12
www.browndailyherald.com 195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island [email protected] News..... 1-6 Sports...7-9 Editorial..10 Opinion...11 Today ........12 A SLIPPERY START Men’s hockey team struggles to find momentum this season Sports, 7 WITHDRAWN Erroll Southers ’78, tapped for TSA head, pulls his name from consideration News, 3 SMART SHOPPING Mike Johnson ’11 urges students to think outside the Brown Bookstore Opinions, 11 INSIDE D aily Herald THE BROWN vol. cxlv, no. 1 | Wednesday, January 27, 2010 | Serving the community daily since 1891 Brown starts aid efforts in Haiti disaster’s wake BY SYDNEY EMBER NEWS EDITOR In the two weeks since an earthquake devastated Haiti, the Brown commu- nity has begun mobilizing to aid the worldwide relief efforts. With imme- diate support from students, faculty and staff, President Ruth Simmons launched the Haiti Crisis Response Committee Jan. 14 to coordinate ex- tensive relief efforts and to provide recommendations to the University about further measures the commu- nity can take to assist the Caribbean nation. The committee has met twice — once Jan. 15 and again Jan. 22 — to discuss ways to harness the outpouring of community support. “The distressing situation in Haiti following the massive earthquake has left us all searching for ways of getting involved to bring aid and comfort to the people of Haiti,” Simmons wrote in a University-wide e-mail on Jan. 14. “The urgent need for virtually every cat- egory of assistance calls upon us to respond quickly and decisively.” Coordinating University efforts The committee, which was in- troduced in the e-mail and includes professors, administrators, under- graduates and medical students, has already spearheaded fundraising efforts, organized drives for much- needed supplies and planned educa- tional opportunities on campus in a push to provide relief. “Part of the real catastrophe here is the incredible poverty and inequality,” said Matthew Gutmann, vice president for international affairs and a co-leader of the committee with Professor of Africana Studies Barry- more Bogues. “What the president has asked us to do is to coordinate our efforts both long-term and short- term.” To manage the relief efforts, the committee created four working groups — a group charged with or- ganizing fundraising efforts, a com- munications group that will develop a Web site, a group to address medical and health issues and a scholarly task Brown retains NEASC accreditation BY JENNA STECKEL SENIOR STAFF WRITER After a lengthy review process, the New England Association of Schools and Colleges decided to reaccredit Brown as one of its mem- ber institutions. The organization formally informed President Ruth Simmons of the decision in a letter Jan. 8, and Provost David Kertzer ’69 P’95 P’98 announced the news in an e-mail to the Brown commu- nity Jan. 13. In addition to praising the University’s Plan for Academic Enrichment, the letter provides suggestions on how to improve the school further. The letter is based on the findings of the Commission on Institutions of Higher Educa- tion, the branch of the NEASC re- sponsible for college and university accreditation. The process of reaccreditation, which occurs about once a decade, involves a review of member schools by a committee of faculty and administrators from peer insti- tutions. This committee compiles a report on the state of the school un- der review and offers suggestions for improvement. Their report eval- uates schools based on NEASC’s 11 standards, which include mission and purpose, academic program, faculty, physical and technological resources, students, public disclo- sure and integrity. A 10-person team sent by NEASC began to evaluate Brown for reaccreditation in April 2008. Their findings formed the basis for NEASC’s decision to reaccredit the University. According to the letter sent to Simmons, the team found Brown to be “one of the premiere Moynihan ’81 named to head Bank of America BY ANA ALVAREZ SENIOR STAFF WRITER Bank of America selected senior ex- ecutive Brian Moynihan ’81 as CEO in December. Moynihan took over earlier this month as the country’s largest bank faced large losses from the repayment of federal loans and continued trouble in consumer loan repayments. While facing the difficult economic times that the bank has ahead, Moyni- han told The Herald he hopes to “con- tinue to do a great job for consumers and for our employees,” adding that “if we can be good at both of those, we can also do a good job for our shareholders.” Following a rigorous search that attracted much speculation, the bank’s board of directors elected Moynihan after vetting several other candidates from inside and outside Bank of Amer- ica, according to a statement from the bank. Moynihan previously worked as the bank’s president of global corpo- Applications skyrocket 20 percent BY ANNE SIMONS STAFF WRITER Brown’s admission office was in- undated by “just north of” 30,000 undergraduate regular and early decision applications this January, according to Dean of Admission Jim Miller ’73. This represents about a 20 percent increase in total ap- plicants from last year and almost a 50 percent increase over the last two years, he added. The surge in applications ex- ceeded the processing capacity of the Admission Office’s building and forced the opening of a satellite facility in Alumnae Hall. “We got buried,” Miller said. Miller said it was difficult to attribute the massive increase to any one cause. He said he believes Brown has raised its national pro- file with initiatives like the Plan for Academic Enrichment and increased availability of financial aid, as well as the advancements of specific fields at Brown like neuroscience and environmental At BET Honors, rubbing elbows with stars BY MICHAEL SKOCPOL STAFF WRITER WASHINGTON — Chatting politely with Diddy. Clasping hands with Queen Latifah. Receiving a bear hug from Whitney Houston. And delivering a speech that may reach a television audience of millions. It was all in a glamorous night’s work for President Ruth Simmons, who accepted an award for her accom- plishments as an educator Jan. 16, at the 2010 BET Honors in downtown’s Warner Theater. Simmons, Latifah, Houston, re- nowned neurosurgeon Keith Black and Sean “Diddy” Combs were the honorees at the third-annual awards show, which recognizes the lifetime achievements of high-profile black Americans and will be broadcast Feb. 1 on the cable network. In front of a decked-out crowd that included celebrities, athletes and prominent professionals, the quintet was feted with video tributes and musical per- formances by the likes of Mary J. Blige, Stevie Wonder and Jennifer Hudson. “I’m a little bit out of my element here,” Simmons said, taking the stage to accept her award in a floor-length black gown and a gold-and-pearl neck- lace. She spoke for about five minutes about the value of education, likening herself to “millions of children” world- wide who “walk every day along dusty roads and mean streets to places of learning.” “With the help of the teachers who pushed me beyond what I thought I could do,” she said, “I came to under- stand the value of education, not just to enable me to make a living, but to en- able us to make a worthwhile life.” Among those she thanked were the Corporation members who in 2001 made what she called the “boldly inde- pendent” decision to appoint her the Ivy League’s first black president. “I hope and pray that I’ve lived up to their confidence in my abilities,” she told the crowd, adding, after a pause, “I’m sure I have.” Two top BET executives — Pres- Michael Skocpol / Herald Max Clermont ’11 was one of those helping out at Alumnae Hall, which served to handle the overflow of admissions applications. Michael Skocpol / Herald President Simmons walks the red carpet at the 2010 BET Awards in Washington. She was honored for her achievements in education. continued on page 4 continued on page 2 continued on page 6 continued on page 3 continued on page 5

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

News.....1-6Sports...7-9 Editorial..10Opinion...11Today........12

a slippery startMen’s hockey team s t rugg les to f ind momentum this season

Sports, 7WithdraWnErroll Southers ’78, tapped for TSA head, pulls his name from consideration

News, 3smart shoppingMike Johnson ’11 urges students to think outside the Brown Bookstore

Opinions, 11

insi

deDaily Heraldthe Brown

vol. cxlv, no. 1 | Wednesday, January 27, 2010 | Serving the community daily since 1891

Brown starts aid efforts in haiti disaster’s wakeBy sydney emBer

News editor

In the two weeks since an earthquake devastated Haiti, the Brown commu-nity has begun mobilizing to aid the worldwide relief efforts. With imme-diate support from students, faculty and staff, President Ruth Simmons launched the Haiti Crisis Response Committee Jan. 14 to coordinate ex-tensive relief efforts and to provide recommendations to the University about further measures the commu-nity can take to assist the Caribbean nation. The committee has met twice — once Jan. 15 and again Jan. 22 — to discuss ways to harness the outpouring of community support.

“The distressing situation in Haiti following the massive earthquake has left us all searching for ways of getting involved to bring aid and comfort to the people of Haiti,” Simmons wrote in a University-wide e-mail on Jan. 14. “The urgent need for virtually every cat-egory of assistance calls upon us to respond quickly and decisively.”

Coordinating University effortsThe committee, which was in-

troduced in the e-mail and includes professors, administrators, under-graduates and medical students, has already spearheaded fundraising efforts, organized drives for much-needed supplies and planned educa-tional opportunities on campus in a push to provide relief.

“Part of the real catastrophe here is the incredible poverty and inequality,” said Matthew Gutmann, vice president for international affairs and a co-leader of the committee with Professor of Africana Studies Barry-more Bogues. “What the president has asked us to do is to coordinate our efforts both long-term and short-term.”

To manage the relief efforts, the committee created four working groups — a group charged with or-ganizing fundraising efforts, a com-munications group that will develop a Web site, a group to address medical and health issues and a scholarly task

Brown retains neASC accreditationBy Jenna steCkel

seNior staff writer

After a lengthy review process, the New England Association of Schools and Colleges decided to reaccredit Brown as one of its mem-ber institutions. The organization formally informed President Ruth Simmons of the decision in a letter Jan. 8, and Provost David Kertzer ’69 P’95 P’98 announced the news in an e-mail to the Brown commu-nity Jan. 13.

In addition to praising the University’s Plan for Academic

Enrichment, the letter provides suggestions on how to improve the school further. The letter is based on the findings of the Commission on Institutions of Higher Educa-tion, the branch of the NEASC re-sponsible for college and university accreditation.

The process of reaccreditation, which occurs about once a decade, involves a review of member schools by a committee of faculty and administrators from peer insti-tutions. This committee compiles a report on the state of the school un-der review and offers suggestions

for improvement. Their report eval-uates schools based on NEASC’s 11 standards, which include mission and purpose, academic program, faculty, physical and technological resources, students, public disclo-sure and integrity.

A 10-person team sent by NEASC began to evaluate Brown for reaccreditation in April 2008. Their findings formed the basis for NEASC’s decision to reaccredit the University. According to the letter sent to Simmons, the team found Brown to be “one of the premiere

Moynihan ’81 named to head Bank of AmericaBy ana alvarez

seNior staff writer

Bank of America selected senior ex-ecutive Brian Moynihan ’81 as CEO in December. Moynihan took over earlier this month as the country’s largest bank faced large losses from the repayment of federal loans and continued trouble in consumer loan repayments.

While facing the difficult economic times that the bank has ahead, Moyni-han told The Herald he hopes to “con-

tinue to do a great job for consumers and for our employees,” adding that “if we can be good at both of those, we can also do a good job for our shareholders.”

Following a rigorous search that attracted much speculation, the bank’s board of directors elected Moynihan after vetting several other candidates from inside and outside Bank of Amer-ica, according to a statement from the bank. Moynihan previously worked as the bank’s president of global corpo-

Applications skyrocket 20 percentBy anne simons

staf f writer

Brown’s admission office was in-undated by “just north of” 30,000 undergraduate regular and early decision applications this January, according to Dean of Admission Jim Miller ’73. This represents about a 20 percent increase in total ap-plicants from last year and almost a 50 percent increase over the last two years, he added.

The surge in applications ex-ceeded the processing capacity of the Admission Office’s building and forced the opening of a satellite facility in Alumnae Hall.

“We got buried,” Miller said. Miller said it was difficult to

attribute the massive increase to any one cause. He said he believes Brown has raised its national pro-file with initiatives like the Plan for Academic Enrichment and increased availability of financial aid, as well as the advancements of specific fields at Brown like neuroscience and environmental

At Bet honors, rubbing elbows with starsBy miChael skoCpol

staff writer

WASHINGTON — Chatting politely with Diddy. Clasping hands with Queen Latifah. Receiving a bear hug from Whitney Houston. And delivering a speech that may reach a television audience of millions.

It was all in a glamorous night’s work for President Ruth Simmons, who accepted an award for her accom-plishments as an educator Jan. 16, at the 2010 BET Honors in downtown’s Warner Theater.

Simmons, Latifah, Houston, re-nowned neurosurgeon Keith Black and Sean “Diddy” Combs were the honorees at the third-annual awards

show, which recognizes the lifetime achievements of high-profile black Americans and will be broadcast Feb. 1 on the cable network. In front of a decked-out crowd that included celebrities, athletes and prominent professionals, the quintet was feted with video tributes and musical per-formances by the likes of Mary J. Blige, Stevie Wonder and Jennifer Hudson.

“I’m a little bit out of my element here,” Simmons said, taking the stage to accept her award in a floor-length black gown and a gold-and-pearl neck-lace. She spoke for about five minutes about the value of education, likening herself to “millions of children” world-wide who “walk every day along dusty

roads and mean streets to places of learning.”

“With the help of the teachers who pushed me beyond what I thought I could do,” she said, “I came to under-stand the value of education, not just to enable me to make a living, but to en-able us to make a worthwhile life.”

Among those she thanked were the Corporation members who in 2001 made what she called the “boldly inde-pendent” decision to appoint her the Ivy League’s first black president.

“I hope and pray that I’ve lived up to their confidence in my abilities,” she told the crowd, adding, after a pause, “I’m sure I have.”

Two top BET executives — Pres-

Michael Skocpol / HeraldMax Clermont ’11 was one of those helping out at Alumnae Hall, which served to handle the overflow of admissions applications.

Michael Skocpol / HeraldPresident Simmons walks the red carpet at the 2010 BET Awards in Washington. She was honored for her achievements in education.

continued on page 4 continued on page 2

continued on page 6 continued on page 3

continued on page 5

Page 2: Wednesday, January 27, 2010

science.Miller also pointed to the cu-

mulative effect of various positive impressions of Brown in the media and on college research Web sites. The large volume and variety of information available about uni-

versities — from sources such as publications and Web sites that rank universities — has had a “very positive” effect, though it is “hard to quantify,” he said.

The Admission Office also in-creased targeted recruiting this year, especially in areas “that were not traditional feeder areas for us,”

Miller said. They focused on areas that had more ethnic diversity and first-generation college students, resulting in a 40 percent increase in applications from first-genera-tion college students, a 40 percent increase in Latino applications and a 45 percent increase in African-American applications — which have doubled in the last two years, he said.

International applications are also up about 23 percent, Miller said.

Not all of Brown’s peer institu-tions saw similar increases in ap-plication numbers. According to a Jan. 22 article in Business Week, Princeton had a 19 percent increase in applications, while Harvard and Cornell’s numbers rose by only 5 percent, and Yale’s dropped by less than 1 percent. “It’s funny because there’s no pattern across the coun-try,” Miller said.

Though these schools are simi-lar to Brown in many ways, he said, something seems to have set the University apart.

The move to Alumnae Hall will be a one-time occurrence. Volume will not be a problem in the future because applications will be stored and read in electronic form next year, instead of the current method of printing applications out to read

them, Miller added.When the admission office was

reconstructed seven years ago, Miller said, it was built to hold 25,000 applications each year. At the time, the University believed it would be large enough, but the unexpected increase in applica-tions over the last several years meant the space was too small, he said.

The sorted applications were

just moved back into the Admission Office, where 19 full-time readers and “a bunch” of part-time readers will have to make it through tens of thousands of applications by April 1, when admission decisions are released, Miller said.

“It’s a challenge” and “a labor-intensive process,” he said. In his years working in admissions, Mill-er said, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen this kind of quality or numbers.”

sudoku

George Miller, PresidentClaire Kiely, Vice President

Katie Koh, TreasurerChaz Kelsh, Secretary

The Brown Daily Herald (USPS 067.740) is an independent newspaper serv-ing the Brown University community daily since 1891. It is published Monday through Friday during the academic year, excluding vacations, once during Commencement, once during Orientation and once in July by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. Single copy free for each members of the community. POSTMASTER please send corrections to P.O. Box 2538, Providence, RI 02906. Periodicals postage paid at Providence, R.I. Offices are located at 195 Angell St., Providence, R.I. E-mail [email protected]. World Wide Web: http://www.browndailyherald.com. Subscription prices: $319 one year daily, $139 one semester daily. Copyright 2010 by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.

editorial phone: 401.351.3372 | Business phone: 401.351.3260Daily Heraldthe Brown

WEdNESdAy, JANuARy 27, 2010THE BROWN dAILy HERALdPAgE 2

CAMpuS newS “I don’t think I’ve ever seen this kind of quality or numbers.”— Jim Miller ’73, dean of Admission

u. sees another large increase in first-year appscontinued from page 1 total applicants, by class year

Marlee Bruning / HeraldEarly and regular decision applicants for the class on 2014 hit a record high for the university.

30,000

15,000

20,000

25,000

Num

ber

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applic

ants

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

Class year

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CAMpuS newSWEdNESdAy, JANuARy 27, 2010 THE BROWN dAILy HERALd PAgE 3

blogdailyherald.comgo there. do it. Now.

Some syllabi now available onlineBy thomas JarUs

CoNtributiNg writer

The effort by Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron and the Un-dergraduate Council of Students to expand the University’s course preview page, undertaken in No-vember, made large strides by the end of winter break.

Bergeron said that over one-third of all courses have syllabi available on the preview page at courses.brown.edu. In an e-mail to all undergradu-ate students Tuesday, she wrote that students have been asking for course previews for a long time, and she is pleased to see it finally a reality.

Bergeron and UCS have been working to expand the course pre-view page in time for this semes-

ter’s shopping period. Provost Da-vid Kertzer ’69 P’95 P’98 formally asked professors in a November e-mail to upload their syllabi for this semester.

In a Jan. 15 e-mail to faculty, Bergeron reminded instructors of the importance of their coopera-tion.

She wrote, “Through your par-ticipation, the shopping period will become even more fruitful for both you and your students.”

In asking professors to post their syllabi online, the administration in-tends to help students determine their interest in a class before and during shopping period.

According to Robert Taj Moore ’11, chair of academic and adminis-trative affairs for UCS, the council

stressed the importance of online syllabi to the faculty as well.

He said his committee e-mailed department chairs and attended their office hours in order to remind them to utilize the course preview page.

About 900 courses are offered during the spring semester, and Bergeron said she thinks more pro-fessors will upload their syllabi over the next couple of days.

She added that the course pre-view pages offer more information than MyCourses at this time of the year.

While she acknowledged that many students have yet to hear about the course preview page, she said, “Whenever you try something new, it takes a while for people to find out about it.”

Southers ’78 out of running for transport security headBy niCole Friedman

News editor

Though nominated by President Barack Obama to head the Trans-portation Security Administration in September, Erroll Southers ’78 with-drew his name from consideration Jan. 20 amid concerns in the Senate about the potential unionization of TSA employees and inconsistencies in his testimonies about his past.

Southers is currently the assistant chief of homeland security and intel-ligence for the Los Angeles World Airports Police Department, as well as associate director of the University of Southern California’s Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Ter-rorism Events.

Obama nominated Southers to oversee the TSA as assistant secre-tary of the Department of Home-land Security in September, but his nomination was put on hold before the Senate’s winter recess. Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., who placed a hold on the nomination, has expressed concerns about the unionization of TSA personnel.

After the attempted bombing of a Detroit-bound flight on Dec. 25, Senate leadership tried to speed up the confirmation process, according to a Jan. 7 article in the Washington Post. But Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., placed another hold on Southers’ nomination pending a White House response to inconsistencies in South-ers’ testimonies, the newspaper re-ported.

Southers provided two different

accounts to Congress about incidents in which he inappropriately accessed federal records in 1987 and 1988. While he initially told the Senate he asked a friend to access the databases for him, he later recounted that he had accessed the database himself, according to the Post.

“I made, obviously, an error of testimony as it related to my recall,” Southers told The Herald.

Southers withdrew his nomination because he had “become a distrac-tion,” he said. “I didn’t want to remain in a politicized environment as I was trying to deal with a real threat, and that being terrorism.”

“There was a reason for my de-mise that was beyond my control,” Southers said. While he was “really looking forward” to taking on new challenges at the TSA, he plans to stay in his current positions in Los Angeles for the time being and con-tinue to “be a part of the solution” in counterterrorism efforts, he said.

Though Southers graduated from Brown with a degree in biology, he switched to law enforcement work af-ter a half-semester of medical school. “Talk about a 180-degree move,” he said.

Southers was active in the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity and the Orienta-tion Welcoming Committee while at Brown, he said.

Southers encountered an “unusu-al number of Brown alums” in the Department of Homeland Security, he said, including two of the three people who conducted his first in-terview there.

Courtesy of Erroll SouthersErrol Southers ’78 withdrew his name from nomination to head the Trans-portation Security Administration earlier this month after Senate concerns.

rate and investment banking.The search for a new CEO began

after previous CEO Ken Lewis unex-pectedly announced his retirement last September following Bank of America’s highly criticized takeover of Merrill Lynch.

Bank of America posted a $5.2 billion loss for the fourth quarter of 2009. The majority of the loss re-sulted from a $4 billion repayment that the bank made to the Troubled

Asset Relief Program. As high unemployment continues

to hamper Americans’ abilities to pay back credit card debts and mortgag-es, Bank of America will continue facing losses, Moynihan said.

“Our company continues to get better on credit,” he said, “but we still have elevated credit losses due to unemployment.”

Moynihan said he hopes that under his leadership, the bank can continue to “do our part to get the economy back on speed and help

the recovery.”While at Brown, Moynihan ma-

jored in history and headed the men’s rugby team. After graduating, Moynihan earned a law degree from the University of Notre Dame and worked as a lawyer in Providence. He then joined FleetBoston, a Mas-sachusetts-based bank that Bank of America later acquired.

Of his time at Brown, Moynihan recollected, “I think the number-one great thing was that they taught you critical thinking.”

Moynihan ’81 takes charge at Bank of Americacontinued from page 1

Page 4: Wednesday, January 27, 2010

force to provide educational oppor-tunities.

The committee has already set up various Web sites to offer information to people looking for ways they can help. In addition, four members of the medical school traveled to Haiti earlier this week to provide first-hand medical care, Gutmann said.

“There’s a lot of people who want to help out, and we want to make sure we’re doing what’s best for Haiti,” he said after the committee’s second

meeting, during which the working groups reported on their first week of discussions. “Everything is really up and running.”

showing supportIn addition to providing avenues

for coordinated relief efforts, Brown has also reached out to those who have been directly affected by the di-saster, including Haitian students and other members of the community.

“We’ve been in touch with all the students we know of,” Gutmann said. “Everybody seems to be OK, but at

the same time, there are people who have family that have been killed.”

Gutmann said student groups have also approached the commit-tee searching for ways to raise money and awareness.

“Students here have been incred-ibly active in terms of coordinating efforts on campus,” Gutmann said. “Students have got to be at the heart of all this.”

Many student groups are al-ready involved in the relief efforts, with plans to host concerts, clothing drives, open-mic events and teach-ins across campus. One of the working groups is putting together a teach-in, a day-long academic event scheduled for Feb. 19, Gutmann said. A Face-book group, which sprung up im-mediately following the earthquake, had more than 1,200 members as of Tuesday. WBRU held a telethon Jan. 24 to raise money for Providence-Haiti Outreach.

Gutmann said his committee’s most important tasks are to keep Haiti “alive in people’s minds” once the sensational media coverage ebbs and to continue to improve commu-nication with the nation.

Brown has also allocated a variety of resources to help the committee educate the community. Gutmann said the University is designating funding for future speakers and providing staff support for various lecture series to be held later in the semester. “We’re really trying to keep the expenses to an absolute minimum so all the money can go to Haiti itself,” he added. Though the committee has many ideas, no long-term plans will be finalized without input from intellectuals and political leaders in Haiti, Gutmann said.

Will Perez ’08 MD’13, who spent a year in Haiti before medical school and is now leading the medical work-ing group along with Professor of

Medicine Timothy Flanigan, said one of the things his group is trying to do is “harness the energy and activ-ism on campus” to create long-term relationships between groups in the Brown community and Haiti. But Perez said it was important to provide support without creating a situation in which Haiti becomes more depen-dent on outside resources.

“We literally have a nation that is dependent on charitable aid,” he said. “There’s no sustainability.”

Perez has provided people with a list of small, on-the-ground organiza-tions seeking funds. He said many of the bigger organizations such as the Red Cross are “getting paralyzed” by the sheer number of donations, leading to an inability to get money directly to people most in need.

“You can’t go into Haiti like you can any other country,” Perez said. “They have no infrastructure. People are doing the best they can.”

Perez said his direct connection to Haiti has led others to reach out to him, too.

Immediately after the disaster, Perez said he received an outpouring of support from other students — his e-mail inbox was flooded with notes from people asking if he was OK. But Perez said all the well-meaning messages were ultimately too painful, especially because four of his friends had died.

Like Perez, Max Clermont ’11, who is one of three undergraduate students involved with the crisis com-mittee and whose parents are both from Haiti, has been directly affected by the disaster. As of Tuesday, Cler-mont said his family has not heard from his grandmother. He already knows of family members who have been lost.

But Clermont said he is encour-aged by the amount of support he has received from members of the

community looking to help.“This is obviously something

that is very personal,” he said. “The outpouring of support from adminis-trators, professors and students has been one of the greatest things.”

honoring haitiThe crisis has also galvanized

already-established community in-terest in Haiti. There is an ongoing effort to digitize Haitian documents at the John Carter Brown Library, which also contains one of the world’s leading collections of Haitian arti-facts, said Ted Widmer, director of the JCB. The digitized documents would be available to all residents of the island nation. Coincidentally, the library received a “very gener-ous donation” earlier this year from a member of the library’s board to provide support for a year of digitiza-tion, he said, adding that a scanning machine necessary for the project arrived yesterday.

“We were already considering Hai-ti as an important priority in the years to come,” he said. “It’s all the more urgent that we do this because we’re all very concerned about the libraries in Haiti and their conditions.”

Brown has also reached out to Haitian scholars affected by the earthquake, Widmer said, adding that Patrick Tardieu, one of the lead-ing senior librarians in Port-au-Prince, was invited to start a residency at the JCB beginning as early as next Mon-day so he could rebuild his collec-tion of archives. In addition, former Prime Minister Michele Pierre-Louis is scheduled to give a lecture here on May 7.

“When the earthquake hit, I was in the position of knowing other people out there,” Widmer said. “Together, we need to make a global appeal to people who admire (Haiti’s) rich his-tory.”

WEdNESdAy, JANuARy 27, 2010THE BROWN dAILy HERALdPAgE 4

CAMpuS newS “you can’t go into Haiti like you can any other country.”— Will Perez ’08 Md’13

After devastating earthquake, campus organizes for haiti aidcontinued from page 1

Page 5: Wednesday, January 27, 2010

CAMpuS newSWEdNESdAy, JANuARy 27, 2010 THE BROWN dAILy HERALd PAgE 5

“I’m so impressed by what they do.”— President Ruth Simmons, on the other BET honorees

ident and CEO Debra Lee ’76 and President of Music Programming and Specials Stephen Hill ’84 — are Brown alums, and Lee said the president of her alma mater fit the spirit of the award perfectly.

“Being the first African-American Ivy League president is quite an ac-complishment, and when you look at her full history of everything she’s done for our young people in educa-tion, she’s a natural,” Lee, a member of Brown’s Board of Trustees, told The Herald. “Hopefully it will impress upon young people that there are a lot of different professions. You don’t have to be an entertainer or an athlete; you can be a university president.”

Last year’s BET Honors, which recognized luminaries including Blige and Magic Johnson, drew about 2.5 million television viewers, according to the network’s Web site.

“Where (Simmons) came from and how much she has accomplished hopefully will inspire young people that you can do whatever you want,” Lee added.

Simmons grew up during Jim Crow in Grapeland, Texas, as the youngest of 12 children in a family of limited means.

The tribute to Simmons included an introduction by actress Victoria Rowell, a brief video that recounted

her life story and lauded her expan-sion of financial aid at Brown and a musical performance by the singer India.Arie and the pianist ELEW. Sim-mons’ son, Khari, accompanied the pair on bass.

The setting revealed that Simmons is no complete stranger to the enter-tainment world.

Because her son regularly per-forms with Arie, she and Simmons are on a first-name basis, and Arie said Simmons specifically requested she perform at the event. That per-sonal connection made honoring Sim-mons — whom she called a “longtime friend” — all the more special, Arie said.

“I kind of grew up around her,” Arie told the Herald. “She’s someone that I just admire and admire on a personal level, too.”

Simmons has been known to break into song when she sees Arie, the singer revealed. “I have a song called ‘India’s Song,’ and every time I see her she goes, ‘India, India, India-a-a,’” she said.

Arie serenaded Simmons with her song “Beautiful Flower,” whose refrain includes the lyrics “There’s nothing in the world that you can’t do / When you believe in you, who are beautiful.”

The video tribute featured pho-tos — many of which showed Sim-mons in her academic regalia — and

interviews with Simmons and others. Many parts of the video drew loud ap-plause from the audience, especially a part that showed Simmons telling the interviewer that a key moment in her life was when she realized that “I should not be grateful to be at Harvard,” where she received her doctorate, “but they should be grateful to have me.”

Rowell credited Simmons with a “commitment to helping build aca-demic golden gates.”

“Education is an equalizer, a way that those less fortunate can bridge the economic gap,” Rowell said. “To-night, we celebrate Dr. Ruth Simmons, a woman who crossed that bridge and is now dedicated to shepherding as many others across the divide as pos-sible.”

Simmons also used the occasion to express her sympathy for the people of earthquake-devastated Haiti.

“I hear everybody saying that Haiti has to overcome its history, and it annoys me,” she said, to applause. “Haiti’s a beautiful land, full of beauti-ful, brilliant people. It just is going to have to live up to its history.”

Before the event, Simmons walked the red carpet with the likes of D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty, Omarosa Man-igault-Stallworth of “The Apprentice” fame, singer Patti LaBelle and actress Gabrielle Union, the show’s host.

The red carpet is “not quite like

the normal thing that I do,” Simmons laughed while shuttling from inter-view to interview. “It’s always nerve-wracking,” she said, stumbling briefly over her gown as she made her way through a gauntlet of reporters, pho-tographers and television cameras. “You can see why.”

Simmons told the crowd while ac-cepting her award that she found the company humbling.

“I don’t know why I’m here with them,” she said. “I’m so impressed by what they do.”

“It’s intimidating, because I can get up and talk, but they can too,” she added. “And I can’t perform.”

But despite the bright lights and heady atmosphere of the night, Sim-mons made sure to slip in at least one plug for Brown.

“It’s imperative that I give a shout-out to the students, faculty and staff of Brown University,” she said.

Drawing mid-sentence laughter from the audience for her use of slang, Simmons asked, “I can say that, can’t I?”

Simmons honored by Bet with performance by India.Ariecontinued from page 1

Page 6: Wednesday, January 27, 2010

WEdNESdAy, JANuARy 27, 2010THE BROWN dAILy HERALdPAgE 6

CAMpuS newS “It was an opportune moment”— Provost david Kertzer ’69 P’95 P’98

educational institutions in the United States.” In its review, the visiting team focused specifically on the un-dergraduate program in accordance with a request from Brown.

At “nearly forty years since the open curriculum was created, and twenty since the last thorough re-view, it was an opportune moment to see how well the curriculum is serving our students and to iden-tify possible areas of improvement,”

Kertzer wrote in an e-mail to The Herald.

Brown’s most recent round of reaccreditation began in 2007, but the University successfully peti-tioned to defer the process by one year in order to allow its Task Force on Undergraduate Education, led by Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron and consisting of a mix of faculty, administrators and students, to complete its own evaluation be-fore the outside committee began

its review. The Task Force’s report guided both Brown’s continued self-examination and the visiting team’s focus, Kertzer wrote.

In its letter, the Commission wrote that it considers the Plan for Academic Enrichment “a valuable roadmap for future development,” and requested an interim report to be submitted by the University in the spring of 2013. The Commis-sion requested that the report pro-vide an update on the University’s progress in the areas it identified as warranting improvement, highlight the plan’s continued success and include any adaptations made to the plan because of current economic difficulties.

NEASC’s suggestions to the University included: reevaluating its policies for granting tenure, for which plans are already underway; improving research facilities in order to provide sufficient space and mate-rials as Brown expands its research program; and the development of a successful system for evaluating learning and student achievement.

Kertzer wrote that he saw the reaccreditation process as helpful because it encouraged the Brown community “to reflect on what we are doing well and where we could improve. Good things are underway as a result.” www.blogdailyherald.com

continued from page 1

Accreditors examine undergrad program

Page 7: Wednesday, January 27, 2010

SportswednesdayWEdNESdAy, JANuARy 27, 2010 | Page 7

The Brown daily Herald

M. hoops finishes 3-5 in rough stretchBy erika mUeller

CoNtributiNg writer

After finishing up what Head Coach Jesse Agel called a challenging out-of-conference schedule, men’s basketball opened up Ivy League play with a split against Yale in two games over the past two weeks. Overall, the Bears put up a 3-5 re-cord over winter break play.

Returning from a 21-day break, the Bears earned a 74-63 victory against Kean on Dec. 28. Led by Matt Mullery’s ’10 double-double and 17 points from Adrian Wil-liams ’11, the Bears put the Cou-gars down despite leading by only three points with 4:05 left on the clock.

After an 83-78 loss to Sacred Heart on the road two days later, All-Ivy forward Mullery guided Brown to an 72-71 overtime vic-tory against Wagner on Jan. 4. His driving lay-up with five seconds remaining put the Bears on top and gave Mullery 14 on the night. Tucker Halpern ’13 added 22 points and seven rebounds, both career highs. Andrew McCarthy ’13 net-ted 15 points and had six rebounds in just 14 minutes.

Halpern was named Ivy League Rookie of the Week following strong performances against both Wagner and Army.

“As well as he is playing now, he’s just scratching the surface of what we expect from him and what he expects from himself,” Agel said.

McCarthy also earned Ivy League Rookie of the Week honors for the second time this season. With the Bears plagued by inju-ries, McCarthy stepped off of the bench and had 14 points and eight rebounds against Yale on Jan. 15.

“As far as the freshmen are con-cerned, I told them they’re having tremendous freshman years,” Agel said. “They’re learning on the fly and have done a great job.”

Brown kicked off its 14-game Ivy League season with its first conference contest against Yale. The Bears earned a 75-66 victory with a strong performance from Steve Gruber ’10, who scored a career-high 15 points off the bench. The Bears gained a 10-point lead midway through the second half, but Yale answered with a 7-0 run to pull within three points with 7:34 left in the game.

The same teams played a week

later, but Brown fell short, 71-63. Mullery scored 19 and guard Gar-rett Leffelman ’11 added a career-high 15, but the shots weren’t fall-ing for the rest of the team. After splitting the series, both Brown and Yale are now 7-12 overall and 1-1 in Ivy League play.

Jonathan Bateman / Herald file photoForward Tucker Halpern ’13 collected a career-high 22 points in the Bears’ 72-71 overtime win against Wagner.

M. hockey struggles on ice after 25-day hibernationBy dan alexander

sports editor

The pressure couldn’t be any greater for goalie Michael Clemente ’12 and the Brown defense this season. Shut down the cage, and the Bears win. Slip up three times, and it’s going to be a long night.

In games in which the team (6-12-1, 4-7-1 ECAC Hockey) has let in at least three goals, the Bears are 0-11-1. But when they have let in fewer than three, they’re 6-1-0.

“When we’re clicking defensively, we’re very dangerous,” Clemente said. “It’s just that we need to continue to work on being consistent.”

It’s not just Clemente who bears the responsibility. Brown’s defense-men know they must make it easier on him.

“You take every goal against you kind of personally if you’re on the ice,” said defenseman Jeremy Russell ’11. “But at the same time, you’ve just kind of got to be able to park it and get ready for the next shift.”

On Nov. 28, the Bears became the last team in the nation to get their first win of the season. But then they didn’t lose again until January. During the stretch, opposing teams averaged just 1.17 goals against Brown.

The five-game winning streak start-ed with an 8-1 trouncing of UConn and was highlighted by a 2-1 victory on Dec. 5 over then-No. 6 Quinnipiac.

“I thought they outworked us to-night,” Quinnipiac Head Coach Rand Pecknold said after the game.

The Bears’ momentum ended with their break over exams and the holi-days. They re-opened their schedule with a two-night doubleheader against No. 5 St. Cloud State on Jan. 2 and Jan. 3. St. Cloud State took down the Bears, 5-1 and 5-3, to open the New Year.

The downward spiral kept twist-ing and the Bears dropped their next three games — all of which were away, including one against No. 6 Yale.

During the five-game losing streak, Brown allowed an average of 6.4 goals per game and the team gave up eight more power play goals than they earned.

“We just weren’t committed to team defense,” Russell said. “We sometimes got out-battled down low. We took way too many penalties and just had lapses we can’t afford to have.”

But the losing skid ended on Sat-urday when the Bears beat Clarkson 3-2 in the Golden Knights’ rink.

“The Clarkson game reminded me of the UConn game,” Clemente said. “So I’m excited for this weekend because there’s a good feeling in the locker room.”

The team will take its home ice for the first time since Dec. 8 on Friday at 7 p.m. against Rensselaer. The Bears will return the following night at 7 p.m. to take on ECAC leader Union — with whom Brown tied 3-3 on Nov. 6.

Page 8: Wednesday, January 27, 2010

WEdNESdAy, JANuARy 27, 2010THE BROWN dAILy HERALdPAgE 8

SportSwedneSdAy do-it-yourself diamonds and coal.www.diamondsandcoal.com

M. soccer coach noonan to leave for Clemson after 15 seasonsBy dan alexander

sports editor

Men’s soccer Head Coach Mike Noo-nan accepted an offer on Dec. 24 to be the head coach at Clemson and will officially resign from his post at Brown on Feb. 4. The Brown Depart-ment of Athletics immediately began a nationwide search for Noonan’s re-placement.

“Mike is sort of like the gold stan-dard,” said Director of Athletics Mi-

chael Goldberger. “It’s really hard, I think — in an Ivy institution — to be able to put (together) teams that can compete on a national level.”

In his 15 years on Brown’s side-lines, Noonan led the Bears to 10 NCAA tournament appearances, won eight Ivy League titles and compiled a 160-77-31 record.

“It was an extremely emotional and difficult decision,” Noonan said. “You stay at a place for 15 years, you always want to look for the right time

for a new challenge.”Noonan said another “big reason”

he decided to go to Clemson was so that he could train with his players year-round, something he couldn’t do at Brown because of Ivy League restrictions.

Noonan will take assistant coach Phil Jones to Clemson with him, but assistants Patrick Laughlin and Gregg Miller will remain in Providence. Laughlin will be the Bears’ interim coach and is also a candidate for the head coaching job.

Though Noonan had told his play-ers he was interviewing for the posi-tion, some were still caught off-guard when he called to inform them.

“I knew it was a possibility, but you never, sort of, imagine him leav-ing,” said defenseman Dylan Remick ’13. “You always think, ‘Oh, he’ll find a way, he’ll stay, he won’t take the job.’ So, when he said it, I was a little shocked.”

Noonan will take over the Clemson job from former Brown Head Coach Trevor Adair, who resigned from the South Carolina school last June after being arrested on charges of assault-ing his teenage daughters — charges that were dropped in mid-January, according to USA Today.

It’s only coincidence that Clemson has hired two consecutive coaches from Brown, according to Kyle Young,

Clemson associate athletic director and sports supervisor for soccer. Noonan “was a guy who was pointed to by many as an individual who can really pull young men together into a team,” Young said. “We desperately need that right now in our men’s soc-cer program.”

After being contacted by the Ti-gers in September, Goldberger al-lowed Clemson to speak to Noonan. But the coach refused to talk about

another job while in season. “I had better things to do,” Noonan

said. “I didn’t want any distractions for our players or for me or my staff.”

Noonan eventually decided to ac-cept the job, in part because of the strength of the players remaining at Brown. “I felt that the program was in very, very good shape and was going to continue to have success after I was gone. That’s the way you want to leave something.”

Jonathan Bateman / Herald file photoMen’s soccer Head Coach Mike Noonan took a position as head coach at Clemson.

Page 9: Wednesday, January 27, 2010

WEdNESdAy, JANuARy 27, 2010THE BROWN dAILy HERALdPAgE 9

SportSwedneSdAy “We were hungry for a win.”— Jean Marie Burr, women’s basketball

w. basketball off to shaky startBy zaCk Bahr

CoNtributiNg writer

Coming off a 19-day break isn’t easy. Neither is practicing every day while your classmates are still enjoying the comforts of home. But “easy” hasn’t described any part of the women’s basketball season thus far.

The Bears resumed after the break with 29- and 27-point losses to St. Joseph’s and South Carolina, respectively, in the Philadelphia Hawk Classic.

“It’s hard going up against teams who haven’t had time off,” Head Coach Jean Marie Burr said. “They’ve been playing while we’ve been away.”

Bruno’s non-conference woes continued against Albany and a Syracuse team that had only one loss going into the game.

Brown’s tough schedule includ-ed teams from conferences such as the Atlantic 10 and Big East.

“I think this will really get us ready for conference play,” Burr said.

January brought back-to-back contests between the Bears and the Yale Bulldogs. In the thrilling Ivy home-opener, Brown picked up its win in the split series.

Lindsay Nickel ’13, Hannah Pas-safuime ’12 and Aileen Daniels ’12

all scored double-digit points in the much-needed victory against the Bulldogs. The game was a shootout, with the Bears prevailing 60-56.

“We were hungry for a win,” Burr said. “We took it to the high-est level.”

Brown faced the same Yale team the following weekend on the road, but not with the same outcome. With just 10 minutes remaining, Bruno led, 37-35. But then bad news Bears began, as the team faced fouls

and turnovers. The Bulldogs held Brown to just eight points for the remainder of the game and earned the “W” on their home court with a final score of 67-43.

Bruno will be back in action Friday at Princeton and will have a chance to gain a winning record in Ivy play. The Tigers — which ESPN recently ranked No. 10 in the mid-major poll — are off to the best start in school history with a 13-2 record.

Jesse Morgan / Herald file photoThe women’s basketball team will play Princeton this Friday

www.browndailyherald.com

Page 10: Wednesday, January 27, 2010

editorial & LettersPage 10 | WEdNESdAy, JANuARy 27, 2010

The Brown daily Herald

A L E x Y U L Y

haiti and beyond

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editorial

The earthquake that ravaged Haiti earlier this month was a powerful reminder of the country’s deep-seated poverty and political misrule. But it was also a re-minder that humans are sometimes powerless against the earth — that natural disasters can kill thousands, wound many more and turn civilization upside-down, not just in Haiti, but anywhere on our planet.

The global community has been called upon repeatedly in recent years to respond to major hu-manitarian crises caused by natural disasters. In 2004, we watched as a tsunami swept over Southeast Asia, killing over 200,000 people. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans and the American Gulf Coast. Now, once again, we are gearing up to send aid to an area that will need to rebuild itself from the ground up.

Brown has been swift and thorough in its response to the earthquake in Haiti. In the days following the disaster, the University appointed a committee to oversee relief efforts, which include fundraising, medical assistance and scholarship on Haiti. The University has organized supply drives and assembled lists of organizations that are accepting donations. As the semester unfolds, the committee will hold a Haiti teach-in to explore issues surrounding the country’s poverty. And in the long term, Brown has pledged to strengthen its focus on Haitian studies, especially in the areas of education and medicine. These are laudable goals, and we encourage all members of the Brown community to get involved.

Brown can further its long-term commitment to relief in Haiti and elsewhere by promoting broader research on disaster response, reconstruction and humanitarian aid. Disaster relief is highly interdisci-plinary, drawing from public health, development eco-nomics, urban planning and international relations.

As a university with strong programs in all of these fields, Brown is well-situated to promote research on humanitarian crises and emergency management that will benefit countries all over the globe.

Indeed, a number of universities have already launched programs like this. Johns Hopkins’ Center for Refugee and Disaster Response, for example, collaborates with nongovernmental organizations to develop and implement emergency systems for popu-lations in crisis. Harvard’s Humanitarian Initiative seeks to improve humanitarian response strategies to relieve human suffering in war and disaster. Brown could take these ideas a step further by promot-ing student participation — creating opportunities for students to conduct pertinent research or work with disaster-relief organizations. By establishing ties between students and organizations that work on the front lines, Brown can play a role in training the next generation of leaders who will manage re-sponses to crises.

In the days after the Haiti earthquake, President Ruth Simmons wrote to the Brown community, telling us that we must be prepared “to commit to ongoing efforts even after the initial phase of relief is over.” A new center for disaster relief, reconstruction and humanitarian aid would represent not only a long-term commitment to help rebuild Haiti, but also an ongoing effort to relieve human suffering across the globe.

Haiti’s earthquake will not be the last natural di-saster to devastate a country. Though we hope for the best, we must be prepared for what will come next.

Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board. Send comments to [email protected].

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opinionsThe Brown daily Herald

As spring kicks into high gear far too early for any of us to handle, all of our hard-earned summer cash is doomed to spiral (counter-clockwise, since we’re in the northern hemi-sphere) straight down the drain. The city of Providence is looking forward to the Brown community returning to its stores and res-taurants, providing the millions of dollars of income that keep the city afloat (student tax notwithstanding).

But that’s not where the semester’s first mountain of cash will vaporize; rather, hun-dreds of dollars will vanish with the swipe of a card at the Brown Bookstore. It’s a necessary expense; not many professors are proponents of the “it’s true because I say so” approach to teaching. Invariably, every semester, hu-manities concentrators arm themselves for the fruitless debate against sciences concentrators over who spends more money on textbooks. But the real debate should be, why do we choose to spend as much as we do?

For most of my tenure here at Brown, I’ve resigned myself to the attitude that I didn’t have a choice. When handing out the syllabus, my professors would claim, “All of these are

available at the bookstore.” The bookstore is conveniently located on Thayer Street, and I can buy everything there, without worrying that I won’t be able to find what I need. By contrast, Borders and Amazon.com were so “over there.” What I didn’t realize, however, is that I was paying heavily for the convenience of the bookstore.

The Brown Bookstore is a rip-off. I know it; you know it; the employees of the bookstore know it. The bookstore overcharges for what it sells, and when students opt to participate in the deceptively benevolent-sounding “text-

book buyback” program, it shells out pennies on the dollar, effectively making a sizable profit twice on the same book. This sort of scheme makes Bernie Madoff drool. Yes, the Brown Bookstore is a business, and it deserves to make a profit, but is it necessary for that profit to come via price gouging, which harms students?

The short answer is no. The longer answer is that the bookstore can only charge what it does for textbooks because no one is telling it not to. In this wonderful free market society

of ours, the bookstore is entitled to charge whatever it likes for textbooks, no matter how insane the markups are, so long as people keep buying. While outrage and hullabaloo spread through the student population faster than the swine flu, the only recourse that truly affects the bookstore is taking our money elsewhere.

The Brown Bookstore is not a monopoly; there are scores of establishments that sell books required for our classes. Speaking from experience, the Brown Bookstore is not the only place to obtain a copy of Henry David

Thoreau’s “Walden.” There’s a Borders 15 minutes’ walk from campus, and Amazon (where books grow on trees) is a click away. With the economy still working on that “slow but strong” recovery plan, money is tight; why not shop around? It won’t really kill us to take an hour or two out of the daily allotment of Facebook time and check out Amazon’s prices.

To be clear: I am not advocating a full-out boycott of the Brown Bookstore. Instead, I’m simply a proponent of bargain hunting. Many

professors don’t really care if you have the same edition as they do, so long as the words are the same. Other professors, if they insist on using the same editions, will issue the ISBN of the edition they prefer.

Coincidentally, a federal law, the Higher Education Opportunity Act, goes into effect July 1, and makes this process mandatory. Pop that into the search bar of Amazon and you have an instant price check. The bookstore even enables this process, posting their prices online. Check them all out and then buy the cheapest one. If the bookstore continues to lose profits on textbook sales, prices will drop faster than you can say “invisible hand rhymes with supply and demand.”

The power of the purse strings is one of the most effective powers students have during this process. To not exercise it is irrespon-sible and lazy. The hallmark of the consumer experience is choice, and it would be a dis-service to cast off those choices in favor of convenience. I personally plan to shop at the Brown Bookstore, so long as they can offer me the lowest price on the specific books I need. If they can’t, I’m taking my dead presidents elsewhere.

mike Johnson ’11 spent most of break playing Beatles rock Band,

seriously influencing his titles.

Money can’t buy me ... text

The semesters are always extremely busy, with tons of classes, exams and papers. On top of all the coursework, students have many extracurricular responsibilities. Most students can barely cram in a social life, let alone an occasional full night’s sleep. Overwhelmed by the breadth of work and activities, it is easy to lose touch with the wider Providence community. Over the last week of winter break, 12 Brown students tried to bridge this divide by volun-teering at Highlander Charter School with a program run by the Brown/RISD Hillel. As a participant, I had the chance to connect with local elementary school children, helping with homework and running activities. For me, this was a very meaningful experience.Unfortunately, I cannot really say the same for the third graders I spent time with. This was illustrated when one student said, “I’ve never heard of Brown, and I never want to go there!” This exclamation fleshed out the irony of the whole program. While the Brown students were having this very positive experience, serving a part of the Providence community with which they would not usually interact, what kind of experience were the children having?They certainly recognized our presence, in-teracting with us as if we were their teachers.

At several points, students who had met us at previous activities would run up to us to say a quick hello. However, the week, already shortened by Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, only provided a small window into their world. By the time I had a good grasp of the personalities of the children I was assigned to, the week was over and we were ready to begin another work-filled semester. Had this one week of service really had an impact on their lives? Their days would have

been very similar whether we were or were not there, since the usual after-school teachers were still in charge. Could it even be detri-mental that the program had ended as soon as the children finally got a chance to really connect with us? Had we actually let them down in a way?These questions do not just apply to the twelve students in Hillel’s program. With so many students on campus volunteering their time in a variety of types of service, it seems altogether possible that our energies might be wasted, or an inefficient use of human resources. One Brown student on the program remarked

how much greater our impact could have been if we had spent our time campaigning in Massachusetts for Martha Coakley. With the health care bill seemingly dependent on the Democrats holding onto that Senate seat, we might have made more of a difference by helping pass a bill with the potential for provid-ing insurance coverage for these children’s parents. That would mean more money at home for things like books and food. Fur-thermore, the impact from this election will

be felt nationwide, helping tens of thousands of children rather than the 200 at Highlander Charter School.Ultimately, this game of theoretical happenings and questions of efficacy fails to consider the potential hidden value in service. In the case of this program, a whole group of students from around the world had a taste of what it means to be an educator and serve in the community. Hopefully, this first bite will lead to a sustained relationship between Highlander Charter School and Hillel, and the continuation of programs that engage in service projects with the community.

A sustained initiative means that this first week of service, affecting only a few children, might morph into something that impacts the lives of hundreds of children over the course of months and years. Furthermore, if one of these community service programs leads Brown stu-dents to want to do more community service, or even something like Teach for America, the benefits are exponentially greater. For this program, it was much more impor-tant that community service influenced those serving rather than those being served. When motivated to continue serving for the months and years to come, Brown students like us will have the opportunity to be role models for hundreds of children.

Sometime between shopping a dozen classes and cramming for papers and mid-terms, consider serving in the Providence community. It might not seem to have the huge impact that volunteering for a politi-cal campaign does, and it might be a little disconcerting at times. Remember, however, that the effects of service are not limited and will continue to grow with time into something that might have a noticeable impact.

ethan tobias ’12 is a biology concentrator from new York. He

can be reached at [email protected].

who is this for?

When motivated to continue serving for the months and years to come, Brown students like us will have the opportunity to be role models

for hundreds of children.

The Brown Bookstore is a rip-off. I know it; you know it; the employees of the bookstore know it.

MIKE JOHNSON

opinions coluMnist

ETHANTOBIAS

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Page 12: Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Wednesday, JanUary 27, 2010 page 12

Today 39

More course syllabi now online

Mixed beginning for W. basketball

The Brown daily Herald

42 / 25

today, JanUary 27

9:30 am — Haiti Bake Sale, J. Walter

Wilson

5:30 pm — Candlelight Vigil for Haiti,

Manning Chapel

tomorroW, JanUary 28

9:30 am — Haiti Bake Sale, J. Wal-

ter Wilson

5:00 pm — Evening Walk-ins for

Seniors Only, Career development

Center, J. Walter Wilson

alien Weather Forecast | Stephen Lichenstein and Adam Wagner

Cabernet voltaire| Abe Pressman

excelsior | Kevin grubb

sharpe reFeCtory

lUnCh — Beef Tacos, Vegetarian

Tacos, Refried Beans, Spanish Rice,

Raspberry Squares

dinner — Meatlover’s Pizza, White

Pesto Pizza, Quinoto, Chocolate Sun-

dae Cake

verney-Woolley dining hall

lUnCh — Beef Tacos, Mexicali

Macaroni Bake, Corn with Tomatoes,

Polynesian Cookies

dinner — Baked Pollock, Spinach

Quiche, Tomato Rice Pilaf, Chocolate

Sundae Cake

We rang in a new decade nearly a month ago. The glitter and champagne have become distant memories. But over at The Herald, we’re just cracking our bottles open. Today marks the first issue of the 120th volume of The Brown Daily Herald — and the inauguration of its 120th Editorial Board. From our newsroom on Angell Street, we have our eyes on the campus and our New Year’s resolution is to report exactly what we see to you.

Brown is changing faster than any one of us can keep track of — expansion despite an economic crisis, a greater international presence and more applications than can fit in one building. But here at The Herald, we do keep tabs on all this and more. With comprehensive daily coverage and a burgeoning Web presence, we promise to bring you all the news that’s fit to print — plus all the reporting your browser can handle.

Few of us can picture Brown before President Ruth Simmons took the University’s helm, or a campus without construction’s incessant noise. Our newsroom aims to link our University’s past with the future that lies ahead. While most of us will spend only four short years here in Providence, our memory stretches back

for 119 years — and we look forward to continuing to serve as Brown’s student paper of record. We’re the only newspaper that will report to you daily on the issues that affect Brown students, whether it’s syllabi on the Web or a proposed student tax on the University.

Our school keeps changing, but The Herald will always be here. Like spicy withs at Jo’s or naked donuts at the SciLi, we’re a Brown institution.

Print journalism may be dying, but we’re only getting started. You keep reading, and we’ll keep writing.

George Miller ’11, Editor-in-ChiefChaz Kelsh ’11, Managing EditorSophia Li ’11, Deputy Managing EditorEmmy Liss ’11, Deputy Managing EditorEllen Cushing ’10, Senior EditorSeth Motel ’11, Senior EditorJoanna Wohlmuth ’11, Senior Editor

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hippomaniac | Mat Becker

editors’ note