Volume CXLII, No. 11 Since 1866, Daily Since 1891WEDNESDAY, FEBRUAR Y 7, 2007WEDNESDAY, FEBRUAR Y 7, 2007

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

431 U. employees take on Shape Up R.I. challenge

Many Americans want to lose weight, but few actually achieve their goal. This year, though, many Rhode Islanders are tak-ing steps toward getting healthy — and they’re counting them with pedometers.

Shape Up R.I., a nonprofi t initia-tive in which citizens of the Ocean State will compete to lose weight, began this year’s competition Jan. 29 with over 6,700 participants, in-cluding hundreds of University em-ployees, according to Rajiv Kumar ’05 MD’09, the program’s founder.

The University is paying the $15 participation fee for each partici-pating employee, covering expens-es for materials such as pedome-ters and wristbands. That support has led to an increase in partici-pation — last year there were 12 teams made up of about 100 Brown employees total, far less than this year’s 431 employees participating,

some of whom are members of the 38 offi cial Brown teams.

In December, Kumar and the program’s chief advisor, Ray Rick-man, made a presentation to the Health Promotion Committee sug-gesting the University cover the

fees in exchange for some infor-mation on how well their employ-ees do in the competition.

“Shape Up R.I. will provide Brown with general information

BY ISABEL GOTTLIEBCONTRIBUTING WRITER

Banner launch pushes ahead amid mounting student criticism

Banner continues to move toward full implementation on schedule and on budget, University offi cials say, but a recent fl ood of student criticism has spread through the campus.

The new software, which will integrate information from 11 dif-ferent University offi ces into a single database, has already gone live for the admission and fi nan-cial aid offi ces. The Banner proj-ect fi rst started in 2002, and ad-ministrators originally intended to fully launch the program in spring 2005.

But the effort was plagued by delays and cost overruns, and in November 2005 offi cials halted the project to revamp its manage-ment, set a new timeline and boost its original $10 million budget to $23 million. The project resumed in March 2006 with Associate Pro-vost Nancy Dunbar at its helm.

“Banner is going to vastly im-prove the way Brown handles in-formation,” Dunbar said. “And since we restarted this program in March, we have missed zero deadlines — we’ve made every milestone we have set.”

Online course registration, the most visible and highly anticipat-ed component of Banner, is set to launch this April — two years later than originally planned.

But a highly critical group of about 750 students has focused neither on deadlines nor budgets. Brown Against Banner — a Face-book group that includes nearly 15 percent of Brown undergrads de-spite having been formed just last Thursday — prominently displays a list of concerns about Banner’s online registration component.

The group criticizes University of-fi cials for leaving students in the dark about their intentions for the Banner project.

“Brown Against Banner advo-cates the sharing of information from administrators to students, which simply hasn’t been done,” said Alexandra Hellquist ’08, cre-ator and sole administrator of the group. “Students have a right to provide input, or at least to know what is going on.”

The Facebook group’s Web page lists a series of potential Banner features that would be problematic, including binding pre-registration, priority given to seniors and concentrators, strict enrollment caps and mandatory prerequisites.

But Dunbar said all issues raised by Brown Against Banner are fl exible and at the discretion of the faculty members.

“Banner will allow professors to conveniently enforce restrictions such as limited enrollment and prerequisites,” she said. “But if a faculty member wants to change the restrictions, they can.”

Dunbar stressed that registra-tion policies under Banner will be no different than current poli-cies because faculty will be able to override any course restriction other than scheduling confl icts.

“Banner will feel different,” she said. “But there is nothing about our curriculum and our courses that Banner will change.”

To improve communication about Banner, the University launched a Web site for the proj-ect in October, though Dunbar ac-knowledged that the administra-tion had not been actively promot-ing Banner until recently.

BY CHAZ FIRESTONESENIOR STAFF WRITER

Students trek down the Hill for class, research

An increasing number of under-graduate students are now trav-eling down College Hill to attend classes and conduct research in the public health building at 121 South Main St. Some are even making the one-and-a-half mile trek to the Laboratories for Mo-lecular Medicine at 70 Ship St. But despite the distance, most students say they don’t mind the hike.

According to the Offi ce of the Registrar, 415 students currently attend classes at 121 South Main St., including 96 undergradu-ates. There were 17 undergradu-ates doing research at labs at the Ship Street building last semes-ter, according to Joan Fullerton, the offi ce coordinator in the Bio Med medical education depart-

ment.Though there are no under-

graduate-specifi c classes offered at 121 South Main St., many un-dergraduates are enrolling in graduate courses there, said Fox Wetle, associate dean of medi-cine for public health and public policy and professor of commu-nity health.

“(It) was never intended to be an undergraduate facility,” she said, noting that the building hosts mostly graduate classes for the public health program.

Wetle teaches BC 244, Sec. 1: “Qualitative Methods in Health Research” at 121 South Main St. She said, though the facility is off campus, it is still convenient-ly located for students. Anyone who may think otherwise faces a “psychological barrier as op-

BY NANDINI JAYAKRISHNACONTRIBUTING WRITER

Faculty unanimously approves shorter Orientation

After an initial round of skepti-cism, members of the faculty unanimously approved a change in next year’s academic calendar by voice vote on Tuesday, paving the way for an overhaul of Orien-tation programming.

Orientation will now begin on Sunday, Sept. 2, and classes will begin Wednesday, Sept. 5. Incoming fi rst-years will move in over Labor Day weekend in preparation for three days of pro-gramming.

Before the vote, faculty ar-ticulated concerns and asked questions of Dean of the College

Katherine Bergeron, who pre-sented the motion.

Associate Professor of Sociol-ogy Ann Dill, chair of the Faculty Executive Committee, expressed concern that a shortened Orien-tation would not allow students enough time to acclimate them-selves to a new home, buy es-sentials at the mall and meet friends.

“This is especially important for international students, who not only have to get used to a new home, but a new culture,” Dill said.

University offi cials and mem-bers of the review committee who proposed the change have said the new Orientation sched-

ule will strengthen fi rst-year ad-vising by ensuring faculty are on campus to meet with their fresh-men advisees.

In previous years, advisers have been asked to return to campus immediately following the Labor Day weekend, result-ing in faculty absences that have left nearly 100 fi rst-years with proxy advisors for their fi rst ad-vising meetings, Bergeron said in the meeting.

According to one professor, some professors were on vaca-tion, but others were away at professional conferences.

Administrators have also said

BY ROSS FRAZIERNEWS EDITOR

News tips: herald@browndailyherald.com195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Islandwww.browndailyherald.com

K E E P I N G C A M P U S WA R M

Eunice Hong / Herald

Lieutenant Kevin Andrews handed out coffee in the Friedman Study Center last night as part of a DPS outreach program.

continued on page 4

Courtesy of Shape Up R.I.Shape Up R.I. Chairman Rajiv Kumar ‘05 MD’09, center, with the Eden Park Elementary School Muffi n Tops, one of the teams in this year’s competition.

continued on page 4

continued on page 8continued on page 8

STUDENT LOANS Congress is looking to slash the interest rates on student loans and might raise the amount awarded in Federal Pell grants in the near future

MED SCHOOL CHANGESThe Alpert Medical School has implemneted a new curriculum for fi rst-years and extended the academ-ic year

LIBRARIES LACKINGJoey Borson ’07 laments the evolution of libraries as places of learning into social centers — a la the Friedman Study Center

3CAMPUS WATCH

5 CAMPUS NEWS

11OPINIONS

INSIDE:

GRAPPLERS GORE TIGERSAfter dropping two meets on Friday, the wrestling team blasted Princeton 47-0 for its biggest victory of the sea-son

12SPORTS

How to Get Down | Nate Saunders

Deo | Daniel Perez

12 Pictures | Wesley Allsbrook

Jellyfi sh, Jellyfi sh | Adam Hunter Peck

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Editorial Phone: 401.351.3372Business Phone: 401.351.3260

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Ally Ouh, Treasurer

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

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Homefries | Yifan Luo

WBF | Matt Vascellaro

ACROSS1 Cohen on skates6 Biscayne Bay city

11 Cribbage piece14 One with an

unsettling look15 Repeatedly16 Sound detector17 Western meeting

place?19 Chi-omega

connection20 Second

Amendmentword

21 Classical lead-in22 Former German

coal center24 1940s-’50s

pitcher Maglie25 Charity symbol28 Undivided30 Reliable kind of

guy31 Correspond33 Gets out in the

open35 Cinnabar et al.39 Traveler’s option,

and a hint to thetheme found inthe first words of17-, 25-, 48-, and61-Across

42 “That’s gonna __you”

43 Help out on a job44 Choir group45 Old Sinclair rival47 Chrysler Bldg.

site48 Rolled-up do54 Hula Hoop

spinner57 Like a bubble

bath58 Actress Alicia59 Member of a

hockey team witha plane on itslogo

60 Part of TNT61 Banquet emcee65 Clumsy sort66 “Openings in the

Old Trail” author67 Daredevil’s feat68 Thickness69 Diglyceride, e.g.70 Anticipatory

feelings

DOWN1 Parlor pieces2 Old public square3 Some inner city

property owners4 His partner5 Curve6 Basic customs7 Words before an

alternative8 Bolted down9 Île surrounder

10 Six-legged critter11 Cola wars

contender12 Studio item13 Reduce to dust18 Yoko born in

Tokyo23 __ pie: molasses-

laden dessert25 Hammer part

used tostrengthen metal

26 Long-neckedwader

27 Santa __:Sonoma Countyseat

29 Tidies up31 Phone button

letters32 ’90s General

Motors brand

33 Monk keyman34 Vexation36 Increase by

degrees37 Anka’s “__ Beso”38 PO listings40 Quick run41 “Categorical

imperative”philosopher

46 Grain cutter48 Lens setting49 Countrified

50 Morally instruct51 Fritter away52 Entomb53 Tycoon Walton

with a club55 Peace goddess56 Cruise stops59 Regarding62 W. Hemisphere

alliance63 Craftsmanship64 Hearth-burn

result

By Lynn Lempel(c)2007 Tribune Media Services, Inc. 2/7/07

2/7/07

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

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

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2007PAGE 2

SHARPE REFECTORY

LUNCH — Polynesian Chicken Wings, Vegan Stir Fry Vegetables with Tofu, Vegan Stir Fry Vegetables with Tofu, VStir Fried Rice, Green Peas, Vegetable Egg Rolls with Duck Sauce, Chocolate Frosted Eclairs, Apple Turnovers

DINNER — Salmon Provençal,Mushroom Risotto, Greek-style Asparagus, Cheese Quesadillas, Mushroom Risotto, Grilled Cheese, Lime Jello, Whipped Cream Peach Cake

VERNEY-WOOLLEY DINING HALL

LUNCH — Vegetarian Cream of Tomato, Egg Drop and Chicken Soup, Italian Sausage and Peppers Sandwich, Vegetable Strudel, Mini Eclairs

DINNER — Vegetarian Cream of Tomato, Egg Drop and Chicken Soup, Swiss Steak, Vegan Ratatouille, Mashed Red Potatoes with Garlic, Mashed Butternut Squash with Honey, Whipped Cream Peach Cake

CAMPUS WAWAW TCHATCHATHE BROWN DAILY HERALDWEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2007 PAGE 3

More than a quarter — and in some cases nearly half — of black students at selective Amer-ican colleges and universities are fi rst- or second-generation immigrants, according to a new study appearing in the February issue of the American Journal of Education. Some sociologists say the data throw into question the criteria and purpose behind many education-related affi rma-tive action programs as well as the way diversity is often pre-sented at American universities.

Camille Charles, assistant professor of sociology at the University of Pennsylvania and an associate director of the school’s Center for Africana Studies; Douglas Massey, pro-fessor of sociology at Prince-ton; and Margarita Mooney and Kimberly C. Torres, postdoc-toral fellows at Princeton’s Of-fi ce of Population Research, au-thored the study, titled “Black Immigrants and Black Natives Attending Selective Colleges and Universities in the United States.”

“If you’re a purist, then you’ll think that (this discovery) is not in the spirit of affi rmative action. But if you’re a diversity purist, and your idea is to expose every-body to as many different kinds of people as possible, then you’ll think this is great,” Charles told the Chronicle of Higher Educa-tion in an article appearing this week.

The report is based on data from a larger project, the Na-tional Longitudinal Survey of Freshmen, which is sponsored by the Mellon Foundation and led by researchers at Princeton. The survey looked at 1,051 black freshmen enrolled at 28 selec-tive colleges in 1999. Of those, 27 percent were fi rst- or second-generation immigrants, largely from the Caribbean or Ghana —more than twice the national av-erage of 13 percent for all black Americans aged 18 to 19.

The number climbed sharp-ly when the schools in question were narrowed to the most se-

lective. At the four Ivy League schools included in the survey (Penn, Princeton, Yale and Co-lumbia), 41 percent of black stu-dents were fi rst- or second-gen-eration immigrants.

The study’s authors noted that once immigrant black stu-dents are enrolled in college, their performances do not differ from those whose families have a longer history in the United States. They did, however, fi nd that immigrant blacks have dis-tinct advantages over non-im-migrants in gaining acceptance to selective colleges and uni-versities, including statistically higher SAT scores, higher at-tendance of private schools and a better likelihood that one or both parents graduated from college. “Immigrants (also) gen-erally are going to have a height-ened concern for upward mobil-ity,” Charles told the Chronicle.

Professor of Education Ken-neth Wong said the difference in parents’ college attendance is of particular signifi cance. “If you have generations and gen-erations without educational ac-cess, such as the descendents of slaves, then they are put at a severe disadvantage. Their whole social support networks are going to be very different,” he said. “If their parents are col-lege graduates, it’s likely the parents want their children to exceed expectations. They can have that higher education and create opportunities,” he said.

Wong said the clearest im-plications of the report lie in the public policy arena, and he recommended reforming prima-ry education to create advanta-geous environments from which non-immigrant blacks can have far better access to college.

“We usually just look at Afri-can Americans as a category of student … We just check the box as African-American or black,” Wong said. “The same applies to other racial or ethnic groups — Asian, we just check the box. La-tino, we just check the box. Only in recent years have we begun to differentiate the increasing diversity of broader society and the college population.”

BY ALLISON EHRICH BERNSTEINSTAFF WRITER

Many black college students are immigrants, study fi nds

Cut in student loan interest rates goes to Senate

The House of Representatives passed H.R. 5, the College Student Relief Act of 2007, on Jan. 17. The bill, now before the Senate, would gradually reduce the interest rate on subsidized federal Stafford loans by 50 percent — from 6.8 percent to 3.4 percent — over the next fi ve years. The newly Demo-cratic-controlled Congress intends to transfer the costs of the bill to lending companies by reducing their benefi ts and increasing lend-ing fees.

H.R. 5 will not reduce rates for current undergraduates, as it only applies to loans for which the fi rst disbursement is made after July 1.

The federal government awards subsidized Stafford loans to low-income families and students and pays the interest while borrowers are enrolled in college. This year, 1,690 Brown students borrowed subsidized Stafford loans, accord-ing to James Tilton, director of fi -nancial aid.

Depending on a student’s class year, the maximum subsidized

Stafford loan ranges from $3,500 to $5,500.

“If we’re looking at lower inter-est rates, we’re certainly able to speak to students about the cost of education being different,” Til-ton said.

Critics argue the bill is inef-fective or counterproductive. “As you increase aid, you tend to see college tuition increase as well. It winds up undercutting the original purpose (of the aid), and it costs taxpayers,” said Kate Matus, press secretary for Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., an opponent of the bill, which passed the House 356-71.

Matus also said the new 3.4-per-cent rate will only benefi t students in the class of 2011 who apply for subsidized Stafford loans. “When lenders face growing costs and lit-tle return, they’re going to cut ser-vices and pass on the expenses to other students in the form of high-er fees,” she said.

Tilton said certain lending in-dustry subsidies should be care-fully scrutinized, but he acknowl-edged the need for a nuanced plan to cover costs. “It’s just so easy to say, ‘Let’s cut the lender’s profi t.’

Instead we really need to serious-ly look at what kinds of services might be affected if these changes were made,” Tilton said.

The fi nal legislation may differ from the bill passed in the House. “It’s very rare in the beginning of a legislative session for both cham-bers to pass the identical version of a bill,” said Wendy Schiller, asso-ciate professor of political science and public policy.

Schiller said H.R. 5 might en-counter more resistance in the Sen-ate. “(Banking interests) tradition-ally have done well in the Senate be-cause they span congressional dis-tricts. If you’re one congressperson, you can probably afford to ignore Citibank or ignore Bank of Amer-ica,” she said. “If you’re a Senator from one of these states — especial-ly a state like South Dakota, where there is a lot of credit card business and big banking business — and they threaten to leave your state if you don’t support them in opposing the bill ... that’s going to hurt.”

Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., introduced the Student Debt Re-

BY JAMES SHAPIROSENIOR STAFF WRITER

Stanford humanities faculty to receive $5,000

Stanford University is launching a fi ve-year pilot program that will provide $5,000 in discretionary funding annually to each of its 220 tenured and tenure-track faculty in the humanities. Stanford Presi-dent John Hennessy announced the plan at the school’s Nov. 30 Faculty Senate meeting.

The plan was inspired by dia-logue between Hennessy and var-ious faculty groups at the univer-sity, said Maria Riasanovsky, aca-demic program associate for the humanities. “He asked what (the faculty’s) chief need was, and they kept pressing for funding and re-search support,” she said.

Stanford’s humanities faculty could previously apply for $1,000 in discretionary funding a year. Ria-sanovsky said the step up to $5,000 will “make a huge difference.”

Riasanovsky estimated the total cost to be approximately $500,000 to $600,000. However, if each of

Stanford’s 220 humanities facul-ty are awarded the grants, costs would add up to $1.1 million.

Stanford’s funding program stands out among other univer-sities’ research support for the humanities. The program has re-ceived signifi cant media atten-tion since its announcement not only because of its size, but also because funding is automatically granted every year. Riasanovsky said she is not aware of any other program that provides such a high level of funding to all humanities faculty annually without requiring an application. “There’s nothing else like it,” she said.

In a similar program that has been in place for several years, Co-lumbia provides $1,750 annually in automatic funding to its humani-ties faculty and $2,000 to junior faculty.

Riasonovsky acknowledged that Stanford’s automatic grants are in part designed to raise the stature of humanities programs at a university principally known for

its strength in the sciences. Along with the yearly $5,000 in

discretionary funding, Stanford is launching a $1.1 million fund for collaborative research in the hu-manities. The two plans comple-ment each other because they pro-vide support for both individual, small-scale projects as well as in-terdisciplinary, large-scale proj-ects. “The hope is that this plan will inspire projects that cross dis-ciplines and pull together all four corners of the university,” Ria-sanovsky said.

The automatic grants for hu-manities faculty are in addition to a program that gives assistant pro-fessors a $5,000 grant the year they are hired, a $5,000 grant when they are reappointed and an additional $10,000 if awarded tenure.

Competition in funding faculty

Funding humanities faculty, who garner signifi cantly less ex-ternal money than those in the sci-

BY KARA APLANDCONTRIBUTING WRITER

continued on page 6

continued on page 6

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2007PAGE 4

posed to a physical one,” she said.

Helen Lamphere ’08 is en-rolled in BC 244 and said she would prefer taking classes on campus but does not mind going to off-campus buildings.

“I think we’re spoiled com-pared to other college campuses in terms of how easy and fast it is to get from class to class,” she said.

Lamphere said it takes her about 15 to 20 minutes to walk to 121 South Main St.

Kim Gans, associate professor of community health, said she likes the South Main Street facil-ity because it “puts all the public health people together who were earlier spread all over.” She said it is a necessary step on the way to establishing a School of Public Health, which would be “a boon to Brown” and is slated to be es-

tablished by 2010.“Brown’s campus is expand-

ing anyway, and there’s no place for the public health department on the main campus,” Gans said.

Gans said commuting to and from the building on South Main Street might be “somewhat of a hassle” for students, but she said “the pros outweigh the cons.”

Tamara Del Rosso ’08 and Jana Loeb ’08, both of whom are taking BC 168, Sec. 12: “Tobacco, Smok-ing and Evil Empire,” said they do not mind walking down Col-lege Hill to South Main Street.

Del Rosso, who has a class on Pembroke campus just before BC 168, said her professor doesn’t mind if she is a few minutes late to class.

The labs at 70 Ship St. also at-tract a signifi cant number of un-dergraduate students who work as research assistants or conduct independent research there.

Wolfgang Peti, assistant pro-

fessor of medical science, has four undergraduates currently work-ing in his lab at the Ship Street fa-cility. Peti said the building allows undergraduate researchers the chance to “focus more” and “not get as distracted” as they would on the main campus.

Students working in labs at 70 Ship St. have a variety of ways to commute, including walking, bik-ing or taking the free safeRIDE BrownMed/Downcity Express shuttle.

Peti said the fact that safeR-IDE does not run during aca-demic breaks, such as during the summer when some stu-dents work in his lab, raises “a bit of a security concern.” But he added that most undergraduates are able to get rides from grad-uate or post-graduate students, which makes the lab environ-ment “more collegial.”

Rene Kessler ’07.5, who worked in the Peti lab during

the summer and fall of 2006, said he liked “getting off Col-lege Hill every day.” Kessler said it took him only 10 minutes to bike there, compared to 15 minutes if she took the shuttle, including time spent waiting for it to show up.

Some students fi nd taking the shuttle more trouble than it is worth. “Sometimes the shuttles get off schedule and become a little inconvenient,” wrote Ojus Doshi ’08 in an e-mail to The Herald. Since November 2005, Doshi has worked in Assistant Professor of Biology Rebecca Page’s lab, he wrote.

“The trip back to campus is pretty tiresome by the time you walk back up the hill, but it’s probably good exercise. A bike makes the trip much faster, but I’ve only gotten halfway up the hill on the return trip before I needed to walk the bike up to the top,” he added.

continued from page 1

Students don’t mind trek to buildings off the Hill

— no individual results — on em-ployees’ well-being and how much employees are participating. We hope we can positively impact ev-erybody’s health and wellness,” said Drew Murphy, director of ben-efi ts in Human Resources.

Murphy, who is taking part in the general fi tness and the pedom-eter step competitions of the pro-gram, said the Health Promotion Committee then recommended the University fi nance employee participation in the Shape Up pro-gram. He attributed the increase in participation by Brown employ-ees to greater publicity for the pro-gram, not just the University’s fi -nancial assistance.

Grouped in teams of 5 to 11 members, participants support each other while trying to win com-petitions in weight loss, total exer-cise hours and pedometer steps taken. In the program’s debut last year, 205 teams lost a total of 5,911 pounds and logged 69,132 hours of exercise.

The program’s team-building spirit is popular among competi-tors like Cynthia Yearwood, coor-dinator of learning, professional development and employee pro-grams in the University’s human resources department. “There is a fun competitiveness. We’re all striving to reach our goals of los-ing weight, increasing exercise and being more aware of health, but there’s a competitiveness to it too, of saying, ‘We’re going to win,’ ” she said.

Rickman credited this year’s high participation in part to what he described as a greatly improved Web site. Its features include eas-ier registration, a private weight tracker and an image of a person that moves across the screen to track progress. Participants also receive e-mail newsletters with health tips and are encouraged to attend healthy cooking demonstra-tions across the state.

Kumar has ambitious goals for Shape Up R.I.

“I’d love 15,000 people in the program next year. We’ll keep ex-panding as long as people are excit-ed,” he said. He said there are plans to create a Shape Up R.I. for youth, which is currently being tested at several high schools and middle schools across the state that will promote healthy eating and physi-cal activity for children.

Kumar is also eager to see the fruits of his labor.

“I can’t wait to see the day when we can see the impact in the health statistics,” he said. “When obesity is decreasing, we’ll feel like we’ve succeeded, and we can see that in a place the size of Rhode Island.”

In the meantime, he has to rely on anecdotal evidence to measure the program’s success, but he said he’s not lacking for inspirational stories.

“People who have never exer-cised in their lives now exercise four to fi ve times per week. They have never been more excited, nev-er been healthier, never looked for-ward to waking up in the morning like now,” Kumar said. “One wom-an was able to opt out of gallbladder surgery because she lost weight. Diabetics decreased their num-bers of medications due to losing weight. That’s what really keeps us going — bringing the program to as many people as possible.”

continued from page 1

431 U. employees take on Shape Up R.I. challenge

CAMPUS NEWSTHE BROWN DAILY HERALDWEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2007 PAGE 5

The Alpert Medical School’s new name isn’t the only major change the school has undergone this year — medical students in the class of 2010 are the fi rst to experience an entirely rede-signed fi rst-year curriculum, and they are now subject to a new academic year that has been extended by more than a month.

The curriculum change is part of an attempt to better prepare Brown med students for step one of the National Board of Medical Examiners Licens-ing Exam. The offi ce of Dean of Medi-cine and Biological Sciences Eli Adashi designed the new curriculum in collab-oration with faculty and students with consideration to the coverage of basic science material on the board exam in the Med School’s existing fi rst- and second-year curriculum.

“There was some overlap, redun-dancy and some holes,” said Agnes Kane, professor of medical science.

Previously, fi rst years took sever-al courses, such as biochemistry, pa-thology, neuroscience, immunology and microbiology, scheduled in much the same way as the undergraduate course load, said Philip Gruppuso, as-sociate dean of medicine for medical education.

Last semester, the class of 2010 took only one course in addition to the doctoring program, BI 364: “Integrated Medical Sciences I.” The course inte-grated the basic science curriculum with anatomy, histology and general pathology, adapting the systems-based approach already in place in the sec-ond-year Med School curriculum. The course met three hours per day from

Monday to Friday, with labs most after-noons, and students had six integrated exams throughout the semester in-stead of a traditional fi nal examina-tion schedule, said Kartik Venkatesh ’06 MD’10. The IMS course continues with BI 365: “Integrated Medical Sci-ences II” in the spring semester, cov-ering brain science, endocrine science and microbiology and infectious dis-eases.

Under the doctoring program, which was introduced with the class of 2009, fi rst- and second-year students visit local family practitioners every week to gain practical experience in clinical medicine. For the class of 2010, the curriculum for the doctoring pro-gram has been aligned with the sched-ule for the IMS course. For example, the brain science unit of IMS II is com-plemented by a lesson in the doctoring program on how to do a basic neuro-logical exam, Venkatesh said.

Each unit of IMS — for example, a six-day immunology unit — is either taught by a variety of professors or is team-taught by multiple instructors. Professors include College Hill-based faculty as well as those who are usually located in hospitals or labs, Venkatesh said.

As a result of the curriculum change, most of the basic sciences are now completed in the fi rst semes-ter instead of the fi rst year, Gruppuso said. The Med School re-organized the curriculum to ensure that all mate-rial required for step one of the nation-al board exam, taken after the second year of medical school, is covered log-ically and without overlap, Kane said. She noted that the new curriculum should give students time at the end of their second year to study for the

exam and begin their clinical clerk-ships earlier.

“There was a lot of buy-in from fac-ulty,” Gruppuso said of the changes.

“I would call it curricular evolu-tion,” Kane said. “Some classes were radically changed and re-organized.”

Because the anatomy course, which involves dissection of a cadaver, must be completed in one year, the admin-istration designed the rest of the cur-riculum around the anatomy schedule. The anatomy component was already well-regarded by students and faculty and was not changed much in the re-organization, Gruppuso said. “If it isn’t broke, don’t fi x it,” he said.

Also this year, the Med School ac-ademic year deviated from the under-graduate calendar for the fi rst time. Last fall, classes began Aug. 24, and the spring semester will end on June 8, allowing med students a much shorter summer break. Winter break was also shortened, with classes beginning on Jan. 7.

Gruppuso said more changes lie ahead for the Med School curriculum.

“We’re ultimately going to redesign all four years,” he said. “We’re having the changes march forward with the class of 2010.”

“Medical education has been evolv-ing in this country since the end of the 19th century,” Kane said. “Brown is a relatively young medical school. It’s still very much evolving, and the fac-ulty is relatively young.”

Most students like the integration, according to Venkatesh. The changes to the curriculum are “not new from a national standpoint,” but rather, they are “in line with what other medical schools have been doing for 20 years,” Ven-katesh said. “We’re playing catch-up.”

Med School changes curriculum and calendarBY KRISTINA KELLEHERSENIOR STAFF WRITER

N E W S I N B R I E F

President Ruth Simmons will be honored tonight at the Women of Power Legacy Awards, a ceremony held by Black Enterprise to recognize African-American women that the business and media group considers trailblazers in their re-spective fi elds.

The award ceremony is a kickoff to the company’s second annual Women of Power Summit, a leadership conference for women of color being held in Phoenix this week.

Also receiving awards are entertainment executive Su-zanne de Passe, dancer and choreographer Judith Jamison and Faye Wattleton, the president of the Center for the Ad-vancement of Women.

Black Enterprise created the award ceremony in 2006 to “recognize women whose power, infl uence and achieve-ments have left a legacy of success for women of color in ev-ery career fi eld,” a company press release stated.

Black Enterprise prints a magazine of the same name, produces radio and television programming and serves as a “source of information for and about African-American busi-ness markets and leaders,” according to the press release.

— Michael Skocpol

Simmons to receive Women of Power award

S PA M S C A M

Christopher Bennett / HeraldDrawing from his recently published book “A Culture of Corruption”, Assistant Professor of Anthropology Daniel Smith discussed Nigerian e-mail scams Tuesday afternoon as part of the Illicit Flows Speaker Series.

www.browndailyherald.com

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2007PAGE 6

for details visit

lief Act in the Senate. In addition to halving the subsidized Stafford loan interest rate, the Senate bill would increase the maximum Pell Grant from $4,050 to $5,100 and provide more opportunities for student loan forgiveness.

Proposals to increase Pell Grant awards have been political-ly popular this winter. The White House and both chambers of Con-gress are poised to propose the fi rst increase in the maximum Pell

Grant award in fi ve years. A Jan. 31 House spending bill recom-mended an increase from the cur-rent $4,050 to $4,310, and last Fri-day President Bush announced his 2008 budget will propose raising the maximum Pell Grant award to $4,600 next year and $5,400 fi ve years from now.

Tilton said he considers Pell Grants particularly important. Raising the maximum grant sends “a stronger message to families and to students than (does) de-creasing the loan interest rates,”

Tilton said. “A lot of students and families see the Pell Grant as a gauge for being able to determine whether they can afford to even think about college.”

Schiller said she doesn’t expect a presidential veto of the Stafford loan interest rates cut if it passes the Senate. “I don’t think (Bush) cares enough to veto this bill,” she said. “He would be philosophically opposed for the same reason Re-publicans in the Senate would be, but he doesn’t need any more bad press.”

ences, is quickly becoming anoth-er facet of the intense competition among universities. Riasanovsky added that the humanities are in special need of internal funding support because “there simply aren’t that many funding sources available.”

“Research grants in the hu-manities are relatively scarce — not entirely non-existent, howev-er, and Brown faculty have done quite well in securing grants from the (National Endowment for the Humanities) and the Mellon Foundation — and so it becomes critical that universities commit their own funds,” Brown Dean of the Faculty Rajiv Vohra P’07

wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. Stanford’s program was probably “prompted by a sense that the existing level of support for re-search in the humanities is not adequate,” he added.

At Brown, humanities and so-cial sciences faculty may apply to the Offi ce of the Vice President for Research for up to $2,000 per year of funding to support their work. Typically, about half the fac-ulty who apply receive an award, according to the offi ce’s Web site.

“We also have a faculty trav-el fund, open to faculty in all dis-ciplines, which provides up to $1,000 per year in travel funds,” Vohra said.

The Cogut Center for the Hu-manities also awards eight semes-

ter-long fellowships each year, pro-viding support for faculty to take a semester away from teaching to focus on research. Vohra wrote that “while individual research funds are very useful, it is also es-sential to provide institutional and infrastructural support for nurtur-ing research in the humanities.”

Vohra said the University is aware of increased competition in funding humanities research. “Our recent progress in support-ing research, generally … could be characterized as an attempt to catch up with our peers,” he wrote. “There is absolutely no cause for complacency. We will continue to look for ways to en-hance faculty research and to re-main competitive.”

continued from page 3

“Despite the loss, the team is only getting stronger. We have a young team this year, and one of our juniors, Ed Ce-rullo (’08), was abroad first se-mester and is getting better with every match,” Petrie said.“These types of weekends, al-though it’s never fun to lose, are good for the younger guys and help us grow as a team.”

This optimism has the Bears raring to go for their match to-night against No. 6 Tufts Uni-versity. The 7:30 p.m. match at the Pizzitola Center will be the team’s second-to-last home match of the season.

The able play by the wom-en’s squad yielded much clos-er matches but similar disap-pointing results against Wil-liams and Dartmouth. The four-and-a-half hour contest against Williams was a heart-breaker — almost every match could have gone either way. However, tri-captain Katie Lew ’07 said she was pleased with the team’s performance and acknowledged that Williams was a formidable foe.

“Our Williams match was a great collegiate match,” she said. “Our teams are very even, and most of the match-es went into fourth and fifth games. Everyone on the team fought hard for every point in her match and did a great job of motivating and supporting each other.”

At the No. 8 position, Lew won an intense five-game match that included a 10-8 tiebreak in

the deciding fifth game. Char-lotte Steel ’09 also triumphed at the fifth position in a drawn-out five game match, rallying back from a deficit. The other wins came from Megan Cerullo ’08 at No. 2 and Zarah Rahman ’07 at No. 6. The deciding match came down to the No. 4 spot, in which Breck Haynes ’09 dropped the last three games after jumping ahead 2-0.

“Breck has improved from playing six on the ladder to four,” said tri-captain Erin An-drews ’07. “Although she didn’t pull it out in the end, she han-dled the pressure of being the determining match very well. Improvements are not always defined in wins.”

Dartmouth was a similar story. Cerullo and Steel pro-duced wins once again, and Kali Schellenberg ’10 contrib-uted a victory in the No. 9 slot. However, the Bears failed to secure any additional wins.

The women will also host Tufts today at the Pitz at 6 p.m. and will face crucial weekend match-ups at Yale and Cornell this weekend. Andrews and Lew both pointed to the Cor-nell contest as particularly im-portant due to the implications it has for the upcoming Howe Cup tournament.

Despite the recent disap-pointing results, spirits are high in the Brown camp as the squads look forward to this weekend, the Howe Cup in two weeks and perhaps a rematch with the schools that — barely — got the better of the Bears this weekend.

continued from page 12

M. and w. squash squished by Dartmouth, Williams

Stanford humanities faculty to receive $5,000 for research

Congress looks to slash student loan interest ratecontinued from page 3

Tivo, Amazon are set for groundbreaking partnershipBY DAWN CHMIELEWSKILOS ANGELES TIMES

Through a deal with TiVo Inc., Am-azon.com Inc. is trying to bridge the river-wide gap between the PC

and television.The two companies plan

Wednesday to announce an alliance that lets some TiVo Inc. customers watch, on their TVs, movies and television shows purchased through Amazon’s nascent online-video store, Unbox.

The service addresses one of the greatest impediments to the growth of Internet video — viewers can’t watch it on their living room TVs.

“There’s a ton of content fl owing over broadband — premium content, meaning the best in movies and television shows,” TiVo Chief Executive Tom Rogers said. “The issue for many people is, it’s not TV until it’s on the TV.”

Starting Wednesday, a limited group of TiVo subscribers will be able to rent or buy videos on Unbox

and download them directly to a set-top box, then watch them like any other recorded program.

The new Unbox feature service will be limited to the 1.5 million subscribers whose Series 2 or Series 3 TiVo boxes can be connected to a high-speed Internet connection. But analysts say the partnership is an interesting proof of concept and an opportunity to fi ne-tune the Internet video-on-demand experience before digital delivery of content to the living room goes mainstream.

“There are lots of people that have PCs,” American Technology Research analyst Rob Sanderson said. “But people downloading and buying movies on their PCs — that’s a small number. This is a good way to learn a lot about home media distribution.”

BY GREG MILLERLOS ANGELES TIMES

WASHINGTON — Former White House offi cial I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby told a grand jury in 2004 that Vice President Dick Cheney was upset by an ambassador’s public questioning of the Iraq war and that President Bush, Cheney and Libby were involved in a plan -— kept secret from other senior White House offi cials -- to leak pre-viously classifi ed intelligence to re-porters to counter the criticism.

Libby’s audiotape testimony, played for jurors in federal court here, offered new details about how the White House orchestrat-ed a campaign to discredit the Iraq war critic, Ambassador Jo-seph C. Wilson IV. Wilson’s wife, undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame, was subsequently exposed in the media, triggering a criminal investigation.

As Libby sat silently in the courtroom, jurors heard his dis-embodied voice describe how he was instructed to leak intelligence secrets to select reporters, even as other White House offi cials were expressing concern over the leaks and debating whether the administration should formal-ly declassify intelligence reports on Iraq to combat criticism of the case for war.

At one point, Special Prose-cutor Patrick Fitzgerald can be

heard on the tapes expressing dis-belief that Libby would take part in those meetings without dis-closing that the president had ef-fectively already declassifi ed key portions of one of the main pre-war pieces of intelligence on Iraq, a national intelligence estimate on the nation’s alleged banned weap-ons programs.

“Was that unusual for you to have the national security adviser, the director of central intelligence, the White House chief of staff, among others, in the dark as to something that you had done re-garding declassifi cation?” Fitzger-ald asked.

“It is not unusual for the vice president to tell me something which I am not allowed to share with others,” Libby replied.

Libby’s remarks came during a day in court devoted entirely to playing audiotapes of the former Cheney aide’s grand jury testi-mony, allowing jurors to listen to the defendant’s voice as he made a series of statements that prosecu-tors have labeled lies.

Libby faces fi ve felony counts alleging perjury, making false statements and obstruction of jus-tice for what he told investigators about his role in the campaign to discredit Wilson.

The tapes offer an intriguing window into the reaction within the White House to mounting crit-icism of its case for war with Iraq,

as well as a chance to witness Fitzgerald’s method as he sparred with Libby during eight hours of grand jury testimony.

Libby can be heard describing how Cheney was “upset” when Wilson went public with allega-tions that the White House had twisted intelligence to make the case for war. In an op-ed article, Wilson said he had been sent to investigate a key claim — that Iraq was seeking uranium from the Af-rican nation of Niger — and found it untrue months before President Bush included the allegation in his 2003 State of the Union speech.

“It was a serious accusation,” Libby said. “It was a very serious attack.” It also quickly became a “topic that was discussed on a dai-ly basis” in the White House.

Libby said that Cheney “thought we should get some of these facts out to the press. He then undertook to get permission from the president to talk about this” to reporters.

Libby said that Cheney’s law-yer, David Addington, had advised him that merely getting such per-mission from the president ren-dered the intelligence declassi-fi ed. President Bush has publicly acknowledged doing so.

Libby’s subsequent conversa-tions with reporters and other White House offi cials are now at

WORLD & NATIONTHE BROWN DAILY HERALDWEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2007 PAGE 7

U.S. doesn’t sign treaty prohibiting secret detentions

W O R L D I N B R I E F

PARIS (Washington Post) — Representatives from 57 countries on Tuesday signed a long-negotiated treaty prohibiting governments from holding people in secret detention. The United States declined to endorse the document, saying its text did not meet U.S. expecta-tions.

Louise Arbour, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, said the treaty was “a message to all modern-day authorities committed to the fi ght against terrorism” that some practices are “not acceptable.”

In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack de-clined comment except to say that the United States helped draft the treaty but that the fi nal wording “did not meet our expectations.”

The Associated Press reported that McCormack declined com-ment on whether the U.S. stance was infl uenced by the Bush admin-istration’s policy of sending terrorism suspects to CIA-run prisons overseas, which President Bush acknowledged in September.

House Dems may take lead on war resolution front

WASHINGTON (Los Angeles Times) — House Democrats threatened Tuesday to take up a resolution next week to oppose President Bush’s controversial troop buildup in Iraq, cranking up the pressure on Re-publicans who have blocked a vote on the measure in the Senate.

The move would shift the focus of the debate over the four-year-old war to the House, where Democrats have enough votes to pass a measure over Republican opposition. It also may further isolate the White House and its allies in the Senate, who are bucking public opinion that has turned sharply against the Iraq war and the presi-dent’s plans to expand it.

When congressional Democrats began their campaign to chal-lenge Bush over the unpopular war last month, House leaders de-cided to defer to the Senate to pass a resolution fi rst.

But on Monday GOP senators derailed consideration of a non-binding, bipartisan resolution that criticizes the Bush plan by pre-venting Democrats from getting the 60 votes needed to bring up the measure.

On Tuesday, with few signs that the impasse would end soon in the Senate, House leaders said they might move fi rst on an issue that Americans say is the most pressing one facing the nation.

Lebanese president decries U.S. support for Israel

BEIRUT, Lebanon (Los Angeles Times) — Badgered by Hezbollah and jeered as a puppet of the U.S. government, Lebanon’s embat-tled prime minister on Tuesday blamed U.S. support of Israel for an increasingly violent political crisis that has shredded this country’s stability.

His voice rising in frustration during an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Fouad Siniora said the troubles in his country would subside if U.S. offi cials were to press Israel to withdraw its soldiers from Shebaa Farms, a small patch of disputed turf that the United Nations has said was part of Syria.

With Shiite Muslim Hezbollah and its allies mounting a hard push for a bigger share of power in Lebanon, many people here believe that the international community should force Hezbollah’s hand by depriving the party of any excuse for keeping an armed militia. The lingering occupation of the land has long been cited by Hezbollah as a justifi cation for its armed guerrilla fi ghters on Israel’s border.

Apparent love triangle embarrasses NASA(Los Angeles Times) — A female NASA astronaut was arrested in Flor-ida early Monday and accused of attacking a woman who was her ri-val in a love triangle with another astronaut, Orlando police said.

Navy Capt. Lisa Marie Nowak, who fl ew last summer on a shuttle mission to the International Space Station, drove nearly 1,000 miles from her home in Houston to intercept the woman, who was just ar-riving at Orlando International Airport, police said.

Nowak, 43, accosted 30-year-old Air Force Capt. Colleen Shipman in a parking lot and sprayed her with pepper spray in an attempt to kidnap her, according to a police affi davit.

The arrest, fi rst reported by the Orlando Sentinel, was an embarrass-ment for America’s space agency, which for nearly fi ve decades has ob-sessively portrayed its astronauts as paragons of personal integrity.

Iran says U.S. is behind diplomat kidnapping

join the herald.

e-mail us at herald@browndailyherald.com

BY TINA SUSMANLOS ANGELES TIMES

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Iran accused the United States on Tuesday of being behind the abduction of an Iranian diplomat in Baghdad, but U.S. offi cials refused even to con-fi rm a kidnapping had taken place as the two countries’ campaign of fi nger-pointing was brought up an-other notch.

Iranian offi cials said Jalal Sharafi , their embassy’s second secretary, had not been seen since gunmen dressed in Iraqi military uniforms intercepted his car Sun-day as he left a branch of a state-owned Iranian bank.

“They acted under U.S. super-vision,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Hosseini said in a statement released in Teh-ran. He described the incident as a “terrorist attack.”

The Bush administration has ac-cused Iran of fueling the sectarian warfare in Iraq by providing Shiite Muslim extremists with weapons and explosives being used against U.S. troops and Sunni Arab targets. U.S. offi cials have been holding fi ve Iranians seized last month in a raid in the northern city of Irbil and accused of planning attacks on Americans.

The seizure Sunday was an-other example of U.S. heavy-hand-edness, an offi cial at the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad said. “They should release our colleague as soon as possible,” he said angrily.

Neither U.S. government nor military offi cials in Baghdad would confi rm the incident had occurred, much less been orchestrated by American forces.

“We have no record of any

event that looks remotely like the described abduction,” said Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, the U.S. mili-tary spokesman. The U.S. Em-bassy said it was “aware of the re-ports” and looking into them.

Kidnappings are common in Baghdad, where everyone from high-ranking offi cials to regular merchants fall prey to gangs look-ing to get rich by ransoming hos-tages. Iranian offi cials, however, refused to consider that Sharafi ’s abduction was anything but anoth-er attempt by the United States to put the squeeze on Iran. They cited the detention of the Iranians in Ir-bil as evidence.

“This is not the fi rst time such a thing has happened,” the Iranian Embassy offi cial said of Sharafi ’s abduction. “Normally, the United States is responsible.”

As Iraq’s violence has escalated, so too has the tension between the United States and Iran, whose lead-ers deny bolstering Shiite militias at work in Iraq. The diplomatic snarl-ing has put Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in an awkward po-sition as he tries to cultivate close relations with Iran, while also con-vincing American offi cials that he is serious about quelling violence.

A new joint U.S.-Iraqi security plan announced last month has yet to produce tangible results, at least in the view of Iraqis living un-der constant threat of car bombs, mortar attacks, stray gunfi re, and street crime.

The bodies of at least 19 men, all shot to death and most show-ing signs of torture, were found in Baghdad on Tuesday, police and morgue offi cials said. In ad-dition, at least fi ve people died when a car bomb exploded in the

eastern Baghdad neighborhood of Mashtal.

In the city of Kut, about 100 miles southeast of Baghdad, a roadside bomb targeting a passing U.S. military convoy instead blew up under a civilian minivan, killing a woman.

The U.S. military announced the death of a Marine in Al Anbar province, west of Baghdad, bring-ing the number of U.S. troops killed since the March 2003 inva-sion to at least 3,102, according to icasualties.org, which tracks casu-alty fi gures from the war.

In the Shiite neighborhoods of Ur and Shaab, in northern Bagh-dad, residents said U.S. and Iraqi forces set up checkpoints in the area Tuesday morning, snarling traffi c for hours but doing little to reassure people of the new se-curity plan’s effectiveness. Majid Abdullah, 42, who owns an auto parts shop in Shaab, said most checkpoints had been dismantled by afternoon and that those re-maining were manned by Iraqis, with U.S. troops only passing by occasionally.

A resident of Ur said about 10 Strykers, hulking U.S. armored vehicles, had snaked through her neighborhood but had become stuck on a narrow street. Unable to turn around, she said the fi rst Stryker rammed down the walls of a school and drove through it, fol-lowed by the rest of the convoy.

Al-Maliki acknowledged delays in implementing the security plan he announced early last month and, after meeting with Iraqi mili-tary commanders, urged them to disprove skeptics who he said were doubting their ability or determina-tion to stabilize Iraq.

Libby’s recorded grand jury testimony played in court

continued on page 8

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2007PAGE 8

even though Orientation will of-fi cially be three days, much of the programming will be moved to the fi rst weekend after classes start. “Orientation, in a way, will still be a week, but it will be subdi-vided by the articulation of class-es,” Bergeron said.

Professor of Mathematics Thomas Banchoff said the new schedule, which moves the begin-ning of the academic year from a Tuesday to a Wednesday, leaves students shopping classes that meet on Tuesday and Thursday with fewer opportunities to make a decision about a course. “I’m re-ally worried about the effect on shopping period and freshman ac-climatization,” he said.

Kathryn Spoehr, professor of cognitive and linguistic sci-ences, questioned whether shift-ing the academic calendar ahead — which pushes the last day of fi nals forward one day — might place an undue cost burden on students, who will now have to fl y home even closer to the Christ-mas holiday, when airlines often blackout lower fares.

Other faculty said they were concerned about the effect of the change on student activities, shopping period and freshman advising.

Professors’ concerns aside, the faculty voted unanimously for

the change. Even after the vote, it remains unclear whether or not students support the reforms. Bergeron said the committee’s recommendations “received an interesting vetting,” because they were brought to the University Resources Committee, Meikle-john leadership, members of the Orientation and Welcoming Com-mittee and peer counselor lead-ership. Members of the Under-graduate Council of Students also told The Herald they have been following the committee’s work. Three undergraduates were in-cluded on the Orientation review committee.

Dill said not a single under-grad was in favor of the changes during a straw poll she conducted in her class SO 109: “Theories of Organizational Dynamics and De-cision Making.”

Also at yesterday’s meeting, Provost David Kertzer ’69 P’95 P’98, who chairs the budget-set-ting University Resources Com-mittee, hinted that the URC will recommend a moderate tuition increase to President Ruth Sim-mons and the Corporation for ap-proval later this month.

Kertzer also said the URC will recommend a higher payout from the endowment, which is current-ly approximately $2.3 billion, cit-ing strong investment growth and fundraising that have bolstered the University’s coffers by nearly

$1 billion in the last six years.Additionally, the University is

now searching for 75 new profes-sors. Some of these searches are a result of normal attrition, but in total the searches will result in a net gain of 15 to 25 new profes-sors as part of plans to continue expanding the faculty under the Plan for Academic Enrichment, Kertzer said.

However, the University is feeling pressure in funding grad-uate students and will seek to cut costs by admitting fewer stu-dents, Kertzer said. The Graduate School has increased stipends by $5,700 per student in recent years and now offers a fi ve-year funding guarantee to doctoral students. “We’ve made major investments in the Grad School, but we’re now feeling a certain crunch in metab-olizing those changes,” he added.

In her monthly report to the faculty, President Ruth Simmons said she will publicly respond to recommendations from the Uni-versity Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice after briefi ng the Corporation at their meeting later this month.

Simmons said she will endorse some of the committee’s recom-mendations regarding commem-oration, academic initiatives and community work and will offer her own recommendations that were not mentioned in the Slav-ery and Justice report.

continued from page 1

But Hellquist said the available information was insuffi cient to ad-dress student concerns. “The Web site talked about integrating sys-tems, but not what it would mean for students,” she said.

Discretionary faculty overrides have been part of the University’s plan for Banner for years. A doc-ument released by the College Curriculum Council in May 2005 refers to a presentation by Univer-sity Registrar Michael Pesta, who stated that faculty would be able to override all course restrictions ex-cept scheduling confl icts. Comput-ing and Information Services also launched Web tutorials in January

demonstrating faculty overrides and presenting Banner’s user in-terface.

But student concern extends beyond course restrictions and the timely dissemination of infor-mation.

Brown Against Banner’s main page on Facebook featured a mes-sage sure to capture the atten-tion of the campus: “This spells the end of shopping period as we know it, and (is) a violation of the spirit of our Open Curriculum — the ability to fi nd classes that we truly love.”

Pesta denied the group’s claim. “The spirit of the New Curriculum will certainly remain intact, includ-

ing the add/drop period,” he said. “Banner will simply allow us to im-plement the structures of registra-tion which have been in place all along: prerequisites, caps, et ce-tera.”

Moreover, Pesta said students have actually indicated a prefer-ence for enforced prerequisites, which they described as “too am-biguous.”

“Sometimes students are un-aware if prereqs are truly meant,” he said. “Banner will get rid of this ambiguity, and sort out which classes are required and which are simply recommended.”

One faculty member who said he would take advantage of the ability to enforce prerequisites is Steven Sloman, professor of cog-nitive and linguistic sciences.

“As a faculty member, I think I’ll be given a little more control

over the process than I had be-fore, which obviously appeals to me,” he said. “From what I’ve seen, the administration is imple-menting this carefully and will do a good job in the end.”

Both the Undergraduate Coun-cil of Students and Dunbar re-leased statements yesterday ad-dressing student concerns. The UCS response provided a brief overview of the Banner project and announced two public forums scheduled for next week. Dun-bar’s response specifi cally named Brown Against Banner and in-dividually addressed the points made on its Facebook Web site.

“Shopping period will remain,” she wrote in her statement, which was posted on the Banner Web site (www.brown.edu/banner). “It is defi ned in our faculty rules as the fi rst two weeks of the term. Stu-

dents will be able to add and drop courses throughout that period.”

Hellquist said most of the orig-inal information posted on her group’s page was a collection of rumors and was written during a time of personal anger toward UCS and the administration — the two bodies responsible for dis-seminating information about the project. Since speaking to Univer-sity offi cials, Hellquist has edit-ed nearly every paragraph of the group’s Web page.

“After the initial rush of out-rage, I’ve been trying to be care-ful about fi nding out what is going on,” she said.

Dunbar said demonstrations of Banner and mock registrations will begin later this month as on-line course registration moves closer to full implementation in April.

continued from page 1

Orientation calendar change approved by faculty

Student anxiety increases as Banner implementation continues

the center of the perjury trial. Pros-ecutors have produced a series of witnesses over the past week, including former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, to say that they learned of Plame’s identity from Libby.

Libby has testifi ed that he learned about Plame from Cheney in June 2003, but then forgot that detail and didn’t share it with oth-ers until he heard it from NBC News reporter Tim Russert in a

phone call on July 10 or 11.Recounting that conversation,

Libby said in taped testimony that Russert asked him “ ‘Did you know that Ambassador Wilson’s wife works at the CIA?’ and I was a little taken aback by that ... And I said ‘No, I don’t know that’ inten-tionally because I didn’t want him to take anything I was saying as in any way confi rming what he had said.”

Russert, who is expected to testify this week, has said he did not tell Libby about Plame.

Libby’s testimony also puts him

at odds with other former White House offi cials. At one point, Fitzgerald asks if he recalled shar-ing Plame’s name with Fleischer, as the former press secretary tes-tifi ed last week.

“Isn’t it a fact, sir, that you told Mr. Fleischer over lunch that this was hush-hush or on the Q.T.?,” Fitzgerald asked.

“I don’t recall that,” Libby re-plied.

Prosecutors are expected to continue playing remaining por-tions of Libby’s taped testimony Wednesday.

continued from page 7

Libby’s recorded grand jury testimony played in court

www.browndailyherald.com

THE BROWN DAILY HERALDWEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2007 PAGE 9

Savino ’08 strung together consecu-tive wins to give Brown a 14-9 edge. Unfortunately, the Bears were un-able to hold onto the lead and lost the fi nal four matches of the dual. Brown has now dropped its last three duals to Drexel.

“These two duals showed that a lot of the problems we face are not as much technical as emotional,” Burch said. “I attribute this to … the youthfulness of the team, and the ab-sence of key seniors who would have raised the level of intensity in the practice rooms.”

After a disappointing opening to the weekend, Brown had a complete turnaround on Saturday against Princeton, winning every match. Princeton is a much weaker oppo-nent, but the coaching staff was still satisfi ed to see the team exhibit more aggressiveness and tenacity on the mats. Of the nine who competed, seven Brown wreslers earned bonus points, and Schell scored six points as a result of a forfeit. Classmates Greg Einfrank ’10 at 125 pounds, Bryan Tracy ’10 at 149 pounds and Bran Crudden ’10 at 165 pounds all picked up six points with pins. At 141 pounds, Savino had a major decision with a 10-2 victory, as did Gevelinger at 184 and Mock at heavyweight.

“We should dominate Princeton, which we did,” Burch said. “Hopeful-ly, this will give the team the momen-tum for upcoming duals.”

The team will travel to Boston next weekend to square off against Harvard and Boston University.

continued from page 12

Wrestling pounds Princeton 47-0

curate throw all the way downfi eld. I guess it helps to be 6-foot-5, ‘bout 235 pounds … lay-zer, rocket arm.

6:50 — As the Bears and Colts exchange fumbles on back-to-back plays, I’m bracing for the obligato-ry “Who does the rain favor?” con-versation that Simms and Nantz will inevitably say favors the Bears. Obbbvi. Because, you know, the wet fi eld is bad for receivers trying to make their cuts (it doesn’t affect the defensive backs) but is good for running backs who similarly need traction and are at a much greater risk of fumbling the ball, given how much more often they carry it. I’m no expert, but this notion that rain clearly favors the running game needs to be re-examined, along with the “almost intercepted” thing.

6:54 — Bears wideout Muhsin Muhammad catches a touchdown to give the Bears a 14-6 lead. He’ll always be a Panther to me.

6:59 — Don’t ever consume twice as much Domino’s as you want to eat before trying to write something, especially if you are try-ing to entertain people. I feel dizzy and lethargic, and my friends have taken to yelling, “Can pizza make you feel high?” and “He got jacked up!” (thank you, Michael Irvin and Tom Jackson) every time someone gets tackled.

7:04 — Cedric Benson got JACKED UP as he loses the foot-ball. Raise your hand if you think his day is over (raises hand).

7:15 — Anyone else curious how GoDaddy.com can afford an ad dur-ing the Super Bowl?

7:23 — Personally, when I think of beer, I think about cute dogs. Dogs, beer and football-play-ing horses are practically synony-mous. Keep up the good work, Bud-weiser.

7:24 — A navigation system just spoofed the “Power Rangers” show from the early 1990s. What’s worse, that they chose to do that, or that I recognized it as a “Power Rang-ers” spoof? But I think I’m off the hook because I was seven when I watched it and still only 17 when I bought the DVDs.

7:34 — Rhodes rumbles into the end zone to give the Colts a 16-14 lead, and I think it’s becoming in-creasingly clear who the superior team is.

7:50 – Another string of back-to-back fumbles, one courtesy of Grossman. You can hide your QB when you’re playing against NFC teams, but this is the Super Bowl. He has got to make a play, or at the very least, not do something stupid.

8:15 — Prince is one of those guys I’ve heard about for years but never listened to. Now I know why. Good call by the NFL to clean up the halftime act by getting the one guy who would use a big pillowy-thing to create a phallic image be-hind it.

8:33 — I think someone forgot to tell the Bears that players lined up in the backfi eld are allowed to catch passes. Manning is killing them underneath, and Addai looks like a stud.

8:50 — Has CBS ever heard of a towel? All their camera lenses are covered by rain.

9:12 — Do you think maybe

Dunkin’ Donuts should re-think the decision to have John Goodman as their spokesperson? Have you seen that guy lately?

9:15 — Grossman’s pass is picked off and returned for a touchdown to make it 29-17. The Bears should just implement a policy that if Grossman throws to either sideline, the offensive line-men are obligated to sprint over in the direction of the throw in antici-pation of an interception.

9:19 — As Steve Tasker reports, the question begs, do you remem-ber any special teams players from 15 years ago? That guy is classic. Punt — Block — Master — Flex...

9:27 — Who was the genius at Budweiser who just had to get Don Shula and Jay-Z into the same com-mercial playing some weird form of virtual football? Ohhh, it was Roger Federer. Just kidding, I love tennis. It is a challenging and entertaining sport. Best sport ever? Probably.

9:30 — Rex Grossman, ladies and gentlemen. Berrian actually had his man beat on the Bob Sand-ers interception, and that could have been the one jump ball completion, but the throw was a good 10 yards short. Put it in the books. Now ex-cuse me while I congratulate my mom, a true Hoosier. Hi, Mom!

10:40 — I had to come back and comment on the fact that Domi-nic Rhodes just pulled a Zoolander thinking he had won the MVP.

Tom Trudeau ’09 has one message for Peyton Manning: Cut

that meat!

continued from page 12

run, earning third place with a 14:29.60 fi nish by Stephen Chaloner ’09. Chaloner complet-ed the event ahead of Christian Escareno ’10, Brian Schmidt ’09 and Ryan Graddy ’08, who placed fi fth, sixth and seventh, respectively.

“The men’s distance squad is running phenomenally well,” Lake said.

Brown earned two more sec-ond-place fi nishes in the fi eld events. David Howard ’09 re-corded a throw of 54 feet, 3 1/4-inches in the weight throw and a 51-foot 6 1/2-inch throw in the shot put to place second in both events. Bryan Powlen ’10 also competed in the shot put, throw-ing 48-6 3/4 for fi fth place.

In the pole vault, Grant Bow-en ’07 jumped 15 feet 3 inches to fi nish fourth. In the triple jump, Andrew Chapin ’10 and Regi-nald Cole ’10 took fi fth place and seventh place with respec-tive jumps of 46 feet 1 1/4 inch-es and 45-2 1/4.

The Bears will next head to Boston University to compete at the St. Valentine’s Invitational on Feb. 9-10.

“We need to keep improving on individual performances,” Lake said. “We’re looking toward the Ivy League Championships.”

continued from page 12

Trudeau: Semi-Super Bowl Diary M. track cruises at Geigengack Invitational

As graduate students in the histo-ry department, we are deeply con-cerned with the policy changes be-ing enacted by the Graduate School, along with the recent statements by Dean of the Graduate School Sheila Bonde in Tuesday’s Herald (“Change in Grad School policy won’t alter TA numbers, offi cials say,” Feb. 6). Though we cannot speak for other departments, we can tell you how these policy changes will affect the history department — home to one of the most popular concentrations at Brown.

The Grad School made substan-tial changes to funding policies two years ago. Having adjusted to these changes, the history graduate stu-dents were shocked when the Grad School decided to inform the gradu-ate student community late this fall that the policies governing funding would be completely overhauled, ef-fective immediately. We had neither notice of these changes nor any in-put in the decision making, and the result is a poorly thought-out funding policy.

Though the average history Ph.D. across American universities takes upwards of eight years, most of the graduate students in the history separtment have been operating on a six-year trajectory. Usually, we hold teaching assistantships in the sec-ond, third and fi fth years, we travel for an essential year of research in the fourth year, and we use a fellow-ship in the sixth year to complete our dissertation. Within this framework — a framework now eradicated by the Grad School — history graduate students have worked prodigiously to provide the best learning experience for undergraduates we can, while researching and writing the kind of

high-quality dissertations we hope will bring recognition to the Univer-sity and further our careers as histo-rians.

The policy changes recently man-dated by the Grad School create a fi ve-year paradigm of funding even for departments where this is not viable. This will, without doubt, de-grade the ability of history graduate students to produce strong disserta-tions, and consequently undermine the quality of the program, ironically in the midst of the Plan for Academic Enrichment.

But perhaps even more relevant to the Brown community as a whole — undergraduates, professors, work-ers, alumni, parents — the rashness of this decision by the Grad School will substantially diminish the un-dergraduate experience in history classes. Forcing a long and arduous process into merely fi ve years would leave even less time for teaching as-sistants to devote their attentions to their undergraduate sections. Fur-thermore, despite Bonde’s disingen-uous assertion that the procedural change in how grad students are funded shouldn’t affect the number of teaching assistants, the 2007-2008 school year will be marked by a dras-tic shortage of teaching assistants in the history department. Because of the policy changes and research ne-cessities, next year’s fourth, fi fth, and sixth year Ph.D. students will be re-moved from the eligible pool of teach-ing assistants, leaving only second and third year Ph.D. students — few-er than 15 students overall — to teach discussion sections for some of the most popular courses here at Brown. There has been recent discussion in the history department about mea-sures necessary to deal with a short-

age of TAs, including course enroll-ment caps, drastically increasing the size of discussion sections, or even eliminating them altogether.

One of the great advantages of the University has always been its small class sizes and the ability of undergraduates to forge meaningful relationships with teaching assistants and professors. These policy chang-es, being forced through by deans with only fi scal concerns in mind, will cause irreparable harm to those rela-tionships — to your undergraduate experience. So if you have the time, if you’ve ever had a TA who has been critical to your undergraduate expe-rience, drop a line to The Herald or Dean Bonde in the Grad School to let them know that these changes are antithetical to the meaning and pur-pose of the University.

Kevin Hoskins MA‘05 GS, Erik Anderson MA‘04 GS,

Chris Barthel MA‘05 GS, Caroline Boswell MA‘01 GS, Christopher

Brick MA‘04 GS, Will Brucher GS, Thomas Devaney MA‘06 GS,

Matthew Dunne MA‘03 GS, Natalina Earls MA‘03 GS, Nicole Eaton MA‘05 GS, Heather Ellis GS, Sara Fingal GS,

Katherine Flynn MA‘05 GS, Jessica Foley MA‘05 GS, Elisa Gollub

MA‘01 GS, Jonathan Hagel MA‘01 GS, Sheyda Jahanbani MA‘01 GS,

C. Cryn Johannsen MA‘06 GS, Christopher Jones MA‘03 GS, James Kabala MA‘03 GS, Paige Meltzer GS,

Kelly Ricciardi GS, Mark Robbins MA‘04 GS, Gabriel Rosenberg

MA‘04 GS, Erica Ryan MA‘02 GS, Derek Seidman MA‘05 GS, Stacie

Taranto MA‘05 GS, Adam Webster MA‘05 GS, Stephen Wicken GS,

Jennifer Wilz MA‘03 GSFeb. 6

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EDITORIAL & LETTERSTHE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2007PAGE 10

Even though the integrated software system has been in the works for nearly a half-decade, campus discussion about Banner has become frantic in the last week. For years, students have com-plained that Brown is one of the few top universities stuck in the stone age of course registration. But now, about 15 percent of the undergraduate student body has joined a new anti-Banner Face-book group — created just under a week ago — that is serving as a sounding board for students’ speculative panic.

The widespread student interest in the anti-Banner Facebook group speaks loudly. To her credit, Associate Provost Nancy Dun-bar, whose “Banner project owner” title bestows a level of respon-sibility that surely keeps her up at night, was quick to respond to the surge in student trepidation. Yesterday, Dunbar posted a lengthy response to student concerns on the Banner project’s Web site, and her letter was quickly linked to on the Brown Against Banner online message board. Dunbar’s three-page memo care-fully unpacks many of the concerns raised on the Facebook fo-rum. Some of what she says is comforting (students will be able to add courses without a professor’s signature during the fi rst week of class) and some is troubling (seniors get to pick their courses fi rst, meaning juniors will get the dregs of upperclassmen semi-nars). But we appreciate her openness and willingness to engage students.

Even though some of the anti-Banner fears are baseless, ad-ministrators must not underestimate the seriousness of logistical concerns. University offi cials say the introduction of Banner won’t bring any new registration policies because professors will be able to login to the system to override virtually any restrictions, such as prerequisites and caps on class size. But administrators must be absolutely certain that every one of the University’s 658 pro-fessors knows how to use the system. If creating guest accounts and uploading class readings on MyCourses is any indication, that won’t be an easy task.

Some of the Facebook activists behind Brown Against Ban-ner upped the level of anxiety by invoking an argument sure to cause a rise in almost any Brown student — Banner is a covert attempt to bring down the New Curriculum. Even if you don’t be-lieve Dunbar’s reassurance that “Banner is not a project to change the Brown curriculum,” suggesting that Banner is designed to de-stroy the open curriculum is irrational or paranoid.

Banner is not going away, and new technology infrastructure is necessary for 21st century Brown. But as April pre-registration approaches, University offi cials need to boost their efforts to edu-cate students and faculty about how to use Banner. Conspiratorial administrators won’t cause Banner to alter our curriculum. But logistical nightmares could.

New Grad School policy is poorly thought-outTo the Editor:

Calm down about Banner

OPINIONSTHE BROWN DAILY HERALDWEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2007 PAGE 11

Two weeks ago, I went to the opening of the Sciences Library’s new Friedman Study Center — nominally to attend the celebration of Brown’s technology and re-sources, but really to get some low-quality pizza and a free backpack and because I had already seen the “Futurama” episode playing on Cartoon Network that evening. What I found was an impressive space, full of mostly working computers, clean desks, oddly-shaped but comfortable chairs and a pleasant, well-lit work area. What I didn’t fi nd was a library.

Let me fi rst say that I am deeply in-debted to Susan and Richard Friedman for their generous donation, and I honestly believe it is a great service to the Brown community. But the Study Center, or, as it was once known, the SciLi Basement, is ul-timately a social place — no different, ex-cept in scale, from the CIT, Faunce or any other 24-hour space on campus. With the exception of the small reference section, buried in a far corner, there is no indica-tion that the SciLi basement, is indeed in the Sciences Library — no books, no jour-nals, only the sounds of conversations, printers and photocopiers.

Libraries, ultimately, are repositories of information, a proud tradition of collecting and organizing knowledge dating back to Alexandria in Egypt that forms the heart of scholarship. On this point, Brown has done an admirable job, and its extensive print collections range from the infamous human fl esh folios to the far more mun-dane but potentially more useful — to stu-dents of government, or students with in-somnia — collection of the proceedings of

the Canadian Parliament in the early 20th century. Furthermore, Brown has an ex-cellent and expanding collection of elec-tronic journals and databases, the current medium of choice for much of the scienc-es, social sciences and humanities. The new SciLi basement incorporates none of this.

Instead it is now only a work area, and one which, in the opinions of many I’ve

spoken with, has too much wasted space and too few tables and carrels, especially compared to its older permutation. While it’s a great space if you can fi nd a place to sit or type — if you can’t, you’re out of luck. I fear that during midterms and fi nals, too many people will be out of luck.

The transition of libraries from sites of research to sites of socialization is not new, nor is it unique to Brown. Last month, a li-brary in New Jersey decided to close dur-

ing after-school hours, because students had become unacceptably loud and dis-ruptive to others. While this decision was reversed after a spate of negative publicity, it illustrates a new function of libraries as de facto community centers. I spent part of winter break working in my local public li-brary, and while many people checked out books or movies, many others browsed the Internet or dropped their kids off by

the children’s literature section, assuming the reference staff also served as babysit-ters. I don’t doubt that libraries have uses beyond gathering information, but when they become socializing areas, they lose their essential function.

And that is my problem with the new SciLi basement. By divorcing itself in de-sign and in construction from the books and resources of the library system, it for-gets the one true function of the building: to store the knowledge of humanity in a way accessible to all. Before, it was impos-sible to go into a library without working amidst the pieces of the Brown collection, realizing its power and learning, if only by osmosis or trial-and-error, how to re-search, how to be a student and hopeful-ly, how to be a scholar. But now, it is only a large concrete room, with nothing but a sign to indicate that it is even in a library.

I don’t dispute that the Friedman Study Center will be a useful though imperfect addition to Brown. But I hope it does not refl ect the University’s future plans and that the administration remembers that when it comes down to it, libraries are ul-timately about books, research and schol-arship, not about egg-shaped chairs, inef-fi cient computer desks or oddly-shaped plastic dividers.

Joey Borson ’07 freely admits he’s a bit of a library nerd.

Empty spaces and empty libraries

With Mel Gibson’s drunken ramblings about Jews and Michael Richards’ racial tirade at a California comedy club, 2006 will surely be re-membered as a year of high-profi le Hollywood racism. Both cases elicited universal condem-nation, some of it appropriate but much, unfor-tunately, self-serving. As Americans gawked at such distasteful violations of decorum, many so-called civil rights leaders — including Abra-ham Foxman of the Jewish Anti-Defamation League, Jesse Jackson and the Rev. Al Sharpton — shamelessly exploited the media circus for extravagantly sanctimonious self-promotion.

But where were these high priests of tol-erance and multiculturalism when another in-stance of Hollywood hate brought ignorant, racially-based stereotypes to millions of view-ers around the world? The critically heralded movie musical “Dreamgirls” peddled a form of racism far more dangerous and insidious than either of Gibson and Richards’ recent rants — because its strain of prejudice has become vir-tually invisible in today’s cloudy dialogue about race.

As we know from scholars in Ethnic and Af-ricana Studies, unexamined stereotypes can as-sume an air of legitimacy if they are normalized over time — even when people strive to be con-scientious. How many of us really take notice when Asian men are disproportionately cast as asexual computer nerds or Italians as greasy mobsters? And who among us takes the time to rigorously interrogate common stereotypes about the broader category of “white people?”

There are two offending moments in “Dreamgirls”, both of which target whites in a manner almost unthinkable if the racial roles were reversed. In one scene, the Dreamettes’ (black) main songwriter is asked if he’s heard the song “Hound Dog.”

“Elvis Presley?” he asks, to which his black

associate smirks knowingly and replies, “Big Mama Thornton.” From the context and sub-sequent dialogue, it’s clear the fi lm suggests that The King was more thief than pioneer — a specious charge made some years back on one of rapper Mos Def’s more insufferable record-ings. This is a hostile and inaccurate distortion of the historical record. Thornton’s version of “Hound Dog” is a blues song with a distinctly different arrangement and sound compared to the more famous recording. In fact, Pres-ley likely had never heard the Thornton rendi-tion when he recorded the song, as his was in-spired by a Las Vegas lounge act named Fred-die Bell. Elvis Presley’s music actually helped introduce black styles and artists to a largely oblivious white audience, and he was frequent-ly criticized for violating racial taboos.

Indeed, rock ’n’ roll is fundamentally rooted in transracial cultural fusion — the marriage of white country music and black blues — the great Chuck Berry’s “Maybellene,” sometimes considered the birth of rock ’n’ roll, was an amped-up interpretation of country standard “Ida Red.” If African-American characters’ ca-sually race-infused misrepresentation of Elvis is acceptable, we should not feel differently if another fi lm — this with a white-dominat-ed cast — were to sympathetically portray a group of struggling white musicians dismiss-ing Chuck Berry as an inauthentic knockoff stealing ideas from the Carter Family. Yet such a scene would undoubtedly — and justifi ably

— attract criticism and controversy — perhaps some right here on our lovely campus.

The second instance of “Dreamgirls”’ ra-cial insensitivity is more obviously damag-ing. White performers demonstrate the co-op-tation of black music with a look, sound and color more palatable to white radio program-mers and parents — an all-too-common cir-cumstance during this period. The scene cuts from Jimmy Early and the Dreamettes’ fervent, soulful take of the song “Cadillac Car” to a lu-dicrously sanitized version by a squeaky-clean white singer and two white models in cheerlead-ing uniforms in an actual Cadillac on the set of “American Bandstand“American Bandstand“ .”

The rendition is over the top, but not quite in a way that screams “racial stereotype.” As the camera pulls back, however, we see that the

studio is packed with sorry-looking white teen-agers who awkwardly lurch about in absurdly lame clothing.

Next to the cool, confi dent and authentic black protagonists, these poor whites are clown-ish squares, so straitlaced that they need what the movie ambiguously calls black “soul” to be-come reasonable. Not only is this generaliza-tion historically inaccurate — plenty of white kids danced perfectly well on “American Band-kids danced perfectly well on “American Band-kids danced perfectly well on “stand” — but it props up the tired old stereotype of the uptight white nerd, hopelessly incapable of the grit and authenticity effortlessly generat-ed by other hues. Due to constant repetition in commercials, movies and comedy acts, this de-

meaning white stereotype has become largely normalized in our society. How would we feel if the racial positions were switched, and a fi lm about sympathetic white musicians cut from their enjoyable performance to a raucous scene on the chitlin circuit? What if it mockingly pre-sented hyper-sexualized black bodies undulat-ing wildly and sporting shabby clothing? Such a fi lm would have even less chance of being an Oscar contender than Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., now seems to have for the U.S. presidency.

However inappropriate both the Gibson and Richards incidents were, they were at least the products of extenuating circumstances. Given the intensity of many Jewish groups’ attacks on “The Passion of the Christ”“The Passion of the Christ”“ and Israel’s widely criticized summer bombing of Lebanon, a very intoxicated Gibson’s comment that “Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world” can be put into context, though it surely cannot be excused. Michael Richards’ fame is based on his unparalleled ability to channel spastic and wildly inappropriate impulses as Kramer on “Seinfeld.” In a moment of blind rage sparked by rude audience members’ disruption of his struggling stand-up act, it is hardly surprising — though certainly unseemly — that Richards might exhibit a less entertaining variant of the same basic behavior.

“Dreamgirls”, on the other hand, had been staged since 1981 and spent years in develop-ment as a fi lm project. Its content — including the racial stereotypes — is entirely deliberate and deserves to be judged as such.

A multicultural society that condemns some forms of discrimination while tacitly approving others will inevitably — and rightly — invite ac-cusations of hypocrisy. Those concerned with racial harmony and justice should take care that no demeaning ethnic stereotype becomes acceptable, regardless of the races involved.

The inability of Jesse Adams ’07 to jump has nothing to do with his race, ethnicity, creed,

sexual orientation or national origin.

Hollywood-sanctioned racism perpetuates prejudice“Dreamgirls” joins the ranks of Mel Gibson and Michael Richards“Dreamgirls” joins the ranks of Mel Gibson and Michael Richards“Dreamgirls”

By divorcing itself in design and in construction from the books and

resources of the library system, it forgets the one true function of the building: to

store the knowledge of humanity in a way accessible to all.

A multicultural society that condemns some forms of

discrimination while tacitly approving others will inevitably — and rightly — invite accusations of hypocrisy.

BY JOEY BORSONOPINIONS COLUMNIST

BY JESSE ADAMSOPINIONS COLUMNIST

SPORTS WEDNESDAYTHE BROWN DAILY HERALDWEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2007 PAGE 12

The wrestling team faced Ivy League opponents for the fi rst time this season over the week-end and emerged with mixed de-cisions. On Friday, the Bears suf-fered a 33-4 loss to No. 14 Uni-versity of Pennsylvania, then lost 22-14 to non-conference opponent Drexel University the same day. However, the Bears bounced back in a big way the next day, dominat-ing their dual meet against Princ-eton and posting a nearly perfect score of 47-0. The team currently holds a record of 2-5 in the East-ern Intercollegiate Wrestling As-sociation, and 2-9 overall.

Brown faced a diffi cult task when it opened its weekend at Penn. The Quakers boast fi ve na-tionally ranked wrestlers, all of whom lived up to their hype. Matt

Valenti, ranked No. 2 in the nation in the 133-pound weight class, beat Jeff Schell ’08 in a major decision, 14-4. The rest of the team followed Valenti’s lead as the Quakers re-corded fi ve major decisions on the day.

“We know we were outgunned (by Penn) at this point, but it al-most seemed like the wrestlers were not bothered by losing,” said Assistant Coach Mike Burch. “Even if you lose, you should give everything you have, wrestle with good strategies and spirit … but there wasn’t the effort to execute against Penn.”

Co-captain Levon Mock ’08 gave the team’s best performance against Penn when he won with a major decision of 12-1 in the heavy-weight class. The four points he earned for the win were the only points Bears managed to record against the Quakers.

“It seems that some of the guys are getting (nervous) and afraid to make mistakes, so they don’t do anything to score points in their matches, and they can’t win,” Mock wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. “As the sole captain left competing, I feel that setting an example out on the mat is im-portant.”

Brown mounted a quick turn-around, facing Drexel immedi-ately after the match with Penn. Burch said the Bears learned from their mistakes against Penn and brought more competitiveness and intensity against the Dragons.

In the opening match, Matt Gevelinger ’09 earned four points for the team with a 19-9 major deci-sion at 184 pounds. After the Bears lost in the 197-pound weight class, Zach Zdrada ’09, Schell and Mark

Grapplers pound Princeton 47-0, fall to Penn and Drexel on road swingCONTRIBUTING WRITER

Despite gritty play, both the men and women’s squash teams fell in matches against Williams College and Dart-mouth this past weekend. The men lost 8-1 to the Ephs on Friday night and fell to the Big Green by an identical score on Sunday. The women’s team just barely missed out on victories, losing 5-4 against Williams and 6-3 against Dartmouth. The weekend’s play leaves the men’s team with a 1-7 record and the women’s squad with a 3-6 mark.

While the results were lop-sided for the men, a number of individual matches could have gone in Brown’s favor.

“Both Williams and Dart-mouth were tough, and some of our guys played well,” said co-captain Dan Petrie ’07, cit-ing strong play from fellow co-captain Pat Haynes ’07 at the five spot and Jacob Winkler ’09 at No. 7.

Mark Goldberg ’07 also

looked strong, Petrie said, de-spite being outlasted by Billy Nix of Dartmouth in a five-game marathon, 9-2, 7-9, 3-9, 9-6, 9-7. Though Goldberg pulled out a five-game thriller last week against Bowdoin Col-lege, he was unable to repeat the feat against a tough Dart-mouth opponent.

Head Coach Stuart LeGas-sick also pointed to a valiant effort in the Dartmouth match by Pat Davis ’10. Though Da-vis lost three straight games in the sixth position, he pushed the first two to tiebreakers, eventually losing both 10-8.

The lone victory in both matches for the men came from Petrie, who has been sol-id in the No. 1 position of the Bears’ lineup all season. Petrie has won his last four match-es, including a five-game, 75-minute match against his Wil-liams opponent. Even with the team’s less-than-impressive re-sults, Petrie is optimistic about the squad’s future.

Both m. and w. squash teams squished by Dartmouth, WilliamsBY JASON HARRISCONTRIBUTING WRITER

BY HAN CUI

M. track cruises at Geigengack Invitational

Even with a key sprinter side-lined for the rest of the season, the men’s track and fi eld team re-fused to slow down at Yale’s Gei-gengack Invitational. Instead, the Bears took home several top-three fi nishes from the unscored week-end event.

Participating schools included Ivy League rivals Yale, Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania.

“We were struggling,” said Craig Lake, director of track and fi eld. “Michael Pruzinsky (’07), who’s a huge part of our team, just got diagnosed with a kidney infec-tion. He’ll be out for the rest of the season.”

Pruzinsky was one of the Bears’ top sprinters last year, fi nishing third in the 400-meter run at the in-door Heptagonal Championships. He also helped the 4x400-meter re-lay team to a second place fi nish.

With Pruzinsky ailing, the other runners fi lled the void. Jamil Mc-Clintock ’08 highlighted the Bears’ performances, earning Brown’s only fi rst-place fi nish of the day. McClintock won the 60-meter hur-dles in 8.14 seconds, .04 seconds ahead of Georgetown University’s Terrell Gissendanner.

“Jamil McClintock has been running really well,” Lake said.

In the 1,000-meter run, Sean O’Brien ’09 took second place with a time of 2:27.23, less than two sec-onds behind the University of Ver-mont’s Sean Steinhagen.

The Bears also performed impressively in the 5,000-meter

BY ERIN FRAUENHOFERASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR

I’m (Joseph) Addai-ing to get going, so here we go…

5:55 — Interesting pre-game show. Cirque du Soleil? More like Circus du Suck.

6:15 — I’m no music guru, but I’m positive Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Billy Joel just got owned by the note on “see” (as in, “Oh, say can you see”).

6:20 — Okay, I’m watch-

ing the players huddling together on the sidelines, and I’m trying to read their lips. So far I’ve picked up, “No one comes into our house and doesn’t bring a Diet Pepsi! No one.” Strange.

6:26 — As Devin Hester scam-pers into the end zone off the open-ing kickoff, I’m tempted to brag about how my friends and I predict-ed it would happen, but after watch-ing Indy’s special teams against New England two weeks ago, who didn’t? Side note: I’ve watched the Bears play fi ve times this season (against the Giants, Jets, Pats, Seahawks and Saints), so I can say with confi dence that they are a mediocre team that relies on Hester and Nate Vasher do-ing at least two incredible things on special teams, randomly forcing six fumbles per quarter and successfully completing one Rex Grossman jump ball to wideout Bernard Berrian.

6:30 — As Jim Nantz declares Pey-ton Manning “almost intercepted” by Brian Urlacher (he got a few fi ngers on the ball), it makes me wonder if it’s time to reassess that statement. As it stands, any time a defense play-er’s body (foot included) touches the ball, it was “almost intercepted.”

6:31 — I wonder if the Colts are going to live and Addai by the pass. Speaking of Addai, I wonder if he wears Nike or Addaidas.

6:32 — Another “almost inter-cepted” claim. This one bounced off the defender’s body. I think Nantz is infl uenced too much by Madden ’99, where the ball would vacuum into the hands of the player no matter where on his virtual body it fi rst touched.

6:34 — Peyton is picked off on 3rd-and-12 right after Jim Nantz told us Manning specifi cally said the Colts needed to avoid that exact down and yardage. This might be the fi rst time where the “what some guy told me before the game” crap was actually interesting. Don’t wor-ry Peyton, they aren’t saying boo, they’re saying mooo—vers.

6:38 — Grossman lets fl y his fi rst jump ball, which really is almost in-tercepted. What a surprise, the Bears go three-and-out on their fi rst drive.

6:46 — As Reggie Wayne gallops into the end zone off a blown cover-age, I can’t help but marvel at what Manning just did. He had a 300-pounder named Tank wrapping him up, and he still gets off a strong, ac-

Semi-Super Bowl Diary

Tom TrudeauTru Story

Ashley Hess / Herald File PhotoMatt Gevelinger ’09 scored major decisions against Drexel and Princeton this weekend. Brown lost to Drexel and Penn on Friday but crushed Princeton 47-0 on Saturday.

Austin Freeman / Herald File PhotoTri-captain Katie Lew ’07 won her match 10-9 in the fi fth and deciding game against Williams, but the Bears dropped a 5-4 decision to the Ephs on Saturday.

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WEDNESDAY,DAY,DAY FEB. 7

W. HOCKEY: vs. Connecticut, 7 p.m., MeehanAuditoriumM. SQUASH: vs. Tufts, 7:30 p.m., Pizzitola vs. Tufts, 7:30 p.m., Pizzitola vs. Tufts,CenterW. SQUASH: vs. Tufts, 6:00 p.m., Pizzitola vs. Tufts, 6:00 p.m., Pizzitola vs. Tufts,Center

SPORTS SCHEDULE

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