equal parts diplomacy and self-interest. For Rachel, that meant her roommate had to go.

“We’re fine roommates, but I sub-tly had to tell her my priority was the other girls,” Rachel said. “I don’t like

being mean to people, I don’t like excluding people, so I kept trying to give hints. But getting that across is hard. When you imply you don’t want

Unique no more? U. may require Common AppBy JOANNA WOHLMUtHsenior staff Writer

The Common Application may be required by Brown for hopefuls applying to the class of 2013.

“We are strongly consider-ing the possibility of adopting the Common App,” said Dean of Admission Jim Miller ’73. The fi-nal decision will be made by the admissions staff within the next month after working out some “bureaucratic, administrative is-sues,” he said.

If the Common Application is adopted, it will be the sole means of applying, but Brown will still require additional essays and sup-plemental forms, including those for the Program in Liberal Medical Education and the Brown-Rhode Island School of Design dual de-gree program, Miller said.

Though Brown’s application used to be distinct because it re-quired students to write personal essays by hand, 95 percent of stu-dents now complete the applica-tion electronically and submit it online. By accepting the Common Application, which has “enormous overlaps” with Brown’s current application, the University will make applying easier because the Common Application is used by more than 300 other schools and

students using it will no longer need to separately submit simi-lar portions of their application on a Brown-specific form, Miller said.

Using the Common Applica-tion could also benefit the Uni-versity in the future by allowing it to accept transcripts and teacher recommendations online, Miller said.

Angelika Garcia ’10 said she does not think changing the appli-cation will impact the admissions process. “In the end, it wouldn’t really matter because the admis-sions people choose people who would love to be at Brown,” she said.

Since supplemental materi-als would cover the parts of the current Brown application that are not included on the Common Application, students would prob-ably spend the same amount of time applying, said Jane Zhang ’10, chair of the Admissions and Student Services Committee for the Undergraduate Council of Students.

“I don’t think (using the Com-mon Application would be) a bad thing, but I don’t think it’s a good thing,” because the majority of time spent writing an application is on the school-specific materials, she said.

Quinn Savit / HeraldSpike Lee spoke to a packed Salomon 101 about problems facing blacks today.continued on page 6

Kim Perley / Herald

Tempers run high as students make housing, and friendship, decisions.

continued on page 4

continued on page 4

FEATURE

Director says hip-hop culture distracts from education

continued on page 4

ToDay

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letters26 Prefix with -mat

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author66 Ham partner

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By Donna S. Levin(c)2008 Tribune Media Services, Inc. 4/9/08

4/9/08

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

RELEASE DATE– Wednesday, April 9, 2008

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

[email protected]

C r o s s W o r d

s u d o k u

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

SHARPE REFECtORy

LUNCH — Buffalo Chicken Wings with Bleu Cheese Dressing, Carrot and Celery Sticks, Parsley Potatoes, Fresh Sliced Carrots, Couscous Croquettes with Cider Pepper Sauce

DINNER — Pirate Dinner Special

VERNEy-WOOLLEy DINING HALL

LUNCH — Chicken Fajitas, Vegan Black Bean Tacos, Vegan Refried Beans, Mexican Succotash, Cream Cheese Brownies

DINNER — Roast Turkey with Sauce, Shells with Broccoli, Mashed Potatoes, Stuffing, Wax Beans, Peas, Stir Fry Pork Lo Mein

PAge 2 THe BROWN DAILY HeRALD WeDNeSDAY, APRIL 9, 2008

If you do one thing on College Hill today...Learn about “Listening to Lupe” with

Professor of Africana Studies Tricia RoseSmith-Buonanno 106 at 7:30 p.m.

Free Variation | Jeremy Kuhn

trust Ben | Ben Leubsdorf

Enigma twist | Dustin Foley

Vagina Dentata | Soojean Kim

War and Peas | Linda Zhang and eli Jaffa

Dunkel | Joe Larios

By DANA tEPPERtstaff Writer

When Jill Rafael-Fortney, an asso-ciate professor of molecular and cellular biochemistry at Ohio State University, submitted a grant pro-posal to the National Institutes of Health to research a new treatment that could prevent heart failure, she didn’t expect her proposal to be denied — and then denied again. But after her first two submissions failed, Rafael-Fortney is now wait-ing to submit her proposal for the third time.

And she’s not alone. “This is the cycle that most people are going through right now,” Rafael-Fortney said.

At universities across the nation, young researchers are increasing-ly facing difficulties in obtaining grants from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation — a development that threatens not only the progress of science but the careers of a genera-tion of young scientists, professors say. The more-or-less flat funding from the two government agencies has made it much harder for faculty at universities nationwide to receive funding for research.

Only one in 10 grant proposals receives funding from the NIH, ac-cording to a March 2008 report titled “A Broken Pipeline? Flat Funding of the NIH Puts a Generation of Sci-ence at Risk.” The report, sponsored by Brown and six other academic research institutions, warns that the high degree of competition for such limited resources may not only drive young researchers to other careers and countries, but may also severely slow the pace of medical research in America.

The NIH faces its fourth year of flat funding in President Bush’s Fiscal Year 2008 budget, and while the NSF is slated to receive more funding, the increase is “not as sig-nificant as we would like it to be,” said Tim Leshan, director of gov-ernment relations and community affairs at Brown.

The budgets for both the NIH and NSF have not kept up with inflation over the past few years. The NIH budget has flatlined since 2003, and “the spending power of a flat budget is less,” Leshan said. And while on paper funding for the NSF is going up, “if you look at (the budget) over a couple of years, the funding has not really kept up with inflation,” said Professor of Physics and Depart-ment Chair Chung-I Tan.

These revelations about NSF funding come just after the pas-sage of the America Competes Act, which proposes doubling funding for basic research programs in the physical sciences. Though the act proposed funding increases for the NSF, the current budget only saw a 2.5 percent increase in the funds, Leshan said.

The result, according to a Feb. 25 article published by the American In-stitute of Physics, is that “many pro-grams across the agency, including much of the core research, will have to scale back their planned activities in 2008.” The institute predicted that the NSF will award about 1,000 fewer research grants.

Tan called the America Competes Act a “highly laudable notion,” but he said that his department has not seen any immediate impact. Funding

for basic research has not grown, he said.

NSF grants are one of the major sources of funding for researchers in the Department of Physics, Tan said. The limited NSF funding has been a gradual problem that has “been challenging for both senior and junior faculty,” he said. So far, the faculty in the department has been very fortunate, he added, and both junior and senior faculty have been very successful in obtaining awards in the past. But when the time comes to renew the grants, “it will have a tremendous effect on sci-ence research activities,” he said.

Vice President for Research Clyde Briant said the University is concerned that increased competi-tion for grants is making it difficult for young researchers to receive funding and launch their careers. Universities play an essential role in the research and development that goes on in this country, Bri-ant said, adding that they are “the primary sources of the innovation that occurs.”

“It is very important to cast this as a national picture,” he said. “The small growth in funding affects the nation.”

Limited NIH funding is affect-ing researchers at other institutions as well. Investigators at Vanderbilt University, which contributed to the “Broken Pipeline” report, are con-cerned about the “long and deep ‘recession’” of the NIH, said Andrea Baruchin, chief of staff of the Office of Research at the university’s medi-cal center.

“Like other universities, our researchers are struggling to get grants,” she said.

Rafael-Fortney said she is feeling the effects of limited grant funding not only in her research, but also in her ability to support herself and her family. Like many other professors

higher eDWeDNeSDAY, APRIL 9, 2008 THe BROWN DAILY HeRALD PAge 3

Scant grant money hinders young academics, study finds

Gossip site resists bids to cut off ‘Juice’By MARISA CALLEJAstaff Writer

JuicyCampus.com, an anonymous college gossip Web site with a net-work including over 60 campuses, asks users to “give us the juice.”

But after a series of incidents in which students’ names and reputa-tions have been dragged through the mud, all the site has received in return is calls by student govern-ments to ban the site and a sub-poena from New Jersey’s attorney general, along with an abundance of negative publicity from leading news outlets .

The Los Angeles-based site, which was launched in August 2007, allows students to create posts and reply to threads — which are organized on the site into top-ics such as spring break, sports, faculty, greek organizations and students — without using their name or any identifier. More often than not, the posts involve name-calling and exposed secrets.

JuicyCampus started as “a place to share stories,” said Matt Ivester, the founder of the Web site and a recent Duke University alum. “It was basically me thinking about college and remembering all the fun and ridiculous things that happened on campus. I thought there should be place online where people can share this.”

“On every campus, every day, hilarious and entertaining things are going on,” he said.

For some students, these “sto-ries” are traumatic exposures or slanderous accusations. Often, they are are inquiries into who are the “biggest man whores” or who has the “best ass,” in the case of two recent posts on Brown’s JuicyCampus site.

In March, the New York Times reported that an anonymous poster on the site shared a link to por-nographic material featuring a sophomore at Yale. The student, who learned about the post from

a roommate, told the Times that while he was “trying to zone it out,” the leak prevented him from focus-ing on his midterms.

Since the site began, a student at Loyola Marymount University and another at Colgate University have been arrested for threatening to start shooting sprees at their respective universities, the Times reported.

For all the controversy the site has stirred up, Ivester said the site has been very careful to avoid law-suits. But under current policies, the site only removes posts that violate copyright infringement, while hateful speech can remain up indefinitely.

JuicyCampus dictates that by viewing the site, the user is “bound by all of the terms and conditions” that are listed. Users must agree not to post material that is “un-lawful, threatening, abusive, tor-tious (sic), defamatory, obscene, libelous, or invasive of another’s privacy.” JuicyCampus does not have a system to enforce these conditions, nor does the site claim that “the site or content appearing thereon are appropriate,” accord-ing to the Web site.

Ivester likened the JuicyCam-pus terms and conditions to eti-quette on a golf course. “On 13th hole or whatever, there’s an honor bar,” he said. “Why put prices on chips and drinks and stuff if people are just going to take what they want? The point is that users agree not to do these things.”

According to New Jersey At-torney General Anne Milgram, this lack of enforcement could be in violation of the New Jersey Con-sumer Fraud Act. Milgram and the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs have issued subpoenas against the site’s owner, Lime Blue, LLC of Reno, Nev. and AdBrite Inc., the advertising company that generates revenue for JuicyCam-pus. Through the subpoenas the state hopes to learn more about

JuicyCampus’ operations, includ-ing how the site selects campuses and how parental consent forms — which the site requires for all users under 18 years old — are implemented in an anonymous environment, Consumer Affairs Spokesman Jeff Lamm said.

The two subpoenas, which were not issued in response to any particular incident, were given a March 31 deadline, but were both extended until April 10, said Lamm. Along with the subpoenas, the At-torney General’s office has sent a letter to Google, which previously had an advertising relationship with JuicyCampus but recently severed ties with the company, according to a statement Google spokesman Daniel Rubin made in the Chronicle of Higher Education last month.

Following New Jersey’s lead, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is also plan-ning to take action against the Web site in the coming weeks, accord-ing to a report from WVIT, the NBC affiliate in Hartford, Conn. The Office of the Attorney General has not yet announced whether it has issued or will issue a sub-poena.

Campuses have been taking action as well, trying to get less “juicy” through student govern-ment legislation.

At Pepperdine University, the Student Government Association voted 23 to 5 to strongly recom-mend that the administration ban access to JuicyCampus from uni-versity computers. The adminis-tration demurred, citing the First Amendment.

“I’m proud of the action SGA took,” said Andy Canales, Pepper-dine’s student body president. “It drew national media attention, and led to a movement against this Web site.”

Other students agreed with

continued on page 4continued on page 4


Ivester’s Feb. 18 assertion to the Associated Press that Juicy Campus “can have a really posi-tive impact on college campuses, as a place for both entertainment and free expression.”

A staff editorial in the March 26 edition of the Washington Square News, New York University’s stu-dent newspaper, wrote that Juicy Campus “could serve a wide vari-ety of positive applications.”

“Personal attacks aside, the

Web site could be used to reveal secrets of campus life not widely known to freshmen and onlook-ers,” the editorial said. “The best venues, professors and programs could be highlighted and support-ed by student opinion.”

Regardless of controversy, the site doesn’t appear to be leaving any time soon.

“I think everyone is entitled to their own opinion,” said Ivester. “But censorship is a terrible way to address campus issues. Every-one should have the right to visit the site if they choose.”

continued from page 3

‘Juicy’ going nowhere, yet

at universities, NIH funding pays for part of her salary.

“I have two children,” she said. “I have to pay childcare out of my salary ... It’s almost to the point of costing me money to work every day.” She added that researchers are leaving universities because of the difficulty of obtaining research funding.

Even for the majority who have stayed, the process for receiving funding can be frustrating and drawn-out.

Rachelle Gaudet, an associate professor of molecular and cellular biology at Harvard, said she sub-mitted similar proposals to the NIH five times before receiving a grant. The amount of time spent writing proposals, submitting them, wait-ing for them to be reviewed and then continually resubmitting them is huge, she said.

Moreover, the long process slows down current research, be-cause without funding these proj-ects cannot begin or continue, she said. She added that the competi-tion also discourages creativity and innovation because researchers are becoming more conservative

in their proposals.The average age of a researcher

who gets his or her first grant from the NIH has risen from 39 to 43 since 1990, said Tricia Serio, as-sistant professor of medical sci-ence at Brown. Five or six years ago, resubmitting a grant proposal four or five times would have been unheard of, said Serio, who applied three times before receiving a grant to study misfolded proteins and degenerative brain diseases. For junior faculty, she added, this situation makes it difficult to estab-lish a research program, which is necessary for getting tenure.

Serio said her students are par-ticularly aware of the funding prob-lems. “I’m very worried about the impact it will have on young people wanting to get into this area,” she said. She added that it is important for undergraduate students in the sciences not to be discouraged by the downturn in funding.

But Baruchin, from Vanderbilt’s medical center, is not optimistic about changes in the NIH budget occurring in the near future.

“Given the current adminis-tration’s conversations about the budget, (it) doesn’t look like it’s going to be anytime soon.”


Dearth of NIH funding is hurting research nationwide

with a smile. At the first meeting of the Brown

University Community Council since the incident, Russell Carey ’91 MA’06, interim vice president for campus life and student services, and President Ruth Simmons spoke briefly about the attack.

“We’re impressed with the se-riousness the police department has given this incident,” Carey said. “We’ve had lots of discussions with Campus Life, the Chaplain’s office, Hillel,” he said, adding they’ve talked with students about how they’re feeling. At this point, we haven’t really sensed a need from students to do further activities to what we’ve done.”

Simmons praised the Brown community’s brave response to the attack.

“I was impressed with much of what students were saying” at the open community forum following the incident, she said.

“Although they felt very unsafe and vulnerable, they were reminded there were many who felt that way every day. They were trying to find a connection to other incidents of

hate or harassment on campus,” she said.

Knafo said he came back to work at Hillel the very next week after the attack. These days, he is busy organizing events to celebrate Israel’s 60th anniversary of nation-hood.

“We’re moving on,” he said. “It’s not like you forget it, but we’re mov-ing on.”

Immediately following the at-tack, the Hillel door was locked and visitors had to ring the bell to be let in. A Department of Public Safety officer was posted outside Hillel. Knafo said he is glad those mea-sures have now been removed and Hillel is back to being the “welcom-ing place” it has always been.

Knafo, who has served in the Israeli army, said, “It doesn’t matter where you come from — (having firebombs thrown at your house) is a big deal.”

“It is important to make clear that Israel is a very safe country,” he said, adding that there are no “Molotov cocktails thrown at your house in Israel.”

Knafo said he will remain at Brown until June 2009, after which he will go back to Israel.

to live with someone, it’s like you’re rejecting their compatibility. And it’s hard because you’re still living with this person for the rest of the year.”

Rachel said there is little harbored resentment and she hopes the group can move forward unscathed, but Allie said she doesn’t think Chelsea will want to spend time with them in the future.

“We’re mostly pretending it didn’t happen,” Allie admitted. “We all feel sort of awkward.”

“I wonder if I should have been more blunt, more honest, had that talk in the beginning,” Rachel said. “Would we have caused less drama?”

These four girls are not alone in dealing with such a crisis. Students and administrators said the housing lottery sneaks up on unsuspecting students every year, and choosing groups can make or break friend-ships.

“People’s feelings about being ac-cepted or rejected by their friends are played out” during the lottery, said Belinda Johnson, director of Psycho-logical Services.

Students wait until the last minute to confront their friends, she said, but by then it is too late and the excluded students are left devastated and with-out other options.

Mark Rubinstein, a psychothera-pist at Psychological Services, said that students wait for the ideal time to work out housing conflicts, but “those Teflon moments don’t happen.”

According to Laura Supkoff ’08, Residential Council lottery chair, ResCouncil hears from students in tears every year at lottery time.

“For most people, the housing lot-tery (freshman year) is the first time you will ever pick who you will live with,” she said. “Hopefully people learn you don’t have to live with your best friends, and sometimes you don’t want to. It’s really, ‘You’re messy and I’m neat,’ not ‘Do I like you?’ What people need to focus on is, ‘It’s not you, it’s just our living styles.’”

Last man standing Neil formed an instant bond with

some of his hallmates early in the school year. Even before winter break, five of them unofficially de-cided they would live together. Neil even had a back-up plan — if the five-some fell through, he and one of the others agreed they would break into a double.

But after winter break, Neil’s backup announced he was pledging a fraternity. The remaining members still agreed to enter as a quad.

Neil’s current roommate then de-cided to rush, reducing the group to a threesome. Neil and his next-door neighbor quietly discussed becoming a double if necessary.

Neil was not worried — his neigh-bor was avowedly anti-fraternity and willing to commit now that the lottery

deadline was approaching. Neil’s op-tions seemed secure.

But the neighbor was quietly wooed by one of the fraternities and the third remaining member of the group announced he was living with his athletic team members.

In the span of a month, Neil had gone from a solid group of five to flying solo.

“I had to learn not to take this per-sonally — it’s just what was best for everyone,” Neil said. “I’m still friends with all of them.”

Ultimately, Neil scrambled and found two other students looking to form a lottery group.

“As of a month ago, I hadn’t even considered living with these people,” he said.

Andrew, another freshman, also found himself struggling at the last minute. He had taken his lottery group for granted, but at the elev-enth hour, he was suddenly the odd man out when his group decided they wanted the flexibility of having an even number of group members.

His group told him their decision the day of the application deadline. Thinking he had only hours to form a new plan and a stack of homework assignments, Andrew went to his computer at 12:30 a.m.

“I looked at the clock and realized I missed the deadline,” he said. “I couldn’t deal with it because I was fo-cusing on other things. I was screwed by the system. There was too much stress — it seems like there’s got to be a better way to do it.”

It’s her or meSophie and Casey, two sopho-

mores, became instant best friends when they met in January of their freshman year. Casey then met Amanda through one of her classes and the three grew very close. They decided to enter the housing lottery together.

But the girls quickly realized they didn’t know each other as well as they thought.

“As I spent more and more time with her (Amanda) I realized the way we live our lives is very different,” Casey said. “Certain things about her lifestyle and the choices she made on a regular basis were not necessarily things I could live with.”

Casey sat down with Amanda be-fore the lottery and told her directly why she did not think the two could live together, hoping it would not ruin their friendship.

“I didn’t lay it out in vague terms or sugarcoat it,” she said, adding that she thought a direct approach would be less hurtful.

The girls no longer speak. Sophie was still content with the

plan to live with both of the girls, but Casey delivered an ultimatum. “I don’t want to live with her. I want to live with you,” Casey told Sophie. “You have to choose.”

Suddenly, Casey and Amanda

were competing for Sophie’s friend-ship, and she was completely con-fused.

Sophie eventually realized that she too could not live with Amanda, who the girls said led too wild a lifestyle for their comfort. With the lottery looming, Casey pushed her to make a decision. Sophie chose Casey.

Amanda and Sophie initially re-mained on good terms, but “she was definitely hurt,” Sophie said. “She stopped calling as much. I tried to stay in touch with her, but it was hard. The lottery had put a deadline on our friendship.”

Sophie said the lottery acted as a catalyst and made her realize her friendship with Amanda was not meant to last.

Casey agreed that the friendship would have ended anyway, “but lot-tery forces you to evaluate who you want to spend time with and who you want in your life.”

The lottery conflict remained a lingering cause of resentment in So-phie’s friendship with Amanda.

Even the next fall, Amanda often slyly asked Sophie, “‘How awesome would it have been if we lived to-gether?’”

“But it wouldn’t have been awe-some,” Sophie said. “As much as it sucks, as much as it ruined our friend-ship, if we had evaded it or been nicer about it, we might not have gotten the point across. We might have been stuck living with (Amanda), and it would have been disastrous.”

Let’s be friendsSenior Associate Dean for Resi-

dential Life Richard Bova said stu-dents approach him and other ResLife officials annually for advice.

“It is better to be upfront and hon-est at all times, and the earlier people can be honest, the better the process will work for them,” he said. “Feelings get hurt when you wait until the last minute.”

When students make assumptions about their living arrangements, it is usually because they do not have an open, honest dialogue with their friends and potential roommates, he said, adding that the most drama and stress is among freshmen.

Supkoff, the lottery chair, said the housing system works the way it does because Brown believes in giving students choice.

“We did it with our curriculum and we do it with our housing, but the lottery is stressful because you have a choice,” she said. “The lot-tery system puts a lot of power into students’ hands.”

“The take-home message to any-one who has issues with housing is that there are always possibilities,” she said. “You can live across campus and maintain your friendship. You can have a bad living situation and maintain your friendship. No matter what happens, you can maintain your friendship.”

Hillel funding attacked staff member’s housing


Desperate housemates not unusual in lotterycontinued from page 1

80 percent of health care spending, Thompson said.

He also suggested implementing a $1 federal tax on cigarettes.

He said using new technologies could help save money and prevent mistakes, saying veterinarians know more about their patients than doctors do about theirs.

“We can have anything instan-taneously — except for medical re-cords,” he said.

But he said government-run health care is not the solution, suggesting instead that states let insurance com-

panies bid for the uninsured. Because the uninsured typically use emergen-cy-room care, the most expensive kind of care, insuring them and engaging in preventative medicine will save states money.

Thompson was perhaps most out-spoken about foreign policy, saying medical diplomacy — for example, building the Rabia Balkhi Women’s Hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan — is easier and cheaper than war. He said such diplomacy would be a “public relations bonanza” for the United States.

Thompson was unusual for a presidential candidate in his level of

understanding of health care, said Fox Wetle, associate dean of medicine for public health and public policy. Indeed, as Thompson noted, health care has become an important issue in the presidential campaign, even if that didn’t help his chances in the Republican primaries.

Thompson’s speech offered differ-ent ways to think about health care, Jessica Ratner ’08 said .

“We need a radical approach,” she said.

Thompson’s best dieting secret? Only eat half of what’s on your plate, he said. He claimed he lost 15 pounds on the Tommy Thompson Diet.

Thompson: Shape up and save health carecontinued from page 1

Campus newsWeDNeSDAY, APRIL 9, 2008 THe BROWN DAILY HeRALD PAge 5

n e W s i n B r i e f

The Office of Admission received 955 transfer applications for the 2008-09 school year, a figure slightly lower than previ-ous years, said Dean of Admission James Miller ’73.

The Office recently finished compiling data on this year’s transfer applicant pool after regular decisions were mailed on March 31, he said.

The Office is anticipating the enrollment of slightly more than 100 transfer applicants, Miller wrote in an e-mail to The Herald.

The number of accepted transfer students varies from year to year and depends on a number of factors, he wrote. Be-cause the number of students who can enroll in the under-graduate College each year is fixed, the number of transfers accepted is determined by the size of the incoming freshman class and the number of students leaving for or returning from study abroad programs, he wrote.

Last year, the University received approximately 1,050 ap-plications and accepted 75 students, according to Miller. For the 2006-07 school year, Brown accepted only 45 transfers.

Miller added that the Office of Admission has not noticed any change in the strength or composition of the transfer ap-plicant pool, and that the applicants have come from a va-riety of schools without any visible geographic or regional trends.

“There really isn’t a dominant school in terms of transfer applications. The source and size of transfer pools can vary significantly from year to year,” Miller wrote.

Transfer applicants will receive their decisions in mid-May.

— Noura Choudhury

transfer applications slightly down

Maple syrup poured on student’s scooterBy MAx MANKINsenior staff Writer

The following summary includes all ma-jor incidents reported to the Department of Public Safety between March 13, 2008 and April 2. It does not include general service and alarm calls. The Providence Police Department also responds to incidents occurring off campus. DPS

does not divulge information on cases that are currently under investigation by the department, PPD or the Office of Student Life. DPS maintains a daily log of all shift activity and general service calls which can be viewed during busi-ness hours at its headquarters, located at 75 Charlesfield St.

thursday, March 13:

1:37 a.m. Officers were dispatched for a report of someone throwing garbage out of a window in Jameson House onto Charlesfield Street. Upon arrival, an officer was approached by a concerned resident who stated that there was a group of males running down the hall smashing exit signs. The officer witnessed a male hanging from the exit sign, which the perpe-trator then ripped down along with part of the ceiling. The case has been turned over to Student Life. (A on map, see page 7)

2:36 a.m. After hearing the report of an assault on his Providence Police scanner, a DPS officer responded to the scene on the corner of Hope and Power Streets and found there were Brown students involved. PPD served as the lead investigators. A female stated that she was walking home from a local bar with an ex-boyfriend when another ex-boyfriend saw her and was enraged. He got out of his ve-hicle and pushed them to the ground. Providence Police handled the inci-dent, and the case has been turned over to Student Life. (B)

Time unknown. An employee re-ported that between 4 p.m. on March 11 and 2 p.m. on March 13, unknown

persons pried the security cable off a laptop computer and took it from Alumnae Hall. (C)

8:40 p.m. An officer noticed graffiti on both sides of the walls of Faunce House near the entrance to the Post Office on Waterman Street. The De-partment of Facilities Management was notified. (D)

Saturday, March 15:12:33 a.m. Officers were dis-

patched for a report of a suspicious male in Andrews Hall. The suspect took off running. A DPS officer and detective chased the suspect and ap-prehended him on North Main Street. During the investigation the suspect admitted to stealing laptops from dorms on campus. He was turned over to Providence Police for charg-ing. (E)

Sunday, March 16:12:26 a.m. While at a party at

Buxton House, two students were involved in an altercation over a mu-tual friend. One male shoved the other and it caused his glasses to fall to the ground and break. The parties were advised to go their separate ways. The student wants to be reimbursed for his glasses. The matter was turned over to Student Life. (F)

Monday, March 17:1:59 p.m. A student reported that

sometime between 11 p.m. on March 14 and 9 a.m. on March 16, someone poured maple syrup all over her mo-tor scooter in Lot 77 at Brook and Benevolent Streets. (G)

tuesday, March 18:4:31 p.m. A student stated that

between 9:15 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. on March 10, an unknown male subject snuck up behind her and grabbed her while she was walking on Benevolent Street. She elbowed the subject in the gut while stomping on his foot, which led him to loosen his grip and then she kneed him in the groin, causing him to fall. She then took off running. Providence Police were dispatched to DPS headquarters to take a report on

the incident. (H)

Wednesday, March 19:8:52 p.m. While on routine patrol,

an officer discovered graffiti on the wall of Pembroke Field House near the entrance door and also an addi-tional tag on the back of the building. Facilities Management was notified. (I)

Friday, March 21:1:38 p.m. An employee reported

that on two occasions, unknown per-sons removed cash from her wallet, which was in her desk drawer at 70 Ship Street. DPS detectives are inves-tigating. (Not shown)

4:23 p.m. While on patrol, an of-ficer observed graffiti on the left rear door of Wilson Hall. (J)

9:51 p.m. While on patrol, an of-ficer noticed people on the roof of Champlin Hall. Upon arrival he saw three males who were holding beer cans attempting to leave the area. The beer was dumped out on the scene and they were told not to go on the roof. The case has been turned over to Student Life. (K)

Saturday, March 22:1:11 a.m. Two students were in-

volved in an altercation on George Street. Providence Police were on scene. (L)

Sunday, March 23:7:41 p.m. A student stated that he

and his suitemates had returned to their suite in Grad Tower B, which had been left unlocked, to discover that his laptop had been stolen from his room, which had also been left unlocked. He stated that they had been in the room at approximately 7 p.m. and returned to the room at approximately 7:30 p.m. to find the laptop missing.

Additionally, another student re-ported that his Nintendo Wii game console, two remotes, four control-lers and all of the wires and plugs for the system were taken. A camera and

UCS serves a side of politics with dinnerBy CHAZ KELSHsenior staff Writer

If Elizabeth Huidekoper, execu-tive vice president for finance and administration, asked you to pick the University’s next big project, what would you choose?

Neither candidate for president of the Undergraduate Council of Students had an immediate answer to this question from Student Ac-tivities Chair and moderator Drew Madden ’10 at Tuesday evening’s debate in the Sharpe Refectory.

The first candidate, Brian Beck-er ’09, said there was no “pressing need” to fund any one program right now and that he would divide the money between needy causes, before changing his mind and say-ing he would put the money toward financial aid, something that “can only get better.”

Martin Bell ’10, Becker’s oppo-nent, also acknowledged the di-verse funding needs of the Univer-sity. “Obviously there’s a plethora of things we could do,” Bell said.

The debate, which lasted about 30 minutes, featured the six candi-dates running for contested posi-tions on UCS and the Undergradu-ate Finance Board.

Those candidates also began receiving endorsements last night, with Greek Council endorsing Becker for UCS president, Herald Account Manager Ellen DaSilva ’10 for UCS vice president and Jose Vasconez ’10 for UFB chair.

During the debate, candidates for UCS vice president and UFB chair delivered brief statements, while candidates for UCS president also took questions from Madden and audience members, who were mostly UCS members. Around them, hungry students continued

eating and talking.Bell, previously UCS’s liaison

to the Corporation, emphasized the need for expanded financial aid as he described his platform and experience.

He said UCS’s task is to “articu-late the needs and wants of the stu-dent body” to the administration, faculty and Corporation. He said he is concerned with increasing student involvement in admissions policy and making the University

Thanks for reading.

continued on page 7

CRIME LOG

Meara Sharma / Herald

Martin Bell ’10 campaigned for Undergraduate Council of Students president last night at the Ratty alongside his opponent, Brian Becker ’09 (left).

continued on page 6


more environmentally aware.UCS must “encourage if not im-

plore” the administration to make the University carbon-neutral, he said, adding that Brown must “push that bar ever higher.”

He also proposed creating a $16 million endowment over several years to fund student activities.

“A vote for me will be a vote for the future,” Bell said.

Becker, who was chair of UCS’s Campus Life Committee last year, said he would improve Brown in simple, concrete ways. He cited the recent introduction of the salad bar at Josiah’s, the addition of a DVD library at the Friedman Center and renovations to fresh-man lounges as examples of his accomplishments.

“If you vote for me, it’s a vote for fun,” Becker said.

UCS should “recognize holes” in Brown and “work towards im-proving them,” he said when UCS Vice President Lauren Kolodny ’08 asked what he thought the UCS mission statement should be. Becker also said he has the “institutional memory” needed to

run UCS effectively.He also said he wanted to send

monthly or bi-monthly e-mails to update the student body on UCS’s accomplishments. “As elected members, it’s our responsibility to represent ourselves fully” to the student body, he said.

Kaustubh Shah ’08 asked the candidates how they proposed to end UCS’s reputation for being stuck in bureaucracy.

“Essentially, it’s basic house-keeping,” said Bell, adding that UCS needs to come to meetings ready to spend the majority of its time on issues.

Becker said UCS needs to dis-regard its code of operations at times to get things done, though parliamentary procedure normally maintains order.

Candidates for other positions made few points in the short time they were allotted.

Vasconez, a candidate for UFB chair, said he enjoys being a UFB representative. “After every Tues-day and Thursday when we fin-ish our meeting, I will have done something great for the student body,” he said.

Herald Sales Manager Lily Tran

’10, Vasconez’s opponent, said UFB must improve its transparency to improve students’ confidence. Tran has received the endorse-ments of the Brown Taiwan Soci-ety, the Brown Chinese Students Association, China Care Brown, the Brown Taekwondo Club and Brown Mock Trial, according to Elections Board Vice Chair Ellie Cutler ’10.

DaSilva, who is running for UCS vice president, said she is also running on a platform of transpar-ency, adding that she will be able to organize next year’s expanded UCS.

Michael MacCombie ’11, also running for UCS vice president, said he wants to improve advising and seek more student input.

“We need to start going out of the office and find out what people want,” MacCombie said.

Candidates and organizers said the debate was frustrating.

“No one was really listening,” Cutler said. At the same time, she said, there is “a lot of merit to hav-ing the debate.”

“I didn’t think 6:30 p.m. on a Tuesday at the Ratty was the right time or place” to reach students,

Becker said. “Sure, we talked about issues, but I don’t think it really makes a difference.”

Bell agreed. “It was as good as you could expect in a venue like this,” he said. “We’re not exactly Obama and Clinton here.”

Candidates’ campaigns began Friday, and most have made a Fa-cebook group or event to encour-aged their friends to vote.

Some have other ideas. Becker is putting slides on IPTV, a me-dium that “hasn’t been used very often in the past,” said Cutler, and “a lot of people are just trying to get face time.”

Other than that, candidates are doing “the usual stuff,” she said.

Campaign materials must be approved by the Elections Board before distribution. Each candi-date received 100 campaign points from UCS — a Facebook group, for example, costs 15 points, while face-to-face interaction is free.

Candidates agreed that finding people in person is the best strat-egy. DaSilva called it “the most effective way” to get votes.

“When I’m talking to people, I can show them that I really know my stuff,” Vasconez said.

as being a sellout,” Lee said. While he was growing up in Brooklyn in the 1970s, “you got major props if you were smart. No one would call you a white boy or white girl if you got A’s.”

Lee said he blamed the rap indus-try for discouraging blacks from hard work and studying. At one point, “it was against the law for African-Amer-icans to learn how to read and write,” Lee said. Now, rap music and videos spread the notion that “ignorant is being black ... gangsta ... ghetto.”

Lee, who said he had “no idea (he) wanted to be a filmmaker,” credited his surroundings for his early suc-cess. Lee was raised in Brooklyn by his mother, an art teacher, and his father, a jazz musician. He said he first starting filming the summer after his sophomore year of college in 1977.

That summer in New York City, Lee said he filmed a “blackout,” “blacks and Puerto Ricans looting,” “the first summer of disco” and the Son of Sam serial killer scare.

“I had all this footage and no idea what to do with it,” Lee said, adding that the material eventually inspired him to become a mass communica-tions major.

Lee broke onto the film scene with late 1980s indie hits “She’s Gotta Have It” and “Do the Right Thing,” and has recently scored big with 2006’s “Inside Man,” which was critically acclaimed.

Despite his recent success, Lee says it’s still difficult to get financing for films about blacks.

“Hollywood will finance a certain type of African-American film,” Lee said, referring to “bang-bang” gang-ster movies and “lowbrow comedy.”

“Tyler Perry has a film every month coming out,” Lee quipped.

Resolved to show “not just the pretty pictures but the ugly stuff too” about the black experience, Lee plugged his latest film, which is about black soldiers in World War II.

Lee said black soldiers faced racial prejudice while serving in the military, adding, “even today, in Iraq — I know how I feel about this war.”

After a pause, Lee then smiled and recited presidential candidate Barack Obama’s slogan, “Yes we can” to a wildly cheering crowd.

“Just the thought of someone like Barack being president of these United States — I still wake up in the morning scratching my head,” Lee said. “My grandmother — I know she went to heaven knowing this day would never come.”

Kibwe Chase-Marshall ’11 said Lee’s voice resounded loudly on is-sues beyond film.

“While you might have another director here to give insights on why to opt for a dolly shot or a pan, (Lee) can offer things that are a lot more valuable in a cultural context,” he said.

Reginald Cole ’10 said that “as a speaker trying to talk to a Brown crowd, (Lee) couldn’t necessarily go into depth about” certain subjects.

The Brown community, which Lee told The Herald is “together” and “always has fun,” was receptive of him, as dozens of students crowded Lee for autographs after his speech, which was sponsored by the Brown Lecture Board.

“Absolutely genius,” said Dami Olatunji ’11. “I can’t stay awake from most lectures — but I stayed awake for this one.”

Lee: New York summer led to film career


Student government candidates march campaign trailcontinued from page 5

Wardlaw said the team was aware of Saiontz’s “shtick.” Saiontz’s sister, Amanda Saiontz ’07, played tennis at Brown, giving the team some familiar-ity with the family.

“It was definitely a mental victory for Bianca,” he said. “Bianca had to make a lot of adjustments during the points.”

Aboubakare’s 12th straight win put her record at 12-2 in the spring season and 24-5 overall.

The team’s second win was cap-tured by No. 4 Tanja Vucetic ’10, who was one of four singles players to take a match to three sets. She won 6-4, 1-6, 6-1.

Still on the court at this time were No. 2 Sara Mansur ’09 and No. 3 Brett Finkelstein ’09. Both women won their first sets but found themselves engaged in tough battles.

Mansur won her first set, 7-5, before losing the second set in a tiebreaker, 7-6 (5). She came out strong in the third set, leading 4-1, but she ran out of energy as the match eclipsed the two-and-a-half hour mark. She lost five games in a row, dropping the third set, 6-4.

Mansur said her opponent gained steam late in the third set, while her own tiredness played a major role.

Likewise, Finkelstein engaged in a three-set contest. She took the first set, 7-5, before losing the second set, 6-2. The third set was a back-and-forth battle, but her opponent went on a streak at 3-3 to win, 6-3.

Finkelstein said fatigue wasn’t a factor for her. Instead, her opponent simply missed fewer shots.

“My serve is what let me down,” she said.

Now down 3-2, Brown had to pull out victories from both its No. 5 and No. 6 seeds. Instead, No. 6 Emily Ellis ’10 lost 6-1, 6-1. No. 5 Marisa Schonfeld ’11 pulled out a victory in her third set, but that only meant that the Bears would finish the day on the short end of a 4-3 tally.

“What the issue is for our guys, as you break through (to) the next level (of competition), is battling through your discomforts,” said Assistant Coach Cecily Dubusker.

The team was back on the Pizzi-tola Center courts the next day, this time against Penn.

Wardlaw changed the doubles lineup by placing Ellis with Kelley Kirkpatrick ’08 at No. 2 and Mansur with Kathrin Sorokko ’10 at No. 3. The move paid off as both duos won their pro sets, compensating for Abou-bakare and Schonfeld’s loss to the country’s 27th-best doubles team.

The score was tied after Finkel-stein lost, 6-4, 6-2 to Julia Koulbits-kaya, a two-time First Team All-Ivy player.

Then came a rarity. For the first time since Feb. 8, Aboubakare was defeated in singles, even though she started off looking like she was on her way to another victory.

Matched up against Ekaterina

Kosminskaya, the unanimous Ivy League Player of the Year last year as a freshman, Aboubakare kept her energy up from Friday’s match and took the first set, 6-3.

Aboubakare jumped on top in the second set, as well, leading 2-0. But then Kosminskaya, No. 117 in the nation, turned the tables on her. She won 12 games in a row against Abou-bakare, finishing off the second set 6-2 and sweeping the third set 6-0.

“She definitely stepped up her game,” Aboubakare said. “I didn’t change my plans quick enough. She got used to how I was playing.”

At No. 2, Mansur dropped another three-set match. She won the first set, 7-6 (5), but lost the second set, 6-7 (3), squandering two match points when she was up 5-4. Mansur dropped her third set, 6-0, exhausted after two long matches in just over a day.

“I was tired, but I probably should’ve pulled some reserve en-ergy from somewhere,” she said. “I choked in the tiebreaker.”

Vucetic became the only Brown player to start the conference season 3-0, after a 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 win.

The coaches were excited about the sophomore’s progress this season in adjusting to tough opponents.

“She played kind of a fiery player,” Dubusker said. “She’s not going to back down because of that.”

Down 3-2, Bruno looked to its final two seeds to rescue them. Schonfeld played her opponent tough but came away with a 6-4, 6-2 loss. Playing at No. 6, Ashley Butler ’11 lost 6-3, 6-2.

The team was discouraged about the close losses, but nobody could ignore the differences in the matches against both teams. Both Penn and Princeton defeated Brown 7-0 last year and Yale, which beat Bruno 4-3 last week, defeated the Bears 6-1 last year.

“In all three of our Ivy matches, there was a point in the match where we all thought we were going to win the match,” Wardlaw said. “Every match we’ve had, there’s been a tip-ping point.”

Though the Bears are done play-ing possibly the roughest part of their schedule, their 0-3 start will be difficult to overcome. Still, with the progress witnessed so far, the team is optimistic.

“I’m not discouraged,” Mansur said. “These are probably the three best teams in the conference.”

The team’s coaches said that the players showed this weekend how much they have progressed — and how much more they need to do to compete with the top guns.

“The mistake would be to come out of these matches without learning anything,” Dubusker said.

After this weekend’s performance, the women’s tennis team has an-nounced to the Ivy League that it can play. But pulling out more victories will take an extra step.

The team continues its season Friday at Cornell and Saturday at Columbia.

around the Scandinavium arena, he confidently climbed to the top of the talented leader board, using a Yank and a Frenchman as footholds for his unrelenting toe pick. (Think of Jones’ curling “hacks,” but in more ways than one.)

Buttle then held back tears as the Maple Leaf was hoisted up in the air, flanked by the lagging red, white and blue and bleu, blanc et rouge. With a glowing heart, he stood on guard for

the true north strong and free.Jones and Buttle are two bright

spots in a spring that looks to be dismal for the other on-ice Maple Leafs.

But an ice surface need not be surrounded by boards and Plexiglas in order to be conquered by Cana-dians. After all, everyone knows we have the biggest curling stones.

Chaz Firestone ’10 is one-sixteenth American, but he’ll never tell you


Firestone ’10: The ice’s nice

WeDNeSDAY, APRIL 9, 2008 THe BROWN DAILY HeRALD PAge 7


Tough play, no wins for w. tennis

iPod were also taken. There are no suspects at this time. (M)

tuesday, March 25:12:17 p.m. An employee stated

that between 10 a.m. and 12 p.m., her shoulder bag was stolen from her desk on the fifth floor of Barus and Holley. She stated that her bag was left unsecured and unattended. The area was checked for the bag and a suspect. The bag was located in a fifth floor men’s bathroom. The only thing that was discovered miss-ing was $20 in cash. (N)

Friday, March 28:10:55 a.m. An employee report-

ed that on two separate occasions money was stolen from her wallet that was in her handbag in a labora-tory at 70 Ship Street. She stated that on January 18, cash was sto-len from her wallet that was left on her desk. In addition, she reported that sometime in February, cash was stolen from her wallet. Both instances, the suspect left mostly one dollar bills behind in the wallet. The door was reported locked at all times. There are no signs of forced entry and no suspects at this time. DPS detectives are investigating. (Not shown)

11:33 a.m. An employee reported that between March 20 and March 25, cash was stolen from her wal-let in a lab at 70 Ship Street. She reported that a few one dollar bills were left in the wallet and that the room was locked at all times. There were no signs of forced entry and there are no suspects at this time. DPS detectives are investigating. (Not shown)

Saturday, March 29:3:22 p.m. While on patrol, an of-

ficer noticed graffiti on Alumnae Hall. Facilities Management was notified. (O)

Sunday, March 30:10:04 p.m. While on patrol, an

officer observed that four vehicles in Lot 7 had flat tires. Upon further investigation, he observed that the tires had been cut. (P)

tuesday, April 1:4:29 p.m. Officers were dis-

patched for a report of a stolen motor vehicle on Bowen Street. An employee stated that her vehicle was parked and secured at 10 a.m. When she returned at 4 p.m., she discov-ered that her vehicle had been stolen. Providence Police arrived on scene

and took a report. The vehicle was recovered the next day. (Q)

11:27 p.m. A student set off a fire alarm in Keeney Quad because he sprayed his brother with a fire extin-guisher. The matter has been turned over to Student Life. (R)

Wednesday, April 2:8:38 a.m. An officer was dis-

patched for a report of a fire safety violation in Champlin Hall. Upon arrival, the University Fire Marshal pointed out two electric frying pans that students were using to fry food in grease. He also stated that the students were then taking the used grease and dumping it out of the lounge window. The marshal con-fiscated both frying pans from the kitchen and lounge area. (S)


Brothers’ spat sets off Keeney fire alarmViolent crime

Theft, burglary

Vandalism, graffiti

Other

Steve DeLucia / Herald, Courtesy of google Maps

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A DECLARATION AGAINST GENOCIDE

THE SILENCE SPEAKS VOLUMES. AND WHAT IT SAYS IS BOTH DISTURBING AND OMINOUS. Genocidal outrages are now an everyday occurrence in Africa. In the Middle East the murder of entire ethnic and religious groups is an obsession that inspires terrorist armies and heads of state. In the full glare of the global spotlight, Iran's Ahmadinejad, Hezbollah’s Nasrallah, and Palestinian leaders are calling for the obliteration of the Jewish state. From the goose-stepping soldiers of Hezbollah, Syria and Iran to the broadcasts of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion on al-Jazeera and Egyptian TV, homage is paid to the Nazi past by radicals in the Muslim world. In their sermons and public proclamations the most virulent Jew-hatred is trumpeted since the dark of days of the Second World War. And unlike the Nazis they do not conceal their malevolent goal.

1. Condemn and repudiate the Hadith which reads: "The prophet, prayer and peace be upon him, said: The time [of judgment] will not come until Muslims will fight the Jews and kill them; until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, which will cry: O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, come on and kill him!" Sahih Muslim book 41, no. 6985

2. Condemn and repudiate the Hamas Charter which says: “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.”

3. Condemn Ahmadinejad who has said: “The accomplishment of a world without America and Israel is both possible and feasible."

4. Condemn Hezbollah and its leader Hassan Nasrallah who has said: "The Jews are a cancer which is liable to spread again at any moment." "There is no solution to the conflict except with the disappearance of Israel." “If they all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide.”

5. Affirm: * The right of all people to live in freedom and dignity. * The freedom of the individual conscience: to change religions or have no religion at all. * The equal dignity of women and men. * The right of all people to live free from violence, intimidation, and coercion.

We call upon all campus political, cultural, ethnic and religious groups to stand with us in opposing all forms of religious supremacism, violence and intimidation.

Sign the Declaration now at www. terrorismawareness.org

Terrorism Awareness Project

Yet there is little or no response from the rest of us: no universal condemnation and outrage, no common call for resistance. Worse, excuses are made for the bearers of the hate. If only the "Great Satan," which is America, and the "Little Satan," which is Israel, will but change their policies, then the death sentences that have been pronounced against their citizens will be rescinded and the world can be at peace. Thus is blame transferred to the targets of the hate. It is time to oppose the complicity of silence. It is time to unite in condemning the hatred that is a blight on our times; it is time to repudiate the calls for genocide that darken our human horizon. Therefore we are submitting this Declaration Against Genocide to student governments, to campus human rights organizations, to Muslim Students Associations and to individuals in the academic community, to join us in drawing a collective line in the sand against barbarism and to declare ourselves for civilization and hope.

Whereas genocide – the murder, or plan to murder, an entire people – is a crime against all humanity; Whereas genocide is a crime that has metastasized in the modern era, leading to the murders of millions of Armenians, Cambodians, Tutsis, Sudanese, Bosnian Muslims and others; Whereas the largest and most devastating genocide on record is the Holocaust of European Jews; Whereas a new genocide of the Jews is being called for by Islamic leaders in the Middle East; Whereas global forces are being mobilized by the Iranian regime to eliminate the Jewish state; Whereas the genocide of the Jews is called for in texts understood by some Muslims as authoritative and echoes through sermons in some mosques today, and is proclaimed by certain leaders of the Islamic religion; Whereas Catholicism and other Christian denominations have condemned the Holocaust and repudiated anti-Jewish pronouncements that have stained their religious past;

We call on all Student Governments and campus Muslim groups to:

THE DECLARATION

For more information please contact Jeff at [email protected]

THERE IS A GENOCIDAL MOVEMENT AFOOT IN THE WORLD. ITS ADVOCATES ARE LEGION, ITS RESOURCES GREAT, ITS ATROCITIES MOUNTING. BUT AMERICANS STILL PRETEND THAT IT DOESN'T EXIST.

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WeDNeSDAY, APRIL 9, 2008 THe BROWN DAILY HeRALD PAge 9

doubles win onto his singles court, which fired up the rest of the Bruno team. Lee was victorious at No. 3 singles, winning 6-2, 6-4, followed by Jonathan Pearlman ’11 at No. 2, winning 6-4 in the first set before Princeton’s Alex Krueger-Wyman retired after an injury to give the win to the Bears.

At No. 1 singles, Kohli fought valiantly in his last match against the Tigers but ultimately fell in three sets, 5-7, 6-2, 1-0, followed by another loss by Gardner at No. 4 singles, 6-2, 6-4. A last minute lineup change proved successful for the Bears, as Au came out with a “desperation” win that silenced his opponent quickly, 6-3, 6-0. Tied at 3-3, it came down to the final match at No. 5 singles, as Garland’s 6-4, 6-3 win gave Bruno the victory.

“The team was the loudest I can remember during my match,” Garland said. “That was extremely important and motivated each of us. When there is chatter between the courts, we always play our best, and this was a great example of how

it pushed us over the edge to vic-tory.”

But the Bears came back to Earth in their next match against Penn. The team was plagued with a last minute lineup change in the doubles after Ratnam injured himself the day before. The Bears were unsuccessful in coping with change, as Gardner and Garland, at No. 1 doubles for the first time this season, fell quickly, 8-4. Kohli and Pearlman also lost, 8-4, at No. 2 doubles, and Lee and Posner lost 8-1 at No. 3.

“The team as a whole dropped a level when playing Penn, it wasn’t our best effort,” Au wrote. “I’m not sure if we played with the same des-peration as we did the day before. We battled hard at certain times, but were unable to keep that high energy throughout the match.”

The lack of energy became appar-ent in the singles matches, as No. 1 and 2 singles Kohli and Pearlman lost in straight sets. At No. 3 singles, Lee kept it close in the first set, win-ning 7-5, but he lost the second set tiebreaker and dropped the third set, 6-1.

Gardner followed Lee at No. 4

singles, winning the first set 6-1 be-fore ultimately losing the next two sets, 6-1, 6-4. The two points of the day came at No. 5 and 6 singles, as Garland grabbed his win in straight sets, 6-3, 6-1, followed by a tight scor-ing three-setter for Au, who pulled out the victory in a third set tiebreak-er winning 3-6, 6-3, 7-6.

Breaking even this weekend doesn’t take the Bears out of con-tention for the Ivy title, but it means they have to refocus and return to the Bruno game plan.

“Having not won a doubles point yet has been a big surprise,” Garland said. “We’ve beat some of the best teams in the country. We have to get back to our roots of doubles domina-tion in these next matches.”

Total domination is what Bruno needs to find in order to take its play to the next level. The team has no time to waste as it takes on Cornell this Friday at 2 p.m. in the Pizzitola Center, followed by Columbia on Saturday at 2 p.m.

“Both of these opponents are very tough,” Garland said. “This weekend will certainly determine the fate of the rest of our season.”

Doubles trouble in Princeton win, Penn losscontinued from page 12

resulted in three first-inning runs for Brown. But the Big Red came right back, putting up three runs in a two-out rally in their next turn at the plate.

In the bottom of the third, catcher Matt Colantonio ’11 gave the Bears the lead when he connected with the first pitch for an RBI double to right field, and Murphy drove Colantonio home with an opposite-field single to left, on a first-pitch fastball.

“Coach stressed going after the first pitch of an at-bat and hunting for fastballs,” Colantonio said. “He’s worked with us on trying to get a hit on a good pitch.”

After allowing a leadoff home run in the top of the fourth, starter Alex Silverman ’08 retired the next three batters to maintain the one-run lead. Hallberg came on in relief with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the sixth and blew three consecutive fastballs past the Big Red hitter to get the Bears out of trouble. He then pitched a scoreless seventh to give Bruno the win, 5-4.

Hallberg “had his velocity back, and he was locating it down in the zone,” Drabinski said. “I told him that when you throw like that, you only need one pitch.”

In the second game of the dou-bleheader, Nuzzo hit a three-run homer as part of a five-run first in-ning, but the Big Red crept back into the game.

Will Weidig ’10 surrendered lead-off home runs in the third, fourth and fifth innings, and the Big Red came within one run, at 7-6, after five innings. A two-run homer off the bat of first baseman Pete Greskoff ’11 in the third kept the Bears on top.

“Will was having trouble keep-ing his fastball down, and he throws hard enough that if he leaves the ball up, someone can just stick their bat out and the ball will go far,” Colan-tonio said.

After Weidig pitched out of a bases-loaded jam in the sixth, Mark Gormley ’11, Anthony Vita ’08 and Hallberg combined for three innings of shutout ball, and Brown added three more runs in the bottom of the sixth, to come away with an 11-7 win.

On Sunday, Brown faced off against Princeton in another double-header. In the first game, the Bears managed only two runs, but that was

all they would need, as Vita pitched the full seven innings and allowed only one run in just his second start of the season. Vita has also been one of Bruno’s most reliable pitchers out of the bullpen, allowing just two earned runs in 12 2-3 innings of re-lief work, but he has had no trouble adjusting to the starting role.

“I approach it the same way, whether I’m in relief or starting,” he said. “I was basically just locating well, and keeping the ball away.”

In Sunday’s second game, Nuz-zo gave the Bears a 7-5 lead with a grand slam in the bottom of the fourth, his third home run in six games. He now leads the team with three home runs and 24 RBIs on the season.

Brown also got four hits from Nick Punal ’10, who is currently sec-ond on the team with a .354 batting average, trailing only Colantonio, who leads the team at .403.

But the Princeton offense proved

to be too much for Brown in the sec-ond game, when starter Josh Feit ’11 walked three batters and hit another while giving up four runs in 2 1-3 in-nings of work. Matt Kimball ’11, after giving up just one run in his first 3 2-3 innings of work, got tagged for four runs in the seventh. Gormley and Rob Wilcox ’10 also struggled in relief, and the Tigers pulled out a 14-11 win.

“I thought Josh Feit was hurt by walks, and I think Matt Kimball pitched great for four innings; I don’t know if he started to tire a little,” Drabinski said. “Our bullpen ... had good stuff, but the ball was up and over the plate. ... I don’t care how hard you throw, it’s more important where you throw it.”

Brown will resume Ivy League competition when it plays host to Dartmouth for a four-game series this weekend, with a doubleheader on Saturday and another two games on Sunday.


Baseball goes 3-1 against Cornell, Princeton

Thanks for reading.

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

P E T E F A L L O N

‘Politics of polarization’

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eDiTorial & leTTersPAge 10 THe BROWN DAILY HeRALD WeDNeSDAY, APRIL 9, 2008

Quigley’s anti-gay marriage column misses the markto the Editor:

In regards to Sean Quigley’s ’10 recent reproach of gay marriage (“Cultural tyranny and the calamity of gay marriage,” April 3).

Quigley seems to have misunderstood the nature of the battle for gay marriage taking place across America. He calls marriage “a purely religious institution,” and insinuates that religion justifies the exclusion of gays from the institution of marriage, but fails to recognize the dozens of religious groups that perform gay marriages. These include the Anglican and Episcopal churches and the Jewish Reform and Conservative movements. This severely undermines his assertion that gay marriage amounts to “cultural tyranny,” especially when no religious group is required to perform gay marriages in states where it is legal.

Quigley states that same-sex marriage is an example of “the government artificially (manipulating) the customs of the people.” His assertion that the government has no right to impress cultural values not held by the population bares an uncanny similarity to arguments posed against inter-racial marriage in the 1950s and the civil rights movement in the 1960s. Sometimes it is the duty of the legislatures, or the courts, to push the boundaries of the popular to ensure equality for all citizens. The majority doesn’t have a chokehold on ’what is right.”

Advocates do not seek to institutionalize gay marriage because they “crave social sanction” for what Quigley calls gay “lifestyles,” but rather because they want gay couple to receive the same benefits that heterosexual partners receive. So let’s posit the unpopular idea. How about dissolving the governmental institution of marriage, and letting individuals decide for themselves about hospital visitation rights, who can adopt children, and who pension recipients will be?

Susannah Kroeber ‘11April 7

to the Editor:

The institution of marriage is multifaceted. It has reli-gious, social, economic and legal aspects. As Sean Quigley’s ’10 most recent column (“Cultural tyranny and the calamity of gay marriage,” April 3) points out, government only controls the legal aspect of the institution. According to the United States Government Accountability Office, over 1,000 federal provisions exist which treat married couples differently than individuals. There is no reason whatsoever why these statutes — all the legal pros and cons of mar-riage — should only apply to heterosexual couples.

Quigley argues that “government’s sole place in mar-riage” is “to encourage and facilitate the pre-existing in-stitution.” In case anyone hasn’t noticed, thousands upon thousands of homosexuals around the country are involved in long-term, monogamous relationships, differing from married heterosexual couples only in the eyes of the law. They are raising families and going about their lives, and our government should not deny equal legal recognition to couple engaged in these “pre-existing” relationships.

Massachusetts legalized gay marriage four years ago; New Jersey has recognized civil unions for over a year. Both states have yet to be overrun by cultural tyranny or smote by God. Which brings me to my final point — God. Quigley’s article implies (without explicitly stating) that God would oppose homosexuality and gay marriage.

As someone who believes in God, I cannot bring myself to imagine that He would send a good, moral, upstanding, righteous person to Hell simply for being homosexual. Granted, I don’t know what God would do any more than the next person, but this is all the more reason why govern-ment should stay out of the business of basing legislation in religion.

Jerry Cedrone ’11April 3

Ever since Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., dropped out of the presidential race, illegal immigration had been more or less off the radar of the mainstream media, too busy documenting a never-ending primary cycle. But Gov. Donald Carcieri ’65 has brought immigration back to the forefront in Rhode Island, issuing an order on March 27 to crack down on illegal immigrants seeking employment in the state.

Carcieri’s order, among other things, asks State Police and Depart-ment of Corrections officers to get the necessary training to take on some of the duties of U.S. immigration enforcement officers and requires that all employers in state use a federal system to “electronically verify the employment eligibility of new hires.”

That seems pretty clear-cut, right? Illegal immigrants are here unlawfully and are taking jobs that tax-paying citizens deserve, ac-cording to some. But it’s much more complicated than Carcieri seems to understand.

Illegal immigration needs to be addressed at a federal level. We can’t treat immigrants differently depending on which state they live in without creating massive disparities — and inducing frantic migration between states, which would only worsen conditions for these immigrants.

Further, the solution cannot be one that breaks apart families or deports significant numbers of residents, criminal or otherwise. Call it amnesty if you must — new policies and programs are needed to help immigrants fit into American society. Penalties could be assessed to illegal immigrants for not seeking legal residency, but driving them out of the nation en masse is not the answer.

The final clause of Carcieri’s order, which allows any state execu-tive branch employee to “act independently of this Executive Order” where it may infringe upon any other rights, gives it the ring of a purely attention-seeking political gesture. If it was intended as such, it’s work-ing — Carcieri appeared on at least one national television network last week — and we can only hope he’s not seeking a bid for the vice presidential slot, as some right-wing blogs have been buzzing.

Darrell West, professor of political science and director of the Taub-man Center for Public Policy, presented another possibility in an April 6 Providence Journal article: that Carcieri used the proposal to distract from the state’s massive budget deficit. While there’s no hard evidence of a suspicious motivation, it’s hard not to suspect something.

Carcieri’s next-in-command, Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts ’78, got it right when, in an April 1 Journal article, she decried the order as playing into “the politics of polarization.” Rhode Island is plagued with economic problems, not the least of which is the aforementioned deficit, but pandering to xenophobia will not fix anything.

Senior Staff Writers Sam Byker, Nandini Jayakrishna, Chaz Kelsh, Sophia Li, emmy Liss, Max Mankin, Brian Mastroianni, george Miller, Alex Roehrkasse, Caroline Sedano, Jenna Stark, Joanna Wohlmuth, Simon van Zuylen-WoodStaff Writers Stefanie Angstadt, Marisa Calleja, Noura Choudhury, Joy Chua, Ben Hyman, Cameron Lee, Ben Leubsdorf, Christian Martell, Anna Millman, Seth Motel, evan Pelz, Leslie Primack, Marielle Segarra, Melissa Shube, Catherine Straut, Sara Sunshine, gaurie Tilak, Matthew Varley, Meha Verghese, Allison WentzSports Staff Writers Peter Cipparone, Han Cui, Meagan garza, Lara Southern, Nicole Stock, Katie Wood Business Staff Stephanie Cheung, Veronica Yu, Jay guan, Jennifer Chang, Jamie Phinney, Anna Reisetter, Kartika Chourdhury, Serena Ho, Akshay Rathod, galen Cho, Maryrose Mesa, Van Le, Maura Lynch, grant LeBeau, Jacqueline goldman, Dana Feuchtbaum, geraldo guanaes, Lauren Presant, Lindsay Walls, Lucy Wang, Ruyi Jiang, Saul Lustgarten, Diego gomez, Laura Sammartino, Ava Amini, Charley Chen, Lee Chau, Rory Stanton, Oliver Bowers, Katherine Richards, Alison greenberg, Lilia RoyanovaDesign Staff Jessica Calihan, Serena Ho, Rachel Isaacs, Andrea Krukowski, Joe Larios, Joanna Lee, Alex Unger, Aditya VoletiPhoto Staff Oona Curley, Alex DePaoli, erik Maser, Kim Perley, Quinn SavitCopy Editors Ria Ali, Paula Armstrong, Kim Arredondo, Ayelet Brinn, Aubrey Cann, Rafael Chaiken, Stephanie Craton, erin Cummings, Katie Delaney, Julianne Fenn, Jake Frank, Anne Fuller, Josh garcia, Jennifer grayson, Rachel Isaacs, Joyce Ji, Jenn Kim, Tarah Knaresboro, Ted Lamm, Alex Mazerov, Seth Motel, Lisa Qing, Alex Rosenberg, Madeleine Rosenberg, elena Weissman, Jason Yum

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C o r r e C t i o n

An article in Monday’s Herald (“No easy way to move UEL, Brown tells community,” April 7) incorrectly referred to former College Hill Neighborhood Association president Chris Tompkins as the current president. Will Touret is the CHNA’s current president.

Throughout the 2008 primary election cycle, there have been polls from nearly every state, and many have been completely inaccurate. Just think back to the polls showing Obama up by double digits prior to the New Hamp-shire primary, or the exit polls leaked on the Drudge Report on the evening of Feb. 5. Each campaign has internal pollsters, and the media relies on polls to determine whether there is movement in the electorate and to gauge the effect of certain stories, advertisements, endorsements or gaffes on potential voters.

Currently, most news about polling relates to general election matchups between McCain and Obama or McCain and Clinton, rather than upcoming primary elections. Many polls show both Democrats ahead of McCain, and state-by-state general election breakdowns suggest different optimal geographic strate-gies. On the whole, most polling indicates that either Democrat has the capacity to win.

This is all well and good. If polls are being conducted, the American public certainly has a right to know about them. But the fact remains that, oftentimes, people put too much weight in polls without subjecting them to scrutiny.

Any given poll could have flaws in sampling or methodology. Polls are often conducted over the phone, but many voters primarily use cell phones, not landlines. Polls often have to oversample minority groups to achieve

reliable samples, and polls rarely (if ever) address issues of turnout accurately. Yet these structural issues pale in comparison with several intractable polling dilemmas.

A poll relies on individuals — in this case voters — voluntarily and accurately report-ing their private choices. Unfortunately, the incentive to lie in exit polls, opinion polls or any other kind of poll is pretty strong. One example of this is the “Bradley effect,” in which non-white candidates do well in polls but then do not achieve the same results at

the ballot box.One theory suggests that people lie to

pollsters about their support for a candidate of color in order to avoid appearing prejudiced. Regardless of the empirical validity of this theory, which is difficult to verify, race could be one of many factors that give individuals

an incentive to lie to pollsters. This incentive to lie is a much more seri-

ous problem than methodological flaws. As the Democratic race becomes increasingly bitter and divisive, we need to reevaluate the degree to which polls, at the state and national level, can accurately forecast the result of the general election.

Recent polls have shown a potentially disturbing level of Democratic defection to McCain. A recent Gallup poll reported that 28 percent of Clinton supporters would vote

for McCain over Obama, and that 19 percent of Obama supporters would choose McCain over Clinton. Many Clinton supporters try to brandish this as evidence that Obama is unelectable. Meanwhile, Obama support-ers try to use this as evidence that Clinton should bow out before the party is irreparably

divided. Well, no offense to Gallup or anything, but

that poll result seems like one of a number of bogus results in this election cycle. A rational supporter of either Hillary or Obama has a vested interest in making her disfavored Democratic candidate appear unelectable. If she believed it would sway public opin-ion, she would be more than willing to lie to pollsters. The most surprising aspect of this poll is not that so many said that they would defect, but that so few said so. A similar trend was reported during the 2000 Repub-lican primary. Right after McCain lost the nomination to Bush, about half of McCain supporters said that they would vote for Gore. Fortunately for Bush, that didn’t happen and he was elected.

Polls are flawed, imprecise instruments for measuring trends in the larger popula-tion. And while they aren’t going anywhere, everybody should take a deep breath.

The general election is still six months away. While John McCain will be a formidable competitor for either Democratic candidate, Democratic voters should stop worrying about general election polls. Whether these polls show the effects of a divisive primary battle or claim that McCain will win California by 20 points, they all have issues of reliability and deserve serious scrutiny. And Democrats should still have time to rally around their candidate and defeat McCain in the fall.

Max Chaiken ‘09, a coordinator of Brown Students for Obama, is actually a covert

pollster, lurking around campaign offices

During spring break, we were driving through Crump, Tenn., and it was nearly lunchtime. There were five hungry people in the car, so when we saw an enormous, hand-painted, red-white-and-blue sign point-ing toward a restaurant called United Steaks of America, we went for it like Hansel and Gretel for the gingerbread house. What awaited us was essentially a living diorama of the American “frontier capitalist” spirit.

United Steaks of America turned out to be more than a cheesesteak joint. It was a combination cheesesteak joint, tattoo parlor and custom chopper shop, all connected not only by a common workspace but by an umbrella organization called the First United Cycle Kompany. We were promptly greeted with thundering enthusiasm not by a coarse redneck or a polite southern charmer, but rather a fast-talking Philadel-phian of Portugese extraction who came off as an amalgamation of Tony Robbins and Dustin Hoffman’s character in “Midnight Cowboy.”

Let’s call him “Carlos.” Carlos, who turned out to be the president of the United Steaks of America, didn’t just take our or-ders and give us all vigorous “slap me some skin brother” high-fives, although he did do both of those things. He also launched into a detailed discussion about his life and times, without any prompting. And after establishing credibility by showing us an intimate camera-phone picture of his girl-friend, he sermonized sincerely about how we, too, might achieve personal and financial

fulfillment through his particular strain of positive psychology. He was the embodiment of several American cultural archetypes: the immigrant, the confidence man, the traveling salesman, the success-turned-failure-turned-success and the irrepressible capitalist. He was one of the most surreal characters I have ever come across.

He showed us local newspaper clippings about how he prevailed against an influen-tial local pastor who tried to get the town council to deny him a beer-selling license. (He then made a point of noting that he does not personally drink or do any type of

drug despite frequent assumptions to the contrary — instead, he is motivated solely by money and females.) He explained how, while setting up the business in November, he struck shrewd bargains for the tiles on the floor, the paint on the walls and the wood on the deck. He originally wanted to motorize his massive roadside sign, so that it would rotate on its pole, but that would have been too expensive. So instead, he mounted

it using a ball bearing, and now claims that it is the largest wind vane in Tennessee. I seriously doubt there is a larger one.

Don’t get the idea that we were humor-ing him. He had us all rapt. His life story, however polished and mythologized, is a saga of perseverance and bootstrap resolve. And his store, however harebrained, is an unlikely success. It undoubtedly owes its fortunes to Carlos’ concentrated blend of determination, confidence and snake oil: Any proprietor with such a prodigious abil-ity to etch himself into customers’ minds is bound to win repeat customers. Midway

through a stump speech on his general at-titude towards life, he pointed out the ac-ronym formed by his First United Cycle Kompany, which apparently no one in this Bible Belt town has yet noticed.

Carlos fits these swashbuckling Ameri-can archetypes because he left the places of his origin, where fortune turned against him, and exported his uncompromised, com-moditized culture to the “frontier” of rural

Tennessee. A focused individualist, he lives in his store to keep overhead costs minimal. His ambition is boundless — he says he is opening four more locations. He is an utterly unhumble self-promoter with the manner-isms of a motivational speaker.

After we finished our sandwiches, he resorted to a staple maneuver for people infected with the spirit of freewheeling capi-talism: He asked us what our life goals were and how we planned on accomplishing them. He listened and nodded gravely, wishing us all the best. Then, he gathered us around in a hushed huddle and told us he had a sure-fire plan for us to get rich. He said he was sharing it because he liked us, and was too busy to do it himself. Naturally, I can’t tell you exactly what it is, because I might need some money after graduation. Suffice it to say that it’s a coffee-table book that would be easy to produce. If I described it to you, you would think it was either the stupidest or the greatest idea you have ever heard, depending entirely on my tone of voice.

Later, as we were driving off, I started thinking about the credit crisis. What is a credit crisis, semantically and philosophical-ly, and what causes one? Does the idealized archetype of the ultra-confident American entrepreneur perhaps exacerbate credit crises? Might their be some hubris in our cultural DNA that causes us to link our fi-nancial fortunes to card-houses?

Then I thought of the tiny community of Crump, Tenn., with its fiery clerics, its indifferent clientele and its irrepressible naked-emperor impresario. And I realized that I had found America.

Matt Prewitt ’08 is a fiery cleric

BY MATT PReWITTopinions ColuMnist

Polling and the general election

Crump, Tennessee and the Soul of America

He gathered us around in a hushed

huddle and told us he had a surefire

plan for us all to get rich. He said he

was sharing it because he liked us, and

was too busy to do it himself.

As the Democratic race becomes

increasingly bitter and divisive, we

need to reevaluate the degree to which

polls, at the state and national level,

can accurately forecast the result of the

general election.

opinionsWeDNeSDAY, APRIL 9, 2008 THe BROWN DAILY HeRALD PAge 11

BY MAX CHAIKeNopinions ColuMnist

By BENJy ASHERassistant sports editor

The baseball team had an outburst of offense, averaging seven runs per game while going 4-2 in its six-game opening homestand.

The Bears got big production out of upperclassmen like short-stop Matt Nuzzo ’09, as well as tri-captains Ryan Murphy ’08 and Rob Papenhause ’09. Brown also got some quality innings out of its bullpen, which pitched nearly five scoreless innings in Saturday’s back-to-back wins over Cornell.

The team’s record now stands at 11-13, 4-4 in the Ivy League.

In the first game of Wednesday’s doubleheader against the Univer-sity of Rhode Island, the offense got going early and built a 7-2 lead in the bottom of the third inning. In the fifth inning, first baseman J.J. Eno ’08 tripled off the right field wall to score two more and later came home on third baseman Pa-penhause’s single.

In the bottom of the sixth, Nuzzo blasted a 1-0 pitch over the wall in left centerfield for his first home run of the year, to give Bruno a commanding 11-2 lead. Brown went on to win by a final score of 11-3. Left fielder Murphy had three hits, including two doubles, to lead the Brown offense, while Papenhause added two hits and two RBI.

“Nuzzo and Papenhause hit like

they’re capable of, and Murphy fi-nally got going,” said Head Coach Marek Drabinski. “We worked all week on an opposite field approach, and it paid off.”

In the second game on Wednes-day, the Bears fell behind 2-0 in the top of the fourth, but came back in

the bottom of the inning, when cen-ter fielder Steve Daniels ’09 drove a home run to left centerfield, and Papenhause followed with a homer to right-center two batters later to tie the game at two.

But that was all the offense the Bears would muster, and Peter

Moskal ’08 and Rob Hallberg ’08 struggled out of the bullpen, result-ing in an 8-2 loss for Brown.

On Saturday’s first game against Cornell, two hits combined with a Big Red error and a wild pitch

sporTs weDnesDayPAge 12 THe BROWN DAILY HeRALD WeDNeSDAY, APRIL 9, 2008

After dramatic weekend, m. tennis is 1-1 in Ivy playBy MEAGAN GARZAsports staff Writer

The men’s tennis team’s Ivy League season got off to a dramatic start this weekend.

Brown beat Princeton 4-3 on Friday in a tight, down-to-the-wire

match, before dropping the next match to Penn, 5-2, on Saturday to even its league record at 1-1.

The Bears, who won the Ivy title in 2005 and 2006 and just missed the sweep last year, have been increasingly desperate to make it another winning season.

“Going into our first Ivy match-up, our team knew that these matches were the reason why we practiced so hard, played such tal-ented teams (at the beginning of the spring) and stayed disciplined throughout our schedule,” wrote Kendrick Au ’11 in an e-mail. “Now was our opportunity to put it all out

there, proving how hard we actually worked. It came down to us having the attitude to know that we were prepared, that we could win.”

And there wasn’t a lack of atti-tude, as it was a grudge match for the Bears against the Tigers, whom they lost to in the fall, 6-1. This time, the Bears were ready.

“We lost to Princeton pretty badly in the fall,” said Chris Lee ’09. “Coach told us that to beat them now, we would have to play big, to go out at all spots and play at a high level, and that’s exactly what we did.”

Bruno didn’t get to that high lev-el at the start of the match. Rather, it was a slow and steady climb to the team’s intensity peak as the Bears lost the doubles point, winning only one of the three matches. At No. 1 doubles, co-captain Saurabh Kohli ’08 and Basu Ratnam ’09 lost 8-5, followed by Sam Garland ’09 and Noah Gardner ’09 dropping their match, 8-6, at No. 2 doubles. The lone win came at No. 3 doubles, with the consistent pairing of Lee

and Charlie Posner ’11, in an 8-5 win.

“A key ingredient for a suc-cessful doubles team is chemistry between the partners,” Lee said. “Charlie and I are able to get each other fired up and use that energy

in a positive way, and turn it into a victory.”

Heading into singles play, Lee continued to use that energy and transferred the momentum from his

By SEtH MOtELstaff Writer

Women’s tennis Head Coach Paul Wardlaw looked pleased to see

Brown ahead of Princeton, 2-1, last Friday, just one year after losing to the Tigers, 7-0. But by the end of the

six-hour contest, the final result was the same as last year’s.

The Bears (9-7, 0-3 Ivy League)

lost to Princeton (8-8, 1-2 Ivy after losing to Yale the next day) by a tight score of 4-3. They started off strongly the following day against No. 63 Penn (7-7, 2-1), only to lose again, this time 5-2.

In the first match of the week-end, Bruno lost the doubles point to Princeton, 2-1. The first win of the day came at No. 1 singles, in which Bianca Aboubakare ’11 engaged in a battle that was as emotional as it was physical.

Princeton’s Melissa Saiontz, ranked No. 83 in the nation, was vo-

cal from the get-go, verbally chastis-ing herself after almost every point she lost. Pairing that style with Abou-bakare’s loud exultations only added to the intensity of the close match.

Neither player lost a service game in the first set until the 12th game, when Aboubakare broke Saiontz for the 7-5 set victory. The second set featured more heavy hitting — and screaming — before Aboubakare prevailed, 6-4, for the win.

Aboubakare let the umpire worry about Saiontz’s outbursts, which led to a point penalty for smashing her

racquet and a warning for hitting the ball too aggressively at Abouba-kare after a point. Aboubakare also came away with a warning after she shouted “Come on!” before a point completely ended.

Aboubakare said she knew how to control her opponent mentally and focused on a strong level of play.

“I knew that my cheering my-self on and not being negative would bother her,” the freshman said. “She’s kind of immature emotionally.”

Despite Aboubakare ’11, w. tennis gets swept at home

Baseball evens Ivy record after Cornell, Princeton wins

Over the weekend, the Toronto Maple Leafs proved themselves less durable than both the surging cur-rency minted a few hundred kilome-ters downstream and the Northeast

division-winning Montreal Cana-diens, who hand-ed the buds a 3-1 loss to close out the Leafs’ worst season in more than a decade.

But though the Leafs were already out of

the playoff picture midway through spring break, all you fans of non-French-Canadian ice sports needn’t worry — you still have plenty to wave your red and white flags about.

While you were off College Hill relaxing on your chesterfield (that’s Canada-speak for a sofa or couch), hitting the slopes in your balaclava (those face-covering ski masks) or living it up in Havana (oops — only we can do that), Jennifer Jones was screaming “Harder!” to three women standing on ice with brooms in their hands and shoes on their feet.

Jones is the star of the Canadian women’s national curling team. Curl-ing is the best sport in the world (its tournaments are awesomely referred to as “bonspiels”).

Over the break, Jones became the star of the world’s best sport’s best team.

Curling is a sport invented by Scots and dominated by Canucks — politely, of course. Players push off from footholds called “hacks” buried in the ice and launch a heavy stone toward an archery-target-looking area called the house. Like in bocce, the team with the closest stone to the center of the house is the only team that scores points in a given “end,” and the scoring team receives one point for each of its stones that is closer to the center than the closest stone of the opposing team.

But the sport’s name comes from the characteristic movement of the stones. On delivery, the thrower can twist the stone so that it curls one way or another, and the sweepers brush the ice to either speed up and straighten out the stone, or hold off to slow down the stone and encour-age it to curl more.

Sports commentators often refer to a well-coached football game as a “chess match,” but curling is far more deserving of the moniker. And as the Canadian women learned in March, this chess match hands out gold medals.

The World Championship’s final match in Vernon, British Columbia, pitted the Canadian women against the surging Chinese, who entered the tournament under the radar until they upset Canada in the round rob-in. But Jones and her fellow Canucks slid and swept their way to victory when it counted, earning a 7-4 win in a bonspiel for the ages.

But that’s not all Canadians have recently accomplished on puck-less ice. While Jones was getting used to the extra weight around her neck, Jeffrey Buttle was twirling his way to some gold of his own. The pride of Smooth Rock Falls, Ontario, But-tle became figure skating’s World Champion last month in Sweden. Lutz-ing and salchow-ing his way

Curling: The ice is right

Chaz FirestoneThe Crazy Canuck

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Ashley Hess / Herald File Photo

Ryan Murphy ’08 had three hits and scored two runs in the second game of a doubleheader Saturday, helping Brown sweep Cornell. The Bears then split two games with Princeton on Sunday.

Ashley Hess / Herald File Photo

Three was the magic number for men’s tennis as Chris Lee ’09, who won at No. 3 singles and doubles against Princeton.

BrownPrinceton

4 3

BrownPenn

2 5

Princeton Brown

4 3

PennBrown

5 2

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Wednesday, April 9, 2008